#Star Wars Rebels Takeover

[forgottenclubpenguinfacts]

Fact #607

Source: Club Penguin Times, issue #482

[catastrxblues]

articles and news on what’s happening in west papua are so appallingly scarce that i could rarely find any except a few before this. as an indonesian, i didn’t even know any of this is happening in the first place until a few months ago because rarely any of the big news outlets have ever brought it up, much less in a scale that is necessary to gain the world’s attention. SO PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT, one article at a time if it seems too much (which is what i'm currently doing too).

i think it’s important to note that while indonesia has been loudly advocating for palestine’s freedom, it has also been committing silent acts of violence against the people of west papua and exploiting them for years and silence those AND others who have tried to bring it to light.

things included in the thread ->

ARTICLES :

freewestpapua.org *the link isn't working at the moment but op has included screenshots in the tweet!

west papua : a history of exploitation (al jazeera)

courtesy of amnesty international

OTHERS :

amnesty international - "sudah, kasi tinggal dia mati" pembunuhan dan impunitas di papua (in bahasa)

BOOKS TO READ :

'the road : uprising in west papua' by john martinkus

'an act of free choice : decolonisation and the right to self-determination in west papua' by pieter drooglever

'merdeka and the morning star : civil resistance in west papua' by jason macleod

’see no evil : new zealand’s betrayal of the people of west papua’ by maire leadbeater

‘freedom in entangled worlds’ by eben kirksey

‘poisoned arrows’ by george monbiot

‘papua blood’ by peter bang

’west papua and indonesia since suharto’ by peter king

pdf available :

’the united nations and the indonesian takeover of west papua’ by john saltford

’west papua : the obliteration of a people’ by carmel budiardjo and liem soei liong

FILMS TO WATCH :

rebels of the forgotten world (1991)

blood on the cross (1999)

freedom for west papua (1999)

papua merdeka (2002)

west papua — the secret war in asia (2007)

forgotten bird of paradise (2009)

strange birds in paradise — a west papuan story (2010)

west papua — a journey to freedom (2011)

mama malind su hilang (our land has gone)

benny wenda — oslo freedom forum (2012)

isolated (2013)

courage is contagious — TEDx sydney (2013)

the road to home (2015)

punks for west papua (2016)

run it straight (2016)

act of no choice (2019)

paradise bombed (2023)

investigative tv reports :

inside indonesia’s secret war for west papua — ABC news (2020)

selling out west papua — al jazeera (2020)

INFOGRAPHICS :

amnesty international

brief history

2017

2018

[countessofravenclaw]

El Lugar más Feliz de la Tierra: Chapter five

To all that come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. - Walt Disney

Luna had never heard these words before, nor had she heard of the man who had said them... well until she and Mateo end up having a movie night and Luna comes up with an idea. If there is really a place that can be called "the happiest place on the earth" she wants to see it for herself. So she and all her friends leave on an adventure ... an adventure over to a place where you can leave today and enter the world of the past, future, adventure, and fantasy.

There is a dedicated song for every chapter. It will be liked below V ¤

Made the force be with you and bright suns

“Tell me again why we’re rope dropping this again?” Matteo downed the rest of his coffee as he walked through the Disneyland’s gates behind Gastón and Nina. It was already the Friday of the week they had arrived. Time really flew when you were having fun… even if you fell to bed because you were absolutely exhausted every night. It's really true what they said about Disney not being the most relaxing vacation, but surely it was a workout. Matteo already was planning on canceling all his dance rehearsals for the week following them coming back. 

“Stop being so grumpy, Matteo.” Gastón was just laughing at him, “No one forced you to come along. You could have stayed in bed.” 

“No chance of that happening,” Matteo shook his head annoyed. “I’m not going exploring Star Wars Land for the first time while Luna’s in my ear asking ten questions that I don’t know how to answer.” 

“Didn’t you make her watch one movie once?” Nina asked as they kept walking toward the Frontierland.

“Yeah, the Clone Wars one. She fell asleep during it.” 

“When was that?” Gastón turned to look at Matteo. 

“I remember,” Nina piped up, “It was on the same day I decided to go to Oxford. Over six years ago now.” 

“Forever ago,” Matteo nodded, “And we have not watched Star Wars since with her. Maybe she’ll want to do that again now that she has this Disney obsession.”

“If she does, you’re in for a huge marathon,” Gastón laughed, “We really need to get you caught up with everything.”

Matteo rolled his eyes. He had been an avid Star Wars fan ever since he had been young. It was actually one of the few things he and his dad actually had in common. He had been to see the Og trilogy in the theaters, but now obviously wasn’t into it anymore. 

Then he had met Gastón who also was a huge fan, even if he was much more into all of the lore. When Nina had entered the fray, Matteo had become a little bit of a third wheel, but they had made it work. They had actually had bunch of fun watching stuff together and both Nina and Gastón had very good takes.

All that being said, Matteo had not been able to keep up with all the content that now existed for the universe. He had seen all the movies, the one animated series from the 2000s and the Mandalorian, the first one of those series on Disney Plus… There were bunch of those now.

“I’m a busy person,” Matteo shrugged as they were walking through The Main Street. “I don’t have time to keep up with everything in the world.” 

“You think we’re not busy?” Gastón raised an eyebrow at Matteo, “Okay, next time Luna’s abroad for a competition, you come over at us and we’re gonna have a marathon. So, you’re set up for that Mandoverse movie, because you are coming with us.”

“I know that there is another galaxy now, apparently.” Matteo continued, “I still don’t get the space whales.”

“Yeah, you need those to get to another Galaxy… Which is basically acting like a revolving door on trapping the Specters. They’re never going to be together as a family again.” 

“It’s gonna happen someday,” Nina noted, “Otherwise no one is able to watch the Rebels epilogue the same again. The Mandalore takeover and hand over of the Dark Saber already has such a different significance now.”

“This is what I meant. I have zero idea what you’re talking about.” 

“That’s why we need to get you up to date,” Gastón grinned, “and then there’s the books…”

“I don’t care about the books—” Matteo started saying, “—Sorry, let me rephrase that. Don’t want to badmouth books while Nina’s present. I don’t have time to read.” 

“You should give the High Republic a fighting chance. Those are really good.” 

“I think we should focus on this Star Wars right now,” Matteo pointed forward as they kept making their way through Frontierland. “I trust this place has some lore, so spring it on me.”

“Well, in our universe, it’s called a Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge which opened up here in Disneyland in 2019.” Gastón started, “But like in universe, it’s this planet called Batuu, which is like on the outer rim. The place is called Black Spire outpost, which was one of the prominent trading posts in the planet and in the system.” 

“It has appeared in books. I don’t remember the High Republic titles, but Thrawn Alliances by Timothy Zahn had it as a prominent location.” Nina continued, “And then there are couple books written for it specifically like the Black Spire by Delilah Dawson. I’ve been meaning to read it but haven’t gotten to it yet.”

“It’s kind of weird that it hasn’t appeared on screen yet,” Gastón noted, “But maybe it would be a bit hard to film covertly here or at Orlando. Things could get leaked.” 

“Okay,” Matteo nodded. He asked, so he could not make fun of them for the lore dump. He hadn’t expected there to be that much, but of course Gastón and Nina knew it. “So, let's go in and pilot the Falcon.” 

“You have your priorities in order.” Gastón laughed as they walked in. 

***

Nina looked at the landscaping when they entered the land. Everything was constructed from red rocks. Giant black spikes that looked like burned threes loomed above them… right… black spires. 

