#it's a 'additional characters for sith warriors' day apparently

[a-master-procrastinator]

New characters! (bc I don't have self-control)

(really wish zabraks could have more grayish skin color in game. and more hairstyles)

While I was writing an answer to a question involving Kerstes I tried to figure out her future, including if she'd have a partner or not. And answer quickly became 'yes', I just needed to decide who it would be. I had different ideas, but in the end settled down for just making a new character.

Born in nobility, Kaali never quite liked it - she always felt like her whole life has been chosen and planned for her (even when her parents tried to encourage her to do something she had shown interest in), and so at the age of 18 she left to live on her own.

She tried different paths, and after some time ended up trying bounty hunting, and found that she's pretty decent at it. Listening to a lot of gossip while growing up taught her how to find useful information among rumors, and self-defense training, paired with lessons she took from the guards when the parents didn't know, meant Kaali can hold her own in a fight.

At some point, the young mercenary tried to claim a bounty on Kerstes' head. Not out of malice, she simply wanted the money (and maybe a little adventure), and this bounty offered more credits than others. She, of course, failed, and the only reason she wasn't killed is that Kerstes wanted to know who put the bounty on her head. Kaali didn't know, but stuck around to help find the client in exchange for her life.

During the search, they got along pretty well, bonded over some stuff (for example, both growing up as nobility and wanting more freedom), and overall enjoyed each other's company (to Kerstes' surprise). By the time they found and dealt with the client, Kaali liked working with Kerstes and wouldn't mind doing that again, so she gave the Sith a way to contact her if needed.

And Kerstes did contact her shortly after surviving an assassination attempt. She hired Kaali to track Draahg (not to kill, she wouldn't stand a chance), and the mercenary agreed. She tracked him to Belsavis, where he set up a trap, and tried to warn Kerstes about it, but was caught and knocked out. Aftter he was dealt with, Kaali decided to travel with Kerstes to see her revenge through.

(I'm still deciding exactly how their relationship develops from there, so it's very rough, but I wanted to share)

And the second character is Anstinur, a Sith Lord who decides to help the Alliance and provide them the information on multiple Imperial operations, specifically those that Darth Nox is involved in.

This part will include some spoilers for 6.0 and any story after that, so be warned.

Since I'm now 100% sure that Jett's Alliance isn't going to side with either Republic or Sith Empire after Iokath and instead deals with other neutral factions, certain in-game events are not going the same way (for example, the Alliance isn't involved at all in preparations or the attack on the Meridian Complex in Onslaught). However, it seems that whatever is going to happen with Malgus' plan, it involves both the faction that captured him (in this legacy, it's the Sith Empire) and the Alliance, since they are the ones dealing with Heta (and she's now included in that plan), so I wanted to have a way for the Alliance to get the intel from the Sith.

As I said, in this verse the Sith Empire manages to capture Malgus, and now they are trying to understand his plan and stop it. Specifically, Auletta, as a member of the Dark Council, is heavily involved in this, and since Sith Empire and Alliance aren't working together, all intel about this is out of Alliance's reach. They didn't even think that Malgus was that big of a threat until their meeting with the Voss leaders.

Enter Anstinur, a Sith Lord who is respected for his contribution to the war effort in the second and third Great Galactic wars. Being on the front lines and witnessing imperial victories and losses firsthand, he understands the need for change, and he's been approving Acina's reforms. He also understands that Darth Nox is not embracing those changes sincerely, and her ambition and hunger for power are dangerous for the Empire. Anstinur suspects that she will claim all the glory from stopping Malgus and use it to challenge the authority of Empress Acina, so he reaches out to the Alliance, hoping that with his help they will be able to stop Malgus first. He's extremely careful with what information he shares (bc Auletta could track that), but in the end his intel gives the Alliance an edge.

(of course I need to see how the story goes in the game, so for now I'm waiting for future story updates, but I'm thinking about alternatives)

But there is more to his despise of Auletta than just disagreeing with her ways, it's more personal. See, at some point she pretty much ruined Emperor's Wrath's life, who just happens to be Anstinur's sister. His family put a lot of effort and risked a lot to make sure that Iressa would become a Sith despite her upbringing. They were very proud when she was named Emperor's Wrath, and to see all her successes stripped away because of Darth Nox was devastating. And Astinur wasn't going to let it go just like this.

[brightephemera]

Correspondences below the cut.

