anghraine

In happy-making news, the ace bigbang is going to happen for reals, only it's going to be BETTER -- a full-blown people-who-aren't-straight-or-cis bigbang. I already babbled at

tulina and

hl and

biichan about it, but it's so awesome that I had to share with EVERYONE. Hmm, maybe somebody will put it on

fandomcalendar and there'll be participants on the dw side? That would be cool! Anyway, that's a thing (an awesome thing!!).

Speaking of which, I was just glancing at the most recent ... events, and found something beautiful. OMG. I love OT3s and ship them across all my fandoms, and somebody's already volunteered for my very favourite one. Maybe I could get up the nerve to suggest a prompt? ...eh, probably not. (I get ridiculously nervous about these things! But still, a OT3 prompt is a thing of beauty.)

Anyway, I was browsing through the starwarsgifs tumblr, and ran across a mostly cool if somewhat bewildering set that associates six of the main characters with the roles listed in 30 Seconds to Mars' This Is War (roles: good, evil; soldier, civilian, martyr, victim; prophet, liar, honest; leader, pariah, victor, messiah). I was pretty sure I'd seen an entire SW fanvid set to that song, so I went looking for it and found, um, five. So I looked at all of them plus the gifs, and I actually thought it was interesting, because they -- weren't really the same? There was lots of overlap, but there were lots of places where the artists interpreted things completely differently, and I was a bit intrigued to see where which happened.

Okay, here are the works: [Star Wars] This is W A R [Original Trilogy] by Zutarachick, Star Wars Ep. I-VI: This Is War by fr0gstomper, The Star Wars – This Is War by RocketScienceMedia, This Is War || Star Wars by LynnisaMystery, Star wars “This is war” by Ottoman4000, and the gifs here. For convenience, I just refer to them as I, II, III, IV, V, and VI.

So:

I, the vid I remembered, (obviously) only uses the original trilogy, though there's certainly a sense of the PT (e.g., Vader is "the messiah"). The choices correspond really well and follow the pattern of the song. That is, the song's predominant motif in the beginning is an urgent FIGHTFIGHTFIGHT that slows and softens towards the end, as it talks about the end of the war and hope and whatnot. The vid uses plenty of lightsaber duels and blaster fights, then fades to ROTJ's images of hope and peace. The titling can be a little irritating but works well enough for the roles.

II (just as obviously) covers the entire trilogy and in fact puts it in order to follow the chronology of the series as well as the song, which I thought worked really well. It also used the whole song, which is well over four minutes, but I think worth it. The SW character/song role correspondences were less straightforward than I's but reasonable; some of the clips used for other parts of the song were generic or a little bizarre, though (I honestly can't tell if Shmi's death was supposed to be for "a moment to live" or "a moment to lie" but it doesn't work either way), without many of the "aha" moments that, well, I watch these for.

III also looks at the whole trilogy and uses the entire song -- and then, for some inexplicable reason, tacks on the ending music to ROTJ, which painfully clashes with the song. It's a bit of the reverse of the above, really; the choices for the roles tended to be forcefully suitable or nonsensical and repetitive (Obi-Wan occupies two of the roles, neither of which fit him well; one, for instance, is "the honest," which is not exactly his most notable quality) and because of the pacing choices, they were all prequel trilogy, even though it's not a PT vid. However, I think the artist did better work with the rest of the song; for instance, for "raise your hand to the sky" everybody else used something metaphorically or not at all related, but they used this clip where Luke is literally raising his hand to the sky to grab his lightsaber out of it. For "the fight is done" they showed Luke throwing away his lightsaber, which is pretty much perfect.

IV is probably my favourite of the full series ones, though it abbreviates the song. It's not strictly chronological, attending more to the series as a whole than to a storyline -- so it can go from Qui-Gon to Han in about a quarter-second. I honestly preferred that in general, though it was a bit of a strain towards the end, where, say, using clips from the end of AOTC jars just a little with 'the war is done.' However, unlike III, the correspondences between roles and characters were consistently neat, and unlike II, the rest of the song was generally relevant and appropriate to what we're seeing. For "a moment to live"/"a moment to die" it switched from Han and Leia's epic chemistry on the Falcon to Shmi's funeral, which was excellent (though I'll admit I preferred V's).

