never just a girl

[wobblersalad]

my favorite part of star wars is how jumbled and retconned so much of it is that i can truly just go "mm no i dont like that :)" and make up my own canon where i want to. its wonderful. rex and ahsoka split up immediately after order 66? no. no i dont think they did actually. obi wan and cody never reunited bc the kenobi show betrayed me? no i think they kissed unded a tattooine sunset actually mhm. clones die super early because they havent had enough tragedy? nnnno i think they stop double aging at maturity actually. its wonderful. total freedom.

[shesnake]

There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.

[starpeace]

i love star wars posts because they periodically remind me how much of the star wars in my head i’ve just made up

[starpeace]

so was anyone going to tell me naboo’s elected child monarchs, clearly an intensely desperate attempt to evade corruption or accusations of corruptions, AREN’T canonically put forward as a product by conniving dedacent wealthy families who invest their extensive resources into manipulating that system by a) intensely educating and training their own young candidates and b) assassinating everyone else’s

[starpeace]

ideally i’d like padme to be the daughter of such self-serving politicians as described above, but mentored by an idealistic advisor desperately trying to instill actual values into her beyond “fulfilling my parents’ investment by supporting them with my policy decisions”, which is where you get the absolutely deranged situation where a fourteen year old girl is in power and also thinks it’s her job to be the only pillar of morality in a planet’s government (and also this job is so important that’s it’s clearly impressed on her from age like 8 that all her little kid best friends can should and will die for her at any moment). now that’s how you develop the necessary cornerstone of padme’s character which is the absolute worst case of ‘i can fix him, and also the galaxy’ disease in the world. bonus points if the advisor gets killed by the trade federation in tpm and suddenly she’s only got palpatine to look to for guidance

[starpeace]

@courtofchaos yes yes yes. god that rules. yes so tpm’s conflict about defending naboo would play exactly into the personal conflict outlined above. “i will not condone a course of action that will lead us to war” desperate to hold to her morals, actively in defiance of her family’s interests. and later having her family’s weapons in the hands of both sides of the clone wars, even...

@plutopuppets for SURE. first of all, this setup implies a certain family pressure to produce children who can be put forward for election. as we can assume that barely legitimate secret children whose very existence calls padmé’s loyalties into question are not ideal candidates, that’s not only a great conflict for padmé, but also a reason she would probably unwillingly find herself attracted to anakin and this doomed romance. under other circumstances, she would probably still feel unfortunately duty bound to raising a good monarch for naboo’s sake, but this frees her and her children from those expectations. this all has implications for how we the audience feel about the central role the twins do end up taking in galactic politics, especially leia, who became both a rebel and part of the imperial senate from a young age. (side note, you have to wonder if padmé’s canonical nieces were being raised as candidates in the prequels era, and how padmé and her sister (presumably a rejected candidate, or at least the family spare) feel about that.)

i think in this au, if she still wanted to raise her children on naboo, the draw of it would be allowing them to enjoy the freedom she so rarely experienced, giving them the life there she wishes she could’ve had. but she might well wish to raise them somewhere else, outside of all this. alderaan, perhaps, which would have interesting implications

[captainherasyndulla]

“It made her wonder how different she was from her brother, really. Perhaps she and Caedus were just soldiers in the ancient war between Sith and Jedi. Jaina would have liked to believe that, because then she could pretend this was just something demanded by the war instead of a choice she had made out of hatred for what her brother had become.

But Jacen had been a Jedi once. Now he was a Sith. That made him a traitor, and didn’t traitors deserve to be hated? They were breakers of vows, betrayers of trusts … corrupters of the innocent and murderers of their beloved. Killing them was more than necessary. It was a duty, an act of deterrence and military preclusion, but also of outrage and reprisal, and that made it personal.”

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible by Troy Denning

[svnsetromance]

VEL SARTHA & CINTA KAZ ; Andor (2022 - 2025) // Georgics 4.453-527: Orpheus and Eurydice, by Virgil // Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, dir. Céline Sciamma)

[one-step-at-a-time25]

Superman said, “all immigrants are people and deserve respect and love they aren’t aliens they are humans and the people who disagree should die” and supergirl said, “A women’s purity shouldn’t be defined by the man who has caused them harm and the exploitation of young women is disgusting and the men who do such things should die” and they are right

[anaukeya3]

So annoying to me when people think citing the actions of FICTIONAL female characters counts as evidence that femininity doesn't hold women back. "Omg, she can run and fight with heels and a dress! What an icon, I can't even walk in heels." She is not real, and therefore her body doesn't follow the same laws that ours do. She will do whatever the writers want her to, because she is ANIMATED. And even if the actor is a real person, the scene is choreographed, rehearsed and edited with CGI. It's fake!

