#it does have to do with asajj tho

[jewishcissiekj]

if you ask my opinion about gray Jedi I will explode and take you and everyone in my vicinity with me

[vaguely-concerned]

I’m on a Star Wars books roll so here we go with my — unhinged thanks for asking! — thoughts on Dooku: Jedi Lost, specifically the audio play. Short version: I fucking loved this one! For maximum emotional devastation, pair with Master and Apprentice and Padawan the way my stupid ass did and then be sad about it forever I guess that's what I’m going to have to do.

 Long (LONG oopsie) version:

- So. First of all, let’s get the most important thing out of the way on this here old man yaoi website. We all agree dooku and sifo dyas explored each other’s bodies right. Or at least definitely would have if not for the laws of this order etc., potentially. That’s not just me. Good. Thank you. We can now move on 

- Secondly. Well. Guess I’m just going to be inconsolable about Sifo-Dyas forever now. I miss the days in which he was just a throwaway line in AotC spawned by a random misspelling to me, rather than an eternal raw aching wound in my heart

- poor poor ventress just reading through all the proof that dooku absolutely does have it in him to be a good dad I mean master and just — idk got tired of that and went the force lightning route with her. I love the move of having her dead master hang out with her all that time as well (having her slip up and refer to ‘us’ did something to me, god this is so sad. Is he actually there in spirit or is it just her grief dreaming him up because dooku is awful and cold as a cliff  wall and she needs some kind of attachment figure even if she’ll have to reinvent him herself, rebuild him word for word, gesture by gesture. Pain. sorry about your terrible track record with father figures asajj) 

- Lene: (About Averross): He hasn’t changed. 

Dooku: (In the warmest fondest voice you ever heard) And I hope he never does

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH MYSELF? MUST I SET MYSELF ON FIRE TO ESCAPE THE PAIN???

Another strong showing for Rael in general, btw. He’s so warm and charming as a presence even though he’s also a little chaos gremlin. (He’s quite similar to how Sifo-Dyas was when he was young in some ways, I can definitely start to see what Dooku responds warmly to in terms of character traits.) 

- the fact that good ol’ sheev showed an interest in rael, dooku and anakin… interesting huh! He’s just got a soft spot for the disaster lineage I suppose, maybe there’s an element there of luring yoda’s most direct lineage into the dirt with him without yoda even noticing for the longest time. Also cackling at the idea that he looked at qui-gon ‘too fucking stubborn and insufferable to fall to the dark side out of sheer spite’ jinn and went ‘...not that one tho’ fhdskjfa. And obi-wan is more like ‘that one blorbo all my little guys seem wild about but I just don’t get it guys’ 

IF rael’s refusal to join dooku at the end of ‘master and apprentice’ is the last word (which I am not convinced of ;___; be safe cowboy jedi we never see in mainline canon so far), then he’s the only one who has dodged palpatine’s attentions. Wonderful if true love that for him

ALSO rael is one of the few people we know to be on (or at least to consider himself on despite what palps might think lol) first name basis with palpatine. Hilarious. I concur with dooku never change rael 

- Sifo-Dyas: That’s insane. 

Dooku, deadpan: Yes.

Sifo-Dyas: The worst plan I’ve ever heard.

Dooku, somehow even more deadpan: Most probably. 

Sifo-Dyas: I’m in. 

Crying… weeping and dying………… what if someone could have helped sifo with his unfortunate prophecy propensity and they hadn’t drifted apart. Clone Wars averted methinks if dooku still ended up leaving the order he would have been too busy having tender gay sex with the love of his life (and only person who can call him out on his shit and have him actually listen) to be a war criminal (I am being extremely facetious of course this is very much a ‘time traveler killing baby hitler’ situation where the underlying forces causing this point in history are way too powerful to avert the catastrophe in one move. but at least palps would probably have had to pick someone else to wreck the galaxy through and sifo-dyas would be kissed & held instead of going slowly mad. A net plus some (I, me) would say) 

- I just wanted to applaud both the writing and the voice acting for the characterization of Dooku in this, from his young self trying so hard to be haughty and self-possessed but also being like, y’know, twelve and a dweeb and easy for Sifo-Dyas to pull into trouble, to the dry wit and warmth he shows with Rael and Qui-Gon or his sister later. It took me a little while to get into the voice acting specifically (the actor makes no attempt at going the full Christopher Lee, which in hindsight was probably wise), but now I love it. It gets a bit goofy in places but you know what, I am a long time lover of audio plays, that’s part of the charm 

- “Master, have I done something wrong?”

My heart is clenching… do you think… that master yoda’s deal with leaving his student to try fucking everything to have some kind of relationship with him until he just breaks down in tears of despair… is the kind of thing that maybe started a little bit of a generational trauma cartwheel through the ages. The point that bb!dooku is arrogant isn’t without merit and he strikes out incredibly ungracefully about it (in fact I would be a lot more worried than yoda seems to be that he decides to try to kill a tree about it, ‘I felt like destroying something beautiful’-style)  but I just don’t think a… fourteen year old? A teen anyway, Is going to learn what you think he learns from this. I simply don’t believe that silent treatmenting kids will teach them emotional intelligence I guess especially if they already struggle with that naturally lol 

(It is exactly the same mistake (in my opinion) that Qui-Gon makes with Obi-Wan, too, just leaving the kid completely alone and forcing them to come to you every which way for comfort or guidance instead of meeting them or reaching out to them. Especially once you see that really Dooku’s prime emotion/big core wound right from the beginning is loneliness. And that doesn’t only come from a feeling of superiority (which to be sure is also a big factor), because he has no idea where he comes from until he meets his sister. I don’t think the jedi as a whole were unsalvageable by any stretch of the imagination, but Yoda specifically… you are on such very thin ice with me at this point you little green fuck. You’re very funny and moving in yoda dark rendezvous and that’s all that’s keeping you in my somewhat good graces.)

