#Palpatine was a sore loser

[swan2swan]

There aren’t enough Alternate Universe takes that I’ve seen where Mace Windu returns to the Jedi Temple to find Anakin alone and terrified and agonizing over his decision.

Where he solemnly thanks Anakin for the information he provided and tells him that the Sith Lord is dead--along with three Jedi Masters.

A universe where Anakin realizes that he had Darth Sidious at his mercy, at the tip of his lightsaber, and he could have killed him right there, but he hesitated and as a result, three more Jedi died.

A universe where Anakin explains brokenly to Mace Windu that he hesitated because of concern for his wife, immediately after Windu has affirmed that Anakin has his complete trust. Where Anakin and Mace Windu sit down, alone in the chamber, and talk about how the actions of the past do not determine what we do in the present--and where Windu states that Anakin’s willingness to sacrifice a chance to save his wife in order to protect the galaxy is truly the sign that he is among the greatest of the Jedi Knights.

There are other paths that this universe would follow but I am sleepy.

[lazybarbarians]

Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig

Ragnell: So over the past two weeks we finished up the Aftermath trilogy with Empire’s End and now we are totally up to date on the state of the Star Wars universe one-year post-RotJ as pertains to everyone but Luke Skywalker.

And Ezra Bridger, and Kanan Jarrus, and Ahsoka Tano or really any of the animated-verse Jedi or Sith and any of the EU Jedi or Sith like Mara Jade who still might exist in some way.

But for the soldiers and scoundrels and surviving Imperials we have a status quo for about 29 years. We also know what happens to the core characters from the first Aftermath book which is honestly (and impressively, considering how little patience I have for original SW characters) what we read this thing for anyway. (As usual, I pretty much spoil everything in this recap below.)

So we open with several threads going on. Gallius Rax is flashing back to his Tuesdays with Palpatine excerpts, and gathering the pathetic remnants of the Imperial Navy on Jakku. Because Palpatine had a big secret project there, of which Gallius was an integral part. So integral that Palpatine appoints Gallius Rax as The Contingency which we can immediately tell will be a great pain in the ass to the whole galaxy.

Norra and Company are hunting down Mercurial Swift, so they can track down Rae Sloane. Temmin is annoyed he’s always stuck on getaway driver duty. The bounties on Jas from her old bosses are mounting. Sinjir is still having his career regrets, which are worsened by the fact that without Luke Skywalker around to point out sensible things like “I don’t think that’s good for the soul”, Sinjir basically still has to do the same job only for Norra. And Norra has entered Terminator Revenge mode, which is basically what has her asking Sinjir to do the same job and limiting Temmin to getaway driver duty. This is generally what everyone has to work past the entire story. They find out Rae Sloane is on Jakku and follow.

Surprise surprise, the pathetic in comparison to its former glory but still a really really lot of ships remnants of the Imperial Navy are there. This leads the good guys to split up, with Norra and Jas taking an escape pod to the surface because Norra’s in revenge mode (followed by Mr. Bones because Temmin is worried about his mother) and Temmin and Sinjir to go back to Chandrila to get embroiled in the political plot.

Kalinara: I actually thought Norra in revenge mode was one of the weaker parts of the story, unfortunately. It’s understandable that she’d be conflicted and angry, but there were points where she just seemed cartoonishly irrational. Norra was my favorite in the previous books, but I wasn’t as big a fan of her here.

R: Mon Mothma is facing a election challenge from the appropriately named Senator Wartol, a hardline warhawk who accuses her of weakness that led to the Liberation Day attack last book. Long story short, her challenger is a corrupt asshole who has criminal ties and uses them to rig a vote to actually PREVENT attacking Jakku so that he can say he voted for it but she’s a shit Chancellor for not even being able to put this together. Sinjir teams up with the Organa-Solo family and his ex-boyfriend Conder to resolve this. He does so well that Mon Mothma offers him a job as her aide, which resolves his career path crisis, enables him to skip the Jakku attack and settle down happily with Conder.

K:: How’s that for one of the first, explicitly gay characters in Star Wars? He and his boyfriend both get to live, AND get a happy ending to boot!

R: Temmin spends his time pestering Wedge Antilles to put him on a ship and send him to Jakku. Wedge, after last book’s mini-rebellion, isn’t even allowed to go himself and is stuck being an expeditor in the hangers. After several guilt-trips, Wedge finally relents and puts together the same group of outcasts from last book to sneak, unauthorized, into the battle and lets the 16 year old join them because Wedge Antilles has spent way too much time with Luke, Leia, and Han over the last 5 years.

Temmin’s been wanting to go back to Jakku, of course, because that’s where his mother, his droid and his.. Jas have been. Both Jas and Norra got captured by Niima the Hutt, who is horrible even as Hutts go. Norra was on some work-detail where Mr Bones the droid broke her out. Jas got to pull ever-increasing acts of badassery to avoid being taken in for her bounty, steal Swift’s ship AND steal Swift’s crew.

Also in Niima’s area, Rae Sloane and Brentin Wexley, who convince her to lead them to the Imperial Secret Squirrel place where they are promptly captured and forced to witness a ridiculous speech by Gallius Rax. Sloane undergoes some of her own career angst while Brentin actually manages to get them both free. They proceed to try to fuck up Gallius Rax’s mysterious plan, and go into the Imperial Secret Squirrel place.

While in there, Norra catches up to them and they all find out that due to an overly emphatic chess metaphor Gallius Rax has activated a weapon in the core of Jakku that will destroy the whole planet and both fleets. He’s also sent the Huxes off with a bunch of children to outside the Galaxy to meet other ships with imperials and children, and the Eclipse, so that Palpatine can continue to vex the Galaxy from beyond the grave. On the bright side he kills Tashu, who was actually such a dick I was hoping they’d save him for the Jedi to kill in a later story.

Norra, Brentin, and Rae have a great deal of emotional interaction about trust and distrust, and a rather kickass three-against-one fight with Gallius in between trying to shut down the weapon. Brentin gets through all the defenses but stops to save Norra and gets killed. Rae actually turns down the weapon while Norra, feeling that her trust of Sloane was justified, drags her husband’s body out for burial. Rae then boards a ship with the Huxes and a bunch of feral brainwashed proto-Stormtroopers for the Eclipse, because she is not actually finished being evil yet.

K:: I was surprised by how much I liked Brentin, in particular, in this book. He was more plot point than character last time (even if he was a helpful juxtaposition against all those “no, Kylo is BRAINWASHED!” justifications), but here, we got to see more of who he is as a man. I was rather disappointed they killed him off. I might have liked the novelty of Norra and Brentin going through an amiable divorce.

Sloane was pretty great too. And for all of my complaints about Norra previously, she and Sloane had such a great dynamic once they finally met up. And I’m thrilled at the idea that we might see her again.

R: Wartol is arrested because he tries to kill Mon Mothma, but really only manages to destroy her office and kill the advisor who hadn’t been fleshed out until this book so we could feel bad about her. Mas Amedda manages to escape Coruscant and sign a surrender treaty. Leia attends the signing, during labor (because kid, you are gonna have to wait until galactic peace gawddammit) and thus manages to freak out her husband, attain galactic peace AND have a baby. Nothing in this book manages to excuse Kylo Ren’s horrible horrible crimes, and in fact knowing what’s coming you kind of cringe at one scene. Wedge Antilles and the Wexleys all go to the new pilot academy. Jas sets up shop with the crew she stole from Swift, and grieves Jom who went to Jakku to find her and was killed in the battle. Sinjir settles down with his new career and Conder.

