Honestly? My Main Piece Of Advice For Writing Well-rounded Characters Is To Make Them A Little Bit Lame.

It's like angel and demon on her shoulders, but they are her birth parents.

What Is Star Wars To You?

Hey, everybody!!!! I'm working on a rewrite of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and I'm trying to get lots of people's thoughts on what Star Wars is to them and what really makes Star Wars *Star Wars*, ya know?

I'm really curious, because for me, most of Disney's Star Wars content has really just not felt like Star Wars. I really did not like the sequel trilogy or most of the live action shows, but I absolutely adore TCW, TBB, and Andor, because they all really hit whatever it is that is Star Wars to me.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts!! Also, no hate to anyone who does love the sequel trilogy or other Disney Star Wars content, I would love to hear what it is about it that makes you love it and makes it feel like Star Wars to you!

Image description: It's a drawing of a very young Ahsoka Tano. She's on her knees in front of a Clone Trooper's helmet. She's crying and her hands are tight fists on her lap. She's wearing a light blue Jedi robe with brown gloves and boots. The Clone helmet insta drawn in like her, it's left as a light colored sketch. The prompt for this drawing was the theme of "absence" and Ahsoka's first time mourning one of her fellow soldiers. End of description.

i think it's great that people who've suffered religious trauma feel a connection to anakin. i also think it's deeply troubling that the majority of them are either unable to recognize or unwilling to admit that the religion he was indoctrinated into and abused by was the sith and not, in fact, the jedi.

part of what makes tragedies tragic is the story being preventable from the outside but unpreventable from the inside

Bad Batch cadets could have their own show

Obsessed with this genre of pinterest comments

"Luke Skywalker isn’t like the old Jedi. He saves Vader with his attachments!”

Wrong!

Luke Skywalker, at the end of Return of the Jedi, after his confrontation with the Emperor drags Darth Vader through the destructing Death Star. He’s desperate, knuckles white under the heavy weight of his father’s body, a little boy dragging his dad to safety. He sets Vader down for a moment, to catch his breath or maybe to get a better grip. He goes to grab Vader again, but Vader, uncomfortable and in pain, asks Luke to take off the mask. He wants to see Luke through his eyes instead of the eyes Palpatine built for him. Luke refuses, says that removing the mask is a sure way for Vader to die. Luke doesn’t want Vader dead, he wants Vader alive. Not to hold him accountable for his many evil acts, but for the same reason why Luke Skywalker can’t kill Darth Vader; Vader is his father and Luke loves him.

And yet, after a moment, Luke removes Vader’s mask. He doesn’t want to, he hesitates, but he removes the mask with enough slowness to allow Vader to take it back. In that moment, Luke sets aside his desire for Vader in his life, sets aside his desire to see him live, and sets aside his entire mission, the reason he was even on the Death Star in the place. In his compassion for his father, Luke stays with Vader until he dies. It is this moment where we see him be the best damn Jedi he can be. I’d even argue that this moment is the greatest example of non-attached love we see. Because Luke lets Vader go! He lets his father die, and in some ways, by removing the mask, he too kills Vader, he stays with him until his last moment, gives him the kindness of granting his last wish and finally chooses Vader.

And Luke doesn’t have to do this. If Luke Skywalker’s love for his father was an attachment, he would ignore Vader and continue dragging him to the escape pod, put his desire for a father as his central focus and ignore Vader’s wants and discomfort. Maybe he would even save him. But he doesn’t. Instead, he watches as Vader dies.

He builds a Jedi burial for his father and watches it burn the remnants of Vader and Anakin Skywalker away. He mourns Vader, he mourns what they could’ve had as father and son, considers what ifs and maybe-if-I-did-this. Vader/ Anakin is released from his mortal body, from his ‘crude matter’ and Luke lets him go. He says one final goodbye to Anakin. Then, he joins Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, and the rest of the Rebels and celebrates their victory. He lives in the present and celebrates what he has instead of what he lost.

