#in PT however the last years of the republic not even the empire has a more genuine case of being fascist than the FN

[sirenalpha]

The Fire Nation is not fascist

words have meanings and you should use them correctly even when applying them to fiction

not all authoritarian governments are fascist even when militarized and just because you don't like that government that doesn't automatically make it fascist

the Fire Nation in the time of atla is more akin to the British Empire as it was an industrializing colonial empire than any fascist regime, Sozin's comments prior to the war harken more to white man's burden than fascism

that's also a very bad thing, you can just say that and be accurate, you don't have to reach for fascism

there are multiple ways you can look at the Fire Nation as it is portrayed within atla and see that it is not fascist

the Fire Nation is an absolute monarchy

fascist regimes are dictatorships

the Fire Nation has never had a period of democracy

fascist regimes are post democratic often initially winning power through democratic elections

the Fire Nation has no corporations, as far as can be assumed from the show everything related to industrialization might just be owned by the state (military)/the monarchy from all the ship building rigs to the factory blown up in The Painted Lady, the only people who might even be merchants are the Bei Fongs but they're still nobles so potentially all their wealth is from their land and holdings not through trade, the Fire Nation could genuinely just still be feudal and have an underdeveloped merchant class if everything trade related is getting funneled through the military/state

fascist regimes are extremely corporatist, they don't believe in public ownership, public goods, public services, anything that can be sold off to corporations and private interest will be, they go for extreme privitization

I think you could even argue that the Fire Nation is not industrialized enough to be fascist either, when the gaang is traveling through the Fire Nation it's basically as rural and pre-industrial as the Earth Kingdom there's like one factory in all of the Fire Nation, and even the Caldera seems pretty pre-industrial, there are no factories, no modern housing/aprtment buildings, no smog and pollution, only the military seems to be industrialized at all with tanks, metal ships, air balloons, and jet skis

and if you take a more ideological lens and compare it to Eco's Ur-Fascism while whether the Fire Nation meets the requirements are more debatable on some of his 14 points than others based on what you can assume from what is shown, others are outright impossible in the Fire Nation and atla world, and some the Fire Nation straight up doesn't meet the requirements for (the ones I don't mention here you can assume the FN does meet them enough though again some are more debatable than others)

-rejection of modernism

this is impossible in the Fire Nation and atla because as far as we can tell there is no period of Enlightenment or even a modernism to reject and you could maybe even argue the Fire Nation might be the ones embracing anything approaching modernism as they were the ones to hire the mechanist but that's very little proof to go on especially as it's for the war machine which is one technology fascists do go for

-appeal to a frustrated middle class

again no corporation or move to capitalism or any merchants or businessmen, hard to say a middle class even exists in the Fire Nation, there's a middle ring in Ba Sing Se but the Fire Nation seems split between nobles and commoners with no middle ground

-obsession with a plot

so I wouldn't say the Fire Nation has no obsession with a plot as they're doing the whole white man's burden equivalent and wanting to 'share their greatness' with the world but the plot fascists are obsessed with are internal enemies aka being anti-semitic and suspicious of Jewish people and while yes the Fire Nation tells lies about Air Nomads they're all convinced every single one of them are dead, they're not internal enemies, there are no internal enemies of the Fire Nation and this ties into the next point

-at the same time too strong and too weak

because there's no internal enemies to stamp out and be fearful of and they're winning a global war, there's no sense from the Fire Nation that they think they're too strong and too weak, they only think they are strong, so strong in fact as to be deserving of ruling the world, this is Azula's entire argument for her coup in Ba Sing Se, she as a member of Fire Nation royalty has the divine right to rule that is unquestionable

-machismo

now I'm not saying there's no sexism in the Fire Nation, they're clearly led by men in the monarchy military and in organized religion, but they might be the least sexist of the existing nations aside from Kyoshi, the Water Tribes obviously have sexism as exhibited by the male power structure, arranged marriages, and preventing female waterbenders from gaining martial skill, the Earth Kingdom in atla only shows male rulers whether kings or Dai Li and Toph's the only female earthbender and she learned it so far outside the system she didn't even learn from a human and their military is also entirely male, the Fire Nation however has female soldiers and guards, teaches female firebenders to bend and female nonbenders can also learn martial skill, and yeah Azula and her friends might just be getting lee way as nobles but literally no one belittles them or remarks upon it in anyway whereas Katara and Toph are definitely remarked upon (though Toph not solely for being a girl)

also Fire Nation noble teen girls can casually date like I get it's a kid's show and maybe they're not thinking deeply on this but they made it explicit that Yue was already betrothed and could not casually date at around the same age Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai are casually dating or trying to date without any mention of betrothals or arranged marriages and without any apparent risk to their personal reputations (yes Mai's dating Zuko is politically and likely financially advantageous to her family or could potentially have been spurred by Azula to keep track of Zuko but as far as we know from canon this is entirely Mai's choice and is in fact casual dating)

-selective populism

the Fire Nation royalty do not give a shit about the will of the people, their positions are for them and to be used how they wish to use them, they do not see themselves as the interpreter of popular will because they don't need it for legitimacy and authority in place of a democratically elected government, they are monarchs with a divine right to rule in a world of other monarchs

-newspeak

there's no evidence the Fire Nation employs this at all, they lie sure especially about the Air Nomads, but they don't invent new jargon to limit critical thinking (they kinda don't need to Ozai and Azula are abusive and manipulative enough on their own they can do it with normal language)

the Fire Nation just does not match the profile of a fascist regime enough ideologically or otherwise to be comfortably calling it fascist or treat it as a matter of fact in fandom

and if you're going to make the argument well they just couldn't show you everything like multiple factories and corporations or a middle class in the Fire Nation due to time limits so actually you can safely assume it is fascist

no, anything beyond what they DID show is headcanon and what IS canon does not lend itself to an argument that the Fire Nation actually is fascist

the monarchy, lack of democracy ever, and what Fire Nation characters have said about the country and its stated goals are canon and point towards an industrializing colonial empire that's not as sexist as it could be

#fire nation #atla #long post #this was just annoying me #and if you want to talk about something w limited time but does potentially point to fascism look at star wars #and I mean just OT you at least have a dictator and post democracy which isn't a lot but its something #in PT however the last years of the republic not even the empire has a more genuine case of being fascist than the FN #the PT adds the corporatism with corporations literally having representation in the senate and that's pre-Palps election #but it also has obsession w the plot which is jedi who are internal enemies and traitors #it's got the too strong and too weak as a justification for palps getting power and keeping it #I'm just saying 6 movies is shorter than 3 seasons and it makes a more convincing argument

[bluezeri]

pt. 2.5 of the anakin swtor au

1 | 2 | 2.5

im gonna be honest i do not remember the canon timeline at all so im gonna skip to the second battle of odessan w vaylin, and early in the battle he manages to face her, alone.

he talks to her, but he quickly see just talking will not work. so he summons his inner obi-wan kenobi, and completely breaks her down. he uses everything he knows about her childhood, what senya and arcann have told him, what he gather based on her crazed ranting and anger, and he breaks down every last bit of her until theres nothing left, only a crying young woman on the forest floor. she still lashes out when he tries to come near, but it is not out of anger. he anger is gone and has left her axhausted more than anything. all thats left is fear, fear of whats to come, fear of her fathers wrath, and her mothers kindness. so he sits with her. she surenders he troops, the battle is over. he continues to sit with her.

later when they finally move, senya will see her daughter walking alongside anakin and she will cry. she approaches but is too afraid to move further. vaylin does nothing and is quickly led to the medbay to check injuries. the alliance is horribly confused.

anakin skywalker just managed to turn empress vaylin to their side.

vaylin does trust anyone except her brother, and even that is one a thin line. but she manages. anakin helps.

the emperor is still a problem. but they defeat him again because his entire family hates him.

anakin does take the throne. it doesnt feel right.

im probably still fucking up the timing of when everything happens but whatever

hes betrayed by theron. he desnt know how to feel, he just becomes a bit of a mess. the force is telling him this isnt right, something bigger is happening. he tries to tell lana at some point, but her look of pity is enough to make him close his mouth. when theron reaches out again, hes... hesitant, to say the least. he doesnt fully believe theron betrayed him but... he looked at him with such hatred in his eyes. what if he does hate anakin?

he doesnt, as he soon found out. the man he loved more than anything in the galaxy, fake betrayed him for a chance to stop the order of zildrog, without telling him. he understood it, sure, but that stop the anger from rising in him. he quickly releases it into the force, and sets his face to show no emotion he can feel theron guilt triple as soon as he does it, but he cant help but think he deserves it, just a little.

and theron goes and gets himself shishkebabed. what the fuck. ther isnt time for anger, hes already carrying theron back to the shuttle before lana can get a word in.

theron is healed eventually, and he proposes. anakin had already let go of his anger and forgave theron, and he accepts. their wedding is small, only a few people are there. but he really couldnt be happier.

of course, the war between the empire and republic is still going on, but he has a feeling it wont end anytime soon. over the next few years, the alliance slowly withdraws itself from the conflict. and eventually, it will be forgotten about completely.

he has not finished fighting, there is another war to finish. he tells his friend, his family this and they understand. they do not look sad however, because they will be going with him. anakin protests, its not their war. theyve done enough for the galaxy. but theron grbas his hands "do you really think we're gonna abandon you after all this? you cant rid of us that easy Ani" and if anakin cries a little bit, no one sys anything.

he doesnt need to be able to time travel for this one. with the help of dr. oggurobb, theyve developed statis pods that will last at least a few millennia.

3500 years later, a holocron in the jedi temple finally open and cathes the attention of the temple librarian, Jocasta nu, and requests a jedi by the name of obi-wan kenobi.

#star wars #swtor #anakin skywalker #crossover #kotfe #star wars the old republic #vaylin #senya #theron shan #valkorion #tcw #the clone wars

[bedlamsbard]

fascinated by the distinction drawn between "audience member" and "fic writer" bc I think I know what you mean in regards to kind of re-writing it in your own head not as the secondary way of interacting with it but as the first. But I would not have thought of putting it that way!

A lot of it has to do with the specific fic genre I write in, which is long plotty AUs that I’ll probably be working on for years -- to some extent I can set aside everything in canon that occurs in in-universe chronology after the span of my story; Backbone and Crown doesn’t have to take into account the events of the OT and ST because they haven’t occurred yet.  On the other hand, I can’t totally set aside major set piece events that involve causes and players outside of whatever characters and timeline I’m working with, because depending what I’m working with things are still going to happen whether or not my characters are involved.

And I make compromises all the time about whether things are going to make it into the story -- there’s a whole discarded Backbone subplot about Zare Leonis that I considered really carefully before not including, even with the knowledge that leaving him and his interaction with Ezra out of the story meant that his arc in the Servants of the Empire novels will be completely changed.  Backbone covers about half the span of S1, maybe less; I was always running out the timeline of S1 to figure out what events would be happening that would or would or not be affected by the Ghosts’ changed circumstances and if that merited being included in the story.  Rebels S1 is very small-scale; going further into the timeline of the show means that opens up further and further and a lot of other factors are in play.  The earliest version of Backbone was also quite different; the Free Ryloth fleet didn’t exist, Cham and Alecto were members of the Rebel Alliance, a number of other Rebel Alliance characters were there; I reworked it after Siege came out and it was revealed that the Rebel Alliance wasn’t yet a thing.

With Gambit, otoh, there were a lot of galactic-scale repercussions; I was always running the timeline back and forth and figuring out what the originating events were and how those would play out in the altered timeline of this single-point divergence AU.  But the crucial difference is that for Gambit (and Wake), I was working is that I was working with a closed canon -- I didn’t have to worry about something down the line adding something to the in-universe chronology, and a lot of it was heavily altered by the divergence point anyway.  (Actually, that canon reopened partway through Wake when The Lost Missions dropped in a way that was relevant; the chip scenes were somewhat shoehorned in because I couldn’t leave that out.)  Crown is working in a tighter timeline but one that comes a lot closer to the set piece events of the saga; I have “where is this in relation to Rogue One?” running through my head when I’m working through any of the Rebel Alliance scenes.  There are a number of small-scale changes that aren’t immediately clear (because the story’s not finished) that have come about because of the story’s divergence point that would have a much greater influence on galactic events than they did in canon.

When it comes to out-of-universe chronology, the added canon that comes out after I’ve already started working on a story, it can be a lot harder to deal with.  95% of the time, if the additional canon deals with the character/setting of my WIP, I’m going to ignore the bulk of it but occasionally integrate details here and there as relevant (such as the name of the Tann Province in Backbone -- you may note it doesn’t show up until quite late in the story, after the S3 ep aired).  I didn’t change the names of the Inquisitors -- in fact, I made the decision early on that however I named the Inquisitors it would be different from what canon did, as that was prior to them being called “Seventh Sister”, “Fifth Brother,” etc.  5% of the time it’s something that I cannot ignore, like the clones and the chips -- that’s pretty rare, tbh, but it happens.  (I’ve scrapped a story because of additional canon; I had a chunk of Kanan/Hera time travel written where they both got thrown back to the Clone Wars, but the Kanan - The Last Padawan comic coming out threw me too badly with their clones as opposed to my OCs.)  To some extent, I try to only work with the canon that was available when I started writing that story; that’s not entirely sustainable with canon coming out so rapidly, and sometimes it can throw out a reader.

The worst part, as a fic writer, about dealing with additional canon isn’t trying to integrate it into an ongoing story: it’s that it may change how I feel about Star Wars, or if it’s done poorly, I may end up in the kind of mental place where I get very “why am I doing this when the canon doesn’t even care.”  There’s a scene in the Darth Vader comics where the Inquisitors are doing shots after killing a Jedi and stealing his baby.  When that particular issue came out, I was working on the big Inquisitors vs. Kanan & Ahsoka fight scene in Backbone, and I was so badly thrown by the disconnect that I had to step away for a few days.  I hated the Rebels finale so much that I couldn’t work on Backbone for a while even though it’a completely different universe.  A lot of what canon did with Ahsoka post-S2, and the way she gets idolized by both fandom and the PTB, has messed with my perception of her so much that with Crown Ahsoka and the backend of Backbone Ahsoka I didn’t trust myself writing her and had to have multiple beta readers just for her characterization, something I have never worried about before.  (This is one reason I did that deep dive the other week to figure out what the hell was going on in the writers room about her, and honestly?  I feel better about it now that I’ve rationalized what was going on in a way that makes sense to me.)  I had to stop reading the Doctor Aphra comics because Hera was so out of character there that I was getting really, really upset (and also the animal harm), and then I just stopped reading all the SW comics because they were making me mad and I wasn’t enjoying myself.  Sometimes you get big universe consequences stuff that doesn’t deal with your main characters (looking at you, TROS) and it’s frustrating if you don’t like it!  Then I have to sit down and try to decide “hey, am I going to use any of this Palpatine stuff?” -- this was actually a problem for Crown, because the Palpatine scenes weren’t written yet when TROS came out, and I was so badly thrown by TROS that I didn’t know how to deal with that in Crown even though it’s mostly not relevant.  Would I be happiest if I was working in a closed canon, or if at least I knew (or thought) my main characters weren’t going to get any more canon stories about them? GODS, YES, THIS IS WHY I STARTED WRITING PREQUEL FIC BACK IN THE LATE 2000S.  (Ironically, I started writing PT fic before TCW came out, then flipped fandoms and came back in 2012 -- but all my 2012 PT fic only used the closed canon of the EU Clone Wars/Republic comics, not TCW.)

Mostly as an audience member I don’t want to see my writing characters on the screen anymore -- there’s a certain amount of hypervigilance that comes with having your writing characters or settings active in canon, even if you don’t intend to integrate any of that.  I watch and read Star Wars very differently than I watch and read anything else; I mostly don’t find it relaxing because I’m always aware of the fact that the stuff I care about could pop up at any moment, or because I’m concentrating so hard on characterization/nuance/worldbuilding that my brain is going 150 mph, or because I have very specific deal-breakers.  (I do find reading in the EU relaxing because bro, that is CLOSED CANON.)  I would like to relax!  If canon finally contorts itself to the point I can relax again that will be a relief, tbh, even as frustrating as it would also be.

...this is probably a much longer response than you expected.

#also I could probably clean this up but I need to go! #I got distracted writing it! #eri-223 #bedlam answers

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

State of the Galaxy in 2021, pt 2

Some notes for my fanfic, the Second Yeerk War. Now for the Andalites! All years and numbers are going to be kept to Earth standard for easy reading, since not everybody has a Galard-to-English Dictionary. It’s a bit long, so read more after the break!

Nation: The Republic of Andal

Government Type: Parliamentary Republic

Head of State:

Electorate Minister Elisisth-Karrigor-Silam

Head of Military: Council Leader Aniila-Fitinari-Emil

Population: 289,800,000 sentients, including

288,600,000 Andalites

1,200,000 assorted aliens

Capital:

Andal (Andalite Homeworld)

Fleet Composition:

5 StarSword-class Dome Ships

7 GalaxyTree-class Dome Ships

2 RisingMoons-class Dome Ships

18 Intrepid-class Cruisers

15 Adamant-class Cruisers

45 Inquiry-class Patrol Ships

3 Nerin Ridge-class Frigates

28 Talak River-class Frigates

~800 Ascalin-class Assault Transports

340 Drone Ships

~8,000 Model 35 Fighters

~2,400 Model 22 Fighters

~1,800 Model 16 Fighters

~2,000 various other Fighters

~2,000 Transport Ships

~250 Fast-Courier Shuttles

~100 Mobile Science and Technology Laboratory Ships

~7,300 Freighters

~100,000 Drones

Notable Planets:

Andal (Andalite Homeworld)

Silver Skies (Andalite colony)

Lilac Plains (Andalite colony)

Primary Imports: Cultural artifacts, Z-Space telemetry

Primary Exports: Cultural artifacts, computers

Summary: The Republic of Andal was founded over 7,000 years ago by Prince Virrigan-Elinisouth-Alimini-Rutigar. Also known as Virrigan the Black or Virrigan the Kingslayer, Prince Virrigan overthrew the previously established monarchies in a single day and ceded the power previously enjoyed by the Warrior caste to the mercantile families. What followed is still being debated by scholars today, as any official history of the Andalites has surely been modified to better suit the political needs of the current government.

What is known with certainty is that 3,600 years ago, the Andalites discovered basic Faster-Than-Light propulsion and set out to explore the Galaxy. Immediately after this, the Andalites immediately found themselves at war with several other races such as The Five, the Skrit-Na, and the Jiff. The conclusion of these wars is shrouded in mystery, but scholarly opinion is that the Andalites would have wiped out the Skrit-Na if they could have, while The Five and the Jiff simply had it coming for their many crimes against peace and sentient life.

The resulting Great Andalite Peace, which had lasted in one form or another until the Yeerk War, saw the Andalites support and elevate several worthy species to galactic prominence, such as the industrious Desbadeen, while others who were deemed unworthy were driven out of civilized space, such as the duplicitous Norshk. This was, of course, entirely in the interest of peace and prosperity for all civilized peoples, and the exact details remain hazy. However, what is clear is that during this time of relative peace, Andalite military doctrine shifted towards occupation and policing duties, which rendered them relatively unable to counter the sudden emergence of the Yeerk Empire.

The emergence of the Yeerk Empire is an interesting moment in Galactic history. While the Andalites famously blame Prince Seerow-Nesireuth-Carill, leader of the expedition to the Yeerk homeworld, for his lack of judgement in sharing Andalite technology with an underdeveloped species, Yeerk Empire scholars begged to differ. They instead pinned the blame squarely on the security chief, Warrior-Commander Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, for his strict and heavy-handed enforcement of restrictions he and his security team forced onto the Yeerks at gunpoint. This matter has never been sufficiently clarified, with Andalite apologists often pointing to the brave and noble acts of the Andalite military as they struggled to contain the neural parasites that threatened Galactic stability.

However, unreliable and often biased sources often point out that the Yeerk Empire was welcomed by the Galactic community at large. They were an active trade partner with the Skrit-Na, held a formal alliance with the Taxxons, and generally had no impact on the day-to-day life of most Humans for most of their occupation of Earth. Other races such as the Mak, Ssstram, and Hork-Bajir voluntarily signed treaties of surrender to the Yeerks, in accordance with Galactic laws upheld and enforced by the Andalites. However, Andalite reports often claim that the representatives of these races were Controllers, a claim which has never been properly substantiated.

The Andalites maintain that the Yeerk Empire was guilty of many, many crimes, and that as neural parasites they were a disease which required quarantine. However, despite the live-and-let-live efforts of the Andalite military, who only wished to contain the Yeerk contagion, it would quickly be reported by Andalite military officials that each and every quarantine fleet would be met with hostility before the Yeerks, in an act of petty spite, would exterminate themselves and everyone else on the planet they had infested within a few hours of the fleet’s arrival. Such crimes by the Yeerk Empire could not go unpunished, and so it was that the Andalites attempted to quarantine each planet infected by the Yeerk contagion. It was, of course, for the safety of the Galaxy.

In spite of this heroic effort, Kelbrid-backed anti-Andalite propoganda has reached such a critical level of saturation that it has even affected the youngest generation of Andalites, who have begun pushing for reforms to limit the power and influence the military has over Andalite society. However, it is this scholar’s opinion that the Andalites are gracious, kind, noble, amazing, wonderful, and thoroughly enjoyable people who only want what is best for the Galactic community at large. The Andalites would never, ever pose a threat to civilized societies, and any despicable acts of genocide that you might hear about are simply rumors.

#Animorphs #Fanfiction #Second Yeerk War #Andalites #Andalite headcanon #Faction Summary #Not sarcastic at all

[crqstalite]

pt. 17, into the lion’s den, pt. 6 (mierrio & naji)

bleh this is so ugly and was supposed to be 4k words but i decided to leave kiv and tri for another chapter.

written: 9.26.19. word count: 2,546.

════ ⋆★⋆ ════ character song: grrrls, aviva

character file: mierrio revel, darth nox & naji iresso, barsen'thor of the jedi order

-

the cool but warm air of the alderaanian sunset is rather welcome, mierrio believes. the way her pale skin prickles as her dress brushes the flowers along the path is enough to let a small smile form on her lips. if she'd taken andronikos out here, they'd get lost among the patches and return early in the morning. just as storybook lovers would. she'd always wanted a home in the sprawling landscape of some lush planet, but the fury seemed to be her perpetual home for some reason. didn't keep her from dreaming of finally owning a real piece of property instead of the underbelly her cult kept in her name on nar shaddaa.

ah, dreams for another day when the empire finally crushed the republic under their metaphorical and physical boot. that would be a glorious day.

however, the person beside her isn't andronikos. it's a blonde sith lord who's collected a few flowers in between her delicate hands, stopping to pick up a few every couple of minutes. she's odd, definitely a bottom-of-the-basket sith. most would leave the flowers to look pretty among the immaculate bushes, but she stops even though the thorny bushes leave clear white scratch marks on her wrists and forearms. mankael is clearly still very young, her skin still shining and free of corruption. the only way to tell she was sith was the way her eyes glowed an unnatural yellow. even the way she carried herself across the dance floor with her soldier of an escort cried out that she was much stiffer than she should be. "mankael?" mierrio speaks up, as the aforementioned sith turned toward her in a nearly frantic motion, "have you ever been to sith court before?"

"i can not say i have, my lord." mankael responds, as she lowers her gaze from her to the bottom of her pitch black gown. it doesn't fit properly, the straps hanging much too tight and in turn, her meager breasts not receiving all the attention they could've. (sith lord or not, mierrio still had a good eye for fashion, and the men at court were looking rather nice this time around. mankael would be what they considered a snatch. especially because of her childish nature and willingness to follow.) "this is all new to me."

"you didn't attend the year prior?" she turns an eyebrow up, plucking her own blood red flower from the bushes. it prickles her fingertips as she considers threading it through her hair. why wouldn't she attend sith court? it was the best reason to get unnecessarily drunk and dress up. given not all women enjoyed that (most were bloodthirsty and would've rather enjoyed a good duel -she was sure there'd be one the wrath would participate in, later during the week- or fighting the killiks beyond thul's walls), but it still seemed odd. almost all sith packed in for a good couple of nights. her own apprentice excluded, but she had her own mission on balmorra (aka mierrio wanted to get rid of the insufferable girl for the next couple of days, and spend some well-earned time with her husband). why wouldn't a self-sufficient sith lord come? "why is that?"

mankael hesitates before responding, a solid minute between the question and answer. "it sounds silly, but i didn't wish to attend last year." she fiddles with the flowers stems, her hands visibly shaking now that she looks closer. her skin is a few shades darker than her own, as if she spends a lot of time in more natural sunlight. and maybe the fact she hasn't truly embraced the dark side as others have. "i had other priorities to attend to..."

mierrio makes a noise that she hopes is more accepting than guttaral. "who's apprentice were you? i haven't met your master yet, have i?"

"i was trained under master x'ire." she says quietly, picking more flowers out of the verdant green bushes. she's beginning to radiate much more nervous energy than is most likely required for this question (mierrio's rather proud of herself that she knows how to sense emotion now, she finally learned how to from now lord ezridivia; unwillingly, yes, but done well, absolutely), and that makes mierrio just a tad suspicious. why is she nervous to ask such a basic question? if she asked the same thing to the wrath, especially next to her husband (for some odd reason; the man was always following her around at gatherings with that look that said he didn't approve of her or her opinions. fuck him, he could think whatever he wanted to, he just had to remember his place), they'd both be offended.

"x'ire? the pale zabrak i met inside?" mankael nods as mierrio chuckles delicately, "what a pansy! a nervous man inside and out!" she was only partially sure of that, mostly because unlike the insufferable darth amarillis (quinn, she had the audacity to hyphen her name. either take the the man's last name or don't at all.), she did not have the ability to sense things like anxiety or even light and dark sided alignment yet. yet. zash had screwed her over by teaching her next to nothing, but she was a fast learner. or at least she liked to consider herself one. mierrio only called x'ire a pansy to see the girl's reaction. chaos and mayhem was what she enjoyed, and feeding off that energy was a wonderfully powerful feeling.