K: Seriously. I didn’t see anything that remotely indicated any ���mind control from birth” or whatever nonsense. It isn’t even clear that Snoke EXISTS at this point in time. Any passage that could even be remotely stretched to mean some kind of fetus communication actually has a clear explanation in the text itself.

R: Actually, every character that we might have speculated would BE Snoke was specifically killed off

For the rest of the Galaxy, Chewbacca finds his son. Lando Calrissian regains his rightful place as Baron Administrator of Cloud City (which I believe is a 4-point Freehold if you’re tracking SW characters with White Wolf rules). Jar Jar Binks makes a friend and lives out the rest of his days entertaining orphans and avoiding politics. Coruscant ends up run by Mas Amedda anyway, but technically part of the New Republic. The Sith-worshipping Acolyte group from the Interludes was revealed to be sponsored by Tashu and dedicates itself to causing shit across the Galaxy and will almost certainly factor into the Jedi storyline. A charismatic leader, Brin, forms the Church of the Force which we already know factors into the Jedi storyline. It’s revealed that there are facilities known as Observatories, set up by Palpatine, that have been receiving data from outside the known galaxy all over the galaxy and not just on Jakku and that’s probably going to come into play somewhere too. The crazy pirate who found a Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought last book has cobbled together a functioning society of pirates around the ship. The residents of Tattooine have decided to just raise their own damned Hutt, Borgo, from childhood so they can have one who’s more compassionate than Jabba was. Luke is stated to be looking for old Jedi stuff.

That was a long recap, but one of the most tantalizing aspects of this trilogy is finding out just what the status quo in the Galaxy was after they finally wiped the bloated corpse of the Empire’s bureaucracy off of the map and got their new government underway. In general, it’s pretty satisfying. You follow your six Republic heroes, with some of the named characters from the movies as supporting cast, and your two main Imperials and their support, and get kind of a view of the rest of the universe. In a couple of places, these interludes tie into the main climax but others are just epilogues for the locations in the movies or tantalizing threads for when we find out what Luke has been up to.

K: I admit, that’s what I’m waiting for most. This was a fun side trek, but where is my favorite character, damnit?

R: I’m hoping we get another trilogy explaining this after The Last Jedi premieres. Or it’s the focus of the next animated series. Ezra seems custom-made to work as a foil for Luke, and Ahsoka was written out in a way that places her in safe-keeping until after RotJ.

One thing I found myself thinking from this last book, though, is that I feel better about The Force Awakens. I know a few OT fans who were very upset about everything Luke and Leia lost in the prelude to that movie and during it. I know a couple I saw who commented that they didn’t think Luke’s actions in RotJ were even that big an effect, since the Death Star was destroyed anyway. The view of the galaxy as seen in this trilogy, PARTICULARLY Jakku as compared to what we saw in the movie, changes that. You get the impression that even though there are still darksiders active, that a remnant of the Empire has left to regroup, that there’s still corruption and pirates and bullies and innocent people languishing in extreme poverty and hardship… that there’s still been a lasting improvement directly attributable to the actions of the heroes in the movies and the heroes in these books. Jakku at Rey’s time is actually a less horrible place than seen in this book. Many of the locations from the movies show people taking action and spreading hope. The remains of the Empire are the Emperor’s last middle finger to the Galaxy, and even after thirty years of gaining strength are still not the relentless, overwhelming presence in everyone’s life they were in Rogue One. The Galaxy was not instantly fixed, and much of the progress was wiped away, but there’s still a lot to hold onto. They came a long way between RotJ and TFA.

There’s really only one disappointment about this book. Tashu’s death. I joked above, but in the first book of this trilogy his main role is torturing a captive Wedge Antilles. The fallout from this is more realistic than you usually see in action-adventure fiction, where Wedge is still recovering throughout the second book both physically and emotionally. They’re unclear on whether he’s still using a cane this book or not, but either way it’s a long-term lingering impairment. He gets to staredown and work a little on his rage at Sloane last book, but he is never shown confronting Tashu. He’s never in the same room as the villain who put him through all of that. Tashu also never has a greater impact on any other main characters either from just this trilogy or the movies, meaning this villain was specific to one major hero and had a huge impact on that hero’s life and role in a story that covers at least half a year. Tashu isn’t saved for a later book or confrontation, he gets offed by Gallius and that’s a bit of a bummer.

[permian-tropos]

Rax: When I was a boy, the Emperor taught me how to play this game as he did. He taught me how it represents the galactic political stage. And so, when the Imperator is lost, all of the other pieces do not deserve to exist. The demense must be cleared.

Adea: Sorry, I... I don’t quite see how he’d get that from playing shah-tezh? Isn’t it more like, if you lose, your strategy failed? You put your pieces in the wrong places at the wrong times?

Rax: Oh, don’t be too hard on yourself. The Emperor was a genius, a visionary. His style of play was enigmatic, arcane to learn and complex to imitate.

Adea: I imagine so, Admiral.

Adea: ...

Adea: Checkmate.

Rax: FUCK!! *flips the board, the pieces scatter*

Adea: Ah.

[otnesse]

Yeah, no kidding (though to be fair regarding Palpatine, his father WAS himself a really horrible excuse of a human being, one who demanded absolute fealty to himself without any loyalty to even his wife if the reference to a mistress in Palpatine's final spat is to be believed, one with actual delusions of grandeur despite blatantly being incompetent enough to have his House basically be low-grade, and only gave any darn about his own eldest son purely for his family's reputation that would be tarnished by any scandal that occurred rather than any ACTUAL care for him. In fact, Cosinga had Palpatine NOT killed him was very clearly going to kill him first at Palpatine's goading. Just goes to show you don't need to be a Sith Lord to be trash. And while his slaying of his siblings and mother was definitely inexcusable by any stretch, they weren't exactly good to Palpatine either, basically othering him and basically being complete doormats to his father's appalling behavior overall, effectively enabling him.). I'd even argue that if anything, if Palpatine was taken in by the Jedi instead of the Sith, he'd arguably turn out even WORSE since his behavior ironically enough IS consistent with Jedi Council teaching. Even use greater good rationale to cause carnage with Light Side abilities, especially when their teaching style is uncannily similar to Cosinga's parenting style.

That said, as much as Palpatine was evil in the story, and certainly a LOT eviller than Anakin EVER was by any objective measure, I can name real world villains who were MUCH worse than Palpatine by any day of the week (like the founder of the Soviet Union Vladimir Lenin. Unlike Palpatine, he DID have actual loving parents, yet going by his sisters note, he was already going to be a complete psychopath by tormenting his siblings well beyond sibling rivalry standards as well as taking joy in destroying his own toys, and was such that his own family feared him, even his parents, who unlike Cosinga actually DID care for his well-being. And was a huge egotistical and pretentious narcissist that anyone who dared suggest even a slightly different path from what he wanted to take it on was at best thoroughly browbeaten and humiliated in front of everyone, at worst outright killed.). At least Palpatine had the excuse of a thoroughly abusive and completely uncaring father for how he turned out, Lenin doesn't. Same goes for Karl Marx as well, he turned absolutely demonic later in life despite his father, unlike Cosinga, actually GIVING a darn about him as a father ought to (and even being scared that Marx was possessed by a demon). Ironically, Cosinga's behavior if anything was VERY similar to Karl Marx's behavior to his own kids (and let me tell you, Marx was an absolutely TERRIBLE father to his kids, resulting in them committing suicide, and he even cheated on his wife with his maid, with hints that he may have raped the latter, after treating her like a slave, and refused to even acknowledge his bastard son either). If I had to choose between Palpatine and the likes of Marx or Lenin, I'd rather side with Palpatine. At least Palpatine is actually WILLING to encourage people to be the best they can be, even if it's above his own level, as a good trait of his (something even his actor admitted was a good trait of his), while those guys are more likely to act like sore losers if their followers show any progress at all due to automatically indicating they're going to lose out in the process. Might as well note Che Guevara among those real life villains who were MUCH worse than Palpatine as well (and he unfortunately actually gets hero worshipped).

