Tag: ask

Thanks for spreading the word on the random about Cobalt Squadron. That book it’s really really good and it showed the potential we lost on both Paige and Rose in The Last Jedi. Also, the book it’s awesome because it really settles that the problems with Rose’s characterization in TLJ it’s Ryan’s fault, because that stupid man doesn’t know how to write women, specially women of color. And that’s it. Thanks for spreading the words and folks, read Cobalt Squadron. You won’t regret it!

Rose was an inspiring and relatable character in CS, someone a lot of neurotic nerdy girls can see themselves in. Her bond with Paige was heartwarming even in the shadow of danger and tragedy. Rose in CS is well-regarded for her skills and responsible to a fault, and pushes herself to be brave despite her fears. Her main flaw was her overreliance on Paige and her lack of belief in herself, something she was taking steps to overcome by the end of CS before it all got torpedoed in TLJ. RJ made such a hash of his own original character, I mourn the lost opportunity and can only hope JJ can rehabilitate her.

I will say, though I liked CS, that it’s a mainly character-development and worldbuilding book rather than one that has a lot of monumental plot. It shows a different side to military activities in GFFA, one focused on support and supply operations, and makes vivid portrayals of life in some distant outposts of the galaxy. Plot-wise it’s one reconnaissance mission and four supply runs with the necessary planning, technical difficulties, battle, and danger along the way, together with the aforementioned character moments and worldbuilding. If this is your kind of thing you’ll love it. Some people found it boring and complained nothing much happened, which is a fair critique if you were expecting something more action packed with less nitty-gritty details. I also highly recommend the audiobook version where Loan Tran gives an amazing performance with different voices and sound effects.

There’s a girl I know with the most beautiful smile. I remember her smile from when she used to laugh at something someone said when we were hanging out. But even though I remember her smile perfectly, I don’t remember what her laugh sounds like because I never made her do it. It was always someone else. It was everyone but me. I remember a time when she thought I was a cool guy, and I know I made her laugh then at least once, but I can’t remember a single instance from before I ruined things.

I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you and her. 😦

As a native English speaker I had NO IDEA that “strength through joy” was a Nazi slogan. When we learned about the Nazis in school we weren’t taught their slogans. And I don’t associate with the alt right. I’d literally never heard that phrase until the controversy with Claudia using it came up. Now I’m Canadian so maybe it’s different in the states but assuming that any native English speaker would automatically know it was a Nazi slogan is a pretty big assumption I’d say.

I don’t think anyone was suggesting it was intentional–that would be a stupid fucking thing to do lol. We’re just saying someone involved in the process should have caught it if not the writer herself.

“Heck they’ve compared Leia to a Nazi in the comics too.” I believe it was triple zero, a torturer droid, who said it? He basically compared her to him. In that same issue Leia threat to abandon Luke in his home planet, knowing there’s no family to him there anymore. Their treatment to her was awful, she is torture survivor

And was it one of the Aftermath books that had Leia say she’d burn down the universe to do the right thing? Again, weird thing to attribute to a genocide survivor.

How do you think RJ would have handled TLJ if Finn had been white. Just for argument’s sake. I asked a friend (who also hated TLJ) and she said she really didn’t think it would have made a lot of difference because RJ was going to prioritize Kylo’s story no matter what. I’m not so sure about that. I think at worst, Finn would be openly Force Sensitive and maybe in a love triangle with Kylo and Rey. If Rose existed at all, she probably would have been put with Poe. What do you think?

I agree it’s very likely that Finn would have been treated with a lot more respect and accorded more importance if he’d been white.

Even assuming that Claudia was ignorant of the slogan’s origin a novel doesn’t go directly from the author to the printing press. It has multiple people who reads it before it even gets close to being printed and none of them picked it up. It’s a fairly famous slogan that’s still alive and well in Nazi circles and unlike Arbeit Mach Frei, Strength Through Joy is usually translated into English so I find it suspicious that no one supposedly picked up on it. 1

And I find it hard to believe that Claudia is totally innocent here. She might not have been consciously aware of where the slogan came from, but as it is so commonly used in Nazi and white supremacist circles even now I’m wondering what kind of people she considers her friends and hang with for it to have made itself into her vocabulary at all. end

I didn’t know it was a famous phrase still in use! I read that it was German readers that alerted LF so I thought only Germans recognized it, but it’s kind of chilling to think the native English speakers who did recognize it… might have kept quiet. Maybe it was pure unfortunate coincidence, maybe Ms. Gray heard it from a history documentary and it clung to her unconscious, but it is still a very specific type of mistake that evidently passed through multiple layers of editing and proofreading. I don’t put such a mistake past the company that can’t prevent basic continuity errors, of course, but that’s far from reassuring.

is it bad to ship stormpilot? i was talking to an acquaintance of mine about ships, and i told her i shipped stormpilot, but she said it was bad because it supported racist stereotypes. do you know if that’s true?

No, that’s a lie. I mean do a lot of shippers perpetuate racist stereotypes? Absolutely. Does that mean the ship is inherently racist? Hell no. Any ship can be enjoyed in a lot of different ways. I am told that avoiding racist Finnpoe fanworks is hard sometimes, though, so maybe this list of recommended fanfics can help (link)!