#But you still were forced to commit patricide

[quirkyrahne28]

Literally, every time my dad plays a game about dads, the dad dies in the end. What the hell?

[echthr0s]

me desperately digging through Zoraal Ja's tag for a crumb of art/gposing of him in that lightning shard armour 🥵 nothing??? how is there NOTHING

[marvelstars]

“You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker, I did” Darth Vader in OWK

While I believe with some work this phrase could be worked into SW canon, I dislike it´s implications, I think this phrase was the show creators trying to whitewash Obi-Wan role in ROTS when he decided to cut off all of Anakin´s limbs and letting him burn alive, one of the most painful ways to die ever. This tells me not only part of the fandom has a hard time seeing the story as it´s with nuance but also current creators at disney but that´s not how Lucas developed his story.

Obi-Wan may have not groomed Anakin like Palpatine did, owned him like Watto but he certainly tried to kill him on behalf of the Jedi Order and he was convinced he only could kill him off , in fact it´s Obi-Wan the one who started the fight on mustafar activating his lightsaber first while Anakin wasn´t looking at him.

Obi-Wan´s mission on mustafar was to kill off Anakin plain and simple, when he saw him burn alive he didn´t feel pity or mercy, he feel disgusted, in lucas words, Obi-Wan thought he was a thing, a thing of the darkside and when he discovered Vader was alive he planned to train Anakin´s Son, use his memories of Anakin to convince Luke to kill off Vader, his father, then tried to deflect blame when confronted with the truth by Luke.

This doesn´t mean Obi-Wan didn´t love Anakin at some point but he believed in "once a sith always a sith" for someone who told Anakin only Sith deal in absolutes, he had a very "absolute" way of thinking, the only thing Obi-Wan tought he could do for Anakin once he fell to the darkside was kill him off, at no point does Obi-Wan in the OT tries to deny that´s his intention so it´s unnecesary for the fandom and some creators to try to do mental gimnastics over this fact and by the way Obi-Wan learned of Anakin´s actions, you could even say he was justified even if his actions were cruel.

That said the story is clear that there are two types of deaths, the physical one and the spiritual one when people fall to the darkside, the jedi believe killing a sith is ok because they are already dead and so they are not killing the same person, that´s the logic Yoda follows and Obi-Wan when it came to Anakin and Dooku but they are also hypocritical in this choice of words when they act as if revenge wasn´t a big factor on it but at least they accepted they played a part in what happened to Anakin even if they are trying to fix it by killing him.

This is what makes Luke reject their orders, because he doesn´t want to commit patricide for revenge, he respects and loves his teachers but that´s something he knows he can´t do without falling to the darkside as well and despite all the reasons he had to hate Vader, he also has felt his care for him in the force and that´s why he wanted to save him.

Anakin tried to convince himself that he was spiritually dead and lost until Luke went to rescue him and that´s why he told him he already saved him even if he was dying.

Obi-Wan was totally surprised when he discovered Vader turned back from the darkside and when he realized Anakin was going to join the force he realized he wasn´t going to see him as himself again, unless he teached him how to become a force ghost(this is tackled in the novel version of Obi-Wan´s pov in ROTJ), so ironically, it was Obi-Wan´s need to keep Anakin around, on his side, what promted him to teach him how to become a force ghost, because he discovered he still loved him as his friend and wanted his friend back.

It´s pretty clear in the story, this isn´t about criticizing Obi-Wan, this isn´t Jedi bashing, it´s how literally the events happened in star wars and those are part of Obi-Wan´s personality as well as some of the Order povs on the darkside this doesn´t contradict their good intentions or Obi-Wan´s sassy lines and warm demeanor with friends and family.

[apotheosis-part-1]

Chapter 4

No. No! NO! It couldn't be Him! He's dead! I killed Him! Nononononono no, no, NO! Fuck fuck fuck!

-You heard me. Don't make me force you to.

I'm sorry, creator! I... I! I...

He started lifting his spear off of the ground.

I'm sorry im sorry imsorry!

-Fine. Please do not resist.

In a panic I scrambled for a dodge.

I looked death in the eyes when I flew over His accelerating spear. While I was landing I noticed that the exit was left unguarded! I rushed there.

-I said do not resist. Nevertheless, don't think I won't find you.

Just run. Just run! JUST RUN!

Eyes started opening around me in the overly long hall I was running through - Seer's eyes. Fuck, he was here as well.

As I was about to reach the end I heard a door open, THE door, the one behind me. And then - loud stomping of His tentacles. They were hitting fast, too fast. RUNRUNRUN.

I opened the door at the end of the hallway. What I saw would put an evil grin on my nonexistent face at any other time - The Library. But now is not the time. I NEED to hide.

I hid in between two bookshelves on the second floor. The light didn't reach that much in here.

-Don't try and hide. I know you're here. 10.

Shit! H-Here He is!

-9.

M-M-Maybe I should switch spots!

-8.

I can be sneaky while I'm doing it!

-7.

But what if He sees me?!

-6.

T-That would be b-bad!

-5.

Fuckfuckfuck!

-4.

What should I do?!

-3.

I can't hide from Him!

-2.

He may be a sinner, b-but-

-1. Кто не спрятался я не виноват!~ ("I'm not the one to blame if you didn't hide!~" in russian. Children say this when they stop counting and start seeking in hide and seek)

I tried to become one with the wall and not make any sound. He started searching the first floor.

I heard my own heartbeat. It was fast and loud, not ideal for the situation at hand. Calm down. Calm Down. CALM DOWN!

I heard loud thumping against the stairs to the second floor.

He. Was. Here.

Fuck!

My frantic attempts to fuse with the wall continued.

The natural light coming in from the windows dimmed to a point I couldn't see and an eerie faint red glow started coming in from the direction of the stairs. A quiet and high-pitched sound filled the air. Other than that it was awfully silent. No tentacles, no spear, only my panicked breaths and heartbeat. The glow was increasing in intensity, soon painting the entire room in an eerie red. My heartbeat sped up and became louder. The noise wasn't so much a noise anymore, but a scrambled and fast paced, although still legible, piano and violin melody. One of His tentacles wrapped around the bookshelf I was hiding at. And then the full body came into view. It was glowing red with lines of tension coming off of it and onto the floor and walls. Red eyes started appearing all around me. He looked at me.

HE LOOKED AT ME!

-I said that you couldn't hide so why did you even try?

His voice was twisted and broken, but it is not the time to focus on that! I flew over Him. He just laughed. His laugh echoed and boomed all throughout The Library. I flew towards the exit. Landed. Locked. FUCK!

I looked behind me. He descended unnaturally fast from the second floor. His body seemingly grew and took up most of the artificial hallway created by the bookshelves. His tentacles were stomping over to me too fast. His spear was pointed right at me.

This is the End, isn't it?

In a desperate attempt I lifted my hand up and-

...

...

...

When I opened my eyes the Shadelord was frozen. Along with most of the Library. This is why I came here isn't it? Destroy the books that hurt. Haha- It seems to work out in the end~

...

I started to lose my footing and tried to lean on the door. It opened, causing me to fall. I laughed. And laughed and laughed. With a laugh that could come out only from somebody who has just committed patricide twice.

hahahahahahahahahHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[ciaran]

ok ok ok i told myself i was gonna write this so im going to write it even htough its not going to make any sense and i am not actually doing anything and everything sucks. but we live in a shitsuck world so i am gonna write my dumb little thoughts down.

mo du spoilers ahead and discussions of triggering topics

anyway so. the thing abt the last book of mo du which is a v recognisable thing to happen and i Get It as an author like i truly do despite the longest thing ive ever written having been 50k of unhinged word vomit about feeling profoundly isolated from reality. i am the shit king of things that are too complicated and simple and that make no sense and plot is not my strong point as an author and i could not have done better. but i truly believed that priest could. anyway the thing that happened is that the last book was just not good lmao and it was not good for a few very particular reasons that were EASILY rectified by having a team of good alpha readers who are willing to slap you over the head and tell you to make a damn decision.

the thing is that before that mo du IS good and my idea for what should have happened in the last arc WAS SET UP BY THE NARRATIVE! i was not an idiot for thinking that that was what would happen! its just that she refused to go there for two critical reasons

she felt like she wouldnt have enough time to resolve this plot point

she didnt want to introduce a new major trauma before the end

she didnt trust her characters to get through it

she had set up a moral system in which once u commit murder u are irretrievable from The Abyss (as proven by that one dead cop's daughter idr her name but she killed a cop by accident)

that's more than 2 but i am a lit crit bitch not a numbers bitch. moving on.

she WOULD have had time to resolve this plot point if she had simplified her plot by a few threads. that cult shit was not necessary. the fact that the mysterious organization had someone within working to bring about its downfall was a great touch that didnt go far enough. there was a parallel between fan siyuan and fei du that was never fully explored and that was a waste of both their characters.

fei du needed to Go Through Something and he just did not. he needed to suffer a major moral injury in order for that arc to work - he needed to kill his father, or be mindbroken by being submerged in the abyss. the abyss needed to affect him. instead he is untouched which is awful. where are The Horrors of finding yourself at home among monsters! where is the Relief of not needing to mask, and wondering if this might just be better, if its not a little joyous to not care about morality and goodness. where is the Fear and the Self-Hate and the moral conflict between wanting to become your worst self and wanting to slip back into a comfortable orbit. where is the CRISIS OF FAITH!

but that's the thing, she didn't trust luo wenzhou to be able to handle fei du like that. she knows lwz can handle fd when he's being like "im gonna atticwife you shixiong" while clearly being a wet bedraggled catboy but she doesnt know if lwz could handle fd while hes laughing maniacally and trying to decide between killing his father, zhou chunliang, and fan siyuan. not that fd can handle a gun's recoil but that's not the relevant part. she didn't know if lwz could see fd at his worst and still love him but he CAN! he's a little crazy too let him find it kinda hot when fd struts around masterminding complicated criminal plots.

