#heck i also do this with star wars half the time

[sailforvalinor]

Alas, they've found me (the Ahsoka haters found my posts)

[that-ari-blogger]

Go Now, Be At Peace (Hero)

One of my favourite things to see filmmakers play around with is time. As in, the information isn’t given to the audience linearly, and instead it is at the author’s beck and call.

This would seem easy, but the trick is making it work. Naturally, if you write a story and turn around in the final instalment and say “wait, I actually had a sister and a secret best friend this entire time”, it will feel like you have cheated. But if you can stick the landing, messing around with time is the juiciest writing technique out there. At least to me.

Case and point, the gimmicky emotional rollercoaster that is Hero.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

First up, yes, this episode is gimmicky as all heck, and that is exactly what I love about it.

I think we see a lot of criticism about how certain tropes are bad, but that really isn’t the case at all. If a story gets you invested enough, you can see it coming a mile off and it will still hit you like a truck.

There are even tropes that rely on you knowing what they are, with doomed heroes coming to mind most readily, but we’ll get there in a moment.

If we define a trope simply as a repeated literary element external to a story, then if that is by definition bad, symbolism doesn’t work in the same way.

Half of symbolism is external. This is Tumblr, that’s what colour theory is, you all know this. The red carpet represents happy thoughts and warmth and healing.

In this episode, for example, there is a ton of discussion about the Heart Of Etheria project, which is described thusly:

“It was supposed to be an energy source, capable of so much good. But that's not what they made.”

“How will destroying worlds bring peace?”

The Heart of Etheria project is a nuclear weapon. That’s what the symbolism is communicating here. The First Ones may not have been the antagonists in their war, but their ends did not justify the means, at least not in… hold on a sec. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

The symbolism here draws on the same ideas as Star Wars to create a feeling of unknowable terror. The first ones didn’t care about Etheria, they wanted to use it as a pawn in their own war.

The series dwells pretty heavily on the thematic idea of abuse being a cycle, and the Heart Of Etheria is a pretty potent symbol for that. In order to escape their own abuse, the first ones created something that would hurt others. In order to regain personhood, they took power from a planet.

They claimed the agency of someone else, leaving a vacuum in its place.

On the other hand, the series does have some heavy internal symbolism, that being through the dichotomy of magic and technology.

“I need the sword to control She-Ra's magic.”

“Ha! She-Ra was here long before your people arrived. You cannot control magic! Magic simply is.”

Technology, specifically that of the First Ones, but also from the Horde, is synonymous with control. Which puts magic in the role of freedom, specifically that of agency. Magic just is.

“Is”. The third-person singular present tense of “to be”.

Magic is the very concept of being. It is the freedom to do stuff. What stuff? Any stuff you want. Free from restraints and shackles, free from the will of others.

There are exceptions to this rule, and they are characters. Shadow Weaver, who uses magic to control, and Entrapta, the master technician who is unrestrainable. This gets watered down to their apprentices, with Glimmer and Bow respectively, and in the middle of this is Adora.

But the fact that these are exceptions to the rule kinda proves that there is a rule here.

And those exceptions are explained pretty handily, at least with Shadow Weaver and Glimmer. They are using dark magic, not in the way it wants to be used. They are forcing the magic to do what they want, and taking its agency from it, as well as using it to murk characters onscreen.

Bow, meanwhile, uses tech to coordinate, specifically in the sense of battlefield control. And Entrapta seeks only to understand, and knowledge is power. But she never tries to control anyone. Freedom is a big thing for Entrapta, and I honestly don’t have a reading of how she plays into this. I’ll let you know if this changes.

This is an in-text symbol that has meaning. Like an external one, it can be done well or poorly depending on the story, much like time nonlinearity.

Which brings me to my issue with writing this analysis:

For my coverage of the fourth season of She-Ra, I have been avoiding talking about Adora and Catra, because I will devote most of the final season to them. The problem here, is that Hero is set up around the parallels between Adora and her predecessor. The time nonlinearity serves to exacerbate those similarities, to the point where avoiding mentioning Adora even slightly is a detriment to the episode.

So, be aware that she is there, as I try to ignore her for the purposes of this post.

Anyway, the main character of this episode is Razz, and my question from about a season ago still stands here. Why is Razz in this story? How do I read the theming of an old lady who has lived thousands of years, and has met everyone under the sun? How do I read a character who is displaced in time? Why is that significant?

I have a thesis, and you’ll have to bear with me on this.

In my reading, Razz is Etheria. Maybe not literally, but on a story level, I think Razz and Etheria are one and the same. Razz saves and is saved by the previous She-Ra in a similar fashion to how Etheria teaches and is protected by her, and she befriends Adora in the same way. She gets temporally shunted because she sees the She-Ras as the same. To her, they are different and the same, and the order of events isn’t important.

Part of why I love this episode and its time travel shenaniganry is that it leverages that for emotion. There is a building dread in this episode, specifically through that pie.

Razz will never get to enjoy that pie with her friend, you know this from the start. So, when Mara walks through the door the first time, your heart sinks.

This episode is also about Mara, and I will get to the final scene in a minute, but first, introductions.

Mara starts the episode laughing. She closes it crying. This episode shows the breaking down of this character, and I cannot think of a better example.

This episode sets up Mara as incredibly intelligent. She pieces together the Heart of Etheria plan, but she also works out that Adora will need guidance, and that she can offer that via someone who would know. She knows that Razz will guide Adora to where she needs to be, and leaves messages.

She also acts as an audience surrogate for Razz to exposit themes to.

“It’s all right. No one here will hurt you.”

The theme here is pretty obvious. Things lash out when they are scared, and all you need to do to achieve peace is to be gentle. Mara, a person who is here to end a war, is trying to achieve that peace. But we have seen the cost of that.

I'm running out of space, so if you've seen How To Train Your Dragon, you know what this is. This is about trust with the other and coming together despite differences. This is about comradery with the planet itself. Mara needs to not rush at things, and instead wait, and be gentle. They will come to her.

I did a word search on the transcript of this episode for the word “peace”, and I found that it comes up thrice. When Mara and Light Hope argue, and here, when Mara calms down the animal.

“Go, be at peace.”

As a side note, the fighting styles of Mara and Adora are very different. Adora relies on strength and athleticism to win her battles. She can go toe to toe with Huntara and is the slower combatant when she fights Catra. But Mara flips around the battlefield like a gymnast or a dancer. The two come from different places, trained by opposite sides, it’s no wonder they fight differently.

When Light Hope presents her own worldview, or rather, that of her superiors, her wording is important.

“The Heart of Etheria has been activated. Your mission will be fulfilled. There will be peace throughout the galaxy. You will be a hero.”

Hero’s a funny word, ain’t it? It means someone you can look up to, and in war times, it is presented as loyalty and dedication to the cause. The ANZACs were heroes, for example.

Here, it is used as a trophy for Mara. She will be declared a hero, an empty title, just for doing what she is told.

But She-Ra doesn’t agree with this definition. In She-Ra, a hero saves people. In She-Ra, Mara is a hero because she disobeyed her orders to follow her better judgement and notably, she never gets called that in this episode.

Instead, she gets a monologue. She uses her last moments to give the next generation hope for the future and try to let them know of her mistakes. She sees the cycle of abuse, and she couldn’t break it, but she could leave tools for the next rotation to try and use.

Then Razz, the embodiment of the planet she saved, calls her brave, and leaves her a pie.

Mara is gone, Adora isn't looking at her predecessor, she's looking at an empty chair. She's looking at the absence of a person, the loss of a friend. She is looking at the legacy of someone she looks up to.

This episode doesn’t give you closure, because it’s not trying to. It is trying to make you feel empty. We meet Mara for just a moment, and then she is gone, and we know that, and yet we still get attached.

If that hologram hadn’t cut off exactly when it did, we would have seen Mara die. A millisecond later, and we would have watched it happen.

We watch an entire journey in this episode, everything we needed to know, and then it ends, with silence, as the credits role. The embodiment of the planet itself offers Mara a pie as a grave gift. She’s returning the favour. Go now be at peace.

"She said she would come back. She promised. We were going to make a pie. I've been waiting for so long."

I need to talk about the thing with promises, and specifically breaking them. In previous episodes, Adora promised Catra she would look out for her, and failed, and Mara made Razz a promise she knew she would never keep. Why?

The obvious reason is that unkept promises are a key source of dramatic irony, especially when you know the end point before it is said. In comedy, this is someone asking if a dress makes them look fat, and everyone in the room saying no. In a tragedy, it’s this.

The ticking in this shot of the countdown timer is such an incredible use of sound design. First up, time symbolism, of course. But it's also stressful You hear a timer getting quicker and you panic. When it is released, there is no explosion, just a dying friend.

Because, yes, this is a tragedy, remember? That’s why its cyclical, that’s why this episode exists.

"I try to remember but it gets all muddled up. Adora, Mara, it always ends the same. The present, the future..."

"Razz?"

"The past."

Everything in this series has happened before within its own continuity. The weapon, the loss of friends, the transformations, everything. This is a series about the cycle of abuse that always, always, leads to tragedy. It sets its current events up like one, and then shows you in vivid detail, just how that will end.

I said she ends the episode crying. But she does it with a smile. She looks her death in the eye and offers up hope and trust. Mara, the girl who laughed, the girl who cried, the girl who smiled.

The final scene looks like the two are talking in real time. The series cuts between Mara and Adora as they speak, taking care to be inconsistent with who is holographic. The parallels are baked into the setting, and they are being fought against.

I feel like whenever I talk about the story being cyclical, that I under stress how everything in it is about breaking those cycles. Magic and tech, agency and control. The cycle boxes you in, preventing your actions, controlling you. Breaking free is taking back that agency for yourself. The first ones tried to do this by trying to get someone to take their place, we will see if and how Adora and company will attempt the same or try something new.

Final Thoughts.

Genuinely, this post was the hardest to write of anything I have done. Not because I didn’t know what to say, but because rewatching this episode left me in an emotional wreck. I genuinely felt like the scene from Interstellar when the main character laughs and cries all at the same time.

For the record, I haven’t seen Interstellar, I just know the meme.

This post was emotionally exhausting, so I'm going to lie down now. Next week is Fractures, stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[henry-the-queer-artist]

movies that absolutely suck but I really like them and actively participate in their fandom and I think you should too

Jupiter Ascending

the plot of this film is half-baked trash but I never cared for plot and I don't think you should either. they give eddie redmayne a sparkly cape and a golden chariot that may or may not have an actual person melded into it. a win in my book. reincarnation and a space dynasty made up of fussy siblings with mommy issues. 3/10 as an actual movie but 9/10 for me liking it.

2. The Twilight Saga

my ass is not going to reuse the ''twilight sucks haha'' thing. it is getting old. These movies are also half-baked in plot but hilarious when watched ironically and the side-characters are interesting and loveable, no matter how dull the main characters can be at times. the extremely long pauses between dialogue are not the only problem with these movies, but I definitely enjoy making memes and talking about the other members of the cullen family. 2.5/10 as actual movies (the plots get worse as they go along) but 10/10 for me making memes and loving the cullens besides edward.

3. Like Minds

ok hear me out I LOVE this movie. the people in its fandom are some of the only people who have ever been actually nice to me in my life. this is my second favorite movie. but is it good? heck nah. The plot isn't half-baked it's overbaked. they thought too much about it and then none of it made sense and then they were like ''this is the worst movie ever'' and gay trans teenagers (me and 4 other people) were like ''do you promise? 🥺'' this movie is the best because it's gay gay homosexual gay and you can already tell how much I love stupid eddie redmayne movies. 5/10 on the actually good movie scale but 100000/10 in my heart.

4. all three of the star wars sequel movies

I used to really be into star wars, ok. I still like it now. I always grew up watching the prequels which were also bad but I love those ones and they were kinda better than these. So when I saw these in theaters at first I was like ''this is garbage. is this what we're feeding the star wars fandom now?'' but then I rewatched them with an open mind but more importantly an open heart and my opinion has changed. they may have ruined luke skywalker but damn. the new characters are lovable and Kylo Ren deserves the world. need I say more. the ''I need a hero'' version of Kylo running into the Exegol temple in the 3rd movie is legendary. 4.5/10 on the actually good movie scale. 9/10 in my heart.

[xecutivecucumber]

Executive Cucumber's Thoughts on The Bad Batch 03×12!

Spoilers under the cut

Let start out by saying holy heck that was the cool down episode I needed. My sister watched it before me and was able to tell me that Tech/CX-2 wasn't in it for a significant amount, so I was able to get past my disappointment and not be stressed out during the episode. Yes, I'm still on the 'Tech is CX-2 Bandwagon.' I do think they should have revealed him to the audience earlier, because I have to actively avoid Bad Batch social media (*cough*reddit*cough*) for my own mental health because of the negativity around the idea. It's really draining.

Anyway, on to the actual episode!

Today I realized that I might be triggered by Omega being trapped at Tantiss because of some past experiences. (And yes, if you've read my fics you know that I've done it to her too, but I have control over that and I think the problem is the lack of control I have)

Hi Tech! I love you! Please be un brainwashed soon!

I want to murder Hemlock. I don't know if I've ever hated a Star Wars villain like this before. It feels so personal.

It devastates me that they're going to take Omega's clothes away. Clothes that were given to her by people who love her. Ow.

Also you're playing a dangerous game, not keeping those binders on her, Hemlock.

'Is everything all right, Dr. Karr?' 'No, the Jango parent gene got awakened in me and that does not go away'

Why does Emerie think she HAS to do this?

I'm a little disappointed we didn't see Hunter find out about Omega. He's probably just in 'go' mode, honestly. Adrenaline and all that.

Crosshair is so proud of Omega oh my gosh.

PHEE MY QUEEEEEEEEEN

Oh my gosh Tech told Phee about Crosshair. That implies that had more time than we saw. That makes me so happy and sad.

Phee talks about Tech with such fondness. You can tell how much she cared about him. I feel like I'm watching a widow who's processed her grief but still talks about her husband because she loved him.

Also, looking at Phee, she doesn't really have any implied make up on. She's very natural. Good for her.

...Rampart looks kinda good with a beard.

Okay Tech would find the stunt Phee pulled extremely attractive.

This is the closest we've gotten to the original Batch we've gotten in a very long time. It feels good to see them go mission mode with Crosshair.

This is reminding me of Eriadu and I don't like it.

Crosshair asking Wrecker if he remembered whatever plan and then patiently waiting for him to remember lives rent free in my head he's so sweet.

WRECKER'S THEME IS BACK BABY

Also, Crosshair's theme is played in this really fun way?

Crosshair should be allowed to kick Rampart in the balls. As a treat.

Rampart you snake. Crosshair should have shot him in the leg instead of stunning him.

My sister pointed out that the juggernaut represents how the Batch is right now. You cannot stop them.

Man, it's nice to not to be as conflicted when the TK troopers die, as opposed to when clones were sent against them. Quick thought though, does Wolffe have all the remaining clones?

Man these guys get BRUTALIZED.

Them throwing around passed out Rampart is amazing and should continue to happen.

Okay Wrecker has his knife out HE IS READY TO TORTURE A MAN.

Frick you Rampart. He is the worst replacement for Omega.

Aww they probably didn't bring Batcher on the mission to protect her. (Plus she a half trained dog and it was a stealth mission)

And then the boys spent the next hour arguing over who has to call Echo and tell him.

Hemlock you FOULE you're giving Omega ALLIES. Also why are you telling her all this. She will use it against you.

Gall, I hate Hemlock.

Again, I really needed this cool down episode. Though I'm afraid the final three episodes are going to hurt. THIS IS MY FAVORITE SHOW WHY IS IT STRESSING ME OUT SO MUCH. ALSO WAITING A WEEK FOR EPISODES ALSO SUCKS. A LOT.

[kyberblade]

Back To You (Din x Reader) - Part 15

A/N: It’s finally here! This was so much fun to write, and I’m gonna miss Ahsoka after this part. These two idiots are just so smitten for one another, everyone can see it, and for the love of everything, they need to just…. AHHHHHHH!!!! Moving on. There is more show dialogue in this one. Also, once again, there is some lore in this that @writerlyhabits​ wrote in a fantastic short, and I loved it so much, I asked if I could use it.

(This takes place right where the other one left off and goes to the end of episode 2x5/13, The Jedi.)

I do not own Star Wars or it’s characters. Sadly. But I carry them in my heart. Does that count for something? My soul says yes.

Warnings: Tooth rotting fluff, Grogu being the cutest thing you ever did see, and Din is once again a warning in and of himself in this one. Typical show violence. Swearing. Space swearing. The reader being a badass. Mando’a.

Word count: 11,084

As always, thanks to @grippingbeskar​ for encouraging me, looking over this for me, and being the one to introduce me to Din fanfiction in the first place, getting me hooked. You are fantastic and I always love our chats.

Thank you to @what-the-heckin-heck for coming up with the brilliant idea that morphed into Peli’s shop scene, @fordo-kixed-rex for your endless hours helping me over goodness knows how long since I started this, and @dontletyourchildrenwatchthis, @lloweryourstandardss, and @kurlyfrasier for reading this over for me and letting me know I’m not crazy. And @deceiver-of-gods​ for helping with the Mando’a.

Previous | Series Masterlist | Next

Xxx

Walking up the ramp of the Crest, you let the bundle of armor fall to the floor with a thud once you reached the top. 

“Ugh!” You huffed. “I am so glad I don’t have to lug that around every day.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad,” Din protested softly as he tucked the kid into his hammock bunk.

“Yeah, well, you’re used to it,” you grumbled, hands on your hips as you looked around for anything you might need in a few hours when you met back up with Ahsoka near the village. “You all but grew up with that armor, you developed the muscles. You don’t see me asking you to do stuff with your mind, do I?” You lowered your voice to mock his playfully as you quoted his most recent assessment of the Force. 

He only grunted.

“No. Exactly.” You had begun gesturing with your hands as you strode over toward your satchel where it sat on a crate. “So leave me and my puny non-Mandalorian muscles out of this, thank you very much.”

The bunk door slid closed with a hiss before you heard Din’s heavy sigh as he turned to face you. “Mesh’la….”

“No, no. It’s fine, Din. We all have our strengths. Yours are being physically strong, brave, and smart…. While mine are,” you looked up to face him with a sarcastic grin, “a laser sword, moving things with my mind, oh! And I’m great at exploding things.”

He sighed again, walking over to you and gripping your upper arm firmly. “Hey.” He tilted his visor to the side when you finally looked up at him, eyebrows raised expectantly. “You’re also amazingly sarcastic, don’t forget that.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “I know you are being sarcastic….” You smiled. “But I’ll take it.”

Din just shook his head at you with a soft snort of laughter, turning toward the weapons cabinet to choose a few options for later. 

With a wave of your hand over the panel, the bunk door hissed open, revealing the sleeping child to you. With a quick trace of your finger along the length of one of his ears, you quickly closed the space back up after whispering, “Sleep well, ad’ika.” (“Little one.”)

“Do you need me to carry your saber again?” Din’s voice was muffled as his top half was buried in the weapons locker rifling through various contents.

