#Her finding out about Darth Vader is another story

[corellianhounds]

I know part of Leia’s character in the original trilogy is rooted in her stoicism in the face of overwhelming odds but her maturity, capability, and levelheadedness on the Death Star and beyond makes her a largely stagnant character over the course of the original trilogy. Her arc in Empire and Return of the Jedi is being able to swallow her pride and start opening up to Han. Han and Luke both go through drastic and notable character arcs over the course of each movie and the trilogy as a whole which makes them dynamic and interesting to watch

Leia doesn’t have to mature or learn anything because she’s already mature. Though it makes sense for her to need and have that as a young senator being thrust into the role of a war general at a young age, we don’t really get a whole lot else from her (which is why I think we’ve had girlboss!Leia as a cultural sticking point and merchandise opportunity for almost fifty years).

For the most part I’m kind of… indifferent to Leia on her own because we don’t really get Leia on her own. In the original movies the biggest part of her character comes from her interactions with Luke and Han, and then she’s responsible for running the Rebellion after that. Personally, I think the most unique and interesting actions we get to see from her come from the Jabba’s palace sequence, starting with her entrance as Boushh and ending with her strangling Jabba the Hutt. The rest of the time we’re seeing her in the context of the war and/or her romance with Han, but not dealing with the larger implications of some of the things specific to her. She and Luke aren’t together much on Endor especially after the sibling/Darth Vader reveal, and her relationship with Han is still one where the two of them are on largely equal ground with each other. She’s allowed to be angry and irritated with and take out her frustrations on him (which to be fair is a kind of vulnerability in itself) because he has the ability to get under her skin and (largely) has the wherewithal to take what she dishes back, and she doesn’t HAVE to play nice with him the way she does the rest of the people under her command. After that, Leia doesn’t get much outside of what she’s doing for other people.

And I get it! There’s only so much story you can tell in two hours! And I know it’s a fairytale, I know these are still stock character tropes within the context of a space opera, and that’s fine! I don’t dislike the movies or Leia because of that, and I would have been fine with her arc being one of a strong-willed, independent, and capable, mature young woman having to learn to rely on the people around her and learn to ask for help and humble herself to the point of vulnerability with the people who care about her IF…

If they had applied those aspects of her character to more than just her romance with Han. We really only get one genuine moment of vulnerability from Leia in the sibling reveal on Endor where she’s distraught and Han finds her. The rest of her emotional moments are still played with the mask of aloofness and control, and while it DOES make sense for that to be necessary of her because of the position she fills within the story and the Rebellion, it does still make her a little bland in terms of character development because we have nothing to contrast that control with.

Stoicism and regality and capability are more impressive when we’ve seen the other side of that spectrum in the character. Leia’s resilience would have been more poignant and impressive and heartbreaking if we’d gotten to see her grapple with things that are beyond her ability to remain stoic about; the two big ones are the destruction of Alderaan, and finding out who her real father is.

I know Luke is the main character of the trilogy. I know there wouldn’t have been time to explore the gravity of those moments with Leia in a meaningful way without the movies being much longer and running the risk of diverting focus from the story Luke was driving, and the movies are, at the end of the day, supposed to be fun. They’re not meant to be hard dramas.

But can you imagine. Can you imagine.

If we’d gotten to see Leia truly devastated by the destruction of Alderaan happening in front of her very eyes. Can you imagine seeing her break free from the guards to run to a massive viewport that makes her look small and powerless against the black void of space, Vader and Tarkin allowing it because they finally have something that’s getting a reaction out of the unflappable princess who has apparently endured hours of torture without giving up the location of the Rebel base. Leia struggling and failing to keep down the rising panic as Tarkin threatens to destroy an entire planet, her home world, family and friends and people she’s known her entire life in imminent danger as the Empire closes in with a battle station the size of a moon.

Her mother and father are down there.

The Sith lord is silent behind her as Imperials around the bridge work with complete indifference to this woman whose home and people they are planning to destroy, Tarkin’s boredom and feigned polite tone of voice asking her again where the rebels are located. Leia hesitates at the window, not looking at any of them, and the smile Tarkin had before dissipates as he orders the men to ready the shot. Leia turns back from the viewport to come halfway back across the bridge, struggling to keep up the front of diplomacy as she lies and tells them the rebel base is on Dantooine, desperately pleading with them to spare Alderaan and praying against all hope that she’s bought them some time.

Tarkin finally looks satisfied. And then he gives the order anyway.

Leia finally breaks as the men around them fire up the laser, her pleading with Tarkin not to do it, to spare her people, she’s given them what they want, she gave up the Rebel Alliance, please, there are billions of people there with nothing to do with the Rebellion, please you can’t do this, please—

The sound of a massive energy surge accompanies a flash of brilliant green light behind her. Leia screams “No!” as she turns and runs back to collide with the viewport, her face stricken in horror as she slams her fist against it in a futile effort to stop them, to do something, to do anything—

But there never was anything she could have done that would have stopped Tarkin’s order. Alderaan is annihilated, an entire planet and people blasted into oblivion by an uncaring Empire.

Leia sinks to the floor in horror, one hand against the window and the other covering her mouth as complete and utter heartbreak plays out across her face. Tarkin motions for two guards to drag her to her feet and they begin to take her away. The Sith Lord and Imperial Moff watch impassively as the princess without clan or kin weeps into her hands for the homeworld she would never have been able to save, no matter what she tried to bargain with.

For the rest of the movie we see Leia seemingly untouchable, calm and in control. Nobody thinks to ask if she’s okay because she never gives them a reason to think otherwise. It’s only when those closest to her find her alone that they see how vulnerable she really is, and it won’t be until she nearly loses them too that the façade starts to break.

[kittenfangirl20]

Anakin haters have some pretty disturbing opinions that really make me want to facepalm. One referred to nine year old Anakin as Baby Vader when at that point in his life he wasn’t displaying any traits that could hint towards his dark fate, you only know about this because the Original Trilogy where he was already Darth Vader came out first, not because he was showing signs that he would become Darth Vader at nine years old. In fact Yoda even stated that at nine years old Anakin’s fate was unclear. Then to make it even worse, I saw another one say that Anakin doesn’t know what love is and he never loved Padmé. So are we saying that a character who at nine years old said that it was sad that not enough people in the galaxy helped each other out has no concept of love? Also weird how they think that Anakin has no concept of love and never loved his wife, yet what made him really start to waver when he was Vader was finding out that his son that represented the love he shared with Padmé didn’t die along with her. These people want to ignore the story that Star Wars is telling in order to make it look like Anakin was always evil.