Lore wise, this place had a bunch of history, but Nina did not remember it all right now. She didn’t remember all the details from Thrawn Alliances, because she hadn’t had the time to reread it. 

Also, frankly, that wasn’t her favorite of all the Star Wars books. None of the Thrawn books really were, she hadn’t even read the legends ones. Her favorite definitely was the High Republic publishing writing initiative. 

That being said, she hadn’t read any Star Wars books in a while, since she didn’t always have time. She was a writer, so most of her time not writing was taken up by planning and research. Star Wars wasn’t one of the research topics right now, as her current trilogy was as far away from Sci-Fi as you could get. Space Opera and high fantasy was something she had been thinking about for her next series, not that that would be started any time soon, but something similar to Ahsoka maybe. 

“All the rock work is anchored by strong geometric forms. Many architectural components are fragmented and asymmetrically arranged, with thick walls often coated with heavy, ancient plaster to tell the story of a mysterious land with a deep, rich history.” Gastón said as he pointed towards the structures, “They must have taken a lot of real-life inspiration from places like Morocco and maybe Turkey.” 

“You know,” Nina tilted her head when she looked at him, “I really like when the architect in you comes out.” 

“Well, I’ll do it more often then,” He smirked at her. “Since I don’t get much use of my minor that much in my line of work.”  

“You will,” Nina kept looking at him. Castillo corporations was a construction company, but Gastón was a couple tiers lower of the team that did the actual project planning and executing. He was part of a team that handled energy emission and process influx calculations that the executive team required. It was an extremely good placement for an entry level job. He was going to go far. As long as he was happy, that was all that mattered to her, “Someday.” 

“So, our lightning lane for the Rise Of Resistance is gonna be up soon, so we should head down there now.” Gastón said after looking at the app. 

“Let’s go,” Matteo nodded as they started walking through the marketplace of the Black Spire outpost towards the Resistance forest.

“Wow,” They walked past the life-sized Millenium Falcon, “We need to get some pics in front of that.”

“Yeah, later—” Gastón said as he wrapped his arm around Nina as they kept walking. 

They entered the queue, which for the first part looked like some sort of jungle, like the Jungle Cruise they had been on a couple of days ago. Then they entered what was for a lack of a better word, a cave. A cave that was decorated with all kinds of props as the place was supposed to be some sort of a resistance base. 

“This is very well done,” Gastón said to her, “It almost feels like we're on Yavin IV.”

“Yeah,” Nina nodded. 

They walked past all sorts of gear, in boxes, crates, hangers. There were a bunch of BlasTech EL-16 blasters, flight suits, explosives and even proton bombs scattered around on the crates and around the queue. Star Wars was very well known for its numerous easter eggs, but Nina wasn’t best at identifying them. Gastón had a much better eye for those. 

They finally entered a room with a few of those clear screens with spacey looking lines. 

“Why are we stopping?” Matteo asked as the doors closed. 

“Ever heard of a pre-show before Matteo?” Gastón asked. 

“I know what it is,” Matteo rolled his eyes, “But nothing’s happening…”

As he had said that a sudden beeping could be heard, coming from above one of the shelves… Could you really call them shelves, it was mostly machinery. 

Some light started to blink on the screens, and to their surprise BB-8 rolled to the view on the shelf. The droid animatronic was quite impressive. Nina and Gastón had been theorizing the whole trip on how certain effects and animatronics actually worked on the rides. Gastón obviously had much more knowledge on the subject, even if he hadn’t studied robotics. 

It was fun to talk about and extremely intriguing, even if it did “break the immersion” a bit, and that's why others didn’t really like them doing it.

“There is probably some sort of arm that's operating the ball part from behind.” Gastón whispered to her as the droid kept rolling on the shelf. 

“BB-8. Prep the Ready room.” Intercom sounded as the animatronic of BB-8 was about to roll off view. 

“Commander Nien-Numb, please report back.”

The images on the screen changed again and some light flickered red again as the music started building up. 

“BB-8, is everyone assembled?” Suddenly a hologram flickered into the view on top of a table. 

“How do you think that works?” Nina whispered to Gastón. 

“I think there is some sort of an angular mirror and maybe an o-led screen.” Gastón whispered back. 

“Recruits, thank you for joining the cause.” The hologram of Rey started speaking, “A covert resistance team led by my friend Finn has infiltrated one of the First Order Star Destroyers, that is now headed to this system. Your out post on Batuu is no longer safe. We have transports waiting to take you to General Organa’s secret base on Bagara.”

“When did we sign up?” Matteo appeared to be joking, “I think I missed the memo.”

“Remember that it is vital that you keep the location of our secret base hidden. Lieutenant Beck, one of our top commanders will lead you.”

“Affirmative,” suddenly a mon calamari appeared on the screen on their left, “The transport is ready. Commander Poe Dameron and his squadron of X-wings will escort us.” 

“So, we are on a run now?” Matteo questioned as the doors opened and they were led outside. “Not what I was expecting…” 

“Well, we’re part of resistance now,” Gastón laughed, “So better not slip up. Come on.” He took Nina’s hand as they started approaching what looked like a transport.

“Go, go, go!” The cast member urged them to hurry up as they entered inside the transport. There was a huge animatronic of the mon calamari they had seen before. 

“All ships, launch!”

The “ship” they were on started shaking and moving as the screens showed them lifting off from the planet and up to space. 

“Where are all those Tie-fighters coming from?”

Suddenly it looked like they were caught in the middle of a huge firefight. 

“So, this is the point we get captured, right?” Matteo asked as the sounds of the dogfight continued, and the captain was yelling something about a tractor beam and Star Destroyers. 

“Cargo vessel TR-141 identify yourself,” A First-Order officer appeared on the screen. 

“Yep, I think we just got caught,” Gastón nodded, and Nina wrapped her arms around his arm. 

This was much more her thing in the form of excitement. Storyline driven with not too much trill. It was probably gonna get a little faster paced, but not too thrilling. 

“Prepared to be boarded.”

“Tell them nothing. Future of the Resistance is at stake.”

Suddenly the doors—not the door on the other side of the vehicle, but the door they had come through to get inside the ship—opened and a cast member dressed as an officer walked in and started barking orders at them about needing to go to an interrogation. 

“How was that possible?” Matteo questioned as they walked off the ship. 

“I think we were on some sort of a turntable,” Gastón said as they looked around the hangar, which was immensely impressive. “And then we were either lowered somewhere or just stayed static, but I’m not sure.”

“Maybe you should have become an imagineer,” Matteo nudged him, “You are enjoying this way too much.” 

“Would you, if the offer ever came up?” Nina asked him and they started walking toward a hallway as the cast member kept telling them to proceed to the detention cells. 

“Maybe,” Gastón shrugged, “If they ever decide to build a park in Argentina or something, but that’s a bit far-fetched. I’m not going to move up that fast.”

“Never say never—” Nina said as they were literally locked into a cell. 

“Well, ain't this imitating…” Matteo remarked as they were done with being “interrogated” by both General Hux and Kylo Ren, “...so are somebody gonna come and bust us out?”

As he was saying that, the wall next to them started glowing, almost like it was being cut. Then a literal piece off that wall was pulled out. 

“We’re with the resistance. We’re busting you out.” Cast members started leading them through the wall. 

***

“I didn’t realize that it was going to drop, but it was fine,” Nina was saying as they were exiting the ride. 

“It looks like Jazmin made the girls do a full fashion photoshoot with the princesses,” Gastón remarked as he looked at the thread of pictures being sent to their group chat. 

“Well, I am not sad about missing that,” Matteo laughed. 

