#go legobiwan!

[legobiwan]

For a writing prompt: maybe something with Luigi and polterpup? Or just Luigi and ghosts in general. The fact that ghosts are Real and Present in that world has always been super fascinating and a little upsetting to me haha. Could be as light or as angsty as you wish I just think Luigi being terrified of ghosts and having to (or in polterpup’s case, choosing to) be around them constantly is a fun concept to toy around with.

Apologies this took so long, anon. I vastly underestimated the demands of my travel schedule over the past few weeks. Oof. But now we're back!

Minor TWs in this one for general talk of death, existentialism, and broad references to both animal and child death (nothing graphic, nothing extreme, no on-screen death).

~~~~~~~~~~~

Of Ghosts and the Afterlife (Luigi’s Mansion 1)

Luigi didn’t like to think about death.

Not that there was much he could do about it. Death was as inevitable as a subway car with broken air conditioning on a hundred-degree day.

There was no such thing as the afterlife, Luigi having long ago abandoned the faith his brother and what remained of their family clung to, a practice more cultural than spiritual, steeped in the mores and traditions of a country and people he shared little in common with beyond his last name and an untamable mane of wavy, thick brown hair. 

For Luigi, death was death - game over, end of the line, see you never. A philosophical problem he didn’t enjoy contemplating, but one he could easily shove into a forgotten closet of his subconscious, the more pressing concerns of his daily life taking up his mental energies, banal things like scraping up enough plumbing jobs to pay the rent, dealing with corroded spark plugs in the repair van, and being forced make a meal of the questionable meatball subs from the corner bodega.

Death was death. Religion was religion. And ghosts were…a fairytale, a folklore conjured to rationalize away the heavy weight of existential dread. That, or something used as a cudgel, to keep people on the side of moral righteousness, lest they be doomed to walk the earth for all eternity in the shadows of existence.

Ghosts were a thought experiment. A fun diversion in a cramped Bensonhurst studio, the heating bill long unpaid, he and his brother buried under a set of fraying blankets, their father’s hefty industrial flashlight in hand, competing to see who could scare the other the most as the D Train rattled its metal bones past their window at two in the morning.

Mario was good at stories. (Mario was good at everything). And it wasn’t that Luigi was afraid of the spirits his brother would describe in gruesome detail, the way they’d seep through cracks and keyholes, wrapping their grey, misty arms around skinny, lost children who kept too many secrets. No. He couldn’t be afraid because ghosts weren’t real.

Not until he had been unceremoniously dumped into the Mushroom Kingdom, that was. 

He could deal with the existence of Boos. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but he could at least assign them a category outside the paranormal. Boos were just another strange species, a bunch of floating marshmallows that looked like ghosts and acted like ghosts, but in no way were actual ghosts. Boos were something real, something alive, but beyond Earth’s limited taxonomies, just like everything else in this impossible world of talking mushrooms and tyrant turtles and evil wizards and booted dinosaurs and a million-and-one things that could leap out with fangs or fire or spikes and kill you at any moment - 

Death, he had once nervously told his brother over a campfire on the outskirts of Toad Town, felt like it had become a way of life. 

The letter had arrived on a crisp autumn morning, the early sunlight peeking through the gaps of Luigi’s drawn curtains. He remembered thinking it was a clean kind of light, unsullied by the drudgery of heavy coats and thick scarves, of greying slush and oily puddles pooling in the gutter, cigarette butts bobbing up and down like the stained buoys off Brighton Beach. Life had been, if not normal (he didn’t think he’d ever consider his existence in the Mushroom Kingdom normal), at least less chaotic than usual. There had been no invasions, no kidnappings, no pleas from neighboring kingdoms for help. For the first time in a long time, his daily routine was…pedestrian. A little boring, even. It was a nice change of pace.

He should have known better. Did know better. 

No one gave away mansions.

Yeah, and I’m sure they also have a bridge in Brooklyn they’d like to sell me he had muttered, crumpling up the notice, tossing it into a dented, mushroom-shaped garbage pail without another look as he groped for a gurgling coffee pot.

Three days later, a short, wiry old man was thrusting a souped-up vacuum into his hands, blathering all kinds of nonsensical instructions about ectoplasm and strobe lights and hearts and all that Luigi could think through the high-pitched static descending on onto his brain is that my brother is in danger and holy shit this entire mansion is filled with actual, real ghosts.

There was no time to wrap his head around the metaphysics of it all, the very real danger of being killed by an entire army of irate specters overriding any considerations as to the how or why of the entire situation. Ghosts apparently existed, not only as Boos, but as colorful, globulous forms, as cantankerous old knitting women, as mechanical, murderous toy soldiers, and worst of all, as small children and even screaming babies, the terrible implications of which rattled around Luigi’s already frenzied consciousness as he sucked the heart from a wailing infant, in all likelihood murdering it a second time. (A hazy memory had surfaced, a small, doll-like figure laid on a cheap, linoleum kitchen table, legs unstable as a small cadre of extended relatives wept and laid kisses on the child’s forehead. Forty and eight hour, their great-grandmother had commanded in broken English. To be sure the true dead. Spirito.)

It had been less than twenty-four hours, he reminded himself. Mario wasn’t dead. Or undead. Or whatever. Not according to tradition, and certainly not according to Luigi’s empirical observations (which seemed to be holding less and less weight as the paranormal evening drew on). No, he had seen his brother through the marble fangs of the dragon’s head. He was in the painting, banging for his life against an invisible prison of oils and canvas, his mouth open in a silent scream.

A victim of magic, but not a ghost.

Not if Luigi had anything to say about it.

He ran. Up broken, splintering sets of stairs; down dimly-lit corridors with threadbare rugging; through trap doors and flocks of toothy, golden bats, vacuum hose at the ready, sucking away at anything even resembling a ghost (how many curtains, how many dresses and bedsheets had he whisked into shreds all because of the ripple of a breeze or a trick of the light?)

