This. This Right Here. This Was The Moment I Fell In Love. That Smile!

Alec Hardy remembers and dreams about drowning as much if not more than actually carrying Pipa’s body and that affects me A LOT.

The Last Jedi Sin #12

I was hesitant to name this post this title because I know how easily it turns people off to reading the post, but honestly, that is what this is and honestly, this one is really worth the read.

It is The Last Jedi Sin #12.

12. Plot-Driven Characters

Up until yesterday night, I didn’t know how to describe what was bothering me so much about TLJ in the respect I will be talking about in a few. It was just “wrong” and “unconvincing” because honestly, what Rian chose to do to these characters is rarely done.

Why? you ask

because this isn’t how you write, Rian!

When I was a Senior in HS, I had skipped a grade, but was taking college classes nonetheless. One of the classes I was taking was English 101 from a local college for dual high school and college credit. At the same time, I was taking English 102 from another local college. One of the first things I learned in my college classes, after y’know…being told them for years, was that good stories are driven by strong characters. This was reinforced when I elected to take Screenwriting 101 when I was a Sophomore in college. The plot is something that happens as a result of what a character does or fails to do. Of course, sometimes you have to push a character to push forward the plot…that’s a necessity of character development, but it has to feel natural and the plot has to feel like it was meant to happen. It has to make sense. The build-up to the climax has to feel as seamless as possible and plot is really to bend around the characters…

Not the other way around.

Did Rian not get that memo? Did like…no one tell him?

What bothers me so much, and is, in fact, The Last Jedi Sin #12 is that the whole movie of The Last Jedi is the plot driving the characters and not the characters driving the plot. It’s hard to describe, but I’m going to do my very best.

In The Original Trilogy, the protagonists and antagonists have a certain dynamic. Vader and Sidious have a master-apprentice relationship, but almost like equals. Luke, Han, and Leia have the friendship dynamic. Luke and Vader, however, have a very different dynamic because they are father and son and are the “Functional Skywalkers” of the Trilogy. (This is not meant to sideline Leia…it’s just that her dynamic with her father was not established until late into VI so the dynamic was overshadowed by Luke and Vader’s that was established as early as the end of IV, but formally established in the middle of V.) 

Vader and Sidious wanted to control the whole galaxy and worked their asses off to destroy the Resistance. Luke, Leia, and Han were members of the Resistance and Resistance heroes; Luke was a Jedi and was bestowed a legacy upon him. The dynamic that really pushed forward the entire saga was the relationship of Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader. 

The plot of the entire Star Wars OT was to redeem Anakin Skywalker, establish Luke Skywalker as a hero, and bring balance to the galaxy, all of which was accomplished, but could only have been accomplished through the dynamic that was Luke being the son of Darth Vader, taking the legacy of his father upon himself, believing in the goodness of his father, and being the strong, emotional, loving, faithful character he was. It could only have been accomplished because Darth Vader still had a heart and cared for his son more than he ever could care about power. 

The entirety of the Prequels was the fall of Anakin Skywalker. The PT was, truthfully, so character-driven, it may have been character-driven to a fault because they were so focused on getting Anakin’s descent to the Dark Side satisfying and “right” that other things seemed to be pushed to the background. The main villains in the PT weren’t the most intimidating, except for Palpatine/Sidious, dialogue was clunky and awkward, but for the most part, the Prequels did a decent job at clearly displaying the internal struggle of Anakin Skywalker to remain good in the face of his dark tendencies, intense emotions he couldn’t control, and disdain for the Jedi Council. 

Even TFA was a pretty character-driven story. JJ knew what to do, as much as few have faith in him. 

