#YES i know there's a luke in this universe there's an ezra and so on and so forth

[thebirdandhersong]

Also to be completely honest--warning: I have been obnoxious about names since I was a kid (which is why I gave up reading the Green Ember series... I remember reading it in high school and being Incredibly Frustrated by the lack of consistency in the way the writer chose his characters' names, so despite the fact that I liked the story somewhat, I just never read the rest of the series based on this sticking point)--it really bothers me that Paige and Rose are named Paige and Rose

[garden-bug]

Let's fix Star Wars!!

(I said at the start of the summer and wrote nearly 100k.) (It needed a lot of fixing ok.)

Here is a fix-it fanfic but it's for three series and the entire sequel trilogy. I will be posting about this more because I am determined to finish it soon (and then redraft it wooo!).

Description:

Somehow, Darth Maul returns. (As a force ghost.) (Somewhere Ahsoka thinks is probably the living Force.)

This changes everything.

In other words: The Mandalorian S3 but make it Din/Luke; the Ahsoka series but make it EZRA AND THRAWN SPACE ADVENTURES; and ‘somehow Palpatine returns’ is ripped to shreds because I connect plot points and add new characters.

Chapter excerpts below!

Chapter 1 excerpt:

“Not as far as I remember. Oh, wait! I wanted to rule the galaxy… shame.” He rolls his shoulders again. “Can’t do much about that now. Being dead is quite demotivating.” “I’m sorry for your lack of motivation.” “Don’t make fun, Lady Tano. Have sympathy for this poor, dead, ex-Sith.” “I guess 'dead' is your only personality trait now.” “You preferred me before?” Ahsoka grimaces. She can’t argue with that. “No, sorry." “I will be honest,” Maul says, “I haven’t felt this peaceful since before I lost the lower half of my body.” Ahsoka fixes him with a reproving look. "You were Palpatine's apprentice then." “Yes.” Maul sighs wistfully, chin sinking into his hand. Ahsoka rubs her eyes. Maul has already given her a headache and they've only been talking for a minute. There is still nothing but darkness and flickering light, and Maul’s steady, yellow eyes. “Do you know where you are?” Ahsoka asks. “Why should I help you figure this out? You didn’t help me once. Also, in case I haven’t made it abundantly clear, I’m dead, so I don’t care what happens to you or anyone else who is still alive. Some of us aren’t so lucky, you know?” "If we figure this out, maybe I'll get peace. I really don't want you as a voice in my head." Maul grimaces. “B’ahor,” he mutters. “In the Al'har system?” "There is a dark power on that planet… I sense evil, but also… something else." His eyes burn. "Perhaps you will go there and die. That would solve this problem quickly."

Chapter 2 excerpt:

“What was that?” Mayan asks as they hurry towards the mountain. “That feeling… the…” “The Force,” says Ahsoka. “The Force exists all around us. It is created by all living things, it moves through them, and it binds the whole galaxy together.” “How do you know about it?” “I was trained as a Jedi.” Ahsoka is surprised when her face remains impassive. There is no flicker of recognition, no spark of awe in her eyes. She just nods. “In my village, people like that are called world breakers.” “There are more of you?” “There were.” Mayan looks away. “The legends say that world breakers can take a planet in their hand and shatter it.” “That's... impossible,” Ahsoka says. She wonders why she had never considered that remote planets may have different legends about the Force. “According to the stories, we are children of the Great Universe. If we follow its will, it will guide us... That's how it used to be.” Ahsoka means to ask if there is more to these legends, but Mayan comes to a halt suddenly and points to the rock face in front of them. “This is where the curse is,” says the girl. “Yes.” Ahsoka can sense it too. This is where the Force has been leading them. It reeks of Sith and of evil. Something terrible must have happened here.

Chapter 4 excerpt:

Fleeing vehicles kick up a cloud of dust, and Luke jumps up onto the roof of the adjacent building, crouching close in preparation to drop down. Sweat licks the back of his neck. For a stupid moment he thinks how this is the complete wrong time of day to be out, when both suns are high in the sky. Then he leaps. There isn’t even time to be annoyed as the roller-wheeler careers around the corner. “Peli, I told you to keep him inside!” “He wanted to see his dad!” Peli screams. Luke sends Grogu a withering look. The little guy sticks his tongue out from where he is held securely in the Mandalorian’s arms. “I am so sorry,” says the Mandalorian. Luke doesn’t even know where to start. “It’s alright, can you hang on to him?” The roller-wheeler jolts suddenly, and Grogu squeals in what’s probably excitement. “Yeah, but you can’t get through their shield with your lightsaber. I tried with mine.” “Ok.” Luke tugs the vehicle slightly to adjust its course. “We’re gonna have to talk about why you have a lightsaber later.” He senses annoyance from the helmet. “Did you kill a Jedi?” “Won it from Moff Gideon.” “You defeated Moff Gideon?” “Watch it.” The Mandalorian blasts a Pyke who was aiming for Luke from the top of a building. “Good shot.” The Mandalorian nods. Next thing they know, a Pyke has taken out the droid, and Luke somersaults off the roller-wheeler before it flips. He plants his feet in the ground and catches the vehicles momentum that everyone lands relatively unscathed. The Mandalorian caught Grogu immediately, so Luke draws them towards him, until his hand meets bescar. “Nice catch,” says the Mandalorian. Luke grins. “Is Grogu ok?” Grogu pops up over the Mandalorian’s shoulder. He’s a little shaken, but a smile breaks across his face when he sees Luke. Peli spits out a tooth from where she’s lying.

Chapter 5 excerpt:

“We’re even,” Boba decides. He makes a hand gesture for the blue liquor, which Fennec tosses to him with a roll of her eyes. Boba places his helmet beside him on the seat and takes a swing, acid-scarred face regarding him cooly. Luke bows respectfully. “Thanks a bunch.” Boba waves an arm dismissively. “Go see the little green guy.” He turns to leave, but Boba isn’t done. He comments, offhandedly, “I thought you would’ve gotten a few more scars since the last time I saw you.” Luke turns, puzzled. “Why?” “Haven’t you been Jedi-ing?” “Jedi-ing...” “Saving the galaxy.” “We... I did that.” “What about Tatooine?” Luke’s smile falters. “Tch. ∂ι’кυтℓα נєтιιѕє.” “What's that s'posed to mean?” “It means I don’t like you.” “He called the Jedi useless,” says Ahsoka. Luke meets her eyes, trying to stifle the burn in his skin. Ahsoka clears her throat. “We’ve been gone a long time.” “That’s why I want to rebuild what was lost.” Ahsoka looks at him for a long moment. “I know.”

Chapter 6 excerpt:

“σяιтѕιя!” Koska yells. “Bo-Katan Kryze!” Bo-Katan’s eyes widen, she drops her gaze and breathes softly. “Stop yelling.” “You… you…” Koska clenches her fists. “иιвяαℓ! αяυєт!” She kicks the metal desk, exclaiming incoherencies. Bo-Katan shakes her head. “What do you want me to do?” She sits back, hands out. “I don’t have any way to unite our people, and Mandalore is inhabited by a clan of psychos.” Koska’s lip trembles, but she bites it down. “We were going to follow you. We were going to get our home back,” her voice cracks. “Don’t tell me it’s all over now. After everything we’ve been through to get here.” “Mandalore, and my legacy, is dead,” Bo-Katan seethes. “Even with the darksaber, would we be able to subdue, or, live alongside that… Clan куяαу¢, knowing what they did to Mandalore?” “Just get the darksaber from him!” Koska says. “If you get it our clan will stop kriffing falling apart and we can take them down.” Bo-Katan slumps into her hand. “This is why we fell apart in the first place. We fought each other instead of the Empire. It’s not a path I am willing to go down.” “The others are,” Koska states. Bo-Katan looks up. “And they will,” Koska continues, eyes hard. “That’s why you need to decide what to do now before they decide for you, and we end up going down a path of self-destruction. While they’ll still listen to you, choose.”

Chapter 8 excerpt:

Ahsoka clenches her jaw. “Maul,” she grits out, “what did you do?” “Em, an… indoctrination ceremony? It was mostly just for fun,” he assures her. “Ezra thought it would be fun.” “You indoctrinated him into your clan?” “That’s…” Maul blinks. “Yes. He could be considered a son of Dathomir.” “And that’s why the night sister magic took him to Dathomir.” Ahsoka groans. “Well, this was a complete waste of time! Now I have to deal with Thrawn and get out of here somehow.” Maul nods, as though that had been his plan all along. “How long has it been since they returned from the unknown regions?” he asks. “I don’t know.” “Find out,” insists Maul. “Spending too long on Dathomir with the spirits of the night sisters… would not be advisable.” Ahsoka narrows her eyes. “How so?” “They will attempt to resurrect, using whatever means they can get their hands on. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sacrifice his mortal body to gain strength to cross back over into the physical world.” “Are they immortal?” “They are… like Force ghosts that can absorb energy. With enough energy, they can reconstruct themselves, piece by piece, until all they are lacking is a physical body. They will need many sacrifices to resurrect fully.” “Hold on… could you resurrect?” “I would prefer not to,” Maul says simply. Ahsoka’s eyes widen. “Okay… why?” “Haven’t you asked enough personal questions?” he snaps. “Leave. I’m busy trying to wallow in misery.” “Sure, okay.” Ahsoka shrugs. “But if you want to talk about it—” “I said go,” Maul hisses.

Chapter 9 excerpt:

The smaller tunnel winds further down, deeper into the centre of the planet. There’s the slightest movement in the air, vibration, and Luke recognises the energy of life forces and stops walking suddenly. “There are… people down here,” he says. Din casts him a dubious helmet tilt, and they continue until it is unmistakable. Voices echo through the tunnels, many, it seems, perhaps a covert worth. “Do you wanna go say hello?” Luke asks. “Perhaps they can help us find the living waters.” The tunnel breaks off into several other small passageways. This close, Luke can pick out the soft glow of light, and he gestures for Din to switch his torch off. When he does, they are plunged into darkness, but gradually, Luke’s eyes adjust to the light, and he leads Din by the arm towards the light and the voices. The voices hush suddenly. Luke pauses, he wonders if they should stop, go back, maybe confront these people somewhere they have more of an advantage. But Din steps past him, leaving Grogu in Luke’s arms. “тισи’¢υу?” “иι αℓιιт мαи∂σ.” “иυ тισи’αℓιιт ѕσℓυѕ?” “иαу¢… αѕн’α∂.” “к’σℓαя.” Din steps into the room. Luke follows after him. Inside the large cave, is a group of Mandalorians. One of them stands abruptly, blaster raised. “тισи’ѕσℓєт?” he barks. “єни,” Din responds. “тισи’ναιι?” Din reaches for Grogu, and takes him into his arms. “иєя ιк’αα∂. иι куя'тαуℓ gαι ѕα’α∂,” he says. The Mandalorian stares at them for a moment, then sighs raggedly, and sinks back onto the rock. The others in his group relax, but keep their eyes fixed on the newcomers. Their armour is in a state of disrepair, some of it clearly salvaged from the ruins. Some wear their helmets while others do not. The faces that Luke can see are pale and gaunt, as though they haven’t seen the sunlight in a long time and their torn clothes hang off their body in a way that makes Luke think of skeletons. “Do you speak basic?” Din asks. “We haven’t,” the Mandalorian says harshly, “since a long time.” His eyes are dark, hooded, his hair matted and entirely grey. “We are looking for the living waters,” Din explains. “Do you know how to get there?”

Chapter 10 excerpt:

Mayan has gotten better at interpreting binary speech, but she’s not quite there yet. It takes her a moment to figure out what the little beeps mean as she stuffs some out-of-date rations into a makeshift pack. “Um… we’re going to rescue Ahsoka.” R2 spins excitedly. Then he stops and says, “…. --- .--?" “I don’t know how.” Mayan ties her boots. “By now, the blue man will think we’ve gone, so we can surprise him, right?” R2 whistles uncertainly. “Well… there’s no other choice.” Mayan grips the lightsaber in her hand. “You said Luke can’t come… so…” R2 bumps into her as she walks towards the ladder. “Ow, that was my toe.” Mayan groans. “What is it?” “-.. .- -. --. . .-. --- ..- …!” “I know it’s dangerous. You didn’t want Luke to come because he’s an important Jedi, right?” Mayan squeezes past him. “If the blue man finds him it’d be bad, so it’s better if I rescue her.” R2 whistles a sad note again. Mayan clambers up the ladder one-armed, her other arm tucked into a sling under her cloak. It’s completely useless. She doesn’t know how bad the break was, but since it happened, the skin has gone from red to purple — the edges faintly green. If she tries to use it, a sharp pain stabs through her. The town is quiet this early — even the fruit vendors haven’t opened their stalls yet. Mayan sneaks around the side of the blown-up house, pulling her cloak over her feathered hair. She gestures for R2 to follow. She thinks if she can get to the mountain again, she can… well, she doesn’t really know. Mayan has always been good at getting out of dangerous situations, not getting into them. Maybe R2 can come up with a plan. “This is hopeless,” Mayan decides. They sit within viewing distance of the tall mountain base, hidden in a valley of rocks. “--. --- ……. -… .- -.-. -.-?” R2 suggests. Mayan rubs the wrinkly skin of her fingers. “I don’t want to give up, but I don’t know how to get in, or where she is. I’ve never even seen a prison before.” She pulls her knees up to her chest. “I don’t know why Ahsoka even believes in me at all.” “… -.- -.-- ……. .. … ……. .- -- .- --.. .. -. —.!” Mayan smiles a little. 'Sky is amazing,' R2 said. It’s nice that he gave her a nickname after she said she wanted one like Ahsoka had as a padawan.

Chapter 11 excerpt:

Their arrival must have caused a minor uproar. A dozen Mandalorians watch from every hallway Luke glances down. They are all blue, presumably Bo-Katan’s people, and they don’t seem happy. They are brought into a large hall, where spear-shaped windows bite into the ceiling, and white crystal casts a steady light over the room. A long carpet leads to a throne that resembles a hardened splash of lava, and on it, sits Bo-Katan. She’s really got the throne thing down, maybe even as much as Boba Fett. Luke would not mess with either of them unless absolutely necessary purely based on their throne demeanour. “What the kirff are you doing,” Bo-Katan says. She doesn’t yell, just sounds exasperated, maybe even exhausted. “I’m taking you up on the offer to join you.” Bo-Katan looks at him. Her amber eyes narrow, and she gets up, and makes her way towards them. “You’re too late now,” she says. Her expression touches on cold rage. “I’m barely holding this together as it is. With the arrival of your covert, things have only gotten worse.” “Mandalore is habitable,” Din says. “There are other Mandalorians already living there.” “The clans on Mandalore are belligerent and mad,” Bo-Katan snaps. “And the Empire has eyes on the planet. With the numbers we have, staging anything with only attract attention and get us all killed.”