“Nah. I’m not gonna bother concealing myself again this time.” He looked at you over his shoulder, pausing his search for a moment. “I’ll wear a cape, but that’s it. It’ll keep it concealed enough, I’m not worried about it.”

“Are you sure?” He stood up straight, turning to face you. “I don’t doubt you, but if anyone recognizes you, it’s going to complicate things.”

“When are they not complicated?” You sighed, pulling the satchel over your shoulder, shifting through its contents as you continued. “If anyone had my puck, they’d already be making moves, wouldn’t you think?” You lifted your gaze up to hold his.

“If they were smart,” Din agreed. “But not many of them are.”

Chuckling softly, you continued to pull items out of the bag, setting them to the side. “Well, if they aren’t, we’ve got that going for us, as well.” Pulling one of Din’s blasters out of the bag, ignoring his double take between the weapon and his locker behind him before his head tilted at you, you went on, gesturing with it in your hand. “I’m glad you’re keeping an eye out, really Din, I am. I…. I honestly keep trying to forget about that stupid bounty.”

He closed the few feet between you, gently taking the blaster from your hand before returning it to the cabinet.

“But I’ve lived my whole life in fear - especially growing up - because of what I am, what I can do. You…. You’re the first person outside my family I told about it.” He looked over his shoulder again, tilting his visor at you. “And after these last few months with you and the kid, strengthening my abilities and using them for something actually worthwhile, something that is altering the course of the kid’s life, of my life, I….” You brought your eyes up from where they had been studying the floor to hold his gaze. “I don’t want to hide anymore.”

Din closed the distance between you again, making you lean your head back to keep looking at him in the T of his visor. “That’s something I can understand more than you think.”

Darting your eyes back and forth where you thought his to be, you felt a small smile climb your face. How in the stars you had ended up friends with a soul so like your own was a mystery to you. For so long you’d felt alone, drifting through life from moment to moment, pouring drink after drink for person after person, then he walked in, and everything changed.

He caught your eye, not just because of his shiny armor, though you’ll admit that played a part, but because of the way he carried himself. Sitting alone in the back of the bar, watching, waiting, as the world moved all around him. Not lonely, not searching for another to share in the day with, but searching for something all the same.

And he found whatever that was in you.

He walked up to intervene between you and the Twi’lek, and your souls both said this one. I like this one.

Once he’d scared the lowlife off, you had worried he would disappear as quietly as he’d come, like a shadow slipping into the night, lost to the dingy streets of that lower level hell. But something made him linger, just long enough for you to say something stupid, something that made him laugh, and you’d never liked a sound more. He stood there just long enough for you to listen to the small voice at the back of your mind trying to whisper to his; stay.

Those next moments melted into hours, into days, into years. Though he would leave in between, he was never far from your mind, making you smile with just a thought his direction. 

Your apartment started to look like a museum, artifacts of a well traveled life spread on every surface, yet you’d never left the planet. Things that made him think of you decorated your life, filling in the dull, lifeless spots you’d come to accept as part of the furniture. Parts of your life you’d accepted as a boring blank wall now dripped with art and tapestries, flashes of color filling in the void. 

You’d smile whenever you walked through your door, greeted by trinkets left by someone who cared. He was everywhere you looked, never out of sight, and absolutely not out of mind. You’d wonder where he was now. Was he okay? Did he need help? Surely not, he was good at what he did, but there was that time he came in with a slight limp…. He’d brushed you off, mesh’la, I’m fine, but with one look he sighed and accepted the ice you were trying to rest on his knee wrapped in a small towel.

And this will make you better.

He’d snorted at your response, adjusting in his seat slightly as you brought a small stool around for him to prop up his leg.

A thousand and one memories are rushing through your mind as you study every line of his helmet.

“What are you thinking about?” Din asked softly, his hand coming up to cradle your cheek.

“You know me. A little bit of everything,” you hummed quietly, smiling as you leaned into his touch, your eyes fluttering closed for a moment before they returned to his visor. “But mostly you.” He let out a soft huff, gently shaking his head before you brought your hand up to his cheek in a mirror of his own. “It always comes back to you.”

Xxx

A few hours later, as it was getting dark, you met Ahsoka on the edge of the forest, just out of view of the city walls.

The plan was simple. She would go in, claiming that Din had failed in his attempt on her, at which point they would probably open fire and pursue her. Once you heard blaster fire start up, Din would fly both of you into the town square by the prisoners, where you would set them free before splitting up.

At a quick glance, the pale purple of your saber looked close enough to her white, so the goal was to be a decoy through the city streets, drawing focus away from her and distracting them to give her an opening to strike. Not that she needed it, but it would make things go faster.

Din would hold the gate to the Magistrate’s inner area, keeping it clear of guards and pedestrians.

“Here, take this,” he spoke in a low voice, removing his pauldron with the mudhorn on it. “Use it as proof.”

Unclipping your knife from your belt, you handed it to her. “This, too. It was on my belt earlier and has the signet. Everyone knows about Mandalorian clans. They won’t think twice.”

You could feel Din’s eyes on you, his armor clinking slightly as he turned his visor down your way.

“That knife has saved our skin multiple times, are you sure?”

“So you admit it’s a decent weapon?” You smirked up at him.

He grunted. “No. Just…. Don’t disarm yourself before a fight.”

Your smile faded to something softer. “I’ll pick it up on our way in.”

Ahsoka looked between the two of you with an amused grin. “If that’s all settled, let’s begin.”

Xxx

You and Din watched from the tree line as Ahsoka ran through the shadows, drawing the attention of the guards on the wall. She ran straight for them as they began ringing an alarm, slipping through the low rolling fog along the city walls then scaling them as if it was nothing, before igniting one of her sabers. The commotion that followed made you start to smile. 

“You’re enjoying this,” Din said in low amusement behind you, his modulator buzzing right in your ear. 

The faint screams of the guards as they fell under her saber, the soft buzz of the blade whooshing through the air…. Ahsoka turned to the last guard standing, and they cowered away from her, turning to run after a few backwards steps.

“I am. Seeing someone wielding their ability so effortlessly….  It gives me hope.” You turned your head just slightly to catch a glimpse of him before turning back to the city in chaos. “Someday I’ll be able to do that, too.”

“Cause havoc?” He chuckled.

“No. Well, yes. Not just that.” You smiled. “Be in control. No voices, no bad feelings, no shaking crates or….” You darted your eyes over to him quickly before looking back forward. “Or pushing people I care about away. Literally.” Your eyes fell to the ground as you tightened your arms over your chest, rocking on your feet as you continued quietly. “I’m sorry about that. Again.”

“It’s already forgotten,” he said in a low voice, stepping closer to you, his chest pressing along your back. Slowly his right arm came around your waist, holding you tightly to him. “You ready?”

“What do you mean, there’s no-” The city lit up as the sound of heavy fire erupted. “Blaster fire….” You finished quietly.

He chuckled softly, his arm cinching tighter. “Hold on.” Once you were in the air he yelled to be heard over the wind. “Don’t forget your knife.”

“I knew it. You love that thing,” you teased.

“Don’t start,” Din groaned, hitting the accelerator to cover the last little bit before crossing the city wall.

Din flew the two of you low over the city streets, dodging blaster fire as it criss crossed the lanes, moaning softly as bolts pinged off his armor now and again.

You caught a glimmer in the middle of the street up ahead, blaster bolts catching the signet on your knife and Din’s pauldron in little bursts. Narrowing your eyes, you honed your focus, feeling time slow down around you, the world streaking by in long blurs of movement. As Din flew over them you reached out and effortlessly pulled them the few feet to you, the handle of the knife landing firmly in your palm while his armor hit the other.

Time sped back up as you turned in Din’s grip, attaching the beskar back at his shoulder, knife still in your hand.

“You’re getting that awfully close to my face, mesh’la,” Din grumbled, glancing at the knife blade inches from his helmet.

You scoffed, finishing with the armor before tapping the blade to his beskar. “And you are one hundred percent safe.”

“Doesn’t feel like it.”

Letting out a huff, you smirked as he turned a sharp corner, coming up in front of the gates leading to the Magistrate’s inner area. 

Guards stood with rifles drawn, aimed at the prisoners.

“Get ready for a bumpy landing,” Din mumbled.

“Isn’t it always?”

Din pinched your hip once in retribution before he dropped you the few feet down to land on the edge of the area as he kept moving through the air, planting both feet on the chest of one of the guards. 

Touching down on the ground, taking a quick few steps forward from the momentum, you hurriedly looked around at the prisoners, making a move to let the nearest one down. You immediately drew your blaster and shot one of the remaining guards without a second glance as Din shot the one he knocked over.

Hurried footsteps shuffled in behind both of you, and he rounded with his blaster drawn, but you were quick to intervene. Dashing over to lightly rest your hand on his chest, drawing his attention over to you. “It’s just him.” You glanced over your shoulder to offer a small smile to the old man from earlier in the alley as he held his hands up in surrender, letting out a heavy breath of relief as he returned the grin. 

Din nodded at the man, who returned the gesture still wearing a small smile, before you all went about letting the prisoners down.

“Thank you,” the man mumbled at your back.

“You're welcome.” You unfastened the restraints around the feet of the nearest captive. “He wouldn’t have shot you, though. He’s on top of it all. It was just an…. Instinct, I guess.”

He chuckled softly as he helped the man down. “Well, keep trusting your instincts. They’re on to something, I think.” 

Letting out a soft huff with a gentle shake of your head, you turned to face Din as he let a prisoner down across the way. “Mando.” Once the woman was firmly on the ground, his hand going to the middle of her back to help stabilize her as she wobbled slightly, he turned his visor toward you. “I need to go.” You gestured over your shoulder with a jerk of your head.

Helping the woman lean against the pole she had been up on, holding her hand as she lowered herself slowly to sit on the ground, he quickly made his way over to you once she was stable. “Are you sure?”

“You ask this every time, when are you going to tru-”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” he growled. “You know I trust you.” He shifted his weight before continuing in a quieter voice. “I’m just asking if you have everything…. Your blaster, your saber….”

“Go on….” A smirk was climbing up your face. 

“Don’t make me say it.”

“Oh, I am absolutely going to make you say it.” 

He grunted before taking a deep breath. “Your knife.” He grumbled it so fast and low it was almost unintelligible. 

“Nice try.” He grunted again, making you shake your head as you pulled your cloak back to show him your belt. “Yes. Got everything I need right here.”

“Jedi,” the woman he’d helped whispered, drawing both of your gazes her way, finding her staring at your belt with wide eyes full of hope. 

Looking down you realized she had seen your saber.

Before you could say anything to dissuade them, all of the prisoners began murmuring quiet words about the Jedi, how they were saved, thank the stars, thank the Force, we’re safe, and finally. The words swam around you in a quiet din, painting a soft picture of hope in the otherwise dismal city, lights behind their eyes igniting for the first time in you didn’t know how long.

Looking around, you couldn’t find it in you to tell them no, but you didn’t want to prove them wrong. 

Din’s hand on your arm pulled your attention back to his visor as it peered down at you, tilting to the right just slightly. “They know what they see. They see you.” He gave your arm a gentle squeeze. “Ne shab’rud’jetiise,” he said quietly, making you smile. “Slanar.” He gestured behind you with a jut of his chin, giving your arm one more firm squeeze before letting go. (“Don’t fuck with Jedi.”) (“Go.”)

“Ib’tuur jatne tuur ash’ad kyr’amur,” you said with a grin as you stepped away from him, walking backwards. (“Today is a good day for someone else to die.”)

“Jate,” he called, also walking backwards, before turning to walk towards the older man who had helped, holding one hand up in a wave. “K’oyacyi!” (“Good.”) (“Stay alive!”) 

“I will if you will.” When you heard Din’s snort of laughter you turned to continue on to the next part of the plan. Darting down an alley, you reached out, trying to sense where Ahsoka was. Making a few quick turns in the darkness, you pulled up abruptly as you came around a corner to see a slew of guards trying to tiptoe through the streets.

Pressing your back against the structure behind you, you tried to even your breathing. Somewhere in the night, several buildings over, you heard more guards screaming, and the whirring of lightsabers. Peeking around the corner, you saw the group of guards standing frozen in fear, faces turned toward the sound. 

Smirking, you lifted one finger at your side, and with a flick sent some debris on the side of the street skittering, drawing their attention away from where Ahsoka was. As they investigated, you flicked your finger again, sending a push to one of the guard’s shoulders, making him stumble back a few steps.

“Don’t touch me,” he hissed to the one next to him.

“I didn’t,” the other responded, agitated.

“What do you mean you didn’t? What else could it have been?”

They were getting in each other’s faces now, so you gave them a little nudge, sending them colliding into one another, their heads smacking the other unceremoniously. As they collected themselves, cradling their helmets where they had hit, moaning, they swore all manner of curses and colorful language at one another, getting to their feet and drawing in the few other members of their troop to try and break up the squabble.

“It’s her,” one of them hissed to the two, making them stop short. “She’s getting in your heads. Stop-”

“No, he pushed me.”

“I didn’t-”

“Your friend is right.” You slowly stepped away from the wall, coming where they could see you, saber tightly gripped in your hand at your side. They raised their weapons at you, scrambling to get into some sort of formation. “Well, partly. It wasn’t her. It was me.” 

Silence curled around you like your cape as it slowly billowed in the breeze.

“It wasn’t you. You’re no Jedi. You can’t-” 

With a flick of your wrist, the soldier went flying backwards, thumping against a wall and sliding down with a moan.

“You caught me. I’m no Jedi,” you held your hands up by your head in surrender, smirking when you saw them become uneasy at the sight of the saber in your hand. They didn’t even notice the soldier you’d sent against the wall suddenly being jerked into an adjacent alley by an unseen force, and they seemingly missed the sound of a saber igniting briefly before the muffled sounds of struggling stopped. “But I’m me. And I can still do this.”

Turning your upheld hand just slightly, all of their weapons clicked as you disengaged them wordlessly. They all held their weapons up to inspect them before trading worried glances. One of them went flying up before slamming back down into the ground, moaning.

“That was me,” Ahsoka said, stepping out of the shadows behind them.

In just a beat of silence, you exchanged a glance with her, reaching out to help distract and divide them with more forceful nudges and pushes as she took them down easily with her sabers. Once they were all still on the ground, she closed the distance between you, disengaging her blades.

“There’s more across town. It’ll be faster to go over the roofs.”

Clipping your saber to your belt, you couldn’t help the small smile starting up your face. “I think I know just how to get up there.”

Taking a deep breath in, you closed your eyes and felt the ground fall away as you leapt backwards onto the roof of the building you had been leaning against. Stumbling a bit once you opened your eyes, you looked around with a grin. “That will never not be amazing.”

Ahsoka laughed softly as she walked to the edge of the roof, peering down into the street below. “To make it across the gaps, you have to do the same thing, focus, but keep your eyes open.” She turned to look at you. “You have to keep your guard up. Yes, this is a relatively easy fight, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get caught off guard.”

You nodded, taking a few steps back to get a running start to follow after her as she leapt across the space. Watching the ground fall away beneath you again, your robe rippling in the wind as the other rooftop grew closer by the second, you decided to keep your eyes open every time from now on. Landing on the tiles, you took an extra few steps from the momentum before you came to a stop next to Ahsoka who looked at you expectantly, eyebrows raised.

“How was that?”

You grinned. “Wizard.”

Her face melted into a matching grin before the two of you took off in a sprint, dashing across the rooftops like they were stepping stones. She’d drop down every now and again, taking out a straggling guard here and there. You rolled your eyes at how dramatic she was being, sneaking up behind them and igniting her sabers just inches away before striking. It still made you smile, though.

Holding up her hand to stop you on a rooftop near the edge of the city, she looked down into the lane below. Looking at you, she pointed to the opposite end, speaking into your mind to not alert the troops down below. “Go to that end. After I run across this opening, you run across that one. Rattle a few things to get them turned around. Run fast. With speed and our capes for cover, they won’t be able to tell the difference between us. When they are looking your way, I’ll take care of them.”

Nodding, you silently made your way to the edge and dropped down out of sight of the soldiers. You couldn’t help but smile to yourself as you thought about telling Din how good you were getting at being stealthy.

Something rattled in the alley behind you, making you jump. Hand going over your heart as you glared at the rattling lid of a trash container, you narrowed your eyes. “Ahsoka,” you bit out, feeling something like amusement floating your way through the Force.

Once all the guards were looking your way, Ahsoka sped across the opening, making them spin on their heels, rifles raised. You dashed across your opening, pulling their attention back, and out of nowhere a creature screeched and skittered away down the alley the opposite direction. As they stared after the creature, Ahsoka snuck up behind them, smirking as she held up her sabers in front of her, making them look like one magnificent blade she was pulling apart by sheer will. 

After it was done, and it was just the two of you left in the alley, you slowly walked up to her as she clipped them back to her belt. “Am I ever going to get to ignite my saber today?”

“Any day that you don’t have to is a day well spent.”

“True. But you’ve barely seen my saber. It’s magnificent.”

“Are you sure that kyber has been quiet since you picked it up? Because it sounds awfully loud right now.” She smirked at you.

You scoffed teasingly. “This coming from the woman who has waved her’s around with as much flourish and flash as the top levels on Coruscant.”

The smile still on her face, she leapt onto the roof to head to the next area. “The next ones, you can show them your blade. See what happens. You’ve made me curious, now I need to see it, too.”

Landing next to her before following across the rooftops, you sighed playfully. “That's all I ask.”

After about three roofs, she signaled you to stop, holding a finger to her lips in a cue for silence. Looking down you saw the head of the guard who had let you into the city, and the two assassin droids. Ahsoka motioned you to a roof adjacent from where she stood, and you leapt soundlessly. “I’ll get their attention. You draw the droids away if you can. Use your saber like we talked about, the droids won’t know the difference.”

She ignited her sabers and was quickly under fire from the head of the guard. She leapt down into the alley, cutting his rifle in two and blocking fire from the droids. Running up a wall, she leapt and cut one of the droids in half before jumping up on the roof again, instantly disappearing into the shadows.

“Get up there!” The man ordered the droid, who promptly pulled itself up onto the roof.

Igniting your saber from the roof across the way, you began to run like you had been, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, sending bolts back towards the droid as it turned to follow you, thinking you were her.

“Wait a minute,” the man said softly, looking between where you were and Ahsoka had disappeared. “Leave her!” He ordered the droid harshly. “It’s a decoy. Follow me.”

The droid obediently began hopping back across the rooftops, following after Ahsoka as the man disappeared into the shadows.

“Kriff,” you muttered, disengaging your saber, keeping it in your hand as you followed at a safe distance.

You were quickly back in the center of town, the man and droid nowhere to be found.

Din was ushering the last of the prisoners into a nearby house. “Get inside,” he said softly.

Movement out of the corner of your eye caught your attention, and you turned to find a lone guard sneaking closer, rifle raised as he closed in on the Mandalorian.

“Hey! You!” Yelling to get his attention, you sprung into action as soon as the guard turned to look up at you.