The Force really Awakened when Finn saved Poe from the clutches of Kylo Ren and chose to finish Poe’s mission by bringing BB-8 back to the Resistance. Along the way, he met Rey, a girl whose emotions were very strong, had a very hard life, and wanted nothing more than a family. TFA repeatedly reminded the audience that Rey needed to return to Jakku because of her family, but because she found a family in the Resistance, she went full speed ahead into helping them and finding the belonging she sought ahead of her. Kylo Ren’s intentions in the movie were clear: to find Luke Skywalker and presumably to kill him. Why? We allegedly find out why in TLJ, but it’s unbelievable at best. He also desired to “finish what his grandfather started”, which was always a very confusing motivation because we all know Anakin Skywalker defected and murdered the Emperor as his last act in his life.

I digress.

How does TLJ differ from the OT, PT, and TFA?

Aside from the fact nothing in the movie should have logically happened, which I keep saying again and again…things just inexplicably happen to these characters and they just respond to it. 

Like, the Resistance is suddenly on its last legs, so now Poe is a trigger-happy fly-boy and causes the death of lots of people.

Rose Tico sees Finn leaving the Resistance cruiser, so she tases him with no questions asked, thus resulting in this stupid side-quest on Canto Bight.

Rey hands Luke his lightsaber and he rejects it (which he never would have done), so she follows him around for days with literally nothing happening for the most part.

Kylo Ren and Rey have an inexplicable Force-Bond.

Like absolutely, a lot of those things happened because of what a character did, but these things just happen to these people. They react to it and we move on from it. It kinda dies as a concept as soon as someone reacts and by the end of the movie, the characterizations of all of the characters are basically unrecognizable, there was no plot, and we’re right back where we started…a return to normalcy.

Like Finn is exactly where he would have been without the trip to Canto Bight. Poe is exactly the same character. Rose Tico had little to no characterization in the first place. Kylo Ren is just as dark, if not a little darker. Luke’s character was assassinated. And Rey’s character regressed. Like…there was no point to this movie. 

I said at the beginning that “strong characters drive a plot”. With what was just said and is true, none of those characters are strong, especially the one that so desperately needs to be- Rey. Rian Johnson altered their characters from TFA and changed them so that it would fit his narrative. That is an astoundingly stupid move. Because not only are these characters now weak, but they are not even themselves anymore! So these characters, who we didn’t come to see, are not experiencing any character development, in a movie with no plot, are doing nothing. I’m literally watching a movie about nothing with nothing happening!

The Last Jedi was boring in every single way but visually because there was no plot. There was no character development. There was no point except super cool visuals. 

What drives a story is character development and a convincing plot based off of the characters, neither of which The Last Jedi had. 

It has tHiNgS happen, but nothing that actually pushed the trilogy-long plot. 

A lot of stuff happened in the Empire Strikes Back, like Lando in Cloud City with Darth Vader, Luke continues to train with Yoda and learn the ways of the Force, Han and Leia’s relationship happens, Han gets frozen in carbonite and given to Jabba, and whatnot. But what pushes the plot forward was the reveal that the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker’s father, is still alive as Darth Vader. But had Lando not kinda “sold out” his friends to Vader, which led to Han being frozen in carbonite, Luke would have never left Jedi training to save his friends and fight his father, which led to the reveal that he was his father. Most of things that happen in this movie support the advancement of the trilogy-plot.

BUT NOTHING HAPPENED IN THE LAST JEDI. 

The reveal, which could have been the turning point in the movie, making Rey a Skywalker or even a Kenobi, was shot to shit and actually regressed the plot because just when we thought we were getting somewhere, after the shitty central conflict of the Resistance running out of fuel and the slow-motion cat and mouse chase, Finn, Rose, and DJ’s failure and sell-out, we got literally nothing. Nothing supported any kind of plot because there was no plot to begin with. Rian was- objectively- trying to rip off ESB, but failed because he so desperately wanted to subvert fan expectations that he actually sacrificed his plot and characters so that he could be “edgy” and “different”. 

Just when the Kylo-Rey dynamic was beginning to really be grounded and justified, Rian decided “hell fucking no” so whatever plot he was trying to go for, whatever character development he was trying to push forward, whatever he was trying to have happen, literally crumbled in front of the audience’s eyes. 