[boundlessemperorvalkyrie]

Not only do these types of outfits make the stunts harder to pull off, they can also make them more dangerous. “I actually was put into a fire sequence in a negligee,” Donna Keegan, whose credits include “Independence Day” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” told me. “Do you know how flammable negligees are? They just kept dousing flame retardant stuff all over it.” “One time, I had to dive through a plate glass window with a spaghetti strap top on and in a miniskirt with Doc Marten boots,” Keegan recalled. “You're not getting candy glass for that kind of piece. No matter what they're going to do, there are shards. ... You come out a porcupine, bleeding everywhere.” Their skin's exposed, and they often don’t have any padding. “Try doing stunts with no pads and no clothing. I have been thrown down marble stairs in a bra and underwear,” Keegan said, remarking that the first time she saw that set, “I looked at that and went, ‘You're kidding me, right?’”

Source: Documentary lauds Hollywood stuntwomen, who do everything men do but in high heels (Sept. 22, 2020)

One of the most sought-after stuntwomen in Hollywood, Ms. [Zoe] Bell crashes through glass, slams into book cases and leaps from tall buildings. She has done stunts on more than 20 films and television series, including "Alias," "Kill Bill" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." Asked if she could accomplish a 22-story spinning fall from a skyscraper for 2004's "Catwoman," Ms. Bell thought for a moment and said, "Yes, I can." To get the chilling fall just right, she did it four times. "It's not until after you've been hit by a car and landed all right that the fear kicks in," she said. Stuntwomen often face greater dangers than their male cohorts. While stuntmen wear pads under their clothing, stuntwomen in action films are often minimally clothed; there is no place to hide padding or protective gear in their bikinis or ball gowns. Doubling for Sharon Stone, Ms. Bell had to do the high fall in "Catwoman" in high heels. "Because that's how women fight and die—in heels," she said, with a slight roll of her eyes.

Source: Fighting and Falling in High Heels (Updated July 23, 2011)

[saintcarlyon]

Did the Kyp Dutton expy just righteously murder the 76th copy of Soontir Fel on a ship named after Jagged?! After begging him to see reason? And then cry over his body???

[bikananjarrus]

oh so when john wick goes on a revenge killing spree to avenge his murdered dog, he’s an awesome action hero. but when kara zor el beats up and kills the child sex trafficker who poisoned her dog, she’s the worst most selfish awful mean person

[fsaxjack]

I love Legends/Extended Universe Star Wars so much

I love you Warlord Era for depicting how chaotic and divided the galaxy would be after the fall of lone uniting figurehead of a galaxy-spanning empire

I love you Grand Admiral Thrawn for being a threatening and competent villain with absolutely no Force sensitivity or superweapons who uses Rebel tactics against the New Republic

I love you Dark Empire for the unhinged bullshit of bringing Palpatine back (and actually explaining how!) and revealing his secret planet full of superweapons and unethical mad science that serves as a final refutation of the Imperial superweapon fetish - exemplified by the first Eclispe dreadnaught getting eaten by Sheev's own Force Storm, and the second being crashed into the Galaxy Gun

I love you Yuuzhan Vong for the genocidal Tyranid Klingons you are and this line from Han Solo: "What the Empire would have done was build a super-colossal Yuuzhan Vong-killing battle machine. They would have called it the Nova Colossus or the Galaxy Destructor or the Nostril of Palpatine or something equally grandiose. They would have spent billions of credits, employed thousands of contractors and subcontractors, and equipped it with the latest in death-dealing technology. And you know what would have happened? It wouldn't have worked. They'd forget to bolt down a metal plate over an access hatch leading to the main reactors, or some other mistake, and a hotshot enemy pilot would drop a bomb down there and blow the whole thing up. Now that's what the Empire would have done."

I love you Kyle Katarn, I love you Jaden Korr (a Kel Dor with a green and orange pair of sabers in my world), I love you Revan, I love Boba Fett becoming Mandalore, I love Jedi Leia, I love the Rebels stealing the X-Wing from Imperial development, I love Borsk Fey'lya and all the other New Republic opportunists and careerists who feel more salient as commentary every day, I love Rogue Squadron, I love Tyber Zahn, I love Maarek Stele and Mara Jade and Gilad Pellaeon, I love the crappy century-old ships like the Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser that everyone still uses because they're there and combat effective and the galaxy hasn't seen peace in decades anyway.