Luke Skywalker is THE Jedi. Everything about Luke Skywalker serves as the foundational cornerstone of the Jedi, everything about the Jedi as a culture and philosophy is reflected in his character. Luke’s desire for the New Jedi Order isn’t to throw away the values of the old Order, but to vitalise them, breathe life back into dying lungs, and rebuild a path that people set out on their way to destroy. (Yes, his Order is different from the Old, but that’s because it has to be. He doesn’t have the resources or the safety of the Old Order.) The philosophies of the Jedi are difficult and they aren’t for everyone, and like the perfect Jedi that Luke is, he struggles and stumbles and sometimes he even rejects it. But, no matter how far he falls, it is a way of life he chooses again and again and again. It is a way of life that welcomes him back each time

How To Write Trauma With Humanity

This short post is for those who think that they might be so focused on writing trauma well that they accidentally forget to write an actual character.

As someone who has an "interest" (read: deeply passionate and completely consuming dedication) for psychology and character analysis, I feel like sometimes writers don't really know how to write a character with trauma.

To quote a quote:

Don't Write A Traumatized Character, Write A Character With Trauma

I'm just trying to talk about those situations where the only interesting thing that we ever learn about this character is the fact that they have trauma and that's sad.

People tend to think that PTSD and trauma in general is just:

sit in dark, crying inconsolably about death

have nightmares

hide the fact that you have PTSD with broodiness

try to revenge

die tragically or happy ever after

Remember: Nobody has time for that

These people have obligations, responsibilities, family members, loved ones, and dreams that don't allow for this type of lifestyle.

Many people with PTSD *seem* like standard members of society. They sometimes participate in community activities. They have hobbies and vague interests that they put on their dating profile but don't really care about.

People with PTSD and trauma are interesting REGARDLESS of their trauma and trauma-related bullshit, not because.

If the only thing that's interesting about a character is what something else did to your character, it's not really interesting.

What's their dreams?

What do they like to eat in the morning?

What's their values?

Stop Trying TO ANSWER These Important Questions With:

"don't care :3 trauma will make this character complete :D"

the tradwife movement is the same as it has always been - back in the kitchen, back to breeding - it just has better branding.

when i was younger, i hated pink. i was not like other girls. this is now something i'm embarrassed of - this was not me being a "girl's girl."

but it was expressing something many of us felt at the time: i literally wasn't what girlhood was supposed to be. this is a hard thing to explain, but you know when you're not performing girlhood correctly. it isn't as easy as "i liked x when girls liked y" - because there were other girls that liked x, too - but i never figured out exactly the correct way to like x, or to be interested in y.

now there is the divine feminine. this is the same rhetoric it has always been: women are biologically driven to like pink and ribbons and submitting to our husbands.

the problem is that the patriarchy found a better PR team. because yes, actually, i want every woman to have the choice to be a homemaker. i also want her taken seriously for her legitimate home-making labor. i want her to be recognized as also having a job, just unpaid. i want men to have this opportunity, too.

but it is no longer "i made this choice and I love it." instead it is a sixteen-paragraph rant about how selfish it is that my generation isn't having kids. instead it's long videos about how if you feed your children processed foods, you're going to kill them. instead it is "this is what womanhood is supposed to be. i feel bad for any other choices you're making."

the shame spiral is just prettier. it is large houses devoid of personality. it is the implication: if you don't have this, you aren't happy. the solid, everlasting assurance: women are actually supposed to be submitting. this is the default. this is the natural state of things. all other attempts inflict suffering.

but you can no longer say i'm not like other girls. you can no longer reject this image completely. you cannot find it revolting, even if you know that the underbelly is toxic and festering. sure, it is the same repackaged patriarchy. but the internet does not have shades of grey. you should support and reward other women! your disgust is actually internalized misogyny. not because you are seeing a vision of yourself the way they're trying to train you to be. not because you feel her ghost pass within an inch of your earlobe. not because your father will eventually ask you - why can't you be like her?

because they figured out how to make it beautiful: women will sell other women on this idea, and we will find the singular loophole in feminism. sure, she's shaming you in most of her videos. sure, she implies that a different life is obscene. but she just wants you to be happy! you'd be happier if you were listening!

and the whole time you're sitting there thinking: i'd actually just be happier if i had that kind of money.