The whole reason ESB was so good and the dynamic going into ROTJ was high-octane was because of the dynamic between father-son Vader-Luke. There were high stakes in place, there were risks involved, there was faith being tested with the legitimate possibility for validation, and Vader’s possibility of redemption. Luke and Vader’s lives were in jeopardy because of their relationship.

There is no dynamic between Rey and Kylo because they, yeah maybe sorta understand each other a little better, but they still hate each other. They allegedly have no relationship with one another whatsoever, so where are the stakes?!  Kylo betrayed Rey after getting her hopes up. Like I honestly don’t know what to say about this. 

I fear for the franchise because I don’t know how it can be saved at this point.

Rian Johnson wrote not only himself, but JJ Abrams into a corner.  

You can’t write a compelling narrative where nothing happens and the characters simply respond to what happens to them. You can’t write a compelling narrative based on no stakes and no character development. People get bored when nothing happens and nothing progresses. I’ve had children tell me that TLJ “finished the same way the last movie did”. If children, Disney’s target market, can see it, that’s catastrophic. 

This isn’t how writing works, Rian.

Everybody likes to poke fun at Midwesterners and our strange slang, but seriously I think it’s hilarious that it never leaves our vocabulary. My aunt has lived in Florida for the past thirty years and she still catches herself saying, “Ope!” when startled, and calling soda “pop”.

I was rewatching random moments of Broadchurch season 2 the other day and started wondering what Ellie Miller actually thinks of Hardy`s ex wife. I couldn´t figure it out, whether she just doesn´t know her enough to judge if she likes her or not or what she thinks. This might be random but I thought I´d ask the one who knows this show much better than I do. What do you think? What does Ellie think about her?

It’s an interesting question. Honestly, I’m not sure if even Ellie knows what to think of her. I’m guessing she must know about how the pendant got lost and what Tess did to Hardy, but she also seems very open-minded, and she’s not willing to demonise Tess or judge her for it.

Ellie and Tess are compared and contrasted a great deal, and just like Joe and Alec, they are depicted as opposites. The women look similar, they are both Hardy’s DSes, they’re both mothers - but they make opposing choices. E.g. Ellie is invited to have an affair at work - she refuses. Tess, on the other hand, committed adultery. The two of them are rivals for Hardy in a way, but Chibnall’s writing is clever and nuanced enough to avoid the whole cliche of women fighting over some dude.

But back to the central question - what does Ellie think of Tess? Remember this is Ellie Miller. Staunch, take-no-shit feminist. Our very first scene showed her greeting all her friends and handing out presents to them right before she chewed out her boss for sexist bullshit. She’s a woman-loving social butterfly and she gets on well with everyone she meets. And if she doesn’t get on with someone, she makes it her mission to smother them with kindness. With this in mind, what I find striking is that Ellie is quite awkward around Tess. She’s friendly enough, but most of the time she’s with Tess and Alec she’s silent and caught between the two, often in a physical sense.

The first time she meets Tess, Hardy acts like a colossal jackass. He doesn’t tell Ellie that Tess is his ex-wife, he’s bitter and aggressive and insulting. Granted, Tess doesn’t behave all that appropriately either, but Ellie is reproving of his behaviour, and the impression is that she’s neutral in this particular marital war. Yes, Hardy is her friend, and yes he was the wronged party in a lot of ways, but his behaviour is inappropriate and she won’t enable it or tell him it’s okay. She whacks him and tells him off. She treats Tess just like she’d treat anyone else.

Tess acts as an obstacle to getting the case reopened, and several times Ellie sighs or rolls her eyes when Tess refuses again to reopen. But she also respects Tess’ capabilities as a detective. For all that happened with the Sandbrook case, Tess is good at her job. She’s competent and efficient, and once she’s put her mind to something she can do it easily. Ellie might not agree with everything she did in her personal life, or even all her professional choices, but she respects her capabilities.