- Okay, coming back a bit later I think I’ve found the right words to say this. more precisely dooku has two big issues which you can later see haunting all the way down his lineage — loneliness and control. (and not incidentally the intersecting elements of the two haha.) We see from his relationship to sifo-dyas that he’s not incapable of having close mutual relationships with an equal, but that kind of crashed and burned for reasons neither of them could really help and after that it seems quite telling that he has the easiest time with deeper connection in a teacher-student sort of form. I think his affection is unconditional and real, but you can’t get away from the fact that he also has the most control in that relationship structure by default, he gets to dictate what form it takes to a big extent. He doesn’t trust other people — the underlying idea ‘Only I can do this’ that eventually leads him down the Separatist path is there the whole way. It speaks both to a sense of superiority and an utter lack of faith that other people can or will help him. And then that echoes down through the master-padawan line: 

Qui-Gon with his self-righteousness and utter refusal to compromise leaving him isolated among the jedi (only he is right. Yeah the Force told him so. Don’t worry I’ve got a permit *insert parks and rec I can do whatever I want meme here*), Obi-Wan with his anxiety and perfectionism and incredible sense of shame and responsibility that he should be able to carry the whole world on his shoulders alone and beating himself up for failing, all feeding into not knowing what to do with Anakin and his complete lack of control of himself and his desperation to gain and maintain connection and love (which earns him the title of ‘Dooku’s least favorite family member’ fhdsa his immediate disdain for him is so funny and so in character. Repress and go slowly mad like a normal person anakin the way you’re carrying on is just undignified and that is much worse than being evil)… 

- Rael gently telling Dooku to take on another padawan soon… so sweet, so sad, local cowboy jedi looking out for his dad. Also highlights something about Dooku I think is true: that he does much better and seems to have an easier time holding to the light when he’s responsible for someone else. Again, I do feel like Dooku’s core problem is loneliness, but it seems like raising kids is the one point where that relaxes somewhat. Maybe if Sifo-Dyas had stayed in a better mental place and they kept in touch it could have been different.

- Lene Kostana is SUCH a character! Charismatic and deeply fucked up, when it’s revealed how her and Sifo-Dyas’ relationship remains long after his padawan stage is done I felt a little bit sick, to my surprise. Because that could just be kindness on her part, of course, it’s good that he has someone he trusts to look after him when he can’t himself, but also there’s something… queasy about the way it keeps him continually young, in a way. (Notably he still calls her ‘master’ even as an adult, when they’re working together. Not uncommon in Star Wars, of course, but together with everything else going on vibes-wise… hm.) The inherent unreliable narration of this story really worked for me in this regard especially — do we know that young Dooku was entirely wrong when he sensed the dark side in her? She certainly is willing to go to lengths that are… worrying! in her fascination with sith shit, she tempted children into a dangerous place they didn’t understand and couldn’t know the consequences of and she continually puts sifo-dyas in situations that are implied to be a risk to worsening his condition. Run of the mill incredibly irresponsible at best, sincerely sinister at worst. Did she choose Sifo over Dooku because he’s more vulnerable and shapeable? There is an undercurrent of something icky and emotionally incest-y going on with how she relates to Dooku and Sifo-Dyas in general (right down to the ‘NO, no one can know about this’ intensity after the… evil moss cave. I can’t believe I’m this emotional about a book with an evil moss cave). I don’t think she’s a proper sith in any way and I also believe there is real affection there on all sides, but idk something about the whole thing makes me deeply uneasy. Yoda where the fuck are you your son is out there with his irresponsible mom again they’re looking for dirty needles in haystacks and they’re not even wearing any gloves

- dooku telling sifo-dyas he can come back to haunt him if he likes as a joke… well well well I’m sure that doesn’t ring with some dramatic irony at some point down the line lmao

- honestly looking back at master and apprentice after reading jedi lost makes qui-gon's apparent lack of reaction to dooku leaving seem — let's call it highly suspect haha. rael asks him if he's spoken to dooku after and qui-gon is like 'no. why would I. it's literally fine. anyway this topic is done now'. (and rael seems to just go ‘*older brotherly knowing* uh-huh’) meanwhile he's thinking about dooku *all the time* trying to figure out his role as master to obi-wan, thinking about being a padawan himself, the parts of his life he shared with both dooku and rael. The jedi doth protest too much methinks  

ALSO how much of qui-gon thinking the council was too lenient with rael after he had to kill his padawan is about that actual situation, and how much is a ‘our family still likes my older brother more than me even though he Fucked Up so bad and breaks just as many rules as I do’ sort of deal mixed with his own neuroses about how he’s failing obi-wan (to which rael’s situation symbolizes the worst possible outcome, i.e. the kid dies and it’s basically your fault). Many thoughts. 

- moment of silence for jenza of house serenno. Girl your only sin was being surrounded by asshole male family members and I’m so sorry I think you did all you could with what you had to work with here.

