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lame-cameoliob · 2 months ago

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The Narritive Potential of lower level! Kallus

Alright literally nobody asked and this is totally just me thinking way too much, but I NEEEEEEDDD to talk about the Kallus from the lower levels headcanon and just how much narrative potential it has

(also If you see anything spelled wrong or phrased weirdly NO YOU DIDN’T)

To be completely frank I think that Kallus’ character is almost out of place in a children's TV show– DO NOT GET ME WRONG, he is a fantastic character that is integral to the Rebels plot, but many implications made by his character are much more fitting in shows with higher ratings– that’s why he comes of so fucking ridiculous half of the time, he is a character with massive implications, but he has to be readable to a younger audience. PLUSSS Rebels was made on a tiny budget compared to other Star Wars animated projects, so the producers could not put time or money into further delving into his arc because they needed to focus on the main cast. They couldn’t afford to go into smaller character-centric arcs like in the clone wars. Now, taking that into account, it is no doubt that Kallus has an incredible character arc (tbh I’d say the best in Star Wars, but i might be glazing idk) but there are aspects of that arc that could not be explored more due to the aforementioned restrictions on the production side.

Thing is, Star Wars is all about making connections to the real world (ex. Return of the Jedi was an allegory for the vietnam war– or also THE ENTIRETY OF ANDOR) And although Kallus’ arc already does that on a baseline level, its potential for drawing these connections was for sure not explored to its fullest.

Now, I know you didn’t sign up for a lesson in world history and politics when you started reading this but you’re gonna have to stick with me to see where I’m coming from;

It is no secret that the greatest defense against propaganda is education. That’s why maps that show which states have less extensive education and maps that show which states are conservative look nearly identical. That’s why conservative states are far more likely to pass legislation that bans books with political content; they need people to continue to be uneducated in order to keep the state conservative. Even if we omit nefarious political intent, in order for educational institutions to truly thrive they need funding (which tends to be severely lacking in conservative communities) State legislation aside, some school systems literally cannot afford to give their students an all encompassing education. And next to that, in many impoverished rural communities, you end up having kids that need to start working early on in order to make money to support themselves and their families OR they start working early just cause they want to (bootstraps mentally and all that); these kids do not have a reason to set aside their time to sit down and think about the politics of the world around them, which is why a lot of people end up just falling in line with the conservative mindset that surrounds them.

“What about the people who aren’t conservative / patriotic? How do they play into this?” You may ask– AND LET ME TELL YOU– it’s not really a huge secret that the United States Military does this quirky little thing where they pay for your college and give you financial benefits while you’re an active service member. That’s actually a MASSIVE recruitment tactic that they use in schools! IN FACT, (as someone who grew up in a blue state) wherever military recruiters would come to my school to yk…recruit people, they would almost ALWAYS stress the financial benefits more than promoting the whole “SERVE YOUR COUNTRY RAHHH AMERICA” thing .

So basically it’s a system that sets children up for failure by leaving them broke and struggling, and some of those children grow up in areas where they are funneled into having certain political beliefs without the resources needed to form their own opinion, OR you have kids that just want to reap financial benefits because living is too damn expensive. (And of course there are people who fit into BOTH or neither of the categories; I’m generalizing a little bit for the sake of keeping this post shorter than it could be) (This is a very nuanced subject and I know that, I just don't want to make you all read an entire essay)

The issue comes when these misinformed children grow into adults, and those adults become dangerous.

BACK TO STAR WARS

So there’s not really a whole lot of extensive canon lore (at least that I’ve seen) about how the Coruscant economic system works, but I think it's fairly obvious that it is operating on a capitalistic system not unlike the united states, where the richest of the rich own most of the wealth, and the rest of the population are left living paycheck to paycheck; it’s just that some paychecks are bigger than others.

It is this system that allows for the lower levels to fall into complete poverty. None of the wealth from the top is trickling down (literally) and the people in the lower levels are left fighting for scraps.

Most areas in the lower levels are controlled by money hungry gangs, and corrupt law enforcement does what these gangs want just because they’re paid to. The further down you go the less control The Republic has; at some point you reach a depth where the Republic has zero influence. And even if they did, at this point in history, most of the senate no longer represents the people.

THIS IS WHERE KALLUS COMES IN

I want you to imagine being a kid in the lower levels. You’re fighting for your next paycheck so that you can help pay rent, you’re shoplifting and picking pockets just so that you can eat. You cannot afford to live. And not only that; you’re suffering from intense vitamin deficiencies, the air is undoubtedly toxic, the water probably isn’t good to drink. You are exhausted. Physically, mentally, even subconsciously, you are a kind of bone-deep tired that nobody– ESPECIALLY A KID– should ever have to feel. If you can even afford to go to school you’re not leaving with a better understanding of the galaxy, because all you’re worried about is finding something to eat and going the fuck to sleep. But that's your normal, you’ve never known anything different.

You’re not thinking of ways to question the system, you’re too tired to.

And you don’t care about The Republic because The Republic doesn’t care about you.

But then The Empire rolls around. And the Republic didn’t give a fuck about you, but maybe the Empire will– besides you don’t really care about the politics of it all, because you see that they offer free room and board to those who enlist, and that is your one way ticket out of the fucking hell hole that you’ve had to endure for your entire life.

And so you enlist. And even if you didn’t care about politics before, the people around you do, and they are telling you exactly what to think without giving you the resources to form an opinion of your own.

If Kallus grew up in the lower levels, that would have been his reality. He would have been the perfect person to indoctrinate because he came from a system that wouldn’t have allowed him to know any better.

This is especially palpable when we think about why he became Fulcrum in the first place;

He educated himself in ways that the empire did not allow him to be educated before. He asked questions and he did not like the answers that he got.

He realizes that he’s been fed lies and propaganda that have made him complacent in a system that had done immeasurable evil, and he HATES that. He realizes that he does NOT believe what the empire believes and that he has to align his actions with HIS opinions, not the empires.

He realizes that harm that his ignorance has done and he takes it upon himself to lock THE FUCK IN in an attempt to help and rebalance the scales.

(And this bit is kind of a side note, but idk where else to put this:if Kallus comes from a background like the one listed above where he is constantly fighting for survival, he becomes a narrative foil of EZRA!!! They become two sides of the same coin; a kid whos impoverished because of the Empires cruelty, only looking out for himself until his worldview is changed for the better by the kindness of the people around him VERSUS a kid whos impoverished because of the Republics failures, only looking out for himself and CONTINUing TO DO SO as his worldview is changed for the worse by the greed of the people around him.) (DO YALL GET WHAT IM SAYING??? I FEEL LIKE IM ONTO SOMETHING THERE??)(I MIGHT BE CRAZY BUT LIKE I FEEL LIKE THATS ⁉️⁉️)

All of this is really just to say that Kallus is the perfect example of the dangers of complacency. He is the bystander effect at its worst. He admits that he “never asked questions,” simply because the empire told him not to, and he becomes dangerous because of it. He does evil shit just ‘cause he’s told to. The empire says that a certain number of civilian deaths fall within an “acceptable margin” and he just shrugs his shoulders and goes “yeah, okay, if you say so.”

Already in canon, he is an example of what people can become if they refuse to question the systems in power, but when you take into account the possibility that he’s from the lower levels, he also becomes an example of how people end up in a system where they are set up for failure so that they don’t end up questioning those systems in the first place. He’s an example of how the Empire benefits from systematic suffering because the people who suffer without even realizing it are the people most easily shaped into pawns.

