I personally don't get people that claim Episodes I and II don't provide enough details of Anakin's descent into darkness, and that III 'rushes' his ultimate fall.
Episode I is critical to show his traumatic separation from his mom and the loss of his ideal teacher, which leaves him very vulnerable to his fears. Episode II shows him losing his mother, blaming himself for it, and vowing to become powerful enough to never, EVER again lose someone he loves. At any cost.
This directly feeds into his manic anxiety over the dreams in Episode III, which is exploited by Palpatine. And on top of that, he's been through three years of constant war. I think the accumulation of these factors all coming to a head in III is pretty believable.
Sometimes it just takes one absolutely TERRIBLE week to make a person's fragile mind finally snap.
I keep thinking about that quote about how Devon will find she can talk to Maul about things/relate to him in ways she couldn't with anyone else in the Order, and like—I think I get exactly what it means, and it's key to understanding Devon's mindset as we meet her and how it makes her so particularly vulnerable to what Maul is selling.
Because when we meet her she's restless and dissatisfied with her changed lot in life and survival-through-passivity is driving her crazy and Maul gets under her skin by accusing her of wasting the opportunity survival has given her and refusing her call to fight. And my takeaway from that is:
Devon is a Clone Wars Padawan.
Which is to say: the generation of Padawans whose apprenticeships were entirely defined by the Clone Wars had a very atypical experience, exemplified by Ahsoka but shared by everyone in her general age range (and despite what some people think I cannot read Devon as being more than a year or maybe two younger than Ahsoka): they were raised as Jedi and then the moment they became Padawans they became military officers. Weapons. And there were two options from there: either they became good at it, or they died before they even got the chance to die in Order 66.
Devon is very good at it.
So as she hits that formative age, she learns: she can solve problems with violence! She's very good at solving problems with violence, actually. She likes solving problems with violence, a feedback loop intensified by the fact that the very people who raised her not to solve problems with violence are now praising her for being good at solving problems with violence. Because we're at war and, well, the needs of the many come first and we can resolve any adverse developmental effects that'll have after the war. (There is no after the war.) Because Obi-Wan being knighted at 25 vs Anakin being knighted at 20 vs Ahsoka being "knighted" at 17 is a feature not a bug, or rather the bug IS the feature because the feature is institutional decay under the pressures of wartime, as a Padawan's ability to get results becomes more important than what's actually healthiest for them.
At the same time we are still paying lip service to the ideals that Devon was raised with, because no one wants to admit that none of them have really been acting as Jedi since the war started, because the war was a perfect trap designed to make the Order destroy itself spiritually before they were destroyed physically and admitting that they're caught in the trap means admitting they don't know how to get out of it—because these conditions create every pre-identified Inquisitor candidate, because breaking this cognitive dissonance is what drove Barriss (just old enough to experience being a Padawan before the war changed everything!) to despair.
So compared to a Padawan of her age a generation before Devon is both more martially skilled and less spiritually developed, which is what we in the Jedi Order refer to as being in the Danger Zone. She is exactly the thing Barriss was so afraid of, and unlike Ahsoka, nothing happened to shake her and make her realize this was Not Normal before Order 66. All she knew was—she was good at the violence she was ordered to do and she liked the praise she got for being good at it. But she couldn't say that out loud to anyone, couldn't quite admit it to herself—she certainly couldn't talk to Daki about it, because she loves and respects him and she doesn't want to make him disappointed in her, because sometimes you're so close to someone that there are conversations you don't know how to have with them that you can have with a relative stranger, and so she buries it. And then Order 66 happened and she she had to hide her power and skill and try to survive through passivity and all of her learned instincts are screaming at her that she needs to be active, she needs to fight, and—
And then Maul came along and was the first person to say to her: it's okay. You can do it. You don't have to feel guilty about it. It's just what you need to do to survive. You shouldn't have to hide your talents they should give you respect (they should give you power) (you should use that power for yourself).
Of course that gets to her. It's the validation she wants to hear. It's a simple answer to a complicated question. For all that she doth protest too much, it's obvious from how her words and her actions don't quite line up that he hooked her from that first encounter and the rest of the season was her slowly accepting that she wanted to walk down the dark path, culminating in Daki's death meaning his potential disappointment was no longer a factor.
It's the three stages of tragedy: There was no way this could have gone any differently, but at any time she could have chosen something else, but we know there was no way she would have chosen anything else.
JJ Abrams. Lawrence Kasdan. Adam Driver. Rian Johnson. Chris Terrio. Charles Soule. All these names helped create Kylo Ren, and made him one of the richest and most compelling Star Wars characters. Always going to be grateful for the sequel trilogy giving that to us.
