#even in the finale she chooses to train with qimir

[flythesail]

The way Osha chooses to be a Jedi as a child and still has that choice situationally stripped from her due to the Jedi's actions hmmmmmmmmm.........

[samieree]

Peace, Wound, Scar. Again. || SW: The Acolyte

Qimir (The Stranger) x OC

-> Previous chapter -> Next chapter

Chapter IV ''Slaughter''

Elyssa - like every Jedi - was taught that Knights use weapons and the Force to defend, not to attack. For this reason, she waited for the stranger to launch an attack to block or parry it.

But that didn't happen.

She realized that this fight would look different than a training sparring match. In the Temple, she didn't have to worry about losing a limb or even her life. All in all, the biggest fear remained the same: Fear of losing. Only the consequences of failure were different, worse. There would be no way to try again.

She felt like she was prey that this predator in front of her wanted to hunt down. Because of the mask, she couldn't see his face, his eyes. But surprisingly, she couldn't feel his thoughts or intentions either.

Although these ones seemed to be simple: kill everyone.

She forcibly calmed her breathing, focusing her full attention on the man. The distance between them had not shortened yet, they were walking in a circle, facing each other. The stranger tilted his head as if he wanted to take a better look at her.

She didn't know yet that they had met before, in that pharmacy on Olega. He didn't have a chance to get a good look at her then, he only noticed the scar on her face, which seemed strange to him. It might have been a lightsaber mark, but it wasn't healed, like it was still a fresh wound. How could she have such a mark on such a large part of her face? There's no way it could have happened during some training session, but where else would she get it? He wanted to know its story - if there was one at all.

Mae also seemed to be acting a bit differently since the incident with the Jedi on Olega. It couldn't just be stress and shock that her sister was alive. When she suddenly stopped as they were walking through the forest and looked back. She looked like she saw someone, although she said there must have been an animal running through there.

Nothing like that happened, she lied.

Elyssa was still waiting for the attack, feeling like it was some kind of challenge to see how long she could endure. But finally, as the others began to pick themselves up from where they had been thrown, the stranger launched an attack.

She expected the hit to be strong. This was usually the case when she dueled with men, blocking their attacks she felt it almost throughout her whole body, it was as if they were trying to drive her into the ground. So her muscles were prepared for this type of experience, not something... lighter. She expected a hard blow from above, not a much gentler one from the side.

Now I feel even more like a prey.

This fighting style continued as if the stranger was watching to see what her reactions would be. She had the opportunity to counterattack, but she didn't decide to do so, she didn't try to take over the momentum or dominate the fight, she preferred to adapt rather than impose her own style.

When the others started coming, the attacker - as if he wanted to push her away - launched the first strong attack with both hands in the entire fight, which Lys was surprised by and blocked it, but it sent her to the ground. She expected another blow to kill her quickly and was prepared to dodge, but nothing happened.

She looked around, but there was no one around her anymore. She saw him only a dozen or so meters away, where he engaged in a duel with five other Jedi who had flown to Khofar - including Yord.

Her heart beat faster in fear for his life, and she didn't see Jecki, Sol, or Osha anywhere. She doesn't know what's worse, losing someone or seeing them fight. She sensed the latter, completely unconsciously, when her thoughts wandered towards her.

But even worse than not knowing what would happen next was having to choose. She will run to help Yord or take Osha out of here, she cannot divide herself. Yord's a Jedi, I'm sure he'll be fine for a while, and there are others out there. She tried to convince herself of this, even though she saw one of the Knights being pierced through with a red sword. She forced herself not to look at it, lest panic build up inside her even more. She got up from the ground, took off her coat so that it wouldn't restrict her movements and ran towards Osha.

"We have to get out of here, come on." she quickly got to her side and helped her up as she was lifting her droid - Pip - from the ground. She gripped her arm tightly, as if she was afraid that she might lose sight of her and she'll end up just like the other Jedi. Or worse - if there is something worse than death.

"You want to leave them here?" Osha struggled against Lys' grip for a moment, but when she saw that she wouldn't break free, she stopped.

"They're Knights, they have weapons, they can fight - you can't, so I need to get you somewhere safe, then I'll come back." she grabbed her other arm before looking into her eyes and adding, "Oshie, please don't make it harder." her voice broke as she said it.

Of course she was afraid. For her own life and that of others, she will not come out of this forest the same. Right now - despite her relationship with Vernestra - she wished she was a Padawan on a mission with her Master. It's not that she would just be defended by her, but that it would give her courage. Now, when she only had Osha at her fingertips, she felt that she had to be her strength, even though she was struggling with her own fear.

Perhaps she wasn't ready to take a Padawan yet, she looked at the world too realistically - and at times pessimistically - to be able to inspire hope in anyone.

Although who knows, maybe such a strict look at the matter and saying directly: 'You will die if you make a mistake' is better than assuring: 'Everything will be alright'?

"I can escape on my own, you..." this time it was Osha's voice that broke. Lys stood with her back to the fighters in the distance, but Osha could see what was happening there. "Don't let him die, please." she whispered.