V is pretty hit and miss. The clips were just lower-quality in general, the choices for the roles were often bewildering and the clips weren't always well synchronized with the lyrics; it's not clear if they mean Anakin to match up with "the martyr" or "the victim," and I had to watch it a couple of times to be sure that they really did mean to make Anakin and Padmé "the prophet." (Bzuh?) It's PT-only, which would be fine, except it runs straight into IV's problem in the latter half -- how do you make the PT about hope and peace when pretty much the whole point is that it's a disastrous, unending war punctuated by genocide and the occasional doomed grasp at happiness? It did occasionally do something interesting, though -- I think it had the best take on the moment of truth/moment to lie/moment to live/moment to die, swinging from Obi-Wan's heartfelt confession to Anakin in ROTS, to Palpatine ... well, speaking, to Owen and Beru holding baby Luke to Padmé's funeral barge. Damn.

VI, the gifspam, was ... well-done in the sense that the gifts are polished and shiny and impressive. The creator chose six of the roles plus the main title, and most of them worked. I thought it a bit odd that they chose all men, even in cases where ... I mean, I get wanting to include Luke, but "the leader," really? Luke is almost never in charge of anything, and when he is he wanders off to go solo-adventuring anyway. Leia, sure (and unsurprisingly she was chosen in three of the vids), but not Luke. Han as "the victor" was also a bit odd, though the others were effective.

In terms of the roles:

The Good: Luke and Leia (I), Jedi Council (II), Yoda (III), Jedi Council (IV), Obi-Wan (V)

This one's pretty inconsistent -- the Jedi Council is the only one chosen more than once, and that only twice. I think it's less because there was any difficulty, though, then that there are so many essentially good characters, though I'd expect more groups of heroes. Even the Council is pretty small, given the sheer mass of heroes you could find on Geonosis. Still, I didn't expect a lot of similarity here. On the other hand--

The Evil: Palpatine, Tarkin, and Vader (I), Palpatine (II), Palpatine (III), Palpatine (IV), Grievous (V)

Yeah, I'm noticing a certain common thread there. Palpatine's behind it all! Not that there aren't other villains, as V shows, but...why settle for a lesser evil?

The Soldier: Han (I), clonetroopers (II), clonetroopers (III), Qui-Gon (IV), Wookiees (V)

I thought the clonetroopers made far and away the most sense here. Even Han seemed a bit odd; while I suppose he technically becomes one eventually, he hardly seems like the ultimate representative even the OT alone has to offer. Even the opening shot of the Rebel soldiers would fit better. Qui-Gon is another one that's ... well yes, but not really the first archetype that comes to mind for him.

The Civilian: Lando (I), Shmi (II), Boba Fett (III), Han (IV), Padmé (V)

This I thought was interesting because there wasn't ANY overlap at all. They all work reasonably well, too, though Boba Fett and Han are a bit iffy (not that they aren't, just... again, not the first thing to come to mind). Shmi especially fits, but Lando's civilian-ness is so relevant to his character that I like him best for this.

The Martyr: Obi-Wan (I), Padmé (II), Mace Windu (III), Obi-Wan (IV), Adi-whatshisface (V), Obi-Wan (V), Obi-Wan (VI)

Yeah, I figured there'd be a lot of Obi-Wan for this one. It makes sense; lots of people die tragically, but he deliberately sacrifices his life. Padmé and the hyphenated Jedi guy (...I could look him up, but eh) could be seen as more metaphorical martyrs (though Mace is a pretty baffling choice for this one), but they just don't fit as well.

The Victim: Owen and Beru (I), Anakin (II), Anakin (III), Owen and Beru (IV), Anakin (V)

This one I thought was interesting because it's split right down the middle. Owen and Beru twice -- which makes sense, since they are total victims of the Empire, which Lucas thoughtfully reinforced with the image of their smouldering fleshless remains. I did wonder if anybody would choose Alderaan, though, since it's such a powerful image and the worst of the mass murders. Owen and Beru are a bit more immediate. And Anakin, of course -- I wondered about him, too, and rather doubted it, but he got all of the other three. One is when Obi-Wan leaves him to burn alive (which, yeah) and the other two are him kneeling before Palpatine. A little subtler than Owen and Beru, but I can definitely see it.

