#also do you know how few sw characters have bangs? its really very few

[jaded-of-mara]

#mara jade #star wars eu #star wars legends #fancast #someone please rb this and edit han's caption to say the smuggler #also tried to replicate the 70s film stock in the mara fancast. idk how successful i was #also do you know how few sw characters have bangs? its really very few #the mara image really feels like those old 1d imagines that made people ask “who the fuck is richard”

[shadowsong26fic]

Okay SWBB thoughts again…

I’ve got it down to three, I think, just need to settle on one, haha. And I am stuck, because while I am invested in all three, none of them are really Claiming me, the way some of my prompts have in the past? (I’m thinking in particular of how I ended up picking Take a Bond of Fate over some of the others I was considering that year). So, yeah, asking for Opinions!

Two of these were on my prior list, one of them was not.

Option 1: BSG crossover (Specifically the one where the TCW Disaster Trio (Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka), plus Rex and possibly at least one or two more clones (Cody and/or Kix?) ends up stumbling into a basestar somewhere during the timeskip at the end of season 2)

Option 2: Fleshing out Anakin and Ahsoka’s backstory in Devoted!Verse

Option 3: Building on this oneshot with Darth Lectys.

More details behind the cut

Option 1: BSG crossover

Specifically the one where the TCW Disaster Trio (Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka), plus Rex and possibly at least one or two more clones (Cody and/or Kix?) ends up stumbling into a basestar somewhere during the timeskip at the end of season 2.

(I did consider two other crossover possibilities; but the one with some subset of the Ghost Crew hanging out with Sam and his people on Caprica I think is more suited to either a one-shot or a Long Open-Ended AU and nothing inbetween, therefore it’s not really a good fit for the event; the Disaster Trio (with possible bonus Padme) ending up on Kobol while the first landing party is stranded there has both that problem and also that…while Obi-Wan and Ahsoka helping to keep Crashdown from spinning out was a part of it, the bulk of it would be Anakin and Baltar and Vision Quests and Mysticism which is not really my strong suit. Which is not to say I won’t come back to either of these ideas, but not for big bang. ...at least not this year, lol.)

Anyway. There are sort of two main Problems with this one. First, figuring out how to make this first contact instance not Immediately get violent; second...while crossovers are allowed for the event, and I’ve seen/read a few (even beta’d one) the rule is that everything submitted has to be comprehensible to someone who Only knows Star Wars canon (i.e., it has to stand on its own without requiring having read another fic/consumed another canon), and I’m not sure it will be. It would be all (or almost all) from the point of view of the SW characters, but I’m not sure that would quite cover what I need it to. And some of what I want to do (a much less Daunting variation on some of the Vision Quest stuff with Anakin without Kobol’s Vibes playing into it; some of what I want to do with Obi-Wan and a semi-OC of mine [who is technically a canon character but one with like two lines and no Official name]) might rely a little too much on knowledge of the second canon. While the Rex (& brothers) storyline might be a challenge for me since I haven’t touched on it much before, I don’t think it has the same problem. (Ahsoka is partly there because throwing a non-human into crossovers cuts through a lot of confusion and Misunderstandings; she’ll probably hang out with Boomer and/or another Eight who’s an OC of mine.)

…so all of that basically boils down to: I really need to try explaining all of this to someone who’s unfamiliar with BSG to be Sure, so definitely if you follow me and fit that qualification I’d appreciate your thoughts, but even if you are familiar with both fandoms…as a quick sanity check, does it seem feasible to make that work?

Option 2: Fleshing out Anakin and Ahsoka’s backstory in Devoted!Verse

The upside to this one is this is an AU I’m very fond of and have wanted to get back to for a while, and this would be centered on characters I write All The Time; plus the entire story is built on a very tight platonic/sibling/found family relationship which is always fun. And, while it would technically be part of a series, it could easily function as a standalone (without having to read the other stories in this AU) so I’m not worried about it meeting the challenge requirements. Plus, plenty of room for Cameos from other familiar faces/characters I like writing (Obi-Wan, Padme, Bail, and any Surviving Jedi and/or Inquisitors are off-limits but just about anyone else could pop up).

The downside here is sort of two problems, sort of the same one from two angles. Finding a specific/cohesive storyline in the like 7-10 years they’re together before running into Obi-Wan and Padme, and finding the right balance in tone with the awful stuff they go through and the fact that I want to write the two of them just being Siblings and Happy Together and Stealing Stuff Entertainingly. ...also it would involve a Lot of writing Kids, and while I’ve generally gotten positive feedback for Precipice/other AUs where I write Luke and Leia as kids...that’s different from a fic that will involve one focal character who is thirteen At The Oldest.

(I had also considered two other backstory pieces in the same universe; but fleshing out Padme’s backstory has some of the same problems despite having a few more goalposts along the way in terms of structuring the story, plus I’m not super interested in writing out how she and Obi-Wan came together at the moment though I do want to get there someday, and that would be a significant part of it. And Satine and Bo-Katan/Mandalore’s backstory also requires A Lot of thought and has even fewer goalposts, and might work better as background/a sidestory in the next arc of the main plotline where they actually Go to Mandalore rather than as a standalone story.)