He fought his way through chamber after chamber, slurping phantasms from earthly existence, unwilling to consider just what he’s damning his enemies to, if he’s killing them again, if they can feel pain or remorse, if this whole situation is maybe a figment of his imagination and in reality he’s back in Brooklyn, or worse, committed to a padded cell in Bellevue, colorful apparitions dancing on blank, white walls, the evidence of a broken mind. 

He found his brother’s portrait hung in a baroque, gilded antechamber, the room something as alien as the specters he had been fighting, his grimy boots sinking into blood-red, lush carpeting as gems and pearls and other precious-looking stones twinkled in the light of a silver candelabra. 

The keeper of Mario’s canvas prison turned to greet him, a gargantuan Boo with a jeweled crown named “King Boo” - an uninspired moniker if there ever was one - who pontificated at length, swearing vengeance on both Mario and Luigi, demanding reparations in blood and soul for crimes Luigi couldn’t even begin to understand, no less remember. 

Did I kill him? Luigi had panicked, rooted to the spot, Poltergust in hand as the Boo continued his long-winded diatribe. Is that why he’s a ghost? Did Mario do something? Luigi tried not to think too hard about the ethical dilemmas of their adventures, of their roles as protectors of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sure, people got hurt, that was the nature of the beast, but…

It didn’t matter, not when King Boo conjured a several-story tall likeness of Bowser, whisking Luigi through a portal to the stark rooftop of the dilapidated mansion to engage in a twisted game of cat-and-mouse (ghost-and-plumber), the giant Koopa puppet doing its best to stomp Luigi into a fiery, broken heap of ashes.

He escaped with his life. That, and the promise of retribution from beyond the grave, King Boo spitting all forms of vile epithets and visions of eternal pain as Luigi sucked the last of his bulbous form into the squealing, smoking Poltergust. 

When Mario was spat from E. Gadd’s printing machine, tumbling across the floor in a confused pile of limbs - his brother, real, corporal and definitely not dead - Luigi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

He never wanted to see - never wanted to think about another ghost again in his life.

Of Dogs (Luigi’s Mansion 2)

He supposed it made sense. In a way.

After all, if there were Boos, if there were ghost adults and ghost children and ghost babies - there were bound to be ghost dogs. Maybe ghost cats, as well. Hell, maybe an entire ghost civilization living (dying?) in tandem with his own flesh-and-blood world. 

He hated the idea. It trampled on every tenet of thermodynamics he had carved into his brain at the age of ten, made a mockery of the physics and chemistry and engineering that had carried him through adolescence and into adult life.

The Mushroom Kingdom - that was something he had at least managed to rationalize, had begun to construct a loose schematic for, notebooks upon notebooks filled with messy diagrams and rambling equations, an inadequate translation to his Earth-bound science, but one that allowed him to find some kind of solid footing in this incomprehensible new dimension.

Ghosts did not fit into his neatly constructed template. 

Least of all, ghost dogs.

Of course, the dog had to eat the key and run away, leading Luigi on a wild goose chase (he dearly hoped there was no such thing as ghost geese). He ran pellmell through gardens, through labs, through a series of mansions and other haun - 

Other decidedly creepy spots in the Evershade Valley. Places where he was left to battle groups of angry, globulous…shadows. Specters. Phantoms. Spirits. Poltergeists.

Ghosts. 

Again. 

He would have been angry if he weren’t so terrified. 

The dog, as much trouble as he was (He? She? Did it matter?) had at least not fallen under the spell of the Dark Moon, making him the Least Frightening Ghost of this particular run-in with the ethereal undead and King Boo.

And Luigi could almost get himself to…well…maybe not like him, but tolerate him. Even though the dog ate his keys, left messy trails of crumbs and soggy, half-eaten baguettes, slobbered all over Luigi’s pants, and managed at least once to urinate in a public fountain, a phenomenon Luigi would be puzzling over for months after the fact.

Best of all, the dog, unlike almost everyone else here, wasn’t bent on killing him. 

He was just a normal dog.

Who happened to be a ghost. 

Luigi wondered if he had had a family in life. Children to grow up with. A big house with a yard. He acted more like a puppy than an adult dog, his exuberant chaos reminiscent of the little Golden Retriever pup his second cousins had gotten when their family moved out to the Island. Oyster Bay, he remembers, real fancy stuff. Sal and Tony’s house had had trees. A garage. Separate bedrooms. He and Mario had begged for a dog for weeks after visiting, shuffling furniture around their tiny-windowed room, marking out places in purple chalk for the dog’s water bowl, his kibble, his toys.

Their father had grunted at the proposal, noting the two brothers would have to sleep in the same bed to make the space for their imaginary new pet. This ain’t no place for a dog, you two. You want animals, get a job with the pound. What, you’re still going to beg? Santa Maria. You two share that bed for a week without beating each other up and then come back to me. But I don’t like the odds. You boys haven’t shared a bed since you were seven. Five’ll get you ten you last forty-eight hours before someone’s fist is in the other one's face. 

They lasted three whole days before Luigi had planted his foot in Mario’s kidneys at two in the morning.

They never saw the dog in Oyster Bay again.

A car accident, real unfortunate stuff, Aunt Maria had told them later.

The memory haunted Luigi as he unholstered the Poltergust, forcing his fingers to twist dials and push at levers. He needed that key. It wasn’t just his life on the line if he failed. 

He squeezed his eyes shut as he sucked the ghost dog into the machine, trying his absolute best to ignore the little whines and terrified yips of the struggling not-animal. After what felt like an eternity, he heard the tell-tale “pop” of the Poltergust, signaling his success in capturing yet another ghost, the silver key clanging to the cobble-stoned ground.

Luigi had never felt less heroic in his life.

