I don't have reasons, I have Hats

This is my end of the year dump. Out with old

the thousands of space rom-coms that use the ‘secret and torrid love affair with a Jedi’ cliché

actors who talk about how they ‘learned everything about the Jedi and even read their Code so they’re almost a Jedi themselves’

the numbers of articles from trashy holomags about the ‘10 things we should adopt from the Jedi way this summer’

conspiracy theories on the holonet about the Jedi Order controlling the Chancellor thanks to their magic abilities or how grand master Yoda is actually just a puppet

rich and bored upper-class coruscanti citizens who are ready to pay a fortune to get a Jedi doing a few tricks at their fancy soirées

how many times Windu had to stop Vos from going to said soirées

how many kids dress up as Jedi for the space version of Halloween in the core worlds

how entire systems don’t believe in the Jedi and think they’re just characters in children’s stories because they haven’t seen one in centuries

BBY = Before the battle of Yavin 4 ABY = After the battle of Yavin 4 Text in ( brackets ) indicates the relevant book

REBELLION ERA

0 ABY- Star Wars: A new hope / Battle of Yavin 4, destruction of the death star

3 ABY - Star Wars: The empire strikes back / echo basis destroyed, Han Solo is captured by Boba Fett

4 ABY - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi / death of Jabba the Hutt, destruction of the second death star, death of emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the New Republic is established

7.5 ABY - Begin and end of the Bacta Wars ( X-Wing: The Bacta War )

8 ABY - Wedding of Leia Organa and Han Solo ( The Courtship of Princess Leia )

9 ABY - Birth of Jaina and Jacen Solo, start and end of the Thrawn campaign, death of grand admiral Thrawn ( The Thrawn trilogy )

10 ABY - Emperor Palpatine is reborn as a clone, Luke Skywalker falls to the dark side but is eventually rescued by his twin sister, birth of Anakin Solo ( Dark Empire I & II )

11 ABY - Luke sets up his Jedi academy on Yavin 4, Leia becomes chief of state of the new republic, Luke’s student Kyp Durron is possessed by the Sith spirit of Exar Kun and destroys the entire Carida system ( Jedi Academy trilogy )

14 ABY - Disciples of Ragnos crisis takes place ( Jedi Knights: Jedi Academy )

16 ABY - The Black Fleet crisis happens ( Black fleet crisis trilogy )

17 ABY - The Corellian crisis happens, Han’s cousin Thrackan Sal-Solo threatens the new republic with the use of Centerpoint station ( Corellia trilogy )

19 ABY - Caamas Document crisis eventually leads to the end of the galactiy civil war between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant, discovery of the Empire of the Hand, ( Hand of Thrawn Duology ) wedding of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade ( Union )

23 ABY - The Second Imperium raids the academy on Yavin 4 in the Second Imperium crisis ( Young Jedi Knights: Jedi under siege )

NEW JEDI ORDER ERA

25 ABY - Begin of the Yuuzhan Vong war ( New Jedi Order: Vector Prime )

26 ABY - Birth of Ben Skywalker, destruction of the academy on Yavin 4 ( New Jedi Order: Edge Of Victory II: Rebirth )

27 ABY - Mission to Myrkr, death of Anakin Solo, Jacen Solo becomes a prisoner of war, Coruscant falls to the Yuuzhan Vong in the battle of Coruscant ( New Jedi Order: Star by Star )

28 ABY - The new republic is restructured into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances ( New Jedi Order: Destiny’s way )

29 ABY - End of the Yuuzhan Vong war ( New Jedi Order: The unifiying force )

30 ABY - Jacen Solo begins his five year journey, the Jedi officially reclaim the old academy on Ossus

35 ABY - Begin of the Dark Nest crisis ( Dark Nest I: The Joiner King )

36 ABY - Birth of Allana Djo Solo ( Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen ) , Luke Skywalker becomes grandmaster of the Jedi Order ( Dark Nest III: The Swarm War )

