#ME AND MY MANDALORIAN DIASPORA

[certified-anakinfucker]

WHERE IS MACE WINDU

[weepingjedi]

Din Djarin and the Mandalorians themselves just hit so differently when you’re part of a diaspora. (Spoilers for S3ep2)

They way Din tells Grogu that Mandalore is the home of their people (him fully considering Grogu as a part of him is also just so beautiful we love character growth) is so reminiscent of my grandparents telling us how their home countries weren’t just theirs but were our home.

Din confessing to Grogu that he’s never been to Mandalore despite the fact that being a Mandalorian is integral to his existence is eerily similar to 1st and 2nd gen kids admitting that they’ve never been to their families’ homeland.

Bo-Katan showing Din around and explaining the history and culture of Mandalore is just a diaspora kid being in their ancestral land for the first time and being shown around by someone who actually was raised in the culture/country like some tourist.

But you want to know what really killed me? What looked me in the face and said “This is a personal attack specifically just towards you”??? The moment where Din points to Concordia and tells Grogu, “I grew up there.” So close to Mandalore, yet it’s not. As a latina (specifically being Mexican and growing up in the Southwest), knowing that you’re surrounded by your culture, you barely speak the language, and geographically you’re so close to your homeland, yet you will never truly be from there?

In other words, Din “no sabo kid” Djarin teaching his adoptive son about their culture is peak Star Wars.

[limnsaber]

Mandalorian Slash Fic Rec List - DinLuke Volume I: Big, Medium, Heartfelt and Solemn

Hello!! Welcome to the first volume of Mando Slash Fic Rec- Dinluke! This is a collection of Dinluke fics that have a notable wordcount and fics that have a more heartfelt/solemn tone, sorted under headings that make the most sense to me personally. For reference, 🔐 means a restricted work and 💜 means an personal favorite. Check out Mando Gen lists I, II, and III. Please enjoy and give love to our cherished fic authors who we owe so much to!! -Yours, Limn <3

Big and Long and Impressive

💜 The Wanderer and the Seer by @kevystel (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Ensemble Cast, Mandalorian Politics, Original Mandalorian Characters, Mandalorian Culture, Diaspora, Teen, one of my favorites!!, 98k)

Din Djarin is temporarily relieved of a single dad's responsibilities, only to be saddled with the much greater responsibilities of Mand'alor. Temporarily. Hopefully. This is not the story of a great man becoming king; it's the story of some dude finding his place in the galaxy, freedom, and personal happiness through having some goddamn decency and good manners. Also the power of love, or whatever.

finding the lost and losing the found (series) by deniigiq (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Ensemble Cast, Mandalorian Politics, Romance, Family Dynamics, Political Alliances, Teen, 35k)

“So you’re not stealing my ship?” Mando said. “What do I want with your ship?” Luke demanded. “I don’t know. I don’t usually ask,” Mando said. (Luke tries to help his student stay focused on his studies by helping his student's father. It's harder than it looks.)

A Near-Mythological Event by SybilStarnes (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Ensemble Cast, Force Sensitive Din Djarin, Mand'alor Din Djarin, Living Waters of Mandalore, The Mandalorian Darksaber, Explicit, 116k)

Desperate to rejoin The Tribe, Din Djarin (with Grogu) travels to Mandalore to seek the Living Waters. Once they're in the caverns below the destroyed mine, a cave-in cuts off their exit. Grogu calls for help, and the legendary Luke Skywalker responds.  Cleansed by the Living Waters, Din returns to his Tribe to reswear to the Creed. He discovers it has new members, attracted to a Child of the Watch bearing the Darksaber. Meanwhile, Luke has offered to help Din learn to use the weapon. The Mandalorian finds himself on a new path, one that draws him deeper into Mandalorian politics and closer to the Jedi.  With the help of several guest stars, including one fat and sassy Force ghost, Din struggles to free Mandalore from Imperial dominance.

All the pretty places that feel like home (series) by SunshineAndaLittleFlour (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Ensemble Cast, two dangerous warriors coparenting a tiny frog, Explicit, 73k)

“Would you be more comfortable if I called you something else?” Luke asked, and it should have been teasing, but it was genuine, the soft freedom to be who he wanted in this place. And that careful gift, that offer of being who he wanted, uncontrolled and unfettered, filled Din with a lot of hope and a little bit of terror. Who was he without the creed? His people? Who was Din Djarin, standing in the halls of someone who had once been his people’s greatest enemy? Din shook his head, hearing his own breathing echo inside his helmet. “No. You can,” he faltered briefly, then took a deep breath. “You can call me by my name.”

buy a big house where we could both live by @villanellve (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Ensemble Cast, Post-Canon Fix-It, Slow Burn, Mature, 73k)

Din trails behind them and reminds himself this is temporary. He’ll make sure they get to the temple safe, and once he’s sure that Luke agrees to continue training Grogu, he’ll leave them. Grogu reaches up with his hand to tug at the edge of Luke’s shirt, and Din’s fingers flex at his sides. This is the way, he tells himself.

🔐 Get Back Homeward by berryfunkedup (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, POV Alternating, Jedi Tradtion & Culture, Clones, Getting Together, Teen, 42k)

Luke is at a stalemate with the New Republic in the aftermath of everything he lost in the war and his inheritance of the Jedi’s legacy. Din seeks his tribe and takes bounties, living according to the Way. And Grogu and the Jedi are not part of the Way. But he is definitely not the new Mand’alor, no matter what Mandalorian tradition about the Darksaber says. After Moff Gideon is assassinated while held in New Republic custody, Din and Luke must work together to clear the Mandalorians from blame and uncover the real culprit. Along the way they encounter terrible politicians, fights over naps, old secrets, and just maybe, find their way forward.

Medium and Impressive

parry, parry, strike by @alchemyalice (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Leia Organa, Post-Season 2, Teen, 18k)

“Oh? What are you, their king?” the Senator says sarcastically, and then freezes at the same time Din does. “...No,” Din says. He does not sound convincing.

I have made this place around you by HeadOn_HelmetOff (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Dialogue Heavy, Early Relationship, Introspection, Teen, 25k)

“Do you know who you are, Din Djarin?” Survivor of Aq Vetina. Mandalorian. Bounty hunter. Apostate. Father. Mand’alor. “...No,” he uttered. Luke nodded sagely. “Then that’s what we’ll focus on first.”