Option 3: Building on this oneshot with Darth Lectys.

There are a lot of cool things I could play with in this one, lol. Some of which would be the same “let’s focus on Anakin and Ahsoka as Siblings” reasons I’m drawn to in Option 2; some of which would be that Lectys will be fun to write; some of which would be that whatever’s actually going on with Anakin/Padme/Obi-Wan/etc. is…well, ::gestures at 95% of the SW fic I’ve written/published:: it’s right smack in my wheelhouse, lol. And I do actually have an idea of where this one would go, more or less.

The problem is working out how the heck we actually got here, lol. Which, I mean, while it’s easier to summarize than the problems with the other two, that doesn’t make it any easier to actually resolve, so…yeah. Not an insignificant stumbling block, is what I’m saying.

Anyway, so that’s more or less where I am now. XD Feedback/opinions definitely appreciated, if anyone has any?

((in other news, TOB is very disorganized so no ETA on that because like. I need to get more of the miniseries sequence written before I can post it, lol; I swear I will get back to Protectors and/or Preludes at some point; Incinctus will probably flow if/when I sit down and rewatch the series or actually ask on the Castlevania discord for someone to bounce off of like I keep forgetting to do…anyway, hoping to get at least one of those out in the next couple weeks??? We’ll see where things go, lol.))

#feedback greatly appreciated #miscellania

[roxannepolice]

Do you ever think that Shmi might have been force sensitive? Just in a way that she was closely tuned into the force's will, or something and that's why she was always so calm about stuff?

Oh anon, this is such a beautiful question, prompting so many more interesting questions. But my straightforward answer is yes, absolutely, Shmi Skywalker, The Galactic Madonna Hodegetria and Dolorosa, was force sensitive.

Now, leaving actually meaningful matters and proceeding to whine about culture reception.

I have a general impression that the way audience reads the sequel trilogy - and the creators instead of ingoring this phenomenon play on it to later overthrow it in what is effectively a pretty empty act - suffers from force sensitivity being perceived in what I would call Harry Potter terms. And I’m really sorry I have to use that book for negative comparison again, I really like it, movies too, a Slytherin/Horned Serpent with a cypress-dragon heartstring wand here, but seeing how people compare Rey’s bond with Kylo Ben to that between Harry and Voldemort and knowing the term “squib” has been used to describe Leia by those who were shocked by her using the force in tlj, I think there’s enough reason to believe the generation being deeply influenced by HP is the culprit here.

Because in much of the discourse force sensitive - non-force sensitive basically translates to wizard - muggle, a zero-one system. Force sensitivity is now apparently something inheritable, the way magic is in HP, with squibs and muggleborns being maybe not complete exceptions but not a general rule either. Oh, and of course it all further plays into Kylo being Voldemort who inherited force sensitivity from his  “squibbish” mother and hated his muggle father and by extension despises all muggles like really one moment Kylo supposedly despises non-force sentisitives, next wants to kill all force sensitives make up your mind haters and Rey being a muggleborn like Hermione and Lily.

And if you play on it in an au, go ahead, and please tag me so I don’t miss it.

But none of this has ever been supported by the main Star Wars saga. I mean, republic-era jedi are kriffing sworn to celibacy, main story siths don’t seem that promiscuous either. So either all of the new padawans were Yoda’s secret bastards (?….) or there is no HP-like inheriting mechanism here. Look, all of the Rey parentage discourse was (is…. grits teeth) not caused by saga logic telling us her parents had to be force sensitives only because TFA was begging an average viewer to be interested in her parentage.

Whereas I’d say a better, although also simplified, universe to compare force as magic to, is Doctor Strange. As Yoda Swinton explains, magic is basically a way of manipulating the source code of reality. Technically everyone can do that - practically some people are more talented at it, just as technically anyone can be a neurosurgeon - practically…. well. And talent here is a combination of hard work, education, patience and yes, some natural gifts, but not something sorceres just have in their blood, unlike non-sorcerers. Would any person in DS universe who has any idea of existence of magic, say doctor Palmer, be able to instinctivelly use it to save their life? Probably yes.

Is it still better to have some natural gifts in this directin, teachers, books and google translate (oh, another paralel to SW - technology is anything but redundant)? YES. 

because you all needed multiple arm hindu god stephen strange on your dash

So I think the simplified model above is closer to what we have in Star Wars - some people are more attuned to the force, but it’s not like some people just have it or not, a concept I’m both happy st is enforcing and surprised it needed to be enforced in the first place. Maybe helpful would also be the concept of mana, which is usually associated with magic, but can in fact manifest itself in other forms, like, say, hitting the target with a blaster while barely looking or leading - armed or not armed - opposition.

There is of course another matter - force isn’t simply magic in the GFFA. Enter anthropological nerding.

