barbara

butch lesbian with a femme attitude

[hebina]

More Man Than Machine - on Tarkin & Vader’s relationship

One thing that really really sticks out to me about their dynamic in current canon is that Tarkin is one of the only people, if not the only one, who liked Anakin Skywalker as a person both before and after becoming a Sith Lord.

It makes sense for this to still  be somewhat underappreciated since their relationship in Legends was apparently very negative, but Disney-era Vader and Tarkin have an astoundingly friendly and healthy personal dynamic. So because I can never shut up about things I like, here’s a long collection of their best moments / essay-ish post of rambling about their new-canon dynamic.

The seeds of this are certainly already present in A New Hope (however accidentally, since at the time of filming the whole plot wasn’t yet planned..).

The movie very clearly demonstrates that Tarkin knows who Vader used to be and this is an established fact between them. They have talked about this before, maybe often, as there’s no uncertainty or confusion in their dialogue.  Vader is comfortable with Tarkin knowing this much, too, and sees no need to distance himself from Anakin in this speech (which he does even with Luke or Palpatine). In front of Tarkin, he uses first person to refer to his old life. 

This makes clear that there is trust between them by ANH time, whether it be with this private knowledge or with military strategy (after all, Tarkin trusts Vader’s homing beacon plan, which ironically gets him killed in the end).

That is picked back up on in the Darth Vader comic series set after the movie:

We know that Vader thinks of the Death Star as a “technological terror” that he doesn’t approve of, yet he defends Tarkin’s plans for the battle station against Tagge without hesitation. Vader may not like the Death Star itself, but that doesn’t diminish his respect for Tarkin’s military ability. 

The situation with Tagge is especially nice to view in contrast to Vader’s relationship with Tarkin, as Vader is technically placed under Tagge’s command in the comic. Which… Tagge repeats in, uh, very clear words.

Vader is… not taken with this. For understandable reasons. He does not need a hand to wield his lightsaber - at least not this hand.

But that puts this situation in a very stark contrast to Leia’s (also very…. interestingly worded) line in A New Hope.

Unlike Vader and Tagge in the comic, Vader and Tarkin don’t outrank each other. Tarkin holds no official command over Vader - and even if he did, Vader tends to undermine command anyway. Tagge certainly suffers through that. Yet, it appears Vader listens to Tarkin often enough for this to be known outside their immediate military associates. Tarkin is the only person except for Palpatine that Vader ever shows this much deference to.

Keep reading

[howlidae]

come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine

[kyleraiyner]

those unfamiliar with judd winicks game might not believe the panels directly preceding these,

r these:

and then those first two panels are followed by these:

which leads us to these:

but it is the case. crazy world we live in

[residentwordsofaffirmationdealer]

dick & slade - "you and me, kid"

"if you kill me, you'll let everyone go?" "you were always the trophy, grayson. why would i waste my time with anyone else?" dark crisis (2022) #2

"this isn't about your friends, robin. it's about you. it's always been about you." teen titans (2003) s1 e11

"it was always going to come down to you and me, kid" dark crisis (2022) #7

"no. there's no one i'm willing to put in front of him. this is my responsibility." nightwing (1996) #80

[worgjen]

the movie I want (inspired by deadpool and wolverine)

[starwarsotsource]

Chewbacca + hugs

[icarusallusion]

- Imperial Handbook

Darth Sidious under a Padawan Anakin's anecdote on a Jedi handbook

[sithextant]

Everything about Maul makes a lot more sense when you realize that despite being an extraordinarily powerful and deeply talented force user, he is still extremely insecure + fear motivated.

Not only is he from a culture that inherently devalues him, but he grew up being told he was good for very little. Maul, at his core, is unchanged from the little boy who was given away by his mother. How would that not inform a core aspect of your thought process? That you are worth less than ehat you were traded for even by your own mother? He spends a great deal of the series still trying to prove himself, to Sidious, to Talzin, even to Obi-Wan, that he is worth something (not that he believes that himself).

He expresses the fawn trauma response when Sidious comes to collect, saying that he did this for him, he built this empire for Sidious, and when that doesn't work, he finally gives in and defends himself. Crucially, this is not true. He built that empire to defend himself because Sidious frightens him so much. He uses the defensive Soresu. I know people say that his fight against Sidious is one of thr biggest beatdowns in the show and he spends the runtime getting mollywopped, but I disagree. He puts up (in my opinion) a damn good fight against Sidious. I don't think he loses because Sidious is necessarily the better duellist, I think he loses because ensured that Maul specifically would never be able to surpass him. Maul couldn't have won that fight, because he was terrified.

When he's captured by Ahsoka, him begging to die is one of his most enlightening scenes. Death is preferable to being handed over to his master - maybe because he knows nobody will be coming for him this time.

