#userorb

[tfa-archived]

did you mean: the light of my life? [insp / template]

[reystheme]

in regards to the sequels, as someone who's been in the sw fandom for most of my life, I truly do not understand the hate for it. like damn, is it that deep?? just seeing how much it bugs people that a lot of us did enjoy it is so weird to me. its fine not to like them, but being upset that others like them is so wild 😭

I genuinely think a lot of it is just. misogyny and racism, frankly. and the star wars fandom is a very "snake eating its own tail" kind of thing where it runs through this cycle over and over. But overall? I think there's a lot of different factors into the attitude towards it + people who enjoy them.

Obviously, the Fandom Menace is the biggest offender. Grifters, too. They hold more power than they should, especially when Disney keeps bending its knee to them (see: the Acolyte), and getting bombed on any social media outside Tumblr with slurs & threats if you voice something positive is going to push people away from embracing liking that thing, it'd feel like a genuinely safer bet to pretend you didn't like them (I did myself for about six months in 2020). And those voices become a big echo chamber, where their "complaints" seeps into the mainstream conversation, which leads to...

People who watched the movies once, maybe twice, and started parroting complaints they've heard about the movies and expected them to be factual, when they easily fall apart in the face of the movies themselves. A lot of "they should've done this!" complaints that I've seen or heard, describe events that actually happened in the movies themselves. But people believe what they hear, and echo it believing it to be true, and don't investigate the source material themselves to see if it holds up or if they'd even like it themselves.

And, finally - especially here on tumblr - I think the sequels are an uncomfortable reminder to people just how much misogyny and racism is baked into the foundations of Star Wars. People claim the sequels are Bad. They're Problematic. They're racist, they're sexist, they're just Bad and if you Support It, You're Supporting Those Things. And then those same people turn around and spam their blogs with the Bad Batch (racist and ableist), or the prequels (appropriation galore, even more racism and sexism and antisemitism and ableism), because I think it's easier to ignore the fact that racism is baked into Star Wars, when the face of Star Wars is white.

People can't do that when the face of Star Wars includes characters like Rose, Finn and Poe. Suddenly, it's in their face and they can't ignore the fact that these movies are largely made by white men who might mean well and want it to be inclusive", but have a lot of biases they don't question that they fashion into the story that are actually really harmful.

Like, when I read up on the construction of TFA and Finn's role as the "decoy protagonist", it doesn't escape my notice that the role was originally conceptualized as a white man, and had that remained the case, then the rug-pull that he isn't the lead Jedi would've been fine and would've just an interesting study of gender politics in science fiction. But...then they cast John Boyega, and never questioned whether they needed to adjust that storyline so their (first) Black lead wasn't shafted for the sake of a white woman (like they really fucking should've). They just doubled down on it.

And it's that kind of racism and carelessness behind the scenes that I think is a lot easier for OT or PT fans to ignore, cos they don't have to look at the people affected by it. A lot of them can hide their own racism by hiding behind saying "Finn deserved better", and I have to question how much they'd actually love and defend Finn if he had been the lead, when I see how they treat Lando, Mace, Osha and Mae, Yord - the list goes on*. Andor gets propped up as the most progressive Star Wars has ever been, despite speedrunning as many racist stereotypes as it could, and giving most of the depth to their white characters.

And like. I am a white nerd from the south, I'm not gonna pretend like I'm an expert in this shit. I just find the difference really appalling how people will act like the OT or PT is inherently better, all whilst putting down a trilogy that tried, even if it still exists just as flawed as the rest. In some areas, it even did better! There's less sexism, the women aren't objectified, there's less casual ableism (it still exists, but nowhere near the point of the prequels and originals), and it's not just white men everywhere. It just seems very suspicious to me that a lot of the same people who will say the sequels are too problematic to love, will turn around and love stuff just as flawed, if not more, if the leads happen to be white (or whitewashed). Cos it's more comfortable to pretend it's not there.

And...I think also we just happen to be living in a era where being casually cruel is more popular than respecting other people's interests. I think it makes people feel good about themselves, to act like they're better than somebody else cos they don't like that unpopular thing (or they don't like that cringey popular thing). I see it a lot: people voicing their enjoyment of something, just for someone to go "uhm! well actually, I didn't like it, so here's all the ways that it sucks!". I've been on the receiving end of that! And a lot of people treat it like some kind of "gotcha" when they find a plot hole that you can't answer. It's a game to some people, that they think they can win and prove you're an idiot for liking that thing.

But I am hopeful the tune will change. There's a big group of people on X (ew) and Bluesky that love the films unabashedly. Rise is one of their most popular rides at Galaxy's Edge (seriously we stood in line forever, and I walked straight into Smuggler's Run when we went). Obviously, there's a big push for Hunt for Ben Solo to happen. There was a decent outcry about replacing the ST stuff at Galaxy's Edge with OT stuff that reminds me a lot of how Disney initially treated the Prequels, and obviously they're having their moment in the sun right now. And like I said...Star Wars fandom is a never-ending cycle of hate. I already saw some people starting to change their tune about the sequels when the Mandalorian trailer came out, which irritates me because oh hell no, I have not spent ten years defending these movies for you to turn around and decide you retroactively like them, to hate on another thing. Not gonna happen.