💜 A different kind of blood by HeadOn_HelmetOff (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, The Armorer, Paz Vizsla, Good Parent Din Djarin, Good Teacher Luke Skywalker, Pre-Relationship, Mandalorian Culture, Jedi Culture & Tradition, The Mandalorian Darksaber, Teen, 25k)

A slight twist on events in Ch. 5 of The Book of Boba Fett: when Grogu is afflicted with visions of his father injured on Glavis, he and Luke make a decision that will greatly influence Din Djarin's journey toward redemption and reconciliation with the survivors of his covert.

where the spirit meets the bone by @ebonybow (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Developing Relationship, Intimacy, Canon Divergence, Explicit, 28k)

He dreams of his head feeling too-heavy on his shoulders, his helmet filling slowly with water. - Din navigates new feelings regarding his creed, himself, and a certain Jedi.

pluck a heartstring, duck for cover by owlerie (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Canon Divergence, Mand'alor Din Djarin, POV Alternating, Touch-Starved Din Djarin, Slow Burn, Sparring as Flirting, Mature, 28k)

“He's a bit of a sex icon, your Mandalorian," says Leia over breakfast the next morning, nose buried in a sea of taxation reports. Luke promptly inhales caf three inches up his airway and doubles over hacking gracelessly. “I— wait— he's not my Mandalorian," he chokes out, to which Leia raises a single dubious, well-groomed eyebrow.

Heartfelt and Solemn

crystals in the current by @willowcrowned (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Romance, Family, Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple, The Force, Teen, 22k)

Luke gets the message from the child in the early evening. It’s spring on Yavin, and the wind smells like the glowing purple blossoms that cluster in the corners of old rooms and spring up through the pavement. The air is heavy with twilight, the orange-violet of the sky creeping its way down, filtering through the new-leafed boughs and down to where he’s sitting under a tree. or Luke takes Grogu, but the sundering on the lightcruiser isn't an ending; it's a beginning.

Timshel by skywalkers (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Force Visions, Hurt/Comfort, Order 66 (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Teen, 5k)

“I think there’s something I can do to help him. A technique I could try.” Luke says. “I could use your help.” “What do you need?” Din says. Anything, he thinks. Anything. “I think he would be more open to the process if you do it as well.” Luke’s eyes, keen and ever-blue, that have the impossible ability to find Din’s own behind his mask every time, meet his own. He looks unsure. It’s not something Din ever thought he’d ascribe to Luke Skywalker. “But the process can be...intense. I understand if you don’t want to do it.” Din flips it over in his mind for a moment, considering. He’s not exactly sure what Luke is asking of him. But what kind of an example would he be if he asked Grogu to do something he refused to? And, looking at Luke, how could Din refuse him anything? Not that he could ever say that. Din nods. “‘Course. Show him there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

resonance by pixie_rings (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Kyber Crystals, Planet Ilum, Gen, 10k)

Rebuilding a dying Order is never easy. While exploring the ruined planet Ilum, Grogu gets a calling, and Din and Luke reflect on their son growing up - with and without them.

the unbearable loneliness of distant stars by Liathejedi (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling in Love, Teen, 10k)

Din wonders when the Jedi became Skywalker, and when Skywalker became Luke, or when the lines between stranger and friend had blurred and left him standing in an unfamiliar ship, folding bare hands around a man he barely knew and feeling like his breath had been lost to the stars. A Jedi and a Mandalorian face down the ashes of the Empire and learn what it means to rebuild a broken people.

Mand'alor, The by scheidswrites (Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Grogu, Bo-Katan Kryze, Gen, 3.5k)

They called him Mand’alor the Reclaimer, Mand’alor the Unifier. Some have started to call him Mand’alor the Vanished. The rumors run rampant that he is dead.

[ranahan]

The Mandalorian Proletarian Uprising

Disclaimer: this post is 100% headcanons. I support your fandom-ordained right to make whatever kinds of headcanons and interpretations you want, even if they annoy me. That being said… I have some of my own.

You know how there’s a fraction of fandom who hold that the Old Mandalorians were a warrior elite who were oppressing the masses, and the New Mandalorians were the people rising up against their overlords? At least I’ve been getting those posts on my dash.

And at first I was annoyed, because that’s mushing together two completely different periods of Mandalorian history. And I have a half-written essay in my drafts about the demographics of historical warrior societies and how Mandalorians aren’t all warriors, actually.

But then I changed my mind. Because you know what? The Taung do seem to have been exactly the kind of bastards who committed several genocides and enslaved entire planets to their war machinery, either as soldiers or for churning out weapons and ships in factories. And yes, they do seem to have held that only Mandalorians had real souls. And that one had to be a warrior in order to be a Mandalorian, and the plebs aren’t mentioned. Which absolutely does make it seem like they were an oppressed and possibly (probably) an enslaved class.

So instead of brushing all that under the rug and crying about how my favourite blorbos aren’t imperialist assholes acshually, let’s say all that bad stuff happened. Let’s engage with it. Because there could be an interesting story here—good stories are all about conflict, after all.

So when did the people rise up?

So the first question is to ask when. And this is the part where I’m going to swerve left from the narrative I presented at the beginning of this essay. Because those genocidal warrior elites that annoy some fans? They were Taung. Who went extinct near four millennia ago. So that rather pushes back the date of our uprising.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the masses rose against their evil overlords during the heyday of the Taung—they seem to have been going strong right up to the Battle of Malachor V, after which they are supposed to have gone extinct.

But then I remembered this little aside in this other headcanon essay of mine (which is also a good background to my headcanons):

As an aside: do you think the Mandalorians had a civil war afterwards? Now that these armies non-Taung Mandalorian warriors settle on Mandalorian worlds, where the previous non-Taung populations were little more than slaves? Did they fight it out or did they open up the clans again, for anyone willing to join?

So what if they did fight it out? Imagine this:

The Mandalorian Uprising after the Battle of Malachor V

The aftermath of the Battle of Malachor V is said to have been 300 years of diaspora and disarray for the Mandalorians. Let’s imagine what might have happened during those years:

The Mandalorian Empire has swept through the galaxy, gobbling up worlds and turning them into cogs for its hungry war machinery. Citizens of conquered worlds have two choices: join the Mandalorian armies or become a slave in their factories churning out ships, weapons, and munitions. The first option is presented as a chance to become a Mandalorian warrior yourself, to become one of the elites and find fame and glory and gold on the battlefields. The truth is that most of the press-ganged soldiers are little more than canon fodder.

The Mandalorian plague has seemed like an unstoppable tide, but suddenly Malachor V happens. Entire Mandalorian fleets have been vaporised, along with the Mand’alor himself and his top brass. The tide turns. The Mandalorian succession is in the air; their leadership in disarray. The Republic starts swiftly taking back the recently conquered worlds. The Mandalorian armies splinter.

And now many soldiers leave to find their fortunes among the wider Galaxy. But more of those ragged armies limp back to the Mandalorian home worlds and what territories they can keep a hold of. And now they try to settle down to governing them, according to their ancient laws and practices.

Only during the Mandalorian wars, the Mandalorian armies have grown exponentially. And they were grown almost entirely from the non-Taung populations. At the start of the war, clear majority of Mandalore’s citizens were Taung. At the end of it, they’re a small minority.

Many newly-minted Mandalorian warriors do buy into the warrior elite’s way of life—it benefits them, after all. But there are still huge tensions between the wish to return to the ancient ways of the Taung and the need to change how their society works in order to adapt to their completely different demographics. And maybe that tension holds for a while, maybe even decades. But eventually it snaps and a civil war boils over, because the warrior elite—now a small minority—cannot suppress their conquered masses forever.