End of rant

#Coruscant: the planet where youre set up for failure just by being born there #its stuff like this that makes Kallus mh favorite character #like he is just a PERSON who is just continually in the wrong place at the wrong time #rebels #star wars rebels #star wars #coruscant #swr #agent kallus #alexsandr kallus #kallus #kalluzeb #yapping

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gffa · 4 months ago

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this might be a stupid question, but do we know how time was measured in the prequels? i only ever see that time period referred to as "x bby" which doesn't make sense for how people in universe would have measured time since of course the battle of yavin hadn't happened and they wouldn't be using it as a reference for keeping track of the years

Hi! The answer is soooooooort of. Outside of canon, time is generally measured in BBY/ABY because that's the one everyone is familiar with. Individual guidebooks will get new systems centered around the major event of the movie it's referencing--like the sequels got based around the Starkiller Incident, the Solo movie got based around the Kessel run--but those are specifically for that one book only to help the reader understand the timeline relative to those specific events. Inside of canon, there's very little on dating systems they'd used, but the best one we have so far is the Coruscant Reckoning Calendar (CRC), which primarily comes from the in-universe book Star Wars: Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious, but also showed up in Andor. It's a little murky on specifics, but the years line up very neatly! I have a post with everything I've been able to find about it here, but basically The Phantom Menace takes place in 7945 CRC and dates follow the format of xxxx.xxx.x, where it's Years - Days (000-365) - Time (Based on 10ths through the day). It's not perfect, some of the dates in the Scum & Villainy book won't work for it (since that book was based on vibes), but generally that's the one I recommend to people and the one that they seem to be using when they need it. So if you want to know when Obi-Wan was born, he was born in 7918 CRC, if you want to know when The Clone Wars started, that was in 7955 CRC, etc.! Take all this with some major grains of salt, because it's nowhere near hard canon (and Pablo Hidalgo has always been careful to point out that his answers are NOT meant to be taken as hard canon commentary, he's not setting anything down with off the cuff internet commentary), just a cool little thing to use for your fic if you want to or whatever!

#lumi.txt #star wars #calendar #meta

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raikiriwolfwrites · 2 months ago

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Bitterness, Sweetened by Your Lips

Lucanis is struggling after Weisshaupt. Emotions boil over and Rook is there to offer long needed reassurances.

Enby RookxLucanis

Warning for allusions to Caterina's A+ parenting and panic attacks.

Chapter 6 - Catharsis

Read on AO3

Lucanis landed heavily against the stone, jolting upright with a wince as Ghilan’nain screamed in disbelief at the blood trickling from the cut on her face.

He’d missed.

The tap of Caterina’s cane echoed in his ears, moving closer, ready to chastise him for his failure. He was ready to throw himself back at Ghilan’nain, prove he could complete the job, when Rook’s shout made him pause. The rhythmic sound of a cane on stone morphed into Rook’s heavy footfalls as they ran up to him, gloved hand a vice around his bicep to pull him back.

“Let’s go!”

“Give me another shot!” He tried to twist out of Rook’s grip, but they held firm.

“Too late, back to the eluvian.”

He wanted to keep fighting, fix his mistake, but writhing walls of blight were building up around Ghilan’nain and spreading fast as she raged. Logic won out over anger. Rook was right, the window of opportunity was gone. He hesitated for one final second, watching his target disappear from sight behind a grotesque, fleshy, barrier of blight, before pivoting on his heel and following after Rook and the others.

Rook shouted to Holden as the team drew together in their sprint for the exit. “Is it working?”

The ethereal glow of the eluvian seemed as strong as ever as they approached. The familiar floating islands of the Crossroads just visible through its shimmering surface. “I hope so.”

“Best odds all day.”

One by one they ran through to the safety of the Crossroads beyond.

-----

They all went their separate ways in the Lighthouse, agreeing to meet up in the dining hall once they’d all cleaned off the blood, sweat, grime and blight of Weisshaupt.

Lucanis mechanically cleaned up and redressed in his casual clothes. Leathers and blades were wiped off, checked over, and put away. Dust and sweat cleansed from his skin with a cloth and warm water. His body followed the familiar motions of fastening his waistcoat and heading to the kitchen to start preparing coffee while his mind whirled. He couldn't tell where his agitation ended and Spite’s began over the loss of their kill. They twined together, a negative feedback loop of emotion buffeting him from the inside as he desperately clung to his routine, and the familiar rich scent of Andoral’s Breath, to keep himself grounded. He tried taking deep, controlled breaths to reign the emotion back in, but it felt like trying to empty the Treviso canals with a coffee cup.

He doesn’t quite remember everyone else arriving, or sitting down at the table, but the next thing he registers is the solid presence of a chair beneath him and at his back. A press of warmth at his knee from his left draws him away from himself and he looks up from the coffee mug clutched like a lifeline between his palms.

Rook isn’t looking at him, they’re watching everyone settle in their seats, but he shifts his leg under the table to return the pressure, grateful for the contact as people start talking. He sips his coffee as the conversation washes over him, the words barely skimming his consciousness as he focuses on centering himself with even breaths.

Harding is the last to take her seat, with a missive in hand. “Evka sent word. Last of the civilians made it to Lavendel. Janos and his people held the line long enough for them to escape Weisshaupt. And the Wardens are in Lavendel, too.”

“What’s left of them, you mean. Over a thousand…that’s how many fellow Wardens I had. And now…One god. One Archdemon. That’s all it took to nearly wipe out our entire Order.”

“I promise you Davrin. We’ll make Ghilan’nain pay. For every Warden she killed. Every child left alone. There will be a reckoning.”

“How? We all saw what she did. That’s beyond…”

“We killed her Archdemon, though. That’s something, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. After it turned into a snake monster with too many heads! Are all blighted dragons going to do that? I don’t know how to fight that!”

“Well, at least we’ve made Ghilan’nain mortal.”

“Mortal or immortal doesn’t matter if we can’t get close enough.” The feeling of eyes boring into the side of his skull grates on his senses enough to pull his focus back to the table. Davrin’s look of disdain is aimed right at him as he continues. “We had our shot at her. And we missed.”

Spite’s anger is a writhing mass behind his eyes, melding with and feeding off his own frustration. The unsubtle jab, salt in a wound he was already picking the edges of raw. But he manages to keep his voice level to reply. “Say what you mean Davrin. I missed.”

“Nobody blames you for that, Lucanis.”

He held back a scoff. Harding may not, but she should. The target of his contract was there, he’d had his chance, and missed.

“Yeah? Maybe I do. This Crow has a demon inside him, right?”

Davrin’s words sank like hooks into the open wounds of his failure and he relished the sting. He needed to be better.

“Now that’s not–“

Davrin had found the target for his righteous anger and Harding’s interruptions weren’t going to stop him.

“How do we know we can trust him? Maybe the demon pulled his punches.”

Spite railed at that. He was clenching the mug in his hands tight enough he worried it might shatter as he fought back against Spite clawing for the reigns. But the porcelain held, as did his control, if only barely.

“Okay. Hold on. Now we’re getting–“

Between Davrin’s words, Spite’s vicious tantrum thrashing behind his eyes, and his own swirling temult of emotion, his patience and temper were fraying and he couldn’t help but snap back. “And you, Warden? What about the blight that runs through your veins? The same blight that Ghilan’nain commands so effortlessly.”

Even Emmrich’s deep well of patience seemed to be running dry as he attempts to settle them all down again. “Just a moment, please–“

“Enough!”

Rook’s deep voice cuts sharply through the bickering like a knife. A rare thread of anger steeling their voice enough to make everyone instantly fall blessedly silent and listen.

“Stop arguing. We’ve got no chance if we turn on each other. Chaos helps the gods, and hurts this team. It will get us killed, one by one.” They looked round the table as they spoke, meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. Lucanis gathered himself enough to meet them with a veneer of calm contrition as they finally reached him. Everyone looking suitably calm or chastised, they continue, addressing the whole table. The frustration has faded, but the hard edge to their voice remains, brooking no argument. “So get it together. We need to figure out how to defeat them.”

Emmrich is the first to break the tense silence. “We’re all in agreement on that point, Rook. But the question remains— how? We barely survived against one of the gods.”

Lucanis picks at the memory, trying to find the loose thread, where the job went wrong. He was so close. He cannot keep the bitterness from his tone as he mutters, “I nearly had her.”

“Nearly. But you and Spite are not of one mind, Lucanis. Fighting for control…it’s no wonder you missed such a rare opportunity.”

