EDIT!: this is not a good analysis, please don’t hold me to it, it’s reasoning is faulty and id like to re-write it ok thanks
I see people in fics make anidala a domestically abusive relationship, and I just feel like they completely missed the point of their romance. Like, it’s obviously an AU so whatever, but I do wanna talk about it. Anidala was toxic, they were codependent, we see this a lot— Anakin is an incredibly codependent person already, and he is constantly reminding Padmé how much he loves and is devoted to her, to an insanely unhealthy degree; and Padmé indulges him, because her husband is the only thing she can really have for herself, and she can’t see his flaws as flaws. But there was love there. They were so devoted to each other, they loved each other so hard it destroyed them. They chose each other again and again until the end. They chose each other over everything else, and that’s what makes their tragedy. We talk about “Padmé with a knife” a lot, but the script draft— Padmé holds a knife to Anakin’s throat, and begs him to stop. He lets her, but he won’t. And Padmé can’t kill him. And no matter if you look at this or canon; Anakin is choosing her by Falling. Padmé is choosing him by begging him to come back. Their codependency is what destroyed them til the end.
At Padmé’s end, she still insists that there’s good in him— and if you choose the Palpatine-took-her-life-force-to-save-Vader, there’s even more poetic irony. At Anakin’s end, he takes back his mistake in choosing Padmé’s son, who is insisting that there’s still good in him.
They loved each other, and that’s what broke them in the end!!!
I notice that although Jaskier isn't welcome in the dwarves night shed, they pity him and gave him one of their layers for him to sleep on.
Also the first picture always breaks my heart because the frame composition is implicitly saying how insignificant he is. You can miss him totally if you don't pay attention, as Geralt and Yennefer don't either.
My mind always tries to fill the gaps and I try to imagine what happened that night... You know, the bard has been abandoned before he obviously was...
Okay so this is my first time listening to the Elliot song not in the episode and honestly its really beautifully produced, and adding Zendaya on it is gorgeous. Its also emotionally tied to the two characters really well.
Thing is the way it was put in the episode was just baaaadddd..... and it was bad because no viewer wants to sit and see the reaction of one person to another persons song for more than maybe a minute max. This one lasted a whopping 5 min and 9 sec. That is FOREVER in screen time. Most scenes need some sort of movement, momentum to keep us interested, even the most die hard Euphoria fan will have become bored by it after a full minute and a half.
For example: In the first episode we saw Rue and Jules reconcile and have their first kiss back together, Fez talk to Nate, crash a bottle on his head, throw him on the ground and beat him up, Fez push McKay away, we see the fight end, we see Fez look at Lexi and leave, then we see Cassie and Maddy pick Nate up and move his unconscious body, AND we get Rues “damn” to end the episode. All of that, in about 3 min of screen time. 3 min for all of that, when Elliot’s song gets 5, making it seem INSANELY long.
What I would’ve done differently.
1)I would’ve spent that screen time on some sort of montage. While Same Levinson loves to hold on scenes sometimes longer than the current typical directors, I think there should’ve been something inter cut with Rue’s reaction and Elliot playing. I know the idea is probably for us to assume she is thinking that the song is about her, or maybe her, Jules, and him as trio that was beautiful in the moment but didn’t last. So following that line we could’ve had some flashback shots of Rue and Jules, because we know that this song relates to their relationship too. We could’ve had shots of all three of them, this friendship that turned out detrimental to them all in different ways. Or just her and Elliot in some moments we didn’t get to see between them.
2) If we wanted to branch it out to kind of gather some more of the storylines and tie the places they are all in together, they could’ve placed the song a little later in the episode, after things with Fez, Lexi, Nate, Maddy, Cassie, all were shown. Then we would get quick flashes of where they all are during the song. Gives us a final understanding of where we are leaving all the characters off. Instead of them being scattered amongst the episode. I’m sure there was more information that could’ve been given about each of their current situations as the episode ends that still leaves us with questions.
3) Another alternative could’ve been having us be in “Rue’s” head as she is thinking and listening to the song much like the first option, but this time, she’s thinking about her mom, dad, and Gia. So we have flashbacks to young Rue, to young Gia, to them as a family, to her and her dad again. Just to slam back that root in Rue, that she’s still hurting, that she needs to heal for the family she has, and that the addiction isn’t worth hurting them anymore. Also centering in on the growth we’ve seen in Rue this season.