She didn't have to say who she was talking about, subconsciously Elyssa realized that it was their friend, Yord. This request only tore her in half and again she didn't know what to do, who to go with, every choice was bad.

Ultimately, however, she nodded and let go of her arms only when she forced her to turn around and run as far away from here as possible, preferably finding Bazil and returning to the ship. Lys had to put herself in a position in which she did not feel confident, go on the offensive.

The opponent had managed to knock Yord to the ground and injure his leg, and now he was slowly approaching him, as if enjoying his advantage. She had no better choice than to use the element of surprise and attack the stranger, at least to distract him from Yord.

To her surprise, the man raised his forearm in bracer instead of his sword to block the blow. Half of the double-bladed saber immediately turned off after colliding with it, but there was no time to try to turn it on. She quickly changed her grip on the hilt, as she now had to deal with a single-bladed lightsaber. This time she was prepared for his shifts between light blows and those that could knock her off her feet. Without the ability to feel him in the Force, she could predict what his next blows would be only by body movements, which was not always accurate.

But she was still surprised. This time with a different move: an unexpected kick that tripped her legs. Once again she hit the ground and quickly got up, again thinking that this was not the end, but the stranger was no longer next to her. But now it wasn't like he had vanished into thin air, she could see him running in the direction she had told Osha to run.

"Are you ok?" Yord was next to her, his eyes wandering over her entire figure to see if she wasn't hurt.

"It's you who's injured, not me." she replied, even though she was close to death for the second time in a few minutes, but for some reason their opponent didn't finish her off. "We have to run after him."

"Stay behind me." he said over his shoulder, clearly trying to ignore the pain in his leg as he began to move quickly between the bushes and trees.

"What? I just saved your life, I wouldn't have done it if I had stayed in the back!" adrenaline was fueling her as much as him, but she wasn't injured, she could have run faster than him and overtaken him, ignoring what he had just said.

But she needed to know why everyone kept pushing her to the back. If it was just overprotection, then she had to finally make it clear to them that she didn't need it. This was the moment when fear began to turn into determination. The need to escape turned into a desire to fight again, this time being prepared for whatever trick the opponent had up his sleeve.

I'm a Jedi dammit, I'm supposed to defend those who can't defend themselves, not act like a damsel in distress!

"And I'll be eternally grateful to you for that, but-"

"You can't handle him alone." she interrupted him, contrary to what he had said earlier, aligning her steps with him.

"There were five of us there just now, and I was the only one left until you came!" he never shouted at her like that. His emotions must have been starting to get the best of him, he was actually almost panicking at the thought of something happening to her.

She couldn't know it, but his heart almost stopped as he watched her land on the ground, she could have lost her life in the blink of an eye. Despite this, she still wanted to run straight into danger, if it weren't for the current situation he might even have admired her courage, but not when fear was trying to cloud his common sense.

'She can't die, don't let that happen.' That's what Sol said to him as they sat alone in the cockpit on the way to this mission. He had a bad feeling then, but he didn't want to reveal anything more. He said only what he had to, justifying his request. Suddenly, after all he learned, so many things made sense...

"I'm just asking you not to take risks if it's not worth it." he grabbed her hand and stopped her. He needed to hear it from her, she needed to confirm that she wouldn't do anything stupid, to reassure him at least a little.

"Only if you promise to do the same." she replied, initiating eye contact between them. She did it often, not even knowing how much it affected him when he looked straight into her eyes, green like this forest was during the day.

"I promise." he choked out, to which Lys only nodded briefly, promising with this one gesture that she will also be careful.

He should have let go of her hand and her gaze, they should have kept running, but in this uncertain situation, when he was afraid that every breath could be his last, that he would never look at her again, at her beautiful eyes, at her full lips - now a bit dry - and slightly upturned nose...

He would like to see her with curls at least once again. Those gorgeous curls that he had last seen in their full glory a few months ago and only because he had caught her in her room right after she had gone to wash up. He understood her choice to straighten her hair, it was much more practical in this state, but it was the curls that represented her true beauty - or at least in his eyes they did.

He would like to banter with her again someday, hear her laugh, her whole face filled with joy because of him.

He would like to hold her hand again - in a friendly gesture, or even a more romantic one, and not in this... whatever it was now, desperation? Don't focus on what might happen next, but on her silky, warm skin.

He wants to continue helping her like he has always done. Be with her when she overcomes all difficulties, just as he helped her overcome her fear of water. Nothing made him happier than that Elyssa trusted him enough to talk to him about everything. To trust him that he wouldn't let any harm happen to her, that together they could overcome anything.

He dreamed of kissing her now. Against all the rules by which he lives. He had imagined this moment many times, always before going to sleep thinking about what it would be like to kiss her, what her lips would feel like on his. As smooth as the skin on her hands? As warm and welcoming as her laugh? Would she move away? Flustered, angry, disappointed? Or would she kiss him back, wrap her arms around him in more than just a friendly hug, let him hold her face? Smiled into the kiss so that he could finally not only hear, see, but also feel her happiness?

