u/Infinite-Detective-8

(TL:DR; I went on a whole meta analysis about the state of StarWars and its Fandom. Do with this information as you please.)

And let's be honest: this fandom hasn't been truly united since 1999. You might argue that it was because everyone "hated" the prequels, but time has proven that wasn'tnecessarily the case. For in reality, there were tons of younger millennials and Gen Z who genuinely enjoyed those films, yet largely discussed those movies within their own circles instead of engaging with older fans. Because of this precedent, I feel the divide we see today was always going to happen.

The sequels(specifically The Last Jedi) became the straw that broke the camel's back, fundamentally changing the Star Wars universe in ways many fans just couldn't get behind. Personally, I've always believed TLJ didn't break Star Wars—The Rise of Skywalker did. What TLJ did was break the fandom.

Star Wars means something, but there's never been a true consensus on what that something is. It means different things to different people, and there's a certain toxic beauty in that. I call it toxic because it has produced wildly different ideas of what Star Wars is and should be, fueling endless debates, controversies, and negativity. One fan's Luke Skywalker is another fan's "Jake Skywalker." When new Star Wars media validates one interpretation over another, it's easy to see why the fandom is the way it is.

Under George Lucas's tenure, this wasn't as significant an issue because he ultimately decided what Star Wars was. As its creator, his word was final. While he allowed others to tell stories in his universe, there was always one central narrative: the story of the Skywalkers. Under Lucas, Star Wars wasn't a mythology like DC or Marvel—it was a fable. It had one core, not many. It was something specific, not everything.

That is no longer the case. Lucas no longer controls Star Wars—Disney does, and its approach has been to make Star Wars broad enough to be everything the fans want. To accomplish that, the franchise is being "Marvelized," reshaped into a mythology with multiple centers of importance. What we're experiencing now are the growing pains of that transformation. Whether Star Wars or the fandom will be better for it remains to be seen. But if Star Wars becomes everything, does it risk no longer being something truly special?

Finishing Andor S2 made me desperately want to see an interaction between these two. You can bet your Banthas it would be one of the most layered and fascinating dialogs in all of StarWars history.

I've always subscribed to the idea that if Saw Gerrera was the Vader of the Rebellion, then Luthen would be its Palpatine. After all, both Luthen and Palps are genius strategists and manipulators who fathered an enormous political movement from the shadows that would eventually take over and usurp the old regime. I would even say that Luthen's exposure by Deedra shortly before his death was, in many ways, very reminiscent of the Jedi's attempted arrest of Palpatine in ROTS. There's no doubt that Palpatine and Luthen share many similarities, which is why an interaction between the two would be so fascinating to see play out.

I could see them formally meeting each other whilst both are in their personas. Palpatine being force sensitive, he would probably sniff out Luthen's bs immediately, but he might be so impressed by Luthen's genius that he'd let him continue acting out because he finds it entertaining. Their dynamic would probably be something akin to Light and L's from Death Note, or Absolute Batman and Joker, where Palpatine is always one step ahead and Luthen is working tirelessly to try and pull a big one over on Palpatine.

Of course, there's also the short-lived(and lamer) scenarios where Palpatine quickly finds out who Luthen really is and quickly dispatches him, or Luthen commits suicide after Palpatine figures him out and he becomes a liability to the Rebellion, or nothing happens because Palpatine is arrogant to believe no one's on his level in terms of intelligence.

Still, I want to know what you guys think? If Palpatine and Luthen were to ever meet, how could you see it playing out. A real-time game of chess, immediate destruction, or nothing at all?

I've always subscribed to the idea that if Saw Gerrera was the Vader of the Rebellion, then Luthen would be its Palpatine. After all, both Luthen and Palps are genius strategists and manipulators who fathered an enormous political movement from the shadows that would eventually take over and usurp the old regime. I would even say that Luthen's exposure by Deedra shortly before his death was, in many ways, very reminiscent of the Jedi's attempted arrest of Palpatine in ROTS. There's no doubt that Palpatine and Luthen share many similarities, which is why an interaction between the two would be so fascinating to see play out.

I could see them formally meeting each other whilst both are in their personas. Palpatine being force sensitive, he would probably sniff out Luthen's bs immediately, but he might be so impressed by Luthen's genius that he'd let him continue acting out because he finds it entertaining. Their dynamic would probably be something akin to Light and L's from Death Note, or Absolute Batman and Joker, where Palpatine is always one step ahead and Luthen is working tirelessly to try and pull a big one over on Palpatine.