What’s interesting is how quickly Tess can put her off guard. One of my favourite scenes is when Hardy wakes up after his pacemaker and Ellie’s there. They start bickering (because that’s their thing) and Tess comes in.

This shot is so well-composed, I love it. Look at the placement of the hands; it looks like they’re touching, and Ellie is gripping the bed so tight it’s like she’s holding his hand by proxy. Then Tess comes in:

They look up and Ellie’s reaction is almost one of guilt. It’s like she’s been caught. She does this weird shuffle and looks between the two of them, then quickly takes her hand away.

It’s not jealousy Ellie’s expressing - it’s more like embarrassment that she’s been caught with Hardy like this - by his ex-wife no less. There’s also an odd possessiveness. I wish I could gif this scene because Olivia Colman’s acting is so subtle and awkward, and you feel like Ellie herself isn’t sure how she feels. Someone encroaching on her bickering with Hardy? What is this? And does she trust anyone else to look after this idiot besides herself? Not that she cares about him, haha.

Later on, when Tess answers Alec’s phone on his behalf, Ellie gets a tiny bit flustered: “Oh! Oh, I was expecting him to answer.”

In a deleted scene, Hardy is begging Tess to reopen the case. Ellie is silent, and looks like a kid whose parents are fighting. Then Hardy slips up. He says to Tess “Please, love.” Tess immediately scoffs and looks to Ellie. “Did he just call me love?”

Ellie does not rise to the teasing. As Hardy swears and groans over his slip-up, Ellie tries to lighten the mood by saying, “I called the teacher “mum” once. Still can’t think about it without wincing.”

It goes over about as well as you’d expect. It’s fascinating to see social butterfly Ellie Miller flounder like this. She genuinely doesn’t know what to do in this situation, but we know her sympathies are with Hardy. Tess invites her to join her in laughing at him; she abstains and makes a joke about herself. Then Hardy demands to know why Tess doesn’t want this case reopened; she says she does, but she’s still got a career to protect. Hardy’s speechless. Tess leaves, and Ellie makes a face and mouths ‘ouch’ to Hardy as they get into the car together. It’s just a little nod of sympathy that shows, hey, that was out of line, I disapprove, and I’m on your side.

Ellie’s a woman who’s determined to see the best in everyone. I think she likes Tess and respects her in the professional sense, but she’s disgruntled by certain aspects of her personality and on a personal level it nettles her to see Hardy and Tess close, and she exhibits a certain reluctance to leave them alone. She’s quietly protective of Hardy, more so as the season goes on, and I think in S3 the differences between Ellie and Tess’ values will drive a wedge further between them. At the moment, Ellie isn’t quite sure how to feel about Tess - she’s conflicted on that point, but many of the things Tess does and says and how she treats Hardy don’t sit well with her.

As for how Tess feels about Ellie - well, she definitely resents the closeness between Hardy and Ellie. Regardless of her feelings for Hardy, I think Tess enjoys being loved by him. She’s ambitious and has a certain superiority complex. It’s natural for her to want to be the best detective or the most beloved of Hardy. Ellie represents a threat to that, and even if she doesn’t openly dislike her, she too is quietly unsettled. When she first meets her, there is a sense she believes Ellie is Hardy’s girlfriend, and this sets up that uneasy undercurrent.

The two most telling scenes are when Alec arrests Claire. Tess smugly informs him everything’s set up and she’s on top of the investigation. She says she’ll interview Claire with him. Automatically, Hardy says, “No. I need Miller.”

“Course you do,” she mutters with barely concealed resentment.

Then Tess pulls some evidence Ellie asked her to find. Ellie’s impressed by how quickly she did it. Tess looks Hardy in the eye and says, “I’m really good.” Hardy, however, ignores Tess, looks at the evidence and yells to Ellie, “Outstanding. Out-bloody-standing!” This makes Ellie grin like a dope.

Stay salty, Tess.

Tess’ reaction makes me wonder how Hardy used to treat her when she was his DS. Was he always complimenting her? Is that why she seems so sure of herself? Is Tess watching Hardy shower the exact compliments on Miller that he used to bestow on her? Divorced or not, it must sting.