There are two major anthroplogical differences between religion and magic, understood as elements of culture. First, the former is a system explaining all of the surrounding world, including its beginnings and afterlife: for an ancient person bad weather was plain divine will, but for an elightenment deist scientist God would still be The Great Clockmaker and even modern believing scientists give divinity for an answer to What Caused The Big Bang. Thus, magic is also culturally seeped in local religion: a christian black magician makes a deal with the devil and white calls on angels, for example. Secondly, and more interestingly, magic is a more mechanical phenomenon: you do this - that is bound to happen, unless you’ve made some mistake while casting the spell. The devil may trick you, and most likely will, but can’t break the deal you made. (There are, btw, very interesting theories regarding the fact that modern man’s attitude towards technology is in fact closer to magical that scientific thinking) Religion on the other hand assumes that Divinity has Its own will and that will is more important than man’s. A man may pray, ask or beg, but not struck deals with God - no matter how penitent David was, his firstborn with Bathsheba still died, though none of that affected Salomon.

Exit anthropological nerding.

sorry no good movies with actual anthropologists in them had to settle on the acrheologist

So, and it’s not a great surprise, force in GFFA is some form of divinity, first and foremost, and if there are magic tricks available to some people then it’s on similar terms as magic functioned in majority of belief systems. In this light, it’s not Rey who should be a headscratcher as far as her extensive force powers are concerned, force just found itself a worthy champion in dark times, only Ben - and Anakin, for that matter, their cases being different from your averare Maul or Sheev as they are both results of force’s physical hierophany. You might say they both defy at least one of three of assumed - by this trilogy more than the former, playing heavily as a deus ex machina obviously prefering the good guys™, at least thus far - attributes of  the force: justice understood as egalitarianism, goodness and omniscience. Basically, their turning to the dark side brings back the favourite question of western theology - why did All-good and All-knowing God give people free will, which brought all evil to the world - and how much power actually lies in individual free will. As I wrote few days ago, in any proper drama it would be revealed renperor is at least as much if not more of force’s will as is Rey rescuing the resistance: plainest irony being the character who thinks they fulfill divine will actually doing what they want and the one thinking they selfishly shape their fate actually fulfilling divine will.

Well, that became a philosophical digressive poem... I suppose the only two actually valuable reflections here are that force sensitivity shouldn’t be perceived in the same zero-one terms as is being a wizard in HP - and that Shmi very much was force sensitive.

#asks #dychotomies of the force #star wars

[dorksideproductions]

We are gonna take a quick break from The Vintage Collection recap (you can read part one here, and part two here) for this edition of OF&NA so we can talk about Toy Fair 2018 and some the great stuff that we got hit with during the show. Spoiler warning… it was a lot! Solo, a Star Wars Story was the focus in most of our minds and we weren’t disappointed. It mostly dominated the toy reveals for the show. In addition to those, we got a lot of new info on what is upcoming in The Vintage Collection by giving us looks at things we knew were coming and a few surprises. I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna miss some of the announcements so If I don’t cover your favorite, sorry.

If anyone was worried that Hasbro was going to lose a step by bringing back The Vintage Collection was proven wrong by the reveals at the show.  They also gave us our first real look at the new toys coming from Solo and there is really some great character design in this movie that translates pretty well into the toy world.

In the 3 ¾” inch line, the best reveals were focused on the release of Solo. It was good to finally see what some of these characters were going to look like in the movie but ultimately it was pretty common fare with nothing really groundbreaking.  I continue to be impressed with the sculpting for the smaller figures lately and am glad we don’t have to have a reduction in quality just because the figure is smaller scale.

What I was most impressed with in the smaller scale line was not a figure, but was just as important a character in the upcoming movie, the Millenium Falcon. The pointed front end design is great and the is coming with some cool features. It showcased motion-controlled sensors to control real lighting and sound effects. The new Falcon even has a rumble pack inside to help simulate traveling through hyperspace. It looks to be sturdy build with some real weight and quality to it. Lastly, we finally got to see what the new nose was all about with a new dropship that can be detached to reveal the traditional look we are all used to. I love this because it gives the new look some kind of functional reason for being there that makes sense instead of just a random change for no real reason.

  The 6” Black Series had a ton of new reveals at the show from a lot of different eras of SW canon. Obviously, this is the line that we are going to look at the hardest because it gives us the most detailed look at the upcoming character designs and costumes for Solo. The Lando and Han figures look fantastic, but the new character figure, Han’s mentor Tobias Beckett, is my personal favorite. We also got introduced to two new stormtroopers: the Mimban Stormtrooper (Wal-Mart exclusive) and the Range Trooper. We don’t seem to be at risk of running out of interesting designs for Imperial ground troops anytime soon. I’m really pumped for this new movie and these figures and the designs only added fuel to the fire!

Amilyn Holdo from The Last Jedi is making her 6” debut in a real-goods covered figure with a dead-on sculpt.  The OT is also getting some serious love with Zuckuss, a Lando in Skiff Guard Disguise and a Gamorrean Guard (a Target exclusive, that from what I heard the pictures don’t do the figure justice. It looks amazing.).

One of my biggest shocks was the Clone Commander Wolffe figure. Quality-wise it seems to be right on par with Captain Rex from last year, which was certainly a standout. It occurs to me that we could be getting a lot of clone characters in the future. The new face printing tech that Hasbro is using isn’t cheap and this could be the best way to get the most mileage from a single face. I’m not complaining at all as long as they all look as good as Rex and Wolffe.