Emmrich’s words aren’t meant to be an attack, he knows, but still they fall like a lash on his back, another brand woven into the tapestry of failure across his skin.

Rook’s voice anchors him in the present and he clings to the comfort of it as it cuts through the turbulence in his mind. He feels the brief reprieve of the eye of the storm as he locked on to their words.

“We’ve all been distracted, but we’re not in this fight alone. We have allies and friends in all sorts of places. We reach out to them and eventually someone will find something that will put us on the trail of the gods. There’s so much going on that we can’t control, but the least we can do is help our allies, help each other. We can’t afford distractions, but we have time to prepare. For now though, we need to rest and cool off. We killed an Archdemon today, and we all made it out in one piece. And when the time comes, we make the gods pay for the ones who didn’t.”

Everyone read the silent dismissal in Rook’s words and started to slowly trickle out of the room, the tension between them not quite gone, but certainly lessened. Lucanis was the last to rise as Rook watched the door shut behind the others from their seat at the head of the table.

In the subsequent quiet, his own thoughts become loud again, he feels raw as his mind is pulled in every direction at once, an unrelenting force pounding behind his eyes.

But he has to keep it together. He can’t let Rook see how close the threads holding him together are to snapping. Rook deserves better than a patched up shell of a man, straining at the seams. He needs to be better. He needs to work, and prove that he can fulfill his contract.

The mask of collectedness doesn’t slip into place as easily as he would like but he manages to hold it together enough to try and reassure Rook. He hopes it’s enough for them to leave him alone to scrape together enough of the scattered pieces of himself; to build them back into something resembling Lucanis Dellamorte, the Demon of Vyrantium.

Rook reaches up and catches his forearm in their calloused palm as he rounds the table, concern clear in their expression.

“I’m fine. I just need some time alone to get my head on straight.”

They seem reluctant, but unwilling to push after the day they’ve had. They let him go, voice soft. “Whatever you need to do.”

He misses the warmth of Rook’s palm as he pulls away but he can feel the mask slipping. He can’t let Rook see. They have the whole team to hold together, they don’t need the added stress of holding him together, too. The roaring in his ears is starting to build again and his focus tunnels in on the pantry door, so much so that he doesn’t register Rook’s voice, talking to the empty air beside them as he firmly shuts the door behind him.

-----

He doesn’t even make it into the pantry fully, managing to close the door before the dam breaks and he collapses back against it. The thick wood doing more to hold him up than his own trembling limbs.

His back muscles twitched, besieged by a phantom ache, the memory of pain awakening as if fresh. Every thought, every doubt, every recollection of his failure compounding, layering over each other like the crack of Caterina’s cane on his bare flesh. His back itched and tingled where the scars mapped his skin. Each a lesson. One he thought he had learned well, paid for in sweat, blood and bruises seared deep into his bones.

He can faintly hear Spite, feel the brush of his sharp magic as his manifestation rages around him, but it’s distant, muffled. His mind sunk so deep into the maelstrom of his own feelings that even Spite’s can’t quite get through to him. His hands come up to clutch at his hair, the sting of his harsh grip a penance. Caterina’s firm hand always followed sharply on the heels of mistakes and failures. Until he learned not to fail. That pain had moulded him into the Master Assassin he was lauded as, made him stronger.

The ‘Demon of Vyrantium’ never failed a contract.

His family was nearly all gone. His home was under occupation. He had lost a year of his life to pain and darkness, only to escape with a mind and body that wasn’t even his own any more.

If he couldn’t even complete a contract, what did he have left.

What use is he to Rook.

His breath shakes, chest aching. One hand claws at the chain at his throat, ripping it off along with his cravat. The top button of his shirt falls victim to the harsh rake of nails and is sent flying, clattering across the floor alongside the crow skulls and chain. The hand returns to its tight grip in his hair and he closes his eyes to fight off the black encroaching at the edges of his vision, back sliding down the door until he meets the stone floor with a heavy thump. It should feel cold beneath him. He feels nothing. Disconnected from the sensation, and too entrenched in the depths of his own mind to notice.

The crumbling stone walls of the Ossuary close in around him, crushing the breath from his lungs. The trickling of water through the cracks becomes a flood. The water slowly rises up around him, engulfing him in its numbing embrace. He rakes blunt nails across his scalp to feel something other than the oppressive weight closing in from all sides.

The pressure builds, a vice around his ribs as his heart tries to break through them from the inside.

The dark nothingness he falls into is a relief.

-----

Spite growls and rages around the pantry as Lucanis shuts the door behind him. He throws his spectral form into the shelves, thrashes at the food, candles and other objects littering the pantry. But nothing budges.

He wants to break.

Kill.

But without Lucanis’ form he can’t.

The Lighthouse is the closest thing he’s felt to the fade since he was ripped from it, forced into a vessel not made to fit.

But he. Still. Can’t. Touch. Anything.

It’s part of the Fade, but disconnected somehow. Or maybe it’s him that disconnected. Forced into a mortal shell, not even a mage who can access the Fade. Only a tenuous link where the veil is weak allowing him to pull things through to help Rook.

His fury returns to its primary target.

Zara.

It’s. Her. Fault.

In the Fade the world would bend to his whims. With enough determination, anything was possible. But now be’s trapped. And Lucanis isn’t keeping his side of the deal.

He whirls back to where Lucanis is hunched by the door, surprised that he hasn’t been told to be quiet or wrangled back into the dank cell of the Ossuary in his mind.

Lucanis is ignoring him.

He stalks closer.

“Let. Me. OUT. We make them PAY. For what they did to. US.”

He was shouting in Lucanis’ face now but his eyes were screwed shut and he still wasn’t listening.

“You. Keep. Us. TRAPPED.”

He seethed, inches from Lucanis’ face, chest heaving from his outburst despite not needing to breathe. Still nothing. His anger simmered down as he looked closer at Lucanis.

Something was wrong.

The sour notes of distress permeated the air. The tangle in his mind where their emotions met was a turbulent mess. Feelings old and new knotted together and tore where they caught on sharp, unhealed edges. He prodded at the divide between them and was met with damp stone.

He couldn’t reach Lucanis.

The body before him was trembling, breaths thin and short. He watched it slide down to the floor.

He prodded harder at the link between them only to be met with a jolt of pain. No. That was Lucanis’ pain.

Lucanis was hurting.

He needs Lucanis.

But how can he make it stop.

He flitted about, unsure, but unable to do anything. He kept niggling at their bond. The mental wall keeping him out started to crumble as the body before him curled in tighter on itself. It collapsed, but there was only silence beyond. It felt like in the Ossuary, when Lucanis retreated into his mind, closed off from all feeling to escape the pain.

With the mental barrier gone, he was thrust into control of Lucanis’ body, catching it before it dropped sideways onto the floor.

It felt wrong. Like the adrenaline of battle coursing through his veins, but instead of adding strength, it left limbs shaking and weak. His chest felt bruised, heart beating too fast, finally starting to slow back to normal.

Lucanis needs help.

Rook.

Rook helps.

Rook, who’s magic feels like home. Who always listened, helped people who ask, and those who don’t. Who is kind but doesn’t hesitate to cut down those who stand in their way. Rook’s presence is a comfort to them both.

He forces shaky legs to stand and leaves the pantry with one goal in mind.

-----

Rook collapses onto the chaise with a heavy sigh. Weisshaupt had gone poorly yet, somehow, that meeting had been worse. Post battle adrenaline had made tempers short. They had done the rounds, checking in on everyone afterwards, and thankfully the team seemed to have settled down again. They have some time while their allies gather more intel, time they can use to help get everyone back on task and focused.

Lucanis was the only one they hadn’t spoken to. He said he needed some time, and they had to respect that, as much as they wished to be there by his side. They could see he was taking it hard, Davrin’s misplaced frustration not helping matters. They breathed out another weary sigh and dropped their head into their hands, rubbing at their eyes.