LEGACY ERA

40 ABY - Begin of the Second Galactic Civil war ( Legacy of the Force: Betrayal ), Jacen Solo falls to the dark side, becomes Lumiya’s sith apprentice and chief of state of the galactic alliance, death of Mara Jade, Jacen accepts the name Darth Caedus, Luke Skywalker kills Lumiya ( Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice )

41 ABY - Jaina Solo kills Darth Caedus, end of the Second Galactic Civil war ( Legacy of the Force: Invincible )

43 ABY - Luke Skywalker is exiled, the Jedi are plagued by a mysterious force psychosis, the dark side entity Abeloth wreaks havoc on the galaxy, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is rediscovered ( Fate of the Jedi: Outcast )

in anaïs mitchell's own words, hadestown was conceived in the wake of the economic and climate devastation brought on by hurricane katrina. i don't think i need to belabour the concept of hades building a wall to keep the enemy out—explicitly and repeatedly named as poverty. nor do i feel the need to dumb down the environmental message. by hoarding capital for the sake of it, hades destroys the environment for the working class who he requires as fodder for (in the words of william blake) his "dark, satantic mills."

this message isn't particularly subtle, and it shouldn't be.

the vision orpheus presents with his song is not only one of ecological restoration with the seasons, but also community and egalitarian collectivization "if no one takes too much, there will always be enough."

in finishing his song, orpheus succeeds where eurydice cannot: not only setting the seasons right, but returning humanity to the anonymized workers by unionizing them.

i think that, as is the case with a lot of theatre, it's easy to anonymize the chorus. they're extra voices to round out a song or bodies used for the dance break. in hadestown, this anonymity is purposeful. whether above ground or below it, the chorus have been so thoroughly ground under hades' boot that they do not even have the luxury of individuality. their identity is reduced simply to workers.

the workers keep their heads and voices down because it is the only way they can survive, wretched as this existence is. they are not allowed to hold onto their old identities because voices that are too loud can be raised in protest and music. see field hollers, work songs, sea shanties—or chanties; it's no coincidence that two of the songs most explicitly about the toll this backbreaking labour takes on the body are called chants.

moreover, the work that they do—building a wall that will never be finished, extracting resources—isn't merely productive in the sense that it's furthering hades' capital. this form of labour is specifically punitive in a way that is meant to break their spirits. the workers "dig [their] own graves for a living." penal labour is destructive rather than productive. workers are given monotonous and repetitive tasks meant to punish them for a perceived wrongdoing. tasks like moving stones from one pile to another, turning crank machines, or walking on treadmills. the repetitive nature of these tasks was meant to break both body and spirit with no focus on rehabilitation because you are never getting out of prison. we see examples of this hard labour in victorian england, in chattel slavery, and around the world today.

it's easy to get swept up in the romance and forget that orpheus is responsible not only for bringing eurydice out of hell, but the workers as well. when threatened with a strike, hades (encouraged by the fates) breaks up the union. orpheus is separated from eurydice, yes, but also from his fellow workers. his impossible task is meant to break up his community, because community is harder to quell than individual rebels.

and they're just absolutely horrified because now they know why the Blip-A never returned, they sent them all to die, now to save their sun they have to redo the entire program all over again and Adrian is devastated -

"Heyyyyyy dad you're home early, it- uh- it's not what it looks like?" "It looks like someone's getting mauled" "Well I like to think the mauling's mutual-aaand he's covering his eyes, uh, stellar choice there, really 10/10 the judges are going wild-" "I'm going to Melissa's. Breakfast in the morning, both of you." "see I told you he wouldn't mind, now calm down and put those headlights away already"

1.5 years of sterek brainrot and I've somehow never drawn derek with red eyes nor the classic trope of the sheriff walking in on them? for shame, mel.

Any story featuring feral derek or him getting a little lost in his instincts are so important to me - this man who never gets to keep anything good in his life digging his claws into stiles and saying no, this one is mine, you can't have him - you see the vision 💭💭

a closeup as well as the lines under the cut, bc i quite like them on their own too:

I got to try some new archery, and I LOVE IT!