We also got a look at an astromech three-pack that will be an Amazon exclusive, and a 6” scale set of Porgs which we all love and will own, because at this point I think it’s a law now that we all have to chuckle and grin when we see those things from now until the end of time!

      Finally, we were treated to a lot more of the plans for The Vintage Collection’s return in a few months. Wave 2 and 3 were announced and shown which included the Combat Assault Tank Driver from Rogue One and a Han Solo figure from Solo. Wave three will be when the fan’s choice winner Dr. Aphra will be released. I admit I know nothing about this character so I can’t really comment on whether they did a good job bringing the character into the figure line from the comics, but most fans seem to think she’s a home run. They also gave a sneak preview of Yak Face (Saelt-Marae), which will debut in 2019. The first vehicle from the relaunch made its first appearance in all its glory. The Imperial Combat Assault Tank was a fan favorite from Rogue One and Hasbro has done a great job creating this vehicle. With so many details and features packed into it, Combat Assault Tank will have amazing play value but will work just as well for a display piece.

Wal-Mart is getting two exclusive figures, Island Journey Rey (#122) this Spring and a Mimban Stormtrooper (#123) this fall. This a departure from the original line that offered very few exclusive single packed figures except those that were reserved for mail-aways and conventions. So far, the figure assortments are a nice combination of repacks and new stuff and it all looks great.

The shocker of the Toy Fair show for most and the thing that is generating the most talk and buzz has got to be the Sail Barge from Return of the Jedi from Haslab – Hasbro’s new crowdfunding division. It comes in at 4’ long and being true 3 ¾” scale it will be the largest Star Wars playset/vehicle ever created, with real goods sails and a new Jabba the Hutt figure included. Modeled after the original plans from the set builders, it also comes with removable panels and tons of other play features. It carries a $500.00 price tag but what is unique is the crowdfunding angle that they are using to see how the community will react to such a high dollar piece. They are looking for 5000 backers to move into the next phase of production and at the time that I’m writing this article, Hasbro is already over 2000. If Jabba’s Sail Barge gets funded it will be a historic milestone in the Star Wars collectible market and will certainly open a new door for high-end collectors who are looking for truly special additions to their collections. With Haslab, Hasbro has entered territory that is unprecedented for a large-scale toy company. They have done the initial legwork on a massive piece and are asking the collecting community to partner WITH them to bring this to completion. This is a huge step in proving just how much Hasbro is investing in the Vintage Collection relaunch, making good on previous statements that they want to build this line with fans and not just for fans. I have been looking for more of an outreach to fans and I can’t think of a better start than asking us to partner with them to produce the toys that we love.

Now, I realize that the massive price tag put this thing out of a lot of people’s reach, mine included, but there’s a lot bang for your buck with this thing as a toy and a true investment piece if you are on the fence about getting one. If this does go into production, you can bet there won’t be many made at all. Another positive aspect is that this a start and could lead to more and more of this happening with smaller playsets or vehicles in a lower price range. If you follow LEGO, they have had quite a bit of success with a model similar to this, minus the crowdfunding, upfront $$$ commitment. The way I see it is that they are telling us to put our money where our mouth is. Historically, as collectors, we ask Hasbro for these big playsets and collectibles, and we all have ideas on what should be produced. But often when these pieces are made we walk away from the larger prices or find something wrong with it so we don’t have to let go of the money, then cry that we don’t get what we want. I have been guilty of this too, and the truth is that this overextends the companies that make the piece and take all the risk of investing huge money before it goes to retail. When it fails the manufacturers are left holding the bag, taking a financial hit in the process, often times learning a lesson that it is not worth the effort and money to produce the big pieces that collectors beg for. That hurts the collectors in the long run, as all we see are the safe collectibles moving forward, and rarely ever the truly special and unique vehicles and playsets.

So there we have it, my rundown of the highlights from Toy Fair 2018. It was a great show with a lot of interesting reveals to keep the collecting community busy and broke for the foreseeable future. It really is an exciting time for collectors with Solo, a Star Wars Story releasing in just a few months, and the film’s toys set to release about a month before that. After that, we have a long hiatus before the next movie and I think Hasbro is going to use this time period to catch its breath a little and put some really great pieces out to fill our collections. Next time I’ll finish up the recap of The Vintage Collection, and that should be just in time for us to start seeing the new stuff in the stores. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, hit me up on our Facebook page.

~Eric

Old Fossils and New Acquisitions – Toy Fair 2018 Roundup! We are gonna take a quick break from The Vintage Collection recap (you can read part one here…

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Yes, I know it’s Friday, not Monday. <.< ANYWAY.

Before we get started, plugging my Discord server (which is p. quiet lately but it’s there if you want to talk somewhere other than here!); and also we’ll do another Open Question Night because Why Not!

As I said last month, while my askbox is always open, tonight I’ll be actively around to answer questions--about writing in general, anything I’ve posted about here on tumblr; anything on my AO3...let me know what’s on your mind!

