& General Ginger

“He wants to kill a lof of people. I don’t take it personally.”

Another art ;) Well, what about attack on the planet? (I used some photos of stormtroopers) 

 Еще один арт) Чего б теперь не напасть на планету?) (Я использовала кое какие фото штурмовиков) 

Dressing up Padmé? Dressing up Kylo? Working on a Senator AU? Here’s a quick cheat sheet of the various in-universe fabrics, accents, and cosmetics used in Padmé’s wardrobe with links to visual reference. Please note that this is all from the visual dictionary for The Phantom Menace; I’ll update and reblog this when I get my hands on the visual dictionary for Attack of the Clones. 

Fabrics

Cerlin is a silky, metallic fabric used to line the sleeves of the Traveling Gown and for the capelet worn by Queen Apailana. Wookieepedia says it only comes in silver, but the Traveling Gown is purple, so. Whatevs. 

Chersilk is used in the headpiece of the Traveling Gown. It’s a semi-opaque fabric. 

Cyrene silk is used in the Foreign Residence Gown. It appears to be Naboo in origin, so presumably Cyrene is a place on Naboo. It looks like regular silk. 

Trevella cloth is a soft, velvety fabric used in the Handmaiden Dress. 

Accents

Orichalc is used for the Senate Gown’s suspensas. In the real world, it’s a metal mentioned in ancient writings that seems to be a golden-colored bronze alloy. 

The headpiece of the Senate Gown is referred to as escoffiate. I have no clue what that means. 

Potolli fur is used to line the Regal Gown; it appears to be brown and is harvested via shedding. 

Sein jewels line the bottom of the Regal Gown. They are self-illuminating. 

The Shiraya fan headdress is worn only by the Queen of Naboo, as both Padmé and Apailana wear it. 

Spectra-fade dye appears to be space ombre. It’s used in the Handmaiden Dress. 

Suspensas are any long drapey bits coming off of a headpiece, usually decorated with suspensa ornaments. 

Veda pearls are, uh, pearls. They’re used in the Shiraya fan headdress.

Makeup

Padmé wears white thumbnail polish on her thumbnail (and only her thumbnail) as a rural custom. 

So, The First Order wiki page (that cites the Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary a great deal, as well as the official Star Wars Databank.) has a fuckton of good info. 

What happened right after the Galactic Civil War?

It basically ended after this huge ass brawl above Jakku, where the Empire made their last stand. 

Obvious, since we see all the fallen bits and pieces of Empire stuff all over Jakku.

But after this, the Empire was forced to sign basically a peace treaty with the hopes that it’d neuter them. This was called the Galactic Concordance. 

With this agreement this, the Empire had to:

Stay within certain areas set by the Republic.

IMMEDIATELY stop their acts of aggression.

Cut that shit out with the stormtroopers: don’t recruit, don’t mobilize. 

Finally, abandon their famed Imperial Academies where they trained people for their army/navy/etc.

Fun Fact: Luke actually wanted to join up, but his uncle forbade him. (That’s an AU in the making…)

Additionally, Galactic Republic companies were restricted from selling weapons/etc to them. 

How did they get away and rebuild?

They fucked right off into the unknown, that’s how. Literally into the Unknown Regions, away from where the Republic could see their shenanigans.

Still wanting to carry out the Empire’s principles, former Officers came together to form the First Order. 

They started colonizing worlds, building shipyards and research centers and training troops, essentially licking their wounds and preparing for another mass militarization effort.

Snoke caught notice and decided to bequeath himself to the First Order. It’s not stated how exactly how he got to be in charge.

It’s implied he already had Kylo Ren under him as an apprentice by then, but definitely not stated explicitly.

The First Order military itself

Knowing that the Republic was now the powerhouse in terms of numbers, First Order training shifted.

Guerrilla tactics and improvisation became standard.

Troops used vivid simulations for training exercises.

Training continued onboard on capital ships.

They also wanted to be better equipped. Several Galactic companies spun off subsidiaries just to sell to the First Order, to work around Galactic Republic Restrictions.

Sonn-Blas Corporation, Sinear-Jaemus Army Systems, Aratech-Loratus Corporation, Kuat-Entralla Engineering are listed as creators of a huge amount of Order equipment, ships, and weaponry. 

Basically: they had help. They didn’t make all their tech all themselves.

A note regarding out favorite TR-8R: Every ten member sqad had one of three specialized stormtroopers: 

the megablaster heavy assault troopers – the automatic/high rate of fure weaponry

flametroopers

riot control stormtroopers– much like TR-8R!

Colonization and the population of the First order at large

 Snoke and Kylo Ren (specifically noted) continue to colonize the Unknown Regions over the years.