i truly think that showdown should have had lwz as a captive audience so fd experiences terrible feelings. OR fd should have actually HAD TO kill his father, no take-backs, no last minute outs. murder that vegetable. pull the fucking PLUG piglet. he should have to live with patricide even if he's never going to be charged with anything. lwz should have to live with loving a guy who was forced to have blood on his hands. let him have nightmares for the rest of his life about the closure he craved for so long.

but this goes back to priest's issue with MORALITY. the morality of the mo du universe is very clearly slanted into people being either GOOD or BAD and once you cross the line you can NEVER COME BACK. there is no complexity offered to the characters and there SHOULD HAVE BEEN! fan siyuan was a horrible person but what if he felt like he didnt have a choice? what if he was just like fei du and HIS lwz died? u cant tell me that fan siyuan wasnt in love w that one guy whose photo he was trying to see in his last moments. show me the beauty under the rot. what if fei du was pushed over the line? could he still be allowed to have some light? could lwz LET HIM? and i truly think lwz can, it's fd who cant let himself have that. but fd needed some confounding factors in his worldview.

call me a whump lover but i love when theres major trauma at the end of a book but it's still slanting to a happy ending. i like a hint of bitterness, a hint of "it will never be okay but at least we have each other." it's good.

anyway when mac and i were talking about this mac also suggested that fd walking into the abyss could have been very effective as a trust fall, a sign that he KNOWS that lwz will come for him and pull him out and not let him get lost in the evilsauce. and i agree w that being hot but i also have a personal preference for fd having a crisis of faith and lwz having a crisis of faith and both of them realizing in the end that they did choose each other and they still have each other

but priest chickened out of Challenging her Characters at the end and that just meant the whole thing rang soooo hollow. big grief. mz priest i will give u one dollar and my heart if u write an alt ending

get rid of that cult shit, get rid of the moral black and whiteness, let fei du sink into hell and kill his dad and be pulled out and dusted off and loved anyway. forgive some of the people who wandered into it without meaning to. let lang qiao and xiao haiyang kiss. The End

[marvelstars]

I think that was the show creators trying to whitewash Obi-Wan role in ROTS when he decided to cut off all of Anakin´s limbs and letting him burn alive, one of the most painful ways to die ever. This tells me not only part of the fandom has a hard time seeing the story as it´s with nuance but also current creators at disney but that´s not how Lucas developed his story.

Obi-Wan may have not groomed Anakin like Palpatine did, owned him like Watto but he certainly tried to kill him on behalf of the Jedi Order and he was convinced he only could kill him off , in fact it´s Obi-Wan the one who started the fight on mustafar activating his lightsaber first while Anakin wasn´t looking at him.

Obi-Wan´s mission on mustafar was to kill off Anakin plain and simple, when he saw him burn alive he didn´t feel pity or mercy, he feel disgusted, in lucas words, Obi-Wan thought he was a thing, a thing of the darkside and when he discovered Vader was alive he planned to train Anakin´s Son, use his memories of Anakin to convince Luke to kill off Vader, his father, then tried to deflect blame when confronted with the truth by Luke.

This doesn´t mean Obi-Wan didn´t love Anakin at some point but he believed in "once a sith always a sith" for someone who told Anakin only Sith deal in absolutes, he had a very "absolute" way of thinking, the only thing Obi-Wan tought he could do for Anakin once he fell to the darkside was kill him off, at no point does Obi-Wan in the OT tries to deny that´s his intention so it´s unnecesary for the fandom and some creators to try to do mental gimnastics over this fact and by the way Obi-Wan learned of Anakin´s actions, you could even say he was justified even if his actions were cruel.

That said the story is clear that there are two types of deaths, the physical one and the spiritual one when people fall to the darkside, the jedi believe killing a sith is ok because they are already dead and so they are not killing the same person, that´s the logic Yoda follows and Obi-Wan when it came to Anakin and Dooku but they are also hypocritical in this choice of words when they act as if revenge wasn´t a big factor on it but at least they accepted they played a part in what happened to Anakin even if they are trying to fix it by killing him.

This is what makes Luke reject their orders, because he doesn´t want to commit patricide for revenge, he respects and loves his teachers but that´s something he knows he can´t do without falling to the darkside as well and despite all the reasons he had to hate Vader, he also has felt his care for him in the force and that´s why he wanted to save him.

Anakin tried to convince himself that he was spiritually dead and lost until Luke went to rescue him and that´s why he told him he already saved him even if he was dying.

Obi-Wan was totally surprised when he discovered Vader turned back from the darkside and when he realized Anakin was going to join the force he realized he wasn´t going to see him as himself again, unless he teached him how to become a force ghost(this is tackled in the novel version of Obi-Wan´s pov in ROTJ), so ironically, it was Obi-Wan´s need to keep Anakin around, on his side, what promted him to teach him how to become a force ghost, because he discovered he still loved him as his friend and wanted his friend back.

It´s pretty clear in the story, this isn´t about criticizing Obi-Wan, this isn´t Jedi bashing, it´s how literally the events happened in star wars and those are part of Obi-Wan´s personality as well as some of the Order povs on the darkside this doesn´t contradict their good intentions or Obi-Wan´s sassy lines and warm demeanor with friends and family.

It annoys the heck outta me that people take Anakin’s words under the duress of intense stress seriously when he condemns himself but never when he stands up for himself or dislikes the way he’s treated in a situation. Like anytime he makes a negative comment about the Jedi Order or the Order straight up treats him horribly it’s all “he’s an unreliable narrator, mentally ill!” which go to hell! he is mentally ill but that doesn’t make him an incompetent idiot), or biased as if no one can truly know the of their own experiences. However when he says stuff like “You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker, I did”, everyone’s all like “ SEE ! SEE! ANAKIN WASNT ABUSED OR GROOMED! HE SAID SO HIMSELF! IT WAS ALL HIM ALL ALONG, VICTORY IS MINE”. Like Jesus. Cherry Pick much?!!!

[edelegs]

Postwar Edeleth + Two Jewels Headcanons

- I always imagine that Byleth joins Hubert in the fight against TWSITD. They go out at night on dangerous missions. Edelgard and Ferdinand can’t sleep on nights when they’re gone and both end up working on policy to try to distract themselves. 

- Byleth and Hubert’s friendship is built on a foundation of mutual respect and trust that manifests as jokes about how they’d kill each other and get away with the murder

- Byleth also tries to recommend romantic weekend trips to Hubert. “You know, El and I really liked Deirdru. You and Ferdie should go next weekend, you’re both working yourselves too hard.” 

- Byleth loses the power of the Sword of the Creator, but they teach Edelgard how to wield it. 

- All four of them are great at keeping their work and personal lives separate. Cabinet meetings are largely dull and involve a great deal of painstaking drafting and bickering. But the second work is done, they snap out of work mode and become different people. 

- EDELGARD GETS HUBERT TO CALL HER EL

- It completely goes against all of Hubert’s instincts, but he comes to realize that she wants him to be seen as her equal rather than her vassal. Cue some unpacking of his devotion complex. Eventually, he compromises with “Lady El”.

- Hubert and Ferdinand become the most pretentious wine snobs. Hubert likes dry wines while Ferdie likes sweet wines. They will still try each other’s preference during tastings. 

- Ferdinand has a strict routine of morning horseback ride + coffee/tea break. The tea break is done on a balcony overlooking the gardens. 

- There were two Edeleth weddings: one for the public, which was highly formal and intended to solidify the regime, and another just for the Black Eagle Strike Force. The private one was held first because without it, Edelgard wouldn’t have been able to keep her emotions in check when giving her vows to Byleth. Hubert planned both events. The Bleagles all gave speeches (with varying degrees of sobriety). 

- Edelgard takes up art as a hobby/destressor. She hires Bernie to be her art instructor. One anniversary, she surprises Byleth with a technically sound portrait of them. 

- They all start studying the Brigidian language. Ferdie is the most fluent, but Hubert has the best accent. Edelgard is paralyzed by second language speaking anxiety and writes a million letters to Petra about how amazing she is.

- Hubert has not known peace since Ferdinand found out he could sing. 

- Hubert opens up to Ferdinand about committing patricide and his feelings on being a Vestra (because you know he definitely asked)

- None of them would change their last names. Byleth and Edelgard are both the last of their family lines. Hubert would not dare sully his already bloodstained name with that of the old Duke Aegir’s, and if you honestly believe Ferdinand “I am Ferdinand von Aegir” von Aegir would ever take on a different name you are sorely mistaken

[chaotic-major]

My take on ninjago villains (From s1-s8)

I have not watched anything past season 8 yet, but this is my rating for each villain and my opinions: Pythor: 8/10 I liked that he was continually used without it feeling forced and that it lined up with his morals and goals, even when they changed. Scales: 10/10 I knew form the first time he appeared that he was the smartest. Being constantly underrated made me all the more wanting for him to take control. Then he makes peace with the ninja and has a son-

Lord Garmadon: 11/10 Lord G is probably one of the best written villains in the show, with or without bias. The way he is still a villain and does harm and damage, all while able to be civil with the Ninja, his brother, and son. The fact that he didn’t want to make Lloyd think he had to be evil to be loved by him made my heart melt. Then he’s a good guy all the while his past coming back to haunt him? *chef kiss* Props to you on this one ninjago writers.

The Overlord: 8/10 The overlord was cool. He was inherently evil and was a good foe for the ninja. I don’t remember much of season 3 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Master Chen: 9/10 I liked how he was an interactive villain. Like, he actually interacted with the contestants and made it known that you could win his favour. And he saw how there was an easy way to manipulate all the contestants, especially Kai and Jay (though for different reasons).  

Claus: 6/10 I got his hatred against Garmadon and I like that they gave him a backstory that made him relevant, but then he’s used as a plot device for season 6 and its just :/

Morro: 9/10  Probably my favourite villain so far. I like how his story and motivations still make sense throughout the entire season and how he had a sympathetic backstory that opened up the door for redemption. Still kinda sad that he didn’t stick around for a redemption arc (he totally could’ve helped Cole learn who to control his ghostyness)

Nadakhan: 7/10 Despite the horrible ending season 6 had, Nadakhan was a villain I really liked because you could understand where he was coming from the entire time. Near the end his goals went from building djinjago to Marriage which was kinda a let down though.

