Hot Take: Every interaction Anakin has with Mace Windu, from their playful banter in TCW to the gentle praise for Anakin on Vanqor to the stern and absolutely deserved, “Take a seat, young Skywalker” in ROTS, is one you could have written for Anakin and Obi-Wan to have the same exact tone and dynamic. They did not have a uniquely antagonistic relationship, Mace did not cause Anakin to fall, Mace never mistreated him, and Anakin was not afraid of him, he teased Mace and interrupted Mace’s speeches and Anakin treated him exactly like he did Obi-Wan. Mace Windu and Anakin were absolutely fine with each other.
what do I have to do to go to events where people are dressed nicely and there are plates of free cheese cubes
Go to the inaugurations of littlely known artists’ exhibitions.
We are always begging for people to attend, there actually is the “hack” to invite your whole family but tell them to pretend they don’t know you. People with money are more willing to buy your work if they think many people likes it, so your mere presence eating our cheese and canapes will be a great helps. Please bring whoever you want too.
Don’t mind if I do!
I will dress like an eccentric weirdo if that helps.
one time a pal of my pals was having a tough time selling their work in an art exhibit and called us up on the last day, ‘us’ being about 8 students who were Very hungry and also bored. We put on the nicest/artsiest clothes we had available (one dude had a legit fancy suit and put on some shades which were Bright Pink he looked like a movie star I swear) and rolled up to the show in pairs, separately. Fine Art Pal has some nice paintings! but nobody is really paying attention to them, so after getting some fancy cheese cubes in a manner that did not betray that we were actually a ravenous pack of starving students we casually wander around the show and then, fairly individually, drift to a stop by their work. Some of us even walked away, then came back a bit later ‘captivated’ by the art (it was actually really nice but recall we were all poor as shit and this was a help hustle). Our group’s interest naturally caught other folks, and eventually there was a small clump of about 15 people musing over this art, and within ten minutes the biggest piece had been snatched up by a shrewd investor. by the end of the exhibit every single piece was sold. It helped pay off the artist’s student debt and on that success they got into another exhibit! They’ve been doing well ever since.
So yes, please attend new artist shows, you get free cheese, get to look at nice art, and you can really help out people who deserve more attention.
Nadia, discovering time travel: so uhhh I was my own mother and I lost the gold but I’ll get it back. It’s just one of those you know time travel paradoxes. Lose the money get the money, be my grandmother, avoid the Nazis. I uuuuhhh might have given birth to myself too, maybe.
Alan, discovering time travel: I took a bath and kissed a boy it was nice.
I think an important instinct you have to build up when you read/watch sci-fi is discerning which things are givens. If Arrival tells you that the alien language is atemporal, it is, that’s not a puzzle for you to pick apart, it’s a prerequisite to getting the rest of the story. When I talk sci-fi with people who don’t consume a lot of it this seems to be a thing they get hung up on.
“But why—“ because it make story go. “But I don’t understand what—“ because that’s how the society works. I told you the important parts, the parts that are relevant to the story. I’m not interested in writing a 200-page speculative history Re the entire course of galactic civilization to explain why it’s rude at dinner time to eat before the ambassador eats. “But I don’t understand how (whatever) works—“ it works because it’s science fiction and that’s how it works. The propulsion systems work because the story requires interstellar travel.
I am more interested in the people and the events and the weird ideas. The weird ideas are just weird ideas, this made up fiction story isn’t a thesis statement predicting why cockroaches will be skilled surgeons 10,000 years in the future.
I think this is really important for writers, too. I know I get hung up on worldbuilding details and it’s good to have a reminder that I don’t need to reinvent DNA just for an alien to have green skin.
Imagine that your story is a play, or a tv-show - at least, that’s how I do it, and it works pretty well for me - and get clear in your mind what is part of the play and what is the set before which the play is performed. Most readers are willing to accept green skin or interstellar travel or whatever without much explanation. They’re part of the set/costume/etc. Asking about them is kind of like asking ‘why does this scene take place in a house?’ Because people live in houses, why are you even asking about the sets, the sets are not the point of the narrative. Star Wars doesn’t need to identify every alien species in a crowd scene, they’re there for Atmosphere.
If it becomes narrative, IE ‘the two protagonists are from planets currently at war’, then some explanation is needed. But settings - and I don’t just mean location, but all the accoutrements of fictional set dressing like language and clothing and cultural tidbits - don’t need to be explained. If it’s something the ‘actors’ do or say? Explain. If it’s part of the ‘set’? Only if it’s going to become plot-significant later. (IE Chekhov’s Laser Gun)
the dark side is, fundamentally, just a pyramid scheme, except you pay in limbs and dead family members instead of money
if your boss tells you that the dark side will help you achieve the power to save people from death and all you have to do is give up a few limbs and your free will do not listen to him. what actually happens is that you just have less limbs and no free will now