His uncertainties prevented him from taking this step. Even now, as they faced death, he couldn't do it. He couldn't muster the courage to take her face in his hands and press a kiss to her lips that would say more than words ever could. He would rather face death than be rejected by her. But he promised himself that if they got out of this, he would tell her everything. No evasions, just honesty. He will put his mind aside, let heart take control and he will confess his feelings as best he can.

For now, he let go of her hand and they both started moving again in the direction the stranger ran.

Maybe it's even better that he didn't do it. He would be disappointed, and she would have to live with the fact that she had hurt her friend - but who would they actually be to each other then? Is it possible to go back to the way things were if one side asked for more?

They found Master Sol, behind whom Osha was standing. A stranger stood a few meters in front of him, with trees cut down by a lightsaber between them. Lys and Yord appeared a little behind Osha, between the trees.

"Civilian, to the ship." Sol said firmly, but Osha didn't even move, holding her stun blaster in front of her. Sol glanced to see that she wasn't moving and force-pushed her, sending her flying straight into Yord, who grabbed her by her clothes and dragged her after him.

"Civilian, to the ship." he repeated after Sol, and the three of them disappeared behind the trees and bushes.

They went maybe a dozen or so meters before Osha's voice stopped them.

"We have to go back there!" she said, as if she wasn't afraid herself. She promised Lys that she would run away, but... She couldn't let go that easily, maybe she couldn't do much, but the thought that those who were still alive could die just because they didn't help them when they still could...

According to her, if there was any chance - even the smallest one - they had to grab it.

Yord sighed, looking down at his wound for a moment, and the girls' eyes immediately went there too.

"We have to get to the ship, we will bandage your wound there." Lys said, even though she herself was tempted to go back.

She didn't want to leave Sol, with whom she had a very good, friendly relationship. She may not have been as close to him as Osha, but due to their Masters' friendship, she spent a lot of time with him. If she had a problem, she was even more likely to talk about it to him rather than Vernestra.

"I'll be alright." he muttered, struggling with himself not to wince in pain. "Nothing changes the fact that Sol ordered us to take you to the ship." his gaze went to Lys for a moment, then back to Osha. "I don't want to, but if I have to force you, I will. Let's go." he pushed her and Lys in front of him, glancing behind him, before he moved, securing the rear.

They ran ahead at a moderate pace, because along the way they had to either squeeze through the bushes or push them aside. Somewhere in the distance they saw Bazil and tried to follow him, although at night in the forest it was difficult to see much, even with a flashlight or a lightsaber.

They made their next stop only when they heard a scream.

"Jecki." Osha recognized that voice.

So she's still alive. But how long will she last? What's going on there? Who is she facing? This man or Mae? Where exactly is Mae? Maybe she has already escaped?

"Jecki is a Jedi. She can take care of herself." Yord replied, not wanting them to stop.

"Those who died were also Jedi, we are Jedi, and yet we came terrifyingly close to death. And Jecki is still a Padawan." Lys remarked, refusing to be pushed any further.

"Sol's still there. He'll make sure nothing happens to her."

For a moment she wanted to question his words. What if he's already dead? But it didn't go through her throat, she couldn't come to terms with this thought and told herself that if he died, she would definitely feel it in the Force.

"We have to get Osha to safety, this thing is too dangerous." he added, not pushing to say what she wanted to but couldn't.

"What is he?" Osha asked.

"I don't know. He doesn't follow the rules of combat, there is no rule in his movements, it... it doesn't make sense. He gets into your head and stays there." he replied, remembering the fight with him. The way he saw how easily the stranger managed to win a five-on-one fight.

Lys didn't feel any strange entry into her mind, but she couldn't disagree with Yord's first statement. During their first fight, the stranger suddenly changed his style and landed a strong stroke that she wasn't ready for, knocking her off her feet. The second fight started with him somehow managing to deactivate half of her saber with his bracer, and she had to quickly switch to another fighting style. And finally, he unexpectedly tripped her legs with a kick.

If they meet for the third time, she will be prepared for that too. What he will surprise her with then?

"My mother could do that. Get inside the Jedi's head. I saw it once." Osha said.

"We should keep moving." Yord spoke up after a short moment of silence. "Did you notice where Bazil went? Until recently he was before us."

After a few more minutes of running, they came to a part of the forest that had fewer bushes but there was thick fog. At one point, Lys also pulled out her lightsaber to be able to see beyond the tree she almost walked into. They slowed their pace significantly until they almost stopped.

"We certainly won't find Bazil in such conditions." if they had lost him in calmer circumstances, she would have told Yord to simply call him, but now, in this way they would only reveal their position to the strage man, and they didn't know how his duel with Master Sol ended.

"Turn off your sabers." Osha said. They turned to her and watch her turn off the flashlight. "Light attracts them."

"Attracts what?" Yord asked.

"This." Lys had already turned off her weapon, but she still held the hilt in her hand - just in case. She tapped Yord on the shoulder to get his attention, then pointed up at those... strange, huge moths they had encountered earlier, flying above them.

The boy listened to his friends and turned off his saber. Now they were in complete darkness and fog, but at least they were not an easy prey for these creatures.