Maybe a short nap, and then drop by and see how he’s doing.

The rattle of the door handle lures their head from the cradle of their hands. The sight as it swings open has them jumping to their feet and rushing to the door.

“Lu- Spite!” The purple glow in place of dark brown is familiar, if unexpected. But the state he’s in sends a surge of panic through them.

“Rook.” Spite’s voice is uncharacteristically soft, a subtle tremor to it that makes Rook’s heart ache.

It’s the most dishevelled Rook’s ever seen Lucanis. His clothes are rumpled, cravat, collar pins and chain gone. They can see faint red welts across his neck where the shirt gapes open without the top button holding it closed. There’s a faint sheen of sweat across his skin and an unsteadiness to his limbs that contradicts the usually precisely controlled movements of the master assassin. Even without being able to read his eyes past the purple glow, his face looks lost and unsure. That more than anything, so unlike how Spite normally carries himself in Lucanis’ body, sends tendrils of anxiety racing through them.

Their hands flit over him, trying to find the source of the problem. Finding nothing obvious they move back up to gently cradle Spite’s face between their palms, smoothing their thumbs slowly across his cheeks. “Spite? What happened?”

Spite surges forward and buries his face into Rook’s neck, inhaling deeply, and their arms wind around him securely. They reach one arm out to shut the door, locking it behind them as they gently steer Spite towards the chaise.

They take a seat, pulling Spite down beside them. He clutches at Rook, face buried back in their neck as they settle. Lucanis’ body seems to lose some of its tension at the contact.

“Spite? What’s going on?” They probe gently, but receive no response except for deep breaths into the hollow of their throat. “If you can’t explain it, can I have Lucanis back to talk?”

The hair on his head tickles their chin as he shakes his head in a violent ‘no’.

“Lucanis hurts. Old and new. Then he hides.”

There’s a tightening in Rook’s chest, a deep regret from leaving Lucanis to dwell alone. Spite’s resonant growl over Lucanis’ voice vibrates against the skin of their neck with a wash of warm breath. But he pulls back to look at them, hand clutching at Rook’s shirt.

“Rook helps.” It’s both a statement and a plea.

The warmth at being trusted to help wars with the pain of knowing Lucanis is hurting, that Spite is hurting and confused. “Anything I can do, please, just ask.”

Spite shakes his head again.

“Rook. Safe.”

Rook blinks, confused, but reaches out to take Spite’s hand, running a thumb over his knuckles as they wait for him to elaborate.

“WE. Are safe. With Rook.”

Oh.

“Can’t reach. Lucanis. But he comes back…when it’s safe. Rook. Safe.”

They felt a surge of affection, they knew how hard it was for Spite to articulate through Lucanis. The effortless trade of thought and feeling between spirits in the Fade impossible to translate into inelegant syllables, especially in a body he had to fight to contain him. But he came to them. He and Lucanis needed help and he trusted them, explained where Lucanis could not.

“Thank you, Spite.” They pressed a soft kiss to his forehead. “If you need to be here with me, you should at least be comfortable then.”

They set to removing Lucanis’ boots and waistcoat, setting them off to the side as Spite watched on.

“Come here.” Rook beckoned softly, guiding Spite down to lay along the chaise, head resting in their lap. They started running a hand soothingly through his hair and he nuzzled his face into Rook’s stomach, melting into the comforting touch with a rumble of contentment.

“I think you need rest too, Spite. I’ll be here as long as you and Lucanis need.”

They kept up the motion of smoothing their hand through his silky hair until Spite stilled fully, body relaxed. They kept caressing his hair gently, and they waited to see whose eyes would greet them when he woke up.

-----

He came to slowly, warm and comfortable, sighing softly at the gentle scratch of fingers against his scalp as fingers combed through his hair. He pressed his face deeper into the warm, soft fabric against his face. A soft chuckle jostled him slightly and he turned his head enough to slit an eye open. Rook was gazing fondly down at him. A myriad of emotions flickered across their face, he was still muzzy from sleep so couldn’t place all of them, but he thought he caught a shadow of concern mixed in with the affection.

Rook’s hand slipped from his hair to cup the side of his face, rubbing soothing circles at his temple where a headache was starting to make itself known.

“Back with me, Lucanis?”

The ache behind his eyes and throughout his limbs brought back a flood of memory. He winced, he hadn’t wanted Rook to see him like this. He can’t quite muster words to explain so he decides to hide his weakness away in Rook’s shirt once more, letting out a deep, shuddering sigh of defeat into their stomach.

“Lucanis? Please talk to me. Let me help.”

There was an edge of desperation to their voice. The thought of causing Rook undue upset outweighed his shame. Schooling his expression he levered himself upright, out of Rook’s lap. Rook didn’t let him go far though, pulling him into their side as he sat next to them.

He tried to think back, rubbing his eyes to ease the dull throbbing behind them, but everything after he closed the door to the pantry was a dark smudge in his memory. The loss of time always made him wary.

“How did I get here?” He asked quietly, voice rough from disuse.

Rook reached out to clasp his hand. “Spite was worried. He brought you here.” He could see them turn to him out the corner of his eye, feel the weight of their gaze, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet it. That first bit gave him pause though.

Worried?

Spite had control, and he came here?

Spite was there, quiet in the back of his mind. He tried to reach out but Spite stayed stubbornly tucked away, almost sulking.

“I know you took Weisshaupt hard. I’m sorry I didn’t come and check on you, but you said you needed some time alone-“

“No.” He couldn’t stand for Rook to blame themself over this. “You did everything you could, for everyone. I just l…didn’t want to you to see me like that. You have enough to deal with without my failures.”

The arm around his waist tightened. “You didn’t fail, Lucanis. We fought a god. We killed her Archdemon, wounded her, and we lived to tell about it.”

They didn’t understand.

“You shouldn’t go easy on me, Rook! I had her. She should have never gotten away from me. This was our contract, Rook. I don’t fail my contracts.”

“Ghilan’nain was a giant face in the clouds, Lucanis. I asked you to stab a cloud.”

“And I missed the damn cloud!”

“My point is: That was impossible, and you still almost did it. That’s not small. Things always go wrong, we learn and we grow. No one is infallible. You’re human, Lucanis.”

He chokes out a bitter laugh. “Am I?” Rook tenses beside him, but he cuts off the protest he can feel forming. “I thought I still had this. Whatever else I am, I’m a professional. After the Ossuary, I thought at least I could still take out a target. I need to work.”

Rook’s presence was a tether keeping him from spiralling like he did before, but he could feel the frustration building up behind his eyes and they stung with unshed tears.

Rook coaxes him to turn towards them with a soft grip on his jaw. He relents to the pressure. There’s a steel in their eyes “And you will. Next time we go in prepared, and we will succeed. Together. For now, forget about Ghilan’nain.”

“But that’s why I’m here. If I can’t do this, what use am I to you.”

“Lucanis…I’m just happy you didn’t get killed out there. Yes, we hired you for your reputation. But you have saved my life, the lives of everyone on this team, more times than I could count. You look after us in and out of battle. I’ve seen you buy gifts based on a throwaway comment that no one else even remembered. But you listened, and you did.”

There’s a strange ache in his chest, not like the one from before. He wants to look away, but Rook holds firm, willing their words to sink in.

“You don’t just cook for us, you go out of your way to make sure everyone gets a taste of home. You give them comfort in a world that has little to spare right now. Of course we value your skills, you’ve trained hard to be as good as you are, but that isn’t all we care about.”

He could see tears shimmering at the corners of their eyes, felt matching ones trying to escape his own. They took a steadying breath before pressing their forehead to his, voice deep and sure.

“You could fail a thousand contracts, and you would still matter. Especially to me.” They hold Lucanis’ face, not letting him break eye contact, even as they lean back to put a few inches of space between their faces. He’s subjected to the force of the full, open, honesty on their face, their eyes shimmering wetly with every ounce of emotion laid bare. Their words struck deep beneath years of knotted scar tissue. Unravelling something deep in his chest.