“You do know that everyone will also want to come here,” Gastón pointed out before looking at his watch, “We’ll need to act as tour guides…We have about 25 minutes until the Savi’s reservation. How about we go grab some blue milk?” 

“I am still not sure how good of an idea it is to let you two have lightsabers,” Nina said as she took the cup of the blue milk from the counter and sipped it. “This definitely tastes strange.” 

“Hey, we will be extremely responsible with our laser swords,” Gastón responded to her, “And you want one yourself… They’ll look good on our wall. Here, take the green one, so I can try that.” 

“Where are you building your shrine?” Matteo asked as he sipped his colorful milk and almost spit it out, “What is in these?”

“We could put them in our guest room,” Gastón shrugged as he tried the blue milk, “This isn’t that bad. I mean we have to get at least one of the legacy props from that one shop. Where are you putting yours?” 

“I’ll have to hide it in the closet or something,” Matteo shook his head. “Otherwise, Luna will steal it for a prop in her next competition or something.” 

“She might wanna make her own,” Nina noted. 

“If that’s the case, none of us are brave enough to stop her,” Matteo laughed. Luna with a lightsaber was definitely a scary thought… He had already bought a loth cat plush from the creature shop to give to her on her birthday and was planning on making a hyperactive droid in her honor, but if she was gonna want a sword too…well, it was his problem so he could deal with it. “But hey, let's go make ours first.”

***

“I think that went quite splendidly,” Matteo remarked as they exited the Millenium Falcon ride. 

“You literally crashed the ship seven different times,” Gastón crossed his arms, “We should all be scared of your driving skills from this point onwards.” 

“Anyways,” Matteo ran off the ramp, “We need those pics before others will start wondering if we really have gotten stranded on that other galaxy, since that was something that apparently happened a lot.”

“Yep,” Matteo heard Gastón say as he and Nina followed him to the closest photopass photographer.

“Get your lightsabers out!”

{}

Okay, so I had quite a hard time with getting this chapter done (I hope it doesn't show too much), but that's why ends little abruptly. I guess I would have kept descripting every attraction ever super in detail, it would have gotten kind repetitive and that's not fun to write or read. I got this finished right after Ahsoka finished, so thats why there are lot of references to space whales, other galaxies and ghost crew not getting their happy reunion.

[faceofpoe]

::pokes Tumblr::

Been a hot minute and a busy summer and feeling severely out of touch with happenings over here.

Creative engine is trying to sputter back to life as fall routines loom.

Need to pick up my Hamilton WIP after the abrupt Star Wars takeover of my brain in December. Been contemplating an on-again-off-again original project I started 5 NaNoWriMos ago. Need to rewatch Andor (again).

Enjoyed the fuck out of Good Omens 2 and need to rewatch s1. Also enjoyed Heartstopper s2. Still trying to decide how I feel about the new Justified show but I'm intrigued. Nervously awaiting Ahsoka and my beloved Rebels characters. Actually been reading, which is bafflingly hard for me to do at times these days.

Anyway, hi.

[bedlamsbard]

I hope you're well!

I'm a bit fuzzy on the Death Watch. Bo-Katan joined them then left them. Would you say that they had an important role in Rebels- or post-Rebels era politics? I'm curious on your thoughts on them from your bedlam watches star wars tag 😄

My read on Death Watch is that Death Watch ceased to be an entity when Darth Maul took over Mandalore in TCW S5 and reformed the majority of what had previously been Death Watch into his own followers, the leaders of which were personally loyal to him. (See him being broken out of prison in Son of Dathomir and later his actions in TCW S7; also the number of Mandalorians -- Mauldalorians, even! -- who have stylized Zabrak horns on their helmets, something which does not appear previously.) By this point Maul's Mandalorians had become legitimized as representatives of the "legal" government and were completely detached from their previous role as Death Watch. Bo-Katan's followers who broke off from Death Watch with her do not seem to have ever used the Death Watch name and functioned as an entirely separate entity with entirely different goals than Pre Vizsla's Mark 1 Death Watch. By the end of TCW, they are now functioning as representatives of the legitimate government. Given the overtones of the Death Watch name and its previous incarnation as a violent terrorist organization, it is not in Bo-Katan's interest (and she's smart enough to realize this) to revive the name. There may well be a few Death Watch holdouts who did not side with Maul or Bo-Katan in the Clone Wars and post-Clone Wars era who are still using the name and consider themselves members of Pre Vizsla's Death Watch, but they are not a significant political factor in Mandalorian politics.

In our real world history, there are terrorist groups who have essentially gone legit and kept the name once they became legitimate political parties in themselves -- I can't think of any off the top of my head because this isn't an area I'm very familiar with -- but given the way Mandalore's politics shake out in TCW and later on, I don't see this happening with Death Watch. I just think that as of Maul's takeover in TCW S5, Death Watch ceased to exist in any meaningful form and likely ceased to exist entirely. They're not a factor in the Rebellion era at all.

I do see the Children of the Watch and Death Watch as two entirely separate and unrelated groups that just happen to share a similar name -- go down the Wiki list of designated terrorist groups and there are a lot with very similar names that have nothing to do with each other. ("Watch" may have a specific meaning in Mandalorian culture, or it may be the equivalent of "army," "force," or "front," all of which feature heavily in the names of many real world terrorist groups, and which the Lucasfilm PTB wanted to avoid for just that reason.)

[lesbinewren]

Would you recommend star wars resistance? Just finished clone wars for the first time and am looking for something new to watch since it’s the only sw show I haven’t seen 👀

i would!!! i love resistance a lot. the animation style took me some getting used to because of how different it is from other sw animation, but it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with how vibrant and expressive it is. i love the character and setting designs in resistance too, they’re all fun and unique. the best part tho is definitely the character arcs and relationships. they’re explored and developed really well and you can tell how much love and care went into each character. and like rebels, resistance does a good job at exploring how a fascist takeover of someone’s home develops and what it’s like for everyday people living under it.

i will say, temper your expectations as far as what the show is. a common issue people have getting into resistance is that it’s more “kiddish”- which i don’t mind, but if you’re someone who doesn’t like the first seasons of clone wars or rebels for that reason, resistance may not appeal to you as much.

[stellevatum]

STAR WARS VERSES:

Foundling 

Anything from her childhood up tp her departure to Kamino

Jetii

Divergent from Foundling, this is an UA where Kar is taken by the Seekers and raised in the Jedi Temple instead.

Cuy’val Dar

Kar's adolescence on Kamino to the Start of the Clone Wars.

Clone Wars

This covers Kar's time as a Republic Intelligence/Secret Apprentice

Rebellion

General Kar Alor'ade, Rebel Spymistress, and Hidden Path conspirator. Concurrent with V: Mand'alor

Marey'ad

Covers the post-Rebellion/Imperial Remnant, up to the start of the Resistance. Concurrent with V: Mand'alor

Resistance 

General Kar Alor'ade, is called from the safety of Tanalorr to once again face some old enemies....

Werlaara

Covers time beyond the events of the Sequel Trilogy in the Bendu Galaxy.

MASS EFFECT VERSES:

Cin Vhetin

Covers her first arrival to the Milky Way up to her establishment of her colony.

Mand'alor

This covers her time as Mandalore of the Milky Way, the Collector Mission, Reaper War and Post-War Reconstruction. Concurrent with V: Rebellion/Queenpin/Resistance.

Werlaara

Covers time beyond 2260 CE in the Milky Way; concurrent with Bendu Galaxy.

