#bail and breha organa

[girlrandomstuff]

they are my roman empire

[varpusvaras]

I think one of the best and unintentionally funniest worldbuilding aspects in Star Wars is the reasoning of why did Bail and Breha adopt Leia instead of having their own children. Leia is first established as the princess of Alderaan before she is written to be Luke's sister. So now we need to figure out how she got to Alderaan. She was adopted because she needed to be hidden and separated from her brother. Bail was placed there to be one of the only people who knew so there would be a reason why it was them who got her. They specifically wanted a daughter. Why? Because Alderaan is a matriarchal society, so they needed a princess. Why didn't the Queen and her husband have biological children? Because they can't. Why? Because the Queen can't have kids. Why? Because she got injured as a teenager and got her internal organs replaced and her body can't handle a pregnancy. How did she get injured so badly? She fell off of a mountain. How did that happen? She was climbing it. Why was the future Queen climbing a mountain in the first place? Because she needed to go through three challenges in order to inherit the throne and one of them required her to go through something physically impressive. Why? Because before that they just held a Battle Royale for all the heirs and the one left alive got the throne and they at some point figured out that maybe they shouldn't be doing that, actually. Oh, okay.

[gffa]

TARKIN SEEING VISIONS OF ALL THE PEOPLE HE MURDERED WITH THE DEATH STAR RIGHT AS HE'S ABOUT TO DIE ON IT INCLUDING THE ROTTING CORPSES OF KRENNIC AND BAIL AND BREHA AND CASSIAN AND JYN AND SAW AND ALL THOSE OTHERS???? OH SHIT THAT'S THE NIGHTMARE FUEL I'M HERE FOR WITH THAT ASSHOLE

[mis-mcgifsten]

Kenobi fetishism and Darth cupholders win the cracktastic award for hilarity.

struck by the idea where, For Reasons, plan saddest desert hermit doesn't get off the ground and team proto-rebellion have to pivot and pivot fast.

chucking the conspiracy equivalent of a uey at 100mph on the highway, and everyone involved is sleep deprived, stressed as fuck, and experiencing y'know, several levels of Devastating Grief.

the person with the brain cell is bail organa, a man who in canon spends like 20 fucking years playing ding dong ditch with a genocidal psychic space wizard and his boss, an even more genocidal space wizard. This man is not lacking in gumption, one can say. he is possessed of life threatening amounts of chutzpah, one might also say, except that he spends twenty years winning the ding dong ditch match with, again, a genocidal fascist dictatorship which includes two genocidal psychic space wizards who literally know he was in tight with the genocided group of space wizards plus the [mumble] number of other murderous genocidal space wizards, plus the rest of the non-space wizard space fascist cohort.

So. What does a man with a spine of steel, a heart as big as a planet, and more gumption than anyone should possess do, when plan 'split up the kids and hide the most famous man in the galaxy on the saddest hell planet' is a no go?

lie. lie like a fucking rug.

What's palpatine going to do? day one of the empire, his super awesome chosen one space wizard makeover project is still in progress and not yet wheezing his way into the galaxy's nightmares, and bail fucking organa strolls into the imperial senate with:

one (1) baby (female)

one (1) baby (male)

several (~20+) aides and various hangers on, including;

one (1) brown haired blue eyed man who could, if you squinted a bit, probably get third place in a general kenobi lookalike competition, were those now not super duper illegal

Sidious, of course, could be like A JEDI KILL HIM TRAITOR ETC, but, crucially, his wheezing attack dog is still on the lab table getting seven inches added to his height and cup holders installed, or whatever the fuck skeevy sheev added in as extras. Palpatine is an old guy who is still trading on being A Beloved Grandfather who was Reluctant To Take The Throne, and is still easing the galaxy into the whole, y'know, we're a fascist empire now, kneel or perish.

Palpatine, on day one of the empire, can't point at bail fucking organa and be like HABOURING A TRAITOR unless he is really, really sure, like 110% sure, because it's bail fucking organa and every goddamn senator will baulk like a horse at a plastic bag if he accuses, again, the senator of alderaan of high treason on day one of the empire.

A secret rebellion is fine, if not ideal; you can theoretically stamp it out, and, also, it's small, percentage wise.

The entire fucking galaxy thinking that, hey, if the guy in charge is going to go after fucking alderaan, what's to stop him going after us? bigger problem. huge problem. original trilogy kinda touched on that one. Day one of the empire, everyone is still basically on war footing, and fuck man, if alderaan is copping it....maybe this empire isn't great after all. maybe we can make our OWN empire, with a different emperor.

