#how about galactic star alliance?

[bet-on-me-13]

The Ambassador

So! It was finally happening. After Years of Pleading with the Guardians and other Ruling Bodies of the Galactic Community, the Justice League had finally gotten then to agree to create an Alliance with Earth.

With an Alliance, Earth would gain the Protection of Multiple Empires and The Guardians, which would mean an end to the Constant Alien Invasions they faced. There was also the legal opening of Trade Routes between Planets to exchange Technology and Resources on the Galactic Scale.

Of course Earth would return the Favor, legally being able to defend it's Allies with its unusually large population if Superheroes and quickly advancing Tech, while also trading Tech and Resources between Planets.

Of course the battle was not entirely won yet.

They still needed to begin Negotiations to see if both sides would even agree to the Alliance in the First Place, as well as decide on the specifics of the Treaty. The United Nation's would decide on Ambassadors to represent the different countries, while the different Alien Governments would send an Ambassador Each.

When the Ambassadors arrived, they asked to be introduced to the Representatives of the Planet. Except, they claimed that there was a missing Member.

They claimed that there was one more Major Kingdom on the Planet, the most Powerful One, which they felt must be at the Negotiations.

When asked who this missing Ambassador was, they simply replied, "King Phantom of the Infinite Realms, he and a Shard of his Kingdom reside on this Planet, do they not?"

Now they are working around the clock to find this missing Kingdom, because the Alien Ambassadors refused to negotiate without the most powerful Kingdom at the Table, and they woud not wait forever.

Just who was this "King Phantom", and why had he not revealed himself yet?

...

Sam and Tucker sat on the Couch in their apartment, staring at the TV as the Chosen Representatives for America finished their Speech. Apparently the Peace Talks had been put on Hold for a few more days as they did some last minute preparations. Something about making their Guests more comfortable before they began discussing politics.

"Hey Danny, they're delaying the Negotiations for a few more days." Sam called over to the Kitchen.

"Aw, what?!" Shouted Danny from the Kitchen, sounding extremely disappointed, "I just finished making all the Popcorn!"

"I know Honey, its too bad." Tucker comforted his Partner, "Let's marathon Star Trek instead, how about that?"

Danny slumped out of kitchen and into the Couch between them, steaming bowl of Popcorn in his Lap, "I guess. We can make good use of all this popcorn at least."

Sam patted him on the arm, "Hey it's okay, the Talks will just take a few more days."

Danny shrugged, "Yeah, you're right. Man, what I wouldn't give to be in that Room."

[andypantsx3]

𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 : 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐨 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: 1.7k of unedited alien prince shouto thoughts based on this post from the other day! sfw, gender neutral reader. several elements of this universe were borrowed from my fave sci-fi novel; see end notes for deets!

he's beautiful—the todoroki prince. tall and strong in his high-collared uniform, strapped with lean muscle and handsomely humanoid. he's the first thing that snares your gaze as your party is guided into the hall of the sun—the reception dome that overlooks the rise of the star yuuei in the morning sky, used by the ruling family to receive visiting dignitaries.

it is morning, in endeavorian planetary time, and the sun has begun to rise. its light is weaker than you remember from back home—almost watery, pooling like quicksilver in the panes of the dome's ceiling.

up at the front of the hall, it catches in the strands of the white half of the prince's hair. from what izuku has told you, it's the half that indicates he's part of the himura bloodline. the himura dynasty has ruled the yuuei system from its capital planet of endeavor iv for tens of thousands of earth-years. it's the second longest line of unbroken rulers in mapped galactic history, an impressive feat.

the other half of the prince's hair is a fiery red, like that of the man who stands next to him—todoroki enji, the general of intergalactic renown, who donated half of prince shouto's genome as well as his clan name. each time a himuran royal from the main line marries, izuku had explained, talking at lightspeed in the podship, they take a branch name, typically sourced from the primary gene-donator. it helps keep inheritance lines clear.

prince shouto looks like he's inherited empress rei and todoroki enji's genes in exactly half—his coloring split down the middle, though his features are perfectly, almost hauntingly symmetrical. he wears a pin of flint at his collar that symbolizes his gender—one of yuuei's thirteen official designations. from what you understand from izuku, it most closely aligns with earth designation "man".

it's embarrassing how much you notice about the prince as you file into the hall, stationing yourself right at the gap between izuku and tenya's shoulders, so you can still see todoroki shouto.

"you don't think they'll reject the treaty and kill us all, do you?" denki mumurs nervously as he presses in behind you.

"no, i don't think so," izuku's gentle voice drifts back to you. he's a three-star ethnologist, studying for a command ethnology post. subsequently he's the most informed of any of the cadets that have been sent along with the treatise party. you and denki are just mechanics, sent along in case anything goes wrong.

"the alliance would be too much trouble for the yuuei," izuku explains. "they have good relations with the surrounding galaxies and tight control over a lot of resources. but the alliance is really large now, compared to the last time they approached the yuuei. they'll likely want to accept at least a loose federation with the allies."

up on the platform at the front of the hall, prince shouto blinks long and slow, like an earth cat. you realize with a start it's the first time you've seen him blink at all, and the subtle reminder that he is not just an extraordinarily handsome human man but the prince of an alien species makes your skin prickle.

"don't you think it's weird they are all this pretty?" denki asks. "it's weird, right?"

"definitely weird," you laugh, your eyes trailing over prince shouto's blade-straight nose, his pert, perfect mouth. "possibly illegal under intergalatic law."

prince shouto stills all of a sudden, and there is the tiniest tilt of his head. two heterochromatic eyes flick over your way, and you are completely embarrassed by the way your stomach swoops in response. you just manage not to grab onto tenya's uniform to steady yourself.

one of the prince's eyebrow arches almost imperceptibly, and you wonder if he's heard you from this distance—but no, that would be insane.

denki picks up his commentary, emboldened by your playing along. you think the prince's eyes linger just a little too long on the gap between izuku and tenya's shoulders, but then you're distracted by the reception beginning.

the alliance treaty officer strides forward, flanked by a few of the other officials your crew had ferried here. she performs an elaborate bow, as do the other officials. from izuku's muttering you gather it's some sort of ritualistic greeting, and empress rei at least looks pleased with it, waving a gentle hand to gesture the party forward.

there is some shuffling as various aides set up a table and a series of holo-tablets, along with various inks, a leathery roll of endeavorian traditional parchment, and—

"is that a knife?" you ask, peering at the long obsidian blade placed on the table in front of the officials.

izuku's fluffy head of green curls inclines. "treaties are sealed twice. once in the alliance fashion and then again in the local custom, to make it binding per both systems. blood pacts have been used in yuuei for millennia."

the brush of something over your face has your gaze turning back to the prince—to find him staring straight at you, those unblinking eyes boring into you.

"izuku, weird question. can the yuuei hear across rooms?" you ask, suddenly self-conscious.

a green eye peers back at you. "only in the event of their pair bonds—the yuuei are documented hearing their matepair across approximately ten earth-kilometers. i think we're safe over here though. why?"

matepair. the world settles strangely under your skin, as the prince's eyes brush across it.

"uh, matepair?" you echo.

tenya gives both you and izuku a quelling look, but it's not enough to deter izuku from ducking down to explain in slightly quieter tones. "the yuuei look human but they pair differently. they form a parapsychic bond with only a single partner, which they maintain and uphold for life. it's not just cultural—it's like a physical compulsion. they cannot take another pair, and they cannot be separated for long periods or they grow sick."

prince shouto is still staring straight at you, and it's not quite comforting enough to know that he cannot possibly hear you.

it's only his role in the ceremony that seems to eventually break the prince's weird focus in your direction. he steps forward to perform his duty as empress rei's chosen heir. you almost flinch as the knife draws across the pale skin of his palm, and he adds several drips of silvery blood to the parchment, symbolizing yuuei's intent to uphold the treaty across future monarchs.

the flesh of his palm knits itself back together in seconds, and another little shiver goes up your spine. those mismatched eyes flash back your way as he steps back, and the various aides and officials once again converge on the documents.

there is a brief flurry of activity, various bows and oaths, some stilted endeavorian verse. the chief treaty officer looks relieved when it's all over, and the royal family steps down from the dais to greet the rest of the visiting party, as is the customary honor granted to allies to the yuuei. tenya ushers you into the queue near the back with denki, a symbol of your lower status as mechanics.

you don't mind, as the thought of reaching prince shouto has your stomach doing what feel like backflips in your gut. the longer the delay the better.

izuku had walked everyone through the appropriate greetings on the podship, a few murmured words and a hand touch at chest-level—extremely hard to mess up, even for you. but nevertheless your pulse kicks up the closer you draw to the royal family.

there's a long line of them you greet first. offshoot branch members, then general todoroki enji, whose enormous palm burns hot against yours and who looks he'd rather take your party's hands off than touch them. then rei's unchosen heirs—the princess fuyumi, prince natsuo—and a gap where prince touya would have stood, were he not offworld.

and then you're standing in front of prince shouto, your pulse pounding in your ears. he's extremely tall up close, clearing six feet easily, broad across the shoulders and handsome in a way that almost makes your teeth ache. the yuuei look deceptively human, but this near you can see the tiny details that separate them from you—the slight double-point to their ears, the silvery undertone to their skin, the prolonged space between their breaths and their blinks.

and of course their inhuman beauty. they don't quite look like regular people, and it sparks a tiny note of wariness in the primeval part of your human hindbrain.

prince shouto's mismatched eyes pin you, silver and blue, as a sudden, silvery flush creeps across his face. you hold your hand out in greeting, trying not to wonder if you've somehow managed to offend him already—but instead of pressing his palm against yours, his long fingers suddenly grasp yours, clasping tightly.

beyond him, empress rei freezes too. all at once you can feel every single himuran noble turn to look at you, hundreds of eyes pinning on you.

reflexively, words tumble out of you. "shit did i—what did i do? were you supposed to get a different hand thingy?"

you can hear the treaty officer's horrified inhale at the terms shit and hand thingy, deployed in crass galactic standard in front of a literal prince. you immediately wish you could take them back, but from the look on the prince's face, he's already heard them.

something at the corner of his mouth twitches, like he's trying not to smile.

"y/n," he says, in a deep tone. it's crisply accented and just as beautiful as the rest of him.

it takes you a second to realize prince shouto has used your name, which he could not possibly know considering the uniform you'd been issued for the yuuei visit has no unique identifiers on it. you glance down at yourself, then back up at him, befuddled.

"how did you—? where did you—?" you garble out. "did denki put you up to this? how do you know me?"

prince shouto's fingers smooth over yours, delightfully warm, calloused and sure. "i would know you in any universe," he says, voice soft. behind you, you hear princess fuyumi make a tiny sound of delight.

you blink. "universe? what—uh, what universe? how would you—?"

but shouto leans in, tugging you closer with those deceptively strong fingers. he's so very warm up close, and so beautiful it makes your brain short circuit, especially as he lowers his face to yours. a shiver rolls down your spine as his other hand takes you gently by the chin.

and then he murmurs a single word before pressing his mouth to yours—

"matepair."

𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: credits where they are due!! the idea of a space general dna donator, an overarching space alliance pursuing a treaty, & the flint pin denoting gender were taken from my fave sci-fi novel winter's orbit by everina maxwell! (if you love heartfelt gay love stories in space i am actually begging you to read it).

[now-you-sound-like-a-jedi]

Thinking about how Satine Kryze, founder of the Council of Neutral Systems, designated regent of 1500 star systems, would have been an invaluable asset to the Rebel Alliance.

And, pacifist or not, she absolutely would have joined it. Like, this woman was so angry over some children being poisoned that she burned a warehouse down and set up a whole plan to catch those responsible even if that meant putting herself in danger and arresting the head of her own cabinet. Can you imagine how she would react to Palpatine ordering the execution of the Jedi and demolishing galactic democracy? Satine would be up there with Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in the "powerful people who want Palpatine and his Empire to die" club.

I mean, she would be completely opposed to, say, Saw Gerrera's method of rebellion, but with her connections she'd have the whole intelligence-operation information-warfare thing down, and on that front at least she would definitely not be pulling any punches.