[gffa]

I think it's meant to be a little bit of both--Lucas says of them: “Anakin and Padmé are getting married in what will be a doomed relationship, which they have already stated earlier on is not gonna work. But they do love each other. They’re truly in love with each other. It’s the issue of true love over duty. It’s really the 'Romeo and Juliet' aspect of it, of a doomed relationship, in more ways than one really. She married the wrong guy.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary “Anakin wants to have a family. He wants to be married to Padmé and have children. [���] But at the same time he knows he can’t have one. Now the greed has taken over and the fear of losing his wife and baby. The whole point is you can’t possess somebody because they are their own person. You can’t dominate and make them do everything you want them to do.” --George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives1999-2005 "The core issue, ultimately, is greed, possessiveness - the inability to let go. Not only to hold on to material things, which is greed, but to hold on to life, to the people you love - to not accept the reality of life’s passages and changes, which is to say things come, things go. Everything changes. Anakin becomes emotionally attached to things, his mother, his wife. That’s why he falls - because he does not have the ability to let go." --George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary “But he become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate."--George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives 1999-2005 “[Anakin] turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.” --George Lucas, Time magazine There's also another quote where he basically says they're really in love but it becomes kinda dysfunctional by the end, but I can't find the direct quote again, so take it with a grain of salt. The point behind the above collection of quotes is that Anidala is both, that it's genuine love--it has to be genuine love for the story to work--and it's toxic--it has to be toxic for the story to work.  The whole story is that Anakin fell into attachment (the fear of being without someone, so much that you would do terrible things or rip yourself to pieces over it, that's the Buddhist-aligned definition and the one Star Wars is working with) because he became so greedy and possessive of her that he was willing to murder children just to keep the fear of her death at bay. But in order to be a tragic story, in order for us to care about the relationship and the characters in it, it also has to be genuine and true, there has to be real love there. Ultimately, yes, it was a destructive relationship because that's the basic premise of the story--Anakin's love turned to attachment, it turned to greed, it turned to possessiveness, it turned to horror--that there are signs all along the way, but that the sweet moments are genuine, too, that their laughter in the grass on Naboo is real, that their ache for each other as the war kept them apart was real, that Padme's excitement about having their baby was real, because none of them were monsters when they started out, not even Anakin, for all that he forged himself into one. Our hearts wouldn't break for monsters if there was no love in them to start with. (Whether someone thinks this was well done or not, that's a different argument to be had!  But I think fundamentally the thing the story was going for is that they started out sweet, but Anakin's fears and Padme's desire to look the other way over his terrible acts, took them to a very unhealthy, awful place in the end.)

[dnd-shenanigans-ensue]

The Story So Far...Echoes of Rebellion: Session 0

I thought it would be fun to write out the goings on of a Star Wars 5e campaign I'm a part of. I'll do my best to update every session. There are a few backed up so hopefully I'll get them all out before our next session. Let me know if you'd like me to keep going with this!

Opening Crawl:

It is a dark time in the galaxy. The iron fist of the Galatic Empire has tightened its grip, spreading fear and oppression across countless star systems. In the aftermath of ORDER 66, Darth Vader's sinsiter Inquisitors scour the stars, tracking down the last remnants of the Jedi Order. Survivors cling to secretcy, their light dimmed but not extinguised. Amid this tyrany, whispers of rebellion have begun to grow. A small yet detemed alliance of freedom fights has risen to challenge the Empire's domainance. Though vastly outnumbered, they fight for the justice, believing that a spark of hope can ignight the flames of freedom. Now, a myserious distress call has reached the rebels' hidden network, claiming to be from an imperial defector with critical information. Sensing a chance to strike a blow against the Empire, the Rebellion dispatches a small craft to uncover the truth. Will this lead to the advantage the Rebellion desperately needs--or a trap that cold spell their doom? The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance...

Characters:

Kat: Human, Rebel and believer in the cause (character sheet)

J3: Pilot droid, droid right's advocate trying to get by in the galaxy

L-30 (Leo): B-1 Battle droid, bounty hunter who is under the impression he's not, in fact, a droid

Nix: Half Devaronian/Half Zabrak, former inquisitor and current defector from the empire

Lexar: Mandalorian, bounty hunter looking for the next score

Khalid: Human, force sensative fourteen year old just starting to figure out what that means in this much more dangerous world

Session Summary:

The story starts with Kat, a rebel operative, embarking on a crucial mission to Tatooine to meet an Imperial defector using the codename Pheonix. Upon reaching Ab Dalis, Kat sought J3-47, a piolit droid, for transport. However, their meeting was cut short by an ambush resulting in a fierce shoot out. J3 was shot in the crossfire, but she and Kat were able to escape on her ship, The Cosmic Clover. With the help of J3's Jawa compaion Gicks, the three were able to escape.

Meanwhile, a young boy named Khalid found himself trapped in a crashed ship, sinking in the dunes of Tatooine. Their mentor, Malik, a former Jedi used his dying moments to bestow upon them a lightsaber and a message; find Kat. Khalid barely escaped the wreckage before the ship was consumed by the Sarlaac.

A screen wipe transitioned to Mos Eisley where Nix was searching for information about incoming ships.

Khalid eventually made his way back through the desert to Mos Eisley, but found no safety there either.

L-30, also known as Leo, quickly caught sight of him and attempted to apprehend Khalid for the bounty. Unfortunately for Leo another bounty hunter was seeking the reward.

Lexar disabled L-30 with a well-aimed ion rifle shot, but before he could take his quarry, Nix pulled Khalid to safety.

Taking solice in at least sucessfully obtaining a new droid, Lexar went to examine L-30 only for the droid to have one more trick up his sleeve. Before being disable, L-30 manged to prime a stun grenande, taking Lexar by surpise as it went off.

Lexar now taken out, Nix force pulled L-30 to her with plans to repair and interrogate him.

The adventure concluded with the Cosmic Clover touching down in Mos Eisley just as Nix, Khalid and an incapacitated L-30 entered Wu-D's Jizz Den to await Nix's rebel contact.

[notebookishtype]

Hello, do you have any recs for star wars books and comics with the best lukeleia content? In my lukeleia era and I really wanna start reading some OT legends stuff but I don’t know where to start.

Stories that take place during, between, and shortly after the Original Trilogy? We are lucky to have decades worth of content set in this time period! It’s the only place we can find things published before the sibling reveal, and/or acknowledging that Luke and Leia were attracted to each other.

✨I’ve included links to every book and comic mentioned below. I don’t think it’s immoral to pirate from a corporation. If you (general) take issue with that, I have bought most items listed at least once, and I would lend it to you if I could.

✨Some of the comics are only available in large collections, you may need to scroll to find the correct issues.

Legends Books

The first that comes to mind is Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. It was published in 1978, Luke and Leia were still love interests, and it takes place after ANH. They crash land on a mining planet and discover there is an Imperial presence there.

Fun Facts:

This story was commissioned to be a low budget sequel if A New Hope flopped.

This novel also inspired some of the canon lore for kyber crystals.

I started an impromptu reread earlier this year, and I did not remember how shippy this book was. This is just four pages into the book:

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was also adapted into a comic in 1995… and it was still incredibly shippy? I recommend both if you have the time and executive function. If you’re low on focus or time, go with the comic.

I’ve been told the novelization of A New Hope also has the same vibes, and is by the same author. So if you enjoy Splinter thats another place to look.

As far as other novels, we’re mostly looking at crumbs. Off the top of my head I know both Shadows of the Empire and The Truce at Bakura acknowledge their feelings for each other.

Shadows of the Empire:

The Truce at Bakura:

I would only recommend these if you’re interested in the rest of either story.

Shadows is a take on what happened between ESB and ROTJ, published in ‘96. Want to see how the Rebels get the plans for the Second Death Star? Read this. Want to see Darth Vader forced to play politics? Read this. If Han and Leia’s relationship is a no go for you, you might consider skipping it. Content Warning: the antagonist attempts to “seduce” Leia via pheromones. Read: rape. He is a serial rapist.

Truce takes place immediately after ROTJ, and has some great character moments for our heroes, again a lot of focus on Leia and Han. I do, however, choose to view the fact that Luke’s love interest in this book is a young Imperial Senator who we are meant to compare to Leia, through a shippy lense. I cannot escape the idea that Luke is projecting. Otherwise this book is about dinosaur looking aliens using human’s life energy to power their ships.

If you’re interested in checking any of these books out I recommend looking here or here.