Leaping off the roof, you wrapped your legs around the shoulders of the soldier, pinning his arms down as you brought him to the ground. He tried to squirm out of your grip, but you were quick to get to your knees, grabbing his shoulders to pull him up before slamming him back down as hard as you could, knocking him unconscious.

Looking up toward Din as you caught your breath, he stood exactly where he had been. His hand on his blaster but otherwise relaxed, looking at you as his head tilted slowly to the right.

Shrugging, you got to your feet, brushing your hands off before turning to the guard and dragging him off to the side by his shoulders. Once you were back in front of Din, you let out a heavy breath. “I didn’t like the way he looked at you.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t look at me like that.”

His head tilted the other way. “How would you know, mesh’la?”

“I have had to learn how to read you for years, Din. I speak fluent helmet.”

Din scoffed.

“I do! That’s how I knew our friend back there,” you pointed to the soldier still unconscious in a side alley, “had bad intentions for you.”

“Really?” His voice was dripping with amusement, his visor straightened out to look down at you fully.

“Mmm-hmm.” You raised your eyebrows. “I don’t need to see a face to know these things. Comes with the Tin Can territory.”

Before Din could respond, movement behind you drew his attention away, and he looked over your shoulder, making you turn and look, too, finding the head of the guard standing in the middle of the street. Din slowly stepped in front of you, standing between you and the man.

He glanced down at the saber still in your hand, eyes flying up to meet yours before they went over your shoulder, and you found yourself turning yet again to look, finding Ahsoka standing on the edge of the wall dividing the Magistrate’s area from the rest of the city. The wind whipped her cloak around her viciously as she held the man’s gaze before she turned and dropped down on the other side of the wall.

Looking back to the man, a rifle held ready in his arms, you noticed Din had quietly drawn his blaster. Clipping the saber back to your belt and crossing your arms over your chest, your gaze bounced between the two of them in the loaded silence until finally the man spoke.

“So, you threw in with the Jedi.”

Din glanced over his shoulder at you, his head tilting just slightly in amusement before he turned back to the man. “Looks that way.” You couldn’t help but snort softly in laughter. “Two of them, in fact.” The man scoffed. “Come to think of it, three. My son was gonna be one a few decades ago….”

“Decades?”

“Yeah. He’s older than me.” He began motioning with his hands in reference. “He’s about this big, huge ears, green…. Doesn’t like you at all.” Din’s blaster rattled with his movements, still gripped firmly in his hand. “I keep him around for a lot more than luck.”

“That…. Thing?!”

“His son,” you corrected the man in a bored tone, shifting your weight to one leg.

“Our son,” Din amended firmly.

You stared at the back of his helmet, fighting the urge to smile.

The man scoffed. “Oh. So you did more than just throw in with them.”

“Hey. Buddy,” you started, lowering your arms to rest at your sides easily. “He’s got the upper hand here. I wouldn’t press his buttons if I were you.”

“You’d know a thing or two about that, wouldn’t you?” He practically sneered.

You nodded. “I would. But I don’t have to actually press anything.” When the man narrowed his eyebrows in question and Din groaned knowingly, holstering his blaster with a shake of his head, you lifted one hand, letting your fingers tickle the air teasingly. “I just have to….” With a flick of your wrist, a piece of fruit from the nearby vendor’s table flew through the air, smacking into the back of the man’s head.

He lifted a hand to cradle the impact, turning and looking, only to do a double take when the table was empty of anyone to blame. When he turned back to face you, his eyes went wide, finding several pieces of the fruit floating in front of him where you had floated them over his head out of his line of sight. He looked at you briefly, eyes going wider still as you smirked before flicking your wrist again, his eyes turning back to the projectiles as you sent the fruit forward to pummel him in rapid succession.

“Do you think he gets it?” You asked, looking at Din.

“No, I don’t think he does,” he mused, his voice tight with held back laughter. 

“He does, he does! I mean I do, I do! Stop!”

On the other side of the wall you heard the sound of Ahosoka’s sabers powering up, quickly followed by the sounds of kyber striking beskar. The spear. A buzz hummed through the air as the two met and held, resisting the other firmly. Then silence. Quickly, a pattern formed with their grunts and the clashing of weapons echoed faintly off of the walls of the inner area.

The man held his ground across from both of you, eyeing you more skeptically now after the fruit. “You seem familiar.”

Smirking, you signed to him in Tusken. “Do I?”

He let out an aggravated huff, rolling his eyes. “Of course.” Turning his attention back to Din, he changed the subject. “Who do you think’s gonna win?”

Din held his ground, not moving an inch as his arms hung easily at his sides, his weight on one leg like this was a casual conversation. As subtly as you could, you angled yourself more towards him, moving in closer just a bit.

“Could be your side….” The man continued, beginning to move forward slowly. “Could be my side.” The fight continued in the background.

Din inclined his head ever so slightly as the man got closer.

“I got no quarrel with you, Mandalorian.” He finally looked your way again, something like annoyance in his expression. “Or with your…. Friend.”

“That’s far enough,” Din said calmly, one hand coming up to gesture the man to stop, his other moving to hover over his blaster, teasing the air as it itched to grab the weapon.

You heard the fight surge briefly, the sound of one saber disengaging before a faint plop of water. It took all you had not to jump over the wall and try to help, but you knew Ahsoka knew what she was doing. You’d probably just get in the way. You were needed here.

“You and I, we’re a lot alike.”

You narrowed your eyes at the man. “You are nothing like him.”

He ignored you. “Willing to lay our lives down for the right cause.” He eyed Din’s hand as it flexed over his blaster, his gloves creaking with the movement. “Which this is not.”

The sound of beskar thudding to the ground and all sounds of fighting coming to a stop filled the area.

“Sounds like you win,” the man admitted, going to lower his rifle to the ground. He watched Din closely, too closely. As soon as Din moved his hand further away from his blaster, the man released his rifle and pulled a blaster out of the back of his belt.

Without thinking, you drew your own blaster and shot, an explosion of sparks coming off his armor at the impact. The man flew back several feet, landing on the street, motionless. 

“I had it!”

You turned at Din’s exasperated voice to find him with his blaster also drawn, smoke curling from the end.

“Well, now we’ll never know,” you mused, smiling slightly as you holstered your weapon.

Din spun his blaster quickly around his finger in a flourish before slipping it back in his belt without a glance.

“Show off,” you mumbled, turning to find the old man who helped earlier opening the door you’d seen Din ushering everyone into earlier.

He gave both of you a nod with a small smile, which you returned. His eyes suddenly went wide as he looked over your shoulder. “Behind you!” Why was everything behind you today?

Without a thought, both you and Din drew your blasters, turned, and fired up at the roof, dropping the last assassin droid in a sparking, smoking pile of scrap.

“I had it!” You grumbled to Din, trying to do what he did earlier by spinning the blaster but it didn’t work, so you just shoved it into your belt.

“If I agree with you, will you never try to do that again?” He pointed to your blaster with his own before showing off once again, finally holstering it at his side.

“What do you think?” You hissed at him, rolling your eyes.

“I think it was painful to watch,” he mumbled, looking around to make sure the area was clear. 

You huffed at the slight, turning away just a bit in annoyance, seeing the man lying in the street, and getting an idea. Smirking, you walked over to him. “Fine.” Stooping down, you picked up his rifle. “But if that’s the case, I’m just gonna need a bigger weapon. More function, less painful for you to watch.”

Din groaned. “Not this again. It’s like your knife all over again. Put it back.”

“Hey, you admitted that knife has come in handy.”

“Not in so many words.”

Slinging the rifle over your back by the strap, you smirked at him. “I’m keeping it.”

Before Din could rebut, the people began to file out of the house, their eyes all wide on you. “Jedi,” they all whispered.

Soon you were surrounded by people, all of them looking at you with grateful eyes. Their hands reached out tentatively at first to grip your own, then gradually became more and more confident as they offered reassuring squeezes to your arms, hands, shoulders - anywhere they could touch. 

One older woman you recognized as the fruit vendor, cradled your face between her hands. Her face held a slight tremble as a tight smile formed on her lips, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion.

You wanted to explain. Tell them it was Ahsoka. It was Din. You weren’t a Jedi.

But as her eyes crinkled in joy, her brow unfurrowed in relief, you just smiled, nodded once, and swallowed your tears before saying, “You're welcome,” as strongly as you could. 

Looking over the mass of people surrounding you, you saw Din looking on from the sidelines, his head tilted fondly. “I told you,” he signed. “They see you.”

You are yourself, and that is all you could ever hope to be. 

Ahsoka’s words ring in your head, making you smile.

Looking up and to the left, you saw Ahsoka with the Magistrate in her grasp as she exited the middle area. Ahsoka smiled at you mischievously as her voice floated into your head. “I see my words didn’t go to waste, little one.”

You’re not sure how, but you know your voice floats back into her mind, her smile widening as it does.

That’s all I need to be.

Xxx

You leaned against the inside of the city gate, ankles crossed leisurely, arms comfortably across your chest as you watched the people celebrate their newfound freedom. The air was clearer, the skies bluer, like nature itself was taking a long needed breath. Looking down at the satchel on your hip filled with fruit from the vendor, you smiled. She had insisted you take it, stuffing more into the bag until it was overflowing. She wouldn’t accept any payment, so you made sure to slip some to the man who had helped you, telling him to get it to her somehow.

You smirked at Din as he walked past you with Ahsoka. This was the same spot he’d grabbed you by the back of the neck when you were in the armor. “I’m having some deja vu…. But a much less violent version.”

He scoffed. “Violent. I pulled you off the wall.”

“Compared to my relaxing before you did, it was violent.”

You followed them out of the gate, your heart full as you watched the celebration over your shoulder where the older man who had helped you was being anointed their new leader. He looked up and met your eyes, smiling kindly. You smiled back, tilting your head forward in a small bow of respect before lifting it again to find him waving you off bashfully.

“I believe this was your payment,” Ahsoka said, holding the beskar spear out for Din, smiling that mischievous grin she’d had since you’d taken the city.

“No,” Din said after a minute, and you turned your full attention back to the two of them, looking up at his visor with knit brows. “I can’t accept.”

Ahsoka shifted the spear to the other hand, tapping it on the ground in the process, making it ring out softly.

“I didn’t finish the job.”

Understanding crossed her face and she gave a gentle shake of her head. “No. But this belongs with a Mandalorian.”

Hesitantly, Din reached out and lightly gripped the spear, taking it from her, looking it up and down.

“Where is your little friend?” Ahsoka’s voice had softened, her features more serious for the first time in a while.

Your stomach sank. You’d forgotten why you were here for a while, expecting to jump on the ship after this and go back to life as normal. But…. That wasn’t going to happen. There would be one less member on the Crest. Little Grogu had to go and get training, it was what was best for him. That didn’t make it any easier.

Din looked into the distance toward the Crest, his voice strong, but you knew him well enough, he was hurting, too. “Back at the ship. Wait here, I’ll go get him.” 

As Din started toward the ship, Ahsoka’s eyes followed him before landing on you. Something passed between you, you didn’t know quite what, but inside you knew it was right. The unease of Grogu leaving abated slightly, but the sadness still ran deep in your veins.

Following after Din, you hurried to catch up with him, resting a hand on his shoulder when you were close enough. “I know,” you offered softly. “I feel it, too.”

“It’s what’s right,” he said lowly, his voice breaking. “It’s what’s best for him.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier,” you voiced your earlier thoughts.

“Would anything?”

“I don’t think so,” you said after a moment, your hand sliding down to grip his elbow, one of the few unarmored spots on him. “This is what you set out to do, Din. You’ve found the Jedi, you’ve returned him to his kind. It’s where he’ll be safest, you know that.”

“I want him safe. I do. But I also want him happy, and when he was floating that rock, he seemed anything but happy.” He looked down at you as you both paused at the bottom of the ramp of the Crest. “Is that selfish?”

You offered him a gentle smile, rubbing your hand back and forth where it still rested on his arm. “To want joy for a being you care about? No. No I don’t think that is.”

He looked at the ground, his voice going quieter still. “But what if I want to be a part of that joy?”

Studying his visor for a long moment, you finally looked at his chest as you spoke. “I think…. I think you will always be a part of his joy. Whether you're with him, or not.” Looking back up into his visor, you swallowed before continuing. “You saved his life, Din. Multiple times. And you’re saving it again by letting him go with the Jedi. He needs this. It’s just another step on his journey. But you…. You’re the reason he has a journey to go on. And he knows that.”

“He’s just a kid, how would he-”

“When we sit and meditate, when I’m trying to calm him in hyperspace so he doesn’t bounce off the walls? We…. talk. Kind of like he and Ahsoka did, I guess. I couldn’t read his thoughts like she could, but I got…. Images. Feelings.”

He shifted his weight, tilting his head as he looked down at you.

You smiled as you recalled some of the conversations with the kid. “Remember when I told you you were the world to him?” Din straightened a bit before nodding quickly. “I wasn’t far off. When we talk I try and get his attention by sending him images of things he knows, foods, frogs, his ball, and he sends back his, er…. I guess you could say feelings is the best word for it.” He nodded for you to go on.

“When I send him a mental image of food, it’s joy. Frogs, elation,” you chuckled. “His ball, love.” You paused, looking back up at him. “You? With you, he sends me an overwhelming feeling of everything.” Din didn’t move. “Safety, joy, annoyance, protectiveness, fiercely protective in fact, elation, and overwhelming love.”

“Annoyance?”

You huffed. “After all of that, you focus on that?” Your hands went to your hips. “Yes. You’re proving his point right now,” you grumbled, going to make your way up the ramp.

He reached out, lightly grabbing your arm to stop you. “I’m sorry. I…. I don’t do this…. well.”

“Don’t do what?”

“This.” He gestured between the two of you then up onto the ship toward Grogu. “Us.” He sighed. “Family.”

You smiled, stepping back down, closer to him, resting your hand on his chest plate. “You’re doing just fine.” Your smile faltered. “Now come on. We have something we need to do.” Reaching down, you grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze as you started up the ramp. “And I’ll be right here the whole time.”

Din took off his jet pack once he was inside the ship, setting it off to the side as you waved your hand over the panel to open the door to the little cot area. With slow but purposeful steps, he walked up and put his hand on the small hammock as Grogu still slept heavily, wiped out from all the work with Ahsoka. “Wake up, buddy.”

Taking one step away to give them some space, you put your right arm across your chest, your left hand resting on Din’s back softly before bracing on your chin to help keep your lip from trembling.

“It’s time to say goodbye.”

Grogu blinked his eyes open blearily for just a moment, letting out a soft coo before he fell back asleep.

Din pulled him gently from the hammock, sitting on the edge of the cot as he cradled Grogu in front of him, just staring down at his little ward as he slept.

You sat on a nearby crate, giving them the space they needed, but staying nearby for support. You loved Grogu, and you’d get to say goodbye, but their relationship was something special. They deserved their time alone.

Din said your name a while later, motioning you over with a jerk of his head when you looked up. 

Rising slowly, you made your way soundlessly over, finding Grogu’s eyes open and watching sagely.

Reaching out and tracing the line of his ear with your finger, pinching the end lightly when you got there, you brought your finger to his small clawed hand, smiling and letting out a breath when he grasped it tightly. “I would run for my life a thousand times over if it meant I got to know you again.”

Xxx

A while later, Din took the time to adjust the kid’s robes as Grogu babbled happily, sitting atop a large crate near the ramp of the Crest.

His large eyes looked up at you as he squealed once, making grabby hands for another mouthful from the ration pack you were feeding him. Laughing softly, you reached in, grabbing a portion. “This is it, adika.” You handed it to him and he immediately began munching happily. “That’s the last piece.” (“Little one.”)

He looked up at you with wide, sad eyes, slowing his eating just slightly, making you laugh again.

“I’m not saying that, the packet is!” Turning it upside down to show it was empty, Grogu glared at it with vehemence, making Din chuckle.

He picked him up, starting down the ramp as you followed, both of you stopping at the sound of Ahsoka’s voice.

“You’re like a father to him.” She looked to you. “You’re a family.”

Din continued down the ramp again after a moment.

“I cannot train him.”

Din slowed, finally stopping at the bottom of the ramp. “You made me a promise, and I held up my end.” He’d finally come to some sort of terms about the whole thing, and now he was being made to march in the opposite direction. He may wear beskar, but he wasn’t made of it. You weren’t sure how much more he could take before he’d start to take damage.

Ahsoka sighed before closing the distance between her and the Mandalorian, the child cooing at her happily. She reached out and he grabbed her finger. “There is one possibility. Go to the planet Tython. There you will find the ancient ruins of a temple that has a strong connection to the Force.” She looked at you. “Place Grogu on the seeing stone at the top of the mountain.”

Din’s voice was slightly relieved, but tired, and you couldn’t blame him. “Then what?”

She looked at the child. “Then Grogu may choose his path.” His ears perked up at this. He let go of her finger, looking up at her expectantly. “If he reaches out through the Force, there’s a chance a Jedi may sense his presence and come searching for him.” Her expression fell, and her arms came to cross over her chest. “Then again, there aren’t many Jedi left.”

Grogu’s ears fell, and he babbled softly.

“Thank you.” You did a double take at Din’s thanks, eyebrow raising skeptically.

“May the Force be with you.”

Din nodded once, before turning to head back up the ramp.

“May the Force be with you.” You offered in return, lingering near the bottom of the ramp, arms crossed over your chest. 

She smiled at you, glancing behind you as Grogu cooed happily, making her smile grow for a moment before she bowed her head to him in farewell. Then she met your eyes again. “So, little one, what will you do?”

“What do you mean?” Your arms fell to your sides to rest easily.

She smiled mischievously, like always. “You know.”

Looking over your shoulder as the ship started up, you turned back to her. “I will do what I need to.” She nodded, accepting your answer. “Thank you,” You said after a moment. “For everything. I finally feel a shred of control, and a hell of a lot more hope.”

“Hold on to that. Let it carry you when things get dark. There is always a light to go towards, even if that light is in fact, yourself. Follow your instincts, and you will not often find yourself lost.”

“You speak in riddles,” you moaned, massaging your temples and scrunching your eyes shut tight.

She laughed softly. “I learned from the best.”

“I’m beginning to see that,” you mused with a grin, letting your hands fall back to your sides. 

She gestured you up the ramp, a fond expression on her face as you turned and made your way into the ship. Just as the ramp began to close, you heard her voice in your head, turning to find her winking at you just before she was out of sight.

“May the Force be with you.”

Xxx

“Where are we headed?” You asked, slipping into the copilot seat as the Crest pulled away from the surface of Corvus.

“I was thinking back to Tatooine for a quick pit stop. Stock back up on some rations, top off a few leaks in the Crest before we make the trek all the way to Tython.” He pushed a few buttons as the ship broke through the atmosphere, the dark sky fading into the brilliant void of space in front of you.

“Okay, sounds good,” you nodded, fastening your seatbelt right before he pushed a lever forward and the vibrant streaks of hyperspace surrounded the viewport. “Remind me to….”