Caterina had honed him as a weapon his whole life. He didn’t know what he was beneath that. If there was anything left once Lucanis the Crow was stripped away. But Rook made him want to find out. Rook saw Lucanis, demon and all, and saw someone worth caring for. Liquid gathered unbidden in his eyes as his walls started to crumble.

“You are more than your blades, Luca.”

He broke.

Buried his face in Rook’s shoulder and clung to them like a lifeline as decades of pent up emotion washed out. Strong arms pulled him into their lap fully and wrapped around him, holding him in place. They made no comment on the wetness spreading on their shirt, only clutching him tighter, hands stroking soothingly wherever they could reach as they pressed their cheek to the top of his head. A shield to keep him safe from the outside world as he fell apart.

-----

Lucanis didn’t know how long he had been curled up in Rook’s lap, but they had stayed like that in comfortable silence as the tears dried on his face. A weight lifted from his chest as he relaxes into the hold. He slides his head away from the damp patch of shirt to nestle more comfortably against the warm skin at the crook of Rook’s neck.

Pressing a kiss to the skin he mutters a quiet “Thank you.” into it. Their response is simply a low hum as he feels a kiss returned to his hair. His throat is dry, the tear tracks have left his cheeks feeling tight, and he there’s a sense of contradictory lightness and exhaustion deep in his bones. He thinks he might end up stiff staying like this for much longer but there’s a layer of peace blanketing them that quashes any need to move.

He wraps his arms around Rook to sit in a more comfortable embrace against them and they shift to accommodate him easily. He allows his mind to wander in the quiet and something Rook said came back to him. He leaned back to lay against the meat of Rook’s shoulder so he could look up at them curiously.

“You called me Luca.”

The statement caught them off guard, and they blinked at him for a second while they processed, before smiling down at him apologetically.

“Ah, sorry. Do you not like it?”

“No, it’s…” he looked down at his hand, fidgeting with the worn fabric of Rook’s shirt. “My mother. I don’t remember her well, but I remember she called me that once. When I was young.” He looked up into Rook’s eyes, smiling softly, and pressed a hand over their heart. “I like being Luca to you.”

The kiss he was pulled into was gentle. The faint hint of salt still stained his lips but made the kiss no less sweet.

They traded soft kisses for a short while before relaxing into a comfortable position to lounge together, trading idle conversation into the night.

And some wholesome post chapter art

#dragon age #dragon age veilguard #datv #rook #lucanis dellamorte #rookanis #shadow dragon rook #aerewyn mercar #dragon age fanfic #fanfic #rook x lucanis #caterina's a+ parenting #spite dragon age #spite #spite dellamorte

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padmestrilogy · 1 month ago

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alright this isn’t a super polished opinion or anything, but, personally, im fine if a good deal of bix's s2 arc revolves around cassian. he's pretty much all she has left after being tortured and imprisoned & completely broken down. and this isn't blaming cassian at all, but he is also the reason she was targeted. it’s a direct line from his actions. i think it would be far more disingenuous not to spend time on that, on her recovery, on all her conflicting feelings. imo one of the best things about andor, esp compared to the rest of star wars, is that it doesn't let ppl immediately bounce back. some of these characters are just a pile of scars and that's how they'll be forever. & that's a positive development not just on a pure writing level but for all the new star wars women. they get to be just as human & knotty as the rest. i think it's remarkable how andor commits to not romanticizing or brushing past bix's pain and giving it time to breathe, even in a super crowded and violent finale. idk!

#i also don’t care if they kiss i think the childhood sweethearts thing is sweet #and maybe this is too accusatory but i see any hand wringing abt what bix/cassian means for jyn/cassian as super puritanical #like you can have multiple meaningful romantic connections across a lifetime. lord forbid.#whateverrrrr . i’m very hyped for s2 #andor #star wars

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space-blue · 3 months ago

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This shot took me out!! Skeleton Crew is so cute and earnest, it's such a great kid's show. That moment, and how she calls him a Jedi afterwards, honestly made it some of the best "star wars" star wars in a long, long time.

This sort of excludes Andor, which feels too good and not campy enough to be "sw" star wars if you catch my drift.

KB going through an arc of learning that minimizing her disability to save friendships is not the right thing to do was so wholesome and well done.

For the longest time I wasn't sure what was up with her "augs", if it was cosmetic/practical, like having a personal computer installed or what.. but then her parents had that line where they were so worried... and now it's confirmed, she's had an "accident" and is clearly missing large parts of her brain that were replaced with cybernetics.

Fern reacting by acting like "nothing is wrong" with KB and that she hasn't changed at all is such a realistic developement. And it backfiring in this strained context, where acting too much like everything is normal and nothing has changed puts strain on KB... It's all so real, and very well handled considering it's basically entirely wrapped up in one episode.

It was sweet too, to have KB, who has been a bit of a "sidekick" to Fern's shenannigans, explicitely acknoledge that she, too, lives in her own world, because it's so true! Forever telling tales, hiding who she is at home, basically having a dual life and projecting lots... KB is keenly noticing all that and supporting her friend throughout. She's so precious I can't...

But also... the incredible impact that life saving procedure would have! IDK what's in store for Wim, whether he becomes a Jedi or not, imagine the story that makes! "The first time I saved someone's life..."

He didn't know he was doing it, even if it felt terribly urgent. He worked with a pocket blowtorch in a resort's trash heap. He was just a kid. It was his friend, guiding him and trusting him the whole way through.. Come on, that's incredible!!

Meanwhile Jod STILL doesn't have his shit together lmao.

#star wars #sw #skeleton crew #skeleton crew spoilers

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bingsoo-jung · 3 months ago

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TTRPGs and Violence

Not everything is radical, let’s stop pretending like it is.

A lot of people in the TTRPG space don’t like me. About a year ago I more or less set fire to the handful of bridges I had built in this space in order to make a statement about the genocide of Gaza. In the past year as I protested my way across my college campus, graduated, and joined up with a mutual aid group, I have never once regretted this.

However, I do regret not being more clear with what I meant when I did it. So, let’s begin with a bold statement, people in the TTRPG space often discuss colonialism and resisting colonial narratives, but draw the line at actually resisting colonialism. The TTRPG community has decided that ‘revolutionary’ narratives are non-violent ones because many people subscribe to the idea that violence is inherently colonial and not simply a tool of colonizers. But no liberation has ever been achieved without violence, and the decision in the TTRPG space to say that anti-colonial and revolutionary stories should be non-violent ones exemplifies why TTRPGs often struggle to hold its own against other storytelling mediums. Not because of the inherent nature of TTRPGs, but because of the culture that has formed around them.

Stories, at their best, are vehicles of discussion about the world around us. They are ways to comment on the complicated nature of reality. But simply deciding the best path of resistance is a path of consummate niceness and pacifism — not one of violence and care — ignores those complex realities. It’s been decided that there is an acceptable amount of fury that can be depicted, but that fury ought to be toothless. Thus to reinforce that narrative, stories about war are always set after the war, they’re about healing from trauma in a better world. They’re about how we become better when all the fighting is done.

But the fundamental fact of reality is that those things aren’t done. Colonialism hasn’t ended, it’s just shifted forms, wars still occur, and there is an active ongoing genocide even now. I live in a country which has elected a wannabe-Hitler, and a South African billionaire who made his money from slave labor did a nazi salute at his inauguration. We live in an actively hostile and cruel world for POC, queer people, disabled people, and so many others. But we are pretending as if we don’t.

Thus not only are we engaging in pretend when we’re acting, we’re engaging in pretend in the metanarratives surrounding which stories do and don’t get told. We’re acting as if these stories which talk about healing from trauma are responses to the reality we live in, where the trauma-causing events have passed. But they haven’t. The traumatic history hasn’t ended, we’ve just grown blind to it.