Of course, there's also the short-lived(and lamer) scenarios where Palpatine quickly finds out who Luthen really is and quickly dispatches him, or Luthen commits suicide after Palpatine figures him out and he becomes a liability to the Rebellion, or nothing happens because Palpatine is arrogant to believe no one's on his level in terms of intelligence.

Still, I want to know what you guys think? If Palpatine and Luthen were to ever meet, how could you see it playing out. A real-time game of chess, immediate destruction, or nothing at all?

In all my 7 seven years of being an Anime/Manga fan I've never experienced such pain until now.

I mean it wasn't like I wasn't intrigued by the premise of Nippon Sangoku when I first heard of it, but I wasn't dying to go watch it until I saw Ohga Waijima on screen and faaaaaaaahhh I knew it! I knew she was going to bite the dust! I knew it, and yet I still got attached to her character 😭

It's just not fair! Why do all the coolest characters have to be antagonists, and why do they always have to die, God dmn it!

This show and the gokurakugai manga have taught me that you really can't get into an anime for one character alone. Especially if they're a villain, because the moment they die, all your investment instantly drops, and you no longer want to continue the series. I'm not nearly as invested enough into the story or other characters of Nippon Sangoku to want to continue after that end. God, this sucks.

So my advice for all of you fellow men of culture is to never EVER get into an anime for singular character alone. If the story isn't gripping enough for you, yet you still want to know more about the character, just watch some clips online or look them up on Wikipedia. Trust me, you'll save yourself so much heartbreak. 🙏😭😭

I'm convinced people like Kylo more for what he represents than for who he actually is. He's aesthetically icool, and the Dark Son concept he has plenty of potential, but that's where most of the appeal begins and ends.Once you get past the aesthetic, there isn't much there. Just "hype moments and aura," just "themes and such." He's a pretty lame villain otherwise.

No matter where I look for insight into Kylo/Ben, I find little beyond flimsy thematic messaging and references to better-written characters. Those references tell me more about who inspired him than who he actually is. Lucasfilm presents him as the Sequel Trilogy's central antagonist, yet consistently writes him as a flat character.

Under any amount of scrutiny, his motivations are shown to be shallow and paper-thin, lacking meaningful depth or complexity. He's essentially a thirty-something man-child playing at being a tragic, conflicted villain while remaining hollow and directionless. Fans often argue that's the point, but that only makes the character less compelling. If Kylo truly has no meaningful reason for joining Snoke and the First Order, then all the atrocities he commits amount to nothing. That doesn't make him cool or complex—it makes him look foolish. It doesn't make him well-written; it makes his whole existence feel like a contrivance. Worse, the story forces more beloved characters to suffer and regress in order for his story to make any modicum of sense.

And no, Palpatine/Snoke telepathically manipulating Ben since the time he was in Leia's womb is itself a contrived explanation for his fall to the dark side. More than contrived, it's borderline nonsensical. Snoke wasn't anywhere near Leia during her pregnancy or Ben's birth, so how is that supposed to work? Are we really meant to believe he could forge a powerful forcece connection with someone he'd never even met, from light years away? If that's the case, how did Leia not sense anything was wrong inside her body? How did Luke not pick up on it until years later? Then we're supposed to believe Ben never once questioned or fact-checked anything Snoke told him until after he killed him? Oh, but of course not. Because at the end of the day, Kylo Ren is just a stupid grifter who doesn't even realize he's a grifter. For the son of Han and Leia, it's honestly hilarious how little agency he has. Somehow, he ends up with less control over his own story than the literal Sith-spawned granddaughter of Palpatine.

I'll give Rian Johnson some credit here. He at least tried to make Kylo into something more than an emo Vader wannabe. More importantly, he did it in a way that seemed to follow through on J.J. Abrams' original setup: Kylo becoming something worse than Vader—a villain who stood on his own rather than living in Vader's shadow. So, can someone explain why J.J. immediately walked that back in The Rise of Skywalker? Why regress Kylo back to a discount Vader after spending two movies pushing him toward becoming his own villain? J.J., you're the one who set up the idea of Kylo becoming the big bad. Why abandon it the moment it finally happened?