Acronix & Krux: 8/10 I like how they had the sibling dynamic built into them and how they didn’t completely see eye to eye, being the future and the past and all. I wonder if we see them again? Acronix had definite potential 

Harumi: 4/10 OK. Hot take: Harumi isn’t that good of a villain. She has a solid reasoning and everything, and I like her as a villain. The roots of her motives though? Trash. Ok, the great devour destroyed your home and killed your parents. Cool. She’s mad at the ninja for not being able to stop it sooner and thinks Lord G is a hero. Understandable but there is a flaw there. I get the “Ninja are responsible for my trauma bc they couldn’t do anything” part but, isn’t lord G a well known villain in ninjago history? Like, she would’ve had to have some memory of him being the villain rather than the hero, if not experience then textual knowledge.  She’s then adopted into the ROYAL family and lives out her years seething in anger and manages to hide it under a mask for how long? She is shown being a caregiver for the poor in ninjago and I’m sure knows full well that summoning Garmadon as “A heartless being” will only cause destruction. So, unless she actually doesn’t care about the poor in ninjago like we were shown, this detail gives he conflicting moral wants. Also, committing patricide is fine if she just wanted to control, but she just wants to hurt Lloyd. Though it seems like her motives are moving away from revenge and more towards anarchy. If Harumi had rallied everyone who was affected in the collateral of the great devourer and brought them against the ninja, not just Lloyd, to show them that their actions have consequences, that would’ve been awesome. That would’ve made everything bode well because, now it’s not just one person who wants Garmadon back and a bunch of anarchists and chaos enthusiasts, it’s a group of collateral victims who all believe in the same thing and are fighting for something they believe in rather than causing chaos for harms sake. TL;DR: Harumi is the good skeleton of a villain, but her backstory has too many holes for me.

[kanerallels]

Okay, no clue if I can send in multiple prompts, so no pressure, you don’t have to reply to this one.

But maybe Kanera with soulmates, rescue (maybe even fix-it 👀👀) As you can see I’m a sucker for soulmate AUs🧍‍♀️💀

Alrighty, this isn't EXACTLY a soulmate au, but it came to me and I have ZERO self control around domestic Kanera, so let's go!!!

Pairing: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla

Word Count: 1,592

Tags/Warnings: Rated G (for me getting ridiculously sappy today)

“One more story?”

Kanan shook his head. “Not tonight, Jacen. I told your mom I'd have you in bed before she was home.”

“I don’t want to go to bed until she’s home, though,” Jacen said. “I want to say goodnight to her.”

Brushing a hand over his son’s hair affectionately, Kanan said, “I know, kiddo. But your mom will string me up if you’re still awake when she gets back. You’re up late enough as it is.”

Jacen let out a theatrical sigh, and Kanan heard him shifting his weight in bed as he clearly considered his next maneuver. He couldn’t help but repress a smile at it-- the kid’s tenacity came straight from his mom. Although Hera would claim he inherited it from Kanan.

“What time does Mom get home from the appointment again?” Jacen asked.

“She’ll be back around ten-thirty, as you already know,” Kanan reminded him. “That was a really bad stalling technique. Time for bed.”

“No! Tell me another story,” Jacen begged. “Tell me about when you first met Mom.”

Kriff. The kid knew his weak spot. “Jacen…”

“Just this story, then I’ll go to bed. Please?”

Letting out a sigh, Kanan said, “Okay. But only one more, and then you’re going to sleep. Got it?”

Jacen let out an excited yelp, bouncing up and down in bed. “Yes! I promise.”

“Good, now lay back down,” Kanan ordered. “You’ve got to at least pretend you’re going to try and fall asleep after this.”

Immediately squirming back down under the covers, Jacen lay still obediently, and Kanan felt himself smiling as he paused for a minute to collect his wits for the story. If he was being honest, he loved telling this story.

“The first time I met your mother, I was on a backwater planet called Gorse. Now, the planet wasn’t much to look at, but the moon was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”

“Until you met Mom,” Jacen jumped in, and Kanan nodded.

“Exactly. So, I was working as a pilot, flying explosives to the mine at that point. Wasn’t a safe job, wasn’t a smart job. But I didn’t really care back then. I didn’t care about much of anything. Until one night, when I was heading out of this old tapcafe where I’d been eating dinner, and I heard it.” Kanan tilted his head to the side, closing his eyes and imagining the moment with a soft smile.

“What was it?” Jacen asked, as he always did, his voice dramatically curious.

“The most incredibly beautiful voice,” Kanan said, his own voice equally dramatic. “It was soft and warm, so totally unlike Gorse and everything I’d ever come to expect about the galaxy. The minute I heard that voice, I knew there was something worth living for. And at the moment, it was finding out what kind of woman had a voice like that.”

“So you went after her,” Jacen supplied.

“I did-- after I paid my bill, of course,” Kanan said. “Side note, never run out on a bill from a Besalisk with anger management issues. Anyway, I went to find her, but she’d disappeared, like she was some kind of dream. For a while there, I almost thought she was one. Until--”

“You heard her again!”

“Hey, who’s telling the story?” Kanan gave Jacen a mock stern frown.

“Sorry,” Jacen said, his tone making it clear he was grinning. “I won’t interrupt again.”

“I should hope not,” Kanan said sternly. “But yeah, I heard her again. And, typical of your mother, she was about to get in a brawl with a gang.” As he spoke, he heard the door to the bedroom creak open, and stifled a smile as he kept talking. “So I rushed in to save the day.”

“Oh, did you?” Hera’s voice came from behind Kanan, and he could no longer hold back his smile as Jacen let out an excited yelp.

“Mom!!! You’re home!!”

Kanan ducked just in time to avoid Jacen as the boy launched himself out of bed and at his mother. Catching him, Hera hugged him, and gently set him to the ground. “What are you still doing up, sweetheart?” she asked, pressing a kiss against his forehead. “As if I didn’t know,” she added, directing a look at Kanan that he didn’t need eyesight to decode.

“You don’t know what he threatened me with,” he said, shooting a wink at Jacen. “It was brutal, Hera. You almost lost your husband tonight-- and how would you feel if you came home and your son had committed patricide?”

Hera let out a scoff that was very clearly hiding a laugh. “You’re full of it, dear.”

“Full of love for you,” Kanan said, grinning, and that pulled a laugh out of her.

Stepping forward, she set Jacen onto his bed. “Okay, get back in bed, Jacen. Your father will finish his story, and then it’s time to sleep. Got it?”

“Okay, Mom.” Jacen snuggled back under the covers, and Kanan began his story again.

“As I was saying, your mom was about to get in a fight with a gang of ten, fifteen beings. But little did I know as I started to charge forward to save the day, I was right next to one of the most competent and incredibly talented women I’d ever met. She started fighting right along with me-- handled more than half of the gang, I might add,” Kanan said with a grin.

Hera, who’d settled next to Kanan, chipped in, “Meanwhile, your dad got tackled through a window.”

“Who’s telling the story here?” Kanan demanded, and Hera let out a quiet laugh as she leaned into him, resting her cheek against his shoulder.

“Sorry, love. Keep going.”

Turning back to Jacen, Kanan said, “Anyway, once I finished my fight, I made my way back to where your mom had been-- and there was no one there. Just the cloak she’d dropped when the fight began.

“But when I picked it up and turned around, there she was. The most beautiful woman I’d ever met.” Kanan paused for a moment, a soft smile crossing his face. “I was spellbound immediately.”

“Meanwhile, I was wondering what this scruffy gunslinger was doing with my cloak, and why he was staring at me,” Hera said wryly. “I took off, despite his attempts to follow me or convince me to stay.”

“But then you met him again at that bar,” Jacen said.

“And from there, I found myself dragged into shenanigan after shenanigan with this woman,” Kanan said with a teasing grin. “Somehow, she convinced me to help her save Cynda and Gorse from that psychopath, Count Vidian. Long story short, we ended up on an exploding Star Destroyer together. And that’s when I actually saved your mother’s life.”

“True,” Hera said softly. “I still remember when I saw you use the Force for the first time. You were the last person I would have expected to be a Jedi back then.”

“Well, that was the point,” Kanan said.

“But he’s still a good Jedi,” Jacen said. His voice was growing steadily sleepier as he spoke.

“One of the best,” Hera said.

“I had my moments,” Kanan agreed. “But one of the best things I ever did was save you then. You know, kid, in some cultures, they say that when you save someone’s life, that means they’re your soulmate, that you’re meant to be together.”

“Is that true?” Jacen asked, letting out a huge yawn.

Kanan shrugged. “Who can say? I would have married your mom regardless. Now, time for you to go to sleep.”

As he and Hera rose to their feet, Hera dropping a quick kiss onto Jacen’s forehead, Jacen let out another yawn. “Night, mom. Night, dad.”

“Good night, sweetheart,” Hera said as she switched off the light, and the two of them slipped out of Jacen’s room.

Kanan gently closed the door behind them, then turned to Hera. “Hey. How’d your appointment go?”

“Pretty well,” Hera said, catching him by the hand and leading him away from Jacen’s room and into the living room. “The doctor said that I didn’t have a stomach bug, but there were a couple other tests she wanted to do on me.”

“Oh?” Kanan kept his voice calm, but he could feel his heart rate pick up. They hadn’t been sure when Hera had gone in, but he had a feeling… “What were the results?”

Giving his hand a quick squeeze, Hera said softly, “Why don’t you check for yourself?”

Kanan needed no further encouragement to reach out with the Force towards Hera, sensing her usual bright spark of warm life. And then, somehow within it and separate from it, there was another one. Another life form, tiny but insistent.

