gffa | Entries tagged with star wars

ღ - Me: "I don't really even like true crime that much!" Me, five minutes later: "So, I'm going to give Last Podcast on the Left another shot, this time starting with the Dr. Josef Mengele episode!" While I have to turn the sound down, because everyone sounds like they're shouting, I'm so far really engaged with the episode, the hosts have clearly done a lot of research, there's an appropriate amount of outrage about the subject and horrors that were committed, while not making me feel like it's draining away my will to live.

I'll be glad if I can get into the swing of this podcast, it seems like everyone loves it, but I never could quite get into it before, and I need something to listen to that's not just more Star Wars, at least until there's a second season of Cocaine and Rhinestones. ;)

ღ - I haven't watched The Dragon Prince season 2 yet and I don't really have a reason, I guess I'm just not in a watching things mood. Or I'm really tired lately, idk. I have been curious about The Umbrella Academy, I've seen it mentioned around a lot, and have been wondering if it's worth picking up!

ღ - Some light-hearted meta in between the more serious Dark Lord of the Sith stuff! GUESS WHO'S CRYING ABOUT THE TEAM AGAIN?

( Obi-Wan and bb!Anakin are PRECIOUS, okay )

ღ -
( Star Wars: Republic - 'The New Face of War' + 'Blast Radius' )

ღ - I'm clearing out a big of backlog reading-wise, because I'd like to finish Join the Resistance (which I recommend, but mostly as an audiobook, I think it's easier to listen passively to get invested in the kids, rather than try to actively read) before Queen's Shadow comes out. Which is in TWO WEEKS!

I'm sort of hesitant to get my hopes up, because the last book I was excited about was Thrawn: Alliances and that did not go so well, but I'm really curious about it! I wonder if, between this and the two Padme comics that are upcoming and the new toys coming out for her, we'll see this trend of giving her focus continue?

ღ - Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #3: A lot of what I posted about this issue wasn't precisely meta, but more cackling posts about Vader's level of extra (the water scene that was straight out of a shoujo anime was *chef's kiss against fingers*) but I did like some of the stuff being set-up here!

( Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #3 )

Addendum 2019.02.16: Loooking back at this issue and the feelings I had around it, with the full context of everything that happens in this comic, I would say Vader's a little more complicated than just a walking black hole of Wanting to Die, he does want other things, he wants to tear apart the galaxy, he wants to get Padme back, etc. But even with all that, his desire to die, to end this miserable path he's chosen, is very much at the heart of things.

I'm not sure if he's planning to try to revive Padme at this point or not? That would make a big difference to him, because he's hanging so much of himself on her presence, because he idealizes the thought of getting her back and, now that I'm thinking on it, I wonder how it would have gone if he had indeed been able to revive her, if that had been at all possible.

Padme, of course, would not be pleased with this, but she was pretty broken down by the end of ROTS, she'd already been so isolated, having to keep her secrets and not really knowing how to handle Anakin and the crumbling Republic around her so that even her passion for democracy was being smothered out, it wouldn't be a huge leap of logic to see Vader hiding her away, keeping her alone in a room, as she grows duller and duller, until she's not really there in anything but body and spirit.

Would that be enough for Vader? Would he be satisfied with that? In the absence of anything or anyone to check his possessive tendencies and idealizing their relationship, would being able to fully possess her satisfy him, or would he feel the distance and loss of what makes her her enough that it would make a difference?

Anakin and Padme had so little time to come to truly know each other, so Anakin's desperate, "I can't live without her!" isn't about Padme's personality (because, when she disapproves of what he's done, he's furious that she would back away from him) but about how he needs her physically there, he needs her to soothe him. If he has enough of that with her being blank-eyed and stuck in a room, where she'll let him hold her hand or let him rest his helmet against her hair, would that be all Vader really wanted anyway?

Or would he become angry that she's not really there and tear it all down again?

ღ - Thanks to

trickytricky's recommendation, I've been listening to the Blueprint for Armageddon podcast, which is about the lead-up to World War I, as well as all the other political and historical context that led up to it. It's definitely a bit on the rambly side, the host has some inflections that took me awhile to get used to, but as promised it's utterly engaging and really interesting to look at, in the context of how Star Wars is a reflection of reality in some ways, in the sense of all these complicated moving pieces contributing to a bigger whole.