Chapter 12 excerpt:

“You have redeemed yourself?” asks the Armourer. “I have,” says Din. The intense blue of the forge reflects off both of their helmets and the heat dusts Luke’s cheeks with warmth. “And you have acquired another foundling…” The Armourer’s tone shifts to something decidedly less serious and more akin to amusement. “What is the name of this child?” “Kymir,” Din says. “Kymir, do you wish to join our covert?” the Armourer asks the boy. Kymir looks from Din to the Armourer, brows furrowing. “He doesn’t speak basic,” Din says. “Kymir, тιαи’¢σρααиιя тσ αℓιιт?” he translates. Kymir bites his lip. “иαу¢,” he says. Luke infers that his answer is no. Din looks at the Armourer. “He has had a bad experience with his covert. He will not trust easily.” “Without a covert, he will have no protection.” “I will watch over him.” “At this time, you are also in need of protection,” says the Armourer, lightly. “You were almost killed this morning.”

Chapter 13 excerpt:

“Ahsoka? Ahsoka!” Mayan shakes Ahsoka’s shoulders, but her master doesn’t stir. She holds her face and tries to somehow will her awake with the force, but nothing seems to work. Her eyes remain closed, eyelids twitching minutely every few seconds. “Is she alright?” Leia asks, crouching by the broken tree Ahsoka rests against. “I think so… she goes into deep sleeps sometimes. I don’t really know what…” Mayan hugs her arms. “Um, is the Falcon okay?” “Ships fine,” Han says, an edge of annoyance in his tone, as he walks over to them. “But Ahsoka better wake up soon so I can ask her what in the hell just happened.” “We went through a portal,” Mayan says. Han squints. “How d’you know that?” “I’m a Jedi padawan…” Han throws his hands in the air. “Not another one! Come on, Chewy,” he says, “let’s go help Sabine get the engine started like normal people. Damn Jedi…force portals…” he mutters. R2 beeps in a pattern that Mayan recognises as a laugh as Han stalks off. “I hope Ahsoka wakes up soon…” Mayan says, mostly to herself, though Leia is still beside her. “Yes, well,” Leia starts, “we need to get back home. This was meant to be a drop-off, not another adventure.”

Chapter 16 excerpt:

“Come with me to Mandalore,” Din says. “But I don’t think I’m supposed to do that.” “Do you want to?” “Yes.” Luke glances at him from over his shoulder. “But I can’t,” he says. “I’m a Jedi, I have to follow the will of the force.” Din is silent for a long time, and Luke wonders if the conversation is over. But finally, he speaks. “I understand.” Luke huffs dubiously. “Really?” “Yes,” Din says. “I know what it’s like to be told that something that feels right is somehow wrong.” Luke’s stomach twists. Nothing feels right. Nothing. He let the force guide him here and now the force is telling him it’s time to leave. What if Din and Grogu still need him? He’s almost certain they do. But the galaxy needs him too. Perhaps his responsibilities lie elsewhere, maybe he got caught up in his emotions and mistook this for being the right thing. The problem is, Luke doesn’t know. The uncertainty makes him afraid. (Jedi should not be afraid.) He remembers his vision in the mythosaur lair and his throat tightens until he can barely speak. (Fear clouds one’s judgement.) “I can’t choose you,” Luke whispers, and a laugh catches in his through. “I can never choose you. Can you really tell me you understand that?” Din brings a hand up to his helmet. “I don’t know.” Luke stands up and catches his wrist. “Don’t,” he says. “I can’t let you give up your creed for me when I wouldn’t do the same for you.” Din’s hand falls. Luke stares into the dark visor, feeling further from his eyes than ever. The words of Obi-Wan’s Force-ghost echo in his head. “Had she said the word, I would have left the Jedi Order to be by her side.” “I’m sorry,” Luke says and lets go of his wrist. He steps back, gaze falling to the floor. If he wasn’t among the last Jedi… if the fate of the galaxy didn’t rest on his shoulders… But the Jedi are gone. Palpatine and Vader made sure of that. And now Luke has to spend his life paying for his father’s mistakes.

Chapter 18 excerpt:

“Leia, I don’t like this.” Luke tries not to squirm in his seat. If he had no appetite for the fancy Coruscant food before he certainly doesn’t now. “A Moff, after a force-sensitive child, working with a cloner? What the kriff were they doing?” “He might just have been after him because he was force sensitive and you know how the Empire felt about the Jedi.” “I wish I’d asked Din about this! I’m such an idiot.” “Who’s Din?” “Never mind. Okay, I’ve got to find out what Pershing was doing for Moff Gideon. I have a seriously bad feeling —” “Okay,” Leia says. “I trust your judgement. Are you finished? Let’s go speak to them.” Luke’s stomach swoops. “What?” “Sorry, farm-boy. Sneaking around isn’t how we learn things on Coruscant. You’ve got to play the game.” “What game?” “Politics, Luke.” “Oh great.”

Chapter 19 excerpt

“Good. I’m going down. Kymir and I can reach them fastest. Once we know where the creature lives we can go with a small group and rescue Ragnar.” Bo-Katan narrows her eyes, searching his visor for something to reassure herself. Din’s stomach drops when he realises that she’s desperately searching for his eyes. He touches her shoulder instead. “Keep them together,” he says, nodding in the direction of the others who are still reeling from the shock of the attack, some badly wounded. Bo-Katan sighs. “That’s what I’ve been doing for years, Din.” She shakes her head. “Let me wrap your arm. Take some more painkillers or you won’t be able to think when you’re down there. You might still lose the arm the way it is now.” Din stares at her. “Yeah, okay,” he says. “Okay?” Bo-Katan squints, winding the bandage around his arm which is thoroughly smothered in bacta. “I think you mean fuck.” “Fuck,” Din says. “It’s fine. I still have another arm.”

“∂ιи ∂נαяιи נσя иєя’вυιя נιι.” Din Djarin is… my… Din grabs a wall to steady himself. The words bounce around his helmet and his ears ache. He shuts his eyes, tries to focus on the words through the pain. They’re the important thing. “σяι’νσ∂ вυяк’у¢. ναιι’уαιм ∂яαgσи?” My friend is in danger. Where is the dragon’s home? “куяαмℓα.” He’s dead. “иυ ∂яααя!” Not never! “кумιя, уαιм’σℓ.” Kymir, come home. Din steps out to stand beside him. He tries to stand straight. He pulls out the darksaber with his good hand. “gαα’тαуℓιя,” he says, and ignites the blade. Help me. For a moment, nobody moves. Then, somebody asks, “ιвι¢… иι ¢єтα?” Will this… redeem us? Din looks at Kymir. Understanding wells in his eyes. "Do you forgive them?" “иααѕα∂ мι’ѕυя’нααι,” says Kymir. Not in my eyes. Din nods. Good. “мєн’gαα’тαуℓιя, нιвιяαя gαя иι ¢єтα.” If you help us, you may learn to forgive yourselves.

Grogu frowns in concentration. He peers out of the window, ignoring the computer completely, but his hand shifts on the stick and suddenly his eyes widen and he presses the button down. It hits the dragon and the creature screeches in agony, twisting up into the sky to escape from the onslaught. “Mu?” Grogu turns to Din. “Uh, lucky shot,” Din says. “I wouldn’t shoot without aiming first, kid. Wait, actually… can you use your Jedi stuff to aim? Is that what you’re doing?” Okay. What would Luke say? Something like… “In that case, just focus, and… listen to the — is it called the Force? Yeah, listen to the Force.” Grogu snorts. “What? Wouldn’t I make a good Jedi?” Din smiles, but Grogu can’t see it.

The guns bombard the remaining dragons with enough firepower to essentially obliterate them, and litter their scaly corpses across the ground. Boba-Fett lands his ship with a whoosh of hot air. Din stares as he lowers the landing ramp and marches towards him, Fennec following closely. “Thought you could use a hand,” says the gruff voice. Din tries to speak but his legs decide to give out. “Woah, there.” Boba keeps him upright with a firm hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get you inside, Manda’lor,” he says. “Someone oughta throw you in a bacta tank,” says Fennec. “We don’t have a bacta tank.” Bo-Katan scowls from the cave entrance. “What are you doing here, Fett?” “I heard there was a get-together on Mandalore. Someone must’ve missed my invitation.”

Chapter 20 excerpt:

The magic tethering her to Dathomir tugs sharply on her wrist as she falls again into the familiar darkness. And then stops. Ahsoka can hear her breaths this time, sharp and cutting, and she scrambles to her feet, searching for — “You…” “Get away from him,” Ahsoka snarls. Leia’s lightsaber ignites with a burst of blue. Palpatine, or whatever’s left of him, has found them. His dark cloak drowns his physical form, making him almost impossible to discern from the flickering darkness, if it wasn’t for the ghastly, misshapen white of his face. Yellow eyes melt through the darkness, and grey lips stretch in a triumphant gleam. “He is of no more importance,” Palpatine snarls. Maul’s body twitches in the air, hands grasping desperately at his throat. “Let him go,” Ahsoka says. “S-sever our dyad,” Maul gasps. “Don’t let… don’t let him…” Ahsoka rips her arm free of the green string. “No!” Maul cries. Now there is no going back. “I will not leave you with him.”

“Grand Admiral, Sir, permission to speak freely?” “Permission granted, commodore Faro. You know I always value your input.” “Well, Sir, we’re kriffed.”

Chapter 25 excerpt:

“Thrawn,” Eli starts, looking into his red eyes, “y’know I—” The security feed beeps. Eli’s eyes widen when he sees Ezra waving up at the camera from the supply room. Eli clicks the comms. “Um, Ezra, wha’d’ya think you’re doing there? Actually, how’d you even get on board?” “Space portals!” “Right. I see.” Eli rubs his forehead. This is going to be a long day. “You need anythin’?” “You won’t believe what happened down there,” Ezra practically yells. “Anyway, I need the key now because we’re locking Dathomir so this doesn’t ever happen again, then we’re all jumping through a space portal to you guys. Is that alright?” “Sure. See ya in a bit.” “Excellent,” says Thrawn. He turns to Eli. “What were you going to say?” Eli sighs. “Moment’s gone. Alright, let’s get this data ready for Ezra-kid to look at.”

[motiv8world]

Rhapsody of Realities 21 June 2023: Fellowship of Heavenly Pantheon - Pastor Chris O.

SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 1:9 – God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I’m ever so grateful to the Lord for all that He’s made possible and available to us in Christ Jesus. Think about the possibility of fellowship with God. You wouldn’t find that in any religion, as no religion offers you fellowship with God. But Jesus brought us into fellowship with God. What an amazing reality!

In our prayers, for example, there’re special kinds of communications with God that help us build our spirits, because we’re in a rich fellowship with the Lord. The Bible says in 1 John 1:3, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

Also, 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Apostle Peter takes it further in 2 Peter 1:3-4. He says, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…” The Greek word that’s translated “partakers” comes from the same root word as fellowship; its “Koinonia.” Thus, “partakers of the divine nature” is translated from “koinonos theias phuseos” and that means associates of the God-kind. This implies that we’ve been brought into the fellowship of the divine, heavenly pantheon.

No wonder the Bible says, “..Ye are gods..” (Psalm 82:6). The Lord Jesus, quoting the Psalms, reiterated this truth in John 10:34, “..Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” This is the wonder of Christianity; it’s the whole essence of the Lord’s death, burial and His glorious resurrection.

How beautiful it Is to know that we’re in fellowship with the ‘Sovereign King, the Monarch of the universe, as John so succinctly puts. in 1 John 1:3. You’ve been translated from the ordinary realm of mankind to the supernatural class of the God-kind, where you can enjoy true, deep and quality fellowship and union with divinity. What a blessing!

CONFESSION: Dear Father, thank you for the vital nature of divinity and the inseparable oneness with you that | have in Christ. What an honour, blessing and privilege to be in fellowship with the blessed and only Potentate, the Monarch of the universe and only true and righteous

FURTHER STUDY:

2 Corinthians 13:14 AMPC

The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship (the communion and sharing together, and participation) in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen (so be it).

1 John 1:1-3

[We are writing] about the Word of Life [in] Him Who existed from the beginning, Whom we have heard, Whom we have seen with our [own] eyes, Whom we have gazed upon [for ourselves] and have touched with our [own] hands.

2 And the Life [an aspect of His being] was revealed (made manifest, demonstrated), and we saw [as eyewitnesses] and are testifying to and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life [in Him] Who already existed with the Father and Who [actually] was made visible (was revealed) to us [His followers].

3 What we have seen and [ourselves] heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And [this] fellowship that we have [which is a distinguishing mark of Christians] is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

1 Corinthians 6:17

But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Acts 9:32-43 & Ezra 1-3

2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Luke 3:1-11; & Deuteronomy 20

[catfur-and-greenscales]

Kids in Star Wars Universe V - Families

The family size in Star Wars universe is something I'd like to talk about.

The general Star Wars family is a small nuclear family, even though the non-traditional families are formed by Jedi lineages, Mandalorians have their own system and Luke is not actually really related to his uncle and aunt. We could discuss about that matter a lot, but that's not what I wanna underline here.

I want to talk about the family size.

((I sense some pure sibling energy here lol))

But have you noticed that most of the families are rather small? Clones are not counted now, sorry.

The biggest families are actually Dooku's (in total Dooku and two siblings = three), Talzin's son's (Maul, Savage and Feral) and Satine and her siblings (Bo-Katan and who-ever is parent to Korkie).

Many have no stated siblings, so we could assume that there are none.

Many of families have two kids (Rose and Paige, Trace and Rafa, Obi-Wan and Owen, even Anakin and Owen, Padme and Sola, Sabine and Tristan, Jek and Shaeeah, and most famously Luke and Leia whose situation is a double trouble).

((Cut and Suu with their kids - Clone Wars era (Yes. I know they are not Cut's biological, but that is not the point)))

Many character also have no siblings.

Only to list few: Anakin, Ezra, Poe, Ben Solo, Korkie, Hera, Jacen, Lux, Jyn etc.

To someone who has three siblings this is somewhat strange world. Naturally contraception is a way and many characters are not explained so well.

Many families in Star Wars are also forged by trauma. There is childlessness, there is death of a parent, divorces and loss of a siblings.

Surely there is also simple will of not to have children, but there is also clear indications that persons have dearly wanted children but not partner: Like Jango wanted to have Boba.

All families are different and all stories are different.

Small families are often sign of either stable life where there is no need to have more children, but even slave communities and poor areas where contraception would have been hard to gain persons do have only few kids.

Maybe this is just a coincidence, but perhaps something carefully chosen.

Big families are hard to be written. Or that what I have been told.

But this is really something I have been thinking a lot. It also effects to the children. Not necessarily negative or positive way, but somewhat yes. Most known example of child growing alone is probably Maul. And perhaps Anakin too, since he was apparently very lone in temple, missing close members of his peer age group. And Omega too.