“Oh, wow,” Kanan breathed, awe sweeping over him. “Hera-- you’re--”

“Pregnant,” Hera finished, and Kanan could hear the vibrant joy in her voice. “You were right, love. We’re having another baby.”

Kanan felt a grin spreading across his face, and he pulled his wife into a fierce embrace. “This is amazing,” he whispered, pressing a kiss against her temple. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Or him,” Hera corrected. “Even you can’t tell this early, Master Jedi.”

“I have a feeling about it,” Kanan said with a smirk, and he felt rather than heard Hera’s laugh.

Pulling back from him slightly, she said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Kanan murmured, and bent down to give her a kiss. “Both of you,” he added.

[emeraldcast]

@arroganceandfear​ plotted starter

The King of Jotunheim had been holding court for a few hours now, listening to petitioners; of which there were many. Their realm had been desolate and dying for such a long time, that even with the Casket returned, it was taking time for Jotunheim’s former glory to return. There were many who still doubted him, who believed his small stature made him unworthy and unfit for the throne. Loki would have thought they would be grateful that he had returned the Casket, but despite being Laufey’s first born and rightful heir, he’d had to fight off more than one assassination attempt.

Committing patricide probably hadn’t helped win him favor with his father’s most loyal followers; but in his defense, Laufey had deserved it. He’d abandoned him to die, cast him away like he was trash, and much as he hated Odin for deceiving him, it was only by his mercy that he was still alive. Even if he didn’t count himself into the equation, Laufey had been a poor ruler who’d allowed his people to suffer for far too long. Loki would prove to them one way or another that he was worthy of the throne, and if was only under his ruling that Asgard would finally pay for everything it had done to Jotunheim.

As another person entered the throne room to petition something from him, Loki felt the presence of magic that wasn’t of his realm. It was strange, and had appeared out of nowhere which didn’t bode well. He didn’t believe it could be someone from Asgard; but he would be a fool if he didn’t investigate to make sure. His seidr was able to conceal Utgard from Heimdall’s sight, and so far Odin had kept Asgard’s forces back, but Loki knew the Allfather too well, he wouldn’t hold back forever, especially when his prized Casket and Jotun runt had been removed from his control.

❝ Býleistr- ❞ He turned to his youngest brother and in one fluid and graceful movement, stood from the throne and stepped to one side.  ❝ We have an uninvited guest on our realm, I will go see to it, keep court until I return. ❞ With a twist of his wrist, he teleported from the throne room to where the magical signature had originated from. ❝ Whoever you are, I strongly suggest you leave now, whilst I still allow you to go unpunished. ❞

[robininthelabyrinth]

prompt: The reason JGY dug up NMJ's corpse was in the hopes that Xue Yang could create him a "ghost general" of his own, since the actual ghost general was proving disappointingly loyal to his creator. Except here it actually works, and JGY has Nie Mingjue's fierce corpse as an obedient weapon to deploy.

Lan Xichen’s hands were shaking, hidden in his sleeves, and his mouth kept opening and closing, trying to find something to say.

The worst part of it was: Jin Guangyao was still smiling.

He mostly looked worried, the rest of the time – directing his subordinates to gather the necessary things, putting in place his plans to flee into the night where the best case scenario was he’d never be heard from again and the worst case was that he’d reappear like a malignant tumor to cause havoc – but whenever he looked at Lan Xichen, he smiled.

“A-Yao,” Lan Xichen finally forced out through numb lips. “A-Yao, you swore an oath.”

Jin Guangyao blinked, then laughed. “I swore many oaths,” he said, as if breaking oaths was nothing. “Which one are you referring to? The one to be filial towards my father? I gave that one a fair shot, at first, but in the end there was no choice.”

There was a ringing in Lan Xichen’s ears. He’d heard how Jin Guangshan had died – it’d been a shameful death, an unpleasant one, and from Jin Guangyao’s words…

“I wasn’t talking about that one,” he said, because it was true. He didn’t care about Jin Guangshan, other than the instinctive revulsion at the thought of patricide; the man had been worse than worthless. “I was talking about the oath you swore with me.”

With us, he meant, and surely the way he couldn’t take his eyes off of Nie Mingjue’s corpse, standing as a guard at the gate, eyes lifeless and dead, with nails in his head to control him – Xue Yang had been very happy to boast about his techniques – will let Jin Guangyao understand.

Sure enough, Jin Guangyao’s expression softened. “I would never hurt you, er-ge,” he said, and his voice was as fond as it had ever been. “You’re the only one who understands me – the only one who supports me. Da-ge…da-ge didn’t understand. It’s like you were always telling him: he was too inflexible, too unforgiving. He never bothered to listen to my reasons.”

Lan Xichen had said that, hadn’t he? He’d filled his sworn brother’s ears with excuses for Jin Guangyao.

Jin Guangyao, who had desecrated his grave.

“Was it –” Lan Xichen swallowed. If he condemned Jin Guangyao now, the other man would close up at once, and he would never know what he needed to. “Did you only take his body to use? Or did you…”

He couldn’t finish the question.

Jin Guangyao laughed. “I thought you didn’t want to know the details, er-ge! You always preferred to look away while I did the dirty work –”

Had Jin Guangyao believed he’d known about it all? Known and approved in silence, supported him in silence?

“– but I suppose since we’ve reached this point, there’s no reason to hide it. It was really very clever, wasn’t it? To everyone else’s eyes, it just looked like a qi deviation, and everyone knows about the Nies.”

He’d killed him, then. Lan Xichen had led Nie Mingjue down the road to his murder.

“I helped you do it,” he said blankly.

“Oh, I couldn’t have done it without you! The Song of Clarity – it was a truly brilliant move, er-ge. You introduced it, so he wouldn’t be suspicious, and then transferred it all to me; it was only at the very end that he started realizing something was wrong with the song, I think, but by that point it was too late. The Song of Turmoil already had its claws dug in too deep for him to stop it.”

That was worse. He wasn’t just guilty of negligence; he was complicit.

“It really is too bad that it didn’t work out  in the end,” Jin Guangyao said with a sigh. “If only my plan to eliminate Wei Wuxian early hadn’t failed..! Admittedly, that was more because he was such an excellent scapegoat; I hadn’t realized he’d be clever enough to figure things out. Or Nie Huaisang as well – who would have thought?”

“Who would have thought,” Lan Xichen echoed dully.

“Xue Yang assures me we won’t have another glitch like last time, though,” Jin Guangyao said, and his voice was tender, almost as if he were trying to be comforting. “I’ve used da-ge to slaughter so many people – who knew he’d get so unruly at putting to death a single child?”

It wasn’t a single child, Lan Xichen wanted to scream, it was your own son! Nie Mingjue held him in his arms after he was born, and you thought he would –

Jin Guangyao had explained his thinking about little Rusong already. He’d said it wasn’t his fault, that he hadn’t known, that poor Qin Su had been pregnant by the time he’d found out – it had all sounded so reasonable, the blame slipping off his shoulders and onto Jin Guangshan for having committed the act in the first place, onto Madame Qin’s for not having confessed sooner, at old Sect Leader Qin for having opposed the match until they had no choice but to make it irrevocable before they were officially wed…

And then he got to the end, where he said that Rusong had to die because he might be disabled, because people might ascribe that disability to the circumstances of Jin Guangyao’s own birth.

An innocent child, dead for the sake of something as fleeting as reputation.

Lan Xichen still didn’t know what exactly had happened, only that Nie Mingjue had somehow gotten out of control – and now Jin Guangyao’s plans had all met with disaster.

But little Rusong was still alive, safe inside the now-barred gates of the Unclean Realm.

“What’s the plan now?” he asked, starting to stroll around the room aimlessly. “Do you still intend to go to Dongying?”

“Yes,” Jin Guangyao said. “It’ll be a good place for us, er-ge; I’ll let you go once we’re there, so that you can come back – you should tell them all that I forced you, of course – and we can continue to correspond afterwards about our next steps. I understand your reluctance to fight now, given your brother’s obvious infatuation with Wei Wuxian.”

Lan Xichen hummed in assent, and Jin Guangyao looked so happy at his agreement. At his support, given as unstintingly as it always had been – when he’d defended him over protecting Xue Yang, when he’d disregarded the accusation that Jin Guangyao was slaughtering all those who stood in the way of his plans…

Lan Xichen stopped in front of the door. In front of Nie Mingjue, whose white eyes showed no sign of recognition but whose face was twisted into a snarl of anger, just barely restrained.

Lan Xichen had no doubt that if he were unleashed, he would kill them both – Jin Guangyao for what he had done, and Lan Xichen, for aiding and abetting him.

I betrayed you, Lan Xichen thought, staring into Nie Mingjue’s eyes as Jin Guangyao continued talking in the background, sketching out plans for building up a power base in Dongying before returning. I betrayed you, and our oath as sworn brothers. I did not mean to, but I did; I am foresworn.

They said that once you broke your oath one, it would be easier to do it the second time.

Lan Xichen hoped for a brief fleeing moment that that was true.

A-Yao, despite everything you’ve done, everything I’ve learned, I still –

I’m sorry.

He reached out and pulled out the nails from Nie Mingjue’s temples.

[marvelstars]

Compassion as unlimited love

Obi-Wan and Yoda believed there was no turning back from the Darkside, that´s why Obi-Wan didn´t deny the fact he meant to kill Anakin when Padme asked him and why Padme wanted to take Anakin away from everything and why Obi-Wan kept himself hidden on Padme´s ship instead of going with her to try to bring Anakin back to his senses together.

His mission was to kill Anakin as punishment for his betrayal on the Jedi Order and his attack on the Jedi Temple. Acording to Yoda Obi-Wan´s mission was to "take Anakin out of his misery" because "Darth Vader had consumed him" that´s the Old Jedi Order approach to sith, to kill them because once you fall to the darkside it will forever dominate your destiny and in Anakin´s case as one of their own and member of their Jedi lineage, this was personal, so there was also revenge involved. Obi-Wan left Anakin to die burning alive because he wanted him to suffer and he was sure that was going to be enough to kill him, at no point he expected him to survive.

