I Finally Read The Comic With Swain And I Am Literally In Shambles

That video of Alex Hirsch reading S&P notes for Gravity Falls conveys a few things to me:

1) the U.S. entertainment industry (especially animation) is run by older conservative types who make up offensive terms and get really mad about them.

2) the people who run Disney would be the first to fall in line with a fascist regime.

3) most of the media we consume is tailor-made and watered-down to appeal to the tastes of older, deeply religious conservative audiences.

4) conservatism, not the left, is and always has been the biggest voice of censorship in American culture.

Luke teaching Ben at his peaceful Jedi academy, "use the force to center yourself" vs. Ezra teaching Jacen in their mom's garage, "ok kid, I'm gonna fire at you and you're gonna dodge and if anything happens we're blaming Chopper".

any tips 4 art

some of y'all fundamentally misunderstand my favorite characters but im being sooooo normal and mature about it. i haven't even killed anyone yet

You have some really fire points actually!!

I wrote my post at like 3 AM last night so the gears werent turning at 100% but you're absolutely right

Kallus is absolutely intensely biased and predjudiced throughout seasons 1 and 2 there is absolutely no question about it. Like, he has obviously done fucking insane and horrific shit in the name of the empire and he needs to be held accountable for his actions because his (probable) mental health issues do not excuse it, and that's absolutely the whole point of his character.

Honestly, I think that's what makes Kallus' redemption arc so palpable; he holds himself accountable with little to no prompting to do so. Zeb tells him to ask questions in an off handed comment, but Kallus listens, and once the bubble that he built around himself-- which is essentially just an imperial echo chamber that excuses xenophobia and colonialism-- once that bubble pops he takes it upon himself to attempt and right his wrongs by becoming fulcrum.

When I was writing my main post I think I managed to leave out a whole lot of stuff (again, written at 3AM) but i totally forgot to make a point about how the Empire IS the perfect indoctrination machine-- in fact, the empire employs indoctronation and propaganda tactics that are not dissimilar to those seen in 1930s Germany, with how it pits non-human species against the empire and paints them as "other"-- and i think the fucked up part about that indoctronation pertaining to Kallus is that we can see that Kallus really does want to do good (again, hence why he became Fulcrum in the first place) but he exists in a Xenophobic echo chamber of the Empires design. I mean, if he did have PTSD post-Oderon the empire absolutely took advantage of whatever vunerable mindset by not providing tools that would allow him to identify Onderon as an isolated incident. He truly genuinely beleives that he IS doing good in the empire. I mean everyone around him is telling him so, he is rewarded for batshit insane behavior, while others are punished for asking questions, ect ect.

Its really interesting that it took like... the smallest suggestion to challenge his beliefs ("look for answers, maybe youll find the truth") for him to not only do so, but to also--in lieu of realizing the heinous system that he's become complicit in-- hold himself accountable for his actions.

Anyways, yes OP, you brought up some stuff that 3AM me didnt think of and you are like 110% correct

Kallus' motivations are so interesting

I just need to get these thoughts out so I’m throwing this ramble here:

Now, this may totally just be me thinking too much (fork found in kitchen) but I feel like when it comes to how we tend to think about Kallus’ characterization, the implications of Kallus’ experience on Onderon are very overlooked. 

So he goes to Onderon with “the boys”-- which, the term “the boys” has its own set of implications about how Kallus must have really cared for those troopers under his command but I digress– and on a patrol they’re attacked, yada yada, we all know the story. 

But Kallus becomes fully paralyzed. He doesn’t describe the extent of his paralyzation but given that he had to watch as his squad was “finished off one by one” it’s pretty fair to assume that he could not move whatsoever. The fear that any person would experience in that situation is completely indescribable, that is genuinely some shit straight out of a night terror. 

He is– as we know– spared (albeit we don’t get exact details (did the merc try to kill him but reinforcements arrived before he could? Did the merc think that Kallus was already dead? Secret 3rd option?)) and he makes a full physical recovery, but there is no way in hell that he is not coming out of that encounter with some crazy PTSD. 

