it could be really interesting to look up methos' known aliases and draw him in the fashions of the locations he was known to be at particular times. not sure i have the patience for it though.

i rewatched van helsing (with hugh jackman and kate beckinsale) last night, and it had been a long long time, but it was so enjoyable and fun (although i wasn't paying super close attention). coming back to the movie after so many years without seeing it was really interesting in a lot of ways. i knew i was queer when i first saw it, but i wasn't wholly comfortable in my queerness yet, and between my own internalized misogyny and the terrible writing for anna, i really didn't like the character at all, so what little interaction with the fandom i had was reading van helsing/carl fic.

rewatching it now (probably at least 5 but more like ~10 years since the last time i watched it egads), i'm so much more interested in an anna lives ot3 where she isn't killed off for van helsing's manpain. their chemistry feels a bit forced still, but i think that's mostly the bad writing. and carl is still my fave, such an little nerd, i love him. if there's a pyromaniac in a movie or tv show, they are a strong contender for fave.

anna and van helsing both have such nice hair in that movie, it's a little envy-inducing. and this was also before hugh jackman got all roided up to play wolverine, so he's definitely very attractively built, but doesn't look fake, which uh. i like.

the costuming for anna is lovely, although the "g*psy princess" bit is still awful. they do literally nothing with her rromani heritage except refer to her multiple times as a g*psy. why bother put it in there at all except to play up the "sexy and exotic" angle, which - you really don't need that. kate beckinsale is smoking hot without throwing that trope in there.

the costuming for the 'brides' uses similar tropes - look how sexy and exotic these evil vampire ladies are in their stereotypical g*psy/harem outfits etc. it's so unnecessary, especially when you can do sexy outfits without appropriating. like - anna's in a corset and tight pants the whole damn time, which is such a look, damn. the costumers could easily still go for corsets and historical dress on the brides but make it sexy.

i forgot to crosspost this over here :(

• not every initiate who attends the gathering has visions that they confront. some just have intense internal dialogue as they psych themselves through the physical hardship of the freezing temperatures, maze-like paths through the crystal caves, and obstacles like slick ice and cave ins.


• most jedi won’t talk about what they saw or the conclusions they reached during the gathering, it’s intensely personal. they might talk about it to their master (or another trusted mentor), and eventually their padawan, but that’s pretty much it. the archivists have been trying for years to start an oral history project of jedi recording their crystal quest, but they have very few volunteers (it drives them batty)


• as a jedi grows and changes through their life, their lightsaber changes with them. they physically alter the hilt to fit growing hands (or similar appendages) or a shifting fighting style, but the crystal changes too. the crystal grows with them to an extent, and often the jedi will outgrow their first crystal, although not always. some jedi will only have one crystal in their entire life.


• no two lightsabers sound alike. no two lightsabers feel alike in the force. some tend to echo the jedi they accompany, harmonizing with their force presence. others - especially when the jedi is in the midst of growth or change - are discordant because the jedi and the crystal don’t always change at the same rate. (this discordance is very different than the feel of a bled crystal forced into subservience to a darksider).


• there are fads in lightsaber building - or at least the initiates will try sometimes to echo the aesthetics of a respected older jedi’s lightsaber, or hope for a particular blade colour. usually that doesn’t last long - every lightsaber ends up unique, both in appearance and in the force, although if you looked at a series of lightsabers used by the same jedi, there would likely be similarities. likewise, there are sometimes similarities between a jedi master’s lightsaber and the lightsaber(s) belonging to their padawan(s).


• other than ilum, crystals in the temple vault are also sourced from christophsis and jedha with regularity, although kyber can be found on other worlds. some jedi (like mace windu) feel the call of crystals in far off places and go on long pilgrimages to find the crystal that is their best match. generally, the ilum crystal found at the gathering will last through a jedi’s padawanship, and they usually ‘graduate’ to another crystal during the first few years of knighthood. some crystals are reused, often for generations. crystals get picky about who uses them. some are essentially passed through lineages or even bloodlines.


• because kyber are semi-sentient, crystals do get ‘fond’ of people other than their main user. often they will become fond of and work well with their jedi’s friends, creche-mates, master, and padawan(s). (obi-wan’s crystal is very fond of commander cody, and obi-wan is pretty sure sometimes that the crystal likes cody better.) a sith or darksider’s crystals hate everyone indeterminately, but healed crystals like rebels-era ahsoka’s will be especially fond of the one who healed them and relieved their suffering.


• bled crystals are painful to create and painful to use in a lightsaber. that constant source of pain and suffering can influence the user to perpetrate greater and greater atrocities in a feedback cycle / cycle of abuse that feeds into the dark side of the force. when a sith is forcing a crystal to their will, they have to be very careful not to ‘misplace’ the crystal, as it will try to escape the torture of being bled.


• if a jedi is constantly misplacing their lightsaber, they probably really need a good long meditation, because something is wrong and they probably shouldn’t be in possession of a plasma chainsaw at the moment.


• when a jedi dies, their hilt is documented by huyang, then disassembled (he keeps a database of every hilt, with listed pros and cons and fighting styles). the crystal goes to the vault, the other components are checked over for wear and tear and then returned to huyang’s stores to be reused. waste not want not. but as a result, lightsabers often carry faint echoes of past users, and balancing those echoes is part of the process of building a lightsaber. psychometric jedi will source newly-milled parts for every lightsaber they build if they’re able; one of the ghosts in your lightsaber getting particularly chatty in the middle of a fight is a thing that happens, and usually when it does the situation is already pear-shaped. some jedi who survive such situations insist that their crystal or the echoes in their hilt showed them their opponent’s weakness, or imbued them with strength, or bolstered their endurance, or, or, or. it’s like the jedi version of the urban legend where hysterical strength makes a mother strong enough to lift a car off their trapped child.


• lost lightsabers often find their way back to the temple through what an outsider might call a series of unpredictable and unlikely events. the jedi know this is simply the will of the force. the kyber is semi-sentient after all, and wants to return to a familiar (and safe) place where its will is respected.