Not… entirely sure how dooku’s claim to the title supersedes hers — is he a year older than her? (she’s eleven when they first meet, he might be twelve or older at that point I don’t remember haha) Does she just give up her place in the inheritance order? Are primogeniture and male heir preference factors in Serenno inheritance law? Not the most important thing honestly it works anyway thematically but could have been clarified quickly!

- interesting to see that the council’s restrictive policy against engaging with prophecies had a surprisingly big impact on how things went down. Kostana has a lot of responsibility in Sifo’s fate for insisting he keep it secret, but there is genuine fear for what might become of him if the rest of the order finds out he’s got 24/7 futurevision hovering over him threateningly… listen it’s not like the poor guy can help getting the future constantly pumped into his brain at nightmare resolutions, I think maybe if there had been more willingness to at least engage curiously with the concept of prophecy and how it works, even if you don’t put your faith in the particulars of what the prophecies say, this wouldn’t have had to be such a shitty isolated secretive life for him. hearing him slowly fall apart over the years considering how bright and lovely he started out... oof is all I can say 

- when dooku was a good jedi he was such a good jedi!!! The scene where they’re saving the kids from the collapsing hospital, every time he teaches his students anything…the impulse of someone has to do something about this! that made him so good at saving lives turning dark with the tarnish of frustration and rage over the years… nooooooooo problematic grandpa why did it have to be like this :(

- …do you think infant jedi can sense what’s going on around them in the Force. Because it makes a very sad kind of sense if dooku on some level remembers bodily or in the Force that he was not only abandoned but rejected in disgust as one of the first things he discovered in the world. Oh boy. With all the ways attachment relationships can go wonky in the first few years in real life I don’t even want to consider how much more wrong it can go when the baby is fucking psychic lol

- vaguely related: the way dooku seems to find the very idea of being truly reliant on anyone, emotionally or otherwise, personally offensive, terrifying and humiliating lol. Yoda saves him from being crushed by rubble and he is outraged because that means he can’t save himself (and his newfound sister) without anyone’s help like he thought for one glorious moment he could. The fantasy of perfect emotional self-sufficiency, doing away with all the messiness and risk of interpersonal relationships and cutting off the possibility of really being abandoned again. It’ll get ya every time. This is also a thing you see reflected in his lineage — they’re all quite inward-turning that way until you get to anakin, to different extents and with varying presentations but it is there I think. Qui-Gon turns to the Force, Obi-Wan to perfectionism and shame and rumination, Rael to the bottle and depression and hedonistic apathy, but they all struggle hugely with letting anyone in to help them. Dooku’s line are all much more comfortable being the helpers rather than the helpees, as it were.  

- “Thank you for everything, Lene. Tell Rael and Qui-Gon — tell them… tell them the Force will be with them, always”

Emotional terrorism against me specifically and personally. You asshole you just excused yourself from the non-attachment rules there’s literally nothing in the world except you to stop you from reaching out and telling your children you love them yOURSELF why are you like this

- the recurring theme of dooku seeing something beautiful (the tree in the temple, the tirra’taka as a child and an adult) and ending up lashing out to destroy it… but the tree was old and mighty and he was young and new and couldn’t truly harm it, so he was saved from his own impulsivity. And then when he sees the tirra’taka as an adult he loves it immediately. And in the end he still mangles and destroys it. He didn’t mean to, but he did. He woke it up and hurt it just by existing as a child and then he had to kill it as a mercy because he was too powerful at that point for anything to buffer his mistakes. The parallel with the bird he loved that he also couldn’t protect. He starts out with an aching loneliness somewhere at the core of him through no real fault of his own but by the end it is entirely his own fault that it’s worse, because he starts wrecking everything he loves in an almost absent-minded but definitely intentional way, like it’s a nightmare he’s listening to through the door as it happens in the next room over. He really IS the ‘I just felt like destroying something beautiful’ central of the jedi.

at the end qui-gon is dead and through dooku’s own influence, however indirectly. Rael has had to turn away from him. Sifo-Dyas is dead on Dooku’s own orders and so is his sister, he might as well have done it with his own hands. (though I think it’s very interesting that in each case he didn’t do it with his own hands, he consistently uses a middleman.) He lives within the coldness of his sterile empty castle and horrifically mistreats the one person he might have found something like connection with the way he did with his students before (Ventress), deliberately trapping her in a similar state of utter desolate isolation and telling her, essentially, ‘We’re like this as people and nothing can be done to change it. We can’t escape, we’re already doomed, stop trying, it’s too late. You are just like me (and if you aren't already I'll make you like me)’. And that’s the closest thing he gets to love anymore. When he accused Ky of using her ‘as a salve for his own loneliness’ and you’re like well well well mr projection man how’s that working out for you. He is completely, shatteringly alone and he is so entirely as a consequence of his own actions and he's too far gone to understand or care. I’m howling you useless fucking FOOL dooku  

- dooku 🤝 john gaius

“Hm. I have observed that there are in fact many flaws in our society and the government is deeply corrupt. So if I kill a few billion people here and there in order to fix it, is that not basically okay when you really think about it” 

Dooku making salient points about the political and ethical failures of the Republic and then, just when you think he’s onto something, he goes and makes The wildest fucking decisions about what to do about it. Sure. dark magic and genocide are probably the only ways out of this you’re so right bro. If we make enough minuses to add together surely we’ll end up in plus sooner or later

- *head in my hands once more* I can’t believe I am genuinely emotionally invested in someone called Count Dooku with the looks of a knockoff dracula and ultimate moral character to match right now this is terrible. hey. hey dooks. what you have to go and fuck everything up so bad for huh I’m so incredibly sad now

there is something to be said about how getting to see glimpses of what dooku looked like in the light makes it so much more heartwrenching that he never came back. he could have, a thousand times. and every time he chose not to.