In contrary, the best examples of what siblings can do is prolly Ezra.

[padawansuggest]

AU where Obi-Wan and Luke get to Vader long before he was expecting to destroy Alderaan, which is basically an incredible thing that I think would have made it hard for them to bring him back from, and instead of Obi-Wan antagonizing him and getting ghosted, they capture Vader and take him with them, because Obi-Wan has had a theory goin for the last 20 years on an idea to try. So, with the force, you can create illusions of things. I like the idea of Obi-Wan forcing Vader to not only confront Luke and Leia (he draggin that tin can back to Bail and is gonna make him pay for their Uber), by telling him that’s his kids, but also forcing him to confront the fact that Obi-Wan will never love anyone as much as he loves the child he raised. I truly believe that Obi-Wan spent his whole life past his knighting caring about no one more than Anakin, and being a sith never stopped that. So, I kinda want Obi-Wan to show him a force vision of Obi and Ani when Obi-Wan first took him in as a kiddo, just a memory of them together. A playful one where ADHD Ani wanted to get up and play, but grief-recovering Obi is tired and depressed but still loves this kid, and just yanks him onto the couch with him for a nap and some decent cuddles together while Ani complains and talks about everything in the universe he can think of till he literally talks himself to sleep and Obi just gently lays his head on that little chest to listen to Ani’s heartbeat before giving him forehead kisses and passing out too.

Mainly. I just want Vader to confront something from his childhood, something completely sugar sweet that makes everyone else go ‘wtf Vader had a loving caregiver who would cuddle him???’ And absolutely breaks Vader to the point where Ani shines through and he just says that he’s so tired of everything why can’t they go back to that??

Anyways. I just had the sudden idea of Ani using force visions of him and Obi when they were much younger as a focus point for sanity to the point where he becomes an actual asset for the rebellion and even Bail and Mon Mothma are excited to have him back and they get him out of that horrible suit and fix him up as well as they can to convince the galaxy that General Skywalker is back after such a long captivity, and that drags Rex and Ahsoka (and probably Cody too) off to find them with great caution and then excitement when they can feel Ani’s broken force signiture again and know it’s him but he’s super fragile but It’s Him.

Anyways. What I really want after that. Is Ani to say he convinced Vader to save one of the creche kids and they’re still out there, but he keeps having to send hunters out for him cause the emperor keeps using him for testing and he’s got a guy he thinks can finally nab the kid for good and it’s Grogu and Din is the one they send for him and it take them like a year to get back to them cause Din ends up Being Hunted and he refuses to give the kid up (like a lot of other bounty hunters have done when they eventually decide the kid isn’t worth it) and then Din gets there and a buuuuunch of Mandos follow behind all annoyed that their covert got found in the process and now that the rebellions problem and it’s a full ass reunion at this point.

They pick up Yoda from the swamp and get both Luke and Leia some intense Jedi training (THEY BOTH DESERVE TO BE BADASS JEDI FIGHT ME) and Grogu becomes the communal baby and Obi goes back to annoying the fuck outta Ani by calling him his twin brother, which makes BOTH of them squeak all angrily at him, and Ahsoka and Rex are sus af about Ani being back but accept that he’s using force visions from his still thriving connection to Obi to stay sane and tbh he’s mainly just planning to survive to the end of the war (tbh Obi and Ani and Yoda are only gonna survive to the end of the war, that’s really all they got in them at this point and Ani is getting more fragile from holding back the crazy at this point) and Bail survives and Obi flirts with him constantly (which Bail reciprocates much to the twins eye rolling annoyance cause ewwwwww old men flirting) and Ani is all ‘lol have you two ever acted on that constant flirting?’ And they just both go super red and look away cause ya but it was a very long time ago shut up Skywalker and it’s cute.

If Cody shows up (yes) then he immediately assigns himself as the Bail and Obi bodyguard cause these old men stupid and Bail complains but he did some crazy shit in the clone wars too okay he’s just as dumbass as the Jedi.

Also Boba and Fennec eventually show up saying they had a shitty runin with Jabba and Fortuna which lead to both of them getting dead a lil bit and having a change of heart on this whole ‘bad guy’ thing which lead to them murdering the fuck outta both of them and now they control Tatooine and whatcha gonna do about it and also can we join your ‘kill the emperor’ club we bored af so they come along for the fun too.

Who else am I missing? Caleb and Ezra? They they came with Ahsoka and Rex. Cal? Ya they found him sittin on a rock bein all Jedi and shit and were like ‘damn, that’s a baby. Anyone gonna adopt that?’ And like ten Mandos fought for the honor of being his new parent. Kam? They find him when they have their showdown with Palpy and Luke is all ‘I’m gonna train him’ and everyone lived happily every after. Except Obi and Ani and Yoda who become young force ghosts and annoy everyone forever now. Thanks.

[renegadeontherunn]

happiness by taylor swift is a disaster lineage song, sorry I don’t make the rules

okay so yes I should be writing or doing homework instead of making this extremely rambly, slightly incoherent post but it’s friday so I’m vibing and you lovely people get to join me!

this is the ultimate star wars grief song for our tcw trio and I see it in three different contexts:

Ahsoka’s POV to Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Order after she leaves in the season 5 finale

Ahsoka & Rex during/after Order 66

Obi-Wan & Ahsoka to Vader (Obi-Wan on Tatooine and (REBELS SPOILERS) Ahsoka after her duel with him in The Twilight of the Apprentice—for reference, I’ve only seen parts of Rebels so if some of that stuff is inaccurate, let me know!)

so we go . . .

honey when I’m above the trees / I see this for what it is

on a ship, in the Force, in hindsight

but now I’m right down in it / all the years I’ve given / is just shit we’re dividing up / showed you all of my hiding spots

#1: Ahsoka’s years learning in the Order, being a Padawan, her dedication to the Jedi and her faith to their teachings (”the values of the Jedi are sacred to me”), all the years she’s given are just completely thrown away as soon as there’s suspicion against her (in the unfinished episodes, Anakin says “well what choice did we give her? the moment there were any suspicions about her loyalty the Council turned their back on her.”) they both share this anger about her expulsion, and Ahsoka brings it up later during the Siege of Mandalore when she says “and what? defend the Council’s actions? I hardly think I’m the best person for that.” 

#2: again, Ahsoka’s years fighting alongside the 501st, growing close with Rex and Jesse and everyone else to suddenly find them turning on her (this is before she knows about the chips, of course). she could also be feeling this in tandem with Rex—“those soldiers, my brothers, are willing to die and take you and me along with them!” all the years Rex has given in the 501st, with his brothers, fighting for the Republic, having to watch his brothers be killed and not be able to do anything, all his hardship just means nothing. their attempts to be themselves, to be unique, to not just be “another number,” were useless in the end. the “showed you all of my hiding spots” line points to the closeness and friendship that they had with each other

#3: again again, pretty self-explanatory, all the years Ahsoka and Obi-Wan have given to teaching and learning from and loving Anakin are just completely thrown away by his fall to the Dark Side and him ultimately trying to kill them. the same for the last line applies here, they were brothers, they were sister and brother, they were a family and then it was all ruined.

I was dancing when the music stopped

In each of the scenarios, they were preoccupied, in the middle of something else (the war, capturing Maul, defeating Grievous, helping Ezra, etc.) when everything stopped and collapsed. each situation was completely unexpected and each time, their worlds fell apart.

and in the disbelief / I can’t face reinvention

#1: all Ahsoka’s ever known is the Jedi, and now without them (without anyone to help her or any connections or support), she has to completely change her way of life, as well as lie or invent a new background for herself (”Skywalker Academy,” “my older brother taught me,” “I used to live on the upper levels of Coruscant,” etc.)

also—Ahsoka becomes Ashla, and then Fulcrum (reinventing herself over and over again) and Obi-Wan becomes Ben. obviously, they don’t want to have to change, and again with “in the disbelief,” each of these events was unexpected and a complete gut punch.

there’ll be happiness after you / but there was happiness because of you / both of these things can be true there is happiness / past the blood and bruise / past the curses and cries / beyond the terror in the nightfall

I don’t think this line needs any explanation, but I’ll give some anyway! In a meta-sense, the audience started Star Wars with the happiness after all three events, but especially Vader. the Original Trilogy showed the end of the Empire, the Rebellion, the happy endings of Luke, Leia, Han, etc. in-universe, both Ahsoka and Obi-Wan hold this sense of bittersweet nostalgia (because how can you not?), both with Obi-Wan training/looking after Luke and Ahsoka joining the Rebellion and helping the characters in Rebels. they’re both trying to ensure happiness after Anakin. 

but, of course, of course there was happiness because of Anakin, that’s what The Clone Wars shows us! we see them happy (or, at least, somewhat) in tcw, which obviously makes everything much sadder, but still. they were happy. and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka both know it—we see it explicitly with Ahsoka meditating to Anakin’s holo and reminiscing in Rebels. they found happiness and love and family in the war, where there was so much death, so much destruction, so much darkness and terror. they found each other, they found happiness anyway. this can also apply to the OT, since that trio also found family and happiness in the midst of the Empire.

it’s this inherent optimism that both Ahsoka and Obi-Wan share that Anakin doesn’t (or didn’t) that’s keeping them afloat. it’s the adherence to the light, to kindness, to compassion. 

haunted by the look in my eyes

#1: going back to our three scenarios, you could say Ahsoka was probably haunted by the look in the Council members’ eyes—especially Yoda, Plo, Obi-Wan—when they expelled her. as well as, of course, the look in Anakin’s eyes when he begs her to stay and she says no. the ending image of season 5, the last image we ever saw of tcw for years—with Anakin’s sad, wide eyes—yeah. that look.

#2: overall, this context has less to it, but I’ll still argue that the look in Rex’s eyes, in the clones’ eyes haunted both Ahsoka and Rex, probably especially Rex. or even, not seeing his brothers’ eyes and instead seeing their blasters pointed at him. their final scene, with the eyes of the helmets (Ahsoka’s eyes painted on) stuck on sticks. yeah, that definitely haunted them both.

#3: Obi-Wan and Ahsoka both get horrifyingly clear images of Anakin’s gold eyes. Anakin’s look when he shouts “I hate you!” surely haunted Obi-Wan, as well as Anakin saying “Ahsoka” and “then you will die” with a very clear, obvious image of Anakin’s gold, scarred eye through his mask. 

that would’ve loved you for a lifetime

#1: Ahsoka was prepared to be a Jedi forever, for a lifetime

#2: Rex, more in this case, but both he and Ahsoka did and would’ve loved the clones forever. those were Rex’s brothers and it’s so clear, especially with the scene of him crying in the hangar bay, that this is killing him

#3: Obi-Wan and Ahsoka would’ve loved Anakin for a lifetime—and I’d argue they did, despite everything (”you were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!” and “my Master could never be as vile as you” and “to the best of us”)

leave it all behind

#1: sorry if this is getting repetitive, but yeah, Ahsoka left everything, her entire life, everything and everyone she’s ever known behind

#2: Rex and Ahsoka leave everything on that moon, including her lightsabers that she just got back and then had to give up a second time

#3: Obi-Wan leaves everything behind and flees to Tatooine. Ahsoka tells Ezra this—to let Kanan go, essentially leave the past behind him. And she can’t “save her Master” either. she too must let him go. 

tell me when did your winning smile / begin to look like a smirk?

this is just so Anakin slowly falling to madness and the Dark Side. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan thinking about the signs they’d missed, if there was some way they could’ve stopped it, if just one thing had been different, if they’d just noticed. trying to figure out where it all went wrong. 

when did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?

#1: “the values of the Jedi are sacred to me”—and then she’s expelled and told that it was part of her great trial in becoming a Knight. a foundation of the Jedi Order and its process gets turned against her.

#3: this line becomes literal—Padawan lessons, sparring, suddenly became dueling Anakin to death, for both Obi-Wan and Ahsoka

no I didn’t mean that / sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury

#1: you could argue that Obi-Wan is right when he said Ahsoka let her feelings cloud her judgement in leaving; that she couldn’t see the facts through the pain of being betrayed by the Council. and then, when she comes back in the Siege of Mandalore, immediately, she and Obi-Wan start arguing, and then both of them are clouded by their feelings, both feeling hurt by the other and lashing out.

#3: again, this is just so Anakin turning to the Dark Side. he obviously doesn’t realize that he’s being blinded by fury (or maybe he does and just doesn’t care, or probably, thinks that is the only way). but he is. he’s completely blinded to logic, to reality by the fury that Sidious has spent years amping up and harvesting and Anakin himself has spent years bottling.

you haven’t met the new me yet

this line is really painful if you view it from Anakin’s perspective. they both believed he was dead, but no, turns out he’s a Sith Lord, in fact the Sith Lord that’s been the Emperor’s tool in causing immense pain and destruction across the galaxy. it’s this evil, excited little line from his POV (think that ROTS comic: “please say it’s Kenobi. Lord Vader gets such a thrill from killing people who care for him”)

there’ll be happiness after me / but there was happiness because of me / both of these things I believe

again, there’s that optimism, that desire to help people, to do good in the world, and this faith that Obi-Wan and Ahsoka both have. that’s why Obi-Wan helps Luke, that’s why Ahsoka joins the Rebellion. it’s all to ensure that there will be some happiness, some light after them (and maybe a little because of them. again, see the first chorus. they were happy once, and they both know it. “we’ll be fine, as long as we stay together.”)

there is happiness / in our history / across our great divide

I see this mostly as Ahsoka and Anakin (and Obi-Wan) during season 7. there’s still a connection, of course, love and happiness between them, despite the ending that’s right on their heels, as well as the great divide of Ahsoka leaving the Order.

there is a glorious sunrise / dappled with the flickers of light

Anakin does end up returning to the Light Side and his reunion with Obi-Wan is surely like a “glorious sunrise” that ended the darkness of the past twenty+ years. the second part I just see as a fun, literal line—flickers of light are lightsabers, blaster fire, the Light Side

I can’t make it go away by making you a villain

in short, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka can’t make the pain or the past happiness go away because Anakin’s now Vader. they still both remember Anakin fondly and with love, despite his fall. they loved him, still. in ROTS, when Anakin says “from my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” Obi-Wan doesn’t say “then you are evil,” or even “you are wrong,” he says “then you are lost.” lost. as in, can be found again. not evil, not unworthy, not wrong. just lost. there’s this goodness that Anakin has that he is ignoring and straying from (”there is good in him”). and in the context of Order 66, Ahsoka can’t and doesn’t make the clones villains because she knows they’re actually the victims. as much pain as it causes, they’re not the villains and she can’t act like they are. 

so I know there’s a lot of discourse about Anakin apologists or whatever, so all I’ll say is that George Lucas has said that the prequels are to show how a “nice little kind kid, who has good intentions” turns into Darth Vader. the whole point of the PT is this line—while Anakin/Vader is no doubt the villain in the OT and in ROTS to a degree, that doesn’t make everything else go away. the other stuff doesn’t excuse what he did, all the pain he caused, but we can’t make it go away, just because he’s a villain. that’s one of the beauties of the prequels, that we get this extremely fleshed out, torn and struggling kid who ends up making all the wrong choices and becoming the terrible villain we see in the OT. 