[gffa]

STAR WARS PREQUELS - A TIMELINE

So, what's this about, huh? After recently sitting down with Star Wars Timelines, I was genuinely surprised at just how much they were willing to nail down to a specific year and sequence of events, which admittedly is a reference book and those are pretty low on the canon totem pole so be prepared for future retcons down the road, but it's shockingly useful information to have! Because the more I paged through it, the more I realized just how useful it would be for fic writers, especially for anything that might be referenced by a prequels character. Do you want to know how old the Jedi Order basically is? What the eras were called, if a prequels character wanted to reference them? What year did Dooku leave the Jedi? When did Naboo join the Republic? When was the Republic founded? When was the Jedi Temple built? When was Yaddle born? When did the Togruta ally with the Republic? Was Anakin born on Tatooine? When did Plo discover Ahsoka? When did Anakin get his first kyber crystal? When did Obi-Wan join the Jedi Council? WHEN DOES THE MANDALORIAN CIVIL WAR TAKE PLACE?? Some of this is SO INTERESTING to have nailed down into place--like just how old Huyang is or that the Jedi Temple was constructed on Coruscant BEFORE the Republic existed! Useful for me to know, but also my prequels-era characters to know! This book is willing to tell us A LOT and I collated everything I thought would be useful for a prequels character to know! ERAS:

c.5,000 BBY– 1,032 BBY: Ancient conflicts "The Jedi and Sith wage a series of wars throughout their history so ruinous that at points each is brought to the brink of destruction."

c.500 BBY–330 BBY: "The Age of Exploration" "After centuries of governing in regions near the galactic Core, the Republic sets out to explore the Outer Rim. This era of exploration on the frontier presents many adventures and opportunities for the Republic and the Jedi Order alike, but growth also leads them to uncover new mysteries and dangers. Soon the Jedi Order’s very connection to the Force is put to the test."

c.500 BBY–100 BBY: "The High Republic" The four hundred years that are collectively referred to as the High Republic era.

TIMELINE:

c.25,025 BBY: BIRTH OF THE JEDI

"The Jedi Order is founded. Among the earliest locations, and likely the first, is a temple constructed on the planet of Ahch-To. Later, the temple retains the most treasured Jedi texts and earliest writings on the Order’s faith. For eons, these noble protectors stand united by their ability to harness the power of the Force itself for good."

c.25,020 BBY: Professor Huyang powered up "The architect droid Professor Huyang begins training Jedi younglings in the delicate art of lightsaber construction."

c.20,000 BBY: Dawn of the Republic

"The foundation of the Republic is formed through an alliance including Coruscant, Corellia, and Alderaan, prompted by the dawn of hyperspace travel."

c.5,000 BBY: Creeping darkness

"A dark-side sect splinters from the Jedi, causing the formation of the Sith. This fracture is the genesis of a millennia-long rivalry."

c.5,000 BBY–1,032 BBY: "The Sith battle the Jedi in numerous conflicts for thousands of years before their struggle comes to an end, resulting in the destruction of the Sith Empire."

c.5,000 BBY–1,032 BBY: "The Sith build shrines on planets, including Malachor and Moraband. They covet these locations for their connection to the dark side of the Force."

c.1,050 BBY: A Mandalorian Jedi

"Tarre Vizsla becomes the first of the Mandalorian warriors to be inducted as a member of the Jedi Order. The unique lightsaber he constructs comes to be known as the Darksaber, later stolen to be used as a symbol to unite his planet."

c.1,032 BBY: Coruscant Temple erected

"The main Jedi Temple on Coruscant is constructed at the same location where there was once a Sith shrine."

c.1,032 BBY: "Darth Bane, the last surviving Sith, recognizes that infighting and back-stabbing ultimately led to the downfall of the Sith Empire. He declares the Rule of Two, whereby there can only be a sole master and single apprentice of the Sith. The practice safeguards the inherently selfish Order from self-destruction, thus ensuring the survival of the Sith for centuries to come."

1,000 BBY: Reformation of the Republic

"The first incarnation of the democratic alliance of planets, the Galactic Republic, is reformed."

c.972 BBY: Rules of war

"The Galactic Accord of Systems establishes a set of rules of engagement, in the event another war should break out."

896 BBY: Yoda is born

"The future Jedi Master Yoda is born."

832 BBY: Construction of Theed

"Naboo’s capital city, Theed, is built. The floating city on the banks of the river Solleu becomes the jewel of the metropolis."

867 BBY: Naboo joins the Republic

"The planet of Naboo officially joins the Galactic Republic. The event will be commemorated annually with The Festival of Light."

796 BBY: Students of Yoda

"Master Yoda begins training Jedi. He will maintain this regular practice, teaching the newest members of the Order, for about 800 years."

600 BBY:

Jabba Desilijic Tiure is born.

509 BBY:

Yaddle is born.

c.392 BBY: PATHFINDERS

"The Republic and the Jedi establish Pathfinder teams to explore new hyperspace lanes in the farthest reaches of the galaxy. A team of Pathfinders typically includes two Jedi, a master and their apprentice, who work together with their Republic allies to discover new ways through dangerous and unexplored places. They work with communications teams who lay the groundwork for the infrastructure needed for Republic growth. In return for their efforts, the Jedi Order hopes to gain new understanding of the galaxy, new cultures, and the Force."

c.383 BBY: THE HYPERSPACE RUSH

"Independent explorers also race to discover new paths through hyperspace. These prospectors risk their lives in perilous, uncharted corners of the Outer Rim, hoping to find safer, shorter routes. Families like the Grafs and San Tekkas earn great fame and fortune by selling their knowledge of these new hyperlanes."

382 BB The First High Republic book of Phase II

The High Republic: Path of Deceit kicks off the second phase of books, set 150 years before the previous phase.

382 BBY: Battle of Jedha

"The Path of the Open Hand instigates a battle on the sacred moon of Jedha."

232 BBY The First High Republic book of Phase I:

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, which kicks off the original era of the High Republic (out of universe, not in universe), starting with the Great Hyperspace Disaster where a ship explodes in hyperspace over the planet Hetzal Prime. This ignites an intergalactic conflict with the Nihil that draws the Jedi and the Republic into a massive connected, long-running series of battles against them.

232 BBY:

"Dignitaries and Jedi gather at the Starlight Beacon for its official dedication ceremony."

The Great Hyperspace Disaster (the Legacy Run explodes in hyperspace) happens and the Jedi rush to help mitigate the disaster and evacuate as many people as they can.

"The brave deeds of the Jedi Order [in the Great Hyperspace Disaster] are cast across the galaxy via holotransmissions, making Kriss and her fellow Jedi heroes."

The Emergences: "Though Hetzal has been saved by the heroics of the Jedi, fragments of the Legacy Run continue to threaten the frontier. Fear grips the Outer Rim as blazing wreckage of the ship appears with little warning from hyperspace. As the Republic seeks answers to these Emergences, a group of Jedi stranded in a forgotten corner of space unknowingly cause a far older and more sinister threat to emerge: the Drengir."

"Wreckage from the Legacy Run scatters through hyperspace, endangering the Outer Rim. The first of the Emergences after the Great Hyperspace disaster occurs at Ab Dalis, killing 20 million beings."

"The Nihil strike on Elphrona, intending to ransom well-connected homesteaders and capture a Jedi for Marchion Ro’s evil machinations."

"The Jedi Council votes to join the Republic against the Nihil."

232 BBY: A BEACON OF HOPE

"With the Great Disaster behind them, the Republic and Jedi refocus on the opening of the Starlight Beacon. This towering space station located in the Outer Rim is one of Chancellor Lina Soh’s Great Works, meant to provide a symbol of hope in a dark corner of the galaxy. This shining example of Republic unity and progress serves as a vital base for the ongoing struggles with the Nihil and Drengir."

"One of Chancellor Lina Soh’s Great Works, the Starlight Beacon, begins operation after a dedication ceremony attended by Republic dignitaries and prominent members of the Jedi Order. The station is to be just one of many beacons, serving to connect, inspire, and serve the Republic’s growth in the Galactic Frontier. The Jedi maintain a permanent presence on the station under the leadership of Marshal Kriss and the watchful eye of the exacting Jedi Master Estala Maru."

"Hunting the Nihil - Though it lacks a formal military, the Republic forms a special task force to hunt the Nihil, with Joss and Pikka Adren among the first volunteers."

"The Jedi broker the Ayelina-Ludmere trade agreement."

232 BBY: GROWTH OF THE DRENGIR

"The carnivorous Drengir take root across wide swaths of the frontier. Their lust for living flesh, which they consider “meats,” leads them to attack hundreds of worlds. Defenseless settlers and the Jedi alike struggle to repel these horrifying plantlike creatures."

231 BBY: THE REPUBLIC FAIR

"Chancellor Lina Soh’s next Great Work is a magnificent fair on Valo. Meant to celebrate the Republic and its many achievements, the event turns into a tragedy. The Nihil mount a merciless raid on the fairgoers, destroy the event, and nearly kill the chancellor. The Jedi defenders mount a valiant defense but are outnumbered."

231 BBY: FIGHT FOR THE FRONTIER

"The Jedi march across the frontier as they seek justice for the attack on the Valo fair. With the Drengir threat seemingly settled, they turn their attention to the scattered Nihil forces. The Jedi believe that they are gaining the upper hand, but are unaware of who leads the raiders and their ultimate goal. The Nihil Tempest Runners bear the brunt of the assault while the Eye of the Nihil, Marchion Ro, prepares a new weapon to fight the Jedi."

"The Republic-Togruta Alliance is formed."

230 BBY: FALL OF STARLIGHT

"The Nameless wreak havoc among the Jedi, who fight valiantly in Starlight’s final moments. Master Estala Maru sacrifices his own life to delay the top half of the station from burning up in Eiram’s atmosphere. Below, Master Stellan Gios stays behind to ensure the lower portion will not strike a populated city on the planet’s surface."

"The Jedi recall their members to safety on Coruscant."

"The Republic readies a Defense Coalition fleet to strike at Nihil space. The Jedi, concerned that they cannot yet combat the Nameless, remain on Coruscant."

c.200 BBY:

"Births: Chewbacca— Wookiee hero and copilot born on Kashyyyk."

102 BBY:

"Serenno foundling Dooku’s family abandons him as an infant after discovering his Force abilities. The Jedi bring him to Coruscant to join the Order." (Dooku is born this year.)

Sifo-Dyas was also born in 102 BBY.

86 BBY:

Dooku becomes Yoda’s Padawan.

Sifo-Dyas becomes Lene Kostana’s Padawan.

84 BBY:

Sheev Palpatine is born on Naboo.

c.80 BBY:

Rael Averross becomes Dooku’s Padawan

72 BBY:

Mace Windu is born. (Take with a grain of salt, it's from a De Agostini booklet and never appeared anywhere else that I can find.)

c.70 BBY:

"Averross is knighted and encourages Dooku to take another Padawan."

68 BBY:

Qui-Gon Jinn becomes Dooku’s Padawan.

c.58 BBY:

"After attaining the rank of Jedi Master, Dooku is offered a seat on the Jedi Council."

Qui-Gon becomes a Jedi Knight.

57 BBY:

Obi-Wan Kenobi is born on Stewjon.

54 BBY:

"Obi-Wan Kenobi begins his Jedi training." (Presumably this means he was 3 years old when he was adopted by the Jedi and began his training then.)

52 BBY:

Palpatine is elected Senator of Naboo.

50 BBY:

"The Nightsisters sell Asajj Ventress to Hal’Sted."

46 BBY:

Padme Naberrie is born on Naboo.

44 BBY:

Obi-Wan Kenobi becomes Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan.

"Stranded on remote Rattatak, the Jedi Knight Ky Narec discovers Asajj Ventress and trains her as his Padawan."

c.44 BBY - "Amid concerns about the corrosive effects of dynasties, the Naboo Reformations limit monarchs to a maximum of two two-year terms."

42 BBY:

Rael Averross introduces Dooku to Palpatine.

Dooku leave the Jedi Order and returns to Serenno to reclaim his title.

c.42 BBY: "Civil war engulfs Mandalore, a planet with a proud honor code and a war-torn history. Its clans form factions, with the conflict evolving to pit tradition-minded clan fighters against New Mandalorians who see the warrior past as a dead end."

c.42 BBY: "Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan protect Duchess Satine Kryze during the Mandalorian Civil War. Obi-Wan and Satine fall in love and he offers to leave the Jedi Order to be with her. They decide that their duties won’t allow them to follow their hearts."

c.42 BBY: "The Mandalorian Civil War ends with Satine’s New Mandalorians ascendant, though traditionalists—including Satine’s sister Bo-Katan—organize to resist her rule."

41 BBY:

Anakin Skywalker is born.

"Distant secret Ancient Jedi lore leads Obi-Wan to the Force-imbued planet Lenahra, where he forges a deeper connection with the living Force." (These are the events of the Padawan novel.)

c.41 BBY: "Holiday interrupted While visiting Kashyyyk, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan foil a Trandoshan raid aimed at taking Wookiee prisoners during Life Day celebrations." (These are the events of Star Wars Adventures 2020, issues 3-4. Unclear if this is before or after the novel Padawan.)

40 BBY:

c.40 BBY - Maul becomes Sidious’ apprentice.

Qui-Gon is offered a seat on the Jedi Council. He does not accept by the end of Master and Apprentice.

"Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan visit strategically located Pijal to oversee the signing of a treaty between its monarchy and the Czerka Corporation." (These are the events of the Master and Apprentice novel.)