There’s not a whole lot of info on Imperial mental health services but I don’t think it’s a longshot to assume that they are probably close to nonexistent.

So the empire now has… an ISB agent with field experience… with untreated PTSD… where said PTSDs inciting incident pertained to a Lasat… and they’re looking to make an example out of Lasan……….. Are you picking up what I'm putting down here…...?

If you aren’t; it is BY NO MEANS a wild assumption to say that the Empire– essentially– weaponized Kallus’ PTSD, given that he would be less likely to question the moral atrocities happening on Lasan since he was already biased against Lasat as a whole. 

Now, we don’t really have a solid grasp on what Kallus’ exact role in Lasan was since he’s  kiiiiinnnd of an unreliable narrator– I mean we’re given the line in Droids in Distress where he takes credit for giving orders during the siege, but Kallus routinely just runs his mf mouth whenever he’s throwing hands so it’s like…  that could either be the truth or a crazy exaggeration, we as viewers have literally no idea what’s going on there– but it goes without saying that Kallus is obviously not excused from his participation just because of (likely) untreated mental illness, but that is literally like the whole point of his character so like we all knew that

Now, after Lasan, Kallus does something really bizarre for an imperial to do; he accepts the borifle given to him through the Boosan Keerah, and even though he doesn’t know about the cultural significance of that, he still takes it upon himself to learn how to use this weapon. I think that literally any other imperial would have tossed that shit out on sight, so I think it does kind of imply that Kallus did have a good deal of respect for Lasat culture.

Now we can all recall how Kallus is so annoying and also batshit insane whenever he fights Zeb for the first season and a half of rebels, and ME THINKS that this is because he wants to prove to himself that if he were not paralyzed on Onderon, he could have saved the members of his squad. He had to sit by and watch them die, and I think that he just wants the vindication; now you may be thinking, But Emma, he beat the Lasat who gave him his borifle, why would he still be obsessing over this– say it with me now– he is mentally ill. No victory will ever be enough to prove this to himself. Point blank period. 

To double down on that point, Kallus never actually says anything xenophobic about Zeb or the Lasat as a whole. (At least not that I can remember). He says “Lasat– never know when to give up,” but that’s not like… a crazy thing to say– in fact, in a fucked up sorta way, it almost sounds like a compliment???? Like, Kallus completely sees Zeb (and the Lasat in general) as equals, he’s not operating under the usual xenophobic imperial mindset that other species are lesser than. This weird obsession that he has in seasons 1 and 2 is just there because he wants to outwit and outfight Zeb (and the rest of the Ghost crew… but especially Zeb)

And after the Honorable Ones???? It’s literally never brought up again. He chills tf out so hard after that it is high key uncanny. And like, yes duh that is because– for writing purposes– that’s the beginning of his redemption and they want viewers to root for him as fulcrum, but it also implies that after finding common ground with Zeb, and understanding where he’s coming from and who Zeb is as a person, he realizes that he’s been CRASHING TF OUT for basically no reason. 

And he is SO QUICK to switch sides?? Like, he is fulcrum at least a decent time before the beginning of season three. The whole point is that the second he asks questions and delves deeper into what the Empires motivations are he is disgusted enough that he doesn’t just drop everything and disappear, no, he became a spy for the rebels because he wants to help. I feel like that just goes to show that, at his core, Kallus is a good person. A deeply confused, and hurt, and misguided person, but a good one. 

I dunno, this is just a really long winded way of saying that Kallus is the perfect example of an imperial pawn. Like the Empire is an incredibly effecient indoctrination machine that exploits people at every turn, especially their own soldiers, and I think that Kallus’ relationship with that indoctrination along with his own motivations is just super super interesting and I think about it literally all the time

Here, take these

Ezra's on first name basis

how many horrible live action movies will it take for people to realize that animation is the best medium to have fantasy creatures because when everything is animated your suspension of disbelief works better

Same energy as me crossing my arms because i dont know what to do with my hands and going "omg this is so Kalluscore"

Me, a lifelong toe-walker: Ah yes, this is just like Zeb.

ALEXSANDR KALLUS 3.21 “Zero Hour: Part One”