I just think he wanted someone to play with, E. Gadd had commented offhandedly later, emptying the Poltergust's canister into the gigantic silver ghost vault with his usual detached efficiency, oblivious to the way Luigi's features had paled at the comment.

When he got word of the dog’s escape a few hours later, Luigi didn’t even try to deny his relief.

Of Half-Lives and Vengeance (Luigi’s Mansion 3)

Fatigue. Carelessness. Hubris. Naivete. 

Or maybe it had just been sheer stupidity.

An invitation to vacation at an exclusive, luxury hotel, addressed to him. 

Nice things never happened to Luigi. Or if they did, he could hardly enjoy them, waiting on tenterhooks for the other boot to fall.

The boot fell that evening. It was ghosts. Of course, it was. Nearly twenty floors of ghosts. At this point, he could say he was almost used to it, the creeping shiver up his spine, the gluey residue of ectoplasm which would leave him tattooed with ugly, mottled rashes for weeks on end.

Once again, he had to act as a one-man army against the mass of spectral, malevolent will. Once again, his brother had been trapped in a painting.

There were differences, of course. Polterpup was by his side, the ethereal puppy proving more loyal to Luigi than his fellow spirits. (Luigi could never say Polterpup was "his" in the way most pet owners would lay claim to a regular cat or dog. The ghost puppy had a disturbing tendency to disappear for weeks, sometimes months on end, only to make his return in the most startling manner possible, more than once sending Luigi screaming, flailing off his bed at some weird, inconvenient hour of the night. But for as much as Polterpup could have a "home" - Luigi's house was it).

Luigi also had the help of his pseudo-clone, Gooigi, a horrifying creation of E. Gadd's, an unholy combination of ghostly discharge (the nature of which Luigi did not want to know), coffee, and, Luigi's own biological samples. An impossible being with whom he shared an inexplicable telepathic connection, and if Luigi had had any semblance of a minute to consider what that all meant (was he part ghost now? Could Gooigi outlive him? Would he maintain that consciousness after death?) he would have likely run screeching into the night.

(The fact Gooigi had proven essential to his continued existence did not distract from the wildly dubious ethics behind Gooigi's creation, an issue Luigi was definitely going to have a long talk with E. Gadd about at some point. If he could manage to broach the topic without falling into a breathless panic).

But the most striking aspect of his third encounter with King Boo and his minions, something that wriggled at the base of Luigi's cerebellum as he fought floor upon gimmicky floor the largest array of ghouls he encountered yet, was the element of premeditation.

King Boo had easily disposed of Mario, the Princess, and the Toads during their first midnight encounter. Sure, Luigi had escaped down a laundry chute, chest heaving as he toppled onto a pile of dirty towels. But that shouldn't have posed an issue for this crazed version of King Boo, a being who could literally phase through walls.

Luigi should have been dead, or worse than dead, ten times over.

No, King Boo had decided to wait. To draw out the deep, sustained hum of terror far beyond its final breath.

Security cameras were posted everywhere in the hotel. Luigi had no doubt the ghostly tyrant was following his every move, watching, salivating as he fought and struggled against Egyptian gods and malevolent Mozarts, and bearded, Bayou beasts. (Were these the literal souls of the departed? Was Mozart truly in these walls? Or was this like a ghost Halloween, a once-in-a-deathtime opportunity to fulfill that longing urge to finally be someone who you will never be?)

(He remembers being six years old. Remembers dressing as his brother for Halloween, Luigi stealing Mario's iconic red t-shirt, his parents pleading with him to go as anything else - a spider, a rat, a baseball player - Luigi refusing each entreaty. The other boys aren't going to like it, Luigi, his mother had said, consonants slurring. You're going to get the snot pounded out of you, Dad had added a beat later).

(In the end, he had thrown an old floral bedsheet over his head, not even bothering to cut out eyeholes. I'm a ghost! Luigi had boasted. You're a loser, Vinny Malanga had laughed).

And worst part of it was, Luigi knew it. Knew he could turn any corner, go down any dark hallway and be met with that signature violet gemstone, that bladed, fanged smile ready to slam an empty frame down on his head and trap him for all eternity in oil and canvas. 

Death waited in every shadow.

And King Boo was going to enjoy every minute of it.

Of Death (Epilogue)

Luigi thought he knew death. After three, separate encounters with buildings chock full of the undead, after countless hours spent in the company of the best paranormal researcher he knew (the only one he knew, admittedly), after providing part-time shelter for a genuine ghost puppy, after meeting his half-undead clone - Luigi considered himself, if not comfortable, at least conversant in the hows and whys of the afterlife. 

One day, he tried to stop a wedding between a princess and a monster.

Death, he would learn, was only the beginning.

[faesystem]

Inspired by this post by @legobiwan, which made me realise Mario and Luigi would absolutely have a co-dependency problem after the events of the movie.

Mario and Luigi both underwent a lot of trauma during the course of the movie. Beyond the more obvious experiences of Mario only just being in time to save Luigi from falling into literal lava and Luigi jumping in front of Mario with the manhole cover to shield him from fire, the entire movie has a lot of trauma that revolves around them fearing for the others safety.

They are clearly very close, so close that simply being with each other is enough to remain calm in the stressful situation of literally sucked into another dimension. Then they are torn away from each other.

Let us first look at what Luigi went through. He ended up in what I can only imagine felt like hell itself. I imagine during the ride to Bowser's castle, he would have been thinking about Mario. If that is where he ended up, what sort of awful place is Mario?

Then, as it turns out, a giant monster who seemingly has an army at his disposal is clearly very upset at his brother. Any joy at knowing Mario is alive was probably very quickly buried under the fact that it seems as though it will not stay that way. I like to imagine Luigi blurting out how amazing Mario is was less him being a poor liar, and more so because up until then his mind had been a mantra of, "Mario is fine he is amazing and can handle anything."