This is also why Yoda and Obi-Wan keep Luke in the dark about Anakin´s familiar connection to him, they were not sure how to approach the fact they were bassically telling Luke he had to commit patricide to defeat the Sith, it wasn´t something they liked but they thought it had to be done. They were suprised by the fact Vader told Luke the truth because they saw him as a being of complete darkness, inhuman, twisted, evil more machine than man and so unable to feel a connection or a wish for his Son to be with him.

But he survived because Darth Sidious rescued him. Sidious had his own attachment to Anakin, he saw him as something that belonged to him. He also still believed he was the chosen one, in the sense his power could help him keep the force in darkness and support his rule this way.

When Luke told Obi-Wan he could not kill his own father out of moral principle and that there may be a way back from the darkside, Obi-Wan answered him that then "The Emperor has already won" "You were our last hope" this means that Obi-Wan expected Luke to either kill his father or be killed by him because there was no going back from the darkside.

The definition of Compassion as "unlimited love" is Anakin´s personal take to the Jedi principle of "compassion at the center of their jedi life philosophy" in answer to Padme´s question "Are you allowed to love, I thought the Jedi were not allowed to love?" but this wasn´t a generalized view in the old Jedi Order, this was Anakin´s personal take on it.

This is also why when Luke stopped himself from killing Vader, Luke rejects both the darkside the Emperor and his offer of power represents and also rejects killing his father out of a sense of justice as "the ends justifies the means" or to defeat the Sith that he exclaims "I am a Jedi like my father before me"

Vader comes back from the darkside because Luke forced him to remember what he used to believe, his real self, how he once believed in compassion as unlimited love, he believed if he helped enough he could solve the problems of the galaxy, he remembered how much he loved his Son, his family, Padme and Obi-Wan so he decided to sacrifice his life defeating his master, because he was reponsible, personally responsible of the sith becoming as powerful as they did in the Empire even if he also loved the Emperor and he did this out of compassion for his Son knowing this would bring an end to the Sith and the Empire.

Shmi and Anakin with their "the biggest problem in the universe is that nobody helps each other" and showing how helping made the galaxy better, they definitely made a difference for Naboo.

Anakin´s definition of compassion as unlimited love that he practiced during the clone wars is a theme of SW, Padme and Luke are the characters who embody the principle of "compassion as unlimited love" in relation to their compassion for Anakin after he fell to the darkside, is a love that can bring people back from the darkness which the old Jedi Order thought was impossible. When Obi-Wan choose to teach Anakin how to become a force Ghost was to show him he forgave him. In the Star Wars Saga it´s the story biggest message and why the story is about the Skywalker family.

[ariainstars]

Congratulations, We Fell for Another Love Bombing or Thank You, Disney, You Did It Again

Sigh. Luke Skywalker is back. And Din Djarin and his child had to say goodbye. I never thought I would curse and say “Oh no!” when Luke appeared in that fateful corridor. 

I wonder why the Disney studios are doing this - trying to "make up” for the oh-so criticized sequels, I suppose?

The Jedi have made their time. It was shown and proven over and over again that their attitude is wrong and needs to change, and Luke was the last of the old school Jedi. Again, a Force-sensitive child is all but kidnapped by a Jedi: he obviously did not like to go. Mando is no longer the hero of the story, he was stripped of his agency and all of his personal choices were questioned and valued for null and void. But the Dark Saber is in his hands now, so he’s the heir to the throne of Mandalore I guess. Like he ever wanted that.