Would palps win? eh maybe. would it destroy all credibility forever and ever amen? yeah. the difference between a 'legally installed emperor' and 'a dictator we must overthrow' is how willing the galaxy is to lick boot, and there's not yet the fear of The Empire black bagging you to keep those tongues going.

so. palpatine can't say shit. palpatine can imply shit, palpatine can get his lackies to say shit. but, crucially, palpatine himself can't say fuck all about the goddamn kenobi lookalike that is now following after organa and wiping his kid's little butts and playing gofer and whatever else.

and what's more believable? bail fucking organa is hiding a traitor, or bail organa and his wife have a situationship with a guy who looks sort of a bit like a former general? the same kind of situationship that like, half the senate has had at one point or another with a guy (or guys) who looked sort of a bit like said ex-general. go to any high level business and/or political building, you'll find half a dozen guys who look vaguely like said hot ex-general, and many of them will have a more or less (often less) accurate coruscanti-ish accent. or will develop one.

(hey, it's a niche. gotta pay the bills somehow, and if you get the job because you dyed your hair and grew a beard, well, you're still using your political science degree, right?)

of course, that only holds for so long, but by that point it's been, y'know, a while. and that looks worse in a different way -- what, kenobi was fucking walking around in front of the whole imperial senate, and none of them noticed? absolutely not, all credibility is gone forever.

which means. that palpatine and the organas are stuck in a full on staring match about this guy who is 100% for sure not kenobi, because -- well. he can't be kenobi. becuase that would look bad. but also. it's kenobi. but also. it can't be kenobi.

(vader takes one look at this guy who looks like his master kenobi and then rolls his eyes, because he has already met aproximately 90,000 people who look vaugely like his master and he got very good at picking out how the newest one was not kenobi his master by the time he was a senior padawan.)

[stealingpotatoes]

If Bail and Breha had survived ANH, how would they have reacted to Luke if they finally met him? The same applies to Owne and Beru. What would they think or how would they react if they found out about Leia?

you’re just one step away from the true greatest meeting that ANH took from us

(commission info // kofi support!)

[galactic-rhea]

not sure if that's how sith titles work,

More of this AU> first || prev || next

and all of this was because this gave me the idea:

also some people were curious about what other characters thought about Padmé's sudden -ahem- rise to power, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity nkdjfssdf

[queensaule]

Mon Mothma is so powerful and brave and said what so many people wanted to say and hear

AND ALSO

It's important that we saw the conversation between her and Bail. We need the people who make the big statement and leave the system in a blaze of glory, and we also need the people who quietly stay inside the system while working to take it down. The time-buyers. The stallers. The ones with plausible deniability.

The galaxy won't realize everything that Bail and Breha did until they are long dead. Mon will live long, long after them, and work with their daughter to pick up the pieces. The Organas quietly give their daughter, their lives, their planet to save billions more, and only a very few people know they're doing it.

[catyuy]

At a Senate party, Leida finds herself sent off with children of other Senators. She complains about her mom and her mom's job. Leia stares at her blankly, wondering why she's not complaining about her dad at all. When Leida tries to get Leia to complain about her own parents, Leia tries but just ends up critical of their lack of progress with outer rim planets. Leida now looks at her blankly and wishes she'd talked to someone less like her mom.

[swshows]

OBI-WAN KENOBI (2022) | 1.01 'PART I'

[angelseraphines]

on the aesthetics of asian erasure in star wars: obi-wan kenobi and the planet of naboo

when we talk about representation in star wars, the conversation often stops at what’s visible or credited. star wars has a long-standing problem with the lack of asian leads or asian-coded worlds, but sometimes what’s more insidious is the erasure of asian influence where it once existed, or where it was clearly intended to be.

take obi-wan kenobi. before alec guinness was cast, george lucas had reportedly wanted a japanese actor to play the role, toshirō mifune, most famously known for his work with akira kurosawa. lucas has never strayed away from citing the hidden fortress as a direct inspiration for a new hope, and the jedi, in their original conception, from eastern philosophies, particularly bushido and zen buddhism. this was not accidental. it’s embedded into the language, “obi” (the sash of a kimono), “wan” (a name component common in chinese and southeast asian names), and “kenobi,” which emulates the structure of japanese surnames. it is an asian-inspired name, heavily so.

but when mifune declined, lucas pivoted. and instead of keeping that vision intact, the jedi master archetype, the wise elder, steeped in tradition, was lifted from its asian origins and handed to a white british actor. and then later, to ewan mcgregor, whose performance, while incredible, westernized the role further. we are told obi-wan is from “stewjon,” a planet born out of a joke, a merging of jon stewart’s name, after he asked lucas where obi-wan was from. then “space scotland” became the shorthand. that change from asian inspiration to european performance was never really questioned.

