#genuinely would be more like going up against a Star Destroyer (and I will note that the Falcon has not done terrible in that regard)

[astudyinimagination]

The Falcon can still transport several people for several days, so I propose that the Falcon be demoted to a compact rather than a bicycle. A very zippy compact ("fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," remember?). I think that deserves better than a bicycle.

“the millenium falcon would wipe out the enterprise in seconds” lmao the enterprise is just an innocent science class floating thru space…. all they wanna do is look at some rocks… kiss an alien…. find some space plants….. why would you fight that its not a battleship theyre just nerds…… leave them olone 

[mandoalorian]

Found Family [Din Djarin x Reader]

Word count: 2.1k

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: mention of anxiety, slight angst and feelings of guilt, general Star Wars lore.

Author's note: short and sweet because I'm super excited for the Mandalorian season two! Only five days away! Enjoy!

Translations:

Mesh'la - beautiful

Cyar'ika - darling/sweetheart

Aliit - family

MASTERLIST

You sunk into the co-pilot seat of the Crest, feeling a wash of anxiety flood over you. You awaited the Mandalorian to return to the cockpit— he was just checking on the child. The child was unconscious after mustering up all of that mysterious energy he whelmed to save your life. The child saved your life at the risk of losing his own. You couldn't understand it.

You crossed your arms over your chest and as you heard his footsteps near you, your heart rate increased speed. With every heavy footstep he took, the armoury hung on the walls clattered. Without a hitch or a noise, he slid into the pilot seat, setting destination back to Nevarro before flicking a few buttons and pulling a lever down. You felt the Crest bolt forward as it lifted from the ground and into the air.

For the first few minutes, you both sat in silence. Glancing down at Din’s vibroknife, pushed into his holster, you figured you could use it to cut the tension that hung in the air. You fumbled around with your fingers, trying to just focus on the journey ahead— but your mind was wandering. "Din…" your voice was merely above a whisper. "I'm sorry."

He didn't reply. You saw the dirt stained leather of his gloves tighten around his fingers as he flexed them over the nav system. You waited a moment, in desperate hope he’d say something. Anything. But not a single word came from his mouth. The guilt you were feeling was surreal. "Please…" you said softly, closing your eyes and sending a silent prayer to the Maker. In this moment, you had wished for an Imperial Star Destroyer to come out of lightspeed and blast you into a billion pieces. You wanted a black hole to swallow you up. 

You had never seen Din so angry. Of course, you hadn't even seen him without his helmet before but— it was in his movements. The negative energy resonated with the way he walked, the lack of communication, his stiffness...

"I… I didn't mean it." You promised Din, finally earning a modulated grunt from him as he briefly shook his head in disbelief. He didn't move. He didn't turn to you. His eyes were still locked on the route ahead. "You were gone for so long."

It was hardly an excuse and you knew it, but you were just trying to swindle some kind of response from him. You couldn’t stand the silent treatment. Din had gone on a very important bounty three days ago. Sure, he told you to wait by the ship, but as time went on and the nights got colder… you felt an ache in your heart. Pent up worry. What if something had happened to him? You and Din had never discussed such contingency plans before. Did he just expect you to wait at the Crest for the rest of your life? On a planet as dangerous as Felucia? It wasn’t like you could pilot a ship as unique as the Razor Crest. You relied on Din and you had to know if he was okay.

It just so happened, as you left the Crest that afternoon, Din and the child were on their way back. And thank the Maker for that. Carrying the child in his satchel, Din raced through the vibrant floral forest - blaster in hand - shooting at the running bounty. You heard his blaster first, stopping abruptly in your footsteps, your boots crunching in the autumnal orange leaves that laid beneath you. You heard running, followed by further blaster bolts. Hurtling towards you was a fair skinned man dressed in what could only be described as ex-Imperial uniform, a crimson red cape loosely tied around his neck. You froze up as his cold eyes bore into you and no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t move. You were stuck. The man dived on top of you, pushing you backwards into the mud and slamming his hand over your mouth. You shuffled helplessly underneath him, trying to rid yourself from his grip - but it was no use. You wanted to cry. 

Din hurried towards you, his heart sinking when he saw his bounty straddling you. Seeing the bounty reach in his pocket and grab a knife, he held it to your throat. Din dropped his blaster and scrambled to get his pulse rifle out of his pocket. The little green ears of the child poked out of Din’s satchel and engulfed the image of you being held hostage by the bounty. The child raised his hand and closed his eyes. It was that mysterious energy again. The bounty froze up, knife in hand, just inches away from your neck. It gave Din enough time to wield his pulse rifle and set it for stun. Instantaneously, Din shot him. As the man fell limp on your body, so did the child, falling back into the satchel - unconscious. Din ran towards you, hap-hazardly pushing the man off you and kneeling by your side. “Kriff, are you alright?” He asked, cupping your cheek with his hand. “What happened?”

Dazed, you tried to refocus your eyes on the Mandalorian who was kneeling before you. “H-had been gone for days,” you said, forcing yourself to sit up and dust the dried up mud off your clothes the best you can. “Was worried.”

“So you left the Crest and came looking for me? Are you out of your mind?” Din raised his voice and you began to feel the guilt pool up in your stomach. “Did you not, for one second, consider your own safety? Look at you,” Din scoped your body. “Didn’t even bring a weapon.”

With a heated sigh, Din stood up and began walking away from you. Confused and with a little wobble, you scrambled to your feet before chasing after the Mandalorian. “I- I didn’t plan on going far,” you told the bounty hunter. “I just had to see if you were nearby.”

The Mandalorian didn’t speak a word to you until you had both returned back to the Razor Crest later that night. The memory of what had happened earlier that day felt like a dagger in Din’s heart. He couldn’t stay mad at you for too long. You were foolish, yes, but he knew you didn’t have any bad intentions. Din contemplated for a moment before finally deciding to part his lips.

"And I gave you specific instructions to wait here for me." His voice was cold, but you breathed a sigh of relief. At least now he was talking to you.

"You had never been gone this long before," you informed him. You felt ashamed, embarrassed. Not only had you done a really silly thing, but you had done it against the will of one of the most esteemed bounty hunters in the parsec. "And the child…" 

"You would've died," he deadpanned. "If it wasn't for me, you would've died." You couldn't count on it, but you were sure that you heard his voice break slightly as he spat out those words. And it was true. If Din hadn’t been on the tail of the bounty then who knows what would’ve happened to you.

"I know, Din." you couldn't find excuses. You knew it would just get you into more trouble.

More silence filled up the cockpit. "And what would I do if you had died?" He paused, realising he might be sounding only a touch selfish. "What about the kid? He needs you." You placed a hand on his thigh, rubbing small circles in a comforting manner. "I need you." he revealed, looking down at your fingers and letting his gaze follow up to your arm and to your face. You were still looking down at the ground when he removed his hand from the steering device and tilted your chin upwards. "Look at me, mesh'la." His voice was low and rasp.

You looked up at him, blinking a few times to try and rid yourself of the guilty tears threatening to spill from your eyes. "I'm sorry Din." you repeated, hoping he could find the genuine sorrow in your voice.

"He- he was an ex-Imperial warlord. A big name in the Empire," Din informed you, gesturing to the back of the ship at his bounty who had only recently been frozen in carbonite. "People like him… they're dangerous. Do you know what they would do if they got their hands on someone like you? Someone as beautiful as yourself?" Din cursed in Mando’a under his breath and you shuffled in your chair uncomfortably. "Yeah…" Din's voice said, sensing your discomfort. "Fuck, it would be bad."

"I know Din." you wiped a tear from your eye. You didn't know the Mandalorian cared for you this much. You supposed it was because neither of you had ever been faced with a situation quite like this before. It really put things into perspective.

"Stormtroopers are one thing," Din conceded. "I've been to places. Seen things. Warlords like him hide on outer-rim planets, hiding in palaces being worshipped by the low ranked ex-Imps. Oh, they'd love someone like you in the outer-rim. Such a pretty thing. They'd keep you as a slave, for sure."

You winced at the revelation. You had heard of such stories, and you could only imagine how worse it would’ve been under New Republic rule. Imperial hide outs had always been scattered around the outer-rim but now, after the Empire had fallen, the New Republic seemingly ignored everything that wasn’t in the core or deep core. That’s what made bounties so dangerous, especially this one to Felucia. Crime syndicates patrolled the planet and you should’ve known better. The Mandalorian had put his trust in you, but you had failed him. "Din…” your voice was small and meek, almost shying away from him. “None of that has happened to me. I'm safe. I'm here. With you."

Din sunk back into his pilot chair and breathed a sigh of relief at your words. You were right. You were safe, and that's all that mattered. And Din was more than happy to take rest on Nevarro for a day or so before getting back on the move. He knew the return of this warlord would earn him enough credits that he could justify a day off.

From such a young and tender age, Din had lost everything. He never spoke of his parents; only once, and the discussion was very brief. You didn’t think it was appropriate to ask questions although your curiosity always peaked when it came to Din and his past. Nevertheless, he knew he valued family and his Creed more than anything else in the world. And his love for the child was immeasurable. To serve as a reminder, and hopefully provide him comfort, you were struck with an idea.

You got out of your chair and sauntered back to the ship, picking up the sleeping child from his cot and cradling him in your arms. You brought him back to the cockpit and watched the foundling as he stirred slightly, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Still asleep, he cooed quietly, and an air of satisfaction relished over you knowing that he wasn’t injured.

"What are you doing?" Din asked.

"What is that thing you always say?" you asked, cupping your hand gently around the child's face. "Aliit…"

"Aliit ori'shya tal'din," Din whispered, extending his arm and pulling you onto his lap. He draped his strong arms around your waist and peeked over your shoulder at the sleeping child. "Family is more than blood." he translated.

You rest your head in the crook of Din's neck, feeling a slight warmth radiate from under his beskar. You let your fingers trace the signet on his shoulder. "Clan of three." You smiled.

"Cyar'ika," Din hummed, taking in your scent and enjoying the close proximity of you sat on his lap holding his son. "Please, promise me you'll never do anything as stupid as that ever again."

"I promise Din." you shuffled around, just a little, but enough to be able to face Din.

The Mandalorian leaned his forehead against you, the coldness of his helmet making you shiver. He pressed a keldable kiss into your skin. "Clan of three." he confirmed, voice low and modulated. His grip on your back tightened and in that moment he swore that he would protect you and the child with his life.

[disneydreamlights]

I Won't Lose Her

AO3 | FFN

Summary: When Vader sends a hostage video to Padme saying he holds her daughter captive, she does the only thing she possibly could, tries to save her life for her daughter's.

A/N: For @anidalaweek Day 2: Canon Divergence. Basically a Padme lives and becomes leader of the Rebellion AU because honestly we stan.

Yes I did publish this on AO3 hours before posting it here don't worry about it.

She knew she should've told Bail not to let Leia take the mission.

Padmé Amidala sat at her desk, unable to stop staring at the notice on her page. Leia had been sent to Tatooine to collect Obi-Wan and bring him and the Death Star plans to the Rebellion.

Leia had been captured en route to Tatooine by the Executor and had failed to get to Obi-Wan.

"Padmé." At the sound of her name, Padmé looked up at the hologram of Mon. It was clear that her fellow rebel leaders regretted what had happened to her daughter by the guilty expression on Mon's face. "We have news of Leia."

"News…?" In an instant, Padmé leaned forward, her eyes wide. "What did you learn? What happened? Is Leia alright?"

When Mon didn't answer right away, Padmé felt a surge of panic. "Is...she didn't…"

"No. No. Leia is fine," Mon answered, interrupting her before Padmé could continue to focus on that idea. The emphatic denial gave Padmé some reassurance that Leia was alright. "It's...perhaps I should just show you the message."

Mon vanished, instead showing a hologram of Leia and Vader, the mysterious dark lord of the Sith. "This is a message to Senator Amidala, the true leader of the Rebellion." At the sound of Vader's voice, Padmé's blood went cold. "As I am to understand it, the news of your death was exaggerated. As I have found in the princess's mind...you have been alive and in hiding, controlling this war from the shadows while the Organas and Mothma were the face of your rebellion."

"If you would like your daughter unharmed, you will arrive on the Executor within a standard week from receiving this message. As a show of good faith, I am using a private transponder, and will not trace it to the location of your current base. If you do not arrive, Leia Skywalker will be executed. She will meet the same fate as your late husband."

"I look forward to your arrival on my ship." The hologram vanished, and Padmé fought any feelings of nausea as Mon's face returned.

"I'm sorry Padmé. We're hoping General Kenobi will get there in time, but…"

"But we don't even know if he got Leia's message." The moment she had seen the message, seen that Darth Vader held her daughter, Padmé knew there was only one option for her. "I can't leave her Mon."

"I know." Mon looked down, as though she had expected this. "Please be careful in rescuing your daughter."

Padmé nodded. Once Mon hung up the call, Padmé ran to her closet to find her flight suit.

She'd lost Luke, back when she had first given birth Obi-Wan had insisted it would be best to separate the twins, and Padmé had reluctantly agreed, giving up the chance to know her son for the best chance of life he could have. If she lost her other child too, this one to a more permanent fate, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to forgive herself for the mistake.

She had to trade herself for Leia. The Rebellion would survive without her presence. It was the only option she had.

-x-

The Executor loomed in Padmé's vision, an ominous warning of her impending fate as her small X-Wing steadily crept closer to the Star Destroyer. It was large and imposing, and the Sith inside had already done so much damage to her family that she wasn't sure how she would face him. But she kept holding onto the single hope that Leia was alive when Vader had spoken to her. She just had to keep believing that. The dark feeling in the air meant nothing. She could survive.

The radio clicked on as she received a transmission from the empire. "This is the Executor. You're in a classified zone. State your purpose or you will be shot down."

Padmé took a deep breath, hoping to keep her voice steady in spite of her nerves and fear. "This is Padmé Amidala, leader of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. I'm here to trade myself for the princess Leia Organa."

She watched, anxiously, expecting to be fired on as soon as she stated her name, expecting this to have been a trap to lure her out of the shadows she'd remained in for so long. Instead however, there was nothing but silence before a deep voice came from the radio. "Senator Amidala, I will meet you down in the hangar. Do not try anything foolish. My men will shoot without warning."

The radio cut out, and Padmé took a deep breath. So far, she was alive. A small part of her hoped that this wasn't a trap, but a genuine trade to capture a larger target. She hadn't known Vader to be a man of his word, but then again, besides the fact that he was a Sith and the one who had killed her husband, Padmé didn't know much about him at all.

The hangar bay doors opened, and rather than have to pilot herself in, her ship was grabbed by a tractor beam, slowly pulling her in. Once she was safely inside and the ship landed, she opened the cockpit and jumped out, her hand on the only weapon she had on her, her blaster. In the back, she saw a dark imposing figure with his black armor and the mask that kept his face hidden. She couldn't get a read on him, but he didn't seem keen to attack. To her disappointment, her daughter wasn't with him.

Gathering her courage to her, Padmé broke the silence that had remained between them as neither had spoken. "Lord Vader. I see the promise of my safety wasn't a lie. Where is my daughter?"

"Leia is currently being kept in my quarters." The way he said her name caused Padmé's stomach to tie itself in knots. There was a fondness to it, one the Sith never should have had. She hated to imagine any of the reasons as to why. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to her."

"How do I know this isn't a trap?"

"If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead."

The statement was a punch to the stomach, a reminder of what Vader was capable of, and one that left Padmé with little idea of how to respond. Her silence left an awkward void, only filled by the harsh breathing of his respirator.

Seeing no other alternative, she relented. "Very well. I will follow you. But if any harm comes to my daughter–"

"I have no desire to see her harmed, though whether you believe me or not is irrelevant." Vader's voice was harsh, and there was an underlying note of offense, as though he couldn't believe she would assume he would want to hurt Leia. With that, he started down the halls of the Star Destroyer, leaving Padmé confused.

She wasn't in binders, Vader was escorting her himself, and he had no desire to harm Leia.

None of it added up. Yet she still followed him quietly deeper into the ship, trying to figure out just what he was doing and why.

When they finally arrived in his quarters, Padmé was surprised to find that it was furnished fairly normally, although nothing besides the pod in the back looked as though it had been used in quite some time, and in the bed on the back of the room was Leia, who looked no worse for wear to her mother's relief.

"Princess." Leia looked up at Vader. At first, her eyes had been narrowed in distaste, but once she saw Padmé, her eyes widened in shock, and the biting comment she had been preparing for Vader fell silent.

"Leia." Padmé reached out.

"Mother." Leia stood up from the bed and ran into Padmé's arms. "Mother I'm so sorry. I tried to keep everything contained like Auntie 'Soka said but–"

"You did your best Leia. You did so much more than I could've ever expected against Vader." Padmé held Leia close to her, not letting her daughter go as she realized how close she had come to losing her. There weren't any marks on Leia, which meant that Vader hadn't done much to harm her beyond mentally, and Padmé couldn't fight the smile that formed in relief that her daughter was alright. "I'm so proud of you."

"I didn't want you to come. I could've handled Vader."

"I already lost so much Leia. I couldn't lose you too." Padmé kissed her daughter on the head, and Leia hugged her once more.

They stood there, holding each other, though Padmé wasn't sure for how long before she heard Leia whisper in her ear. "Artoo and Threepio got away. I think they made it to General Kenobi."

Through it all. Leia still made sure that the mission succeeded. If Padmé thought she couldn't have been prouder of the girl, she was mistaken. Leia had gotten the message to Obi-Wan (and to Luke). The Death Star would still be destroyed and the Alliance would gain the edge they may have needed to turn the tide in this war. There were still so many reasons for hope.

"It is time for you to leave, Leia. Your mother has fulfilled her end of the deal." Mother and daughter sprung apart when Vader spoke, attracting their attention. "I will escort you personally to the ship she came in."

"I don't need your escort." Leia glared at Vader. "And don't call me Leia. You have no right to use that name."

"If you do not want any of the officers or Storm Troopers to capture you once more, you will." Leia remained silent. "You are, of course, welcome to stay aboard my ship, but I would presume that's not what you wish."

Leia remained silent, as though deciding what her best course of action would be. Padmé attempted to give a reassuring smile. "Go, Leia. Find Obi-Wan. Tell him what happened."

Leia ignored Padmé's pleas and looked at Vader, who seemed to have stiffened slightly at the mention of Obi-Wan. "What do you want my mother for? Why did you spare me?" She grabbed onto Padmé's hand. "The moment you learned about her, you stopped torturing me. You refused to answer any of my questions. You forced me to compromise the entire Rebellion for a phone call for a deal that based on everything any of us know about you would be so obviously fake–"

As Leia continued her demands, Vader raised his hands. For a moment, Padmé felt fear. The last time she had seen a similar gesture from a Force Sensitive had been nineteen years ago, right before she'd lost Anakin. Thankfully, it was just a gesture to stop, as he instead spoke. "I spent nineteen years thinking I was responsible for your deaths. I would not wish to see that happen again."

"That didn't stop you from killing my Father!" Leia's words hung in the air, and Vader stepped back, as though the accusation wounded him in some way. "Don't deny it, mother–"

"Your mother was misinformed." Though Padmé couldn't tell because of his mask, it felt as though Vader's eyes were locked directly on her, and she shivered. "I did not kill your father."

"Obi-Wan said–" She was cut off before Padmé could repeat the story she'd heard.

"Kenobi lied. Or perhaps, he could not face the truth himself." Vader continued to keep her gaze, though he didn't elaborate any further on his statement. "Princess, it is time for you to go. No harm will come to Padmé so long as I am alive to see to it."

"You still haven't answered my questions!" Leia protested.

"We do not have the time for me to answer them in a way you would find satisfactory." Vader crossed his arms, finally turning back to Leia. "I cannot hide your presence here forever, and if you would like to escape to your Rebels, you will need to go now."

Knowing she had lost, Leia hugged Padmé. "I'll come back for you. With help."

"I know." Padmé hugged her back quickly. "I love you Leia. If something happens to me, never forget that."

They let go, and Leia was taken out of the room without another word.

-x-

Vader came back into the room about an hour later, Leia no longer beside him. Padmé had taken to laying on the bed that had held Leia earlier, choosing to read one of the holo novels that were on the shelves. He stood next to her on the bed, but Padmé chose to say nothing. She didn't want to talk to Vader, let alone have anything to do with him. No matter how desperate for an answer as to why he was doing everything, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"Leia has left. She flew out on your ship, and will remain untracked." As though he realized Padmé wouldn't speak, Vader did instead. "I'm sorry to have threatened her, but once I knew you were alive, I knew it was the only way to bring you here." She remained quiet, pretending to be invested in the story to continue to ignore Vader. "I would never have hurt her. Had you chosen not to come, I would've found another way."