Star Wars:

SWBB:

Take a Bond of Fate is officially up! (Previously referred to as just SWBB 2021 or the Dragonshifters AU because I literally titled it less than twelve hours before posting <.<) Well, the first 20k are up, anyway. I will be updating throughout the month and the fic will be complete by the end of the month, per the event rules. (I originally planned to do updates on Tuesdays and Fridays; tonight’s update will be delayed and who knows how well I’ll actually stick to it after tonight but it Will be posted in full by the end of May, I can say that much for sure XD)

As always, I think there are a few things I could’ve handled better/that feel a little rushed, but I think it turned out pretty good! There are some upcoming scenes I’m particularly fond of, but we’ll see if everyone else agrees. The core of this actually ended up being Bo and Padme? Which I was not expecting--I was expecting it to lean hard on the Bo and Anakin parallels, but here we are.

Anyway, there’s some fun bits to come!

Precipice:

No solid update ATM. Uh. Various Life things got bonkers over the past month or two, so TaBoF took pretty much all of my fic brain. However, since that project is essentially finished other than finalizing/polishing each update chunk as I post, I should be able to turn my attention here this month. Which means, fingers crossed, we’ll have a start date sometime in June for Protectors. I’ll post the first Preludes segment at the same time; it will involve Kallus, Lavinia, and Mara Jade, set just before Kallus is reassigned to Lothal.

(Others that I have planned will involve: 1) some combination of Kanan, Ezra, Hondo, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Anakin; 2) Hera and whoever her contact is in this AU, as Ahsoka is otherwise occupied; 3) Whatever Maul is up to in this timeline; 4) Something to do with Palpatine’s fifth apprentice; and two more I haven’t decided on. I am taking suggestions! The purpose of Preludes is to patch some holes now that I’ve decided to write Rebels into the canon, which was not part of my original plan as I hadn’t yet seen it when I started planning/posting this AU. So these are more plot-relevant than the things that turn up in Bonus Content, which is why they’re in a separate fic, but not really enough to make a full arc between Milestones and Escalation, so, there it is.)

our faces like a mirror:

I’m now leaning towards sitting on this and using it for next year’s Big Bang? Because then maybe I’ll finally finish it, lol...anyway, I’m also going to see how people respond to stuff in TaBoF, because that will either Boost my enthusiasm for the project or, uh, the opposite, depending on how people respond to how I write Bo-Katan. So that may change, and I may finally get it out this year instead of next. We’ll see how that goes XD

Other SW Projects:

One of the SW discords I’m on has revived a prompt game we did last summer. I pulled my first prompt but haven’t actually, uh, done anything with it yet. <.< I’ll do that at some point.

As for various outlines or extant AUs I haven’t updated in forever...well, like I said, what little fic brain hasn’t been on BB the past month or two has been drifting back towards Precipice or occasionally co-opted by OFLAM so...yeah, nothing serious to report on that front, lol.

AtLA Projects:

I’m semi-planning/hoping to start posting At Least one of the two longfics I’ve been poking at sometime this summer. I’ve mentioned them here before, but one is long and tragic and focuses on Lu Ten; the other is an Avatar Zuko AU. Not sure which will draw my focus and get up first, but I do plan to write both of them! And possibly more. Because this fandom just Does That to me, lol.

Also, as I’ve mentioned in various times and places--I am pathologically incapable of not creating a bunch of OCs when I seriously fall into a fandom, and my AtLA work, in particular, will probably reflect that. I don’t super plan to write anything really centered on any OCs (I mean, apart from characters who Exist but have very little Canon Characterization (i.e., Lu Ten himself for that one fic, lol); and Lu Ten’s love interest because that’s an important part of the story), but they will be There and Prominent Characters. This is mostly mentioned because I know OCs aren’t for everyone, so that might put you off of my AtLA fic and I figured it was fair to give you a head’s up.

(...although actually I think none of my old fic that I crossposted to AO3 had significant OC involvement except for Glory...but then again that’s all oneshots and a little different.)

Other Fandoms:

BSG/SG-1 (BSG1?) crossover AU is still coming; I keep getting sidetracked from actually finishing it <.< I haven’t even finished the New Caprica and Haven section, I still have to get to the algae planet and then the Resurrection ship and...maybe I’ll end up posting this in chunks...

Uh, nothing else super planned, but as I mentioned last month, this outline might draw me back into BSG fandom a little more actively because it’s another forever fandom of mine.

Original Fiction:

I’m actually really proud of the Regency AU I wrote for a challenge last month, based on my Apocalypse In SPACE ‘verse Lux.

I need to update the Lux and Farglass Cycle archives still, and will hopefully be posting at least one other thing to RF this month, but we’ll see how that goes. I also might or might not be diving into Arthuriana in all its weirdness and glory this summer to prep for actually writing that Lady Mordred idea I had. And there are always other projects on the back burner, but that’s where things stand here.

...I think that pretty much covers it! Not all that much of an update, but as I said, Life got all...Lifey at me, plus BB had a hard deadline, so that’s where the most detail is.

But what about you guys? What are you working on/what do you have in the pipeline? Like I said, it’s an Open Question Night, and I’d love to hear what’s on your mind!