This show, which grew to be so well-beloved in only a few episodes, now is not “The Mandalorian�� any more. Its new title is “Luke’s Skywalker’s Comeback”. Hardcore fans may be out of their minds with joy, but for us, who admired Mando both as a badass hero and as a father figure and loved the dynamics between him and Grogu, the whole purpose of the show is destroyed. And here I naively had thought The Rise of Skywalker was bad enough to teach the studios not to repeat its mistakes.

~~~ more under the cut ~~~

Star Wars ought to be a fairy tale. It is and always was one. I can understand that the prequels had to end in a tragedy, we all knew that from the start, but why the sequels? And now, why must this generally acclaimed and beloved tv show again appease hardcore fans of old with Luke coming to save the day, cancelling in a matter of minutes what the story had built up within two entire seasons - the relationship of the two protagonists, heart and core of the narrative, as it had been with Rey and Ben Solo? And when both of them had their relationship just getting started - Rey and Ben kissing, Din calling Grogu by his name and the latter seeing him and touching his face? Why make Rey a queen without her king, and Din a father without a son? 

Again, a Force-user is denied having a home: „Jedi training” matters more. By Luke of all people, the guy who never was trained in the first place (only very briefly), who except for a few lessons with Obi-Wan and Yoda was self-taught in the Force, and never understood that his strength lay with his compassion and his connection with other people, not with his alleged „superpowers”.

Think back to how Anakin, Luke and Rey were before they met the Jedi: unaware of their powers, compassionate, idealistic, brave. The Jedi mindset tainted their characters and lives, making them believing that they are (or have to be) untouchable and invincible, compelling them to live for duty instead of love, condemning them to a lifetime of loneliness. Will the Jedi never learn?

Though I practically grew up with the classic movies, I loved The Last Jedi; I can accept that Luke failed, and also that Han and Leia did. Nobody is perfect, and the Jedi mindset as well as the universally accepted idea that „Jedi” is a synonym for infallible saint-like hero was wrong in the first place, else the Empire never would have risen. Making Luke not the cavalry who came to save the day - until the battle on Crait, that is - but a man who failed and picked himself up again was much more meaningful, and I know not a few fans who felt inspired by this. Luke had saved his father choosing love over power, not the contrary. Some fans just never get it. To appease them, why not simply give him a new storyline of his own, instead of making him intrude in other Star Wars related shows? Why stop the new stories in their tracks just to bring him back?

Instead of seeing Luke as the grand kickass hero in a tv show that never had anything to do with him until now, it would have been more to the purpose to finally shed light on the thirty years between his father’s and his nephew’s death, to explain us where the Jedi and the Skywalker-Organa-Solo family failed to make such an outcome possible - the granddaughter of Palpatine taking over with their own blessing. There must have been a huge build-up between the end of the original saga and the fateful night at the temple when Luke briefly panicked looking into his nephew’s mind. Many fans still are convinced that „Kylo Ren just chose to be bad” because we hardly know how the relationship between these two was in the first place. (A very easy plot twist would e.g. have been Snoke warning Ben that his uncle sooner or later would turn on him, frightened by his power. The fulfilment of that prophecy would have made the night at the temple much more impactful.) 

I understand that the studios want to tease us, to make us watch the other shows, too. But honestly, I’m getting tired of feeling duped. Tired of getting attached to new heroes to have their purpose smashed just so the Star Wars dudebro fans can sleep quietly at night because „some Jedi will take care of it”. First the characters from the sequels, now the ones from The Mandalorian. You get to love the new characters, you root for them to find happiness or at least some closure, and then, at the last moment, poof!, the hero of old comes back and the story development stops right there. 

It is not right and it never was for the Jedi to take Force-sensitive children away from home, to enforce „you have to become a Jedi, like it or not” on them, to teach them not to have attachments, to make them focus on the Light Side thereby bringing the Force out of its much-needed balance. While Ahsoka saw that Grogu has formed a strong attachment to Din Djarin, Luke obviously did not, or he did not care. The irony is that he always wanted a father, and knows the pain of losing a father you’ve just found.

The Mandalorian felt like a consolation after Episode IX, a blessing for the fans for whom heart and soul are more interesting than nostalgia and „Jedi superheroes”. Now it’s just another kick in the guts. It’s painful and embarrassing to get to love characters so much, to get invested in their story so deeply, and then to realize again that they seem to mean nothing in the shade of the heroes of old. Ben Solo died young and miserable and Din Djarin and Grogu can now, I suppose, be miserable too. Can someone please explain to me why after the classics, no Star Wars film or show had an uplifting ending any more? With the possible exception of Solo, which was a nice filler but not a really important storyline. (I do not count Episodes I and II, they officially had a happy ending but it was tainted by the knowledge of what was to come.) 

Fans are not blind. We saw the parallels between Darth Vader and Din Djarin as well as the differences - both being cool and tough but the latter not disdaining to be a caring father at the same time. The entire show lived from the dynamics between the gruff but kind bounty hunter and the innocent-looking powerful child, ever from the first episode. Two years of build-up for nothing, as it was with the four years of the sequels. Mando has to relinquish Grogu, Rey loses Ben. What was all that for? Both Mando and Rey are fighters, they have done nothing else their entire lives. What is to become of them now that they have nothing to fight for any more, nor anyone to live for? Except staying on a planet that is foreign to them and, for all they know, inhabitable or at least inhospitable? 

With Rey and Ben Solo, the situation was different: she had proven good intentions but bad attitude (arrogance, violence, judgement) over and over, unable to deny her heritage, and even impaled her „antagonist” once while he was only defending himself. He had been the head of a criminal organization for years, and had committed patricide. Of course there are nuances to these characters and I still believe that they would have deserved another chance; I understand however that would have been unfitting to let the sequels end giving them a happy ending.

But in the case of Din Djarin, a man of honor, who has made friends and brought peace wherever he went throughout the galaxy? Grogu, the last surviving padawan of the old Jedi temple, who saved both his and Greef Karga’s life despite the danger for himself? What did they do to deserve being ripped apart like that? 

So, all I can say: thank you, you did it again. And, once more, just before Christmas. I wish at least these depressing endings would be released at some other time. 

I would dearly want to see a galaxy that finally learned from its faults, where family and attachments and Balance and free choice are not contrary to being a Jedi. I am in my late forties and I’m beginning to give up hope that I will live to see it. By now I am wondering whether George Lucas himself will live to see it. 

I always loved Luke. He is one of my favorite heroes. But now he’s become an insensitive know-it-all who suffered from his own daddy issues to the point that he almost died crying out to his father for help, yet did not learn not to separate fathers from children and vice versa and, on the contrary, is doing it over and over again. He did not even tell Mando his name, or where he could reach him. We don’t have a clue as to if, when and how the Clan of Two will meet again. 

I get it that since this show is set five years Return of the Jedi, it would have been difficult to ignore Luke’s existence altogether. And of course, we can rest assured that Luke will do his best for Grogu. But still: he has made his time. I wanted to see the new heroes going their own way, not hanging on the sleeves of the former generation. Mando is a man of honor, he had promised to bring Grogu to his own kind and he relinquished him despite his own wishes. (Not to mention that technically, since he identifies as a Mandalorian, by being a Jedi Luke is his enemy.) Why did Luke have to take the child away? His greatest strength always was that he was first and foremost himself and only in the second place a Jedi. What became of his trademark compassion? 

Before The Mandalorian, we have never seen a healthy and working father-son relationship in the saga. It was incredibly refreshing and heart-warming to see these two traveling through the galaxy and living through adventures together; also, contrarily to Yoda, Grogu saw a lot of the bad things happening in the galaxy with his own eyes, which certainly was good for his character development.

But in the end, both he and his „father” did not go anywhere. Like Rey in Episode IX, they found a) power and b) a surrogate place, but neither got what was actually his heart’s wish - a home. I can’t understand why. Deliberate cruelty? We never knew whether Han and Leia and Ben felt how painful it was to break up their little family for the sake of „Jedi training”. You bet Din and Grogu did feel that pain and loss.

Both as a person with a heart and a brain and an almost lifelong Star Wars fan I am sickened by the readiness of the studios to end all that this well-made show had built up, for the appeasement of Jedi worshippers who just don’t want to see that the Jedi mindset needs urgently to change. It can’t be that difficult to renew them for the better; there is no necessity to erase the Jedi completely and there is nothing bad with making them grow wiser and stronger by finally understanding and accepting the importance of attachments and family ties. Yes, I realize that being a father also means learning how to let go; but here we are speaking of a literal child, not of a young adult who chose his own way in life.

I thought that George Lucas knew why he sold his franchise to the Disney studios, given their tradition in telling stories about family and friendship. This development is not a triumph, it is unworthy both of the studios and of the entire Star Wars saga. I’m tired of producers bowing down before fans who see every shred of the saga through „Jedi are always right”-tinted glasses respectively who value coolness over compassion even though it always was the saga’s central message. 

Whatever happens in Season 3, countless fans will only be watching it asking, „Where’s Luke?” If Grogu should choose to join Mando again, everybody will be like, „But how can he want to leave Luke Skywalker of all people?” Some already see Grogu die prematurely, killed by the oh-so-bad guy Kylo Ren, for no other reason than to just to further prove how evil he is. In which case both Ben Solo and Grogu will have lived and died for nothing except for leaving a lot of heartbreak behind. 

There must be another and better way to honor the legacy of both Luke Skywalker and the original trilogy than to think up new heroes and then destroy their purpose for the sake of old times’ glory. Lucas himself had said that Star Wars is basically for twelve-year-olds. It seems not: it’s for the fans who were twelve years old forty years ago, when the first movies hit theatres. 

There are enough voices crying out for the sequels to be erased from canon. Who knows? This may be the next step into the past instead of the future. The sequels were hinting at a better future (Balance), Grogu was, too (family). But the grand past is so reassuring. The sequels tried to tell the audience to grow up and learn to do without their heroes, to see that even they were flawed and that the new heroes could grow beyond them. Fie on them, said the hardcore fans. Now it’s the turn of the younger generation, who got to know and love the saga with the sequels or The Mandalorian, to be like „WTF”. 

Rogue One also had been a huge disappointment to me. Not that I found it badly made, but I went into a depressive mood for three days for the same reason: I did not like that I had grown so attached to all of these characters only to see all of them die. The infamous Darth Vader scenes and the design with the huge hints at the classic movies were no consolation. Nostalgia does not make me happy. Heart does. Rogue One, the sequels and The Mandalorian were all, in the end, deprived of all human feeling except loss and regret and many, many thoughts about what might have been. 

The Mandalorian was an excellent story on its own. It did not need Luke Skywalker. It is and ought to be Din Djarin’s story, who lost or gave up everything because he was afraid to lose the child: and now he did. It’s not comforting that he lost him to the alleged Good Guy. Luke of course won’t turn a hair on Grogu’s head, but he can’t offer him a home, we already know that. Ahsoka saw the attachment between the two and she knows the dangers of it; Luke does not know what drove his father to his terrible fate. If the sequels remain canon, then we already know that Luke will not allow his pupils having and keeping healthy attachments. And that does not promise well for the child’s future.

Unless the studios commit the madness of officially erasing the sequels and starting the saga anew, we can only hope that the child will not stay with Luke for long since it’s a good five years before he will start his own Jedi temple. Maybe he will die of a broken heart, poor little guy. And Din Djarin might become the new ruler of Mandalore, though sad and alone. But who cares: Luke is back. Please: I did not subscribe to Disney+ wanting to see Schwarzenegger movies. The lonesome hero can ride into the sunset for all I care, out of sight and of mind. Star Wars’ greatest strength always was its heart. 