"my master is far from nervous, my lord. he's rather deadly, especially on the battlefield." her voice grows a bit louder as the wind plays with the hems of their skirts and her blonde hair goes flying around her shoulders.  she doesn't even seem a bit angry, looking away from her to the mountaintops dusted with white snow. "w-who was your master?" she asks as she shivers, though the warm gusts continue to blow around them.

"darth zash." mierrio grimaces just at the thought of the ancient woman, or spirit she figures. was zash even really female? it'd never been a question she asked, or even wondered before now. "i despised the hag, and now i have her rank and offices on dromound kaas."

"wow. it's a real dog eat dog world out here, huh?" mankael says wistfully. this wasn't at all what mierrio had expected. any real sith would've gone on a tangent about why their master was nothing to be laughed at, or even joke alongside her when she'd spoken about zash. no reaction from mankael, as if she wasn't even paying attention with the handful of flowers in her delicate hands.

"you speak as if you haven't experienced it yourself yet. i step over those i need to, to ascend to power i have to eat the other dogs." mierrio responds, standing firmly in front of the other woman (in her brand new heeled boots, she's taller than mankael is). looking the woman up and down and the other woman wrings her hands out in front of her in the meager bouquet, she's beginning to feel as if something is very, very wrong right now. why does she keep speaking as if she's acting sith, rather than speaking from experience? even trying to go through her memories of her time at the academy, she still doesn't remember mankael's blonde hair. where had she met her? was it important? (it probably wasn't, to be completely honest. but mierrio would've remembered most of the acolytes she'd come in with and we're trained around the same time as her. given she didn't remember the skinny, frail failure of a redhead that'd been in her group, but that was to be expected after so many years)

had she met her?

"ah, i stay firmly out of the politics of the council, is all." she quickly counters, putting up her hands in the universal please don't get any closer, i'm not making a personal attack on you gesture. her eyes continue wandering anywhere away from mierrio. "they don't fascinate me enough to really get involved." she cuts herself off, as if she's about to continue her sentence but chose at the last minute not too. "the sun's beginning to dip, we should really go inside, my lord." she hurriedly scrunches up her fist to fit all the flowers within it, and quickly steps back. her shivering is getting stronger, even though the sun beams down on them from where it's beginning to rest beneath the mountains. it's not cold, and it's not atypically warm for alderaan either. chances are, this sith wasn't from tatooine.

the lack of corruption makes sense now too. the lack of scars on her face and the childish presence she felt lining the girl's entire aura. narrowing her eyes, she adjusts one of the straps on her dress and wonders if the others noticed as well. there isn't any real mark for any sort of faker to be without, but is this a spy for thul? no, she wouldn't be force sensitive then. but if...

it hits her as she sees her walking away, the black fabric billowing in the wind around her feet. not only is there already a lord o'vare that she knows (and killed years prior; the women was banking on usurping her from her chair on the council. she and khem quickly dealt with her when she came for her and using her as an example, no one else has attempted it again), but also that this woman she'd seen before. a lack of scars and babyish face contorted into one of anger and hate was what she'd seen on the....the..the word alluded her at the moment. but clearly, this woman was not a sith. she wasn't, and mierrio had left herself vulnerable at her expense.

lightning crackled from her fingertips as she shoots a volt of magenta lightning at the girl. not enough to shock her entire system and leave her paralyzed, but enough to at least leave her shaking. it hits her target, and she stops, a shriek erupting from the woman as her limbs shiver at odd angles, mierrio growing ever closer. her hair stands up on end before she stops, the girl clearly breathing hard had dropped all her flowers around her as she tentatively turns her head over her left shoulder, her eyes wide. "m-my lord?" she questions, innocent as if she hasn't just attempted to trick a darth on the council.

"the game is over, barsen'thor." mierrio responds, finally the title graces her mind as the girl's eyes widen at the realization darth nox has just made about her. mierrio's face breaks into a dark grin as the other falls back on the ground, scurrying backwards as lightning crackles in between her finger tips. "i was told about you, you know. before our little...say scuffle on taris. you remember your good friend, darth nox? you remember me, don't you iresso?" she probably looks as intimidating as she believes she does, in heeled boots and the lavender tulle dress trailing behind her. the sun is truly beginning to set, and the cold will set in soon. "should i leave you for the cold to claim? or should i end you here and now?"

now she's shaking for a reason completely outside of the lightning that's probably still flowing through her system. fear. oh mierrio loved instilling fear in those she trapped, and naji was no different. fear radiated off her in waves, and it only made mierrio chuckle behind a pale, manicured hand. she'd called her master a pansy, but the way the woman quaked, she figured she was more coward than her master was. it was funny, the jedi had named this poor excuse of a master to be their warden.

she'd been told extensively about the barsen'thor of the order before her excursion to taris, a trip only made to undermine her mission there and eliminate her completely if it was possible (mierrio herself despised the trip to the rakghoul infested planet, but as always, andronikos found a way to entertain her while they were there; her top was apparently on backwards when they returned, as talos so skillfully pointed out). full name being naji iresso, married to a certain lieutenant felix iresso (it'd taken her too long to figure irex fess was the same man) and traveling with the current jedi battlemaster, master kiveqil delux. sadly for naji (a horrid name choice. who would name a child that?), the sith weren't always in the dark about their opponents.

a burn is beginning to form on her right forearm and is beginning to show around her neck where she must've accidentally aimed for when she had her back towards her. mierrio, obviously doesn't feel too bad about it. her dress' strap is beginning to fall as she crunches into herself, her amber eyes unable to focus properly. "ah, my darling iresso. what to do, what to do?" she pauses, pacing around the jedi girl, "do what you did to my husband when we met last? do what you attempted to do to me? you got here rather easily, those aren't your real eyes. that isn't your accent or name either. so what is your real purpose here?" mierrio asks, just barely lifting her skirt to pull out her double-bladed saber hilt from where it rested on the inside of her calf. naji looks absolutely terrified, her blonde curls messily falling around her shoulders as she bumps into the wall behind her. mierrio has blocked her in from running much further away from her. the imposter had been found out. "who are you here for, naji?"

she doesn't respond, in fact she instead stands so quickly and bolts back towards the thul palace before mierrio is even aware of what's happened. she'd dashed away with a certain ability she must've learned while with the order. mierrio smirks, sith hadn't gone without learning certain movement based abilities either. igniting her saber as she runs, she eventually turns a corner that leads with the flowers she's dropping as she runs, and the flimsy shoes she'd been wearing are thrown off in a corner when she eventually reaches the balcony where'd they'd begun their walk through the garden at, slowing the extremely fast ability she'd just used. breathing hard, she can't even find through the dark attire where the woman had gone in the crowd.

"nox. stop acting like a child and running about." the wrath is infuriatingly reminding her off as mierrio disignites her weapon. the captain is still on her arm, as they both stand near the balcony, presumably disgustingly enjoying the sunset together (the wrath is prude, even mierrio knows that. and, she also happens to know the captain is years upon years older than her. fascinating blackmail for another time.) "whatever it is, it can't be serious."

"stay out of my way, wrath." mierrio growls, shoving it down her dress' front for the time being and also wading into the crowd. if she can catch up, she can dispose of the lost time with an execution for the sith populace.

she would not let her get away, not without an explanation. or her head on a platter. that worked always.

#swtor #star wars the old republic #swtor oc #star wars #oc #original character #mierrio revel #naji iresso #female jedi consular #female sith inquisitor #swtor fanfiction #bloodlines #into the lion's den

[jedimasteramell]

Whelp. Zhaire v1 picked Empire, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

I think Zhaire v2 will pick Republic when I get there with her PT.

Idk Im just not thrilled about this return to Empire V Republic, as Zhaire by now is far more concerned about her people in the Alliance and I think is a little lost in the greater realm of the galactic powers.

She noticed when meeting Acina in KotET that after all that time, the Empire felt strange to her. Returning was like walking into a set of your home, everything looked right, but the feel was off. She has no real love for the Republic as far as joining them, but she's come to respect their unified, democratic mentality. And with Zakuul she has no kinship but realizes just how much the last like 8 years have fucked up that planet and its people, and that they are suspiscious and some even hate her for her choices (particularly sparing Arcann) she accepts thaat response. Its also what makes her iffy about the Empire, because now shes come full circle and seen what it looks like from the side of the conquered.

Who knows, I guess Ill just have to see where I feel her story should go.

Im glad however to see her pushed again, to be forced to make choices that can and will change her. Ossus will finally be the point where I believe Zhaires play-storyline will diverge.

[sheriffcobbvanth-blog]

It’s Great That You Realize There’s a Problem, Now Go and Do Something About It: On Bardan Jusik, wasted potential, and generally why he sucks.

So I’m just going to start with this by saying that, as he was written in RepCom and LoTF, I really hate Bardan Jusik. He’s smug, preachy, holier-than-thou, and always framed by the author as being a paragon of virtue despite the fact that he’s actually a useless, hypocritical lump who sucks. He’s also, like many of Traviss’s characters, a neglected gold mine of potential.

The thing that really grates me about Bardan Jusik is that he is treated as being morally superior to every other Jedi in the Order for seeing what’s wrong with the Jedi Order and the use of the clone army, despite the fact that he does nothing to even try to stop it. That’s ridiculous -- sympathy without action is meaningless.

And Jusik’s sympathy is entirely without action: he didn’t  do anything to help the clones outside of his little clique, or try and change the Senate or the Order’s mind and convince them that they were wrong. He just left and that was it. The only clones who benefited from his departure was Skirata’s little Cartel. Nothing changed for any of the others.

I could understand if he had left after doing everything in his power to try to assist the clones -- which should have been more than lecturing Padawans, most of whom are literally children and all of whom more powerless than he is about the situation -- and just couldn’t stomach the repeated rejections and failures as he tried to sway the Council and the Senate to his side. I still wouldn’t agree with it, but I’d understand. But that isn’t what happened -- if Bardan made any efforts to change attitudes towards clones on a large scale, we were never shown them. He just up and left, leaving the situation as he found it. His departure accomplished possibly worse than nothing.

I honestly think that he was wrong to leave the Jedi Order: a Jedi Knight who turns his back on the Order has no sway over anything. They’re basically just ordinary civilians in terms of social influence, but possibly worse than that because hey, if a Jedi leaves the Order then there must be something wrong with them, right? However, if he had remained with the Order, he might have had something of a platform to speak from and possibly affect change.

And more than that, having Bardan stay with the Order would have been more interesting, narratively speaking. Just take a second to picture this characterization of Bardan instead of the one he got: as he’s working with clone troopers, Bardan realizes that the Order is doing something terrible and that he needs to stop it. So he resolves to never lead troops into battle again. At first Zey is like “no, absolutely not; the Order is stretched thin and you’re needed at the front. You have duties and responsibilities that you can’t back out of and you need to fulfill your obligations as a Jedi Knight,” and so Jusik is just like “Fine, I’ll go study to be a healer because they have the option of staying at the temple and serving as non-combatants,” and then he goes out and finds a slightly eccentric Jedi willing to tutor him in the healing arts (because honestly that shit  takes time and guidance – why else would Anakin have turned to the Sith to learn how to heal if it was something a Jedi could easily and randomly pick up -- seriously, did we ever even get and explanation for how he learned healing? I don’t remember one). So he trains at the temple and in the meantime uses both his position as a Jedi Knight and the fact that he’s basically stationed in Coruscant to petition both the senate and the Council on why using an army of slaves is wrong and basically serving as an advocate for clone rights.

And he has different reactions from different people. Some senators hate his guts and will literally slam doors in his face or threaten to have their guards shoot him if he shows up at their office. Others hear him out but disagree with him on a fundamental level, engaging him in an even-keeled manner and the audience gets to see the issue from a new perspective with no bias from the author – like, I’d love to see him engage in a conversation with a Pantoran or Twi’Lek or other non-human senator who is in support of using the clone army because they believe that a civilian draft unfairly tilted in favor of humans would be instated in its absence, and their people would suffer as a result. They may not be right, but they’re justified in their own mind.

Others, however, might agree with him whole-heartedly – I know that this is kind of left-field, but I’d love to see him interact with Padmé: I could see her privately confiding in him that she agrees with him 100% but can’t say anything on the matter publicly because she’s already considered something of a maverick and making such a bold assertion might end her ability to serve as an effective politician. However, she agrees to examine his ten-year retirement plan and bring it to the floor while also attempting to de-escalate the conflict and trying to open negotiations with the Seperatists. 

And because, obviously, his efforts aren’t going to be successful, his involvement with the political world could be used by the Empire in the days of the purges as evidence that the Jedi weren’t neutral and subservient, the way they claimed to be – like, look at the way this Master Jusik guy was actively undermining the Republic war effort! Those schemers on the Council probably put him up to it.

And the Jedi would probably have different reactions to his cause as well – some might agree with him, but don’t want to sow discord or believe that they have an obligation to obey the orders of the Senate because the word of the Senate is an extension of the will of the people. Others might disagree with him, claiming that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because he’s a healer who’s never been on the front. Maybe some people agree with him, but then take things too far -- hello, Dark Siders!

And how would the different clone troopers react? I’d imagine that some might be glad that someone’s looking out for them but think that he’s just a little too extreme. Some might be offended – like what, are we not good enough for him? Some might agree with him whole-heartedly, and Bardan might just be making Palpatine’s plans for Order 66 a lot easier.

So Bardan faces a lot of resistance, but he decides that no matter what others think of him and his message, he’s not going to stop spreading it. He can’t. As a Jedi, he’s obligated to serve the Light and ensure justice, even if it means going against the Order. He has to keep going because it’s the will of the Force.

And when Kal encourages him to leave the Order and offers to adopt him, Bardan just looks him dead in the eyes and says “I’m not leaving unless if every clone in the galaxy is free to come with me.”

But then there’s also a bunch of fun ways this could end for Bardan, and a lot of potential plots that this could drive. Maybe there’s a bounty placed on his head by a political rival, or maybe the Chancellor wants him taken out – while he might not be a political juggernaut, he’s out there placing the seeds of doubt in people’s minds and it’s always best to be on the safe side. Someone could find out and then head to Coruscant to rescue him – or he could just die under mysterious circumstances, leading the commandos to investigate and reach a dead end (because Palpatine is not sloppy). 

Or maybe that never happens, and Bardan is at a med center when Order 66 goes down. Maybe he’s shot down with the rest of the Jedi, leaving his friends to wonder how it could have happened. 

Or maybe he escapes. Maybe he lives. But he’s a wreck. He couldn’t help the clone troopers, who are still being mass-produced by the Empire, which treats them worse than the Republic ever did, and he couldn’t stop the Order from falling. And now he’s the last of his kind and for all he knows Order 66 and the things that followed were his fault – maybe if he’d just come to his senses a little earlier, or tried a little harder, he could have prevented everything. So when the Empire falls and the Jedi rise again, he throws in, offering to train people in healing and what he remembers of the Jedi way.Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he doesn’t think he’s worthy of helping to rebuild the new Order of Jedi after he allowed the last one to fall. So he stays on Mandalore, not out of delusions of moral superiority, but out of shame and despair. And maybe, when Jaina comes to Mandalore to learn about tracking individuals or to improve Jedi-Mandalorian relations or something (the canon reason she went to Mandalore was stupid, why would you train with a Mandaolrian to beat a Sith that doesn’t make any fucking sense), she meets him and inspires him to come back to the Jedi.

But I think that the best ending for this au is that he was on Corruscant during Order 66, and he’s the one who dies during the evacuation instead of Etain, because there was an indiscriminate kill Order on Jedi and that included Jusik, even though he did nothing to deserve it.

Even in the book itself, I think Jusik should have died during Order 66 instead of Etain, even without the alternate characterization I came up with for him -- it avoids the women-in-refrigerators trope, matches with the  tone of the PT, he’s dead, and it could cause some really interesting moral conflict. It would have highlighted what a tragedy Order 66 was -- because it was genocide, and that’s not any sort of victory or resolution. The destruction of a culture or religion is never something to be celebrated.

But he doesn’t die by jumping in front of a lightsaber because that’s stupid. He should get killed by clone troopers. And when one of the nulls or commandos points out that hey, that was my friend Bardan Jusik, he stood up for us when no one else would, he cared about us when no one else did, he was one of the good Jedi, his little brother says “The only good Jedi is a dead Jedi,” and then the other clones try to kill the nulls, commandos, and Kal for aiding a traitor.

Like, really. I need someone to explain Bardan’s existing characterization. All of these options, and Karen decides to make him a preachy hypocrite who never lifts a finger to help anyone outside of Kal’s immediate circle. She goes with the lamest characterization that causes the least anguish and conflict. Why? Because the idea of a guy in Mandalorian armor wielding a lightsaber was just too cool to resist? Because her characters are cool enough to be smarter than everyone else and definitely too cool to try to help other people outside of their little clique? Because she’s a shit writer who’s too cowardly to even think about adding legitimate conflict and the inclusion of multiple equally-viable perspectives on moral conflicts into her plots? WHY?

#in which i rant

[shadowsong26fic]

Let’s Go Steal A Crossover: Part 1

No real plot here, this is mostly the background/backstory details.

Note/Disclaimer: this particular outline features an OC of mine and as a result is fairly self-indulgent. Because what else are crack outlines for?

That out of the way, here we go!

For the Leverage crew:

This is more or less in a S3 sort of environment--they may or may not be chasing Space Damien Moreau, but in terms of their team dynamic, etc., that’s where they are.

(Let’s be real, though, they are TOTALLY chasing Space Damien Moreau.)

(Who is, as in Leverage canon, very much a power-behind-the-throne kind of guy.)

(I.e., he is not a Moff or an Admiral or a planetary ruler or a sector governor or anything like that.)

(He just happens to have quite a few of them in his pocket.)

(He’s not affiliated with Black Sun or any of the Hutts or any other established syndicate, either. He’s his own thing.)

Nate--

He’s from a fairly prosperous Mid Rim world, went to a Core World university (probably either Coruscant or Alderaan).

The Clone Wars started right around when he graduated, if I’m parsing the timelines and ages right.

So, granted I’m making this up on the fly based on things I half-remembered, but while there are non-clone non-Jedi military officers, they’re mostly High Command types.

However, Nate does not have the background, experience, or connections for that kind of work.

He spends the War working for his home sector/planet's senator, as an investigator/learning about security/etc.

(How he manages to pull this off, despite his father’s legit Shady Past, is probably a Story in and of itself.)

Postwar, he goes into the private sector, working for an insurance company.

(Where he meets Sterling.)

(And Maggie.)

(And Sophie.)

Incidentally, while he doesn’t have the inside information to really disbelieve the late-stage propaganda, he’s a little Perturbed by exactly how quick and bloody the end of the war and the transition to the Empire was.

Something Is Not Right here, but he’s not sure exactly what, and is not yet so disillusioned to do anything about that doubt. But it remains, in the back of his mind, to resurface when everything falls apart.

This is, however, a large part of why he leaves public service.

From here, Nate’s backstory is more or less the same as in canon.

(I did toy with having Sam dead of Inquisitors instead for a while, but that would not translate right and, more importantly, is too mean to Maggie.)

(I love Maggie, have I mentioned that?)

Sophie--

What can one say about Space Sophie Devereaux.

...about as much as one can say about the canon version, honestly.

She’s Kuati, that much everyone knows for sure.

Whether she’s actually of the minor nobility is up for some debate.

(Yes, there was an equivalent of the King George Job)

She was in her early/mid-teens when the Clone War happened. Kuat itself seems to have been mostly untouched, but under heavy military guard because of the valuable shipyards.

She left Kuat three or four years postwar, and began creating her various aliases and legend.

(And occasionally working as an actress, of course.)

...yep, that’s pretty much what I have here.

Hardison--

Also pretty similar to his canon backstory, except that he’s slightly younger--probably closer to Jyn Erso’s age/two or three years older than the Skytwins.

Like Nate, he’s from the Mid Rim, but he’s from a planet that was heavily contested during the War.

(i.e., it ended up pretty bombed to hell)

(his parents died towards the end of the war, which is how he ended up with Nana)

His particular brand of invention/cleverness is particularly useful in a slowly-recovering warzone, though.

Parker--

Parker is actually from Coruscant.

The underlevels.

One of the kids who consistently slipped through the cracks, under both the Republic and the Empire.

Until Archie Leach found her.

And then unleashed her on the Galaxy.

And now, the fun part--Eliot!

Eliot is, in fact, a clone.

He was part of the so-called Last Batch; born (decanted?) about six months before the end of the war, so he never saw action during that conflict.

There were whispers, among the older cadets--the ones who were mature enough to hear echoes of a voice in their heads, who knew at least bits and pieces what the adult clones had done and why.

(The whispers are carefully, carefully encouraged by some of the adults who were able to fight through the compulsion. Not well enough, or fast enough, to save their Jedi, but damned if they wouldn’t protect their little brothers. Who will grow up to be men, not weapons. Which means that most of the Last Batch and varying proportions of the older cadets had their chips removed before leaving Kamino.)

(....and now I’m going to have to do something completely unrelated with the Last Batch and their relationships with their various older brothers at some point, aren’t they.)

Eliot, like most of his generation, goes into the Stormtrooper corps when he’s mature enough.

He stays in for a while--a good couple of years. He’s separated from his brothers, for the most part, but a few are with him. One by one, they die or desert--he covers for the ones who get away.

He’s the last. He bonded with a few of the non-clone troopers, and it isn’t until there’s no one in his unit he feels like he needs to stay for that he leaves.

(He promises himself, when he leaves that armor behind, that he’s not going to find himself in that situation again. He has only himself to look after now, and he is damn sure going to stay that way.)

He starts wandering, working as a bounty hunter/assassin for hire.

(He does have one brief, slightly surreal encounter with Boba Fett.)

(Who is Not Thrilled that one of the millions of men with his face is trying to do his job.)

Occasionally, he’s even hired by the Empire.

(Any jobs he does for them, he of course does from safely behind a mask.)

He spends some time on Mandalore, carefully connecting with his roots and finding plenty of work in that planet’s increasing unrest.

(There is a Story to tell here, I’m sure, possibly one involving Bo-Katan and/or Korkie Kryze...)

And, of course, he spends about six months working for Space Damien Moreau.

He occasionally, in his travels, has come across his brothers--ranging decommissioned Clone Wars vets, to older cadets, to others of the Last Batch.

He tends not to seek them out, though, and to avoid interacting when he can.

There’s too much baggage, positive and negative, with all his brothers of every generation.

Besides. He promised himself he wouldn’t put down roots with a unit or a team again.

Miscellania--

Their first job together runs much as in canon, and they settle in as a team and loosely follow the same overall storyline as in canon.

Nate knows damn well that Eliot is a clone, though he didn’t until they met in person.

(While he didn’t work directly with the GAR and never met any Jedi, he did meet several clone soldiers. It’s a hard face to forget, when you’ve seen it several times over the course of three years.)

Sophie figures it out, too--she met several soldiers assigned to guard the shipyards.

Their marks generally don’t figure it out, actually.

Not a lot is known about the Last Batch.

I mean, sure, if any of these industry/corporate titans actually thought things through, they’d remember that the clones were in production up through the very end of the war, so obviously something must have been done to the ones who were too young for combat at that point.

But, honestly, even if some part of you is aware/acknowledges that there are younger clones running around, are you really going to expect one to wander through your door pretending to be a chef/caterer or a pro baseball player or a country music star or an IT tech or...

(Parker and Hardison figure it out when one of their marks actually does identify Eliot as a clone.)

(They don’t particularly care, except Hardison remembers/learns about the rapid aging factor and starts using his downtime to try and find a fix for that.)

(When he’s not playing Space WoW, anyway.)

(Or helping Nate with whatever sketchy and underhanded Long-Term Scheme he’s got in mind right now.)

(They’re not on the black box yet, of course, but probably right now most of Hardison’s not-active-job time is spent on tracking Moreau.)

(He and Parker have probably been tossing ideas back and forth about robbing Kamino to try and find a fix, though...)

(Or at least the Last Batch’s records.)

(But that is a plot for another fic. And possibly one of the things they end up doing during the six-month break between S4 and S5.)

The Skytwins’ Team:

Here’s where the super self-indulgent part comes in.

So, this is technically an offshoot of an offshoot of Masks!Verse, which is a very near-canon AU (what I call an In Spite of a Nail AU) where Lavinia exists. Essentially, in Masks!Verse, nothing we see onscreen during the OT happens any differently, but there’s some Interesting Stuff happening elsewhere that sets up a different post-ROTJ timeline. Nothing at all changes until three years after ROTS, when Lavinia is born, and after that only things she’s Directly Involved In change, and most of that is internal Imperial power plays, at least through ROTJ.

(TFA more or less happens because I like it, but the road there is a little bit different and the canon I was operating from is locked there. I.e., due to what Lavinia and her daughter in this timeline end up doing, things go much more AU starting with the opening sequence of TLJ.)

Masks!verse, incidentally, is technically Lavinia’s core timeline, in that it’s the first one I created of the three base timelines I have for her (Masks, Precipice, and PT-generation), but that’s a whole separate conversation. It does probably explain why Masks!Verse has like a million variants/offshoots, though...

Anyway. Digression aside, this crossover actually draws from a Masks!Verse offshoot that I call the Lavinia Organa AU.

(You can probably guess where this is going.)

(It’s very much an Exactly What It Says On The Tin type thing.)

(And, honestly, could do with its own outline for the rewrite of ANH alone...)

But the Cliff Notes version:

When Lavinia is born/announced, Breha goes to Bail and says “we managed to successfully rescue/kidnap one Sith Lord’s baby daughter, we should rescue this one, too.”

They had never really decided on only having one kid, after all. Just at least one, and they wanted a daughter.

(It just ended up not happening in canon because of the need for secrecy/not wanting to complicate things and put Leia at risk.)

(I saw a meta post the other day that points out that Bail was clearly ready to take both Skytwins, but then Yoda said to separate them.)