And quite frankly, I'm a bit unsettled by the implication that The Force is also Palpatine's actual father, since it creates some rather bad implications about the Force itself. Also doesn't help that he's the only person to explicitly directly communicate with the Force in the In-Media-Res prologue showing his murder of Plagueis, something not even Anakin apparently had despite being the Chosen One.

@ those people who consider Anakin to be just as bad or worse than Palpatine, are you ok? Like is everything alright up there? Got to be one of the most out there takes I’ve ever heard.

[thesadbetrayer]

How heartbreaking must it have been…

When Anakin left Vader behind, died and became a force ghost.

How heartbreaking must it have been for a meditating Ahsoka - who truly believed she had lost him forever - to just randomly hear his voice and see his „old self“ for the first time in years.

And Anakin just rambling like he always did:

Hey Snips… uhm…. It’s kinda been a while…. *nervously scratches his neck*

But I swear… like it wasn’t that easy…. Palpatine is such a dick u know - but hey…. uhm… my son kinda saved me - you should meet up with him someday - he is pretty annoying tho - I was never THAT bad but …ehm… I kinda just came to say hallo I guess?

Obi-Wan said I should not just appear out of nowhere because *imitating Obi-Wan‘s voice* „This is not the way of the force and we should only appear in time of greatest need“

But you know? It’s not that Obi-Wan should complain - he’s already mocking me because obviously he decided to become one with the force and I didn’t really defeat him. He’s such a sore loser - can you imagine I have to spend the afterlife with him ? He will never let this go…….

_________________

And Ahsoka is just sitting there trying not cry because she is so fucking angry but relieved all the same? And while Anakin is rambling like the idiot he is, she just gets flashbacks of good times, times filled with shared laughter, trust and love. And she realized that she never truly let go of him, and that she never lost faith even tough she’s been telling herself the opposite all along.

[zuzuslastbraincell]

atla x star wars

aang: luke, obviously. both share the burden of being the *last* of a mythologised group of people, who are single-handedly trying to uphold traditions and methods considered lost (obviously these comparisons should be made lightly - the air nomads are a group of people & a culture that sufferred genocide; the jedi order is a religious-political order that served an increasingly corrupt government). sensitive, prodigious, but also contains a great degree of anger and grief at his loss and displacement. works *hard* to be compassionate, kind, and ultimately wise, balancing the needs of the world and the traditions of his role with his own ideals. effiminate / lacks a care for traditional modes of masculinity and is under appreciated for it.

zuko: luke, obviously. lost family for the sake of duty, was forced to leave his home and travel across the stars/seas to fulfil his destiny. maimed and traumatised by his authoritarian and distant father whose footsteps he aspired to follow in, and struggled with whether to follow him to the dark side or to fight for the side of good. ultimately rejects his father's fascist ideology, his family history, and the empire in the 3rd act to fight for good. also? he's gay!!

katara: leia, duh. a great sense of responsibility to her people (who were victims of genocide), expected to take on responsibilities beyond her age, deeply principled, stands up to authority, fights for the secret rebels, full of kindness and compassion, full of righteous anger, not above pettiness either, she's a rich character that is wonderfully flawed and layered and i love her immensely <3

sokka: a mix of han and luke. while han is the obvious choice here - han is our token non-force user, and let's remind people, he isn't as "cool" as his reputation in fandom, he's a total dork (see: how he impersonates a stormtrooper in episode iv). han has a strong sense of pride masquerading as a cool and mysterious bounty hunter type (when really he's a washed up smuggler). sokka shares that same awkward dorkiness, more realistic/cynical outlook, and chip on his shoulder/pride, but he's smarter, kinder, and also got a greater sense of responsibility towards the world rather than that cynical detatchment. in this sense he greatly resembles luke, especially in the sense that, especially in the early episodes, he is trying to follow in his father's footsteps.

suki: a mix of han and leia. suki isn't part of the magical world of the protagonists (initially), has her own priorities and goals, but ends up joining them like han. much like han, she is "what if han was as cool a badass as fandom advertises" (although how good a shot he/she really is depends on the plot) combined with how leia takes a leadership position and grows into her own with it at a young age. i think suki is principled but deeply practical, however, something she shares in common with leia (who is both idealistic and principled as well as grounded, task-orientated, & practical). i also think suki has a strong sense of pride (and is a bit of a sore loser) which you see in both han and leia.

toph: chewbacca. okay, seriously, she's *kinda* han, she's got that same sense of pride especially about flying solo vs being part of a team, her inability to accept help is also very han, but she'd insist on being chewbacca. she's as wise and as emotionally receptive as chewie, as well as able to clobber anyone, so who am i to judge?

azula: she'd 100% be leia, in a much better, kinder universe where she had her own bail organa :(

mai and ty lee: clone wars era lesbian bounty hunters asajj ventress & latts razzi, who are way too cool to be dealing with this jedi/avatar bullshit, and have a wonderful off-screen redemption arc and gay romance

iroh: obi-wan (except more war crimes). once a famously successful and clever general. now generally considered past his prime, has become a mentor with a tragic past where he stalwartly served the republic/empire but in his unquestioning adherance to that doctrine he lost his mentee/son. full of regrets about it, and refuses to do the same with his current mentee. i could hear an argument for young anakin given his blithe attitude to war crimes and enthusiastic militarism and imperialism - but honestly? considering how the late republic was just a mask for the empire, obi-wan fits iroh well enough. (iroh, sadly, is not gay, and thus is a poor man's obi-wan).

ursa: anakin (except he died like padmé). she has the silk hiding steel aura that padmé has but her plot arc is all anakin's. chosen on the basis of a very special heritage. will forgo socially accepted moral/ethical frameworks if her family are threatened, and will not hesitate to kill a man if her son is threatened. despite what people think, this hardly absolves her of being an active particpant of empire (simply makes her complex). massively favoured her son over her daughter (who she traumatised). differs from anakin in that, because she is a woman, and the writers of both of these shows are misogynists who barely give space for older women, especially mothers, in their narratives, she disappeared ~in mysterious circumstances~ and will never complete my ideal plot arc for her which involves throwing ozai down a garbage chute. shame.

hakoda: bail organa (except he's not dead). lifelong rebel? respected and admired leader of his people? as the only good parent in the whole damn show? bail organa.

ozai: low-budget palpatine who is not as competent or calculating. bzzt bzzt lightning go bzzzzt. awful. gets his ass handed to him. yeah. you may know his voice actor from batman: the animated series and nowhere else.

[musicismylife0818]

I posted 960 times in 2021

9 posts created (1%)

951 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 105.7 posts.