When you didn’t continue, Din hit the autopilot button and turned in his chair to see what was going on, the question dying on his tongue when he found you staring with narrowed brows at several pieces of floating fruit coming up through the hatch from the level below.

“I think the gremlin named Grogu is hungry,” you grumbled, though your voice was heavily amused, one eyebrow raising skeptically as you turned to look at Din.

Sure enough, when he looked at the kid, Grogu was reaching out for the nearest fruit as it floated straight into his hands. “Patu!” He cried happily before biting into it ravenously, the remaining floating pieces all dropping to the floor with a thud.

With a heavy sigh you shook your head, a bemused smile tugging up your cheeks as you looked back at Din, his head leaning back against his chair with a gentle thump.

Xxx

Din hammered on the hull of the Crest. “When we got to Corvus, we found the Jedi. She told us the kid's name is Grogu,” he said the name affectionately, pausing his thudding against the durasteel to stare at the hull absently as he continued. “Then she tried to say my wife needed her help too, not just the kid, but-”

Peli fumbled at his words, her tool clanging against the outside of the ship as she attempted to catch it before she dropped her large wrench directly on top of his helmet where he stood below her fixing the Crest.

Din’s hand rose to rub the spot as he twisted his gaze up toward her. “Ow! What was that for?!”

Peli blinked her wide eyes owlishly. “I’m…. I’m sorry. Did…. Did you just….” Her eyelids fluttered as she searched for the right words, her hand resting on her hip as it jutted out to the side. “Did you just call her….” She leaned forward on the scaffolding, bracing on her forearms as she leaned closer to Din. “Your wife?!”

Din took a deep breath in but was stopped when R5 bleeped into the hangar, leading you across the space with animated sounds as you just grinned at it, the little BD droid hopping around your feet excitedly, chirping as it went. Looking up in amusement, you cocked your head to the side as you peered up at your Mandalorian. “What about a wife?” You turned to Peli. “I’m still learning Binary, but I’m pretty sure R5 said ‘wife’.”

Reaching out and lightly kicking the droid with the tip of his boot, Din muttered, “Tattletale.”

It blew a raspberry at him. BD continued to chirp happily as it looked between all three of you.

Peli protested when he nudged the droid, making a face at him before turning to look at you yet again. “Mando said his ‘wife’!” She pointed at him exaggeratedly. Looking back at him with narrowed eyes, her voice lowered. “Explain!”

“You’re worse than the droid,” Din muttered, shaking his head as he peered up at her. Lowering his gaze back down to yours, and finding your brows raised expectantly, he froze. “Uh….” There was a moment of silence before he swerved the conversation into a new line altogether. “I want to train with the spear a bit. Get your saber out.”

Your eyebrows went from raised curiosity to narrowed confusion. “My saber? Din, is that a good idea?”

“I’m in full beskar, and the spear is beskar. If I can fight off a dual blade wielding Jedi like Ahsoka, I can handle you.” His voice turned smug near the end, his weight shifting to one side as his hand rested on his belt.

“Yeah, okay. But I was helping you with her. In this scenario, I’m against you.”

“If you’re scared, mesh’la, just say so.”

Peli’s head had been snapping back and forth between you during the exchange, but she let out a low whistle as she looked forward at Din’s taunt, her droids all bleeping and booping commentary. 

Oh, that was low. He knew how to press all your buttons.

“I’m not scared, just…. Concerned. This hangar is like a giant echo chamber. Is it the best idea to have the sound of a saber meeting beskar over and over?”

Din chuckled. “Oh, you think you’re going to land that many hits, do you?” You narrowed your eyes at him. “The droids working on the ship will cover the sound, we’ll be fine.”

“I just need to say,” Peli interjected loudly, still up on the platform, hand held up with one finger extended as if scolding the both of you, “that if you so much as touch my droids with your nonsense,” her eyes narrowed to vicious slits, “you will pay. And I’m not talkin’ credits.”

Both of you stayed silent, looked up at your friend and nodded in understanding.

She grinned broadly, clapping her hands together once and rubbing them together in anticipation. “Then let’s get this show on the road!”

“Some ground rules,” you began, unclipping your saber from your belt before removing the belt altogether as Din tilted his head slightly at you. “No other weapons. No vambraces except to use to block. Hand to hand is okay, but that’s it. Deal?”

“Just the saber and the spear, got it.” He nodded, following your lead and removing his belt, too. When he picked up the spear, he spun it with a flourish, making you roll your eyes. “Ready?”

Igniting your blade, you lowered into a fighting stance and smirked. “Ready.” 

Shooting a glance to Peli, you nodded once before turning your eyes back to Din, watching his every move as she signaled her droids to begin some louder repairs. As soon as the excessive banging and whirring began, both you and Din moved toward one another with intent.

Sparks flew as purple kyber met raw beskar, the prolonged contact singing as you both tried to get the upper hand. 

You pulled back, circling him.

“Does the Force count as another weapon?”

He scoffed. “Don’t start.”

“What? It’s technically my hand.”

“What do you think?” He never let his back be to you, following you in your circle as he stood in place.

“I think you just don’t like the possibility of this.” With a small swipe of your hand, he was flat on his back, and you launched his way, but when you got there, he was gone. 

Blinking a few times, disoriented, you looked around, suddenly lurching forward when a boot on your lower back pushed your forward. Stumbling, you barely avoided face planting in the sand. Rounding on him, you let out an annoyed huff.

“Oh, that’s gotta hurt,” Peli sucked in a breath through her teeth, wincing. 

He chuckled. “If you’re going to play dirty, you shouldn’t be afraid of a little sand.”

You groaned, walking back over to him, saber humming at your side. “You have the worst jokes.”

“He really does,” Peli agreed, watching with an arm braced on the railing of the platform, her head resting on her fist. Her droids all chirped a reply.

It continued like this for hours, the dual suns of Tatooine rising and falling in the sky as you clashed and collided, the hum of kyber and beskar meeting a constant low drone in the hangar, the surge of sparks illuminating the growing shadows.

He got the upper hand, like he always seemed to do, and you ended up flat on your back after he used his spear to knock your feet out from under you, sand sticking to the line of sweat down your spine.

Panting, you disengaged your saber, letting your arms collapse and flop into the gritty earth beneath you. As he took the few steps to close the distance left between you, you smirked, staring up at him as he towered over you. “So your wife?”

Din, still panting like you, let out a heavier breath in annoyance, looking away from you and across the hangar. “Don’t.”

“No, I’m not!” You couldn’t help the grin. “Just…. What brought this on?” Your breathing finally started to calm, and you let out a much needed sigh.

It took him a moment to answer, but when he did, he finally looked back down at you. “To be honest…. A bunch of things. But more specifically when you tackled that guard from the roof on Corvus.”

“Oh really?” Your grin turned into a mischievous smirk. “That’s what does it for you?”

He groaned, holding a hand out to you. “Get back up and fight me already.”

“I will if you stay on your feet this time.” You tried to pull him off balance as you took his hand, getting to your feet, but it backfired and he pulled you off balance instead, making you stumble forward.

“Cuyi ulyc,” he teased, turning to face you as he shook his head. “Bid werdla.” (“Be careful.”) (“So stealthy.”)

“Ori’jagyc. Ori’buyce, kih’kovid.” You circled him one more time, looking for an opening. (“Bully. (Lit. “Big man.”) All helmet, no head.”)

He froze. “I’m not a bully. Atin'la gar besbe'trayc.” (“Tenacity/Toughness is your weapon (to success).”)

You groaned. “Don’t you start speaking in riddles like Ahsoka.”

As you mirrored one another once again, forming a large circle in front of the ramp of the Crest, you launched at Din just as the suns set below the lip of the hangar. Your saber met his spear, sparks shooting in all directions, sending the pit droids scattering as the two weapons sang on impact.

“Atiniir,” Din grunted out as he held his ground, trying to push you back any amount he could manage. (“Endure.”)

“Oh, because you’re always a ramikadyc, right?” (A determined, focused person.)

“I do my best,” he pushed you back on the last word, making you spin to keep from stumbling again, your back to him for only an instant, but apparently long enough for him to disappear into thin air.

Turning in circles, searching the hangar, he was nowhere to be found. “This isn’t funny!”

“It wasn’t supposed to be,” you hear right in your ear, making you whirl around with your saber, colliding with his spear once again before he swipes it with a flourish and sends your saber off to the side, the blade disengaging as it clattered to the ground.

Calling it back to you with the Force, it just has time to land in your hand and ignite before the tip of the spear is pointed at your neck, inches away, and you go a little cross eyed looking down at it as you try not to move. Hoping your labored breathing calms down enough that you don’t accidentally take too deep a one and catch the end of the blade from the motion. Your eyes lifted up to his visor.

“Gar parjir,” you whispered. (“You win.”)

“The goal isn’t to win. It’s to cuyanir.” (“Survive.”)

“Can I cuyanir without your spear at my throat, please?” You swallowed roughly, eyeing the beskar as it glinted under the work lights Peli had set up when the suns had disappeared. You disengaged the saber, holding it loosely at your side.

With a simple spin end over end he had the spear back at his side, standing proudly in his hand. 

“Ni ceta.” (“Sorry.” (Lit. “I kneel.”))

You blinked and he was down on one knee with his head bowed in either respect or shame, you couldn’t tell which. Dropping to your knees in front of him, your saber forgotten where it fell, you cradled his cheeks, lifting his head up so you could look at him straight on.

“What? No, no, no.” Glancing over to find Peli buried in some repair, you lowered your voice still, looking back at his visor. “Din, I was teasing-”

“No, mesh’la, I took it too far. I got…. Wrapped up in the moment and forgot….” He looked off to the side.

“Hey, hey….” You cooed, slowly turning his focus your way. “Come back to me.” Closing your eyes, you leaned your forehead against his, taking a deep breath before letting it out on a sigh.

“I always come back to you.”

Xxx

Later that night, you stood in Peli’s kitchen, looking for a late night snack before bed when Din came in.

“Mesh’la? What’re you doing?” His voice was low and rough, ready for sleep several hours ago but only just now making his way there.

“Scavenging,” you mumbled, looking through a small pile of miscellaneous foods in a cabinet. “But nothing looks quite right.” Closing the cabinet softly, you turned to face him, finding him leaning against the doorframe. “I think I’ll just have some water.” After you filled a small glass, you leaned against the counter facing him, smirking into your cup as you went to take a sip. “So, your wife, huh?”

Din sighed, his body deflating as he hung his head. “Don't.”

Swallowing, you lowered your glass and gave a small nod, fighting the grin trying to tug up your face. "I'd love to meet her.”

He sighed again, resting his head back against the wall with a soft thud.

Silence hung in the air before you added on a chuckle, "Is she nice?"

Din said nothing, only feeding the silence.

You had a full on grin now. "At least tell me she's pretty."

He still said nothing, but then, lowly, "Nayc. Mesh'la." (“No. Beautiful.”)

Oh, he was good. But you weren’t done teasing. “I know you are but what am I?”

Din turned and walked off after a moment, done with this whole day, waving to you as you laughed.

“Aw, Din, come back! I was only playing!” He turned a corner, out of your sight. “Good night,” you added softly, smiling down at the glass in your hand.

“Good night, mesh’la.”

Snapping your head up, you saw Din peeking his head back around the corner, dipping it once to you when your eyes met his visor, then he was gone again. “Good night, Tin Can.”

Xxx

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[skellymom]

Hi, Skelly! Really random question here but I think your honestly the best person to ask on this topic. This is non-Star Wars related btw. Feel free to ignore.

I have these neighbours who arent the best of people. They got a dog 2 years ago I believe, a Belgian Shepherd. Unsurprisingly, she barks a lot.

We don't think the owners are abusing her or not feeding her or anything, just not taking her for a lot of walks. It's their first dog (the mum, dad and two sons, to be exact, none have ever had a dog before) and obviously shouldn't have gotten a Belgian Shepherd when they have a smallish backyard.

I was wondering if there was something I - or my family - could do? None of us blame the dog, just the inexperienced-ness of the family.

You don't have to reply to this, as I know its out of pocket and not what you expect. Was just curious.

Have a great day/night!

~Jamie.

P.S. My puppy had a scare last year when she was only 2 and a half months or so and we had to go to ER for her. Geez, that place is stressful so my thanks to you and your workers everywhere!

Buckle up and get comfortable, I have A LOT to say on this issue:

(TRIGGER WARNING-I WORK VETERINARY ER AND THERE WILL BE MENTIONS OF DEATH AND OTHER DARK ASPECTS OF WHAT VET STAFF SEE IN THE FIELD. Consider yourself warned. I am ranting as a PSA and FYI for those not familiar but REALLY need to know what we do! If you feel brave PLEASE give it the time to read. Thanks!!!)

OHHH, I LOVE SHEPPIES!!! They are SO smarticle, sweet, energetic...and extremely spirited. However, they DEFINITELY need exercise. More importantly, they need mental stimulation. A several mile walk is great for the body, but not something everyone can do daily. Plus, these guys are brilliant (only second to the esteemed Border Collie) and their mind is like a hamster on a wheel. So, training, commands, tricks, agility courses and anything that requires not just exercise, but mental stimulation is top priority. These guys were bred to run and think on their feet. THEY NEED A JOB! They AT LEAST (and this is foundational) NEED TO BE WALKED DAILY!!! Every dog needs to be walked daily as this also helps with bone density, muscle strength, balance, cardiovascular function, etc. Same with humans. If you don't exercise, you can become depressed, overweight, brittle bones, diabetic, constipated, and a host of other health issues later in life that cost money to regulate and fix.

Most owners buy a dog as a companion, and these guys can be amazing ones. However they aren't your lazy Golden Retrievers or Greyhounds (while sporting class they do a burst of energy and lay around a lot normally). Unfortunately, dogs not given mental stimulation will show the following behaviors: excessive barking, destructive chewing, inappropriate urination/defecation, escaping out of the yard and getting in trouble/injured, misbehavior to commands, possible self injury, and unfortunately even aggression towards people and other animal housemates. A LOT of working/sporting dogs wind up in shelters and euthanized due to these behaviors when all they needed was regular exercise, training, and mental stimulation. A LOT of regular non sporting dogs do too.

In order to keep their dog, they need to include them as a true member of the family. Plan family activities with the dog. Can they run errands with a family member who might just want to do a ride along and the dog comes with to sit in the car when the person goes in. They can also research places that allow shoppers to bring their dogs into the facility: Home Depot, Lowes, Michaels, some downtown shops in their area might allow it. Shop for dog snacks/food and take the dog with them to pick it up as many pet stores allow dogs in their store. Heck we have restaurants and coffee shops that cater to outdoor dining patrons who bring their dogs...and the dogs get spoiled too.

If their dog is too rambunctious, then they DEFINITELY NEED TO SIGN UP AND GO TO DOG TRAINING CLASSES. ALL THE CLASSES, and more than just puppy training. Really, this should be foundational too. Every dog needs training. Again, get the whole family involved, because the dog (like children and adults) need consistency and everyone needs to know what to do when walking, interacting, and commanding "Sheppie" to behave like a Good Canine Citizen. There is a a right way to train and a horrible way to reinforce negative behaviors in a canine. EVERYONE needs to put in the work. Everyone needs to feed the dog, fill it's water bowl, pick up the poop, and walk the dog. Everyone needs to play and pet the poochie. That's why you get a dog!

The family needs to do some honest soul searching to figure out if this dog and breed REALLY fits with their family dynamic. If not, they the dog should go back to the rescue or shelter (many shelters have a return clause in their paperwork that says they MUST return the dog to them. It's for safety reasons) or find a RESPONSIBLE new owner to adopt "Sheppie". There are rescues, shelters, and fosters online. Again, they took on the responsibility and they need to do their due diligence to find a good home for this living breathing animal.

Let me also debunk a horrible myth that still circulates: REHOMING YOUR ANIMAL IS NOT WRONG IF YOU CANNOT TAKE CARE OF OR PROVIDE FOR IT! Screaming it for the people in the back!!! I have been working in the vet field for over 8 years (general practice, shelter med, emergency, high volume TNR) and have seen some horrendous shit when people keep an animal that they no longer wish to interact with. It can be mild contempt for the perceived burden to downright neglect and abuse. Also, I have seen family members and household pets in danger or actually mauled from dogs that people refused to put more money/couldn't afford/didn't have time for training that kept/refused to rehome to a place with no children/no pets/etc. And, understandably, many of these people LOVED that dog and kept trying to fix the situation. But sometimes you cannot, and the aggression, destruction, ingestion of foreign objects (we have frequent visitors to my ER that have foreign body surgeries due to anxiety chewing/swallowing-some end as euthanasia's). I have had owner's come in with animals that needed to be euthanized for aggression due to high drive, with their housemate mauled, and the owner mauled and bleeding (trying to pull them apart)-all of them showing up together. We have had bored dogs jump the fence to find something interesting to do and get hung up on it, needing emergency surgery. We have had them run out into the street and hit by cars. These things happen to all dogs that require someone to tend to their needs EVERY DAY!

I had to rehome a Dutch Shepherd that we took on as a foster (from a not good situation-putting it mildly) when she tried to maul my elderly German Shepherds (and that was with daily walks, daily at home training, professional training, and veterinary medical evaluations), we found a rescue that deals with security/military breeds to take her to. Sometimes the animal you choose to have in your home may NOT FIT WITH YOUR FAMILY. It happens.

So, you asked what you can do? First, thank you for caring and wanting to do something. Second, you can print out information on local dog training places, agility, and specific breed information (Belgian Shepherds include: Malinois, Turveren, Laekenois, and Groenendael, so tailor it to what their dog is), and anything else you can think of to offer to the owner. Try to approach it as helping and not frustration. HOWEVER, I will warn you now that sometimes people are not open to outside help and will not take this positively. Even people seeking out medical veterinary help can get defensive when we try to help them. Unfortunately, nice people who take on a high drive/high energy breed for their first dog are unaware of the huge responsibility they have. And, not demonizing here, but they buy the dog with the ideal they have for themselves and forget this animal has needs and is languishing without proper care...even a mental/physical outlet. And from what I have seen, this is an epidemic. For those reading this: if you feel you have to "come at me" go volunteer at a shelter/rescue or go have a heart to heart discussion with ANY veterinary professional. If someone was entrusted as your guardian with the responsibility of your mental healthcare and didn't see to your mental health needs and you had no outlet, how would you feel?

Actually...that is happening now in epidemic proportions. It sucks, right???

I wish you luck @fionajames . It's NEVER bad to reach out and attempt to help. At least you tried and I LOVE YOU FOR IT!

[mantleoflight]

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Everything || Pt 2

The Vex tunnel shone like a distorted Warp space, neon latices forming and shattering, pieces of half-manifest Vex debris appearing and vanishing in an instant. Echo gripped the dual helm sticks she used to steer for all they were worth, desperately trying to keep on course while praying she wouldn’t burst into splinters.

“Echo! I see an end!” Whisper shouted, her guardian barely hearing her over the turbulence. “Keep holding on, we’re almost out!!!”