Brave New World 

Covers any adventures in Andromeda

BORDERLANDS VERSES:

Kingmaker I

Covers her Tenure at Hyperion and/or Hyperion-Loyal AUs

Ram'ikad

Covers her tenure with the Crimson Raiders and her takeover of Opportunity

Kingmaker II

Covers any Atlas-Loyal AUs

OTHERS

Cosmic Castaway

General Sci-Fi/Non Timeline/ Catch All Verse Tag

Halcyon

Reserved for Possible Outer Worlds Muses

Nari'ad

Reserved for No Man's Sky Muses

Stargazer

Reserved for Test case for ARK AU, should anyone be interested...

[archivyrep]

Restricted records, attempted record seizure, and record management in "Star Wars Rebels" [Part 3]

Continued from part 2

Controller tells his fellow technicians to search the archive memory for the location of the base

There is one other episode which has archives themes: "Double Agent Droid." In the episode, Imperial agents search the archive memory of the astromech Chopper for location of rebel base. At first, they are able to take control of the droid and reprogram it, in hopes of leading them to the rebel squadron, then the rebel base. Hera is suspicious of him, saying she is the one who wipes his data as a security precaution. The other droid ends up being right, and while over 50% of the data is transferred, this becomes irrelevant, as Ezra takes out the spike and the droid is shocked. Hera reprograms the droid to overload the circuits of the Imperial ship, killing all the Imperial technicians.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Jan. 12, 2022.

Again, another case of bad record management. If the information had been transmitted before that point, the Empire could have obtained something of value, but since they didn't so, the takeover of the droid was a complete failure. What Hera did is one way to deal with a data breach! Destroying the people who caused it! Ha. And they even get Chopper to come back in one piece after all of this.

While archives aren't as big of a theme in that episode as they are in others, you could say that this episode is a lesson in good record management (what not to do) and transmitting information. The Empire, for all its bureaucracy, seems to be bad at managing and transmitting records at times, and it is one of its weaknesses. They always underestimate the rebels at their peril.

All of these episodes emphasize themes of record destruction, records management, and preservation, even though no archives are directly shown, unlike other Star Wars series.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[antianakin]

I think you're still not getting what I'm saying here. Star Wars comes in TIERS of canon, they are not all equal, particularly before Disney took over.

While Lucas was in charge, ONLY things Lucas was personally involved in were considered "canon." So this means only the first six films and the first six seasons of The Clone Wars TV show. All video games, books, comic books, card games, whatever, are all of a lesser tier of canon and Lucas never once considered himself obligated to follow their worldbuilding or storylines as he continued to make content. A good example of this is to look at something like Timothy Zahn's original Thrawn trilogy that was written before the Prequels. Literally nothing in that trilogy was taken into account in the Prequel Trilogy when Lucas eventually got around to making it. The timeline is different, the clones were different, Jedi abilities and the Order's structure were different. Because nothing Timothy Zahn did was of a higher tier of canon than what Lucas made and was involved in and he never had to adhere to what other people had written or created in his sandbox.

So basically the tiers went: What Lucas made, everything else. That's it. If "Grey Jedi" isn't mentioned in the things Lucas made, it's not canon to Lucas, end of story.

When Disney took over, shit got a little more complicated. Now what's considered the highest canon is everything Lucas made (to repeat: first six films, first six seasons of The Clone Wars), the sequel films, the seventh season of The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One, Solo, and all live action Disney+ shows so far (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, etc). I will reiterate that the concept of "Gray Jedi" does not exist in any of those things. It's never once mentioned, nor do any of the creators behind those media EVER bring it up even once when discussing it. Lower Disney canon includes things like the novels, the video games, etc. Nothing in this lower Disney canon is at the same level as the higher stuff. It's still technically canon, but the movies and shows don't really have to keep it in mind.

The other important thing Disney did was relegate everything created prior to Disney's takeover as explicitly NON-canon "Legends" material. This includes most of the stuff that "Gray Jedi" as a concept seems to have explicitly lived in. I don't know if "Gray Jedi" has been brought into lower Disney canon, but from what I'm aware of, it ONLY exists in Legends for now, which makes it a pretty explicitly non-canon concept.

Now, when I look at the question of "Wasn't Ahsoka a Gray Jedi in Rebels?" I am taking that question as "Was it CANON that Ahsoka was a Gray Jedi in Rebels" to which the answer is a big fat NO. She just isn't. It's not about whether I personally consider her a Gray Jedi in Rebels or not, my opinions on whether she matches the description of a Gray Jedi DOES NOT MATTER. It's not canon because it's never stated in canon dialogue or even said in an interview by one of the creators of that show.

And just to address the one actual piece of canon dialogue you gave, Ahsoka says she's not a Jedi because, quite simply, she isn't. She left the Order and never returned and hasn't reclaimed the title since, so. Not a Jedi. The way canon worldbuilding has gone, NO ONE uses the title "Jedi" if they aren't a Jedi. There are no "Gray Jedi" or "Dark Jedi" anywhere. There are some dark side users, like the Nightsisters and obviously the Sith. There are other Light side practitioners, like Baran Do Sages or Bardotten Dagoyan. You'll notice all of these groups have their OWN NAMES for their groups. None of them would ever call themselves "Gray Jedi" or "Dark Jedi." A Jedi is a Jedi, end of story. If you're not a Jedi, you don't use the title.

If YOU want to headcanon Ahsoka to be a Gray Jed in Rebels, GO RIGHT AHEAD. But that is now YOUR personal headcanon, and that does not make it canon. Just because you personally think that Ahsoka's behavior in Rebels matches up to how Gray Jedi have been described in Legends content does NOT make it canon. That's not what canon means.

@auditect

You seem like you're being genuine about this and asking this in good faith, so I'm going to say this as respectfully as I possibly can: no, she's not.

When thinking about what's canon and what's not, there are 2 things to consider. One is, was it explicitly said or shown in the canon material (in this case, Rebels)? For example, did you hear anyone CALL Ahsoka a Gray Jedi, or discuss Gray Jedi and then have Ahsoka pretty clearly get associated with said concept? Two is, have you ever heard the main creator of a canon material explicitly state somewhere that Ahsoka is intended to be understood as a Gray Jedi by the audience? In this case that would probably be Filoni, but you can probably count the other writers and even Lucas in this category.

The answer to all of those questions is no. At no point has the concept of Gray Jedi ever been brought up in a high canon piece of media in Star Wars (in case high canon is a new term for you, this includes all of the movies, TCW, Rebels, and the Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, TBOBF, TBB, etc.). Gray Jedi are FANON because they only exist in a piece of extended universe Star Wars media which, in many ways, works as basically official fanfiction. Nobody working on the more "high media" stuff is ever obligated to keep extended universe stories in mind and adhere to their continuity, but the people working on extended universe stories have to adhere to high canon continuity as best they can.

Obviously there are things that have been brought from extended universe into high canon, but Gray Jedi simply aren't one of them. And, in my own opinion, this is because the entire concept makes no sense with the actual worldbuilding of high canon Star Wars. As much as Filoni shits on the Jedi, he does generally seem to understand Lucas's worldbuilding which makes the fanon concept of Gray Jedi literally impossible. Using a little dark side without it having an impact on you isn't possible. That's not how the Force works, as the saying goes.

So no, Ahsoka's not a gray Jedi in Rebels. She's a former Jedi who happens to keep using her training and her lightsabers to help people in the Rebellion. Even in the trailers for the new Ahsoka show, the tagline says "rebel, outcast, JEDI." There's nothing in there about being gray, there's no acknowledgment of Gray Jedi as a thing. Ahsoka is someone who was once a Jedi and will likely end up a Jedi again by the end of her show because that's the journey we've sort-of seen her going on throughout the different things she's been in.