I added 34 tags in 2021

#commander fox - 7 posts

#commanderfoxweek2021 - 6 posts

#star wars - 4 posts

#jaster mereel - 3 posts

#jango fett - 3 posts

#knocker (my first clone oc) - 3 posts

#quinlan vos - 2 posts

#they're so cute - 2 posts

#funny - 2 posts

#commander cody - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 77 characters

#pay no attention to the strangely grave-like hole in the ground to your right

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Commander Fox Week Day Five

Title: Day Five: Healing

Prompt: Healing

Warnings: Numerous non-descriptive mentions of blood, Quinlan is dealing with a bit of shock from both his psychometry and the evidence of Palpatine's Sithness,

Relationships: Fox/Quinlan

Characters: CC-1010 | Fox, Quinlan Vos, Palpatine (mentioned)

Additional Tags: Psychometry, Psychometry isn't fun, Quinlan Vos needs a hug, CC-1010 | Fox needs a hug, Palpatine gets found out, Palpatine is a monster, Caring for a loved one, First Aid, Gentleness, Terms of endearment, Communication, Communication between partners

Summary: In which Fox isn't the one who needs healing, but it hurts all the same

@loving-fox-hours

The fic itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33230245

6 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 21:59:02 GMT

#4

Commander Fox Week Day Six

Title: Day Six: Victory

Prompt: Victory

Warnings: None

Characters: CC-1010 | Fox, CC-4477 | Thire

Additional Tags: Extremely short, Silly, Thire is a bit of a sore loser, idk if space has chess in canon, but it sure does now, finally a fic that isn't angsty in the slightest

Summary: Fox wins, Thire whines

@loving-fox-hours

The fic itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33250804

7 notes • Posted 2021-08-14 20:38:02 GMT

#3

Commander Fox Week Day 1

Title: Day 1: Loyal Prompt: Loyal Warnings: Reference of Fives' death, mention of bullying, mention of familial betrayal Relationships: Fox/Quinlan Characters: Commander Fox, Fives, Thire, Thorn, Stone, OC clone, Rex, Cody, Gregor, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Quinlan Vos (Everyone except Fox is mentioned only) Additional Tags: Minor CC-1010 | Fox/Quinlan Vos, CC-2224 | Cody's Name Is Kote, The Vode are not kind to Fox in this one, The Coruscant Guard are protective of Fox, they go all space!porcupine in his defense, post-S6E4, after Fives dies, Commander Fox Week 2021 Summary: Fox is loyal, even when the only people who return that loyalty are his @loving-fox-hours The work itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33144667

7 notes • Posted 2021-08-09 21:40:41 GMT

#2

Commander Fox Week Day Three

Title: Day Three: Time Travel

Prompt: Time Travel

Warnings: Description of jet pack failure as caused by slugthrower, unspecific description of heavily injured knee (once, brief),

Note on Warnings: This fic could easily settle as complete the way it is, but there is decent potential for a second chapter, which would touch on topics of: decommissioning, dehumanization, social isolation, abandonment by siblings, Jango's traumatized reaction to learning Jaster would've died if Fox hadn't been there, and both Fox and Jango's reactions to discussion of Canon!Jango's wonderful (so much sarcasm) parenting of any clone not named Boba. None of these topics are mentioned in what is currently posted. I know this is non-standard, but I wanted to warn everyone well in advance.

Characters: CC-1010 | Fox, Jaster Mereel, Montross (briefly), Jango Fett (mentioned, for now)

Additional Tags: Time Travel, Jaster Mereel lives, the hazards of jet packs, I know nothing about Korda VI, I know nothing about guns of any galaxy, might get a second chapter, attempted use of mando'a

Summary: Fox might not know the how, but he sure figures out the when pretty fast.

@loving-fox-hours

The fic itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33187837

8 notes • Posted 2021-08-11 22:04:28 GMT

#1

Commander Fox Week Day 2

Title: Day 2: Forgiveness

Prompt: Forgiveness

Warnings: Discussion of, but not focusing on, familial betrayal, brief discussion of familial abandonment, mention of Fives' death (in this case, that it's not what it appears)

Characters: Commander Fox, Commander Cody, Captain Rex (mentioned), ARC trooper Fives (mentioned), ARC trooper Echo (mentioned), Thire (briefly), Thorn (briefly), Stone (briefly), Knocker (OC, briefly), Pulse (OC clone medic, briefly)

Additional tags: Cody's name is Kote, Slight AU of day 1, a hard conversation is had, forgiving and forgetting are not the same thing, mind healers exist in the GFFA, Fox gets one

Summary: Sometimes, healing means forgiving, and then walking away.

@loving-fox-hours

The fic itself: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33165331

8 notes • Posted 2021-08-10 20:40:07 GMT

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[gch1995]

I mean, while I do think the Wookiepedia is a very pro Jedi source, it is a fact that the Jedi Order have been compared to a religious organization, so, it can sort of be compared to a genocide on Palpatine’s and Dooku’s part. For them, it was on grounds of murdering the Jedi for their religion.

While Anakin didn’t come up with the plan to commit it against them, he did make the choice to participate in it as a weapon for Palpatine in his desperation, he knew it felt wrong, but he was still being manipulated to believe that the Jedi were the enemies by Palpatine. They weren’t, but Palpatine also wasn’t entirely wrong that the Jedi and Republic of the prequel era had become corrupt.

Moreover, Anakin didn’t kill them on grounds of their religion or race. He killed them because he was afraid of losing his wife, because Obi-Wan and the Jedi Council did nothing to help every time he did try to reach out, because he was tired of being neglected and oppressed by Obi Wan and the Jedi Council, because the Jedi adults and Republic who claimed to be “dedicated to democracy” did nothing to help his mother on the outer rims, because almost every other adult in the Jedi of his time was morally a hypocrite, and because he didn’t think he had much else of a choice under such limited to nonexistent options for healthy support and escape.

His agency was comprised by limited options for healthy support, limited to nonexistent viable escape routes, poor emotional/mental health with C-PTSD symptoms, and no proper treatment. However, he knew what he did felt morally wrong and selfish. Therefore, he was complicit. He’s not entirely innocent. I think you could argue voluntary mass manslaughter for Anakin there because he didn’t plan to turn to the dark side and kill all those people in Order 66 and over the years for Palpatine himself. He did it in a selfish desperation to avoid potential abandonment and because he didn’t believe he had or deserved much a choice under limited to nonexistent viable options for healthy support and escape from such a toxic environment. I don’t care that Disney has been trying to retcon his story by making him stronger. It doesn’t count to me since it never involved GL and respecting his vision.

The Tusken Raiders village massacre, while awful, was more of voluntary mass manslaughter than genocide.

Nonetheless, we saw in both the movies and TCW that a handful of Jedi adults were willing to wipe out people and the entire Zygerrian race when a handful of them were enemies “for the greater good,” rather than taking the time to only go after the guilty ones. They were going to overthrow the government. We saw they recruited children as soldiers, and isolated recruits from the outside world “for the greater good.” We saw that Yoda and Mace accepted a slave army from Palpatine. Even before they knew Palpatine was a Sith Lord, they still knew he was corrupt and shady, Obi-Wan, Yoda and the Council enabled him and kept their suspicions from the Senate because they wanted to avoid conflict and wanted to keep their power.

Anakin’s partaking in the Jedi massacre is not comparable to Hitler creating the Nazi Party and implementing the Holocaust to persecute and execute the Jews. For one thing, Anakin and these recruits in the Jedi actively were being systematically abused, conscripted from childhood for warfare and politics, isolated, manipulated, oppressed, and taught hypocritical morality under Yoda’s dictatorial cult-like leadership. The Republic really was a self-serving “democracy” that cared nothing about the people in slavery on the outer rims because they weren’t a part of their “greater good.” It doesn’t mean they all deserved to be murdered in Order 66, especially not the kids. It doesn’t mean that Anakin was right to participate as weapon against them for Palpatine by turning on them. However, none of the adults in the Republic government and Jedi were completely non-corrupt innocents.