"Why?" Padmé asked. She put down the novel, finally giving Vader her attention. "You haven't explained anything to either of us Lord Vader. I have no reason to believe you when you say you won't hurt her. I have no reason to believe you won't hurt me now."

"Nineteen years ago, on Mustafar, you tried to stop me from heading down a dark path I could never come back from." Vader started, despite still remaining harsh due to the vocoder, his voice felt softer, as though he was trying to be gentle. She stiffened at the start of his story, wanting to deny everything he was implying. "I wouldn't listen, and I lashed out. I thought I'd killed you, Padmé. For nineteen years I thought I'd killed you and the child."

Padmé's eyes widened, and although Vader reached out for her, she scooched back, as far away from Vader as she could. "No. You can't be. He…" She shook her head, her hand resting over her mouth as she tried to process this. Anakin couldn't. He wouldn't.

Vader didn't deny, and instead let Padmé come to terms with the implication of his words on her own. It was everything she'd feared. Obi-Wan hadn't hidden that he'd fallen, she was aware that Anakin had attacked her that night, but she'd always hoped…

"Darth Vader destroyed him. I'm so sorry Padmé, Anakin is gone."

"I see you needed more time before I told you the news. I'd just hoped…" Vader's words fell to silence, and Padmé couldn't stop herself from staring. There had to be something to prove this wrong.

"Why?"

"I thought I'd lost everything." Vader sat down on the bed, but made no further move to get closer to her. "My master was all I thought I had. I did not care about what became of me, and I became nothing more than a weapon, until I started going through Leia's memories and I saw…"

"You saw me." Vader didn't react, but Padmé didn't need one to know it was the truth. She may not have been force sensitive, but the knowledge of the true identity of the monster in front of her held more answers than the Force ever would. "Ani…?" She reached her hand onto his mask, cupping where his cheek would've been without it.

"I'm sorry. I've done many things you wouldn't approve of since your death." He had, and there would be time for her to process that the atrocities he had committed were all performed by Anakin. There would be time for her to decide if she could forgive him. There would be time for him to prove that he deserved her forgiveness.

But in this moment, all she cared about was that the man who she had spent so many years mourning and fighting to avenge was alive. "I'd thought..."

"So had I." Vader bowed his head, moving away from the gentle touch he could not feel. "But now that I know that you and Leia are alive, I'll do everything in my power to keep both of you safe."

Padmé shook her head. "Anakin, I can't stay your prisoner. I have to go back." She had to make sure that Leia was safe. She had to meet with Obi-Wan and talk to him about this. She wanted to have the chance to truly meet Luke in more than a few holocalls that Obi-Wan managed to set up between her and her son.

To her surprise, he didn't protest. "For now, you'll have to. When Leia gets the Death Star plans to the Rebellion and destroys it, that's when there will be enough chaos in the system that you'll be able to escape without attracting suspicion." Padmé couldn't help but stare. "I'll give you an encrypted comm system to communicate with, just like we used to during the war."

"You'll let me go back?"

"If you stay here, then the Emperor will find you. It won't be safe," Vader said. "There is no other choice, my master must die. If I have to work with your Rebels to achieve that end, then so be it."

Surprising herself, Padmé smiled. "If that's the case, then we'd better get started."

[kybervisions]

a taste of life [kylo]

summary: ben solo is brought back from the dead by a force-sensitive pirate and is given the opportunity to start a new life as part of her crew. 

author’s note: hdjfkj i love the idea of a pirate!reader so here is my contribution,, so this takes place a few weeks after the battle of exegol in which the first order was defeated ,, if you’ve played jedi fallen order than reader’s ability is exactly like cal’s ,, lmk what you think :)) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Isao muttered as he navigated the ship through the wreckage. The ruins of Star Destroyer fleets decorated Exegol, evidence of the New Republic’s victory. And There was so much to loot! You chuckled. The Scorpion landed near a weird-looking throne. It was so dark that Isao landing the Scorpion was a miracle. 

“Well I see a very fun trip to Canto Bight in our future,” You said with a smile and ran out of the cockpit. It had been a while since you last visited the city and partook in the activities of wealthy individuals. You so desperately wanted to gamble and drink credits away, so you quickly strapped your belt on and grabbed a blaster before exiting the ship. Nori ran after you. 

“Canto Bight? I thought we were going to Jedha and see the remains of the Jedi temple there,” Nori expressed disappointment with your desire to return to Canto Bight. She had become obsessed with learning more about the Jedi after learning about your Force sensitivity. 

“Jedi Temples don’t have open bars,” You reminded your Twi’lek friend, “or casinos,” Nori sighed in frustration. “I’m just trying to be plastered and gamble,” You smiled. “No need to get ourselves involved in Jedi business,” 

You’ve known about your connection with the Force your entire life. You were a member of the Blazing Chain — an organization of nomadic raiders made up of Force Adepts that wandered Unknown Space. With no loyalty to the Sith or Jedi, the Blazing Chain simply utilized their Force abilities to make raids easier. Three wars occurred, and each time, for better or for worse, the Blazing Chain remained neutral. You had no intention in breaking that tradition. 

As you walked, you found a cube. The strong fog made it nearly impossible to see, but your foot gently kicked it. A faint blue glow radiated from the cube and you felt a compulsion to pick it up. You knelt down, and as your fingers touched the cube, a scene played back in your head. And then, a blinding white light. 

“Ahh, dank farrik!” You shouted and crawled away from the cube. Nori ran to your side. 

“What happened? Are you okay? Did it happen again?” Nori asked frantically. By ‘it’ she was referring to one of your ‘echo episodes’ in which an object gives you a memory by touching it. You were one of two adepts cursed with that ability from the Blazing Chain. It was referred to as a Force Echo. 

“I’m fine,” You groaned, feeling a sharp pain in your head. “That kriffin’ holocron was part of the battle here,” You informed Nori, crawling back to the cube. It wanted to be opened and only you could do it. 

“Whoa,” Nori marveled at the unique gold design on the cube. You held the cube in your palm of your hand and closed your eyes. Within seconds, the holocron levitated and opened. “That is so cool,” Nori muttered. 

A white ball of energy emerged from the holocron. You opened your eyes and a bright white light shined. You appeared possessed, and it terrified Nori. She screamed. You began muttering words in a language she couldn’t understand. 

The energy ball dispersed. The holocron closed and fell back onto your palm. 

“What the kriff was that?!” Nori exclaimed. You stood up, completely unfazed by the recent possession.  

"No clue,” You told your friend. 

A tall man dressed in black emerged from the fog. The light from the Scorpion beamed on the man. He was very pale and bloody. His black sweater bad a large hole and was absolutely filthy-looking. 

You would not be caught dead wearing that. 

“We don’t want any trouble, um, sir,” You attempted to de-escalate the interaction. The holocron must be worth thousands and there was enough on the Star Destroyers to share with the beaten-down man. 

“Do you know who I am?” The odd man asked. 

“Oh...um, no?” You replied. You looked to Nori. She shook her head.

“Where did you get that?” The man looked at the holocron in your palm. 

Immediately you tossed the cube to Nori, who put it inside her bag. “Get what?” You played dumb. “Do you need any help? A new outfit perhaps?” You asked him, looking at the large tear on the chest area of the sweater. 

His right hand reached for the hole in the sweater. His fingers touched his bear chest. He stared blankly at you, “I’m lost,” He felt a strange comfort when looking at you.

It was you that gave him life. 

“Well you are in luck!” You said with glee. “We are pirates and there isn’t anywhere we can’t go,” You informed the stranger. As a child you learned all the best traveling routes to bypass First Order and New Republic checkpoints. With the power struggle and chaos that followed the fall of the First Order there was no better time to be a pirate.

“Coruscant,” He replied rather quickly. With Alderaan destroyed, his mother would be buried at the capital. Coruscant had been in open rebellion against the First Order, and he was certain the New Republic would restore peace. 

Your smile dropped, “Coruscant? Why would you want to go there? Are you part of a gang?” You questioned and reached for your blaster. “Like I said, we don’t want any trouble,” You said cautiously. 

“What do you have in Coruscant?” Nori asked, aiming her blaster at his head. 

Truthfully, nothing. Kylo had nothing. 

“Where are you going?” He asked you, and your smile returned. 

“The Smuggler’s Moon,” You replied. 

Kylo remembered hearing Han mention Nar Shaddaa throughout his childhood. It was an entire world filled with pirates and outlaws. It was also the homeworld of the Hutts. Leia would threaten Ben with a visit to Nar Shaddaa when he would not behave. It terrified him as a child. 

“Got some people that might be interested in that glowing cube,” You mentioned. 

“You can’t sell that!” Kylo exclaimed. Both women took a step away from him, but they weren’t scared of him. They appeared rather annoyed with his outburst and demand. 

“First of all, I’m the captain, so watch your tone,” You pointed at him, unamused. “Second of all, I can sell whatever I want,” 

“That cube is an ancient Jedi artifact,” Kylo informed you. 

“Oh, well in that case,” You smiled. Kylo smiled too then, believing he had convinced you to keep the very thing you used to bring him from the dead. “I know just the Hutt to sell this to,” 

His smile dropped instantly. 

“Are you a Jedi?” Nori questioned. 

Was he a Jedi? Ben had been a padawan when Snoke tainted his mind. He spent more years of his life as a pawn for the Sith than he did as his uncle’s student. He blankly stared at Nori before his attention returned to you. 

“Doesn’t matter,” You answered the question for him. He was beyond grateful for your reply. “The cube is getting sold, and you, my friend, have three options,” Ben knitted his brows and slightly tilted his head in confusion. “You can remain lost on this hellish planet, I sell you, or you can join my crew,” 

“Why?” Kylo asked. Kindness was not virtue he experienced often. There had always been strings attached to the kindness of others. Snoke disguised his actions as a way of helping Ben. Oh, how stupid the mind of a child is. 

You had already done more than you knew — you brought him back to the land of the living, unknowingly it would seem. Offering him a spot on your crew was you giving him a chance to truly live. Joining your crew would also give him a chance to figure out how you gave him life.

“Tall, broad-shoulders beast like you, figure I could sell ya for some pretty New Republic credits,” You smiled, taunting Kylo.

“Isao said to hurry up or he’s going to leave without you,” A B1-series battle droid exited from your ship. The droid was in pristine shape, despite its mismatched torso and right arm. "I don’t know if he was being serious,” The droid added. 

Nori walked toward, “I’ll hold him off,” Both she and the droid boarded the ship. “And I’ll adjust your sarcasm setting,” Nori smiled at the droid. 

“So, what d’ya say?” You asked him. “Roger could use help cooking and cleaning,” You laughed as the words left your lips. You were filled with genuine happiness. Kylo could feel it, and it was intoxicating. 

He gave you a simple nod, “I will join your crew,” 

“Great, do you like Canto Bight?” You asked and began walking toward the ship. Kylo was hesitant to follow you. You felt his hesitancy and stopped walking to face him. 

Kylo studied you for a brief moment. Nothing about you screamed danger, but he was almost certain your hands were drenched in blood. “I’ve never been to Canto Bight,” He replied and took steps towards you. There was so much Ben had yet to see. So much of the galaxy still left to explore, and somehow, you blessed him with the breath of life. 

“Oh, you are in for a treat, big guy,” You stated, more than happy to show off your favorite vacation destination. “But first we are gonna need to buy you some clothes,” You said and boarded the ship. Kylo followed after you, and the scent of burnt cookies touched his nose. 

“Sorry!” Roger apologized, attempting to get rid of the smoke by frantically waving his arms.

[ver-writes-things]

Girls Like Girls pt. 2

She isn’t going to have a place to sleep tonight. She knows that, has known it every night since--

But at least this time her speeder will be locked up in the mech bay, which Trace clearly has some good security measures on because she still has that ship.

She doesn’t want to take advantage of Trace’s kindness. It’s just that, sometimes it’s hard to find a spot taken, and doesn’t pose any unnecessary risks, as it were. But maybe Trace knows a safe spot, maybe somewhere warm. Can’t hurt to ask, right?

Ahsoka feels Trace’s gaze on her, but takes a long moment to turn around. She just has one more bolt to tighten and then--got it.

Then she turns around, and catches herself before she smiles at the way Trace’s cheeks darken. Trace reminds her of herself in some ways, before--before.

Before the war. Before the Temple bombing. Before leaving. Before.

“I just realized something,” Ahsoka says, and her voice comes out more sheepish than she intended or expected it to. She blinks.

“What’s that?” Trace asks.

Ahsoka can feel the heat rising in her cheeks, so she ducks her head away. She’s been on the streets for months now. She knows it’s not that embarrassing. And yet--well, Trace is the first person who has seemed genuinely interested in her in that time, and not in a bad way.

“Ahsoka, come on.” Trace slides down from her spot under the engine of her ship, and the way she lands, all light on her feet, has a thousand thoughts running through Ahsoka’s head before she can stop them. But Trace’s voice, Force, just her voice--it brings Ahsoka back to the present. “What is it?”

“I don’t have a place to stay.” It’s soft and quiet and too meek and too far away to be Ahsoka’s voice, except that it is because she feels her vocal cords vibrate.

“Where did you stay before you came here?”

Ahsoka shrugs. “Here. There. You know.”

“The streets aren’t too friendly for a girl and her speeder,” Trace sympathizes. “You can stay with us. It’s no trouble.”

And that’s not exactly what Ahsoka meant, when she phrased it the way she did, but she knows Trace is just good. She’s good, like Master Kenobi, and Master Skywalker, and Rex and Cody and Barriss and--she breathes deeply and finally looks back into Trace’s eyes with a bit of a smirk. “I don’t think Rafa would like that very much.”

“I’ll just have you pay for that, too.” Trace grins. “We’re friends now, right?” Ahsoka doesn’t mean the way her breath catches, because Trace is pretty and capable and they’ve only known each other a day, just friends just friends just friends-- “You save my life, I give you a place to stay. That’s friendship.”

Ahsoka’s half-smirk turns to a real smile. “Sure. I really appreciate it, Trace.”

:::

Trace and Rafa’s home is--small. Nothing like the Jedi Temple, or the Venator-class Star Destroyers Ahsoka had called home for sixteen years, but much better than tents on a campaign, the muddy ground seeping up through the synthetic floor after weeks on-planet. One bedroom, a living room-kitchen hybrid, a refresher.

Ahsoka collapses against a couch that looks as though it’s seen better days.

“You can sleep in my bed,” Trace says, following Ahsoka into the space and closing the door behind them. “Uh, if you want. It’s more comfortable than the couch.”

“Anything is more comfortable than concrete ground,” Ahsoka barely mumbles in retort, eyes sliding shut, and then mouths, “or Felucia. I hated Felucia.”

“At least take a shower,” Trace offers, and Ahsoka fights the urge to open her eyes wide, or jump, or blush. “It’s relaxing.”

Ahsoka opens her eyes, then, and jokes, “I probably don’t smell all that great, either.” She stands up and leaves her bag in the corner of the couch. The hallway is short, one door on either side, and with the Martez sisters’ bedroom door open, figuring out which one leads into the refresher is no contest.

She locks the door and turns on the water, and it smells just a little of sulfur but it’s clean and warm and it feels really, really good, and she thinks that even if she does end up paying Trace for offering her a place to stay, Trace is being too generous.

Trace has been nothing but good, and kind, and reassuring, and Ahsoka? Ahsoka likes her like she hasn’t liked anyone since Barriss.

:::

Ahsoka doesn’t eat breakfast with them the next day, instead opting to wake up early and leave a note. She was always a light sleeper, and it only got worse with the war, so as soon as this area of Coruscant gets busy, she’s up. Doesn’t help that Togruta are carnivorous and Trace and Rafa are most decidedly not.

Ahsoka can sense Trace in the mech bay before she even makes a sound. She turns around. “Oh, hey, Trace,” she says. She takes off her goggles and gives Trace her most winning smile (without showing off her fangs, as humans tended to be put off by that for the first little bit).

“How long have you been here?” Trace asks.

Ahsoka glances at the chronometer in the corner, except she never checked it when she got in. “An hour and a half?” she estimates, but it’s totally a guess based on how much she’s gotten done. “Figured the sooner I got to work, the sooner I’d be out of you and Rafa’s hair.”

“I don’t want you out of my hair,” Trace blurts.

It brings back a slew of memories, and Ahsoka smirks even as her heart hangs heavy in her chest. “Not yet,” she says, soft and sad, and she turns away from Trace. After a few moments, when she assumes Trace is starting to work on her ship, she lets her shoulders droop.

:::

They work in silence for a few hours, until Ahsoka’s stomach grumbles too loud for her to ignore and she catches Trace’s attention. “Lunch date?” she offers.

“A date?” Trace asks in response, and her voice is high-pitched. She’s squeaking, and Ahsoka can’t decide whether to laugh or blush or both.

Eventually, blushing wins out. They seem to be trading off on that one. “Well, I mean, I used to go on dates with my brothers all the time.” She smiles, reminiscing of the time she and Rex had gone for caf, except she had hardly slept in days and so he got her a hot chocolate, not realizing it was less than ideal as a treat for a carnivore, and-- “Not dates but dates, you know?”

Trace nods, and her voice comes down to an ordinary pitch. Less squeaky. Ahsoka’s almost sad. She liked the squeaking, it was really very cute. “Rafa and I do the same thing. It’s tradition, since our parents--since we’re alone now.”

“Let’s do it,” Ahsoka says, and she can hardly keep her heartbeat steady, her gut fluttering in anticipation as it is, and she can’t tell if it’s hers or Trace’s. “If I pay, does that count toward my debt to you?”

Trace laughs, and it’s hearty and warm and fills Ahsoka up with something good. “What if I pay because I like you?”

“I like you too.”

[calliecat93]

Top 15 Star Trek TOS Episodes (Part Two)

(Part One)

Continuing from the last post, here are the remaining seven episodes~! Also picking Number One was SUPER hard. I was stuck between it and two for a long while. But I finally picked, so here we go!

#7. The Trouble With Tribbles

Up to this point, I hadn’t been crazy over some of the goofier episodes of Star Trek. Shore Leave was a mindscrew that left me uncertain about what was even happening by the end, though my opinion has lightened up upon looking back. The Squire of Gothos had a villain that I found far more annoying than entertaining and it remains one of my least favorite episodes. The only more silly one I did like was I, Mudd which remains an utter laugh riot once everyone acts as illogical as possible, including Spock. But then this episode came along, and Dear Lord it is hilarious. Our heroes stop at a space station, but it’s also occupied by Klingons. But wait, it gets better! A sleezy guy convinces Uhura to buy a Tribble, these little puff ball things that are kind of cute... until they begin to reproduce so rapidly that they infest the ship and base. To put it simply, it’s not a good time for Kirk. Honestly Kirk is the best part just because of how much he LOATHES every single thing about this episode. The scene where a whole bunch of Tribbles just topple over him and he just resigns himself to his fate and later his epic death glare at Bones when he orders him to figure out what killed the things. And then there’s what makes him come aorund to them, their shared hatred of Klingons. Seriosuly, Kirk is just So Done in this episode and it is amazing~

But seriously, it’s a very entertianing episode. Far more than I thought it was going to be when I read the description. It’s not an episode taken seriosuly, but not in the ‘they just gave up’ kind of way like in certain S3 episodes. The cast seem to be legit having a fun time with this one. The brawl between Scotty, Chekov, and a few other guys against the Klingons was super fun as was Kirk sulking when Scotty revelas that he got provoked over the Enteprise being insulted and not the captain. Poor Jim XD Cyrano Jones was also just a fun delight with how scummy yet amusing he is. The scene with him and the drinks during the brawl had me laughing so much XD Seriosuly there’s just so many good moments. Spock not being immune to the Tribble’s comforting effect and being embarassed at this revelaiton, Spock and McCoy’s snark, the Klingons utter horror at the tiny little furballs, it’s just an entertaining ride from beginning to end.

Not anything to really note flaws wise to justify the ranking. It doesn’t have that emotional or philosophical umph that I normally seek out in shows like this, so it’s here at seven. But that ain’t a bad thing at all. Not every episode has to have deep meanings or complex stories. Sometimes it can just be something fun and amusing, and the effort was still there to make it entertaining. It’s one of those episodes that I would watch above the others on a bad day just so I can laugh. Probably the most fun episode I have on this list, and that’s nothing to snuff at~!