So yeah that concludes what I would’ve shown in that 5 min and 9 seconds of song time instead of just a back and forth static shots of Rue and Elliot
This week, I watched Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. The South Korean film revolves around a low-class family, the Kims, as they con their way into working for the wealthy Parks. The main element that distinguishes this film from American cinema is its development of genre. Typically when we see an unconventional mixture of genres such as comedy and thriller, it is carefully integrated, often creating satirical humor and maintaining that tone throughout. Nevertheless, Parasite breaks this boundary by altering the genres as the plot develops rather than keeping elements of all of the genres throughout. For instance, the beginning of the film leans heavily on the comedy side with moments such as Ki-woo and Ki-jeong climbing on top of their toilet in attempts to obtain a wifi signal. We also get more humor when Ki-woo asks if the painting Da-Song made was of a chimpanzee and Yeon-gyo responds that it’s a self-portrait. However, exactly halfway into the movie at 1:05:00 when the old housekeeper turns around and asks “want to come down with me?” the film’s tone changes drastically and becomes a dark-thriller. From this point forward, the film becomes increasingly more terrifying, ultimately resulting in a more dramatic and intense ending. With this said, while incorporating elements from multiple genres including comedy, dark-comedy, thriller, horror, satire, mystery, and drama, it doesn’t bind all of them throughout the course of the film, but rather evolves into different genres throughout. This makes Parasite in the beginning and end of the film feel like two completely different movies in its tone alone.
Parasite also doesn’t fail to make socio-cultural references to life in Korea. For instance, they point out that most Korean homes have bunkers to protect them from potential attacks from North Korea and also satirically reference Kim Jong Un. The film also relies on themes of capitalism in a different way from American films. For instance, when the Parks pleasure each other while role-playing as poor, it is the film’s way of showing wealthy people’s fetishizing poverty. In addition, the film is very direct in what is happening in its dialogue, whereas American films tend to rely more on subtext. Throughout the film, the situations were very clearly stated and nothing was left for the audience to gather through clues.
Finally, another element that distinguishes this film from many traditional American films is its failure to establish a clear hero and villain. Although it is evident that the protagonists that the story follows are the Kim family, due to their moral ambiguity, it is often difficult for the viewer to root for them. For instance, although the Kims are the poor family in the film, they are not portrayed as victims given that they scammed and manipulated their way into the Parks’ home. By lying, making the previous driver appear as a rapist, and intentionally making the housekeeper have an allergic reaction, the Kims obtained jobs at the expense of others. In addition, later in the film we see the family tie up the old housekeeper and her husband in the basement and even push her down the stairs. Because of this, it is difficult for the viewer to fully empathize with the protagonists. On the other hand, the antagonists of the films are not actually villainous. They do not do anything evil or immoral besides be classist due to ignorance and lack of awareness. As a predominantly American film watcher this is interesting to see because my mind has been trained to root for one side in a movie, however, in Parasite I found myself switching sides multiple times, until finally I rooted for nobody. This truly represented the idea that they are all, in fact, parasites. They are all feeding off of each other at the other’s expense. Because of this, all of the characters are ethically gray, which gives the film a more realistic and believable characteristic. Often in traditional American films, the protagonist, although mildly flawed, is often the hero with good morals and intentions which tends to come off as unrealistic. With that said, Parasite incorporates many symbolic and metaphorical cinematic elements that greatly contrast those of American films.
I do legitimately believe that Qui-Gon's freeing of Shmi (Legends continuity) would have been written into the accounting/finances as compensation for her aid in getting them off Tatooine. It wasn't favoritism or unapproved-by-the-Senate spending on the slave trade, but payment for her own family's help.
Naboo needed a hyperdrive. That hyperdrive was purchased (well, gamble-exchanged as a collateral thing, it's complicated) with Anakin's winnings from the race, and since Anakin's a minor, that money is also his mother's... which means that, through transitive properties, she purchased it for Naboo in the course of an unofficial Jedi mission. We know as fact that Anakin's winnings would have been enough to purchase freedom for both Skywalkers. "Loaning" those winnings to the Jedi and Naboo is why Shmi remained in chains.
So the Jedi owe her, in such a way that when time comes for a yearly audit by the Senate, purchasing her freedom post-incident is written in as fulfillment of a debt incurred in service to a Republic monarch.
Okay. Everyone is in the Force and connected to it, even if they're not Sensitive, right? So then... the Dark or Light can come from anyone.
Capitalism and the Hutts and all that: it doesn't matter if there's only a hundred shitty people on a planet if those hundred shitty people are ruining the lives of three billion, you know? That's still the Dark of greed and cruelty (the hundred) and the Dark of pain and suffering (the three billion).
So the Dark that the Jedi are balancing out isn't Other Force Users. The witches of Dathomir are a drop in the ocean. The Sith are only a problem because they gained massive influence and caused widespread suffering.