And maybe that’s another reason why the Taung went extinct. They can’t have been all present at Malachor V, so I’ve previously suggested that they were effectively absorbed into the population, until a multitude could claim Taung ancestry, but there were no pureblooded Taung left. But maybe that extinction was helped along by the guillotine à la French Revolution. Maybe their oppressed subjects finished the job.

And unfortunately—like is often the case—it’s not just a single civil war. Like is won’t to happen, many people try to climb to the top and become the new king to replace the old one. So for decades or centuries, the Mandalorians suffer intermittent power grabs and uprisings, until they eventually settle on a new form of life and government.

Effects on Mandalorian culture

So why didn’t the Mandalorian culture go extinct? A large part of that is because the oppressed people, after throwing down their oppressors, adopted their customs as a mark of their new station in society. For better or worse, they too have been living in Mandalorian society and those are the customs of the free elites they know. If their own customs have been sufficiently suppressed, it might be only culture they know. This is not unusual if you look at irl history either.

Another part is that large parts of the Mandalorian armies (the cannon fodder) joined in on the fight. And many of them had been living as Mandalorian soldiers for years or even decades. It is their way of life too now, for better or worse.

The Mandalorian culture survives, but it is completely transformed. Anyone can be a Mandalorian now, regardless of blood. The old gods are abandoned in favour of belief in shared oversoul. Old philosophies and values are reinterpreted, and conquest is abandoned in favour of survival.

One of my favourite fanons is that Mandalorians have an abiding hatred for slavery. But I never knew how to justify it. And this here could be where it started—this slave revolution on Mandalore. Henceforth no Mandalorian would ever be a slave again.

And this could also help explain one of the dichotomies of the Mandalorians: how are they such consummate soldiers, yet have such problems with being governed? And this could be where the ethos of accepting no overlords could have been born. Mandalorians know having a tighter chain of command would make them more effective—but they also know what it would cost. And they would never take that bargain. It’s forged into the very soul of their national ethos, just like liberté, égalité, fraternité is forged into the French: Vode An.

Vode An makes for such a good working class motto, doesn’t it?

tldr:

Yes to Mandalorian peasant uprising against their warrior-elite overlords. But make it happen after the Mandalorian Wars, not in the modern days. Although you could certainly still see some ripple effects, internal tensions and biases to this day; just look at USAmericans, slavery and racism.

As always, this is just one possible way things could have gone down (and of course there can be more than one civil war in a people’s history). But I rather like it because it could explain some of those seemingly incongruous parts of the Mandalorian culture.

[pretend-wizard]

dumb star wars setting ideas ive had forever that I've wanted to explore. thinking abt them bc I'm rewatching clone wars and while it's pretty good, it has serious "a little bit bad so it makes you wanna do something else better" syndrome

okay so like. following the idea that the Jedi of the Republic had become suborned to the forces of the dark side without knowing it, it's clear that there was something deeply wrong with the Jedi as an institution, like, obviously, that's what the prequels are all about.

they're part of this war machine and don't seem to care, they can't follow anything like Jedi ethics radically. so, obviously, they shouldn't exist as an institution. (also in some ways if you're doing a star wars setting it's just boring to make it similar to anything in the skywalker saga).

but also Jedi are like, a whole cool thing in my brain bc I grew up when the prequels came out and I played way too much kotor. so! my first idea (that probably isn't super original but it's not like I heard it somewhere and wanted to use it): the Jedi Diaspora. plenty of worlds all over the galaxy have enclaves that are utterly, often dogmatically, cut off from each other.

I think there's a lot of space to play in there, a bunch of little idiosyncratic orders, enclaves, councils across the stars. some deeply involved in a planet's governance or politics (like on Dantooine in kotor 1), and some reclusive (like what would have been and sorta was on Telos in kotor 2), and plenty in between. it's fun because you can put a lot of different stories a lot of different places, inspecting and scrutinizing aspects of the Jedi as they were, as they should have been, as they once were, and so on.

but okay, if that's the state of the Jedi, what's the Big Government in the galaxy like? and in some ways it's much more interesting to say there isn't one, but I think more interesting than that is saying that there is and there isn't. like, the core worlds of the Republic like Coruscant and Carida could have any number of things going on with them, though I like the idea of some kind of military government (seeing Coruscant in s5 of the clone wars as this like, grand production facility and staging ground for Republic forces was really interesting tbh).

just, a nearly secular federation of core worlds is neat to me, mostly bc it means old settings like the Jedi temple are off-limits to Jedi, and that's fun. are they allowed to make pilgrimages there? maybe some and not others, that would be neat. plus honestly, something about it being all military and boring means you look elsewhere, which I like. plus hey they're sending soldiers elsewhere, so again we don't have to keep looking at Coruscant closely (the underworld of Coruscant is so so boring to me, and I feel like I want less time in the Jedi temple and the Senate building).

okay. but let's see, that probably leaves a bunch of the galaxy to the wind right? so let's fill it up, what's in there?

mandalorians are cool (in kotor 2 ways), and in a lot of ways they feel very rome-like. they expand, conquered people become mandalorians, repeat. that's fun! or, fun to play a game where that's part of the world. and hey, that plays fun with the Jedi Diaspora. Jedi are often on worlds that get conquered, what happens when they are? space to play there =)

alright but that's not enough, you need more players on the galactic board. I find Hutts and crime syndicate stuff boring generally though they're a big part of the setting, and Sith stuff hasn't come up yet (the galaxy is probably kinda tired of Jedi and Evil Jedi running around bc I can't stop myself from thinking about kotor 2 and so no one puts up with Sith power grab bullshit anymore. but.)

so what if there's some fun pirate Republic on the Outer Rim to invert both crime stuff and the old Republic stuff? and just to top it off and make it interesting, what if their state religion is Sith-based? what does that look like? if you treat the Sith-religious like people and peoples that used to just be criminals try to be taken seriously, what happens? and I think the answer is smthn rlly interesting that I'd want to play to explore tbh.

idk that I have more than that rn. there would probably be a stray Jedi fleet out there somewhere (bc I listened to Twilight Mirage), id want to figure out Something for droids bc like, cmon, and also god it feels like Star Wars is full of superweapons so maybe there's something about how commonplace they are bc that's more fun than going "oh no there's another Big Laser!" all the time. uhhhhh idk, how common are force powers, or lightsabers without Jedi gatekeeping them? who knows. what's the latest form of dangerous racing vehicles? who cares? maybe me

anyway hey if you read all of this thanks that's extremely embarrassing for me. if we're friends then hey maybe talk me into running an anthology series of tabletop games about it. I probsally won't but who knows. at least talk to me about interesting wrinkles you think would be fun to include, that's way more important. thanks =)

[frownyalfred]

Am I the only one who sees serious parallels between the verd’gotten and the bar mitzvah ceremony? I don’t know if it’s the fact that the age for both is about 13 years old or the new clothing items and responsibilities overlap?

You're not the only one!!

