Shut out to that one time Luke Skywalker got mistaken for a girl. Still makes me giggle.
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@build-a-darth
Shut out to that one time Luke Skywalker got mistaken for a girl. Still makes me giggle.
a list of names from star wars and their cultural origin (just so we’re clear that these names aren’t actually funky sci-fi names that Lucas and Co. made up, but names that come from actual irl peoples and cultures and were left mostly uncredited read: stolen)
padmé; from padma, or lotus flower, another name/symbol of the hindu goddess lakshmi
pooja; (padmé’s niece) means ‘prayer’ or ‘an act of worship’, usually associated with hinduism
ahsoka; most likely inspired by the indian emperor ashoka
aayla; a turkish muslim name which means ‘a ring of light around the moon’
barriss; turkish in origin, means “peace”
smhi; most likely a form of the name lakshmi, a hindu goddess
shaak ti; from the name ‘shakti’, an Indian name which means “energy”
depa; obviously from the words ‘deepa’ which means “light/lamp”
yoda; possibly from the punjabi word ‘yoddha’, which means “warrior”
jamillia; from ‘jamilla/jameela’, a Muslim name which means “beautiful”
tatooine (planet); literally an actual city in tunisia
mustafar (planet); from the arabic word 'mustafa’, meaning “chosen one”. note the symbolism that darth vader made it his home
jedi; from the arabic 'al-jeddi’, meaning “master of the mystic warrior way”
din; although pronounced differently at times, din is a muslim word of arabic origin which means “way/creed/path of life”
•anakin; multiple orgins - Native American meaning “warrior/soldier” but also an Indian name with contradictory meanings (“hidden”, “obvious” and “whether hidden or obvious”) and even Sanskrit for “warrior”. May also be derived from ‘Anánkē’, the Greek goddess of inevitability, compulsion, and necessity or Hebrew ‘Anakim’, a race of giants in the Old Testament.
•vader; Dutch for “father” and German ‘Vater’ also meaning “father”
•naberrie; alternate spelling of Egyptian ‘Nabirye’ meaning “Mother of Twins”
•amidala; of Italian origin meaning “beautiful flower” and also a derivative of ‘Amitabha’ in Buddhism. In Sanskrit it means “Infinite Light” but it has other variants such as Amitayus (meaning “Infinite Life”), Japanese ‘Amida’, Chinese ‘Emituo Fo’.
•luke; from Lucas and multiple origins such as French (meaning Light/laidback), Latin (meaning “Bringer of Light”), Greek (a patron saint) and in English (“the bringer of light”)
•leia; multiple origins such as Hebrew (meaning “weary” but also “child of heaven” and “heavenly flowers”), Assyrian (meaning “mistress”), Latin (meaning “lioness”)
•gungan; derived from ‘Gunga’, one of the seven holy rivers in India
•mandalore; from Sanskrit ‘Mandala’ meaning “circle” and is a spiritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism
•rishi maze; a ‘Rishi’ is a Hindu sage or saint
•sabé or tsabin; possibly a derivative of the Arabic name ‘Sabeen’ which has multiple meanings
•ryoo; (Padmé’s other niece) variant of ‘Ryu’ which is of Japanese origin meaning “dragon”
•sheev (palpatine); from ‘Shiva’ - the Hindu god of destruction and transformation
•réillata; possibly from the Sanskrit name ‘Lata’ meaning “creeper/vine”
•ruwee; (Padmé’s father) from Arabic name ‘Ruhee’ meaning “soul”
•jobal; (Padmé’s mother) possibly from Hebrew ‘Jubal’ which has multiple meanings such as “stream”
•dooku; from Japanese ‘Doku’ meaning “poison”
•saché or sashah; possibly a variant of Russian ‘Sasha’ meaning “defender”, Japanese ‘Sachi’ meaning “blissful/fortunate’ or Indian “Sachi’ meaning “child of wisdom/joy/happiness”
•yané or suyan; from Sanskrit name ‘Suyan’
•rabé or rabene; possibly derived from Sanskrit word ‘Ravi’ meaning “the sun”
•han; originated from many cultures (Chinese, Korean, Dutch, German, Scandinavian, Hebrew)
•chewbacca; from Russian ‘Sobaka’ meaning “dog”
•qui-gon jinn; from ‘qi-gong’ meaning “life force” and also a Chinese martial art that involves meditation and controlled exercises. Arabic ‘jinn’ meaning “genie” or spirits in Islamic mythology
•obi-wan kenobi; multiple meanings such as Japanese (a karate or kimono belt), African (meaning heart) and Swahili (meaning soul)
•breha; possibly from Indian/Urdu name ‘Breeha’ meaning “The most beautiful”
•ackbar; from Muslim name ‘Akbar’ meaning “great/greater/greatest”
If your whole personality is being gay to the point of not being able to engage with stories about women and only scanning media for the most yaoiable white boys you are the problem.
