#ch: jaesa willsaam

[lesbiannova]

Some friends’ conversations about the Sith, the Dark Side and “Dark Side positive“ fandom nonsense has prompted me to make this post about DS Jaesa on Discord. I want to post it here as well since this is something I have strong feelings about:

The fact that the Sith version of freedom involves infringing upon other people's rights to freedom is also why I really hate how the Sith Warrior story’s narrative and DS Jaesa stans portray DS Jaesa's arc as empowering because the dark side supposedly freed her from those "emotionally repressive" Jedi, and one of the reasons I would never acknowledge DS Jaesa's existence in any of my SWTOR verses. DS Jaesa is so desperate to fit in what DS Sith are supposed to be that not only she revels in random and pointless cruelty, she also uses her special power to hunt down and slaughter the light side Sith for being perceived as heretics by the Sith Empire.

Not to be a LS Jaesa stan on main, but frankly, I find a woman (ex-)Jedi Padawan of colour still being idealistic, a staunch follower of the light side and a good person, and still actively trying to do the good thing despite leaving the Jedi Order and being surrounded by her enemies, instead of sacrificing her morality and personality to a fascist regime like DS Jaesa does, to be much more empowering and revolutionary.

[lavampira]

For the otp question meme: 20 for ana maite/jaesa, sarajah/felix

ty leilukin! :D

[otp questions]

ANA MAITE / JAESA

20. what do their family/friends think of their relationship?

at first, everyone on both sides would probably be wary. obviously, ana maite didn’t start off on the right foot with jaesa’s parents to begin with given the SW alderaan plot, but she does offer them protection through her own - secretly growing - powerbase so that not even baras knows of their whereabouts, despite the letter sent in game that suggests he meets with them. and since their relationship doesn’t become anything official until several years down the line, I’d like to think that ana maite proves that she’s grown to be better than the sith that she was then through her own development while encouraging and making jaesa happy. on the other hand, ana maite’s family - as a very old, very traditional sith family - isn’t necessarily thrilled, and even her non-force sensitive agent brother who tends to rebel against their parents is a little unnerved by the idea of ana maite with a jedi, but her brother does come to appreciate jaesa’s influence on his sister and how she seems happier than she had been in the past.

cadrien - ana maite’s apprentice who jaesa also helps train - is thrilled but mostly relieved that the years of mutually unspoken pining between the two of them are finally over when he learns about their relationship.

SARAJAH / FELIX

20. what do their family/friends think of their relationship?

all of their family and friends adore them as a couple - it’s obvious to anyone who sees them that there’s deep mutual respect and love, how they gravitate to and uplift each other as well as make each other laugh, but also how they step in to support and protect each other when the other can be on the stubborn side of things. to everyone else, sarajah and felix are essentially an inseparable team.

when sarajah visits her family on taris for the first time in a long while - she keeps in regular contact, but rarely has had time between her training and the events of the consular story - she brings felix to meet them, too. their biggest relief about their relationship is how felix seems to bring sarajah further out of her shell.

[semper-draca]

Iustitia : Onwards and Upwards

Raindrops lightly splash on the duracrete streets of Kaas City. Grey daylight illuminates the city in a ghostly haze of rain, mist, and recovery. There is something strange about the day after a night full of war, a calmness, a breath of mourning. With nearly every speeder in the city being used to carry bodies or debris or repair workers, Gimrizh walks to the hospital where her sister waits for her. Vette, of course, not Yaina. Yaina is resting under a stasis field in the morgue, awaiting cremation.

Few people stop her or even notice her as she makes her way to the hospital. Too many are busy, and as she doesn’t reach out to any of them, they pay her little attention, focused on the work at hand. For there is so very much work to be done. Kaas City was fortunate in that it didn’t get his with a giant war wyrm as Coruscant did, nor did Rictus plant a krayt dragon beneath their buildings. Whuddle’s Palace, from what she’s heard, is so ruined that they aren’t even bothering to rebuild. The Tatooine Coalition has simply decided to set up shop elsewhere and build from the ground up. Or the sand up, depending on their chosen location.