(This may or may not have come up in primary Masks!Verse, incidentally, but there, they decided it was too risky and they had to focus on protecting the daughter they already had.)

(It’s arguable how much kidnapping was technically involved in adopting Leia. But they do just straight-up kidnap Lavinia. They also fudge some records and release carefully-timed photos and do not make any in-person appearances with her so they can claim she’s three months younger than she actually is.)

How do they pull this off? ...IDK, magic? Handwave for now, it is out of the scope of this project.

Leia and Lavinia grow up pretty close.

(Not that they never fight--they bicker constantly, especially in the years before Leia starts taking a more active role in the Rebellion and a more official role in Alderaan’s government.)

(Lavinia, at thirteen, isn’t really allowed to do much at that point, but she backs Leia in everything and helps a lot with the background research/legwork.)

A couple notable details: Bail and Breha decided pretty early on that they wanted to tell each of their daughters a shell of their bioparents’ stories, leaving out the key details but sticking more or less to the truth as best they could without putting their girls at risk.

So, Leia knows basically what she was told in canon--that her birth mother was a close friend of her parents, they didn’t know her birth father well, and both her bioparents died at the end of the Clone War.

That’s enough for her. She knows who her real parents are, and doesn’t especially care about her bioparents at this point. She has other things to worry about/deal with.

Lavinia is told that her birth mother died shortly after she was born, and her birth father was Not A Good Person and lost custody of her.

So, the thing about Lavinia--it’s less prominent in this AU because she had a functional childhood and parents who treated her like a person and not a spy/asset, but she’s very...the way she puts it in Precipice!Verse is that she doesn’t like walking into a room unprepared. And this shell of a story about her birth parents feels like the kind of thing that could bite her actual parents and her sister (and her) in the ass in a major way.

So, very quietly, around the time Leia starts working as an active Rebel agent, she starts digging into it, trying to identify her bioparents.

She doesn’t find any stories around her official age that match what her parents told her, and she doesn’t think they would lie.

But, she reasons, they might have skewed things or lied about her age to protect her from her biofather.

And then she learns Emperor Palpatine had a daughter, who died, who’s approximately the right age.

When she asks her parents about this, they don’t lie. They confirm it for her

(They would have done the same for Leia, if she had done the legwork and asked them point-blank, but like I said it’s not something she particularly cares about at this point.)

Lavinia then asks if she can tell Leia--they’ve actually been getting closer since Leia suddenly developed all these Adult Responsibilities, and the events of the Princess Leia novel happened.

This pretty much cements their relationship. While they still bicker a fair amount--they’re both pretty strong personalities, and not always compatible ones; Leia being a Soldier and Lavinia being a Spy, plus they’re teenage sisters who are fairly close in age--but they are Ride Or Die Full Stop from this point out.

By the time ANH actually rolls around, they’re both active Rebel agents--Lavinia works mostly with Intelligence and to a point with supply/other support forces, because she’s good at reading people and mapping interpersonal networks and figuring out who to approach, while Leia does more or less what she does in canon.

Again, the actually rewrite of ANH would be its own outline, so the important bits (with minimal detail in case I do end up doing this one properly at some point):

Lavinia and Leia are both on the Tantive.

Lavinia takes a shuttle/tender ship/something and separates, hoping to act as an additional decoy, that Vader will assume that the big ship is the Obvious Decoy and focus on her instead so Leia can get the plans to Kenobi safely.

Vader, of course, has the resources to track both of them so this doesn’t work.

Lavinia ends up tagging along on the Falcon and ending up on the Death Star with the others.

Everyone, including Obi-Wan, actually makes it off the station alive.

Lavinia was running around in the air vents for a while, and left behind a blood sample. On impulse, Vader runs it--he wants to identify all of Obi-Wan’s co-conspirators as quickly as possible and while there are no clear shots of her face on the surveillance footage he has, this is an available resource he can use.

Obi-Wan tells Luke and Leia who they are to each other (though sticks to the Certain Point Of View story about their biodad for the time being).

They have a moment of “...well, that explains a lot” and just accept it and move on.

So, at this point, there are some Key Secrets going on:

One, that Luke and Leia are the twin children, biologically, of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Naberrie Amidala.

People who know this: Obi-Wan, Luke, Leia, and Lavinia (they tell each other pretty much everything of this level of importance.)

Two, that Anakin Skywalker is now Darth Vader.

People who know this: Obi-Wan, Vader, Palpatine.

Three, that Lavinia Organa is Palpatine’s biological daughter.

People who know this: Lavinia, Leia, Vader, Mon Mothma (who they told in a “so this might be a Thing and we want to make sure Someone in High Command is prepared JUST IN CASE).

(They probably tell Luke before too much longer, but they do not share this detail with Obi-Wan.)

Right, so. Those are the Most Important Details for the purposes of understanding Let’s Go Steal A Crossover, I think.

Anyway, I’m drawing from this AU for two reasons:

(Or, three, if we include the fact that I Like It And I Can.)

First, it’s an easy way to get the Skytwins’ team connected/integrated with a minimum of Drama.

Second, because it’s kind of where the whole crossover concept came from. I was babbling at my very patient roommate about the Lavinia Organa AU (specifically about potential ESB/Cloud City plot points), and realized “lol, I could make a religion Leverage team out of this.”

“....WAIT I COULD MAKE A LEVERAGE TEAM OUT OF THIS!”

Here’s how it works:

Hitter: Leia. Who is a tiny ball of rage a lot of the time, and takes after both her bioparents in a large degree. She is definitely, definitely their combat specialist, even if she hasn’t really played that role in her previous work.

Hacker: Han. He’s the one who’s good at improvising tech, etc.

Grifter: Lando. Quick, act shocked.

Thief: Luke. Very different style from Parker, of course, but still.

Mastermind: Lavinia. Who, while not in any way going to use it as he did, inherited her biological father’s aptitude for strategy and manipulation.

The dynamic isn’t 100% the same, of course. For example, Lavinia may be the strategist, but Leia is more the team lead in the field. But it still lines up really great and then I started poking at the Leverage backstories above after the initial concept occurred to me and here we are.

Miscellania:

This crossover takes place in a vague “timelines mean nothing” sort of state. As I said before, the Leverage team is more or less in S3. We’ll say the Skytwins team is somewhere around ESB, though obviously the background leading them there is going to be Very Different.

The actual plot is going to start with The Two Live Crew Job In SPACE and go from there.

(Possibly getting more complicated, as we throw in Sterling and/or Vader and/or Obi-Wan and/or the Ghost crew.)

(In that last case, the Ghost crew never split up/Kanan never died/Ezra never went on a road trip with Thrawn and a bunch of space whales.)

And...that should cover it! Sometime this week (I’m hoping before Solo comes out), I’ll put up Part Two, which will cover the Actual Plot.

#au outlines for the win #masks verse #shadowsong writes star wars #shadowsong26fic

[rekkingcrew]

The Drax Krieger Files: The Fortress pt 1

Drax is in his shitty office in Nar Shaddaa, where he’s been sleeping for the last week and hasn’t even begun to unpack, deleting pictures of his recently ex-wife. His secretary bot is in hibernation mode because the office’s power is patchy right now. There’s a chime at the door, and Drax opens it to reveal an astronomically high-end female-coded protocol droid in a silk robe worth more than most people’s lives. Her face and head configuration are something like a multi-species noh mask, curved to suggest features without committing to them and painted in such a way that one instinctively reads the shape of her eyes as broadly like their own species configuration. She says she’s here on behalf of NuTech corporate sector interests to hire Drax to investigate a murder.

(Below the cut because this is loooooong, but if you want to try and solve the mystery, I welcome guesses!)

The droid introduces herself as Nu734047, though she concedes to accept Nu for short. An acquisitions executive representing her company was murdered a few hours ago along with two other parties. The executive’s name was Weel Bol’lan. Pressed for the other two parties she gives them as Commander Pristan Vadst of the former Republic military, currently leader of the Violet Sun mercenary company, and, after a pause, Kadjah Desjilic (as in Jabba “the Hutt” Desjilic). Nu emphasizes that her company wants a thorough investigation of the events of the evening to determine the profitability of continued business ventures.

Drax’s rolls and quick research allow him to know the following going in: NuTech is a company with varied investments in everything from starships to investments, pharmaceuticals to droid production. There was some scandal back in the Republic years wherein they were fined for knowingly making medications more addictive than necessary, but that was years ago and their profits have been up. Weel Bol’lan was a nemoidian and a frequent face in business journals, usually posed somewhere opulent, talking about exciting new technology investments and selling infrastructure upgrades- sometimes before all the details had been worked out. He seemed generally well thought of in his community and had acquired numerous patents for his company.

Pristan Vadst was a rising star near the end of the Clone Wars, but a very divisive officer; people either loved him or hated him. His numbers of troops lost were quite high, but his numbers of battles lost were very, very low. When the Republic became the Empire, more of his superiors hated him than loved him, so he resigned his commission and went freelance in the outer rim. The Violet Sun mercenary company is notable particularly for a large minority of its soldiers being clones that followed Vadst out of the Empire.

Kadjah Desjilic was a dangerously ambitious Hutt walking a tightrope between being necessary competent operator and clearly wanting Jabba’s job. They were recently very severely and publicly punished for an infraction involving hiding information from their superiors. The infraction itself was small, but the punishment was meant to send a message: know your place and stay there. Like NuTech, Kadjah was involved in diverse ventures including drugs, mercenary work, space freight, protection rackets, gambling, and so on.

The drive to the crime scene is brief. Nu attempts to pour Drax’s drinks and he grabs her arm to stop her. He tells her he knows she’s buttering him up, and he wants nothing to do with servile programming or forced compliments. He wants them to interact as equals. Nu tells him that’s very commendable. He glares.

The site of the murder is a multistory edifice called the Fortress, which has built its entire reputation on being a safe, neutral meeting ground for different factions in Nar Shaddaa’s vicious criminal underworld. The upper portion of the Fortress is composed of three concentric rings of luxury and security. The outer ring welcomes any number of employees of the factions and puts them up in style while talks happen; security in this ring includes manual pat downs and guards to keep the peace. The second ring is open to no more than five pre-determined body guards per faction, and always an equal number to the other factions’; security for this ring includes weight sensitive plates to thwart stealth devices, facial recognition software, and a blood DNA scanner- failing any of these measures triggers a stun shock and an alarm in all parts of the Fortress. Inside the second ring, two guards watch the door to the innermost ring at all times, always from separate factions. The second ring includes a comfortable lounge for guards not on active duty. The doors are staggered in such a way that someone going from the outer rim to the inner must pass by this lounge.  The inner ring is a luxury meeting room designed to accommodate many species. Refreshments are provided in a quantity that clients may pass undisturbed hours in discussion. This room is soundproofed. Each faction is encouraged to send a representative ahead of time to personally check the security before the meeting.

There were three different hour long two person guard shifts last night. At the end of the third, bodyguards began to worry and opened up the room to find three cold corpses.

(the events in these next paragraphs are slightly out of order, but it makes for easier thematic grouping).

At the scene, Drax is not the only investigator on the case. The Hutts have sent their own people in, lead by a weequay ex-pitfighting champion turned bounty hunter turned Hutt contractor by the name of Quayun, though most people just call her Queen. She cultivates a “barbarian” persona, including a necklace of sentient finger bones, but it’s mostly a useful ruse, and she’s a canny, sophisticated operator. Drax likes her. She does not like Nu. They talk briefly and while she’s not in the mood for any nonsense, she agrees to let Drax investigate so long as he shows her crew proper respect and shares all his findings with her. Her crew is mostly tearing apart the outer rim, disassembling droids and scanners, and holding the owners teen son hostage to ensure full cooperation. Drax talks to Toh, who was the Hutt head guard and one of the two people on third shift. He concedes that perhaps they were a bit relaxed, but the Fortress is always considered to be an easy gig where nothing goes wrong. He explains that all of the CorpSec body guards were whisked away in a black car as soon as word got back to their bosses and that they looked “fuckin’ terrified”. He says Kadjah had met with NuTech before. He also demonstrates the soundproofing on the inner room by firing his gun wildly inside the crime scene, to the chagrin of all the Violet Sun people inside. He speculates that within the next 24 hours he’s going to either end up promoted or fed to some kind of monster, so he may as well have a little fun, right?

The head of the Violet Sun investigators is a clone called Tripwire. Even though the war ended recently, he’s already going gray, and he has an intricate circuit board cut into the back of his close-cropped hair. Drax knows Tripwire personally as well, though he has not seen him in years (this was not something I planned, but you have to give a good roll to the player). Tripwire does not like Drax. All the clones have an espirit de corps, but Tripwire particularly was a clones-first person, and the fact that his specialty in mechanics and demolitions overlapped so much with Drax’s meant he often saw Drax as a rival. He greets Drax coldly but cordially and gives him a Kansas-level flat look when asked if his mercenary company for hire, which does indiscriminate violence for money, might have any enemies. He expresses disdain for the Hutt crew and complains that they’re surely destroying clues, but he also clearly doesn’t want a bloodbath over it. All his men, clone and otherwise, seem to respect him. The Violet Sun is doing a precision sweep of the second ring and the inner room with cameras and instruments. Tripwire says he doesn’t know what the meeting was about, which is what everyone at the scene says, but the difference here is that Tripwire is lying and Drax catches it. Drax also notices his armor, which is superficially identical to the rest of his men’s, but with subtle mods Drax would absolutely recognize if he saw them again. Tripwire was the guard on the first shift, with one of the CorpSec guards. Drax also meets and speaks to a clone named Patch, who was on the third guard shift with Toh. Patch is an earnest young clone with a visible skin graft, finished just as the war was wrapping, and the transition out of the army was hard for him. He respected Vadst, and opines that even though he’s not crazy about the work and clients, the mercenary company “you know... feels like home.” He mentions this is not the first time Vadst had met with Kadjah. When Drax is done investigating Vadst, he covers the body with a sheet and gives a salute.

In the innermost chamber, the body of Kadjah has been removed, as their people considered it disrespectful to leave it there. Bol’lan and Vadst are there however, and they have clearly been hit with a gun of immense caliber. Half of Bol’lan’s head is missing. Vadst’s chest is in ruins. Drax is able to determine that the single shot that killed Vadst was fired from near the door and that Vadst never rose from sitting. Bol’lan tried to rise, and the shot that killed him was fired from slightly further into the room. Exit spray indicates three shots were fired into Kadjah, from closer in than Bol’lan’s. All signs indicate quick, precise, deliberate shots fired from waist to chest level if the attacker was human sized, and Drax concludes the attacker took out the most dangerous target first, then Bol’lan who was never likely to be trouble, then the hutt last, as it was likely to be the slowest to respond and would take the most time. The wounds are extensive enough that Drax isn’t able to tell much about the gun except that it was big, but while investigating Bol’lan he finds a vial of some unknown substance that the Violet Sun had missed (this roll was a failure with five advantages). He manages to pocked it without being observed, including by Nu, who has been watching him carefully this whole time and recording everything around her.

He tries to talk to the Fortress’s owner, a duros who is clearly near his breaking point, watching his whole life torn apart by Hutt thugs who are holding his kid hostage. He explains some of the intricacies of the security system. When Drax asks if there’s anything else, he looks nervously to his Hutt guards and to his kid and says “no.” Drax convinces Queen to let him talk to the owner alone and he immediately blurts “I will give you 100,000 credits to get my son out of Hutt space. There’s an account, he knows the password. Please. I know it’s too late for me, but please get him out.” It’s apparent to Drax he doesn’t know any more than he’s already said, and he’s turned over the blood samples for the door and all the data to the Hutt crew. Drax promises to do what he can about the kid and (destiny point), but he will not take any money for it. The owner, confused, offers him more money, which Drax again declines. Drax is able to find a trivial bounty on the kid he can put a claim on, which elicits some loud swearing from Queen. It doesn’t stop her killing the kid if she really wants to, but she’s still a licensed bounty hunter and there are guild rules about interfering with a bounty someone else has claimed. She glares at Drax when he comes out of the office. She’s not going to kill the kid now, but she’s not letting him go either. She gives Drax a copy of the security data, but keeps the physical blood for herself, possibly to give to some sort of giant horrible space bloodhounds.

Drax asks Nu if he can interview the CorpSec security. After a moment she tells him his request is granted. He tells her he needs to stop at a pharmacy and pick up his prescription on the way, which elicits another very long pause before she agrees. Drax does indeed pick up said prescription, but he also passes the vial off for analysis to a medical contact he has (destiny point), an ithorian biochemist who worked in the Republic Army MedCorps, with a specialty in researching and countering biological weapons developed by Separatists forces. This person is deeply regretful about what they see as their role in the rise of the Empire and is currently doing mercy clinic work as penance. (Drax’s player supplied the details and could not have picked a better person to hand this to.) In the car, he applies his prescription to prove he got it. Nu mentions her company makes a superior version of the same formula.

Inside the NuTech building holding cells, Drax talks to the leader of the Corpsec security forces, a nemoidian named Eyel who was on the second shift with one of the Hutt guards. He seems confused and terrified. He gives similar answers to Toh and Tripwire, and mentions that maybe they were a little lax, but this was meant to be an easy assignment. He does note that during the third shift, Tripwire got a call from someone in his organization and had to step outside for a couple of minutes to meet with them, which is technically against the rules, but isn’t really unusual, and he was back quickly. Eyel maintains he has absolutely no knowledge of the meeting, but he’s absolutely sure it was nothing illegal, as his company doesn’t do that sort of thing. As Drax is preparing to leave, an alarm goes off and security rushes to one of the other cells. The human inside, who was on first shift guard with Tripwire, is dead (dark side DM destiny point). Drax is whisked away, but not before he’s able to get a look at what killed him- a targeted implanted explosive device in the back of the head. He recognizes the injection site for it as coming from what’s called a leechgun, because of its anesthetic tip. Victims don’t tend to realize the implant is there. He’s able to determine the implantation definitely happened before they got to the fortress, possibly as much as a day ago. Leechguns are rare but if you’re going to find them anywhere, it’s Nar Shaddaa.

And that’s where we stopped for the night.

The next two clues- the security records and the analysis on the vial- will be big ones, but if you want to take a crack at solving it, please do :D

#the Drax Krieger files #I accidentally DMed a Bladerunner game #Drax #I DMed #star wars edge of the empire #tabletop rp #mystery

[pickcpodcast]

12 Show Notes - What’s the best historical reference in Avatar: the Last Airbender?

Strap into your flying bison because this episode is a doozy!

This week’s question is: What is the best historical reference in Avatar: The Last Airbender?

A.      Chin the Conqueror

B.       The Order of the White Lotus

C.       The Dai Li

D.      Tenzin & Monk Gyatso

First of all: it is a cardinal rule of the universe that one cannot talk about history and ATLA in the same breath without mentioning the amazing work that has been done over on ATLA-Annotated https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com, where you will find not only translations of all the Chinese used in the show but also exhaustively researched posts about everything from the clothing styles to the architecture seen in the show.

In the episode, we mentioned an upcoming (at the time) series about Avatar Kyoshi. That series is now out, and it’s called The Rise of Kyoshi! Find out more here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/yee-nickelodeon-collaboration_9781419735042/ https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rise_of_Kyoshi

As promised in the episode, we’ve included pronunciations for names were we could find them. Some had IPA and recordings available, while for others we only found transcriptions in Hanyu Pinyin, the standard transcription/Romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin does give you all the information you need to pronounce something correctly, but it’s not the most intuitive for native English speakers. So here are some resources for how to use it for the names in this post: https://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/pinyin-beginners-guide-mandarin-chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Mandarin

Option A: Chin the Conqueror / Qin Shi Huang-di, the First Emperor

Here’s Qin Shi Huang in IPA: [tɕʰǐn ʂɨ̀ xwǎŋ]

And in Hanyu Pinyin: Qín shǐ huáng

And for those who don’t like reading either, here’s a recording: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Qin_shi_huang_pronunciation_2.ogg

Our main source for the IRL Qin conqueror was Mark Edward Lewis’s The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, which goes into the origins of the pre-imperial state of Qin, its militarism and legalistic policies. If you want to learn more about the man himself, we’ve previously referenced Jonathan Fenby’s The Dragon Throne: China’s Emperors from the Qin to the Manchu for its comprehensive coverage of Chinese imperial history and the chapter on the Qin dynasty is just as solid.

One of the major primary (sort of) sources that we have is Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, which you have probably heard Sophie reference before, and which we will draw on again in future episodes. This is because it’s one of the richest sources available to us on early Chinese history, written by Sima Qian [sɨ́mà tɕʰjɛ́n] over a lifetime. It’s this historical tome that contains one of the best-known stories about the First Emperor, which is that he burned books and killed scholars. As powerful as such a story is, it’s unclear how much of it is historical fact and how much of it is a Han dynasty with an axe to grind and a predecessor to discredit. For more on this academic debate, you can start with this article: http://ulrichneininger.de/?p=461.

For those more interested in the myth than the man, Sophie mentions the film Hero, a 2002 film by Zhang Yimou starring Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen among others. On top of being a really intriguing film full of mind games, it is! So! Pretty!

Now: back to the show! If you want to learn more about the adventures and misadventures of Avatar’s Chin, the Avatar fandom wiki is a wonderful and thorough source: https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Chin

In the episode we also talk about the worldbuilding and political setup of the Earth Kingdom in general. For those who are interested, we can’t recommend Hello Future Me’s video about this very topic enough! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-FNPuIM9jg

Other sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/qin-shi-huangdi/

Option B: The Order of the White Lotus / White Lotus Society

In the original show, the Order of the White Lotus is a secret society, composed of many bending and martial arts masters across the four nations who are implied to be working together to end the Hundred-Year War. Near the end of the show, White Lotus members mobilize in force to liberate Ba Sing Se from Fire Nation occupation. The Avatar wikis have a pretty thorough compilation of the White Lotus’s exploits and history: https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Order_of_the_White_Lotus https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Order_of_the_White_Lotus

The IRL White Lotus Society (Báiliánjiào in Mandarin) was also a secret society (or sect or cult, depending on who you ask). They were around for at least four hundred years—multiple sources record their involvement in the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-1300s as well as in the White Lotus Rebellion between 1794 and 1804. Some sources even include Zhu Yuanzhang (Zhū Yuánzhāng in Pinyin), the founder of the Ming Dynasty, as one of its members.

Like the fictional White Lotus, the historical society/sect apparently had traditional practices such as martial arts, medicine/healing, and meditation. The historical White Lotus also had a strong religious element; many of its beliefs were based on Buddhism and Taoism but with a smattering of Manichaeism (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism) which—to vastly simplify some very old and complex beliefs—is defined by duality and struggle: light vs. dark, good vs. evil, and so forth. There may also have been elements of messianic belief/prophecy in the White Lotus religion—members believed that humanity in its current state had been corrupted and needed saviors to lead them to reconciliation with the good and divine. However, unlike the fictional White Lotus, which seems to be comprised of societal leaders and elites, the real White Lotus attracted people on the other end of the spectrum—women, peasants, and other marginalized populations.

To learn more about the historical White Lotus’s philosophies, practices, and history, check out Susan Naquin’s Millenarian Rebellion in China: https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/5983 and Elizabeth Perry’s article “Worshipers and Warriors: White Lotus Influence on the Nian Rebellion”:  http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/68415/10.1177_009770047600200102.pdf;jsessionid=608E03C2AA7738C4B7F214F3763E17DD?sequence=2 .

Other sources:

[1] https://heathenchinese.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/millenarianism-pt-4-the-white-lotus-society-and-the-nian-rebellion/

[2] https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Buddhism#ref71731

[3] https://www.britannica.com/event/White-Lotus-Rebellion

[4] The book Sophie was reading that mentions the White Lotus was the one we mentioned in Episode 10, Arthur Cotterell’s The Imperial Capitals of China.

Option C: The Dai Li

In the show, the Dai Li are the shady secret police force that basically runs the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. Originally founded by Avatar Kyoshi, one of Aang’s past lives, to protect the city’s “cultural heritage” and “traditions,” by the time of the show they are associated with kidnapping, brainwashing, and political repression in the name of “stability” (“There is no war in Ba Sing Se,”etc.). https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Dai_Li

What you may not know as that the Dai Li, and especially their leader, Grand Secretariat Long Feng, are mostly likely inspired by Dai Li (Dài Lì in Pinyin), an IRL spymaster who was active in Republic-era China before dying under mysterious circumstances in 1946.

The main account of Dai Li’s life and exploits that we used comes from Kathryn Meyer & Terry Parssinen’s Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade (1998), which is (as it says on the tin) about the illicit drug trade (mostly opium and cocaine). The whole book is a fantastic read, but you can find most of Dai Li’s shenanigans in Chapter 8, “Spies.”

For those who hate good books, you can find some more straightforward accounts of his life here https://chinachannel.org/2019/03/22/dai-li/  and here https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=894. The long and short of it is that he rose from obscure poverty to work under Chiang Kai-Shek [ˈtʃæŋ kaɪˈʃɛk], the leader of the Kuomintang [ˌkwəʊmɪnˈtaŋ]  or Republic of China, which ruled mainland China between 1928 and 1949. Dai Li ran the Military Statistics Bureau, also known as the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics or Juntong (Jūntǒng) for short, which was the front for the Kuomintang’s intelligence/security/secret police arm. Like his in-show counterpart, Dai Li’s reputation is one rife with foul play, assassination, and the prioritization of internal threats over external and arguably bigger ones.

The name of his rumored girlfriend, Chinese actress Hu Die (meaning “butterfly”) is pronounced Hú Dié. She was also known as Butterfly Wu. Dai Li died in a plane crash on the way to visit her, one stormy night in 1946—jury’s out on whether that was an accident or not.

Option D: Monk Gyatso & Tenzin / Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

This option is interesting in that the same historical figure is reference twice in the Avatar universe: both Monk Gyatso, Aang’s mentor, https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Gyatso and Tenzin, Aang’s son, https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Tenzin are references to the same figure: the current Dalai Lama, also known by the first two of his religious names, Tenzin Gyatso [tɛ̃ ́tsĩ càtsʰo].