Andor is a masterpiece of anti-fascist media, but hear me out:
It pulls its punches in being explicitly anti-capitalist in a way that the old EU absolutely did not shy away from.
And this isn't to glaze the old EU - it was weird, none of the authors talked to each other to hash out continuity, and I'm not sure if any of the books would have passed the Bechtel Test.
But if I told you that Darth Plagueis had a secret private moon called Sojourn onto which he invited influential senators and planetary leaders to, where they could indulge in any vice, and he'd use that for blackmail later, you'd say ...
... that's just Epstein Island with the serial numbers filed off.
And then I'd say, not only that but Sojourn was where he indulged in his private hobbies of genetic manipulation and Sith alchemy, you'd say ...
... lol sounds like a cross between Jurassic Park and Bezos' vanity dick rocket
And then I'd say, and a big part of the plot was that the Sith were pulling the strings such that mega corporations like Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Corporate Alliance, and the Techno Union were granted official seats and voting privileges in the Galactic Senate, you'd say ...
... oh come on that's a little on the nose, Citizens United wasn't QUITE that bad
(It's not, but it's probably also a lot worse than you think it is unless you work in politics.)
This was written IN 2012 by the way before either Jeffrey Epstein or billionaire vanity projects had really entered the mainstream discourse. But Luceno asked himself: what does it look like when a billionaire has no moral guardrails, and his answer looks a whole lot like Epstein, Musk, and Bezos in a trenchcoat plus Bryan Johnson's obsession with immortality.
And that's not to say that Andor is pro-capitalism, but it clearly doesn't think it's as much of a threat as fascism or imperialism.
Look at how it handles the corporate cops (Pre-Mor) in the first arc. They are bumbling, incompetent mall cops. The Empire immediately sweeps in, nationalizes their sector, and replaces their corporate incompetence with state-sponsored fascist efficiency.
The transition is from corporate security theater to fascist state capacity.
And it works for the story Andor is telling.
But Andor treats the corporation as a stepping stone for the state. The EU understood that the state and the corporation were the exact same monster.
And the best example here isn't even Luceno but a Bantam Era deepcut: Stackpole's Bacta War in the X-Wing novels.
(Bacta of course is the healing stuff that Luke swims in ESB post-wampa attack.)
(The concept of the Bacta Cartel is basically an evil GFFA Monsanto, playing on extremely 90s fears about the terminator seed concept and biopiracy. It's hard to explain the mindset if you didn't live through it, but it's also relevant currently as a story about gatekeeping and weaponizing necessary medication and healthcare in the age of Big Pharm.)
(Medicare for all, btw)
But check out this terrifyingly brilliant piece of fascist economic world building:
The Scapegoat Shield (Plausible Deniability)
Palpatine understood that if the Empire outright owned the bacta supply, the Empire would be directly responsible for every shortage, price hike, and rationing crisis.
When parents can't get medicine for their dying kid, they start rebellions.
By keeping Zaltin and Xucphra technically independent, Palpatine created a permanent corporate meat-shield. If bacta prices skyrocketed 400% on the civilian market to subsidize the Imperial military, the public didn't blame the Emperor—they blamed greedy pharmaceutical executives. The Empire got all the military benefits of a monopoly while outsourcing 100% of the public relations blowback.
Outsourcing the Atrocities
The Empire is built for conventional warfare, not agricultural labor management.
If Palpatine nationalizes Thyferra, he has to deploy legions of Stormtroopers to force billions of giant insectoids to harvest plants in a jungle. It would be a messy, expensive, unending guerrilla war.
By empowering the Cartel, Palpatine outsourced the human rights violations to private security. The corporations handled the dirty work of violently suppressing the Vratix strikes, and the Empire just signed the purchase orders.
The Duopoly Trap
Palpatine never allowed a *true* single monopoly. The Bacta Cartel was specifically structured as a duopoly between two bitter corporate rivals (Zaltin and Xucphra).
Because the Empire was their only real protection from anti-trust laws and native uprisings, the two corporations were forced to constantly compete for the Emperor's favor. They undercut each other to give the Imperial military the cheapest possible prices, while simultaneously gouging the civilian sector to make up the profit margins.
The point is: the Bacta Cartel isn't a victim of Palpatine.