"Let's go, slowly." Lys spoke up again, taking slow steps forward. In addition to using the Force, she put her hand out in front of her to make sure she didn't bump into anything.

It was hard to tell what time it was, neither of them had anything to tell them the time of night. But it must have been getting really late - or the adrenaline was slowly starting to wear off because she felt a shiver of cold. At this moment she was a little regretful that she had left her coat at Master Kelnacca's hut, it would certainly make her warmer since she had managed to stay warm enough in it on Carlac for some time.

"Are you cold?" Yord asked her quietly, trying not to let Osha hear it.

"I'll manage." she replied just as quietly. "No." it was one word, whispered in a strong tone, but it said too much.

She didn't even have to grab his hand when he wanted to take off his coat so she could cover herself with it. She didn't want this, she didn't want any of these types of gestures from him. He had to admit, it hurt. Was such a friendly gesture too much? Or maybe... Has she already guessed how he feels about her? This would be even worse, it would fill him with real fear.

Or maybe it was just that Osha was there? Yes, that's definitely the point. He will keep telling himself that, at least until they are safe, because he didn't know how he would take it if she told him outright that he was nothing more than a friend to her. He can't break down, not now, when the specter of death still hangs over them. Already smaller than a dozen or so minutes ago, but still.

But did Elyssa guess? There is only one answer: Yes.

She was practically sure that Yord was in love with her, today everything - from the looks to the gestures - confirmed her belief that, unfortunately, their friendship would not last long. She silently begged him not to discuss this topic with her once they were on the ship, not to make any moves towards her, not to show tenderness - even in the smallest gestures - and especially not to try to kiss her, because it would only break her heart even more. She couldn't express how much it would hurt her to say no to him, to destroy all his hopes.

It wasn't about the rules, the code. Only that she didn't love him. He and Osha were the best friends she could ask for, and she thanked the Force for putting them in her path, but that's what they were: nothing more than friends.

The atmosphere suddenly became very tense between the three of them. Osha walked futher behind them, sensing that something was wrong between the two. She even began to suspect what it was, and it hurt her just like Lys, but she decided not to interfere. It was none of her business.

Not even a few minutes had passed before they stopped again. But this time for a different reason...

Osha.

It wasn't a message for her, and yet it crashed into her mind as well. She thought she had cut herself off from this feeling, but it came back to her. She turned around and saw that she hadn't imagined it, Osha had heard it too. Mae's voice.

"What is it?" Yord frowned, turning to them. He tried not to think about what was happening in his heart.

"We have to go back." Elyssa said.

"No, please-"

"He will kill them. He will kill them all." Osha added. She slowly reached for the flashlight and directed its light upwards, luring the flying creatures to it. She looked at Lys, who just nodded. "Follow me."

They ran back, not caring if the bushes scratched their skin or clothes. Tripping over roots, branches lying on the ground or stones didn't matter when it came to saving the survivors from death.

Hope is the last to die. It was the thing they clung to like a drowning man at straw.

There was a slight downtime when Osha and Lys felt a sense of loss going through their body like a lightning bolt. She hadn't experienced it yet, but she could name it: It was death. Someone you were closer to... was it... Jecki...?

Lys knew they couldn't stop now, so she forced herself to keep running, pulling Osha along with her, and the three of them were heading back to the place they had just run away from. The cold, dry air quickly made her throat go dry. Fortunately, the closer they got, the more adrenaline began to flow in her veins again, because slowly the entire day of walking or running began to feel in her legs.

They were getting closer, and finally they could even see silhouettes in the distance and hear voices. Then suddenly she felt someone grab her arm and pull her back, pushing her onto a tree. It was Yord, who couldn't let her just run in there. This way he made Osha stop too. She crouched next to her friend, who - after being pushed away - tripped over a root and hit her side against the trunk.

"What is he doing...?" she growled, accepting Osha's helping hand to get up.

She wanted to run straight at silhouettes a few meters away - as she said earlier, she believed that together they had a much better chance.

But she didn't make it in time.

When she was getting up from the ground, before her eyes flashed the deactivation of two lightsaber right after each other, and then a brief clash between the stranger and Yord. Looking at what happened a few seconds later, the fact that the attacker's mask had fallen some time before, while they were gone, didn't matter.

She saw her friend, who had been with her forever, having his neck snapped and being thrown aside like some kind of rag doll.

Another loss she felt in the Force. Jecki's body laying nearby. It took a few seconds for informations from her surroundings to even begin to reach her. That's when her brain finally processed her attacker's face.

He seems rather... silly.

That's what she thought as they listened to Osha's conversation with Qimir. So there was actually something more behind it, of course... He deceived them all. Back then, at the pharmacy, they thought he posed no threat to them. He only supplied Mae, made poison for her, nothing more.

I've never killed anyone, I still don't know if I can, but right now I want to watch him die. I want to enjoy his last breaths, the way life escapes from his eyes, and recall this image every day until the end of my life. This is not the path of the Jedi, but what has it brought me today? Death, pain and suffering, that will never leave me.

I didn't love him, not like he wanted me to, but he was my friend. Thanks to him, I stopped being afraid of water and nearly panicking whenever I was to take a shower. He made me laugh, he comforted me, he was always there for me.