To this day I can name one Actual Play off the top of my head which depicted violent resistance, yet I can name a number of movies, books, and TV shows which have, despite them being under far greater censorship. APs have chosen to self-censor not because the TTRPGs don’t exist, but in the hopes of being palatable, yet still wish to be viewed as radical by their community. This is done by choosing to not depict the PCs as engaging in violent resistance, and not portraying that violent resistance in a positive light. Instead most ‘anti-colonial’ stories are post-colonial ones about how ‘leftover anger’ from traumatic histories can make you cruel.

This is not to say that stories sent after colonization cannot be radical, but for them to be radical the violence used to achieve liberation cannot be ostracized and made into something that characters need to ‘heal from.’ That killing the colonizer who massacred thousands or even millions actually is on the road to hell and is something that can mar the soul. In doing so we vilify the justified anger of the colonized. We tell each other ‘don’t be angry at the injustice that happened to you.’ But Kira Nerys from Star Trek: Deep Space 9, or Cassian Andor from Andor don’t need to heal from the violence they caused, your TTRPG characters don’t need to either.

Furthermore, we treat actions that are not liberatory actions as being liberatory. No, you getting better opportunities is not liberation. No, former soldiers healing from trauma isn’t liberation. No, voting isn’t liberation. Liberation is liberation. Anything else isn’t, and shouldn’t be considered that. That isn’t to say those things important, but they aren’t equal to it. As Ismatu Gwendolyn would say, we’ve made a spectacle of liberation, we’ve made it something you can eat and consume and say ‘I engaged in liberation, my instagram feed says so! Look at this liberation meal I had!’ But in doing so we’ve failed to actually produce any stories which could meaningfully contribute to discussions of what resistance should look like and how it could be achieved. We’ve hampered our imaginations to foster a palatable leftism in favor of a useful one.

But what use is calmness, when the anger is correct? When things are wrong and fucked up? Why not tell a story about your anger? The want for violence isn’t always bad, what matters is when and where it’s used. Yes, indiscriminately murdering orcs is weird and speaks to the tendencies towards bioessentialism in D&D, but demanding we always negotiate with fascists because ‘they’re people too’ is just tolerating fascists. There is nuance and context to violence that matters, and by stripping those things from how we portray it, our stories become the worse for it. We do not trust in the viewer to come to conclusions for themselves, or to know where the line in the sand is, nor do we trust in the performer-creatives to be a rational person.

Perhaps most irresponsibly, instead of building infrastructure that would allow us to tell these kinds of stories we’ve instead cast it to the performer-creatives to take the emotional burden upon themselves. Why don’t we bring on intimacy coordinators to set boundaries and create safe environments to tell these stories? Why are things like decompressing and session zeroes optional and not obligatory? And why have we not innovated more robust and professional safety tools as this space becomes more and more of an industry? In doing so we’ve inherently made TTRPGs a less safe place that would allow us to tell more serious stories. The limitations are not solely of what stories we’ve deemed acceptable to tell, but the lack of systems that would allow us to tell them. This is not to say that if you don’t have access to these systems you shouldn’t be telling stories, but the lack of them nevertheless speaks to a greater issue in the TTRPG space, a fundamental unseriousness that impacts our very ability to be more radical in our imagination.

I don’t really know if I want to see more narratives around violent resistance in the TTRPG space. I’m not sure if the same people who have rejected such stories and the importance of them really have the capability to tell them, or if they will simply just make it work. But I hope to see new people use stories to galvanize people, and to innovate new futures. I not only want to see stories that say something, that give us new possibilities, but also new systems put in place that support creatives in telling these stories. Things like bleed should not be solely up to the performers to handle, but something that resources are budgeted for just the same as streaming assets, hardware, and so much else. If we want to create a space where people are emboldened to tell all kinds of narratives then we need to actually facilitate those spaces, not just say ‘I would like to see more kinds of stories told.’

TTRPGs are not producing stories in the vein of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, or even Deep Space Nine because we’re so focused on being better than our anger, but also trying to recreate the success of stories in other mediums. We reach towards a moderate middle ground based on the past because it’s healthy and reliable. But that ignores that oftentimes a good story not only makes the viewer feel something, but challenges them. The inherent nature of nostalgia is a conservative one which idolizes a forgone idealized past that never could have existed, and in constantly trying to recreate or pay homage to other stories, we continue to hamper our innovation.

There is such great potential to in TTRPGs as a medium, from their collaborative nature, to their real-time storytelling that provides a space for people to experience emotions and possibilities in real time, to, frankly, the lack of censorship that other mediums of art experience. They can push us to imagine and act quicker than if we were simply writing a novel or screenplay. But if the TTRPG space is to grow we must move beyond our unimaginative and anti-radical tendencies which idolize a non-violent nostalgic past, in favor of dreaming a sometimes violent radical future.

With all my love,

Theta S. Chun.

#TTRPGs #fantasy #tabletop #dnd #dragons #dungeons and dragons #game dev #APs #actual plays #critical role #dimension 20 #dice #game #tabletop games

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talaok · 2 years ago

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Since all the nominations for Emmys, I need one fic where reader is either video calling or with Pedro when nominations are announced. Somethig fluffy and full of emotions cuz Pedro deserves all of this 😊

a/n: this ask skipped the line just cause I felt that if I posted this next week it wouldn't have made as much sense, so yeah here it is (also, I’m so happy for him and Bella, like omg man)

Today was the day.

Pedro was never usually one to care about this stuff, yes he was grateful, and yes he was happy, but no other time had he felt this electricity in the air, this buzz telling him that something was about to happen... something good of course.

He had set up his tablet on the coffee table in front of the couch, waiting for the announcement to start, but he hadn't even managed to sit- he was too nervous, too excited.

A ringing sounded through the room all of a sudden, and after an initial scare, he smiled, glad you finally could call him.

You were on set. In Vancouver. A thousand miles from him.

"Is it on yet?"

Your eagerness spurt through the screen.

And he thought he was exited

"nope"

"what? How much longer?"

He glanced at the screen, feeling a tiny goosebump traveling up his back at the countdown.

"two minutes"

"Oh my god!" You squeaked, smiling so wide your cheeks almost hurt "how are you feeling?"

"nervous" he chuckled drily

"Oh c'mon, what about? We both know you're gonna crush it"

"I hope so" he sighed "God I don't know why I care so much" he laughed "The only important thing is that Bella and the show get nominated"

"And you, of course" you chirped in

He tried to fight a smile, but it still pulled at his lips "Well if there's room..."

"There you are" you nodded, your smile fading ever so little after a brief moment "god I wish I could be there"

"Me too" he agreed "but at least w-" a noise in the direction of the coffee table caught his attention

"Oh shit, it's starting"

"shit, go go go go" you mumbled, feeling all too powerless in your position.

He sat down in front of the screen as the announcers appeared on it.

"what are they saying?"

"uh- just their names and stuff"

"ok-"

A moment passed

"what about now?"

He laughed, ever so thankful for your presence "Still that, sweetheart"

"fine, just- tell me when they start telling the categories"

"ok ok here we go"

"what is it?"

"talk series"

"Bo-ring" you huffed, making him chuckle "I want the good stuff"

"they're doing reality programs now"

"oh my god! it's like they want to torture us"

...

"Oh shit"

A pit created itself in Pedro's stomach

"what?"

"lead actor in a drama series"

"oh my god" you screeched, doing a poor job of trying not to freak out "C'mon baby I know believe in you"

"jeff bridges... Brian cox... Kieran Culkin... Bob Odenkirk..."

come on come on come on

His mouth widened as he let out an incredulous breath.

"baby?" you called, already knowing but wanting a confirmation "baby pl-"

"I got nominated"

"I told you!" You basically screamed, jumping out of your chair "I told you, baby! I'm so happy for you! You deserve all of it babe, all. of. it."

"I can't believe this" he smiled, his eyes glimmering with that spark in his eyes he only got whenever he was truly happy "This is crazy"

"Well believe it baby, you're an Emmy nominee"

"I just-" he interrupted himself as the next category was announced "shit it's best actresses"

You nodded, trying to cool down while really just mindlessly pacing around your trailer

"Bella Ramsey!" he laughed "Bella Ramsey! They did it! I knew they fucking would"

"oh my god!" you grinned "What a power couple"

"I know right?" he chuckled "I'll have to call them I-" and once again, the announcers interrupted his train of thought.