I love the Sun Crusher and the World Devastators, the Z-95 Headhunter and the YVH-1 Battle Droid, I love the Victory Star Destroyer and the Alliance Assault Frigate, I love the New Republic capturing and acquiring Imperial Star Destroyers and even an Executor dreadnought, I love the Eclipse and the Viscount and the E-Wing and the Defender starfighter and the Alpha Starwing Gunboat and the Missile Boat and the TIE Defender.

And the parts that suck are some of the parts I like the most

[vocallywritten]

Not gonna lie, when Kara stopped Ruthye from killing that guy, I was a little confused, mostly because Kara had definitely just killed a ton of guys literally seconds ago and now she draws the line at the guy in charge? Of course then it became clear as the scene continued on that Kara never cared about whether this guy lived or died. It was Ruthye she was trying to save. But that was true the whole movie, wasn't it? And when she stopped Ruthye from becoming a killer, only to take on the burden herself because that was the kindest thing Kara could have done in that moment? Oof. That hit hard. It was such an emotionally satisfying scene on so many levels. I loved it.

Also The Middle cover in the fight scene was awesome people are just mean or they don't see the vision. But I DO. I SEE THE VISION.

[helenvaughans]

galadriel's always been very interesting to me as a character because though we know she is apparently one of the most powerful beings in middle earth around the time that the events of lord of the rings roll around, we see very little direct evidence of it in LOTR aside from "the mirror of galadriel" episode. as a result, it's difficult at least for me not to get the sense that she's suppressing or repressing herself and whatever the true extent of her abilities might be at least towards the later part of her life.

one can of course make the argument that tolkien intends this as a positive thing in that it depicts her as using her power responsibly in contrast to sauron's tyrannical impulses (and frankly i'm fairly sure that probably is how he intended it). however, because galadriel is basically the only powerful woman character in the LOTR books (and i mean in terms of the real movers and shakers of middle earth, not in terms of character, so imo eowyn (though i love her) doesn't qualify in this regard) it kind of just ends up looking like the age-old story of a woman suppressing herself or making herself smaller in order to be societally acceptable. as a result, there's something very tragic about her story to me, as it seems that, although she's able to get around some traditional misogynistic gender standards, ultimately she is kind of forced to fade into the background unlike her male counterparts or is just reduced to being a dispenser of advice and information for other (male) heroes.

i guess my point is that when people like to go on about her as the "lady of light" (a peter jackson invention btw) or the "lady of lorien" i can't really see that fate as being like......a happy ending for her or even really a positive thing at all lol.

[fishandshesmygills]

the point of fanfiction is to write something so self indulgent that nobody else has thought of it before or cares

[laced-in-ruin]

I'm sorry but if I see one more middle aged man complain about how Milly's supergirl is unlikable and obnoxious, I'm going to combust. Shes REAL. She is messy and kind of a bitch and she's hurting but she's also badass and she's TRYING. That's what being a woman is!! I loved her!! I am her!! Guys please.

[saintcarlyon]

Started rereading the Legacy comics featuring Cade Skywalker in earnest (was skimming previews and summaries previously) to better understand the Felpire and uh…

[padmestrilogy]

you’re telling me they trotted daisy ridley out at star wars celebration to announce a rey movie with star wars’ first female director THREE years ago with maybe two updates since and now no one working at star wars will even mention rey and daisy ridley’s next upcoming movie is a fuckass prequel to a christmas carol called EBENEZER (??) which exists solely to welcome wife beating rapist johnny depp back into hollywood. whatever. it’s fine. i’m sure mando and grogu 2 the grogening will make that billion

[honeyxmonkey]

I understand why some people think Kara killing Krem at the end invalidated what she spent the whole movie telling Ruthye—but hear me out

Krem didn't deserve to live. He was a pedophile, a murderer, and a sex trafficker

Kara Zor-El knew that he shouldn't be allowed to live bc he'd just keep doing what he was doing

But does her murdering him in place of Ruthye invalidate her teaching Ruthye "murder is wrong"?

Well, no bc i dont rlly think the message was "murder is wrong"

It was "dont let your grief and rage consume you"

If Ruthye had murdered Krem in her grief and anger it would've consumed her. Kara didnt want her to live with that. She sacrificed a part of herself to kill Krem, so Ruthye wouldn't have to be the one who did it

Yes, Krem was a piece of shit who deserved to die

But that doesn't mean the 13 yr old girl whose entirely family was murdered should've been the one to kill him. Lets not put that on her to do. She shouldn't have to. Kara knew that, its why she did it instead

[luccariot]

i <3 people who have media literacy