And now he's dead. We won't make any new memories. Jecki is dead too. A girl who still had her whole life ahead of her. The three of us will never banter again.

She had never felt such anger in her life. Her body was begging to release it, or it would burst her from the inside.

She pushed Sol out of her way as she swung her lightsaber at the now not so strange opponent. It was supposed to be a strong strike that would push him to defense and allow her to land another hit, but it was met with a block. She wanted to fight it, but there was little she could do when her too-quickly planned plan backfired.

Her back collided with a tree trunk again that night, but this time there was also a lightsaber close to her body. She didn't care about any honor, not when she knew that her opponent was also playing dirty, when the desperate desire to avenge her friend was tearing her up inside and only anger was suppressing her tears.

Crouching down, she turned off her weapon. Qimir - losing support - flew forward, cutting down the tree with the blade of his sword, and she gained a few precious moments to gain a good position to launch the attack. She even wanted to do it, getting up from the crouch - even if it was a blow to the back, all that mattered was that the blow would be fatal.

She miscalculated. The hilt of the double sword was long enough to be an easy target to hit, especially the space between her hands. A red blade flashed before her eyes as it cut the sword in half, but didn't scratch her - even though it was very close, she could feel the heat of the blade on her skin for a moment.

Then it was hard for her to tell what happened, because the red light disappeared and she felt something metal hitting the side of her head, probably near her temple, and darkness fell over her. She didn't even feel when she was landing on the ground again that night.

Maybe it would be even better to die, to be left in this sweet darkness forever. Silence. No racing thoughts. A moment of peace in all this slaughter.

When she lay unconscious, it was uncertain what would happen to her. Will the sun rise and she finally wake up? Will anyone else be here or will she be left completely alone in the middle of a huge forest?

How did this whole fight end?

The sun finally began to rise and peek through the treetops, the night was over. This terrible night is over. The forest is now calm. She was still unconscious, so she couldn't feel Qimir rolling her onto her back, then gently moving her hair away from her face to reveal it. Her expression was blank now, a stark contrast to the fear or anger he had seen in her just last night.

He covered her with his cloak and stroked her arm in a soothing gesture - as if she could somehow feel it - then gently moved her arms, crossing them over her stomach. He slid one arm under her thighs, the other behind her back and stood up, holding her carefully in his arms.

~

-> general masterlist -> Star Wars masterlist

Tags: @linkpk88

[bereft-of-frogs]

Ok so I've definitely entered my 'blending headcanon and critique to make The Acolyte make sense to me' era because I loved enough of it to really want to be able to rewatch it, but I'm struggling with a few things, mostly about the ending. The first to tackle: what was up with Sol's sudden pivot into obsession with the vergence in the finale?

That's an easy fix: make Sol obsessed with the vergence from the start.

Ok, maybe not such an easy fix because this requires us living in the alternate universe where there is a secretly good 12 episode cut of the show that understands how to work in flashbacks as a B plot properly and not just dump them in two clumps without any framing device. (I can't believe my framing device theory wasn't real lol that seemed like such an easy setup.) We'd really need more of the flashback way earlier to avoid the mistake of introducing these big concepts in episode 7 of 8. (Bonus, imagine how much more devastating a betrayal Aniseya's death at Sol's hands would have been if we'd gotten more time with all of them on Brendok.)

Anyway yeah, in the secretly good 12 episode season, we're introduced pretty quickly to past!Sol and his main two character motivations: 1) his desire for a student (also sets up a good dark mirror with Qimir) and 2) his conviction that a vergence is what cause the resurgence of life post-hyperspace disaster, and these two motivations interplay with each other throughout the narrative. This would make Sol's relationship with Indara more interesting, if it brings them into conflict. Because Indara doesn't seem to be convinced the phenomenon is caused by a vergence (she says as much in the scene around the fire) and Sol disagrees with how she's handling Torbin's restlessness. (I've defended her in the past, I won't reiterate here, but see this post for my defense of Indara lol.) It makes sense too, given that he's the one that brings up the vergence in the first place, in that scene at the fire. And in the early parts of the present narrative, maybe we get an early throwaway line, in place of one of the 'we were stationed on Brendok', could be something like 'we were searching for something important...but that doesn't matter now' to signify it was something on Sol's mind but not give away the whole truth right away.

While the murder investigation, etc happens in the present, we're cutting back occasionally to the flashbacks, where Sol comes across the girls playing. I think Sol genuinely did feel both a connection to Osha and concern for their safety, so that's where motivation #1 (a padawan) starts to take precedence over motivation #2 (the vergence). But #2 is still there, coming up again in the first confrontation, after Indara asks about the girls' father and Sol starts to suspect they were created by the vergence. This could explain why he insisted on both girls being tested (at least in the episode 3 dialogue, that's cut from 7 for some reason). The interplay between these motivations would also explain why he rushes into the fortress when he senses Osha's distress, but the first words out of his mouth to Aniseya are to ask how the girls were created.