#coming attractions #miscellania #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes crossovers #shadowsong writes atla #shadowsong writes original fic #open question night

[shadowsong26fic]

Writing meme question: 2, 7, and 9. (If it isn't too much) :D

Nope, not at all too much :D

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

...hmmmmmmmmmm...that is a good question, lol. Uh, I’m not necessarily coming up with anything specific? Although I guess there is some stuff that I mostly do in either RP contexts or very private self-indulgent nonsense that it might be nice to treat Properly, so to speak. Things like self-indulgent crossovers and/or AU concepts, random things like wingfic/bonded creatures/etc. (though only in certain contexts and usually fitting those into an otherwise-canon universe), certain H/C tropes...also, not really tropes, but there’s a couple of rarepairs that I’d love to see more of (for which I’d pretty much have to write it myself lol) but either because I’m not sure I have a handle on the character voices involved or just because...pairing-focused stuff is not really where my fic brain lives for the most part, lol.

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Oooooh, this is a hard one. Uh. Let’s go with this, from a short story set in one of my original worlds, The Farglass Cycle (previously known as Feredar):

The Audience Hall, at least, seemed to be mirrored rather than clear, other than the dais ahead of her. It gave the impression that Queen Kesshare was floating, rather than sitting, when the light hit her right. As if chairs and floors were for mere mortals, like her consort beside her, not for the iron-hard desert Queen with her dark hawk's eyes and deceptively simple and soft-looking silver gown. She looked like a bronze-gilt statue of a harsh Goddess of the Dead, and Sheminne didn't have to be a performer to know that every aspect of the Queen's clothing, posture, Hall, down to her husband slightly behind her, in shadow, on a more-solid throne, the fact that the cavernous room, with its graceful columns and shimmering floor was entirely empty save for the three of them and a handful of silent bodyguards... It was calculated for exactly that impression of ultimate power and doom.

There are some things I would edit here--I know that my Main Writing Flaw is run-on sentences/overuse and abuse of commas, semicolons, emdashes, ellipses...you name it, I love it. [Hi, we’re the Neverending Sentences, and we’ll be here all night]

...anyway, I’m aware of that weakness of mine, and I think I’d do some more editing here (I wrote this...yeesh, nearly ten years ago; and it sticks out as particularly run-on).

But what I like about this is that...I’m also not super good at description? (Like, for example, the fact that I have yet to describe Dr. Naar in Precipice is not only because I still haven’t made up my mind as to whether he’s Human or Besalisk; it’s also at least partly because fitting in descriptions like that is Awkward and I Don’t Like Doing It, lol).

This is, I think, one of my better efforts at description. It tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Kesshare (who, fun fact, is Not actually the villain in this story; but if other events abroad hadn’t upstaged her, she would absolutely be the villain of another story). And it gives you at least a little bit about the nation she rules (the Kingdom of the City of Glass; usually just referred to as Glass or the City of Glass), and something of its wealth/power/relationship with other nations.

Also, see here for a picture I commissioned of Kesshare awhile ago, mostly using the above passage as a reference, lol. (Kesshare is the top picture; the bottom is Taz, another character from the same story).

((Honorable mention, because they’ve been in my head lately either because characters or topic: a bunch of stuff from our faces like a mirror; both in terms of a few key moments that made Bo-Katan into who and what she became when we the audience meet her in TCW, as well as some things about her relationship with Satine and their respective philosophies; a couple snippets of miscellaneous AU bits (like this one, lol)...but I like this one, and it’s nice to draw attention to some of my original stuff sometimes, y’know?))

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Oooooh, good question. Uh. Different things are hard for different reasons? I don’t think any fic has ever been Super Easy (except actually maybe The Devoted; that one flowed pretty smooth once I really got going). So, I guess...I’ll cycle through some of my other SW longfic projects and quick answer because Why Not:

Precipice has its ups and downs, depending on topic and focus. Arc Six was I think the hardest (despite the fact that Arc Seven has taken For Ever to get out, lol), between I’m not good at Sustained Fluff and Saw is a pain in the butt even if I wasn’t using his POV. (I swear, the next/final chapter Will Be Out Soon; I have...like...3-4 hours of work left on it which I swear I’m not using this meme to procrastinate <.< ...of course, then I have all the sequel/interquel stuff planned lol I’m sure I’ll have more Ups And Downs to complain about in the future)

our faces like a mirror, which I mentioned in the last answer, I’ve been working on on and off for, like, three years; it’s hard to balance Bo and Satine’s points of view without vilifying either; also because there is like zero canon definition of the period I’m writing about, there’s a lot of whitespace to fill in. It’s almost closer to writing original fiction in that way--I mean, I don’t have to do the heavy lifting of worldbuilding, and I am focusing on fleshing out something we have a hint of in canon that drew my attention (i.e., how did these two end up where they were/with such diametrically opposite beliefs/what is/was their relationship as sisters; how did bo-katan survive the mandalorian civil war since she pretty clearly was not with satine and the jedi; how much do their separate experiences during that time affect them/inform their future behavior (spoiler: A LOT)); but a lot of the specific events/storyline and even some of the characterization of these two women is pretty much built from scratch.

Distaff, I got stuck on ‘cause I borked my timeline and also haven’t 100% figured out how I wanted it to end.

The Phoenix; getting into Luke’s head was kind of hard; also the ending feels kind of rushed.

for we are a woven thread; find the strand; figuring out what to do with Obi-Wan’s thread was a little hard, also just...getting through the super downer beginning, lol.