39 BBY:

c.39 BBY: Sifo-Dyas joins the Jedi High Council.

38 BBY:

c.38 BBY - "Shmi and Anakin Skywalker are brought to Tatooine. Their enslaver, Gardulla the Hutt, soon loses them to Watto in a bet."

37 BBY:

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan mediate a conflict on Bri’n. (Age of Republic - Qui-Gon Jinn #1)

36 BBY:

Orson Krennic and Galen Erso meet.

Ahsoka Tano is born.

34 BBY:

"Mace Windu helps overthrow the warlord Guattako." (These are the events of Age of Republic - Special #1)

"A skilled mechanic, Anakin begins gathering spare parts to build a protocol droid, C-3PO, to help Shmi with household chores."

"Sidious tests Maul on Malachor."

33 BBY:

"Plo Koon discovers a Force-sensitive Togruta toddler named Ahsoka Tano. He brings 'Little ‘Soka' to Coruscant for training."

"Sifo-Dyas orders a secret clone army to be created on Kamino."

"Eager to test his abilities against the Jedi Order, Darth Maul kills the Twi’lek Padawan Eldra Kaitis on Drazkel’s moon." (These are the events of Darth Maul 2017)

Caleb Dume/Kanan Jarrus is born.

32 BBY: THE PHANTOM MENACE

"The former Padmé Naberrie is just 14 when elected and has barely taken office when the Trade Federation blockades and then invades Naboo."

The events of The Phantom Menace take place, the Trade Federation invades Naboo, Valorum sends Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to help Naboo, Anakin Skywalker is adopted into the Jedi Order, Qui-Gon Jinn dies.

"Count Dooku pledges himself to the ways of the Sith, replacing Maul as Sidious’ apprentice and taking the name Darth Tyranus."

"Palpatine is elected supreme chancellor."

"Obi-Wan takes Anakin as his Padawan."

"The Sith take over Sifo-Dyas’ project to create a clone army, ordering inhibitor chips implanted in the clones to ensure their obedience."

"With Sifo-Dyas dead, Dooku takes over the clone project, altering it to serve the Sith’s purpose. In his guise as Tyranus, Dooku recruits the bounty hunter Jango Fett as the genetic template for the Kaminoans’ clone army. He then instructs the Kaminoans to secretly implant inhibitor chips in the clones’ brains to ensure their obedience. The clones will fight for the Republic, but the Sith will be their true masters."

Han Solo is born.

Boba Fett is born.

Yaddle is killed by Dooku.

31 BBY:

"Kuat Drive Yards receives an order from a secret buyer to create massive numbers of warships and weapons."

30 BBY:

"Sidious’ minions begin constructing a massive Observatory on Jakku, the first of several built as part of the Sith Lord’s decades-spanning Contingency project. As Palpatine, Sidious orders the secret establishment of bases, shipyards, and colonies in the galaxy’s Unknown Regions."

29 BBY:

c.29 BBY: "Anakin seeks out his first kyber crystal on Ilum and creates a lightsaber, an important step in his Padawan training."

"Anakin goes on a mission in Coruscant’s underlevels with a disguised Chancellor Palpatine, whom he comes to see as a mentor."

"Influenced by Palpatine, Anakin tells Obi-Wan he wishes to suspend his Jedi training and surrenders his lightsaber. With Anakin’s path undecided, Yoda sends him and Obi-Wan to Carnelion IV to investigate a distress signal. [Eventually] Anakin decides to remain Obi-Wan’s Padawan." (These are the events of Obi-Wan & Anakin 2016)

Hera Syndulla is born.

28 BBY:

Queen Amidala's final year as Queen of Naboo, where her successor, Queen Réillata, asks her to be Senator for Naboo and Padme agrees, taking office that year.

"Remembering her experience after fleeing Naboo, Padmé sends Sabé on a mission to investigate how to end slavery on Tatooine." (This ultimately doesn't really go anywhere/accomplish much, unfortunately.)

"Padmé becomes friends with two young fellow senators: Rush Clovis of Scipio and Mina Bonteri of Raxus." (These are the events of Queen's Shadow.)

c.28 BBY: "Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to retrieve a Holocron from Dallenor, leading to a confrontation with the Krypder Riders." (These are the events of Age of Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi #1.)

27 BBY:

c.27 BBY: "Cliegg Lars buys Shmi Skywalker’s freedom from Watto. They marry and live on Cliegg’s moisture farm."

26 BBY:

"While on a mission to Sullust, Dooku kills the Jedi Knight Jak’zin and forces the Kaldana Syndicate to serve Sidious’ interests." (These are the events of Age of the Republic - Count Dooku #1.)

"Obi-Wan and Anakin rescue Yoda from raiders on Glee Anselm, but discover the incident was actually a test engineered by the Jedi Council [to help them get along better]." (These are the events of Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure.)

24 BBY:

c.24 BBY - "Dooku founds the Confederacy of Independent Systems, attracting planets that wish to secede from the Republic and beginning the Separatist Movement."

"The Senate passes the Emergency Powers Act, allowing Palpatine to remain in office for the duration of the Separatist Crisis."

"Palpatine forms the Loyalist Committee to advise him during the Separatist Crisis. Senators belonging to the committee include Bail Organa of Alderaan, Padmé Amidala of Naboo, Ask Aak of Malastare, and Orn Free Taa of Ryloth."

"The Senate begins debating the Military Creation Act, which would allow the Republic to create military forces for its defense."

"Adrift after the death of Ky Narec, a grief-stricken Asajj Ventress embraces the dark side and becomes a warlord on Rattatak."

"Osika Kirske imprisons Ventress on Rattatak, forcing her to fight as a gladiator. Dooku frees her and offers to make her his apprentice in hopes of one day supplanting Sidious. Ventress agrees to serve as the count’s agent and assassin." (These are part of the events of Dooku: Jedi Lost.)

22 BBY–19 BBY: The Clone Wars

"A political crisis propels the Jedi Order into a galaxy-wide war against the Separatists, secretly led by the Sith."

22 BBY: ATTACK OF THE CLONES:

"Obi-Wan and Anakin help defuse a crisis on Ansion." (Mentioned in Attack of the Clones: "He's just returned from a border dispute on Ansion," Mace says of Obi-Wan.)

The events of Attack of the Clones take place, Padme is attacked for her stance against the Military Creation Act in the Senate, Jar Jar introduces a motion to give Palpatine emergency powers as Chancellor, including the discovery of the clone army, Shmi Skywalker dies, Obi-Wan and Anakin and Padme are held captive by the Separatists and rescued by the Jedi, many who die in the arena, as well as Jango Fett dies, and the start of the Clone Wars.

Anakin and Padme are secretly married on Naboo.

Poggle the Lesser gives the Death Star plans to Dooku.

The Clone Wars begin on Geonosis.

22 BBY: THE CLONE WARS:

"Mace Windu leads a Jedi mission to Hissrich. As a member of Windu’s team, Jedi Prosset Dibs accuses the Order of wanting Hissrich for the Republic. He duels Windu and is defeated. Dibs is found guilty of treason and confined to the Jedi Archives in hopes that he’ll find his way back to the light." (These are the events of Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu.)

"Padmé and Captain Typho help Sticks’ squad of clone troopers free Separatist hostages on the embattled planet Hebekrr Minor." (These are the events of Queen's Hope.)

"Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight."

"Obi-Wan becomes a Jedi Master and is elevated to the Jedi Council."

"Obi-Wan investigates a bombing on Cato Neimoidia and discovers the attack bears the hallmarks of both a Republic and Separatist operation. He brings this disquieting hint that someone is manipulating both sides of the war back to Coruscant. Anakin duels Ventress on Cato Neimoidia." (These are the events of Brotherhood.)

"Captain Rex, formally designated CT-7567, is assigned to Anakin Skywalker, who saves his life during the Battle of Arantara. A mutual respect soon blossoms between the brash, bold young Jedi general and the sturdy, by-the-book clone officer."

"Anakin’s troops run afoul of hostile wildlife while searching for Separatist forces on Benglor." (These are the events of Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars – Battle Tales #1.)

"The Techno Union’s Wat Tambor destroys the Nexus trading post on Quarmendy to keep Plo Koon’s troops from reclaiming it." (These are the events of Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars – Battle Tales #2.)

"Yoda assigns Ahsoka Tano to Anakin as his Padawan, hoping to teach Skywalker how to let go of his emotional attachments."

"The Separatist battlecruiser Malevolence terrorizes the galaxy’s inner systems before it is tracked and destroyed at the Dead Moon of Antar."

21 BBY: THE CLONE WARS:

"The Republic invades Geonosis for a second time to destroy a dangerous new droid foundry constructed by Poggle the Lesser."

"Padmé and Jar Jar discover a bioweapons lab in Naboo’s swamps and must stop Nuvo Vindi from releasing the Blue Shadow Virus."

"General Grievous and Asajj Ventress lead a Separatist invasion on Kamino, with the Republic’s clones fiercely defending their birthworld."

"Sabine Wren is born on Mandalore but raised on neighboring Krownest."

20 BBY: THE CLONE WARS:

"Anakin experiences a disturbing vision of his future in the Force realm known as Mortis and must make a wrenching decision."

"The Republic defends Mon Cala during a Separatist-engineered civil war between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren."

"Republic forces suffer heavy casualties while storming Umbara, a strategically located world with advanced technology that has become a Separatist stronghold."

"Maul returns from exile, bent on obtaining revenge against the long list of those he believes have wronged him."

19 BBY: THE CLONE WARS:

"Maul forms the Shadow Collective, forging several of the galaxy’s crime syndicates into a single underworld organization under his leadership."

"Mandalore’s Duchess Satine Kryze is overthrown by Death Watch’s Pre Vizsla, whose own rule is quickly ended by Maul. Maul has manipulated events to bring Obi-Wan to Mandalore, and now has the hated Jedi at his mercy. He strikes Satine down in the throne room."

"Responding to a disturbance in the Force, Darth Sidious arrives on Mandalore. Maul swears fealty to his old master, but Sidious rejects him. He kills Savage, blasts Maul with lightning, and takes his former apprentice prisoner."

"Anakin and Ahsoka return from Cato Neimoidia to investigate a bombing at the Jedi Temple amid rumors that a Jedi was involved."

"Ahsoka is expelled from the Jedi Order, which believes her guilty of the Temple bombing. She is then arrested by the Republic and prosecuted by Admiral Tarkin before a military tribunal, with Palpatine presiding and Padmé representing the defense. [She] leaves the Jedi Order."

"During the Battle of Ringo Vinda, the clone trooper Tup turns his blaster on Jedi General Tiplar, forcing a Republic retreat. Fives and AZI-3 discover a tumor in Tup’s brain. He dies after its extraction. Palpatine and Nala Se insist the tumor be sent to a Republic medical facility, but Shaak Ti decides it must go to the Jedi Temple first. Kix helps Fives arrange a meeting with Anakin and Rex. Fives tells them about the inhibitor chips and the plot against the Jedi, but his story sounds like a paranoid conspiracy and he becomes agitated. Commander Fox and clone troopers arrive, sent by Palpatine, and try to arrest Fives. When Fives resists, Fox shoots him dead. Tup’s action is blamed on a parasitic infection, and the inhibitor chips are delivered to Dooku."

"Padmé travels to Scipio to expedite a Banking Clan loan for the Republic and discovers Rush Clovis is serving as their representative. The Banking Clan is dissolved and Palpatine takes over its holdings."

"Plo Koon discovers the crash site of Sifo-Dyas’ ship, prompting the Council to investigate the Jedi’s long-ago disappearance."

"On Oba Diah, spice kingpin Lom Pyke tells Anakin and Obi-Wan that the Pykes were paid by Tyranus to kill Sifo-Dyas. Dooku arrives and is identified as Tyranus. He kills the Pyke leader and duels with Anakin, but escapes."

"The Jedi are disturbed to learn Dooku was responsible for the creation of the clone army, but decide to keep this revelation secret."

"Yoda obeys Qui-Gon’s voice and travels to Dagobah, where Qui-Gon’s spirit tells him to learn how to retain his identity after death."

"Anakin teams up with a mysterious Chiss military officer, Thrawn, to locate Padmé and destroy a cortosis mine." [Thrawn: Alliances]

"Yoda helps Kashyyyk’s Wookiees defend their planet against Separatist raiders, earning the honor 'Defender of the Home Tree.'"

"Mandalorian commandos free Maul from Stygeon Prime. Sidious and Dooku allow him to escape in hopes of drawing out Mother Talzin. Maul lures Grievous and Dooku into a confrontation on Ord Mantell and takes them both prisoner—a dangerous gambit of Talzin’s aimed at luring her old enemy Sidious into the fight. Grievous and Sidious come to Dooku’s aid on Dathomir. Grievous kills Mother Talzin and the Mandalorians drag Maul away to safety."