They're participants.
Manipulated participants, certainly. Palpatine manipulates everyone. But they're still active collaborators pursuing their own interests.
The relationship isn't:
"Corporation bad, Empire worse."
The relationship is:
"Corporation and Empire have exactly the same interests, and that isn't you."
And that's a very different political argument.
The entire point is that capitalism, imperialism, and fascism aren't just on equal footing but are inexorably linked and braided together. They're different facets of the same thing.
Andor just doesn't make that argument.
(And I'm going to note without asserting anything in particular that Disney as a company is deeply invested in maintaining the image of good corporatism.)
Andor is willing to show corporate abuse. Pre-Mor is exploitative, negligent, and violent. But the narrative structure still places corporate power and Imperial power in sequence.
By stripping the actual economic machinery out of the lore, modern Star Wars has essentially reframed the Galactic Civil War as a pure, mystical Good vs. Evil fight.
Which is fun!
But it completely hollows out the original warning: that fascism usually shows up wearing a nice suit, offering to fix your supply chain issues.
people raised some good questions on that marrocrow post about what vader would think of two inquisitors dating so here's some potential answers <3
Nothing illustrates Emperor Palpatine’s cruelty quite like Vader having to put himself back together after being “punished” for his failure or defiance.
my role-reversal designs
how it feels talking to the current Star Wars fandom about how I personally dont like the Din/Luke fanship because Mara Jade was a step forward for feminism and was generally just a badass woman and was a great pair for Luke even though shes been retconned, and therefore getting called homophobic by the fandom even though I am literally a queer person myself
Luke Skywalker’s Friday Night activity of choice is line dancing.
It’s the one dance he gets to teach Mara instead of the other way around.
The funniest part of A New Hope is that Luke Skywalker is a 19 year old who has not locked in yet and plays with toys and sleeps in his childhood bedroom at his aunt and uncle’s house and Leia Organa is a 19 year old with a mission to save the galaxy from fascism. Luke has never left his hometown, Leia just watched her planet be blown up. He’s peeved his uncle is asking him to do his chores, she’s imprisoned for resisting the government. You relate to them both but they’re on complete opposite sides of the 19 year old life stage spectrum.
Also Luke is clearly very lonely after his crush and best friend, Biggs, went away to college
Yes! Some people have misinterpreted this as me insinuating Luke is a wimp but he’s just in a very transitional life phase that is focused on growing and maturing. His friends are growing up and moving on, he’s anxious to join them but isn’t quite ready. He has ambition and goals but he just isn’t in a place where he is able to pursue those goals, he is immature and that isn’t a bad thing. 19 year olds SHOULD be able to ponder their place in the world and which direction they want their life to take. Leia has been in the public eye her entire life, she is a princess, she has been primed for greatness and she has been shouldered with so much responsibility. Luke is just his aunt and uncle’s nephew, they love him and don’t want him to leave, he’s trying to decide what to do.
He’s like a Midwest farm boy who is dreaming of the big city and she is like an old money New England heiress who has been told since birth she will follow her father’s career path into politics and has been sent to the most competitive schools and enrolled in the most rigorous extracurriculars.
my erotic fanfiction is more historically accurate than yours. here it claims that shes moaning 'yes,' however classical latin didn't have a word that corresponds to Modern English 'yes,' i.e. an affirmative answer to an interrogative. You could have easily avoided this glaring implausibility by allowing her to moan plus, 'more'—as exemplified in my critically acclaimed fic with an unprecedented number of kudos (eleven). I recommend that you log out of AO3 and return only after acquiring satisfactory knowledge of the subject matter.
80s misogyny saved the Star Wars galaxy because Darth Vader wasted all his time and effort trying to convince his starry-eyed gayboy empath son to become an evil space fascist when if anyone had any point asked his daughter “hey do you ever just want to KILL these people” she would’ve been shooing lightning out of her hands to prove a point in like 10 minutes
(via prev)
Is there a fic where after the new republic learns about the twins being Vader’s children and subsequently turns on them. someone gets a hold of Palpatine’s diary or logs or something and publishes them.
Like the galaxy sees pictures of tiny freshly freed Anakin and have to grapple with the fact that that tiny boy is Darth Vader. That Palpatine manipulated both sides of the clone wars and orchestrated the Jedi purge. That Vader was a groomed broken man who just wanted to save his wife.
I think what I want is basically a sorta post Vader reveal chaotic revenge fic. If I don’t exist feel free to steal my idea. I’m probably not writing it.
in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming
that's solidarity baybeeee
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.