Maul is such a little bitch for what he pulled there. After Daki sincerely did so much to show him compassion and protect him during these battles, despite knowing how completely untrustworthy Maul is, it makes that moment of betrayal profoundly cruel.
I'm so thrilled that this show gave Maul new dimensions of tragedy, while not forgetting that he's still a punk-ass cowardly monster.
I know everyone's going nuts over that phenomenal 'trauma montage' sequence in Maul: Shadow Lord's latest episode, but let's not forget how fucking sick that highway chase scene was too. That felt like The Matrix Reloaded for a minute, and I was LOVING it.
This movie will be a real test for the Andor glazers to prove that they aren't all just a bunch of pretentious Adults™ that look down on Fun Star Wars as some fundamentally lesser style of storytelling. Will you actually embrace this movie if it's good, or will you include a cutesy-poo 'well, it's fine for kids and families but it aint no Andor,' disclaimer in your reviews?
I've worked on a few movies in my time, so far. This one, however, is a fantastic blend of so many things I vibe with: pulpy adventure stories, magical relics, post-apocalyptic/dystopian elements, creative and clever action set-pieces, memorably eccentric characters (both in the main cast and supporting), a story with a strong heart and themes about self-growth and reconciliation, and above all, the scrappy spirit of independent filmmaking.
My friends Jarrod Crooks and Erin Crooks are cooking up a fabulous new addition to the adventure movie genre, and I feel so proud to be on the creative team in any way. This is the kind of project I truly believe in, deep in my gut, and that I want to look back on someday and say 'this one really really mattered.'
But now it needs help from YOU. Any donation, however small, is going to get this one over the finish line. Having seen a lot of what they've done so far, I cannot state enough how special and unique this movie will be, and if you want to do 'anything' for me during these crazy times, help my friends pull this off.
Welcome to the pantheon, Vexx Torn!
Ever since I was 12 years old, I’ve been making movies and dreaming up… Jarrod Crooks needs your support for Help Bring Our Post-Apocalyptic
Just a reminder: the Jedi are still the 'good guys' of the Star Wars franchise. Like with all religions, its practitioners are not always perfect, and like in the real world, many have warped the teachings with devastating results on the people around them.
But the foundational values that the Jedi way is built on are unambiguously positive: compassion and forgiveness, respect for the sanctity of life, love of nature, aspiring to REGULATE not suppress emotions, preferring diplomacy over violence, and devoting your life to the eternal service of others.
To be a true Jedi is to be a calm, patient and kind friend to those in need, no matter who they are or where they came from. My favorite Jedi characters embody that simple, earnest value.
George Lucas has (somewhat cheekily) described his personal faith as 'Buddhist Methodist," and honestly, you can see that in how he wrote the Jedi values.
(anyways... is this a good time to reveal I'm toying with returning to Christianity?)
Once again thinking about how the sequel trilogy turned out to be pretty much the perfectly-timed story for 'this' moment in America.
Sure, it wasn't executed perfectly, but the story and message it tells will resonate for a long time, after this nightmare is over.
When you become complacent about fascism, don't be surprised when it resurfaces, ready to throw the world into darkness again. But just as fascism is a resilient monster, so is the spirit of rebellion. And we must always come together to put the monster back in its grave.
That's what JJ Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, Rian Johnson and Chris Terrio wanted to teach us with their movies. 'Happily ever after' is something you have to always work to maintain. If you slack off, then history repeats itself with tragic results.
In the end, the ones who will save the universe are the next generation, who will learn from their forefathers' failures. The greatest teacher, failure is.
Immigrant woman proceeds to give very heartfelt, emotional testimonial about how Way of Water helped her process her own complex dynamic with her parents.
Yeah, I think she finally makes me understand why women still fall for bad boys, against all reasonable standards of healthy relationships. Because *hyperventilates*
Ten years. Ten years since the new era of Star Wars, post-Lucas, began. The results have sometimes been messy, but one undisputed positive for me was the Kylo Ren character, who I found compelling from the moment I first saw him.
A few years ago, with a few devoted friends, I made some fan films to get my love for the character out of my system. This was the second one we made, which was a quantum leap compared to the previous short, "Smuggler's Son." I remain pretty proud of what we pulled off with absolutely nothing, except fanboy passion.
Happy 10th Anniversary, "The Force Awakens." Thank you for some incredibly nostalgic memories, and for a character that really reignited a passion for Star Wars in me.
This movie was an EVENT in my teen years. Still remains one of my favorite remakes/monster movies/adventure films. Happy anniversary, big fella. It wasn't the airplanes. It was humanity's greed and disrespect for nature that killed the beast.