I've ranted about this before, but I have had a sneaking suspicion that some, even if only a little, of Mandalorian culture is based on Judaism. Some similarities many folks other than me have pointed out include:

Diaspora culture/trauma (Canon Mandalorians were pushed out into the galaxy after the destruction of Mandalore's inhabitable areas)

Tradition/culture/language being passed down from parent to child (very similar emphasis in Judaism)

Verd'goten or Mandalorian coming of age ceremony, paralleling the Jewish bar/bat mitzvah where children become legal and/or cultural adults in their community

Tensions between different movements (Traditionalist/Death Watch characters versus the more liberal New Mandalorians as a metaphor for the Jewish struggle between orthodoxy and reform movements, for example)

Themes of forgiveness and justice (repaying a debt, etc) are similar in both cultures

Language -- some mechanics in Mando'a somewhat resemble spoken/written Hebrew

"Not gone, merely marching far away" i.e., no explicit Mandalorian heaven or afterlife, paralleling the Jewish concept of loved ones living on not in heaven/etc but through memories, etc

I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but these are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.

[tessa-quayle]

spotlight on the OFC

(fanfiction recommendations) :)

the reader insert, the second person, the y/l/n convention (which, for me, can disrupt the text and i haven’t gotten used to it - not criticizing those who do it - i'm the problem, it’s me 🤪) are all the rage in fanfiction.  i get the immersive appeal, and many of the fics i love and enjoy employ the second person.  

richly drawn original characters draw me in and capture my attention. I appreciate how creative folks get with their OFCs, the headcanons, and how they have fun showing off these OFC’s quirks and strengths and interior lives and histories.  it’s a joy to read.

here are a few great OFCs in the Pedro Pascal Character universe.  the stories are engaging and this is a fairly diverse list of OFCs (by that I mean race/ethnicity, life experience, nationality, disability).  as always, each author issues their own warnings.

listed in alphabetical order by writer:

@iamskyereads - Ezra (Prospect) x OFC Beatrice 

ongoing series (Compulsion).  love the sci-fi world-building in the first chapter. Beatrice is a sharp and compelling protagonist who’s suffered a traumatic brain injury and has PTSD.  

@intheorangebedroom - Frankie (Triple Frontier) x OFC Gabrielle 

complete series (Pleased to Meet You).  angsty intercontinental love story between everyone’s favorite pilot and a cool French woman.  the descriptions of different cities are vivid.

@jazzelsaur - Frankie (Triple Frontier) x OFC Ellie

complete series (Between the Raindrops).  the slow burn here is a smolder in the best sense.  Elliot (Ellie) is a widow who lives next door to Frankie.  the weight of grief and angst in this series is remarkable. 

@jomiddlemarch - Joel (The Last of Us) x OFC Grace

loose-fit series (On Call for the Apocalypse).  crossover with Ted Lasso.  set in Jackson WY between seasons 1 and 2, Grace is a snarky doctor (scratch a cynic, find a romantic) hanging out with Joel and Ellie  (format better on AO3)

@julesonrecord and @lunapascal ( @stardustandskycrystals) - Dieter (the Bubble) x OFC Andie 

ongoing series (Curls).  we’re rooting for Dieter and Andie amid all the drama and shenanigans surrounding a pregnancy and a wedding.  this reads like a novel you finish in one sitting.  

@ladamedusoif - Mr Ben (SNL) x OFC Lydia 

ongoing series (Visiting).  Lydia is a European art historian who goes to teach at an East Coast liberal arts college and meets the dashing Mr Ben.  delightful and smart (and I'm not just describing Mr Ben).

@radiowallet - Marcus (We Can Be Heroes) x OFC Amy

ongoing series (Eyes Open).  Single parents Marcus and Amy find love in the workplace, HR be damned.  Amy contains multitudes and the portrait of her as a mother is especially real and sweet.

@whatsnewalycat - Din (Mandalorian) x OFC Charlie

ongoing series (Passenger).  Gritty, dark, cool AU where Din Djarin is a trucker/bounty hunter and Charlie is making her way west.  this fic has a lot of postmodern energy.

@yespolkadotkitty - Pero (Great Wall) x OFC Jade

complete series (Fighting Blind).  Fun, winsome adventure between a museum curator and our favorite Spanish warrior.  Love the time-travel element, the nod to the Asian diaspora, and the rich world-building.  This series is stay-up-past-your-bedtime reading.

feel free to share your fic recs and favorite OCs/OFCs (your own and/or others)!  ❤️

[laiqualaurelote]

because I like to sort things as a form of procrastination, I sorted my fics into niche themed collections of three or more:

wibbly wobbly timey wimey - fics with time travel, contains Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries/Doctor Who, The Umbrella Academy, and Dead Boy Detectives

the play's the thing - fics involving the theatre, contains Avengers, Good Omens, and Ted Lasso/Station Eleven

when there's no more room in hell - fics with zombies, contains Great Expectations, Kingdom, and The English

Subtle Asian Traits  - fics featuring Asians in diaspora, contains Rivers of London, Shang-Chi/Black Panther, and The Mandalorian

Headlines, Deadlines - fics with journalists, contains Daredevil/The Punisher, Hamilton, Ted Lasso, The Magnus Archives, and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

anyway it's quite intriguing to me to see what tropes keep cropping up in my fics; wonder what other themed collections I could cobble together? fics set in the 1920s? fics with detectives? fics with spies? fics that are workplace comedies? fics set in London (a good third of them, tbh)? many possibilities!

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Israel Story

“I honestly think that it’s adorable that you actually believe these children’s stories. But there is nothing magic about the waters.”

“Without the Creed, what are we? What do we stand for? Our people are scattered like stars in the galaxy. The Creed is how we survived.”

-Bo-Katan Kryze and Din Djarin, The Mandalorian Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore

When I was thirteen, my grandparents took the family on a big anniversary trip to Israel.

As a Jewish American kid in the early 2000s, growing up where there weren’t a lot of other Jews and spending my summers at Reform Jewish summer camp, I was told a lot of things about Israel. The big thing was always that Israel was important – that it was our home. That I should go there, and that when I went there, I would have an amazing feeling of connection, and I would know that it was my home.

So, as a recent bat mitzvah, I was excited about this trip. I was ready to go to Israel and have my big moment of feeling connected with the world.

I remember standing in the airport in Tel Aviv, minutes after stepping off the plane, and asking my dad, “When does it start to feel like Israel?”

Because it didn’t feel like Israel. It felt like an airport.

And then we stepped out into Tel Aviv, and rode around on a bus, and it felt like a city. I’d been to cities before. It was cool to see the street signs and graffiti were in Hebrew and Arabic just as much as they were in English, but it was a city.

Over the course of our trip, we went everywhere we could possibly go. We floated in the Dead Sea. We climbed Mount Masada. We saw the archaeological sites at Megiddo. We went to Caesarea, and Ein Gedi, and Yad Vashem, and Tzfat. We rode camels, we ate falafel, we learned just how unbreakable Druze glass is.