It's interesting for it's own sake, rather than for giving context to SW, I would say, but I would recommend it so far, even though I'm only an hour into the first one. Even if history isn't usually your thing, the host is compelling enough that it's still really cool to listen to.

ღ - I feel like I either go 1mph or 100mph when it comes to Star Wars lately (to be fair, I set up this journal and my tumblr specifically to be Star Wars-only, with some minor personal stuff sneaking in occasionally) and a lot of that comes down to whether or not the thing I'm reading is something that really speaks to me. I've been a little anxiety-ridden lately, so upcoming canon is stressing me out, so I'm embracing something more of a "Fuck it, then I'm just going to read the things I want to read and try to have fun for five minutes!" attitude, which worked out pretty well when I reread Shipyards of Doom and had all the Obi-Wan feelings again.

Anyway, my point is, HERE HAVE SOME ARCHIVE META AGAIN. (Tagged as #canon because some points are ones that are relevant to canon that I'll want to revisit, even though the comics themselves are very much Legends and anything they add is not canon.)

( Attack of the Clones comic [Legends] - Obi-Wan and politicians )

ღ - ( Obi-Wan and Yoda, TPM Comic [Legends] )

ღ - I spent most of yesterday napping because of shark week and then today being all hermity and making a crapload of gifs. Oh my god my main blog is getting so overrun with gif posts, but I just can't stop myself, I want to gif everything.

ღ - I used to think, "Look, I don't write that much meta, it's not that hard to organize stuff." but I think maybe it's more that I'm decent at finding the posts I want to reference, because as I'm trying to organize this for posting onto DW, it's been very, "Oh, shit, I do yell about a lot of things." and quickly getting overwhelmed. (I miss the ability to schedule posts!)

ღ - Even if I don't actually ever get everything archived, I'm at least having fun with the conversations here and I like the more laid back pace! So, I'll keep going as I have. And onwards to more crying about the GFFA!

( Jedi Clothes )

ღ - I've been going through the recs on day three of fandom snowflake challenge, hoping to find some good fic to pick up, and surprisingly the best fandom for that has been Tolkien fandom! Part of that is because I no longer go through the tags myself since the piping issue on AO3 makes it more work than it's worth, but part of is just that there's some really good Silm fic being recommended!

I wonder, do I gravitate towards Silm fic because it has a much harder time being influenced by moviefic, which I have loved many wonderful pieces of, but would also happily burn to the ground if I could? Or am I just more into those characters these days? /navel gazes

ღ - Current podcast rec: I'm only one episode into the second season of In the Dark but already it's got me hooked and reminds me of why it's one of the best investigative podcasts out there. The case is laid out really well, the interviews are fantastic, and the production values make it so easy to listen to!

ღ - A break from Dark Lord of the Sith and today I'm going to put the first two Age of Republic issues together, since I think they complement each other well. And also 'cause I want to.

( Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn #1 & Age of Republic: Darth Maul #1 )

ღ - I wish I felt more comfortable talking about Steven Universe, because the worldbuilding on that show is phenomenal, but I binged the early seasons so long ago and wasn't really paying attention to the detail, that I feel like anything substantive (that others haven't covered better) would get lost in the crowd.

Add in that most of my thoughts/feelings tend to be speculative rather than poring over what we've just been given (which is not my preferred area of "making the time and focus to write these things down in words" meta) and it just sort of doesn't quite coalesce in my mind. Hence why

bell should put together an SU post about last night's episode, so I can crib off her work instead. ^_~

(I just have So. Many. Feelings. about Pink Diamond!)

ღ - Podcast rec for the day: Dr. Death over on Wondery. It's about the surgeon who was so bad that he maimed 30+ patients for life and ultimately faced criminal charges for how bad he was. It's a little more sensationalist than I'd prefer (mostly in the presentation, rather than in the incredible research that's gone into the podcast, like, yes, having a folksy theme song is engaging, but is it really the tone you want to set?) but it's gripping and an incredibly well told story, one that's only partly about the man himself and is just as much about how the medical field got to where it is.