SW2021 big bang: finding the actual Story buried in how the three focal characters connect and what that means for them/the rest of the galaxy. AKA lol what is the Plot.

...I’m not sure that actually answers the question, but it’s something in the neighborhood, at least?

Ask me a fic writer question! (Or, frankly, any question, I like to babble about writing to/at people. My writing discord is pretty quiet but I do that there sometimes XD)

#asked #answered #thinkingheron #meme #miscellania #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes original fic

[shadowsong26fic]

Some Stuff

Not a proper Coming Attractions post, that’ll come out on the first Monday of the month as always, but...a more general update on some projects (and also possibly looking for input?)

Basically, I’ve accepted the inevitable, that I’ve fallen back into ATLA in a big way. I haven’t actually rewatched the series yet, because my roommate was doing so and I kept popping in and out and I didn’t want to confuse myself by trying to do a straight rewatch while she was doing hers, but I have reread a bunch of old fanfic/RP logs, and have some plots I kind of want to work with again? Either as fulltext or as an AU Outline. Behind the cut are some more details, as well as seeking Opinions on which, if any, I should actually work on.

I am also Determined to not fall out of SW as this is going on, lol. More details about that behind the cut, as well.

(Also, I’ve talked about some of the stuff listed here on my writing discord, which feel free to come stop by and hang out! It’s basically an extension of this tumblr, only a little more interactive. Find us here!)

Star Wars Stuff:

I plan to take next weekend to bang out at minimum the next Precipice chapter, and possibly the next two (though I’ll stagger posting if I do manage to get both done). And then try and give myself a more active schedule to get the next parts of the series out.

I’m also working on a dragonshifters AU, which I’m enjoying a lot. I think OFLAM may be relegated to the back burner for a while, though I’ll probably kick it up again if I end up doing it for SWBB next year (unless I tease out enough of a Plot for dragonshifters to do that instead, lol). I’ve talked about some of the worldbuilding on my writing discord, too.

I also still owe some meme responses from way back, which I do intend to get to at some point I promise <.<

And I haven’t forgotten some other extant projects--Devoted!verse, the Ventress outline, Bail Unfucks the Timeline, Distaff, etc.--but they’re pretty back-burnered for the time being. If something Sparks in any of those, I’ll probably dive into it, but for now I’m not actively working on them in the way I am on dragonshifters and Precipice.

AtLA Stuff:

So, there’s sort of...four or five projects spinning around in my head right now, lol. One of which, if I do it, would not work as an outline so it would be fulltext. It’s canon-compliant, for the most part.

...well, I should interrupt myself here to say the following: I haven’t read a lot of the comics or tie-in novels, and my familiarity with more recent Word of God is limited. I’m basically operating out of canon defined as “it’s in the original show or WoG I’m specifically aware of, drawing in stuff from other sources as it appeals to me but otherwise ignoring it.” Where WoG contradicts itself (i.e., the timeline for Lu Ten’s death),I go with whatever answer I prefer.

In terms of worldbuilding details added in Korra--ehhhhh, it’s sort of held a little higher than the comics, etc. (in that, if I remember it, unless it Josses something I really, really liked/was foundational to something I’m doing, I’ll probably include it); but most likely whatever I’m doing will go AU enough during the first series for a lot of the other detail work/character-specific stuff to not matter.

Anyway! Back to the fun stuff.

There’s one story I’m playing with that’s not going to work as an AU outline. Depending on exactly what I focus on, there’s a couple different fulltext fics buried in it, and I’m not sure which I’d work on (or if I’d braid the two of them together). Basically, it deals with the siege of Ba Sing Se and Lu Ten’s death, and some of the fallout from that, focusing on an OC of mine and her daughter. I found a short fic I wrote for a challenge back in the day that ties into this concept, which is at the very end of this post. If I work on this, I’d probably change the names of the two relevant OCs and possibly how she gets her memory back (it was written specifically for a “what happened in the rest of the world when Zhao captured Tui” challenge; guess how many of them were Hama-related), but. Anyway, building on either the Siege portion of the story (which has a lot of West Side Story on its soundtrack in my head lol), or focusing on what she does after she remembers him. Or both! Both is also good.

The rest of the options are mostly Zuko-centric canon-divergence fics.

First option, Airbender!Zuko. This occurs because The Spirits Said So; he’s gotten very good at fake firebending using airbending. Probably to the point where he’s so deep in denial that he can’t even see the pyramids anymore, to stretch that analogy to the breaking point, lol. Basically, not much changes until the north pole, but there’s some ways for it to go from there...