His blurted out answer makes the monster very angry at Mario. I guarantee the fact that Bowser said he is going to kill Luigi to get back at Mario was less important than the fact that he made Bowser mad enough at Mario to kill. Did he just write off on his brother's demise? Imprisoned with no way out, it certainly seemed like it.

On the other hand, we have Mario. He watched as his brother got ripped away from him and dragged into some dark place of nightmares. We know he did little but think of Luigi after this. Every single thing he did was to ensure Luigi was alright.

I believe that Mario is the sort of person who buries his feelings under actions. I do not believe that during the actual events of this he would be thinking about what-ifs. Perhaps once or twice he began to spiral, but spiraling does not help anyone. That does not mean that afterwards the fact that he did not know his brother was alive for so long, only to finally see him again as he barely saves him from the clutches of death, would not catch up to Mario.

I like to imagine that after the battle and a celebration, Mario and Luigi ended up in one of their rooms. Mario was gushing about how cool the Mushroom Kingdom is, and Luigi is so relieved to hear that Mario had a better time than he did. He made a comment about it, light hearted.

That is when the missing hours of time caught up to Mario. He stopped and asked what it was like for Luigi. Luigi described it, finding it harder to breathe the further along he got. Mario held onto his brother as he ended up in a full blown panic attack. His own feelings had begun to creep up at first, so he pushed them down. He needed to be there for Luigi.

Life carried on. The two brothers were closer than ever. Especially since they decided to move to the Mushroom Kingdom. That decision may have had something to do with Mario being unable to be outside without being reminded of the fact that Luigi jumped in front of fire with nothing but a manhole cover. That Luigi could have died then, because of him. Because he was not good enough.

No, that is not the point.

Mario and Luigi never left each others side. Any moments apart were only those that were completely unavoidable. During those moments Mario was paranoid that Luigi was hurt. He kept thinking of all of the things that could have gone wrong, could be going wrong. Luigi felt like a lost puppy. Weak, afraid and unable to defend himself should something go wrong.

I would say it is probably Toad who eventually staged a sort of intervention, bringing Peach and DK along with him. Peach was incredibly uncomfortable and felt as though this is not her place. Toad had no such qualms, and told her that is why she had to come. If she was not there, who would make sure they did not overstep? DK is not one to care about what is and is not his place, but he did care that he was more likely to make the situation worse than anything else. He only went because Toad said that him being there would make Mario be more likely to be receptive. He did not really understand how or why, but he was a bit (very) concerned about the loser (his friend) and it is not like he had anything better to do. Toad actually had no idea if it would help, he just felt like was probably what he was meant to do.

Toad sat them down and said, "This is an intervention! You need to not be so close!"

So Peach stepped in and ended up taking over the conversation. She explained that they were too dependent on each other to the point where it was preventing them from healing. She stressed that it is causing harm to the both of them, appealing to their need to make sure the other is alright.

Mario asked what they were meant to do, and no one had an answer. Luigi then said they should probably see a therapist. Mario hated hearing that answer because that meant going back to Brooklyn, and that means no powerups, that means no way to protect-

No.

For Luigi.

They no longer had a job on Earth so their family was footing the bill. They did not wish to cause strain, so they went to the cheapest therapist they could find. They walked into the office and the therapist instantly recognised them. She asked if they were there to speak about the Bowser situation, they confirmed, and she told them she was not qualified for that. Mario began to get upset at that, but she went on to say that they really need someone qualified to handle it. Luigi said that they could not afford that, she said that that is really fucked up since they saved Brooklyn and maybe the whole world.

She directed them to a journalist friend she knew and suggested they begin a Go-Fund-Me. Within just a few days, the Go-Fund-Me was more than filled, medical bills completely covered, and the government was giving them a veteran pension that would continue filling up their bank accounts even if they lived in the Mushroom Kingdom.

They were able to see not just a qualified professional, but an entire team. When it came to working on the co-dependency, they planned with their friends an hour in which Luigi would be with DK in the castle while Mario and Peach ran the training course together. Mario knew how formidable of a fighter DK is, even without powerups. Running the course gave Mario something to do, something that would help him protect Luigi better in the future. By the end of the hour he was surprised how much time had gone by. Anxiety crept in, but he found his brother safe and sound.

For Luigi? That hour was perhaps the longest hour of his life. The moment Mario left his sight he began to panic. He trusted his brother's judgment, he knew he was safe, but also he needed Mario there to protect him. It was irrational and stupid and he refused to let it get in the way of helping Mario with his healing, so he did his best to power through it.

DK was woefully unprepared to deal with a panicking Luigi for an hour. He did his best to keep him entertained to distract him from his panic. This ranged from showing how long he can keep a handstand to challenging various Toad guards to fights. It did not exactly help with the panic, but it gave Luigi something to focus on.

By the time it had reached 25 minutes, Luigi moved to an area of the castle where he could see Mario through a window. He knew if something went wrong he could just break it and yell for help. It helped immensely, not that it helped address the dependency problems.

He was content enough with the fact that he had not interrupted Mario in his path to healing that he decided he was not going to mention it. DK told Mario, who told their team, who began setting up plans that would ease Luigi into it better.

They had Luigi begin to train how to fight with Peach. At first he just found it training and tiring, but as time went along he felt himself getting better. He felt stronger. It also helped Mario, who felt more and more confident that Luigi could hold his own until he got there should something go wrong.

Their recovery was lengthy and imperfect. Many times something would happen that would have one or both of them feeling like they were back at square 1. But they got through it. Together, individually, and with the support of their friends and professionals.

[rochenn]

silly question but do you have any dooku fic recs. i'm desperate 😭

YES of course! sorry if you've read any of these already but i'm just linking the ones that came to mind :'D

i have lived with shades so long [55k, incomplete] by blackkat

reading this right now! super interesting and original premise of dooku being a delightful (manipulative?) grandpa to feemor. this fic has some niche pairings and characters going on but oh boy am i invested!