I guess it’s the price I pay for seven years in heaven

while none of these scenarios is seven years exactly, it does continue to drive the point of “all the years I’ve given is just shit we’re dividing up.” everything these characters had, individually and with each other, just gets utterly, completely ruined. 

in a more meta-sense, the ending of The Clone Wars is the price we, the fans, pay for seven seasons of the show. 

no one teaches you what to do / when a good man hurts you / and you know you hurt him too

this could point again to Ahsoka and Anakin, but also Ahsoka and Obi-Wan after she leaves the Order. when she comes back, none of them really know what to say, what to do, how to act around each other. this obviously comes out as arguments and words that are so close to what they really want to say, but just short. they’ve all been hurt and none of them know what to do about it. 

and, of course, Obi-Wan and Anakin in ROTS. Obi-Wan doesn’t want to believe that Anakin’s fallen to the Dark Side, and later on Tatooine, knowing he’s hurt and been hurt by Anakin, doesn’t know what to do

after giving you the best I had / tell me what to give after that

again again, all the years they’ve given. all the love they had. everyone they knew & loved. gone. 

leave it all behind / and there is happiness

[ooops-i-arted]

@ofcoming4th said: Is it terrible that I wish they had recast Luke Skywalker? Not Seb Stan, he is a bit too old for Luke in The Mandalorian show time frame, but someone like Timothy Chalmet? If Disney is gonna MCU Star Wars, lets have an Alt Universe where Din aids Luke in saving kids from the Empire. While hiding out from/juggling the needs of his people? Ahsoka could show up every three shows, stare sadly at Luke, then fuck off to hunt down Mr. Blue Meanie off screen. Meanwhile, Grogu and Din provide backup for the reboot of the Jedi 2.0.

I’m 50/50 on a recast because my kneejerk reaction is “Noooooo! Only Mark Hamill!!1!” but I was super anti recasting Han Solo and ended up really enjoying Solo and thinking Alden EhrenlastnameIcantspell did a pretty good job.  So it could work.... but also it would be hard to get invested when we know Bennyboy has a dumb tantrum twentyish years from now and ruins it for everyone.  And I’m not sure if they’d do alt timelines.  Time travel isn’t really A Thing in Star Wars (except the stupid world between worlds thing, which as far as I can tell was just to make sure Filoni’s darling didn’t suffer the indignity of death).  I’m so sick of you know who in everything, though, I don’t want her around at all.  Just go in your own show and stay there so fans can enjoy her and the rest of us can focus on the characters we do enjoy.

ofcoming4th said: If he’s getting a lightsaber (yeah, let’s give a baby a loaded gun), could Grogu learn to use it alongside his beloved Dad? Is there anything like a child safety lock for lightsabers?

There were training lightsabers mentioned in Legends that would sting but not maim or anything.  Idk if they’re still a thing, though iirc in Rebels Kanan’s lightsaber had adjustable power levels, since we see him tuning it so Ezra can practice.

ofcoming4th said:  See my previous comment on Ahsoka - make her the cameo player. Yes I know she has a sad backstory, who in the Star Wars Universe doesn’t? Rather would see Grogu’s backstory - who got him away when nutso Anakin was having a slaughterfest (was it R2, the Marty Sue of Star Wars)? Grogu wasn’t just sitting in a floating egg for thirty years - where did he aquire his little robe? Read somewhere that it is a repurposed jacket sleeve - well whos jacket? See my meaning?

I want so much more of Grogu’s backstory.  And Din’s.  I wanna know what happened in their childhoods and what they’ve faced to make them who they are today.  Grogu’s at least is easy to fill in.  We got all sorts of hints and threads about Din’s in season 1 (who were his parents/what organization were they possibly part of?  What about his history with Ran’s crew?  What happened after that Death Watch Mando picked him up?  Did he have adoptive parents among the Mandos or was he on his own?  What’s his history with Paz Vizla?) and so far none of them have been explored.  And like I said I’m just sick of Ahsoka.  There are so many other interesting characters who deserve more attention and development than a sixth rehash of “I knew ANAKIN and I’m not a Jedi but I’m BETTER than them now because I understand ATTACHMENTS” or whatever.

[milfbenkenobi]

Star Wars Fic Rec List Part 4

All fics are complete, some may be in incomplete series.

still much that is fair by raineyday

Word count: 21173 Chapter count: 8

Anakin Skywalker was used to following the commands of the Force in his daily life. But a lot of the time, that didn't really mean much. Until the day the Force nudged him to catch a kid falling through the sky- and through time.

Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi was so tired of failing. He just couldn't handle it anymore. He always disappointed people. It would be better to just rip off the bandaid and remove the problem. He wasn't expecting to be caught in the attempt- or in the future.

Time traveling Obi-Wan on one end, and a Jedi Order losing their mind on the other. Mind the tags on this one.

——————

Life has a way of rewriting the story by K_R_Closson

Word count: 39193 Chapter count: 3

Obi-Wan Kenobi, failed Jedi initiate, never makes it to Bandomeer. Instead, she lands on Tatooine and has to figure out how to survive on a desert planet without losing her freedom.

When Anakin's destiny takes him to Coruscant and the Jedi, is this Obi-Wan's second chance? Or does her future lie elsewhere, with Jango Fett and his mysterious job on Kamino?

Okay, so normally I don’t read fem!obi, but I didn’t see the tags in time when I first read this this fic was so good, I had to keep going. Obi-Wan accidentally cons the entirety of Tatooine, what more can you wish for?

——————

When Night Falls by penguinkiwi

Word count: 5052 Chapter count: 1

In one universe, newly minted Sith Darth Vader, once Anakin Skywalker, kills the Jedi Battlemaster, Cin Drallig.

In another, Cin Drallig kills him.

Amazing fic, this is what first introduced me to the character of Cin Drallig. Whoever wrote this DEFINITELY knows how to write lightsaber battles.

——————

stars sing my name, scars tell my story by whymylife(nabringa)

Word count: 13994 Chapter count: 3

Anakin wasn’t sure how to ask, so he didn't.

Instead, he waited until Master Kenobi fell asleep and stayed up to tinker in the dark, building his own scanner out of parts stolen from the trash.

The chip was in his right thigh.

Anakin realizes that the clones have slave chips in their heads and ends the war before it begins. Lots of freed slave-related angst. Also, Shmi lives.

——————

Free the hearts and rust the chains by littlekaracan

First part in incomplete series. Word count: 464367 Chapter count: 3

There aren't many clones left in the Imperial Army. The ones that stay alive do so through methodical obeisance, resembling droids more than people.

Occasionally, some go rogue. There are stories of clones blowing up entire Star Destroyers for the Generals they killed themselves, stories of them awaiting execution and spitting curses at the officers for depriving the Galaxy of what should've become peace, stories of quiet, sobbed apologies in their sleep directed at the long-dead Jedi. Such clones, according to the Imperial Command, are not to be trusted.

Zhade-Ran doesn't trust her two bunkmates. Although perhaps not for the reasons she should.

Imperial defectors abound!!!! Cody and Boil are on a team with two other stormtroopers, and all four desert after a mission where they’re assumed dead. I put that the series is incomplete, but both works can be read with the series still having a satisfying ending.

——————

In Sacrifice, Peace by artikka

Word count: 5757 Chapter count: 1

“Shh. . .” Anakin says, gathering the younglings around him, reminding Obi-wan of all those whispered arguments where he had insisted to Anakin that yes, he was good with children, he’d be just fine teaching Ahsoka. He can almost feel the terror rising off Anakin from the hologram; Anakin doesn’t know what’s happening either. But he isn’t letting the younglings feel it. “You need to listen to me very carefully, okay? This--” his voice breaks, “--this is going to be scary. But you have to be calm, and strong. Just like Master Yoda taught you.

* * * * *

Or, the ROTS au where Obi-wan finds a very different type of pain while looking through the Temple's recordings of Order 66.

An Anakin doesn’t fall AU, with all sorts of angst. Delightfully sad.

——————

Still dancing with your ghosts (sleeping with your memories) by jcp_sob_rlj_lmep

Word count: 1070 Chapter count: 1

Everyone knows about the Massacre, and how no Jedi made it out alive.

The Jedi refuse to let anyone forget.

The Jedi, and later the clones, are ghosts that haunt the galaxy. Amazing fic told from a second-person POV. Normally I don’t like 2nd person POV, but this one is amazing

——————

In a Warped Time by Lochcamean

Word count: 20392 Chapter count: 1

In a single moment, history is changed forever and Depa Billaba is faced with a life she was never meant to have.

Role swap AU where Caleb/Kanan dies in Order 66 and Depa lives. Super interesting character study, especially because Depa is aware that the roles should have been reversed because of her Seeing abilities. Ezra is her padawan here.

——————

sand on memories and armor by loosingletters

Word count: 2122 Chapter count: 1

"Uncle Ben, Boba is messing around with Cody's weapons again!"

"Shut up, Luke!"

A family can be you, your former Commander, your apprentice's son and an eighteen-year-old with identity issues. Obi-Wan's life on Tatooine is slightly different than he thought it would turn out to be.

Obi-Wan and Cody vibe on Tatooine and try to keep their house from exploding.

——————

Today is the Day That Nobody Dies by omegarose

Word count: 1154 Chapter count: 1

A brief rewrite of a scene from ziggyzigzagged's "Ib'tuur Jatne Tuur Ash'ad Kyr'amur" where the fight in the reactor room doesn't end in Maul or Qui-Gon's death.

Qui-Gon’s POV while he watches reactor footage of a time traveling Obi-Wan and Maul in the reactor room. I’ve read this one so many times, I love it.

——————

[depizan]

A gif set went by, sad that Kanan and Hera didn’t get their happy ending, and I realized that that’s fundamentally what’s wrong with Disney!Star Wars. Not Kanan and Hera, specifically, but that there are no happy endings in Star Wars any more. Inexplicably, the company known for happy endings took a franchise that had happy endings and said: “Nope. Let’s be Joss Whedon instead.”

Of the originally trilogy folks: Han and Leia don’t work out as a couple, and their son [insert whichever canon you prefer here, but it isn’t good no matter how you slice it*], also they all die, not of old age. Luke’s dream of a new Jedi Order is destroyed, so no happy ending for him. And he dies, not of old age. All of this is also pretty horrible for Chewbacca, since that’s a whole bunch of his friends. (Yes, he would have outlived them all anyway, still...) Lando apparently had his child stolen from him at some point. The Empire returned, worse than ever, and in a very short amount of time. Hell, the Emperor wasn’t even dead, so so much for Vader’s sacrifice.

In Rebels, the writers went out of their way to kill Kanan off and leave Hera with a “but pregnant” version of a “happy ending.” Ezra loses his (supposed) new family and ends up in space whale limbo. (Not real sure what’s supposed to have become of Sabine. ... Oh, I guess, Zeb got a happy ending with SIdeburns McGenocide, for some reason.)

The Mandalorian isn’t finished yet, but having even a satisfying ending is looking unlikely there. It’s either going to have a “happy” ending that doesn’t actually fit the character (here’s your consolation prize, Din, you get to be the new Mandalore), or it’s going to have an unhappy ending. (Yes, I realize I could still be wrong, but I am deeply cynical about Disney!Star Wars.)

The sequel trilogy ends with Rey alone, and Finn and Poe aren’t important enough to get endings. I guess Lando gets a possibly happy ending of going off with his possibly daughter. Yay? But how can we have any faith that the Empire is actually gone and the Emperor actually dead. Both were supposed to be true before and weren’t. The New Republic was a bust, anyway, so like the galaxy just goes shittily on, I guess. Yay?

(The Resistance characters are kind of left in limbo, given where the show falls in the time line. Same, really with a lot of the new!EU book characters. At least the ones that aren’t explicitly killed off in the films.)

I know Star Wars has always had a bit of a problem with being stuck in a permanent Empire vs. Republic/ Sith vs. Jedi battle for all eternity, especially if you look at the extended universe stuff, but the movies had a satisfyingly optimistic arc with the state of the galaxy ending up in a better place again. (Even if the story wasn’t necessarily finished.) Hell, there were real time decades of books in the old!EU before the torture aliens from Warhammer 40K showed up and ruined everything. And at least they weren’t the same damn villains who were already supposed to be defeated.

Now, it really does feel like Joss Whedon is running the show. Or rather, someone who really, really wants to be him, but doesn’t have his talent for zippy dialogue. (I may have issues with some aspects of Whedon’s storytelling, but I will give credit where credit is due.) Though, honestly, despite Whedon’s insistence on things sucking mightily if you’re a hero and on destroying any romantic relationships, he generally allows his heroes a greater level of final success than Disney!Star Wars has. So, yeah, somebody at Disney is aping all of Whedon’s worst traits and none of his better ones. Whee.

And I probably wouldn’t care so much if I didn’t want fiction to be optimistic and offer hope that reality doesn’t. When fiction known for optimism starts saying, well, actually, you can’t accomplish anything and things will always suck and the bad guys don’t even stay dead, I get very salty about the whole thing.

*This is also a problem, mind. Unless you’re intentionally aiming for a Rashomon-type story, a character’s story probably shouldn’t be multiple choice.

[bedlamsbard]

Part 5 of the other side AU concept! Still tentatively thinking six parts total, though it may end up being seven...we’ll see.  (This same thing happened with Wake, which was also originally supposed to be five and turned out seven. This is not going to be as long as Wake, though.)  This chapter features a Dramatic Reunion.

Previous: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

About 5.3K below the break.

***

Hera had fainted.

She had never done such a thing before, and when she came back to herself a few moments later Kanan and the other Hera were both crouched worriedly in front of her; Kanan must have caught her so that she didn’t hit her head going down.

Now she was sitting on the bench by the holotable, with Kanan sitting beside her and the other Hera leaning anxiously on the holotable.  Chopper lingered nearby, either out of concern or curiosity; Hera had gotten the impression that he still wasn’t certain what he thought of her.

“It has to do with the way the Force perceives time and space,” Kanan said, then hesitated. “No, that’s not right; the Force doesn’t perceive anything, the Force just is.  There’s not – there isn’t a really good way to explain it in Basic, but I’ll try.” He took a deep breath.  His voice was low and earnest; he was speaking a little quickly, as if he thought he had to convince Hera before she fled.

He didn’t have to worry about that.  She didn’t think she could have moved if her life depended on it.  “Kanan,” she whispered.