In Rebels, we see Ahsoka actively working with other Jedi (Kanan and Ezra) to continue work that the Jedi Order had started, we see Ahsoka specifically come along on missions that are Jedi specific problems. She says she's not a Jedi, yes, but in her time, being a Jedi meant something very specific, you couldn't just identify as a Jedi if you weren't someone who was adopted into the Order officially. Ahsoka was expelled and then refused to come back, so she's no longer an official member of the Jedi Order and can no longer take on the title of Jedi. And then the Order is destroyed, so all roads for officially rejoining the Order are now closed to her effectively forever. And this leaves her with trying to figure out what being a Jedi means to her in the wake of that destruction, how can she re-identify as a Jedi without an Order to be a part of, does she even have the right to do so when she hadn't been a Jedi when the Order was destroyed? We've seen characters like Kanan and Cal go through similar arcs and both of them became full Jedi by the end of them. There's no real reason Ahsoka won't do the same given that it's the most obvious place for her to go.

Now, none of that means that if you like the fanon concept of Gray Jedi that you can't just headcanon Ahsoka as a Gray Jedi after she leaves the Order. More power to you! But just because it's a headcanon you like doesn't make it canon. Until it's made explicit via dialogue or something similar in high canon, or at the very least said in an interview by one of the creators, it's NOT CANON.

[obeymesheep]

Trust

Royal AU Lucifer

Knight Reader, he/him you/your pronouns

Warning! Battle, death, Violence nothing to graphic tho, and with lots of fluff at the end but also pretty ambiguous

AAAAAAAAAA I've been thinking about this for so long and worked really hard on it and i hope it comes off the way. I might do a whole series of this, if this does well and lmk if you want more!

Lucifer, a cold-faced prince with an impeccable ability to avoid his father's marriage alliance attempts, although he was handsome, he was also terrifying, in a kind of ruin your life way. So, the occasional suitor scare wasn’t hard when a sturdy glare could catch them a carriage out of his kingdom. He thought he was far better observed from afar anyway, although dreams of romance weren't completely off the table. He often hoped, in his id, that someone, maybe a far-off prince, would dance him, into falling in love with him, into Lucifer declaring that he belongs to him, mind, body, and soul. However, now wasn’t the time for daydreams.

Lucifer was preparing himself for a takeover, a brutal one. Lucifer was going to kill his father, the king. Lucifer's father was a tyrant, ruling with an iron fist, putting himself, before Lucifer and his brothers, and even before his kingdom, and his people. He started pointless wars, only to ravage and rape. Held his power, and his mercy just over their head, only to stake his claim into the land. Lucifer was enraged by his brutality; he wasn’t going to play his pawn anymore.

He had raised an army of rebels, most of them his battalion. He had the sway of the people. Most importantly he had the training and weapons to kill an armed tyrant. Why did he feel so empty, so lachrymose, he thought he might feel guilty, or maybe happy, proud of himself. Perhaps he was lonely, afraid of the conscience of killing one's father. None of that would matter on the battlefield, none of it would matter when he will be sitting on the throne. Suddenly he was aware that he was ready, shoving all that down, resting his palms on his head for a minute. Lucifer's guard came in and cupped his cheek with his right hand, “My prince, are you all right? You feel quite hot.” Lucifer could tell that his devoted knight was just as hot and nervous as he, not wanting to lose what semblance of friendship they had with death.

You had been Lucifer's knight since he turned sixteen when you were just naïve kids. You would never live to let Lucifer die; you were to be the only one to be in the throne room with Lucifer and his father, and if it came to it you would die for him. When Mammon, the second born ran away, to outrun the world with his lover, and outrun his father's intense pressure, Lucifer had only himself to blame and, vowed to destroy the king. You noticed a change after, Lucifer had shifted into someone cold-blooded, hard, sadistic, and prideful. It's not like you minded much you were just worried about him, worried about what the stress of ruling would do to him.

“I'm just fine” Lucifer smiled; a true one you had not seen grace his face in a long time. The last time you saw him smile was when you had told him that, you had no grand dream of power or wealth, that serving him was dream enough for you, and he smiled; a soft dreamy smile, a smile that said all that needed to be said. Lucifer suddenly stood, taking your hand that once rested on his cheek, and bestowed it with a kiss, letting it fall back to your side, he grabbed his crab sword and left the room.

The cry of the battle outside was loud, barricaded inside. Lucifer stood off from the king. The clashing of swords and the king's laughs rang through the room. Their swords are like stars in the dark. Lucifer was injured. Having taken too many hits. So was the king, staggering breaths and cackles ringing for nobody's ears but your own. Lucifer was quick on his feet. Quick to dodge any swing that came his way. Quick to bounce back with a slam of his sword. The king took him by surprise, cutting into his side as blood poured onto the blade as well as the floor. Standing over him the king readied to kill his son.

You left forgotten on the sidelines, took your weapon, and with a slice, his arm clanged to the floor. Screams rang out, but not for long as Lucifer's blade pierced through his skull. With shaky breaths Lucifer ascended to the throne, the heel of his boot digging into the skull of the tyrant who would soon be forgotten in history. Relief spread as the horrifying sounds outside dispersed, everyone already knew Lucifer had won. You kneeled at his feet bowing your head, and he giggled. Which erupted into joyous chuckles, “My prince, what is so funny? You are injured and should let me tend to you.” He just smiled again with tears in his eyes, letting me see his wound. “You shouldn’t call me that anymore you know, just call me Lucifer.”

You kissed his bloodied hand, the hand that would rule with grace and dignity, with you right beside him. “What if I like calling you that, My prince?” You whispered into his hand, “Very well, darling” Kneeling once again you took his hand to your forehead. You would forever protect him, the nights he demanded you stay in the room, the late nights in the library, and on the battlefield; and you know he would do the same for you.

[zibulon01]

The last nova, please!

BNHA x Star Wars AU. Temporary title.

DFO AU. Izuku is emperor Hisashi's only son. His father wishes for him to become a perfect heir and attempts to teach him the Dark side of the Force. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, his seemingly lack of skills in that one area annoys Hisashi, it seems his son cannot stir anger the way he his supposed to. He vault send him away from the court while he think about his future.

After AFO's takeover 100+ years ago, the Jedi order has been on the run accross the outer rim and regularly cooperate with rebel factions.

Thinking that Izuku holds important information or could be used as hostage, a rebel faction manage to get their hands on prince Izuku. While interrogated, he catches the eye of Jedi master Toshinori Yagi, who feels that there is more to the boy than just being a despot's sithspawn.

Against the Council's advice, Toshinori will end up taking Izuku under his wing. Turns out Izuku's potential in the Force bloomed in the Light side more so than the Dark side.

AFO deploys his enforcer -Yoichi- to retrieve Izuku and smite anything in his path as exemple. It is more as retaliation of stealing an important piece from him and under his nose than out of guenuine worry for his son.

Despite everything, Izuku does cares about his father. But being on the other side of the coin and seeing the darker side of the galaxy he's supposed to rule over, he starts questioning his father and his loyalties.

One for All is the name of Yoichi's Jedi lineage. It was composed of very skilled, albeit short-lived, Jedi knights and masters with unorthodox abilities and methods that got passed down each generation.