His gaze moved from you to the tablet again.

"best drama series?"

He only nodded, clearly all the anxiety coming back.

"Andor... Better call Saul... the crown... House of the Dragon..."

he fell silent as his eyes came back to you, and this time... this time they shined with tears of joy.

"yeah?" you asked, feeling your heart beating out of your chest.

"yeah," nodded.

You felt your heart and chest and body fill with pure joy as you let some tears fall from your eyes.

"you did it baby" you sniffled "I knew you would. You deserve it, all of it" you smiled, wishing with all your heart you were there to hug him and kiss him and whisper in his ear

"How are you feeling?"

He laughed "I don't even know, I just- I think I need time to process this" he smiled, his hands slightly shaking "A-Are you ready to go to the Emmys?"

"are you?" You laughed, quite literally quivering from the excitement

"As ready as I'll ever be"

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andorshitdaily · 10 months ago

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ANDOR Best Line, THIRD PLACE

"Power? Power doesn't panic." - Cassian Andor, ep. 10

vs.

"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort; it breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear." - Karis Nemik, ep. 12

#hmm perhaps they are saying the same thing #that's interesting #andor #polls #cassian andor #karis nemik #andor best line

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elwenyere · 25 days ago

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for the fix writer meme

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

Thank you very much for the ask, friend!!! Questions are from this post.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

This is so so so self-indulgent, but I occasionally have this vision of an Andor grad-school AU in which they're trying to unionize the T.A.s. Nemik is a bright-eyed philosophy Ph.D. student who just became a candidate; Vel is on her fellowship year in English, writing about queer fin de siècle Gothic and stressing out her girlfriend (Cinta, who's in the nurse's union and hangs with Teamster rep Brasso at the climbing/bouldering gym); Melshi is like, an incredibly exhausted seventh-year in history whose dissertation on the Chartist movement has gotten too theoretical and post-structural for his advisor (an old-school empiricist named Kino) and is never going to pass committee; and Cassian is actually a line cook at the best diner in town, but he ducked into a public lecture (by distinguished political scientist Luthen) one day to avoid his boss, and he asked a question so sharp and surprising he got taken for junior faculty: a mistaken assumption Cassian hasn't corrected at any of the dive-bar union-campaign meet-ups he's attended.

#writer asks #ask meme #andor #thank you friend!!!

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jessequinnfirstofhername · 10 months ago

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The Rules:

Every twenty-four hours there will be another round. After every round, the film in last place will be eliminated.

If there are multiple films tying for last place, there will be a special elimination round. In these rounds, every film in last place will be eliminated, even if all the films have tied equally.

When there are only two films remaining, they will face off against one another in a week-long poll to determine the victor.

If you feel that no mere Star Wars film deserves to win, then please hit the "No Star Wars *Film* Is As Good As ___!" option and reply to this post with the non-film piece of Star Wars media you wish to include in the poll. The non-film piece of Star Wars media with the highest 'write-in' votes will then be added to the poll in the next round. Welcome to the poll, Andor and Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

This is all for fun. Don’t take it too seriously ;)

...and with the elimination of Andor, we're back to a line-up of only movies.

For anyone who's confused about why there were non-film options in the first place, please feel free to re-read Rule 4, and cross-reference it with Rule 69: My Poll, My Rules ;)

We're in the semi-finals! It's time for Round Eleven!

#star wars #revenge of the sith #star wars prequels #rogue one #the empire strikes back #star wars original trilogy #best star wars film #round eleven

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writersglockrambles · 24 days ago

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spoilers for Mask of Fear.

just had a few extra notes on Mask of Fear.

I adore the moments between Bail and baby Leia. It added so much heart wrenching weight to the events of (ANH)

The absence of the emperor. As much as I love Palpatine, not seeing him in the entire book, really added a sense of superiority in my opinion, even after Mons rebirth act, he doesn't personally see her, instead he heaves it onto Amedda.

On Amedda...lordy, so many things to say, firstly i love the fact that Freed included him. I think Amedda is such an important character and we don't get to see enough of him, so seeing him turn up in the story was a real treat.

secondly the scene between him and Mon was excellent. The subtle threats and dominating language. The visual threat of centre one, the way he belittles her as if she were a child.

"I look forward to your return to the senate, and seeing you on your best behaviour."

Brilliant, I think Freed captured his character perfectly.

Thirdly, I adore Mon (one of the greatest characters imo) but seeing her plan for the rebirth act fail, was very interesting to read and experience "He is the emperor, this is the empire." throughout the story Mon is experiencing hardship after hardship to get the rebirth act through the senate, only to end up having the most important parts vetoed and dismissed. She has to face the fact that Palpatine is the emperor, the republic is gone. He can dismiss the act without a second glance and carry on with indifference "And he would not care." from the very beginning, Mon had lost, she just didn't know it.

Lastly, Amedda's final line in the scene after Mon asks if the emperor actually believes in peace and order or if its just a way to horde power

"The remarkable thing," he said "Is that I never thought to ask."

Wow, when a writer can capture a characters being in one sentence, they've hit gold. This man does not care, about real change and progress, merely the false idea of it, if that idea will strengthen his own position of power.

Et tu, Amedda?

in conclusion, I am now the grand viziers number one fan boy.

Also if we don't see him in Andor, I will be storming the imperial palace.

#star wars #mask of fear #alexander freed #mon mothma #palpatine #emperor palpatine #bail organa #leia organa #mas amedda #rambles

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chipthekeeper · 2 months ago

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Andor S1 Rewatch Commentary - Episode 4

:)))))

*singsongy voice* It's finally time to start the Aldhani aaaarrrrc! I'm so excited. I've been annoying about it for hours already

Hi Biggs. You’re looking at me. You've realized that I'm talking to myself all of a sudden?

Here we go. Fun times ahead. This is the part that's going to be really hard for me not to just quote word by word

It feels like it's been longer than a week since I've watched. It was kind of a long week

Sorry Biggs. Just go to sleep, buddy. I'm just going to be talking (he didn’t go to sleep but he stayed with me almost the whole time so half of this is me talking directly to him)

I’m so ex—I get to see my children this time. I'm so excited….I know I'm biased but I think the theme music is the best during this arc too. But I need to hear them all back to back, just to be sure. I just like the energy of this one

“Blue, bright blue!” He's fucking bleeding all over the place—Mom, now is not the time to text me

“What's Aldhani?” Ugh. Only the best place on earth…slash…not

Kinda want to try some Mednog. I think that would fix me. I mean that's the point, right?

They're having a whole conversation and I'm already thinking about the team on the ground

Biggsy, you're so soft!! *purring sounds*

And, of course, I would have done the sit up and point at the TV meme whenever he said that he fought in Mimban….. “The Empire had you fighting each other.” What the fuck…are you talking about? The Mimbanese sure weren't fighting themselves. And it's not like it was hard to tell the difference between them and the Empire….? Whatever. I just missed one of my favorite lines while I was talking, but that's fine

Prepped team, good plan, except for you know, the parts that suck

Coruscant!!! She is pretty, and man, seeing this for the first time, huge…..I like Dedra’s briefcase, she looks like she should be stealing money too

Oh character of the day, Supervisor Grandi…..Dedra’s bun is incredible

*fart noise when Dedra’s wrong, then giggling* Dedra, when she grins—”call the Navy!”

So hard for me to watch these ISB scenes because all the white gives me a headache. Bleviiinnnn!

