#but i have a fucking 3quelfic to get going with

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

i spent all 40 minutes on the homeward commute rotating some hot takes in my head but i don't have the goddamn time or energy to try organizing them into a coherent pretentious soundbite.

so what i'm understanding is that favloni doesn't know what to do with din when he's not with grogu, favreau thinks hijacking 3 episodes of TBOBF is enough episodes to show din and grogu can't do well without each other and need to be reunited asap, the emotional arc and end of season 2 is actually a joke because the duo gets reunited in boba fett's fucking show so what was even the goddamn fucking point of drawing things out, neither din nor grogu can survive as their own character (and din's show can't survive without grogu), and fucking clearly it's tony gilroy & co. that know how to tell a fucking story with a clearly defined beginning and end.

love star wars. wish it was good.

[shirozora-draws]

... anyway! if i wasn't so tired/busy this whole fucking month, i'd already have gotten to a comfortable spot in the 3quelfic Part 1 revisions and started the final outline and first draft of That Staircase Doodle fic, but i am tired/busy so the best I can do right now is spend way too much time sketching and cleaning up said sketching some thoughts on Reluctant Mand'alor Din and Jedi Knight/Ambassador Luke.

i intentionally left in the older sketch line layers to 1) show my thought(?) process as i figure out a composition and 2) remind myself that this is NOT a polished piece, I don't got time to make fancy arts beside the 3 final prints for the print shop project.

I have one more scribble ready to go but it's thematically so dramatically different from this little one that I'll post it either Thursday or Friday night.

... I should.... actually get back to writing fic actually.

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

Unashamedly riffing off of The Green Knight because the cinematography is fucking stellar af and this is a great way to study it. Can't wait for the day Shotdeck drops a whole lotta Andor even though I already get those shots elsewhere.

I am reallyreallyreally hoping this entire set of doodles, this chapter, and the next chapter do what I hope they do. Sat on the end of this first arc for YEARS and the payoff be better damn worth it.

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

Will I ever be done ranting about the things I love from your fics? The jury’s still out, but today I’m thinking about the differences in the way Luke and Din express the importance of one another. Luke is comfortable voicing that stuff out loud. Outright telling Din that he dreams about him, that he thinks about their time on Vos 3 when he’s overwhelmed, that focusing on Din in the Force helps him settle his mind. Meanwhile Din is a man of few words and he has trouble expressing his thoughts and feelings as such, but his actions scream how much he feels with naming his ship after their time together, and keeping the blindfold safe and with him through the months and his fierce protectiveness of a man who’s more than capable of keeping himself safe. I just love them your honor

*crawls out of the hot messes that are RL and NaNo and flops on these words*

I lovelovelove all the different ways people show who they are and who other people are to them through their words and actions and even just thoughts. I love the idea that Luke is more expressive and open and balances Din's preference and habit of doing and showing rather than speaking. I love thinking how much they'd appreciate each other's love language, how freely Luke expresses it to Din and how carefully Din shows it to Luke. And I love the challenge of imagining and writing how they could and would express themselves to each other based on who they are and what we know about them.

Honestly, I will never stop talking about reading bell hooks in high school and being taken in by what she wrote about love (in this case, romantic love since we're talking about a ship lol). It's the idea that perhaps we'd all be better off if we treated love as an active thing, a verb, a choice and decision made every moment and every day, rather than some passive thing we fall into, that we let happen. It really moved me epsecially as a young idiot ace, and every shipfic I've written since always tried to keep that idea in mind.

I think that's a big part of the appeal of Din and Luke as a relationship and a partnership. I just love imagining all the ways they'd bond, the ways they'd choose to keep being near each other, the ways they'd show their love and respect for one another. They have different yet compatible ways of expressing their love and respect for each other, and I just think that's fucking neat.

*bonks own head* yep the feels are still super strong in this one

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

I really hoped I could dedicate April to editing and illustrating the next chapter of the 3quelfic but RL is impossible to get around. I'm horribly behind and I'm not seeing this chapter going live until after the posting date I was targeting. Capitalism will just grind you into the dust and I'm so desperate for relief that I can't save any of the vacay time to go out of country to visit family like they're really hoping I could.

All I can do is just read the years-old draft I have and imagine how I'm going to edit it, how I'm going rewrite whole passages, and just fucking wonder when I'll have the time and energy to make that shit a reality.

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

For the ask game - From Between Planets:

“The Jedi,” she says. “What is he to you?”

Din looks down at the top of her head, wary of her intentions. “Why do you ask?”

“The first time we met, I felt a presence about you and wondered how a Mandalorian bound by creed crossed paths with a Jedi. I didn't ask you then because you were not ready to talk."

He remembers now her curious glances at him while talking to Bo-Katan and the members of the covert that she housed. He thought the questions she wanted to ask were about the Darksaber, which he wouldn't have answered. That was why he fled the planet after the dust settled and the covert pledged themselves to Bo-Katan’s cause.

"I remember," he says.

"So, I waited to ask. I don't need you to tell me the story. I just have the one simple question.”

Din sighs. Nothing about Luke is simple and has never been. He says as much. “I don’t have a simple answer.”

He waits for her to prompt him again but Maz only nods and continues walking. “You can be a hard man to read, Mandalorian, but your love for him is not. Hold it close. Where you are going, your creed may not be enough to get you through to the other side.”

Dread shivers up his spine. He stops in his tracks and, after two steps, so does she.

Me, completely forgetting about the ask game: What's all this then-oh. Oh! I never get anything about Between Planets, so this will be delightful. A-hem!

“The Jedi,” she says. “What is he to you?”

Me, also asking Din what Luke means to him because sometimes you gotta ask yourself and work out the answer so that you remember what the fuck you're doing. Coming after everything that happened in The Suns, I wanted to get a feel for what his answer could be.

“The first time we met, I felt a presence about you and wondered how a Mandalorian bound by creed crossed paths with a Jedi. I didn't ask you then because you were not ready to talk."

This is 9000% in reference to the favor Luke tied around his arm at the end of The Storm. It's so fun describing things and events so weirdly and vaguely like I'm smart and clever or something.

He remembers now her curious glances at him while talking to Bo-Katan and the members of the covert that she housed. He thought the questions she wanted to ask were about the Darksaber, which he wouldn't have answered. That was why he fled the planet after the dust settled and the covert pledged themselves to Bo-Katan’s cause.

People always wondered what went on with Maz and the Mandalorian covert on Takodana in between The Storm and The Suns. Honestly, I don't know and neither will you. The magic of "things happened, we'll vaguely allude to those things, you can fill in the blanks".

Din sighs. Nothing about Luke is simple and has never been. He says as much. “I don’t have a simple answer.”

Oh honey, nothing about your life so far can be summed up with a simple answer.

He waits for her to prompt him again but Maz only nods and continues walking. “You can be a hard man to read, Mandalorian, but your love for him is not. Hold it close. Where you are going, your creed may not be enough to get you through to the other side.”

She is the cryptic auntie giving hints to how the 3quelfic will go, and I'm the hand of god currently busy writing what happened while Din was on his way. It is not pretty.

Play ask games, win ask prizes!