Legends Comics

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1995)—as mentioned above.

Star Wars Tales (1999-2005) 15, Do or Do Not—Takes place immediately after ROTJ. Luke is processing after the Battle of Endor, and uncertain of his place. His feelings for Leia are acknowledged.

Star Wars (2013) 1-6, In the Shadow of Yavin—Takes pace after ANH. Leia is working with a handpicked X-wing squadron, to expose a spy. Her position in command causes friction between her and Luke. This is one of the few stories really leans into Leia having feelings for Luke.

Star Wars (2013) 15-18, Rebel Girl—Leia accepts a political proposal in exchange for a secure base location. Luke is a jealous brat about it, puts himself in danger, and plans to run away.

Marvel Star Wars (‘77–86)—I haven’t read these yet, but I’ve seen plenty of panels and pages posted on Tumblr that give lukeleia vibes, even some that take place after ROTJ. These have been gathered into several omnibuses. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Disney Comics

Star Wars (2015) 1-6, Skywalker Strikes—After ANH, the gang is infiltrating an Imperial arms factory, Vader shows up, Luke has a crisis. The Luke and Leia interactions are primarily in issues 3 & 4, but it’s a solid story arc.

Star Wars (2015) 33–Actual Publisher’s Summary: The Hero of the Rebellion & the Princess of the Revolution! Luke and Leia finally get some time alone… Unfortunately, it's stranded on a desert island.

The Storms of Crait (2017)—After ANH. Our heroes travel to Crait, in hopes of establishing a base there. Luke is delightfully flustered by a kiss on the cheek from Leia.

Star Wars Adventures (2017) 4 & 5, The Trouble at Tibrin—Leia and Luke are on a diplomatic mission that goes awry. Leia rescues Luke in this one. Acknowledges Luke’s feelings.

Star Wars Adventures Annual 2018, Mind Your Manners—Another diplomatic mission gone wrong. Not all that shippy, but discovered it while making this list, so it felt wrong to leave it off.

Star Wars Adventures (2020) 7 & 8, The Princess and the Bog, A Twin Tale—Leia and Luke are scouting base locations. Luke is terrible at following Leia’s orders, and wants to pet all the animals.

Star Wars Hyperspace Stories (2022) 2–Another search for a base location. There are several cute moments between them in this one.

Deleted Scenes & Behind The Scenes

I know the ask was about books and novels, but I’d also recommend—if you haven’t already—searching for deleted scenes, alternate takes, behind the scenes photos and promo photos, etc. There are goodies from each film, but the most substantial stuff is from/for ESB.

Is That Everything?

I doubt it. There are many other stories that take place in this time frame that I haven’t investigated yet. Here are some that are on my list:

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (Legends novel)

Heir to the Jedi (Canon novel)

Heart of the Jedi (unpublished Legends novel)

Star Wars (1977-1986) (Legends comics) (mentioned above)

Star Wars (2020) aka Star Wars V3 (Canon comics)

Razor’s Edge & Honor Among Thieves (Legends novel duology)

I’d bet on there being content down the timeline that reads as shippy, but that’s a whole future post.

[nerdtamin]

Why Rey's Story Should Have Been Similar to Anakin's (WITH A TWIST 😉 )

Ok! Bear with me, I know this can be a touchy subject but I promise you it's not the path you think this will go.

Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one who was destined to bring balance to the force. I'm not sure why he had to become Darth Vader to achieve this, but that may be a topic for another time. However, there is no doubt that he was destined to fall into darkness, as this was confirmed back in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, episode Ghost of Mortis (3x17), where Anakin was shown a vision from The Son about his future. However, Anakin has his memories wiped out by his father so the events would play out. Why do I bring this Up?

Picture Rey's story going this route: PALPATINE IS DEAD. However, he was working on a clone son that would surpass his apprentice Darth Vader. The Clone is a failure and is set free after the events of Return of the Jedi. At some point, the clone meets a woman and they have a daughter named Rey. However, her parents abandoned her on a desert planet because they were terrified of her powers and the darkness that resides within her. However, she survives, joins the resistance, and fights the evil in the galaxy. However, her greatest adversary finds out her true lineage, hoping she will join his side. However, there's a twist: REY KNEW.

She knew her parents left her behind because they feared her. She knew the true origin of her lineage because she overheard her parents talking about it (or another source). She knew what would happen if she allowed her negative emotions to get to her while surviving on Jakku. She knew but she fought against it anyway.

I believe this would have been a compelling story for the sequel trilogy to adopt. The protagonist fights against the destiny that everyone around her expects her to become. She's pulled in so many directions: Her friends fear her, her enemies push her, and the entire galaxy wants her dead. Yet, she chooses hope. JJ Abrams could have also sneaked in a few hints about Rey's dark potential until the big twist. Some examples could be:

Losing control (maybe like a sonic scream)

Physical deformation (like The Son)

or classic Sith eyes (maybe she keeps them hidden under her own mask)

I know this felt more like a rewrite than an analysis but I'm sure we've all come up with thousands of ways a story could have gone.

[btwxsixesandsevens]

Ahsoka's Last Episode

Let me rant about Ahsoka for a minute. This wasn't a show. This was a series of references to other shows, tropes, books, and cultural touchpoints. Ahsoka is a placeholder for a show.

This feeling is exemplified by the title "The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord" -- a reference to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I assuming. But why? what about it, other than the clever word play, is related to the other book? A friend of mine suggests that it implies a portal to another world…but there isn't one in this episode. And didn't they already go thru a portal? the portal is in a future episode? what kind of "the princess is in another castle" bullshit is this?

spoilers below the cut.

Not one of the initial premises of the story is paid off, at least not in a satisfying way.

Ahsoka's arc, i think, is supposed to be about her getting over her Anakin problem (which isn't really a problem, as he is Darth Vader and one should be angry about that). I say i'm guessing here, as what is making her sad in the beginning of the show then suddenly not sad in the end of the show isn't explained or explored. I can only extrapolate that Anakin must be the problem as it is only after her brush with him that her behavior shifts to being more capable and self satisfied…you know, how she was at the end of Rebels and then suddenly wasn't again at the beginning of this show. she just poof changes. ok.

Sabine's arc…from failed Mandalorian (b/c Mandalore has fallen), failed Jedi apprentice (??), failed friend (b/c Ezra is trapped in a trap of his own making), to again something more like her character from the end of Rebels is triggered by…finding Ezra? realizing that Ahsoka supports her? and the resolution one of these mystery things makes her able to tap into the Force. The literal lynchpin of her depression -- that Ahsoka dropped her as an apprentice out of fear that she would seek revenge for the Great Purge -- is explained with neither she nor Ahsoka being present -- it is infodumped by Huyang, Mr. Walking Plot Exposition.

Morgan has an arc. A predictable one that we all saw coming from the moment Thrawn looked at her and said: "I'm getting the fuck outta here, and I don't care who has to die/be left behind to make that happen."

Shin, I think, has an arc. She goes from not-a-Jedi-attack-wolf to leader of a bandit band. ok, that's a thing. not an interesting thing, but sure. and congrats to my Wolfwren mutuals as your girlies are now stranded on the same planet for who-knows-how-long. Your fanfic has a beautiful setting for them to go fully enemies to lovers on. Have fun.

Who else… Why do any of them do the things they do? Baylan? The Macbeth Witches? Hera, Ezra, or Thrawn don't have arcs, they just have magical successes. They don't change.