- "Ventress asks the Jedi to help abduct Vos from Dooku’s service in hopes of saving him. Vos returns to the Jedi, claiming his turn to the dark side was a ruse. But his true loyalties are unclear. Vos defeats Dooku on Christophsis, but agrees to join him to defeat Sidious. His secret hope is to kill both Sith Lords. Ventress confronts Vos and Dooku, saving Quinlan before Dooku attacks her with a devastating blast of lightning. The count escapes. Vos and Obi-Wan return Ventress to the waters of Dathomir. [Ventress dies.]"

"Having left the Jedi Order, Ahsoka befriends Trace Martez, a mechanic in the Coruscant underlevels, and her sister Rafa. Ahsoka discovers the Pykes are working for Maul, who is on Mandalore. She uses the Force to escape with the Martez sisters, and the Pykes conclude they were targeted by the Jedi. Ahsoka returns to Coruscant, where Bo-Katan Kryze recruits her to fight Maul."

"Separatists commanded by Admiral Trench invade the Republic stronghold of Anaxes and repeatedly defeat clone counterattacks. Rex is disturbed that the Separatists seem to be adapting rapidly to his strategies and suspects Trench is using some new combat algorithm. He proposes raiding the Separatists’ cyber center to discover their secret. The mission succeeds with assistance from an unorthodox unit of genetically altered clones known as the Bad Batch."

"Anakin joins Rex’s clones and the Bad Batch to raid the Techno Union’s facility on Skako Minor, fighting their way through Wat Tambor’s droid legions. They discover Echo confined in a stasis chamber and hooked up to Separatist computers. Anakin confronts Trench to obtain the rest of the sequence to disarm the bomb, saving Anaxes. He then kills the admiral. Echo joins the Bad Batch."

"Grievous launches a Separatist counteroffensive. The Republic sends Aayla Secura to Felucia and Plo Koon to Cato Neimoidia to hold the line."

"Obi-Wan and Anakin rout Separatist forces on Yerbana. ["Old Friends Not Forgotten"] Ahsoka and Bo-Katan approach the Jedi to propose a joint mission to capture Maul and free Mandalore from his crime syndicate. The Jedi agree and split the 501st in two, with Rex leading troops under Ahsoka’s command."

"A Separatist armada launches a sneak attack on Coruscant, hammering the Republic warships of the Coruscant Home Defense Fleet. Grievous ambushes Palpatine in the Federal District, killing Roron Corobb and knocking Shaak Ti unconscious, then kidnapping the chancellor. The Open Circle Fleet arrives from Yerbana."

19 BBY: REVENGE OF THE SITH:

"Anakin and Obi-Wan fly through the titanic space battle, dodging salvos of laser fire exchanged by Republic and Separatist capital ships in an effort to reach the Invisible Hand, where Palpatine is being held. With the Separatists cut off from their jump point, the battle degenerates into a brutal slugging match, with ships burning up in orbit and debris raining down upon the Coruscant cityscape below. Anakin and Obi-Wan rescue Palpatine above Coruscant. Anakin kills Dooku and Sidious plots to make the Jedi his new apprentice."

"Grievous retreats to Utapau, where the Separatist Council is in hiding. Sidious orders him to relocate the Separatist leaders to Mustafar."

"On Mandalore, Republic forces take the docks of the capital, Sundari. Prime Minister Almec orders Gar Saxon to retreat into the undercity. Bo-Katan’s commandos capture Almec. Ahsoka confronts Maul in the undercity. He is disappointed to see her, having hoped to lure Obi-Wan into his trap."

"Anakin dreams of Padmé’s death in childbirth. Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative, to the alarm of Yoda and Mace Windu."

"Bail Organa meets secretly with Padmé, Mon Mothma, and other senators determined to resist Palpatine if he doesn’t surrender his wartime powers."

"Yoda heads to Kashyyyk to bolster its defense."

"On Maul’s command, Saxon shoots Almec before Ahsoka can finish questioning him, then makes his getaway."

"At Coruscant’s Galaxies Opera House, Palpatine plays on Anakin’s anger and doubt about the Jedi’s integrity, guessing that they asked him to be their spy. He tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, a Sith Lord who could save people from dying. Anakin, fearful his nightmares are a premonition of Padmé’s fate, is intrigued—particularly when Palpatine tells him it is not a power that can be learned from the Jedi."

"Obi-Wan travels to Utapau to hunt for Grievous."

"Clone troopers, Bo-Katan’s commandos, and Saxon’s warriors battle in the streets of Sundari, with the Republic’s forces winning the day."

"Ahsoka confronts Maul again, who tells her Sidious is behind everything and Anakin is the key to destroying the Sith. Maul reveals that he had hoped to lure Obi-Wan and Anakin to Mandalore in order to kill Anakin, so Sidious could not take the Jedi as his new apprentice. Ahsoka and Maul duel. Maul is captured by Rex’s clones, with Saxon apprehended as well."

"On Utapau, Obi-Wan confronts Grievous. He duels the Separatist warlord and then chases him through the city’s winding tunnels and warrens."

"Palpatine reveals his true identity to Anakin and begs him to use his knowledge to save Padmé. Anakin vows to turn him over to the Jedi."

"Obi-Wan corners Grievous in a hangar on Utapau and kills the mechanical monster with a shot from a blaster."

"Imprisoned in a device that prevents him from using the Force, Maul is brought aboard a Jedi Cruiser destined for Coruscant, escorted by Ahsoka."

"Told of Palpatine’s identity, Windu orders Anakin to wait at the Jedi Temple while he arrests Sidious with Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. Sidious kills Tiin, Fisto, and Kolar and duels Windu. He attacks Mace using lightning, which the Jedi Master deflects back at Sidious. Anakin arrives and pleads that Sidious be allowed to stand trial, but Windu says he’s too dangerous to be spared. Anakin makes a fateful decision, stopping Windu’s attack by severing his hand. Sidious blasts Windu with lightning, sending him through the broken window. Anakin pledges allegiance to Sidious, who grants him the name Darth Vader. He tells Anakin to go to the Jedi Temple and kill everyone there—that will make him strong enough with the dark side to save Padmé."

"Ahsoka and Maul sense a strong disturbance in the Force."

19 BBY: ORDER 66

"Sidious issues Order 66. Clone troopers across the galaxy obey their inhibitor chips and attack the Jedi, decimating the Order."

"Commander Cody targets Obi-Wan Kenobi on Utapau. The Jedi survives the attack, escapes offworld, and is rescued by Senator Organa. Aboard the Jedi Cruiser Tribunal, Rex manages to tell Ahsoka to “find Fives” before trying to kill her. She evades Rex’s fire and flees from his troopers. Commander Grey and his clone battalion execute Depa Billaba on Kaller. oda avoids death by killing Commander Gree and Captain Jek, and then escapes Kashyyyk with help from Chewbacca and Tarfful. On a Jedi Cruiser above Bracca, Jaro Tapal is cut down by clones from the 13th battalion, sabotaging the warship before he dies. Captain Jag downs Plo Koon’s starfighter during a patrol flight on contested Cato Neimoidia. Ki-Adi-Mundi is cut down by Commander Bacara’s Galactic Marines during infantry maneuvers on Mygeeto. Luminara Unduli is captured on Kashyyyk. After her execution, the Inquisitors spread rumors of her survival to ensnare other fugitive Jedi. Stass Allie is blasted by Commander Neyo while flying BARC speeders in a mop-up operation on Saleucami. Commander Bly gives the order to shoot Aayla Secura amid Felucia’s colorful fungi."

"Ahsoka prevents other clones from killing the imprisoned Maul. She releases him to create a diversion. While Maul wreaks havoc aboard the Tribunal, Ahsoka activates a trio of astromechs to help her evade Rex’s troops. Ahsoka locates Fives’ records, learning what happened to him and that Rex suspected the clones’ inhibitor chips have some ulterior purpose. Ahsoka subdues Rex and removes his inhibitor chip. Maul destroys the Tribunal’s hyperdrive, sending the doomed Jedi Cruiser careening toward the surface of a remote moon."

"Bail Organa arrives at the Jedi Temple to investigate the uprising and is confronted by clone troopers. He retreats under fire."

"Anakin, now known as Darth Vader and backed by the 501st Legion, marches on the Jedi Temple and slaughters its defenders. He shows no mercy, believing that the dark side is the only pathway to the unnatural powers he must command to save Padmé. As his rage and lust for power swell, not even younglings hiding in the Jedi Council chambers are safe from his lightsaber. Elsewhere, young Grogu survives a clone trooper attack but is haunted by his memories of the event."

"Anakin obeys Sidious’ command and kills the Separatist leaders on Mustafar, shutting down their droid armies and ending the Clone Wars."

"The Senate holds a special session, during which Palpatine—now scarred after his battle with Mace—details the Jedi plot to kill him and take control of the Senate. He proclaims the Republic is to be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire."

"Obi-Wan and Yoda fight their way into the Jedi Temple and recalibrate a signal to warn any surviving Jedi away."

"Padmé arrives on Mustafar, unknowingly bringing along Obi-Wan as a stowaway. Anakin uses the Force to choke her. As C-3PO and R2-D2 tend to Padmé, Anakin and Obi-Wan fight a running duel through the lava flows of Mustafar’s mining complex."

"On Coruscant, Yoda confronts Sidious and the two duel in the Senate Chamber, with Sidious hurling Senate pods at his Jedi enemy. Ascendant with dark-side power, Sidious proves too tough a foe for Yoda, who flees their duel, evading clone troopers sent to hunt him, and is whisked away by Bail Organa in an airspeeder. Sidious senses his new apprentice is in danger and hurries to Mustafar."

"Anakin is left maimed and burned after dueling Obi-Wan on Mustafar. Obi-Wan takes Anakin’s lightsaber and leaves him to die. Anakin survives and is encased in life-preserving black armor. As Darth Vader, he becomes the subject of rumors as the Emperor’s servant and enforcer"

Padme gives birth to Luke and Leia, then she dies. Bail Organa takes Leia to Alderaan and Obi-Wan takes Luke to the Lars' farm on Tatooine, going into exile there, while Yoda is on Dagobah.

"Ahsoka and Rex bury the clones at the Tribunal’s crash site. She leaves her lightsaber behind to find a new path."

19 BBY: GALAXY IN DARKNESS

"Tarkin tells Lama Su that the Kaminoans’ contracts are void and the need for future clones is being questioned."

"Padmé, appearing to still be pregnant, is laid to rest after a solemn funeral procession on Naboo."

"Mas Amedda presides at an Imperial rally held before Coruscant’s Jedi Temple to celebrate the defeat of the Order."

"Sidious abandons Vader on the desert planet Gattering with orders to seize a Jedi’s lightsaber and make it his own. Vader travels to a dark-side locus on Mustafar and bends Infil’a’s kyber crystal to his will, making it bleed red. By compelling the Force to serve his purposes, Vader takes an essential step in his journey as a Sith."

"Sidious puts Vader in charge of the Inquisitors, Force users who once served the light but were seduced or brutalized into following the dark side and are now responsible for hunting down and killing the galaxy’s fugitive Jedi. Vader proves a ruthless taskmaster, brutalizing his new underlings in combat training sessions and eliminating those who fail to live up to the standards demanded by him and the Emperor."

"Sidious orders Vader to lure the Jedi Order’s fugitive archivist Jocasta Nu to Coruscant’s Jedi Temple and capture her. An enraged Vader kills Commander Fox after clone troopers under his command fire on the Sith Lord at the Jedi Temple. Nu explains to Vader what he’s failed to realize: Sidious wants the memory crystal and its list so he can find a potential replacement for his apprentice. Vader kills Nu, tells Sidious she died trying to escape, and crushes the crystal."

"The Empire builds up its forces and begins enlisting and training conscript stormtroopers to replace the Republic’s clone soldiers."

"The Empire bombards Kamino’s cities, destroying all traces of the cloning program that played a critical role in the Clone Wars."

SOURCES & NOTES:

Star Wars Timelines by Kristin Baver, Jason Fry, Cole Horton, Amy Richau, and Clayton Sandell is the primary source for much of this, anything in quotation marks is sourced from here unless otherwise noted. This timeline is only quoting a small minority of what's available in the book, so it's recommended that you check it out for yourselves!

I have done my best to put everything in order even within the specific years, noting where I'm not 100% sure of the sequence of events.

If a "c.[YEAR]" is included, the spot is estimated, not hard fact, but in general it's a pretty trustworthy placement! Except for birthdays--they're not placed directly on the timeline, so I just kind of threw them in at the end most times.

Observation: Holy crap, the Clone Wars was NUTS.

[saphronethaleph]

There's No Party like a Political Party

“The Galactic Senate recognizes Leia Organa Solo,” the chair announced.