The Prophet: Yoda (I), Yoda (II), Yoda (III), Yoda (IV), Anakin and Padmé (V), Yoda (V), Yoda (VI)

Whoa, speaking of overlap. Aside of Anakin and Padmé, which is honestly just bizarre, everybody went for Yoda here. I can see why, but at the same time, I'm surprised at the overwhelming agreement. There are a lot of prophetic characters -- but probably none for whom this fits them better than the other roles, so I guess there's that.

The Liar: Palpatine (I), Palpatine (II), Palpatine (III), Dooku (IV), Palpatine (V), Palpatine (V)

And again, holy consensus, Batman. Palpatine really is perfect for this one. You could choose Obi-Wan, say, but that'd be a little simplistic and unfair (it's not his defining quality!), and Dooku -- hell, I'm still not sure if he *was* lying. And nobody makes a lifestyle out of it as much as Palpatine, anyway.

The Honest: Chewbacca (I), Luke (II), Obi-Wan (III), Bail Organa (IV), Mace (V)

And another one with no consensus whatsoever. I thought Chewie and Bail were probably the best choices here -- I think I'd have to give it to Chewie, though, since he does express and act on pretty much every feeling he has. The other three are honestly (...not intended!) a bit bizarre to me. Luke bluffs quite readily, Obi-Wan has his certain points of view, and Mace is...well, I guess he's honest, but that's not what I think of when I remember him!

The Leader: Leia (I), Leia (II), Obi-Wan (III), Leia (IV), Yoda (V), Luke (VI)

Obi-Wan and Luke both strike me as odd here, Luke for reasons already discussed, and Obi-Wan for ... I guess he is a leader, but it's hardly his defining role, especially in the PT (where the clip came from). Yoda makes sense, but Leia is a much more straightforward leader. They even used most of the same clips -- awards ceremony and directing troops at Hoth. She definitely fits better than Luke.

The Pariah: Boba Fett (I), Obi-Wan (II), Padmé (III), Boba Fett (IV), Padmé (V)

Now, this one is almost divided evenly, but I tend to think we've got a square peg/round hole situation here. "Pariah" doesn't fit anyone spectacularly well, though Padmé as pariah makes no sense whatsoever. Bounty hunters seem to be sorta pariah-ish in ESB, so I guess in that light Boba fits best. Obi-Wan is in exile, but not a pariah, so... yeah. This one just doesn't match up well in general. I think Darth Maul would have fit better than any of these, though.

The Victor: Luke (I), Vader (II), Anakin/Vaderkin (III), Luke (IV), Palpatine (V), Han (VI)

This really depends on the focus, I think. Han is less the victor than a victor -- except debatably in terms of Leia's affections, and it's hardly his victory that they're twins. Palpatine, sure, but given that he's essentially destroyed by his own monumental hubris, it's hard to see him ultimately as a great victor. Anakin and Luke are both triumphant, so I'm not surprised they share the other four. I do find it a bit odd when it's Vader at the end of ROTS, given that victorious is about the last thing he seems to feel -- it's really at the ends of TPM and ROTJ where I see that. I think both the vids that chose Luke went for ROTJ, where 'moral victor' takes on a whole new meaning -- while ANH could work, I think that's best.

The Messiah: Anakin (I), Luke (II), Luke (III), Anakin (IV), Luke (V), Anakin (VI)

And another one split down the middle with nary a dissenting vote. I did think it was interesting that the OT-only one chose Anakin (as Vader and then dying Anakin, in ROTJ) while the PT-only one chose Luke (as an infant in ROTS). Anakin is, I think, the best choice in terms of canon -- I mean, Chosen One, sacrifices himself, brings balance to the Force, ends the Sith, gets resurrected. But Luke fits quite well, too. The first one to choose him selected ROTJ!Luke, about to suffer a slow excruciating death on account of someone else's sins while letting out anguished pleas to his semi-divine father. The other two both chose the infant Luke in ROTS, wrapped in ~~swaddling clothes~~ blankets, which is probably even more iconic. I suppose baby Leia fits that imagery just as well, but she's not that kind of figure personally where Luke is literally a redeemer, so I think these choices make perfect sense.

Well, I guess that's all. It was fun -- I liked watching the vids, and I liked sitting around thinking about them even more.