faith [4k, complete] by @h1myname1sv

i'm just in awe of how someone can manage to believably make dooku turn around in such a short story. lineage drama, force ghost qui-gon, what more could you ever want?

fics by @legobiwan that eat me alive:

divergences [125k, incomplete]

slow burn of obi-wan being drawn to dooku's cause and the dark side. this is the fic that sold me on dark!obi-wan. his descent feels so narratively earned here! his dynamic with dooku is absolutely delicious, too.

forward motion [8k, complete]

hung [91k, incomplete]

INTRIGUING concept. qui-gon gets unwittingly resurrected by dooku during the clone wars. just a total blast if you want lineage drama and a healthy scoop of angst!

dooku contemplating his life in the moment of his death. delightful read, so bittersweet and sad, and a great look into his psyche. also, rael averross is in it!!

-

three days of thawing [15k, complete] by @prahacat

NO66 au in which dooku is banished to a remote planet after tcw. just such a gorgeous and calming read! wonderful introspection and great use of setting. there's also implied past dooku/obi-wan in case that is or isn't your cup of tea

broken cadence [16k, complete] by ruth baulding

currently in the middle of this one. dooku is a cruel asshole in this but i love him for it <3

nobody's pawn [2k, complete] by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly

dooku doesn't let himself get betrayed aboard the invisible hand. it's part of a 10-part series that i haven't read completely yet, but so far i am very entertained!

can't return to who i was before [82k, complete] by K_R_Closson

this one is really popular. i love it a lot. time travel fix-it in which post-ANH obi-wan wakes up as an initiate and ends up as dooku's padawan. so good!!

anyway! everyone can feel free to add on to this list, i am always frothing at the mouth for new recs as well :'D

[mostthingskenobi]

Hi! I really appreciate your work and love your podcast. (Also you're speaking very clean English which definitely helps to understand everything as it's not my first language)

So, I have just finished your breakdown of the "Escape from Kadavo" and I totally agree that it didn't have the closure you'd expect from an arc like this. I think it's one of the reasons why post-Kadavo fanfiction is so popular. And because of that I wanted to ask if you have a favorite one about this topic?

I like the first half of Memoirs of Kadavo by Siri_Kenobi12 for example, but I've read a lot of others and just can't pick a favorite.

Thanks in advance :)

Hi there!! Thank you so much for your kind words!! I truly appreciate you!

The Kadavo arc is the reason I learned what fan fiction was LOL!! I felt such intense unresolved tension the first time I watched it that I went in search of something that would satisfy my needs.

I discovered "Undoing Dichotomy" by @legobiwan 💜 I haven't read it for some time but it was the kind of experience where you find a fic that you can't put down. I stayed up all night reading it. It's such a fond memory.

I have read a few other ones but none that I liked that much. That's partly why I like to write fics...I really struggle to find exactly what I'm looking for, so I write it for myself LOL! That's why I wrote "The Secret Duke of Mandalore." That fic was a guilty pleasure for me. It takes place right after Kadavo; Obi-Wan is so damaged by what he experienced that the Jedi Council forces him to take leave. He doesn't know where else to go, so he goes to see Satine. It's one of my most popular fics. I think even Anna Graves has read it 😅😅😅 Which is just terrifying to me LOL!!!!

I'll have to check out the fic you mentioned. I am always in the market for a good Kadavo/whumpy Obi-Wan fic!!

[gnomiwizard]

If you receive this, you make somebody happy! Go send this to 10 of your followers who make you happy or somebody you think needs cheering up. If you get one back, even better :3

I don’t really like chain posts but this one is really sweet, so..

@the-daily-loser @the-one-who-watches-wii @legobiwan @lizadale @lilacs-stash @thickerthanectoplasm @lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks @taxeandstuff

:D

[ladylucksrogue]

Tagging Game!

Thanks for the tag, @quigonsjeans! 💕

name: Jessi (personal identifying information?? On my Tumblr??)

pronouns: it's complicated, technically she/her, but here on Tumblr They/them, if you please

where do you call home?: Phoenix, Az, although I live in Berlin, Germany.

favorite animal: Tiger

cereal of choice: chex

are you a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? visual.

first pet? Koko the Hamster

favorite scent? coffee, fresh laundry, anything cinnamon, cedar, sandalwood

do you believe in astrology? I really really want to sometimes. I love the hokiness of astrology and enjoy it. I am very much a virgo. I love delving into numberology and horoscopes and such but I know that it is not real

how many playlists do you have on spotify/apple music? I have just discovered spotify, so I am still on my first playlist.

sharpies or highlighters?Neither? I am a leftie, a really nice pen that doesn't smear is far more important

a song that makes you cry: ugh, this might be embarrasing...hmm...Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood...I was going through a really bad time in my life when I heard it the first time...and every time it just hits me hard.

a song that makes you happy: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. I can't help but crank it up and smile, also Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams

and finally, do you write/draw/create? if so, use this as an opportunity to shamelessly (😉) promote yourself!

I have been writing fanfiction since 1999...crazy. The stuff on my A03 account don't reach that far back but I have a few oldies there.

I started off in a music fandom back when, and moved on to DBZ, a few of my stories are still around, then it was One Piece, my longest story to date is on there. It's good but I burned myself out on it hardcore, not to mention the fandom. There are like two chapters missing to complete it and I don't know if I will ever be able to finish it, which is unfortunate. I did a story for the series Lucifer after that. My most recent story is, I completed the Whumptober challenge last year, I wrote at least a thousand words for 30 days straight, for Star Wars...I was super proud. I am currently working on a year on the run Obitine story, I've got two chapters written and plan on posting soon...