You can read more about the Dalai Lama’s remarkable life here:

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dalai-Lama-14th

[2] https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography

As we mentioned in the episode, the Dalai Lama is officially an influential leader (but not the head) of the Gelug [ɡèluʔ] school of Tibetan Buddhism. He and his past lives are believed to be the reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [ˌʌvəloʊkɪˈteɪʃvərə], or Chenrézik in Tibetan.

The connection between the Borjigin lineage and the Dalai Lama, which we touch on, is actually a really interesting one. According to Jack Weatherford’s The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, the word “lama” comes from a Tibetan word for “chief” or “high priest” and is a title given to spiritual teachers in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In 1578, two Borjigin descendants—Mongol leaders Altan Khan and Queen Noyanchu Junggen—gave the title of “Dalai,” a Mongolian word meaning “sea,” to the Tibetan lama Sonam Gyatso, making him the first Dalai Lama (“sea of knowledge”). Each of Sonam Gyatso’s subsequent reincarnations has borned the same title, including the Dalai Lama we know and love today.

Finally, in the episode we touched on the real-world and ongoing conflict between China and Tibet. Yes, the Fire Nation is much closer to imperial China than it is to Japan, although there are certainly semblances to Japan too. You can read more about that in ATLA-Annotated’s tag “The Fire Nation is not Japan” https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/tagged/The+Fire+Nation+is+not+Japan and specifically this post: https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/14206674362/on-the-fire-nation-tibet-and-the-genocides-the

If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading and listening and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

#avatar: the last airbender #atla #history #the legend of korra #china #guys this episode was so much #SO MUCH #episode 12

[gffa]

STAR WARS is really good for time travel fic, the urge to give the characters a chance to fix things, now that they have an idea of what went wrong or what to look out for, while still having to relive so many painful things, that balance of suffering and yet it’s worth it for the hope it offers, it’s exactly what the best fic is made of. I LOVE TIME TRAVEL FIC SO MUCH, so I’ve collected together a bunch of my favorites! (Last Updated: 2017.04.19) ✦ Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 129.3k    ObiWan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occuring? ✦ Lost Reflections by esama, obi-wan & ben, 30.k wip    Obi-Wan didn’t become Qui-Gon Jinn’s apprentice, and Ben didn’t exile himself to Tatooine. On Bandomeer the two meet. ✦ Threads of the Past by Magier74, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & xanatos, 37.8k    Obi-Wan and Anakin make an unexpected detour returning home from a mission. ✦ time to change the road you’re on by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 24.3k wip    The end of the Clone War is near - the fall of the Republic even nearer. Anakin Skywalker, caught up in the events that lead to the rise of the Empire and the loss of everything he holds dear, finds himself sent nearly two decades into the future. ✦ these are the good old days by QueenWithABeeThrone, han & obi-wan & anakin, 2.3k    Han Solo, after being killed by his own son, wakes up as an eight-year-old on Corellia, then runs away from home. just his luck (or the Force) that his ride crashes on a world being squabbled over by the Republic and the Separatists. just his luck (or the Force) that he runs into Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, too. ✦ set this dance alight by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan & ahsoka & han & cast, 3k wip    “And don’t call me squirt.” “You’re shorter than I am,” Tano shoots back, “I get to call you anything I like.” or: Han Solo finds the Millennium Falcon a decade or so earlier than scheduled, and Obi-wan Kenobi finds himself adjusting to his new padawan while on the job. ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & background anakin/padme & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand. ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, anakin/padme + obi-wan/anakin/padme + luke & leia & mon mathma & ahsoka, mildly nsfw, 53.2k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem. ✦ One Day More by CalaisKenobi, obi-wan & qui-gon & anakin & cast, 31.2k    Obi-Wan is given the opportunity to make some changes in his past. With the help of some old friends, and the hindrance of some old enemies, the Galaxy will be forever changed. ✦ Wake the Storm by bedlamsbard, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash) & cast, 75.4k    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions. ✦ Old Man Luke by scarletjedi, obi-wan & anakin & luke & cast, 10.4k wip    Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?” He asked, hoping a direct question would yield answers. The old man seemed adept at side-stepping information when asked a bit more deftly. “I’ve never heard of a Master with your level of talent.” ✦ Hello From the Other Side by DarthNickels, anakin & luke & han/leia & kylo ren & piett, body swap, time travel, 16.7k wip    Kylo Ren is destined to take up the mantle of Vader. The Force can be incredibly literal. ✦ I Found You by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & shmi, ~1k    A pregnant Shmi makes it to the Jedi Temple and immediate seeks out and finds the boy who was (will be?) her son’s Master/brother/teacher/friend. The boy who became the man to sacrifice himself for her grandchildren. The One who shared her Visions. ✦ went back and put up a fight by springsoldier (ladydaredevil), obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 2k    She probably shouldn’t trust the wish-granting Sith artefact. (In which Ahsoka makes a brave attempt at hugging the Dark Side out of Anakin) ✦ Tumblr Ramblings (Obi-Wan Time Travel/AU-jump) by gaealynn, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast,    At the end of RotJ, Obi-Wan reaches out a hand to help Anakin cross over and instead – wakes up on Naboo. ✦ Hollow by JennMel, qui-gon & obi-wan & anakin & others, 5.6k    Obi-Wan has always had a secret. And Qui-Gon could not, must not, ever know. If he did, then they would never even make it to Tatooine, let alone deal with the rest to come. One perfect possible future, that’s all Obi-Wan needed to achieve…that’s all. ✦ Conversations at the Intersections of Time by Sentimental Star, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 5.2k wip    What happens when a thirteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker and his twenty-nine-year-old Master get snatched back in time, only to come face to face with a fifteen-year-old Obi-Wan…and a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn? ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme, 4.9k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers. ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by delicatefury, obi-wan & luke & leia & han & cast, time travel, ~4k    Obi-Wan wakes up in the middle of a space battle. Or rather he doesn’t. Regardless, a dogfight is no place for an existential crisis. ✦ TDPL Snippet - Leia and Obi-Wan by delicatefury, obi-wan & leia, 1.9k    In honor of Carrie Fisher, here’s the first Leia POV scene I wrote for The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars. ✦ TDPL snippet - The Padawan Discussion, round 2. by delicatefury, obi-wan & luke, 2.4k    “I know… I know I made a big deal about being a Jedi like my Father,” Luke beings. “And I’m not taking it back,” he hastens to add. “I wanted to be a Jedi at first because he was. I guess I just wanted to know him in someway. But I didn’t wanna be a Jedi like my Father, y’know?” ✦ There’s Still Time to Change the Road You’re On by victoria_p (musesfool), anakin & luke & leia, 3.6k    “Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?” ✦ I’ll Be There For You by SinkingLikeASunset, obi-wan/anakin/padme (eventual) & qui-gon & clones & cast, 40.7k wip    Just days after his fateful encounter with Anakin on Mustafar , Obi-Wan has resigned himself to a lonely existence on Tatooine. However, he has been granted a chance to go back and fix things. Obi-Wan must alter events and make changes as he struggles with memories of a dreadful future and deals with new developments this time around. ✦ untitled by cadesama part 1 / 2 / 3, obi-wan & anakin & leia & rey & padme & finn & poe & cast, 2.7k wip    A decade ago, Leia would have considered this a headache. Perhaps a nightmare. Now, she was mostly bemused. ✦ of deserts and droids by songstress, rey & anakin, 3.9k    Rey accidentally time-travels, and realizes that Jedi are even more weird than she had ever imagined. ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme, 4.9k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers. ✦ One Day More by CalaisKenobi, obi-wan & qui-gon & anakin & cast, 31.2k    Obi-Wan is given the opportunity to make some changes in his past. With the help of some old friends, and the hindrance of some old enemies, the Galaxy will be forever changed. ✦ Conversations at the Intersections of Time by Sentimental Star, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 5.2k wip    What happens when a thirteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker and his twenty-nine-year-old Master get snatched back in time, only to come face to face with a fifteen-year-old Obi-Wan…and a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn? ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 11.2k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers. ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & luke & leia & cody & cast, time travel, 4.3k wip    After a disaster on the cosmic scale that Obi-Wan is still trying to wrap his mind around, he finds himself back in the early days of the Clone Wars, Commander Cody loyally at his side, Anakin at his back, and Sidious plotting against the Jedi at every turn. He’s been given an unasked for chance to do everything over again. And with the Force as his ally, he intends to set the galaxy on a brighter path than its current trajectory. ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 66k wip    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean the outcome will be something any of them want. ✦ From a Certain Point of View pt 1 / pt 2 / pt 3 / pt 4, obi-wan & anakin & padme & ahsoka & sidious & cast, 7.5k ✦ Tumblr Ramblings (Obi-Wan Time Travel/AU-jump) by gaealynn, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast,    At the end of RotJ, Obi-Wan reaches out a hand to help Anakin cross over and instead – wakes up on Naboo. ✦ The Fires by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33), obi-wan/anakin & hinted obi-wan/anakin/padme, 4.2k    He wakes quickly and without thought, breaking through the barrier of unconsciousness to find himself face down on the floor of a starfighter. (OR, Groundhog Day. ROTS, Battle of Mustafar, Full-On Groundhog Day. Yes, I am a masochist, thank you for asking.) ✦ Where Have We Come? by soaring_heart, obi-wan & anakin, 1.9k    The first time was one of the hardest and the easiest. Obi-Wan loses at Mustafar, but instead of dying he wakes up at the dawn of the last day of the republic, doomed to repeat the worst day of his life, over and over again. ✦ All Over Again by tricksterity, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & shmi & cast, time travel, 27.7k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi is sixteen years old when he collapses in the training salle to the shock of his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. When he wakes up two days later after multiple seizures and flatlining once, he remembers the Clone Wars, remembers Mustafar, remembers being cut in half by the man he loved more than anything in the universe, and he remembers Luke and Leia. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & mace & dooku & palpatine & cast, sith!obi-wan, NSFW, 95.4k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, seeks redemption while Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, disillusioned with the Jedi Order and its Code, falls to the Darkness. full details + recs under the cut!