0. The Fool: Ord Mantell

Ord Mantell is a planet of beginnings: you may know nothing of the game going in. The Fool is a beginner, a traveler, a novice, one who may not see the cliff that will plunge him into experience. The Fool’s journey will continue across the cosmos. Reversed: naivete, recklessness, foolishness.

1. The Magician: Korriban

Korriban is a planet of power disciplined (however tenuously) by will. Its ground is saturated with arcane knowledge and its abilities grasp at the sky. Fire and control: Korriban is a powerhouse. Reversed: manipulation, poor planning, wasted talents.

2. The High Priestess: Tython

Tython holds mysteries from the earliest days of the Jedi Order. It is lost and rediscovered. It houses the secrets that will be revealed in training only to the greatest devotees. Its lunar and veil imagery point to hidden mysteries. Reversed: hidden agendas, a need to listen to your inner voice.

3. The Empress - Alderaan

I could have continued with Hutta in game order but it doesn’t fit. Alderaan is a prosperous world, a monarchy, a place of lush vistas and noble generosity. Beauty, nurturing, and growing abundance are the watchwords. Reversed: creative block, dependence.

4. The Emperor: Dromund Kaas

Dromund Kaas is the claim of the Empire, a place of rigid rule and unquestioned power. A patriarchal figure rules over all, and the symbol of his influence is pictured here. Its foundations are ancient, its continued existence inflexible, its authority absolute. Reversed: domination, excessive control, inflexibility, but also self-discipline.

5. The Hierophant: Yavin IV.

Sorry, the Emperor does double duty. The ancient temple of Yavin IV was built by slaves, and is used to gather the power of the Emperor for mysteries they will never be inducted into – their service and their deaths both go through Him. The religion has an inviolate structure: conformity, institutions. Reversed: Personal beliefs, freedom, disrupting the status quo.

6. The Lovers: Nar Shaddaa and Nal Hutta.

Planets of choices, of two paths (Agent and Bounty Hunter?), and of Hutt-sanctioned passions. Here Balkar smooths problems over. Here Hutts are pacified, with gifts, with coups. Here, any time you look up from Hutta, you see Nar Shaddaa, its companion in space. Relationships, mutual interests, and choices are the rule. Reversed: self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment.

7. The Chariot: Balmorra.

Strength under control: Balmorra forms the arsenal of whoever manages to possess it. It is a planet of action: the war rages across it while it stands as a fixed point, and in the end its interests win. The imagery of the dual blaster forms the matched pair of the Chariot.  Reversed: self-discipline, but also opposition and lack of direction.

8. Strength: Corellia.

Corellia stands with battered dignity against the Empire, emblem of strength, courage, and influence. And persuasion, as the Republic forces convince CorSec and other elements of the government to throw off Imperial chains. Here Baras and Thanaton’s agents are knocked out from under them, reclaiming influence for the player. Reversed: Inner strength and raw emotion, but also self-doubt and low energy.

9. The Hermit: Tatooine

Yes, the correspondence of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Tatooine is a place of reflection and guidance, most obviously portrayed in the Sith Warrior vision quest. It is the planet where the Rakata have waited alone with their thoughts for millennia, preparing for their rebirth. It is the planet where the Smuggler earns a sensor computer to guide to a treasure. The light in the pictured skeleton’s eye is guidance for those who would follow it. Reversed: Isolation, loneliness, withdrawal.

10. Wheel of Fortune: Voss.

The turn of fate could be no other. The Voss are a deeply fatalistic people, believing in their Mystics’ visions to guide their lives. The player character can undergo a ritual to glimpse their future, and some get additional warnings - all relevant. The Wheel of Fortune is the turn of the universe, a card not just of good luck but of destiny. Reversed: Bad luck, resistance to change, broken cycles.

11. Justice: Manaan.

The obvious reading is the trial in KOTOR, where you must find the truth to clear a man’s name under the rule of law. The theme of balance underpins this planet: it is where players of each faction meet their opposite-faction ally in the Shadow storyline. Its entire ecosystem hangs in the balance in KOTOR. And the Selkath Force users reject the duality of Light and Dark. Justice is fairness and cause and effect. Reversed: unfairness, dishonesty, lack of accountability.

12. The Hanged Man: Hoth.

Luke’s plight in ESB comes to mind. Hoth is a place of suspension, a frozen moment. To call it merely deadly is to pass over the equally apparent moments of transformation, the improbable alliance of Imp and Pub against the Hailstorm Brotherhood, the return of Temple to the Imperial fold, the escape of Horak-Mul in his new form: you. The Hanged Man is a martyr, but also someone discovering something new. Reversed: delays, resistance, stalling, indecision.