Adolf Hitler was born in in Austria in 1889. He learned his antisemitic political ideas in Vienna, Austria in which he lived from 1907 to 1913 with a large Jewish community under a mayor who held very racist beliefs and prejudices against them. During World War I (1914-1918), Hitler was a soldier in the German army. After the war ended, he, and many other German soldiers like him, could not get over being defeated in the war by the United States, Britain, and France (The Allied Nations). Thus, the German Army Command spread a petty and nonsensical antisemitic myth that they had not been defeated in war, but betrayed by “a stab in the back” by the Jews and communists who they blamed for bringing a left-wing government to power that had wanted them to surrender in war.

Hitler bought into this antisemitic ideology and capitalized on it when creating the Nazi party and inciting the Holocaust because he was a narcissist and a sore loser of a former soldier from the German Army. He wanted attention and someone else to blame and persecute for the German Empire not winning World War I, so he capitalized on antisemitic rumors and prejudices against the Jews. Those rumors and prejudices were completely unfounded.

@praetor-canis @tragicfantasy-girl

englishlady is bitter, but you’re just sour. Anakin Skywalker isn’t going to fuck you, you desperate incel

Sure, nonny, I’m the incel!

First off, although I love Anakin’s character, and do believe there is good in him, I have to say that I wouldn’t be comfortable dating someone with his twisted morality after he joined the Jedi Order and Sidious, and/or without proper treatment, which he never received. Then again, I also have to say that I feel the exact same way about Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu, and the entire Jedi Order before Luke. Even Luke kind of disconcerts me with how easily he could get over blowing up the entire Death Star and Jabba’s ship. Sure, everyone on the Death Star was an active threat, who needed to be killed in immediate self-defense, but not everyone on Jabba’s ship was. If more of them could realize that both the Jedi and the Sith suck, and just be their own person as a warrior, and they could get therapy, then I could potentially think of dating them.

I’m the self-deluded asshole who can’t deny that her favorite character did nothing wrong when I constantly point out that I know Anakin was a selfish bastard in his desperation to avoid abandonment and further oppression, who’s not entirely innocent for his crimes against the Order, regardless of the mitigating circumstances of being abused, groomed/manipulated, oppressed, and emotionally neglected his whole life by corrupt authority figures in slavery, the Jedi Order, and Sidious!

You guys are the ones who hypocritically say that Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace-Windu, Ki-Ad-Al Mundi, the rest of the Jedi Order, and Bo-Katan can’t be held fully accountable for perpetuating abuse, crime, moral hypocrisy, enabling slavery, and neglect because it was for the Greater Good™️, they were groomed, and/or they had limited options for healthy support and escape to something better. However, Anakin who was systematically abused, groomed/manipulated, oppressed, and raised by hypocrites in two space cults and slavery his whole life “is the spawn of Satan who must be held entirely accountable for his crimes.”

They are even “secondary victims” when they openly enable the Chancellor to have unsupervised access a a child under their care after he threatens to ruin their public reputation if they refuse, even though they strongly suspected he was shady before finding out he worked for the Sith, and even though they are a highly beloved and respected organization and branch of the government that could have easily recovered from saying no to the Chancellor if they refused to allow him to speak with Anakin alone.

Sure, nonny! I’m the incel. I’m the one who’s so in-denial that Kenobi and the Jedi Order of adults before Luke had become cowardly, hypocritical, and self-righteous assholes who were too afraid to do the right thing, even though they constantly abused and neglected every child under their care, endangered them, gaslit them, and limited their options for escape to make them feel obligated to stay.

I’m the incel for not thinking that Obi-Wan Kenobi was the best mentor/guardian ever who could have saved Anakin when he allowed him to speak to Palpatine alone, constantly shamed and gaslit him, faked his own death for a mission, cut off his limbs and left his “brother” to burn alive because he was too much of a coward to just kill him when he had the upper hand on Mustafar after he committed crimes against the order, even when that would have been the kind thing to do, and spent nearly two decades on Tattooine in hiding with Yoda, wallowing in self-pity, while his former apprentice helped Sidious terrorize the galaxy as an attack dog/murder slave. If that wasn’t bad enough, he and Yoda did jack shit all of that time in hiding, just so they could attempt to use another innocent Skywalker as a weapon to clean up the mess they helped create with Sidious and his father twenty years earlier. Thank goodness Luke didn’t listen to Obi Wan and Yoda.

No, Anakin’s no Saint, but at least the narrative doesn’t try to pretend he is. At least our side of the fandom doesn’t pretend that he is a saint, while also still understanding why he became the monster he did without entirely absolving him of it. At least there is character development in his arc. Obi Wan has none of that.

[archaeotech3]

So the new script version of the Aphra audiodrama includes a list of the cast introduced in Aphra’s voice. I just have to share. 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

DOCTOR CHELLI LONA APHRA: Rogue archaeologist. Weapons and droid expert extraordinaire. Our intrepid heroine.

DARTH VADER: Infamous Sith Lord. Man of few words. Our intrepid heroine’s terrifying boss.

TRIPLE-ZERO: Protocol droid. Favorite hobbies include translation, holo-chess, and draining organics of all their blood.

BEETEE: Blastomech droid. Has a flamethrower.

SANA STARROS: Smuggler. Unfortunate dreamboat. Working with the rebels for some godsforsaken reason.

BLACK KRRSANTAN: Disgraced Wookiee. Fearsome bounty hunter. Do not challenge him to a pit fight.

PADMÉ AMIDALA: The “good” former queen and senator of Naboo.

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA: Rebel royalty. Has a mean left hook.

LUKE SKYWALKER: Yellow-haired rebel humanoid who is supposedly important for some reason?

HAN SOLO: Reformed scoundrel. Always claims to save the day. Actually useless.

CHEWBACCA: Han Solo’s very loud Wookiee sidekick. No match for Black Krrsantan.

C-3PO: Simpering Triple-Zero doppelgänger.

R2-D2: Foolhardy Beetee doppelgänger.

EMPEROR PALPATINE: Our intrepid heroine’s boss’s boss.

BOBA FETT: Bounty hunter. Inspires fear in the hearts of all ( except for our intrepid heroine ).

MAZ KANATA: Badass pirate queen. Incredibly sore loser.

KORIN APHRA: Our intrepid heroine’s father. Obsessed with excruciatingly boring Jedi stuff.

LONA APHRA: Our intrepid heroine’s mother. Obsessed with excruciatingly boring planets.

THE ANTE: Information broker. Sometimes useful. Not to be trusted.

IG-90: Bounty hunter. Overly pedantic assassin droid. Likes to shoot things.

BOSSK: Bounty hunter. Wookiee-killing machine. Does not understand the concept of jokes.

BEEBOX: Bounty hunter. Very short, but carries a big gun.

UTANI XANE: Curator of Quarantine World III. Loves bureaucracy and crushing dreams.

SAVA TOOB-NIX: Sava of the University of Bar’leth. Hates when his lectures are interrupted (especially by our intrepid heroine).

COMMODEX TAHN: Former mortician of Naboo. All-around bad liar.

ENEB RAY: Former rebel spy. Loves to monologue.

GEONOSIAN QUEEN: Really scary. No other descriptors necessary.

[angelqueen04]

So I have this theory...