And, again, it was cool. I enjoyed the trip. It was beautiful everywhere we went, and we were surrounded by history everywhere we went. I remember thinking that the dust of history was gathering in my boots, because this is a place where people have lived for as long as there have been people.

But I kept waiting for it to feel like Israel – to have that big magical moment of connection that everyone said I would have – and it just wasn’t happening.

Then, we went to Jerusalem. And I thought, “Okay, here it is. This is where I’m going to have my big moment.” We went to the Western Wall, the last remaining piece of the platform that surrounded the ancient temple, the holiest place any Jew could visit in the world. I saw people there, pressed against the wall, eyes shut, in fervent prayer, clearly feeling something amazing. I walked up through the crowd in the small women’s section of the wall. I found enough space to reach forward, and I put my hand on the wall.

It felt like rock.

I remember thinking, “What is wrong with me, that all I feel is rock? Where is the connection I’m supposed to feel?”

And then, on our last day of the trip, we went to the Diaspora Museum (Beit Hatfutsot, now called the Museum of the Jewish People). It’s all about the Jewish people – our exile from that part of the world, and all our journeys since then. I’d never seen such a comprehensive look at the diversity and history of Judaism before. I’d certainly never been to a museum before that provided such an honest critique of the United States – it’s where I first learned about the SS St. Louis.

There was one room in the museum that caught my attention. I don’t know if it was a permanent installment or a temporary exhibit; I haven’t been back there since. In the room, there was a screen on the wall, rotating through pictures in a slideshow. Some of them were drawings, while others were photographs. All of the pictures were of the insides of people’s houses – their kitchens and dining rooms. Each picture was labeled with a place and a time. This was Poland, this was Spain. This was the fifteenth, eighteenth, twentieth century.

These pictures were from all across the world and all across history. And, in every picture, three items were circled in red: the challah loaf, the kiddush cup, and the Shabbat candlesticks.

As I stood there, watching these pictures, it hit me – slowly, and then all at once – that I had those things in my house. I was connected to every single place, and every single time, all across the world, all across history.

That was it. That was my moment, the completely mind-blowing and earth-shattering realization. That connection through tradition – that’s what it meant to be a Jew. I felt then a supreme sense of belonging, of being grounded, of being a part of something so much bigger than myself – something that mattered, something that was made of love, something that could never die. That realization has stuck with me ever since.

I told this story on TikTok on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Chapter 18 of The Mandalorian aired, and I marveled at the serendipity. I’ve talked here before about the connections I’ve noticed between the Mandalorians as depicted in this series and Judaism. We too were scattered. Our holy sites were destroyed. We are diverse, and disparate, and faced with the question of what to do now, in a world that hates us, hurts us, and demands that we too become hateful and hurtful. And we are united – we are grounded – we are able to survive because of the stories, the traditions, the rituals at the heart of our people.

[fanficmaverickpodcast]

Hi there! I stumbled across your podcast when I was rooting around in Tumblr and it has been one of my best accidental finds! I love the concept and the fact that I get to listen to many of my favourite authors talk about their work. You are wonderful for creating an initiative like this and I will be steadily making my way through your list of episodes ❤️

I have two questions that I was hoping I could ask you about. There’s absolutely no pressure to respond to me if you’d rather not.

1) I wanted to know if you’ve had any POC creators on the podcast? I am particularly interested in their perspective on fandom, so I did a tag search but it didn’t come up with anything - although Tumblr is known notoriously for being wonky with the tag searches.

2) Would you be open to having POC writers on your podcast anytime?

Again, I’d like to stress that you absolutely don’t need to respond. I’m sure you get a lot of asks and I don’t mean to take up your time. Once again, love what you’re doing, and I wish you all the best with everything! Thank you for your time ❤️

Thank you so much for reaching out! My favorite thing is people accidently discovering the podcast out in the wilds of Tumblr lol. I am so happy you found it, and so glad you're loving all the fanfiction conversations we've had with amazing creators!

I'm a big open book and all questions are welcome, so I'm really glad you asked! Technically speaking, there is a POC person on every episode, and it's me. I am 1st (and 2nd) generation Chicano. Admittedly it isn't something I talk about very often on the podcast. I think I mentioned it exactly one time during the first Mandalorian episode.

Several of my past fanfiction writer guests have been POC! I won't point out most of them by name without consent, as most of those episodes were focused on the fandoms and fanfictions of those writers and not on POC perspectives specifically, but one I can mention is the episode with DragongirlG. That was our first episode for The Untamed fandom, and DragongirlG offered to give us some thoughts on the fandom as someone who is Chinese diaspora, for which I was very grateful!

I have never outright asked any POC guests to give POC perspectives on fandom without them offering first simply because, at times, it can be an emotionally heavy topic and I don't want any guest feeling obligated since it is nobody's job to educate us.

That being said, if anyone else wants to offer to give POC perspectives on fandom for the show, I welcome that opportunity! We don't shy away from anything on FFM so long as my guest is comfortable and wants to speak about it. POC fanfiction writers are always, always welcome on Fanfic Maverick.

Thank you again for the ask, and keep on rollin'! All my love!

[robinade]

Mandalorian Obi-Wan

Winner from my ask-meme poll was a request for 1k of this!

FYI this isn't a young Obi-Wan is raised as a mando (which I have read and enjoyed a lot of!). I was more interested in what it would take for Obi-Wan as an *adult* Jedi to get drawn into mando culture. Unrelated this is also my slut!Obi-Wan manifesto.

Official summary is TBD but the general idea is that Obi-Wan needs to take up the armor he once wore temporarily as a teen on that mission to Mandalore. That means finding an armorer, and results in getting involved with the mando diaspora on Coruscant.

Fic snippet:

The spire where Dooku is being held has had the turbolifts switched off, for security’s sake. 

Did they take Dooku up to his cell first, Obi-Wan wondered, or did they make the ex-Count ex-Jedi climb the stairs the whole way? Possibly one would be too out of breath to manage any type of escape attempt, because Obi-Wan himself is drawing on the Force just to keep up appearances. The Temple guard escorting him doesn’t seem to be having any problems, featureless and unperturbed in their hood and mask. Obi-Wan finds himself ruefully self-conscious of the sweat dampening his back and temples. 

The guard takes him to a point perhaps midway up the spire, judging by the occasional view out to the Coruscant skyline, and through multiple sets of blast doors until Obi-Wan is face to face with Yan Dooku, apart from the orange energy shield in between them. 

He’s a pale-skinned human, with piercing eyes under thick-set eyebrows and a hawkish nose. His hair is cropped short and with a neatly trimmed beard, both going white with age but, like many Jedi, Dooku carries his age lightly and stands straight-backed and tall. Handsome, in an austere way. His broad shoulders narrow to a slim waist and his short black tunic does little to disguise a pair of well-formed legs. The most notable thing about his appearance, apart from his height, are the Force suppressing cuffs that shine at each wrist. 

He might even be taller than Qui-Gon was, Obi-Wan thinks with some asperity. What is with this lineage and their unnecessarily tall humanoids? Even Anakin is likely to outgrow him, judging by the size of the boy’s hands and feet. 