13. Death: Makeb

Makeb is a planet of cataclysmic transformation: a breaking core birthing a totally new resource. The transition breaks alliances and endangers the planet, but it is a change, not an end. Reversed: personal transformation, resistance to change, purging.

14. Temperance: Odessen

Lana said it first: Odessen is balanced in the Force, neither dark nor light, and it is here that your faction-spanning Alliance finds its home. Temperance stands with fellow virtues Strength and Justice, but where Corellia takes sides and Manaan rejects them, Odessen partakes in good measure of both sides of the equation. Reversed: imbalance, re-alignment.

15. The Devil: Belsavis

Belsavis is a prison planet, hard-bitten survival and chains that never break. Sometimes that seems wise, like with Darth Ekkage, and sometimes it’s patently unjust, like with Dagger Wing. The Devil is a card of sensuality (not pictured), addiction, and slavery. It is concerned with the material: the aspects of reality most immediate and easiest to cling to. Reversed: releasing limiting beliefs, exploring dark thoughts, detachment.

16. The Tower: Ziost.

Ziost will always be remembered as a disaster, an act of an enemy beyond defense. Ziost was destroyed in a moment that revealed the Emperor’s true scope. The Tower, too, is a thing of upheaval, chaos, and destruction. Reversed: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster.

17. The Star: Ilum.

Above the stillness of a frozen lake, a star streaks over heaven’s field. (There’s a little orange one moving from top left toward middle right just upward from the main streak.) Ilum was home to Darth Malgus’s hope for a new Empire. It houses the Adegan crystals that promise new technology for those who persevere with purpose. At the same time, it houses Jedi ruins of peaceful spirituality. Reversed: lack of faith, despair, disconnection, self-trust.

18. The Moon: Quesh.

This was a hard selection, and Rishi almost took it. (Neither one has a visible moon in the sky.) But Quesh is a planet of mystery, uncertainty, and illusion: Republic Admiral Monk’s reveal as an Imperial operative, the Warrior being lured to a mine, the Bounty Hunter being lured to a merchandising deal, the Consular finding the unacknowledged Attis station, Lord Scourge being a cryptic mystery…I could go on. Here a wall hides a significant zone of the picture.  Maneuvering for advantage without tipping into outright war is a matter of sleight of hand for all involved. Reversed: release of fear, repressed emotion, inner confusion.

19. The Sun: Rakata Prime

Damned planet doesn’t have a sun in its skybox. Nevertheless! I like the glowy flowers. What better expression of raw creation than the Star Forge? But that’s old history, and the Force has recovered. Here is revealed the truth of the Revanites in the light of day. The immediate foe is vanquished and the path is clear. Warmth and vitality rule. Reversed: inner child, feeling down, overly optimistic.

20. Judgment: Taris.

Absolution and rebirth – for a battered planet and for a spoiler on the Endar Spire, long ago. Destruction has come and gone, leaving only a new beginning. Reversed: self-doubt, inner critic, ignoring the call.

21. The World: Coruscant.

Is Coruscant the bright center of the universe? It symbolizes completion, integration, accomplishment, synthesis: the culmination of the Trooper and Consular questlines. And Ord Mantell, the Fool, leads directly into it, forming a complete circuit of the Major Arcana.

Images from Star Wars: The Old Republic. Meanings from https://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/major-arcana/. Deck by brightephemera. Fonts Exocet and Aurebesh.

[gondalsqueen]

Chapters: 18/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel, ask me no questions i'll tell you no lies, but one of these days you'll get a surprise Summary: The end. Kind of. 

...

Something had happened to Ezra out there, something he wasn’t ready to talk about until after this vacation was over. None of them pried. He was...different, in a lot of ways. Grown up. He finally believed in his own adequacy. With that confidence came an edge of brooding that reminded her of Kanan, though. Hera hoped he stuck around where they could support him, whatever he was facing.

In other ways he was still their Ezra—surprisingly predictable given all the time that had passed, and still the baby of the crew until they adjusted their thinking and changed the way they treated him accordingly.

To no one’s surprise, he and Jacen got along well. Their bonding mostly consisted of wrestling, with some sword fighting and a little chase for variety. Hera could have done without the just-before-bed play that infallibly kept Jacen awake and hyper. She didn’t say anything, though, because the two of them had a lot of time to make up for.  

Tonight Jacen was trying to push Ezra into Alexsandr’s small fishpond. Since Ezra vastly outweighed him he was failing, but he made up for it by practically strangling his opponent in the process — by accident, Hera was pretty sure. Really, Ezra had bought this when he picked Jacen up off the ground and threw him over his shoulder.

