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lucymonsterAre you not enjoying the consequences of your actions very much? Did your last big decision not go the way you hoped? Try DOUBLING DOWN™. DOUBLING DOWN™ can bring you fast relief from:
So, yeah, this is the first instalment of a new ongoing series set right after The Last Jedi. Struggling worse than ever after the turmoil that brought him the throne, Kylo Ren goes looking for answers in Vader's life story. Charles Soule is the same author who wrote the Rise of Kylo Ren series, and he has a perspective on the character that I really love. Soule's Kylo deeply feels the weight of his family legacy: he's the son of two heroes, the grandson of a villain, the nephew and prize pupil of a Jedi legend, named after another Jedi legend who he never met. His sense of personal identity is precarious, and he feels as if separating himself from all that baggage is the only way he gets to be a real person instead of just an embodied set of expectations. The methods he chooses are violent, desperate, impulsive, and driven entirely by his emotions - and above all, by self-loathing and fear of inadequacy.
And, yeah, there's a pretty major cascade effect going on in his life. He handles every mistake he ever makes by doubling down on it, which means that the outcomes he ends up fighting tooth and nail for are rarely the ones he had in mind at the start - he goes where the opposition is, basically. (It's an easy way to manipulate him, if you're someone like Snoke or Palpatine who doesn't mind the explosive consequences of winding him up.)
I'm excited for the fun space adventures this first chapter has set up, and even more excited for the promised window into First Order politics. There's a very funny scene in which Kylo more or less openly admits (to Hux, of all people) that he knows next to nothing about the state of the military he just stole; apparently he's spent his whole tenure up till then just doing as Snoke tells him and taking no interest in the bigger picture. (This is very in-character and I absolutely buy it.) But by far the best part of this story is its psychological insight into an absolute mess of a human being who only ever pauses shooting himself in the foot when he wants to fire off a shot at someone else.
And now I have to wait another month for the next one! Life is so hard, you guys. :(
- That hollow feeling when power seized for power’s sake fails to make you happy. (Try bullying a junior colleague about it! Really rub your superior strength in his face!)
- The agonies of a broken heart. (You never needed her anyway! You’ve already half forgotten her name! It’s her loss, not yours!)
- Your failure to outrun your own painful past. (Killing your attachments didn’t help? Perhaps you simply need to kill more of them! Kill them even harder this time! It’s bound to work if you give it just one more go!)
So, yeah, this is the first instalment of a new ongoing series set right after The Last Jedi. Struggling worse than ever after the turmoil that brought him the throne, Kylo Ren goes looking for answers in Vader's life story. Charles Soule is the same author who wrote the Rise of Kylo Ren series, and he has a perspective on the character that I really love. Soule's Kylo deeply feels the weight of his family legacy: he's the son of two heroes, the grandson of a villain, the nephew and prize pupil of a Jedi legend, named after another Jedi legend who he never met. His sense of personal identity is precarious, and he feels as if separating himself from all that baggage is the only way he gets to be a real person instead of just an embodied set of expectations. The methods he chooses are violent, desperate, impulsive, and driven entirely by his emotions - and above all, by self-loathing and fear of inadequacy.
And, yeah, there's a pretty major cascade effect going on in his life. He handles every mistake he ever makes by doubling down on it, which means that the outcomes he ends up fighting tooth and nail for are rarely the ones he had in mind at the start - he goes where the opposition is, basically. (It's an easy way to manipulate him, if you're someone like Snoke or Palpatine who doesn't mind the explosive consequences of winding him up.)
I'm excited for the fun space adventures this first chapter has set up, and even more excited for the promised window into First Order politics. There's a very funny scene in which Kylo more or less openly admits (to Hux, of all people) that he knows next to nothing about the state of the military he just stole; apparently he's spent his whole tenure up till then just doing as Snoke tells him and taking no interest in the bigger picture. (This is very in-character and I absolutely buy it.) But by far the best part of this story is its psychological insight into an absolute mess of a human being who only ever pauses shooting himself in the foot when he wants to fire off a shot at someone else.
And now I have to wait another month for the next one! Life is so hard, you guys. :(
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Date: 2025-02-06 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-06 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-06 10:08 pm (UTC)Hahaha--I am very much on board! In fact, we have these at the library. But ONLY at the branch that's "closed" right now, so I can't get it until we reopen. But don't worry, it's on my list!
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Date: 2025-02-06 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-06 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2025-02-27 03:13 am (UTC)