#6. The Doomsday Machine

Our heroes find a Starship where the only survivor is Commadore Decker, his crew having all been killed when he beamed them to a planet that a planet destroyer... well, destroyed shortly after. The destroyer is still active and now the Enterprise is in danger. As Kirk remains on that ship, Decker is determined to destroyt he doomsday machine once and for all, including taking command of the Enteprrise and risking their lives to do so. Yeah, this is a pretty intense one. Decker, while his sucicdal actions were wrong, is VERY sympathetic. His crew was killed through no fault of his own, the machine that did it is still loose, and the losses have left him utterly broken. He’s very much traumatized but as he is the highest ranking officer and they can’t officially prove that he’s too mentlaly unfit to be relieved (which imo is idiotic cause even someone who isn’t a psycologist can tell he’s mentally unfit, but whatever), they can’t do much to stop him. Spock DOES finally manage to do so, and it leads to Decker’s ultimate choice that leads to his tragic end.

This one really gripped me. There’s this tension throughout. We have an unstable, suicidal man taking control of the Enterprise and willing to get them all killed to stop the doomsday machine. It’s scary to see how broken the man is. Again, he’s wrong to be willing to sacrifice everyone on The Enterprise to destroy the thing even though none of them want to die, but you understand why. I mean imagine if that happened to Kirk, he’d probably snap too if his actions in Obsession is any indication of how he handles major losses like that. Then we have Decker’s final act. Once relieved of command, he steals a shuttle and goes at the machine himself. He knows that he’s going to die and accepts that fact if it means some chance, any chance of destroying the machine once and for all. While he fails to destory it, he DOES give Kirk the opprotunity needed to do so with the ruined ship. A move that almost gets Kirk killed, but still Decker’s act was not in vain. It’s a very interesting character study with themes of guilt, trauma, and desperation. Kind of like in Obsession in a way, only Kirk manages to survive and pull himself together before it was too late. Decker’s only goal was to take down the machine that took his crew’s lives, even if that meant losing his own.

As I said, these are the kinds of episodes I live for. I guess self-sacrifice is also genetic consideirng what happened with his son in The Motion Picture, haha. Flaws... ugh... I guess McCoy disappeairng after the first half sucked? But that’s a me thing that doesn’t affect anything. I just remember watching it wide-eyed despite fully well knowing that everyone I cared about were going to be perfectly fine. It really gripped me! A great episode with great character exploration and themes which for a one off character, is pretty dang impressive!

#5. Journey to Babel

Meet the parents epidsode! Yay! The Enteprise is transporting various ambassadors of various planets to the Babel Conference. This includes the Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his human wife Amanda, aka Spock’s parents. Yep, it’s time for some good ol’ fashioned family issues! Sarek wasn’t exactly happy with Spock choosing Starfleet and their relationship has been strained ever since. But when Sarek has severe heart problems, the only way to save him is via blood transfusion with Spock the only one compatible. But to make it worse, Kirk gets stabbed and put out of comission, forcing Spock to take command... at the same time that his father needs the surgery. Yeah... it sucks to be Spock in this episode. I know that Sarek is a bit divisive, but I like Spock’s parents. Sarek comes off as good at his job, but not great as a parent. He’s far fromt he worst and we do see that he does seem to still care about his son, he’s just God awful at admitting it and his previous mistakes. Like father, like son I guess. Amanda was a delight, especially when she tells McCoy about the sehlat aka giant teddy bear. Anyone who can make Bones smile that big deserves our thanks. Spock trying to make it less embarassing only made it funnier XD But back on topic, they come off as interesitng characters. They ain’t ideal, but they seem to genuinely be in love, which is nice.

Spock was just great here as we see him in one of the roughest spots he’s been in. He’s naturally not happy about being around the father that cast him aside again, though after his heart issues it’s clear that he IS concerned. Leonard Nimoy once again does such a fantastic job at having Spock express so much but without breaking character. It’s all in the eyes and the strained tone of voice. Then when Spock is more than willing to go through with the tranfusion, Kirk is injured. He has no choice but to take command, knowing that in doing so his father will die. While he COULD give command to Scotty, with the VERY intense circumstances of an assaliant on board and a ship ready to attack wit a number of ambassadors on board, he’s the best bet in handling it. Amanda is of course upset and even smacks him which IS overly harsh, but she’s about to lose her husband and her son, despite clealry hating the fact, has to place his duty above all else. Sarek dying is the least worst outcome to everyone else being killed. It’s the most logical route. Fortunately Kirk is able to pull himself together long enough to take over and the transfusion goes through perfectly despite the fight making it more difficult. Which again, McCoy is the true MVP here for managing to pull that off successfully under those conditions and Thank God that the episode rewarded him by letting him finally get the last word. He earned that one!

It’s such a great episode for me. Family drama, Spock conflict, political tensions, and just some relaly fun bits. Seriosuly, the teddy bear bit will NEVER stop being funny. Hoenstly these last five were all pretty tight and this ende dup here cause the other four had just a little bit mroe to keep me invested for reasons. Spock and Sarek don’t really reach a resolution but we do see that it has the chance to improve, and the movies do show that Sarek DOES truly care about his son and even admits that he had been wrong. It takes a lot for a man, even a Vulcan man, to do that. Although I DID double take when I realized that Sarek is played by the same guy who did the Romulan Captain in Balance of Terror. Guess he was that good XD. But yeah, a really great episode and very much my favorite Spock-centric episode.

#4. The Empath

TRIUMVIRATE FEELS BABY~! Our heroes end up trapped by a duo of aliens and encounter a mute empath woman that McCoy names Gem. They try to figure out how to escape as the aliens known as Vians plan to use them for an experiment as they have others. Shenanigains happen while elad to Kirk getting totured p, and then given the ultimate sadistic choice in having to decide if either Spock or McCoy get tortured to the point of either death (McCoy) or permenant brain damage (Spock). Now the episode has it’s issues, like why the Vians needed to do this to decide that Gem’s people were worth saivng is..l really baffling. But I’m also not a Vian so what do I know anout their mindset? But due to those kinds of plot holes, it landed here at four. It also kind of reads like a hurt/comfort fanfic, which isn’t a surprise when you find out that this was written and submitted by a fan. Which is freakin’ awesome and I can’t complain tbh cause it’s a good hurt/comfort fic. What it fails in some plot tightning it succeeds at in emphasizing the relationship between the main trio and it’s themes of emotion and self-sacrifice. Because OF COURSE that would be relevant for these three numbskulls at some point!

The second half is really what sells it. Kirk of course can’t make a choice like that, so Bones hypos him so that he’ll be spared of it. But that means that Spock is in command and he fully intends to hand himself over to the Vians to spare the two. Just the scene where he looks at Kirk, knowing that it’ll likely be the last time he sees him and Gem touching him to feel his emotions. Her smile sums it sll up. Which sidenote, the actress for Gem was freakin’ fantastic in how she displayed so much emotion and character without saying one word. Excellent acting. Anyways, Spock’s plan seems full-proof... except that he forgot that he’s dealing with McCoy, who promptly hypos him as well and sacrifices himself to the Vians. That was when McCoy became my favorite character, the moment he chose to be tortured to near death to save his two best friends and an innocent woman and even took the time to try and comfort her before being taken away. When we see the ifnal result and are greeted to DeForest Kelley looking at the camera with the most dead expression that he can muster... yeah the image STILL haunts me. Then Bones is dying with the two unable to do anything but try to give him some comfort and Gem is just so distraught and... heah this episode mad eit this high simply because it hit the emotional beats perfectly. That’s not even going into Gem trying to heal him to drive home the themes of the episode, also done VERY well.

This episode really shows how much the three care for one another. They’re all willing to be tortured and die to spare the other two. Ultimately McCoy gets the ‘honor’, but Kirk and Spock were absolutely ready to throw themselves to the fire. The characterization, interactions, and dynamic are just done so well that it’s why I can forgive the plot issues. I’m a sucker for feelings okay?! So yeah it’s not perfect but what it got right it got right. As such, it managed to land here at Number Four with only those plot holes keeping it from Number One. And trust me, I was tempted.

#3. The Tholian Web

Season 3 hadn’t been doing it for me with only one or two episodes really getitng my attention up to that point. This one though? This was the best episode in the seaosn bar none. Our heroes end up in a subspace where they find a starship and it’s crew all dead. Whien they teleport back to The Enterprise, it disappears... and takes Kirk with it. Okay, doesn’t sound liek anythignt hat new right? Kirk goes missing, the crew have to deal without him and find him as quickly as posisble. But this one has a bit of a twist... they cut Kirk out completely. Yeah, from the moment he vanishes in the first act to the very end he is out of the episode. Not only does the crew not know what happened to him, but neither does the audience, this ramps up the fear and emotional weight big time as the longer the crew is int hat space, the influence of it drives them to insanity. Bones wants to get out because of this, while Spock is unwilling to leave Kirk if he is alive. Needles to say, things go off the rails quickly.

With Kirk out of the equation, we keep our focus on Spock and McCoy. Their arguing is probably at the most personal it’s ever been with Kirk seming dead, the crew losing their minds, and it looking more and more uncertain that they can both treat the crew and ge tout alive. While one can say that McCoy may be too harsh here, I think along with the space affecting him in a less intense way, he’s also stressed from all the patients as well as his grief about Jim. Spock is the only one that he can take it out on, especially since his chocie to not leave is why they’re now int he mess that they’re in. Spock is trying to perform his duties despite the hostilities and his own grief that he’s trying to keep a grip on with all the responsibility of the crew and whatever happens due to his choice firmly sititng on his shoulders. What finally starts to get them to resolve this? A tape that Kirk made for them in the event of his death. He gives them his confidence that they can perform their duties withiut him, but that they need to lsiten to and support each other. They CAN go on without him. It’ll hurt but they’re now all that they each have and they need to work together now more than ever. It’s a sobering moment for both with McCoy realizng how ovelry harsh he had been and Spock expressing genuine grief. They do still bicke rone more time, but McCoy catches himself before it goes too far, apologizes, and Spock simply says what Jim would: “Forget it, Bones”. Cue Bones fainting like the Southern Bell that he is, haha!

Now of course Kirk is alive and they manage to save him and get out of the situation fine. But I just loved this because of the focus on Spock and McCoy without Kirk. Why? Because Kirk is the one thing that can unite them. It’s not the only thing, but if anything can make them get over their disagreements quickly, it’s Kirk. So what happens when it looks like he’s gone and never coming back? How will the two deal with it now that that balance is gone? They don’t deal with it well, being at each other’s throats until they see that tape. But it DOES show that if they did lose Kirk, they CAN work together and go on. Like I said, I adore these two’s relationship and while not as slashy as All Our Yesterdays, this is such an excellent one for that relationship as we see that yes, they will bicker but they will also be there for each other when it all comes down to it. It’s such a great episode for that reason and the plot was just well done. Like I said, casitng out Jim and leaving us unsure of what happened to him was an excellent move for this one and I enjoyed the exploration that it allowed.

#2. The Immunity Syndrome

Out heroes are scent to investigate what caused a whole solar system to disappear just as they also receive a message from a Vulcan science vessel. Unfortunately, Spock senses he vessel’s destruction and the Enterprise finds itself against a giant space amoeba that will devour everything unless stopped. That may not sound like much, but it leads into what I think was the most intense situation that the Enterprise has been in. Everything, and I mean everything, is pushed to their limits here. This amoeba can outright destroy galaxies and utterly mindless, so there’s no reasoning with it. But it gets especially tense when, in order to understand exactly what’s going on, Kirk has to send someone in the space shuttle to observe, but in doing so, he’s sending someone to most likely die. And his choices? Either Spock or Bones... yeah.

This is what makes this episode great. Spock and Bones are already on rockier than usual terms due to McCoy treating the Vulcan deaths more like a statistic while Spock sensed all of it outright. That itself is an interesting observation on how we treat these kinds of things, not really understanding how horrific it is unless we’re involved in it outright, otherwise it’s sad and unfortunate but just another number. But then we have the suicide mission. Bones originally volunteers himself, after all he’s a doctor and would have the knowledge to make the necessary observaitons and likely the most fit for it. But Spock is not only also perfectly capable even if not specialized in medical science, but he’s also more fit physically and emotionally to undergo the risk and come out alive. In the end, Kirk picks Spock and McCoy ain’t happy about it. The scene with Spock about ready to go with McCoy still unhappy even when Spock asks him to wish him luck. He does... once the doors have shut and Spock can’t hear him anymore. It’s a very strong scene and it only gets more painful when it looks like Spock is truly going to die and his final words are that McCoy should have wished him luck. Bones’ face says everything.

The episode is just excellent. Great character moments. Great emotional weight. Great stakes that keep going up and up and it truly feels like the darkest hour for the crew. Kirk and Spock outright begin to record their respective final words. Even they’re convinced that this is most likely the end, which is just... dang man. I couldn’t look away during this one. They hit everything perfectly with pretty much everything. If I have any issues, none of them come to mind. It’s just an excellent episode and the best of Season 2. I had a REALLY hard time picking between this and my Number One for the top slot. The top one just had a little bit more emotional impact to get it, but it just barely topped this one. Regardless, it is still an excellent episode and one of the best by far. But what is Number One? Well...

#1. The City on the Edge of Forever

Yeah, yeah, obvious pick I know. I normally don’t go wth popular opinion... but sometimes it’s that way for a reason, and this one I can’t argue about. When McCoy gets badly drugged on accident, he goes into a derranged state and beams onto a planet. The crew is unable to stop him from entering a portal known as the Guardian of Forever that sends him into the distant past where he does something to change histry. In order to figure out what changed and to stop McCoy, Kirk and Spock travel into the 1930’s a few days earlier to cut him off and must now navigate their way though the time period where they end up at a soup kitchen run by a woman named Edith Keller. Which Edith is an excellent character. She’s kind, optimistic, charming, hard-working, ad caring towards those who need it. Kirk ends up falling for her, and... it’s legit really cute. Kirk isn’t being forced to make out with a woman or doing so for information. We see how Kirk is when he genunely likes someone, having been drawn to Edith’s optimism and hopes for a better future. A future that he is from and knows will be reality. He’s really sweet and it’s just cute... which makes what happens at the end all the more tragic.

The 1930’s were fun with Kirk trying to come up with an excuse for Spock’s ears having me dying from laughter. The acting was excellent with DeForest Kelley as drugged!Bones especially being both crazy and scary. I quit doubting that he played villains in Westerns after this episode, haha. But of course Spock soon discovers that the change that McCoy is to make is saving Edith form death, and in doing so she leads a pacifist campaign that delays America’s entry into World War II and... well, things go badly. They are in a time where sadly optimism and peace are simply not options, which is even crueler. In order for time to be restored, they have to let Edith die. Kirk is horrified by this and when the time comes (sidenote, the Triumvirate reunion is utterly adorable), he just grabs Bones, keeps his back turned, and can only listen as Edith screams and is killed via car colission. Whatever grievances I have about William Shatner, he absoluteley nailed Kirk’s utter heartbreak and pain as Kirk just looks utterly boken. His final wordds after they return to the 23rd Century simply being a bitter “Let’s get the Hell out of here” sums it all up perfectly. Bones’ horror at it, especially since he DID have to watch it and him being upset at Kirk is also heartbreaking as he asks him if he knows what he just did. Spock can only somberly inform him that yes, he does.

It’s one of those cases where I wish serialization was more of a thign cause DAMN this is some major emotional baggage for everyone but as per usual. It happens and they go on from there with no lingering development. I guess if I had to complain, that would be it but that’s jut the nature of these shows at the time. Kind of feel like Bones getting as bady overdosed as he did pretty much got forgotten after they enter the 1930’s, but I also know nothing about 23rd Century drugs so... ah well. But the rest of the episode is so good that I can forgive those issues and they clealry did nothing to impact the placing. It had a storgn story, great emotion, great acting, great pacing, and a heartbreaking but fitting ending. The episode has a LOT of history behind it’s making that could be a post all it’s own, but no mater how this episode came to be, it is very much the best of Star Trek TOS. It was fun yet sad and had me gripped form beginning to ed and just htinkign about it now still makes me sad. Thus, it earns it’s place as my favorite episode of Star Trek TOS.

And we are done! There were a lot of really good episodes and some i REALLY did consider. A Piece of the Action, The Enemy Within (that was skipped for... certian reasons), Is There in Truth No Beauty?, This Side of Paradise, and plenty of others that I enjoyed. There were others I.. well, didn’t, but I can’t recall outright hating anything. Regardless I came in apathetic at best, and I left a fan for it’s characters, interesting ideas, and I just had a lot of fun. It’s outdated in many ways, but still relevant in others. Overall, I’m glad to have finally watched it, and I hope that I enjoy TNG just as much. But if not, I’ll always have this~!

(Image Source: TrekCore TOS Gallery)

[swpoliticsandmemes]

Imperialism as explored by Star Wars. Sorry in advance.

I think it’s neat how ever since the good guy/American revolutionary vs bad guy/British empire set up in ANH, the Galactic Empire has been increasingly been grounded in more lucid and descript forms of violence, oppression and exploitation so that now we have one of the most monopolistic and soulless corporations (and in some ways the face of modern American capitalism), Disney, ironically owning a property that gives a competent account of what Empire looks like that doesn’t shy away from the political implications (many of which even go against Disney’s interests.)

First off we have the very shape galactic civilisation: densely populated Ecumenopolises such as Coruscant as well as other advanced and politically influential worlds like Alderaan and Chandrila are focused towards the Galactic core, while groupings of planets with decreasing levels of political and economic significant fall to further and further outskirts. It almost seems to be an intentional allusion to the core-periphery model that plays a central foundation to both Marxist and non-Marxist analyses of Imperialism. Although I’m resigned to accept it was more likely a natural tendency for the creators to put the centre of galactic civilisation in, well, the centre of the galaxy, although any look at the galactic map would possibly put this into question as most of the known space is heavily skewed to the Galactic east, and the deep core actually ends up being on one side of civilisation than in the centre. 

Either way, the nature of the relationship between the core and the periphery ends up fitting the real-world model, and this is the case for not just the Empire but for the Republic too. In Phantom it’s just a matter of seeing a contrast between the criminally-run Tattooine to the vast wealth of the capital. I should say now that two key facets of this analysis is that 1. republics, even self-professed anti-imperialist ones (America, USSR, Iran come to mind), can and do engage in imperialism, and 2. there is, at least for some people, a sense of continuity between the Republic and the Empire. This latter point sort of reflects how the early Roman Empire claimed to be a continuation of the Roman Republic, as evidenced by the style of the address for the Emperor being ‘princeps’ or first-citizen, as opposed to the later ‘dominus’ or lord. While Mon Mothma and others would see the Republic as having been destroyed by Palpatine’s coup, men like Yularen and Tarkin smoothly transitioning between high-ranking positions in both governments, would disagree, although by the time of ANH the old systems had been so firmly eroded that even Tarkin gloats that the “last vestiges of the old republic have been swept away.” Nonetheless, the Core-periphery system remains and in fact is intensified during this time, with the Core cultural elite being emphasised in Thrawn and Princess of Alderaan (and reinforced on-screen with the constant overindulgence in English accents) and with assignments for Imperial officials being considered more worthy if being closer to the core.

With the core-periphery model being the basis assumption, there are three predominant models of imperialism. One is based off international realism, which we can dismiss out of hand because it depends on multiple independent states playing a zero-sum game on an anarchic chess board, but in the GFFA, with a few exceptions like the distant Chiss, there is an assumed universal (or in this case, galactic) governance. However, we will come back to IR realism in a bit. The other two models are in direct opposition with one another, although they are not mutually exclusive as most modern theorists try to adapt aspects from both. 

One is the metrocentric view, based off the works of rabid antisemite J.A Hobson and general scumbag  V.I. Lenin. The nub of their theories was that imperialism was an extension of surplus capital from industrialised nations, as the faster rate of growth in productivity outpaced demand in the home country/metropole (or core) it became more profitable to invest in less developed countries as lower wage-bases would help maintain a high rate of return. However, so many of these places had strong religious or cultural institutions or were even based on non-monetary sharing economies, which necessitated political intervention for a capitalist incursion to work, and so financial interests prompted national governments to dominate these countries, destroy said institutions and build physical infrastructure based around hard resource extraction. 

In the sense that the Empire is centrally driven, this theory applies, although the motivation is different. As far as I’m aware, none of the major colonial empires were run by an evil cult centred around the totalitarian authority of one single individual and his acolytes (in this regard the Empire is more like Nazi Germany than anything else.) However, the Empire does clearly work on extracting value from peripheral planets to fund the opulence of the core, and with the clear distinction from the Republic where this process also happened, the Empire wields its military power to protect and accelerate that process, with Imperial Star Destroyers deploying to investigate a slave revolt on Kessel in Solo and a permanent military presence between the resource-depleted Gorse and Thorilide-rich Cynda in A New Dawn.

