Snowflake Challenge #6

Hey all! This challenge was:

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

I thought of a lot of different things I could bring up for this challenge, and I kind of wanted to go for one of my less broadly popular ones, but the one that kept coming back to me is extremely famous and I've talked about it plenty of times before. Nevertheless, my pick: the lightsaber duel between Anakin and Luke Skywalker in the carbon-freezing chamber in The Empire Strikes Back.

I was recently talking with my best friend about why it's my favorite lightsaber duel in all of SW. It doesn't have the flashiest choreography (though I do think the choreography is very good; I love the way you gradually realize just how outclassed Luke is by Vader and that Vader is stringing this thing out for his own reasons, but it's also visually interesting to watch—a very evident step up from the Vader-Obi-Wan duel in ANH). It doesn't even have my favorite emotional moment in a duel (that's Luke staring at his hand in ROTJ).

But the integration of the mechanics of the duel with the setting is so good. The superb lighting of the chamber (the use of color in this scene as an extension of the duel!!!), the practical uses of the paraphernalia of the chamber (Luke climbing out of the carbon-freezing device, Vader using the Force to throw random nearby objects that Luke has to try and evade), the phases of the duel being fused with the physical surroundings as Luke passes through different parts of the chamber—things like the creepy tunnels where Vader surprises him, the window that nearly sucks Luke out, and of course, the railings they're on at the end when Luke throws himself to fate. The choreography, the music, the dialogue, the setting, the visuals, the emotional dynamics of the duel, all culminating in the loss of Luke's hand and the disruption of his understanding of the world—it all flows together in a visually spectacular way that provides a perfect framing for Vader's reveal.

The reveal would be a bombshell regardless, but I think it's the framework of the damn near perfect set piece around it that lends it the full weight it gained in pop culture and in the arc of the films.

/flashbacks to 2019

I'm appalled about the Hugo Award situation, and sorry for people who were arbitrarily declared ineligible and for the winners who now have to doubt the entire process that got them their awards.

But also, it's a little bit funny that literally the same people who were throwing absolute tantrums over AO3 users joking about winning a fraction of a Hugo and breathing down the OTW's neck about it are now wringing their hands about how nobody has any ability to do anything, now or ever, about a Hugo Award when the vote calculations are pretty blatantly fraudulent.

Like, it's critically important that the Hugo Award trademark be protected from random AO3 users. But also there's no intention or possibility of protecting it, actually. Um???