[narkinafive]

ahshowka breakdown! tagged #ahsoka spoilers and #ahshowka

the good:

when i tell you i almost stood up and cheered during the memorial ceremony. i could feel the great cosmic energy surging through my VEINS, senator jai kell and clancy brown and UGH. thank GOD

relatedly, i really liked having hera be the first person to say his name. idk. it felt nice and in character that she still thinks of her crewmember-cum-son-and-boy

i, for one, am really, really really digging the slow, deliberate pacing. time will tell if it ends up more plodding than contemplative, but i love having the space to breathe and observe... almost like a jedi? lol, but mostly i'm happy not to be taken on a roller coaster

kiner bros putting their whole pussy into the soundtrack

EMAN ESFANDI ON THE RECORDING WHEN HE DOES THE LITTLE HEADSCRATCH i was like yes. yes. this man understands

showing sabine's helmet in the foreground and having her twice avoid it to pull out other stuff from under the table. i have so many thoughts

man i love that they're all kind of bitches to each other. i support unlikable women

huyang: man you suck ass at this whole force thing, huh

the... less good:

ignore the makeup ignore the makeup ignore the makeup

i'm interested to see the show tackle the idea of how to transition from empire to republic, and i think it can be a salient critique of capitalism to have the republic essentially absorbing the imperial workforce so as not to stop production, but i am, as always, skeptical, since LF has uh... not been great about this before (i mean narratively, not even like getting into unfortunate implications lmao)

utterly bored with we-have-asajj-ventress-at-home and the other dude (rip ray stevenson tho, what a phenomenal talent) but i'm hopeful that will change!

dreading thrawn just bc i hate thrawn but that is entirely personal and not at all a critique of the show 😂

seated and watching:

i am extraordinarily interested in the sabine/ahsoka dynamic, and i am dying to know more, because it really is reading like a nasty lesbian breakup. which i am totally okay with

i am less... concerned? wary? of sabine as ahsoka's apprentice than i was before we started. idk, given all the visual emphasis on sabine avoiding these two "opposed" poles (avoiding the jedi by not going to ezra's memorial, avoiding the mandalorian by shoving her armor away under the table) i am curious to see how this plays out. it feels like a natural evolution from her rebels arc of choosing her new family in the ghost crew, but inverted? which i'm interested in. idk. feeling hopeful, tho

there's an interesting motif of seeing things through (and failing to do so) in these first two episodes. obviously ezra says that to sabine almost verbatim, but there's also ahsoka walking away from both anakin and sabine before training was completed, there's the new republic failing to fully eradicate imperial sympathies (sometimes deliberately so), and there's something there too, i think, about failing to confirm thrawn's death. or account for his return? anyway. i'm interested

but truly, highlight of the premiere is huyang being like good god you are bad at this

[jiabeewrites]

STAR WARS ATLA HEADCANONS

(because I'm now obsessed with this idea, thank you @vulpesarctica for your lovely posts)

THE CLONE WARS || OG TRILOGY || REBELS || MANDO ERA

GENERAL AU HEADCANONS: - for the sake of the story let's flip the original atla timeline on it's head - republic city came first, and then the whole "100 year war" - i actually haven't watched all of lok so pls bear with me - sidious is some sort of chancellor, still - dooku is firelord, however he's NOT A BENDER - I MUST STRESS THE FACT THAT HE CANNOT BEND - *cough*atleastothepublic*cough* - *cough*he'stotallyafirebender*cough* - anyways he's very "antibender" - and ig benders are a lot like jedi, bc they hafta be "disciplined" or whatever - except, yk, more organized than the benders in atla - but dooku declares war, on benders, and the rest of the world, yadayada - badabing badabang badabingbangboom - btw i have ZERO clue how clones would work in atla but let's just say they're all hired fighters or smth that look the same idk - or they're like the dai li - idk - ANYWAYS let's excuse my sucky worldbuilding skills and get onto the headcanons :)

ANAKIN SKYWALKER: SANDBENDER FIREBENDER 🔥 - actually tho imagine if he was a sandbender - okay so he would TOTALLY be a firebender like cmon - he's feisty and chaotic and fire is fucking perfect for him - but in this case firebending wouldn't be, like, taboo because of the circumstances of the war - and it's canon that darth vader cannot use sith lightning so let's make it (head)canon that anakin cannot summon lightning - he's salty abt it - sidious probably eventually burns him but blames it on obiwan - except his marriage with padme wouldn't be taboo either??? let's just say she's very anti-war so the rest of the temple doesn't really like her

OBI-WAN KENOBI: WATERBENDER 🌊 - so at first i thought that obi would be an airbender - but then i read iroh's lil speech on airbenders and it doesn't fit obi-wan - so waterbender he is :) - he was taught by qui-gon, who is an earthbender (he's so stubborn cmon) - so obi-wan definitely has some earthbender qualities to him - i think that obi-wan does eventually bloodbend, when maul captures satine - it wasn't something taught in the temple, but obi-wan is obi-wan - (ventress taught it to him) - and he fucking hated that feeling and vowed to never do it again