It’s difficult to ascribe the motivation for expansion in the Empire since it begins already controlling the Galaxy, although picking up on my earlier point about republics engaging in forms of Imperialism, we have something from Tarkin, when it’s revealed that the Republic expanded from the Core, “ravenous for new resources and not above exploiting to enhance the quality of their lives.” The book goes on to explains how competing financial interests propelled expansion, which is interesting because it possibly clues us into the instability underlying the Republic in the prequels, with unchecked financial interests causing corruption and unrest (just short of suggesting class conflict) and feelings of resentment from predominantly Outer Rim and non-human planets who join the CIS. Although the CIS was mostly just a project for those same opportunistic financial interests (such as slavers and interplanetary banking cartels), it’s interesting to note that the regular citizens genuinely thought they were fighting against the corruption of the Republic, with one Parliamentarian in The Clone Wars suggesting that unlike the Galactic Senate, the Raxus Parliament is not influenced by corporations. 

But for the faults of both the Republic and the CIS, the Empire outstripped them both; bringing back slavery, coercing entire races such as the Geonotians to work before eradicating them, and with the word ‘stripmining’ becoming a very popular word among various OT media. However, a counterargument to this being a form of metrocentric Imperialism could be the relative non-presence of financial interests during the Empire era. Indeed, while most callous resource-extraction in Africa during the late 19th century was geared towards creating products to dump into world markets, most of the resource extraction we see in the Empire is about directly supplying the military (tibanna in Thrawn, thorilide in A New Dawn) and even the presence of people profiteering seems lacking. Even the villain most clearly associated with profit-seeking capitalism, Denetrius Vidian from A New Dawn, is a member of the Emperor’s inner circle. This alignment of industrial and state interests is probably why the Empire is described as being fascist by Wookiepedia. While I don’t contest the definition, I still think we can accurately compare it with late 19th century colonial Empires, which also had large military-industrial complexes to supply, and whose alignment with private joint-stock companies such as the East India Company is not too unlike the Empire’s close ties with the Mining Guild. 

The opposing view is the pericentric model, which argues that the nature of Imperialism is more determined by local conditions, and that colonial empires preferred to rule with a light touch when necessary. The view was supported by the fact that different Imperial territories would have different arrangements. For example, Britain was content just taking a concession from Qing China and dumping Opium into its markets, while it became more direct involved with various African lands which didn’t have a relatively stable system of governance for which to work with. Meanwhile, Britain found itself entangled into occupation of Egypt after the local situation deteriorated after an anti-colonial rebellion, even under the generally anti-empire prime minister William E. Gladstone. 

I feel this model applies less to the Empire, since we’ve seen that it pursues imperialism with an almost perverse fervour, but there are examples which fit. Although with less power, the Queen of Naboo remained as an institution, and Clan Saxon collaborated with the Empire and became a pro-Imperial client regime. Meanwhile, the King of Mon Cala resisted the Empire and so was deposed, with it being implicit that had he cooperated, he could have remained as ruler. In Rebels, we see how increasing insurgency leads to greater and greater direct control by the Imperial Navy. Ultimately, however, it’s clear that the Empire, contrary to the pericentric, has a greater inclination towards greater direct rule, with Tarkin saying in ANH that more power will be handed to the regional governors. 

Finally, we return to realism, but not to investigate the Core-Periphery model any further but rather to look at another aspect of the Empire, it’s overextension. Part of this is probably to the do with the last point, its desire to control as much as possible, leading to Leia saying in ANH, “the more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers.” This form of realism, offensive realism, plays right into this. This theory comes from Jack Snyder’s The Myth of Empire, and it postulates that late 19th and early 20th century empires became fixated on constant expansion, to deter any incursion into their own hinterland and to break up opposing alliances. This policy, in fact, led to the opposite happening, with empires becoming too stretched thing to properly defend its hinterland, an being so aggressive as to prompt fearful opposing nations to band together to take them down. 

In the Star Wars, we can see this in the Tarkin doctrine and the Death Star. The belief that total aggression will be necessary to deter even the slightest thought of resistance leads to an ungodly amount of resources being devoted to this one superweapon, at the expense of other projects getting less than they need (as explored in Thrawn: Treason with both protagonist and antagonist feeling rather miffed by the lack of funding for their own projects). The destruction of Alderaan (among countless other cruelties and war crimes) does more to spur on the Rebellion than anything else, especially once the superweapon they spent so much of their resources on gets taken right from under them. And in a way perhaps that’s the good thing about any empire, that it sows the seeds of its own destruction half the time. 

So yeah, sorry about this ungodly and incomprehensible overanalysis of an IP for children. It ended up being way longer than I thought it would, and this was just about imperialism (empire on a grand scale, as opposed to colonialism which would be the specific practices employed by empire in a territory.) I might make another one of these if I get the time.

[kyberphilosopher]

Revenge of the Gray: Chapter 24

Description: Operation Ilum begins. 

Chapter Twenty Four

“Keres,” Aheka whispers in the dark. “Keres, wake up.”

          I stretch out, determined to keep my eyes closed in sleep. Regardless, I can feel my body slowly start to wake up, no matter how hard I keep my orbs shut. I hear Aheka shuffle away tiredly, entering the bathroom and putting the door into a near close. I peel my eyes open slightly, noting the room is still dark despite both of us being awake. My first thought is to ask what’s going on, if everything is alright. But then I know why she’s woken me up- we’re nearing the Mustafar system. Soon enough, Operation Ilum will be a go.

          I wince silently as I climb down the latter and choose my outfit for the day. The black, flexible tunic and pants that don’t require a bra. I put on socks and the supple, dark high kneed boots, tying my hair back into a braid. Aheka finishes in the bathroom, coming out topless and looking for today’s clothes. I’m too preoccupied with my own thoughts to really take in the sight.

          I splash my face with water in the bathroom, reapplying eyeliner for a small sense of style. It’s only after I reapply that I realize how stupid it was, but don’t bother to take it off because that would be even more stupid.

          Aheka and I leave the room both tired and alert. Silence sits between us, and not the comfortable kind. It’s the kind of quiet that comes before something terrible, something unsaid, something nobody wants to acknowledge. All of those things are true. Operation Ilum was terrible, neither of us wanted to think about it, so we didn’t acknowledge it. We probably should have, in hindsight. But we didn’t.

          “Hey Circe,” I say as I approach him in the control room. He sits in his chair in the cockpit, Mandalorian helmet on and gloved fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel. Circe nods to me silently in response, sharing in the solemn mood we’ve all grown to possess in response to today. “Are we almost there?” I ask quietly.

          Circe stiffens, then slowly turns his head towards me. I can’t see his face, but I can feel the look in his eyes. It’s one of grief and pain, but silent strength like he can’t be the one to admit it as he tries to hold it in. He nods slowly before turning back to the swirling blue tunnel ahead- hyperspace.

          I slowly back away, feeling the deep rooted darkness that’s washing over everything. It fills the pit of my stomach with emptiness and silence and gloom. I didn’t know what it was then. Now, I do. Too bad it doesn’t help me so much anymore.

          “Keres, come on,” Aheka insists, gently pulling my hand as I struggle to take my eyes from Circe’s back for whatever reason. I follow her to the cafeteria, which is filled with everyone participating in the mission.

          “Let’s go find a table,” Aheka says as she begins walking to the right. I scan the tables and the line for Adamus, finding him towards the back eating alone. As I suspected, he got about no sleep last night. The circles under his eyes, posture, and bedhead say it all. He hates himself for doing this. He doesn’t want to do this. And yet, he’s made a decision- I can sense it from across the room.        

          Aheka leans down next to him and says something before going off to join the line for food. I take my seat across from Adamus, whose eyes raise to meet mine. He doesn’t say anything, just stares, trying to hide the blame he feels towards me. He’s not hiding it well enough, of course, but he’s trying. It’s the thought that counts, right?

          “We still have the last meeting this morning, right?” I ask softly, dropping my gaze.

          Adamus nods and puts his fork down. “Yeah, in a few.” His voice is gravelly and low from tiredness, something I actually enjoy listening to for whatever reason.

          I would ask if he was okay, or how he slept, by I already know the answer to both questions. Adamus looks back down to his bowl of mush, then slowly back up at me. It’s almost like he wants to say something, but I know I can’t bring it up. He’s angry at me, so angry.

          “I think I’m gonna skip breakfast,” I almost mutter, “just go to the meeting room early. I’ll see you in a bit.” I start to get up but Adamus’s voice stops me.

          “Keres, wait.”

          I meet his eyes mid stand, watching them flicker between mine carefully. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

          “Alright,” I say, a little too casually for the depressing vibe between us.

          He takes a minute before he begins. “I think I’m going to be the one to stay behind.” I’m about to open my mouth, but Adamus continues. “I’ve already talked to the Admirals about it. Oden was very relieved.”

          “Are you sure you-”

          “Yes. My decision is final.”

          He holds my eyes, daring me to look away. The thought crosses my mind and stays there, lingering as I watch him and repeat his words in my mind. That was when I made my decision, but I couldn’t let him know. Not after he just told me he was going to have today be his last.

          “Alright,” I say evenly.

          “Once it’s done,” he says, “you’ll become the only General. I trust you’ll be able to handle it.” I nod. “You always did have a knack for strategy.”

          “Anything else?” I ask curtly, using my old apathetic tricks to keep him from reading my thoughts.

          “No,” Adamus replies, equally as serious. There’s another few seconds of silence between us as we look into the others eyes. “I’ll see you later, Keres.”

          So I move along, feeling my decision solidify itself in my mind.

          Adamus joins me and the Admirals in the room shortly, interrupting a conversation between Sirsal and myself.

          “So, today’s the day,” he had said as he approached me, hands clasped behind his back as he puffs his chest out sensibly. I said nothing, only eyeing him with clear distrust.

          “I would like to thank you for your commendable attitude,” he said, voice unwavering but still snobby.

          “Really?” I genuinely wonder, raising my eyebrow. Sirsal nods, standing silent. The air between us is respectful for once. But then Adamus enters the room and does his usual greeting of “Good morning men,” and Sirsal and I take a step apart.

          “To go over the plan a final time,” Adamus begins, zooming in on the image of the three Star Destroyers above the holotable. “Soon, we’ll be in the vicinity to the Makers Thrall. While the other two destroyers are focused on our troops, General Vagor and myself will take our battalion and retrieve whatever information we can find in the control room. After that, I’ll stay behind to take the ship out, as well as the base on Endor.”

          There are no questions.

          The coms crackle overhead, and then Circe’s voice rings out across the ship. “We’re coming out of hyperspace. General Adamus has given the order for all troops to report to their stations for attack. I repeat: all troops report to stations for attack.”

          Outside the door, the muffled sound of feet hitting the floor floods my hearing. Adamus sighs out tiredly and stands up. “An honor to serve with you,” he says, meeting the eyes of the men in the room.

          “And you,” Sirsal says, serious but meaningful. The two exchange a curt nod, and then Adamus and I leave the room.

          As soon as the door slides closed behind us, my hearing implodes. Everything is louder, closer. My heart beat echoes throughout my ears like a bell ringing over and over. Adamus examines the last soldier jogging down the hallway, adjusting their aviator gloves as they do so. “Come on,” Adamus says, following them.  

          We make it to the control room, which is filled with everyone who won’t be involved today. I can see Circe’s back in the cockpit, and hear the hum of panicked conversation. The ship rocks as the blue shades fade out from the large window, replaced with one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.

          The horizon is dotted with stars against the black ink of space. In the middle, a planet sits, bright and violent. The orange-red planet glows with brutality. I can see every individual stream of lava and heat clash and blend together, roaring with intensity and darkness. In front of it, three Star Destroyers hover- gray, still, serious. The biggest one- the Thrall, looks menacing even from the distance, although it’s not so different from the smaller ones. I don’t know why, but the sheer strength and might of the whole scene is so appealing to me. It’s all so… contrasted. Violent, abhorred, hated, uniform. It’s the Empire.

          “We’re here,” Circe says over the coms. I’m about to step forward to him, talk to him- but the ringing in my ears makes everything seem so slow. My legs, feeling like jelly, move in slow motion. My hearing grows dull and slurred together, followed by a long, high pitched ringing that I don’t fully process as annoying.

          “Keres.”

          I keep my eyes on Circe, watching his head turn over his shoulder to acknowledge me. Mur?

          “Keres!” A hand wraps around my wrist, another snaking around my forearm. I whip around, the ringing in my ears abruptly stopping as I see Aheka’s pale green eyes. I am taken aback at the sight of her after the ringing and the slow motion feeling that just engulfed me. She appears to have no memory of it and instead looks into my eyes.

          “You weren’t really planning on going out there without saying goodbye, were you?” she asks, tone both joking and curious. Goodbye?

          “Of course not,” I decide, shoulders relaxing as I take in her features. The red skin, the regal white diamond design. The full lips, tall horns signaling her coming into her own. The long lashes, the stark white medical uniform. She looks beautiful, as usual. I never realized until that moment how much seeing her comforted me.

          “You’ll be safe, won’t you?”

          Aheka has stunned me again with her words. I know I should be used to it by now, but how many people have I encountered that actually showed me kindness? Aheka makes me stop and pause, question everything I think I know about people. She gives me an example of the good- the pure good- and takes no credit.

          “Only for you,” I say, smiling playfully to reassure her. While the gesture seems to calm the feeling in her heart, it does nothing for my own.

          She looks like she wants to tell me to shut up, but chooses different words instead. “I’ll see you soon, right?”           “Yeah,” I say. “Soon.”

          The air between us slows. In that moment, there is no one else in the galaxy but her. I almost want to say something romantic to her, something about how much I really care about her, or how much I owe her. The words don’t come out. Instead, Aheka reaches her arms around my neck, pulling my body to hers in an embrace.

          My eyes go wide for a second, then slowly relax as I breathe in her scent. It has not changed since the day I first met her: cinnamon and warmth and medicine. I stare off into space lowly as I wrap my arms around her in return, adjusting my head as to not hurt her lekku. And then I know what it’s like to not want to leave someone. I want to beg her to let me stay, to have me forever but I know better. How crazy would I appear if I did that right now? No, I won’t mess up this memory for her. I squeeze her waist a little as I melt into her arms.

          One word comes to my mind. Friend.

          I see Adamus turn around some paces ahead and looks at the scene. I meet his eyes and reluctantly pull away from the Togruta. “I’ve got to go,” I say, hiding the emotion I feel. Aheka smiles softly, reading right through me.

          “Stay safe, Keres,” she says. I peel away from her, feeling the warmth leave my skin as I begin walking away. The jelly leg feeling spreads to my stomach, and I almost want to double over and vomit right there.

          Adamus and I begin our jog again. I throw my head over my shoulder to get one last glance at the Circe, to find he’s already watching me. He nods seriously, acknowledging me. It’s a silent, vague salute that tells me he knows exactly what’s going through my mind. I don’t have the time to do anything in return though. We’ve already entered a new hallway that will lead us to the hanger.

          We reach it. I look around at the room, now busy and full as people climb into ships. The ships are a little janky, but they’re quick. It’s not like we can afford too much better anyway. Above us, the door we’ll be exiting through is closed and shiny.

          “This way,” Adamus says. We trade our jogging for brisk walking, making our way all the way to the back. Two Jedi fighters wait for us, one blue and white and the other deep brown and white. They have the same swirling kind of pattern painted on, though it looks a little old as the paint is chipping slightly. I recognize the ship from all the times I scrapped them back on Bracca.

          Oh, how silly of me it seems to have called Bracca my home for so long now.

          Adamus jumps into the blue and white fighter, pressing the buttons necessary to make the glass top slide over and into position, sealing him inside. I follow his movements, remembering all the controls Circe taught me. I place my headset on, Adamus’s voice crackling through my ears.

          “Alright,” he begins. “Opening hanger doors in ten seconds. Begin tagging in.”

          “AV-1, standing by.”

          “AV-2, standing by.”

          I switch on the engine, getting ready to put the thrusters into acceleration.

          “AV-7, calling in.”

          “AV-8, standing by.”

          I breathe out slowly, attempting to calm myself as my nerves explode a million times over. Above us, the hanger doors begin to open as warning noises flood the speakers.

          “AV-11, standing by.”

          “AV-12, reporting. Over.”

          “Alright, battalion,” Adamus says. “Today we show the Empire who they’re messing with. Everybody ready?”

          There is silence, then a male voice breaks it. “Ready to follow you, sir.”

          I look over to Adamus’s ship, and see him freeze up. Then a small, glad smile spreads across his pink lips. He reaches up and smooths his soft locks back out of his face, even though they fall back into place again almost immediately. “May the force be with you.”

          The ship shakes and trembles as the doors above fully open. I can see the stars and one of the lesser Destroyers overhead. “Sector one, engage,” Adamus commands. A large group of ships some leagues ahead of me raise into the air and zip out of sight. These are the ones acting as our distraction, which Adamus insists will be okay. “Let’s go, battalion. Engaging in three, two, one.”

          I press on the accelerator, pushing my steering wheel up and flying into the air. The ship shakes slightly, but that’s normal for this model and age. My fighter exits the hanger, revealing the destroyers and the stars and the Mustafar system. The distraction ships fly rather erratically, and it doesn’t take long for the ship to my right to take notice. A swarm of tie-fighters spill out from below, swiftly drawing closer.

          Ahead, the Thrall sits. I can see my entrance point- the blue shield to their own hanger. I know they won’t send anybody out though- they’ll leave the lackey ships up to that.

          “On your right, Keres!” Adamus warns in my ears. I glance in the direction, seeing a tie-fighter heading straight towards me, ready to flank. Green streaks fly out from the sides.

          Trusting my instincts, I push my wheel down and dive. “Keres!” Adamus yells.

          “I’m alright,” I promise. “I can shake him.” I change my position and roll my fighter over, avoiding the stream of shots. Then, effortlessly, I flip my fighter back behind the fighter and zip away. Adamus has given me, personally, direct orders to only take evasive action in the skies. At least I can respect that, right?

          I rejoin the battalion and continue making a straight line for the blue shield of the Thrall.

          “We are nearing our target. Be ready.” Adamus presses his fighter to surge forward, me close behind.

          “Copy that, General.”

          “Adamus,” I say into my headset. “We’re moving too fast. We won’t be able to slow in time for a clean landing.”

          “What do you suggest then?” Adamus replies, eyes focused ahead.

          I can’t help the small, almost sadistic smirk that crosses my face. “Crash landing.” I put my fighter into full speed, and in the blink of the eye I pass through the Thralls shield and scrape against the floor.

          The sound that comes from it is absolutely terrible. Adamus’s ship follows mine, sliding just as roughly but hitting the wall. The rest of the ships follow, none of them crashing like we did.

          I blink once, twice, listening to my beating heart. Did… did I really just do that? I flew across space in a Jedi fighter, just to crash into an Imperial mothership. It’s exciting, horrifying, and everything I love. Not to mention, completely destructive.

          “We’re in,” Adamus says. He throws his headset off and slides his case open. Hopping out, he jogs to meet the soldiers who spill out of their own ships. I follow his lead, heart fluttering with excitement.

          “Everyone alright?” I call out.

          Adamus sighs. “No. Is your arm alright, Janus.”

          “I, uh, I think it’s broken,” a young man moans. I would feel more guilt for my reckless suggestion if he had actually died instead of just hurt his arm, but alright.

          “Stay behind,” I tell him. “Signal us if you see anything off. Adamus, we gotta go.”

          Adamus nods and addresses the rest of the men. “Operation Ilum is a go,” he says. I see his eyes flicker across all of his soldiers, taking in their features because he thinks it’s the last time he’ll ever see them. I don’t tell him that he’s wrong, and to relax.

          “Let’s move out,” he says, removing his lightsaber from his belt and switching it on. The purple light casts the color across his features. It shows off his soft skin, his faint freckles, and the determined look in his eyes. He looks exceptionally handsome- I don’t even deny it.

          I smile, proud to follow him.  

[qvill-s]

Hiiii! May I request for M!grima robin?? Angst ask no. 11 and 17 combined please I need something to fuel my angst needs :") thanks in advance

NOTES: angst for my dragon boy ??? absolutely !!!

WARNINGS: injuries; kidnapping

WORD COUNT: 1.7k

m! grima + “nobody’s seen you in days” &&. “if you don’t hug me right now I think I might fall apart” under the cut !!!

Grima can’t help but feel a little proud of himself as he returns triumphant from the solo mission you sent him on. It was long and hard, and at times a little trying, but he managed. After all, you were the one who told him that you couldn’t entrust this task to anyone other than him. Thus, armed with the memory of your words and your hands on his shoulders and the determination and trust in your gaze, how could he possibly fail?