My own take was that Grogu is meant to be a healer, and since Luke is not, there is no way he can teach him this particular skill in the Force. Anakin was a pilot and a mechanic, Luke and Ben also were pilots. None of them were Jedi by choice. Grogu is older than Luke and he was already trained at the old Jedi temple: he’s more likely to be a teacher to Luke than the other way around. Grogu as the first Force-user who values attachment and family over power and Jedi training, that would indeed have been a new hope. This backpedaling is shallow and useless. Even if Luke sends Grogu back to Din Djarin, this won’t teach him not to take a child away from its home, since only a few years later he will do the same thing to his nephew. (Although it would admittedly be an interesting plot point to see a small Ben Solo interacting with Grogu for a while.) 

Please give us back The Mandalorian the way it was, with its characters and dynamics. The themes and messages of The Last Jedi already were almost all aborted in The Rise of Skywalker; we didn’t sign up on Disney+ to see the exact same thing happen with The Mandalorian. I for my part am fed up with this kind of love bombing followed by a quick and coldblooded let-down. Star Wars may be a cult, but it need not be the kind of cult where you get hooked and then unwittingly follow a carrot hanging before your eyes. I thought the exaggerated Jedi cult was mostly made by the fans: the studios did not need to jump on this ship. This is not the Way. 

Now everything I feared is flaring up again - fans jubilating because “the Jedi are taking matters in hand” instead of accepting the failure of the Jedi mindset at last; and even insisting that since things are going so well, all Disney needs to do is to cancel the sequels from canon and everybody can be happy again. 

Please, please, give this tormented galaxy a chance to heal at last. We don’t need Luke Skywalker to save the day by killing all the bad guys. We don’t need the oh-so-powerful and perfect Jedi. We need faith in the Force. We need a home. Don’t take it away from us again. Thank you.

 P.S. If we see Luke again in Season 3, at least give the role to a live actor. That digital “rejuvenation” made him look wooden. Luke’s best trait, apart from his compassion, always was his smile.

P.P.S. What’s with Boba Fett claiming Jabba’s throne? I thought Jabba had a son. What in the galaxy happened to him?

P.P.P.S. I don’t mind kickass women, but honestly, I’m getting somehow tired of them. What became of the ladies of Star Wars, the diplomats, the good queens, the loving mothers, the accurate librarians, who contribute to the galaxy without killing (or hurting) anyone? I’m feeling kind of underrepresented here...

[arsonistslut]

Suddenly...Liu woke up. His face didn't feel like it was burning anymore, and the sunshine that flowed into his room was starkly different from the darkness of the room he was just attacked in. It wasn't just that, though, everything around him seemed to be in a sort of dreamy haze. He was about to stand when his brother burst in the room. Liu nearly jumped out of his skin, quickly realizing that the scars that riddled Jeff's body before were totally gone. Was everything from before just a dream?

"Wake up, bro! You're gonna be late for school!"

All he could do was just stare at Jeff, confusion riddling his face.

"You alright, man?"

"..Y-Yeah, I'm fine!"

Liu rushed out of his bed and began preparing for school as his brother waited downstairs, rushing down as well once he was ready and walking into the kitchen, expecting the same wordless room where his parents usually were in the morning. Carla looked over at her son and smiled as she ruffled his hair.

"Good morning, you two!"

"Mornin' mama!"

Liu thought something was deeply wrong. His brother was never this jovial, and their parents barely ever talked to them in the slightest, and that was for 15 years! Was..was that all a bad dream? Was all that Sully shit a bad dream, was Jeff getting set on fire a bad dream? When him and his brother got to the school bus, Jeff sat next to one of the other kids, and Natalie sat next to Liu.

"Hi, handsome!~"

"Hey, Nat! How are you?"

Liu was thankful that at least she didn't change.

"I'm doing really well, my dad's recently gotten arrested, so now I'm living with my grandma, she's a sweetheart!"

"O-Oh, that's great!"

"Hey, did you hear about Jeff's new girlfriend?"

"No, he never told me! What's her name?"

"Cassie! I'm gonna be honest, those two are the cutest. They're such sweethearts, they're practically made for each other!"

"That's wonderful!"

Liu then looked outside the window..he couldn't help but wonder how he'd just realized this, but it was such a beautiful day outside! The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming, days like this came practically once every century in New Orleans. Maybe everything from before really was just a bad dream.

A delighted giggle came from Sully as he watched Liu go about his day in the world he'd so carefully crafted for him in his head.

"Finally safe..safe from the horrors that would taint your pure soul."

Nina boredly flipped through the late night channels, sighing as she wasn't able to find anything that interested her. It was far past her bedtime, and her eyelids were getting heavy, so when a particularly eye-catching news report showed up, it grabbed her attention right away.

"And now, we turn to New Orleans, which has been the site of a brutal massacre tonight, as 7 people have been recently found brutally murdered over the course of an hour. Police are not releasing any names of the victims, but they have apprehended a suspect who they believe is the killer, 17 year old Jeffrey Woods was recently arrested after having set the house of Bruce and Aurora Arkansas on fire. The lone survivors of this horrible night are reportedly one individual, along with the daughter of Bruce and Aurora. Liu Woods, Jeffrey's brother, has gone missing, if you have any information regarding where he may be, please contact the police. We do have footage of Jeffrey's arrest, but be warned, it may disturb some viewers."

The TV then showed footage of a group of police officers surround a pale teenager, his whole body caked in blood. Jeffrey shrugged and laid his knife down on the ground, placing his hands behind his head and allowing the police to arrest him. As he was led to the back of a cruiser, Jeff looked into the camera.

"You win some, you lose some, I guess."

The TV then cut back to the clearly shaken reporter.

"We'll provide more information as it comes to us. IN other news.."

Nina shut her TV off, a wide smile growing on her face. She couldn't quite place her finger on it, but she related to Jeff. What was keeping someone like her from going on a rampage like that...? Snatching her laptop off her desk, Nina quickly logged onto 4-Chan and started a thread. She pondered over what to call it, then typed in an adequate name.

"Jeff's Killers."

Chapter 19: "Nothing but pure evil"

"Jeffrey..do you feel even the slightest bit of guilt for your actions?"

Woods had shown no shame throughout his trial. No guilt or remorse for his actions. He sure as shit wanted to, but when the judge asked him that question, he couldn't restrain the smile that came to his face as he remembered how good it felt to plunge his knife into his father's head, how good it felt to snap Troy's neck, how good it felt to drop that match. Besides, wasn't Zalgo right? This was going to keep happening until he died.

"I don't. They all deserved what they got. Besides, I didn't have any other choice."

Silence followed his words. Some gasped, some began to sob, some just laughed in amazement, but most of the courthouse was silent.

"Jeffrey Woods..you are nothing but pure evil. This court finds you guilty of all charges, and sentences you to death."

The judge forced back tears and pointed toward the door.

"Get him out of here.."

Woods was led away by a pair of policemen, and the courtroom cheered as he was led away.

"And then, my sentence got reduced to life in prison, and now..here we are, doctor."

"I see.."

Dr. Oborn wrote down more notes in his clipboard, before looking back up at his patient.

"Doc..can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Jeffrey."

"...Was that judge right? A-Am I just..evil?"

"While murder is a horrific crime, and many people do seem to see you as nothing more than a psycho who killed for fun, I've spoken with you for over a year now, and I don't believe you to be evil. After what you've told me, I now know that your condition was likely caused by the trauma you referred to earlier."

"..Doc, I.."

Jeff let out a burst of relieved laughter, almost tearing up from joy at the doctor's words.

"You h-have no fuckin' clue how much that means to me! I..I thought I was a lost cause for the longest time..I-I mean, people don't feel happy when they kill someone, y'know?"

"You're not a lost cause, by any means. We've made incredible progress today, and I believe that you will be able to comfortably integrate back into society soon enough. Although, I am confused by one thing."

"What?"

"..How did you know about the things that happened after your hospitalization?"

"Zalgo showed me."

"Zalgo? Who is that?"

"Zalgo is the reason I believe in the afterlife. Apparently, it's a medical miracle I even survived the incident at the party, let alone heal so quickly that my body's now one big lump of scar tissue. Zalgo helped me to survive."

"This is the first time you've mentioned this.."

"Demon."

"Demon to me. You have previously stated your beliefs in Leveyan Satanism, so is this a sort of..representation of the devil?"

"No, the devil isn't real. Zalgo is. Look, can we t-talk about something else?"

Dr. Oborn placed one of his hands on Jeffrey's shoulder, growing concerned due to his growing..worry, almost.

"Is everything alright, son?"

"I...didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Nightmares, again?"

"No, I saw things, doctor..I've seen how this world will end."

"You've seen the apocalypse, you say?"

Jeffrey then just shook his head, something he feared he would do suddenly worming it's way into his brain unannounced.

"Jeff..are you having intrusive thoughts?"

"I..I don't want to hurt you, you don't deserve it.."

"Nothing will happen to me, son. I'll be just fine!"

"You..you sure?"

"I'm positive."

"Thank you, doctor.."

"Of course-"

Dr. Oborn was pleasantly surprised when Jeff reached across the table and hugged him, but didn't hesitate in hugging his patient back.

Chapter 20: A new terror

"Listen, man, I know what I saw! Some lanky motherfucker was running around my backyard, and wearing a white hoodie! They didn't catch Jeff The Killer, he's still fucking running-"

Carlos Kennedy changed the channel of his radio, confused as to how someone could genuinely believe that it was a good idea to log onto a radio show, ramble about how you believed a convicted killer was still able to run around your backyard, and think you'll be taken seriously. His attention to that was quickly interrupted by seeing a person lying near the road, face down. The good Samaritan quickly stopped his car and got out, rushing over to the seemingly unconscious person that was lying in a ditch.

"Hello?! A-Are you-"

A knife to Carlos's throat quickly cut him off, blood spraying out of his wound. The girl who stabbed him lifted his corpse off the decoy, a teenager in a white hoodie and a somewhat poorly made, but nonetheless effectively scary Jeff The Killer mask.

"Good work, Jethro."

"All I did was sit here, but thanks, Nina."

This was the first recorded murder committed by Jeff's Killers, after a year of just being a bunch of teenagers hanging out in an abandoned house where a bunch of patricide took place.

[unexpectedreylo]

Yes, It’s Been Half A Decade Since TFA Was Released

Five years already?  Geez!

If you’ve been following my humble Tumblr blog since the beginning, you’ll know I was not truly a Reylo until I saw TLJ.  Before then, I was dealing with a movie that left me with a lot of mixed feelings.  Why?  I missed George Lucas for one thing.  He has an indelible style that few can match and few really cared about that universe and its characters as much as he did.  I was very unhappy to hear a month before TFA’s release that Disney tossed out his story and came up with something he didn’t really like very much (as later confirmed in Bob Iger’s memoir).  As a long-suffering prequels fan I didn’t like either the vaguely anti-prequel tone the pre-release hype took.  Whatever you do in life, don’t disrespect the man who created the GFFA. 

The post-release hype probably annoyed me even more.  Remember the doofuses screeching on t.v. that it was the best SW movie since TESB?  LOL.  (No, that would be ROTS and the only thing that came close since was TLJ.)  I hated that a movie I felt was flawed not only got passes from the media that really trashed Lucas and everybody who worked on the prequels, but also got lavish Best 10 lists and award nominations.  I was one bitter chickie for a while and later got a good laugh out of the backlash.

I thought it would be funny to post what I thought at the time, with added commentary:

Oh yes, the movie. My mother called it…it’s good, we all enjoyed it and were entertained, but Lucas’s touch is definitely missing. The romantic epic sweep of Eps I-VI, the goofy and whimsical touches, the feeling of being immersed in another galaxy, and Lucas’s gift for aesthetics aren’t there. The visuals don’t have that beauty and some of it is kinda ugly. The creature designs just aren’t as good. It’s not the kind of movie you watch dozens of times to catch little things. Even John Williams doesn’t have a knockout track like “Duel of the Fates” or “The Imperial March.” But it’s hard to think of how this was ever going to live up to any of it any more than I’d expect Suzanne Collins to write a Narnia book as good as C.S. Lewis. We lost those things when we lost Lucas.

I like the visuals a lot more now but TLJ’s cinematography rules the ST.  Still feel the same about creature design; I see better aliens and creatures on The Mandalorian.  One weird thing about the ST is how the filmmakers seemed to have avoided putting in anything at all that we’ve seen before.  No Jawas, no Togrutas, no Twi’leks, no Zabraks, no Quarren, etc.. Just Chewbacca and Admiral Ackbar.

The music didn't leave much an impression on me at the time but now I love “Rey’s Theme,” “Kylo Ren’s Theme,” and “March of the Resistance.”