While AFO is Palpatine's equivalent, Yoichi is the one currently filling the role of Vader as Hisashi's Sith apprentice and enforcer. Yoichi used to be a skilled Jedi, albeit with a frail health and body. After some gaslighting/treachery on AFO's part, he turned his brother naive and hopeful heroic values against him, cornering him and making him go too far to go back. Having too much regret and ashamed of what he did, Yoichi fell while being in complete denial, convincing himself that what he did was for the greater good. With his brother's teaching and the help of the Dark side, Yoichi has become healthier and deadlier, able to serve justice and order as his brother he sees fit.

Yoichi is 100+ years old as well. AFO discovered how to use the Dark side to slow down the aging process and shared it with Yoichi upon having him as apprentice.

Unable to go back to the Jedi order, Yoichi is now chained at AFO's side. Indeed, AFO had planned for years to takeover the galaxy for himself, thus he also studied how to make his brother fall and make him stay at his side, as he knew conflict between factions would brew and he wanted to not have his brother on the other side of the war.

[levitatingbiscuits]

i think it’s really funny when people get pissy about how the jedi CLAIM to be PEACEKEEPERS not SOLDIERS yet they USE VIOLENCE???? curious. i am very intelligent

i’d love to see the star wars they want to see. no one ever even thinks about using a lightsaber. whenever the sith or the separatists or the empire or whoever decides to take over a planet and massacre a bunch of innocents the jedi just go “welp, we tried!” and stand back to watch the fireworks. they should just be vocal conscientious objectors and let everyone die for the sake of ideological purity. all those people who beg them for help? fuck em. wow naboo is facing a hostile takeover from a predatory corporation who are putting everyone in prison camps? sucks to be you, padme. shut up princess leia who cares about the rebel alliance im busy keeping the peace in my desert hut. no luke don’t blow up the death star that makes you jUsT aS bAd as them blowing up alderaan. fascists have feelings too, you know.

[oh-no-eu-didnt]

Nien Nunb was a Sullustan smuggler who eventually fell into service with the Rebel Alliance. A successful spacer, Nunb started working illegally against the SoroSuub Corporation after their Imperial takeover. After officially joining the Rebellion to effect further change, Nunb was chosen by the illustrious Lando Calrissian to serve as his copilot during the Battle of Endor.

Source: The New Essential Guide to Characters (Art: Michael Sutfin; 2002)

First Appearance: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi novel (1983)

Read more on Wookieepedia.

[kiljoytrout]

Oath of the Cherry Orchard

Based off this illustration by Emily Amiao as well as some details from her animatic The Other Side (check it out on her yt emilyamiao)

Summary: The rebels have won. Now all that's left for Yun on his long list of plans is for him and Elias to sign the sacred oath of the cherry orchard and formally end the war. But when mysterious characters cause familiar screams and snow bleeds red under the cherry trees, it's up to Yun to make some difficult decisions

Word Count: 3.3K

The cherry trees had been dusted in the fine sugar snow of late winter, but now they were covered in the sweet red syrup of fresh blood.

Pointing a gun at the head of his father, who in turn was ready to blow the brains out of the last prince of the Everstied royal family, Yun couldn’t figure out where everything had gone wrong. The subterfuge, the turmoil, he had thought it was all over. The crumbling remains of the Anwei Democratic Party and the prevailing rebels had come to the sacred cherry orchard, the place where Anwei was first woven together, in order to make an oath of peace, to stop the bloodshed that had torn the nation at its seams. Yun had known the possibility of treachery, expected it even, but not even his meticulous planning and preparation prepared him for what had occurred.

Elias had always been slightly apprehensive about the oath.

“ You’re certain the orchard is secure?”, he had asked earlier, for what was likely the hundredth time since the ceasefire.

“ For the last time, it is!”, groaned Yun, tossing a hair ribbon to Elias before taking a glance back at his uniformed self in the mirror.

It was indeed, for Yun had thought of absolutely everything: sniper in the peach grove, weapons check at the old Capitol entrance, dubious area patrol dismissed. Yun was an expert in pointing out the fatal chinks in his opponent’s armor, the weak spot that guaranteed victory, and there was nothing of the sort in his own. Or so he had thought.

When they had arrived at the cherry orchard, the diplomats from the ADP weren’t there yet. Elias raised his eyebrows at this, but Yun shrugged it off. Unlike Elias, he wasn’t used to people being at his beck and call; at any rate the delay gave him time to strategize terms for the closing treaty, which traditionally occurred after the ceremonial peace oath. Elias started squinting at the distance, shaking his head slightly to himself, before looking again at absolutely nothing. After about thirty seconds of this, Yun started to get irritated.

“Cool it, Elias. The trains from the old Capitol are practically snails with windows, it's no wonder they’re late.”

“ There they are, coming through the peach grove”, Elias responded, pointing to where Yun could now barely see the shadowy bulks of three figures walking through the garden towards them.

The two of them with thuggish bodyguard builds were lugging the sacred scrolls needed for the oath towards them. The man in the middle was taller, with an imposing stature that clearly defined him as the person who people would bow down to and the person who expected it. Yet, he had a cold crookedness to his features that was strikingly familiar. Elias blinked, rubbing his eyes before voicing what Yun had already figured out.

“ That’s-”

“Yes”

Yun knew that he couldn’t harm him, that the old Capitol had been purged of weapons and that the sniper were waiting at the only other entrance in the garden to institute peace by any means necessary. But even if every rifle in Anwei was at his disposal, he didn’t think he’d ever feel completely safe from him, the man who now faced them, sacred scrolls in hand.

“Son”

“ Father”

Both spat the words with so much venom that a string of obscenities would have been a more welcoming greeting. After a few seconds of tense staring (which took Elias jamming his riding boot into Yun’s shoddy shoe to dispel), his father sighed and looked up at the cherry trees, sweet red drops sprinkled with snow.

“Now that your insurrectionists are done tearing up the country it's about time to institute some peace.”

Yun snorted. Only his father could make the rebel’s historic takeover sound like a victory for the ADP.

“ How was your trip?”, asked Elias, his tone dripping with the polite contempt required by his princely position.

“ Rather taxing, but I’m sure it was necessary”

“I take it you didn’t appreciate the weapon screenings?”

The two guards knit their eyebrows in confusion at this, but Yun’s father took it in stride.

“ Seemed rather out of place for a diplomatic meeting, but then again my son has always liked his smoke and mirrors. Shall we get on to business?” he said.

“Sure.” 

Yun stepped forward, shaking snow off the shoulders of his navy jacket. He extended his frostbitten hand, not trembling a bit in the bitter cold because it was all finally over; his struggles with his father, the arduous battles to take back Anwei, they were all as hollow as cherry trees in the dead of winter. His father’s sneer twisted itself into a satisfied smile as he reached out his hand-

“Yun.”

Yun glanced sideways, but Elias wasn’t there anymore. Instead he was moving closer to the ADP guards, fingers fluttering at the edge of his now empty sword sheath like they always did when he was about to fight.

“Yes?”

Gaze never breaking away from the ADP, Elias continued “ What direction is the old Capitol entrance to the orchard?”

“ East”

“And where did our friends here just enter the orchard from?”

“From the Peach Grove in the -”

Yun stopped short.

“West.”

They had been tricked. No wonder the guards had looked so confused about the screenings, somehow they had bypassed them entirely. But what about the snipers in the Peach Grove and the Pear Garden? Wouldn’t they have sent a message that the ADP was sneaking in another way? Then Yun saw the barely discernible muzzle of a blackmarket gun poking out from between the holy scrolls, and he knew what had happened. For a single moment, nobody spoke, instead flaying each other's eyes, for any remaining sense of humanity, dignity, and civil peace to stop what was inevitable.

