Midichlorians and Hormones blog critique
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I opened the Midichlorians and Hormones blog, nor did I understand what I was reading at first, but when the wheels clicked into place and I understood what was happening, I was blown away by how deftly the teenage writer was mixing their experiences with those of Kylo Ren, Mega-baddie of the of Star Wars reboots.

Though I’d hate to admit it to my Star Wars super-fan friends, when I began reading this blog, I had forgotten that Kylo Ren was the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia. I just figured that this “Ben Solo” character was a completely original fan fiction character. I thought it strange that a teenager should invent this character upon which to filter their musings, but by no means as strange as some of the other Fan Fiction media I have come into contact with over the years. It wasn’t until I clicked on a link to wookieepedia that it became clear whose childhood blog I was really reading.
The angsty nature of the teenage Ben Solo and the way he writes of his parents echoed the way some of my self-professed “emo” high school students sound when they talk about their own lives.

The most impressive part of the Midichlorians and Hormones blog, however; has to be it’s breadth. The author has successfully created a teenage version of this Star Wars antagonist by not only authoring hundreds of posts from that characters perspective, but by creating the character’s poetry, musings, essays, responses to questions from the public and my personal favorite, Ben Solo’s fan fiction written from Darth Vader’s perspective.
This idea of writing a blog from the the teenage perspective of a character we are reading about feels like it could be worked into my classroom with just a few modifications. While creating something of this magnitude would be difficult to achieve in just a few classes, I’m confident that I can work something out in this vein that would help students develop their literacy skills and voices in an engaging and productive way.