The cockpit shook violently as turbulence intensified, and for a moment, Echo thought she was going to be crushed by the sheer g forces pushing on her. Then, like the snap of a rubber band, they were out, the light of the Vex net vanishing as they escaped into real space.

The Velocimancer wobbled its wings, it's nose dipping as Echo throttled back and tried to regain her bearings. “We’re not dead?” She asked, blinking stars from her dazzled optics.

“Not yet,” Whisper answered quickly, “but we’ve got hostiles! Dog fighters ahead!”

The shapes of round, black ships with wings like twisted candy wrappers roared and twisted as long, more conventional shaped ships chased and were chased by the black candy fighters.

"What in the absolute-" Echo began when Whisper cut her off. "FIGHTERS UP TOP, DIVE 90-0-23!"

Echo pushed her flight sticks forward and down, sending her ship into a sharp nose dive as two fighters roared passed, swerving to avoid hitting her. Blue light trailed in the wake behind her as she went, but as she looked up from the front, she saw her position had revealed a whole space battle happening above her.

Two huge ships glided through space, trading canon fire like ketches of the Old Crews but bigger. Part of her thought of the large war freighters the Cabal had stationed protectively over the Last City, Psion star fighters ready to launch in their hanger bays, or that the Shadow Legion had stationed on Neomuna with their destructive Nighthawks and tanks.

Around one flew the black, candy-shaped ships, their engines roaring like angry ascendant hive knights. Meanwhile around another flew the white, needle-nosed ships trading red laser fire for green with the black ones. But with them were also odd ships that looked something like an Arcadian jump ship but with no wings and only its engines secured to the main body. What kind of ship was that?

Echo shook her head and glanced at her ghost. "Oh boy, Whisper triangulate our current position and get us the heck away from these guys. I don't want to be part of whatever party these guys are having."

Whisper chirped and extended her scanning reach. "Got it - ECHO!"

"HOLY--" Echo hauled on her helm sticks, maneuvering her ship as she threaded through a knot of fighting forces. In the moments the hunter had looked at the battle and glanced at her ghost, her ship had soared down and around the main part of the conflict only to find herself in the other half of it! Unbeknownst to her, she had come in at a split vector, right through the middle of the main forces of fighting and unfortunately like all dog fights, forces move.

"Hang on!" she shouted and shifted in her seat, weaving and juking as she tried to thread her way out of the battle. Finally, she saw an opening and took it and a whole planet opened up to her.

A planet! Her ship was made for interplanetary travel! If she could get down there, she could do a warp snap perpendicular to it, allowing her to get past the atmosphere and get to cover before she ended up mince meat for these dog fighters.

With that in mind, the long nosed jumpship wove its way through the fray, dodging red and green laser blasts as Echo tried to escape from the battle. With any luck, the other fighters would be too busy to worry about a blueberry like her. After all, from the looks of the war carriers, they had much bigger problems to deal with.

[zibus]

Ssp5 First Read Reaction. Here there be spoilers!

Oh shit, we're on Yolen!

This... this is a dragon! We're getting a full Cosmere dragon pov!

If her uncle is Frost... he sounds like Frost.

It rustng is. Oh storms. WHEN IS THIS BOOK SET?? Is this opening pre-Shattering?

"You can never be ruined" feels like its an important line for some reason.

Huh. What does the light have to do with it? Is the sun invested in some way? Like on Canticle? Was the Yolish sun important to Adonalsium?

Ooo... one of the shorts is in here as a flashback? Is it 6th or is it Silence? Those would be my guesses.

Its the 6th sequel! Freaking finally! Or at least half of it is.

Okay. Okay. So from the first draft we got a while ago - Dusk is planning to go into the Patji's perpendicularity and try and discover some way out of their predicament - caught between Scadrial and Roshar. I imagine the aviars and his time sailing are going to help him navigate the Cognative realm. So how is the prologue relevent? Will he meet Starling there or perhaps a modern day dragon pre-transformation? Gosh, imagine if you were a young dragon lost/trapped in the Cognative realm. My guess is the strange black sun there wouldnt have the same effect. Your body is ready to be reborn into something new but you're missing an important piece. That would be awful.

Well, lets see if this new version has any new clues.

A direct hint from the Radiant about the perpendicularity. Why did he mention it, I wonder? The implication has always been the aviar were the prime interest in First of the Sun.

Also, feeling more likely this fellow might be a servant of Odium. The bit about rising through the ranks through war feels kinda like how the Fused talk. Could concievably be Alethi, though.

Okay. Starling is the other main pov character. And she is trapped/exciled as a human. Due to Frost? Someone else?

I feel like my guess from above is going ro be surprisingly accurate, though not for the reasons I suspected. Also, does not seem that Starling is old enough for the prologue to be pre-Shattering.

Nazh jump scare.

...and he's dead. Rip, i guess.

Khriss is gonna be the engineer, isnt she?

Oh, its not. An Aetherbound. I figured with Nahz here she'd probably be around.

Awakened Metalminds as computers. I wanna see one.....

Xisis name drop.

Yeah, i was right. "You can never be ruined."

Is this also going to be our Silverlight story? I hope we at least get a glimpse.

Is Starling our 3rd Hoid apprentice? Thatd be intereating, eapecially if he "stole" her from Frost.

Ooo. Bird-human. New races, heck yeah.

Ooo. Hordeling doctor. All the alien crew is awesome. A shade, a dragon, a kenku, a bug hive-mind. Sounds like a little Star Trek story in the Cosmere.

Im definitely super excited. Ive been hankering for this story for a while. Dusk is definitely going to be meeting the crew of the Dynamic and learning just how big the Cosmere really is.

[prfctparis]

Operation: Get the Corrie Guards Some Supplies

AO3 Link

summary: Zariza learns that the Coruscant Guard gets less supplies than their siblings who are out at the front lines. She decides to do something about it.

a/n: i started this two years ago & i’m only just now finishing it. anyway – have more my star wars au and my oc zariza :)

"What in the karking sith-hells do you mean you don't have enough supplies to help your siblings?" Zariza incredulously asks. She's following the clone medic around, using the hours of not having padawan classes as time to get to know some of the clones better – more specifically, the Corries, as she's heard some of the 187th guys call them – like she has been doing more and more whenever on leave.

It honestly started out as bringing a 'Sorry You Guys Had to Arrest Me and My Friends and then Witness Me Yell at My Master' apology gift (AKA multiple containers of the best candy and snacks she could find) a few months ago. Then gradually, she began to stop by and check on them for no other reason than the fact that she wanted to – just for the heck of it. Now she almost knows them as well as she does the men in her and Master Mace's battalion. Sometimes Bitty tags along or Elvira (they both came with her to bring the apology gift, seeing as they also got arrested), or sometimes even her other friend Ashlee.

Commander Fox mostly just tolerates her, where as Stone and Thorn have let her follow them around when they aren't on duty. Or even when they are, and they are positive no one will get in trouble for it. Once in a while Fox lets her sit in his office and meditate, which is nice. She's pretty sure it also helps him relax during the extremely stressful days but he isn't willing to admit it, and Zariza isn't about to make him.

More often than not, though, Zariza can be found greeting the shinies if there are any, helping the medics (or anyone, really) with minuscule tasks, and happily spending time with the men off duty. There are all stoic and extremely professional when on the job (which, yeah, is most of the time, and that's a little concerning but also a thought for a other time), but Zariza has helped them have fun when not working by bringing a few games that they can easily hide if and when necessary.

Unfortunately, today none of her friends tagged along for various reasons she can't be bothered to remember at the moment, and now she is on her way with Pat, one of the medics, to get the medical supplies that have arrived.

Which brings them to their current conversation.

The fact that the Corrie Guards don't get as many supplies as the others is almost incomprehensible in her mind. It's also news that immediately gets her riled up.

Pat gives her look – or, she assumes they do. Their helmet is currently on, but the way it tilts gives her some idea of the expression they're wearing. "I thought Jedi didn't cuss?" they ask, instead of replying to her question.

Zariza pauses and then shrugs. "Some do, most don't. Anakin was a bad influence about it growing up, and honestly Master Mace isn't much better. He likes to act like he is, though.”

The medic hums, sounding genuinely interested in that information.

Maybe they are trying to derail the topic, get her mind off of the absurd news of the Guard medics not getting enough supplies to do their jobs. It doesn't work. "But Pat," she stresses, "The medical supplies! You're apart of the GAR, right? They have to give you enough!"

"Technically, they don't have to do anything for us," Pat tells her. They refrain from saying that the clones are all property. Last time someone did that around the little Jedi, she went on a tangent about living sentients and slaves and then meditated in Fox's office long past night fall; General Windu had to come get her.

(Although, witnessing Fox step into his office only to step back out half a second later with extreme confusion on his face was priceless. Stone has a holopic.)

"The Senate believes that because we are stationed on Coruscant, that we need less supplies than our vod’e fighting on the front lines," Pat explains more. "They think it's safer, or something along those lines."

"The Senate doesn't know shit." She pauses, thinking. "...Senator Amidala excluded."

Pat can't help the snort that leaves their mouth.

"Do you at least try to ask for more?" Zariza then asks.

"Yes."

She grunts, clearly upset. "That's not fair."

"Life typically isn't. War, even more so."

Zariza frowns to herself. "Trust me, I know that." The two of them stop, and Pat opens the door they are now in front of. Inside, the containers of the medical supplies, along with everything else the Guard needs regular shipments of, are stacked on top of each other. At first glance, it looks as though there should be enough for the Corries. But she knows better now. "I just wish there was something I could do."

Pat lands a hand on her shoulder. "Kid, just knowing you want to help is more than we can ask for."

She looks at them, frown still in place. "Don't take this the wrong way, but that's kinda pitiful."

They heave a sigh, squeezing her shoulder once before letting it fall. "...Yeah. I know." They shake their head and finally step inside the room. "Come on, now. Let's get everything back to the medbay. I don't want the head medic on our shebs’e for being slow."

+++

Zariza barges into the 187th barracks without any preamble. It happens so suddenly that a few of the men who had been previously relaxing startle into sitting positions, or just down right fall off of their bunks.

Her steps falter and she winces. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

One of them groans from the floor. "It's alright, Command'ika."

Spite walks over to her. "What's got you in a hurry?" he asks, raising an eyebrow when Zariza continues to speed walk through the bunks. He follows her immediately.

"Where's Bitty?" she asks instead of answering.

Spite sighs quietly. "If this is going to get either of you arrested again–."

"No illegal podracing in the lower levels, I promise," she interrupts. "I was just curious about what Anakin saw in it. Never meant to get in trouble."

"Excuse me for having a hard time believing that, sir," Spite says as respectfully as he can.

She shrugs, head swiveling as she looks for the clones' youngest in the 187th. "You probably have a right not to." She huffs, stopping in her tracks. "Seriously, where is he?" Spinning on her heel, she looks up at him with her hands on her hips.

Spite raises an eyebrow again.

"Near the back with Mayhem," one of the soldiers on a nearby bunk says.

Zariza beams. "Thank you, Mak!"

Mak chuckles as she hurries over to the other clones, shrugging at Spite when he sends him an unimpressed look. "What, vod? Afraid this will be the day you lose the bet?"

Spite shakes his head. "It's not happening until the end of the war, I promise you."

"You're both full of osik! It's not happening at all. They're just friends."

"Any day now, I say. They're spending more and more time together."

"Thank you, Exx!" Mak exclaims.

The shiny who spoke right before Exx goes to speak again, but Spite subtly signs for them to pause the conversation as the two teenagers get close. The two walk side by side, their pace fast but not as hurried as Zariza had been minutes earlier. It's not long at all until their conversation can be heard by Spite and the others nearby.

"—just saying that anytime we go out, something chaotic happens. First the incident with that Pantoran's pet, then we got lost in a different district, and then we got arrested–."

"Okay, okay, I get it! But we're just going to the Temple and the Room of a Thousand fountains to meet up with some other padawans. Chaos free!"

When she grins reassuringly, the (biologically) sixteen year old boy pins her with the most skeptical expression Spite has ever seen on him. "You're planning something," he states after a second.

Zariza relents, "Maybe, but–."

"Oh, my gods–."

The two walk by, hardly noticing them, and belatedly shout a goodbye at the barrack's door before it closes completely.

Mak smiles. It's good to see the kids happy; the war has been beating all of their shebs’e as of late, and the death of Commander Ponds lowered all of the kids' morales – Zariza, Bitty, and a lot the shinies. Thankfully, they have been acting more like themselves as the weeks go by.

"Ponds would love to see them hanging out so much," Exx says.

Mak hums in agreement.

"Way to bring down the mood," someone om a different bunk close by mumbles bitterly.

"Guys," Spite tiredly calls out before an argument can break out. "Not tonight. Please."

It's only quiet for a moment.

One of the newer shinies, either brave or stupid, cautiously asks, "...So, is now the time to ask why Bitty ages normally?"

Spite can only sigh.

+++

Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi are walking through the halls as they converse about mundane things, when they witness Mace's padawan learner, the teen clone, Obi-Wan's padawan learner as well as his grandpadawan, and then Plo's padawan all run by and turn down the nearest corner. The two Masters Jedi share a quick glance before following their path at a much calmer yet still quick pace. They turn the corner just in time to see the five teens hurry into the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

"Did either of you see Ahsoka come this way?" Anakin's voice meet their ears as he hurries to them, slightly out of breath and a bit bewildered. He stops on the other side of Obi-Wan. "Zari, Bitty, Pytir, and Elvira just ran by and dragged her away with them."

"Yes. They went into the Room of a Thousand Fountains," Mace responds. He looks at the young Knight. "Do you have any idea what your sister is planning?"

"Not this time," Anakin sighs, close to a grumble.

"Well," Obi-Wan starts hopefully, "it can't be too bad if they are in the Temple."

Mace gives Obi-Wan a dry look. "Kenobi. You and I both know that has not stopped either Skywalker before."

"Now hold on–."

Obi-Wan nods and sighs. "Yes, that is quite true, unfortunately."

"Hey!" Anakin grunts and crosses his arms. "I've matured," he argued, and is quickly met with matching looks of slight disbelief, though Anakin can tell that Obi-Wan is also amused.

"I suggest we just leave them to it," Mace eventually says, which surprises both of the other men but Anakin is the only one who lets it show completely; Obi-Wan's features smooth out. "For now, at least. I trust that we will be able to sense something if anything does go wrong."

Obi-Wan and Anakin agree after a moment's thought. Surely, despite the Skywalker trait of causing trouble no matter what won't make too much of an appearance tonight, and it's not like any of them don't have a way to check up on their respective padawans. Bitty and Elvira, not so much – but surely...

Hopefully whatever they are doing will be mild.

+++

Turns out, planning various ways to get the Corrie Guards more medical supplies without alerting the Senate of anything isn't as easy or as quick as Zariza first wants to believe.

Once she has explained everything to Ahsoka, Elvira, Pytir, and Bitty, they all begin to throw out ideas on what to do and how to do them, and whether or not the entire thing should be a surprise. Zariza immediately argues that it shouldn't. She and Fox don't talk often, most of her time with the other commander is when she's meditating, after all, but she does plan on asking how he would feel about getting him and his brothers more of the things they needed. Plus, she's pretty sure if they sprung this on him as a surprise, then Fox might see it as some sort of charity work – and not in the good way. He seems like that type of person to take it the wrong way, even though they all mean well.

Zariza wants to avoid that.

They stay in the Room of a Thousand Fountains for three hours that night, simply bouncing ideas off of one another. The only solid plan they have is to eventually get their Masters and then the clone commanders of their battalions and legions in on the plan. Maybe somehow get Master Quinlan Vos, too. He works with the Guard for Shadow work sometimes, so hopefully he will be willing to help. It's not too soon after they make up that part of the barely-there-plan when Bitty has to leave back to the barracks, and when Elvira gets a message from Master Plo Koon that they have to leave the next morning to an unknown Outer Rim planet.

("At least it's not Tatooine," Zariza tells her best friend.

Elvira scrunches her nose. "From the stories you've told me, I have to agree."

She smirks to herself and says, "Oh, you should definitely ask Anakin for more stories. Mention the amount of sand," and then turns around to walk off with Bitty back to the barracks.

The message she receives on her comm an hour and a half later from her brother demanding "why the kriff did Elvira just ask me about the karking sand on that sith-damned planet" has her barely holding back laughter when she eats a late dinner with Masters Mace and Depa.)

+++

"So, can I ask why you want to do this for the Corries?" Bitty asks two days later.

They are in hyperspace, off to some place that is being relentlessly attacked by Separatists, and Zariza and Bitty are sitting side by side in a small break room still trying to come up with a solid enough plan before telling anyone else. Sometimes they commtext the others. Zariza should probably be studying for a test she has to take in her negotiations class once they are back on Coruscant, and Bitty should probably be studying one of the many medical holopads the medics gave him to make sure he isn't behind on any knowledge, but instead they are casually playing a miniaturized version of dejarik on her 'pad while they think of how to best go about getting more supplies for the Corries.

Zariza doesn't immediately respond. She moves one of her characters, eliminating two of Bitty's, and he cusses under his breath in Mando'a.

She takes in a steady breath. "So. You... You know how I was a slave?"

He falters. He cautiously glances at her, and then back at the game, pushing the curls off of his forehead when he runs a hand through his hair. "Um. Yeah. It's in your med files," he says. "Even though I'm just a medical assistant to Stitch and them, I have to know your background so I don't, like, traumatize or hurt you any more if I ever need to help the others. I mean, I don't know everything like Stitch has to, but I know some things." Then, awkwardly and because he may be kind of rambling, "Twice, right?"

"Yeah," is all Zariza can say for a moment.

Bitty stays quiet after that. The clones who know that she had been a slave know that it's a...delicate topic, for lack of better words. Something she hardly brings it up with anyone other than Mace and her brother and the mind-healer she's required to talk to regularly. Rarely does she bring it up willingly with anyone else. So, this is unexpected.

He kind of wants to take his original question back, tell her to forget it and that she doesn't have to give him an answer if she doesn't want to. But he doesn't get the chance to.

"Slaves don't get medical help," she finally says, just after Bitty makes a move on dejarik. One of the holomonsters move forward, but nothing else happens. She doesn't take her turn just yet. "If someone gets hurt, we have to rely on each other to take care of each other. Or, uh," her brows furrow, "they do."

Slowly, he nods. "What if– what if someone needs medical help, though?" Bitty haltingly asks despite his better judgement.

She shrugs, expression a bit detached. When she speaks, her voice is equally so. "Dep– ...The slavers don't do anything, mostly just let them die if the wound's bad enough. At those times, the slaves either miraculously live, or don’t. Mercy killings aren't uncommon among them." Dark eyes stare at the game but they're unfocused.

Bitty kind of hates himself for not shutting up.

He fidgets for a moment but then moves to get into a better sitting position – not so accidentally bumping into Zariza during the process. The jostling makes her take in a short yet sharp quiet breath in, and she shakes her head, reaching to make the next move in the holochess game.

"Your brothers not getting the supplies they need..." She sounds more like herself then, even if her voice is still quiet, and she isn't staring through the holomonsters anymore. Rather, she's watching them. "It puts a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. If I can do something to help, I will."