In the aftermath of the ensuing tragedy though, when faced with the guilt of killing Aniseya and choosing to save Osha over Mae, after his confrontation with Indara...he realizes he fucked up big time. He has to let go of his fixation on the vergence in order to make things right with Osha and focus entirely on motivation #1: raising and training her. And besides, there's no proof of the vergence remaining because the main evidence was the blood test proving they were the same consciousness, but without Mae it just looks like they mistakenly ran the sample twice or something. So he lets it go. He just focuses on Osha and buries all that stuff about Mae and the vergence down deep, as the darkness he never faces, and hopes it never comes up again.

And then Sol chills out even more! Ten years pass and he realizes he also made a mistake getting so emotionally attached to Osha and acting out of that possessive attachment. So when she decides to leave the Order, he lets her go with love! He matures and moves into a more stable position as a master, he becomes a teacher, he gets a padawan in the traditional way, everything seems good. I bet he felt a certain amount of relief. Guilt, yes, but after so long I bet it felt like it was all in the past and he's a different person now, what happened was sad and horrible but there's nothing to be done so he just focuses on being the best Jedi he can in the present.

Until of course, everything gets completely upended again by the revelation that Mae is not dead after all. She's alive and coming for revenge. There's definitely some of the 'oh shit I fucked up even more than I originally thought' panic, and freaking out that the Order is about to find out the truth of what Sol did, but also all the vergence stuff gets dragged up again. Because now he might be able to prove it. I think for a while Sol suppresses that thought, and really believes his actions during the investigation are motivated by good. He wants to capture Mae alive, he doesn't want another Jedi who might be willing to eliminate her to stop her because he genuinely wants to save her and find a way to make what happened right -- but he also needs her alive to prove she and Osha are one consciousness. He wants to warn Torbin and Kelnacca that Mae is coming for them -- but he also needs them to testify to the vergence on Brendok 16 years ago. Why else is Sol so insistent on talking to Torbin? If it was just a case of apprehending Mae, they don't need to talk, they just need to stake out the temple and wait to catch her in the act. What other subject would he be so certain Torbin would break the vow of silence for?

But then Khofar happens and goes so horribly wrong and so now Sol's in a full downward spiral, with even more blood on his hands. I don't think he really wants to hurt Mae in that final episode, but he's just cracking under the weight of all the deaths he's directly or indirectly responsible for, and he's left with nothing but the vergence. Everyone is dead and he feels he had a hand in all of it. He’s the last one alive, other than the twins, the last thing he can cling to is going back to the start, proving this vergence exists, because maybe then it will all mean something. And his unhinged behavior in the finale is the culmination of all that guilt and grief and being left with nothing but the obsession with the vergence beyond any rationality. (Until the real final culmination, when he comes back to himself for a moment at the end and tells Osha it's okay while she's killing him.)

I've still got some stuff to wildly invent explanation, like why the vergence was so important in the first place, what it actually was, why Koril was so scared of the Jedi finding out about it, but I think this helps me wrap my head around some stuff so I can rewatch the finale without being like 'huh?' I think this also fits with the duality themes, that Sol's motivations were never in balance, in the end he wasn't able to reconcile his obsession with the vergence and his genuine love for Osha and regret for what happened to Mae. I do suspect it would have (imo) worked better if they'd given some of Torbin's last minute 'we have to prove the vergence' motivation to Sol. Because the series as it stands, doesn't have much setup for that obsession with either of them, but for Torbin it has neither setup nor payoff, at least with Sol then it would connect to why he's scrambling to get them to Brendok in the finale. It also makes sense to me to sort of just re-order than scene in the forest to have Sol be the driving factor to getting them to go back to the fortress, especially because he ALSO thinks something is wrong. It's that double whammy motivation that leads them into the catastrophe. There are definitely still holes and this isn't so much a 'this is what I think the show was trying to do' and more a 'let me rearrange this into a shape that will allow me to watch lightsaber duels without thinking so much.'

ANYWAY tldr: introducing the vergence and making it a more significant part of Sol’s character arc much earlier would have solved a bunch of issues AND be a really compelling narrative where it combined and conflicted with his other main motivation, a genuine love and connection with Osha and deep regret for what he did to Mae and their mother. They just biffed it a bit by only bringing up the vergence in episode 7 of 8.

really tldr: I know I'm doing the 'every day Star Wars fans come on here and say some version of Star Wars would be so good if it was good' but I mean I've been doing that for like 25 years at this point and I find it fun so. Continuing. XD

[unhinged-summer-fun]