“Chairwoman, thank you,” Leia said, then stepped forwards, and the microphones and cameras focused on her. “Senators of the New Republic – I bring dire news. Proof, positive proof, that there is a need for this Republic to prepare for a war – or have war brought on our shoulders whether we are ready for it or not.”

There was a murmur of discussion, and Erudo Ro-Kiintor signalled to speak.

“Lady Solo,” he said, using the title with care. “You must realize that this is quite a change of views. You were, after all, the Populist candidate for election, and yet here you are making suggestions that are more in keeping with Centrists.”

He spread his hands. “Yet, at the same time… what foe are you talking about? What war is there to fight? I agree that there is a need for a stronger military, but you speak as if there is a confirmed enemy.”

“It is an old saying,” Leia replied, her voice carrying through the hall with or without the microphones. “That it is important to follow the money. However, in this case… I have been inspired by the analyses of what went right and what went wrong during the Galactic Civil War, and how that war could have been brought to an end more quickly. A good friend of mine, Borrsk Fey’lya, made the point that the Bothan spies who discovered the Second Death Star had done good work… but that their work was not necessary, and that the same could have been achieved without their death.”

“We all remember how important you were to the Alliance,” Erudo said. “If you could please get to the point, Lady Solo?”

“Of course,” Leia replied, calmly. “The instruction to follow the money is less important than the alternative – which is to follow those things which are less easily replaced. Over the last two years, Fey’lya and an organization built around his experts from the Alliance has been investigating Kuat-Entralia Shipbuilding.”

The murmur of discussion returned, louder this time, and Erudo leaned forwards.

“To make an accusation of this sort on the Senate floor is not correct, Lady Solo,” he said. “Do you wish to withdraw your un-senatorial language?”

“I haven’t said anything un-senatorial yet,” Leia replied. “All I have said so far is that a team has been investigating Kuat-Entralia – and, specifically, they have been investigating the flows of durasteel and employees.”

Anyone who wasn’t paying extremely close attention might have missed Erudo’s twitch.

“Over the last ten years, two hundred and thirty billion tons more in raw materials have been mined and processed by Kuat-Entralia than have been used in their finished products,” Leia said, calmly. “After allowing for wastage. In addition, recruitment for Kuat-Entralia has been elevated, and while their total employment numbers are lower than this would suggest analysis indicates that there are seventeen million fewer ex-employees of Kuat-Entralia than there should be given total recruitment over the past ten years.”

She met Erudo’s gaze. “So yes, Senator. Now I am making an accusation. I am accusing Kuat-Entralia of building and crewing a fleet equivalent in size to several hundred modern battlecruisers, and I am accusing them of doing so while concealing it from this Republic.”

There was a loud babble of voices, until the chair called everyone to order.

“This is all baseless,” Erudo protested.

“It’s quite far from baseless, Senator,” Leia said. “Of course, I’m sure Kuat-Entralia could resolve the matter quite quickly if they were willing to explain where all the missing durasteel and employees went. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to explain?”

Erudo blinked, then shook his head.

“Why are you assuming I would know?” he asked. “This is a fishing expedition, nothing more. An attempt to move back into public life after the revelation of your parentage.”

That was an attack, and Leia shook her head slightly.

“My apologizes, Senator,” she said. “I thought someone who had received forty-seven million credits from the Kuat-Entralia board over the last three years alone would be able to comment on their staffing and long-term planning decisions. If not, what do they pay you for?”

“All lies,” Erudo insisted. “This Populist effort to discredit your rivals does you no favours, Lady Solo!”

“There have been six votes in the last ten years on whether to expand funding for the New Republic navy,” Leia said. “In addition to eight which did not make it out of departmental meetings on the topic. Each of those six votes was raised by Centrist leadership – including yourself, Senator – as vital to the New Republic. Populist votes on the topic were roughly evenly split, but Centrist votes have in every case been decisive… in killing the motions. And then every Centrist who voted for the motion described it as blocked by Populists, and as an example of the failures of the New Republic… blaming the Populists for the very problems they were creating!”

“You are out of order,” Erudo insisted. “This is an unsenatorial ambush!”

“This is much less of an ambush than the methods used by the Galactic Empire,” Leia said. “If I were my father, this meeting would have been taking place at three in the morning in a prison cell.”

She turned away from the spluttering man slightly, raising her voice. “Senators – our evidence from Kuat-Entralia suggests that this new fleet is not yet ready for deployment. But it will be at some point soon. I do not wish to tell you what the New Republic fleet should look like… but I will tell you that it would be a great mistake for us to not be able to answer that challenge. The Emperor took control because he had total effective command of the only significant military in the Galaxy, and he took care to destroy all others. We must not make that mistake – and we should certainly not make the mistake of allowing any military which can be built in private to be the only significant military in the galaxy.”

“Order in the Senate!” the chair requested, as the hubbub of conversation got louder and louder. “Order in the Senate!”

Leia was, on the whole, impressed.

She hadn’t even got to how Fey’lya’s Bothans had managed to finagle out the locations that those thousands of transports full of processed material and ship parts and trained experts had been going… one being the world of Ilum, and the other being a world with the peculiar name of Exegol.

Once you were looking, nobody could conceal a project that big.

[mariacallous]

Star Wars fans have lived with Mon Mothma for a long time without ever really knowing her. The ethereal Rebel leader has been a regal but enigmatic figure for four decades, but all of that is about to change with episode four of Andor, the Disney+ series about Diego Luna’s devoted spy that also chronicles the strengthening of resistance in the galaxy far, far away.

Genevieve O’Reilly portrays Mon Mothma on the show, which will finally delve into the intense personal story behind this politician from the planet Chandrila. “In her public role, there is a requirement to be calm, there is a requirement to project serenity because the cost is so high, the danger is so extreme,” O’Reilly tells Vanity Fair. “Mon Mothma can't step into the drama that is often surrounding her. But I think what Andor allows is to see the private alongside the public. You can reveal so much when you take that public mask off.”

Even casual fans of the franchise will remember Mon Mothma’s striking first appearance in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, with actress Caroline Blakiston playing the caftan-clad, priestess-like figure who advises Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Lando Calrissian about the Empire’s construction of a new Death Star. “Many Bothans died to bring us this information,” she intones gravely.

Star Wars faithful still don’t know what a Bothan is, even after all this time, but they’ve caught glimpses of Mothma here and there. O’Reilly first played her as a younger woman in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, which revealed that Mothma was a novice galactic senator back when Darth Vader was forged and Emperor Palpatine took over the galaxy. Her speaking lines exist only in a deleted scene, but her appearance as a silent background figure in the finished film was unmistakable.

Fans were left to connect the dots between how an upstart politician became the leader of a guerrilla space resistance until 2016. That’s when O’Reilly reprised Mothma for a more substantial role in the stand-alone prequel Rogue One, serving as a kind of M to Diego Luna’s galactic version of 007, Cassian Andor. The new series is set five years before that, when the two were still unknown to each other, living distant parallel lives—the powerless refugee, and the frustrated powerbroker, both trapped in a corrosive system they hope to change.

The patience of Star Wars fans is about to pay off. The so-called Mother of the Rebellion is now coming into sharper focus.

“This woman has been a part of this universe for so long—and with great respect to George Lucas who created her as a female leader of the Rebel Alliance back in the early ‘80s. That was, I'm sure, as ambitious then as it sounds now,” O’Reilly says. “ I have always really loved the opportunity to step into this woman's shoes. There is something in Caroline's original portrayal of her. I always go back and watch that scene just to remind me how they originated it. I think there is a pain at the center of that.”

For her, it all comes back to the Bothans, those unknown spies who gave their lives for the information she relays. It’s information that she knows will necessitate a battle that will certainly cost even more lives.

“She has that very famous line that people will say to me: ‘Many Bothans died…’,” O’Reilly says. “I always wondered what that was. I always wondered what she was carrying, what her own personal sacrifice was, what the cost to this woman was—and continues to be.”

Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy (The Bourne movies, Michael Clayton) predicted in May that Mon Mothma will become a trending topic when episode four airs. That day is now upon us.

“She's this figurehead of liberal democracy that will fail, and ultimately, she'll go to the Rebel Alliance. We stick to the timeline and the major events. But as you can see, we're saying, ‘You don't really know what's going on with her,’” Gilroy says. “Nobody has really known what's going on with her. She's had a much harder time than we knew.”

The revelations about Mothma are more intimate than Star Wars storytelling usually gets. Andor shows her not only struggling to hold together the nascent rebellion, but it also bears witness to her tumultuous and combative marriage to a husband named Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie). Fans have seen Han and Leia trade barbs, but they’ve never seen anything like these two.

“Just wait, just wait,” Gilroy says. “Their marriage is as complex as any marriage I've ever written in any show I've ever done, or any movie I've ever written. Their relationship, how they negotiate it, where it ends up, the shifting power dynamics of it… It's as complicated as anything I've ever worked on.”

Part of the problem is that Mothma's husband Perrin is all too comfortable living in the luxury of the Empire. “She's the boss. She’s the senator. And he's an epicurean,” Gilroy says. “He just wants to live life, man. ‘Why can't we have fun? Why does everything have to be boring? Why we have to do all this political shit? Who cares about this revolution? The revolution's a pain in the ass, man. Let's have fun!’”

It would be a spoiler to reveal how that relationship plays out, but Gilroy and O’Reilly are willing to describe the origin of this mismatched couple in advance. “They were married at 16. That is a very big thing in Chandrila,” Gilroy says. “She has a daughter. It was somewhat of an arranged marriage.”

If that seems shocking, it’s worth noting that 16 was also the age when Mothma became a senator. That sort of thing happens in the Star Wars universe; Padme Amidala, Natalie Portman’s character in the prequels, was also “elected” queen of the planet Naboo when she was a child.

O’Reilly says Andor confronts what it’s like to live with so much responsibility for so long. In some ways, she says she and her character have grown up together. 

“I have played her since I was very young and Mon Mothma was one of my first roles,” she says. “What is it to live within that orthodoxy? And what is it within that familial culture where the woman has the more powerful public role? What does that do to the balance of power within a home? How difficult or easy is that to navigate? And what if your husband has lent into the very voices that you are trying to oppose?”

For O'Reilly, it’s not just a story of good vs. evil. It’s about the many sides of a conflict that can exist sometimes within a single person. 

“There is a public space and then there is a private space. And with Mon Mothma, we are definitely walking that tightrope in Andor,” O”Reilly says. “What can I reveal in a private space? What is the cost to her? How dangerous is it? How dangerous is it to have a voice—or to risk having a voice—in this very volatile political climate? How costly is it to speak up against autocracy? How is it to navigate not only a public space but also your private home when your voice is very different, when you are a woman speaking in a very male-dominated, arguably aggressive world?”

O’Reilly’s hope is that Star Wars fans will realize that Mon Mothma is not such a mystery after all. There are versions of her all around us.

“You don't have to look too far, no matter which profession you work in, to see women who are trying to effect change from within,” she says. “I looked to different female leaders around the world and sadly we don't really have enough of them still. Often they are lonely voices, or voices that others are trying to silence. I see a correlation with those voices and with Mon's voice. For me, I didn't have to look too far to see the women that I believe can be reflected in Mon's fight. I recognized her. I recognized her fights. I want to stand up for her as a character because I think we can all recognize her.”

[faretheeoscar]

Poe Dameron and Mae Tal

Join the TagList! • Main Masterlist • Buy me a coffee! • Linktree

Mind you if I infofump a little on my OC's backstory and maybe tell you about her dynamics with Poe?

My Star Wars OC character, Mae, is part of Clan Tal, a clan that was thought to be extinguished after the events of "The night of a Thousand Tears "

[ The Night of a Thousand Tears was the night on which the Galactic Empire massacred the Mandalorian people on the planet Mandalore during the Great Purge of Mandalore ]

Mae’s grandfather, Ebbel, survived the massacre on Mandalore. He was off-planet on Concordia at the time, attempting to infiltrate the ranks of the Death Watch. After the tragedy on Mandalore, he chose to remain on Concordia, helping raise the Children of the Watch. Believing they were the last Mandalorian survivors, Ebbel dedicated himself to the safety of the group.

Later in life, Ebbel had several children, including Mae’s father, Drex Tal. Raised within the strict orthodoxy of the Children of the Watch, Drex eventually left the group when he met Lyra, a Rebel pilot with whom he fell in love. The two settled on Lyra’s home planet, Ferrix, serving as backup for the Alliance, but living mostly a normal life. they had four children together, including their only daughter, Mae.

Mae grew up on Ferrix, far from the main traditions of the Children of the Watch. However, her father Drex still trained her in their Mandalorian ways, while Lyra passed down her knowledge of piloting. When Lyra fell ill and passed away, Drex withdrew from active duty in the Alliance, as it had never been his primary fight.