Where he expects your smile and your warmth and your praise, he finds only the Order of Heroes in a state of panic and the loss of your presence in the halls.

Immediately noting that something was off, he confronts Commander Anna, a soft hiss of your name punctuating his unasked question. Where is the Summoner?

She shakes her head, looking more haggard than he’s ever seen her, replying with, “Nobody’s seen the Summoner in days.”

It’s strange to see the Fell Dragon so agitated over another’s life, much less the life of the insolent worm who summoned him here and disrupted the chaos he was creating in another world. Though Grima tried as hard as he could to continue to hate you, to loathe you for bringing him here, he very quickly failed in the face of your kindness and genuine concern and how easily you accepted who he was despite of all he’s done and destroyed.

(“If Breidablik says you’re a Hero, then that’s good enough for me,” you announced when he was summoned, your tone holding a certain sense of finality that said that that was the end of the conversation.)

Naturally, of course, he draped himself all over you. You were his prey, after all; his and his alone. There was never a moment since he was summoned that he wasn’t by your side. He was with you when you oversaw the training for the Heroes and went over the Order’s inventory. He accompanied you when you summoned new Heroes to join Askr’s cause, scowling at the new additions all the while (his scowl was particularly nasty when you summoned a wielder of the Falchion). He sat in tactic meetings even though they bored him to no end, but secretly, the small part of Robin still left in him delighted in these meetings, and Grima would often end up offering a particularly clever maneuver that had you sending a bright smile his way.

The one time you needed him, however, the one time he could’ve protected you, he wasn’t there.

Suddenly, an overwhelming anger fills his body. There’s an ache that builds up in his chest, strangling his lungs and his words, right where his shriveled heart should be. He swallows the growing lump in his throat, ignoring the pain and ignoring the ache, as he snarls, “You better find the Summoner, Commander, before I end that worthless life of yours.”

Anna looks unfazed as she nods tiredly. That was not the first threat she’s received since you’ve gone missing, and frankly, it wasn’t the worst.

With a harsh exhale of breath, Grima turns on his heel and seeks solitude in the place where your scent is the strongest—your room.

He lets himself in with the key that you gave him not so long ago—“Just in case you get lonely,” you told him playfully—and the pain in his chest increases as he’s hit with you and how you’re no longer beside him. He staggers over to your bed, sinking down into the plush covers and clutching a hand over his chest.

As he looks around, he sees phantoms of you hovering around your room. There’s you sitting at the desk by your window, turning to see if he was still listening to you talk about your stupid problems and concerns (as if he could be troubled with hearing them). There’s you huddled under the blanket beside him, having taken a nap after he forced you to. There’s you looking out of the window and into the world, watching the sunset, highlighted by the orange glow of the sun, or watching the stars, the constellations imprinting themselves into the color of your eyes. He sees you sitting beside him in the light of the moon, watching the moonlight caress your features as if it, too, were fascinated by you and the curve of your cheek or the quirk of your lips.

The ache in his chest multiplies tenfold at the sight of your ghosts flitting about your room, the forms of you he can’t touch and can’t talk to, and he can’t help but feel the slightest bit annoyed with his annoyingly human body. He’s the Fell Dragon, the destroyer of Ylisse and the cruel master of destiny. He is able to strike fear into the hearts of men and erase futures in a single blow.

But here he is, unable to cope with the loss of the presence of one measly, mortal life. He even feels a pressure behind his eyes, and he paws angrily at his closed lids. He should be happy that you’re gone, should be happy that you’re no longer there to command him, to tell him what to do, to control him with your stupid divine weapon, and yet…

Why does he feel so alone?

He sags even further into himself. Curse this weak, human vessel. Curse the emotions it makes him feel, the wrenches and tugs and pulls at his heart, the single tear that manages to slip through his iron will and streak down his cheek. 

Suddenly, he feels a ghost of a touch across his shoulders and a whisper of a voice—your voice—

Come and find me, you tell him, cupping his face between your palms, come bring me home.

He wipes savagely at the tracks his (wretched, weak) tears left, and nods to himself.

I will.

❛ ━━━━━━━━━･❪ ❀ ❫ ･━━━━━━━━━ ❜

It takes Grima less than a day to find you again, following the dredges of you that linger in the air and all around him. Your perfume here, strands of your hair there, and once, a splatter of your blood against the trunk of a tree.

(The latter made him livid—the thought of another harming his human, enough to make them bleed—and he’ll make sure to return the favor.)

He finds you in an abandoned watch tower a long ways away from the castle. Quite honestly, he almost missed it, with how well it was hidden into the forest and blended in with the trees, had it not been for the waves of your scent emanating from it.

He doesn’t bother with stealth, with quiet, with finding cover, because he plans on taking them all.

He busts down the hidden door to the place, startling the petty criminals that litter the area and interrupting their plans of what to do with you. Once every eye has turned to watch him, his mouth curls into a smirk, flashing the barest hint of his teeth. “Did you worms really think that this would work out?”

He gives them a moment to think it over.

Then, the real fun begins.

❛ ━━━━━━━━━･❪ ❀ ❫ ･━━━━━━━━━ ❜

Your unconscious form lies in a room just up the steps. Some of your hair is matted with blood, sticking to the wound on your forehead that disappears into your hairline. Your wrists and ankles are raw and angry from the ropes that dug into your skin. He growls, ready to turn back to the corpses that decorate the other room, livid and ready to tear them apart piece by piece when—

“… grima…?”

Your lashes flutter against your cheek as you force your tired eyes to open and see him, framed by the wooden doorway and darkened by the early dredges of sunlight shining behind him. He stands, frozen in place, fists clenched, and covered in blood.

You cough, trying to free your voice from the confines of your scratchy throat. “G-grima, is that… is that you?”

Your voice is barely a whisper, but he can hear you loud and clear over the pounding blood racing in his ears. He crosses the room in a heartbeat, kneeling in front of you, tearing through the ropes and setting you free. You look at him like you can’t believe he’s here, that he’s come to save you, that he took the time to find you, and he feels the words stab through his heart.

You repeat his name again, feeble and wobbly, stretching your now free hands to cup his face. Once the tips of your fingers brush his skin, once your hands follow the curve of his jaw, you burst into silent tears.

Grima doesn’t ask if you’re alright, if you’re okay, because even a complete idiot could tell that you weren’t. Instead, he lets you cry, watching as the tears stream down your face and wanting to wipe them away. He doesn’t know how to be gentle, and the Robin side of him—is there even a difference between the two anymore?—is terrified of hurting you any further.

You’re the first to break the silence, to fill the quiet with your voice.

“Can… can I have a hug…?” You ask him wetly, speaking through the tears that line your face and the inside of your throat.

He startles. The “What?” that leaves his lips sounds harsher than he intended, and you flinch, drawing your touch away from him. He misses it immediately. He wants to capture your fleeting fingers and place them back to where they were before, please don’t go—

“I-if you don’t hug me right now, I t-think I’ll fall apart…” Your voice sounds even smaller than before as you draw your knees to your chest and wrap your arms around them. He hears the silent plea in your confession, the I need someone to keep me together that comes from your words.

Carefully, slowly, he wraps his arms around your shaking form, one hand against your back and the other under your knees, lifting you up into his arms. He holds you a bit tighter than necessary, but you don’t seem to mind, because your tears fall with renewed vigor and you throw your arms around his neck, tucking your face into the crook of his shoulder.

He doesn’t know how to be gentle, he admits, but he thinks he can learn for you.

[polar-stars]

ShigeChi ❣️💔💘💗💞🖤 💋💜

❣️ When did your OC first realise they were in love? How did they react to the realisation?

That would include massive spoilers on future arcs, so I can’t get into that ;w;

💔 Has your OC had a bad breakup or nasty ex? If so does this have any affect on their current relationship?

Both of them weren’t in a relationship to begin with

💘 What do they love most about their partner(s)? What do their partner(s) love most about them?

Chieko’s favorite quality of Shigeo’s is his intelligence. We’ll get into this in a bit more detail later on, but part of it is, that Chieko did take a note of the fact that Shigeo is someone she can have an intelligent discussion with from a very early point on. And she just can’t help but feel drawn to that. Shigeo is someone who is actually capable of challenging her in that regard at some times and it does spark great interest and fascination in her. 

Shigeo also greatly appreciates Chieko’s intellect and the fact that she’s someone he can have an actually interesting conversation with. It’s her intelligence paired with her hidden bravery that made her interesting in his eyes from day one on. You see, Shigeo is someone who is dreaded, but then there’s this little girl with not much power backing her up but who’s still unafraid of mouthing off against him…..and….he likes that? Shigeo is used to half of the world following his commands as well as getting whatever he wishes for, so Chieko is a challenge to him. And he enjoys said challenge. At the same time, he genuinely appreciates that she clearly has a spine, even though many refuse to see it, and he actually does want to see her go to greater heights. 

(this was hard to explain, I hope it made sense //lies down)

💗 Describe your OC’s partner(s) from their point of view! What do they really think about them?

omg more POVs

Chieko from Shigeo’s POV

Marui’s brows furrowed, as the green fires in her eyes flared dangerously and warningly up one last time. Then she let out one of her typical huffs and walked past me. I couldn’t help but watch her stomp away, almost like she was some noble lady who felt insulted of being talked to by a guy from the streets. Which in actuality couldn’t be further from the truth. But that was part of what made Marui so, well, interesting. She was smart. Very smart. Much smarter than practically everyone in that idiot-gathering that was my own generation. So many easily-persuaded morons walked the surface of earth nowadays. They were easy to manipulate and of course I took advantage of that. Marui wasn’t one of them. She was someone who was actually capable of disagreeing with me on an argument and laying out the reasons on why I was wrong in her eyes. She wasn’t imitated by my surname or the power in my hand, but would only lift her chin upwards while eying me with those fires in her eyes. She had…so much potential and I couldn’t help but to be intrigued. So little people were as interesting as her and I would love to see her potential in full bloom. And so I only chuckled as she took the turn, her head still high up in the air. I look forward to our next interaction.

Shigeo from Chieko’s POV

I don’t need a diploma to know that Shigeo-senpai was not a good person. “Morals” was not exactly part of his personal dictionary and he took an actual excitement in his evil schemes and strolling through the school with everyone in his radius backing away in fear. He was ruthless, cruel and rude. And this is where the story should be over. But for some reason it wasn’t. I gave my best efforts in attempting to avoid him, but still he managed to find me occasionally and whenever he did, he was always so….smooth, polite and…… gallant. I hated how no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, my legs would occasionally turn to jelly when his sharp eyes fixated me and the blood would occasionally rush into my head when his sweet compliments reached my ears. Focus! He’s a gambler, a dealmaker, a spoiled princeling who was never denied anything in his life. He was capable to tell lies to casually and sweetly, like one would greet their loved one. He was not one to be trusted and I should be smarter than feeling charmed by his sweet nothings. But one part of me just couldn’t help but to be flattered when hearing his praise about things that anyone else in my life fails to notice. It was not fair! Why couldn’t he just be plain terrible? Why did he additionally had to be so eloquent? So witty? So attentive? So clever? So…handsome? Wait what? No I am not attracted to Eizan Shigeo, Head of Totsuki’s little Mini-Mafia and destroyer of dreams and happiness. No way!

💞 What do their respective families think of their relationship?

Oho~ I appreciate this ask, because I don’t think I ever talked about that

Okay so, Nene is actually supportive of this idea. Not instantly, but she will grow  supportive rather quickly. From what she’s seen of Chieko so far, she came across as well-behaved, intelligent and decent, even reminding Nene a little bit of herself in her younger days occasionally with those round glasses of hers, innocence and tendency to hang around with three guys who can be rather idiotic at times. Nene worries about Shigeo a lot (because of BackstoryTM) and she hopes for him to get truly, genuinely happy and she believes that falling in love could help with that. Whenever she saw Shigeo interacting with Chieko, she took note of the fact that Chieko is able to amuse Shigeo in a way that not many can (it’s not some sort off sadistic amusement, it’s a kind of charmed, adoring amusement) and that he genuinely likes her. Etsuya actually got to meet and interact with Chieko a lot more than his wife did. He’s not necessarily enthusiastic about the fact that the girl his son has his eyes on happens to be the daughter of two of the Polar Star Kids, who clearly don’t like him. He’s actually a little bit overwhelmed and confused by this situation time to time (he’s that math meme). However, he does not really dislike Chieko. Additionally, Etsuya also knows about Shigeo’s darker days and he does not in any way want to stand in the way of some happiness for his son. He’s a little annoyed by Shigeo’s constant “It’s business” though (ironically). But yeah, should Shigeo ever start to seriously start pursuing a romantic relationship with Chieko, Etsuya won’t be an obstacle to overcome. 

Now, Yuki and Zenji are a different story. Zenji is generally super overprotective over Chieko and would be wary of any guy making moves on her. But now there’s the fact that it’s Shigeo Eizan who makes moves on her. Who is basically the textbook bad boy and practically has a good bunch of warning signs attached to him. So yeah, Zenji is screeching. He practically considers Shigeo a danger to his daughter and panics when Shigeo is only near Chieko, because he doesn’t fail to notice that Shigeo is perfectly capable of making Chieko blush. Yuki is conflicted. We know how excited she is about everyone else’s love-life after all, so naturally she was also excited about her own daughter’s. She’s the kind off mom who would ask if there’s any hot guys in class when her daughter comes home from her first school day. Yuki was super excited about when Chieko would reach that age where romance would become a topic in her life and she was basically looking forwards to crushes-chats with her daughter. However, the guy that turned out to be her daughter’s crush (Yuki notices, despite Chieko’s denial) is Etsuya Eizan’s son. And Yuki absolutely can’t stand Etsuya Eizan. So yeah, she feels troubled, because she wants to tease her daughter and encourage her onto making moves and all that stuff, but she does not trust Shigeo in the slightest and fears he might be toying with her precious daughter. 

🖤 Have they ever had a really bad argument where they almost broke up?

They will have a rather big argument, but they won’t be a couple at that time. 

💋 Who is the best kisser? (if you’d like write a short smooch scene!)

Shigeo

💜 Give a random fact about their daily life together!

Shigeo tends to gift her macarons, because he picked up that they’re her favorite sweets (next to practically everything with Matcha) but she does not often get to eat them. 

[starringemiliaclarke]

Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale's shock twist: 'I stand by Daenerys'

Emilia Clarke read a paragraph in the final script for Game of Thrones.

She read it again and again. Seven times, she says, she read the words that revealed the devastating fate of Daenerys Targaryen, a character she’s portrayed on the HBO global phenomenon for nearly a decade.

“What, what, what, WHAT!?” the actress recalls thinking. “Because it comes out of f—king nowhere. I’m flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming.”

It was October 2017. The actress had recently completed filming Solo: A Star Wars Story and had just returned to London following a brief vacation. She electronically received the scripts the moment she landed at Heathrow and recalls that she “completely flipped out,” turned to her traveling companion and said, “‘Oh my god! I gotta go! I gotta go!’ And they’re like, ‘You gotta get your bags!’”

Once at home, the actress prepared herself. “I got myself situated,” she says. “I got my cup of tea. I had to physically prepare the space and then begin reading them.”

Clarke swiped through pages: Daenerys arrives at Winterfell and Sansa doesn’t like her. She discovers Jon Snow is the true heir to the Iron Throne and isn’t thrilled. She fights in the battle against the Night King and survives, but loses longtime friend and protector Ser Jorah Mormont. Then her other close friend and advisor Missandei dies too. Varys betrays her. Jon Snow pulls away. Having lost half her army, two dragons, and nearly everybody she cares about, Daenerys goes full Tagaryen to win: She attacks King’s Landing and kills … thousands of civilians? Daenerys’ longtime conquest achieved, she meets with Jon Snow in the Red Keep throne room and … and then … then he …

“I cried,” Clarke says. “And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

Sitting next to Clarke on the flight, as it so happens, was Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow. Harington deliberately hadn’t yet read the scripts so he could experience the story for the first time with all his castmates. Clarke, positively bursting with wanting to talk about her storyline, found the flight maddening. “This literally sums up Kit and I’s friendship,” she says, and sputtered: “Boy! Would you? Seriously? You’re just not?…”

At the table read, Clarke sat across from Harington so she could “watch him compute all of this.” When they got to their final scene together, recalls Harington, “I looked at Emilia and there was a moment of me realizing, ‘No, no…’”

And Clarke nodded back, sadly, ‘Yes…’

“He was crying,” Clarke says. “And then it was kind of great him not having read it.”

The main story driver of Game of Thrones’ final season is the evolution of Daenerys Targaryen from one of the show’s most-loved heroes into a destroyer of cities and would-be dictator. Author George R.R. Martin calls his saga “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Jon Snow is the stable, immovable ice of Winterfell; Daenerys the conquering, unpredictable fire of Dragonstone. After years apart, they came together in season 7. The duo fell in love, help saved the realm from a world-annihilating supernatural threat and, in the series finale, their coupling is destroyed — Daenerys perishes, while a devastated Jon Snow is banished to rejoin the Night’s Watch.

Was this ending Martin’s original plan? The author told showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss the intended conclusion to his unfinished novels years ago but, since then, the HBO version has made several narrative detours. The showrunners are not giving interviews about episode 6 (and told EW they plan to spend the finale offline — “drunk and far away from the Internet” as Benioff put it).

Regardless of the final season’s narrative’s origin, the Thrones writers have planned Dany’s fate for years and have foreshadowed the dark turn in the storyline. In previous seasons, producers would sometimes ask Clarke to play a scene a bit different than what she expected for a seemingly heroic character. “There’s a number of times I’ve been like: ‘Why are you giving me that note?’” Clarke says. “So yes, this has made me look back at all the notes I’ve ever had.”

After Episode 5, “The Bells,” the reaction to Dany’s “Mad Queen” turn has been explosive and frequently negative. Some critics insist Daenerys doesn’t have the capacity for such monumental evil and the twist is an example of female characters being mishandled on the series. Others say Dany’s unstable sociopathic tendencies were indeed established, but the final season moved too fast and flubbed its execution.

For Clarke, the final season arc required mapping out a series of turning points. Dany’s attack on King’s Landing might have seemed abrupt, but from the beginning of the season Daenerys has reacted with increasing anger, desperation and coldness to one setback after another, shifting the Mother of Dragons into new emotional territory that would ultimately lead to her destruction.

Sitting in her dressing room on the set of Thrones last spring, Clarke broke down Daenerys’ entire season 8 internal journey leading up to the apocalyptic King’s Landing firebombing in a single breathless monologue.

“She genuinely starts with the best intentions and truly hopes there isn’t going to be something scuttling her greatest plans,” she says. “The problem is [the Starks] don’t like her and she sees it. She goes, ‘Okay, one chance.’ She gives them that chance and it doesn’t work and she’s too far to turn around. She’s made her bed, she’s laying in it. It’s done. And that’s the thing. I don’t think she realizes until it happens — the real effect of their reactions on her is: ‘I don’t give a s—t.’ This is my whole existence. Since birth! She literally was brought into this world going, ‘Run!’ These f—kers have f—ked everything up, and now it’s, ‘You’re our only hope.’ There’s so much she’s taken on in her duty in life to rectify, so much she’s seen and witnessed and been through and lost and suffered and hurt. Suddenly these people are turning around and saying, ‘We don’t accept you.’ But she’s too far down the line. She’s killed so many people already. I can’t turn this ship around. It’s too much. One by one, you see all these strings being cut. And there’s just this last thread she’s holding onto: There’s this boy. And she thinks, ‘He loves me, and I think that’s enough.’ But is it enough? Is it? And it’s just that hope and wishing that finally there is someone who accepts her for everything she is and … he f—king doesn’t.”

And losing Missandei? “There’s a number of turning points you see for Daenerys in the season, but that’s the biggest break. There’s nothing I will not do after losing Missandei and seeing the sacrifice she was prepared to make for her. That breaks her completely. There’s nothing left to making a tough choice.”

Executing Varys for treason? “She f—king warned him last season. We love Varys. I love [actor Conleth Hill]. But he changes his colors as many times as he wants. She needs to know the people who are supporting her regardless. That was my only option, essentially, is what I mean.”

Burying Cersei Lannister under the collapse of the Red Keep? “With Cersei, it’s a complete no-brainer. Lady’s a crazy motherf—ker. She’s going down.”

Yet Clarke also had another, more personal reaction to Dany’s meltdown. “I have my own feelings [about the storyline] and it’s peppered with my feelings about myself,” she admits. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read [comments about] the character you [have to remind yourself], ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character.”

