Watching Star Wars Was A Mistake. For Years I’ve Derived So Much Pleasure From Seeing Discourse On

“omg you’re so creative. how do you get your ideas” i hallucinate a single scene in the taco bell drive thru and then spend 13 months trying to write it

You know ever since I started rewatching ATLA I've been wondering if the Star Wars fans who consistently complained about "filler" episodes in The Bad Batch ever actually watched that show. A HUGE chunk of the character development in ATLA occurred during the less plot-centric episodes, to the point where most of the "filler" eps were necessary to the overall story. Without them the characters wouldn't have felt as fleshed out. ATLA had a massive influence on a lot of animated shows that came after it (Tangled: The Series is one that comes to mind) in terms of how it handled its storytelling. The Star Wars animated shows, TBB included, were no exception. TBB followed a similar formula of alternating between plot-heavy episodes and character development episodes, so as an already-established ATLA fan by the time the show premiered, I took no issue with the "detour" eps that just explored the characters and their relationships. Or just let them vibe in their environment before jumping back into the heavier material. These "fans" strike me as people who would've whined about the "Tales from Ba Sing Se" episode being "pointless" or complained about the "everybody (except Toph) gets a life-changing sidequest with Zuko" storyline or, the ultimate crime, raged over Appa having his own episode about getting separated from the Gaang. All of these episodes were important to developing the characters and expanding on their relationships in a way that made the show feel more complete, so imo none of them were extraneous. A lot of the "filler" eps in TBB were the same way - I don't think I'd have cared as much about the characters OR the plot if it hadn't taken its time to sit with said characters and encourage the audience to care. The thing that ATLA is often praised for is the same thing that TBB was/is demonized for by certain pockets of the fandom, and idk it just really annoys me

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Bad Batch cadets could have their own show

WORLDBUILDING RULE NUMBER ONE: PUT A FUCKING EQUATOR IN YOUR WORLD MAP

WORLDBUILDING RULE NUMBER TWO: IF THERE ARE POTATOES IN YOUR WORLD THERE MUST BE AN ANDES FROM WHERE THEY CAME FROM

WORLDBUILDING RULE NUMBER THREE: PUT. A. FUCKING. EQUATOR. IN. YOUR. WORLD. MAP.

WORLDBUILDING RULE NUMBER FOUR: ANY PLACE SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR CAN AND MUST BE AN ARGENTINA EQUIVALENT

One should always have at least 2 craft projects going. That way, when one of them is messed up and misbehaving, you can switch to another, and let the first one sit there and think about what it's done.

yes there's a lot of things to criticize about Star Wars but one thing i will always love it for is being so unabashedly tragic

i'm sure it's been said before, but one of the main things i think powers the SW fandom (fics in particular) is the (in)evitability of it all

time travel fix-its are one of the most popular sub-categories of fics that i've seen (for the prequels at least) but i see it much more rarely in other fandoms. i know each fandom has their own niches that they dig into but star wars fic writers took one look at this decades long story of people who were doomed from the start and said 'not in my house bitch'

and i'm never tired of it, because there's so many places where just one different action could have changed the story entirely, but didn't

was it over the moment Palpatine succeeded in feeding Anakin's fears and his distrust toward the Jedi? the moment the Sith gained control of the senate? what about when the war started, when the Jedi were made generals of men designed to be their executioners? what about when Dooku left the order? when Qui-Gon Jinn died, leaving barely-knighted Obi Wan Kenobi to raise a child he had no idea how to care for? when the Jedi massacred the Mandalorians at Galidraan, leaving Jango Fett primed (hah) for revenge? when Palpatine, and thus the Sith, first gained influence? when the Jedi were tied to the Republic, all the way back at the Ruusan Reformation?

there are so many little moments that turn into this huge web of cause and effect when you take a step back. and in canon, these characters are dooming themselves while we watch, but what reason do they have to do anything different? they don't know they're in a tragedy - its dramatic irony at its goddamn finest

but there's this thing about decisions: for it to be a choice, there has to be another option. and our heroes make their mistakes because that's what they do, while we aren't privy to that other option, leaving that little what-if. it's a favorite human pastime, to think about what might have been.

we start at episode 4, though, fourty or so years after what you could arguably call the start, and find ourselves watching the dominoes fall in place throughout 1, 2, and 3.

and we can hate the choices, hate the tragedy, hate what happened to our beloved characters, but we knew. we had the luxury of knowing.

it's a love story, it's political intrique, it's sci-fi at its finest, and they were dead from the start.

It's never not hilarious how The Clone Wars Season 3 Episode 7 "Assassin" is basically just "what Anakin should have done"

Like aside from the obvious-that Ahsoka actually talks to Yoda about what she's having visions of-there's also the fact that she doesn't avoid the visions either

In a bit that was cut (albeit still remains in most novelizations) from the final version of ROTS, Anakin stops sleeping altogether in order to stop experiencing visions (although I think you can still get the basics of this across in the final version of the film since we never see him experiencing more visions)

Assassin shows us why this was precisely a wrong move

Throughout the episode Ahsoka either meditates on her vision or experiences new ones as she sleeps, the results being the visions became clearer or they changed because of Ahsoka's actions, ultimately resulting in the vision not coming true

So basically if Anakin hadn't been all "gotta avoid things that make me uncomfortable!" (Or y'know just listen to Yoda's correct advice) and worked through the visions he would have either changed them or gotten a clearer picture

Star Wars was and has always been meant to be hopepunk and good vs evil at its base, not grimdark and 'morally grey' and 'subversive', and this is a hill i will die on