✦ Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 129.3k    ObiWan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occuring?    I AM SO SAD THIS FIC IS OVER. I admit, the beginning is super fluffy and it takes awhile to get into the real tension of the piece, but when the fic delivers on the revelations, when Qui-Gon finally finds out what Obi-Wan knows, when Obi-Wan finally has to really let loose in a fight, when Anakin realizes what happened in Obi-Wan’s future, all of it is so goddamned worth the wait. I do actually enjoy the fluff of this fic, I don’t mean to indicate otherwise, because it’s adorable and necessary, where Obi-Wan just loves kidlet Anakin so much and has the experience to be more open about it this time, the maturity to better handle everything, has Qui-Gon still alive to let up on his own grief, it’s wonderful to read and soothed my heart and paved the way for the relationships being even stronger than they were.    But it’s really in the second half where this fic becomes absolutely magical, where shit finally hits the fan and revelations have to happen and the plot cannot remain the same because Obi-Wan’s not going to let things fall apart again. I absolutely could not put the fic down by that point, I was utterly engrossed and read practically the whole second half in one sitting because I kept needing to turn the page, just one more time, just one more time! The tension of how things unfold, Sidious and Maul’s plots, the Jedi Council trying to figure out what’s going on, Qui-Gon trying to figure out what the hell is up with Obi-Wan, Anakin bonding so fiercely to Obi-Wan, all of it ties together and culminates in a fine as hell epic fight scene that left me so damned satisfied.    The fic is absolutely focused on making things better, in fixing everything, but it never forgets that Obi-Wan is not who he was in the original timeline, because he’s grown, he’s healing here, but he’s still a Jedi Master who has Seen A Lot Of Shit, that the second time around is necessary to be built on top of the previous one, which is how time travel fics work best for me. Plus, this has one of my new favorites of the duel on Mustafar, when Anakin won that duel and how he won it, how you realize it shapes so much of what happens between them. And the ending! MY HEART FEELS SO MUCH BETTER AFTER THIS FIC. ✦ Lost Reflections by esama, obi-wan & ben, 30.k wip    Obi-Wan didn’t become Qui-Gon Jinn’s apprentice, and Ben didn’t exile himself to Tatooine. On Bandomeer the two meet.    Holy shit, I got sucked into this fic hard, despite that I really did not expect to. I was wary because my heart hurt at the idea of Obi-Wan never becoming a Jedi Knight, that Qui-Gon passed him over and never changed his mind, and the lack of other characters around them. But I’ve always enjoyed this author’s work whenever they write something and the fic quickly engrossed me and eventually I realized why it’s perfectly set up–it’s not about the big, epic events of the greater storyline, but it’s about Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s set from the younger one’s POV, as a strange possible Jedi named Ben Kenobi shows up on the farming world he’s been assigned to, so you can guess at so much of what Ben’s been through, but you don’t know the specifics and it works so well for that, especially because you can feel that bone deep weariness of soul and heart, even as he still has such care in him. It’s perfectly set up because it’s interesting, the ways that they use the Force in the AgriCorps that’s different from how a Jedi Knight uses it, it’s genuinely impressive what they do and it strengths their abilities in different ways.    This isn’t a time travel fic about fixing the timeline, it’s about Ben Kenobi finding healing because he needs to find himself. It’s about slice of life moments, it’s about nothing being hurried or frantic, but about Ben doing something wholly good again and lessening the hurt of those he’s lost (especially Anakin’s fall). And, oh, it’s a fic with gorgeous characterization, I love how different these two characters are, yet they are both Obi-Wan Kenobi, that deep well of caring and strength of personality and rightness of heart, even as there are absolutely feelings of anger and bitterness that young Obi-Wan works through. And Ben is perfect, even as the fic slowly reveals the wounded parts of his character, he still the absolute epitome of a perfect Jedi, he’s always composed and refined and graceful. He’s such an incredible teacher (of course, it helps that he knows exactly what he needs), always patient and yet not without humor and finding amusement in frustrating his apprentice at times, that he is so good for younger Obi-Wan, who grows so much with this guidance. It’s not about big reveals, it’s not about greater plot machinations, but instead about the slice of life moments that build (or fix) the foundations of both of the characters. It’s a WIP, but it doesn’t really matter because everything you’re getting out of this fic is present in the chapters that have already been posted and, honestly, while I would read 100k more of this (or at least like to know the ultimate ending), it’s also entirely satisfying the way it is. I got sucked into this and read it all in one sitting just about because it’s exactly the balm my soul needed, too. ✦ Threads of the Past by Magier74, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & xanatos, 37.8k    Obi-Wan and Anakin make an unexpected detour returning home from a mission.    Another fic that I found myself getting sucked into before I knew it! It’s Obi-Wan and Anakin traveling back to just before Obi-Wan became Qui-Gon’s Padawan and of course things do not go smoothly, but in a way that ultimately winds up being really satisfying to read. I do wish there had been a bit more filling in of details (the revelation scene was sadly missed) but ultimately I don’t mind because it still gave me so many things I was here for: Anakin getting a better understanding of Obi-Wan for having seen him as a less controlled child, being kind of freaked out because if Obi-Wan dies then he won’t be there for Anakin, the getting to actually see Qui-Gon instead of placing him on an idealized pedestal, as well as Obi-Wan seeing Qui-Gon again and learning how to really work through that grief. But also beyond that the timeline changes and that means plot changes happen! Xanatos becomes more important to the grand scheme, it means Obi-Wan and Anakin are closer when Anakin’s life goes to hell, it means the events of the galaxy shift into a better gear bit by bit. It’s not a terribly long fic, but it was suitably epic in scope and utterly satisfying by the end, it balanced the bigger plot stuff with the smaller human moments (Obi-Wan helping Anakin through his mother’s death is a scene that really stuck with me) in a way that really made me happy. Another example of why I read time travel fic, god bless. ✦ time to change the road you’re on by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 24.3k wip    The end of the Clone War is near - the fall of the Republic even nearer. Anakin Skywalker, caught up in the events that lead to the rise of the Empire and the loss of everything he holds dear, finds himself sent nearly two decades into the future.    Oh, I’m terribly hooked on this fic. The first couple of chapters were just this utter struggle, like an absolute slog to get through, in exactly the way it should be, because there’s so much history and weight on these characters, that throwing Anakin forward in time to Ahsoka, before she meets Vader face to face again, but after she knows who he is, and then she sees Anakin again, practically dumped in her lap, but on the verge of falling, already so far gone that it feels next to impossible to fix all of this, even when they have the chance. It’s exhausting, but so good, especially because it’s such a difficult situation and Ahsoka handles it as best she can!    One of the things I especially loved about it is, when she finds herself in that position, she doesn’t tell the whole truth, and you can see why, that she can be upset and hurt that someone else didn’t tell her the whole truth (though, I’m not sure why she’s angry with Obi-Wan when she finds out about him, how would he even have told her?) and yet still you understand, because she’s been there herself just now, that it’s not always so easy to just tell the whole truth. And that’s one of the things about Star Wars–it’s understandable to be upset when someone doesn’t tell you these horrible things you wanted to know, but there are understandable reasons why that person didn’t. It’s not directly paralleled, but I felt like it helped further show why Obi-Wan made some of the choices he did in canon, because sometimes there are just only bad choices and you have to pick one.    But the heart of the story is about Ahsoka trying to deal with all of this, trying to reach Anakin, who really is just a mess, it’s a story about a lot of things coming out because they have the chance to fix things. It’s a story about reconnecting everyone to each other, giving them a chance they thought lost, and, oh, when they get to Obi-Wan, when he sees Anakin again for the first time, my fannish heart broke in exactly the way it was supposed to. I was practically wriggling in my seat in the build-up and it really didn’t disappoint me at all, there was just so much there, even in just a page or two. So much love and loss. So much love and loss with Ahsoka as well, so much aching sadness whenever moppet Leia is on the screen or when they talk to Bail, so much sadness and suffering in this Star Wars universe, even though there’s hope to maybe fix it. This is a bit of an exhausting fic, but that only makes me respect it more, because this is supposed to be exhausting. And I cannot wait for more of this one.    Chapter 5: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. Oh, I read this entire chapter with a heavy feeling in my chest, in exactly the way the fic was supposed to give me, that it lived up to the potential of it in all the ways I was hoping it would. Ahsoka and Anakin have found Obi-Wan on Tatooine and the entire chapter is about trying to piece together what happened, along with just how much it weighed on Obi-Wan, just how much of him died back on Mustafar. The little touches, the way Anakin is so on edge here, but then flings himself at Obi-Wan to cry on him, the way Obi-Wan brushes Anakin’s hair out of his face when he’s sleeping, the way every word about what he knows feels like it’s a heavy stone being dragged up a mountain, all of it made me feel that sheer weight of feeling, how much love and care there was there and how much it hurt when things all went bad. It’s lovely writing and does so much justice to these characters and events and the Ahsoka pov is used so well to show how worn down this version of the man she used to know is, how different Ben Kenobi is from Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s so much hurt and anger and exhaustion here, in all the right places and it’s so good. ✦ these are the good old days by QueenWithABeeThrone, han & obi-wan & anakin, 2.3k    Han Solo, after being killed by his own son, wakes up as an eight-year-old on Corellia, then runs away from home. just his luck (or the Force) that his ride crashes on a world being squabbled over by the Republic and the Separatists. just his luck (or the Force) that he runs into Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, too.    Oh, my god, this was such a joyful ride, I could have read it for another 100k and eaten it up like it was nothing but delicious candy, even as it’s just the right length for what it wants to achieve. It’s such a great Han voice, the right amount of “wtf” blended with “well, whatever, this is my life now, I guess” feeling, the fic does a glorious job of those reveal moments that you know are coming, when he realizes just who he’s run into, the hilarious shock of, oh, shit, it’s kriffing Vader and oh, fuck, that’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, but also they’re not really what Han was expecting, either. The whole fic is an absolute scream, I never knew how badly I needed Han Solo to be the worst time traveler ever, to interact with Anakin and Obi-Wan in hilarious ways, to have his life just entirely fucked up by these Force users. But this was super great and everyone should read it, my face hurts from grinning just remembering reading it! ✦ set this dance alight by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan & ahsoka & han & cast, 3k wip    “And don’t call me squirt.” “You’re shorter than I am,” Tano shoots back, “I get to call you anything I like.” or: Han Solo finds the Millennium Falcon a decade or so earlier than scheduled, and Obi-wan Kenobi finds himself adjusting to his new padawan while on the job.    You’ll probably need to have read these are the good old days before this fic to understand it. I used to really dislike the idea of Force Sensitive Han, because not everyone has to be Force Sensitive, but he’s so cranky about things here, the idea that he’d hate so much all the things he’s good at are because of the Force, that actually seeing time traveling Han Solo be de-aged and sort of stumble into becoming Obi-Wan’s new Jedi Padawan Learner? AMAZING. This fic is just pure joy to read, as bb!Han sneaks out and gets sort of caught by Ahsoka and he’s just like three feet of pure grumpiness and old man cranky and smuggler to the core. Every time he thinks about baby Vader (aka Anakin) or has a scene with Obi-Wan or gets along with Ahsoka or misses his friends, I’m just entirely :D :D :D about it. ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & background anakin/padme & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand.    I do have a couple of caveats about the fic–it hasn’t been updated in close to a year (but it’s also been in progress for over 10 years, so the author does keep coming back) and the beginning of the fic (probably about the first third at least?) is very much the plot moving the characters rather than the characters moving the plot, that they don’t really react to things in a way that feels organic to their own motivations, but rather where the scene wants them to go. And I do have some trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that Anakin wouldn’t be all over his kids, even as the fic gently nudges him away from them because of jealousy and then fear for Padme’s life. I mention these things because I want to encourage readers beyond them (as I always do with recs) because it’s a story that I read over the course of a couple of days and the writing is really smooth and just so nicely sailed along and it very much has a plot and does a really lovely job of balancing the five rotating character povs (Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Han), of throwing this tangle of characters together and keeping up with group scenes. The fic’s plot is absolutely intriguing and the author is taking their time with it without feeling like it was dragged out, it’s almost sort of hard to believe that it’s a fic that’s over 100k because it was just so easy to keep reading and never felt bogged down or padded out just to up the word count.    And once the fic settles into the story, as Obi-Wan and Anakin discover more and more about this future, as they’re thrown into a situation where Anakin has to face what he’s capable of (once he hears about Vader) and how the fic sort of… balances between trying to reconcile that/fix it and also just sort of avoiding it by going I WON’T DO THAT I WILL AVOID IT, which is actually a pretty perfectly Anakin Skywalker reaction. The author also knows how to write UST while still giving some resolution, that Obi-Wan and Anakin are very attracted to each other and it’s being thrown into this mind-boggling situation where Anakin desperately needs someone to help and support him, he desperately needs someone to cling onto, that seeing this future where the Jedi are gone and this horribleness is possible, that finally breaks that last hurdle and jams them together. I love that Padme may not be here, but Anakin’s love for her never is dialed down a notch, that so much of why he wants to go back is to save her, that he still loves her just as furiously and obsessively as ever, even as he loves Obi-Wan as well. And the sex scenes were lovely, the way Anakin is desperate to grind himself against Obi-Wan is lovely, as well as the brief moments where Obi-Wan’s hands slide lower down his back, not quite ghosting over the prize there, but the implication of the future, that one day he may open Anakin up and push into him is there, and just the right amount of promise of it.    But also! The later chapters are starting to get into just what all is in this world, what’s left that they might still remember, that they’re still working to uncover just what happened, both to them and to this world that may be their future. And I do love that it’s Leia who pushes for them not to change things, because they worked damn hard for this future, because they fought and bled for it, because she won’t give up this hope or gamble it away on something that might be better or might be worse, that who she is, everything that’s made her Leia Organa, could disappear, it makes perfect sense that she would try to convince them to stay, and it allows the fic the time and room to explore these characters from the past in this future. It’s a fic that’s definitely a WIP and may take a long time to update again, but I greatly enjoyed what was here and it was just so very easy to sink into and I appreciated having that over the past week! Plus several Obikin kissing scenes yes thank you! ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, anakin/padme + obi-wan/anakin/padme + luke & leia & mon mathma & ahsoka, mildly nsfw, 53.2k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem.    I have two caveats about this fic before I begin: It’s a WIP that hasn’t been updated in about a year, so I’m not sure if it will be. But it gets enough satisfying stuff in so even though it ends on a cliffhanger, I found it absolutely worth reading! And that it’s very fast in the beginning, there’s not much time to build up suspense before the reveals are already happening. This isn’t a fic I wound up reading for the suspense or reveals by the time I got into the thick of it, this is a fic that’s about the building relationship between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme. Previous to this fic, I’d never shipped anything but Anakin/Padme, so their relationship being strong here, being absolutely important to Anakin’s pov, while the shifting nature of his relationship with Obi-Wan is slowly changing, works for me, it eased me in at just the right pacing and made me actually really, really want it.    What the fic does the most beautifully for me, though, is how Anakin is so beloved and so special and so brilliant, but he’s also an obnoxious pain in the ass, the way Padme and Obi-Wan both love him dearly, but he’s also a dumbass, oh, that worked for me because that’s exactly it, that’s how they relate to him. The plot part of the story was interesting as well, I definitely want to know where things are going, how this will affect history, and I love love love that the PT characters were the ones thrown forward into the OT’s time, that’s where my heart really is, and this fic just completely and totally charmed the hell out of me! I especially appreciate that it gently eased me into shipping this OT3 in a way that worked for me and got me to be able to actually see it. ✦ One Day More by CalaisKenobi, obi-wan & qui-gon & anakin & cast, 31.2k    Obi-Wan is given the opportunity to make some changes in his past. With the help of some old friends, and the hindrance of some old enemies, the Galaxy will be forever changed.    I am an absolute sucker for time travel fic and it’s nice to see one that’s finished and kept fairly short! Obi-Wan is so beloved by the Force (always a way to get me to click on a fic, lbr) that he gets three chances to change different days in his life and the fic isn’t really about the lengthy details of the changed timelines, but instead more about using one or two moments in those changed times to highlight how things could have done differently. It’s really a fic about how selfless a character Obi-Wan Kenobi is, how he would never sacrifice someone else for his own gain or happiness, that’s just not who he is at all, that he will always put himself in danger before anyone else. It’s a fic about how dearly he loves the people he cares about, Qui-Gon and then Anakin later (though, the first section is lighter on Obi-Wan’s love for Anakin than I would have thought) and the ways he comes up with to save them.    It’s a fic that blends a lot of elements, the time travel/chance to redo things that I love, the explanations Obi-Wan eventually gives because suddenly you have a Jedi Master in a Padawan’s body, the emotional charge of losing those he loves again (because you know it’s not going to go right until the third time around, so the second time around with Anakin was just all the feelings place ouchies for me), and the fic floating the idea that I rather largely agree with, that Anakin does bring balance to the Force, that the Jedi Order had become stagnant and the Force wanted change, however that came about. But, ultimately, it’s a fic about giving Obi-Wan a chance at happiness without sacrificing the things Obi-Wan will always do, that saving the galaxy doesn’t have to be about those rare bigger moments, but instead it’s about the everyday joy and love for life that pulls the galaxy towards something better. And all of that was just exactly right for me, centered around Obi-Wan’s character as it was, it’s everything I want from this fandom. ✦ Wake the Storm by bedlamsbard, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash) & cast, 75.4k    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions.    So, I pretty much sunk into this fic and didn’t come out again until I’d read the whole thing, I just absolutely couldn’t put it down! My only caveat is that, while the build-ups and suspense are stellar, you just kind of have to roll with that the fic is not as strong at reveals. The way the fic is structured, there’s a lot of “omg when will Character A find out about Character b????” that don’t necessarily happen or happen late in the fic or aren’t pieced together when they should be or aren’t dwelled on for long. I don’t think this is a huge detriment, so long as you know what you’re getting ahead of time, though, because what the fic is about (Anakin skipping around the timeline and other universes, dragging Obi-Wan along with him) is absolutely fantastic. The writing is incredibly engaging, it’s the kind where I find this far more readable than a lot of professionally published books, that the plot structure and pacing of the scenes is all rock solid for me. (Tbh, probably the only reason any caveats occur to me at all is because the fic as a whole is so well written.)    The characterization is lovely and gets at the heart of what I wanted–where Anakin experiences the destruction and tragedy that happens, his horror at it solidified by the time he finds out his connection to it, as well as his interaction with Obi-Wan is strengthened up because of what Obi-Wan has been through and how he’s seeing Anakin again and how much time he’s had to think over the events of Anakin’s future. The plot is interesting and the fic spends time with each world but doesn’t linger and there has clearly been thought given to setting all of it up, but it blends into the story perfectly, like… you know those fics you can pick up and just read and read and read because they’re so engaging and written with such good pacing that you don’t want to put it down, that even when it shifts gears, you find yourself rolling right along with it because you want to know what happens next? That’s what this fic did for me, I was so curious about where it was going next and how this was all going to affect them.    While this story itself is gen, you can tell that the story is heading towards Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme, so it spends time building Obi-Wan/Anakin back up and shifting it to romantic instead of platonic, that it doesn’t happen here at all, but you can feel how desperately Anakin loves Obi-Wan and how Obi-Wan has been given the time to really reflect on feelings and attachment and on Anakin in general, so that I believe it. Plus, I’m a sucker for all the little touches, like Anakin sleeping on Obi-Wan or the way he touches Anakin after he goes through a tough time, it got me right in the feelings place, to go along with the intriguing greater story. I am now going to proceed to dive right into the monster sequel fic and probably roll around in my feelings some more. ✦ Old Man Luke by scarletjedi, obi-wan & anakin & luke & cast, 10.4k wip    Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?” He asked, hoping a direct question would yield answers. The old man seemed adept at side-stepping information when asked a bit more deftly. “I’ve never heard of a Master with your level of talent.”    Ahhhh, I’m sorry that there’s only four chapters so far, but I totally do not regret reading this! I love time travel fics and having Luke be the one to travel back? To have him at a point where he’s so strong in the Force and then gets to see Obi-Wan and Anakin at the height of the PT Jedi’s presence? In the middle of the Clone War? It’s so intriguing and so much fun and I just tore through all of this super quickly because I couldn’t put it down. I really like this Luke characterization, he’s so thoroughly moral and good, so calm and centered, but without being a non-entity. He still has presence and reactions and feelings! But also Obi-Wan and Anakin! The bits of their friendship that are in the fic are also delightful and I’m practically champing at the bit for them to get to the big reveal about Luke, because the set-up is really good and the writing is really smooth and the characters/plot feel really solid, and I absolutely want more! I love all time travel fics, but I love them especially when they can give me something new and interesting and follow through on that potential like this one is doing. ✦ Hello From the Other Side by DarthNickels, anakin & luke & han/leia & kylo ren & piett, body swap, time travel, 16.7k wip    Kylo Ren is destined to take up the mantle of Vader. The Force can be incredibly literal.    Holy shit, this fic sucked me in hard and grabbed hold of me and I tore through all of what was available in one sitting because it was just so damn interesting. Vader and Kylo Ren swap places and times, Vader in the future, Kylo Ren in the past, and both are absolutely fascinating for all that could happen! Kylo Ren in the past, being able to “fix” Vader’s mistake at the end, the momentary weakness he had, being able to change things towards the dark side in this timeline, so interesting! But also. Oh, man, Vader in the future, finding Luke again and then seeing Leia and Han, while in the body of their son, the amount of delicate work to write that scene so exquisitely well, to keep all of them in character, especially Vader’s cold distance and Leia’s vulnerability for Ben and her fury at Vader, then the doubly difficult path of writing Vader discovering who Leia is, oh, it’s so good. It’s so painful and terrible and absolutely perfect, this Vader is spot on, this Leia is spot on, and the whole group being there and trying to figure out what the hell to do next, it’s just everything I could have possibly asked for. ✦ I Found You by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & shmi, ~1k    A pregnant Shmi makes it to the Jedi Temple and immediate seeks out and finds the boy who was (will be?) her son’s Master/brother/teacher/friend. The boy who became the man to sacrifice himself for her grandchildren. The One who shared her Visions.    It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this fic, because I love love love the set-up of it and how it was done and how eager I am to know more about this universe. I love time travel fics, I love when there’s more than one person who lived the original timeline, I love the chance to do things over, I love that this fic cares how much Anakin meant to Obi-Wan, BUT ALSO SHMI SKYWALKER, who has visions of everything that was Anakin’s life. There is SO MUCH POTENTIAL here that I’m just ridiculously excited about where it could go and what it could do! ✦ went back and put up a fight by springsoldier (ladydaredevil), obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka, 2k    She probably shouldn’t trust the wish-granting Sith artefact. (In which Ahsoka makes a brave attempt at hugging the Dark Side out of Anakin)    Ahsoka time travel fic! This wasn’t long, but it was enough to get to the good stuff–Ahsoka being dumped back into the past and pretty much the first thing she does is go hug Anakin because, oh, he’s still there and I just really had a lot of feelings right along with her. I loved how hopeful and good this fic was, I love how much I believed in Ahsoka to change things, to help fix things. I loved this as a time travel fic and as a “Fuck yeah Ahsoka Tano!” fic, both were super delightful aspects. ✦ Tumblr Ramblings (Obi-Wan Time Travel/AU-jump) by gaealynn, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast,    At the end of RotJ, Obi-Wan reaches out a hand to help Anakin cross over and instead – wakes up on Naboo.    I am always willing to pick up a time travel fic, especially if it’s Obi-Wan time travelling, so I enjoyed this half-fic, half-scenario piece just for those things! And I love that this is an Obi-Wan who has suffered through so many terrible losses, the weight of that isn’t gone, but he’s still that guy who keeps getting up again, who doesn’t know how to surrender when something like this is put in front of him. And, oh, there’s a scene in the second chapter where he meets bb!Anakin again, where he knows there will be hope now, and there’s cuddling and, oh, it’s Anakin and just. I had feelings all over the place during that scene alone! ✦ Hollow by JennMel, qui-gon & obi-wan & anakin & others, 5.6k    Obi-Wan has always had a secret. And Qui-Gon could not, must not, ever know. If he did, then they would never even make it to Tatooine, let alone deal with the rest to come. One perfect possible future, that’s all Obi-Wan needed to achieve…that’s all.    I greatly enjoyed this piece, one that didn’t need to be long to do some fixing of the timeline and having an interesting concept that it pulled off nicely. I love how it changes things, offers so much hope, but without making it easy or without a lot of pain and sacrifice, which makes the potential for something better all the more well earned. ✦ Conversations at the Intersections of Time by Sentimental Star, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 5.2k wip    What happens when a thirteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker and his twenty-nine-year-old Master get snatched back in time, only to come face to face with a fifteen-year-old Obi-Wan…and a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn?    I am entirely a sucker for time travel fics, especially ones that are about both Obi-Wan getting to see Qui-Gon again and about Anakin seeing a young Padawan Obi-Wan. The fic does drop you into the middle of things (which I’m fine with, all the sooner to get to the good stuff!) and has an epithet problem, but it has young Obi-Wan and young Anakin bonding together and talking about the adults and even if this is just two chapters (so it’s more like a snippet out of a larger story, if you want to view it that way) I had fun with it and am very glad I read it. I will always read adorable Padawans trying to figure stuff out, especially when Anakin starts to understand Obi-Wan better because of it. ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme, 4.9k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers.    These are two separate fics and I loved both of them dearly and would have read 100k for each of them, even as they stand well enough as snippets on their own! The first one is a time travel fic that, oh, just absolutely punched me in the feelings over Obi-Wan’s life and how much he loses post-ROTS, but also the chance he has for things to be different when he wakes up again! It’s one of those that I really would have loved more of it, but am happy with what there is, the little moments that were worked in, how much he cares deeply about Luke and Leia already, the moments he spends with Anakin and you can feel all the undercurrents there, even as they’re simple moments, the way his younger self looks at him and the determination he has that his younger self won’t have the same future as him. It might have been short, but it was a great piece for Obi-Wan! The second is an AU of ROTS, where Anakin doesn’t turn in quite the same way and so instead sneaks off at the end and the Republic is left cleaning up the mess, and this one is much more of a moment of what would be a fascinating larger AU but ahhhh it captured my imagination so well that I loved it dearly. Both are such great concepts with really neat execution that I heartily enjoyed them both. ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by delicatefury, obi-wan & luke & leia & han & cast, time travel, ~4k    Obi-Wan wakes up in the middle of a space battle. Or rather he doesn’t. Regardless, a dogfight is no place for an existential crisis.    This is a collection of snippets from a longer fic (which you can find on the author’s tag for it as well) but I fell so utterly in love with it that I can’t wait for it to be written into a proper fic to be posted, because I’m a sucker for time travel fics, but also because it’s already hitting all my buttons like you wouldn’t believe. I started with this snippet, where de-aged OT trio meet a strange Jedi in a strange place and just, WHAM, like that I was totally in love, especially with the ending moments and how much they touched my heart. The writing is lovely and the scenario is intriguing as all get out and even just told in snippets as I’ve been reading, I’m already invested in all the little moments, with Luke seeing Obi-Wan again, with getting to see the Jedi temple at its height, or the quieter moments where Obi-Wan especially can finally rest for awhile during all the fighting. It’s a really lovely, delightful set of reading and I am eagerly looking forward to more of it! ✦ TDPL Snippet - Leia and Obi-Wan by delicatefury, obi-wan & leia, 1.9k    In honor of Carrie Fisher, here’s the first Leia POV scene I wrote for The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars.    Oh, this was such a lovely scene. I love the idea of Obi-Wan & Leia interaction, there’s only been a handful of fics that really even touch on it much at all, which is understandable, but I still love the idea of it (especially when she’s so very much Anakin’s daughter) and I absolutely adored her vulnerability here, because one of the best things about Leia’s character is that she doesn’t always have to be commanding and in charge, that she can be unsure and scared and sad. I love this moment between her and Obi-Wan, because it is easy to see how his relationship with Luke can overshadow everything else, but that this moment is entirely theirs, that context of Anakin and Padme and Luke are never forgotten, they’re still there, but this moment is wholly about Leia’s character and her relationship with him. And, oh, it was lovely to read. ✦ TDPL snippet - The Padawan Discussion, round 2. by delicatefury, obi-wan & luke, 2.4k    “I know… I know I made a big deal about being a Jedi like my Father,” Luke beings. “And I’m not taking it back,” he hastens to add. “I wanted to be a Jedi at first because he was. I guess I just wanted to know him in someway. But I didn’t wanna be a Jedi like my Father, y’know?”    I was initially wary going into this one, because I love Anakin dearly and bashing of his character usually makes me run the other way, but… this wasn’t bashing at all, it was a very gentle look at the effect his decisions and actions had on other characters, the weight that he left on Obi-Wan’s shoulders and the damage he did. I loved Anakin no less for every moment of this fic, that Luke doesn’t want to be a Jedi like Anakin was a Jedi, not in that way, that it takes nothing away from how much Luke believed in and loved his father, but that their paths are not meant to be the same. This is a Luke characterization that brought up all my Luke feelings, that I love this character so very much, how bright and shining and good he is, without losing the warmth and humanity that invests me in the character. And, oh, Obi-Wan is fantastic here as well, he is so calm and serene, but he still feels things, he still carries such a heavy weight, and it’s one he bears up under, he can handle it, but when some of that weight is taken off, when Luke connects with him, oh, my heart. This had me kind of maybe misting up a little because it was so lovely and perfect and meaningful and good. ✦ There’s Still Time to Change the Road You’re On by victoria_p (musesfool), anakin & luke & leia, 3.6k    “Time travel? Are you kriffing kidding me?”    This was totally adorable and fun, having Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker accidentally vaulted forward in time, running into Luke and Leia in the future, and it goes better than expected. I love that it’s from Anakin’s point of view, but you can still feel Luke’s incredibly excited, eager reaction and Leia’s angry, burning reaction to being face to face with this person. The first half is just really cute, fun action where they’re running away at high speed together, but then shit hits the fan because of course Anakin recognizes his own kids in this situation, in the most delightful moment of OH SHIT YOU’RE MY KIDS :D reaction and I love that they spend all of five minutes trying to protect the timeline before mistakes start happening, before little things slip through. I loved the little mentions, that Luke tells him Obi-Wan can never say it but he does love Anakin, the way Leia looks like Padme and it makes Anakin want to do whatever she says, just. This started out as such a fun thing and then became such a hopeful thing and that made it a great read. ✦ I’ll Be There For You by SinkingLikeASunset, obi-wan/anakin/padme (eventual) & qui-gon & clones & cast, 40.7k wip    Just days after his fateful encounter with Anakin on Mustafar , Obi-Wan has resigned himself to a lonely existence on Tatooine. However, he has been granted a chance to go back and fix things. Obi-Wan must alter events and make changes as he struggles with memories of a dreadful future and deals with new developments this time around.    I think I read this whole fic in just about one sitting, it was one of those that just quietly sucked me in and I found myself turning the page a little too easily and suddenly I was all caught up. It’s a bit more of a quiet sort of read than others in the genre (Obi-Wan wakes up in the past, starts changing everything), it’s a bit more low-key and a bit more slice-of-life-esque, but that contributed to how it was this solidly satisfying read for me. And it’s not that things are easy, there’s definitely a lot of pain and suffering, this is still Star Wars and it’s not like Obi-Wan can just go telling everyone what’s going to happen, so there’s struggling through trying to figure out how to change things, how to figure out what went wrong in the first place and what to do better, as well as deal with the weight of all that tragedy, as well as just how much he loves Anakin, how determined he is to save Anakin this time around, and how it’s a long road to walk, one that seems so very heavy for him, but he keeps doing it. It’s one of those fics that hits so many of the tropes of this particular fic genre and embraces them so fully that it’s just this really quietly satisfying fic to read and I’m so glad to have found it.    Chapter 1-8: I believe I’ve recommended this fic before, but it’s updated since then and I continue to enjoy it! The beginning takes a bit to get underway, but once Obi-Wan is in the past and has settled a bit, the fic shifts into gear and really engaged me. I like that it’s a fic where things aren’t really in a rush, even as they’re often tense and there’s a looming sense of things on the horizon. There’s room to breathe here, as well as some really good scenes between Obi-Wan and various people, especially Anakin, who gets frustrated that Obi-Wan won’t tell him what’s wrong, but Obi-Wan is slowly getting him to learn to trust that he’ll tell Anakin when the time is right. Not that Obi-Wan knows precisely what to do, he stumbles and is at a loss at times, but he’s still making his way carefully and is still determined to make things better this time.    But what I’m really here for is the slow development of Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme as a threesome and how Obi-Wan/Anakin is getting so much of their communication finally worked out. Chapter seven has a nicely id-satisfying scene where much of the building confrontations finally happen, where Obi-Wan and Anakin finally really talk to each other, how Obi-Wan finally says directly what he now realizes Anakin needs to hear, how Anakin warms under that praise and affection. The fic is at its best when it’s focused on them (and Padme), when it lets me just happily roll around in the tropes that it embraces and just makes me feel all warm-hearted and content!    Chapter 9: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rater than the fic as a whole. This fic starts a bit rough in the beginning, but once the timeline starts changing and the fic settles into the more daily life stuff, it becomes really cute and charming and chapter 9 really exemplifies that for me, it was just so adorable to watch Anakin verbally flailing and tripping over himself because Obi-Wan knew about his marriage to Padme, like I would have read five chapters in a row of that, because that’s where the fic is at its best and it’s just fluffy and pure iddy fix-it and cuteness! And I’m enjoying the slow roll towards Obianidala as a pairing, that it’s been 40k of fic now and they’re just sort of getting around to it and Obi-Wan’s affection for them is very nice and both Anakin and Padme are really cute, especially when Obi-Wan is so calm and serene, because that’s how he is, while they trip over themselves trying to pretend they’re not in a relationship. But also I will apparently eat up with a spoon any time Anakin has a panic attack and Obi-Wan’s presence and guidance helps bring him back, yesss, give me that always, that’s what I’m here for! ✦ untitled by cadesama part 1 / 2 / 3, obi-wan & anakin & leia & rey & padme & finn & poe & cast, 2.7k wip    A decade ago, Leia would have considered this a headache. Perhaps a nightmare. Now, she was mostly bemused.    Oh, I am so charmed by this whole collection of ficlets, finally there is time travel fuckery that includes the TFA characters! And I am so here for Clone Wars era Anakin and Ahsoka plus TPM era Obi-Wan and Anakin and Padme ending up in the future, I’m so here for the hints of Anakin having to interact with Kylo Ren, I’m so here for there being two Future Darth Vaders lounging around their base and everyone Not Knowing What To Say about this, I’m so here for Rey’s utter “wtf” reaction to all of this bullshit, I am so here for Leia just rolling with it because she always lands on her feet no matter how weird something is, and I’m just so here for the banter and the fun of all this collection of people from different eras and what a joyful, joyful clusterfuck this is. :D ✦ of deserts and droids by songstress, rey & anakin, 3.9k    Rey accidentally time-travels, and realizes that Jedi are even more weird than she had ever imagined.    