Because of this colonization, the First Order lacked an official capital. Snoke often moved it before Starkiller became the unofficial base. 

Because of the Order’s early work, a new generation was born and raised exclusively in the off world planets, treated to a sterilized and Empire-favored slant on history.

Pre-recorded propaganda often played, playing up the Order and down the Republic.

While they favored the patriotic, they were ruthless on those that weren’t/protestors. Live-fire dispersal was permitted.

A number– if not most– of them are like Finn, raised from birth into first order training. no name, possibly taken from a family, etc.

Additionally, it’s noted that there are many labor camps and mining operations in First Order space, mostly populated by non-human species.

Kylo Ren

Kylo and his Knights of Ren did not just destroy Luke Skywalker’s attempt at restarting the Jedi Order: they also subsequently purged and hunted down those with Force affinity.

He was granted independent power separate from the military ranks of the Order.

Sound familiar? This was a deliberate move to mirror to Vader’s own role.

Bonus effect: this kept upper ranking military officials afraid of him/Snoke by extension, as they often ran into him when trying to accomplish their own goals that were in conflict with Kylo’s.

How did they get away with it?

The New Republic Senate basically believed that the Order posed no real threat to the galaxy at large– as long as they followed the rules.

Yeah. So of course they didn’t.

They blatantly defied that, as outlined above.

Prominent members of the Republic voiced concern over this, but especially Leia .

They were scoffed at by the Senate, and her especially for being an alarmist and warmonger.

Saying fuck THIS, Leia recruited as many former and forgotten military officers as possible to form the Resistance.

The Republic had passed the Military Disarmament Act which was designed to cut the size of the Republic military.

They were funded by like minded members of the Republic Senate, as noted in the film.

Phew! That’s a lot of shit. If any of it is wrong please let me know, I tried to put it in as much order as I could. 

And before you cry about anyone “supporting pedophilia!!!”, the point here is that what you’re complaining about (aka, shipping teenage cartoon characters, which has been a thing for decades) IS NOT PEDOPHILIA.  Literally no one else has ever even considered it to be that before, and you’re abusing what that word means.

According to the 18 U.S. Code § 2256 (yes, the same code that antis have been using a screencap of, but omitting the last part of in order to conceal the truth):

“The term “indistinguishable” used with respect to a depiction, means virtually indistinguishable, in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults.”

Also note the phrase “recognizable as an actual person” in 9ii.

(For real though–I have to laugh if you’re gonna tell me cartoons and anime characters look like real human beings.  Like, who the fuck has perfect circles for eyes??  You guys are idiots…)

This is also further upheld by the Supreme Court ruling of Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition, and again in Ashcroft vs American Civil Liberties Union (the PROTECT Act has also had related portions deemed unconstitutional, with justices agreeing that material depicting fictional characters is constitutionally protected (13th paragraph)).

Also:

13-17-year-olds (aka minors) only make up 15% of this site’s user base.  Meanwhile, the site has always allowed adult content.  This means that staff is trusting you to browse appropriately, and to take responsibility for your browsing using the tools they have given to you (like blocking, and filtering search results).  They are allowing you to be here under the assumption that you are mature enough to handle it.  Your behavior is only showing staff that they might want to raise the minimum age limit (which is 17+ for mobile users, by the way).  When faced with the choice of either trying to monitor/control millions of people, or simply adding a new age limitation, a company will always choose the easier option.  Don’t ruin the site for all the teens that aren’t huge, easily-offended pissbabies.

No, fiction does not affect reality the way you want to believe.  The statistics for rape, child abuse, assault, murder, etc. have all experienced a dramatic decline over the past few decades, in spite of our media becoming more graphically violent, and pornography being more easily accessible.  Your logic just doesn’t hold up to the facts (by the way, this also applies to stories with mature themes like rape or murder, or stories with abusive or taboo relationships.  IT’S JUST FICTION, PEOPLE.   It’s a reflection of various aspects of our humanity, which includes the things we most fear.  Writing and reading about them is one way we can strip them of that fear and power they hold over us.  It doesn’t mean we stop recognizing those things as morally wrong–it’s just a way of reconciling their existence, and coping with it).

No, children wouldn’t find truckloads of porn in Google’s Safe Search.  In fact, for most fandoms, you’ll have a hard time finding adult content even with Safe Search OFF.  Google tailors its results to your browsing.  If you’re finding “problematic” content, all that proves is that you were searching for it in the first place.

The internet is not a babysitter.  Small children shouldn’t be on it unsupervised to begin with.  If you wouldn’t let them go to Columbia by themselves–the drug and murder capitol of the world–then they shouldn’t be online by themselves.  Public spaces are not “safe”.  It’s not the job of millions of strangers to constantly look out for other people’s children (nor are they obligated to look out for you, for that matter).  That’s the responsibility of their PARENTS.  PERIOD.