AHSOKA TANO: EARTHBENDER 🪨 - so ik that the post linked above has ahsoka down as a waterbender - and while it does, in fact, fit her - she possesses a LOT of earthbending qualities and honestly i think this fits her better - no, it doesn't make sense that anakin is a firebender and teaches her but then again - iroh said that people have to learn from each other and so that's what the temple does :) - ahsoka gets her fiery temper and overall chaoticness from anakin - and her adaptability from obi-wan - but her stubborness and her resolve? that's all her own - she's strong and she's not afraid to show it :D - tbh she's basically the avatar with all of her mentors but can't actually bend all the elements but whatever

MACE WINDU: EARTHBENDER 🪨 - i feel like this doesn't need to be explained - but i shall anyway - he's very headstrong - he has strong morals and isn't afraid to fight you on them - what other explanation do you want ;-;

PLO KOON: WATERBENDER 🌊 - *pulls out powerpoint presentation* PLO IS SUCH A WATERENDER AND HERE'S WHY - ok so i was SO FUCKING CLOSE to putting him down as an airbender but ultimately i had to choose water as plo's element - because he's a very peaceful person and we see that a LOT - but i had to make him a waterbender because he's a family man and so loving and that's what made me choose water for him - *cough*wolffepack*cough* - ily plo

KIT FISTO: AIRBENDER 🌪 - he doesn't really need any elaboration - he's just an airbender - he's very free-spirited, and we do see him joke around a bit during clone wars - very peaceful dude

ASAJJ VENTRESS: BLOODBENDER 🩸 - okay so i need to explain this for a sec - dooku's whole thing is against benders - but if we include some of the niche bending, like metalbending and bloodbending - which aren't really out there if yk what i mean - then nobody would know that it was ventress who was technically bending - i feel like there is a potential way for bloodbending to be used for good, and that's kinda where the whole nightsister thing would come in - people think they're witches but no, they're just really good waterbenders - (the nightsisters use bloodbending for kinda gray-area purposes) - (but they use it to help maul later and you'll see what i mean)

SHAAK TI: AIRBENDER 🌪 - i'm pretty sure that shaak ti could fall under waterbender, because she cares a LOT for the clones and i totally agree with her being their "mom" like how plo is their "dad" - but she's very peaceful, and i'm in AWE every single time she's on screen - like how tf is she so calm - so airbender she is :)

YODA: AIRBENDER 🌪 - he is an airbender and you can fucking fight me on this - HE CHECKS ALL THE BOXES HELLO - "detached themselves from worldly concerns" CHECK - "and they found peace and freedom" CHECK - "and they apparently had great senses of humor” DEBATABLE BUT CHECK - bro could literally be the former avatar but whatever - he's amazing and we love him - people sometimes think he's just a really weird spirit - and he probably is - but whatever

MAUL: FIREBENDER 🔥 - okay so i actually did consider making him a bloodbender - because of ventress & the nightsisters and that whole thing - however - there's no way that sidious would have taken him on as his apprentice if he wasn't a firebender so uhhhh yeah - he's a firebender, with a LOT of rage - a lil too much tbh

BARRIS OFFEE: AIRBENDER 🌪 - i think that barris is an airbender - she's very calm, most of the time - however she does have the capability to blow up, and we can see that when she frames ahsoka - aang blew up too tho so it's okay :) - i don't know a lot about her or her master so idk if this is good or not

also quinlan vos is an airbender okay bye

[jacensolodjo]

First of all, thank you again to the recent anon message that gave me the push to finally write this down to be able to put Jaster into the mix, not just Sheres, as I wasn’t really sure if I should or if it was best left unsaid for the time being. The Alphas are my domain and will be forever more but sometimes I worry about going a tad too far and whatnot with weaving my OCs into ‘canon’ story. (Seriously I wish I could express how much it means when people show an interest in my OC stuff or even just stuff in general. I know it is starting to sound silly but gosh. I like knowing I'm not just using my blog as a notebook lol mi blog es su blog, please pick up a fun goodie bag on your way home)

I apologize for the chunky-ass paragraphs and the rambling.

So, a quick recap for people who either don’t have a lot of knowledge about the comics or just Legends stuff in general:

In ‘Legends’, the story of Grievous, clones, Asajj, and others is entirely different from the story we now have. In the original story, Grievous and Asajj fought against clone troopers (and Jedi of course) on a planet far different from the planets they were on in the new canon. The former grievously (haaaaaaaaa) wounds Alpha 17. Asajj is also injured in the fight (not by Grievous tho which yes I have to make that clear because they have fought each other before lol) and considered to be nothing more than a corpse. And someone had the bright fucking idea to put the two of them in a shuttle back to Republic space (even if you really do believe she’s dead why the FUCK would you put someone who literally tortured another someone in the SAME TRANSPORT with said tortured someone. Since 17 is not dead and may or may not have been unconscious so waking up to Asajj would not be a fun thing). The very last thing we see where A17 is concerned is... Asajj taking control of the shuttle by killing off the pilot and so forth. This puts an already possibly paralyzed Alpha 17 in some dire straits. This is unfortunately the last we hear about 17 and so he is presumed dead, killed by his literal torturer so many months after their initial meeting. 

Now that we have that out of the way.

