@prequelsnet Prequels Appreciation Week: Day 5 — Found Family

After andor the vibes in this meeting must have been WRECHED. The ISB collapsed, death star plans leaked, jedda destroyed in an embarrassing debacle, scarif raided all in one week and tarkin calls a staff meeting at 6am on a Tuesday. Does he talk about the security vulnerability the death star has been exposed to? No. He blusters about how everything is fine because his station is so cool and awesome and nothing bad will ever happen to it. Then some guy calls him wrong and an idiot to his face and tells his spooky wizard boss his religion is bullshit, and is instantly choked for it. No one is even shocked or offended by this, hell half of them are into it

Anakin Skywalker // Sheev Palpatine // Hego Damask

Darth Vader // Darth Sidious // Darth Plagueis

Text from Darth Plagueis by James Luceno

may the 4th be with you

wanted to do at least a little something for today so heres a doodle :)

ANDOR 2.04 Ever Been to Ghorman?

his ass is NOT getting away from the sound of the woman that loved him 😂

AHSOKA TANO in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

I know a place where no one's lost I know a place where no one cries Crying at all is not allowed Not in my castle on a cloud

CARRIE FISHER as Princess Leia Organa - STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)

I know Anakin's desilusions of grandiosity are the talk of the town, but something something Padmé dehumanization of herself as a result of so much survivor trauma and so many close death calls. She's the senator with the highest murder attempts on her, she gets assesination attempts weekly and brushes them off, and she keeps chasing for justice to the point of collition, she sees people dying around her all the time but she keeps on living and living, at some point she's flirting with death as much as Anakin does in the battlefield. And something something, Anakin, ironically, in his extreme trauma and fear of death taking the people he loves, being the only one to say "You're a person, and your name is Padmé, not queen nor senator, and you're as fragile as any other live being" Something something the irony that person that most adored her being also the one who saw her as a person Something something Anakin commiting atrocities not for a goddess, no for a politician no for royalty, for a person. Something something how contrarian it is, that Anakin sees himself as a weapon, and Padmé's extreme guilt becoming what seems like superiority.

And particularly here in this comic something something how easily Anakin can walk through that storm Padme has created, how easily he can enter into her headspace and she doesn't flinch, doesn't blink, she isn't even surprised because she expects him and he's the only one that knows and can reach her like this, they're just having a conversation, something something.

Something.

I swear this was the end of me, so idc if i'm rambling, this comic kept me up awake for more than one day, because the power would go out every single time i sat to work on it, damnit

i need to sleep asap, and eat, eating first probably

[tip jar!]

luke hull, the production designer of andor, says it is a very visually light show, and he’s not wrong, but it is deeply interesting to me how the brightest and lightest part of andor is the empire.  in most other star warses, the empire is depicted as, well, dark; it’s vader’s looming shadow, the grimly lit death star. the empire is a creature of malice and hatred, a Bad force led by the shadowy darkness of palpatine - the empire reflects its morals and character. this is an effective way of queuing in to an audience primed by a lifetime of light versus dark good versus bad metaphors the situation at hand; in anh the tantive is visually very white, vader brings a darkness (literally) in with him. the light in star wars is the rebellion - leia’s pure white dress, mon’s r1 and rotj garb, luke’s white outfit. they are the hope, and so they are the lightest points of the movie. the rebel hq is white, blindingly so - look, you get my point.  in andor, however, this is flipped. luthen’s fondor is often shadowy and greyish, mon gives her speech disavowing the empire a primarily grey colourscape, the radio tower to luthen on ferrix is dark, the backroom of the gallery is dark, but the empire is a blindingly sterile white again and again and again. narkina-5, the isb building, dedra’s flat. it’s a very deliberate brightness, one that contrasts with the more naturalistic lighting at play in rebel-led scenes and places; the imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. the empire has to continually signal its presence, has to continually signal what it claims to offer; Light, Order, Reason. it’s an inescapable brightness, a pervasive presence. you can retreat into the shadows but not the light.  and at the same time, that pretence is so deeply hollow! there’s a clinical aspect to the light of the empire, a constant oppressive artifice to it; it smothers mon in the embassy, isb uniforms and stormtrooper armour has to be perfectly smooth and pressed, in contrast to the aforementioned rebels. dedra’s torture of bix strips the bright and clinical facade away, revealing the empire not as a medical organisation, treating the illnesses of the galaxy, but as a cruel creature, fed by and greedy for the desire for power and control and harm that those that make it up embody. dedra and the false light of the empire are symbionts; in the light she must be composed (as the empire demands of its subjects), it is only in the dark that she can be vulnerable. the light is more intuitive than the dark, but that is the exact framing that andor’s empire relies upon. it is easier to comply than to resist, but that light is false and cold and will burn you in time.