It's the Dark that is generated by the fact that the people who gain power most often are the people who are assholes, because they were the ones willing to cheat. There don't need to be Dark Force Users around to balance out the Jedi. The universe is already dark enough, and that is why the Jedi are always needed, and always Light.
This has been my default take for a while now, that the "Dark" isn't so omnipresent JUST because of the Sith, but because the Hutts and the Banking Clans and the Trade Federation etc. are just. The worst.
And it seems like the obvious reading to me, but I guess people just really want their gray Jedi.
This is a set of headcanons I developed for Speechless about how sign works in Star Wars. I do not know any sign languages myself, but that's because I've found I have difficulty picking up new languages in general. I read up on a lot of theory and ran this past a few people who have more experience in real world sign language than I do, so I think it mostly checks out.
That said, if a disabled person (specifically deaf or with a speech disability) has some ideas on how to refine this to be more realistic, or would like to point out something that's offensive, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Galactic Sign Language (GSL)
Equivalent to Basic
Has a lot of loan word signs
Taught as a basic course in Jedi schools
Tatooine
I like to think that while GSL exists, the standard for Tatooine is actually Tusken Sign, even in the cities where Tuskens don't really go.
Slaves who are deaf or have speech disabilities are almost all fluent specifically in Tusken, and most slaves (at least those who interact regularly with someone who could teach them) have a working knowledge of it. It's always safer to have a way to communicate in silence. Non-slaves with similar disabilities also usually know Tusken Sign, but the richer ones are more likely to know GSL.
Obviously, Tusken sign itself is canon (gestures at The Mandalorian)
City folk, especially those who work a lot with off-worlders, are generally fluent in Bocce sign.
An example: in the fic I have never-a-Jedi Anakin who can't speak, and didn't leave Tatooine until after the war started (Obi-Wan and co. picked him up during the Jabba mission). He can sign in Tusken and Bocce, and he can understand spoken/written Basic. However, his understanding of GSL is limited to what overlaps with Bocce, and what he needed for mechanical work.
When interacting with off-worlders, he generally used Bocce (which was developed for such purposes), or with written communications, because most of those people hadn't ever learned GSL.
There's probably also a Huttese sign language but I can't imagine Jabba or Gardulla being interested in it so he never learned that one.
Military (GAR) Sign
Military sign in general (in the GFFA) tends to partner together signs, so they can work with a smaller vocab. GAR battle sign follows this pattern.
e.g. "doctor" is signed as "civilian + medic"
Nurse is "civilian + medic + lower rank"
GAR military sign is a mix of GSL and MSL (Mandalorian sign language)
They all learned GAR military sign relatively quickly, mostly because it has such a compact vocabulary and simple grammar structure.
I also do like the headcanon that there's ARC signs, but I'm not sure what the logic to it should be.
Why would they have a separate set of signs from standard?
"This is the most sarcastic way to talk about a general. Alpha-17 came up with it."
Mandalorian Sign Language
Mandalorians, due to their military history, obviously have their own. The official version grew out of battle sign (standardized by one Mand'alor or another), and then added words as they found use for them.
The core vocabulary is very heavy on battle words, as a result, while non-military vocabulary tends to be significantly more prone to regionalisms.
Lots of slang born from home sign.
It's most likely a standard class in Mando schools.
A significant portion of the population has eardrum damage from bombs or blasters, even if they were wearing helmets. Many weren't wearing helmets, but couldn't get away when the civil war came to them.
They do that thing where all official news channels have a sign interpreter (IDK who else does this but it's a thing in Serbia)
Obi-Wan, for easily-guessed reasons, learned MSL during his time on Mandalore due to how often he and Satine needed to communicate in complete silence for their own safety.
Bocce
There's a bunch of overlap for some things between Bocce and GSL
Bocce, at least in Legends, is a pidgin language built from several preexisting languages* that is designed for interstellar trade and travel
* undefined, but I choose to think Basic, Huttese, Ryl, Mando'a, Neimoidian, and Jawaese all featured to some degree
Since it's a pidgin language meant for interspecies communications, there's a simplified sign version as well, since the entire point is to simplify trade-related communication across language barriers
That includes "I can't hear in your register" or "this species has hands but cannot speak."
Bocce sign is also structured in such a way to accommodate a LOT of different hand shapes, since the main usage is for species so far from human standard that they can't speak in our register, OR for people who are in protective space suits and can't do delicate hand motions due to the gloves
Togruta Marking Headcanons (Evolutionary and Epigenetic)
Okay, so the question is:
Do you think togruta markings are purely genetic or partly genetic and partly influenced by the environment?
e.g. a stressful adolescence leads to more complex markings/breakage
This conversation was had in large part on discord with @atagotiak and @dracothulhu.