I tag @sendpseuds, @duchess-of-mandalore, @elwenyere, @frostbitebakery, @forcearama, @glimmerglanger, @hedgehog-moss, @journen, @kyberjelly, @legobiwan, @notaghost3, @phoenixyfriend, @padawansuggest, @spectral-musette, @v

[piepeloe]

Nine (9) People You’d Like to Know Better

I was tagged by @captaingondolin. Thank you so much, I never get to play these games :)

Last Song: I had to go and check, but I think it was Heaven's Light/Hellfire from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack. That song is amazing, what can I say? And if that's not the most recent one, it probably will be something showtune-y, so it's pretty representative.

Currently Watching: Secret Invasion, and it's better than most of the recent MCU stuff, but I'm still not superhyped for any of it. Looking forward to Good Omens S2 more. I also got started on a rewatch of The Clone Wars, but that 1st season is rough and I sort of stalled.

Currently Reading: Just finished Where the Crawdads Sing. It was for the bookclub we've got going at work and not really something I would have chosen, but still pretty good. I'm also halfway through Philip Pullman's Northern Lights (yes, I'm very late to the party) and I've got some SW novels still waiting

Current Obsession: My friend and I are vaguely planning a trip to Disney World, so I'm watching YT videos and trying not to let people freak me out too much with all the planning they say is needed. But tbh even that is a distraction, it's just that there's nothing to plan yet for SW Celebration 2025, since it's, well, in 2025.

Tagging (but no pressure!): @anotherhawk, @legobiwan, @butihavejoy, @larkin21, @oh-little-owl, @schudwitz, @gabriel4sam, @anarea, @r-2-peepoo

[pandora15]

19 & 35!

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten?

Uhhh I can’t think of anything?? Maybe duck? I literally had a bite just because I was curious, but that counts, right?

35. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life?

I’m honestly in a really good place right now, and I can say that I would pretty much live my life the way I am now. There are things I want to do, like going to grad school and improving some things about myself that I’m still working on, but overall I wouldn’t want many things to change.

[gizkalord]

i think it's interesting how in the mortis arc, obi-wan is the only one of the trio who didn't fall to the dark side. did the Son just go "oh too much work" because ... i think anakin would move heaven and earth to save his master and if obi-wan went sith it would be a nice parallel to mustafar in rots

narratively speaking, obi-wan serves as the "model jedi"—someone who believed in his jedi calling despite all the tragedy and pain he's endured. if he fell at any point, i feel that undermines the significance that he holds in the sw universe. the enduring impression of obi-wan to me is the lonely, desert hermit who spent years of his life protecting luke, largely because of his singular, unshakable faith in the force, in goodness. i think his tcw/rebels story line with maul was more than enough to explore obi-wan being tempted to the dark side, so i’m glad they didn’t make him fall in the mortis arc!

as a side note though, @legobiwan wrote a fantastic meta here imagining how/why each of the disaster lineage would fall to the dark side if they did, and i particularly like their interpretation of obi-wan!

[inqorporeal]

Heads Up - Seven Up Challenge:

If you are tagged in this post you have to post the last seven sentences of the last WIP you’ve worked on and tag seven more people to keep the challenge going!

I got tagged by both @bluemaskedkarma and @madluluwriting

To say Tovari had been merely impressed by the place Scogar -- Obi-Wan (could he not just choose one name?!) -- had put together with his new clan would have been a vast understatement. The compound was large, but subtle rather than marring the landscape. When she'd asked about the visible polyculture, everyone had said it was Scogar's idea; the results prevented the soil from being depleted, and reduced the needs for pest control.

And there were so many people. She hadn't been prepared for that. Scogar's daughter -- she'd known Zohli existed thanks to Feid's infrequent text updates, but never to any real detail -- was already taking after her father, and it was thrilling to see. The protectiveness radiated toward her by the man who could only have been Jango Fett was precious; there was definitely something between Scogar and Fett, and while Tovari wasn't certain how she felt about that for her friend's sake, the erstwhile Mand'alor was clearly invested.

Tagging uhhhhhhh... @manyangledone, @shadow-spires, @persephonechiara, @meggory84, @feybarn, @legobiwan, and @teknon

[legobiwan]

How do you think an interaction with dimentio, king boo and antasma would go? Because I feel like they would make for an interesting interaction also their thoughts on luigi yeah a lot of room for thinking there

So I need to preface this by stating that there is a fantastic, albeit unfinished, comic series that delves into this EXACT scenario:

LINK

I entreaty the gods and whoever else on a regular basis that this will one day get updated, but alas, I do most definitely understand the mercurial nature of the muses and the regrettable demands of everyday life. So it goes.

ANYWAY (and I write this with the caveat that I'm only about 2/3 of the way through Dream Team, although I am familiar with the story beats).

Interactions

Both Antasma and King Boo are pretty straightforward about their lust for power and control, so I feel they would be in a constant tug of war over who was the actual leader of their little demented trio. (Dimentio, on the other hand, is probably sharpening his knife while lying in a hammock and sipping at a fruity cocktail, waiting for the other two to tear each other to shreds).

I do feel that eventually, King Boo would win out in the end, just because he has more physical (metaphysical?) power in the real world, setting up an uncomfortable hierarchy wherein each being sees themselves at the pinnacle of by hook (Antasma), crook (Dimentio), or just outright murder (King Boo).

Essentially, they get along well enough to plot each other's demise and also band together against a common foe, who would be...

Ah, yes. Luigi.

So. This gets interesting.

King Boo outright loathes Luigi and wants his head on a wall (or a canvas). But he doesn't want to make it easy. A quick death would be too kind, too merciful for the humiliation he has put King Boo through and he wants Luigi to suffer, to recognize King Boo as his superior before he is granted the release of death which itself is a false promise, Luigi's eternal torture in canvas all but guaranteed.