I'm just. I've written about this before. I love Ahsoka. I wanted a show about her, her struggles, her interior life…I wanted her to go on an adventure, save some people, be great. I didn't get any of that. I got this pile of images, one liners, and footnotes -- some of which are quite good, some of which aren't anywhere near as clever as they want me to think they are.

That's what I'll say about this overall. It was clever. But how's that work out? being clever? when it could have been…you know…about something.

[eveenstar]

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

✦𝙰 𝙹𝚎𝚍𝚒'𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 (𝙰𝙾3 - 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝚡 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛! 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝙾𝙲)

⤷Hivall Surike is a Jedi Padawan under the mentorship of Rey Skywalker at the new Jedi Temple. An eager and curious girl since a young age, Hivall always had a peculiar interest for the Dark Side and its legends since she found out she was Force sensitive. Despite her master's warnings, she departs to go explore an ancient and forgotten planet: Korriban.

���𝚃𝚠𝚘 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚍 (𝙰𝙾3 - 𝙰 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚗 & 𝚁𝚎𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗)

⤷Revan wakes up in a strange, modern galaxy, far away from his own time. He wanders from planet to planet as he tries to figure out what happened to his empire and the Sith - this is when he meets Rey, a scavenger, and the two form an unlikely friendship.

✦𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚕𝚍 𝚁𝚎𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌 𝚘𝚗𝚎-𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜 (𝙰𝙾3 - 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙵𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎!𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚗/𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝙾𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚒 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚗/𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝙾𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚒)

✦𝚄𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 (𝙰𝙾3 - 𝙷𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 - 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚡 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)

⤷There has been an awakening in the Force and all living beings have felt it. A mysterious Dark Side user has made themselves known to the Jedi and with them, new threats and mysteries followed. While the Jedi Council is disturbed by this, Darth Sidious grows wary of this Sith individual. Meanwhile, two Jedi begin their mission to uncover the truth behind the peculiar Sith...

✦𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 (𝙰𝙾3/𝚃𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚛 - 𝙰 𝙹𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚛 𝙴𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚊/𝙹𝚎𝚍𝚒!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚄)

⤷The Van der Linde gang embraces yet another new member, a young woman who was found wandering with strange clothes in the snow, but soon they'll find out that there's more to her story than she's saying. The world that they know is about to end and a new era will rise, but with one of their members being hunted down by a mysterious man called Darth Vader, they only have two options: run or die.

✦𝙳𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚊 | 𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙/𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚜 |

✦𝙱𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 (𝙰𝙾3/𝚃𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚛 - 𝙰𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝙷𝚞𝚡/𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛/𝙺𝚢𝚕𝚘 𝚁𝚎𝚗 - 𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚣𝚎𝚗 𝙰𝚄)

✦𝙱𝚞𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 (𝙲𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛/𝚏𝚎𝚖!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 - 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝)

✦"𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚌𝚞𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚎𝚊, 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝚔𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚋𝚒?" (𝙲𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚙 𝙰𝚄 - 𝙾𝚋𝚒-𝚆𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚋𝚒/𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)

✦𝙳𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝙺𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚌 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚎-𝚂𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎!𝚂/𝙾 (𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚗𝚜)

✦𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝙷𝚘𝚙𝚎 (𝙻𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚂𝚔𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚎𝚛/𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 - 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝)

✦𝚂𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚜𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚌 (𝙻𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚂𝚔𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚎𝚛/𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 - 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝)

✦𝙰𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 (𝙰 𝙰𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝙷𝚞𝚡/𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚋𝚋𝚕𝚎 - 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝)

(more to add...)

[emisaaaa]

Star Wars: What if?

Summary:

What if Anakin knew that twins are alive, and he had a chance to save Luke? Anakin now as Darth Vader „Dark Lord of the Sith” is raising Luke, training him to rule galaxy as son and father, but of course Luke doesn’t want any of this politcial thrash, Luke wants to become a pilot and fall in love… Like a normal teenager. One day Luke finds secret data about his twin sister that was brutally abducted, Luke decides to find his sister and bring her home.

Chapter 1: Every tragedy has it’s own start

I didn’t sleep for two days, like always when my dad wasn’t "home", just thinking that one day he wouldn’t come back was so stressful that I didn’t eat or sleep, Knowing that rebels wants to kill him and destroy everything that he did for galaxy just in nineteen years was terrible, my father bring peace and balance into galaxy, he always says that everything he does is for my mom and me. I never met my mom I wish I did. She was a beatiful and intelligent woman , she was the only woman my father ever loved I know he is still regretting that he didn’t do anything to help her survive my birth, I know it because it was so easy to feel, like his grieve was changing to words that wanted to be scream for hours, sometimes I think he sees her in me he always treated me like a little bird that could get killed just by looking at him. Darth Vader never let anyone to talk to me except for Darth Sidious he was my Master, the one that helped my father to become who he is now and me as his son I will continue his legacy of the most powerful Sith Lords in the entire galaxy. Like I ever wanted that, since i was a kid I loved space and flying but my dad never let me do anything related to becoming a pilot, even he was a great pilot before becoming a Sith Lord and he knew that I got that passion from him but just like always he never let me try. I waited a three more hours to get ready I always liked getting ready, washing myself, brushing my hair, changing my clothes to something that doesn’t look like shit and getting out of room to eat some breakfest, even when I didn’ had any strenght taking care of myself would always light my mood for a little. When I was done I waited a little while for my guards to walk me out of my room, my father always think that there’s someone out there trying to kill me, probably some rebels or mythical Jedi Knights but stories for little kids and vandals couldn’t get me in the most guarded star ship ever, it’s not mathematically possible. I never liked eating alone , cause I always ate alone, even when my dad was around he would sit on another side of the table, breathing like crappy trash can and looking at me like I was a criminal that could kill everyone in the room just in one second. While drinking cup of tea door opend,my father and his soldiers rushed into the dining room.

- Good morning son, it’s time for your lightstaber practice.-

[ragdollgaming]

I've been thinking about Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and wanted to ramble some of my thoughts about Bode, specifically toward the end of the story. I'll put my thoughts below the cut. Don't read if you don't want spoilers from the last third of the game.

Bode's betrayal is completely undermined by the fact that he's force-sensitive. I get it, characters behaving irrationally isn't inherently bad writing. But I really do think the concept could have been handled way better.

Bode's entire motivation, throughout the whole game, is to protect his daughter from the Empire. He is understandably interested in Tanalor for that exact purpose, as theoretically, he and his new friends can live there and stay safe from the threat of the Empire. When Cal reveals that he intends to give the compass to the Hidden Path, Bode gets upset at the change of plans and betrays everyone, going so far as to call in Darth Vader himself.

Except he seems to forget that the current purpose of the Hidden Path, under Cere's leadership, is to protect and hide force sensitives, which is why Cal wanted them to have first access to Tanalor, to protect and hide those force sensitives. Force sensitives like Bode and, presumably, his daughter Kata.

All Bode would need to do is lift a nearby rock with his mind and go "I would like my daughter and I to be on the first ship there," and he'd 100% get his wish. After some reassuring he won't backstab him like at the start, Cal would happily help him storm the base where Kata is being held (maybe recreating the plan from the opening of the game, but gone right?), take her back to Jedha, and send the two off to live in safety with the Hidden Path.

But that's a lot of change to the ending. We still want that betrayal, the ending of a man who can't help but turn traitor. So take away his being a jedi. Suddenly, his betrayal is much more "reasonable," for lack of a better word. Now, if Cal is handing the compass off to the Hidden Path, and he and Kata AREN'T force sensitive, suddenly his greatest hope of escaping the Empire is gone. Who knows how long it would take to make a second compass? Would that one go to force sensitives too? He can only keep Kata safe aboard that Empire station for so long, and he can't trust Cal to find a new way in time or not find out he was working for the Empire all along. So he calls in Vader, steals the compass, and flees with his daughter alone to Tanalor.