In my slightly happier fun time idea for 17 regarding this, I decided anyone with even half a brain cell would realize putting him on the same shuttle as Asajj Ventress is the worst idea in the history of the galaxy, dead or NOT. MAYBE if he wasn’t fucking paralyzed now (but would still be really gross to do w/ his history where Asajj is concerned). I change nothing else about this end of the war for him (because it IS the end of the war for him). The only other thing I decided was that his injury needed to be elaborated on, to be narrowed down to WHAT exactly did Grievous’s saber hit? And so I decided, L4/L5 spinal severance which means he cannot walk. He’s alive. But he can’t walk.

This is where I have to really decide where to bring Jaster into the mix, since I already decided it takes a few months post O66 for Sheres and 17 to buddy up. Jaster has the personal touch going for him, but Sheres has the medical. Next to that, I have managed to get myself firmly planted into the ground when it comes to having Jaster and 17 as an ‘item’ and no you can't change my mind.

Jaster during O66 is kinda in a maelstrom just like everyone else just with different conflicting thoughts since his orders actually have nothing to do with the Jedi. He is trying to figure out which orders to follow, which ones to not. Next to trying to figure out how to keep his young charges safe. But the fight with Grievous isn’t during O66 (since Obi-Wan is involved). So where is Jaster when 17 is getting his spine severed? In the interest of ‘might as well go all the way’, I feel like he may have picked up on the chatter about Asajj and Grievous and whatnot and managed to meet 17′s shuttle halfway to Coruscant. He was likely on a ship with a group of young clones who were freshly graduated, simply so it makes sense for him to be able to slip away to find 17. If he had been with actual cadets, he would have been conflicted about leaving them for 17. “You could have saved yourselves” is one of the important lines that 17 has when the cadets try to thank him during the Defense of Kamino. But Jaster was explicitly told by Jango that the cadets were his number one priority. And they are for 17, as well. Just in a different way. Jaster cares because they’re young vode. 17 cares because they are alive for one purpose: to fight for the Republic. But Jaster then knows that 17 would bite his head off for leaving the cadets during the death throes of the Republic/Clone War. One of the few things the Alphas all agree on is that Jango’s orders are paramount (even IF 17 is a hypocrite because he scolds the Nulls for listening only to Kal for the most part but that is... way more to unpack that we don’t have time for lmao needless to say he’s an asshole about it and there’s little defense for it). 

So, through sheer coincidence one could be forgiven for blaming the Force for, Jaster is in the right place at the right time. He is once again saving 17's shebs, a fact that 17 will never be okay with. (like just in a general ‘no i was gonna be JUST FINE’ but he is actually thankful and when all the planets align just right he even says thanks.)

Since all clones have basic first aid (as does pretty much any soldier for obvious reasons), Jaster is at least able to stabilize 17 and keep him fed and hydrated and in as little pain as possible. Because unfortunately through my own first hand experience, I know spinal damage doesn’t mean no pain. 

This is actually a lot better for 17 than the idea of him kinda drifting, falling through the cracks, before and after O66. In the original ‘rewrite’ of this part of the war, 17 essentially barely survives until Sheres finds him. But having Jaster there, even if he still has to keep doing his job until O66, means a lot for 17. His heart doesn’t grow like the Grinch, it’s more of a House situation where he softens. Still ‘a little rude for a clone’. But not a complete 180* of his personality. I mean he was already kinda softening anyways. He was learning, he wasn’t ignorant of what happens to his siblings like Tavo. He cares. In his way. 

[fireflyfish]

I got a T&K question. Dose asajj ventresshave a place in tho s story. Ps I love your writing.

Hello and welcome! Thank you for your kind words! That’s very sweet of you!

Does Asajj Ventress have a place in Tano and Kenobi?

Hmmm...��

Hmmmmmm...

Hmmmmmmmmm...

That is a good question and one that I do not have an answer for. I don’t have any plans for her to show up in Season Three, although I imagine she’s out there somewhere learning how to fight with the guy who took her away from her tribe on Dathomir. 

As for what happens to her after that, I suppose that is up to the events in Season Three if they play out similar to what happened in the original time line.

I’ve asked Dooku about his plans to leave the Jedi Order and start a secessionist movement but he just glowered down at me and asked if I was quite done wasting his time. And then he strolled off, his robes wafting in the breeze all dramatically. 

So... I guess that’s a no?

Anyway, I haven’t decided where Asajj will show up but I’m sure she’ll make her presence known, somehow. I wonder what Ahsoka’s database entry on Asajj looks like?

Ventress, Asajj: Female, bald, pale and tattooed. 

Skyguy never liked her much but that’s not saying much. He didn’t like anybody who was a Separatist. Also, I think she might have given him his scar. Maybe. I’m not certain because it happened before I became his padawan learner. 

Are we noticing a pattern here? Traumatic things happen to Anakin and he doesn’t tell me ANYTHING about it, leaving me to stumble around half-blind in the past hoping I’m not accidentally starting the Clone Wars twenty years too early or starting some kind of crime war with the Hutt Syndicate. Thanks, Skyguy!

You know what would have helped, Master? Telling me that Qui-Gon Jinn was kind of an asshole and Master Obi-Wan was amazing INSPITE of that Qui-Gon’s best attempts otherwise! UGH!

Anyway, where was I?  Asajj right? 