IM BACK AND I READ IT. These wo idiots hitting on each others like: PLEASE JUST FUCK ALREADY. No seriously like it’s so obvious from both sides y’all take one for the team one of you. Stretching while make full eye contact isn’t subtle 🤭. Don’t even get me started on the boxing bit like imagine if someone was coming up the stairs like what would they think is happening. All you hear is grunts (cuz she’s boxing) and Q yelling “C’mon. That’s it. Good girl.” and “Fuck yes. Don’t stop, show me.” THE KISS (to her knuckles ok ok). Osha’s do-something-stupid impulse is the best impulse she should indulge in it more often. Another kiss to the handdddd. Does he know you can kiss people other places? She’s gonna call him Qimir now ❤️‍🩹 also the manic energy of the spar was extremely well done, it really felt like you were in it. Ok it got serious again. Indara ratting on Sol feels so good. He can’t be trusted ever. Also I think it’s interesting that Vernestra was Qimir’s parent and exploited him to the point of injury and abandoned him because Sol did basically the same thing. Indara knows how similar Osha and Qimir are. Osha grew up in this place and was similarly exploited, injured, and tossed aside because she wasn’t useful anymore. Them teaming up is V’s worst nightmare and also thinking thoughts about canon Sol’s ending and this AU. Random but is this set in nyc? I’m thinking about the mayoral investigation going on rn. Ok ok now she has to go see him fight and try not to spill the beans. Why am I scared? Something feels ominous 😭

THANK YOU FOR THE EARLY POST. I was actually so happy to see it, it gave me sm motivation to finish up with work. I LOVE YOU TOO ❤️ thank you for writing I hope your jeans fits you perfectly and your pillow is cold on both sides 🫡

(this is from ch13 common grounds and now that 14/15 are up i am finally answering ty for ur patience ily aaaaa)

the two of them are seriously the hugest idiots everrrr like on his side, the only thing keeping him back is his sense of self-loathing, that he'll "dirty" her by making that first step toward her - bc until now he's been leading her to him and letting her choose to make those steps. on HER end, she's got a hundred thousand different reasons not to do this being screamed at her from anyone she talks to, so Osha is too inundated with things like Logic to make any horny decisions!! a tragedy.

i love your train of thought commentary it makes me so happy, it's my favorite kind of comment, like i'm going on an adventure with ur consciousness <3 your theories are also making me want to mobilize the sniper unit omfg like i love teasing yall with pieces of the truth and seeing everyone put the pieces together i'm LIVING FOR IT

as for ur question about the setting, i kind of get into the geographical setting some more in later chapters, but no this isn't an "on-earth" au. it's not necessarily in the GFFA, either. i am imagining it's the kind of story that could happen in "any" city so that's why i haven't given it a name. however, the "FDO" stands for the Federal District Orphanage, the Federal District being a district on the city-planet (ecumenopolis) of Coruscant (and where the Jedi Temple is!). outright calling the city "coruscant" is kind of a turn-off to me, though, so i'm just calling it "the city" and using generic names for streets, etc.

that said, starbucks and looney tunes and emoji and the black keys and walt whitman and brazilian jiu-jitsu and two-shot americanos and the concept of OSHA and calling one's calcaneal tendon "achilles" and teddy swims and .HEIC image files are also in this fic so it's not not an earth fic. LOL

thank u for my jeans blessings i am very very appreciative 😔🙏✨

and thank you for your ask and your lovely comment on 13!!

[flythesail]

In episode 3, Mother Aniseya tells Osha:

"Destiny is not decided for you by an anonymous Force. You get to make a choice, Osha. If you want to pull the Thread, then pull it."

This is the conversation surrounding how Osha wants to become a Jedi. Her choice, yet the choice is ultimately taken from her anyway, when the Jedi kill her coven. She ends up in the same place but not in her chosen way. This episode is called Destiny. Becoming a Jedi is decided for her as she wasn't the one to pull the Thread.

Then in episode 8, Osha sees "Mae" killing Master Sol when she wears Qimir's helmet:

"Mae. I saw Mae. She had her hand outstretched. She was killing Sol."

We later learn Osha actually saw herself. But she didn't know that. She chooses to kill Master Sol. After, she chooses to join Qimir too, telling him she wants to be trained.

This poses the question, how much of your future are you in control of? The witches believe the Thread ties you to your destiny but you can change it. Osha reiterates this after seeing who she thought to be Mae killing Sol: "But the future isn't fixed."

In that sense, she both proves and disproves her claim. The future isn't fixed because she's the one who kills Sol. Yet she always was to begin with. She just didn't know.

If the future (or your destiny) is a matter of belief, then yes, she has changed hers. By killing Sol and joining Qimir, she pulls the Thread. In contrast to episode 3, Destiny, the finale's title is Osha's choice: The Acolyte. Becoming an Acolyte, unlike becoming a Jedi, is her choice.

Choice is central to most of Osha and Qimir's relationship too. Beyond taking her to the Unknown Planet, he doesn't give her his lightsaber - he leaves it for her to pick up. Same with his helmet. He's guiding or offering, but not deciding for her.

And yet, Osha and Qimir's relationship can still be traced back to when the Jedi came to Brendok. If Osha became a Jedi as she decided, if her coven was never killed due to the Jedi's decisions... Osha and Qimir don't meet.

Master Sol killing Mother Aniseya is both the catalyst of the story, and the defining variable that makes Osha first joining the Jedi someone else's choice. (Because any alternative option was gone, regardless of what she wanted in the first place.)

I think this is something season 2 could have explored more. Whether that be Vernestra's visions (in regard to Qimir's backstory, that could set up a question of choice versus destiny - what if she suspects he'll turn to the dark side because of a vision and her response solidifies that?), or generally, this could tie into Mae and Osha's existence due to them being created with the Force.