Second option, Avatar Zuko. This one has been floating around in my head more lately. Reading old RP logs, my partner and I played through a bunch of different variants on how this all worked, but the one in my head right now is basically--a few months before he’s banished, they’re at Ember Island or something and he’s out on the ocean/fishing or something. Sudden storm, he stops the boat from capsizing through panicked waterbending. No other witnesses, for whatever reason. He initially decides he imagined it, something else must have happened. Except then, when he’s in the palace infirmary after getting his face melted, he does it again. At that point, he basically decides that his options here are “get turned into a weapon and kill A Lot of people, or get disappeared into some dark hole somewhere where I can’t cause any problems.” Neither of those is particularly attractive, so he decides to run away. He doesn’t know what his long-term plan is at this moment--if he’ll use the comet to regain favor/save his nation based on the context he’s operating under right now, or do something else. But he has about three and a half years before then. He figures he’ll spend a year at the Western Air Temple, looking for texts/mosaics/something to get him at least vaguely airbending; then go to the North Pole to learn waterbending for a year, then spend a year in the Earth Kingdom to learn earthbending. Planning, for the last two, to present himself as mixed and while he has a lot of his Fire Nation father’s features, he inherited bending from his other parent (or grandparent, when he goes to the North Pole). For those of you familiar with my original fic, this will also include the first iteration of a prominent secondary character from Feredar/The Farglass Cycle. Mostly so Zuko has someone to talk to at the WAT XD. 

Third and fourth options are a bit more nebulous, and both break off during the Ba Sing Se arc. First option, Zuko gets injured during the stampede when Aang moves the zoo (this will probably draw in at least one of my BSS OCs because I am pathologically incapable of not creating OCs, lol). Second option, Zuko leaves his mask behind in Lake Laogai, which means Aang will know he’s in the city. Not sure where either of those would go from that point but there’s some Significant Differences there, lol.

...anyway, that’s where things stand now. Which, if any, are y’all interested in seeing?

As promised, the clip from the Lu Ten story, originally written for a challenge back in...yeesh 2010 XD. Again, this is canon-compliant at least up until Iroh and Zuko arrive in BSS, and I’d possibly change the names and/or how she gets her memories back.

An Wei sat by the window, holding her little girl and watching the sky. Today had been one of Huai's bad days, so An Wei had her hand resting lightly on her daughter's neck, counting her heartbeats. The doctors had told her, back when Huai was a baby and they'd figured out what was wrong with her, to hope for seven years--but only to hope, not to count on them. So An Wei took special care to always, always watch. She never regretted her child, no. Occasionally, she wished she had never met Huai's father, but...well, she couldn't remember much about him, other than the kind golden eyes (false kindness?) that had taken her in so completely during the Siege. She didn't think about him very much. It was too painful--and dangerous. Above and beyond the dangers in thinking about the War That Was No War, her own father had... Well, he hadn't been pleased. She didn't remember the argument, but her uncle wouldn't have brought her to the Lower Ring midwife who had cared for her during her pregnancy if she hadn't needed to hide. Despite all of her vigilance, it was her own heart that skipped a beat when the moonlight filtering in through her window turned an eerie, dull red. She gasped and clutched her daughter a little tighter, praying that Huai would sleep until this went away, so it wouldn't frighten her. That is, assuming it would go away. She shivered and shifted Huai so the little girl was facing away from the window and watched in horror as the bloody moon failed to return to normal. "Please..." she whispered. "Please be normal when she wakes..." As if in response to her desperate pleading, the moon flared silver again after a half hour. But she barely had a moment to relax before it winked out completely. An Wei jumped and stifled a scream. "Don't be afraid of the dark, this'll light your way home." She jumped again. There was no one here in the room with her and Huai, but she could have sworn... The moon blinked back into existence and a pretty girl with long white hair rode in on one of its beams. An Wei stared up at her, still frightened, pulling her daughter away from the girl as best she could. The moon-girl bent down and kissed An Wei's forehead. "Remember now," she murmured, then faded out of sight. ** "Don't be afraid of the dark." He smiles and makes a little light in his palm, carefully transferring it to a bundle of sticks. "This will light your way home." ** She studies the hairpiece he wears in his topknot, turning it over and over in her hands. "There's something you should know about me, too. About my family." ** "We can make this work, Itsu." He's determined, hopeful, his golden eyes shining. "We'll talk to my father. He'll understand. We'll make it work. Meet me here, at the usual time." "I trust you." ** She waits and waits and waits, until long past dark, but he doesn't come. ** She hates speaking with her guardian, but she's scared and has nowhere else to go. "Please, help me," she finishes quietly. He nods. "I'll keep you safe, Highness. You and your child. I promise." ** The light spins around and around and around, and she forgets her name, forgets her lover, and in her place is An Wei, a young woman trained as a scribe, seduced by a nameless Fire soldier, rather than... ** Itsu let out a little sobbing breath. Huai shifted in her arms. "Mommy?" she whispered, still half-asleep. "It's okay, baby, everything's okay. Go back to sleep." "'Kay." Huai closed her golden eyes again and her breathing evened out as much as it ever did. Itsu held her daughter close. Twice over a princess, at the worst possible time, born with a broken heart. No wonder Long Feng hid us so deep.

[to clarify--Itsu is Kuei’s sister. I forget how I set the relative ages, but assuming, as seems to be the case in flashbacks, that Lu Ten is about 10 years older than Zuko, he’d be somewhere between twenty and twenty-two when he died, depending on which date you believe; Kuei is around the same age (possibly a year or two younger?) and Itsu within two years of them.]

#shadowsong26fic #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong writes atla #feedback greatly appreciated #miscellania