As long as we’re on that note, I’ll get to the film’s flaws first. The movie has a lot of snappy, arch, and funny dialogue but you can tell the script was cranked out in a hurry. It lacks the careful structure of its predecessors and cribs a little too much from ANH. Poe disappears and you are led to believe he’s dead then he suddenly shows up healthy and hale with no explanation. Abrams’s first Star Trek film was riddled with unbelievable coincidences and unfortunately this movie has some of those too, such as when Han and Chewie just happen upon the Falcon in space. The film does very little to set up what’s going on and why, such as why the hell is the Republic fighting the same a-holes after all of these years. Abrams prefers instead to keep the action going instead of doing much exposition, which is pretty much what he did with the Trek films. Those little moments in Lucas’s Star Wars films don’t happen much here. Things must always be occurring, which dumps all of the responsibility for character development and world building on Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow. I have no idea why they decided to be all teasy-weasy with who Rey’s parents are instead of just telling us. (I suspect Luke is her father.)

LOL!   I guess the adoption by proxy thing at the very end of TROS proved me right or...did it?  Yes, my first assumption after seeing TFA was that Rey and Kylo Ren were cousins.

As for the rest of it, I still feel the same.  Rushed script, borrows too much from ANH, precious few explanations/set-up, not as good structure but still full of humor.

BB-8 is a charmer, Finn and Rey (who are so going to hook up) HA!  But remember I thought Rey and Kylo were cousins! have some charm and potential growth as characters, and it was great seeing our old crew again even if not under ideal circumstances. (Personally I would’ve preferred NOT to have broken up Han and Leia.) Hux had some mustache-twirling moments and Abrams was at least smart enough not to kill off him, Ren, or Snoke just yet. Finn and Poe have a good rapport (maybe they’re going to hook up).

Stormpilot definitely pinged the slash-dar.  It was completely unsurprising to find fans shipping them.

Abrams seemed to have avoided the mistake James Cameron made in “Avatar” when he killed off his most threatening villain while planning sequels. As you might have guessed, I was really shocked at Snoke’s death in TLJ.  I wasn’t expecting that until IX.  I was also really shocked at the casual, quick-get-rid-of-him ways both Hux and Ben were killed off in TROS.

The most compelling aspect of TFA for me was the Skywalker family drama, which made me wish it was more up front rather than a subplot. Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is a conflicted guy with a huge chip on his shoulder and it makes you wonder exactly what happened to him because I think he may have mental issues. Leia knows there’s still good in him but can a guy who commits patricide be saved? (RIP Han…I so knew this would happen because I figure it was the only way Ford would’ve done another film). Can his cousin/half-sister or whatever Rey save him? Would she want to? With Luke back in the picture and Artoo activated again, what will happen next? Even though they split up Han and Leia I liked the banter between them; it’s sad because they clearly still loved each other.

This is still true for me.  A few days after posting this it struck me just how nihilistic TFA was because I found Han and Leia’s split unnecessary (had Han gone out for Chinese food or on a mission for the Resistance instead of just being a loser smuggler, it wouldn’t have changed anything that happened in the film) and what I thought was Kylo’s certain fate to be a narrative bummer.  TLJ made me think they weren’t going on that direction only to be proven right in TROS (sadly).

I’ll dispense with the stupid Snoke is Plageuis theory and my dad wondering if Finn was Mace Windu’s lost son or something, though I’ll give him half a point for Finn turning out to be Force-sensitive after all.

I don’t know why people have said this takes them back to the ’70s because the film really is a 2015 movie made for an audience reared largely on the MCU, YA flicks, and other staples of contemporary geek culture. It is what it is and we aren’t going to get back the films of George Lucas and his influence. TFA might not be an awesome Star Wars movie but it is at least a good sci-fi action flick.

I still stand by most of this.  Time and TLJ made TFA a better movie in my eyes.

[regrettablewritings]

Can I please request B, F, and O for Benoit Blanc? I’m simping for this gentleman sleuth so hard.

I’m surprised you didn’t put DNUT just for the sake of reference 😂  Stuff is below the cut!

B = Baby (Do they want a family? Why/Why not?): While he isn’t against the idea to the point of fighting it, Benoit doesn’t strike me as someone actively looking to start a family, either. At least, not in the most traditional sense of what a family could be. He knows he’s not ancient, but he’s certainly not the very picture of youth, either. There’s plenty of things he’s not afraid to do in fear of appearing odd, but he can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, becoming a father at his age would appear peculiar.

Technically speaking, there’s nothing wrong with it, of course: He’s sure enough men his age have become fathers, and he knows plenty celebrities had at much older stages of life. But no matter what The New Yorker may think, Benoit knows he’s not exactly a celebrity; becoming a father at his age might appear less glamorous. And as flattering as the theory might be, he’s not so sure he’d be comfortable with the world knowing his virility in practice.

But, of course, things don’t always go the way we plan for them to. Just because he’s not actively looking to grow the family doesn’t mean it won’t somehow happen. It’ll catch him by surprise, no doubt, especially given how he’s so used to being able to predict things by calculation and logic, but it’s nothing he’s necessarily going to fight, either. If the great Benoit Blanc is to become a father to an actual baby instead of just a fur baby, then he’s going to accept that position with pride and zeal. (And much confusion, but that’s nothing a lot of research and a handful of classes and Youtube tutorials couldn’t fix.)

Benoit knows the impact a loving parent can have on a child, and he wants to assure any progeny of his is granted that chance. He won’t be a perfect father, he knows that, but he most certainly would want to make an effort to be one that they wouldn’t hate. He’s encountered way too many patricide cases to go lax on it all.

More to the point, however, he’s honestly just content with his family as it currently appears to be. He may come from more traditional and decidedly old-fashion means, but this doesn’t exclude the sleuth from possessing an open-mindedness toward the ever-changing image of what a family could be decreed and recognized to be. And sometimes, a family is just a peacockish gentleman with a thick drawl, his more grounded and snarky partner, and their handsome pet cat who is either plotting their deaths or actually enjoys it when they sing show tunes to him.

There are times when he looks back on his life so far and feels ribbons of regret, however. How might things have turned out if he’d settled down before? Would things have been better? Worse? More or less the same?

Well, whatever the case, he doesn’t intend to dwell on it too often or for too long; you’re here now, and if that’s all there was meant to be, then he’d take it without a moment’s hesitation.

F = Feelings (When did they know they were in love?):

He’s not sure, if truth be told. There wasn’t really a precise moment or even necessarily one singular action that offered him any confirmation. The sting of Cupid’s arrow never actually radiated through him, so much as the realization flitted into his mind as a random memory might. It was simply a matter of fact to him one day: He absolutely adored you.

Part of him wanted to go into detective mode, to use that brain of his and search for a specific date that might have triggered the sensation, or to pester Elliot and Marta by using them as soundboards for his monologues and conclusion. Benoit Blanc is a self-aware man, he’s too old to be caught off guard by his own feelings like a schoolboy. But thankfully for all, he stops himself from doing so when he considers the stance that perhaps the feelings had already been present for months now, that there wasn’t any suddenness to the realization. A sense of jamais vu, but of the emotion. Jamais réalisé. Still, the ever-inquisitive spirit in him thirsted for an answer. He tried to satiate it.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that unlike most, you appeared to enjoy his monologuing. Most people would normally just sit there, the only feedback offered being blank expressions or ones that displayed how thrown off they were about his strange analogies. You, on the other hand, were always listening even when your eyes weren’t directly on him or if you appeared to be busy with something else. Sometimes, if you deemed it necessary, you would even throw in your own input. When he joked about how invested you were, you reasoned that you tended to do the same when you infodumped.

Going off that, he liked when you infodumped: Your entire person would gain a sprightliness to it, particularly in your eyes. The detective truly believed in the value of all sorts of knowledge, and he genuinely did appreciate whatever you had to offer, even when it only appeared to be trivia. The only downside to this was that you almost always would catch yourself and, casting your sights elsewhere, all that vibrancy from before would snuff out like a light. It would darn near break his heart to hear you apologize for “babbling on about such silly things.” He would always insist that it was quite alright, that you needn’t apologize, but you always assumed deep down that he was simply being courteous as all others in his position would be. The truth always was that he was being genuine, you deserved that much.

Maybe he thought you deserved that much because you were relatively patient with him. He didn’t think of himself as a nuisance but Benoit knew that to many, he was more of an acquired taste. He always tried to be polite and considerate but sometimes, his more abrasive traits would come to the foreground, especially when he was on the case. But you never seemed to get especially testy with him as Elliot would. If anything, you were quick to put him in his place with a gently-worded but sternly-spoken reminder that he needed to mind himself.

“The truth can only soothe you so much when you got a foot up your ass,” as you put it once. It got a smile out of him. Of course, he always knew you had some kind of wit about you; one that, while a bit more blunt than his, never failed to make him laugh yet force him to acknowledge the truth. He might’ve been known for his rich vocabulary, but he couldn’t help but admire your own, more direct means of getting the point across. He knew damn well that you understood everything he said, and sometimes he questioned if maybe your responses to him were so straightforward as a means of taunting him over his perceived verboseness.

Even if this were true, he found himself amused every time you opened your mouth. In fact, you were quickly becoming his favorite person to speak to. And he even dared to consider the possibility that, based on how you lit up every time he came to the office, perhaps the same could be said on your part . . .

Well, whatever the case, Benoit never got as far as he’d wanted to whenever he pondered the cause of his feelings for you. Much to his dismay, every effort was thwarted by himself: Every time he came to a theory, he would quickly become sidetracked by other thoughts of you. Eventually he became distracted to the point where every consideration he made could be counted on to be accompanied by some appraisal of your character. In short, he was simultaneously coming up fruitless and fruitful.

But then maybe those were the answers he was looking for. Of course, they weren’t in the usual format he was familiar with but he supposed it was for the best: Feelings weren’t the same breed of mystery as, say, a murder investigation. He didn’t count it as a failure on his part, however (given that Benoit Blanc wasn’t one to quit). No, he decided that perhaps it might’ve been better to keep his work and his play separate. He’d spent enough of his life revolved around solving mysteries, after all; this one, he concluded, was best enjoyed just being experienced as it was.

O = Orange (What colour reminds them of their other half?):

It’s hard for you to choose, really: Benoit is a rather colorful man, after all, with his bright blue eyes and lack of fear regarding certain male accessories. But you do tend to veer towards shades of green. Specifically, peacock green because not only does he own a suit of similar shading, but also because frankly, due to his dandy-like nature, you couldn’t help but compare him to a peacock in your head. Sure, he lacked the arrogance associated with the bird, but what else could you compare a man with an assortment of floral ties and pretty-patterned pocket squares to?

Similarly, Benoit associates you with the color cranberry because of something in your wardrobe: Specifically, the red cardigan you were wearing the day you both met. Admittedly, he’s a twinge embarrassed that he couldn’t associate you with something more overtly romantic: He remembers that you like pink Starbursts but still give him half of yours; he remembers how you argue that black Converses are “the only valid converses” next to glittery ones; and he has no choice but to remember that godawful brown scarf you refuse to discard because “it’s still a good scarf and you’d already had it for this long.”

But you don’t mind. In fact, you’re elated and nearly swept off your feet at the fact: He remembers all the little things from the moment you two became acquainted, even though at the time he was under no awareness or intention that you would become so important to him. You know that, technically, it’s a part of his job to just commit things to detail, but you’ve seen this man forget website passwords and his own keys. Yet, if anyone were to demand that he recall three things from that fateful day, he would immediately recite about how you had a frog Beanie Baby resting on your computer monitor; that you were stabbing your Chinese takeout lunch with one hand and typing up a report with the other; and that you were wearing a cranberry-colored cardigan.

Sometimes, the first two bits were swapped with different things he remembered (all being true), but the one consistent memory that he would always bring up with be the cranberry cardigan. And frankly, you're satisfied with that bit alone.

Thanks for your patience!