As a result, Mae had little involvement with the Resistance when it rose against the First Order—until much later. Trying to earn money for a new ship, she initially served as a double agent for the First Order but was eventually recruited by a faction of the Resistance on the Outer Rim. Mae’s unique skills as a Mandalorian pilot quickly attracted attention, and she was soon stationed at the Yavin IV base, reporting directly to Leia during the events of The Force Awakens. There, she met Poe.

Mae and Poe clash constantly, their personalities polar opposites in nearly every way. Poe is exasperated by her contradictory actions and unconventional methods, while Mae despises his hotheaded impulsiveness. They bicker and argue frequently; Mae often disobeys his direct orders, yet somehow manages to get the job done efficiently each time. This only irritates Poe further, and he finds ways to tease her in return, like joking that he can always tell when she’s approaching the hangar because her armor sounds like a “parade of clanking cans.”

There's a lot of story between Poe and Mae, that happens along the fight of the Resistance against the First Order and afterwards.

Its's sort of a Co-pilots to Friends to Situationship to Semi Enemies to Lovers thing (it's very freaking complicated,ngl.)

Anyways… I’ve never actually written down a summary of Mae’s backstory or a quick outline of how she interacts with Poe, so this was really fun.

I was just planning to post it without much context, but once I started writing, I couldn’t stop hehe

I did this sketch a few months ago, but I wanted to share it, while I keep working on other Poevember things and requests!

Thanks for reading my ramblings if you got until here!

HAPPY POEVEMBER!

Reblogs and comments are kindly appreciated!

@silvernight-m @ierofrnkk @howellatme @winniethewife

[ryuuka-balaen]

star wars legion is so so close to being a great wargame but its sorely lacking in VARIETY

which is super sad considering its set in Star Wars, probably one of the most expansive media properties out there.

like yeah theyve got your four main factions of Grand Army of the Republic, Confederate of Independent Systems, Galactic Empire, and Rebel Alliance. amd theyve got the Shadow Syndicate, yoinked from the animated tv series / the Solo movie

thats great!

what about old republic. sith empire? dig a little deeper than that, theres a huge amount of mandalorian culture to explore. how about some trandoshans engaged in The Great Hunt? i wanna hear about the war on mon calamar between the Quarren and the Mon Calamari. they didnt even include hutts, the gangster guys everyone knows. theres an ewok only detachment, enough geonosians to barely assemble an army, and half a detachment of wookiees. thats cool. now lets hear about the massassi. what about the taung? the guys that founded the popular mandalorian culture? those guys are pretty neat they should have a few models

one of the things that makes/made warhammer so popular is that it has SO MANY factions and codexes to choose from, and each of those options has ~20 different official colour schemes to pick from as inspiration for your army. sure theres a lot of boring ultramarines players but outside that no two collections will be the same and thats a huge part of the appeal!

the people making legion just went "yeah heres your stuff from ths movies. and maybe a few tv show tie-ins too. have fun." WHERES THE CREATIVITY

MAKE SHIT UP !! THATS THE BEST PART OF STAR WARS

anyway. for my second Legion army, since ive got the files for it anyway,

wouldnt it be fun

wouldnt it be cute

if i ran a slightly abridged Blizzard Force skirmish detachment of Sith Empire Troopers, lead by the False Emperor Darth Malgus

like to slap that bald head. reblog to slap that bald head.

the list i want to run doesnt fit ~exactly~ into Blizzard Force because I want an At-St / sith empire scout walker so im swapping the required support unit for a heavy unit (amd therefore its Just An Empire Army, not a Blizzard Force detachment) so i wont actually get the blizzard force detachment rules but thats fine, I'm just using it as a guideline :>

if ive got enough filament i should have my Sith Empire list printed and ready for battle within a week :)

[generalpierrotdameron]

Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed will be released by Random House Worlds on Feb. 25. The series follows three figures well known to franchise fans: Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera. But when the story starts, these three Rebel Alliance legends are far from chummy, each working independently of the others in their own form of resistance. Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive excerpt from Star Wars: The Mask of Fear (Reign of The Empire) that shows Mon Mothma being warned by an ally about taking on the new Emperor through legislative means, before something far more frightening changes everything. But first, the official book description: Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the eyes of Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera, “In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!” With one speech and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. In its place rose the Galactic Empire. Across the galaxy, people rejoiced and celebrated the end of war—and the promises of tomorrow. But that tomorrow was a lie. Instead, the galaxy became twisted by the cruelty and fear of the Emperor’s rule. During that terrifying first year of tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy, while harboring their own secrets, fears, and hopes for a future that may never come unless they act.

Excerpt from Star Wars: The Mask of Fear (Reign of the Empire) by Alexander Freed

As suspicion, paranoia, and worry set in for Mon Mothma and others, unexpected alliances begin to form, and trust is in short supply.

I promise, it’s entirely adequate,” Lud Morrai said, pushing the gravy toward Mon. “Wipe the taste of Hesperidium right out of your mouth.” Mon laughed and shook her head, but Lud insisted, and she scooped up a helping with her flatbread and ate gracelessly. The rich, savory sauce dripped onto her chin. She barely glanced about to check whether any­one had seen.

Lud had been solicitous toward her since Zhuna’s murder, leaving daily messages of support and offering invitations to meals, without in­sisting and without regard for how complicated his own schedule was. Mon had said no until she’d said yes, and now, sitting with him, she remembered what it was like to have a friend.

She didn’t have many—not outside politics beyond a few classmates she saw once or twice a year and not many in politics, either.

Maybe that was why she’d stayed with Perrin all this time. She looked up from the plate, caught Lud’s gaze, and rebuked herself. Those are dangerous thoughts.

“You really can’t tell anyone about Hesperidium,” she said. “Honestly, I shouldn’t have mentioned—”

“I heard yesterday. There was speculation about you and the Com­merce Guild . . . ?”

She sighed. She trusted Lud, but she had no intention of telling him about Cornade and the others, and she didn’t intend to let him guess who she’d met through process of elimination. “Can we drop it?”

“Of course,” Lud said. “But can I say one thing? You don’t have to tell me anything. I’m not asking anything. I just want—”

“There’s a reason we don’t talk about our projects.”

He waved off her objection. “Two minutes. That’s all.”

She looked around the restaurant. It was packed with the lunch crowd, maybe a hundred dockworkers jostling over trays. “Two min­utes,” she said.

Lud steepled his hands and gathered his thoughts. “You’re whipping votes outside your usual coalition. Everyone knows that, and certainly I respect the effort. It’s hard enough keeping my allies in line—I can’t imagine winning over my opponents.

“However . . . the people you’re dealing with? If you’re—and again, I’m not asking you to give anything away. I won’t even watch your ex­pression.” He turned to the stained wall as his voice fell to a murmur. “If you’re building a coalition to oppose the administration, I wish you’d consider the optics.”

“What optics?” she asked.

“The optics of you assembling a group of the most privileged people in the galaxy. Corporate tycoons, senators from royal families and the wealthiest worlds in the Core—”

“As opposed to humble men like yourself, from working-class worlds like Troithe?”

He scowled. “You promised me two minutes.”

Mon held up her hands in surrender.

“Palpatine is a populist. The reason he appeals to worlds like Troithe is because people there see him making real changes in their lives. He cracked down on the corporations. He ended the war. He’s promising that the era of out-of-touch politicians and twelfth-generation nobility shaping the galaxy for their own benefit is over.”

“He’s—” she began. He’s not giving power back to ordinary people.

He’s only shifting who holds it. He and his cronies don’t care about your world any more than they care about mine.

She stayed silent.

“What you’re doing,” Lud said, “is only proving him right. The Del­egation of Two Thousand was . . . well, it was mad and foolish and an utter failure, but at least it was idealistic. It was built on principle, and people saw that even if they didn’t understand what the principle was. Now I know you’re acting in what you believe is the best interest of democracy. I know you, Mon. But—”

“But my coalition of the rich and ultra-powerful symbolizes what everyone hated about the Republic, is that right?” She pushed her chair back, and Lud turned toward her. “I think your two minutes are up.”

He called her name and apologized as she stood. She told him it was fine, that she just had business back at the Senate and she’d stayed too long already. She looked away when she saw the hurt in his eyes and hurried out of the restaurant, telling herself, He’s not the one who gets to be injured, and he’s not the one who gets to be angry.

She shouldn’t have cared what he thought.

The commercial spacedocks were packed at this hour, and she had to push through throngs of people and past hoversleds laden with crates and cages and boxes of produce. She should’ve had security with her. The threats on her life were coming in rapidly since Zhuna’s death and Mon’s “politicization” of the tragedy. But she hadn’t wanted anyone looking over her shoulder while she met Lud—at least, anyone other than the usual spies, whom she assumed were tracking her every move and who, if she was lucky, might bother to intervene if she was attacked.

As she maneuvered toward the tram, she nearly bowled over a squat man in a farmer’s cloak and cowl. She apologized instinctively as he caught her wrist to keep from falling. But he hurried on, and she man­aged to board her car moments before it sped off for the Federal Dis­trict.

She didn’t think of the encounter again until she was back in her of­fice, trying to comprehend the way Zhuna’s replacement had config­ured her calendar. Her wrist itched, and she rolled up the white of her sleeve to see if she’d somehow scratched herself.

There was a rash forming, blotchy and red, with each splotch cen­tered on a darker brown dot. She began to scratch, then abruptly stopped as she saw the red blotches spreading like a stain. The brown centers grew larger and darker. She thrust her arm away, as if she could distance herself from whatever was multiplying within her flesh; at the same time she cried sharply and stumbled away from her desk.

She needed a medic. She’d been infected, she thought, poisoned when she’d boarded the tram. But there was no pain, only the faint itch, and even that hadn’t increased in intensity. The spread of the blotches slowed, creeping to a stop. The dark spots were bleeding together, seem­ing to form patterns.

There were words appearing on her flesh, no larger than the labels on a control panel: TYCHON NULVOLIO WILL SPEAK TO YOU.

Someone was calling to her through the office door, asking whether she was all right. She suppressed her trembling and called back. “I’m fine! I just dropped something.”

The ink shifted and wriggled again, forming new words from the old: NO OBSERVERS. NO SPIES.

Was it a statement or a demand? The itch became a burn. She wanted to clasp her wrist and squeeze, but she didn’t dare touch the rash. The dark spots drew together and welled like a droplet of sweat, then ran down her wrist and fell to the carpet. A few moments later the tattoo had fully expelled itself and drained onto the floor. All that remained was the rash, already paler and less angry than it had been.

She dropped into a chair and caught her breath. Her panic—her fear that she’d been witnessing her own assassination—caught up with her. She began shaking and tried to recall whether she’d taken her anxiety medication.

She was fine. People were trying to kill her, but this hadn’t been that. She was fine. She permitted herself five minutes to pull herself to­gether. She drank a glass of water, though she wasn’t thirsty. She stuck her head outside the office to question her new aide’s calendar skills.

Then Mon Mothma began to plan.

[vixensdungeon]

This is something I've posted about before, a long long time ago, and have recently returned to the idea: using a Star Wars roleplaying game (Saga Edition, in this case) and making my own setting for it.

Specifically I'm going to take stuff from the official books and mix and match them into something new. Kinda like taking the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk and Dragonlance and whatnot and smooshing them together into a single D&D setting.

The thing about Star Wars is that its various "settings" aren't separated by location, they're separated by time. So you could think of the Clone Wars and the Rebellion as different settings. And with that separation of time comes its own challenges. The issues can broadly be split into those of groups and those of people.

Issues of group are those like "how do the Old Republic, the Clone Wars era Grand Army, the Empire, and the Galactic Alliance of the Legacy era coexist?" All of these groups have mechanical distinctions!

My answer? The Grand Army of the Republic is much much older than in Star Wars proper, and is lead by Jedi who have become more of a political power than before, holding territory and office. Kinda like during the New Sith War, actually. Meanwhile the Republic itself is protected by normal soldiers and functions more or less like what you imagine the Republic to be like. The Empire is an off-shoot, more similar to how it is under the Fel dynasty than under Sith rule (the Sith being their own separate political entity), its founding marked by the defection of the 501st clone legion to follow a failed padawan who had a vision of a stronger society and military to fight back against greater threats (the emperor Roan Fel). The Galactic Alliance… no idea what to do with that yet.

And speaking of the clones, what of the Fetts? This is one of the issues of people. Since both Jango and Boba coexist at roughly the same age, surely one is not the unmodified clone of the other, right? And there is also a guy called Cassus Fett who normally would've lived thousands of years prior. How to resolve this? As stated, the clone army is much older, and the original template is probably long dead. So in our case both Boba and Jango are actually unmodified clones of that original, created for whatever reason and adopted as Mandalorians by Cassus.

Some other minor character notes: Luke and Vader are brothers, but Leia is still Vader's daughter. Should make for interesting times at the family reunion.