Right! So... Asajj... I wonder if we could find her and save her from Dooku. She wasn’t all bad. She helped me when it all went down at the Temple and I was on the run. And she didn’t have to. 

I wonder where she is right now...

[kenobios]

Staaaaaar waaaaars

@futurecatladies​ said:Also Star Wars because who tf are we kidding

the character i least understand

yoda. he has gone through multiple instances where he learned that two sides of a war need to come together, not constantly fight each other, in order for the force to prosper, that neither one is right or wrong (i.e. the stone giant arc in the comics) or when the force pretty much tells him that having both a dark and a light side is important and doesn’t make you weak/wrong (tcw) but then he goes and does the same shit anyway? like? he’s meant to be this wise old teacher to the other characters but he doesn’t even learn shit for himself. idk. i probably just don’t have the patience to try and understand his character because i know he is the one who caused a lot of shit in the first place. he has his moments but by golly gosh is he a shit-stirrer. i could also say snoke just because i WANT to understand him but we were given so little (which is one of my nitpicks about TLJ, i know a lot of people didn’t really care about snoke but i at least wanted to know why he did what he did, y’know?)

interactions i enjoyed the most

rey and kylo, anakin and obi-wan, darth maul and obi-wan, asajj and obi-wan (pretty much obi-wan and everyone), leia and luke, luke and rey (for what little we got of them)

the character who scares me the most

darth vader. i know he got redeemed in the end but he did a lot of shit that he didn’t even bat an eyelash/didn’t even affect him that scares me to think about. like when he tortures leia and doesn’t even give a shit, or the fact he cut luke’s hand off and still doesn’t care. its his apathy towards the torture and harming of his own children that scares me. like… what… he can torture and harm them but the moment palpatine does it, it’s too far? idk. some people might call me a hypocrite because kylo killed han, but kylo didn’t do it in the same frighteningly emotionless way that vader did. something about how vader does it is very reminiscent of a sociopath to me, whereas kylo’s attempts to be cruel are just feigned and misguided.

the character who is mostly like me

personally i relate to obi-wan the most, and maybe luke. but star wars personality quizzes always say i’m finn or luke.

hottest looks character

leia in all her outfits other than slave leia tbh. or obi-wan of course.

one thing i dislike about my fave character

this is really hard. i honestly can’t think of anything to dislike about obi-wan… i guess maybe i dislike that he was so ready to leave the jedi on multiple occassions (i.e. in the comics when anakin was a padawan and wanted to leave the jedi and obi-wan was prepared to leave with him, or in tcw when he says he would have left if satine told him to) like… he was so ready to leave if SOMEBODY ELSE wanted him to leave, but he never stepped back for a moment and thought, maybe he himself wanted to leave and he was just waiting for somebody else to give him an excuse to leave? idk it’s just so weird that he seems to be so loyal to the jedi yet so ready to leave at the same time like what is the truth, obi-wan? search your feelings. mostly this is me nitpicking tho because i love pretty much everything about him. 

one thing i like about my hated character

don’t really hate a character but i guess i can respect how jar jar was only trying to do his best?

a quote or scene that haunts me

“And then, the black edging of the dark side encircles her bliss like a noose. Because what rides swift on the heels of hope but fear — a fear that stretches out far and wide like a growing shadow. Fear of having a child in an unstable galaxy. Fear of whether or not Han is alive — or Luke, too. Will the child grow up with a father? An uncle? A mentor? What is her legacy and what will her boy’s legacy be?”

also leia giving up on her son will haunt me forever

a death that left me indifferent

many. but the most controversial one would probably be han’s. he was never my favourite in the OT and tbh i never cared much for him, aside from the fact that leia loved him and therefore i was ok with him. but there are a few things i don’t like that he made leia go through (like leaving her alone while she was pregnant and stuff) but anyways. in the end when he died i didn’t really have a reaction like everybody else. i was just like, well. that’s fine. it’s probably why i never had too much of an issue with kylo either after watching tfa lol.

a character i wish died but didn’t

originally this was hux, he was so annoying in tfa i just wanted him to die in tlj, but then he grew on me in tlj and i’m actually excited to see where they take his character in the next film. especially his dynamic with kylo (disclaimer: i don’t ship kylux) because in hux’s last scene he seems to look at kylo with genuine contempt and distrust, and i suspect there will be serious tension between them upcoming, and hux may even be serious and ballsy enough to try and dethrone kylo somehow, which i find interesting. that’s what i gather from his last scene anyway. also, problematic opinion, i sort of think the plot could have done without poe, like if he died in tfa like he was meant to. i love poe and i love oscar but honestly there is too many main characters now for my tastes and the story would have been better off, i think. like it kind of feels like poe took what finn should have been in the story (i like the idea of finn being leia’s apprentice in training for the resistance a lot better, especially given his history as a stormtrooper, it’d be more poetic)

my ship that never sailed

obi-wan and padme i mean i know… it’s not meant to be and i’m happy with unrequited obidala but LIKE!!! just imagine… obi-wan would have treated her so well sldkfjsldkfj like if she survived but i guess that’s where fanfiction comes in

[fancyfade]

If you're still taking them Asajj Ventress for the character meme (unless you didn't watch The Clone Wars).

I am, ty for ask :3 and I dowatch clone wars

Why I like them: she’sbadass :P I like that she’s bald also, which means I also dislikeseeing ventress with hair fanart b/c I feel like we don’t get to seebald ladies very often. I like that she’s angry. I also like herrevenge scheme :p

Why I don’t: I don’treally care for her interaction with obi wan at all.