Antasma, on the other hand, seeks revenge, but is more similar to Dimentio in that he wants to use Luigi. Yes, he will betray and destroy him in end, but Luigi's power in the Dream Realm is unprecedented for someone who is not a Pi'illo Island native. And beyond this, Antasma has had the opportunity to sneak into his subconscious though his dreams (nightmares), can identify all the little weaknesses that crack in the buttress of his personality. Antasma won't share, but likely would seek to bring Luigi, or Dreamy Luigi, into his thrall.

Dimentio (arg, Dimentio), who you may gather is my favorite character of this trio - surprisingly (or not) has no taste for revenge. At least, not against Luigi. What he does want is to manipulate Luigi to his side, to not only use him but also, in a strange way, to find a comrade-in-arms. I think Dimentio actually likes Luigi in his own bizarre way and would rather Luigi come to his side by his own accord rather than by brute force (the Floro Sprout was a necessary evil, in his mind, something forced by the confines of time and the impending apocalypse). This isn't to say Dimentio is good by any means - he's righteous bastard magic man and I will stand by that descriptor. But his relationship with Luigi is complicated, especially after their merge with the Chaos Heart, and for Dimentio, it would be far more rewarding for Luigi to come to him of his volition, for the two of them to wreak the chaos he so desperately desires (and which Luigi holds so much capability for) together.

Now, how these different aims play out as the three plot their ultimate victories (which take a variety of shapes) - well, that could be a story in itself.

[jedi-order-apologist]

@legobiwan replied to your post “<p>It's nice to get confirmation that Filoni drinks the Qui Gon is One...”

I'm curious what Filoni said...but I LOVE the GL explanation. Qui-gon is a super-complicated character, especially given his training with Dooku, and I personally don't think him training Anakin would have led to a better outcome. A different one, yes, but not necessarily better.

There was a long discussion about it yesterday, but basically, in the behind-the-scenes video for the most recent TCW episode, Filoni said some...confusing stuff regarding Qui-Gon being the one to get selfless love “the most right” and that that was passed down to Ahsoka. Specifically, he says:

And to me, when you look at the Jedi in the prequel era, the one Jedi that has it most right is Qui-Gon because Qui-Gon understands that you can still love someone as long as you don’t try to possess them, as long as you can let them go. He is selfless. Ahsoka is on a selfless path. And because Qui-Gon taught Obi-Wan taught Anakin taught her, that teaching is in her. She gets the benefit of Anakin and Obi-Wan. Both of them teach her throughout the course of her life. And so she has kind of a nicely balanced view of things where a lot of Jedi, I don’t think, have that.

Which...uh, again, there was a discussion on this yesterday but basically I’m not seeing any of this addressed in the films, Lucas doesn’t talk about anything like this when he talks about Qui-Gon, and the expanded material that I’m familiar with most definitely does not subscribe to this interpretation of Qui-Gon.

So while Filoni isn’t exactly saying that Qui-Gon training Anakin would’ve been better, he is expressing similar sentiments about Qui-Gon that the people who do claim that also say, so I’m not surprised anon took that away from his statements.

Personally, I like what Lucas says a lot better, and find it to make more sense with what we actually see. My own interpretation is that Qui-Gon is well-meaning and tries to do the right thing, but that he can get so caught up in what he wants/thinks the Force wants (and has trouble distinguishing between the two), that he doesn’t always consider other people or how his actions affect other people. So I really do not vibe with the idea that he is the ideal of what the Jedi should be, or that he’s somehow better or more right than the other Jedi; and I don’t see how that interpretation is supposed to be supported by the source material.

[mostthingskenobi]

Rules: Make a new post and post your latest line from your WIP & tag as many people as there are words.

Thank you for the tag @ladyzirkonia

The truth is...if I share the last sentence that I wrote I will literally give the whole ending of my fic away LOL!!! So I’m going to go back a chapter or 2 and use one of those lines.

This is from Cassian’s Reckoning

The floor beneath their feet burst, followed by a huge ball of fire and steam.

I don’t know if I have 15 people I can tag 😐 Here are some no pressure tags: @jedimasteradam @jurnaaa @legobiwan @starwarsite oh my god I legit can’t think of anymore accounts I follow that have writers...so if you’re a writer, please feel free to play along and tag me so I can see what you post 💜

[piepeloe]

I posted 349 times in 2022

107 posts created (31%)

242 posts reblogged (69%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gffa

@glimmerglanger

@legobiwan

@forcearama

@captaingondolin

I tagged 191 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#spoilers - 85 posts

#obi-wan kenobi - 60 posts

#obi wan kenobi series - 44 posts

#obi wan kenobi spoilers - 36 posts

#bucky barnes - 19 posts

#she-hulk - 9 posts

#she-hulk spoilers - 8 posts

#bruce banner - 7 posts

#book of boba fett - 7 posts

#bobf - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 129 characters

#the story they've given her does a disservice to literally every character from catfa: steve erskine bucky not to mention her own

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Movies release on Wednesday here, so I've seen it! Will describe some general vibes then go in deeper detail behind the cut and tag for spoilers to be safe.

It's an extremely entertaining movie. It's fast-paced, as in it starts with an action sequence, doesn't make a mystery about the villain or quest or whatnot, just bam, straight to the point. Love it.

It does mean there's some very abrupt shifts in tone. I feel like it adds to the whole unsettling vibe. It's not a rollercoaster of *emotions*, but it is 'one damn thing after another' so I feel it works.

Seriously though, it goes from really creepy to introspective to ridiculous to gross to sugary sweet to sad and back.

Like with NWH I was worried the movie would have too much fun with the multiverse to do any character exploration or development. But again like NWH, it was through the multiverse shenanigans that we got that development, which is fantastic.

I am curious what both movies were like before their release dates got switched. Because they would have been very different.

There's no typical final act massive battle against CGI monsters or lasers or whatever! There's definitely a bunch of fighting and CGI, but it's atypical for an MCU movie IMO. And the resolution is based more on the characters and their emotions.