"You will. I know it," Bitty tells her, and he sounds so sure about it to even his own ears. Zariza finally tears her gaze away from the game and at him. He grimaces. "Just like how I know you're going to beat me in this game again."

She smiles, and settles back in her seat. "If you'd just let me teach you–."

"Nope, no way, I can do it without anyone's help."

"Say that to the past ten times you've lost."

"I think you're gaining an ego."

"I think you're just a sore loser."

"I think you should both be studying," Spite's voice breaks up the bantering as he enters the break room, heading straight for the caf. Both teenagers jump in their seats and turn around on the small, uncomfortable couch to look at the man.

Bitty glowers at him. "Rude."

"Can we finish this round of dejarik first?" Zariza politely asks.

Spite nods with a shrug. "Sure. General Windu is expecting you at one of the training decks in two hours to practice your katas, Commander."

It's Zariza's turn to nod. "Alright. Thanks for telling me." She turns back around, and Bitty begrudgingly does as well – but not without flipping his brother off.

Spite returns the action and plops in one of the chairs across from the couch, caf in hand and bucket at his feet. "Bitty's losing, right?"

"Oh, definitely."

"Good."

"Hey–!"

+++

The plan ends up being this: take an nondescript, little enough amount from the supplies left over missions and campaigns to the Guard. An amount that won't be suspicious when counting how much is left for later restocking. The battalions and legions will take turns bringing the contraband, as Ahsoka has started to begin to describe it, and make the one sided trade in an area that has no cameras or anything of the like because Zariza is pretty sure this might be illegal in the Senate's eyes.

And, well. As much as she doesn't like the Senate, she doesn't want to be arrested a second time or somehow get the Corrie Guards in trouble.

The padawans tell their Masters of the plan, finally, and Bitty tells Spite once Zariza has told Master Mace, and it's not too long after that Commanders Cody and Wolffe and Captain Rex get told of the plan as well. They all have to think on it, which isn't surprising.

If they disagree, Zariza isn't above figuring out a way to do this by herself.

Anakin, though, is on board immediately, which doesn't shock her in the slightest. So is Commander Cody, which does surprise her but maybe it shouldn't, and Commander Wolffe and Master Jedi Plo Koon only have to think about it for an hour before they're both talking more in depth with Elvira about the plan. Obi-Wan is in on it for sure the next day, and then Rex agrees to join in, and soon enough it's only Mace and Spite who have yet to give a definitive answer.

+++

Mace sits down in the grass next to his padawan a week after her talk with Bitty in the break room, during a lull in the current battle. Zariza has a blaster bolt burn on her hip, a cut above her brow, and she's beyond dirty and ashy from fighting for so long. Mace isn't much better, having gotten hit in both the shoulder and foot rather than letting the bolts get the clones.

This particular fight against the Separatists on this particular planet is taking days to win. Even young Bitty, who is usually ordered to stay on the ship, is planet side to help. All hands on deck are needed to care for the wounded.

Everyone is equally tired, and Mace knows that Zariza can tell both through the bond and how he lets himself slouch that he wants this battle to end as much as she does.

"You care a lot," Mace says after a few minutes of silence between them. "I admire that."

Zariza looks at him, and through the Force bond there's a flash of surprise that's otherwise hidden outwardly. It's obvious not what she's been expecting him to say.

"It also means you get attached easier than others, and paired with your stubbornness, it can be dangerous. The same thing goes for your brother, I'm aware," he tells her. "But I won't be getting into that tonight. What I want to say, my padawan, is that I love how you care about the clones. I hope you know that I care about them, too." When she nods, he continues, "I have meditated on it, and I have also talked with Spite, Plo, Kenobi, and Commander Cody each, and between what the Commanders have both shared, it's obvious that their brothers are not as safe from immediate danger as the Senate believes.

"And so because of that," he says with a barely there smile, "I will help you with this plan of yours."

Zariza blinks a few times, rapidly, and grins. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly," he deadpans. His expression cracks into a smile, though, as Zariza can't hold in her laughter. "Plo and I will also be trying our best to talk the Senate into giving the Guard more supplies. I might ask your brother to speak to Senator Amidala for clues as to how to go about doing so. Lastly, Kenobi will be speaking with Vos, to see if he has more insight on how the Coruscant Guards are fairing with their limited supplies. Hopefully this will end up being a short term thing."

She fidgets, smile wide and all teeth, and she's clearly debating something in her head. Mace almost questions her, but stops himself right when Zariza gets a determined glint in her eyes and throws herself at him. Her arms wrap around his torso and her head settles just under her chin. Mace is frozen for all of half a second, and then he hugs her back. He rests his chin comfortably on the top of her head, the training bond singing with warmth in the Force.

"Thanks, Window," she mutters into his robes.

He smiles. "Of course, little one."

+++

Here is what Fox knows about Zariza Skywalker:

1) She is somehow related to General Skywalker. Whether she's his sister, or cousin, or not related biologically but chose for some reason to have his last name, he doesn't know. And he doesn't plan on asking.

2) As much as she is quiet and kind and polite, she's sometimes also chaotic and snappish and loud. A living contradiction. He thinks it has something to do with General Mace Windu being her Jedi Master that she isn't more rambunctious like General Skywalker. (The stories he's heard from both Cody and Rex are...something, that's for sure.)

3) She doesn't trust the Senate – or something similar. He doesn't know fine the details, but Thire has witnessed her roll her eyes at Senator Orn Free Ta behind the twi'lek's back and then mutter how he's a "disgusting piece of bantha fodder." Fox has no idea what a bantha is, but he's inclined to agree, anyway.

4) She likes befriending his siblings. They like befriending her, too. They all love how she always asks for their names, not their numbers, and makes sure to use them. Of course other Jedi do the same, but a few still use numbers when someone hasn't chosen a name. The little Skywalker doesn't. She even helps some of them try out different names, and makes suggestions when they ask.

(There's also a rumor, one Fox doesn't know how to feel about. If what he heard from Wolffe, who heard from Cody, who heard from Rex, who heard from Grey, who heard from Ponds, who had heard from Spite is true...then the vod'ika who got experimented on to age normally has a crush on her. It might be reciprocated. Part of Fox wants to approve, but his little brother liking someone who is technically his CO sets off warning bells in his head.)

And the newest information: 5) as a padawan, General Skywalker accidentally let loose a murder droid within the Jedi Temple, and Commander Skywalker, as an initiate, attached a flesh eating plant to it for, in Quinlan's words, "shits and giggles."

"I'm sorry," Fox starts, having trouble processing what the Jedi just said. Maybe the lack of sleep is finally catching up. "They did what."

Quinlan shrugs, nonchalant as always, and holds his hands with his palms facing Fox. "I said what I said, Foxy. Murder droid, flesh eating plant – that's literally all I know. Obes told me about it since I hadn't been at the Temple at the time, and he didn't give me the full story."

He has...so many questions. Too many to say his usual dispute about being called 'Foxy'.

"But speaking of the little Skywalker," Quinlan begins and Fox doesn't get a chance to articulate any of the thoughts running through his mind, "She's coming by here to ask you about something."

"When?" The dread is already forming in his gut. If this somehow ends with a flesh eating plant being involved–

A soft knock on his office door sounds.

"Now, apparently," Quinlan says.

Fox gives him a dry look. "You don't even know it's her."

"Force signature." As if that's supposed to be the explanation.

Hells, Jedi are too vague sometimes.

"...Right," he sighs. He doesn't bother putting on his bucket. "Come in!"

The door to his office slides open, and Commander Skywalker steps in. Her appearance takes him by surprise. Visibly tired, a white bandage pokes out from under her sleeveless Jedi tunic, and her curly dark brown hair that's usually down is in a loose nerftail. She's also still wearing the pieces of armor her battalion gave her to wear on her forearms, chest, knees, and calves – all obviously hastily cleaned. With the way she's standing, it's clear that she has a few or so injuries hidden beneath her clothes, but there's a cut on her brow and some sort of wound on the back of her hand, covered by bandages and bacta.

Fox notices that last one as she presses the button on the wall that closes his door manually, when it doesn't close automatically.

Quinlan swears. "Geez, kid, did you just come from a campaign?"

"Yes, actually," says Commander Skywalker. "It wasn't an easy one."

"You couldn't have, oh, I dunno, gone to your quarters at the Temple and rest first?"

She makes a face like Quinlan is the weird one. "No. This is more important."

Quinlan doesn't reply for a moment. Just stares at the teenager and the stubborn tilt of her chin that practically screams she's not backing down anytime soon, even to a non-Force user.

Another reason she probably gets along with his siblings. They're all stubborn pieces of fodder.

Quinlan sighs. "Yeah, I know, squirt. But I'm staying, and when you're done here I'm taking you back to the Temple. Sith-hells, where even is Windu? Why isn't he here?"

"He's debriefing with the Council and the Chancellor, right now."

"Ah," he says. “Don’t blame you for coming here, then.”

"Commander Skywalker," Fox finally gets a chance to speak. "Here to commandeer my office and meditate in the corner again?"

She smiles kindly. "No, not this time. But if you want me to stop that, I will."

Fox almost raises an eyebrow in disbelief, but stops when he remembers his bucket isn't on his head. "It's all right. I don't mind it, too much," he says. As if he could say no if it wasn't. "Vos, here, was just telling me you had a question."

Her eyes cut over to Quinlan before staying on Fox. She begins to fold her hands in front of her, but then must have registered the fact she doesn’t have on her usual Jedi cloak, and opts for folding them behind her back. Akin to a soldier at ease.

Fox keeps his face blank as he thinks: oh – she's nervous. But what about?

Commander Skywalker clears her throat. "So. The other day – or, uh. Well, it's closer to half a month ago, I think. Anyway, I was with Pat to help them bring in a shipment of general medical supplies when they told me that the Guard doesn't get as much as they should."

Fox can’t hold back his brows from furrowing together. Where is the kid going with this? "And if I say we do get enough and Pat was just being dramatic?" he asks, because he's not about to have this turn into some pity thing.

"Then I will say I know that you're lying," she says. Just like that. No hesitation. Straight to the point, and blunt, and that stubborn chin tilt is back and aimed at him, this time.

It surprises him so much that it no doubt shows on his face.

"My friend, Elvira, has done the math. She's figured out how much supplies of medicine, bacta, and rations each battalion and legion needs. The ones out in field have enough, or just so. The Coruscant Guard gets less than a regular sized battalion, which is absurd because you are one of the largest legions and you're on Coruscant, so it shouldn't be too hard to give you the right amount of supplies, but instead you get less because apparently the Senate thinks nothing bad happens here to you guys.

"Protests here get violent – not always, but enough where it's not a surprise when one of your siblings get hurt doing their job protecting Coruscant. The criminal underworld on this planet isn't exactly a walk in the park. The Senate Building is regularly attacked, along with the senators themselves, and you and your siblings are the ones taking the fire, protecting everyone. It's a daily thing. I would bet my right arm that you rarely get leave, and the people in charge of you suck – the Chancellor included.

"If anything, the Coruscant Guard should be getting at least more supplies than a regular sized legion. You don't. It's... Its not fair."

The impassioned speech is half rant, half facts, wrapped around a veiled sense of frustration and anger and something else Fox can’t quite decipher. Commander Skywalker had looked away by the end. Her eyes cut to the side away from him and Quinlan, face tilted in the same direction a little bit, with furrowed brows and an expression that once again tells Fox she is angry but trying to stay calm.

Fox gets the impression, now, that this only isn't a delicate conversation for himself but for her as well. Unwillingly, his eyes fall to her neck, which bears scars reminiscent of a shock collar, or something similar, that aren't more than a year old, at least. They're usually hidden by a shirt with a longer neckline, or somewhat covered by her cloak. This isn't the first time he's noticing them, but is the first time he's gotten a good look.

It has Fox's first instinct to snap at the girl that this isn't her business to fall away.

He looks away before she notices, and gathers his thoughts together.

"I doubt you're saying all of this just to say it," Fox says. Then, with a subtle steadying breath, "You are not wrong. We don't...get as much of the things we need as we should. But we manage. We have to."

"Well, you shouldn't have to," she says hotly.

He silently agrees.

Commander Skywalker takes in a calming breath, and finally turns her head so she's facing him again. The heated anger has diminished somewhat from her eyes, but it's still there. Her tone, though, is back to being hesitant and nervous when she speaks again, "I... I have a plan. To get you and your siblings more supplies. But I won't do it if you don't want me to. It involves going behind the Senate's backs, so it's likely on the illegal side of things. But, like I said, it won't happen without your approval. It's your choice."

It's your choice.

Fox doesn't think he's heard those words uttered to him before. It kind of makes his brain malfunction for a second.

His choice. His siblings' choice.

"...I need to think about it."

+++

"You're joking," Thorn says, later that night at 79's after Fox updates him and the other Corrie Commanders on what happened. They only have a few hours of time off before they need to high-tail it back to their job.

"I'm not."

"Holy kriff."

"Why?" Stone questions. "I mean. I know she's a nice Jedi shiny and all, so it doesn't surprise me, to an extent, but what does she get out of it?"

"She's a Jedi," Thire says. "They're selfless, or that's what others say. She's not expecting anything in return."

Fox stays quiet as they continue to talk. A few minutes later, he's getting up and stalking the bar for 187th's newest Commander and battalion's medic. Ten minutes later, he's back at the shared table with Spite and Stitch in tow. He takes his original seat back beside Stone but Stitch shoves at them so he can have room to sit, while Spite squeezes in the booth on the other side with Thorn and Thire.

"She told you, I'm guessing," is Spite's first words after getting kidnapped from his own group – Mayhem and Knuckles, while trying to simultaneously drag Bitty away from the area of the bar with alcoholic drinks, stare at them in confusion and suspicion.

"Yes. Why does she want to help?" It's not so much a question as it is a demand.

Stitch rolls his eyes.

Thire says, "Need I repeat: she's a Jedi."

"You didn't ask her that yourself?" asks Stitch.

"No," Fox admits. "Getting told I actually have a choice for once sort of..." He waves a hand in the air, still a bit flabbergasted.

"Broke your brain?" Spite suggests.

"The most choice we have is whether or not we choose to paint our armor. Having the choice to say yes or no to more supplies, illegally acquired or not, is something else."

"I'm leaning towards 'no', honestly," Thorn admits. "What if the plan, whatever it is, fails? We'll be the ones taking the heat of it. And how can we know she's trustworthy? This is a kid we're talking about. A shiny, basically."

“Our Command’ika would never put you guys in trouble intentionally,” Spite says – a little defensively, Fox notices.

“I know that, but she’s still a shiny.” He gestures over to where Mayhem is carrying out Bitty on his shoulder, Knuckles laughing as the kid tries to get out of the other’s hold. “They don’t make the smartest decisions.”

“What about helping you guys is stupid?”

“Maybe the sneaking behind the Senate’s backs part,” Stone whispers intently, leaning forward so they can hear. “We work directly with the Chancellor. How the kriff is this going to get passed him?”

“If anyone can do it, it’s the Jedi!” Spite whispers just as intense. “She isn’t planning on doing this by herself – she has spoken with me, and General Windu, Kenobi, Skywalker, and Koon and their commanders. They all want to help.”

Thire runs a hand over his head. “I will admit, I want to say yes, but… I’m worried there’s a catch.”

“There isn’t one,” Stitch speaks up for the first time. Everyone looks at him. “Yes, she is a Jedi shiny, and because of that she is naturally compelled to help anyone and everyone without fault. But that isn’t the only reason for her. I won’t tell you, because it’s her choice to tell you guys and I won’t be the one to tell it in her place, but please trust me when I say she only has you and the rest of our vod’e in the Guard in her best interest.”

“And the others?” asks Fox.

“They just care,” answers Spite. “It’s hard to explain, and to accept. Even I’m still baffled by how much General Windu cares for every single one of us in the battalion. But I trust him and Commander Skywalker with my life, and the lives of our vod’e who are stationed under them, as well.”

Stitch nods. “If it came down it, I would put my trust in the other Generals as well, because General Windu trusts them and I trust him.”

Silence falls over the table.

Fox still needs to think about it.

+++

It takes another few days, but when Zariza gets told by Bitty that Fox wants to speak with her after one of her padawan tests, she hurries over as fast as she can, dragging Bitty with her. They make it there in record time.

Fox is sitting at his desk with his helmet off, looking worn and exhausted as always. Stacks of holopads and flimsiwork cover his desk, and she spots a stack of at least three used throw away caf cups. He has a fourth in one hand and a stylus for the ‘pad he’s working on in the other.

She’s fully expecting him to decline the offer. So, after pleasantries and polite greetings when they enter Fox’s office, she isn’t caught off guard when he tells them, “I can’t say yes to your offer.”

There’s still a little disappointment in her, though. “Oh,” she says. “That�� I understand.”

“What? But Fox–” Bitty starts.

Fox shakes his head. Setting down the stylus and caf, he leans forward with intent. “No, I don’t think you do,” he interrupts. “Commander. Bitty. Listen to what I’m saying. I can’t say yes.”

Bitty scowls at his brother. “Yes, we get that–”

It clicks for Zariza immediately, right then. Oh. She knows what is happening.

“I understand,” she says, less disappointed and more, well, understanding. “That’s okay.”

Bitty rounds on her. “What? But all the planning we did!” He looks at Fox imploringly. “Don’t you want help, Fox?”

Fox sighs. “Bitty, please tell me your brain isn’t as small as your body.”

“Hey! I’m average height for a clone, you shabuir.”

The man rolls his eyes.

“Bitty, it’s okay,” Zariza says. “He can’t say yes. That’s fine.”

“Then why can’t he just say…” The heat in his eyes dwindle as he trails off, and widen in realization. “Oh.”

Zariza faces the other Commander. “Thank you for giving me your answer, Fox. We will respect your wishes.”

“That’s all I ask, Commander,” he says. “Now leave. I have flimsiwork to do, and the other Corrie commanders distract me enough as is.”

+++

Zariza races outside to the Temple speeder she might have highjacked. And no, she does not have a license for one yet. Climbing into the driver’s side, she starts the speeder, and Bitty gets into the passenger side.

“So, to be make sure I understand: we are still helping the Corries,” Bitty says as the engine starts.

She grins wide. “Yep! Let’s go tell the others.”

He nods. “Okay. But please don’t speed, I don’t want to get arrest—” he gets cut off by his own yelp as Zariza presses her foot in the gas.

“Sorry!” she shouts, not sounding an ounce apologetic as she smirks. “Foot slipped.”

Bitty half heartedly glares at her. “You’re lucky I like you.”

+++

“Fox can’t say yes because he works so close with Chancellor, because if he did say yes and Chancellor Palpatine found out, then that would be bad for everyone but extra bad for Fox. But Fox isn’t saying yes, but he also isn’t saying no, which in a round about means that he is giving us the green light to help the Corrie Guards out without actually saying yes. Make sense?”

Pytir and Ahsoka, the only two who were planet side because Elvira and Plo Koon are out with their legion again, stare at Zariza as they process her words.