I don't hate the idea of Bode being a twist villain, and I don't hate the idea of Bode being a secret Jedi trapped into working with the Empire to protect his daughter. But these two concepts are in direct conflict with each other when considering what motivated him to betray Cal in the first place. His role in the story's ending would be better served by either removing his history as a jedi, removing his betrayal, or finding another reason for him to be unable to get to Tanalor that doesn't conflict with his being force-sensitive.

[oncforallxbroccoli]

MHA Manga Spoilers

I've been thinking about this for a bit since the last chapter of MHA came out.

But I'm actually happy? that we never find out who Izuku's dad revealed. Because for MOST, if not, ALL of the story Hisashi was never a major factor in the overall plot.

He was mentioned like once in Chapter 1 when Inko told Garaki Izuku's doctor about her and her husband's Quirks ... when Izuku was FOUR. But for the rest of the story, he wasn't a major plot point.

Inko played a bigger role in the overarching plot than Hisashi did.

But if Horikoshi wasn't going to make the reveal be that AFO was Hisashi. Then I'm glad Hisashi was never revealed.

Like.. don't get me wrong, I would've loved to have a face to associate with Hisashi's name. But there would've had to be a good ass reasoning why he wasn't around for Izuku's ENTIRE first year at U.A. given everything that happened. (All of the villain attacks that his son went through (that go all the way from the sludge villain to the Final War arc).. and the broken bones that Izuku suffered.)

EDIT:

Like.. as convoluted as it would be to include AFO in yet ANOTHER plot with the "Who is Izuku's Dad?" question. It would've just further added more into the camp of how much of a fan of Star Wars that Horikoshi is. Given the whole Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader family plot that happens in that series.

Not to mention, Horikoshi already did a Star Wars-esque "family plot twist" with the Todoroki family. When he revealed that Dabi was Touya Todoroki.

But AFO was already HEAVILY involved in Tomura's story. He was involved in why Dabi/Touya wasn't dead. And, he was involved in the overarching and main AFO vs. OFA plot. Adding "Oh, he's also Izuku's dad" would be like throwing a dart (AFO) at a dartboard just to get the reveal out of the way.

It would have LESS build up than the whole "U.A. Traitor" reveal.

[piglet26]

Reylo Scenes: TROS Part 1

If there's one name I don't wanna hear about my Reylo it's Colin Trevorrow.

I will be referencing the novelization, BTS interviews, comics and visual dictionary cause how do I say this? All of that makes the movie more coherent. That's the main issue with the movie. A lot of information was left on the cutting room floor.

Side note: There is one line in the novelization "a kiss of gratitude" the way anti-Reylos clung to that shit, like, it was even in Screenrant articles. It's one line while the rest of the novel heavily supports Reylo. This is in the BTS video for the making of the film from the team.....

"What if your sort of soulmate in the force was your enemy? Circumstance pits them against each other, but the force bonds them together. They understand each other almost from a point of view of fate and yet fate has made them enemies" That's a great story! Genuinely that's a wonderful literary, cinematic and epic story.

Daisy Ridley, "The stuff with Adam always has been so emotional. Trying to find that balance of feeling the light side but also feeling the draw to the dark side."

Adam Driver "He learns that over the course of the movie that they're two halves of the same thing. I think it just, if anything, reaffirms what he knows intuitively and has known for a while but hasn't been able to articulate until he can."

Seriously Antis?!... Accept the shit, enjoy the ride and move on.

In the visual dictionary the information provided from Ren's perspective during the interrogation is "Kylo Ren feels an innate connection to the scavenger, unaware that they form a prophesied dyad." In the time period between TLJ and TROS, Rey and Ben actually have had a run-in with one another though they haven't had a forcetime since the TLJ.

General Hux quote from the novel 'Ren had no soft spots for anyone - except maybe the scavenger' No, maybe about that. Stormtroopers stay in awe.

The movie starts with (The most chopped up opening) bad ass supreme leader Kylo Ren for literally 5 minutes before he's co-pilot to dummy Palpy. In the novelization it's revealed what exactly he saw during the hut vision with Rey. "He’d glimpsed her parents in a vision, a poor, frightened couple eking out a meagre existence, surviving on the edge of desperation. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told her they were nothing, nobodies. But Force visions were filled with tricky truths and potential realities. Maybe he had missed something." No, her story hadn't been retconned yet.

Grandpappy Palpy offers Ren the Sith fleet if Kylo kills Rey (except he doesn't want her killed...Ren's the backup?) Kylo pursues Rey under the pretense that he agreed to kill her. Ren ain't even about that life. He's like oh sure! Get the fuck out of here.

Meanwhile Rey is training with Leia/R2D2 with the assistance of Poe and Finn. There's a moment when Kylo Ren is praying over his grandpappy Darth Vader mask and bridges his mind with Rey's (They should've done more with this in this movie).

We don't know if she's confided in anyone about her connection to Ren. It would have served the story better if she had.

The damn mask is back. *Eye Roll*

On Pasaana we have their first forceskype. In the movie, it's like two ex's running into each other and don't know what to say.  God bless Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, but mainly Adam Driver for all the work he put into spinning mostly exposition writing into something swallowable. Yes, the dialogue is stiff, but Ren's motivation at this point is semi-layered. He warns her that Palpatine wants her dead not only because he wants her at his side, but also to protect her from Palpatine. Ruling alongside Rey has become Ren's greatest ambition. Ren and Rey mean King and Queen after all. In the novel, 'He wanted to kill the past, yes. Rule supreme over the galaxy, certainly. And the massive fleet on Exegol would help him do that. But the ambition that cut into his being was the thought of reigning side by side with her. They were connected. They had defeated Snoke. Together they would be invincible.'

Both Rey and Ren are so desperate for that connection. Both also understand how powerful they were and could be together. Their battle together in Snoke’s throne room features some of the best visual storytelling in the entire series. This is where you see them together at their best, showing the promise of the potential they possess as a unit. Not to mention the emotional depth they bring to the others lives. Both are looking for confirmation of the others feeling.

"I offered you my hand once, you wanted to take it, why didn't it?"

"You could have killed me. Why didn't you?"

 

Next scene is in the desert of Pasaana. The second Ren is on the planet she senses him through the force and he sense her. The infamous running in the desert to run you down trailer scene. Prior to the movie release people correctly presumed this was Kylo Ren, but thought it was a training exercise hahaha because it made no sense. The movie was released and it still made no sense unless you've read the novel.

Kylo Ren sensed her before he saw her. As he flew his TIE whisper along the flat desert, she was a bright presence in his mind, practically glowing with determination and ferocity. He finally understood. Han Solo was his past. But Rey was his light.

The dark side clouded his judgement and urged him to cut all the ties to light. In the end, the murderous impulses contradicted his deepest desire to have Rey for himself.

I'm actually more interest in the scenes in the last 3/4 so moving onto those.

[fictiongarden]

Fan Fiction Review: Twilight of the Gods by blueenvelopes

Fandom: Star Wars

RATING: MAJESTIC

Blueenvelopes on fanfiction.net/blueenvelopes935 on ao3 has made something of a second unpaid career writing about Sith lords. Her Sith lords span antiquity right down to Darth Plagueis and beyond. Whatever may draw a person to create over twenty-five fanfic stories mostly about Sith lords, it’s my bet that blueenvelopes is female, older, well-read, and perhaps works in an artistic field. You’d certainly have to be all of those to create the damn-near-perfect masterpiece that drifts around fanfic land under the title Twilight of the Gods.