[thefrogdalorian]

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats 

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Helloooo thanks for sending some emojis!! 💕

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats 

Here they are! I don't know how they stack up but it's nice to have a little record of this moment! Unholy word count considering I started posting at the end of September 🫣

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

Well I did have a Wattpad account like a decade ago where I posted rpf 😭!! But I have mostly blocked such A Horror from my memory. This time at least, my journey to begin writing Mando fanfic took a few months I guess. I started reading a lot of fanfic after season 3 ended. Then last summer I read a book called Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I got it cheap from a charity shop lmao and it's about a nerdy girl who goes to college and writes fanfic, and I just thought "Hey, I could do that!" It's a sweet story and she doesn't shy away from being a nerd or a writer and I wish I did the same at Uni but hey ho! I'm embracing my nerdiness now. So there we go haha. That's my uncool story 😎!

🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help?

I feel like I could rely on you, Orb! I think you'd probably give good advice and stop me panicking. Then I would text @suresnips simply to ask for Din pics to calm me down HAHA. Then for the real nitty gritty of it all, I'd ask @decembermidnight because she kind of scares me [affectionate]. I think she would know what to do, how to handle the logistics of getting rid of a body because no, I'm not going to even attempt to explain it to the police.

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

Ahhh I'm gonna recommend my favourite Din/reader fic that I read so far, it's called Beneath Beskar and is, in my opinion, a MASTERPIECE. I think I read it last like a year ago, definitely due a reread soon! It's so good, the slow burn and characterisation AND PLOT TWIST/REVEAL AT THE END! Incredible.

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Basically just poor spelling/grammar to the point of it being unreadable, but that's very rare. Or if there was an improperly tagged trigger. But I'm not very fussy about plot or characterisation! I'll give most things a shot tbh :D

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

[tfa-archived]

#appreciation post for poe's very pretty eyes (▰˘◡˘▰)

[tfa-archived]

In the night, find the light, Rey. Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (2015-2019)

[tfa-archived]

Hi. I'm Poe. STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (2017)

[tfa-archived]

Alright, listen up. I don't like these rust buckets, and I don't like our odds, but - what the hell?

[reystheme]

I was thinking about Poe's guilt again. Like, he knows he's saved a lot of lives with his choices and plans, but he carries every life ever lost on his watch, I just know he does. I don't think Poe ever believes that any lives are worth sacrificing just for the greater *caugh, except his own, caugh caugh* because all lives are equally important to him, but he is also aware that lives will be lost during a war and carries that with him even once it's over. We know he's got ptsd, the whole resistance does, but being a squad leader and high in the ranks of decision making has gotta take a bigger tole.

Oh, absolutely he does. He doesn't take any life for granted (except his own), not even just the ones under his command. I've said it to my friends a lot of times, but where for most Star Wars characters, shit starts hitting the fan in the second film of their trilogy, for Poe it starts within the first ten minutes of TFA.

We see his agony over the massacre in the village, and I really think that feeling of helplessness of watching them be gunned down and not being able to stop it, factors a lot into the response he has to...practically everything in TLJ, honestly.

I think you see the weight of that guilt catching up to him in TROS. The way he can't give up at this point, because they've lost too much. He, as a commander and now as one of the leaders of the Resistance, has led too many people to their deaths for him to give up and have their deaths be in vain, even when he feels like he's fighting a losing battle.

I've been kind of thinking about it again because of Rise of Resistance at Galaxy's Edge, cos when the shuttle is initially attacked by the First Order, Poe loses his two wingmen, and he's visibly distraught about this while focusing all his energy in trying to keep the shuttle safe until you're caught in a tractor beam and taken in aboard the Finalizer and he retreats to gather reinforcements.

(apologies for the atrocious quality, the camera on my phone is a bit lacking)

Which, for one thing is such a testament to how much heart Oscar puts into Poe as a character that there's this depth and emotion to his performance for a ride at Disney, but it just highlights again how much Poe values his fellow soldiers. It reminds me a lot of that shot in TFA, when Ello is shot down:

I don't know man, I feel like I'm just sort of running around in circles verbally at this point. I feel like there's a lot going on there, re: his guilt, his own little sunk cost fallacy of "i've lost too many people to give up", his lack of value for his own life, his inability to turn his back on people who need his help or might die (he nearly damns the entire galaxy to try to save Tekka and the village, for god's sake), and how much he carries that shit.

Outwardly, he might seem to bounce back pretty easily, but there's a lot of subtle signs that Poe does not handle those losses as well as he seems to and it's wearing him down (ex: he's exhausted by the time he gets to the bridge in TLJ and argues with Leia, the way he only snaps when he thinks she's not putting enough value on the lives they lost, but the most agonizing one for me is that he's clearly been crying prior to the briefing when Holdo's given temporary command, cos his eyes are glassy and bloodshot. So there's a lot going on for Poe internally and off-screen that we're not seeing, but that Oscar clearly factored in).