He flicked a quick glance at her to determine if she was talking to him or not, then went on. “At the deepest levels of the Force, everything’s – not the same, but – but it’s like reflections in a mirror.”  He grimaced. “That’s not right either.”  He shaped empty space with his hands.  “I started thinking about it when you told us how you were able to come here and that you could only come somewhere where Hera was already.  As far as the Force is concerned, you’re the same, but you’re not the same.  It’s why I thought you were her when I first met you. I can tell you apart now, but it does take a moment if I’m not paying attention.

“The Force doesn’t really see time, either.  It does – but it also doesn’t.  If you’re strong in the Force you can sense things that have happened a long time ago, but you can also sense things that haven’t happened yet.  They – they ripple, is the best way to put it.  It’s another aspect of our precognition, but it’s not quite the same thing.”  He took her hands in his.

Clean-shaven, with his hair cropped short, and with those familiar eyes, he looked very like Kanan had in the instants before his death.  Younger, with scars flecking his jaw and cheeks rather than slashing across his eyes, but as he had said – the same but not the same.

“I think I understand what happened when you came here,” he said, “and I think I can do the same thing for him.”

��Luke had that – artifact,” Hera said shakily. “You don’t have that.”

He shook his head. “If it’s a Jedi artifact, then it won’t do anything that one of us can’t do on our own. It probably makes it easier and it might make it possible for someone who isn’t as strong in the Force to do it, but all Jedi use artifacts for is to enhance natural ability.  Other Force traditions are different; they manipulate the Force in ways that aren’t natural, but Jedi don’t do that.  It will be more difficult for me, and if I understand it correctly, I don’t think I would be able to manage it if you weren’t here and if I wasn’t looking for him, because he’s – well, he’s me.”

“Why me?” Hera asked in a whisper.

“You and Hera –”  He nodded at the other Hera, who had been silent throughout the conversation but was listening closely, “– resonate at different frequencies, to put it one way.  That’s how I can tell you apart.”

“If you’re paying attention,” the girl said, a little dry.

Kanan grinned suddenly, brilliant and just for her; Hera looked away.  Her heart was pounding; she could hear her breath rasping out in a shallow flutter, leaving her slightly dizzy.

“If I’m paying attention,” Kanan agreed. “I think – if I’m right – that he resonates at the same frequency that you do, because you’re both from the same universe.  It means I should be able to find him without having to sort through infinite possibilities, which I don’t think I could do.” His hands flexed briefly against hers, and he went on, “Those possibilities are out there – I’m aware of them if I go deep enough in the Force.  We’re taught not to; it’s too dangerous for us.  You can get lost in the Force.”

“Is this dangerous?” Hera made herself ask.

He nodded. “Yes. Mostly to me, though.”

“Mostly?”

“It could kill me.  It could kill him.  It probably won’t hurt either of you, but it might – I just don’t know.”

Hera swallowed. “When he – when he died,” she said, the words sticking in her throat, “if he had – had stopped what he was doing, then the rest of us might have been killed. Wouldn’t you – taking him out of that moment?”

He nodded.

“If you do that, won’t it have an effect in my timeline?”  She looked down at her hands, which he was still holding, and tried to imagine just blinking out of existence.

“I don’t think so,” Kanan said hesitantly. “I don’t think the Force would allow that to happen.  I don’t know, but – if that’s the case I think I’ll probably just get a headache and nothing will happen.  There isn’t any way to know for sure.”

“I understand,” Hera said.

“Do you want me to try?”

“Yes,” Hera said, small-voiced, before she could think too hard about it. “Yes, please try.”

*

“How likely is it that doing this will kill you?” Hera said later, her voice very quiet in the still dark of his cabin.

“I don’t know.”  Kanan wrapped an arm around her bare shoulders, letting himself relax into the tangle of skin-warmed sheets around them.

“I feel sorry for her,” Hera went on, “but I don’t want to trade you for him.”

Even if that might be a better bargain? Kanan thought, but didn’t say the words out loud.  He pressed a kiss to Hera’s forehead instead and said, “I don’t think it’s very likely.”

“But it’s a possibility.”

“Most things are possibilities.”

She pushed herself up on one elbow and punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Stop that.  I’m being serious.”

Kanan grinned at her, running his hand down to her hip, not wanting to make love again so much as he wanted to reassure himself of her presence. “So am I.  Yes, it could kill me, but I don’t think the chance is very high. It’s more likely that nothing will happen.”

“But you don’t know that.”

“No.”  He stroked his thumb over her hip and said, “But I have to do this.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”  He reached up with his other hand to cup her face against his palm and said, “If you were in her place, I would want someone else to do it for you.”

“I’m not, though,” Hera said, small-voiced. “I know you think he’s worth more than you because he’s a Jedi Knight and you’re –”

“An Inquisitor,” Kanan finished for her when she hesitated.

“– but that isn’t true. And I know – what happened to you –”

Kanan let his hand fall and turned his face away.  

Hera leaned down over him, lekku falling over her shoulders. “Love, it’s not your fault. Things just…went differently there.”

“I’m not trying to trade myself for him,” he said softly.  “I wouldn’t do that to you.  But I have to try.”

Hera kissed him, her mouth hard and desperate against his. “Promise me,” she said between kisses. “Promise me that you won’t –”

“I promise,” Kanan said. He rolled them over as Hera wrapped her arms and legs around him, and then both of them stopped talking.

*

Hera couldn’t sit still. She hadn’t slept well the night before and when she had slept, she had had disquieting dreams, flashes of the Battle at Scarif mixed with what had happened on Lothal.  She could tell that neither Kanan nor the younger Hera were sleeping either – at least not for several hours – which didn’t help her restlessness but oddly made her feel a little better.  At least they had each other.  In the early morning hours Hera finally got up and went to go play sabacc with Chopper, who had apparently decided he liked her or at least tolerated her.

What if he dies? she thought, moving a piece that Chopper immediately countered.  They were on their sixth iteration of the game. What if he dies? I can’t do that to her.

There was something brittle about the girl that made Hera’s heart hurt, as if she might shatter if pressure was applied the wrong way.  From the little she had said about the last six years of her life, Hera couldn’t be surprised by any of it, but she hated the idea of hurting her at all.  She was a sweet girl, if harder-edged than Hera was comfortable with; Hera liked her but didn’t want her life.

Chopper made a questioning noise.

“I’m all right,” Hera told him wearily. “I’m just tired.”

He rolled away as Hera stared at the board, not really seeing it.  The fear that she didn’t want to think about too hard was that it would work, and she wouldn’t want Kanan anymore. It had been six years.  The war had been fought and mostly won in the interim. Ezra was gone.  There was Jacen –

Chopper came back into the room holding a mug of caf. Hera smiled thanks at him, and took it, wrapping her hands around the warm ceramic.  It was a little reassuring that Chopper here was more or less the same; it helped being treated normally instead of something strange and alien.

I hope it works, she thought, sick to her stomach.  I hope I still want him.  I hope he still wants me.  I hope it works.  Please, please, let it work.

*

Kanan and the other Hera joined her later in the morning.  Hera could tell that the other woman was upset, though the girl was trying very hard not to show it; she stayed near her partner, her gaze flicking towards him every so often as though to make certain he was still with her. Kanan was focused in a way that made Hera vaguely uneasy, all of his attention narrowed down to a single goal and everything else left secondary to that.  Hera had seen her Kanan like that before, very rarely; Ezra had told her that he had been like that the morning of his death.  He had known it was coming – if not that, then something.

“Do we need to go to Lothal?” Hera asked him as they were clearing breakfast away.

Kanan looked up at her, his gaze a little unfocused. “Lothal?”

“It’s where Kanan was when he – when he died.”  She still hated to say it.  She couldn’t remember if the fuel depot was already in Capital City – it would be easier for them if it wasn’t, she supposed.  What would be on Lothal right now, if they went?

Ezra, she thought with a pang.  Ezra would be there.

“We had to,” she went on. “It’s why I came, and not someone else.  No one else with clearance for this op still had access to where they would have been ten to fifteen years ago.”

Kanan bit his lip in thought, running a hand back over his short-cropped hair. “I don’t think so,” he said eventually.  “I think the reason you had to was because you weren’t aiming for anything specific, so you had to narrow down all the other possibilities as much as you could.  It’s why – oh – you didn’t end up in a timeline where you never left Ryloth, or where you were flying a ship other than the Ghost.”  He shot a sideways grin at his Hera.  “Or where Hera was still in the Academy.”

She made a face at him.

Hera frowned a little. “But Hera wasn’t onboard when I got here.  Or were you?” she asked the other woman. “I heard the hatch open while I was in the cockpit –”

“I was just outside,” she said. “I was talking to Chopper –”

Kanan shrugged. “It’s the Force.  It’s not always exact.  Besides, if she had been in the room when you – um – arrived, she probably would have shot you.”

The other Hera shrugged, unrepentant.

Hera hadn’t seen the other woman shoot, but she had seen Kallus shoot, and presumably she was at least as good a shot as him after years as an ISB field agent.  She wasn’t sure she would have survived the experience.  “So we don’t need to go to Lothal because you already know who you’re aiming for.”

“Yeah.  I think.  We can try that next if it doesn’t work.”  He gave her an encouraging smile.  “Let me get some water first.”

Hera sat heavily down as he went to the sink.  The other Hera followed him, putting a hand on his back as she spoke to him.  Her voice was too low for Hera to make out any words, but she could guess what she was saying.  After a moment, Kanan turned towards her and they embraced.

Hera looked down at her hands.  She only looked up again when Kanan and the other Hera came back to her.  “Is there anything I should know that you haven’t told us yet?” he asked her.

“There was an explosion –” Hera said haltingly, fighting back memories. “He was on top of a fuel depot –”

The other Hera went pale. Kanan just bit his lip, then said, “Let’s do this down in the hold.”

In case the fire comes with him? Hera wondered, but got up to follow them down the ladder anyway.  Kanan paused to a lay a hand briefly on Chopper’s dome as the droid started to join them; the other Hera knelt down to speak to him.  In the end he stayed up in the cockpit, probably in case they needed someone to open doors or turn on the Ghost’s sprinkler system.

The hold was almost empty except for a single crate and two speeder bikes racked against the far wall. Kanan sat down cross-legged in the exact center of the floor.  His Hera went over to him, bending down to press a kiss to his lips before she retreated a little ways away.  Hera wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.

For a long time nothing happened.  Kanan sat there with his eyes closed, his hands upturned on his knees.  The other Hera shifted nervously from foot to foot, not looking away from her lover.  Hera didn’t move, just stayed where she was, watching him.  Once she glanced up to see Chopper peering anxiously down through the cockpit hatch, and couldn’t stop herself from smiling a little, though the expression fell away an instant later.

It’s not going to work, she thought, dismayed.  It’s not going to –

She saw the other Hera look up suddenly, her eyes wide.  Hera’s lekku prickled, her whole body bracing as if to fight or flee as a thin scree of frost suddenly crackled out from where Kanan was sitting, spreading across the durasteel floor and up the walls as the temperature in the hold dropped. Her stomach turned over.

“Kanan,” the other Hera whispered.

A blast of heat melted the ice.  Hera staggered backwards, slipping on the suddenly slick deck as she threw an arm up to protect her eyes at the flames that roared out of thin air, heat licking at her skin.

Then all at once it was gone.

Hera lowered her arm warily, thinking at first she was seeing double.  Then she flung herself down onto the deck, barely aware of the superheated metal burning through her trousers as she dragged Kanan into her lap.

He blinked at her, recognition briefly showing in his eyes before all the color bled out of them to leave them their familiar white.  He whispered, “Hera –”

The other Hera screamed.

Hera and Kanan both jerked upright.  Hera saw complete bafflement cross Kanan’s face before she registered what she was seeing.

The other Kanan was seizing, his body writhing on the floor.  The younger Hera was trying to get to him, but every time she tried an invisible hand seemed to shove her away.  She looked up at Hera and Kanan, panic in her eyes as she gasped, “Help me!”

Kanan scrambled to his feet, leaning heavily on Hera as she put her shoulder his.  She felt pressure pushing against her before they took more than a few steps, but Kanan batted it aside with an open hand.  He fell to his knees just behind the other Kanan, taking the younger man’s head between his palms as he bent their foreheads together. His lips moved silently; after a moment the other Kanan’s thrashing slowed, then stopped.  His lips began to move too, in unison with Kanan’s.

It felt like a long time before he opened his eyes again.

He blinked up at Kanan, the two faces so like each other that it made Hera’s heart hurt, and then said, the words slurring together, “I thought you had a beard.”

Kanan sat back on his heels as the other Hera flung herself on her Kanan. “I shaved,” he said.

He turned his face up to Hera as she sank down beside him, barely able to believe that he was really there.  She reached for him, her hands shaking, and laid her hands alongside his face.  His skin was warm; she felt him move as he breathed, a living man.

“You’re here,” she whispered. “You’re really here.”

Kanan reached up to put one hand over hers, then cupped her cheek in the other.  Hera could feel his pulse in his wrist.   “I’m here,” he said.

“You’re here,” Hera said again.  She couldn’t stop looking at him.

He nodded.

Hera leaned in, shaking so badly that her teeth were chattering together, and kissed him.

Kanan kissed her back, warm and familiar and very alive.  He smelled strongly of charring, of burning fuel, but Hera couldn’t bring herself to care.  She just kept kissing him.

When they finally drew apart, foreheads tipped together, Hera said, “I love you.”  She didn’t want to wait on that, not for an instant.

Kanan’s mouth quirked in a smile. “I love you too.”  He cocked his head a little, considering the other Kanan and Hera, who were clinging to each other, then turned his attention back to Hera. “I’m getting the impression I missed something.”

Hera leaned her forehead against his. “Love, you have no idea.”

*

“Six years,” Kanan said. He looked a little pale, for which Hera couldn’t blame him.  “That was –”

“If you’re going to say ‘rash and reckless,’ can we just move onto the next part of this conversation?” she said.  “I’m not going to put you back.”

They were sitting together at the table in what should have been Sabine’s cabin, knee to knee because Hera couldn’t bear to be parted from him for more than a few moments.  Kanan had showered and changed into something borrowed from the younger Kanan, who apparently did own clothes which weren’t black.

“For one thing,” she went on, “I don’t think I can, and even if we could, I don’t think Hera – the other Hera – would let her Kanan try.”

Kanan smiled at her. “No, that’s not – it’s done.”  He kissed her, and Hera smiled up at him, so giddy that she could barely think.  “What did I miss?” he asked her as they drew apart.

She took a breath. “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

“What is there more of?”

“Good news.”

“Give me the bad news, then.”

Hera took another deep breath, steadying herself, and said, “Ezra is gone.”

Kanan put his head in his hands.

“When?” he said eventually, not looking up. “How long ago?”

“Six years,” Hera said, putting a hand on his back. “It was just after you, back on Lothal.”

Kanan cursed softly.

