Hey. This is the beginning of the DVD where it says the opinions expressed in the commentary (submission) do not reflect those of the distributer (Space Mom).

I cannot stress enough how little of a reylo shipper or a keylo stan I am, but for G-d’s sake some of you people need to learn how to consume media critically. Like, actually critically, not “if this character was real and did the things they did in real life he would be an irredeemable bastard and so he shouldn’t get a redemption arc.” What the fuck, guys? Yes, the motherfucker tortured people and killed his dad and was complicit in literal genocide, but that’s just bad writing. We’re meant to consider him a villain in the same way we considered Vader a villain, but one of the ways they tried to convince us was destroying planets. But no one in the entire series ever actually ACTS like a planet has been destroyed, least of all Leia, who in IV seems super cool about the whole thing immediately. It’s a characterizing flourish that is as clumsy and as miscalculated as it is common to the series. If you read this and think I’m saying anything close to “genocide and depictions of genocide are okay,” that’s exactly the problem I’m talking about. The sequel trilogy mirrored (and magnified) the original trilogy not just because they learned after the prequels that audiences wanted less new stuff, but because the sequels leaned heavily on the idea of inheritance. Kylo Ren tortured Rey and blew up planets because Vader tortured Leia and blew up planet(s?). What we want for villains in fiction should not necessarily be what we want for villains in reality and the fact that this distinction is so rarely made is deeply troubling to me. If Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t a show for kids (or, at least, on a network for kids), Zuko probably would’ve killed people and you guys would say he shouldn’t have a redemption arc. Let me be clear: the bad writing is not that a villain gets redeemed, but that a villain meant for redemption is characterized poorly. Make the distinction, please, I’m begging you. All the discourse typed about characters not meeting the standards of perfect moral rectitude necessary to be liked creates genuine moral failure when people who like the story are forced to defend evil actions as if they were committed in reality. It would be, without hyperbole, exhausting to bridge over from the previous point to this next and perfectly expand on it, so let me just briefly say: in the same way that characterization descends into caricature because broad narrative strokes are often necessary to illustrate fine points (he’s a villain, so he must act cruelly even if he is to be redeemed, so let’s have him DESTROY PLANETS), it is often necessary for writers of fiction to use tropes to convey something fresh. The redemption arc of a mildly sympathetic villain is a trope, a narrative caricature, used as a vehicle for the author’s unique story. To simply say that villain redemption is old and overdone is to fundamentally misunderstand how fiction is created and structured.

Tumblr user Kaijuno has spells you could only dream of.

During my nap I had a dream that I was a stagehand for a Chris Fleming and Neil Cicierega comedy tour and their brand of humor was just so fucking incomprehensible to anyone at all except maybe you tumblr weirdos like they had a bit where Chris made Neil come back out on stage and was like “let me see those tears!” in a voice like he was talking to a child and then he had Neil put his leg up on the stool and he started pointing out the lack of tears/holes in his jeans and the crowd was going fucking nuts and in another bit Neil was like listing his “top 10 rules” except all of his rules were frozen foods. Number 3 was frozen pie and that was a particular hit with the crowd for some reason.

I had a dream last night where Onision was harassing me and trying to get me to go out with him and y’all on here were telling me to date him for the clout I hate all of you

I’m having covid stress dreams but at least last nights dream was about how my cat was a little Doctor and we wished him a good day as we let him out of quarantine in his little Doctor coat and stethoscope to go work at the hospital

Had another weird dream again with all of my coworkers except we were scientists and the military wanted our science shit to make weapons and this asshole military general was berating us for not giving over our science stuff and was calling my boss a cunt and stuff and like. Military general was typical buff scaryman and I am 5′2 but I just marched up and decked him and he was taken so off guard he challenged me to a 3 round fight and I proceeded to destroy his ass every round in some sort of knowledge triumphs over fear trope