Star Wars canon is actually Sheev’s attempt at a fix-it. Like, the original story is that Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker fulfilled his destiny at some point and brought true balance to the Force, defeating Sheev. But because Sheev is a sore loser, he somehow manages to time travel back in time and proceeds to fuck everyone over:

- to prevent Anakin from becoming a true threat to him, he spends 13-ish years grooming him to become his greatest servant - he starts a war on a galactic scale to thin out the Jedi ranks before using the GAR to finish them off  - he sucks the life out of Padmé Amidala to prevent her from marshaling various world governments into cleansing the Republic and sending it to even greater heights of peace and prosperity and also to keep his new pet Chosen One because he did not spend 13-ish years grooming him just to lose him because he accidentally set himself on fire

But the thing of it is - Palpatine takes everything too far because he’s a greedy asshole. So as he swings everything in his favor, his knowledge of the future slowly becomes useless as the Force reacts in various ways:

- allows the love between Padmé and Anakin to flourish, to the point that the twins are conceived; Padmé dies but her legacy lives on in her children - the seeds of rebellion are planted in the very days of Sheev’s triumph, because there are always people who will see injustice and will seek to right it, no matter how long it takes - darkness covers the galaxy, but many small lights still burn and hold it back from complete victory

Though, Sheev isn’t a complete idiot. He knows that there are larger powers that work against him. Hence why he creates his Space Horcrux and stashes it on Exegol. But the Force will have its way:

- Anakin Skywalker still fulfills his destiny and brings balance to the force or, you know, finally makes one good decision after 20+ years of shitty decisions - Sheev’s clone/son looks at Sheev’s life and actions and makes the decision to reject all of it, going on the run with his wife and, eventually, their daughter; he and his wife even choose death in order to protect their child from Horcrux Grandpa - darkness again covers the galaxy, but those small lights still exist to hold it back

It all comes to a head for good when Sheev Palpatine’s granddaughter stands up and calls upon the spirits of all the Jedi who came before and says, “Enough.”

So, in summary, Sheev tried a fix-it and it blew up in his face (eventually).

[evabellasworld]

Death of Mandalore

Chapter 12

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

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Summary:  After murdering Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic, Vanya Doyvesky joined leagues with both Death Watch and Darth Maul, hoping to reclaim her Mandalorian warrior heritage. But with broken promises and betrayal against Death Watch and Maul’s crime syndicate, the former Mandalorian Jedi had to choose the right path not only for her but for Clan Doyvesky as well.

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“I46,” Cinta read aloud the bingo ball, making Obi-Wan groan in frustration. Arin, on the other hand, was smiling as she stamped her card. “I am definitely winning this game.”

“Shall I say the next number?”

“Yes, please,” the red Twi’lek gave a thumbs up, prompting the pink Togruta to roll the cage, letting the numbers fall out of the flap on its own. Picking them up with her fingers, she read the next one. ‘O64,” she announced. “Do we have an O64 here?”

Obi-Wan and Arin shook their heads. “Nope, we don’t,” said Obi-Wan as he gazed at his own cards, with barely any numbers stamped at all. “Move on to the next number.”

Cinta’s eyes narrowed at the auburn-haired Jedi Master and turned to Arin, who was tapping her fingers on the table. “What about you, General? Do you have an O64 on your card?”

“I don’t have an O64, unfortunately,” she replied, sighing. “You can move on to the next number.”

He rolled his eyes as Cinta spun the cage again, picking up another number. “You don’t trust me, do you?”

“What are you saying?” she let out a chuckle, avoiding his glance. “I do trust you.”

“Do you, really? I asked a moment ago the same question as General Sallis and you answered her instead.”

“Well, I was just making sure, that’s all,” shrugged Cinta. “Besides, you have a habit of cheating in games like these.”

“Master Kenobi, you cheated in games?” Arin snorted, waving her fingers. “That’s very naughty of you.”

“I never cheat,” he insisted, showing his palms. “I just used the Force to my advantage, that’s all.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “Master Kenobi, do you realise that you just described the definition of cheating?”

“No, actually, I just described my Force-sensitivity. Why do you ask?”

Cinta blinked as she crossed her arms and exchanged a wink with Arin. “Just ignore him, General. Cheaters never admit that they play dirty in games like bingo.”

“Maybe you should admit that you hardly pay attention,” Obi-Wan poked her left arm. “After all, I’m just better at games than you are.”

She simpered at her friend as she said aloud the number, predicting the end of the game. “O66.”

“Bingo!” Arin frenzied, showing her card to the Togruta. “I’ve won! I’ve won!”

Obi-Wan’s lips were sealed as his head hung low, clasping his hands together on the table. Cinta smirked at him, her hands rested on his shoulder. “You were saying, Kenobi?”

“Well,” he stammered, lifting his fingers. “You must have used the Force to let Arin win, am I right?”

“You’re such a sore loser,” she bared her fangs, slapping his shoulders in a playful manner. “Just admit that you weren’t paying attention the whole time.”

He softly laughed as he stroked his beard, his eyes focused at Arin. “It was a good game,” Obi-Wan offered his hand towards her. “I’m happy for you.”

“It’s not a big fuss for me,” grinned Arin. “After all, to win a game of bingo, you need Lady Luck by your side, if she feels like it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Basically, you need to pray that luck is on your side and then you can win the game,” she simplified as she composed herself, putting on her poker face. “After all, bingo is full of unpredictability, just like life itself.”

Obi-Wan chortled and nodded, realising what she said was true, based on his experiences. “That’s actually precise, if you think about it” he leaned against his seat, slurping a glass of water. “So far, the Chancellor was murdered, Eva and her sister went missing, and currently, we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, so yes, life is full of uncertainty.”

“Yeah,” Cinta sighed, sitting next to him. “I kept having frequent headaches because too many are dying every single day, which is taking a toll on my health.”

“Using the Force to heal someone is difficult, even if you’ve trained long enough to handle the pain.”

“I can understand why there aren’t many Jedi Healers around,” she massaged her own neck. “The responsibilities are far too great and plus, do you have any idea how many pills I have to take?”

“I feel that,” Arin validated her feelings, rubbing Cinta’s back. “Medics and Healers are the most stressful jobs in wars, since they either risk getting themselves killed or die of infection since they’re too focused on their patients.”

Obi-Wan’s head drooped as he took a deep breath, reminiscing about the sudden death of his apprentice, whom he never got to say goodbye. “You know, it’s funny. It’s like yesterday we met them and then the next day, they’re not here anymore, you know. Never realise that life is too short until you see it with your very own eyes.”

Cinta hands him a handkerchief and pats his back as Obi-Wan sniffles when Anakin and Ahsoka walk into their tent. Noticing their presence, he cleared his throat and glanced at them, returning Cinta’s handkerchief frantically. “Anakin, Ahsoka,” he forced himself to smile. “Is there anything you need?”

“Master Yoda and Master Mundi want you in the briefing room,” his former apprentice informed him, sensing his grief. “Also, are you alright

“I’m alright, that you, Anakin,” he bowed, as headed out of the medbay, much to their worries.

Passing by the clones who were preoccupied with their duties, the base on the Anaxes was crowded, with the remaining Republic officers pacing back and forth, ordering their soldiers to carry some crates which stores ammunition, rations, and spare parts for ships and vehicles. Tents and barracks were set up in rows just to house whatever is left of the Jedi, clones, and officers alike.

Obi-Wan felt that the Republic remnants were lucky that they could gather as many soldiers as they could get to fight against the Separatists, which were reorganised into the first Galactic Empire under the leadership of Count Dooku. After what happened on Coruscant, which burned to the ground, he’s uncertain about the future of the galaxy.

Entering the briefing room, he bowed to Yoda and Ki-Adi-Mundi, who were waiting for him. “You summoned me, Masters?”

Both of them were silenced as they stepped away from the holotable, revealing a familiar face from his past. His eyes beamed as he saw his distressed lover again, prompting him to play her message that was delivered. “This is a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Obi-Wan listened to her voice. I've lost Mandalore. My people have been massacred, and Almec is now the prime minister. I can't explain everything now but Almec has the support of the crime families.”

“Obi-Wan, I need your help.”