Favorite episode (scene ifmovie): the dathomir plotline, specifically when she force chokedboth anakin and obi wan at the same time. Wreckd :P

Favorite season/movie:the season where she does her bounty hunter plotline and interactswith Ahsoka (season 5?) where she actually gets to start to chooseher own fate

Favorite line: RIP Ican’t think of any at the moment

Favorite outfit: thisone (link) I can’t remember where she wore it tho. also her the wrong jedi outfit was pretty rad

OTP: I don’t actuallyship her with anyone, mostly cuz I can’t think of anyone her own ageshe acts with who she has good chemistry with

Brotp: Ahsoka

Head Canon: I actuallydon’t have any for ventress how sad

Unpopular opinion: Stopgiving ventress hair !

A wish: Ventress getsto come to rebels and kick ass (I haven’t seen rebels yet, so I haveno clue whether she does). Maybe while teaching another young angrylady apprentice, but not the abusive way dooku did it. Like a goodway. Two ladies bonding over anger and getting power and stuff

Anoh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Fridge her for some fucking man.Clone wars writers have a terrible record of this tho

5 words to best describethem: angry,vengeful, dangerous, free, badass

My nickname for them: I dont’ have nicknames foranyone RIP me :p

[jewishcissiekj]

Tbh if Legends Asajj saw all that Grey Jedi bullshit online she'd probably go "oh yeah that makes sense sounds like my experience" since she's like the closest thing I know from Star Wars to resemble a Grey Jedi

[jewishcissiekj]

hi let's talk about her

Honestly I have so much to say about her. so much. so here's some of it

-Asajj (NOT VENTRESS THAT'S HER LAST NAME ISTG PEOPLE JUST HATE USING HER ACTUAL NAME AND IDK WHY I GUESS IT'S A COOL NAME BUT ASAJJ IS ALSO A COOL NAME AND)

-Asajj was last seen in canon in the Dark Disciple novel. Where she died. I would never recommend that book to anyone so if you haven't read it yet please don't. In short, after becoming a Bounty Hunter in The Clone Wars she grew out her hair, got a cool yellow Lightsaber and for some reason teamed up with Quinlan Vos to try and kill Dooku. They didn't manage to do it. And Asajj died (was fridged) trying to protect Quinlan. The Bad Batch will not contradict that, as was said by the creators. So this is just a summary for anyone who hasn't read it because I wholeheartedly believe that book is bad

-I have not watched a single Bad Batch episode in my life. As a disclaimer. I started the first one, watched their TCW arc and saw memes screenshots clips and spoilers but I do not know this show. I will watch it now that Asajj's there tho

-She does not have the same outfit anymore! It's a change, and we haven't gotten a clear look at her new design so idk how to judge it yet. Might be to look less recognizable, but it has a very different vibe than any of her prior outfits. There's a leftover shoulder pad and probably some other stuff from her last design but I feel like they kinda clash with the new one and tbb's design language in general. The Bounty Hunter look has a very TCWish feel to it and this one is a sharp turn in another, much more casual direction. I'm not inherently against it but I guess we'll see how it looks in action soon

-In my opinion the hair looks like shit. I don't think she should have hair ever. I don't understand why she can't be bald. Why is she bald when she's evil and has hair when she's a padawan (good) and when she is "redeemed"? guess we'll never know. It's a leftover from the cancelled Dark Disciple TCW arc design (and the Dark Disciple cover and promotional material ofc) and it's bad if you ask me but to each their own and if you like it good for you

-Her Lightsaber!!!!! Same case as the hair in terms of irl development but I like it so much better. The yellow just fits her character and it's pretty. Would love for her to find another one and get back to dual-wielding (I know that won't happen)

-The bag and pouches make me so happy as a design element do you think she carries a (tooka) cat in there

-Now, visually she looks great and the animation style is smoother and nicer than TCW (as is the quality), but what about the direction the character's going in? I didn't like her being dead before, but I felt like it was somewhat better than her being shoved into being a cameo character in new content. If you can't touch her after a certain point, you also can't mess her up. But I do wonder where they're going with her. A few questions:

-Asajj in canon is a directionless character. Also, a partially nonsensical and inconsistent character in her choices and storylines. I've talked about it a lot but in short she just feels messy. What's her purpose in life? Her motive? Her origin story doesn't really make sense, even. She's a Bounty Hunter, sure, but why? If all she wants is revenge on Dooku and maybe money (which was pretty much the case in Dark Disciple), what's she doing after the Empire? And more importantly, why?

-Obviously, the question I haven't asked yet because I don't like it: How the fuck is she alive? Nightsisters have a weird relationship with death but seriously, how?

-She's a Force User after the Rise of the Empire now, so what does he do about that? Is she founding The Path? Fucking around and finding out? Making a not-Jedi-not-Sith order with other force users she finds? Is the Empire after her? Do they know she's live?

-What about her girlfriend? Is Latts Razzi safe? Is she alright?

-Why is she in The Bad Batch show? Are we making her into a cameo character or is there a purpose? Why'd they bring her back? For fun? What is she doing after the show? Floating in dead space? Cameo-ing? Will we have a book?

-OK enough for tonight but if we see Quinlan Vos in the show I'll become violent (/neg). We probably will (he might just get mentioned idk).