Just noticing Lonni noticing. Lonni! It's always kind of itched in my brain that Lonni reports on the shipments to Scarif and I've never…quite wrapped my head around why I like that so much

Aldhani!!! We're here, we made it!! Can't wait to find out how that's transcribed every time I say that (that time it was “Lonnie” because I had just been talking about him a lot. Previously it was Aldonny)

It's time, there she is, look Biggs, look, look, look!!! There she is!!! Got her poncho on and her stick. That's the love of my life!! “Who's that?” That's the love of my life, you asshole. How dare you

See, Luthen knows exactly how she's gonna react. Why? Because reasons. We all know

I feel like I have the same shirt that Cassian's wearing. Oh no, just kidding

It's time Biggs. Are you listening? Are you watching? You're not watching, you're licking yourself. There she is!!!!! “Hello, Vel!!” *giggles*

I just love how mad she is like, all the time. It’s so cute. “Now, like this?” *growling noises* That was me growling at Luthen. “What do you mean buyin”—shot of the day!! Yeah, yell at him!!

Need to….need to dig into Luthen scolding her for wasting energy…

*more sounds* That was me whining. She's so cute. Bratty daughter alert—”this is what it comes to!!!......You step up, you lead, you cancel the mission.” *whines again* this scene goes too fast

Lip thing number one. I'm just going to count them. Actually that's kind of one and a half. There was half of one earlier

I want an action figure of Vel with the poncho on. I don't see why that's so much to ask

*hysterically laughing* Okay, I had to pause because they were just, they were putting, cleaning up trash from the desks on the Morlana…place and there was a noodles box there, that really made me laugh. I'm not being coherent at all tonight but that's not my fault. Blevin is coherent enough for both of us

“It took the combined ingredients of idiocy, ineptitude, and total disengagement for this farce to have reached the full apex of incredulous disaster!” It's so hard to say in one breath, jesus

“Deputy Inspector Karn…proud, are we?” See, I can’t. I just can’t not quote this whole episode

I think Ben Bailey is having the most fun of anyone on the show. He just eats every line. Leaves no crumbs

It's so prettyyyyy! I need to talk about something at the end of the episode and I really hope I remember

You can see the TIEs coming from so far away. It's so cool and they're so loud. Just the feeling of watching this for the first time like, god, I'm about to cry (i did not cry!!)

Heert!! “They've misspelled Ferrix.” I really like the, I don't know how many people actually adhere to this theory, but I like the theory that Heert is related to Tarkin, just because they have a similar face shape and…gay

Ah Luthen’s Hannah Montana closet *giggling* The way he runs his hand through that wig, I don't know, it's really funny. And see, I like to picture Vel having a similar Hannah Montana closet. She does not practice smiling in the mirror though

I also want to talk about all these, like, places that they have stuff just buried underground, kind of barely covered up. Something I think about a lot, but I don't think anybody else really does. How many of these scattered little former communities do they have stuff like that in?

That line particularly hurts because they still won't put it on a fucking map for me!!!!

I just want to go back to writing my fic, this kind of sucks. Wish we'd seen more of the caves. See I could just watch a whole fucking season about the Aldhani arc by itself. I want it. I'm probably never going to stop writing about it

You're about to meet the rest of the team, buddy. Are you watching? Aw, there’s Nem

Just want to go *idiotic blubblubblub sound* on Skeen’s…on his head, on his forehead. You know that sound, it's ridiculous

Is that same set of quadnocs that Cinta has later? How did she get them off the…I guess she's—oh I'm writing in my head again, I need to just watch. I can't be coherent—drays!!!

“What's she doing?” *on the verge of tears* It's my family Biggsy, they're all here…..plus that guy

Best shot, best shot, oh god I love their first shot together!!!! And Vel’s stupid little hat

How many times did they have to chase the Dray when they got away? I hope it was more than one

Look, McLaren!! It's the place Biggs, why are you not excited about this?

That guy was wearing a Cyclops thing

Space luggage seems heavy as hell, why does this stuff not hover?.....Spluggage? Mm nope, don't like that. I had to say it, you know I had to say it

Here she comes, someone I absolutely cannot talk about—”Mother”—I will laugh every single time I watch her slap him, every time, forever. *perfect Eedy impression* “What are you starin’ at?”

I just want to hang out in one of these huts, that's all I want…..Trying to save our pain meds for us, not you *gasps* look there's The Blanket!

“So you don't know him.” So cold, you can see all their breaths…..Liar. You're very pretty but you're lying

It's Mon time! Look at her little Fantasticar. Ooh it's Kleya time too

Trailer shot. I remember that trailer shot and being so confused about what was going on with Luthen after the first few. And then when you see this episode, it was like, oh man, that's so fucking cool

I wonder where Coruscant’s official temple of patience is

“That's a kind way of putting it.” That's one of those lines I just say, in life, and no one notices

This is the outfit Mon is wearing in her Black Series figure, and I only know that because I like tried to spend five whole minutes trying to make her stand up once. She didn't stand up. She stands up better than Vel though, I have to admit that. “I'd be the first one to fall” wait hahahaha

I want Kloris’s job. Not the spy part, just the…flying around in the bitchin’ car with Mon Mothma in the back. How do I apply for that job?

*speederbike noises* Every time the scene changes I just, I know the sounds that are coming next. So that's, uh…that might be a way to tell that I've seen this episode…a few times. I can't believe somebody tried to correct me about it yesterday *chuckles*

Cassian’s got such a bitchy little face, god

There's no time to pause and talk. People think this is boring and slow, but it goes too fast for me. It goes too fast!!!

Time to meet Perrin. I think Perrin needs to pick either the beard or the man bun. You can't have both. His hair is terrible in every possible way, actually

Ooh! Ghorman mentioned. Ding! *counts on fingers*

This is my favorite scene, Biggs, it's my favorite scene!!! I'll try not to just whine the whole time (did not succeed)

I really want to know where this model is now and….how many thousands of dollars I would have to pay to get my hands on it—”The rain gets into the glue”

“Nine minutes. We've timed it.” We've timed it!!!!

I'm sitting up now, I’m…leaning forward *muttering all of Gorn’s lines* “The Eye? It's not something you'll soon forget” *incoherent noises*

“It's a recurrent band of crystallized noctus—microdensities” *stammering* It's impossible to say that out loud

I’m sorry, I’m mostly just quoting this scene. But I had to sit up to do it because I’m so….haaahhh!!!

Look. at her. fucking. eeeeyyyessss. That's fucking ridiculous. I might have to rewind

“Are you in all the way?” Yes, babe *bleeeeeeeppp*

“Speak!” It's almost over already I’m so sad *you can hear me frown*

I don't have much to say about this. But yeah, Ben Bailey's having so much fun

Lost in the dust…that's not a line I remember. I have to admit I don't remember every word of this episode, but I don't pay much attention in this part all the time

Ha. Gay. This is when I first…I gave them little squinty eyes. Because why are you sitting so close? And now we know!!

I want that thing too. Really wish he would have opened it all the way so I could see all of the alphabet. Also, what the fuck are they eating? Tell me what they're eating!!!!

Okay I did remember what I wanted to talk about because I feel a lot about Vel going out for the first watch even though she just walked all through the night with Cassian—excuse me, with Clem. And presumably she walked all day and night prior to that, because it's a full day gettin’ out here now. So she's gone like two whole days without sleeping and she still volunteers to take the first watch. Because she's a good leader!!! Either that or she goes out and just falls asleep on the first watch, but I don't think so. She could have just gone right in and just gone right to bed, but nope

And now I have to wait a whole nother week to go on *growls* This sucks, man. It goes so fast. It goes so fast. I can't…….I'm just thinking back to before the show came out when some people had screeners for the first four. And all the talk was “the first three episodes are great. The third one is really great. But the fourth is when it gets big and it gets fun.” So I remember sitting down to watch this for the first time being like, it better fucking blow my mind *chuckles* And it did not disappoint. And it never has

Luckily for this rewatch, I would have to get up and change discs to watch episode five. So I'm not tempted to do that. Even though I really want to because that's my favorite. You all know that. You know that I'm going to be extra annoying next week too, so….better sign off!

#this is so much good lord i'm so sorry #and i even deleted half the times i was just quoting #andor #s1 rewatch #aldhani #my posts

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