Like many actors who have played the same role for a long time, Clarke identifies with her character and has put much of herself into the role. She believes in Daenerys’ confidence, idealism and past acts of compassion. As the actress wrote in a New Yorkeressay in March, she played the Breaker of Chains through some life-threatening personal hardships, secretly enduring two brain aneurysms during her early years on the show. “You go on set and play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality,” she wrote. Clarke has drawn strength from Daenerys and infused Daenerys with her strength.

“I genuinely did this, and it’s embarrassing and I’m going to admit it to you,” Clarke says. “I called my mom and—“ Clarke shifts into a tearful voice to perform the conversation as she reenacts the call: “I read the scripts and I don’t want to tell you what happens but can you just talk me off this ledge? It really messed me up.’ And then I asked my mom and brother really weird questions. They were like: ‘What are you asking us this for? What do you mean do I think Daenerys is a good person? Why are you asking us that question? Why do you care what people think of Daenerys? Are you okay?’”

“And I’m all: ‘I’m fine! … But is there anything Daenerys could do that would make you hate her?’”

During EW’s visit to Northern Ireland last March, I took a walk with co-executive producer Bryan Cogman into the dark woods near the production camp. It was around midnight and bitterly cold. Our boots scrunched on the muddy gravel and the bustling sounds of crew activity from the set slowly receded into the distance.

“Emilia has been threading that needle beautifully this season,” Cogman says. “It’s the hardest job anybody has on this show.”

As we pass crew members our voices cautiously go silent. While Dany’s Mad Queen arc was known by all, her death in the finale was a secret even among many who work on the show. Killing Daenerys was a massive and difficult move. On a show that’s introduced dozens of distinctive breakout characters, Daenerys is arguably the most easily identifiable and iconic. She is T-shirts and coffee mugs and posters and bobbleheads and memes and the name of hundreds of kids around the world with GoTfan parents; a fearless figure of female empowerment.

“I still don’t know how I feel about a lot of what happens this season and I helped write it,” Cogman says. “It’s emotionally very challenging. It’s designed to not feel good. That said, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The best drama is the type you have to think about. There’s a dangerous tendency right now to make art and popular culture to feel safe for everybody and make everybody feel okay when watching and I don’t believe in that. The show is messy and grey and that’s where it’s always lived — from Jaime pushing a little boy out the window to Ned Stark’s death to the Red Wedding. This is the kind of story that’s meant to unsettle you and challenge you and make you think and question. I think that was George’s intent and what David and Dan wanted to do. However you feel about the final episodes of this show I don’t think anybody will ever accuse us of taking the easy way out.”

I point out Daenerys’ final season arc shifts the entire series, or at least her role in it. Upon rewatch, every Daenerys scene will now be viewed differently; the story of the rise of a villain more than a hero.

“Yes, although I don’t know if she’s a villain,” Cogman says. “This is a tragedy. She’s a tragic figure in a very Shakespearean and Greek sense. When Jon asks Tyrion [in the finale] if they were wrong and Tyrion says, ‘Ask me again in 10 years,’ I think that’s valid.”

Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage says the showrunners on set compared Dany’s dragon-bombing of King’s Landing to the U.S. dropping nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki to decisively end World War II in 1945. “That’s what war is,” Dinklage says. “Did we make the right choices in war? How much longer would [WWII] have gone on if we didn’t make horrible decisions? We love Daenerys. All the fans love Daenerys, and she’s doing these things for the greater good. ‘The greater good’ has been in the headlines lately… when freeing everyone for the greater good you’re going to hurt some innocents along the way, unfortunately.”

Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, adds there’s another political lesson to be learned in the final season as well. “The signs have actually always been there,” Christie says of Daenerys. “And they’ve been there in ways we felt at the time were just mistakes or controversial. At this time, it’s important to question true motives. This show has always been about power and, more than ever, it’s an interesting illustration that people in pursuit of power can come in many different forms and we need to question everything.” 

Killing Daenerys also forever changes Jon Snow, leading to his circular fate: returning to serve the rest of his life at The Wall. Harington spoke about the show’s finale in a production tent on the season 8 set, his voice so cautiously low a recorder could barely pick him up. Harington explained he avoids talking about the death scene on the set, and he and Clarke came up with a secret hand signal to refer to it — touching a fist to their heart.

“I think it’s going to divide,” Harington says of the finale’s fan reaction. “But if you track her story all the way back, she does some terrible things. She crucifies people. She burns people alive. This has been building. So, we have to say to the audience: ‘You’re in denial about this woman as well. You knew something was wrong. You’re culpable, you cheered her on.’”

Harington adds he worries the final two episodes will be accused of being sexist, an ongoing criticism of GoT that has recently resurfaced perhaps more pointedly than ever before. “One of my worries with this is we have Cersei and Dany, two leading women, who fall,” he says. “The justification is: Just because they’re women, why should they be the goodies? They’re the most interesting characters in the show. And that’s what Thrones has always done. You can’t just say the strong women are going to end up the good people. Dany is not a good person. It’s going to open up discussion but there’s nothing done in this show that isn’t truthful to the characters. And when have you ever seen a woman play a dictator?”

There’s plenty of tragedy for Jon as well, he points out. “This is the second woman he’s fallen in love with who dies in his arms and he cradles her in the same way,” Harington notes. “That’s an awful thing. In some ways, Jon did the same thing to [his Wildling lover] Ygritte by training the boy who kills her. This destroys Jon to do this.”

Back in Clarke’s dressing room, the actress is preparing to film one of her final scenes on the series. Understandably, she can’t quite bring herself to feel sorry for Jon Snow.

“Um, he just doesn’t like women does he?” Clarke quips. “He keeps f—king killing them. No. If I were to put myself in his shoes I’m not sure what else he could have done aside from … oh, I dunno, maybe having a discussion with me about it? Ask my opinion? Warn me? It’s like being in the middle of a phone call with your boyfriend and they just hang up and never call you again. ‘Oh, this great thing happened to me at work today —hello?’ And that was 9 years ago…”

Clarke’s phone call metaphor is characteristically witty, and the actress has given some fascinating insight about the season as a whole. But nothing yet quite feels like the bottom, the blunt truth of how she feels about Daenerys’ fate.

“You’re about to ask if me — as Emilia — disagreed with her at any point,” Clarke intuits. “It was a f—king struggle reading the scripts. What I was taught at drama school — and if you print this there will be drama school teachers going ‘that’s bulls—t,’ but here we go: I was told that your character is right. Your character makes a choice and you need to be right with that. An actor should never be afraid to look ugly. We have uglier sides to ourselves. And after 10 years of working on this show, it’s logical. Where else can she go? I tried to think what the ending will be. It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

“I thought she was going to die,” she continues. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”

A crew member comes for Clarke and she stands up. It’s time for her to go. Clarke begins to walk away, turns around, breaks away from the staffer, and comes back.

There’s one last thing she wants you to know.

“But having said all of the things I’ve just said…” Clarke says. “I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can’t not.”

Source

Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale’s shock twist: ‘I stand by Daenerys’ was originally published on Enchanting Emilia Clarke | Est 2012

[movienotesbyzawmer]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

December 18: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

(previous notes: Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Source: UK 3D Blu-ray (this was much easier to come by than a US release, for some reason)

This movie is only 2 years old, a relative infant babe in arms. And I unambiguously loved it when it came out, both times I saw it in theaters and again when it was first released on video. But there have been dark whispers, haven't there. Snobs and haters started flooding the information superhighway with poorly supported condemnation of this perfectly entertaining sequel. Was I wrong? Was I missing some smear of shit on the screen that everyone else could see? Or is Putin up to his old tricks? Excuse me while I pop on my rose-colored 3D glasses and jot down some fresh observations.

Cool first shot, zipping through a bunch of ships that's like some kind of convoy.

Then a bad guy ship shows up and whoa is it neat in 3D.

This first exchange between Poe and Hux is funnier than anything in the prequel trilogy, my goodness was that a refreshing way to start this movie! Love it!

BB8 thunking down into the guts of the X-wing! That's the right kind of gadgety roboty attitude for a Star Wars movie, I tell you.

Bombers, there are bombers. How do bombers work in space? I ask like I'm complaining, but I'm not. I'm sure there's a Lucas-y explanation. And yes I know that Lucas isn't doing this movie, of course I know that, it's like you don't even know me.

Jeez, those bombers are getting totally wasted. Probably because they're full of bombs. BOMBS, see.

This tense scene where the bomber pilot has to kick down the remote control from a precipice, this is great suspense. The pilot sacrifices herself. The first 12 minutes of this movie have a hell of a lot going for it. But also, the look of it is different from all of the others. Stark closeups for instance. Nothing wrong with it, but feels like it's very committed to this director's personal stylistic preferences.

Now we're on Hidden Skywalker Island to find out how this plot thickens. It's a cool contrast from the space battle. And it's got Rey. And Porgs!

0:16:40 - Snoke's proper throne room. With Actual Snoke because it turned out the other one from the last movie was pretend-like. This throne room was put together by a visionary interior designer who really likes red.

Luke drinks some green milk from a plump creature who looks at Rey like she's saying "have some, it's pretty good, seriously you gotta try it, it comes from my nipples".

The scene with Rey and Luke in the book cave, it's good, I think. It's ever so slightly witty, but it makes sense as a way to get past the stubborn impasse the two were in before.

Kylo hesitated to blow up his mom because he's not too happy with his Dark Side family rn. But she's blowed up anyway and it's a pretty visceral image when that happens. Fortunately she is kind of Jesus so it's fine, she's fine, we're all fine here now thank you, how are you?

Hah, the Porgs are shaming Chewy into not eating a dead Porg! Porgs are way less in-your-face in this movie than Ewoks are in that other movie.

Enter Laura Dern! Conveys intelligence and confidence. I bet internet dicks hated her for no good reason. Other than that they are working in a non-descript office building in central Russia. Anyway, her friction with Poe is cool because she's being rational and it's just hard to argue against her points.

0:39:00 - Enter Kelly Marie Tran! Rose! Of course Sergei and Boris are social media bullies about this character. But even though she's coming into this story a little late, she's already gotten some solid character development.

So this is something I'm only realizing because I just watched Empire Strikes Back, but the two movies have similar structures in addition to being middle-of-the-trilogy movies. They both go back and forth between two subplots; one about a Jedi training a rookie on a planet, the other about just the good guys desperately trying to outrun a dauntingly large space fleet of bad guys.

Hah, Porgs getting pesky in the Millennium Falcon, I'd forgotten that.

Not so much with the wipes between scenes in this one but that one at 53:55 was neat.

And now we're in an actual casino! It's the Star Wars universe's version of Monaco. Lots of fun creatures and robots, but shot with a very flashy style that seems more obtrusive than how Lucas just peeks around in the Cantina.

The Master Codebreaker is literally Errol Flynn circa 1925.

1:00:50 - The first flashback of The Luke/Ben Incident. Kinda Rashomon-esque.

Benicio Del Toro. I love the guy, but there is often a sense in his movies that he had a very persuasive conversation with the director to let him do odd quirks with how he talks, and the director just grimaced and hoped it would turn out okay.

They break out of the stables with the racing animals, and stampede their way through the casino, satisfying!

But also, this whole Monaco planet is so like Monaco, so specifically, that it's not very galaxy-far-far-away.

First time we see Luke in the Rashomon flashback with the 'bout-to-kill-Ben look, that is a mighty fine facial expression from Mark Hamill.

1:14:35 - We're at the highly abstract Nightmare Cave sequence. This is a little indulgent, I bet Lucas did not like. He probably didn't like the equivalent sequence in The Force Awakens, but for what it's worth, I super like that one.

Rey and Kylo having a connection, I think we're not supposed to like it, and maybe that's the point? I'm okay with that. As long as it doesn't turn out that they are twin siblings separated at birth and gee what a shocking twist that would be <eye roll>.

I bet it took some discipline to have the Finn/Poe/Rose subplot be relatively simple.

1:29:00 - Weird little coffin craft Rey gets in to go to Kylo's ship. Oh, and the shot of coming out of lightspeed facing the bottom of the Destroyers! Cool!

1:30:55 - Hah! You thought they'd forgotten how to be funny, but then they do that clothes-iron gag. I like it. Reminds me of the coat hanger gag in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"I know where the nearest escape pods are" "Course you do". Hah.

Snoke telling Rey "I connected you because I knew Kylo was weak" sounds like an internet troll. Am I hung up on that? On internet trolls?

Big hanger full of troops and even flying TIE fighters inside the hanger, looks great.

Very grim situation now… the intended plan completely fell apart, and now the escape transport plan is completely screwed, and Rey is just helpless it looks like. Or is that just what it LOOKS like.

Snoke death is neat. Also neat are his guards' variable, flexible sword things. Also also neat is how the one guard gets tossed into an electro-processer and shoots out red flakes!

1:50:42 - Oh, my favorite thing, a magic battle. As Rey and Kylo try to out-Force each other to Force-get the light saber, it all comes down to who Force-gets better.

But then! Then it DOESN'T suck because they equally Force-get so hard that it just breaks, and then the neatest of all the parts of this movie, LD lightspeed-spearing the master bad guy ship! Awesome visuals and sound.

"You're a bug in the system" "Let's go chrome-dome". That's a pretty Lucas-y dialogue exchange.

As they fly away from the destruction, I love the look, how much detail there is to the wreckage.

Yeah, this final planet has those ice fox things! It feels like this Episode has slightly less zeal for "delightful new creatures", but it's not NO zeal.

Also this is the planet where the surface is salt, but under the salt surface is a mineral that is very red, for reasons of it looks cool, I guess. There's even a mechanic which can't possibly make sense, where these crafts NEED to drag on the surface just a teeny bit. But so what, I like to look at it. I'd rather look at that than look at YOU.

The underground blood crystal cave is a damn fine sight to see.

Not sure I care that much about the quick drama about Finn trying to Kamikaze the big gun and Rose stopping him. Although Rose saying "saving what we love" makes it kinda sweet and now I'm sorry I pooh-poohed it. But she gives him a little kiss, which is the only remotely romance-y thing in this new trilogy so far and do we need that? Whatever, I root for both of these characters.

We just saw the gold dice from Solo. But this movie came out before Solo, so I guess we were all like "dude what the hell is THAT". I wonder whose idea the dice was.

"Do you think that you got him". So, this reminded me when I first saw it of an early Mark Hamill movie called The Big Red One. A war drama with him and Lee Marvin, probably right around the same time as Empire. In that movie, MH shoots again and again and again at a definitely-already-dead German soldier. He just keeps shooting the corpse. Lee Marvin walks up to him as he's doing it and whispers in his ear, "I think you got him". Gotta be a deliberate reference, right? Pretty obscure one if so

Hah, Poe and Rey hadn't met yet, that wasn't obvious until now.

Okay, the final scene. It's a cool final scene, but… okay so the first time I saw it, I definitely didn't notice that the kid levitated the broom all casual-like. But I noticed it in later viewings and was like "oh, how did I miss that". Well I'LL TELL you how, because it is super freaking subtle! It's like it changes every time or something. It is FREAKING  me OUT.

But I still really like this movie. It is full of tons of great qualities, and only minor issues. It's surprisingly witty, and has a lot of non-Lucas style to it, which would be a problem if it didn't feel so genuinely inspired. So nice try, Anatoly! Go fuck yourself, Fyodor! You can turn neighbors against each other, Yuri, but you can't make me hate The Last Jedi!

(next: The Rise of Skywalker)

[notbecauseofvictories]

Rey/phasma, kissing. Alternately whatever finnpoe you want to write.

“You have to be quiet,” Rey says, and there’s an edge to her voice, a cruel roughness. She’s already got her fingers wound tightly in Phasma’s hair; Phasma can feel callouses, rough against the nape of her neck. Rey’s eyes are bright and dark and very close, all at once. “Finn would never forgive me if—”

“I’ll be quiet,” Phasma breathes, but Rey is already there, her mouth against Phasma’s mouth and her neat, rounded nails scraping Phasma’s scalp. She makes noise, though, when Phasma nips at her lip—a long, slow sigh and then something like a laugh, swallowed up by their tongues.

Rey’s mouth is still red during the intelligence briefing. Phasma takes impeccable notes on her datapad, and only manages to glance at her eight times over the course of a half-hour.

.

The first time is an accident. Rey on her tiptoes, flinging her arms around Phasma’s neck and the furious, messy collision—too much teeth, Phasma was still bleeding from the split lip the next day. A gesture of nothing except thanks, one of those backwater, dirtball habits a Jakku scavenger has. Rey rushed off afterwards to explain her plan to Luke Skywalker, and Phasma had stood there barely breathing for two minutes, the sensation of the scavenger’s mouth lingering like a brand.

The second time isn’t an accident. There’s still too much teeth.

.

The Resistance only granted her freedom of movement a few days before.

“Stop looking at her like that,” FN-2187 says, and Phasma tears her eyes away from where Kylo Ren’s scavenger is dangling by her knees, making repairs to her ship. It’s impressive to watch—she’s strong, considering how slight she is, and graceful even upside down, flushed with the blood rushing to her cheeks. Phasma had been thinking—

“And how exactly am I looking at the scavenger, FN-2187?” Phasma asks lazily.

His eyes are hard and cold as durasteel left out in the snow. “That’s not my name,” he says. Phasma clenches her jaw tightly against an apology, and his expression goes even harder, in response. “And stop looking at her like she’s a new recruit. She’s not a weapon, you can’t turn her into one.”

Phasma looks up, where the scavenger is casually curling her body toward her knees to seize another tool, before swinging back. The wookiee she’s with roars something; Phasma doesn’t know what.

“We’re all weapons, FN-2187,” she says with a sigh. “Sometimes, you get to choose the hand that wields you, but—that’s all.”

FN-2187 snorts. “Then keep your hands off her.”

He turns on his heel—a precise angle, because he was Phasma’s phalanx and she never once shaped a less-than-perfect soldier. Then he’s gone. She watches the scavenger for a few more minutes before following him out.

(Rey glances over, and Phasma is gone. She clenches her jaw, and goes on welding another spot on the Falcon.)

.

Rey never knew the chrome stormtrooper captain. Just Phasma, who came to General Organa on her knees begging sanctuary. There are only so many trooper defections the First Order will suffer before they begin to question the the program itself—and whichever way you cut, Phasma is there at the root. (I was the first, she says to a room of Resistance leadership. I don’t know where Commandant Hux—the elder—found me, but he took me, and made me the first. It is an honor—

She falls silent.)

Rey will always carry the desert within her somewhere. It lashes out sometimes, when water is wasted or the dead aren’t buried. And it’s that part of her that lusts after the fatted sleekness of Phasma—a silver hound bred for hunting, to Rey’s half-feral coyote. A creature like Phasma was owned; was fed, and cared for. Guard dogs are domesticated animals.

There’s a part of Rey that genuinely believes if she could just taste that…if she could just know what that feels like being wanted, it might be enough. Even if it was the wrong sort doing the wanting. Even if—

“You’re not a weapon,” Phasma breathes. Her hand spans almost all of Rey’s ribcage, she can feel them—like the struts of a star destroyer, muscle shifting over them.

“Yes, I am,” Rey says, and guides Phasma’s hand to her belt, where the lightsaber is fastened. “For a more civilized age,” she laughs against Phasma’s shoulder. It…doesn’t make any sense to Phasma, but she follows Rey’s mouth anyway.

She’s always trusted the clean edge of a blade.

.

“Kylo Ren’s scavenger,” Phasma says at their first meeting, and Rey bristles.

“I’m not his anything.”

Phasma smiles the smallest of smiles. Her eyes are cold as the desert at night.

.

“You’re proud of him,” the scavenger says, at their second meeting. Phasma is watching FN-2187 walk a group of pilots through an attack plan. She’s far enough away, tucked in the shadow of an x-wing—she’d thought she wouldn’t be caught.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Phasma says.

They’re silent, watching FN-2187.

“It’s in spite of you,” the scavenger says suddenly. “Whatever he is, it’s not because of you. It’s despite…So there’s nothing for you to be proud of, anyway.”

The scavenger leaves her there, in the shadows.

.

The third time, they don’t say anything, though Rey gives Phasma a breathless nod as the fire smolders out. They’re both breathing hard, covered in a sheen of sweat and black exhaust. Phasma suddenly chokes, tasting the acid of burning hyperdrive—“This second-hand shit is a fire hazard,” General Organ snarls at her supplier that evening, who apologizes, but you get what you pay for, General.

When Phasma straightens up again, Rey is gone.

.