I say all of this because, like many others, I once liked Kylo Ren. As a teenager, I considered him one of the strongest elements of the Sequel Trilogy, but the more I delved into his lore, the less compelling he became. The inconsistencies in his writing and the narrative surrounding him became increasingly apparent. Over time, I came to the conclusion that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is not the Sequel Trilogy’s best-written character, but rather its most predictable.

Saw Gerrera would've had them all turned into literal meatsheilds.

Started watching Andor S2 for first time and all I can say is these mfs get no sympathy for me. Their combined IQ is lower than that of a Stormtrooper, brah. Just utter garbage. 😭

Cassain is stronger than me because if I saw these mfs playing Rock Paper Scissors after taking me hostage, dragging me into their bs, and wasting everybody's time I'd crash out and just start blasting, bro.

I feel sorry for Maya Pei. It's no wonder she got annihilated with nincompoops like these for soldiers, lol.

Not to mention, this is pretty much the only amount of significant characterization for Biggs. Like, come on! If George and his crew wanted us to feel the anguish Luke felt during Biggs' death, they should've kept this in.

Also, think about how much our perception of StarWars would've changed if they kept this scene in. It's the most explicit political scene in the movie, and imo, give a way more clearer picture of the galaxy under the Empire than that scene with Tarkin stating that Palpatine dissolved the Imperial Senate. There's a lot of older fans who focus too much on the mysticism of Star Wars and completely ignore the equally important political and scientific aspects of the StarWars universe. I firmly believe that if George kept this scene in, we wouldn't be seeing so many ignorant fans claiming StarWars isn't inherently political.

Some will say this scene drags, but I can't agree. The dialogue is clear, engaging, and flows pretty naturally. Biggs and Luke aren't just spouting meaningless exposition like two NPCs in a video game they come off like two friends having a heartfelt conversation about their aspirations and the state of the world they live in. It feels like a convo two friends would have irl, and it says quite a bit about Biggs and Luke characters.

I got into Mushoku Tensei through the anime. I haven't read the novels yet, but I know various aspects of the story from the light novels were cut due to reasons. Still I found the anime to be absolutely incredible! It's one of the best I've watched in years, and every season leaves wanting more.

So, I was a bit astonished by how many LN readers seem to dislike the anime in its entirety. Like I could understand, preferring the LNs over the anime. As from what I heard, it's definitely the more expensive, bold, and less streamlined version of the MT story, but honestly, wasn't the anime good as well. I even heard Rifujin-sensei aided in the production of S1.

Every LN to Anime is going to feel streamlined in order to work within the confines of the budget and episode count. That's just the unfortunate reality of modern-day Anime adaptations. I feel like Studio Bind has done an incredible job even with these constraints, and I could tell that they genuinely want to adapt as much as they can.

So let me ask LN readers this: Do you truly dislike the anime adaptation, or do you just simply prefer the Light novel.

I gotta hand it to Thomas Astruc. He single handedly made the entire fandom no longer want to see anymore of Chole Bourgeois. Great job! Magnificent work you did there! 👏👏👏

I feel sorry for Chole fans cause you guys just can't catch a break! I'm a Lila fan, and even I got a little embarrassed by Episode 24, lol.

I've known plenty of writers and creatives who've come to hate their own characters, but Astruc showed me there's levels to this, lmao. He can't even afford to give her the basic respect of being an actual character.

Anyway, Lila continues to be the most interesting character in this show, and we Chrysalites shall continue to sing praises for our Moth Queen as she continues forth on her quest of Miraculous Domination!

I'm not all that into the Spiderman fanbase, so I was hoping for someone more tuned in to tell me if TASM 2 really ended up getting the StarWars Prequel treatment or no? From my perspective, it just seemed like people finally came around to liking Andrew's iteration of Spiderman more so than claiming the TASM duology was some underrated masterpiece.

Anecdotally, I liked the TASM duology a lot, and Andrew Garfield's Spiderman is my favorite of the current 3 movie versions. However, I never really disagreed with the criticisms of TASM 2, and even though I enjoyed that movie, I could see why a lot of people didn't. Personally, I think that TASM 2 suffered from the same issues Spiderman 3 did, but to a worser extent. Trying to cram 2 movies into one will never be a good setup, and TASM 2 was punished more harshly for it than Spiderman 3 because the Harry Green Goblin plot was that much of an underdeveloped drag. Everything else about that movie was good imo, but it certainly wasn't enough to carry it through the trenches.

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