“Grandmaster,” Obi-Wan says with a polite nod. “I understand you were asking to speak with me?” 

“Padawan of my padawan,” Dooku says formally. “Yes, I do wish to speak to you.” Interestingly, he doesn’t show a hint of deference. They might as well have bumped into each other at a restaurant, for how little attention Dooku pays to the fact that he’s in a cell. 

“Why me, if I may ask? It does seem odd that you want to speak to someone you’ve never met rather than your own master,” Obi-Wan says mildly, as if the answer really isn’t that important to him. In point of fact, Yoda had been so shocked at recent events– Palpatine’s murder, Dooku’s confession– that he had stepped down as Grand Master of the Order. Dooku’s silence on his motivations certainly wasn’t helping. 

“Does it seem odd?” Dooku replies evenly. “It is not my intent to be secretive.”

Considering Dooku refused to talk to anyone, including his judiciary-assigned defendant, Obi-Wan doesn’t dignify that comment with an answer and merely raises an eyebrow. 

“It was a calculation, as in my current position I have no leverage but information. I didn’t think the High Council would be favorable of me speaking to you unless curiosity made them desperate,” Dooku explains. 

Obi-Wan has to concede the point, having been present during much of the Council’s deliberations. He wasn’t on Coruscant when Dooku was first remediated to Jedi care– Judiciary forces not being sure they can keep a powerful former-Jedi like Dooku contained– but he’d been in meetings with Master Windu and the Council nearly since the moment he landed planetside with Anakin. 

At first, Obi-Wan wasn’t sure why. He’d never met the man who trained his master, since Dooku left the Jedi order to become the Count of Serenno about the same time that Qui-Gon accepted Obi-Wan as his padawan, so he had no insight as to why Dooku would choose to assassinate the High Chancellor. Then it was revealed to him that Dooku had asked for Obi-Wan by name– no wonder the Council had grilled him mercilessly. Frankly, If Obi-Wan had been anywhere in the system (instead of wading through knee deep mud on a mission close to the outer rim) he would be under suspicion as an accomplice to be sure. 

Obi-Wan eyes the other man, standing calmly with his arms crossed. Was it luck, or did Dooku deliberately wait until his grandpadawan had an airlock-alibi? Obi-Wan would assume he was thinking too highly of himself to consider such a thing, but then Dooku asked for him specifically… 

“The fact of the matter is, Knight Kenobi, that the Sith were not destroyed on Ruusan, as the Jedi believe. They lived, carrying on their plans for the defeat of the Jedi and subjugation of the galaxy in secret. The downfall of the Republic would not come from an overwhelming outside force this time, but from the cancerous spread of darkness within.” Dooku’s tone of voice is serious, almost lecturing. He doesn’t sound like a prisoner. Instead, he sounds like a politician, or perhaps a scholar. Albeit one whose curriculum has driven him to madness. Sensing Obi-Wan’s doubt, Dooku harrumphs at him. “You doubt my words?”

“I think those who seek darkness are bound to find it, grandmaster,” Obi-Wan says truthfully. “Whether that is Sith or otherwise remains to be seen.” 

He expects annoyance from the other man, but instead Dooku smiles thinly. “You are cautious. That is good. Still, whether you believe me or not, the Sith line of Darth Bane continued unbroken… until now, when I killed Darth Sidious, who was the apprentice to Darth Plagueis. The line of Bane ends with me, for I’ll not train another.” 

Obi-Wan stands still as stone, inwardly reeling. What a statement to make! First to claim that Chancellor Palpatine of all people was a Sith lord– and it could only be Palpatine, for Dooku so carefully arranged the murder to affect no bystanders; even the chancellor’s guards were incapacitated by the planted bomb rather than killed. And then for Dooku to name himself among the Sith as well? Was he meant to take this nonsense seriously?

“It’s a very interesting claim to make to be sure, grandmaster,” Obi-Wan says thoughtfully, stroking his beard with a recently formed habit. “You might try to plea that you were saving the Republic with the death of Chancellor Palpatine– a chancy matter, unless you have some sort of evidence. But then to also claim to be a member of our old enemies, the same as the chancellor, rather detracts from that statement, don’t you think?”

Dooku deigns to snort at this comment. “I have no interest in saving the Republic. The governing body has grown rotten and the powerful take what they want from the weak and rarely do they suffer repercussions. No, I think the Republic deserves what Sidious had planned for it. A civil war the likes of which hasn’t been seen in a millennia,” Dooku says, looking off into the distance as if he’s imagining it. “The bloated corpse of the Republic would shake itself to pieces and from the rubble a new empire would emerge.” 

Obi-Wan is finding it all too easy to imagine, unfortunately. The tensions between different systems, the conflicts between the outer rim and the mid, the Corporate sector expanding their territory and the Republic always conceding ground, the Hutts and the pirates branching out along further hyperlanes– and the Jedi, often scrambling from emergency to emergency and rarely able to impact genuine policy change that could bring peace that lasts longer than a few months. 

“What about the Jedi?” he asks faintly. 

Dooku brushes some unseen lint off his tunic dismissively. “Stagnated and chained to the Republic’s dissolving throne. A war would force the Jedi to change… or die. I was hoping for the former, of course. But if the Order could not adapt, well, I’m not sure it would deserve to remain.” 

Obi-Wan puts a hand over his mouth, feeling ill. He knew intellectually that Dooku had fallen, but now he can feel it in the casual disregard for life. No– there has to be more to it. There has to! If Dooku was truly lost to the dark, why had he worked to avoid any collateral damage in his attack on Palpatine? A planted bomb had ensured that Palpatine’s guards weren’t able to help him, but while there had been injuries there were no other deaths besides the obvious one. And he had stepped down from the role of Count months earlier in favor of his sister, so that kept Serenno from being implicated in the murder, much like the Jedi and Obi-Wan himself were able to be dismissed from being involved. 

“Why change your mind?” Obi-Wan desperately wants to know. 

Dooku glances away from Obi-Wan, looking awkward for the first time. “I received a visitation from Qui-Gon’s spirit,” he admits. “For a man who focused so much on the present while alive, his spirit has developed a strong sense of prescience.”

“That’s impossible,” Obi-Wan snaps. 

“You needn’t be upset about it, you were his first choice,” Dooku replied calmly. “But the Force is too muddled on Coruscant for him to be heard. He spent years trying anyway. And then he had difficulty finding you when you were on missions. The few times he managed it he was eclipsed by Skywalker’s power in the force.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help but shake his head, refusing to accept it. “It’s a very interesting story, grandmaster, to be sure. You’re going to be locked up for many years– perhaps you can write novels to pass the time.” 

Dooku continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “Qui-Gon knew about the war that Sidious was planning, but more than that he could see the rebellion that came after, and the war after that. Whole planets obliterated! Their art and their cultures gone forever. The history of the Jedi lost, our artifacts destroyed or perverted…” Dooku trailed off, looking deeply troubled. 