In all, I think the women do respect each other, and they treat each other civilly. There’s never any hint of close friendship, however, and there is an underlying tension or an awkwardness to the way they act that will probably get worse in S3, though I don’t think Chibnall will ever make it so they’re doing anything as dull as fighting over Hardy. However, Ellie’s growing protectiveness of Hardy may certainly lead her to view Tess less and less favourably, because Tess has and continues to treat Hardy unfairly, and if he won’t stand up for himself and accept he’s not the guilty one, Ellie might have to force his hand.

A multi-Doctor special with...

…10-13.  10, 11, and 13 run around like spastic children while 12 has to babysit them all and pretend he doesn’t find their antics amusing.  Tell me this wouldn’t be funny. 10 and 13 will scronch faces at each other and build 5 devices that go “ding!” for no reason by the end of the episode. 

Fanfic Ask Meme

A Brief Guide to Supporting Authors

As a minor change of pace, I’d like to share some information about how to support fanfiction authors. Many readers don’t believe that their comments, kudos, or bookmarks are important to authors, but they are. 

So, great! Now, let’s talk about the various ways to give feedback - including those other than comments and kudos - as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each method. 

(Note: this guide is focused on ao3, but many parts apply to other platforms.) 

Bookmarks

Summary

Bookmarks let you keep track of a story for reference, re-reading, or just because. 

Public bookmarks are displayed on the story’s main bookmark count, and private bookmarks are not. 

Authors can see the total number of bookmarks on a story, both private and public, from their stats page. They cannot see who has left a private bookmark, or when it was made. 

Works can be sorted/filtered by the number of bookmarks. 

Bookmarks can be tagged, annotated, etc. 

The bookmark feature also as a “recommendation” option

Pros and cons

Pro: a bookmark serves as a more specific form of feedback than kudos, because it also means the reader likely wants to come back to the story later, and/or that they recommend this story to others. 

Pro: if a bookmark is public, authors will probably see it (we check those!). 

Pro: because notes/tags/annotations on bookmarks are optional and not intended for the author, readers feel less pressure to have a specific depth or format - anything goes. 

Tips and tricks

how to use the bookmark tool to create a rec

how to tag bookmarks

Kudos

Summary

Kudos are the easiest way to let an author know you like their story. 

You can only give kudos once per account, or once per IP address if you’re logged out. You cannot remove kudos. 

If authors have enabled this notification, they will get one email per day that lists who has given kudos on which works. These emails are magic. 

Kudos serve as a method to sort/filter fics, and readers often use the number of kudos or the kudos/hits ratio to determine whether or not to start a story. 

Pros and cons

Pro: quick and easy 

Pro: more kudos make other readers more likely to read the story

Pro: authors do tend to see kudos, whether via email, their stats page, or the story page itself. 

Con: kudos are a one-time thing, so if you leave them early in a multi-chapter story, the author has no way of knowing if you’re still reading. If you wait until the fic is complete (since kudos can’t be removed), the author won’t know you’re reading/that you enjoy the story until after it’s complete - and a perceived lack of reader interest is a leading cause for abandoned WIPs. 

Con: authors tend to interpret kudos less positively than readers. Therefore, if you leave kudos and mean “I love this story so much!!” the author doesn’t know that, because people leave kudos for many different reasons. 

Con: they’re not specific. The impact of praise tends to increase with specificity. For example, “this fic is great” is nice to hear, but “your dialogue and characterizations in this story are great” is more specific and will generally inspire more emotion in the author. Because kudos are both the lowest effort and lowest specificity form of feedback, they don’t have the same impact as other methods. 

Tips and tricks

If, for some reason, you don’t want to leave kudos on your username, you can quickly leave guest kudos without logging out by copying the address, opening a private browser session, and leaving kudos as a guest.