An abuser can groom a victim without ever using anything sexual whatsoever.  It’s about trust.  It can be something as simple as an interest in model airplanes–does that make those “problematic”?  As for those abusers, chances are that they’re not some random stranger on the internet, but someone known to the victim.  You may not want to hear this, but the greatest threat to children statistically?  It’s their own mothers.

Antis only came about within the past two years.  Before that, there was no real drama in fandoms beyond the occasional shipping war, which no one treated like anything but a shipping war.  You are the ones that made fandoms toxic.  Fan art and fanfiction didn’t affect any of us the way you’re claiming before.  Hell–people have been sexualizing cartoons for literally as long as they’ve existed.  That’s almost 100 fucking years, and it hasn’t caused a goddamn thing.  You’re abusing and trivializing extremely serious issues in order to use as leverage to threaten and silence others, and you bloody well know it.  You choose the things that you’re aware that everyone hates: Pedophilia, abuse, etc.  You know that just mentioning these things causes an instant knee-jerk reaction–one that few people will bother to look into beyond the initial claim.  You’re deliberately emotionally manipulating others.  Those are the tactics of abusers.

Adult content of fictional characters could actually help prevent cases of child sexual abuse.  But then, we all know this was never about children for any anti, or you wouldn’t limit your concern to just the cartoons that you’re personally interested in.  Honestly, I would think you’d be more concerned about the fact that sites like Pornhub and Redtube require no age verification, account, password, or credit card to access.

Point blank: What you are doing is called “crying wolf”, and it has real consequences. For example: Anti-vaxxers.  All it took was one man claiming a link between vaccines and autism, and now diseases like polio are turning up again because of people who refuse to vaccinate their children.  If you make claims of pedophilia where it doesn’t actually exist, you are hurting legitimate claims of pedophilia.

So, anyway, if you could stop accusing teenage girls (yes, the majority of the people you’re harassing are young women–usually minors themselves) of being “pedophiles” over something that’s 100% legal (which is shaming them during a period of their life where they’re using fan art and fanfiction as a safe means of exploring their own sexuality, and is honestly misogynistic as hell of you), and that was going on long before you came along without any issue, that’d be super.

Oh, and by the way–if you choose to falsely accuse another user of pedophilia, that IS enough of a violation of the Terms of Service for staff to delete your account.  I’d tell you to just ask “bipolaramyrose”, but well…she no longer has an account for that very reason.

I’m going to tag a few blogs that may be interested in this:

@educating-antis, @shippingisnotactivism, @shipwhateveryouwant, @antisdontdoshit, @antis-are-so-shameful​

“There aren’t any feminist female characters that want to do things that are typically feminine”

“There aren’t any badass gay characters”

“There aren’t any cool/badass disabled characters”

“Okay well what about disabled POC characters?”

“There are no interesting or complex villains! None that ever question their morals, or have an interesting motive”

“There aren’t any women characters that don’t just do things for men”

“I want a poc character that fights against racism”

“There aren’t any cool characters that aren’t young and healthy”

“There are no male characters that like feminine things”

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/21/marvels-plan-get-comic-shops-dress-like-hydra-going-like-lead-balloon-twitter/ Oh my god

Like, I stopped reading Marvel because, like DC, all the reboots and crap were becoming convoluted and difficult to follow.

And it looks like I got out just in time because this is straight up promoting Nazism. Hydra are Nazis. Marvel wants comic book shops to dress like Nazis.

As much as I would love, love, love, love, LOVE a redemption story for Kylo Ren I have come to realize that what I would love even more is to see him just completely fall into darkness. I don’t know if its because I’m just really over “Happily Ever Afters” right now, or maybe I’m just too much a pessimist but I really find redemption stories cliche right now.

 I want to see Kylo Ren just become completely engulfed in rage and sadness. I want to see more of him getting hurt, pounding his wounds, and completely annihilating his enemies. I want to see him just lose himself to the Dark Side completely. I’m sure there’s something wrong with me…..being completely attracted to a character who has no hope of being redeemed.

I think this scenario is completely attainable too. Considering our beloved Carrie Fisher has left us(RIP General), I could see them tying this into his descent into complete and utterly unredeemable chaos. I mean imagine….he killed his own father, and now soon he’s going to find out his mother died (I’m assuming that’s how they are going to do things). I mean IMAGINE. The one piece of light in his life is now gone. GONE. I mean, no one knows how long Snoke has been messing with Ren’s head. He’s been waiting for something to change so that he can dig his hooks into him even deeper. And now this is the perfect catalyst to basically ensure Ren never turns back to the light. 

So in conclusion, I am 100% ready for a full blown Kylo Ren, Sith Lord.