Our artifacts, he said, Obi-Wan noticed. [insert more stuff here about what ob1 thinks about all this, and qui-gon’s ghost and stuff]

“I won’t allow it,” Dooku said finally. “Palpatine has been neutralized but there are still a few pieces still in motion that cannot easily be stopped. Knight Kenobi,” Dooku says formally, “there is an army being built in wild space that will determine the fate of the Jedi. You will be the one to find it, but you must take up your Mandalorian armor before you do.”

[mormon-character-tournament]

Group One, Round One

Character info, provided by submissions, under the cut

Din Djarin (Headcanon) Din Djarin ("Mandalorian" or "Mando" for anyone who hasn't achieved Lv10 friendship with him) was adopted as a child into a very orthodox sect of Mandalorians shortly before the Galactic Empire razed Mandalore and sent its people into diaspora. In the present, he works as a bounty hunter, and a particular bounty has put him in the path of a young force-sensitive child he has to protect from harm. We love a family-oriented man who is devout to a faith with strict rules and a peculiar dress code that other people keep denigrating as a cult!!

Colin Hughs (Headcanon) Colin is a gay football (soccer) player from Wales. He's a talented player and a delight to be around, but is often sidelined. He knew he was gay from a very young age and eventually came out to his football team, who were all very supportive. I'm pretty sure his boyfriend made a comment about him not drinking caffeine and my brain went ooh why not, Colin??? And it was for football reasons but I've decided he's Mormon and that makes me happy because I love him

[fanfoolishness]

Rewatch of the Mandalorian Chapter 21, the Pirate:

Don’t smack talk Greef’s fashion sense!

“He shot first” heheh

aww Greef is starting to get worried

Dammit Nevarro! Just when you were looking more than ever like Los Angeles with those little purple flower things and all the ficus trees!

Nevarran fashion is a lil… medieval? Fancy hats.

I need to download the song for the New Republic bar because it lowkey slaps

It’s this guy! Captain Teva! His casual outfit is pretty cool.

For everyone who has seen Rebels, I wish you a very happy Zeb

Dammit Coruscant. Why do you have a brutalist sector?

Oh THIS BITCH awwww NO Elia Kane you just need to not be here, dude

But Tim Meadows my beloved!!! I had no idea he was in this season! I enjoy his vexation

Elia Kane quit stalking people you freaking creep! I hate her, she’s so good at this.

Love her evil-ass music too. Stop being eeeevil

And then Solas the protocol droid led Greef Karga the Herald to a hidden castle in the wilderness after the fall of Haven/Nevarro — oh wait, no, my Dragon Age feels go over there

Seriously, the Nevarrans look like Catherine, Called B-Wing

… I don’t remember how Carson Teva knew that Din knew Greef, really, but he’s so likable I don’t mind

Who you calling “blue boy”, PAZ???

R5 vindication! And also getting back at Din ahahaha

I cannot help but adore the Mandalorian Talking Hammer, that is so perfect for them

“The foundling in your charge” fuck, Din, you should be saying “MY SON” you fucker

“I’m in no position to ask” he asked, Darksaberwieldingly

“Our children” WELL YOU’RE GETTING CLOSER ANYWAY

I really thought Paz was gonna go off and then he did and I was like “ho shit, Paz character development? All righty then!”

What stake did the Armorer have in this? She didn’t try to sway them one way or the other? Does she have an ulterior motive?

Grogu still comes for every mission, yesss

Love Bo’s speech! All right, while I miss Din tremendously this season, I’m loving the season of Bo on its own merits. Also, how weird is it to see the Armorer in a ship? it’s like when your companion NPC moves from their place on the map and you know a great cutscene is going to begin

Poor lil broken droid :( Mean pirates! And they fucked up the school again :(

It’s the Mandalorian - bitch you thought hahaha

I need more smug motherfucker Din back in my life, I beg you

Wish we had more weird accents among the Mandalorians. Bo’s is pretty Standard, Paz and the Armorer are weird and flat and formal, and Din has some of that as well. But like, if they’re a diaspora, I wanna hear some variation!

One of my favorite tropes is “noncombatant citizen nevertheless rises up to defend their homeland”, and Kowakian monkey-lizards pointing out an ambush was a cheesy lil slice of delight

Paz how are you seriously so LARGE

High Magistrate Greef Karga, you are so cute and I love you

I do really love how Nevarro has been a touchstone for the entire series, and love seeing how it’s evolved over the years. Things like that are some of my favorite things about this show.

The Armorer wishes to speak with you. Here, let me accompany you to this extremely tense and dangerous music, I’m sure everything will be fine

The Armorer is… getting emotional? Reminiscent about Mandalore? I’m scared and so intrigued!!!

The sassy and scary way she asked “Do you respect my station?” And her “Remove your helmet,,.” I am… alarmed and aroused

This music is so calculating! So very Luke, join me!

Wait, Paz isn’t in on this plan? Interesting, I had assumed he was in the Armorer’s pocket.

I am hopeful for Bo because I do think she’d be a great leader? But also frightened because who could trust the Armorer in that moment? (I mean, aside from Bo who 1) I’m sure respects Armorers and 2) doesn’t know her well and 3) is seeking a home… and this is how smart people can get sucked into cults!). It could go either way, I suppose. Are she and Din finally gonna have the epic duel? I can’t see Din’s heart being in it, and I also don’t want that to happen until he’s actually competent with the Darksaber and learns why it’s been fighting him. I just need Din, Din, Din!

But this episode has me much more intrigued and curious about where the season is going, so I’m excited for next week!

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

Finally saw the season premiere of The Mandalorian.

More first/gut/spoiler reaction thoughts under the cut. I might have more thoughtful thoughts tomorrow (or never) but these are just my initial impressions. My opinions only, don't @ me.

that cannot be how jon dave favloni decided to explain away din's Season 3 goal. YOU DIDN'T THINK PEOPLE WOULD HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT SCENES THEY KNOW NEVER HAPPENED IN SEASON 2?????????????

did no one vet this fucking planet or was the armored gator part of the ritual please someone fucking explain this shit to me like i'm five.

i see them gendered visors and i will never have peace (i understand from a design perspective but it's the 21st century, we should be moving away from this already)

WHERE IS THE "DIN DJARIN GETS A SHARD OF MANDALORE FROM A JAWA" ADVENTURE JON DAVE FAVLONI YOU CAN'T JUST THROW THIS SHIT AT US AND THINK IT'S OKAY

how did the jawa get their hands on it anyway how did it get off mandalore who went to mandalore

i am weak for space whales i am weak for all whales but that's just about it because i never watched Rebels

Nevarro is Disnehyland. Nevarro is Space Renn Faire. Nevarro lost everything that made that city/world so fucking interesting. They fucking gentrified it.

i get genres and i saw a wonderful glimpse of it in the confrontation with the pirates... the pirates fucking ruined the vibes tho. how dare.

actual serious thought: the whole thing with IG-11 is actually fucking grotesque and disgusting and I can't believe Jon Dave Favloni thought this was a good fucking idea. it's so gross. i can't get over it, especially when IG reverted to default programming and went after Grogu like it's Season 1 all over again.

it's fucking gross. it's so gross. what the fuck.

pirate designs were cool. the dialogue was not. who voices that pirate king. i swear i know that VA

Jon Dave Favloni out here fitting 3 whole episodes into 30 fucking minutes by cramming in a short scene with Bo-Katan and explaining why she's sitting around all depressed and alone with a droid standing watch outside

this is not a good look for mandalorians in general. i'm not getting the best impression here. getting strong Monty Python english peasants vibes. they'll follow just about anyone with a crackling black sword.