“For what it’s worth,” she went on, “we don’t think he’s dead.  But there’s no way to know.”

Kanan raised his head. “What do you mean?”

It took her a few minutes to explain about Grand Admiral Thrawn and the purgill, which to her mild dismay didn’t sound any more believable now than it had giving that report to Mon Mothma and General Madine once they had finally been able to return to Yavin IV all those years ago.  Kanan listened to this in silence, his expression unreadable, and then said, “You didn’t go after him?”

Hera ran her hands over her face. “We were going to, but the situation with the war got very bad very fast, and we couldn’t get away.  Believe me, Kanan, if I could –”  She trailed off, aware that this was reaching the stage of more an excuse than an explanation. “Everyone else is alive – of our people, I mean.  Sabine is back on Lothal right now, Zeb and Kallus and Rex are with the Rebel fleet – the Alliance fleet.”

“What’s the good news?”

Hera smiled a little. “Palpatine is dead.”  As his eyes widened, she went on, “So is Darth Vader.  And Moff Tarkin.”  This last was such old news that she had almost forgotten about it, but Kanan wouldn’t have known.

“The war –”

“The Alliance has taken Coruscant.  The Council is supposed to vote on and ratify the constitution in the next few days, and then we’ll have a republic again.”  She shrugged.  “There are still a dozen warlords with significant power running around – generals, admirals, moffs, sector governors – the old head of Imperial Intelligence held Coruscant for a while, but Wedge Antilles and his current command chased her off.  It’s a mess, but we’re winning.  Slowly.”

“That is good news.”

Hera swallowed, a little nervously, and went on, “And – there’s some other news.”

As Kanan raised his eyebrows, she said, “You have a son.”  Before he had a chance to respond, she said quickly, “His name is Jacen. He’s five, he – he likes animals and flying, and he –”

Kanan caught a hand around the back of her head and kissed her.  Hera kissed him back, smiling giddily against his mouth.

“Jacen?” Kanan whispered.

She nodded.  “Jacen Syndulla.  He looks like you –”  She started to reach for her holoprojector, then remembered it wouldn’t matter. “– mostly human, I mean, at least just to look at.  No lekku.  He must have gotten his hair from me – green, I mean, and his ears are starting to point like a Twi’lek’s.  They’re green too.  He’s on Ryloth with my father right now, probably having to be hauled out of the blurrg pens every few hours –”

Kanan kissed her again. “I love you,” he said softly.

Hera smiled at him, fighting back tears, and said, “I can’t wait for you to meet him, love.”

“Neither can I.”  He ran a thumb over her cheek, smiling at her, then kissed her again.

Hera put her arms around him and kissed him back.  They went on kissing, both of them wrapped around each other in a way that might have led to Hera getting laid for the first time in years if she hadn’t finally drawn back, breathing hard.

He grinned at her. Hera brushed another quick kiss over his lips, then said, “Later, love. I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” He sat back to pull at his rumpled shirt, saying, “What about the kids?”

Hera sighed, doing up her askew collar.  She knew who he meant without having to ask for clarification.  “They’re very young,” she said, which immediately made her feel like a crone.  “She’s thirteen years younger than me.  He’s – I’m not even sure you know how old you are, love.”

Kanan shrugged.  After the Jedi Purge, Hera knew, he had spent years lying about his age, with the result that it was unclear which number was the truth and which was the convenient lie.  “‘Young’ is the impression I got too, but I only had about five minutes to get there.”

“They are – they were, up until yesterday – Imperials,” Hera went on.

He raised his head, startled. “I didn’t sense that.”

“You should probably tell him that,” Hera said quietly.  “It –” She hesitated over the words.  “It wasn’t good for him there,” she said finally. “And he was hurt badly.”

Kanan nodded after a moment of thought. “And her?”

“She’s…brittle,” Hera said slowly. “She is, was, ISB – after getting kidnapped from her family at the age of fourteen, and tortured into agreeing to go the Academy.  She’s a sweet girl, and she loves him, but –” She shook her head.  “I’m glad I’m not her.”  She leaned against Kanan’s shoulder, listening to his heartbeat and reassured by the warm solidity of him.  “I’m glad you’re not him.”

Kanan was silent briefly, maybe thinking over what it was he had sensed from the other Kanan in those moments of connection, and then said, “So am I.”  He put his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Tell me about our son,” he said quietly. “What’s he like?  What was his first word?”

Hera smiled up at him. “Lolf,” he said, and when he raised his eyebrows, clarified, “He couldn’t say ‘Loth-wolf’ at first.  They always lurk around whenever we’re on Lothal.  They seem to like him, and he certainly likes them.  Loth-cats too.  I keep having to chase them out of the Ghost.”

Kanan smiled.

*

Hera left the room a little later to get them both something to eat.  Kanan was visibly flagging; Hera had to force herself to remember that as far as he was concerned this was a continuation of an already-long day that had culminated in the explosion at the fuel depot.  Two long days, actually; he had told her he hadn’t slept since before her failed assault on Lothal.  For Hera that had been more than six years ago; for him, only hours.  He was probably dealing with the transition better than she would have under the same circumstances.

Hera had debriefed former Imperial prisoners-of-war who had spent years in work camps or locked up in the bowels of shadow prisons like the Spire on Stygeon Prime.  It wasn’t one of her regular duties, but it was one she had performed often enough to have a feel for it.  For some of them, coming back to the Alliance – if they had been rebels in the first place – or returning to their homeworlds, to their friends and families, was like traveling through time.  One woman had described it to Hera as having been stuck in carbonite and coming out to find that the world had moved on without her – she had returned to Corellia to find that her wife had remarried and her children barely remembered her.  Ryder Azadi had told her once that time moved oddly inside prison, like molasses, either too quickly and in great glops, or so slowly that a day seemed to last years. She actually knew a few people who had been in carbonite, Han Solo among them, and she supposed that was the best parallel to Kanan’s situation.  Maybe he could talk to Han.

Hera considered that for a few minutes, then grimaced.  She wasn’t certain that Kanan would get along with Han.

She found the younger Kanan sitting in the galley with a mug of tea in front of him and a coldpack pressed to his head.  He glanced up as she came in. “How is he?”

“How would you be?” Hera said.

She had meant it rhetorically, but under the circumstances he took it seriously and said, “Confused.”

Hera rubbed a hand over her forehead, but couldn’t disagree. “How are you doing?” she asked instead.

He gestured at the coldpack. “Wishing that I didn’t process painkillers too fast for them to be worth it. I was lying down for a while, but –” He shrugged, then winced. “I don’t like being alone in the dark either, especially not right now.  It’s the same reason I don’t want to take any of the heavy-duty painkillers we have onboard.  And it seems like a waste to use them on this when we don’t know if we’ll be able to get more.”

For whatever reason, Force-users processed drugs more quickly than other members of their species, or at least Hera assumed that was true for nonhumans as well as humans, as all the Force-users she had encountered were human.

“I’m sorry,” she said awkwardly, then realized that there was one very important thing she hadn’t told him yet. “Thank you.”

He glanced up at her. His eyes were gentle, despite the way he was wincing a little in pain. “You’re welcome,” he said.  For a moment Hera thought he was going to say something else, but all he did was shift the coldpack’s position. “Are you looking for something?”

“Is there something in here we can eat?”

“Take anything but Hera’s meiloorun,” he said, considered that statement, and then said, “Sorry.”

Hera smiled. “It’s all right.  I know what you mean.”  As she crossed the room to inspect the contents of the coldbox and cupboards, she asked, “Where is she?”

There was a long moment of silence, and then he said, “She’s in the cockpit, calling her parents.”

Hera stilled with her hand on a bottle of jogan juice.  Mama, she thought with a pang, then pushed that aside with what felt like a titanic amount of willpower.  “That must be difficult for her,” she said instead.

“Yes,” he said.

Hera finished compiling a scratch meal and loaded it onto a tray.  She wasn’t certain that Kanan would still be awake to eat it when she got back to the cabin, but if he was, it would probably be better than anything he had tasted in month, since food had been scarce when they had been on Lothal.

“Can you pass me another coldpack?” he asked.

Hera fetched one out of the coldbox and handed it to him, then collected her tray.  “Thank you,” she said again, and left the room before he could respond.

Kanan was, as she had expected, asleep, slumped over on the bench with his head against the wall. Hera watched him for a few moments, startled by the wave of tenderness that rose up at the sight of him, and squeezed back tears, because he looked so much like Jacen when her son had fallen asleep after playing too hard that it hurt.

She set the tray down on the table and roused him.  Kanan came awake instantly, the way he always did, though this time there was blurry incomprehension on his face.

“There’s food if you want it,” Hera told him. “Or if you’d rather sleep –”

“I’ll sleep,” he said, the words slurring together a little, his Coruscanti accent coming out the way it did only when he was very tired or in a great deal of pain.  It halted Hera for a moment, because the last time she had heard it had been from the other Kanan.

“At least take your boots off and get into bed, then,” Hera said, to cover up her confusion.  She helped him up, reassured by his solidity, and helped him get his boots off.  He caught an arm around her waist and drew her close for a quick kiss, leaning against the ladder leading up to the bunk.

“I love you,” he said, his voice low and serious.

“I love you too,” Hera said softly. “I missed you.”

[twilightofthe]

Chapter Sixteen liveblog of The Mandalorian Season 2!  Let’s go!!!

It’s the LAST ONE AHHHHHHH!!!!!

DIN BETTER GET HIS SON BACK IN THIS EPISODE I SWEAR TO FUCK

THEY WILL NOT MAKE ME WAIT AN ENTIRE ASS YEAR ON A CLIFFHANGER FOR ME TO SEE DIN HOLD HIS SON IN HIS ARMS AGAIN FUCK NO

Also they’ve kept who directed this episode a secret and lemme tell you I’m REAL curious as to who it was

Ok ok ok ok ok.  OK.  Here we go

*screaming intensifies*

Ok we getting RIGHT into a space battle

GETTEM BOBA GET EM

Oh but this is Pershing I’m hesitant about him, he let Din go with the baby last time

Hmmm good guy or bad guy

I feel like I’ve seen the actors of these Imp pilots before

OOP there goes Pilot #2

OOOP YEP PERSHING’S A CLONE ENGINEER OOOOOOOOOOH

Ok this guy’s a dickass extraordinaire 

Leave Cara alone lol Luke blasted everyone who saw Alderaan blow up into smithereens you should know that

Shut up bro someone’s gonna kill you

YEP CARA GOT HIM

WOOOOOAH DRAMATIC OPENING

The title card says “The RESCUE” which implies the baby is being RESCUED do NOT fuck with me here Star Wars 

Ok ok so I have no clue what this planet is I’m curious

Also wait if Pershing’s a clone engineer it’ll be real interesting if he and Boba interact

Oh there’s Bo Katan guess she’s back

OH WHOOP THERE’S A FETT AND A KRYZE MEETING

C’MON STAR WARS DON’T MAKE SATINE LOOK BAD IN THIS I’VE ALREADY GONE TO BAT AND SAID THE FETT EXCOMMUNICATION WASN’T HER FAULT XD

“Not all Mandalorians are bounty hunters” bitch you were a TERRORIST holy SHIT Bo Katan why are you like this

ALDKFSJDLK EVEN BO KATAN IS READY TO SQUARE UP OVER A BABY THAT CUTE

Lol whoop never mind

Uh oh here she goes with Boba

To glass eh?

PRINCESS OOOOOH

AND THE CLONES BOOTED MAUL OFF YOUR PLANET AND BAILED YOUR ASS OUT THE FIRST TIME ASSHOLE JESUS

TWICE YOU HAVE LOST YOUR PLANET TWICE

Wait what now about the Darksaber

So it’s a super special cutting saber?  Tf?

THE CHILD IS MY ONLY PRIORITY AAAAAAAA

Lol something tells me Pershing’s not gonna make it past this episode he knows too much and is giving too much information 

The lesbian energy in this scene is immense btw

Booooo you’re talking a BIG game rn

Y’all have no idea how fucking much I love that Boba’s calling Bo Katan princess it’s the funniest thing

Hmmmmmm honestly they should have expected they’d send TIEs instead

HMMMM GIDEON’S GONNA KILL Y’ALL

Lol Bo who taught you to fly

OH NO OH NO IT’S A TRAP I THINK GIDEON KNEW

Wait a minute fucking duh Gideon knew it was Bo Katan’s voice on the comms he’s met her AHHHHHHH

Aaaaaand here come the terminators

Ohhh so I guess Bo and Fennec and the wlw squad are the distraction

MORE LACK OF OSHA VIOLATIONS AGAIN FOR FUCK SAKE THAT IS DEEP SPACE GODDAMMIT

YAYYYYY GIRLS

Ok so it’s taken this long for Mando to pass the Bechdel test but ngl this is worth it

Wait a fuck so where’s Pershing in all of this?  With Boba?

WELL DIN MAYBE IF YOU HAD RAN A BIT FASTER YOU WOULDN’T BE FIGHTING THE TERMINATOR AHHHHHHHHH

Ok so THERE’S the spear

Hahaaaaa he spaced all the Terminators hahahaha

GIDEON’S GUARDING THE BABY AS YOU SHOULD KNOW BO KATAN

If he’s holding the Darksaber to the baby’s neck I swear--

AAAAAAAHHHHH I FUCKING KNEW IT LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE ASSHOLE FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

STOP IT

Ok fine Thrawn 2.0

DON’T TRUST HIIIIIIIIM DON’T TRUST HIM DON’T TRUST HIM DON’T TRUST HIIIIIIIIIIIIIM

I HATE THIS ALL SO MUCH DIE BITCH DIE

NONONONONONONONONONONONONO

AAAAHHHHH I KNEW IT

GET THE SPEAR DIN GET THE SPEAR

THE SPEAR THE SPEAR AAAAHHHHH YES

Ok how is it possible so far that not even Din’s CLOAK has been sliced off

AHAHAHA NO BITCH KILL HIM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oho so we getting some Bo and Gideon drama now!

Whaaaaat since when Sabine gave it to Bo Katan no fight?????

Ooooop the Terminators are back

I knew this was too easy

The Terminators coming back now are like when you roll a nat 20 earlier in a RPG and get rid of one of the really cool bosses the DM wanted to use and now the DM’s like “nOPE I’M STILL USING THEM”

FFS HE HAS A LOCKPICK NOOOOOOOOO

OH NO OH NO OH NO OH NO BABY DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD AAAAHHHHH HEEEEEEELP

Gideon Shut The FUCK Up Challenge

Oh NOW who’s showing up

Who’s in the X Wiiiiiiiing

I DON’T LIKE THIS WHO IS THIS WHO 

Ahsoka???

NO WRONG HEAD SHAPE

THAT’S A LIGHTSABER AAAAAAAAA WHO WHO WHAT

LUKE OR EZRA GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN THAT’S LUKE OR EZRA THAT’S ONE OF MY BOYS HOLY SHIT

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIIIIIIIT AAAAHHHHHHH

I don’t know if Ezra could take out all those terminators that easily though

OK RIGHT HAND BLACK GLOVE??????