Phasma is hardly an innocent. She doesn’t remember not knowing how a sentient dies, not being one of the reasons. Sex came later, but not by much. (It was an army. Barracks don’t offer much by way of privacy. And the Commandant thought it was good training, to stop thinking of bodies as something to draw boundaries over.)

But there are other things she is innocent in, though she isn’t aware of it. She doesn’t know to say, why are you kissing me? Or, what is this? Or, don’t you hate me?

She accepts what she’s given, and doesn’t ask questions.

.

“Why did you defect?” Rey asks, fumbling with Phasma’s belt—Phasma’s still not used to the Resistance uniforms, softer and somehow more complicated than armor; she wishes all she had to do was coax a plastoid girdle over Rey’s hips, push aside regulation underwear and—

Rey is looking at her. Phasma blinks. 

“You don’t have to tell me,” Rey says, very quietly. “I’m not…it’s not an interrogation.”

“I—they needed someone to blame,” Phasma hears herself say. This is not what she told the Resistance leadership at that first debrief, but she feels the phantom chafe of binders all the same. “It was…It was me or Hux, and I—I’m the one they would have picked.”

Phasma leans in but Rey pulls away, and Phasma misses her mouth. “But you—you must have believed the First Order was wrong,” Rey says in a hopeful voice. “You must have been angry, and thought—opposing them was the right thing to do.” Her gaze searches Phasma’s face, and maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s the press of her hands against Phasma’s stomach—Rey’s so warm, all the time, and Phasma doesn’t remember anything but the cold of space, the snow of Starkiller.

“No,” she says breathlessly, and Rey’s eyes go even wider. Phasma doesn’t know why she’s telling the truth, except that it is the truth. “I wanted to survive.”

It’s hard to read the tangle of emotions that flicker across Rey’s face—Phasma picks out a kind of pity, then anger, before it’s swallowed up by cool disinterest. But then Rey goes up onto her tiptoes and kisses her, and there’s something almost tender about it. 

“I understand,” Rey says. She’s a bad liar.

.

It’s just something to pass the time—she’s not allowed much; the Resistance doesn’t trust her with much of anything and the defected troopers give her wary berth. She keeps up her old training regimen, and waits for Rey to summon her, and lives her life measuring the steps between the mess and the quarters she’s been assigned.

(She wanted to survive. She got exactly what she asked for.)

“You can’t tell anyone,” Rey says, pulling her jacket back on. It is not the first time, but Rey says this every time. It is something of a ritual between them. “I—no one can know.”

Phasma snorts. “Who would I tell? You’re the only one who listens to me outside an intelligence briefing.”

Rey’s eyes dart to Phasma, and she smiles, just a little. Before Phasma can figure out what to make of that, Rey leans over and rest a hand on top of Phasma’s head—strokes her hair, until Phasma shuts her eyes. She hears the door to her quarters swish open, then shut again, and Phasma is alone.

Phasma lays in her bunk for a good while after, watching the the lights burst on the inside of her eyelids.

.

There’s a plant on Phasma’s bunk, complete with roots shedding dirt across her threadbare coverlet. When she runs her fingers along one of the leaves, it smells of something spicy, warm. She’s not sure if it’s an apology or an offering, and what for.

Phasma’s only acquaintance with plants is a vague knowledge of which ones are poisonous, a holdover from survival training. She keeps this one on her windowsill until it shrivels, and dries up. It smells spicy, when it crumbles under her hand.

.

It’s not that living with rebels makes you soft. It’s that living with rebels makes you forget to be hard.

[eirianerisdar]

What of Friends, Indeed

Summary: Novel-Thrawn and Rebels-Thrawn are very different. There is no question that in Rebels, Thrawn favours a crueller, harsher command. Eli Vanto returns from the Ascendancy a year after departing, to find a very changed Thrawn. Eli has questions. He may not like the answers. Oneshot, gen. Thrawn novel and SWR both referenced.

I’ve cross-posted this to FFN as well.

There was always something about Lambda-class shuttles that didn’t quite sit well with Eli Vanto.

Perhaps it is the fact that while most Lambdas are used to ferry troops or personnel, they also conveniently double as prisoner transports; every Imperial officer is well-used to seeing even the most toughened of Space-pirates tremble when the distinctive triangular silhouette of a Lambda shuttle settles down before them.

The harnesses can be locked down, certainly, transforming into prisoner bindings rather than simple crash webbing. And there are no viewports – not like the soaring, panoramic views of a star-destroyer bridge.

But the disquiet that flickers through Eli’s thoughts are not only of this shuttle – perhaps the environment is simply a reflection of the greater battle within his mind.

The Lambda shudders slightly as it drops out of hyperspace.

Eli cannot look through the solid durasteel walls, but he knows that far above the shuttle is the insignia of a many-limbed Chimaera, about to swallow the shuttle whole.

It is strange. Not so long ago, he would have considered it an embrace for a returning warrior.

But he has read the reports given to him – Thrawn is anything but lacking in keeping him updated about the goings-on of the Imperial Navy – and what he has read has…disturbed him.

This Grand Admiral, who brings whole peoples under his control – Ryloth, places further afield; kills factory workmen to make an example – setting a workman on a faulty bike the man has built himself, then edging up the speedometer until the bike explodes, and the man with it; allows an innocent Navy officer to be imprisoned, brutally questioned, and almost executed in order to continue to deceive a Rebel spy – is this Grand Admiral truly the Thrawn Eli knows so well? 

Eli cannot reconcile the Thrawn he knows – with his faint smile, his care for his subordinates, and his horror at the massacre of Batonn – with the Thrawn that he reads about, now.

This emotionless, ruthless Chiss warrior, like the blue-blooded, ice-veined monsters of the Wild Space legends; cunning warriors without compassion.

But this is Thrawn. Surely this cannot be all there is to the story; he must have a plan. He always has. 

Eli closes his eyes. In the duffel by his feet, there is a journal, kept dry and clean in a waterproof cover.

Thrawn is not…Thrawn, without compassion. Had he not written in reference to Batonn that sometimes victory is too much for a warrior to bear? And Botajef – had Thrawn not gone to whatever lengths he could to avoid war, and succeeded?

Had Eli not been there with him, one step behind his shoulder on the Bridge of the Chimaera, from the moment she had been given to them?

The Chimaera.

The roar of the repulsors quiet into a gentle hum as the Lambda settles onto the hangar floor.

And Eli is home. 

The ramp descends with an efficient whirr – the smallest of details are stringently monitored on the Chimaera, as they always have been – and then Eli is faced with the familiar view of one of the star-destroyer’s smaller hangars, situated precisely halfway between the bridge and the officers’ quarters, and so most favoured by Thrawn whenever he had reason to leave or return.

Disappointment rises minutely inside his chest when the small welcoming party comes into view, stood sharply a few paces from the end of the ramp – Faro and a few other officers. Not a trace of blue-skinned Chiss in sight.

Eli pushes down on the disappointment, masters it with a grudging twist.

He cannot expect Thrawn to come and greet him himself. It is not traditional, and even less procedural.

But Thrawn had never been one to adhere to those two things.

The doubt that flickers at the edge of his consciousness rackets up another notch.

All the welcoming party are clad in familiar Imperial grey, like the uniform he wears now – new, freshly-pressed, with even a new rank-plaque, Commander’s squares gleaming. Eli can’t quite decide whether he likes it. It makes him look fresh. Shiny, like the old Clone-Wars-era speak.

He nudges away this train of thought, as well. Eli is not a Coruscant-born commissioned officer; he has risen to where he is by loyalty and hard work, and nothing else. 

“Welcome back, Commander Vanto,” Faro says, with a genuine smile.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Eli replies, glancing at her rank plaque. “I see it’s Commodore Faro now. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” Faro turns, and begins to walk. The sharp clacking of uniform boots against durasteel echoes through the hangar – something so familiar and constant, but somehow strange after a year afield. Eli follows with acute awareness of how his own boot-steps mirror the echo.

“The Grand Admiral has asked to see you in his office immediately, unless you had imperative matters to take care of upon your arrival,” Faro says, as they turn into a corridor.

“I don’t,” Eli confirms.

“Good. I’ll take you to him now.”

It is strange, being let through the corridors of the Chimaera like this; there are no shackles on his hands, and no danger in the easy, professional pace of any of his escort. 

But this is the Chimaera, Thrawn’s flagship.

The closest thing Eli has to a home.

His parents’ home, far away on the edges of Wild Space, is certainly nothing but a faded, pre-academy memory, now.

And then suddenly there is the door to Thrawn’s office and training room, with a stormtrooper standing at attention before it, as always; Eli hands over his code cylinder, and a nod of thanks to Commodore Faro later, he is on the other side of the door.

Alone. 

His duffel feels incredibly heavy in his hand as he walks the short distance down the corridor to the office door proper.

It opens with a smooth hiss, like an unknown reptile tasting the air. 

And there, standing with his back towards Eli, framed on either side by an etched mural of two leaping ysalamiri – a white-uniformed Chiss, with his shoulders held back, regal. Surprisingly, a long cape flows down from the gold epaulets, covering the long-fingered blue hands no doubt clasped behind his back.

Eli finds himself smiling, despite his doubts. “White suits you, sir,” he says, by way of breaking the silence.

Thrawn turns in place, and for a moment there, Eli sees that same familiar faint smile – the smallest uptick of the edge of his lips, where others would only see the harsh note of authority – but then it is smoothed away, and there is only the cool expression of command.

“Commander Vanto,” Thrawn says, voice as smooth and unassuming as ever. “Welcome back.”

“Thank you.” Eli raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t take you for the kind to wear a cape.”

Thrawn waves him into a chair, even as he himself remains standing. “I must greet a group of visiting dignitaries in less than an hour,” he says. “Their culture indicates that all upper-ranked officers must wear cloaks such as these to indicate their rank. As my uniform could be modified with an appropriate addition, I thought it would make a favourable impression.”

The Thrawn Eli remembers would have been smiling as he said this, faint, longsuffering amusement rising to the surface in the privacy of this office.

The Thrawn he faces now has no such smile.

Eli steps forward, places his duffle by an empty seat. The chairs are as uncomfortable as he remembers. He tries to relax as much as possible, anyhow. He has a feeling the coming conversation will not be pleasant.

One slim blue finger keys a code into the desk console. The muted lights dim for a moment, as the office secures itself for private conversation.

There was a time this would have given Eli a sense of security; just he and Thrawn, speaking of matters the Empire had better not hear. Eli had been confident, at that time, of Thrawn’s trust in him.

And he had trusted Thrawn in turn, completely.

And now?

“Is there anything you wish to report, between your last transmission and the present?” Thrawn begins.

“No. I left the Ascendancy shortly after. There’s nothing new to note.”

“Good.”

“I’ve finished the reports you sent ahead for me to read,” Eli says. He pauses. “A lot has happened, in a year.”

Thrawn flicks crimson eyes over him, once. “You seem troubled.”

“There are some details I would like clarified from your perspective,” Eli says, choosing his words carefully.

“Then specify,” Thrawn says, in that efficient, almost-blunt way of his. “I will describe said events with as much accuracy as I am able.” 

“Why did you make an example of the man at the Lothal Imperial Army Complex?”

“The people of Lothal are stubborn, like the rock which they mine,” Thrawn replies as he steps lightly over to softly glowing hologram. The sculpture projected there is all right-angles and thick beams, solid, unyielding. “As such, they required a more…severe form of persuasion. It is regrettable. But should I have allowed the tampering of Imperial arms to continue, it is more than likely that most of the factory hands would have been executed. Governor Pryce does not take kindly to sabotage.”

Eli remains silent for a long moment, watching him.

When Eli does not speak, Thrawn looks back at him with a smooth turn of his head, blue chin tilting over gold epaulets.

Predatory.

Eli has used that word to refer with Thrawn in his thoughts before, certainly.

But never in connection with Eli himself. 

Eli wonders how many of his own rapidly-coalescing conclusions are truly based off logic. His emotions are certainly not anywhere near balanced.

“Commander Vanto?” Thrawn prompts.

“I see,” Eli manages. His voice is not as steady as he would like, but he will have to make do. “And the civilian casualties on Ryloth?”

Thrawn’s lips thin in memory. “Ryloth, while a victory, had not the best of results. I had anticipated the civilian uprising, but the Rebels supplied them with weaponry beyond what we had heard in preliminary reports. In an effort to prevent further bloodshed, I authorized ground forces to be more forceful than previously planned.”

Preventing executions. Preventing further bloodshed. 

It sounds almost…good, to the untrained ear. 

But Eli is nowhere near untrained, courtesy of Thrawn himself.

“One more question,” Eli murmurs. “Lieutenant Yogar Lyste. He was captured in suspicion of being a Rebel spy.”

“Correct,” Thrawn says, watching Eli with undivided attention, now. His red eyes gleam brightly in the half-light.

“You knew he wasn’t.” 

“That is also correct.”

“But his interrogation and imprisonment was allowed to go forward,” Eli says, accent slipping through even stronger than usual, now.

Thrawn remains quiet for a moment, back straight, hands behind his back. The very picture of an Imperial Grand Admiral.

“I am surprised you do not see the necessity of fooling the true Rebel spy into thinking he had escaped unnoticed,” Thrawn says, quite calmly. “I should have thought the logic clear. Unless the report was worded inadequately.”

“I understand that completely,” Eli says, fighting to keep his voice from rising, now. His hands twist around each other, elbows braced on his knees as he leans forward, looking up at Thrawn. “But there wasn’t a need to truly interrogate Lieutenant Lyste. Questioning, of course – but interrogation? Incarceration?”

“Agent Kallus was an extremely resourceful member of the Imperial Security Bureau,” Thrawn says. “Do not doubt that should less have been done to Lieutenant Lyste than what was reported, Agent Kallus would have noted the inconsistency and attempted to flee.” Those dark blue eyebrows flicker, once. “He would have been unsuccessful, but I would have then found much more difficulty in discerning the location of their Rebel base. There was no guarantee interrogation would have revealed information, considering Agent Kallus’s Bureau training.” 

A long pause.

“You interrogated him yourself, when you did capture him,” Eli says. It is not a question.

“Yes,” Thrawn confirms. “Before he escaped.”

“Where is Lieutenant Lyste, now?” Eli asks quietly, not looking at Thrawn. Or anything at all, really. 

“He was honourably discharged,” Thrawn says. “His health was deemed insufficient for continued service. He has been returned to his homeworld with a sufficient military retirement pension.”

“And how old is Lieutenant Lyste, exactly?” Eli continues. His voice sounds odd, even to himself.

Thrawn tilts his head. “Twenty-five standard, I believe. You will find his full file in the datapad given to you.”

Twenty-five standard.

Eli tastes bile.

Thrawn takes a step towards him. “You seem distressed.”

“Maybe I am,” Eli whispers, so softly he almost imagines that he did not say it, but thought it, hurling the thought towards his friend’s ever-calm face. 

His friend.

But what of friends?

What of friends, indeed.

“I think I might have a problem,” Eli says, looking up. He is sure there is probably some betraying moisture in his eyes, now, but he wants to look Thrawn in his eye as he says this.

“Elaborate,” Thrawn says, crimson gaze flickering over his dampening eyes, the hands Eli clenches on his armrests – “Then we will solve it together.”

“No, I–” Eli passes a hand over his face. “I didn’t phrase that correctly. I have a problem with this.”

Thrawn gazes at him, steadily.

And then: “Explain.”

“I’ve aware I’ve been gone for over a year,” Eli says, striving to remain grounded. “But the things you’ve just explained to me, Thrawn,” – and here he catches himself, the name having slipped out from a mind too jumbled to separate thought from speech – “I can’t accept them.”

Thrawn’s eyes had moved minutely when Eli had spoken his name, but he is now impassive, quietly calculating, as he always is. He crosses his arms, and one long finger taps at his chin.

“What is unacceptable about them?” he inquires, as though this were a simple discussion – not a rending of a world, the destruction of minds.

Or one mind. Eli’s.

Eli feels strangely detached from all this, like the man sitting in the chair is someone else entirely, and he is watching from an outsider’s perspective.

“Killing civilians,” he says, voice quickening. “Torturing an innocent officer for the crimes of another. Cruelty.” Eli glances away, sharply. “I would have never thought you cruel,” he murmurs, almost to himself.

“The situation is quite different now as compared when you left for the Ascendency.” Thrawn’s stare seems to have doubled in intensity, now – quite a feat, and to anyone else, probably incredibly frightening.

Eli is not anyone else.

“That is what an Imperial officer would say,” Eli says, quietly. “But you were never just an Imperial officer.” 

“My role requires certain sacrifice on my part to maintain the deception. You are aware of it.” 

“I am aware,” Eli replies, tonelessly. “But then, I thought there was a line. Values you would not compromise, even for the sake of your mission.” 

Thrawn does not reply. 

Eli stands, walks up to Thrawn – the Chiss is still taller than him by a considerable margin, but he raises his head to look Thrawn in the eyes. “I don’t know,” Eli says. “I don’t know, anymore.”

“What is it you do not know?” Thrawn asks. The emotion is showing more clearly on his face, now. His brows are furrowed. His lips are pressed together.

“Is it that your mission is more important than all else, even innocent life?” Eli says, voice trembling, now. “Or is it that you’ve forgotten your mission, and even now have become a true pawn of the Emperor?”

“I do not think I have done either,” Thrawn says, eyes flashing dangerously, now.

Eli notes, with a detached sort of shock, that he has succeeded in making Thrawn angry.

Astonishing. It is something he had not wished to ever do before, but now that it is done seems the easiest thing in the world.

And then something flickers in Thrawn’s eyes, and Eli realises with something akin to wonder that it is not anger at all.

It is fear. 

It would be flattering to assume it is fear for the loss of a friend.

How Eli wishes it is fear for a warping of self, instead. A Thrawn with faults admitted and a promise of change, he could work with.

But he knows that is not what is before him. 

“You don’t regret a single thing you’ve done since I’ve left,” Eli says, slowly.

Thrawn looks down at him.  “No,” he says. “As I’ve taught you before, regret is always eclipsed by–”

Eli punches him across the jaw.

A shocked grunt slips out of blue lips as Thrawn stumbles back against a stone wall graffitied with an orange-red bird of some sort. His cloak crumples around him as he stumbles, falling to the ground.

Liquid scarlet drips down onto the pure white expanse of the imperial uniform, limning the squares of the rank plaque with sanguine paint.

Eli does not know whether to be grateful that Thrawn apparently still trusted him enough after that conversation for his guard to be entirely lowered, or to feel guilty about it.

And then he thinks of Yogar Lyste, and the sentiment flees.

He lowers his hand, knuckles smarting. A quick glance at them reveals they have split open.

Like Thrawn’s lip.

Thrawn rises to his feet gracefully, unhurriedly, and presses a fingertip to his lip. It comes away deep, velvet red.

Thrawn meets Eli’s gaze again, and those red eyes are unreadable, now; since the midpoint of their years together, Eli had always been able to read at least the most superficial of Thrawn’s intentions by his eyes alone, but they are now as closed to him as they are to others.

Eli feels like he is quite ready to weep, now. Or sleep for eternity. To run away from all this. 

Thrawn waits for him to speak. Red drips down his chin, down his neck, soaking into the white collar in an irremovable stain.

“This is what I am going to do,” Eli says, calmly. Determination has slid over him now, in the absence of a greater purpose.

He had served the Empire under Thrawn. And then Thrawn had told him to go to the Chiss, so he had served the Chiss under Thrawn’s orders.

And now he can no longer serve Thrawn, there remains only his next logical step. 

One logical step after another, in the most unsure of times, Thrawn had once told him. And eventually, a larger picture will emerge. One brushstroke after another. 

“I am going to walk out of this office,” Eli says. “And go to the main ventral hangar. I will take a shuttle, and leave the system. If at any point in the process if I am stopped, and told I am under arrest, I will not protest. I will come willingly.” He pauses, and a bitter smile flickers across his face. “That depends on whether you’ll send someone after me, of course.”

Thrawn does not say anything.

Eli crosses over to his duffel, kneels beside it, and withdraws Thrawn’s journal, still carefully packed in its waterproof cover. 

“This is yours,” he says, holding it out to Thrawn.

Thrawn reaches out with an elegant, blood-tipped hand, and places it over the surface of the packet, as though he could feel the words within.

A pause.

“Keep it,” Thrawn says. His voice is quite unchanged. “For the sake of the last entry.”

Does Eli imagine it, or have Thrawn’s eyes dimmed?

Eli feels the first of his tears spill up over the edge of his eyelids.

The journal burns into his hand. He turns vehemently, scoops up his duffel, and strides away. He will not let Thrawn see his tears fall.