[reallystellacadente]

Chapters: 76/? (current target is 83)

Fandom: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic

Rating: Mature (consensual f/m sex)

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Malavai Quinn/Female Sith Warrior

Characters: Female Sith Warrior, Malavai Quinn, Vette (Star Wars), Female Imperial Agent | Cipher Nine, Vector Hyllus, Lt. Pierce, Xhareen, Jaesa Willsaam, Lord Scourge, Female Jedi Knight | Hero of Tython, Lana Beniko, Theron Shan

Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Not Canon Compliant, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Sexual slavery mention only, Unconventional Format, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, References to Depression, Suicide Discussion -- brief, Not as dark as the tags make it seem, Unplanned Pregnancy, Minor Character Death, Original Character Death(s) 

Actually, a four-chapter chunk, aka, about 12,000 Kowakian monkey-lizards off my back. 

A reunion, a separation, a reunion, and a Big Damn Hero in tight pants. 

[lesbiannova]

FINALLY, AT LONG LAST! IT IS DONE!

I finally get to see Vette and Jaesa kiss on screen in my SWTOR game! <333

This was the very moment I created this Vette clone for. It feels so good that I finally achieved my objective. Let this be a proof of the things I am willing to do for my favourite characters and ships.

I have shipped Vette x Light Side Jaesa ever since I discovered this ship’s existence back in 2013. It has always been my favourite companion x companion ship for SWTOR. I had written meta for Femslash February about why I ship it. I have been passionate about my love for both Vette and LS Jaesa and shipping them together. All of these already happened long before Jaesa was confirmed to be bi in Jedi Under Siege, which was released in December 2018.

Creating a Vette clone for LS Jaesa’s romance to satisfy my desire for Vette x Jaesa content is the most self-indulgent thing I have ever done for SWTOR, but honestly, given that Vette and LS Jaesa are wonderful both as characters and people, this is probably the best way for me to express how much I love them, both individually and together.

[lesbiannova]

If you were to create another SWTOR character that was a clone of LS Jaesa, which class do you works better? Jedi Consular or Sith Inquisitor?

This is a good question. If I have to choose between the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes to create a LS Jaesa clone in SWTOR, I would pick the Jedi Consular, because I like the Consular story better, and I would like an AU where Jaesa stays in the Jedi Order and was trained by other Jedi other than Yonlach and Nomen Karr. I have no doubt that Jaesa would be a great Jedi if she stayed in the Jedi Order and she had a better master than Karr. Peacekeeping and helping people are a LS Jedi Consular’s major thing. LS Jaesa in the Sith Warrior story already actively do things to make the Empire a better place, so seeing Jaesa actively help people and preserve peace as a Jedi would be nothing short of inspiring.

The Sith Inquisitor story could work in an AU where Jaesa is a LS Sith and has never met the Sith Warrior, and her conversations with Ashara in particular would be very interesting given both LS Jaesa and Ashara in canon aim to change the Empire, and I also ship LS Jaesa with Ashara. Though the drawback is that you would have to headcanon some explanations on how Jaesa ended up becoming an Imperial slave, or if you choose to ignore the SI’s canon backstory as a slave, explain how Jaesa end up being in the Sith Empire if she never met the Sith Warrior.

[lavampira]

I should be asleep right now but I’ve had ana maite on the brain since I’ve been playing her lately, and more specifically the concept of almost everyone in her life having expectations of who she should be placed on her. and like. her parents tried to push her into being their sith prodigy, but she’s too impatient to finesse her talents with the force and she’s shoved into role of enforcer to others, a disappointment in their eyes. tremel, baras, and vitiate - respectively - all use her as a means to an end, attempting to groom her into their pawn, essentially to the point that she doesn’t even know herself. quinn has an ideal of what a sith should be like that he projects onto her and their relationship (as, admittedly, she does with him regarding her idea of an imperial), partially what makes them fall apart. and again and again, she falls short of all of their expectations.

and then there’s jaesa, the only one who genuinely sees who ana maite is as a person. she looks at her during that encounter on hutta, and yes, she sees a sith in the dark, but she also sees that she’s toeing the line - she can see the merciful side of her, and the strategist, and her desire and intent to strive for something better without really knowing it herself. jaesa realizes that ana maite isn’t the kind of sith that she was led to believe, works alongside her as an equal and ally, and encourages her - as much as ana maite does with her regarding her ability - and catalyzes the self introspection that ana maite desperately needs to grow as a person and understand herself, even if it takes a long time to fully get there.