On a larger scale, The Acolyte even fits into destiny. Because no matter what Osha decides within the period of time The Acolyte covers, she will be restricted by the story to come. Let's say Plagueis is on the Unknown Planet specifically for her. We already know Plagueis will go on to work with Palpatine, Palpatine will go on to... set the primary story of Star Wars in motion. Osha could pull the Thread by rejecting Plagueis and stepping outside of it.

[bereft-of-frogs]

I'm really struggling with what to do with Mae in the finale. Particularly with the mind wipe thing. Because I suspect it's a 'for the plot' thing, and also not even one of the 'for the plot' things I can really respect because it's not even for the plot. It feels like it's because the writers wanting to do two fundamentally opposing things: wanting the twins to end the season on opposite sides but still have them be reconciled and without conflict between them. Which you just. Can't do. Unless you do this super contrived thing where Mae is asked to give up more of herself to further Osha's goals (which also now are ???? be a Sith I guess? because hot guy gave her a speech about freedom and embracing negative emotions and told her not to worry about how he just killed her friends?). But yeah I don't think the writers wanted them to be at odds anymore, they wanted this beautiful reunion but they also wanted them to be on opposite sides and that's just...not possible without a big absurd move like this?

And I really, really liked Mae choosing justice when faced with Sol. I wish we had had some more of her motivations and emotional process returning to Brendok, and what brought her to that point of wanting legitimate justice over seeking revenge. I thought that was a great moment. It wouldn't be that hard to spin that into a great last arc that has Osha kill Sol for revenge, kill the Jedi who trained her, kill the Jedi within herself, bleed the kyber crystal and become a person fueled by hate she doesn't recognize, while Mae chooses to forgive and move on. But I don't think the writers wanted to actually dive down into either the catharsis that brought Mae to that point of letting go of revenge, or explore how difficult and self-destructive Osha's heel turn was. I suspect possibly....because seems the writers didn't want to portray Osha's turn as toxic or self-destructive at all?

aaacckkk yeah because that would explain too the kind of weirdly triumphant feel of the scene under the bunta tree, like Mae is making this beautiful sacrifice for her sister.......to go off and become a Sith. And I guess yeah, shallowly, the Sith aesthetic is appealing, don't need to scroll far in the tags for confirmation of that. But you don't even need a deep dive -- I'm not asking you for the deep legends cuts, just the top level -- to show that the Sith lifestyle is one of brutal, violent competition that destroys you from the inside out. So yeah that was my initial reaction where I was like 'oh I'm having a hard time sympathizing with this when you know it leads to the wholesale slaughter of innocent people and decades of fascist rule', (though I guess not really because Plagueis being the master means they are out of the Sith line before the prequels lol) the scene under the bunta tree is framed like they're escaping something terrible.

And I just feel like they've wrote themselves into a corner by deciding from the start where they wanted things to end. Even setting aside my issues of 'you can't do both things', if they wanted them to part amicably but on opposing sides, it would be really easy to not need the mind wipe at all. That didn't even need to be arrived at in the writer's room, reshoots would have fixed that: Mae never comes to the 'unknown planet'. I actually theorized pretty early that the planet where we see Mae and the Stranger meeting was actually Brendok, it would be easy to having Mae and Qimir's mentorship be more on the move, or back on Brendok. (It made sense to me, she showed up with the poison, Koril talks about there being an 'inland' I had my reasons.) There's the elimination of the plot issue: she doesn't know where they are, problem solved. She can go off with the Jedi and let her sister and Qimir go without worrying about giving them up.

And this was true of the other 'this was so for the plot' I was talking about last week: point #2 of 'Indara's three main mistakes., that she should have been the one to go after Torbin when he ran off and you can maybe stretch some situation and character stuff to make it work...but it doesn't really make it work. It was really just for the plot. They needed it to be Sol for the future pathos of the reveal to Osha, and they needed it to be Torbin, because he had to feel guilty enough to accept the poison rather than tell the Council. So it definitely feels like they made this decision for a scene early on (the shot of Mae on the beach listening to Qimir's monologue, Torbin's suicide) and then just...never revisited if those actually made sense when they finished writing the rest of the narrative. And it's crazy because clearly there was thought put into things! There's a lot of fun stuff about mirrors and cycles, and sure, there can be one or two missteps, I could have let the Torbin thing go easily, but Mae...this is the resolution of a major character arc. I'm struggling with what to do with it.

I feel like I'm at risk of pulling a 'every day star wars fans come on here and say 'star wars would be really good if it was good'' but...I mean it's generally a good sign that I care this much to dig into it. I'm looking forward to a marathon, I think once I let some of the things that didn't sit well with me settle down and seeing it all as a big picture I'll have less gripes like this, but right now this is my big 'makes no sense...compels me though' point.

[fluffypandaship]

Osha: I wanted to be Wanted by the Jedi, but not like this ☹️

The way Osha chooses to be a Jedi as a child and still has that choice situationally stripped from her due to the Jedi's actions hmmmmmmmmm.........