[tiredassmage]

Okay. I teased it. So I'm gonna post about it. Shae Vizla was kinda the last person I would've actively expected to be drawing parallels to Tyr with, but with the buzz of the new teaser going around and picking another character through the Darvannis arc in KOTXX too, I'm thinking about how those two have interacted again. And I already have a tag for these kind of things, so I might as well!

This post will likely heavily feature around 7.2 Showdown On Ruhnuk, so if that's not a story beat you've made it through yet, you might wanna save this one for later.

The short version is more or less... two specialized dogs. Who perhaps on a surface glance don't seem to have a lot in common. But Tyr, at least, thought they might've been working on something like professional courtesy acknowledging what common ground they might have for a while. Until.... well, recently.

But it is sort of Ruhnuk in particular that I think highlights those similarities in the way that made me say hmm. Parallels. Because on their good days, they can think in ways that keep up with one another. They can be good leaders.

And on their bad ones, they're both hunters with the kind of skills and capabilities that make the path of vengeance potentially quite dangerous and blinding.

So, credit where credit's due, I think to set them up fully I have to start closer to the beginning. And that's not really Rishi, despite that being the first time Shae makes an appearance. Their meaningful working relationship starts in the era of the Alliance against Zakuul. It stars on Darvannis, with conversations about what it means to be a leader of something greater than you might've ever imagined, of being a symbol that maybe doesn't seem to fit all that right with who you thought yourself to be. An ex-Cipher at the head of a galactic alliance between people from both major players of the known galaxy's wars and a bounty hunter turned Mandalore.

They're an odd crowd, aren't they?

And a lot of it I think is, at least for Tyr, importantly founded on this idea of... Tyr's not particularly fluent in the politics of the Mandalorians, if you will. He doesn't know their history very well, and what their concept of victory in this galaxy's day and age looks like is a bit beyond him. But they're allies on Darvannis, and he'd like to keep them that way. But to Tyr, an ally is someone you make an agreement with. You don't go into an operation where both of you are looking to work towards the same success hiding information.

And so Shae's Mandalorians are allies to call upon, but Shae's to lead and command and handle as she sees fit. He thought that was a professional courtesy they both understood well. He thought Shae believed that counted for something, too.

And Ruhnuk's... kind of where threads start to unravel in that alliance.

Ruhnuk is... about the point that Shae's methodology starts to test his patience. There's a certain way she goes about things even on Ruhnuk that Tyr would call unprofessional, but doesn't directly confront her about out of attempting to hold respect for Shae handling Mandalorian business how she feels it needs to be handled.

But he does agree with the encroaching concerns that Shae's on a warpath, and it's starting to make her see nothing but red in a way that's blinkering her to what's right in front of her - and potentially the collateral damage that might fall on her allies - rather than pushing her to success.

They both could've stood to gain something from Sa'har Kateen's presence there, but Shae decided to push aggressively, and neither of them got what they wanted - the holocron for the Alliance and information on Heta Kol for Shae.

And there's the small detail that I think Tyr feels like it might've been slightly less insulting for Shae to punch him in the face herself rather than feel almost like he got walked into a trap with Heta Kol with very little in the way of concern about how that'd shake out, again, for... not only him, but her other allies as well.

But it's not something worth lingering over because Tyr can, on his good days, take care of himself, and one of the few things he does understand of the Mandalorians is that it's generally not their way to worry about whether or not you can. He didn't expect an apology, but... it doesn't do a whole lot for his impression of what she's getting herself into hunting Heta, y'know?

And that's where the parallels really start to come into focus. Because Shae being so dogged in her hunt for Heta Kol is something I think he didn't try to overly worry about not only to keep himself and the Alliance from getting too involved in Mandalorian affairs, but because he understands that sort of instinct of a hunter in Shae.

There's a part of him that really, really did practically enjoy the outing to Ruhnuk. What can he say? He's an ex-Cipher, and he liked his job. He liked putting together the clues, the investigation, the tracking, the pursuit. There's certainly far more dull things he's been asked to do.

The thing is, especially as he's gotten older, he usually does a pretty good job at not listening to the little sliver in him that takes his ideals and how they've been wronged and hurt in the world and wants to start a pyre about it. Scorched earth usually doesn't change the world in the ways you'd like it to.

But Shae in the pursuit of Heta I think is what Tyr could look like if he ever gave into such goading. There's no denying either of them are skilled and good at what they do. They can get answers if they want them. And Tyr's frankly willing to do worse than charge off on his own into the galaxy hunting leads and dropping communications with people to find his answers.

In at least a vague sense, it's... almost how he took to Hunter and the Star Cabal all those years ago. How they moved through those challenges is different, sure, but... Hunter got to be the figurehead for a lot of Tyr's feelings against the Star Cabal, that lifetime ago when he could still half-answer to Cipher Nine.

Hunter was the one that taunted that they'd taken everything that mattered from him at the time, or that they'd at least damn well tried. (Tyr would hate to admit how right he may have been, in hindsight. How keenly he felt the loss of Imperial Intelligence. How much that'd meant to him, and how deeply it'd damaged his willingness to trust for so long after.)

But I think that's also still going to inform a lot of whatever happens going forward. The fact that he understands what might've driven Shae at the start, and the still firm belief that she's gone too far - and she's going to get a lot of people hurt in what he sees as a short-sighted attempt to get answers.

And all after he thought there was some kind of respect between the two of them, if not even a bit of trust. Throwing in with Malgus is sure one hell of a way to fucking repay it, isn't it?

[tranakin-skywalker]

Fuck it, fic rec list time!

I'm bored and can't sleep so here's a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite Star Wars fics. I'm leaving the really well known ones off, wanna share some of the more obscure gems.

Not Placid Stars But Singularities by iceplanet

He stands before Sidious, head bowed, helmet pinching at the back of his neck where he hasn’t yet gotten the med droid to file down the sharp edges. Sharpness is another fact of life, now: the feel of metal digging into flesh defines his every motion. Given the time and the opportunity, he himself could probably have built prosthetics better than the ones he currently wears. “Your task, Lord Vader,” Sidious is saying, “is to transform this heap of antiquated softness into a palace worthy of our new Empire.” In the weeks after Mustafar, Vader must come to terms with his new body and the remnants of his past. In the process, he has a few conversations that he does not expect.

This one has everything I love: ghosts, mutilation, Vader being the saddest wettest murder meow meow, Sith Lord batshittery. What fun.

Skin Graft by HENST33TH

“ I hurt you.” killed her, Vader's stomach roiled. Bile clawed at his throat as he looked at her. He wasn't making any sense. Her face softened some. “ Dreams…?” she said. Padme thought she understood. It was sick, it was corrosive. He was unfaithful. For twenty years he was unfaithful. He hurt her children. He needed to spit it out. Explain. She deserves it. She needs to know. Vader needed to crack himself open. Padme needed to tear him apart. For her safety. He got out of bed. Twitching with the need. Shaking with the pressure inside of him. Taught like a noose. He stood before her. She placed her hands on his arms. “Then what, Anakin.” Anakin, Anakin, Anakin. Vader sank to his knees. Resting his head against her middle, he breathed. The shame clung to him and coated his throat till he was choking on it. “It’s so much worse than that.” all at once the future loomed over him. Daunting, a beast of its own. How can he explain it? *** Or, Anakin Skywalker gets thrown back in time. He has to learn: 1 how to have a body again 2. To curb his Raging insecure attachment style. 3. That his wife should be the one making the important galactic decisions.

A newer fic that I am quickly becoming obsessed with. The way it's written is perfect. The characterization is perfect. Everything about it is perfect imo. And the ending of this latest chapter. Masterpiece. I want 10 more.

Nameless, On the Edge of Nowhere by Taxonamie

Following the presumed death of the evil Emperor and his hulking henchman Darth Vader, the fledging Alliance stands on the verge of victory! But as they press their advantage against a destabilized Empire and manifest from the seeds of Rebel resistance, can this new government survive their own instability? Among the scattered Imperial forces of the second Death Star, Darth Vader's disapparence is not so final as they would hope. Worse yet, the Rebel Hero Luke Skywalker has gone missing! Alone and disadvantaged, what will Anakin Skywalker do to find his son? Will he walk the razor's edge of tentative alliance with the Rebel Forces, or succumb to the draw of Imperial power? Free from all Masters, can Anakin Skywalker learn who he wants to be, at last? Princess Leia Organa must navigate this minefield of clashing obligations and dripping grudges, all the while attempting to understand a heritage she hates, a brother she loves, and a mysterious mother she cannot understand.

I think this fic is the most successful at bridging the gap between Prequel Anakin and OT Vader that I have ever read. They genuinely feel like a continuation of the same character here rather than a disjointed Before and After.

trust displays by AshToSilver

Rex meets Luke and Leia for the very first time the night they are born.

I love how sweet but also horrifically fucked up this one is. Cannot express how much this fic has influences the way I write the clones.

in morsum ardeo by astarsdarkheart

A fallen Jedi and Lord of the Sith burns in a pyre on the banks of a river of fire. Something else rises from the ashes.

This series rewired my brain. Like, holy shit. Holy shit. I don't think I could ever actually choose a top favorite fic of all time, but honestly? This one makes a strong case for itself. It has haunted me every day since I first read it over a year ago.

Forever War by yujacheong

Vader has trouble distinguishing between the past and the present. Fortunately, it rarely matters in the context of the Empire's forever war.

Love me a good Vader character study.

this place loves what it eats by roadtripexpert

What could be called but isn’t death, or Leia Organa doesn't kill the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker

I know I've already recommended this one but it is just. So fucking good. The note from my bookmark: Father-daughter roadtrip results in about as much murder and bitching as you would expect.

relieved to live in the wreckage by niniblack

When Obi-wan doesn’t follow Padmé to Mustafar, she’s able to convince Anakin to run away from everything with her. But this doesn't prevent his nightmares from coming true, and he's left alone in a hostile galaxy with the infants she begged him to protect. “Master Anakin,” Threepio says, still hovering in the doorway. “Might I suggest bouncing the children?” Anakin stops pacing around with the twins, head swiveling to look at Threepio. He doesn’t have to ask what the fuck Threepio is talking about; Artoo does it for him. Threepio seems to draw himself up as straight as he can. “I have conducted extensive research on the subject of human childrearing in anticipation of Mistress Padmé giving birth. Holding an infant and gently bouncing them in the parent’s arms is thought to be an excellent calming method.” “Oh,” Anakin says. “I thought you meant… bouncing them on the floor or something.”

The note from my bookmark: Single dad Anakin. Congratulations buddy, no one's ever done it worse.

Send the Whole Damned Thing Down the Drain by handstitchedanarchist

“Are you a conscripted soldier or a battle slave?” General Skywalker asks him one day. Rex thinks about it. And then thinks about it a little longer. And then he has to admit, “I’m not sure what the difference is.” The general looks distant and… sad? “Yeah, me neither,” he says.

This is another one that has greatly influenced the way I write the clones.

Gonna end the list here cuz my meds are starting to kick in and I feel like I'm going to fall over

[aninamated]

About the Galactic Warlords.

I'm still curious, I know just based on small context that their definitely colonizers of other planets, but, now that activities relating to violent colonization of other planets are banned, how do the other warlords even live? Like, do some try to get under the system and continue illegal activities? Or do they just now become those normal workers in some different mundane fields in the star systems?

So like, if a planet is part of the alliance that means they're not gonna conquer any other planets or anything like that because that's against the alliance's laws. Any activities that are against these laws will be done in secret then, like at an intergalactic blackmarket or something like that. Criminals will find a way to do their business

[2187s]

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 : 𝐀 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 … i've mentioned before that i feel the sequels as a whole had rushed pacing and very little payoffs in terms of characterization and worldbuilding. the following timeline is my attempt to fix the pacing, add in various lore and headcanons i've accumulated in my time writing finn, expand on various aspects of the worldbuilding and overall provide a stable ground in which interactions can be based off. without further ado — the beginning of my sequels rewrite !

› 𝙿𝚁𝙴𝙲𝙴𝙴𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙳 𝚂𝙴𝚀𝚄𝙴𝙻𝚂 𝙲𝙰𝙽𝙾𝙽

four bby : brendol hux creates commandment's cadets, a secret society of handpicked infants, all raised to serve one goal : act as stormtroopers. brendol was inspired by the jedi's younglings. this squad, his child, and brendol himself would eventually move to observe the battle of jakku from the field.

one bby : the events of rogue one occur.