[lavampira]

and I’ve gotta say I think it’s iconic of me to replace lemon banana and her entire existence with ana maite in starting the foundation of the alliance because she actually wants to stop vitiate/valks and make up for what she’s done in his name and for the empire but also have jaesa become the force enclave specialist as someone who has experience working with and helping both jedi and sith as well

[lavampira]

also I had the realization that ana maite - despite how straightforward and blunt and dramatic that she is about everything else - would take a while to realize that she’s possibly, maybe, potentially fallen for jaesa. (the jedi, the woman who she’s worked alongside in secret plans to use her station as wrath and somehow genuinely befriended over the years). and more so, she would most likely try to stifle it down because having those feelings is terrifying, and a risk, so she would swallow the idea that she might be in love with her and stamp it down out of fear likely until jaesa were to admit it first, which. ouch. but it also allows for them to grow as people - jaesa becoming more confident in her abilities and reconnecting with jedi as well as venturing into helping light-leaning sith, ana maite trying to make better systematic changes in the empire from her station as wrath and acting out of her own ideals rather than expectations - before they reach a point of mutually being ready to be together as a couple, too.

[lavampira]

woke up at 1 AM with a thought: what if jaesa is the alliance’s force enclave specialist in my canon

because like. I don’t have anything against sana rae, but her role is also not really developed beyond the force centrism bs that kotfet pushed and with a voss mystic to back it? but it would actually contribute to and continue jaesa’s personal growth instead of how in game canon makes her backslide on ossus as a cheap excuse for not finding the SW with her ability. and considering that ana maite forms the alliance, I imagine that jaesa would already be part of its development anyway, and I’d like to think that she would find a place for herself in uniting the jedi and sith recruits since that was part of her whole goal in her personal storyline.

[lavampira]

ana maite had jaesa as a companion when she met with master timmns face-to-face so he recognized her and the whole “do you regret joining up with this one” “most days, no” exchange while ana maite stood there like Hello We Do Not Have Time For This was pure comedic gold

and then ana maite parting on friendly terms with master timmns got jaesa to comment that she was glad that she let him leave and ana maite got so ruffled about it like “it serves no purpose to kill him” as if she didn’t just befriend yet another jedi and experience some Growth™ and then walked off which was even funnier

belsavis might be valid this one (1) time

[lavampira]

a concept I was thinking about earlier: cadrien is actually spotted by jaesa even before ana maite hears the rumors about him at the sith academy, as she’s still seeking light-leaning sith for her and ana maite’s joint cause, and after he becomes ana maite’s apprentice, jaesa helps him hone his skills with the force in more intricate ways than ana maite is really capable of on her own and ends up having a larger effect on cadrien’s philosophical side of his training

[lavampira]

5, 22, 23, + 24 for jaesa and ana maite?

thanks gigi!

[otp questions]

5. nicknames? pet names? any in-jokes?

most of the time, jaesa calls her by the first part of her name - ana - and she’s one of the very few allowed to do it, and sometimes ‘love’ as well. on the other hand, ana maite alternates between ‘love’ and ‘darling’ with her. there’s a bit of teasing each other over things that only the two of them would understand, too.

22. does their work ever interfere with the relationship?

yes and no. their friendship had already been formed as an alliance of their own - first in opposition to their respective masters using them in a petty feud, then in forging plans to unite with light-leaning sith and change the empire - as equals and partners in their work, so their goals have always been the same.

but even so, they can and do occasionally butt heads over things. the subterfuge and ana maite’s role as the wrath can be harder for jaesa to handle some days, and sometimes ana maite has difficulty viewing things outside of sith pragmatism and paranoia and remains dependent on the dark side (even as her actions/motivations have improved for the better, especially in the alliance and her eventual defection to the republic), but they’ve long since learned to talk through things and lean on each other when it’s rough.

23. how do they hug? kiss? tease? flirt? comfort?

often softly and gently, an unspoken understanding of what the other needs - reassurance, comfort, etc - with the addition of a force bond between them. ana maite is shorter, so she tends to lean into her with jaesa resting her chin on her head, or she has to stand on her tiptoes a bit to kiss her. jaesa flirts and teases her by finding new ways to get her flustered with compliments and offhand comments. ana maite is more physically teasing - tucking loose hair behind her ear, nipping at her lip in a kiss, a stray touch in passing.

24. any doubts about the relationship?

not necessarily doubts, but rather insecurities, and mostly it’s early in their relationship. both of them can be a little self-conscious in their own ways, but they’re certain of each other and it mellows out any doubt.

[lavampira]

the small influence gain from jaesa when ana maite gives her a courting gift? very nice

[lavampira]

I was struggling to get past the fight with admiral shai because he kept stacking DOT effects on ana maite until she couldn’t be healed at all so I set jaesa to tank and obliterated him in 3 minutes

incredible