But is that Luke’s saber tho I can’t tell I don’t know?!?!?!??!?!

YEP THE OTHER HAND DOESN’T HAVE A GLOVE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUKE THAT’S LUUUUUUUKE!!!! 

I’M GONNA CRY

OH SHIT BO’S DOWN OH SHIT

WHOOP CARA GOT GIDEON NOOOOO JUST LET HIM DIE GAH

And the baby sees the Jedi aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

OK JEDI VS DARKTROOPERS COME ON LUKE GET EM

WAIT NO THAT HAND DIDN’T LOOK WHITE THO COULD IT BE EZRA?

NO BUT THE ONE BLACK GLOVE

Y’ALL I AM ON CLOUD NINE RIGHT NOW THIS HAS MADE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD

Ok good I think Bo’s back up again

LUKELUKELUKELUKELUKE?????

YEP I’D KNOW THAT GAY-ASS BELT ANYWHERE

IT’S HIIIIIIIM

I’M FUCKING CRYING OH MY GOD

IS HE A JEDI BIIIIIITCH

Ok the CGI Mark’s kinda scary ngl

Ok Baby’s not gonna wanna go with him and Disney BETTER not make Luke look bad when he says no

OH SHIT HE TOOK HIS HELMET OFF SO THE BABY COULD SEE HIS FACE KSLDJKLSJKLFSDLKJFJKLSAKJ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I’M GONNA FUCKIN DIE THIS IS TOO MUCH THIS IS WAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART

OH NO OH NO OH NO DIN NOOOOOOO DON’T LEAE YOUR SON

NO 

NO NONO NO NO NO HE LOVES YOU

EVERYONE ELSE COVER YOUR EYES FUCKERS

Ok now R2 is just fanservice lmao

Ok now it is ILLEGAL Luke never called this kid Baby Yoda he would ABSOLUTELY do so 

OK ALSO BUT LUKE HOLDING HIS BABY GRANDMASTER IS THE CUTEST THING IN THE UNIVERSE

OK OK OK BUT ALSO NO LUKE YOU GOTTA GIVE HIM BACK NOW

DIN’S CRYING HONEY NOOOOOOOO

That’s IT

what the FUCK NOOOOOOOO

OK THIS WAS A GOOD END BUT AT THE SAME TIME NOOOOOO YODITO CAN’T STAY WITH LUKE WITH HIS MURDER-HAPPY HELLSPAWN NEPHEW AROUND

Also who’s Peyton Reed?

Anyway but AHHHHHH ok so this is setting up a conflict of Mando succession where once again I don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, Bo took the Darksaber just fine from Sabine in Rebels without a fight????????

Gah it’s early and I’m still tired talk later

but AHHHHHH

[cross-d-a]

Why Anakin is still the Chosen One

Here are some tired thoughts before I go to sleep:

Anakin literally tells Rey to bring balance to the Force like he once did. He defeated Palpatine in episode VI and brought balance then. Yeah, Palpatine apparently lived but that doesn't mean Anakin didn't bring balance.

Ever since Force Awakens I can't help but think that this whole sequel trilogy is an allegory for our current political state, specifically: Neo-nazism. The Empire is modeled after Nazis. There's no question. Fascist totalitarianism wrapped up in a genocidal Empire?? Yeah, no thanks.

But then we've got the First Order. They're trying to revive past ideals, trying to revive the Empire. They're a whole mix of people: born into a fascist family like Hux, original Empire loyalists like Pryde, children stolen and brainwashed into it like the stormtroopers-- racism and hate comes from a lot of different backgrounds (it can be taught, it can be learned), but they all tend to latch onto certain beliefs and political structures. It helps the First Order that (from what I can tell) the New Republic was a copy of the first. From the prequels it's easy to tell that it's a broken system. The Empire didn't just spring up out of nowhere. Palpatine was a crafty son of a bitch but even he couldn't sway billions upon billions of people to his side. Those feelings of hate and prejudice and greed had to already exist- Palpatine just took advantage of it and stoked the flames (not even gonna go into real world parallels here).

There is a reason why I'm talking about this. I'm talking about Anakin, who was raised a slave. Who was already a victim of hate and all the evils in the galaxy because he was a SLAVE. A little boy who only wanted to help people, who wanted to break the system that allowed him and the rest of his people to suffer. Then he was freed and thrust into a position of privilege within the system that made it possible for Anakin to be born a slave. And there he was, told over and over that he was the Chosen one. That he must bring balance. But it wasn't the kind of balance he sought since he was a little boy. I think Anakin just wanted everyone to be equal, and the kind of balance the Jedi believed in didn't necessarily mirror that since they were an integral part of the Republic.

But I digress.

I'm bringing up Anakin's childhood in slavery (and arguably, his whole life of slavery) because Anakin is was folded into this Nazi-like Empire which went against everything that he believed in as a child. Everything his mother believed in. Palpatine and the Empire twisted him and yes I love Anakin to death and he is such a victim of circumstance (and he is such a nuanced, interesting character), but he did some pretty terrible things as Darth Vader. He became everything that he ever wanted to fight against.

And then he said no.

He watched Palpatine torture his son. He watched Palpatine try it use his son. And we all know how much Anakin values family. Anakin chose to end fhat circle of hate and suffering. He was the first one to stand his ground and save the person he loved and actually succeed- and with that action he became the catalyst for defeating the Empire.

The thing about Anakin is that he has always been the catalyst. His birth was a seemingly impossible thing. The Jedi discovering him set in motion both Palpatine's plan and the Jedi's defeat. And then Palpatine's eventual destruction.

I'm not discounting every single other person in the Star Wars universe who has suffered or fought for what is right (shout out to Ezra 'spark of the rebellion' Bridger). But there is no doubt that without Anakin we would not have a Star Wars series. Everything revolves around him, whether it's believing he's the chosen one, believing he is the villain we must defeat, or knowing he is someone we must live up to and emulate.

Without Anakin's sacrifice, without him remembering what's truly important (family, love, freedom), the Empire would not have been defeated. Luke would have died. Leia probably, too. Palpatine would have utterly destroyed the galaxy (maybe we'd see some actual Dark!Rey way down the line). Anakin stood up, stood his ground and said No.

The real reason why Anakin is the Chosen One is because he IS that catalyst. Because he did rise from oppression and servitude and had the strength to say No.

I'm going to bring up the Neo-Nazism again: the New Republic rose up to replace the Republic. The First Order rose up to emulate the Empire. I would argue that the First Order became so powerful because the structures that allowed the Empire to rise in the first place still existed.

Yoda says in the original trilogy: There is another. (Yeah you know what like I'm talking about) You could argue that it's Leia (it certainly meant to be at the time). You could argue that it's baby Yoda (my boy!!). But I would argue that it is the next generation.

You see, you can't just defeat evil once and be done with it. We certainly hoped we would when WWII ended, but the fight is never done. Neo-Nazis still exist. Terrible, terrible people still exist. And maybe it's learned, maybe it's passed down through the family-- you can learn to hate in a lot of different ways. The structures that allowed Nazis to rise up like they did still exist today. We still face racism and homophobia and anti-Semitism. The battle is not over.

That's why I think these sequel movies are important (despite my problems with it, but I won't go into that here). I would love to think that after episode VI everyone lived a happily ever after. There was no more evil, no more suffering and slavery and thoughtless killing. But it doesn't work like that. Even though that's the ending I want, even though that's the ending I sometimes need-- every generation faces its own threat. Its own call to the past.

I have my own confused reservations about Rey parentage, but I adore that she rejects the legacy of hate. We see what she is capable of. We see that (just like Anakin) she could give in to what she thinks is the lesser of two evils. (It's okay as long as the people I love get to live, right?') We see that she is fully capabale of it even. She struggles with it, much more (I would argue) than either of the other two movies. She struggles to reject that part of herself and she struggles to acknowledge that she is born from that legacy (as so many would). Who would be proud to know they came from a family of Nazis? Not many people I hope.

And maybe it's because her parents chose to "be no one" that she is able to find the strength to think "maybe I don't have to go down this path." I would love to know more about her parents and how they chose to completely defy expectations, but I'll content myself for now with this:

Rey chose to reject the legacy of hate, and instead followed Anakin's own defiance. She's choosing her own legacy: combatting of hate and violence. Embracing love and hope. Learning from the mistakes of the past.

In a way, Ben Solo is right: let the past die. We must destroy the hatred and intolerance of our past. We must tear down the structures our forefathers put in place that allowed this hatred to arise and take over the galaxy. But he's also wrong. We have no way to know how to be better than our forefathers if we don't remember their mistakes. If we don't remember what they fought for and believed in. That's why "a thousand generations live within [Rey] now." She chose to follow the legacy of love and hope that the Jedi embody. And yes, the Jedi have their own problems, but that doesn't change the fact that they did their best to fight for what they thought was right. And, this is something to remember:

Yoda said: We are what they grow beyond.

Luke and Leia continued on that legacy of hope where Anakin and Padmé and Obi-Wan were unable to continue. They succeeded where those three failed. And, I hope, Rey (and Finn and Poe) will be able to succeed where Luke and Leia and Han couldn't. Where the Jedi couldn't.

It's up to everyone that comes after us to remember where they came from and discover how to grow beyond where we failed.

And now I'm back to where I began: Anakin. He tells Rey to bring balance to the Force like he once did. We hear many other voices (Luke's, Yoda's, Ahsoka's, even Kanan's and Ayala Secura's), but to me Anakin's was by far the most prominent. I love that we hear Obi-Wan's voice first ("These are your final steps"), and perhaps this is a parallel to Obi-Wan trying to call Anakin back to the light so many years ago. But Anakin's is so prominent. Ben and Rey are extremely important each other (and there is so much to unpack there), but Anakin's final push is what gives Rey strength and hope.

Anakin reminds Rey of the past. He reminds Rey that He broke free from that cycle of hate and that she can, too. Anakin is so, so important. He's the prime example that you can end the hate. End the violence. You don't have to be a Nazi like your shitty grandfather.

"Be with me. Be with me," she repeats over and over and over again. She trying to connect with the past. She's trying to understand her position in the universe. And she does, once she accepts her heritage. Once she accepts where she came from. And Anakin is there to help her take those final steps.

This whole sequel trilogy is about legacy. It's about repeating the mistakes of the past. It's about desperately trying to live up to expectations and failing them. It's about desperately trying to forget where you come from and trying to find yourself amidst the echoes of a chaotic past.

And, as always with Star Wars, it's about finding hope in the darkest of places. It's about love and family and saving the people who can't save themselves. This is the legacy that Anakin Skywalker left behind when he saved Luke from Palpatine, and this is the legacy that will continue to be remembered for every generation to come after that.

So Anakin Skywalker is still the Chosen One. He's that bright little slave boy who grew up twisted and lonely and got beaten into submission, yet still found the strength to claw his way back to the light. We all have that strength within ourselves to be better people, and now Rey can carry on that lesson and pass it down from generation to generation.

[fistsofcurie]

Why is Cal the protagonist instead of Cere?

So I was replaying Jedi: Fallen Order recently, and something really stuck out to me.  This is going to be long, kinda ranty, and full of spoilers, so analysis is under the cut.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, you play as Cal Kestis, a Padawan who survived Order 66.  For reference, Cal looks like this:

In other words, he looks like every other modern white guy video game protagonist: 

Except maybe slightly younger than average, and ginger this time (and even that was apparently one of the first things people modded out).  Oh and he has a cute droid.  This post intends no shade to BD-1, for whom I would die.  

Anyway, when we meet Cal at the beginning of the game, he’s living in hiding from the Empire, who would very much like to finish the job they started with Order 66.  When Cal’s status as an ex-Jedi is revealed, the Empire sends a couple of Inquisitors after him, and he barely manages to escape with the help of Cere Junda, who looks like this:

Over the course of the game, we learn that Cere also used to be a Jedi - a full Knight instead of a Padawan like Cal, but that she turned away from the Force in the aftermath of Order 66.  Eventually (SERIOUS SPOILER WARNING TURN BACK IF YOU CARE ABOUT THIS) it’s revealed that the Second Sister, one of the Inquisitors hunting Cal, is none other than Trilla Suduri, Cere’s former Padawan.  Cere left Trilla to care for some younglings they were guarding while Cere herself ran off to try to lead the Empire away.  Cere was caught and tortured until she gave up Trilla’s location, and then Trilla was caught and tortured until she became an Inquisitor.  When Cere saw Trilla take up that mantle, she tapped into the Dark Side, allowing her to escape, but also prompting her to give up the Force lest she fall completely.  Trilla, for reference, looks like this: 

This brings us to the main crux of this post, namely, why the hell is Cal even in this game, much less as its protagonist?  Trilla, as the main antagonist, is only after Cal because a) he’s a Jedi, so killing or capturing him is pretty much her job as an Inquisitor and b) he’s after the same MacGuffin she is.  It’s not personal, it’s business.  Any personal edge to the taunts she throws your way throughout the game only comes by way of Cal’s relationship with her former Master.  Make Cere the player character, and the conflict with the primary villain immediately becomes hugely more personal, more visceral, the reveal of Trilla’s identity has that much more impact.  

True, it is a big part of Cere’s character arc to show that she’s recovered enough from her trauma to be willing to trust Cal, be open with him, and train him, but the opening up and trusting parts could easily be transferred to her relationship with her friend and pilot Greez, aka Space Danny Devito.  As for being willing to take on a new Padawan, the primary MacGuffin you’re trying to recover in this game is a holocron containing a list of force sensitive children whom Cal and Cere EXPLICITLY PLAN TO TRAIN AS JEDI.  If that isn’t enough of a source of that type of angst, I hardly think Cal “Personality of Wet Tissue Paper” Kestis is going to do the job.  If it didn’t get explored thoroughly enough in this game, that’s just more sequel fodder.  Instead of (MORE BIG SPOILERS FOR THE VERY END OF THE GAME TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED IT) destroying the holocron to prevent the Empire from hunting the children it identifies, Cere could use find those children.  Maybe the next game would have the children themselves as the MacGuffins you’re trying to collect, or maybe it would skip ahead in time to where Cere has already trained some of them up a bit.  They could each have their own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities, and you could play as different characters on different levels depending on what was needed to get the job done.  

True, movie canon shows us that there isn’t a thriving Jedi Order up and running at the time of the original trilogy, just isolated hermits like Obi-Wan and Yoda, which is why it’s such a big deal when Luke becomes a Jedi and we assume that, after the fall of the Empire, he’s going to re-found the order.  That didn’t stop us from getting characters like Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka in Rebels though.  (Yes, I know Ahsoka’s not technically a Jedi at that point, but you get my point.)  They could easily be operating in an isolated cell somewhere on the Outer Rim or something.  Or maybe they get shut down at some point, giving us more fuel for tragedy and feels.  The point is, there are ways to handle this that both don’t conflict with canon and also don’t completely invalidate the goal you’ve been pursuing for the whole game.  Oh look, the choice of protagonist isn’t my only issue with this game’s plot.  Short detour, back to the main point.  