Striation and Complexity
Now, my take comes entirely from Ahsoka having VERY complicated markings compared to Shaak, but we played around with it and had a lot of fun tangling out some headcanons that aren't really supported by canon, but aren't voided by it either. Also it makes time travel fun.
(Shaak Ti looks at time traveled Ahsoka and goes "Oh dear. You okay, honey?" The answer is always No.)
(This is actually EXACTLY why I was hoping there's a combined genetic/environmental factor, so any given time-travel Ahsoka has a different pattern, to some degree, from her younger self so that they can say "IDK, maybe we're cousins?" instead getting side-eyed for having Identical Marks.)
(Happy AU Ahsoka ends up with smooth rings instead of what almost looks like blue veins in marble? It would also probably make time-traveling Ahsoka’s bad future story seem a lot more real.)
Reference image:
So like these three with their clean lines and stuff probably grew up ok, as much as their lives suck now.
Some of the complexity of the markings is definitely genetic, especially with face markings. 14 yo Ahsoka has some significant complexity there already, and while she’s got early childhood trauma from that one time she was kidnapped, she otherwise seems to have been fairly happy and healthy as a child in the Temple.
On the other hand, her lekku markings do go from fairly smooth and even to really jagged looking.
My thoughts are that facial striation is indicative of stressors in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, but Montral/Lekku striation indicative of adulthood stressors (and maybe some late teens).
The adult/child distinction in striation is imo because their faces mostly stop growing after they hit adulthood, but there's more growth in the montrals and lekku.
So Shaak has a lot of striation on her montrals because adult Jedi Masters, with field work on the regular, encounter a lot of stressful situations (more dangerous missions, raising a padawan). But her childhood and adolescence, while occasionally adrenaline-heavy on missions with her Master, were usually no more stressful than one would get with, say, hunting lessons on Shili, so her markings end up very simple and blocky on her face and more detailed on her montrals and lekku.
If if we assume that the Montral tips are the later stressors showing, then it’s plausible Shaak Ti’s got a lot of little markings partly because of the stress of being a council member. Sure it’s not life threatening but the stress of a high-pressure administrative position is still stress.
(And the three ladies here probably start getting a little more fragmentation in the years after the Zygerria arc, assuming they survived.)
It doesn’t look like a lot, compared to Ahsoka at least, but there’s a moderate amount.
Between the beskar and the complex facial markings and lekku striations, I feel like other Togruta tend to give Ahsoka a lot of respect as a warrior.
Doesn't matter that she isn't wearing Akul teeth! Whatever! She clearly knows her shit!
It could be a byproduct of evolving as a communal species. Like yes, striation is good for hiding when you hunt, but seeing complex patterns on a child's face can indicate an unhealthy home life or otherwise invisible medical problems. In that context, Togruta in general watch out for complex facial patterns as a sign of child abuse.
(Obviously not foolproof but it seems like a reasonable option.)
A more stressful childhood could be indicative of low food security, and then evolution led to the marking complexity to make hunting easier in response. Tddlers and babies with early complexity might have had mothers with food insecurity or high adrenaline levels in pregnancy, too. It’d be difficult to pinpoint a specific pressure that caused it, but there’s definitely a lot of reasons it was advantageous to keep in the gene pool.
(Baby Anakin didn't know a lot of togruta growing up but I imagine most of them were heavily striated, so in those time-travel AUs, he doesn't understand the big deal with Fulcrum's markings until someone explains...)
(Slaves had stressful lives all around, and slavers liked it when togruta girls had complicated markings, they were considered Prettier, so this... worked out for them and Nobody Else.)
(If he noticed that other Togruta he’s seen since, like Shaak Ti or other Jedi or some civilians he’s met, seem to have less striation he maybe just assumed it was genetics and didn’t question it further?)
Montral Shape and Lekku Length
Another interesting thing is just the massive variation in montral shape.
My guess, personally, is that it's regional evolution. Did your ancestors live in an area with lots of trees, or was it more canyons, or maybe grasslands? It was an evolutionary reaction to how sound bounced around in your area.
In regards to lekku, even ignoring the live action stuff, Rebels Ahsoka has smaller lekku than Shaak Ti does. And some of that could be partly random chance and partly because Shaak Ti of age, but some people also think it’s partly malnutrition. I've personally been assuming it's just age and genetics, but...
We do see a significant lekku length disparity by gender, like these images:
To which I suggest:
...trans Ahsoka, whose lekku started growing out a little late because that's when she started estrogen (or the Togruta equivalent). There are a few male togruta with long lekku, but it seems pretty common for them to have short ones, so maybe they're transmasc.