ღ - Comics meta! As always, don't hold me to my initial reactions on this issue, I'd probably be more favorable in a reread (though, I was warming up to it at this point), but I want to archive them as they were to show my journey with the comic, and that's the point of dusting off this DW!

( Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #2 )

ღ - Now that Dark Lord of the Sith has finished and the holiday season business is winding down, it's time to get back to organizing + archiving some meta as best I can! And just being more social!

ღ - In that vein, I'm always looking for podcast recs, though, I often have trouble articulating what I like when I listen. Currently, my favorites are Oh No Ross and Carrie (a perpetual favorite, but I've been listening again and it's delightful as always, the hosts are such good spirited people and it's a great mix of skeptic investigation and just a good old time!) and Cold (a true crime podcast focused on the case of a woman who went missing and it's basically assumed the husband killed her, but since everyone is dead now, they can't really prove it, and it's pretty engrossing so far).

Now I'm curious what everyone else listens to!

ღ - DARTH VADER: DARK LORD OF THE SITH #1

Early issues weren't as thoroughly meta'd about as later issues will be, but that'll pick up around #5, which was when the series went from fun to great for me and really put the structure of it in place. Ie, that Anakin Skywalker was in deep denial no matter how hard the Force tried to scream in his face that he was doing this all wrong.

( Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith #1 )

I originally wanted to post a lot of meta in chronological order, to start with the oldest and work my way forward, but so many of the older posts are much shorter (before I got comfortable doing longer pieces on tumblr) that it's hard to justify just posting a single paragraph or two.

So instead I'm going to have to give up on the idea of any kind of coherent timeline and firmly remind myself that it doesn't really matter that much anyway. Maybe at some point in the future I'll create an index of in order stuff and that can be my organization instead!

Plus, I'm far more excited about current comics than I am about old stuff I only halfway remember. XD

( Age of the Republic - Qui-Gon Jinn )

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize and collate some of these posts, because I'd like to group some of them together if I could, but that does mean a lot of combing through posts and I don't think DW has the ability to do multiple drafts, which would be really helpful right about now.

I want to eventually have a nice, organized (and easily navigable) compilation of all this stuff, but the way tumblr is pretty much "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" really does make it harder to go back later and make an archive of it, rather than living in the moment.

Oh, well, onwards I go, I shall figure this out as I work on it!

[Originally posted here.]

( Free Comic Book Day 2005 Special )

Originally posted here.

Sources: [MULTIPLE, LEGENDS + CANON]

Obi-Wan Kenobi is not someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve, he is very much about subtle gestures and understated words, but he whole-heartedly means them and he was entirely devoted to Anakin and did his best to make sure Anakin knew he was available for emotional support whenever he was ready for it and I’m not crying about it noBODY TOUCH ME I’M CRYING ABOUT IT.

( Obi-Wan did his best to make sure Anakin knew he was available for emotional support )

Originally posted here.

I was talking with @belldreams the other night and she’d recently rewatched ANH and brought up the question: “Why did Obi-Wan let Darth Vader strike him down?” and, boy, do I have thoughts and feelings about that scene!

( Why did Obi-Wan let Darth Vader strike him down? )

[Originally posted here.]

Anonymous Asked: Just marathoned the prequels; why is Anakin such a whiny little bitch?

Possibly you meant this in nothing but a derogatory way, not wanting any kind of serious answer, but HA HA I AM THE WRONG PERSON TO POSE SUCH A QUESTION TO THEN.

( 'why is Anakin such a whiny little bitch?' )

Original posts here and here.

The intended goal is to provide a mirror for my meta and comic blogging posts (or at least the sufficiently meta-esque ones) and I'll use the tumblr image embeds, since that's easiest, but if tumblr gets nuked, I'll hopefully go back and find another place to upload them. Comic panels aren't so bad, but gifs might hit that 500mb limit on DW (or whatever it is).

I'm starting with some of my older meta, which tends to lean heavier on Legends stuff, because I really didn't understand the delineation between the two and I've grown far more invested in Canon as they've developed it. I'll mark which is which, but keep in mind that many of these posts are over a year old. They're probably still 99% in line with how I feel, but there might be some occasional evolutions of understanding in any follow-up discussions. (Still, feel free to engage with me about them, if you want! I heartily welcome that. ♥)

( Republic - Brothers in Arms )