You wouldn’t even have to change the main story beats that much.  Cere would also have been in hiding, as demonstrated by the fact that she’s still alive, so have her huddled up in some backwater when she gets exposed and attacked like Cal was, forcing her to realize that she’ll never really be able to hide from her past and must face it.  Her cutting herself off from the Force mirrors Cal’s damaged connection to the Force, so you could have the necessary video game progression of gaining back various force powers as you move through the game.  Cere’s worry about falling to the dark side is much more in line with the traditional Star Wars theme of light vs. dark than Cal’s worry that he’s not good enough because he failed to save his master, Jaro Tapal, and is, in my opinion, more interesting as well.  

Hell, speaking of Jaro, I’d take him as a protagonist too.  So many species in the Star Wars universe, and when’s the last time we had a video game with a canon protagonist who was anything other than a human?  The physical strength and agility he’d have as a Lasat would give the designers room to give the players some cool moves to play with.  

Anyway, Cere’s light side/dark side conflict could even give you some interesting story mechanics to play with.  Maybe the game allows you to make a final choice whether to try to redeem Trilla (light side) or take revenge on her for hunting you (dark side).  Or maybe, in the final boss fight against Trilla, you could choose to tap into the dark side to get a power boost, but in exchange you get a worse ending.  

The point is, as far as I can see, there’s literally only upside from the perspectives of both story and game mechanics to making Cere the protagonist of Fallen Order instead of Cal.  Feel free to point out anything I might have missed, but that’s how I see it currently.  The only thing holding them back would have been the fear that Star Wars fanboys and hardcore gamers wouldn’t have bought the game if it had an older black woman on the box art instead of a young white guy.  The depressing part is, they’re probably right.  

I will admit, I’m being somewhat hyperbolic here.  I did still very much enjoy the game, and Cal was at least a serviceable protagonist, if not an exciting one.  He’s just everything we’re used to seeing in a player character, and nothing we’re not, and that’s always going to be disappointing and frustrating when the opportunity to have a kickass Star Wars video game centering on the conflict between two women of color was right fucking there but we didn’t get it and instead they played it safe.  

[oceanera12]

Breaking Down Time Travel AU’s: feat. the Star Wars Universe

Most of these involve Obi-Wan weirdly enough (probably has something to do with traversing all three trilogies...)

If not Obi-Wan, then it’s Anakin (probably has something to do with how much regret he has on his actions)

(I know I’ve seen some with Ahsoka involved or Rex and Cody involved. A few Star Wars Rebels with Ezra or Kanan are also out there. But mostly, it’s Anakin and Obi-Wan)

Now there’s a few main starting points so let’s run through them.

Obi-Wan after leaving Anakin to die on Mustafar

Obi-Wan on Tatooine after a few years of just watching Luke and he’s depressed and wants to fix the past

Obi-Wan’s death in A New Hope (most common/main starting point)

When he’s a ghost and decides he’s had enough of the univere’s kriffing mistakes.

Anakin after he’s left to die on Mustafar

Anakin when he’s been Vader for a little while and is regretting his life decisions

Anakin after he kills the Emperor and then dies (most common/main starting point)

Just as important as where they start from is where they end up and this applies to both Anakin and Obi-Wan (and pretty much anyone who does the “time travel fix-it au” with a character)

Episode I. There’s a lot of spots in the movie where the time traveler will pop up so I’m clumping them together. We got the meeting with the trade federation, on Naboo, on Tatooine, back on Naboo a little before Maul shows up and I think there’s a few that are after Maul (most of those are in Anakin’s case, though) (Also, this is a very common starting place)

During Anakin’s apprenticeship. After Qui-Gon’s death, just at any point. This can be either Obi-Wan or Anakin.

Before Episode I. Most of these involve Anakin time-traveling and it’s before he fell to the dark side. He goes back, with his body (so he’s older Anakin) and has interactions with padawan!Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to learn a lesson or something.

Before the Clone Wars or during the Clone Wars.

Right after Order 66 (this one is kind of rare but I think I’ve seen one with Obi-Wan deciding to raise Luke instead of leaving him with his uncle and aunt... or maybe that was an AU)

The goals of the characters usually come down to one main point: Make sure Anakin doesn’t ruin the entire galaxy.

Yes, these also involve overthrowing Palpatine, removing the chips from the clones, preventing the Jedi Temple bombing so Ahsoka doesn’t leave the Order, etc. But it can be narrowed down to that point right there. ((This is for EVERYONE who travels through time. Heck, most Luke time travel adventures is him trying to keep his Dad on the lightside.))

How they travel through time is also brought to one point: The Force. Enough said.

The Method of Time travel:

Travel backwards with their current state (their bodies, minds, memories, skills, etc.) Eg: Obi-Wan jumping back to Naboo, but not in his old self. This makes it so there is two Obi-Wan’s running around (padawan!Obi-Wan and master!Obi-Wan)

Travel back with only their mind and memories. Eg. Anakin being put back in his Padawan!Anakin body so he can’t do those cool flips he could when he is older, but he does know what to do to change some things from happening.

Travel back with mind, memories, skills, but still in their old body. Eg. padawan!Obi-Wan taking on Maul but with the experience and skills of someone fighting in the Clone Wars and fighting Sith Lords (in other words, Maul is dead before he even has a chance).

Other random points that come up often:

Telling the council vs. not telling the council

Trying to fix relationships between people (Obi-Wan trying to be a better Master to Anakin and vice versa)

Random pairings (By the Force, there are too many to list and some of them just make me gag-- sorry but I don’t see the appeal in having Master!Obi-Wan dating Qui-Gon Jinn while Padawan!Obi-Wan is standing right there.)

Fixing the Jedi Code

Fixing the Jedi Order

Fixing the Senate

Overthrowing Palpatine through various means

Removing the clone’s inhibitor chips

Changing people’s occupations/roles (eg.- ”The Senate recognizes Senator Skywalker of Tatooine”)

Trying to redeem Anakin

You get the picture

The result of most of these Time-Travel AU’s are as follows:

Anakin doesn’t Kriff up the Galaxy.

[thatwitchrevan]

So I was thinking a bit about Force Visions and Sithy Apparitions, as you do, and it occurred to me that I... think there’s functionally no difference between the types of visions Sith have or that are triggered by Dark Side places vs the visions that Jedi have/in Light Side places. Which would be kind of a given if you just don’t subscribe to Dark vs Light in the first place but I do think there may be some truth to the Force’s different aspects and either way, this is still interesting to me. 

I was thinking particularly about my Exile and how she responds to her visions on Korriban, because I think in the game’s eyes this is maybe supposed to be Different from the visions a young Jedi might have during their trials, but to Meetra, it’s exactly the same. She faces scrutiny of her choices, ghosts from her past, enemies she couldn’t defeat, and enemies in the present that she’s been manipulated to see as allies. It’s a test of her character as much as it is torture, because for her, at this point of the story, those go extremely well together. 

Ofc, this is just the way I write and interpret this scene from a game that is already pretty hard on the Force and the supposed distinctions between Jedi and Sith, so it’s far from evidence that Force visions are completely universal. But if you look at canon stuff like Star Wars Rebels, I think there are examples of Jedi Force Visions that look pretty similar to the stuff you’d seen on Korriban in KotOR II. Like the vision Ezra had in SWR, when Kanan took him to a Temple on Lothal to be tested? That was some frightening shit. And yes, it got hijacked by Yoda and it was ~all a learning experience~ (yes, I am still furious at Kanan), but the bulk of it as I remember was just. Terror. The Force tormenting poor Ezra with his worst fears. It doesn’t really matter to me what reason there might be for it because the end result is the same. I guess if Ezra did it completely on his own because he wanted to be tested, then it’d be easy to argue that, but ultimately it is a trial in the most serious meaning of the word.

There’s also Luke’s vision on Dagobah, which I’d argue is unambiguously just ‘a Force Vision’, not a Jedi or Sith thing. It occurs in a place ‘tainted’ by the Dark Side and it’s a shitty experience but it contains a warning that would actually be very useful to Luke if it was, you know, more clear. It’s a part of his trial, even though Yoda warned him against it. It’s not set at any Temple or institution, it’s just... the Force, saying something important in a really, really scary way.

And that’s an experience lots of Force users regardless of order have in common. I mean I’m not saying there aren’t some visions that are unique to one side - I can’t really say that because I’ve only seen or read about a small number, and I don’t have a super informed idea on, for example, what the average Jedi sees on Illium or at any point during their apprenticeship and trials. What I do think is this: whenever a Force Vision pops up, whether it’s to send a message or administer a test or just scare the shit out of you, there’s often no discernible difference based on what Order the subject is in or what sort of place they’re at. Maybe the Sith ones tend to be more Sithy and the Jedi ones tend to be more preachy but they function the same, and the number one point is that they’re both horrifying.  I haven’t yet seen a Vision that didn’t look like a nightmare sequence, angst cranked up to eleven. Which I think just means the Force is fucking scary in general and will fuck you up. No one is safe. And isn’t that cheery. 

[gffa]

Do you think it would be possible for Obi-Wan to go back in time after dying on the Death Star and then Falling? If so how do you think Dooku, Anakin, and the Council would react?

If we’re talking staying-100%-true-to-canon, it would be possible, but I don’t think Obi-Wan would do it, because it’s not a great idea, according to word of god.  When talking about why Ahsoka didn’t jump through the time portals when she had the chance in the World Between Worlds, Dave Filoni said this:

“Because the reason why [Ahsoka] doesn’t go [through the portal with Ezra] is that she’s savvy enough to know that you can’t.  You can’t just leap out of your time. “Unfortunately, in the middle of this running, I had different bits of exposition–‘ButEzraIcan'tgowith youbecauseifIdothisisreallybad–!’  It’s, like, no!  We need to just get away from the fire!  Sometimes you write this stuff and then you stage it and you’re watching her running and you’re like, ‘No!  When I’m running from fire, I’m just like, "I CAN’T GO!  I’LL SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK!”’ and you have to distill it down to, okay, that’s very real, because if she stops to have an exposition, she could burn up in a blue ball of flames.“So [Ezra] doesn’t get the explanation, but I tried to portray her–  When I talked to Ashley, I was like:  She doesn’t know what this place is, but she has kind of instincts about it because she’s older and has experienced more. And she’s been on the weird side of things before, especially. So this is probably, 'Oh, this is like that weird place I was where they were putting Anakin in a star machine to see if he was the Chosen One [on Mortis].  I’ve been down this road before.’“She knows that you can’t break those type of continuities, for the lack of a better term. And so she’s pretty much figured out that 'I have to go back where I came from, you have to go back from where you came from.’ […] If she leaps in there to service the Rebellion where Ezra’s at now, I get that that might be a good idea as a good person, but it’s also cheating. Because she doesn’t know what she’s skipping and who then she’s not going to help, or what she has to do independently of all that. So the only things that were a constant were that she went down that staircase.”

Time travel is possible in the GFFA, but doing so via the World Between Worlds seems like it would actually destroy a lot of the continuity, that it’s cheating and that implies there’d be a really bad price to pay for it.  One that I don’t think any good person would do–which is the whole lesson Ezra had to learn, that he could change the past and what happened to Kanan, he could undo this horrible thing that hurt him so much, but there would be a price to pay in the greater galaxy, that he would be shredding the contiuum for it, and instead he had to accept what reality was, process it, and learn to let it go.That’s at the heart of being a Jedi, every Jedi from the prequels with Obi-Wan and Yoda and Qui-Gon, to Ezra’s journey, to Luke’s journey all across the galaxy before and after the Empire fell, to learn to accept what the reality of the situation is, and work on letting go the personal desire to change it, no matter how horrible it is, because it would shred the galaxy apart.Now, if we’re talking the kind of time travel where the Force just goes, “Yes, but I know what I’m doing, as all-knowing energy field that is as old as the universe itself.” and just dumps Obi-Wan back into his previous self?  (Which, btw, GIMME GIMME GIMME ALLLLL OF THOSE FICS.)  Or a fic where he falls into Darkness and it changes the course of things?  GIMME.  GIMME GIMME GIMME THOSE FICS. GIMME.But one of the biggest themes of Obi-Wan Kenobi of canon is that he rose above those things.  He rose above the horrible betrayal of Anakin.  He rose above the genocide of his entire people and culture.  He rose above the long exile in the desert.  He rose above his loss of duty and purpose.  Obi-Wan stumbles sometimes, he has trouble bearing the weight the galaxy has placed on his shoulders, but he never truly falters on the path of goodness, he always finds his way again.  He always finds kindness, he always finds love, he always finds compassion again.Regardless of whether he has the Jedi Order’s structure to help him (and Obi-Wan is very much a Jedi in that he takes the teachings of mindfulness to heart, which psychologists say is really beneficial to people dealing with PTSD, so even if the Jedi Order isn’t there anymore, what they taught him is still there and it’s still helping him), Obi-Wan lived by those principles.  Obi-Wan believed in and was faithful to the Jedi Way all of his life–and was rewarded with becoming a Force Ghost for it, was rewarded with the Jedi’s light returning to the galaxy, was rewarded with the return of Anakin.Yeah, a lot of the stuff in there along the way really sucked, but Obi-Wan was someone who rose above those things, he’d been taught to face his fears and hurts, he’d been taught to find compassion again and again–and he does.  If the events of canon can’t break Obi-Wan, if what Anakin Skywalker did can’t break Obi-Wan, then I have faith that Obi-Wan Kenobi can rise above just about anything.

“Fewer still could have done so without turning to darkness. Sometimes, when Qui-Gon considers it, he is awed by his student’s steadfastness. Every person Obi-Wan ever truly loved—Anakin, Satine, Padmé, and Qui-Gon himself—came to a terrible end. Three of them died before his eyes; the other fell to a fate so bleak that death would’ve been a gift. The Jedi Order that provided the entire framework for Obi-Wan’s life was consumed by betrayal and slaughter. Every step of this long, unfulfilling journey is one Obi-Wan had to take alone… and yet he never faltered. As the rest of the galaxy burned, his path remained true. It is the kind of victory that most people never recognize and yet the bedrock all goodness is built upon.” From a Certain Point of View - Master & Apprentice

(But let me be clear–anyone who wants to write a Fallen!Obi-Wan?  I am going to be there to pick up that fic and see the cool details and bits of character insight that they put into the writing!  Because people have done brilliant things with it in fandom and created amazing stories that are some of the best I’ve ever read!  But this is the point of canon!Obi-Wan Kenobi and I don’t see that changing within canon.)