Oh, I love the tone this fic takes, it definitely is crack treated seriously, but it does it so well, it embraces and just totally rolls with the concept of Padawan Learners accidentally time traveling via the Force through meditation and is absolutely precious to see a young Anakin interacting with Rey, the way he’s so chatty and charming and adorable and complains about his life constantly but Rey can absolutely read between the lines of what he says, he’s just such a ball of energy and you instantly feel for Obi-Wan having to deal with that, but also you absolutely love the little shit because he’s got such a charisma to him, but also this is a great piece about Rey and her early days of learning to be a Jedi. And then the ending hits and, wham, I had an attack of the feelings exactly as I should and it was just. A really easy read that I immediately got pulled into, had a joyful time reading, and then was quietly devastated all over again. Just what Star Wars fic should be. ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme, 4.9k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers.    These are two separate fics and I loved both of them dearly and would have read 100k for each of them, even as they stand well enough as snippets on their own! The first one is a time travel fic that, oh, just absolutely punched me in the feelings over Obi-Wan’s life and how much he loses post-ROTS, but also the chance he has for things to be different when he wakes up again! It’s one of those that I really would have loved more of it, but am happy with what there is, the little moments that were worked in, how much he cares deeply about Luke and Leia already, the moments he spends with Anakin and you can feel all the undercurrents there, even as they’re simple moments, the way his younger self looks at him and the determination he has that his younger self won’t have the same future as him. It might have been short, but it was a great piece for Obi-Wan! The second is an AU of ROTS, where Anakin doesn’t turn in quite the same way and so instead sneaks off at the end and the Republic is left cleaning up the mess, and this one is much more of a moment of what would be a fascinating larger AU but ahhhh it captured my imagination so well that I loved it dearly. Both are such great concepts with really neat execution that I heartily enjoyed them both. ✦ One Day More by CalaisKenobi, obi-wan & qui-gon & anakin & cast, 31.2k    Obi-Wan is given the opportunity to make some changes in his past. With the help of some old friends, and the hindrance of some old enemies, the Galaxy will be forever changed.    I am an absolute sucker for time travel fic and it’s nice to see one that’s finished and kept fairly short! Obi-Wan is so beloved by the Force (always a way to get me to click on a fic, lbr) that he gets three chances to change different days in his life and the fic isn’t really about the lengthy details of the changed timelines, but instead more about using one or two moments in those changed times to highlight how things could have done differently. It’s really a fic about how selfless a character Obi-Wan Kenobi is, how he would never sacrifice someone else for his own gain or happiness, that’s just not who he is at all, that he will always put himself in danger before anyone else. It’s a fic about how dearly he loves the people he cares about, Qui-Gon and then Anakin later (though, the first section is lighter on Obi-Wan’s love for Anakin than I would have thought) and the ways he comes up with to save them.    It’s a fic that blends a lot of elements, the time travel/chance to redo things that I love, the explanations Obi-Wan eventually gives because suddenly you have a Jedi Master in a Padawan’s body, the emotional charge of losing those he loves again (because you know it’s not going to go right until the third time around, so the second time around with Anakin was just all the feelings place ouchies for me), and the fic floating the idea that I rather largely agree with, that Anakin does bring balance to the Force, that the Jedi Order had become stagnant and the Force wanted change, however that came about. But, ultimately, it’s a fic about giving Obi-Wan a chance at happiness without sacrificing the things Obi-Wan will always do, that saving the galaxy doesn’t have to be about those rare bigger moments, but instead it’s about the everyday joy and love for life that pulls the galaxy towards something better. And all of that was just exactly right for me, centered around Obi-Wan’s character as it was, it’s everything I want from this fandom. ✦ Conversations at the Intersections of Time by Sentimental Star, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 5.2k wip    What happens when a thirteen-year-old Anakin Skywalker and his twenty-nine-year-old Master get snatched back in time, only to come face to face with a fifteen-year-old Obi-Wan…and a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn?    I am entirely a sucker for time travel fics, especially ones that are about both Obi-Wan getting to see Qui-Gon again and about Anakin seeing a young Padawan Obi-Wan. The fic does drop you into the middle of things (which I’m fine with, all the sooner to get to the good stuff!) and has an epithet problem, but it has young Obi-Wan and young Anakin bonding together and talking about the adults and even if this is just two chapters (so it’s more like a snippet out of a larger story, if you want to view it that way) I had fun with it and am very glad I read it. I will always read adorable Padawans trying to figure stuff out, especially when Anakin starts to understand Obi-Wan better because of it. ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 11.2k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers.    I believe I’ve recommended these fics before, but on the author’s tumblr, rather than AO3, so here, have a fresh rec now that they’re up here as well, because, oh my god, these were so great. The first one is a time travel AU that I loved, the second one is a divergent timeline that I also loved, both totally worth reading! But, oh. Chapter 3 is Basilisk!Obi-Wan, where he is a giant snake instead of a Human and it’s amazing. It’s told in snippets across the span of his life, from how he first came to the Jedi Temple to his time as an Initiate to his time as a Padawan and to his time as Anakin’s Master and during the Clone Wars. There are so many incredible little moments, so many hilarious moments, so many geneuinely touching moments, so many moments of struggle and overcoming them, so many moments of just Obi-Wan being awesome, all of it is something I never knew I needed as badly as I did. I honestly just have the biggest grin on my face every time I reread even little snippets of this one, it’s so delightful. ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & luke & leia & cody & cast, time travel, 4.3k wip    After a disaster on the cosmic scale that Obi-Wan is still trying to wrap his mind around, he finds himself back in the early days of the Clone Wars, Commander Cody loyally at his side, Anakin at his back, and Sidious plotting against the Jedi at every turn. He’s been given an unasked for chance to do everything over again. And with the Force as his ally, he intends to set the galaxy on a brighter path than its current trajectory.    Chapter 1: I’ve been reading the snippets the author has been posting on tumblr and enjoying those greatly, but it’s lovely to have the first proper chapter here! And, oh, it’s one of my favorite tropes and centered around one of my favorite characters and I’m so looking forward to where this goes and how things play out, because I greatly enjoyed the way Obi-Wan found himself back in the days of the Clone Wars, that he’s both Old Ben and General Kenobi at the same time, that there’s this messy, complicated, knotted up feeling to the character in a way that’s fascinating to read about. That the Force is screaming at him to go do something, but nothing is really quite clear yet, there’s so much history and weight that’s happened, that Obi-Wan has to process gaining back everything that he’d lost without letting on that he’d lost it all, that those years of exile still were there with him, oh, I felt so much for the character in those moments. At the same time, though, OH MAN I CANNOT WAIT FOR MORE, especially to see Anakin show up because that is going to come with a whole lot of thorny feelings that will be delicious. But also Luke and Leia again!!!! I am excite!    Chapter 2: This is an update rec that will focus on the current chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. This chapter is a little slower than the previous one, it’s all about Luke, Leia, and Han trying to figure out how to get along when they’re stranded on Jakku in their younger bodies, but will read very well when the fic gets longer, as it does a lot of set-up and little bits of details about what’s going on with all of them. It’s almost sort of domestic, as Luke works on machines, Han scrounges for whatever work he can, and Leia is feeling sick and trying to struggle through it. There’s definitely a sense of Imending Things swaying above all their heads, as well as Luke definitely feels the Force tugging on him, and I spent a lot of the chapter just itching for things to happen, the exact reaction I was supposed to have, but also there’s some really cute stuff along the way! Luke and Leia being adorable sunburnt moppets! Han being the galaxy’s oldest teenager! Some really adorable trio interaction, with protective!Han and cranky!Leia and Luke trying his best but the pressure gets to him, too! A lovely chapter and I’m eagerly awaiting more. ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 66k wip    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean the outcome will be something any of them want.    I could have sworn I’d done a rec for this fic before, but I cannot find it anywhere in my files, so I’m going to assume I haven’t actually and do one fresh. I am always here for Obianidala fic and I’m always here for time travel fic, so I picked this one up and tore through pretty much all of it over the course of a few days! I do have a couple of caveats about it, the biggest being that the Jedi are used as antagonists, even against established canon (like, they’ve specifically said they don’t keep people against their will, that they wouldn’t force Anakin to stay), which can be jarring sometimes, so you gotta roll with the premise of them being villains, but when the fic is all about the domestic trio learning to figure out their relationship, the fic is at its strongest and it’s just really heart-warming and delightful. It’s a long fic, so it’s a bit of a slow burn, not in that there’s lack of resolution, but in that there’s no hurry to get there before everyone is ready, instead it’s a much more natural pace that I really enjoyed.    I love that it’s a Padme time travel fic as well, because I very rarely see one about her, especially because she doesn’t know everything that happened and it gives her a chance to work through what happened between her and Anakin on Mustafar, that she has to work through all that fear and mistrust, because this Anakin hasn’t done those things, but she has to process that they did happen, that it could have happened, and that’s something that takes quite awhile to get over. There’s also some lovely Padme & Ahsoka friendship scenes, there’s a whole lot of Padme telling people what she knows, there’s a lot of Anakin having to deal with feeling kept out of the loop, that he’s still got anger issues and isn’t emotionally stable, but Obi-Wan and Padme have better tools this time around, there’s a good amount of Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship building, and there’s a lot of satisfying fixing of the timeline, including killing Palpatine plot!    The fic is at its best when it’s about the breathing room the Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme trio has or when they’re interacting with Ahsoka, when the story is going towards fixing things, that’s when my heart is happiest and I just really had a lot of fun reading this, especially since it was lengthy and I loved being able to tear into it and read read read for so many pages! ✦ From a Certain Point of View pt 1 / pt 2 / pt 3 / pt 4, obi-wan & anakin & padme & ahsoka & sidious & cast, 7.5k    Or, how Ben Kenobi’s boldfaced lie prevarication saved the Galaxy (but not in the way he thought it would).    This is a series of headcanon/bullet points plot elements series of posts about an AU where Luke time travels and only manages to convey half a message to his father, which winds up saving the galaxy, but not it the way you’d expect. And while I would have enjoyed a full fic of it, I found that I greatly enjoyed it as it was, it conveys the story really well and it lets the pace stay fun and upbeat, it gets to put in a lot of humor and cover what would be a long, complicated storyline. It’s very much about Everything Going Just Right (or going Just Right in a way that may not appear Just Right to the characters but ultimately is), it’s all about moving everything towards the better and fixing things, so nothing really goes wrong, and it’s satisfying for that, because sometimes I just really want all the grim heartbreak tossed out the window and for everyone to be happy and live good lives! This was a delight to read and there’s still an epilogue to go, but it was fairly lengthy for an outline and was just charming as all get out! (Also, it’s hilarious when Anakin gets all paranoid and follows Obi-Wan around like a hyper vigilant cat ready to pounce on anything that so much as twitches wrong. MY PRECIOUS DUMPSTER FIRE TURNED TOWARDS THE GOOD. ♥) ✦ Tumblr Ramblings (Obi-Wan Time Travel/AU-jump) by gaealynn, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast,    At the end of RotJ, Obi-Wan reaches out a hand to help Anakin cross over and instead – wakes up on Naboo.    I am always willing to pick up a time travel fic, especially if it’s Obi-Wan time travelling, so I enjoyed this half-fic, half-scenario piece just for those things! And I love that this is an Obi-Wan who has suffered through so many terrible losses, the weight of that isn’t gone, but he’s still that guy who keeps getting up again, who doesn’t know how to surrender when something like this is put in front of him. And, oh, there’s a scene in the second chapter where he meets bb!Anakin again, where he knows there will be hope now, and there’s cuddling and, oh, it’s Anakin and just. I had feelings all over the place during that scene alone! ✦ The Fires by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33), obi-wan/anakin & hinted obi-wan/anakin/padme, 4.2k    He wakes quickly and without thought, breaking through the barrier of unconsciousness to find himself face down on the floor of a starfighter. (OR, Groundhog Day. ROTS, Battle of Mustafar, Full-On Groundhog Day. Yes, I am a masochist, thank you for asking.)    I’m a sucker for time loop fics, so of course I was going to read this one and I love the concept of it, I love the idea of Obi-Wan living that day on Mustafar over and over, trying to figure out what he needs to do to actually change things. The fic really hits its stride for me in the second half, when Obi-Wan asks quieter questions, when things are a bit more understated, where Obi-Wan has more of that ‘still waters run deep’ feeling to him. It’s a fic that shows just how badly things have been wounded between them, that hope for them is still so small and difficult to find, but it is still there. And the use of the Mortis Arc and the ending of this, I just had a lot of feelings about them! I love time shenanigans fics and this one was a nicely satisfying one to add to the collection. ♥ ✦ Where Have We Come? by soaring_heart, obi-wan & anakin, 1.9k    The first time was one of the hardest and the easiest. Obi-Wan loses at Mustafar, but instead of dying he wakes up at the dawn of the last day of the republic, doomed to repeat the worst day of his life, over and over again.    I’ll warn ahead of time that this fic isn’t about resolution, but instead about the repetition of Obi-Wan caught in a time loop, trying to figure out how to stop it, how to solve things, and how to save Anakin. It’s a fic that really is about those two at the heart of it, that Obi-Wan has to live this day over and over, that he tries so many things to save Anakin, to understand him, to help him, to just steal him away, to die with him, to be caught up with him. It’s a bittersweet, ouchy fic, it never stops hurting, how deeply Obi-Wan loves him and how many tragic turns their lives take in these moments, how many different ways things can go wrong or just not quite right. And that’s what really works for me here, even if it’s not really solved, the foundation is there, the love between them is there, the sheer amount of how important Anakin is in Obi-Wan’s life and vice versa is there. ✦ All Over Again by tricksterity, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & shmi & cast, time travel, 27.7k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi is sixteen years old when he collapses in the training salle to the shock of his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. When he wakes up two days later after multiple seizures and flatlining once, he remembers the Clone Wars, remembers Mustafar, remembers being cut in half by the man he loved more than anything in the universe, and he remembers Luke and Leia.    Oh, this is another fic that I am already just completely g o n e on, where I don’t really know if Obi-Wan traveled back in time or if he really just lived through something that’s not quite a vision of the future, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s got a second chance at this and the fic is doing a really lovely job of showing the weight of what he’s been through, just how much of a toll it’s taken on him and that the cost of it isn’t light at all, but that there’s hope for the future, that things are getting better again, that it’s an uphill battle but one that’s worth climbing again. While it’s painful for me to only have two chapters (at the time of this rec), I already appreciate the pacing, I love that there’s already some great stuff here, despite that Anakin hasn’t even made an appearance yet. Obi-Wan is dealing with the sheer shock of being back here again, the almost father-like relationship he has with Qui-Gon is meaningful, especially when you realize that so much of their time together hasn’t happened yet, Obi-Wan is only sixteen here, but there’s a trust and affection already there. And that Qui-Gon’s going to miss out on those years is actually really sad, especially when this Obi-Wan is so damaged in his soul, but there’s also something just… really hopeful about where all of this is going, what can be saved, that I am ALL FOR.    The fic is pleasing on an iddy level (Jedi Master level Obi-Wan in a 16 year old’s body again! time travel fic is my favorite!) but also genuinely well written, the pacing is great in that it doesn’t skip over the reactions that need room to breathe before the full plot kicks in, it’s interesting to watch Obi-Wan walk through the Temple again, to watch him talk to Qui-Gon about what’s happened to him, to watch him talk to the Council about what he can/can’t say and the fic makes sure to put those down, making it stronger in the end. Despite that I just want him to hop on a starship and fly out to Tatooine and pick up that little brat already! But the mentions of Anakin, how he’s never too far from Obi-Wan’s thoughts, the way he’s such a central point in all of this even before he’s appeared, it’s all really, really well-written and so very good for me already.    Chapter 3: I tried to wait before doing another rec, but I’m already invested and I don’t think I could wait a week until the next one. This chapter is more of Obi-Wan settling back into his life, while everyone around him adjusts to how much he’s changed, how he’s a Jedi Master in his sixteen year old body, that he was a High Council member, and that he’s going to go pick up a Force-sensitive child in the Outer Rim and he’s definitely not asking. It’s just so exciting and satisfying, especially because it’s building up to the reunion between Obi-Wan and Anakin, I love it because I briefly felt saddened for Qui-Gon, who is going to lose out on those years with Obi-Wan, but then he’s just quietly happy about the new defiance in the face of the Council that Obi-Wan has, and I love Obi-Wan thinking about Anakin, what he can do this time around, and there’s so much hope for the future and it just makes me all the happier to read this fic, it’s already given me a lot of satisfying things and it hasn’t even gotten to the reunion proper yet!    Chapter 4: I am still so hooked on this fic, you don’t even know. It’s so many of the tropes I love–Obi-Wan time travel tropes, especially!–done in ways that are both genuinely delightful and sparkling, but also entirely satisfying to my id. It’s one of those fics where I was a little wary about the build-up to the Obi-Wan/Anakin reunion, because it’s such a central part of the story, but once I got there it’s probably been the most satisfying one I’ve read yet, all the more so for how I had this moment of absolute joy at how much it echoed my own thoughts/feelings/wants about how such a reunion would go! It’s one of those that I respect on a technical level and how I just absolutely reveled in Obi-Wan hugging the crap out of this person he so loves, the way they were so wrapped up in each other in that reunion, the way the rest of the world practically fell away, the way I could feel how these two meant everything to each other in those moments. The way that there is such emotion there and it’s so openly displayed in a way that worked for me, even with Obi-Wan, because of how it took awhile to build up to this, how it was a reunion that had such depth of feeling that I could feel on both sides, from both of them, and because of how Obi-Wan has a chance to fix all of it, of course he’s going to go full-tilt, because this is Anakin. It was so goddamned good for me and I was practically floating away after reading that chapter and I am super, super excited about the rest of the fic. Because I enjoyed the build-up to the reunion, with Obi-Wan as a Jedi Master in his sixteen year old self, enjoyed the sense of how he was going to fix everything he could, how his relationship with Qui-Gon was so meaningful and healing, but, oh, man, that reunion was where it was at for me, because, oh, for Obi-Wan it’s always Anakin.    Chapter 5: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. The previous chapter to this one was all about the reunion of Obi-Wan and Anakin, so the pitfall to avoid was feeling like a drop in the excitement after that, but this fic avoided that trap neatly by having Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon meet Shmi and having Anakin practically clinging to Obi-Wan like a limpet in a way that was absolutely perfect, the little touches, the way they can have a conversation about what all of this means, the way the words are largely calm and considered, but there’s this undercurrent of just how intensely these two love each other, the way Anakin has no restraint on wanting to physically touch the person who means so much to him, the way Obi-Wan returns those touches in a more understated but just as deeply true way, all of it is so satisfying and exactly why I keep reading time travel AU fic.    Not that it’s all sweetness and light, there are still heavier things in the undercurrents, because what they went through meant something, there are still lingering effects and even moments where they come roaring back for awhile. The overall tone is one that’s going towards mending these things, but it’s all the more satisfying that they’re still there, that the story has weight, that it gives further context to the times where Anakin throws his arms around Obi-Wan’s neck or firmly situates himself in Obi-Wan’s lap and refuses to move or when Obi-Wan kisses the crown of Anakin’s head or stays by his bedside when Anakin needs him. I practically just wrapped myself up in this chapter and let out a satisfied sigh when I finished reading it, it’s everything these tropes/genre of fic should be.    Chapter 6: This is an update rec, so it will focus on the current chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. This was another chapter that was just good for my soul, where the group gets back to Coruscant and Anakin sees the Jedi Temple again for the first time, where it’s all about the connection between him and Obi-Wan, where it’s so much stronger this time around after everything they’ve been through and this chance at a fresh start, to do everything better this time. So there’s lots of little touches, lots of little kisses to the tops of heads or hugs or gentle brushes of a hand on the back of Anakin’s neck, little things that aren’t about anything more than comfort and intimacy. While all the bad stuff that happened isn’t forgotten, it’s still there under the surface and pops up in nightmares and lingering thoughts, this is a chapter that’s all about introducing Anakin to the Jedi in happier, more reassured circumstances, so his anger and fear are so much lessened, that he’s a much happier person this time around.    There’s also so much adorable here, with Anakin’s half-memories, that sometimes they’re just impressions, enough that he vaguely remembers them without the same baggage that came before, and that further contributes to the sense of warm and hope here. Yet again, this is one of those fics where I’m practically champing at the bit to get the next chapter and read it as soon as it’s posted, because I am just so delighted by and warmed by all of it, that it doesn’t have to be 100% fluffy to make me feel good and hopeful about their futures again. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & mace & dooku & palpatine & cast, sith!obi-wan, NSFW, 95.4k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, seeks redemption while Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, disillusioned with the Jedi Order and its Code, falls to the Darkness.    Rec #1: I very badly just want to vomit my feelings up everywhever for this fic because I love it more and more with every chapter that’s put out, it’s just so interesting and is doing so many things I love! Time travel fuckery with Obi-Wan and Anakin! Sith!Anakin traveling back to the past, his motives not entirely clear just yet, but he’s got something in mind and he’s adorable and charming and sort of clear-headed again, sort of not, but his interaction with Padawan!Obi-Wan is delightful! And then Sith!Ben hiding in the shadows and watching over all of this, you know he’s going to start some shit eventually and when he does, it’s not long (not so far, not with only 4 chapters as of the time of this rec) but it’s so satisfying, even just seeing Anakin’s reaction from Padawan!Obi-Wan’s eyes! Who is totally confused about what the hell is going on here. And it’s just. It’s this glorious tangle of various versions of these characters all in the same timeline and both the building up towards reveals and the beginnings of the reveals starting to happen and my satisfaction at yet another Sith!Obi-Wan fic that works for me and finally a time traveling Anakin fic that works for me and just–! I’m having a little trouble writing a coherent rec for this one.    Because I delight in just what this author is doing, the way Sith!Ben is dangerous and powerful and has unleashed himself, the way Anakin feels a bit more settled but still is a little out of his mind, the way I love everyone here and the writing is so charming and the plot has absolutely caught my attention, I want to know what’s going on with the Sith holocron, I want to know what’s going to happen with Anakin, I want to know what Sith!Ben’s plans are, I loved the scene where he (sort of) showed himself and proceeded to knock Anakin on his ass (physically and emotionally! my favorite thing!! I love when smug Anakin gets knocked back down, so good for me, especially when it’s done with such care, in its own way), I love how well he knows certain things about Anakin, I love the mentions of the bond being back in place between them, and just. So many things. I am completely useless at writing a rec here because I’m just having way too much fun with it.    Rec #2: I cannot tell you how in love with this fic I am, how much I love what it’s doing on both a plot level and an id-pleasing level. The fic first got me with these little moments of Ben (older Sith!Obi-Wan) and the way he would crowd into Anakin’s space, the way he would touch Anakin, the way he would run a hand down Anakin’s back or shove him up against the wall when he was getting out of control, there was this quiet but powerful intimacy between them, both dangerous and something very genuine there. It’s so incredibly good, the way Anakin curls up against Ben’s side or wriggles onto his lap, the way he so very much wants affection from his once-again-Master, the way Ben knows this after all they’ve been through together and the lives they’ve lived and this second chance, the way he absolutely is manipulative and much more iron-handed than he was before, but some part of Anakin feeds on that. It’s so well written and there’s such charm and sparkle to the writing, it’s that sweet spot between just exactly what my id wants and the more rational part of me that is impressed with the world-building and plotting and character motivations, that I legitimately respect the fic. It’s such a great example of what Obi-Wan would be like if freed from the restraints he puts on himself as a Jedi–he has power, sure, but it’s also such intelligence and insight, such lethality and being predatory in all the right moments, the way you really, really understand how Obi-Wan is dangerous when he puts all of his skills to less noble purposes.    And the plot is good, it’s a great cast of different versions of the characters, the older versions having been dumped back in time and are running around to fix things in their own way, including a time out to go free the slaves on Tatooine and, of course, have more run-ins with the Jedi. I love that there are light saber battles, I love that they’re not just idling around, they’re doing stuff, moving the pieces around from the shadows, in addition to their complicated relationship developing further. I am H O O K E D on this fic and it’s honestly one of the most satisfying I’ve read in the fandom yet, it’s one of those that I pretty much drop everything else to go read when there’s a new chapter, it’s one that I’m torn between tripping over myself to read everything as fast as I can because I want more and forcing myself to go slower becaus I want to savor it, it’s one of those that I never want to end, but also I want all of it to be able to read everything right now. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from this author but, oh, this one is special.    Chapter –>21: I’ve written a couple of recs for this fic as a whole before, but I forget which chapter I left off on, so this rec will focus on the later chapters (up to 21, which is the most recent at the time of this rec). This fic continues to be one of my absolute favorites in the fandom, it’s combining two of my favorite tropes–time travel! Sith!Obi-Wan!–and writing something really long and satisfying out of it. I admit, I wish I had all of the fic at my fingertips to read, it’s one where I think it benefits from having a bunch to read at once (which is why it’s a good time to jump in now, because there’s been a really good amount of events happening + lots of the fun stuff has happened/there’s been at least some resolution on the Obi-Wan/Anakin front), but at the same time I absolutely am enjoying the regular updates and being able to read each chapter as it comes out, it makes for a very satisfying, lengthy experience with the fic! Especially when there’s plot stuff I’m so curious to see how it’s going while the character stuff isn’t totally settled (not by a long shot!) but has enough resolution that I’m not frustrated. That can be a difficult balance to achieve, to keep a reader invested without feeling like nothing’s going anywhere–but this fic finds that line for me, that Obi-Wan and Anakin do finally cross over the line they’ve been edging towards, they do finally bang and step over into having an actual relationship, but all the shenanigans with Padawan!Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon and the timeline that they’re fucking around with are still up in the air.    There was a chapter where Qui-Gon met Ben through the Force in their mindscape, where the fic does this delicious job of getting teasingly close to the “current” day characters figuring out just who these two Sith Lords are, while at the same time, Anakin is just a total clingy mess that shows up in the form of a goddamned huge dragon and I was just. Oh, man, that was kind of amazing for me, because it’s the perfect thing for Anakin–all this tremendous power and presence and, at the same time, like he’s metaphorically tugging on Obi-Wan’s robe and curling up against his side because he’s a needy brat. And then! Masquerade ball! Which is such a lovely metaphor for the characters’ way of hiding–that it’s obvious who they are, if you really look. The reader can feel how close Qui-Gon and Padawan!Obi-Wan are to putting two and two together (or, really, being willing to put two and two together because it’s a hard thing to accept), while still understanding how they could keep from seeing the truth at this point.    I’m just really invested in this fic and it’s so pleasing to my iddy wants while also being genuinely well-written and has great writing/pacing and I just really want to shove it at everyone to make them read it and revel in how satisfying the whole thing is!    Chapters 22-23: This is an update rec and will focus on these chapters rather than the fic as a whole. I should probably try to wait until there’s at least three or four chapters to the fic when I write an update rec, but I’m weak and I love this fic so much. Especially when shit is really starting to hit the fan now, when things are coming to something of a head, where the identities of these two new Sith Lords will be revealed and, in fact, more than one person has put it together already. The scenes where we finally get to see some reactions are worth the wait, even as my heart quailed a bit because, no, I just want everyone to be happy! But I really loved the use of Dooku in chapter 22 and I loved the entire masquerade on Alderaan and I really love how eager I am for every new chapter, that I’m just as invested in the plot shenanigans as I am with the Obikin shenanigans. The author really has mastered the sense of how these characters can be so interesting and charming when unmoored from their morals for various reasons, how these can be darker versions of the characters, but so charismatic and charming, even with all their sharp edges.    And, oh, chapter 23 was so good for me, I love how much anger there is in Ben and how there’s a really great line: “No,” Ben says with a bitter chuckle. “Obi-Wan Kenobi died with his padawan twenty years ago. I’m… what remained, I suppose.” and how it hurts just as much as Owen’s line about how Obi-Wan Kenobi died around the same time Luke’s father did, without feeling like being a retread. And Mace Windu was fantastic in this chapter, I love that he felt very much like a Jedi here, I recognized this character from the canon, and I love that he’s not necessarily on Ben’s side, but that he’s calmly trying to understand what’s going on here. All of this is just sucking me in and it’s so alluring and promising and every chapter makes me want the next one (is Anakin okay?? Ben’s absolute refusal to even consider the idea that he’d be dead got me in the feelings place! and the reveal was so satisfying! but now I want the Ben/Anakin reunion–!!) in exactly the way a good fic should.    Chapters 24-25: This is an update rec, so it will focus on these chapters, rather than the fic as a whole. There will also likely be some spoilers for the fic by this point. I’m definitely still really in love with this fic and I think what really got me with these two chapters is that I was just so thrilled to see a Mace Windu that I recognized! He doesn’t have to be perfect, but he’s trying, he genuinely wants to understand, and that may not let him trust Ben any more than anyone else, but he’s a Jedi and he’s genuinely trying to do what’s best and is trying to look out for young Obi-Wan Kenobi. Qui-Gon provides more of the emotional drama here, reacting very badly (so that Master Tholme can read him the riot act about it) and I can’t say I mind too much because, yeah, sometimes I’m kind of grumpy about Qui-Gon’s actions. Ultimately, I think he’s still meant to be a good person, just that he gets blinded by his emotions and that tends to fuck over the people around him, so I can’t say I minded him getting yelled at for awhile.    Though, honestly, chapter 25 was my favorite of the two, because I love love love the imagery of Ben/Anakin’s shared mental space, the overlap between the two of them and what it says about what haunts each of them, as well as the super satisfying sense of, yes, reveal time! Mace getting a bit more context, actually seeing what made Ben and Anakin into the people they are, being metaphorically knocked on his ass from it, yesss, that’s what I read Secret Identities fic for! And I love that it was with Mace, I love that I felt for him, even as my heart was with the other two assholes who are entirely wrapped up in each other, like, yes, this is catnip for me, bless.    Chapter 26-28: This is an update rec and so will focus on these chapters rather than the fic as a whole. This also means there will be spoilers by this point–more generalized recs can be found on previous rec lists! These three chapters are largely about the time that Ben and Anakin spend apart after events force them to separate, where Ben has been dealing with being caught by the Jedi, and Anakin is… well, Anakin about his missing Master and how badly he needs him to come back. It’s satisfying on a plotful level, because things continue to move and happen, events occur and so I enjoy this on a respecting-the-writing kind of level, but also. Oh, man, Anakin being a disaster without his Master, that there’s still the lingering threat of that he would do terrible things to keep from losing anyone (and why wouldn’t he? it’s not like that much has really changed on an emotional level for him since the end of his life last time), that it’s not just a vague and distant threat, but a very present and real one, while also Anakin is just a disaster, he’s a walking bottomless pit of need because Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t there to sit him back down and keep him together. It’s so good for my id!    But it’s also that there’s a flashback scene and a moment of reveal, where Anakin’s memories are used to have a dramatic confrontation about just who he and Ben really are and I ate it up because, look, if you’re going to have identity porn in your fic, you need to have satisfying reveal scenes and I thoroughly enjoyed the method of how this one came about! I get adorable flashbacks and satisfying reveals! BUT ALSO. Oh, man, Ben has his own reveal-slash-confrontation to handle, that simmering anger under the surface that makes perfect sense with this person he’s dealing with, what this person did to Anakin, the one he loves more than anything, yet also the utter trust and assurance Ben has when it comes to knowing Anakin is his. The Soft Sith dynamic is like goddamned catnip to me, especially when so well written and with such charm and that certain quality that keeps me engaged in every chapter like you wouldn’t believe. Chapter 28 was really, really good for me and I loved it because it was so great at showing (instead of telling!) that Ben was choosing to be confrontational and crude in a deliberate way, because Obi-Wan would, he knows how to direct interactions like that and everything that it said about him was great. It’s just. So goddamned good, satisfying, and charming, I cannot even convey it with words.    Chapter 29: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. This is a chapter that has a lot of satisfying things happening in it and why I’m okay with reading it as a wip, because not everything is resolved, but things happen and there’s some resolution for some of the things, just enough to keep the right pace for the story. By which I mean, Ben and Anakin finally meet again and it’s super fun, as well as we get more aftermath of a big reveal (big reveals are fun, but they’re at their most satisfying when you get to spend some time with the reactions and aftermath of them, as we do with Ben and the people who know about him now!), as well as… there’s a line that Ben says in this chapter that really stuck out for me:“The last time Anakin was given the liberty of choice, he walked himself into Sidious’ arms and razed the Jedi Temple to the ground. He understands that it is in everyone’s best interest that look to me for guidance.”    I love this line because it’s such a good bit of context for Ben and Anakin’s relationship, the way it’s both unhealthy and the best choice for them, that they’re co-dependent in a way that makes Anakin especially more stable and it’s what Ben wants, they fit together like this, and it’s just really, really id-pleasing. These characters, especially these versions, are better off when they’re in this dynamic, when Anakin turns to Obi-Wan for guidance (as Anakin has always wanted an ultimate leader to follow), but also just: yes, thank you, that pleases me. *__* This chapter also has some deeply satisfying reunion moments, especially right in front of the Jedi High Council, like it’s fun and used to show exactly where these characters are at in their lives, what they do/don’t care about and, of course, a bomb dropped at the end that makes me practically champ at the bit for the next chapter, exactly as it should.    Chapter 30: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter rather than the fic as a whole. Should I have waited until there was another chapter for an update rec? Ehh, probably. But I also don’t care. Because it’s a bit of a breather chapter after the previous one, it’s dealing with the aftermath of events that happened recently and it’s really satisfying–for both versions of the characters. Stepping carefully around spoilers, what happens with Padawan!Obi-Wan left me all excited and bouncing because I’d wondered and I loved the conversation with Plo Koon and how this chapter left off with this Obi-Wan, what it could mean for his future, because oh man yes do want! But also the future version of Ben and the downtime he has with Anakin, how it’s nice to have a chapter where they spend time together without any other pressing concerns in the very immediate future, as well as some really lovely, delicious shower sex.    Where it’s just the two of them and Anakin whining for more so Ben opens him slowly and carefully before sliding into Anakin, who needs this, you feel how much he needs that connection again, rather than the fic telling you about it. That Ben has a moment of actually allowing himself something nice, to be pressed inside this person he loves so much, to have Anakin back after everything they’ve both been through, how it leads up to telling Anakin he loves him, because it’s one thing for us all to know it, but to read the words is so satisfying, right along with the lovely sex, that Anakin is safe in his arms again, trusts him again, listens to him again, wants more of him again. That they’ve found this balance, right exactly like this, and it just really made me happy in my soul for all the characters.

#obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #obikin #ahsoka tano #qui gon jinn #luke skywalker #leia organa #star wars fic recs #fic recs #moonlight's giant list of fic recs #(really long post under the cut!)

[odanurr87]

The problem with Star Wars Rebels

At the behest of several friends and acquaintances I decided to start watching the animated series Star Wars Rebels. I had previously watched The Clone Wars, but eventually gave up on it for a variety of reasons that I may explain in a separate post. I am currently on episode 14 of the second season of Star Wars Rebels, yet I feel I am able at this time to try and pinpoint some of the issues I’ve been having with this series.

Let me preface this by saying Rebels is not a bad show, at least I don’t think so. I think all fans, both old and new, can agree it’s entertaining, there’s a lot of humour, and voice acting is very good. Some might even delight in meeting familiar characters from the Star Wars Universe, like Leia, Lando, or the droids, or learning new bits of lore, such as the origin of the Rebel B-Wing starfighter. I do believe that someone (relatively) new to the Star Wars Universe will find more to enjoy in Star Wars Rebels than an old fan like me, but I am trying and I will keep on trying.

Speaking for myself, I come with a lot of Expanded Universe (EU) baggage, and retcons are not something that I take to lightly, especially when they’re gratuitous or badly done. My head is filled with details that fleshed the Star Wars Universe, details provided by the EU, so when I see something in Star Wars Rebels (and in The Clone Wars too) that overwrites that data an alarm goes off at the back of my head and I’m taken out of the experience even if for a tiny bit. The Clone Wars is perhaps the most egregious culprit as Dave Filoni messed with continuity (LucasArts wasn’t owned by Disney then) resurrecting already-dead characters (e.g.: Darth Maul) and completely altering Mandalorian culture, among others.

However, retconning is only (a small) part of the problem with Star Wars Rebels. I believe there are more basic issues with the series that I’ll do my best to outline in this post. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what happened a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

The origins of the Rebel Alliance... kinda

Star Wars Rebels follows the adventures of a young group of mercenaries turned freedom-fighters 5 years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY). The show starts as a young thief by the name of Ezra bumps into a group, led by Kanan, a former Jedi-turned-mercenary, in the process of stealing supplies from the Empire. These will be our heroes for the remainder of the series. Besides Kanan and Ezra, we have: Zeb, a Lasat male honor guardsman who acts as the muscle; Chopper, an astromech droid that’s in charge of opening every door and repairing everything that doesn’t work properly; Sabine, a Mandalorian who has a penchant for art and blowing stuff up; and Hera, daughter of Cham Syndulla (from TCW), top-notch pilot and sharing the lead together with Kanan.

From left to right: Sabine, Zeb, Hera, Kanan, Ezra, and Chopper.

Comparisons with the gang from the Original Trilogy (OT) are self-evident and are not the focus of this post, nor of this particular point. As the show progresses, we come to learn that his group, while operating independently, does strike against the Empire every now and then. Circumstances eventually force them to make a stand, and thus we learn that they were actually operating as a cell, and that there are other Rebel cells operating throughout the galaxy. In short, what we have is a small window into the origins of the Rebel Alliance.

Putting aside the (non-canon and Force-powered) story of The Force Unleashed, which also depicts the origins of the Rebel Alliance (and is incidentally very good at it), one obvious question comes to mind, do we really need this story? Do we need to know exactly how the Rebel Alliance came together to stand against the might of the Empire forged by Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader? To my mind, the answer is no. History has shown us that rebellion is commonplace in empires that abuse their power and oppress their people. Therefore, that a rebellion would surface in the span between Episodes III and IV doesn’t come as a surprise. Would I want this story to be told though? If executed properly, the answer is yes.

Planting the seeds of rebellion.

George Lucas tried to show us some of this in Episode III with a series of meetings between Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Padmé Amidala, and a few other senators, where they discussed the future of the Republic and what they might need to do to save it. Unfortunately, those scenes got cut for the theatrical release. Maybe they were a tad too on the nose, maybe Lucas thought it would remind people of The Phantom Menace’s politics. I am perhaps one of the few who finds that politics are an integral part of the tale of the Republic’s downfall and who believes they don’t have to be detrimental to a story. Just look at the excellent The Legend of the Galactic Heroes for reference. Whether you’re a fan of the light novel series by Yoshiki Tanaka, or the (superior) anime version, it’s a story fraught with history, politics, economics, religion, and warfare, that finds the right balance between all these elements. If Star Wars Rebels were to combine these elements half as well to tell us how the Rebel Alliance was formed, it would make for one hell of a story.

Unfortunately, so far Rebels has made no attempt to do so. There are many basic questions that remain unanswered. For instance, if Hera’s (she’s their commanding officer now, right?) band of freedom fighters is just one cell out of many, does that mean that there’s some sort of centralized power structure? The story seems to suggest the rebels were disorganized before Hera’s group rallied them into action but it’s never really clear. At the same time, it also suggests Hera was already taking orders from some form of command authority back in their early ‘independent’ days. Which one is it? 

If there is a commanding body to the rebel movement, is there a larger plan beyond ‘sticking it to the Empire’? How exactly are the rebels planning to overthrow the Empire, if indeed that is their goal? Are we even at the point of calling it the Rebel Alliance? It would appear that at least the rebel group working with Hera is mobile and doesn’t have a base of operations. Is this the same for other cells? 

My head is filled with dozens of questions that scream (a bit of hyperbole, okay) to be answered, but the show remains oblivious and chooses to plunge through regardless. To be perfectly honest, I doubt the creators themselves know the answers. It is this internal confusion that throws me for a loop. Perhaps they believe these are trifle questions not worth pondering. I beg to differ. If you choose to tell a story about the origins of the Rebel Alliance, thoroughly exploring said origins is a must; at the very least I would expect it to be internally coherent and not sow confusion every two episodes.

This ties neatly into my second point, which is...

The Force is too strong with this one

When old Ben Kenobi tells Luke how the Jedi were once the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic, one has the sense that he’s talking about a distant memory, something that happened a long time ago. Indeed, watching the OT, you get the feeling that most of the galaxy believes that the Jedi were nothing but a myth. General Motti went so far as to question Vader’s sad devotion to that ‘ancient religion.’ Tarkin is adamant that Vader’s the only Jedi left. Even though he’d be proven wrong minutes (and an episode) later, the universe of the Classic Trilogy has all but forgotten the Jedi.

When Luke picks up the Jedi mantle it’s an incredibly boon for the Rebel Alliance. Not only have they now a powerful symbol to rally behind, for the Jedi were considered bastions of the Republic, they also have someone to stand against the powerful Darth Vader. This was further reinforced by the EU. Sometimes a story would feature people who would dabble in the Force, or people who pretended to be Jedi, but in the end, the notion that Luke was the last of them was ever present.

Luke Skywalker, last (hope?) of the Jedi.

The Prequel Trilogy (PT) was the first to create problems for this narrative. After all, the events of Revenge of the Sith take place 19 years before the events of A New Hope. I would hardly think that 20 years is enough time for the galaxy to forget about the Jedi. Even less so when you consider that the Clone Wars would have spread the Jedi throughout the galaxy, making them known even in the most distant Outer Rim worlds.

20 years ago there were thousands of Jedi. Now there are none. Revenge of the Sith tried to explain this through Order 66, just one in a long series of orders drilled into the clone army that instructed them to eliminate their Jedi commanders and every other Jedi they could get their hands on. The film shows us they were mercilessly efficient at that and very few Jedi managed to survive the betrayal, the most notable examples being Obi-Wan on Utapau and Yoda on Kashyyyk. But as the film also shows us, not all Jedi were killed by the clones, either on the battlefield or back at the Jedi Temple. Obi-Wan managed to get a message out warning any surviving Jedi of the fall of Coruscant and the clones’ betrayal, and instructing them to stay hidden until... whenever. There’s a very funny deleted scene from Episode III where the clones dress up as Jedi to trick Yoda and Obi-Wan with predictably bad results.

Anyway, as I was saying, no matter how efficient the clones might have been, it stands to reason that some Jedi other than Obi-Wan and Yoda would have survived the purge. Again, going with EU material, the Dark Times comic series show us as much as Darth Vader begins his quest to eliminate any and all surviving Jedi, and he’s very good at it. Any Jedi that might have survived that second purge where probably in hiding during the events of the OT, right?

Wrong. In Star Wars Rebels, Kanan notices that young Ezra is strong in the Force and undertakes the daunting task of training him. So now we have a Jedi Master and Padawan, fighting together with the Rebel Alliance, five years before the events of A New Hope. In fact, the events of season three of Star Wars Rebels take place as close as 2 BBY. 

What?

It gets better. Joining them in their struggle in season two is none other than Anakin Skywalker’s former padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who’s also working with the Rebel Alliance! As if that weren’t enough, we also have the Inquisitors, an organization of Force-sensitive agents working for the Empire to hunt down Jedi. By episode 14 of season 2 I counted at least 3 Inquisitors and there are probably more if the “fifth brother” and “seventh sister” quotes are any indication.

Um, well...

There’s more. Darth Maul makes an appearance at some point in season two and definitely returns in season three. Kanan and Ezra travel to a Jedi Temple where they both receive guidance from Yoda himself. Holocrons pop up, and the Bendu monks get transformed into Bendu, a Force-sensitive individual who represents the center of the Force.

...

Where should I begin?

If it was hard for me (or anyone, really) to believe the galaxy had forgotten about the Jedi over the span of 20 years, you can imagine it’s even harder for me to believe they’d forgotten about them over the span of 2 years (and that’s if Rebels ends at 2 BBY, it could end at 0 BBY!). I suppose one could argue that the galaxy is a big place, and that even dozens of Force-powered individuals running around waving their lightsabers like mad might get unnoticed by the galaxy at large. I can see myself conceding this point. There could’ve been Jedi rebels spread throughout the galaxy waging their own personal little wars against the Empire, careful not to attract undue attention to themselves.

Unfortunately, Kanan and Ezra seem to do everything in their power to stay in the Empire’s spotlight. Furthermore, they’re irrevocably linked to the Rebel Alliance, to the point that Princess Leia Organa herself saw the pair wielding their lightsabers and using the Force! Such a tale would’ve certainly spread like wildfire throughout the rebel cells, reaching both the Core and the Outer Rim. The Rebel Alliance had found not one, not two, but three Jedi (so far) to rally around and bring the fight to the Empire... 5 years before they found Luke Skywalker and 9 years before the Jedi, um, returned? Revenge of the Jedi’s starting to sound awfully better now, isn’t it? Pity the Sith got there first.

To further compound the problem is the matter of Ezra’s training. At the rate this is going, he’ll end up having more training than Luke ever did in the OT. He’s had access to a Jedi Temple, two Jedi who’re around almost full-time (Ben died fairly soon and Luke cut short his training with Yoda on Dagobah), two holocrons, and there may be other things I’m not aware of yet. Perhaps Marvel intends to fill the gap of Luke’s training with novels and/or comics? My point is that Ezra seems to be turning too powerful too easily and Disney will have to pull off another Order 66-like stunt if they’re going to get rid of him, Kanan, and Ahsoka by the time Luke arrives. 

Will this be Kanan and Ezra’s fate?

We already had an episode in season one where Vader fought more eager, less experienced, versions of Kanan and Ezra and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) defeat them. I believe there’s a similar episode in season two with pretty much the same results. Do the creators intend to go The Force Unleashed route with a final showdown between the Emperor, Vader, Kanan, and Ezra, where Palpatine wipes the floor with the Jedi? The Inquisitors are useless after all. Will they instead go into hiding like their fellows? That would be quite the reversal given everything that’s happened on the show but it wouldn’t surprise me. Not anymore.

A galaxy without stakes

The struggle between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire is more than well documented, at least under EU material. Even if we’re talking canon sources, only recently we had Rogue One, a new Star Wars movie set around 0 BBY that tells the story of how the Rebels got their hands on the Death Star plans that Darth Vader is so keen on getting back in A New Hope. 

Rogue One is, in essence, a war drama in the vein of the old World War II films I used to watch, like The Guns of Navarone or The Dirty Dozen, sharing more similarities with the former than the latter. It’s a film that attempts to show us the Alliance’s darker side and the lines they’re willing to cross to defeat the Empire, all the while driving the point that war is not a clean and clear-cut affair, with multiple rebel groups having different goals and methods to go about it, and civilians often getting caught in the crossfire. This movie does not shy away from death, having the largest body count since the Death Star blew up Alderaan in A New Hope. Okay, maybe not that high.

In Rogue One, war is hell.

Perhaps more so than A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, Rogue One succeeds at making the Empire feel powerful and menacing, to the point the Rebels actually consider giving up on the entire endeavour. Indeed, the Rebellion in Rogue One, while an organized force, is no match for the Empire, less so when the Death Star is put into play. 

Far superior at showing this was The Empire Strikes Back during the Battle of Hoth, when the full force of the Empire was brought to bear on the Rebel base. A blockade around the planet was enforced by Star Destroyers while AT-ATs under the command of experienced General Veers led the ground assault against the Rebel forces. The Rebels put up a valiant effort but the outcome had been clear from the start: this battle was already lost; all they could do was delay the Imperial forces long enough for the evacuation to be completed. Even then, the evacuation was no simple affair. The Rebel transports could not evade nor outgun the Star Destroyers around the planet so they had to use Echo Base’s powerful ion cannons to disable them long enough to make the jump to lightspeed.

This is what it took to (temporarily) disable a Star Destroyer in Episode V.

Even our heroes are not safe from the Empire in Episode V. Luke learns a painful lesson when he hastens to rescue Han and Leia at Bespin, losing a hand in a duel with Vader that nearly cost him his life. Han is tortured, frozen in carbonite, and handed over to a bounty hunter. Later, in Return of the Jedi, a more seasoned Luke Skywalker pays the price of underestimating the dark side of the Force, something both Ben and Yoda warned him against. Had Vader not turned against the Emperor right there and then, Luke would’ve been toast. Of course, the Rebellion would’ve won the day nonetheless, right?

It is true that the depiction of the Imperial forces is uneven even among the movies of the OT. For the excellent Battle of Hoth we also have the (underwhelming) Battle of Endor, where the Empire’s forces are defeated by a small Rebel strike team working together with the primitive Ewoks. To be fair though, the size of the garrison on Endor is a lot smaller than the forces deployed during the Hoth battle and the terrain is a lot trickier and particularly well-suited for guerrilla tactics, where the advantage of numbers can be severely hampered. As a side note, there’s also a deleted scene from Return of the Jedi where we see Commander Jerjerrod’s conflict at being ordered by the Emperor to destroy the Endor moon, thereby killing friend and foe alike. No doubt Palpatine intended to use this to leverage Luke into submitting... or forcing him to use the dark side to strike at him. Quite the deviously cunning fellow Palpatine.

Well, that looks impressive.

Still, the sense that the movies and the EU convey is that the Empire, at the time of the OT, has a vast and fairly competent military, but suffers from corruption and internal power struggles, as does any large organization given enough power. Why would anyone expect anything less? The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was perhaps the most effective and efficient military at the time of the Clone Wars, comprised mostly, but not excusively, of highly-trained clones. I’m uncertain whether the clones’ rapid-aging is something that’s still canon (I somehow doubt it), but in any case Star Wars Rebels tells us that the Empire started phasing them out after the events of Episode III, replacing them with regular people, probably drafted from the many worlds of the Republic/Empire. 

I’ve seen many people use this argument to explain away things like why the stormtroopers have such bad aim but that’s ridiculous. With the right training and the right tools/weapons, the Empire could still have the most powerful army in the galaxy, and guess what? They do have the right training and the right tools and weapons. Rex himself admits that the Empire did use the clones to train new recruits and pass down their knowledge. The Empire also obviously kept all the vehicles, weapons, and technology they used to fight the Separatists, acquired some new ones, and upgraded others. 

There’s a popular, misquoted I believe, phrase that says, “There are no bad soldiers, only bad officers.” Possibly a re-interpretation of a quote attributed to Alexander the Great, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” Regardless of the exact wording and of who said what, the point is clear: soldiers can only be (shown to be) as good as the person commanding them. 

Yang vs Reinhard: Two sides of the same coin.

This is a point that the excellent Legend of the Galactic Heroes illustrates time and again. For all his clever strategies, Yang Wenli cannot help but follow the orders of the corrupt and self-serving, but duly elected, government of the Free Planets Alliance, with disastrous results. All Yang can do is stave off defeat and live to fight another day. On the other hand, the Empire’s own master strategist, Reinhard von Lohengramm, has carte blanche to deal with the Alliance as he sees fit, and surrounds himself with officers that have the talent and skills to defeat his enemy, regardless of their background.

Which is the case in Star Wars Rebels? Well, I guess it’s neither. The Imperial forces in Rebels are depicted as grossly incompetent, there’s no other way around this, hardly better than the battle droids from The Clone Wars. The stromtrooper effect is brought to bear in full force in this show, so much so that even the main characters are forced to comment on how bad the stormtroopers’ aim is. Officers fare no better, being made a mockery of, like missing a shot at point-blank range, and falling into the usual tropes of caricaturesque villainy, like having a fat Imperial officer steal a fruit from a vendor and daring him to stop him.

If I had a penny for every time I’ve seen this scene...

Rebels tries to revert this by introducing mildly competent characters like Agent Kallus, Tarkin, the Inquisitors, Vader, and even Thrawn in season three. Unfortunately, the more these characters are foiled (and they’re foiled a lot), the less effective they are at trying to reinforce the notion that the Empire is a force to be reckoned with. Halfway through season two, Kallus and the Inquisitors are more of a bad punchline than anything else. Tarkin and Vader are better off since their appearances have been few and far between. The only fear that the Empire seems to have sowed so far is among its own, as Imperial officers are made to account for their failure with their lives. It’s difficult to take the Empire seriously if it takes so little to foil them.

Only recently I watched an episode where Princess Leia tries to indirectly deliver ships to the Rebels. The plan is for Kanan and company to steal the freighters while Leia’s delivering supplies. The Imperial officer on the planet, in what shall hence be known as “that time that the Empire did something smart,” aware that Alderaanian ships have fallen into Rebel hands under similar circumstances, secures them with gravity locks and adds a pair of (old?) AT-ATs for further security. The Rebels are initially stumped and grimly reach the conclusion that, at best, they’ll be able to steal one of the freighters but not all three. However, as is the case with the show, they manage to steal all three. The gravity locks are easily disabled by Chopper working together with an escaped Imperial prisoner who just happened to build gravity locks while in captivity; the AT-ATs are easily destroyed by the Ghost (that’s the name of Hera’s ship by the way), while Kanan chops off their legs with his lightsaber; and the stormtroopers are their usual useless selves.

Guess Luke forgot that trick in Empire Strikes Back, and Dark Empire, and pretty much every other story ever.

The Empire’s ineptitude on its own is enough of a problem but there’s another that adds to it, and that’s the familiar trope of plot armor. Yes, our main characters have it, a lot of it. Our small band of freedom fighters can do no wrong or get seriously injured. They can easily defeat the toughest of enemies and they always get away with anything no matter what. 

As an example, in that very same episode I mentioned above, at a certain moment a Hammerhead-class cruiser fires at the spot where the Princess, Kanan, and Ezra are standing still. My initial thought was, “How are they going to make it out of that? ‘cause that cruiser is bound to pack a punch.” The end result was nothing but a bit of smoke, a punch no more powerful than if a couple of stormtroopers had fired their blasters. The Hammerhead-class cruiser is not equipped with blasters but turbolaser cannons, and their discharge on ground troops should feel like artillery was raining down on you. However, this is far from the only example where the rules bend around our protagonists.

Perhaps the most egregious example though is the one I saw recently. I was watching episode 13 of season 2, “The Protector of Concord Dawn.” The Rebels are searching for new hyperspace routes not monitored by the Empire and they come upon the idea of using the hyperspace corridor through the Concord Dawn system. While the system has no apparent Imperial presence there is a Mandalorian colony on the planet Concord Dawn and so the Rebels try to negotiate safe passage with them. To make a long story short, the Mandalorians aren’t keen on the idea and shoot down a bunch of Rebel A-Wing fighters. Sabine’s the only one who makes it back to the fleet in one piece whereas Hera also makes the jump to lightspeed... with a half-destroyed A-Wing.

I mean, take a look at that. Are you seriously telling me an A-Wing managed the jump to lightspeed in that state and wasn’t torn apart in the process? Give me a break! And you know what the worst thing is, worse than that even? It was completely unnecessary! Indeed, having Hera captured by the Mandalorians would’ve been the perfect excuse for Kanan to mount a rescue op and return. Hera didn’t need to be safely tucked inside the belly of a Rebel frigate recuperating. But then Sabine wouldn’t have had a reason to seek revenge, would she? More on that later. 

At the end of the day we have an Empire that’s less of a threat and more of a joke with every passing episode, and protagonists who can get away with anything with no consequences. A perfect example of this happens early on in the series when Sabine infiltrates an Imperial airfield to blow up its TIE fighter contingent. The reason behind this is unclear, or maybe that’s what I’d like to think, because otherwise the show would suggest she did it for the lolz and because she’s an artist. Right, an artist of death, there’s nothing disturbing about that.

Anyway, the stormtroopers are soon alerted to her presence and, in typical Rebels fashion, she toys with and taunts them until one stomtrooper notices something odd on the wing of a TIE that looks a lot like a bomb. Sabine promptly makes her escape while the bomb blows up on the stormtrooper’s face. I’m not kidding, look, here’s how close the stormtrooper’s face was to the bomb:

And he lived. Yup, he and his buddies lived to tell the tale in their next encounter with Sabine in the airfield where she again blows up the TIEs, thereby reassuring us viewers that Sabine’s actions are completely harmless and that the stormtroopers will live to get blown up again. Isn’t that funny? I’m guessing that showing the shockwave from the explosion chopping the stormtrooper’s head off in a kids’ show would’ve been too funny, right?

All of this, the fact that the Imperials are useless, that the Rebels are invulnerable, that actions have no consequences, it all adds up to one simple, inevitable, truth: there are no stakes in this galaxy. Sure, a rebel fighter will be blown up from time to time, but who cares, you never knew him anyway. But wait, a protagonist gets captured! So what? Getting him out is as straightforward and repetitive as going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters. It’s no big deal, just send in the A-Team, they’ll extract him and blow up half the Empire while they’re at it. There’s a blockade around the planet where the Rebels are at. So what? The A-Team will blow stuff up and escape with no casualties. Who needs a planetary Ion Cannon?

But there are AT-ATs! 

Made out of paper apparently.

Inquisitors! 

They sure don’t live up to the name.

Darth Vader himself! 

One appearance so far and he fails to capture or seriously cripple the Rebels in any way.

Um, Thrawn?

Look, I’m sure the creators thought that they were upping the stakes every time they introduced a new villain but I would question whether there were any to begin with. Like I said before, are we going to go all the way up to the Emperor to finally get things done? For all its faults, the Empire wasn’t that useles in the OT.

In a galaxy without stakes there’s little reason to care about its characters or their struggle and eventually you have to wonder, why is there even a struggle at all? When the show makes me ponder why the Rebellion hasn’t beaten the Empire already you know there’s something wrong somewhere.

What the Rebellion stands for

There’s a traditional narrative that the Rebel Alliance are noble idealists who rise up against the tyranny of the Galactic Empire to deliver peace and freedom to all peoples throughout the galaxy. That’s no secret, the opening crawls of the movies reinforce this by describing the Empire as ‘evil’ and having ‘sinister’ agents, and that ‘dreaded’ Imperial Starfleet, whereas the Rebels are ‘freedom fighters,’ and they have a Princess. Nobody doubts that the Empire are the bad guys here and the Rebel Alliance are the good guys.

Recently, Rogue One attempted to tint that narrative with shades of grey, at least on the part of the Rebels. Yes, the Rebels had spies, and assassins, and bombers, and they did terrible things in the name of the greater good. Our own history tells us that sometimes even the good guys can take extreme measures to end a conflict. Just consider the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The U.S. used a superweapon to raze two cities to force the Japanese Empire to surrender. There was a reason behind the madness though. Oblivious to the development of the atomic bombs, the Allies had been working on a plan, codenamed Operation Downfall, for the invasion of Japan. Projected casualties for this plan were high and some estimates even reached the millions of fatalities on each side.