“Yeah, it took me a second to realize what he was doing,” Bitty admits from Zariza’s side.

“Slaves did this all the time,” she tells them. “Affirm something in a way that sounds like you’re saying no but aren’t, to avoid trouble from masters, or whoever else is in charge.”

Bitty nods. “My vod’e do it back on Kamino, too.”

Pytir, a young pantoran boy and Obi-Wan’s newest padawan, asks, “Like probable deniability?”

“Plausible deniability,” Zariza kindly corrects, “but yes, exactly.”

“So if the Chancellor does find out and asks Fox about it, he’s not going to get in trouble,” Ahsoka says. “That’s so smart!”

“And that means the others can’t know,” Bitty says, looking at them all. Worry is starting to etch into his features. “I want to help my vod’e, but I don’t want to be the reason Chancellor Palpatine sends off the Corries for decommissioning.”

“Then we don’t let anyone else find out,” says Pytir.

+++

Pat doesn’t notice the influx of supplies at first.

They just think their vod’e are finally beginning to get injured less. An extra box of bacta patches here, another package of bandages there… It’s not a lot, but he notices. And the number in left over supplies at the end of the month increases to where they have just enough instead of too little.

They ask one of the Commanders if they asked for more supplies and it got confirmed. Each one denies it. Each one sounds like they know something he doesn’t.

It isn’t until after a brutal attack on the Senate building when they start piecing things together.

The medics don’t lose their vod’e to lack of supplies or the dreaded mercy killings. They lose them to life threatening wounds and blood loss and kill shots. At one point, Pat is doing his damn best to patch up one vod before he dies, even though he knows they don’t have enough supplies to do so, but–

They do. There are enough supplies to get his vod stable. Enough to patch him up.

They even have a few extra.

…They have extra.

A knock on the med room’s door pulls Pat from inspecting the last box. No one else needs medical attention, and it’s just… Sitting there. Unused. Not needed until further notice.

Pat turns to face the door; their head medic is busy speaking to another patient. They aren’t that surprised to see the Jedi shinies and the young clone that have begun to frequent this place, but he is surprised by the medium sized boxes a few are carrying.

“Hey, Pat,” Zariza greets with a smile. “How is everything?”

“Hey, kids,” he says. “Everything is good as it can be. We lost way less men than my fellow medics and I thought we would.”

Her smile widens, and the others smile as well. “That’s great.”

Bitty holds up the box he has. “We brought some pick-me-ups,” he tells them. “Little goodie bags, or that’s what they call them.”

“They’re just bags of candy, and tiny hand held games to keep your siblings entertained a little while they’re stuck here,” Elvira explains.

“We thought you guys might appreciate it after the chaos that happened at the Senate building,” says Zariza. ‘Chaos’ is putting it lightly. “Usually these are for the younglings at the Temple after a Life Day celebration but the Council agreed you guys need something good, so… Goodies.”

There’s a stinging in Pat’s eyes, and they are wholeheartedly glad that their bucket hides their face. They don’t need a vod’ika witnessing them tear up. It’s been a very stressful twenty-four hours, okay?

“Goodies,” they echo. The kids nod.

“Aw, c’mon, Pat, you’re not gonna send them away, are you?” asks one of their vod’e a medical cot, leg wrapped in a cast and bandages around his head. “We deserve the goodies!”

They shake their head. “No, I’m not. Come on – I’ll help hand them out.”

The three of them quickly get to it, splitting up to make things go faster. The head medic makes a vaguely annoyed noise as Bitty passes him, but it gets cut off halfway when the the young clone places a little bag from the box into the medic’s hand. With the helmet on, Pat can’t see his face. He would bet, though, that there is some amount of confusion on it.

“Don’t question it,” Pat tells him as he hands out a few of the little bags as well.

“…I’m too exhausted for this,” he mutters. “Thanks, Bit’ika.”

Bitty makes a face at the name but says, “You’re welcome.”

Zariza sends him a teasing grin as she says, “Aw, Bit’ika. That’s cute.”

The teen’s face darkens. “Shut up,” he says, but there’s no heat behind it and Pat catches a smile begin to form just as he turns his back to them.

Elvira rolls her eyes with her own smile. “Zari,” the zabrak sighs.

“What?”

The two best friends stare at each other. Elvira shakes her head. “You’re hopeless.”

Zariza’s face twisted into slight offense. “What the kriff did I do?”

“Hopeless,” she repeats.

They continue like that, and Pat listens and watches and smiles to themself. The mood of the atmosphere before they came in had been low and saddened and dull. Now? The atmosphere is brighter, and even a few of Pat’s vod’e are speaking and lightly laughing along with the teenagers.

Pat walks back over to the box of extra supplies that have to be used to rest his feet. Zariza comes over a few minutes later, box half empty, and sits down too. She hands them a bag and they take it.

“You wouldn’t happen to know why we are getting a gradual influx of supplies, do you?” asks Pat.

Zariza shakes her head. “Sorry, Pat. I can’t say that I do.”

They eye her. Runs her words through their head. Then, they let out a breathy chuckle. “Okay.” Lifting the little goodie bag, they shake it a little, listening to the small candies and hand held game clacking together.

“I do know that a few members of the Council are speaking with Senator Amidala to find a way to get you more supplies – not just for medical,” she tells him. “It might take a while, but… We’re trying.”

Pat feels like crying again. They really need some sleep. They’ve been up for 48 hours straight.

“Thank you,” they say sincerely and meaningfully. “I think you’re saving more of my siblings than you realize – even with these little bags.”

“A little kindness goes a long way,” she says.

They look at her again, curious. “Is that a Jedi saying?”

“No,” she says, then corrects herself, “Well, maybe, in a way. But my mom always told me that when I was really little. We… I was born into slavery, so there wasn’t a lot of kindness to begin with, and so we did our best to be kind to each other.”

“Thank the universe for your mom,” Pat hums.

A comfortable silence falls over them. It doesn’t last long, because a conversation they had with Fox pops into their head. A question is burning at the tip of their tongue, and he just has to know the answer.

“So, is the rumor that you might have a crush on Bitty true?”

Her head whips around to look at them so fast, they immediately become concerned for her neck. “There’s a what about what?!”

Pat busts out laughing.

[absolxguardian]

After I made a post asking for fic recs that aren't setting aus, and generally being frustrated going into ao3 fandom tags and seeing so many setting aus, I thought about why I don't like them. The answer isn't relevant, but I did realize one setting AU for Ted Lasso I'd read the fuck out: Star Wars (probably because it's my main special interest).

Except I'm not interested in a fic where the cast are Jedi or something. Instead, I'm thinking about one where Ted is a coach for Outer Rim grav-ball (space American football)- perhaps for the Academy of Applied Sciences on Lothal (I'm just saying that because the children's chapter book that is half a high school sports book is set there. I know this would made Ted more comparable to a high school football coach, but ages for secondary and tertiary education in the galaxy is weird) who gets hired to coach a professional Core grav-ball team (space European football).

And this fic would really work by exploring the changes caused by the different societal norms between the gffa and our world. Homophobia? Nonexistent. Sexism? Also gone, which would change Rebecca and Rubert's dynamic. And sports aren't gender segregated. Mental health stigma? Honestly probably worse than current times given its unclear how prevalent therapists are in the galaxy.

But the big change would be that Ted goes from being an American expat to someone moving within the same nation that has a massive urban/rural divide as well as provincialism. His accent would be something people would discriminate against him for.

It would make things pretty dark, tbh, I think setting it during the Empire would be the best. Ted goes to work in the Core not just because he needs time away from Michelle, but because something doesn't feel right with AppSci becoming an Imperial feeder school and the new Athletics director is a racist ass.

The story would become about what you're supposed to do when you're just trying to be a semi-regular person within growing fascism. I think Ted would eventually snap and join the Rebellion (probably with a good portion of the main characters). There's the blockade and presumable communications blackout of Lothal, new policies banning aliens from professional sports, and probably one of his star players gets kidnapped by the Empire because they're force sensitive (there would be a higher than average occurrence of force sensitive people in professional athletics).

Some other new elements would be Nate (who is an alien) trying to be one of the "good ones" with Rupert, who is a die-hard imperial loyalist. He starts coaching for the Hammers at the same time aliens are banned from playing and only keeps his job because of Rupert's protection. Trent has the additional motivation to quit journalism that he doesn't want to have to deal with Imperial censors day in and day out, even though with sports there isn't much censor. Heck, Trent has always struck me as too somber and cynical to be a sports reporter, and maybe the reason he does sports reporting is because its the most honest specialty left.

The final new element I've thought of is that when I was running through my head for what planet the Greyhounds would be in, I landed on Chandrila. Which means that Rebecca and Rubert would be Chandrilan upper-crust- so instead of what we have in canon, Rebecca and Rubert are similar ages and were arranged to be married eachother when they were young (adults in their society, teens in our world). Instead of Rubert hurting Rebecca, they were both hurt by their society- which turned Rubert cruel. All the arranged marriages also means that divorce is more stigmatized and cheating more tolerated. This would also make Ted's in to the Rebellion through Rebecca and then Mon Mothma. Rebecca originally becomes a bit of a rebel sympathizer because Rubert is just so pro-empire.

[bucky-seifert]

The Rise of Skywalker came out 3 years ago today and it is a movie that still sometimes occupied my headspace. So, I felt the need to make a list compiling my thoughts about it.

My feelings are all over the place, but it's fitting because the movie is all over the place. I do ultimately like it despite it's problems, which I will mention below.

Things I like

The opening sequence is great. The way Kylo Ren approaches the Sith Citadel and Palpatine is seriously badass.

Exogol is an awesome planet in my opinion. I admit I'm a sucker for strong primary colors, though.

There is some really fun action sequences

The dynamic of the 3 leads is fun and they have good chemistry, especially between Poe and Finn.

Despite the lack of planning, the trilogy manages to have a thesis of “Where you come from does not define who you are”. Finn was a storm trooper for a fascist military junta, Poe was a spice runner for a crime lord, and Rey is descended from one of the most dreaded figures in galactic history. Despite this, they were all able to move past that, and become good people.

Rey Skywalker. It symbolizes how she truly found what she was looking for this whole time, a family, and she now has a found family.

Everything Kylo Ren

Lando. Just everything Lando. More Lando is only ever a good thing.

The moment of Poe expressing how he didn’t feel ready next to Leia’s body.

On an emotional level I found it satisfying.

The Han Solo cameo was a great and moving scene.

I think Sith Troopers just look cool

How in the final battle the skills of all 3 leads came into play.

Hey finally some Y-Wings and B-Wings.

Things I'm indifferent, come down the middle or am just iffy about

Reylo. It’s not that it didn’t feel built up, it’s just something I always found myself indifferent toward.

Rey Palpatine. While it serves the above mentioned thesis, I still have mixed feelings on her being a Palpatine. It does explain where her power comes from, but also it would have been interesting to just have her be a nobody.

Battle of Exogol. An awesome battle in concept, it just should have been longer in the movie with more shots of space combat so it really felt like a huge battle. What was there made it feel underwhelming.

Leia scenes felt awkward but that isn’t something you can really blame on the film makers, and they probably did the best you could ask for.

“Somehow Palpatine has returned”. It’s a terrible line but I kind of love it because it’s so terrible. Same applies to "They fly now"

Things I did not like

Xyston Class Star Destroyers. Especially after how awesome the Resugence class SD is, the Xyston feels lazy by comparison

All the stuff appealing to those that raged at The Last Jedi, which is what most of Beaumont’s dialog is

The insane pacing in the first half that didn’t give the big story beats enough time to land.

How it supposedly all takes place in the span of 16 hours. That is something my brain just can't accept unless it's not our standard measurement of an hour.

Lack of Rose.

Why couldn’t the Death Star II wreckage have just been on Endor?

Fake out deaths

That stupid freaking dagger.  Seriously that whole dagger was contrived as heck even by Star Wars standards and Star Wars is already very contrived.

The fact that the Disney execs were too cowardly to give us Finn/Poe

Ultimately tried to cram too much story into a single 2 and a half hour long  movie.

Why did they replace Kylo’s TIE Silencer with a TIE Whisper? The Silencer was so dang cool I don’t get it.

[theladyelara]

Could a tv show save the sequel trilogy?

After watching Clone Wars and Rebels and Clone Wars again and getting my heart absolutely wrecked every time, it brought me to two conclusions. One, Dave Filoni is a god and must be protected at all costs, and two, animated shows and tv shows in general have immense power 

So there’s a fair share of prequel hate out there, a camp which I sort of understand but definitely don’t belong to, but it’s pretty much universally accepted that the clone wars is golden. For a lot of people it made the prequel trilogy so much more meaningful and impactful than it was before. Rebels only continued this trend, continuing to give depth to the world of star wars, tying in some of the EU and continuing stories of tcw characters while also simply telling a really good story of a new cast. 

Which led me to the question I posed at the beginning. Could a tv show save the sequels? We’ve seen tcw ‘save’ the prequels, could a new show do the same for Disney? 

Disclaimer, I have not watched Resistance, and I have watched Mandalorian. 

In order to break down the question we’ll have to outline some things. First: Why did tcw ‘save’ the prequels. I think it comes down to these things. They... -- expanded upon and added depth to existing characters -- expanded the world building, and lore -- successfully introduced compelling new characters  -- continued the thematic elements of the prequels and sw as a whole  -- had really good storytelling overall  -- none of these above things contradicted or disconnected from the existing world of the movies

Now, is there a show that could do that for the sequels? Explore the characters more, delve deeper into the world, and tell a compelling and cohesive story? (listen I really am asking, lmk your opinion!) 

I am going, also, to posit some of the base ideas I have as well.

First: The year is before the Force Awakens, and after Ben genocides Luke’s temple. The show will center around one Jacen Syndulla and friends. Jacen is now a young Jedi who survived the temple razing, as he had been studying under Luke beforehand. Jacen is a quick tie in to the rest of the tv shows, being the child of Hera and Kanan from Rebels. He would travel the galaxy, perhaps trying to reach out to Ben, perhaps trying to stay the heck away from him. At some point he’ll find out about Something On Jakku and we’ll see him try to get there, always thwarted at exactly the wrong moment. Rey never meets him and it’s a tragedy. I could see him working with the resistance, and we could see other facets of the ST characters through him that way. The most potential I see with this idea is exploring Ben through a character like Jacen who grew up alongside him, and we could see more of exactly how Ben fell to the dark side, Snoke’s(and ig palpatine’s) influence and Luke’s teaching. It could also be used to salvage Luke as a character and give him better motivation for whatever happened in TLJ.  Of course, if you haven’t noted it already, we come to the stumbling block with this plot thread that FA made possible. It’d be almost exactly like Rebels. And I choose to blame this entirely on the New Hope Awakens episode 4 7 and not on my elevator pitch! 

Second: The other idea I had would be half about the sequel trilogy? It’d be more of a direct sequel to episode 6, basically following the OTs as they set up a new Jedi and a new Republic. But this may be bias talking, as that’s what I’d have wanted to see, and I also don’t know how well it’d work into the ST we actually got. The potential with this story thread again is Luke and Ben and Snoke, figuring out how Palpatine, one, survived, and two, has been pulling strings this whole time. The worldbuilding potential here is also huge, chances to explain what the first order is and why it exists.  However, I don’t know how well this would make for a tv show, and does little to help the characters of the ST, as it’d largely be set slightly before their time. 

Third: Somewhere between TLJ and ROS. This is the only time skip present between the mainline movies. It’s not like tcw, where the showrunners had something deliberate and fleshed out to talk about in their show. So they don’t have much low-hanging fruit to pick up for plot, and I think the time skip is pretty short. Still, this gives the most potential for the ST characters, and expounding upon them. We could see the trio actually work together, discover their relationships together as they go on missions. Rey is trying to learn how to be a Jedi, and is getting increasingly frustrated because she can’t get it. There could be darker hints as to her heritage. Also some proper bloody foreshadowing to the rise of palpatine and the Sith in the next movie. We should see her struggle and grow, go back to Jakku and deal with that, keep confronting Ben and Luke and Leia in more interesting ways. In my head the structure is pretty much like tcw or rebels, but maybe that’s just how I expect star wars shows to be structured at this point. A series of missions, exploring themes over arcs of a few episodes. And again we come to lovely originality problems, because this would be basically TCW with OT flavor and ST characters. But if it works it works, and I think this is really the best option to ‘save’ the ST. We need to get invested into these characters, and their best bet (as far as a tv show goes), is to do for Rey what TCW did for Anakin. 

[thesunmakesmetired]

I still haven't finished tcw (im watching it with my brother and he is slow af so we obly just finished the zygerria arc) so this may not be fully accurate but here is why, in my opinion, artoo is the most likely to succeed.

° Anakin is an obvious no. Palpatine has been manipulating him since he was 9. It was never specified that he would trust what I tell him, so he would most likely think I'm just trying to tear apart the Republic from the inside. Palpatine is his "friend" and even if he hasn't been manipulated through the visions of Padme's death, he would still chose him over some random person's words.

° I don't know Satine much but I do know she is a pacifist and hates violence. This might not be the same in arcs I haven't watched yet but since it's at the beginning of tcw, I'll simply assume so.

° With Ahsoka, if this is at the beginning of the clone wars, then she isn't as skilled as she got during her time as Anakin's padawan. She's inexperienced and, as much as I don't doubt her abilities, I feel like it would be a lot safer to pick someone else.

° Rex and Fox could be good options but with the whole brain-chip stuff I keep seeing, I feel like it might not be the safest plan, no matter how skilled they may be.

° Padme wouldn't be a good option because, no matter how great she can be, the senate is too corrupt for it to be solved through politics. I honestly doubt that it would go well if a single senator tried to convince the rest of the senate that the chancellor is bad, without being able to explain why. I don't doubt her abilities, but I also strongly believe that over half of the senate has been either manipulated or bought on Palpatine's side. I mean, they were all clapping when Palpatine turned the Republic into an empire... Plus, part of me even believes that if padme could tell them, they would either not care or think she's a liar.

° Yoda and Mace Windu (who wasn't on the list but a lot of ppl mentioned him in the comments) might be good jedi but personally I have don't see their success rate being that high. Both of them were unsuccessful when confronting palpatine in rots, but also because I think it would be a scenario Palpatine would be prepared for. Jedi, especially high ranking ones like Yoda and Windu, will 100% be considered a risk in Palpatine's plans and he probably prepared for this scenario.

° Obi-Wan is a bit like Windu and Yoda, but I can't help but think Palpatine might not expect Obi-Wan as much as he expected Mace and Yoda.

.

● I think Artoo has the highest success rate of all the star wars cast. He has an easier access to Palpatine through Anakin and Palpatine's "friendship" and as much as everyone might have some access too, Artoo feels the less obvious and the least threatening on a surface level. Plus, who would suspect that both 1: This Astromech droid is basically sentient and 2: he knows one of the galaxy's biggest secrets. Technically, Astromech's data are supposed to be wiped to avoid Republic info to leak into separatist hands. Not only has R2's memory never really been wiped, but this knowledge is what makes him so alive.