3 whole episodes into 30 fucking minutes Jon Dave Favloni have you ever heard of pacing. talk to the ghibli people. they know when to let a story take a deep, deep breath.

Episode 2 better slow down a bit and fucking tell a fucking story I swear.

the Volume was really strong in this one. I actually never paid too much attention to what effect Volume was having on these shows but when I started studying the screen caps for my most recent art post, it because pretty obvious what was going on and now I can't fucking unsee this shit

Episode 2 had better be better because omigod I feel like I've been clowned on. how old am i. what the hell even was this episode. who was it made for. what even are the stakes here.

re comparisons to Andor: no, i don't want this show to be exactly like Andor. we don't need every star wars show to be so steeped in politics and social commentary and have such a tense grim tone. what i wish is that every star wars show is handled with the same care and respect Andor's people show both to the star wars and to the fans and watchers. maybe that's why Andor consistently had the smallest audiences but the majority of the tweets, comments, and posts i've seen really appreciated what the show was doing. you can have a fun space western and also have some thoughtful commentary on diaspora and post-war societies! you can eat your cake if you just try!

that's it, that's the first reactions post

[ranahan]

Middle-Mando’a creole hypothesis

Mando’a is said to be designed to have simple grammar so adults adopted into the culture can learn it easily. But natural languages aren’t designed—that can’t be the in-universe explanation (unless the Taung were doing something real funky). However, creole languages do exhibit simplified grammar (compared to the parent languages) and Mando’a grammar does in fact fit well with what we know about grammars of creole languages.

There is a ready-made in-universe historical reason for why this would have happened too: the Neo-Crusader movement. Within the space of few decades, the Mandalorians went from primarily Taung to the Taung going virtually extinct, clans becoming multi-species/human-dominated and accepting any worthy warriors. Following the Mandalorian wars was also some three centuries of disarray and diaspora. No wonder there was a break in the transmission of the language from the natively Mando’a speaking Taung to their new recruits. That’s the reason that would explain the creolisation. The lexicaliser/superstratum would be Classical Mando’a and the substrata would be the various languages of the peoples conquered/absorbed into the Neo-Crusaders (probably including but not limited to Early Modern Basic and Huttese).

Creolisation would neatly explain not just the “easy to learn” example, but also how Mando’a came to lose it’s verbal conjugation system and replace it with simple prefixes/preverbal auxiliaries.

So my new favourite headcanon is that Modern Mando’a started out as a creole (but has since had enough time to reacquire some features not encountered in recently creolised languages). I like this idea because it gives me lots of ideas for how to interpret and extend the existing language in ways that aren’t just “standard English word order because it’s easy to learn”, but SVO because that’s overwhelmingly the most common word order in creole and pidgin languages. And that tense system? They might actually be relative anterior tense/perfect aspect & relative posterior tense/prospective aspect, not absolute past/future (which would by the way probably be really common misunderstanding viz. Basic and L2 learners). Not that it makes that big a difference, but the exact nature of Mando’a tenses is something I’ve been thinking about and this fits the ideas I’ve had.

[thesunlikehoney]

take ur fav/s between these! :D also very happy to hear ur thoughts(any)

<3

HELLO MY FRIEND!!!! THANK YOU T-T

I am going to answer all of these because they bring me joy and because I have many opinions XD

9: Anakin killing the Tuskens. Just. I'm not upset about Anakin killing people I am upset that Lucus had him kill these specific people in this specific way for these specific reasons. Like. Come on Lucus. You're the one who showed your ass, not Anakin.

10: Oh boy. Worst part of fanon hands down is the tendency to strip away what little complexity canon gives to the clones. Sure, canon doesn't do a fantastic job with them, but there are Themes and there are Character Arcs and there are situations where the clones are in conflict with the Jedi and when they are in conflict with each other. A lot of fanon tends to ignore that and flatten the clones into a monolith.

14: One thing I see in fics all the time is Cody and Wolffe and Fox and Bly and Ponds as batchmates, with Rex as their collective baby brother. I don't know why. This is not negative or positive it's just something I see a lot that I don't really understand. It's usually sweet. I guess some fic with this hc got popular and other people started writing it?

16: I answered this in another ask but I'm gonna answer it again because there are many things are popular that baffle me. Mando clones. Like, fully embracing being Mandalorian as a community and using Mando'a fluently and respecting all these traditions and beliefs. I have written Mando clones! But I have also written non-Mando clones. And the more I think about it and write about it and look for fic that does not use Mando'a the more I wonder why this is so popular that it's virtually inescapable. Clones wanting to be Mando and wanting to have this culture and this language that could or maybe should have been theirs is one thing, exploring the complexities of what could be called a diaspora is one thing, but I have read a lot of fic where the clones are written as basically Mandalorians who just kinda happen to be in this situation serving the Jedi and it. Hm. Yeah Jedi and Mando parallels are cool but that's not. That's not who the clones are. That is not the role they serve in the narrative. Why are so many people writing the clones as straight up Mandalorians?

17: There should be more fic where Cody and Obi-Wan are not friends. That is all.

18: Davijaan. It's Davijaan it's always gonna be Davijaan I am always gonna be sad that my dude has so few fans. He's so great guys. He's a pilot and he doesn't paint his armor and he's in the background of more scenes than you would think. But jokes aside this applies to all the clone characters who are just there for a few scenes and get forgotten. Fandom shaped Fox and his two minutes of screentime into something great why can't we do that with Boost and Longshot and Hawk and Appo? All these minor characters with so much potential.

21: I said TCW show in another ask and I guess I kinda stand by that, a lot of lists say it's something that needs to be watched but honestly I don't think that's the case. I don't know. I think by and large most SW fans are pretty realistic about the quality of this canon XD

22: So there are two short scenes (if I recall correctly) where they are brought up, but the clones have identification chips in their wrists. I have seen one other fic besides mine even touch that. It's so-- there is so much there, so much to explore in regards to autonomy and personhood and the logistics of desertion. And it adds so much context to the Chip Arc. Of course Rex and Anakin and Windu and Shaak Ti were totally unphased when Fives said the clones had a chip in their head. They already had a chip in their wrist, what's one more? I wouldn't say it's my favorite part exactly but it's... I guess it's another thing fandom is sleeping on. Something from canon that adds a lot of meaning to the story for me, but that nobody else seems to even acknowledge.