The story is thirty-nine chapters spanning the time between A New Hope and the end of the original trilogy and will take you several days of dedicated reading to finish. Happily, you will read it on the edge of your seat even though the author tells you how it will end in her copious story notes.

The story appears to have two main themes: One, to get the miserably widowed Darth Vader past Padme Amidala and married off to another wife; and two, to argue against a central premise of Star Wars that the reader may or may not agree with. It also brings back Darth Plagueis as the real star of the show in a capacity that will startle many readers.

Fortunately, when a writer with some talent thinks deeply enough about the paradigm and philosophy behind Star Wars to write thirty-nine chapters of coherent argument against it, the result is usually a well-thought-out and engrossing read. Even if you don’t agree that Snoke is Darth Plagueis or that the whole point of the GFFA isn't to stamp out darkness forever, the characters are so well drawn and the story is so intriguing that you should give it a chance anyway. It’s a hell of a good read whether you agree with blueenvelopes or not.

One of the story’s greatest strengths is the clear, convincing characterization. Darth Vader becomes even more nuanced here than he is in the hands of George Lucas, and that’s saying something. It takes real talent to make paragraphs of solid introspection, which this story features in abundance, just as riveting as an action scene. If nothing else, you will get lost in Darth Vader’s fascinating mind and beg for more when it’s over.

Another well-drawn character readers will enjoy is the Alderaanian art dealer Vader falls for and ends up marrying, a redhead named Astral Sidhu. (Is it my imagination, or is every female OC in Star Wars a redhead?) Unlike many OC In both the fan and professional worlds, Astral is older, in her mid-forties, so she beats many of the fanfic tropes right there. Her art world is so well-drawn and the character is so authoritative in her knowledge of it that we are swept right along into her world. There’s also the vicarious pleasure of being along in Astral’s wedding shoes as she’s recruited to help save the Empire’s second-in-command during a crisis, comes to know him more personally, and then ultimately falls in love with him and marries him. Yes, the sex scenes are included … a bit more realistically than in many other fanfics as well. (Yes, Darth Vader can be impotent … at least now and then.) Vader’s doctor and house staff leap right off the screen as admirable individuals in their own rights, too, although readers may not appreciate seeing fan favorite Firmus Piett trashed in this fic.

Another strength of this fic is the element of surprise. Not to reveal too many details, but who knew this much could go on between Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Plagueis between Empire and Return of the Jedi?

The last point I can’t praise this work highly enough for is the strength of the writing. Not only is this writer at near-professional level (and as the widow of an award-winning novelist myself, I can say that), but the musings of the characters contain so much wisdom and so many truisms about war, about peace, about regret, and about middle age and the slide into life’s decline. You don’t find this kind of thought in fan fic usually, and that makes this a rich and rewarding read.

Of course, even the best-written published novel has its faults, and Twilight of the Gods does, as well.

The most obvious is the oft-repeated fan trope of having an OC stand in for the reader in the vicarious experience of getting intimate with a favorite character. Sadly, this trope is so often done that even when it’s very well done, it can’t escape the unfortunate associations with all the other thousands and thousands of the same thing that came before it. When even the creators of deeply loved film and TV series get accused of writing “Mary Sues” themselves, there’s no getting around it. It’s a plot device that’s not original. Here, at least, it’s well-done and enjoyable.

I say the writing here is “near-professional” quality because it has a number of noticeable flaws. First, and worst, there are too many Earthisms. No one in the GFFA has any idea what a Mary Sue is or what an eggplant emoji is. There’s nothing worse than being all caught up in such a tense, thought-provoking story only to get jarred right out of it when GFFA characters use Earth American slang or suddenly drop out of the high-minded diction for which they are known. The Darth Vader of the screen, for example, would never use the word guy.

Characters sometimes go off on tangents that are wildly out of character. A particularly grievous sequence has Hego Damask worried about his dramatic entrance when everyone has far more important things on their mind, and the Hego/Plagueis of Darth Plagueis fame would never. At least, not out loud or at the length he does here. The long, long chapter notes are a trademark with this writer. Personally, I would never be so brazen as to spend paragraphs and paragraphs believing my work is so good people will want to read pages of me explaining what was in my head as I wrote it. Blueenvelopes does, however, and it seems many agree with her. The danger here is that one may slack off in the work knowing one will explain it in story notes that are long enough to be a whole chapter by themselves. (The story is supposed to do the job, not your “liner notes.”) This, happily, turns out not to be the case, and many commenters are as fascinated with the story notes as they are with the story. If it works, do it. Overall, this story has ambition, scope, great characters, and enough surprises to keep you reading. It’s rich and thought-provoking enough that your mind will come back to it all day until you finish it. For good measure, there’s a happy alternative ending for those saddened by the conclusion.

My conclusion is, faults aside, this is one fan fiction not to be missed. *I will be posting these reviews on ao3 and my Substack, Garden of Deceit. Fan Fiction Review: Twilight of the Gods by blueenvelopes (substack.com)

[marvelstars]

Anakin Skywalker in fanfic

There are a lot of great and interesting stuff fan creators have done with Anakin and I am really grateful for it, especially those fix it fics but sometimes I see some takes that really take me out of the story because they don´t feel true to the character, I know in the end fans are going to do as they want with the content they create and that´s fair, it´s their content but I will talk here about some takes I think could be made better by taking in consideration the material from the movies and other media.

Anakin wanted Qui-Gon as his master instead of Obi-Wan. I think this is an old vice that even some legends young novels have tackled but there´s not actual evidence in the movies, cartoons or other media in which this was the case.

Anakin meet Qui-Gon as a child and liked him, he started seeig him as a parental figure, he felt supported by him, he was grateful for taking him out of slavery but Anakin also was unsure about the decisions Qui-Gon was making for him, when Anakin was rejected by the Jedi Council as a jedi, he, a former slave of 9 years who was in a strange planet away from his only family, decided to tell Qui-Gon, he "didn´t want to be a trouble" this has become a meme but Anakin was being completely honest there, he bassically told him that if he was the reason Qui-Gon had trouble with the Council then he would seek another means to support himself. Anakin at the time had worked all his short life so he probably thought he could find a job and borrow enough to free his mother from slavery.

So while I think Anakin loved what he knew of Qui-Gon, he didn´t see him as the perfect Jedi master, he didn´t have enough time to really know him and this is tackled as well in some comics where Anakin shows doubts about staying as a jedi when he realizes he truly didn´t made that decision but it was made for him by Qui-Gon and his mother and he didn´t feel suited for the job. This wasn´t just Palpatine´s grooming, those are feelings Anakin definitely had for a long time since he went to the temple.

Anakin certainly told Obi-Wan he saw him as a great master, he describes him as wise as master yoda and as powerful as master windu and the main nitpick he has with Obi-Wan is the fact he keeps being overly critical of him, we could see was true from their first interactions on Episode II and doesn´t let him have more missions of his own, which, master windu and yoda told obi-wan was time for his padawan to do, so it wasn´t that Anakin thought he was a bad master but he certainly thought he was strict with him and later, the words he used when talking about him with Ahsoka, about her maybe not making it as obi-wan´s padawan but being able to make it as his" tells more about Anakin seeing himself as a bad student, not obi-wan as a bad teacher imo.