He is desperate for People, but the only metric by which he knows to have a relationship is through that of master and apprentice. Everything else is out of the question because he was repeatedly punished for having friendships. He doesn't know how to be anything else. Not a brother, not a son. Maybe an ally.

I don't actually think power is his biggest motivator. He already is powerful. From the moment he's introduced in TCW, he displays a masterful grasp of the Force. His manipulation and control of physic matter is probably among the most impressive out of all the characters. He builds his body and uses the Force to ambulate, he throws starships around without breaking a sweat, all that preeminent duelling talent comes out in full force even without a lightsaber, and he holds the record for the strongest Force push in the show. He's one of his generations premier duelists (even if his arrogance costs him). And what does he do with all that skill? Fucks off to work from the shadows. Lets Dryden Vos take most of the credit.

He's already learned what being too open about power will cost him, and he already knows that nothing he can throw at Sidious will stop him, but amassing power is literally all he knows. It's what he's been taught since he was a child, despite the fact that that philosophy is actually damaging to his needs and desires. He's just using power as security. He has bodies to throw at his problems. If he needs to make a quick getaway, he can send some goons out to take care of it and leave, biding his time until he gets lucky enough to die.

At his heart, Maul is still the scared boy being handed over to Sidious.

[pazukaz]

censor the EVA with the EVA 🍜

[icarusallusion]

happy valentine's day to gray fox & solid snake and only them

[therealpancak]

While the absence of real names in the Metal Gear Solid series makes sense and reinforces its themes about war and conflict, I also think focusing on their real names, lives and who they were as people is also equally important, as a sort of antithesis to the dehumanization of war. On the battlefield names mean nothing, but at the same time they mean everything. Everyone you kill was a somebody. They were someone with a real name, given to them by their parents or by someone else. They are tools of the times yes, but without acknowledging the humanity of the individual that point becomes meaningless.

The legendary soldier Big Boss was once a baby given the name Jack/John. He was once a 14-15 year old child soldier surviving the harsh, freezing nights in Korea while boys in America slept in their warm beds with their loved ones right down the hall.

Acknowledging, recognizing things like this. Acknowledging the names, lives, mothers and fathers, of anyone and everyone you see in any of these games, that's what's truly anti-war.

[pawscreatures]

screenshots part 3

I wanted this to be its own post so I can breakdown how the scene goes since you can’t play the cutscenes as a video unless the cameras at the in game angles, so these can only be taken frame by frame.

as emma’s dying, snake looks away towards the ceiling before turning back to them. when she takes her finale breathes and otacon goes “emma!? emma!?” snake then turns completely away with his back to them, with a shot of his profile. 

what isn’t shown in game is snake’s expression after a fade to black (well, two fade to blacks in quick succession) while his back is still to them 

after this is another fade to black to the shot of big shell as otacon’s talking about his childhood, and when the scene goes back to them snake is then turning around to face otacon and emma. his face is back to a more “maybe upset, but keeping it in” expression. seeing the comparison between the fade to blacks is night and day… and notable he only looks visibly upset while no one can see him

if I was just a bit more crazy and determined it’s technically possible to take a of capture every frame and then put them together to make a video… but that person isn’t me. but it Would be interesting to see his expression changes in real time because it is animated, and towards the end while he’s still anguished looking it seems like he’s shaking his head slightly

(also, my guess is that they had a vague idea of where they might want the camera be so they animated snake’s face in case they wanted to include a shot when it came time to “filming” the cinematic. why they ended up choosing not to I have no clue. I think there would have been huge added emotion to the scene since I don’t think we often, if ever, see snake that upset)

edit: I’ve gone through almost all cutscenes with snake in them and looking at his face when the camera wouldn’t be on it in game, and he’s never animated if off screen unless getting from point A to B for the next shot. or any other characters either (hense the screenshots of raiden during the hug where he just stands there). 

this combined with someone’s tags I saw here makes me think maybe it could be purposeful it’s off screen. maybe snakes not only hiding his pain from raiden and otacon (coming from maybe sympathy and care for him and not wanting to burden him more, maybe even from guilt) but from the player as well. you don’t get to play as snake because you’ll never be snake [like raiden] and you don’t get to see him emotionally vulnerable because he wasn’t made to let it show, both literally in universe and in meta. snake has a persona he plays that’s the image of what he was intended to be, but he isn’t that person. he isn’t an invulnerable solider who can never faulter like zero intended, like everyone sees him as, that the player sees him as. or that could be entirely unintended that it works well in that way. 

not to write a entire novel here, [too late? (;ŏ﹏ŏ)] but also: I think the reason snake is so distraught isn’t because of emma dying per say, because he has no emotional attachment to her, to him her death is like any other innocent life lost on the battlefield… except it’s not, because he knows how much otacon’s hurting. this isn’t the first time he sees him cry… but he knows him now. he cares about him. he probably knew how important seeing emma again was to otacon and could have been been a second chance to ‘fix’ his family. and I think That’s whats hurting him so much.