Artoo would also be the best at ending Palps. Hacking into some computer to close some door while palps walks through it? To slightly change a ship's trajectory so it crashes either on palps or with palps as a passenger? To control a building's self defence system and shoot palps? To activate some other self defence system and activate some trap thats was meant for intruders? To slightly modify hyperspace calculations, making palps's ship come out of hyperspace inside a black hole or a star? To change the recipe that Republic chefs use so that it poisons palps? Heck, even just some hidden weapons that he just pulls out before anyone can even imagine it being possible?

If there's one character in sw that has enough sass and lack of shits to give about what he is told to do (unless he feels like it), to the point where he could pull absolutely anything? It's Artoo. I once saw a clip of an interview with Goerge Lucas where he said Artoo was the most powerful character in the whole franchise because he's always the one that ends up saving everyone, either directly or indirectly.

(He got the message to Obi-Wan, finding Luke in the process, and thus being able to save Leia ; He reminds 3PO of the comlink in anh, saving Luke, Han and Leia from being crushed ; He kept Luke's X-wing stabilized as much as possible, helping Luke blow up the Death Star ; and so much more but I won't name them all...)

Ik all these examples are from Anh but I've seen it a million times, while the others not as much, so I thought I'd be more accurate to use example from the movie I know it almost by heart

(TLDR: R2 slays)

Please explain your reasoning in the tags and may the Force be with you.

[litcityblues]

Doctor Whoquest Returns: The 60th Anniversary Specials

Oh, you thought it was all done, huh? Haven't you learned by now that Doctor Who never really goes away- it just goes into mild hibernation and then comes anew, renewed and ready for more adventures across time and space?

So, here we are again, friends: back for more this time with the 60th Anniversary Specials and a new twist in the Doctor Who-niverse: the House of Mouse has arrived and they've come with money! And you can absolutely tell! (The budget is definitely bigger, the effects more polished-- which I think is a good thing, because with HD and 4K and Super Ultra Duper 4K these days, the rough and ready charm of Doctor Who effects that you could overlook or see-through in the old days when televisions weighed a ton and a half and the picture quality was less than great was getting more and more noticeable.)

I saw some rumblings of discontent with the Disney thing was announced and my only trepidation with all of this is that Disney will somehow not learn the lessons of the MCU and think 'Ooooh, a shiny new franchise' and then drown us all in the firehose of content that will have to diminish returns of quality. Personally, I think both Marvel and Disney have learned their lesson in that regard. Star Wars was trending in that direction but seems to have backed off somewhat, so I'm less concerned about them than I was. More money is good. More possibilities are also good. I'm going to say that this is good and continue in that position until I'm proved wrong.

But, the 60th Anniversary Specials:

Where we left off was Jodi Whittaker regenerating into the 14th Doctor which is all fine, well, and good except for the fact that 14 has 10's face and nobody-- including the Doctor is quite sure why. He lands back in London- for the start of the first special, The Star Beast, where he comes across Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) who does not remember him but has a husband, Shaun (Karl Collins), and a daughter named Rose. (Yasmin Finney) Doctor Who being Doctor Who, an alien ship crashes and the Doctor goes to investigate and soon discovers that Wrarth is in pursuit of something called the Meep (Cecily Fay, voiced by Miriam Margolyes) who in a twist that is really excellent, but you should probably see coming, turns out to be the villain of the special.

In short, the Doctor is forced to reawaken Donna's memories and is expecting her to die-- but with Rose's birth, part of the metacrisis that infected her has now passed onto Rose, making it less fatal for Donna, and together, she and Rose expel the metacrisis and everything's fine- until the Doctor shows Donna his new TARDIS and she spills coffee on something, sending it spinning out of control and to destinations unknown.

(This might be my favorite special. I think it was a really clever way to bring Donna back into the series and the chemistry between Tennant and Tate is unmatched as usual. You can tell Russell T. Davies is back as well because broad hints and foreshadowing begin almost immediately. I know much was made from the 'hurr durr durr woke trans woke' crowd, but the fact that Donna's daughter was trans didn't bother me. It's not unheard of in the modern world and if it makes you feel better, you could also chalk that up to the meta crisis being part of her genetic makeup as well. If you've got memories of being multiple people of multiple genders and don't really know why, how might it manifest in you, a regular human person? My general feeling is that: if it makes sense to the story, I don't care and it made sense for the character and the story, so I don't care.)

The second special, Wild Blue Yonder really showed off the potential of what a Disney budget can do with special effects, but it also leaned into The Doctor + Companion alone on a ship where weird and frankly creepy things start to happen.

After Donna's coffee mishap, they wind up on a ship at the end of the universe and have to figure out what the heck is going on. They find robots and eventually, aliens that appear as doppelgangers of each other and grow and shrink and unhinge their jaws and attempt to eat them and get really, really big and that's a fun plot development where they have to figure out who's real and who's not and The Doctor very nearly goes off with the Not-Donna, but realizes at the last second and swoops back into save her. The doppelgangers are from beyond the Universe and want to escape and get back to where all the exciting stuff is happening- which is in the universe, there, of course, they want to do things like eat people and cause chaos, but eventually, the ship blows up and the Doctor and Donna escape and land back in Camden Mark, where they are greeted by Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbens in his final role) who is overjoyed to see them both, but warns them that danger is afoot and they need the Doctor's help to solve it.

Which brings us to the final special, The Giggle.

The Doctor and Donna are taken to UNIT, where they reunite with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and former companion and friend Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford)-- the Doctor determines that the worldwide plague of violence is due to a video from 1925 and soon realizes that it is a very old enemy of his indeed: The Celestial Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris.)

He traps them both in his domain of twisting mazes and puzzles and eventually the Doctor and The Toymaker play a game of cards, which The Toymaker wins- but the Doctor points out that he won their last meeting, so they're tied and The Toymaker decides on a tiebreaker in the present day and transports them back to the present day where he attacks UNIT and reasons that since he's faced two separate incarnations of the Doctor in the prior two games, he needs to face another and mortal injuries the Doctor with a laser cannon, which triggers his regeneration.

But instead of one Doctor, they split in two.

The Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) teams up with the 14 and challenges the Toymaker to a game of catch which they win, banishing The Toymaker from existence and sealing him in a box which is then confiscated by UNIT.

On the TARDIS, 15 tells 14 he needs to recover from the extensive traumas that his past incarnations have accumulated across their lives- and Donna points out that going back to his old face might be his subconscious way of recognizing that need and tells him to settle down with her family and to retire from traveling. 14 agrees, but doesn't want to leave the TARDIS behind-- but 15, realizing that the Toymaker's rules of play still apply, takes a mallet from the TARDIS and gives the TARDIS a smack to create another TARDIS, which he then flies off with, leaving 14 to settle down with Donna and her family.

Doctor Who gets anniversary specials really well and The Giggle might be the best of the bunch, in terms of the wider franchise. It's a nice call back to the 50th Anniversary special when 11 meets 'The Curator' (Tom Baker) who advises him that he might well be revisiting old faces in the future and this neatly makes that come true AND sets up 14 to gradually become 'The Curator' which is a nice touch. Ncuti Gatwa makes an excellent debut here (we'll discuss his first special in the next installment) and I love the return of Melanie Bush, old companion and UNIT, and the very very deep cut of bringing back The Celestial Toymaker, who hadn't been seen since 1966!

Overall: It's nice to see Doctor Who back and I'm ready for more! If I've got to rank these specials, I'd say:

The Star Beast

The Giggle

Wild Blue Yonder

I will say that all of them are really good in their own way, but I loved the return of the show in The Star Beast and The Giggle neatly answers questions and goes deep into franchise lore to get their villain- which I love! Wild Blue Yonder wasn't bad either and really embraces the weird and creepy, but it just... wasn't as good as the other two.

[the-firebird69]

They actually had enough of these two idiots again and they're annoying as hell and the guy dies and he can't believe it I keep saying it over and over and what we say is boy are you stupid. It certainly don't want to see you revived after Manhattan but heck you know. There's a lot of people that want the guy gone. And who is ridiculous with it and it doesn't help him to make it look like his died over and over they probably do but it doesn't help him. Boy that guy is dumb. But I'm going to help get rid of him a lot more and we also coming into every area there is that's because these two groups don't want to do anything and think that it's a valid threat to get stuff with and we are going to cut them down it's too much it's too many times I just daily abuse is just really dragging on and it's terrible this ridiculous it is ridiculous and there's a war on. Well that's happening we're going to use it as an excuse cuz this is gross and speaking of which

-last night in the Western hemisphere this idiot Trump who pissed everybody off during the day he lost another 20% of his taxes and gases 20% and he's down to 45% now people had enough of him and he won't back off anybody and his own son said it too you just going to die now that's all it's true she's still there saying back to him and that's all they're going to do. So while that was going on with these two morons arguing people were taking their stuff here and it's happening quite often and the arranging for it to be shipped and trucked then they take his ferry to the South and they get pissed off about that and it starts fights lk Mississippi birning. And other and they've been doing it for about a week but in Earnest a couple days it's going to start happening a lot now they're taking everything and taking it to their place for protection evacuation is increasing those who are here don't want to be here anymore it's gone from 20% of the population down to about 18% and today we think 3% will eventually and they're going to get up pretty soon. There are a few more things happening and they are fairly huge

-the way our son describes them dying start to get to a lot of people that's going to say was he doesn't care about no it didn't get to a lot of people that way but this it was thank God they're going to be gone and it starts to make it happen Star wars and attack on Titan Thailand and that's what they know and it's working and they're getting Dr Manhattan stuff going and it takes two to get this guy and wanted to get that one there's a lot of people getting ready to knock them out with it. It's a big day and it's finally happening that people caught on they also want to blame him for his son doesn't care since I spent forever trying to get rid of these two idiots and then smiling saying we noticed that because he's trying to

-another item that's pretty big is our troops are tired of listening to this garbage they don't want to hear it don't want to hear from our leader and yesterday and last night things got really big and he said what are we doing what can we do now I'm saying we have cover and support and we can have this group do it and other groups too requesting it and we can get them in place and make it happen it's probably Biden who put some in there and it's a success story really so he goes nuts won't live alone and he's going to be out of here, today and a lot of people know it because they're doing it on purpose and he's going to court yes several court cases and his name is mud and the further down the road you get was the Star wars the better off it is and it does begin those people fighting the shields it's going to intensify and bja has been fighting over the shield over Australia and has been taking it over probably has half of it or more and simply can't refuel they don't have territory there so yeah they took most of it over but there's a blockade and they're trying to take those ships over it's not going very well they are having a tough time doing it and a lot of the pseudo empire want of them for taking over The shield and a nail in their ships. It's a huge battle and it's decisive it's important cuz it starts to expand the shield and way too far they say and they shut it down off India

-other things in the news they're happening right now like that are our son and daughter are pleased to announce that they are going to build their home on Olympus and we are saying it and it is happening we are seeing that she is getting a design ready and that she has one prepared shortly and people are looking and seeing parts of the house. At Wentworth is three stories now it's a four-story building but two stories is only 20 feet high so they're wondering how that works out and it doesn't really it's the wrong size building so we looked at it and he said it is the wrong size building but if you took out the floors all four it'll be 40 ft from the ground to the other side of the ceiling not the roof and you would have 25 ft door openings leaving only 15 ft to the ceiling from the top of the door or archway usually there's not that much space but in this case these particular buildings are put on top of each other there's another set and the second set is right down the street and Harvard it looks like the brick building inside that his block and you take those two buildings and you put them on top of each other and you have for you call a two-story Palace and the Florida is interesting it's nearby and he's right it's out front it's made with special pieces that fit together so they won't go downwards and you do stick them together it's an intense design and it's kind of our son and daughter the thought of it and it does work and it is slightly bowed and you put a floor over it and it is going to make history that he went to school in his own Palace at least what people think David audit made to blame him that he has one and this morning is there more encounters of this kind though one of Harvard has another building system it's his and it's already two stories and bjA figured it out I said this guy is actually Harvard to a degree and his brother built it and it's disgusting rude is what his nephew says. Is he had to go to school there too and eventually he figured out that he was not being nice and he's looking at the building and things that he knew about rod and he's studying pictures and thinking what are we supposed to gather from that and there are things that have to look like her sons and things will look like our daughter would have made true it's not necessarily true it's really hard to say and the cornerstone would be marked yes and there's two sets they go in the same palisade but they are one his and her and she's Harvard and he's Wentworth. Of course the founder of Harvard was different than the founder of Wentworth and yes the other way around it was David and Harvard and his wife helps his brother and it was weird to a lot of people. Well he's there she came by several times to see how it's going you can see her walking down the hall and she looks like a woman and was taller and one day he said he heard her he thought he heard a woman that is she looks out and he can't see class is going to start I'm pretty again so he looked out and he saw this woman walking down the hall away from him and then the class was beginning so people didn't think about traffic the class was headed by Michael too and he said what was that so just a woman and you don't see him around here much and he said wow that's interesting and he set off to see who it was and he heard benefactor and he couldn't figure it out he said it was her his wife then he said oh oh and figured out something what is she doing so he went and checked I couldn't find anything a few company supporting Wentworth and you said I bet he's trying to screwed up and it's true. So you start to work to try and help her and it helps and a few people saw it and started helping it works and it was much better

-couple of things happening people are realizing that the two and their empire are shrinking so they're trying so and a whole bunch of it and they're going to work because of recent announcements what effect is that they are working very hard you're trying to topple the pseudo empire it's a nasty group and they don't think they're right A lot of people don't like them and it's going on now there's a couple more things

-we like to say this our leaders want to hear about some progress and not about how bad it is here I didn't say they know how bad it is they have to go through it so we do finally have some good news we are getting more power and more control here in Florida everyday and is going better and they both like it and it's very good very good indeed and they're both happy with that there are a couple things that are not going that great and it is removing people who are trouble from office it's become a bear and they are getting smaller but still have a bunch of people and this guy next door is an a****** and there's no doing the right thing and he has to go because of that there's no parallel he just wants to take over and that's it and we don't want him taking over anything and he's on his way out of everything and refuses to acknowledge it but he needs to be taken out of here and we're working right and there's some developments that are going to make that easier.... He is a heavy handed loser that needs to go and we know that and we are fixing to do that but there are things here that are changing that... When is he is being taken out of all sorts of jobs permanently by being replaced and that's how you have to do it and then come back and they fight and they lose and people get information on the stashes and Cassius and these are huge that's why it takes a while but it's going on here because people had found the system works as I do it and they are doing it and they're combining it with other things they're doing and it works. They're also interested in developing more systems to deal with this guy and take him out and they're doing it he's a sleaze ball and a slime and a backstabber and he's useless he doesn't stand for anything and they noticed it and that's one way of conquering him he's a big mooch as well as this is a huge thing because they are starting to pull them out the positions and noticing it makes a big difference so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[kateeorg]

I do feel bad that the potential of this relationship's development won't be seen by the people who got really into it. I don't love how quickly they cancelled it either, I think it needed a little more time to marinate in public consciousness before making that call.

But my question is always, if the point all along was to center this dark enemies-to-lovers romance... why the heck didn't the creators and marketing say that upfront?

(essay below)

Why call this a murder mystery and hide the romance -- which was seemingly the point all along -- for the back half of the season? I don't fault people for enjoying this plot line or the creators for tapping into Reylo fanbase, but wouldn't they have gotten better reception from a fanbase who would actually appreciate that plot (and a second season along with it) if they'd made that apparent up front? Or at least earlier in the run?

So many books, movies, and shows have enemies to lovers as its central engine, including some of my favorite works - Pride & Prejudice, You've Got Mail, The Proposal, A Discovery of Witches. Or heck, just falling for the bad boy as its own thing. Fans of the genre love it But guess what: They know going in exactly what they signed up for.

So again, why market an enemies-to-lovers romance as a Star Wars High Republic-era murder mystery? That genre has its own audience, its own fans, who want different things out what they're watching. T

Here's how this article describes The Acolyte:

Centering on a sexually charged conflict between a former Jedi padawan (Amandla Stenberg) and a mysterious darksider (Manny Jacinto), The Acolyte openly capitalized on Reylo’s popular enemies-to-lovers dynamic—the romance between Kylo Ren and Rey in the most recent film trilogy—something the franchise had previously failed to do.

Did it, though??? Did it "openly capitalize on Reylo"???

Because compare that to the official description from the publicist:

An investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….

Like... that's not entirely a lie. There was a crime spree, and a Jedi Master, and a dark path, and not all was as it seemed. But oddly this description actually frames the plot as being about Sol and Mae. Not Osha and Qimir, or Osha and Mae, or even Osha and Sol.

And look, on one hand, it can be fun to turn the tables and surprise the audience, sometimes that works. Hiding the existence of the twins was a fun twist in the first episode, for example, and the fact that a lot of fans enjoyed the romance twist speaks to this.

But more often, misleading your audience is just going to piss people off. It will attract an audience who won't buy what you're selling, while over-relying on word of mouth to attract the audience who will. Meaning, you won't get those big first-day-viewing numbers the streaming ratings seem to rely on.

As it is, correct me if I'm wrong, I think most dark romance/Reylo fans didn't even know that's where The Acolyte was headed until halfway through the season or after it had already ended. So if they really wanted to appeal to those fans, why not just come out and say it from the start? Why hide it and trick people into watching it for this investigation plot that didn't really end up mattering much? That suggests to me they don't respect Reylo fans at all.

And in fact, there's another element of the marketing that frustrated me - the emphasis on queerness. Not because I don't think Star Wars could use it, but because of how it all played out. Part of that was due to the interviewers making assumptions about the show runner, but the show runner absolutely leaned into it. Meanwhile, like... the lesbian witches were all murdered. Years before the story even takes place. Jecki, hinted to have a crush on Osha? Also murdered. By the guy Osha ends up getting with. Vernestra, who is canonically aroace in the High Republic books? That doesn't even come up once here. You could maybe argue Osha is implied bi, but that's kind of it. So is the show really as progressive as it was marketed to be?

I get being subversive, but it just really makes me frustrated when writers or marketers flat-out lie or hide things the audience actually needs to know in order to make an informed decision on what to watch. There are some surprises that are good to keep, of course, to make the viewing experience more engaging, but there's a reason movie studios can now be sued for false advertising in their trailers. Star Wars has always had its toxic fans of course, people who will just hate watch and assume stuff before they even see the show. But I don't think the marketing or creators did it any favors by leaving the true romance angle for the back half of the season. (Or by spending two whole episodes out of 8 on flashbacks, but that's another issue)

I don't want to hate on this show, I do feel bad for the people who fell in love with it only to have it get cancelled, and I liked a lot of elements it discussed and introduced. But the popular narratives around why it's getting cancelled - either that it's the worst thing ever to Star Wars or that Star Wars is cowardly catering to toxic old-fashioned fans - leave out quite a bit of context.

Clearly, there is an audience for a dark romance in Star Wars, whether you like that or not. But to me, The Acolyte buried its lede too well and doomed itself in the process.

I love them your honor!