Anakin is dumb: This take especially makes me scratch my head honesty, we are talking about someone who built his own droid at 9, had knowledge in how to fix bassically most tech he came in contact, learned the arts of the Jedi Order despite coming late to the temple, Obi-Wan told him he was almost at master yoda level as a swordsman and could hold his own with a seasoned Jedi master like Count Dooku at 19, he was a gifted general who Grivious says was "too young for his reputation", used drawings to comunicate with a different species because that was the best way to show them they came in peace, say anything about Anakin but dumb he certainly wasn´t.

In fact this aspect of his intelligence is in part the reason why he became such a terror as darth vader, he wasn´t just powerful or strong, he was smart, he knew how to make the rebels get out of their military bases and make them fight him at a disavantage and predict the outcome of most battles and he did all of this emotionally unnafected, almost with apathy, which was sometimes the flaw young Anakin had that made him make mistakes. I honestly don´t think Palpatine would have bothered keeping Anakin/Vader alive if he was saw him act as dumb as some fanfics picture him.

Somtimes I see him being described as dumb for falling in Palpatine´s manipulations but I don´t think being manipulated and gaslithed doesn´t make him dumb, it makes him a victim.

Anakin had temper trantrums often during Obi-Wans training: Definitely no, Anakin was a slave, this means temper tantrums were pretty much not an option for him from a young age,no when his mother, his friends and himself could be punished for having them, not when he could be made to explode with the push of a buttom, not when he regulary took beatings from watto for some issue or another his master had, on Episode II he mostly keep his silence when Obi-Wan was criticizing his decisions and said "sorry master" but hidden resentment, anxiety over not performing conrrectly, keeping his emotions to himself until it all boiled down in a moment of rage when he was alone or with someone he could trust to show them like his mother or padme, especially without someone he could talk to about how he feel, certainly are a thing for Anakin.

Anakin didn´t have emotional intelligence or empathy: Anakin was a slave boy of 9 years who decided to help a Jedi and a Queen with the scase resources he had that he planned to use to free his mom and his friends, without thinking of getting anything out of it, he´s described as someone giving without thought to himself and agrees with his mother the "bigger problem in the galaxy is that no one helps each other"

This characterization comes more from his actions as a Jedi on Episode II but I personally think that him, literally losing his mind over seeing his mother, his slave mother who had to gave him up so he could be free and the one who teached him how to give without expecting recompense, he sees her being tortured to death for weeks in his dreams before seeing her dead for real after her blood was taken from her in a ritual done by the tunskens raiders, to me this looks more like the beggining of his break down shown in ROTS, not the way he acts on a regular basis.

On a regular basis as a Jedi we see him act distant with most strangers but profesional of focused on the mission, warm with his troops, playful with Ahsoka and Obi-Wan and romantic with Padme.

His emotions are more uncontrollable in this era but this is pretty much the result of fighting a war, Palpatine´s grooming which is especifically done to make him have a break down at some point and his own past experiences being left unadressed or hidden from friends and family. So my guess is that Anakin did have emotional inteligence and emphathy but those aspects of his personality took a beating given his trauma.

Still the fics that do take in consideration this are some of the greastest I have read :)

There are some other pet peeves for me but those three are the main ones I have noticed, as someone who likes to read fanfic as a fun and interesting way to address canon, I am very grateful for the time and work being put on them by the writers wether I like or agree with their personal take on Anakin´s character.

[roseaesynstylae]

Heir to the Empire: Chapter 2

"'Luke?'

The voice came softly but insistently. Pausing amid the familiar landscape of Tatooine -- familiar but oddly distorted -- Luke Skywalker turned to look."

Something about the way this chapter begins sticks with me. Opening a story with a dream is cliche, but it works in this context, Obi-Wan reaching out for the last time to bid Luke farewell.

"'I've come to say good-bye, Luke.'

The landscape seemed to tremble; and abruptly, a small part of Luke's mind remember that he was asleep. Asleep in his suite in the Imperial Palace, and dreaming of Ben Kenobi.

'No, I'm not a dream," Ben assured him, answering Luke's unspoken thought. 'But the distances separating us have become too great for me to appear to you in any other way. Now, even this last path is being closed to me.'

'No,' Luke heard himself say. 'You can't leave us, Ben. We need you.'"

This scene has always been bittersweet, but after the release of the prequels and spinoffs and all stories we've gotten with Obi-Wan, it's even more so. We've had all this detail on his life and now he's gone. Luke will never hear about Siri Tachi or Ahsoka or how he said "Hello there" to General Grievous. He won't know about Qui-Gon Jinn and all the adventures they had. I know the point is that Luke doesn't know any of these things, that he's basically winging it with the minimal training he got from Obi-Wan and Yoda, but it's still depressing. With all the expanded universe content, we know all of what was lost with the Empire's rise.

"Then I am alone, he told himself. I am the last of the Jedi.

He seemed to hear Ben's voice, faint and and indistinct, as if from a great distance. 'Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new."

I know that this was published decades before The Last Jedi was a twinkle in Rian Johnson's eye, but this is still a little distracting with hindsight.

My personal interpretation of Obi-Wan's final words is that, with so much lost, the Jedi Order Luke will build will be very different. It will try to follow the same principles, but it will take a different shape. Which it did.

"First Uncle Ben and Aunt Beru had been murdered; then Darth Vader, his real father, had sacrificed his own life for Luke's; and now even Ben Kenobi's spirit had been taken away.

For the third time, he'd been orphaned."

Luke doesn't know about Padmé at this point, but it just adds another layer of sadness. He can't even add her name to the list of parents he's lost because she's a cipher to him. He knows he has a biological mother, obviously, but it isn't like he has time to search for her. Later books in Legends make it clear that he had no clue that she was dead and tried to find her, which obviously didn't work out. The prequels just keep adding sadness to everything that was written before they came out.

"But for Leia, just over three months pregnant, to be spending the bulk of her time here...

[...] The really maddening part of it was that he couldn't sense any such concentration of evil in the Palace. The Council had made a point of asking him about that, in fact, when they'd first considered moving to the Imperial City. He'd had to grit his teeth and tell them that, no, there seemed to be no residual effects of the Emperor's stay.

But just because he couldn't sense it didn't necessarily mean that it wasn't there."

Knowing what ended up happening to Jacen, Luke's concerns seem quite justified, retroactively.

"Awakened in the middle of the night, dressed in an old robe with her hair in total disarray, Winter still looked more regal than Leia herself could manage on her best days. She'd lost track of the times when, as children together on Alderaan, some visitor to the Viceroy's court had automatically assumed that Winter was, in fact, the Princess Leia.

Winter had probably not lost track, of course. Anyone who could remember whole conversations verbatim should certainly be able to reconstruct the number of times she'd been mistaken for a royal princess.

Leia had often wondered what the rest of the Provisional Council members would think if they knew that the silent assistant sitting beside her at official meetings or standing beside her at unofficial corridor conversations was effectively recording every word they said. Some of them, she suspected, wouldn't like it at all."

Leia looks plenty royal. She just has that vibe, even when she isn't in formal dress.

Knowing how much trouble a certain Viceroy caused for Leia's biological mother, the fact that Bail Organa is referred to as a viceroy here is rather funny to me.

I haven't read much stuff with Winter in it, but the way she's described her sort of reminds me of Sabé for some reason.

"Whoever had taken over what was left of Jabba the Hutt's organization must have moved operations off Tatooine."

I take note of this line to say: Han, if you were in Disney's Star Wars, the answer to any questions would be that the man who took over did not move off of Tatooine, sarlaacs can be escaped via use of fire, and you should probably start running.