The guard on the left reached for the scroll. Whether it was to grab the gun or to pass the oath, Yun would never know, because Elias reached into his elaborate hairdo, whipped out three silver bladed throwing stars, each with the ornate gold accents of the Eversteid crest, and sent the first one ripping straight through the guard’s throat. Any other time Yun would have balked at the failure of his no-weapons plan on two levels, but sudden death appeared to be the ultimate catalyst to snapping out of it.

The resulting scuffle happened so fast that Yun could barely keep track of what he was doing let alone everyone else. The second guard had stooped to the ground in a futile effort to revive his cohort while Yun’s father rushed Elias, who was now swinging five throwing stars at an arm's length. Just when Yun absorbed what had happened, the second guard, thirsty for vengeance of any kind, picked up the gun that had spilled out of the scrolls and aimed it right at him. Yun dove out of the way, just as the first bullet whistled over his head, with a silencer so quiet, he could have missed the sound of gunfire in the falling snow. He scurried over to where a second gun had fallen from the scrolls, feeling it's cold metallic barrel freeze his fingertips, before hastily emerging from the underbrush to confront the second guard.

But the second guard and Yun’s father were several feet away, next to the struggling form of Elias, who the guard had tackled to the ground. His long lavender hair was fanned out behind him, and his treasure trove of throwing stars had been tossed into the snow.

“That one certainly gave us some trouble”, said Yun’s father as he plucked a late cherry off of a tree, the red juice running down his chin as he bit it.

“ That’s for sure. What about the other one?” the second guard replied, binding Elias’s hands with rope, as the latter yelled obscenities muffled by the heel of the guard’s boot.

“My good for nothing son is probably hiding like a coward in one of the other orchards. We’ll find him soon enough”

“Those traitors better pay for what they did to Kierek”, the second guard said, nodding towards the corpse of the first guard, Eversteid throwing star still in his throat.

“ We can take care of this one soon, and my son will be captured and sentenced once we reinstitute order”

“The orders were to kill them bo-”

“I said he will be captured. Do you understand?”

The second guard nodded, noting the violent gleam in his boss’s eyes.

“ But this one has no other use. The royals are too pigheaded to ever give up any information and we don’t have the time for a public execution.” said Yun’s father, spitting out the cherry pit.

“Dispose of him,”

The guard raised the gun to Elias’s head; Yun burst from the bushes and sprinted as fast as he could. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears, his stomach in his chest, he was going so fast that the snow fall had become an endless tunnel of white, with Elias at its center. The guard had no chance. Yun plowed through him like a meteor, driving him straight into the snow bank and knocking the gun out of his hands. Yun turned around to free Elias, but standing in his way was the crooked man who had made his life a series of slanting scowls and stolen smiles.

“Don’t you dare”,

his father snarled, the third gun cocked at his side, and his foot on a gasping Elias, who he had given a brutal kick in the ribs.

“Let him go!”

Yun had meant to sound intimidating but in the icy cold his voice thinned out to little more than a squeak, prompting a smirk from his father.

“Such big talk from a greasy little nobody. Just stand around waving that toy some more and we can wait until Roklin comes out of the snowbank and captures you.“

His father was where Yun got his ability to spot weak spots. And Yun’s father had always known exactly where his son’s were.

“We both know you’re really not going to do anything. Even when you were little you were always loudmouth with no spine, crying for mommy, so why don’t you-”

While Yun’s weak spots may have been the same as when he was younger, his temper was twice as short. He rushed his father, blood pounding in his ears, but stumbled on a stray root before faceplanting right back onto the snowy ground. He heard the crack before he felt the pain pumping through his broken nose. The brackish tears came instantly as did his father’s wolfish laughter, hoarsely echoing dead wood.

Amidst the relentless pounding in his head and nose, Yun’s foot kicked aside the stray root that had caused his bloody humiliation. A rather metallic stray root. Yun jolted up, reeling as he snatched Roklin’s half buried pistol from the snow and pointed it straight at his father.

“You wouldn’t have the guts,” scoffed his father, aiming his own firearm at the temple of a wheezing Elias.

Click. Yun cocked the gun.

A moment of silence. The cold wind whipped Yun’s bloody, tearstained face; snowflakes melted in his loose, dark hair; his earring, a miniature rebel flag, waved back and forth in the bitter breeze. He couldn’t be that boy, could he? The one holding a gun to his father? The one who had to make a shot that would haunt him for the rest of his days? No. In that moment Yun was nothing but a cherry tree: frosted with snow, watered with blood, and staunchly rooted in a history that would never be chopped down.

“I wish I didn’t have to do this”

Right as he pulled the trigger, a steel wall slammed into him. Smothered under the heavy armor of the second guard, who had managed to pull himself up from the snowbank, Yun extricated himself just in time to hear the dull thud of a bullet meeting flesh. But the low canine howl that Yun had steeled himself for never came. Instead, a sharp, shocked cry, that could only come from one person.

When he was five, Yun and his friends were running around in the grass, when one of them fell and cut their knee on a jagged rock. The world seemed to separate into colors at that moment : the treacherous gray of the rock, an eggshell pale face of shock, and of course, the crimson that had stained the grass below their feet. The injured child was quickly escorted back home by their guardian, where their sobs were staunched with a piece of candy. But Yun couldn’t stop crying. He had felt no physical pain, his skin was intact, his blood was unspilt, but he had seen all of that and more in his friend’s eyes, the fire, the horror, of being at one moment whole and the next moment not, that Yun had felt it more acutely then if the wound were his own. If that was bad, then seeing Elias, prostrate on the snowy ground of the cherry orchard, a red sea flowing out of the gorey hole in his shin, was a thousand times worse.

Spooked, his father lunged aside, just in time to collide with the second guard, who charged past him through the orchard with seemingly endless adrenaline, his icy obligation to his commander melting away to wet fear.

“ Elias!” screamed Yun, running over to him, ripping off his own uniform jacket and wrapping it around Elias’s leg in a desperate attempt to staunch the gushing blood that poured forth like the pulsing rivers of Anwei. Elias’s face had the same shock as the boy from Yun’s childhood, but so much paler, and with every second he resembled more and more a sculpture made from the snow he was dying on. “Hold on hold on hold on” Yun hiccuped, tying the makeshift tourniquet as tight as he could. Tears blurred his vision, but in the periphery he saw a crooked man gathering the torn scrolls of peace from the ground.

The sight made Yun forget all about Elias and he dropped the tourniquet, concentrating all of his drained energy into raising his blood splattered pistol at the back of his fleeing father. Before he could pull the trigger, his target turned around, but instead of booking it out of the orchard, raised his arms in a scorching surrender.

C’mon just do it, just do it, just do it, Yun thought, Prove him wrong just this once. But his steely self commands froze at his finger, which remained entrenched at the top of the trigger, refusing to push down. Amidst his rancid rage, exhausted adrenaline, and salty tears, he knew one glimmering truth. If Yun pulled that trigger, the last remains of his energy would be spent, and he would collapse into the snow next to a wounded Elias. They would die, they would disappear under the earth, and they would be cherry trees half dead in winter, embracing branches, bleeding fruit, screaming snow.

But Yun always had a plan, and even when he didn’t, the end goal was always the same.

Elias.

Yun would never give him up, even as acid burned through his veins when he pried his frostbitten fingers from the bloody pistol and dropped it into the snowbank, even when his father slinked off through the peach garden with an unreadable expression on his crooked, familiar face, even when he realized how far away the orchard gates were and how he had ordered the night patrol to stay away for his goddamn security measures; no matter how beautiful it was, the cherry orchard would never take Elias as long as Yun could still trick his paper form into the softest pulse of life.