Depending on how you look at it, where you stand, war can be seen as an abstract, white vs black, a fight between the forces of good and evil. But from the battlefield, things aren’t always so clear cut, it’s not always easy to tell what’s the right thing to do and what’s the wrong thing to do.

Welcome to the harsh reality of war: she’ll be fine.

As I was watching “The Protector of Concord Dawn,” I was struck by Sabine’s anger at how the Mandalorians cut the Rebels to pieces. Hera almost dying now convinces Sabine that the Protectors are bad, what hardens her resolve to seeing them killed. Maybe it’s not said in so many words but the subtext (to be honest, there isn’t much sub) is there. After all, how dare they shoot at Hera when all the Rebels wanted was to negotiate for safe passage... and bully the Mandalorians into submission if that didn’t work. In fact, if memory serves, that was the original plan proposed by Commander Sato, a show of force meant to say, “you mess with the bull, you get the horns.”

Even Kanan, who initially suggests to try the diplomatic approach, soon changes his tune once the Protectors make it clear they won’t help the Rebels. But let’s explain exactly what the Protectors’ role is, shall we? The Protectors of Concord Dawn are a small group of Mandalorian warriors, led by Fenn Rau, who helped train clone troopers during the Clone Wars and even fought with the Republic in a few battles. Disillusioned by the result of the war, Fenn Rau has opted to bend his knee to the Empire, what I guess amounts to making sure no Rebel ship passes through Concord Dawn unscathed. The Protectors don’t have many resources, maybe as much as two dozen fighters, so it’s doubtful the Empire expects a lot of results from them. This means the Protectors are no direct threat to the Rebels unless the latter insist on using the Concord Dawn hyperspace corridor, which they do. As a result, the Rebels blow up most of the Mandalorian starfighters and kidnap Fenn Rau who, out of the blue, decides not to pursue the Rebels nor report their presence to the Empire. That doesn’t get him out of cuffs though.

Using blackmail to get things done. The Empire would be proud.

How was the Rebellion any better than the Empire here? Aren’t they abusing their power as they accuse the Empire of doing? The fact that Sabine was so eager for the Mandalorians’ blood is equally disturbing. What does she think happens to the stormtroopers they shoot or the fighters they destroy? The stormtroopers aren’t droids, the TIEs aren’t unmanned. These are people, good and bad, who are serving the Empire for a variety of reasons. But Rebels isn’t keen on exploring this, is it? Worse, it seems the writers are oblivious to it. Perhaps they expect us to go along with everything the Rebels do just because they’re the good guys?

When Anakin Force choked Poggle the Lesser in The Clone Wars it didn’t make his action any less bad because he was fighting for the good guys and we knew it. Everything in that scene suggested he was doing something bad, that he was drawing closer to the dark side. When Cassian shoots that man at the beginning of Rogue One you know he’s doing something bad, everything in that scene plays to that effect. Cassian’s momentarily disturbed by it and later brings up the subject of all the terrible things he’s done in the name of the Rebellion. At least he acknowledges it, Rebels doesn’t even try to ponder the matter. Kanan and company don’t even stop to consider that perhaps it wasn’t the right thing to do. That perhaps they could’ve left the Protectors alone, that perhaps they could have tried to recruit them at some other time and continue to look for another hyperspace route. What happens the next time the Rebels ask for something and they’re told no, do they take it by force regardless? 

These are questions that should naturally occur to any of the protagonists but, sadly, don’t. If they did, it would certainly elevate the show’s value in my eyes. To clarify, It’s not the fact that the Rebels do questionable things that I find disturbing, what I find disturbing is the fact that they don’t find anything questionable about them and that we, the viewers, are not meant to regard them in such a light. They’re the Rebels and their cause is just or, in other words, the ends justify the means.

To be fair, this was just one episode and it may very well be the only one. Turning out script after script for each new episode is probably no mean feat, and some episodes are bound to be tighter than others, but it had me asking all the wrong questions about Star Wars Rebels.

Conclusion

Having written all of this one might be led to believe that Star Wars Rebels is a terrible show, a stain on the popular franchise built by George Lucas and now owned by Disney. But like I said at the beginning of this post, it’s not. Rebels is far from the only show where its protagonists have plot-armour, or the villains are incompetent. It’s not the first show that suffers from narrative issues and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s certainly not the first one to mess with Star Wars continuity, oh no, Lucas was doing a fine job at that before Disney, with as recent an example as The Clone Wars.

What Star Wars Rebels is, is lazy. Its depiction of the fight between good and evil is one we’ve seen countless times before, and one we’ll see countless times hence. It’s easy to show the Imperials as incompetent bullies and the Rebels as invincible do-gooders, and it gets tiresome to watch the same tropes repeat themselves over and over again. One can go as far as saying it insults the viewer’s intelligence when the good guys’ actions are never challenged, even when they may be morally (or otherwise) reprehensible, or when the laws of the universe are knowingly ignored, damaging the narrative for the sake of drama.

There are no consequences to speak of that invite discussion, no stakes to make us care about the protagonists’ struggle. And it’s important that we care, if not for them, at least for the fledgling Rebel Alliance in their struggle against the mighty Empire. But if our protagonists don’t take the Empire seriously, why should we? Why should I? Might as well be just another day at Tosche Station picking up power converters.

#star wars #star wars rebels

[crqstalite]

pt. 9, into the lion’s den pt. 2 (andronikos && mierrio)

mierrio and tri’ama have arrived on the scene, but not exactly on good terms with each other. what kind of shenanigans will they get up to this time?

psa: i love my imperial toons but one thing they all have in common is some sort of abusive backstory. it’s like a requirement to be part of the empire and it was never intended.

another psa: pretta n kal were made for the sole purpose of romancing theron (kal at least).

another psa: fandom, please write more andronikos fanfictions. i would do it myself but then all of tumblr would know of my insane exploits with mierrio n her pirate husband. i’m deprived of them n i need them now. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════

character song: truth hurts, lizzo

character file: darth nox, mierrio revel

-

“i always did hate alderaan.” ashara shivers as she pulls her robes over her tighter. mierrio would have to get the fury’s temperature regulator fixed, and soon. hopefully, that was one of andronikos’ talents, because the three humans (and one non-human) suffered through the cold nights, unlike the nearly silent kaleesh and dashade.“now we have to stay here?”

“if it bothers you so much, bulk up on thermal clothing.” mierrio says, putting on her own thermal coat. force user or not, darth nox wasn’t exactly made for the cold, and she secretly despises this trip just as much as her apprentice does. given, she and her husband did all sorts of things that could get her blood rushing, whether in the bedroom or on the battlefield, and considering they were on a war-filled planet (political and physical), she’d get plenty of both. she smirked before hiding it behind a cough at the thought. “it’s only for a week.”

“plus, you’ll be on the fury most of the time anyways.” talos says absentmindedly, researching something while khem val milled around the cargo hold before disappearing into the darkness. talos side steps the kaleesh as he passes by with some sort of ancient tablet, muttering something in anothr language. “we both will.”

“i figure that, but if i ever need anything i’ll have to leave the ship.” the togruta responds, groaning inwardly. “why are we here again?”

“peace talks, or somethin’. you two are lucky, you’re not the escort.” andronikos responds from the sofa. “dealin’ with sith day in and day out, questionin’ why ‘someone like you’ is with a dark council member.” he shrugs as mierrio considers this. he’s not inaccurate, though she figures it something she needs to take up with her fellow sith. her pirate, her rules, and they didn’t get a say in who she chose to love. not when she was one of the most powerful sith in the room. “when are we leaving, by the way?” he asks, turning to her.

“we can leave now, they have our room ready.” she says. subsequently, he gets up as she picks up her bag and slings it over her shoulder. she really should tie her hair up, it’s getting annoyingly long so that it hangs in front of her face if she bends over to tie her boots. however, mierrio is also aware of just how childish it looks tying up the baby hairs in the back, and chooses to suffer instead. letting the bridge down, she steps out into the spaceport’s spacious hangar. ashara isn’t wrong, it’s relatively chilly even through her coat. but, alderaan is absolutely beautiful as long as you’re not in a warzone. she intends to visit any vacation spot she can while on this godforsaken trip.

a few moments later as she scrolls through her datapad (the details give her a headache, if the wrath wasn’t also attending, she might as well skip out completely), she feels an arm snake around her waist as she stumbles backwards into her husband’s arms. “we’re really headin’ into the lion’s den, huh sith?” he asks after helping her stand straight, they begin walking in the direction of the elevator.

“are you scared, andronikos?” she asks, curving her lip upwards in a barely concealed smile. she’s completely aware of what her so called 'kind’ can do, especially to someone as force blind as her husband. they aren’t feared by the republic for nothing.“what’s the worst they can do?”

he doesn’t seem amused as she runs a hand through her hair, slipping the datapad back into her bag among her other things. “uh, sith? did you miss the whole 'force sensitive’ and 'could murder me with a pinky?’ part?”

“i haven’t killed you yet.” she says, leaning her head into the crook of his neck as they enter the elevator. he rolls his dark colored eyes good naturedly as she chuckles to herself. she couldn’t ever imagine lying a hand on her husband. well, she could, they sparred from time to time (she of course, gained the upper hand nearly instantly. but sometimes he played dirty in the best ways, in which she’d have to call a draw), but in a real fight she’d never do so. seeing a look of genuine terror from him was something mierrio had yet to witness.

“yet?” he asks, mock concerned as he puts a hand on his chest. “what, you plannin’ this pirate’s death already?”

“i’d never.” mierrio responds jokingly, stepping out of the elevator into the busy atrium of the alderaanian spaceport. “and should they lay a hand upon you, i shall show them why i am darth nox.” she gives him what she attempts to make a comforting smile that turns into an ill-intended smirk. nobles mill about as they make their way outside, dressed in an array of colors and array of styles, and she makes a mental note to do some shopping before they leave. andronikos doesn’t see, but her heart nearly stops as she witnesses a human with what seems as a stick in his hands ten or so feet away. three females follow close behind, and she’s halfway to shocking the man once she realizes that the silver metal sticking out of one of the women’s collars is none other than a shock collar. her delicate hands go for her own neck as the red twi'lek woman stops to look at her, staring out over the crowd. there’s inelligible yelling for a moment before she collapses to the ground in uncontrollable shaking and mierrio’s breath hitches.

“mier?” andronikos puts a hand on her shoulder as she jolts her attention back to the issue at hand. the twi'lek woman and her captor disappear into the background of the taxi pad, and in a moment of fear, her hand goes for her lightsaber and another hand on andronikos’.

“i-i’m fine.” her voice hardens unintentionally, once she catches his eye, loosening her grip on her lightsaber. sparks fly for a moment as she buries her hands in her coat, anger flowing through her veins for the young woman in physical and metaphorical chains. she had just been talking about wounding andronikos, nearly shocking him in her panic. “just fine.”

the dark skinned pirate looks at her in mild confusion and then concern. his gaze meets where hers had been, but he didn’t catch the slavemaster or didn’t say anything. shrugging, he pays for their taxi and they’re off across the plains of kaamos territory. he’s talking, but it keeps getting swept away by not only the wind, but also her own intrusive thoughts.

mierrio wasn’t a slave without scars. electrocution wasn’t unusual, and the skin on her neck reflects it. purple veins run along her throat, and though they’ve faded, some have alluded to her that they flare when she uses high voltage.

the weight of the collar, the chance of being put back into one of those things. the breath that is stolen from her when electricity flows through her veins.

the body of her previous master, after she turned it on him. after a particular electrocution event on balmorra with an imperial officer, in two seconds flat purple lightning escaped her fingertips. he writhed on the floor, gasping out for help as he took his dying breaths. she, of course, stole his jacket to warm her cold body in the outpost of sobrik, her fifteen year old self playing with the shiny medals that adorned his jacket as the last of life left his body.

at least until the mysterious sith came for her, as she ate the last box of chocolate the man had stashed away for his whore of a wife. three days, she’d stayed there, afraid should anyone know of her crime that they’d kill her. turn her into a prison, torture her.

she was still scared of herself, as sparks leapt from her fingers every once in a while.

someone had turned her in as a force sensitive, and years later, she suspected it was the officer or as previously mentioned, his wife. the cameras had watched her every move for years, it was hard to believe they weren’t watching then.

the teenage inquisitor hadn’t understood what she’d done, the man she had killed. she was free of this master, for good. mierrio hadn’t known she was force sensitive, she didn’t know just how powerful she was. what lurked just beneath the surface of her dark intentions, a mystical force bubbling up through her fingers.

even so, it’s not as if she can escape her past. this is who she is, and she doesn’t intend to let anyone put another leash on her. metaphorical, or physical.

she must look so absolutely angry that andronikos stops talking after a while. he’s gotten good at that, knowing when sometime is a bad time. as it stands, he’s recognized this time as one, though she’s sure he’ll want to know what’s wrong with her once they get to their room in the palace. over the nice temperature regulated bedroom and changed into a nice set of pajamas, she’s sure she’ll admit to whatever she’s feeling at the moment. but the cool wind whips her chapped lips, and she returns to the issue at hand. thul peace talks.

eventually, they land in the palace courtyard. the scene isn’t much different from the spaceport, except much, much busier. dark robes brush by as her boots crunch in the snow. she figures other sith lords have arrived before she has (of course, a fashionably late interest is the usual for darth nox). she looks around for a moment as she unbuckles her belt, andronikos stepping out of the taxi.

and, a certain blonde sith is waiting  by the courier droid with her name written out. mierrio groans in annoyance, as the wrath shifts her position to cross her arms. respirator, boots and all, she stands at a haughty 5"6 draped in black armor, three inches taller than her. she allows andronikos to take her hand and help her out of the taxi as the droid takes their bags, standing face to face with the imposing female. “my lord.” the blonde sith curtly nods.

“wrath.” she says just as coldly. mierrio hadn’t had many good interactions with a lot of sith on the council (nor a lot of interactions, like a certain darth hexid she prefers the finer things in life instead of the general stupidity and betrayal of the council), and the wrath happened to be one of them. insanely powerful with the force (though not a sorceror), the wrath was apparently a shoo in at the academy, and was an apprentice of the late darth baras.

and subsequently, his killer.

many assumed that she was a man, given her strong stature and less, say, assets in the female department. however, those who had come into contact with the brutish warrior had quickly fallen back on their gender-lined insults. funnily enough, she was eventually married to none other than an intelligence agent, even though some lower ranked sith lords assumed she was a butch lesbian due to her personality and the fact she never lasted in relationships with men. they placed bets on how long they would last, and mierrio was still collecting on the bets they’d last only for a few weeks at best. it’d been four years.

and, at the end of it all, she had the audacity to be merciful. merciful to those that didn’t deserve it. what sith would be such a way? and why? why have so much power, and not use it to instill fear into the galaxy?

given, this was all based off gossip, but she often didn’t have much else to be doing, so it entertained her to an extent. well, most of it was. she’d been assigned to a post with the wrath on taris, and she disapproved of every choice she made. for quite a bit, she made it her mission to corrupt ashara just to spite the merciful sith lord. it was somewhat successful, though her corruption only went as far as to be a 'grey jedi’.

to rub it in, down the grapevine she found that the wrath had managed to corrupt a jedi padawan to the dark side. successfully, and with little resistance! kriffing hell, mierrio was just that sure she’d only done it to spite her.

“your room has been prepared for your stay. i have been assigned to escort you to the palace.” the woman says, garbled a bit through her respirator. mierrio had yet to find out why she wore the thing (it was an ugly shade of grey and black with highlights of red, and she wasn’t suffering from some uncurable cancer eating away at her lungs), but possibly she wore it as a decorative piece. there were no current family members (other than a certain malavai quinn) related to the wrath, so it was most definitely not ornamental.

and how she knew? well, the family of the wrath would be well compensated, given their daughter having such a high rank in the sith order. they’d be public by now. and they’re not.

“thank you, wrath. but i did not need an escort into the palace, i’ve been here before.” she responds, hooking her arm onto andronikos’. “i’m sure you have something else to be bothering yourself with, so get on with it.”

“..of course, my lord.” the colbalt blue eyes harden into that of dark sapphire (a sign of her unwilling submission) as mierrio passes. the wrath crosses her arms before heading back the other direction.

“you want to talk about that?” andronikos asks as she pulls him along inside the palace, a bit more forcefully than intended, “i thought all you sith were chummy with each other.”

“darth thanaton?” she raises an eyebrow once she lets go of his arm, pushing a curl of dark hair behind her ear as she sheds her thermal coat. “andronikos, unlike the jedi council, we do not do 'friends’. we make alliances to better our power bases, and the wrath is on my list of people i want no alliance with.”

“got a reason? he seems nice enough.” there’s a groan of possible jealousy behind that she chooses to ignore, as he misgenders the sith, “given, not every man is as nice as me.”

“that was not a 'he’, that is the emperor’s wrath.” she responds, as they wade through the crowded lobby. it seems as if every servant in the palace has come down to gawk at the arriving sith lords, and she unintentionally picks up the pace to hurry to the elevator. it’s not until her boots are clicking on the polished floor of the relatively quiet third floor that she slows down.

“what’s got your panties in a twist, mier? did she do something to you?” he asks, as the enter the finely decorated room. locking the door behind her, he sheds his own coat as her fingers tap over the electronic thermostat. “i don’t think i’ve ever seen you receive a sith so badly.”

“that’s because i rarely 'receive’ sith unless i need to. are you not aware of the lack of sith we visit?” she asks, as she stretches a crick out of her neck, skipping his unanswered question. it’s not long before andronikos descends upon her, arms wrapped around her waist as he nips at the exposed skin of her neck as she pushes her hair to the opposite side of her head. “don’t fret, i’ve only ever had eyes for you.”

“glad to hear it.” his voice grows husky as she turns to face him, kissing him roughly. she’s not per se calmer than she was before landing or arriving to the palace (andronikos sadly doesn’t always have that effect on her), but the rush of endorphins is enough to forget the day’s earlier events. “hate to think there’s someone else out there with eyes for you.”

“i’ll always belong to you, first and foremost.” as the words leave her lips, she regrets them. mierrio despises the idea of ever 'belonging’ to someone ever again. she’d like to say that it doesn’t apply to andronikos, that’s he’s her one, handsome exception.

but he’s not. she’s terrified she’s going to wake up one day and she’s going to be married to a man who would take advantage of her at every turn. that this marriage is going to turn into a relationship of abuse.

although they both have issues with commitment, she lets the moment happen. he must notice her hesitation, because he doesn’t press any further. "nikky, as much as i love you, i do have responsibilities to the council. i’ve arrived late as it is.“

he mock whines, not letting her go, but allowing her enough space to lean her forehead to his. "it’s the middle of the afternoon, what do you mean sith?”

“we’re nearly two days late. we should’ve left a couple of days ago, hence why the wrath came to get us.” she responds. “peace talks have already begun, and to be honest, i would’ve skipped it if darth vowrawn didn’t send me a nice holo saying i should be here already.” he seemed quite stern with her when the recorded holo was sent, and she figured it wasn’t worth losing her council seat if she had to spend a few days on the wartorn planet. what could she say? being a darth who not only rid the galaxy of a body-hopping sith, but also thanaton? she liked the perks that came with being feared.

“alright, alright.” he lets go of her, a mischeveous grin on her face. “doesn’t mean you’re leaving me here all by my lonesome tonight, right mier?”

“alderaan has some beautiful sights, we can visit the market tonight, then the cantina.” he seems confused by her answer as she winces trying to undo her bra from under her shirt. “then, we’ll see what this bed can handle.”

he chuckles. “alright sith. arm still bothering you?”

“oh, how did you know?” she asks, frowning. she’d worn the lacy thing on the flight down with no intention of actually taking it off, but she figured if she were going to a peace talk meeting, she’d like it plenty better if her breasts weren’t constantly chafing on the old lingerie. “would you unhook it for me?”

“don’t have to ask me twice.”

-

she ended up twenty minutes late for the next portion of the peace talks, but a lot happier than she would’ve been should she not have taken a pit stop in her bedroom before coming to conference room. sith outside whispered here and there, and of course the thul nobles were nothing short of oblivious as she arrived. choosing a seat next to an empty seat, everyone quieted. “nox, it’s good to see you here.” a silent 'finally’ was aired at the end of vowran’s sentence.

“of course. i would never miss such an important meeting.” she smiles knowingly as the other sith frowns.

“well, we were just discussing your portion of earning thul’s trust.” ravage responds, picking up the awkwardly finished conversation. “as darth of ancient knowledge, you’ll be assisting them with the damages caused by a certain…bounty hunter years prior. identify what you can, as others have mentioned they can sense a datacron in the area.”

her ears perk up. a datacron? given, she’s never had the best luck with ancient artifiacts (see: zash, talos, force ghosts trying to take over her body etc, etc.), but to gain ancient knowledge is absolutely fascinating. she’s not looking for another tenant in her body, but possibly this one will be friendly. “show alde’s curators you’re willing to help them, and forge an alliance with them if you can.”

“great.” she sits a bit straighter, assignment gained. now she can go and spend the rest of the night very far from here. “can i leave now?”

“the wrath hasn’t arrived.” her mood drops considerably at the mention of the female sith, who is just perfectly, missing at the moment. her eye twitches at the thought.

“the wrath? what does she have to do with this?” she chuckles coldly.

“why, she’ll be assisting you with this mission. you specialize in ancient history, and if your reputation does not precede you, then the wrath will strike some much needed fear into them.” vowran finishes. mierrio is quite sure that he knows of their unofficial rivalry, and is pitting them against each other.

“finding a datacron? is that what i heard you say?” it’s twitching, it’s most definitely twitching as she turns to see the blonde sith walk inside, blue eyes twinkling with mischief as she sits down in the chair next to her. “it sounds like a wonderful assignment, vowran.”

they discuss back and forth their current plans as mierrio counts down the seconds until she can escape the dark and stuffy room. usually she feeds off the dark energy she gains by just being around the dark council’s chambers on korriban, but she just feels nauseously full. it’s not too much to handle, it’s just not wanted.

when they do finally break for an intermission, she’s considering leaving and not coming back. however, she is no match for the wrath’s 5"6 frame, as she easily catches up with her, voice cool and smooth. as kriffing always. “nox, leaving so early?”

“might as well throw myself out the airlock. datacron or not, i don’t intend to spend these peace talks playing matchmaker with you.” she continues walking, speeding up her pace as the wrath only lengthens her stride.

“i think it will be a wonderful excursion, nox.” mierrio can’t tell whether she’s smiling or not (she’s still wearing that damned respirator), “alderaan is so nice this time of year, don’t you believe?”

mierrio takes a sharp turn around a corner and unknowingly underneath a low-hanging sign for the cantina nearby. the only stops walking when she hears a loud bang from behind her. whirling around, she smirks as the wrath recoils. she’s hit the top of her head against the bottom of the sign, leaving a nasty red bruise that she quickly covers with her blonde bangs. “let’s see who has the last laugh, wrath.” she says over her shoulder, intending to continue further down the hall. she’ll answer that question, mierrio always has the last laugh. she wasn’t fatally wounded after their battle on corellia, she was part of the dark council long before the wrath ascended to her seat after murdering baras. and of course, mierrio came from so much less and was so much more powerful.

“do you know who i am?” mierrio tries to resist, she really does, but her throat closes as she gasps for air. barely able to turn her head in the desolate hallway, the wrath walks closer to her. “i am a fine tuned killing machine, and i serve the emperor. whether you believe he is an absent landlord or whatnot, you will respect me, nox.”

mierrio hangs there for a second, trying not to panic as tears almost well up in her eyes as she struggles against the metaphorical fist choking her. too many memories flood back from the major choking her as a child, his rough, gloved hands around her neck. the red handmarks he and his wife would leave when they abused her. “understood?”

she refuses to nod, which earns the cocking of an eyebrow from the wrath. “call me power-hungry or arrogant, sure. but i think this is where your path ends, nox. you’re at my mercy, i could snap your neck now and i could get away with it because no one would dare challenge the emperor’s wrath. you were a lowly slave before this, weren’t you?” she pauses, then paces back in the direction she came, colbalt blue eyes hardening, never leaving hers. “so you understand servitude just fine. i suggest you learn your place here and now, before we have another spat like we did on corellia.”

she tightens her grip as mierrio scrapes at her throat, air unable to escape as she coughs. “i can’t say it’s good knowing you, nox. you’ve been nothing but a thorn in my side for the last few years.” rolling her own neck, the wrath chooses a spot in front of her to intimidatingly stand before dropping her to the ground. “dark council member or not, you got here through murder. that doesn’t mean you have the talent or the know-how to stay this way.”

“w-would you s-shut your m-mouth? i can smell the kriffing shit from here.” mierrio responds cheekily as the wrath’s eyebrows raise in surprise and possibly humor (did the wrath even have a humorous bone in her body?). “i know my place, and i intend to make it above yours. emperor’s wrath or not, you’re still human. you have a name, you have a husband.” she coughs again. “you can be killed. never forget how fragile life is, wrath.”

“i shall not, and i haven’t, nox. do not ruin this for me, or it will be your head on a platter in the next week.” brushing off her robes, she walks past her. “good day nox, i will see you tomorrow morning. do not be late.”

mierrio watches her walk away (a good distance from the offending sign) as she fills her lungs with air again. fighting on corellia had not ended well, it’d left the wrath with a puncturing hole in her stomach, and mierrio had nearly lost her left arm. to have another, all these years later as dark council members, could easily be fatal for one or the other.

but darth nox, lord kallig, was not about to let fear control her again. the wrath would not get the better of her, again. mierrio revel was stronger than that, and always would be.

and she’d show the arrogant sith that.

#swtor #swtor oc #star wars the old republic #oc #original character #swtor fanfiction #swtor fanfic #mierrio revel #andronikos revel #female sith inquisitor/andronikos revel