it’s not about demanding obi-wan look asian. it’s that the character was rooted in an asian framework, and that framework was abandoned the moment it became inconvenient to uphold. and that sets the tone for much of star wars, aesthetic borrowing without meaningful credit.

naboo is another case where this shows up. the common narrative is that naboo was inspired by renaissance europe, with its lush italian architecture, baroque dresses, and romanticized monarchy. those elements are there. but there’s a consistent thread of asian influence that is almost never acknowledged.

the names of the monarchs are a starting point. padmé, from the sanskrit “padma,” meaning lotus. sabé and saché, echoing asian and hindi name constructions. queen jamillia, whose name stems from arabic roots, suggests influence from islamic culture. even the name “naboo” itself sounds curiously close to nebo, a mesopotamian god, or nabu, the sumerian deity of wisdom. the planets closest to naboo in the galactic grid, like sereno and ord mantell, also carry vague echoes of eurasian tone.

but most significantly, look at the costume design in the phantom menace. trisha biggar drew from a range of global influences, but some of queen amidala’s most iconic gowns were directly modeled after traditional mongolian royal attire, specifically the headdress and layered robes worn by mongolian empresses. the high collars, rich brocades, and facial makeup are unmistakable. yet, in the lore, naboo is labeled as european. not central asian. not global. and certainly not asian.

this is not to say star wars owes its worldbuilding to any one culture. it doesn’t. part of its power comes from its ability to merge and reimagine cultures. but there is a problem when the contributions of asian cultures are stripped of credit, while european aesthetics are exalted as canonical. when a jedi’s name can be asian, his values drawn from eastern philosophies, his robes loosely modeled on samurai garb, and yet his face, voice, and homeworld are made definitively western.

[girlrandomstuff]

have you ever think about andor season 2 being the last time (last chance) we will see jimmy smits as bail organa? cuz i think about that constantly

[varpusvaras]

Luke and Leia would not be the same people if they had grown up with their bio parents. If they had grown up with their bio parents, they would've grown up in the suburbs. Luke is like that because he grew up as a gay kid in the middle of nowhere tuning up 20-year-old cars he could then drive around without a proper licence while five different gangs roamed around. Leia is like that because she was raised by people in their forties who were on the radical left. They are not the same.

[j-mysticalien]

Was anyone gonna tell me that Bail Organa would have thought his daughter died at the beginning of A New Hope or was I supposed to just now clock that Vader ordered he be told everyone on the ship died on my billionth rewatch of these movies

[knightofthenewrepublic]

[riyo-soka]

The Organas and the Lars family are all well aware that the children they’re raising each have a sibling somewhere in the far reaches of the galaxy. They can never say anything, since Luke and Leia would be in grave danger if the truth of their heritage were to get out, but sometimes the twins’ adoptive families can’t help but think about the other child that they will never know.

Breha notices her daughter’s title causes her to struggle with finding companions her own age and wonders if that loneliness might have been lessened had the twins never been separated. Sometimes, she imagines taking Leia’s brother by the hand and introducing him to the people of Alderaan as a beloved member of the Organa family just like his sister.

Beru starts stitching a family tree -a tradition among slaves and former slaves on Tatooine, meant to bring together families that were separated by slavery- but struggles to finish it when she realizes it’s too dangerous to include her niece. After the war, Luke and Leia create their own, and Leia displays her connection to the Lars family line like a badge of honour.

Bail is always concerned about Luke’s wellbeing somewhere in the back of his mind. The Lars family are supposed to be good, hardworking people, but even under Obi-Wan’s protection, Tatooine is a hostile place to live: especially compared to a temperate core world planet like Alderaan. Since he is unable to directly intervene so far out in Hutt Space, his contacts within the rebellion are occasionally tasked with checking in on the state of things in and around Tatooine’s settlements. On the occasions where Owen and Beru found themselves struggling to put food on the table, an off-world traveller would soon arrive offering to pay handsomely for something like mechanical help or a ride to Anchorhead.

Owen tries not to dwell on what-if scenarios and focus on keeping his nephew safe, but raising a force sensitive child -much less a force sensitive child of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala- is stressful on the best of days. When people in town murmur under their breath about how odd the Lars boy is, he worries. Both that the empire will take the whispering about Luke being odd seriously, and that the little girl Obi-Wan told them about when he arrived with baby Luke hidden under his cloak might be put in danger by those same whispers.

[galactic-rhea]

kylo ren doesn't exist in my version of the sequels; the most concerning thing about him is that he apparently would rather spend time with literal dead people than his living family

[tip jar!]