You can also do this if you want to leave multiple kudos 

Subscriptions 

authors can see how many users are subscribed to a story from their stats page

authors cannot see who is subscribed to their story 

authors do not know if a subscriber is still reading, or if they are inactive/not checking updates 

subscriptions to authors do not show up in the story subscriptions count 

subscriptions can give an author a general indication of their audience for a multi-chapter story, but it’s almost exclusively a tool for readers rather than a feedback mechanism. 

Comments

This has been covered in depth before - check the links for more info. 

Your Guide to Reviews

Appreciation Without Anxiety: Commenting 101

How to Write A Good Review on FFN (most of this also applies to ao3)

tips and tricks for commenting on mobile

Why People Don’t Comment

“Can I Say This?” Culture, Comments, and Concern

101 Comment Starters

Recommending and Sharing Fics

Simply posting a link to a fic on tumblr is a great form of feedback, if the author sees it - it’s fine to leave a comment on the fic saying “I recommended this story!” with a link to the post, or to tag them on tumblr if you can find their account. 

If an author shares their tumblr account, liking and reblogging their story-related posts is a great way to show support, because it means that you enjoy their story enough that you want other people to read it. 

Authors on tumblr will often check both their notes and the tags people add, and tagging it with something along the lines of “I love this story” or “please read this” will make an author cry happy tears. 

An easy way to create rec lists is to bookmark fics or use the mark for later feature as you read them, and once per week, make a list via tumblr post. Generally, you’ll want to list the title, author (tag them if you can find them on tumblr!), fandom, pairing(s), and character(s). A brief description is nice but not necessary; if you want to add more but you’re not sure what, simply copy-paste the author’s summary from ao3. Then, if you haven’t tagged the author, leave a comment on the story with a link to your rec list. 

I don’t actually have words to describe how amazing it is to find that someone has recced my fics, but wow. I have literally cried. 

Misc.

if you can find an author on tumblr, feel free to tag them in posts (for example, “this photo makes me think of your story, @author!”) or send asks about their fics. 

If you’ve written or drawn something inspired by their stories, let them know! Don’t worry about whether it’s “good enough,” because I promise they will love and appreciate it (and you!). 

If you’ve made playlists, moodboards, metas, etc, also let them know! 

If you see someone else recommending or mentioning their fic, tag the author - they likely haven’t seen it. I’ve only found out about several things like this after a friend saw the post and sent it to me. 

If you see someone posting negatively about their fic, don’t let the author know - it’s stressful, upsetting, and they can’t do anything about it. 

This guide is not exhaustive, but I hope it’s given readers a bit more information regarding how authors receive and interpret feedback!

- Mod Rose

Favorite Alec keels over moment is in the church with Paul in “November Fog”, mainly because I still love your Alec and Paul dynamic and their conversations. That, and/or the moment when Alec finds out Daisy has a boyfriend and he passes out because of the shock because I find it honestly amusing..

A Game...

Okay, so this proves without a doubt one should not give me a laptop while I’m sick. But I’m using my feverish, addled brain as an excuse to finally go through with this little game that I’ve been joking about with several people… and also because I’ve reached 250 followers and people do stuff when that happens (I sometimes feel like I’m the tumblr socially awkward version of Alec Hardy when it comes to these things).

As some of you may know, I have an unhealthy propensity for having poor Alec Hardy pass out in all kinds of circumstances… now this is your opportunity to vote for your favorite “Alec Hardy Keels Over” scene in any of my fics (see I don’t have the kissing thing going on so I can’t do that). I know this is a slightly morbid game, but I have to admit I do wonder sometimes. And when I did this with a few people, I actually was surprised (and I realize I might not even remember all the times it happens - erm… *blushes with embarrassment*).

Anyway, is there a prize? Well, it’s not really a competition, but if you can come up with a scene that I sort of forgot about, I’ll take a prompt (and if not you can leave prompts as well). I’ll start you off with a three of my favorite ones and then you can either add or pick the same (you have two votes) (warning this may contain SPOILERS)

Keep reading

doctor who ladies: donna noble