Slippery warm blood, bone breaking cold, rotten raw heart; that was all he could remember for weeks afterward. Mia, Elias’s little sister, and her girlfriend Celine visited him at the hospital everyday, trying to coax him into revealing how a simple peace oath led to all of this. They told him that he was a hero, that he had half-carried, half-dragged Elias past the orchard gates, that a little girl had found them collapsed near her swing set, more dead than alive. But the only question he ever wanted an answer to was always met with avoided glances, shaking heads, and uncertain words. Lost a lot of blood, infected wound, critical condition.

But after a lot of begging, bribing, and borderline blackmailing, Yun was finally allowed a brief visit. The doctor took him down an endless fluorescent corridor, stopping in front of a room with a rusty sign reading Post Operation.

“Only ten minutes!” chirped the nurse as she opened the creaking door, and bolted away, green tea pipe in hand for a smoke break.

Yun crashed into the room, but stopped short when he saw Elias, wrapped in a thin blanket on a too small cot, where he could see a single sock-covered foot hanging off the end. The patient, on seeing him, gave a slight smile, and tried to raise himself up to sitting position.

“Let me” said Yun, walking over to the bed, fluffing and stacking the pillows for a head rest as he observed the tinctures and bandages littering the dinky nightstand.

Among them was a pamphlet emblazoned in cheerful yellow with: Adjusting to Your Amputation. Yun snapped his head back towards Elias, who averted his gaze towards the end of the bed. Without asking for permission, Yun yanked the blanket off the cot, exposing next to a bandaged and blistered leg, a stitched up stump connected to a polished wooden crutch.

“ They’re putting a more refined one in next week. I’ll need to use a wheelchair at first, but after some time I can adjust to a cane.”

The guilt took a second to set in, but when it did, Yun wanted to submerge himself in the oiliest, blackest sea and never come out.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,”

“Why are you crying? I’m the one with the botched leg,” said Elias, the amused tilt to his statement falling flat when he saw Yun’s crushed expression.

“Oh my god, this is my fault, I can’t believe I shot you, I should have aimed better, I should have shot him faster, oh my god, oh my-”

“Hey, HEY!”, said Elias, grabbing Yun’s flailing hands with the reflexes of an ace swordsman.

“Look at me. Look at me. You got me out of there. It’s like I used to tell my sister whenever she messed up at something: whatever mistakes made back there are dead, but you aren’t. It's going to be an uphill battle from here and I need you supporting me, not blaming yourself.”

Yun nodded.

“Okay?”

“Okay”

“Now come over here and tell me about the new siege on the Old Capitol. But first close the door. If that horrid nurse comes back here stinking of burnt tea again, I’m breaking out my sword, prosthetic or not.”

At this, Yun’s tears finally dried into loud snickering; Elias chimed in with some decidedly non-aristocratic chuckles. This continued until the nurse in question barged back into the room, smoke curling from her nostrils as she demanded they keep it down. Yun and Elias practically roared with laughter; a loving crack of relief as deadwood came back to life.

[incorrectpizza]

My Definitive (actually not definitive at all just creating this at like midnight because I have feelings) ranking of Star Wars shows:

Star Wars Rebels. The king. The reason I got into the Star Wars fandom.

The Mandalorian. Live action Star Wars at its finest since the Disney takeover.

Star Wars Resistance. The criminally underrated. The show that spawned my friendship with @voteformightyclocks.

Star Wars The Clone Wars. Okay, so this one is neck-and-neck with Resistance for me but I threw it at the bottom just to upset some people. 

Star Wars Visions. Not bad, but not my cup of tea, still haven’t finished watching.

The Book of Boba Fett. Which kept getting my hopes up and then crashing them against a rock.

[quipxotic]

Just because Bo-Katan says it’s a cult doesn’t mean it is.

Bo-Katan is not more of a Mandalorian because she was born into a famous and powerful family from Mandalore and Din is not less of a Mandalorian because he was adopted into the Children of the Watch.

They are both equally Mandalorian.

Discussion of Mandalorian politics below the cut, along with spoilers for Rebels and The Clone Wars.

I just want new fans to know (and old fans to remember) that Bo-Katan is a complicated person. What Bo cares about is a unified Mandalore under Mandalorian rule, of course she’s not going to have a great opinion of any splinter group that doesn’t align with that. Which doesn’t mean she’s lying, she could see them as a cult. She could even be right - there are plenty of signs in what we’ve seen of the Children of the Watch (her name for them, not evidently their own name for themselves, by the way) that could point in that direction. But we, like Din, lack enough information to tell one way or the other. That’s probably on purpose.

There have always been many factions among the Mandalorians, that’s part of the reason they’ve not taken over the galaxy. Unified no one could stop them outside of the Jedi or the Sith, but they’ve spent hundreds of years fighting among themselves. That was the reason Satine advocated for her version of Mandalore, it wasn’t that she was some peaceful, fragile flower, she had seen what endless war had done to her people and her planet and wanted to save both.

You know it just occurred to me that this “who is and who isn’t a Mandalorian” drama, like all other Star Wars discourse, mirrors almost exactly what goes on among the Mandalorians in canon. Turns out the Mandalorians were really Star Wars fandom all along. Well played Dave and Jon! Very meta.

Anyway, things I’d like to know:

We can guess, both due to the Din’s flashbacks of being rescued by members of Death Watch and their name, that the Children of the Watch are a breakaway faction of Death Watch, but when did that happen? During the Clone Wars seems a good guess, but both the Watch and Bo’s likely more mainstream loyalist faction seem to share similar experiences of the Purge and that was after the Empire’s takeover of Mandalore. If the groups were already separate at that time, how were they both involved with that event?

I see all these hot takes about the Armorer as cult leader, but if that was the case why send Din to find the Jedi? Usually cult leaders want to control information and sending your adherents to seek out your ancient enemies in order to repatriate one of their children seems a bad way to do that.

Who is the Armorer? She wears a horned helmet similar to those worn by Maul’s Mandalorian faction but in a different color scheme. Was she part of that group or did she inherit the helmet from someone else? Learning who she is could tell us more about what she does or does not know. There’s every chance that she too is in the dark about what’s going on with other Mandalorian groups...or not, we just don’t know. It’s also important to remember that Maul’s Mandalorian faction also had its roots in Death Watch and that their schism was about whether or not an outsider like Maul could become Mand'alor (leader of the Mandalorians) through ritual combat.

I had to laugh when Din said Mandalore is cursed. It’s not a bad take on what’s happened with that planet. It’s also a reminder that not all Mandalorians call Mandalore home and therefore their level of commitment in taking it back may differ.

How many members of frickin’ Clan Vizsla are out there? Those guys (and it’s always guys, are there any women in Clan Vizsla?) are everywhere. They’re in Death Watch, the Children of the Watch, and Bo-Katan’s loyalist group in Rebels.

Where are the Wrens in all of this? We know where Sabine ends up, but what about the rest of her family?

When did Korkie Kryze die? I had assumed Maul had him executed after one of Satine’s failed escape attempts, but we’ve never heard what happened to him one way or the other. Could he have died during the Purge?

As an aside, it’s just really rich to me that any former member of Death Watch should cast any other group as an extremist sect of Mandalorians given what we know Death Watch got up to. Endlessly amusing.

As much as I love Bo-Katan my dream-get for live action Mandalorians is Fenn Rau. Kevin McKidd, Rau’s voice actor, doesn’t look as much like his animated counterpart as Katee Sackhoff, but I think it could work.