"As far as he was concerned, the only times when Wedge didn't stick out like a lump on plate glass was when he was sitting in the cockpit of an X-wing blasting TIE fighters into dust."

A wonderful description of Wedge.

That's all. I didn't find too much to comment on.

[devondeal]

Hello there wifey 💚💙 Here’s some Jedi ask questions about our favorite Jedi women, enjoy 😘

Ahsoka

1,9,21,50

Barriss

2,38,42,43

Luminara

10, 16, 46, 49

Leia

5, 14, 39, 48

Oooo I love me my Jedi women! I had a blast answering these, thanks wifey! 💙💚

Ahsoka

1.) How did she find her Kyber crystal(s)?

So the first time she had to have had gone with her creche led by Yoda I imagine. I think the Illum cave would only show her the Kyber after she learned to slow down and not let her anxieties rush her. I say this because this is a consistent issue for early seasons Ahsoka where she is very impulsive.

For her second Kyber crystal, she had to have gone to Illum with Anakin. I think Ahsoka did not expect to need another crystal because I feel like it was Anakin's observation as a teacher that she was best suited to Jar Kai (dual wielding). It is possible Ahsoka became insecure at her Master deciding she needed a second blade like maybe she wasn't doing good enough with one even though that's not at all what he meant. So I feel like the crystal would present itself to her when she learns to accept that it's ok to use a different style than is the most common and traditional. That she isn't any less a skilled Jedi because she is better with two lightsabers (which would mean a lot to me personally as someone who always needed extra help in school).

9.) Their favorite memory with their Master

I feel like her favorite memory with Anakin would be anytime he teaches her about mechanics given she's mentioned it a few times in Clone Wars namely when she fixes her comm on Geonosis.

I chose this because given what we learned in Tales of the Jedi of how Anakin trained her, these memories of combat training may be confusing and stressful. She probably would turn to a different activity they did together for good memories.

I feel like she also gets nostalgic just remembering when Anakin and Obi Wan bickered like siblings while she just rolled her eyes.

21.) Their greatest challenge

Ahsoka in my opinion really really desperately needs to work on letting go of her guilt and insecurities. She has a tendency to feel responsible for things beyond her control which really gets out of control with Darth Vader.

She just never feels good enough and questions every decision she makes and that only gets worse when she realizes the man who taught her turned to the dark side.

50.) Something in canon about them you reject

The Ahsoka show so far. I'm sorry but I just don't like story or the interpretation of her character at that point in time. She just doesn't feel the same to me anymore. She feels so watered down and just not how the Ahsoka from Clone Wars and even Rebels would act.

Barriss

2.) Why did she build her lightsaber hilt the way she did?

Barriss's hilt is pretty simple so I feel like she built it for practicality. Plus as a healer, she isnt one for fighting so she wouldnt put as much thought into a weapon. There are some similiarities to Luminara's lightsaber so that's definitely a tribute. I also notice that the metal of saber isnt as shiny as most lightsabers. Maybe it's for stealth, or maybe it's a lighter metal to carry, possibly native to her planet if we wanna get sentimental.

Her blade would be blue because Barriss's number one priority is to protect above all. I just love how her lightsaber hilt looks because it's so symmetrical and seems pleasant and easy to hold. The bit of gold at the top is just enough to make it stand out and a lovely tribute to her Master.

These pics are from the lightsaber books which helped inform my opinion given when I google it, her saber looks different depending on what comes up. I also like how it describes her hilt in the end of the paragraph:

38.) Their favorite place in the Jedi Temple

The archives cuz she's a nerd 🤣 seriously though, I think reading and learning stimulates her in a way she needs and is a comfort for her when she's anxious.

42.) What's something she'll never forget?

Sorry for the angst but the Geonosis Arena. That changed everything for her. She saw so many fellow Jedi killed and that was so traumatizing for her, she just couldn't be on the battle field again for a long while according to the canon short story.

The happier answer is Luminara just being the bestest Master and also the moment she realized she has feelings for Ahsoka.

43.) If she could talk to any deceased Jedi, who would it be and why?

I'm gonna give the obvious answer with Luminara and I feel like she would need to say everything she wish she could have told her when she was alive. Especially to free Luminara from any sense of guilt she may have regarding how the war affected Barriss.

Luminara

10.) Her favorite memory with her Padawan

I think it would be watching Barriss build her lightsaber like in the 2003 series. She would be so proud of Barriss I know it.

I also think there are many moments in The Approaching Storm of watching Barriss just having fun. I think she and Anakin basically have a splash fight in a river. Also Luminara would definitely be so proud of Barriss's lightsaber dance. I can see her looking back on these memories after the Clone Wars began wishing it were like that again.

16.) Who are her best friends and how did she meet them?

Obi Wan and Quinlan since I think they're close in age. They'd meet as young Padawans maybe sparring. She probably bested Obi Wan and he was just all blushy which Quinlan def teased him for. They probably got in trouble together all the time. Or maybe as 8 year olds, Quinlan dared Lumi to kiss Obi Wan leaving the poor boy all blushy and tripping over himself 🤣

46.) Your favorite headcanon about her

That she hates Ventress with unreasonable fury 🤣 also that she and Obi Wan are in love and she was a naughtier Padawan.

The reason for that last bit is I headcanon Katri to be her first Master but she sadly was killed as we saw in Tales of the Jedi while Luminara would still be pretty young so she'd probably struggle with that grief. It's also why I feel like Dooku might have a soft spot for Luminara because he respected her Master and avenged her. But I feel like Luminara had to have struggled with the dark side as a teenager as a result of all this.

49.) Her greatest moment

That one bit in a comic where she kicks a pebble at a giant and it knocks him the fuck out looking like she just doesn't have time for this nonsense 🤣

Onscreen, I'd say in Cloak of Darkness, when she was willing to admit she made a mistake about Ventress to Ahsoka. It's so rare to see authority figures be so humble and admit a mistake. It really shows how wonderful and kind and soft she is. It shows why she is to me one of the greatest Jedi.

Leia

5.) Her favorite thing about being a Jedi

Being a Jedi would feel like coming home for Leia. Because she has always felt the Force though she didn't know it. Being a Jedi would feel like reuniting with an old childhood friend. It would remind her of how Bail and Breha raised her to be kind and never let cruelty prevail.

14.) How does she like to meditate?

I feel like she'd prefer isolation. I think she'd levitate because we see Rey doing that so I imagined she learned it from her. I think Leia would also meditate while holding onto a trinket from Alderaan because she'd need something to fidget with. And as a woman of action, meditating would be hard for her so she'd need an object to take out any energy with.

39.) If she were to enter an ancient temple, what would she see?

Since ancient temples love to fuck with Force sensitives, Leia would probably see Darth Vader morphing between that form and Anakin since I feel like he's her worst nightmare. She's afraid if she has any bit of him in her because of genetics so he'd taunt her abt that.

48.) A crack headcanon about her

Leia has the biggest potty mouth and it's a fucking problem. She has def slipped some cuss words in places she REALLY should not. Yes she has all the royal and political training but piss her off enough and the entire senate will hear exactly how she feels. Tarkin has def been at the recieving end of it and she has been suspended as a result.

The only reason Leia keep C3PO around is that she needs him to do her hair. All those fancy updoes? Yeah she never had to do them a day in her life but she does want to look her best so she keeps his annoying metal ass around. Eventually though, it's Han who does her hair for her and 3PO is just there for... tradition? Maybe translation abilities 🤣