The message stopped playing, leaving him stunned. The last time he met her, Obi-Wan had to protect her from her enemies on her homeworld. Vizsla was there too, who eventually revealed himself as the one behind the attacks against her. He wonders if it’s the same case all over again. “Your thoughts on this, Master Kenobi?” Mundi asked, sensing his distress.

“Satine has been at odds with the Death Watch for years,” he recalled. “And according to a report from Eva Bella Young, they're no longer in league with the Separatists.”

He paused for a moment after mentioning her name, before continuing his words. “If there was a takeover on Mandalore, it was most likely an independent act caused by the Death Watch alone.”

The Cerean Jedi sighed. “Without involvement from the Separatists, this is an internal affair for the Mandalorians. I'm afraid we cannot help.”

“We cannot just hand Mandalore over to these crime families and let Satine become a martyr,” argued Obi-Wan.

“I'm afraid her decision to keep Mandalore neutral makes this situation difficult.”

“Understand your feelings I do, Obi-Wan,” Yoda spoke, in a calming voice. “But to take action, support from the admirals, we will need.”

“You know what the admirals will decide,” grumbled Obi-Wan. “They will not send aid to a neutral system.”

“At this time, nothing more can we do.”

“I understand, master,” he tightened his lips as he walked out of the tent, only to find Cinta and Anakin standing there, waiting.

“Is everything alright, master?” asked Anakin, holding his hands.

“It's Satine,” he answered, swallowing a lump of saliva. “Her planet had been taken over by Death Watch again.”

“That's awful,” Cinta pitied, tugging on her shawl around her two-piece dress. “Are you going to rescue her? Surely you can’t just let her face her troubles all on her own.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. "Unfortunately, Mandalore is a neutral system. Since this isn't a Separatist takeover, we can't do anything at all."

“Well that sucks,” commented Anakin, placing his hands on his hips. “Someone has to do something about it.”

“I agree,” she nodded. “Neutral system or not, we should do something to help her. Is there anything we can do for you, Obi-Wan? I know that you and Satine were close to each other.”

She’s right, he pondered, formulating a plan to rescue his lover who is imprisoned on Mandalore. If he could find a ship around the base, he could fly there in his own disguise and get her out of there. But he cannot do it with Anakin and Cinta, since this is personal between him and the Duchess and also, someone needs to cover-up for him. Besides, Eva would approve this plan anyways.

“Anakin, is there a ship you could lend me for a while?” Obi-Wan made up his mind.

“Yeah, I still have the Twilight left,” Anakin replied, his head held high. “Why do you ask?”

“Great,” he thanked the Maker. “I need you both to vouch for me while I’m gone. No one must know that I’m heading to Mandalore. Is that clear?”

The brown-haired man smiled along with Cinta, pleased with his decision. “Now you're talking.”

[delicatefury]

I found TDPL today and then promptly spent the rest of my night reading my way through your tag. It's so great! I love dad Obi Wan and I also love that they took Beru's name. Star Wars is a little obsessed with Father figures so any shout out to mother figures is always appreciated by me :) I'm a little confused by how much Palpatine knows? You're one post about meeting Leia made it seem like he remembered the OT timeline

Okay, 1) This is seriously one of, if not the, most wonderful things anyone’s written about TDPL. I’ve read fics where I’ve just gone straight through and devoured everything I can, but to have someone do the same for mine. Gah! Every time it happens I just spend the whole day screaming internally.

2) I was so nervous about using Beru’s names for Luke and Leia, and the support everyone gives to that decision has been so vindicating.

and finally: Spoilers below the cut!

3). Yes, Palpatine remembers. Short answer: The whole time traveling thing was his (ghostly) aim to begin with and as such, while he wasn’t able to control the landing he did manage to go back in time with plenty of future knowledge.

Long answer (with more spoilers): What Palpatine, the sore loser, was trying to do was to end up sometime immediately after the fall of the republic, when Vader was still recovering and Obi-Wan was racing to get Luke hidden and safe before anyone came looking for him. Because, except for Luke and the Rebellion, his plans were going pretty well.

An Empire, a powerful apprentice caught completely under his heel, the Jedi down to remnants, if even, and wiped or suppressed from the collective memory. So his initial plan was to intercept Obi-Wan on Tatooine, torture and murder the Jedi and take Luke for his own. Or maybe just kill them both right away; they might not be worth the risk after all.

Well, Anakin panics (as per usual. Even as a ghost he’s a human disaster), forces Palpatine to overshoot, and generally messes with things until you have the set-up of TDPL.

Palpatine’s situation is similar to Obi-Wan’s but not… quite. I’m not getting into that here because I’m still hammering out the details. This is the assumption that Obi-Wan’s working from: At the very least, Palpatine partially succeeded. He’s sure to have enough future knowledge to notice when things go off course. Enough that, Obi-Wan has to be very careful. He can’t risk Palpatine knowing he knows. Because if Darth Sidious knows that the Negotiator is a real and present threat, at the very least he’ll radically change his plans and Obi-Wan will lose any real advantage he has.

There’s more, but it’s pretty much the (minus slice-of-life, fluff, and battles) the plot of TDPL. So I’m gonna stop my rambling right there.

Thanks for asking!

[shervonfakhimi]

The Cliche List of Winners and Losers of the NBA Trade Deadline

The trade deadline came and went with Woj bombs and blockbusters left to decipher. With some time now to process it all a little, here are some teams/players who I felt benefited or did not do well at the deadline.

Winners:

The Boston Celtics:

While the Celtics did not upgrade their roster, they certainly won the deadline solely because they get their shot at Anthony Davis. Apparently Danny Ainge convinced Dell Demps enough to not only go full Emperor Palpatine and destroy and deceive the rival Lakers from the inside, but hold off on making a deal before the deadline and go into the summer with the premier players and assets available for New Orleans’ taking. We’ll see if it actually happens, but for now the Celtics have to be in pole position to land the biggest fish out there. (though the Lakers did exact their revenge last night, at least. RONDOOOOO)

The Eastern Conference Playoffs:

The Celtics didn’t upgrade their roster this season, but man did everyone else did. The 76ers, Bucks and Raptors, however, all took turns making mega deals trying to outgun each other in a wide open Eastern Conference sans LeBron James, sort of like trying to win an auction.

Let’s start with Philadelphia. The Sixers were a team bereft of perimeter shooting and were able to land that and then some in the form of Tobias Harris. The versatility is boundless. Many have touted Tobias as the type of guy who needs the ball in his hands to be successful, but I don’t quite see it that way. He can play off ball as well; he’s a selfless, secondary option who can stretch the floor (he’s shot 40% from 3 each of the last 2 seasons and is close to averaging 50-40-90 shooting splits this season) while also threatening enough as a playmaker to create when given the opportunity to do so. Harris can play very well off all 4 of Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, JJ Redick and Joel Embiid by giving them all more room to operate and stress the decision making of coaches and players on how to cover the 2 or 3 of them when directly involved in a pick and roll or halfcourt set. Harris shot 40.8 on catch-and-shoot 3s on 3.4 attempts per game, while boasting a robust 56.6 EFG% from inside 10 feet  and 51.8 EFG% on pull-up jumpers. Perhaps they gave up too much (2 first and 2 second round picks, including that precious Heat 2021 1st round pick), but trading for Harris (and Butler) now provides Philly the opportunity to re-sign their whole starting lineup this summer. Harris ranks 12th in ESPN’s RPM metric, in part because his proficiency on both ends of the floor and being able to guard multiple positions. He will help bring the best out of everybody on the floor by being able to space it. Good deal for Elton Brand. (Also, for a team that needs depth anywhere they can find it, James Ennis III, Mike Scott, Boban Marjanovic (BOBAN!), Jonathon Simmons and whoever they can find in the buyout market can make nice contributions in their own right).