— a few empire loyalists recognize that the end of the empire is dawning before them. still loyal to the empire, still driven by the urge to rule, and as part of various contingency plans, they search for a planet beyond the rebel alliance's perspective and end up on jakku. among them are brendol hux, enric pryde and rae sloane. though without a name at the time, this would become the roots of the first order.

zero bby : the battle of yavin occurs. the death star is destroyed by the rebel alliance. it's known as victory day and eventually becomes a galactic-wide recognized holiday.

four aby : the battle of endor results in a ruined empire. the heroes of the galaxy rejoice, they party. all is well in the world. the party rages on for about three weeks, though the generals must balance their celebration with returning to work. leia organa worked closely with mon mothma to help bring stabilization to the galaxy in the form of the rebel alliance morphing into the new republic, a senatorial rule for the galaxy.

— han solo and leia organa are together, and in love. while he does occasionally dip his toes back into smuggling, he is quite busy working for the new republic in exporting goods, cargo, and people — displaced alderaanians, mostly. leia points, he goes. — luke takes time to mourn his father and eventually moves to create a new jedi order. he takes the task very seriously, making sure to read the old jedi texts, learning as much as he can about the previous jedi order and bettering what will become his new temple. luke is cautious, and dedicated to not making the same mistakes his forefathers did. there are several aspects of the old jedi teachings that he ignores : physical and emotional attachments make a jedi stronger, he believes, and anyone can train in the force. — luke begins to train his sister, leia, in the ways of the force as he knows how. she is strong in the force, dedicated, a fast learner, but ultimately does not accept the lightsaber presented for her. she’s pregnant, and knows that her destiny is going to lead her elsewhere. instead, she urges luke to actualize his dreams of a new academy for force sensitives, ushering in a new era of jedi. 

ten aby : luke skywalker settles onto the planet ossus and opens the doors of his new jedi temple. his first class is small, only sixteen force sensitives to his one. their ages all vary, as does their connection to the force. they’re all there by choice, not because of demand. luke looks onto his academy with pride and joy.

twelve aby : the empire loyalists, now tentatively known as the first order, have begun exploring and researching sith legends due to rae sloane’s fanatic impulses. they stumble across readings of an eldritch horror named snoke, perhaps the personification of the dark side of the force itself. his power is mighty, his reach long. aspirations of total rule begin to rise and the order aligns themselves with snoke, intent on awakening this power. 

fifteen aby : ben solo turns ten years old and his manipulation of the force is undeniable. he is strong, with the possibility of being stronger than his uncle luke, even. there is conflict within the boy, flipping moods faster than one can keep up with, an inner turmoil between doing the right thing and listening to his baser instincts. leia sends him to luke, to train. han disagrees, wondering if it wouldn’t be better for the boy to ignore the force overall. 

seventeen aby : the first order, small but determined, have shrunk even further in size. several empire loyalists have been tried and condemned before the new republic, and those who’ve managed to escape legal consequences refute the first order’s attempts at restructure. sloane, hux, pryde, and the few remaining members of the commandment’s cadets remain loyal to their dreams of an empire. their loyalty is rewarded when they find the remnants of snoke. he was in a cryostatic state, and sloane alone understood how to wake the monster. with strict instructions to hux and pryde about the resurrection of the first order, sloane then enacted an ancient dark side ritual — exsanguination of her whole self in order to revive snoke. the ritual worked, to an extent. snoke, the eldritch horror with cosmic collapse for eyes, awoke … though not at his full power.

— snoke was revived as an essence and lacked an actual physical presence, though that hardly seemed to stop the dark being. it’s manipulation of the force allowed him to become a powerful ally for the first order, though it of course demanded total loyalty. hux and pryde readily agreed, both recognizing the power before them was catastrophic. with combined instructions from sloane and their new supreme leader, hux and pryde began working on building the first order’s forces. 

eighteen aby : the first time ben solo heard snoke’s voice in his head was shortly after his thirteenth birthday. the boy would go on to struggle with those whispers for the rest of his life.

nineteen aby : using old contacts, pryde managed to secure sizable funding for the first order from old empire loyalists who were in hiding. it was enough financial support that the first order could relocate from exegol to the planet ilum — which, thanks to project resurrection ( a program in which first order forces would invade various small villages and towns on planets of the outer rim and kidnap infants to train as stormtroopers and officers ), was quickly repurposed and rebuilt into starkiller, the first order’s base of operations and first superweapon, capable of destroying entire star systems.

twenty - five aby : at twenty years old, with the promise of more knowledge and power than luke skywalker could provide, ben solo casted aside the light for dark. pledging himself to supreme leader snoke, the force in the back of his mind all these years, ben solo became kylo, a student of the dark, when he struck his uncle down. the jedi academy was torn apart, ben’s classmates given two choices : join, or die. of the sixteen original students, only five were spared with their lives. the rest died, and that was seemingly the end of luke skywalker’s jedi temple.

— word of the attack traveled fairly fast, though reports varied. the original general consensus was that the academy was attacked, luke and the students died defending their lives. it was only after ben solo, now declaring himself kylo, appeared before his mother on chandrila, during one the new republic senate meetings, and renounced the new republic, spurning it’s aspirations of peace. kylo then attacked the attending members of senate, accompanied by his peers, an ancient group called the knights of ren. leia and most members managed to survive the chaos, as the attack was not organized, but it was enough to unsettle the galaxy. 

twenty - seven aby : kylo and the knights of ren began to make waves across the galaxy as they stormed various planets, intent on hunting force sensitives. once found, the force sensitive was given two choices : join, or die. the knights left destruction and corpses in their wake and the new republic forces had, for the first time since the empire, an enemy to handle. however, as force sensitives around the galaxy were hunted, killed or converted, and with luke skywalker assumed dead ( leia organa refusing to give an affirmative either way ), there was seemingly and distressingly no hope of defeating the crazed dark siders. 

[mariacallous]

On an isolated farm at the outer reaches of a fascist empire, a mid-level government toady interrogates his victims. Under the guise of conducting a government census, he’s sniffing out undocumented immigrants. When he finds one, he pounces, cornering a young migrant worker and attempting to coerce her into sleeping with him. When she refuses, he gets violent.

It’s a scene that feels familiar in America today, where ICE agents are rounding up immigrants (and sometimes even citizens) with disturbing impunity. But in this case, the farm isn’t in the US or even on Earth. Instead, it’s a scene from the second and final season of Andor, the critically acclaimed Star Wars show that chronicles the rise of the Rebel Alliance under the creeping shadow of the Galactic Empire.

If watching the new season of Andor makes you think of America’s current lurch toward fascism, that’s likely not a coincidence. In fact, it’s arguably the point of Star Wars in the first place. Throughout the franchise’s 47-year history, the Empire has served as a stand-in for everything from the United States during the Vietnam War to ancient Rome in the age of Julius Caesar. But while the Empire may be infinitely adaptable as a metaphor for fascism, Andor notably seems to represent the first time since Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion that this metaphor is being pointed back at the US.

“The Empire is both incredibly stable and incredibly flexible as an entity to hang metaphors on,” says Chris Kempshall, a historian and the author of The History and Politics of Star Wars. “We, the audience, understand that the Empire is evil, so that doesn’t need to be explained to us. But the details of the Empire have changed a lot over time to adapt to these changes in real-world politics.”

Until now, the Disney era of Star Wars has been defined by toothless politics; in Episode VII—The Force Awakens, the bad guys dress and act like generic Nazis, a cartoonish shortcut that establishes them as evil without attempting to say anything deeper about modern imperialism. In general, the sequel trilogy is too busy wrestling with the meaning of Star Wars itself to say anything potent about American politics, and when Disney’s Lucasfilm does take more ambitious narrative swings, like with The Acolyte, it has failed to escape the gravity of corporate demands and a small, loud, toxic fandom determined to drag the franchise to the right both politically and culturally.

That’s why Andor feels like such a rare victory for Star Wars. Not only is it the best thing to come out of the franchise in years (as many critics have argued), but it’s Lucasfilm’s most blatant attempt to get back to the type of biting political commentary that defined its pre-Disney era. Andor’s first season may have laid the groundwork with careful character development and world-building, but Season 2 makes good on that promise to deliver something painfully relevant at a time when many Americans are reckoning with the fact that the democracy we once thought was inextinguishable is seemingly crumbling right in front of us.

In the first three episodes of Andor Season 2, which started streaming on Disney+ on April 22, one of the show’s many interlocking plotlines takes us to Mina-Rau, an agricultural planet on the outer rim of the Star Wars galaxy, where a group of rebel soldiers are posing as freelance mechanics. The group includes Bix (Adria Arjona), a wanted fugitive hiding out on Mina-Rau without the necessary paperwork. So when a cadre of Imperial soldiers arrives to carry out an unannounced “supply census,” Bix is worried.

“If they’re checking visas, it’s a problem,” she says.

“Look, they need the grain,” a local farmer replies. “They know we need help, and they know everyone isn’t legal. How hard they look, what they do—it’s been 10 years since the last audit, nobody’s happy.”

In the very next episode, he’ll betray the rebels to the Empire, a reminder of just how difficult it can be to do the right thing in the face of authoritarian power.

For Kempshall, Andor’s greatest innovation is the way it exposes the “grassroots elements of fascism.” We all know that Palaptine is evil, but as the series makes clear, it’s the ordinary people just doing their jobs—filing paperwork and enforcing security—who make that evil possible in the first place.

“These are the ones who’ll kick your door in at 3 am or enforce changing laws,” he says. “They’re the real face of the Empire. And it looks normal and banal and boring and therefore terrifying. It’s the reality of increasing oppression.”

Star Wars’ tradition of highlighting American imperialism dates back to its earliest days.

Before he created Star Wars, Lucas was supposed to direct Apocalypse Now for his friend, Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola. But after the film fell into development hell and he dropped out, Lucas took that Vietnam War setting and transported it into space, turning the Viet Cong into the Rebel Alliance, a ragtag army of freedom fighters engaged in guerrilla warfare against a heavily armed, genocidal empire.

And that’s just what made it into the final version of the film.

“In the earliest drafts for what would become Star Wars, Lucas was pretty explicit about how the Empire was meant to portray an America which had fallen into fascism,” Kempshall says.

When Lucas returned to the Star Wars galaxy after a 16-year break to helm the prequel trilogy, he had a different metaphor in mind. Released in 1999, a full year before George W. Bush became president, Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace is an allegory for how democracies collapse into dictatorship and willingly cede power to a strongman, with parallels to everyone from Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte. (Lucas’ then-yawn-inducing obsession with trade tariffs may have inadvertently also predicted our current economic crisis.)

But by the time the prequels came to an end with Revenge of the Sith (2005), Lucas had turned his attention to President Bush. Near the end of the movie, a corrupted Anakin Skywalker turns to his old friend Obi-Wan Kenobi and shouts, “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy,” an unsubtle reference to the Iraq War that instantly drew comparisons to Bush’s post-9/11 threat: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

After the poorly reviewed sequels, Lucas stepped back from Star Wars for another few decades before ultimately selling the franchise to Disney. The company’s much-hyped relaunch picked up the Skywalker Saga, 30 years after Return of the Jedi (1983). In 2015’s The Force Awakens, the remnants of the Empire have reformed into the First Order, which takes on distinctly Nazi attributes with its billowing red flags and angry, shouting leaders.

For Kempshall, the reason for this shift toward a more generic Nazi metaphor has less to do with politics and more to do with the modern cultural zeitgeist.

“Vietnam isn’t a major pop culture touchstone anymore,” he says. “So the Empire likely needed to evolve to transmit a level of evil.”

That was certainly true in 2015, a year before Donald Trump became president, but a decade later, the zeitgeist has changed again. Like it did in the 1970s under Richard Nixon or the early 2000s under Bush, America is lurching toward fascism. And, in a surprising return to form, Star Wars is here to reflect that political reality back at us.

[elbiotipo]

A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry talked about this better and more pedantly than me recently, but it's interesting to see the Galactic Republic and the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, rather than a modern representative republic that falls to fascism, as the Holy Roman Empire. A (galactic) "republic of princes" with an elected senate (or diet?) and leadership but is otherwise a collection of independent states each with their own militaries, governments, etc.

The Clone Wars could be seen as a conflict between these princedoms (a lot of what happens in the Clone Wars series is about convincing such and such system to support one way or the other) similar to the Thirty Years' War, and the Empire as an attempt to centralize power in a single sovereign much like it was seen in the history of early modern Europe, which of course is an expensive and difficult effort (especially in a galaxy accostumed to the 'traditional' loose government of the Republic). Since the Emperor himself is not a good sovereign at all,not only Evil but also incompetent, he quickly falls out of favor from the princes, and his centralized military is defeated by the Rebel Alliance. Presumably, Order Is Restored, but you can see that after such a thing, there would be very fundamental changes all over the galaxy that I don't either the old expanded universe and definitively not the new canon have resolved. (the Star Wars Enlightment/Napoleonic Wars, anyone?)

Anyways, Star Wars is obviously a story abut a family of space wizards, but it's very interesting to imagine how the wider Galaxy works from a political, historical, etc. perspective, and I found this idea very appealing, an interesting thing to support my Space Empires worldbuilding post.