Four levels later, in the main hangar, Eli tenses as a stormtrooper patrol passes.

But they pass without giving him a second glance.

Eli chooses a nondescript supply transport – he is not stupid enough to take a Lambda, not without knowing where he will be – and slides heavily into the pilot’s seat. Not bothering with pre-flight checks, he tosses his duffle into the copilot’s seat, brings the engines up from a cold start, and as soon as he is reasonably sure the repulsors will not fail from their abrupt awakening, shoots out of the hangar.

The journal on the seat beside him has a red fingerprint on its packet front, congealing rapidly in the ‘cycled air.

The comm crackles with a sharp order from the bridge communications officer regarding unauthorized departure, but then there is a garbled voice from beyond the range of the comm, and the officer suddenly cuts himself off.

Eli sets the navigation computer to random set of coordinates.

He turns in his seat, a moment before the shuttle jumps.

The Chimaera hangs upon the backdrop of stars, beautiful. Deadly. Home.

With a horrible wrenching of his heart, Eli makes the jump.

In his private office, Grand Admiral Thrawn allows his fingers to slide off the comm button on his desk. The comm button, like his collar, is stained red, now.

He stands there for a long time. Through the numerous comm-calls, to his desk and his communicator. Through the pounding on his door, when it comes much later. 

Even when Commodore Faro’s voice filters in from the short corridor, announcing that she is entering, he does not do anything except raise a hand, halting her shocked intake of breath when she sees him.

There is nothing to say.

END

Thanks for reading - just a note, I’ve cross posted this to FFN too!

If you want more Thrawn, try A Maudlin Thing (FFN | tumblr) or Coruscanti Chiss, or The Most Beautiful Artwork.

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[comicbookuniversity]

Thoughts On Wonder Woman

It took me long enough, but I finally got around to seeing the cinematic debut of Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins. And I was not disappointed by it. I shared my thoughts on it before it came out as I was uncertain, and the film didn’t entirely change my mind on what I thought at that point, but it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be at that point. This is the first film in the DCEU series I can say I genuinely enjoyed; I wanted to like the others, but between bizarre choices for character directions and simply bad filmmaking, I couldn’t. That being said, this wasn’t a perfect film. It was a solid summer blockbuster, but every blockbuster has it’s issues. I’m going to talk about those issues, but I want to first say that this film rocked because of its sheer fun and earnestness, that it beat expectations critically and financially, and that it finally puts Wonder Woman in the zeitgeist in a way she deserves. There’s no getting around that this film is historic, because it’s the first female led superhero film of the era and it proved old ideas of women stars and directors not being able to perform on the same level as their male counterparts wrong. Gender can no longer be used (and shouldn’t have been used in the first place) as an excuse for why blockbusters fail; studios simply need to invest more in better material and people if they want to see the same big payoffs from these types of films.

So before I start talking about the things I didn’t like, I want to first start by talking about the things that I did like. Gal Gadot proved to be a genuine movie star with this film. She commanded the screen in a way you want and need someone to do when working on this scale. Her performance of Diana was both layered and focused; her innocence and sense of good was enviable, her outrage was heartfelt, and her heartbreak was disheartening. Gadot, a former Miss Israel and Miss Universe competitor, could have easily been the subject of exploitative shots and treated more as sexual object and force as would be usual within a Hollywood film, but thanks to the combination of Allan Heinberg’s script, Jenkin’s direction, and Gadot’s commitment, Wonder Woman was given a level of dignity and awe not afforded to many female protagonists in action oriented films. It’s not just how she’s presented, but how her beliefs are always treated as serious. The film never treats her naivety as something that means she can be taken less seriously, and that her focus and purity of mission as something to be admired. Kudos are also to be given to Gadot’s co-star, Chris Pine, who as a big star in his own right could have easily overshadowed Gadot but never does. Pine’s performance is most certainly a great example of feminist male hero, a competent man who never tries to assert some undue authority, treats his female partner as never less than equal and at times superior, and who has some emotional complexity that never draws attention away from the protagonist. The action is also exciting and dynamic, and the colors, a noteable feature when seen in the context of previous connected films,  are vibrant in a way that makes Diana shine against her wartime gray environment. Overall, this is a film that deserves the praise given to it by so many others.

But, now I want to talk about two aspects of the film that I find most interesting at this moment. Maybe later, I’ll find other things I want to talk about more, but right now I want to talk about this films relationship to feminism and its religious imagery.

Alright, so first point: Is this a feminist film? The answer is both yes and no. Like I alluded to earlier in my brief discussion of what I liked about the film, this is a feminist film in how it presents and treats its female characters, how it treats its male characters, and how the film avoids explicit sexually exploitative scenes. And the romance of the film is built from experience and charm, rather than lust. The relationships in the film are based around shared values and are complicated by how the world shapes us each, rather than institutionally prescribed and culturally normalized roles. The dignity of others is recognized without it having to be earned in some manner first, and the injustices of war are not swept aside or exploited. It isn’t just about the soldiers dying; a major point in the film is that Diana cannot go further without doing whatever she can (which is a lot) for the men, women, and children who have been so devastated by the machinations and motivations of the powerful. Diana valiantly speaks for the equality for everyone and backs up her words with action. So the film is certainly a feminist film, but in one important way, it is not.

Feminism, as political, cultural, and philosophical movements, is rooted in democratic ideals of equality and justice. It is merely a gendered expression of these ideals, because there has been a history across multiple cultures of inequality, both culturally and legally, against women and in the favor of men. Feminism would not exist if there were not an unequal, abusive, and deadly relationship between men and women; this is not to say that all men hate women or the reverse, because that is overly simplistic and  the world is complicated. Merely, it is to say that there are more than enough instances of incidents and institutions that are unfair and outright violent to women simply because of their femininity (and it’s perceived associated falsehood of weakness) that only the willfully ignorant and outright manipulative would say that it is only a few bad individuals. There are patterns and there are multiple larger contexts in which these incidents of injustice, violence, and death take place. Feminism, at its core, is the same fight of every democratic revolutionary and leader, but it takes place on the battlefield of gender.

Wonder Woman was created as an explicit figure who would fight the feminist fight for equality and justice. That men and women would live as equals in peace and love. She didn’t just fight against tyrants, but she fought actively for democratic values to be enacted within the democracies she defended. But, this film fails in this regard. The fight for woman’s suffrage is mentioned exactly once by Etta Candy, and never touched upon again. Wonder Woman is certainly presented as a paragon defender of democratic values, but the film fails to put her in a position to be championing these rights as well.

Sure, the film takes some time to show that the world of men is not simply messed up because of the influence of Ares, but it’s a total of maybe two minutes that she’s presented with issues of civil injustice. Golden Age heroes weren’t just busy fighting Nazis, but they also fought for civil rights in their own way. Superman was a champion of the people taking on institutional evils, Batman fought the human monsters who lurked in the shadows using his wealth and skills, and Wonder Woman called for us to embrace love and peace instead of hate and war. And this film affirms that the democracies are worth fighting for, but fails to really put Diana in a position of fighting against the ills that plague democracies. I don’t think this would have been difficult to do, since the film does have a bit of pacing issue. Some of this space that was wasted could have been devoted to Diana learning more about what exactly she was fighting for and connect the two struggles. Fighting for people to live is important- I’m not trying to suggest otherwise, but the fight for how we live is an equally important fight. If the film had spent a few minutes connecting these struggles, this film would not only be stronger in its political relevance, but it would have been a stronger character arc for Diana herself.

The feminism of the film does take an interesting turn when you consider the religious imagery of the in world mythology developed in the beginning. At the start of the film, Diana is told how the world and Amazons were made, and prominent in this story is the relationship between Zeus, king and creator, and Ares, son and destroyer. The film places the Greek gods into a mold of Christian symbolism by ignoring all other gods and making the conflict between Zeus and Ares the same as that between God and the Devil. Ares even behaves much more like the Devil than he does like any traditional depiction of him or any other god of war. This is a strange choice, but not completely unpredicted based upon Zack Snyder’s own penchant for twisting things to fit Christian symbolism and his influence upon the story of the film- see Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. As anyone familiar with Greek mythology could tell you, Greek gods are much more human in their behaviors and motivations compared to that of more abstract and absolutist Christianity as Zeus has a fetish for transforming into animals and making women impossibly lust after him. I’m not trying to disparage either religion in that assessment, but merely trying to point out how very different the two are from each other. I don’t really care for this choice, because it automatically sidelined the importance of the goddesses and killed them off-screen; and because there’s a drama to the Greek Gods that’s entertaining in its own right that can’t be done now. But, by making Diana another Greek God within this context, makes her an interesting Jesus substitute. Since Zeus/God is the father of all, this fight between Diana and Ares takes on a similar context of armageddon with the battle between Christ and the Devil as two divine children fight for the future of humanity.

As noted by Josie Campbell in an article for Comic Book Resources,

 Much has been made about Superman as a quasi-religious savior, but in our pop culture there’s no more deliberate messiah than Wonder Woman. She’s the product of a virgin birth, sculpted from Earth by Queen Hippolyta and given the divine spark of life by the Goddesses without the intervention of man; Eve without the stigma of being from man’s rib, completely separate and completely equal to Adam. She leaves behind a place literally called Paradise to save humanity from “the forces of hate and oppression.” Her stated mission is to show us the way to salvation by forsaking war and embracing love and forgiveness. Golden Age Wonder Woman never kills. She teaches her allies to turn the other cheek. She even tries to get her enemies to see the light. Literally: she owned a Purple Ray that could heal all wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, Lazarus-style. When Diana finally captured her early Golden Age villain (and now cinematic evildoer) Dr. Poison, she sent her to the Amazons — not to be punished but to be rehabilitated and taught to abandon her evil ways. She finds converts (Etta Candy, the Holiday Girls, etc.) to help preach the ideas of equality. Even the retcons made later in her history only serve to underline this idea: with Zeus as her father she’s now literally the child of god, here to redeem us all.

 And there’s no getting around how powerful a choice this is when messiahs and chosen ones from across various religions are often men. It is a subversion of the most powerful kind, since it firmly plants her in the position as a divine savior. In this manner, the film is incredibly feminist, since it not just provides as hero and representative of all that is good and decent for women and men to look up to, but it posits her as a figure of divine spiritual power. Wonder Woman isn’t just to be admired; hypothetically, she is to be worshipped. But Diana doesn’t strike me as the type who would encourage that so much as she would actively work on policy change. Like I said, this is perhaps the most powerful choice the film makes, but creating a heavenly feminist savior still doesn’t connect her to the feminist struggles of mortal women. And that is still a disappointing feature of the film.

That all being said, Wonder Woman was a great origin movie and fun film despite some problems. IF you haven’t seen it yet for whatever reason, go see it before it leaves theater, you won’t be disappointed. I’ll probably have more to say in the future, but for now that’s all.

[renzywenzy]

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review

*Spoiler Warning*

Holy shit. That was a damn good movie and a fine addition to Lucas Arts Disney’s Star Wars film series. Allow me to preface my review by saying that I have started writing this just a few short hours after watching the film but who knows when I’ll finish? I’ve digested it as much as I can and I’ve taken down notes of all the important things I wanted to talk about and now I believe I’m ready to start this review. That out of the way, here is my review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

So to start with this movie, I’d actually like to point out all the stuff that I did not enjoy first and then go to the positives. I don’t have much criticism so I wanted to get that out of my plate first. So here are the negatives.

Cons:

1.) The lack of compelling characters. This is probably my biggest gripe with the film. I was never able to fully invest in these characters emotionally. That’s not to say that these people have bad characterizations or that their dull. It’s just that they lack the emotional depth of other main characters before them. This is most likely because the movie itself doesn’t give them enough time to fully develop. Let’s take a look at some of these characters.

Felicity Jones plays the main protagonist, Jyn Erso. Jyn is the daughter of the former Imperial scientist and now kidnapped farmer Galen Erso (the mastermind of the Death Star) and her initial actions are motivated by the chance to meet her father again. Problem is I didn’t really care and that’s because the plot didn’t give enough time (or any time at all) to strengthen that father-daughter bond. That’s why when they finally meet each other again and Galen is killed, it unfortunately doesn’t evoke any emotion and it actually felt a bit flat. I really really wanted to care about her journey on being with her father again but I realized if I had to try so hard then the movie isn’t executing that aspect right. One of the main issues with Jyn is that her problems with the Rebellion aren’t explored enough. It’s just one of those aspects about her that’s mentioned in one or 2 scenes but not expanded upon in any sort of meaningful way. She reminded me a lot of Han Solo. Like Han in his initial scenes in A New Hope, Jyn is someone with a criminal background who does not side with anybody and only does things for her own benefit. That is until she becomes part of much bigger cause. This was an awesome aspect of her. However, even though she is bad ass (really bad ass by the way), she just lacks the charm of Han Solo and she doesn’t go through the same carefully handled character progression that Han goes through which is a huge shame. 

And then there’s Cassian Andor played by Diego Luna. Now with Cassian, I liked his inner struggle a bit more. His problem was that he kept doing bad things for the Rebellion and that he felt as if these actions are not justified. This could have made for some really good character progression but it’s just that his inner problems were solved just as quickly as they were introduced. Again, if the film had highlighted this aspect of him more than it did then Cassian would be a better character overall. 

Honestly, I would’ve given these issues a pass IF we would see more of these 2 in future films but seeing as how they died in the end (like I said, spoilers) then their characters’ potential growth is pretty much over and done with. 

2.) The story is nothing to talk about. Or at least nothing really exciting to talk about. After watching this film, all I could really say about it was that it was about finding the plans to the Death Star. That particular aspect of the narrative is strong but nearly (key word) everything around it feels pretty flat. There was just not enough life or any of that “wow” moment in the story. Any scene where I’m supposed to show emotion just does not work. It’s never given any weight so sadly it’s never earned. For example:

In that scene where Jyn is listening to a holocommunicator message from her father and she starts breaking down. Yeah that scene. I didn’t really care, it didn’t emotionally affect me in any sort of way, it didn’t make me want to see her reunite with her father and I found that scene pretty manipulative. Before you say I’m some sort of insensitive asshole, I have genuinely cried in films before but for those emotional scenes that had a lot of build-up and where the emotional payoff was earned. Same can not be said for most of the “sad” scenes in this film. Yes, there were characters here who I did like (and even love) but I still didn’t care for their deaths and we’ll get to those characters in a little while.

3.) The first act of the film is choppy. This is more or less piggy-backing off of what I just said about the characters not being given enough time to develop. 30 minutes into the film and I felt like it was all over the place. Introduce a character, skip, introduce another character, skip, sprinkles of exposition here, skip, introduce another character, and skip. There was a lack of focus that hurts the pacing. With issues #1 and #2 mixing together, I found myself asking “Are we supposed to give a shit?” a bunch of times at least in the preceding half. Thankfully, the focus is finally set and established by the latter part of the 2nd act and nearly, if not all of the 3rd act. Which bring us to the positives.

Pros:

1.) Now, going into a Star Wars film means that I had certain expectations. After watching the great Force Awakens, there was a certain magic that I was looking for that’s very hard to explain. What I will say is this: Rogue One offers the same kind of magic but presented differently. What I mean by that it has a darker and rougher tone than previous films. Probably the darkest that it has ever been. There was an image in the beginning that I’ll never forget that I wish I could show. I hope my description can suffice. The main character, Jyn, was being escorted (to prison, most likely) and the Stormtroopers escorting her had dirty armor. If memory serves me correctly, I don’t remember any Clone trooper or Stormtrooper from the originals, prequels, and even Force Awakens look so untidy. They’re usually in mint condition even during battle. But in here, they look like they’ve been through a lot of shit and are just tired. This was an image that showed me that this is going to be a Star Wars film with a dash of grit and for this film, it worked overall. The best part of the story is how the Rebellion/Republic aren’t presented as the heroic bunch of do-gooders that have an unwavering sense of morality. No no no in here they are willing to get their hands dirty and kill people who may not even deserve it. The character of Forest Whitaker, Saw Gerrera (Nice job in tying in this story with Rebels), represents what a radical extremist in the side of the Republic looks like. He’s not necessarily a good person. In fact, the people Jyn associates with aren’t clean cut themselves. They just happen to be a side that’s the lesser of two evils. 

2.) Speaking of the other evil, the Empire subplot that focused on the tension between main villain the Orson Krennic (who is a solid bad guy) and the CGI-laden Moff Tarkin (we’ll get to the CGI eventually) was pretty cool. The confrontations between the two men of the Empire were honestly some of the best scenes and it made me care about the villain a bit more. Yeah, Orson is an asshole who throws hissy fits and unfairly kills scientists who did nothing wrong and but seeing him be bullied and taken out by an even bigger asshole - who also takes Krennic’s credit - made me root for him a little bit (at least against Tarkin). Oh and that final scene where Krennic looked at the Death Star as it was about to obliterate the planet along with him was marvelous.

3.) That brings me to my next positive point: The action-packed and thrilling third act of the film. There really is not much to say here except that it’s where shit hits the fan and the glorious blasting and dogfighting begins. The action sequences in these final minutes are so well-done. The rebel wings taking out the 2 Star Destroyers was a thing of beauty and the Darth Vader fight scene (if you can even call it a fight because it was extremely one-sided) was just plain bad-ass. One tiny negative I can point out is the continuity issue with the AT-T walkers. I thought Empire Strikes Back has taught us that tying them up was the only way of taking them down. I first thought that maybe the Empire upgraded their AT-T walkers because of how they were taken out in this battle BUT I remembered since everyone was destroyed by the Death Star, who’d be alive to tell them about the walker weakness? Just a small gripe in an otherwise massive positive.

4.) Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe and Aland Tudyk as the voice of K2SO. These two were the highlights of the supporting cast. Yen provides his usual martial-arts badassery as the blind but force-sensitive monk. In fact, his character adds more to the idea of the “Force”. It’s honestly refreshing to see (no pun intended) that this intangible power is present even with someone without the ability to see. This means that there is much more to learn and hopefully, Chirrut Imwe marks the beginning of more characters like him to appear in future movies. Maybe we’ll get a character with no arms at all and yet, still can kick ass just with his/her mastery of the Force. That would be a little silly at first but I believe it will work. 

Tudyk delivers a sarcastic brand of comedy that adds layers to droid characters. Although his jokes can sometimes be unnecessary, when they do hit, they hit hard. What I loved most about his character is that he really didn’t have that much character development. Now, I know development is important but the reason I didn’t need it from K2SO is that he is basically an expendable, comedy-relief character. Besides, because Jyn didn’t go through much character progression herself, I’d find it improbable for K2SO to become completely open and warm to her so his ongoing mild surliness was appropriate and consistently entertaining. 

5.) The fan service. Now there’s not a whole lot of fan service here like in the Force Awakens but there are just enough to put a smile on anyone’s face if they get the references. Some of them may have felt more forced than others (*cough* R2-D2 and C-3PO *cough*) but at the end of the day, I’d rather have them in than not at all. My personal favorite reference was seeing Cornelius Evazan and his buddy again. For those who don’t remember him, he’s the dude who has the death sentence in 12 systems. It was just awesome seeing him and his deformed face again and with his arm still intact. The biggest fan service here is arguably seeing Darth Vader and his daughter, Princess Leia, again. Speaking of which. 

5.)  I was a bit iffy about the CGI in this film. Particularly Moff and Leia but after thinking about it and after looking at their digitized selves again, I honestly didn’t mind it. It’s nowhere near as bad as the work done on Han’s head when Greedo shot first and it’s much better than I had initially expected. I honestly didn’t care if it was CGI, it was nice seeing Princess Leia again.

Ok, this part’s gonna get a bit serious. There was something a bit poetic about all this. About me watching this film on the precise day that I did. I had seen Rogue One just a few days after Carrie Fisher’s death (God rest her soul) and seeing Princess Leia at the time of watching meant much more than ever. When I saw her, it hit me and it really dawned on me that she was gone. She was a huge part of my childhood because I had the biggest crush on her when I first watched her in “A New Hope”. There was just an air of magnetism in her eyes and in her voice that attracted me. Not only that, she was really the first badass heroine that I had ever seen in movies. She was a strong woman who spoke to and for generations and for that, I’ll miss her badly. Damn, can you imagine how people will feel watching her in Episode 8? 

Overall, Rogue One is a strong entry in the Star Wars mythos. Solid performance from the cast even if the film doesn’t have the engaging characters like a Luke, Han, Leia, Rey, or Finn. It falters somewhat in the beginning but quickly picks itself up and goes all out in most of the 2nd act and in the entirety of the 3rd. While it may lack some of the personality and magic of previous films, it has its own unique depth by adding some grit to its more grounded tone.