There are 2 post-credits scenes: first one is something I still need to google because I have no idea what happened. Second one was a joke/call-back to an earlier joke.

More specifics behind the cut, definite spoilers!

There's a lot of focus on Strange's relationship with Christine, which is weird since they were exes and somewhat friendly coworkers in the 1st one. But they actually use that, and examine it, and move on. The movie could have worked without it, but it's fine.

Not enough Wong. Seriously. He had great moments and I love his friendship with Strange. Not nearly enough Wong.

America Chavez was really the MacGuffin here, so she didn't get that much to do. But I can see how she'd be fun in a Young Avengers line-up.

The Illuminati were pretty much the people that everyone has been guessing. IMO, they were used well, but I feel like a lot of fans will disagree. Basically they went up against Wanda and lost. Like, it wasn't even close. We meet them, and a scene later they all die horribly.

Because yes, Wanda is the villain. And the movie commits to it. She's freaking terrifying. In what she can do, but also why, and because we know her. Like a mix of the Winter Soldier and Thanos?

I'm not quite sure what the ending means for her. It's supposed to be a Darth Vader ending with one last selfless act before dying, but I don't trust it at all. It'd be cool if they stuck with it, but there's no way.

As far as I can tell there's no major shake-up of the MCU either? Fans had expected they'd use this movie to bring mutants in, or that something else 'big' would happen. I suppose it's hard to tell what would cause a stir, since no one seems that fussed about a Celestial breaking out of the Earth either.

20 notes - Posted May 4, 2022

#4

Obi-Wan Kenobi S1E1-2: Larses/Luke

We don't see much of them, but I love what we do.

Just enough of Luke, to definitely confirm that he's Anakin's son, really rubbing that in but not going overboard. I love Obi-Wan saving up for a toy he doesn't even hand over in person.

But Owen steals the show. The performance is amazing, and the character remains sympathetic. He's not made out to be a jerk. He's just looking out for Luke. After his encounter with the Inquisitor it's absolutely clear he doesn't actually hate Obi-Wan, that he knows Luke is safer with him around, that he understands the danger.

I hope we see more of him (and Beru!)

22 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#3

Obi-Wan Kenobi S1E1-2: Clone trooper(s)

I had gone back and forth between hoping/expecting clones and not daring to. Because Temuera Morrison would have been filming Boba Fett, but would there be clones left after 10 years? And I desperately want Cody, except I don't because they might kill him off.

After the recap I figure we probably won't get a lot of clone trooper(s) featuring in the story, so having one show up was a shock.

Totally heartbreaking one too. Love that Obi-Wan didn't hesitate and just gave him credits.

I'm really curious about this trooper now. Why is he not with the Empire? How does he still have his clone trooper gear?

People have suggested he's 501st, but I think it's the wrong color blue for that. This seems more teal, like the one clone we met on S1 of Bad Batch.

I kind of think this is all the clone content we're getting but I hope not. Because this really makes me wonder once again about what Obi-Wan knows re:the chips and Order 66.

25 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#2

As much as I love Captain Rex and would love to see Temuera Morrison play a live action version of him, I would be kind of miffed if it was (only) him that showed up in the Kenobi series.

We know where he winds up, plus he was Anakin and Ahsoka's 2nd, not Obi-Wan's.

Meanwhile we have no idea what happened to Cody after Utapau, even though he was ridiculously high up in the chain of command, Kenobi's 2nd, and apparently invented the Bad Batch. Plus, you know, it would make sense, as he's one of the only live action clones we've seen and he was the one to kick off O66.

34 notes - Posted March 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

LOL, @forcearama I think maybe you're onto something with someone on the show reading your blog:

Chow added: "I mean, there are of course more stories that you could tell. There's obviously another 10 years before we get to A New Hope and with a character like Obi-Wan Kenobi, I think even just watching him ride across the sand sometimes is interesting.

71 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[whumpyoulookingat]

Hello!! I just rewatched some of clone wars, and I’m starving for some good Obi wan whump fanfic. Preferably non-slash. Do you know any good ones?

Hey!!! I haven’t had an opportunity to read anything new for a few years, but it was fun to dive back into my AO3 bookmarks. None of the following are slash.

Have you read any of my fics?? They are all very whumpy.

The Jedi and His Duchess is about to go heavy whump.

Bloody Escape is one of my most popular fics, and it’s a one-off so it’s not super long.

Wounded Jedi is another popular whumpy fic.

The Dark Side of Obi-Wan Kenobi series has some good whump in it.

The Secret Duke of Mandalore is emotional whump.

If you’ve already read my stuff, here is some other stuff I have saved in my bookmarks.

Undoing Dichotomy by @legobiwan is a reimagining of the Kadavo story. So good!!

Pain is very Qui-Gon heavy, but it’s cool because it’s about Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon learning the same horrible lesson about violence.

Stained and Undone are both about little baby apprentice Obi-Wan. They are both really good. They’re based on the Jedi Apprentice series but I actually like these fics better than the original books.

Hope you enjoy a few of these :) Thanks for asking!!!!

[gffa]

22 for the meme,

22. favorite droid?ARTOO-DEETOO, HANDS DOWN.LOOK AT THIS LOYAL DROID FRIEND:

BUT ALSO ARTOO SPEAKS FOR US ALL, LIKE IF I WAS GOING TO BE ONE CHARACTER IN STAR WARS IT WOULD BET H I S:

IF I WERE GOING TO BE ANYONE IN STAR WARS, I WOULD BE ARTOO.AND FOUL-MOUTH DROID CONFIRMED:

And, finally, you will never convince me that Artoo isn’t straight up mocking Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith, as headcanoned first by @legobiwan:

BEEP BOOP LOOK AT ME I CAN ACT LIKE AN EXTRA FUCKER TOO, MASTER KENOBI.