As for the Bucks, Nikola Mirotic provides the Bucks with even more firepower than what they already had: shooting. However, Mirotic also will give Milwaukee all the more versatility and another scoring punch in the halfcourt. I wonder if people will overstate Harris’ impact while understating Mirotic’s; Harris is a better and more complete individual player, but as a team’s 4th or (at times) 5th option, is there much of a difference between Tobias and Mirotic? I’d rather have Tobias to be sure, but he and Mirotic’s per 36 numbers, per Basketball-Reference, are not all that dissimilar. Mirotic fits perfectly inside Milwaukee’s offense spreading the floor for Giannis and has playoff experience, most notably last season as he helped New Orleans blow torch the Portland Trail Blazers in 4 games before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Milwaukee upgraded, and gave up considerably less in the process. Props to GM Jon Horst, who should be in the running for Executive of the Year.

Now let’s get to Toronto. This is much more interesting and think will take more time acclimating after acquiring Marc Gasol from Memphis for Delon Wright, Jonas Valanciunas, CJ Miles and a 2nd round pick in 2022. With Jonas Valanciunas injured, Toronto resorted to Greg Monroe holding down bench units at the center spot, which went poorly. While Marc’s shooting and scoring numbers have gone down relative to his peak years in Memphis, he is averaging a career high 4.7 assists per game. Only Kyle Lowry averages more assists per game for the Raptors than Marc does this season. Marc Gasol should bring a totally new element at the elbow to ease some pressure off of Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry. The tricky part will be how to sort the minutes in the frontcourt. Serge Ibaka and should have been All Star Pascal Siakam have been fantastic as a duo. Who of Ibaka, Siakam and Gasol will come off the bench? My guess would be Serge Ibaka to fully maximize Siakam’s athleticism cutting for Marc to find him, as Gasol is a much more prudent passer than Ibaka is, and use Serge’s scoring and shooting growth this season to help anchor 2nd units. Toronto needed a big body to bang with some of the bigger brutes in the Eastern Conference and another playmaker. They got both in Gasol. Let’s see how they utilize him and how he affects their rotations as a result.

Orlando Magic:

Hey, the Magic finally won something! Jokes aside, what they finally did accomplish, though, is acquire a potential franchise changing player. Or might be out of the league in two seasons. That’s kind of where we are with Markelle Fultz. I personally believe an injury was the root of his yips and shook-ness shooting the basketball, but regardless, a mental block got the best of him. To paraphrase Prodigy, Markelle ‘was only 19 but (his) mind was (not??) older’ last season, and even stumbled into this season. However, there is a reason why he was taken number one and Philadelphia traded an extra 1st round pick to move from three to one to draft. He is the ultimate guard for today’s NBA. He is worth the gamble of a future 1st round pick via Oklahoma City that is going to be in the 20s. Maybe it was his thoracic outlet syndrome. Maybe the pressure of being the 1st pick got to him as Philly was marching towards playoff contention. Whatever the case, the noise will silence as he disappears in Orlando, and I mean that in the best possible way. Orlando has a seismic hole at the point guard position and he can fill without needing to live up to the pressure and scrutiny of being a number one pick in a big market. If he can find his shot again to match his athleticism and defensive prowess, Orlando got a franchise changer for basically nothing. If not, they just lose an extra 1st round pick and Jonathon Simmons. They even kept Terrence Ross and Nikola Vucevic, who you could’ve argued they should have traded but could help Markelle transition nicely as proven pieces worthy of defenses’ attention. He fits the timeline of Aaron Gordon, Wes Iwundu, Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba. Who knows if it will work with Markelle. I sure as hell don’t. But I do know it *could,* & I applaud Orlando for trying.

LA Clippers:

The Clippers somehow managed to get worse, then get better (a little), all while setting up their future perfectly. With the salary cap projected to be at around $109 million, the Clippers have positioned themself to acquire a superstar in just about any form. Sure, they lost Tobias Harris, but he isn’t of the caliber of the Kawhi Leonards or Kevin Durants they plan to be star-hunting for in free agency. But now they have draft capital as well as young players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Landry Shamet and Jerome Robinson to throw at teams housing disgruntled superstars. They even shed Avery Bradley’s $2 million guaranteed and get an upgrade on this year’s roster in the form of JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple. They then flipped Mike Muscala from the aforementioned Tobias Harris trade into Ivica Zubac, a young, burgeoning center from the Lakers who has a teensy tiny $1.9 million cap hold to essentially replace Bradley’s guaranteed money. The Clippers can then go over the salary cap to re-sign Zubac if they’re able to fill the rest of the cap with superstar players. The Clippers have navigated perfectly post-Lob City. They can make a lot of noise this summer, perhaps not great noise for their hometown neighbors….

Losers:

Los Angeles Lakers:

Maybe it seemed unrealistic to expect them to nab Anthony Davis, but their best shot at getting him just slipped through their finger tips while it seemed that Dell Demps tried to cause an internal mutiny bleeping with the team and their internal chemistry. Hate to see it. That’s one reason why they’re on this list. The other dates back to this summer. The Lakers neglected shooting in free agency after signing LeBron James, who is maximized with shooting surrounding him on the floor a la Milwaukee with Giannis. Acquiring Reggie Bullock and Mike Muscala were good acquisitions as both are on expiring deals and bring some shooting they sorely lack without giving up major players or future assets. But the point is that acquiring shooting should’ve been done in the first place this summer, and likely could’ve been done without giving up Ivica Zubac in the first place. The Lakers did well in a vacuum this deadline, but their best shot at Davis passed without him.

Anthony Davis:

Speaking of Davis, he is now stuck in New Orleans after the Pelicans brass didn’t acquiesce to his trade demand, as he’ll have to pretend he didn’t want out like George Costanza. Since New Orleans can’t sit an All-NBA player or be at risk of a $100,000 fine per game Davis sits, the Pelicans are stuck in an awkward dance of trying to tank while finding the right amount of time to play a top 5 NBA player without compromising that. On top of that, as mentioned already, Davis’ best shot at landing in his preferred Lakers destination didn’t result in that happening. This feels like its only going to get worse before it gets better, so have fun Dell Demps.

Memphis Grizzlies:

RIP Grit ‘n’ Grind. The era gave Memphis the best run of NBA ball it has ever seen, but unfortunately, not to much to show from it afterwards. They traded Marc Gasol for Delon Wright, Travis Kelce’s doppelganger Jonas Valanciunas, CJ Miles and a 2nd round pick. They essentially got nothing back for JaMychal Green and Garrett Temple. They dumped 2 2nd round picks for Justin Holiday to try and make a push towards playoff contention, but the hopes of that quickly ran out. Chandler Parsons’ corpse of a contract is still on the books. And, most importantly, they couldn’t find a trade for Mike Conley, which could impact their chances of tanking for Zion or even keeping their pick in the first place. Delon Wright is a nice piece, but he is going to be a restricted free agent and will turn 27 (I was stunned too. 27 already?!?) in April. Valanciunas will be 27 in May. That doesn’t exactly sound like players along the timeline of franchise centerpiece Jaren Jackson Jr, though they will help. They should’ve gotten more for a franchise great in Marc Gasol, even if he had a foot out the door already. Conley should be more movable this summer. Memphis only began blowing it up. But for now, they seem rather aimless.

The Western Conference Playoffs minus the Golden State Warriors:

No one in the West drastically improved their team, though the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings made incremental improvements. Not everyone has an infinity gauntlet like the Warriors do, so I don’t blame them.