Oh, and that was a knee in the face.

“Ow!” Ezra protested. “Kid, you are deadly!” He twisted out from under Jacen and somehow they both ended up on their feet, facing each other. Quick as a flash, Ezra tapped Jacen’s shoulder.

“Hey!”

“Block me, then. Like this.” He showed Jacen how to bring his hands up in front of him and deflect the blows. Then he tapped Jace’s knee. “Got you! This is how you block with your feet. Try to tap my knees.”

“Your shoulders, too!”

“Sure, if you can reach.”

Hera watched her son eye a nearby boulder. She hoped he was planning to climb on it and not throw it at Ezra.

Then they both went at each other, jumping towards a shoulder or knee and dashing out again, blocking on one side and darting in on the other. Ezra went easy on Jacen, but he sped up as they played and Jace kept pace with him.

The whole thing ended when Jacen got sick of it, yelled “ATTACK!” and somersaulted across the ground towards his target. He bumped harmlessly against Ezra’s legs, but in the attempt not to step on him Ezra backpedalled and, with a whirling of arms, ended up in the water.

Hmm. Somehow they had both ended up in the water.

“Bathtime!” Hera called.

“It’s not!”

“It is, in fact, a solid hour past BEDtime.”

Ezra hit the shower in Zeb’s place while Hera scrubbed the slime off of Jacen in the Ghost’s fresher. Forty-five minutes later they’d finished showering, cleaning teeth, a snack that he didn’t ask permission to get, and teeth a second time, and they were cuddled together on Jacen’s bunk reading their nightly chapter of whatever novel Jace had picked. Since he’d gotten old enough to understand them, he’d mostly chosen from a children’s series of adventure stories about — guess what? — Jedi. Hera, remembering her own childhood, couldn’t blame him.

She read: “Shuyen closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching out to the Force as she fell. She could feel the air rushing past her. The wind whipped at her face roughly, but it wasn’t enough to hold her up…”

Sabine passed by the door and stopped to listen for a minute. “Are you reading Knights of the Old Republic to him?”

“Yes.”

“That’s sending mixed messages, don’t you think?”

“He likes it,” Hera told her, aware of how defensive she sounded. “It’s a good story. Who am I to tell him what to like?”

Sabine held her hands up. “Fair enough. Carry on.”

Hera finished the chapter, the Jedi who had fallen off the cliff while being chased by Sith warriors arriving unscathed back at the temple. “That’s a good stopping place for tonight,” she told Jacen, smoothing his hair back. He’d started to grow it out and they were both learning how to manage the tangles that was causing, but right now it was clean and brushed and smelled like shampoo, and she breathed in the scent gratefully.

He nestled into to her side. “Mama?”

“Yes?”

“Is Rex going to come back?”

“No, baby, Rex isn’t going to come back.”

“But Ezra came back.”

“Ezra wasn’t dead, love,” she told him gently. “Nobody comes back from the dead.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued, “I know it’s hard. It hurts for me, too.”

“I like Ezra.” He was trying to think something out. Hera waited. “But...I’d rather have Rex.”

“I can understand that.”

“But that’s mean of me, right?”

“Well…” she answered as honestly as she could. “You don’t want someone to die. You just miss the person you love. I think it’s very normal. Probably not the best idea to mention it to Ezra, though. It might hurt his feelings.”

He nodded and she tucked him into bed with a song and a kiss. “Sleep,” she told him. “You are exhausted. Go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Jacen said around a big yawn.

Sneaking out of the room a moment later she passed by the open doorway of Ezra’s bunk and caught a snatch of conversation. “...her turn for a while,” Sabine was saying. Then Ezra: “Coruscant is good place to stay, anyway. We’re going to need to talk about defenses. Maybe exploratory missions, but that might be a bad idea. IF they even decide to believe me.”

Keep moving, Hera, she told herself. She went to the cockpit to give the monitors one last check for the evening and tried to remember that Sabine and Ezra were adults and it was perfectly reasonable for them to live on whatever planet they wanted to. But maybe, maybe, maybe she’d get them back for a while. It was worth hoping.

Ezra joined her a few minutes later, a mug of warm hubba juice in each hand. “Best place to watch the sunset,” he explained. The summer sunsets on Lira San were amazing, oranges and purples breaking through the thick cloud cover. Hera swung the copilot’s seat around for him and he passed her a cup.

“Two more days and then Lothal, right?” he asked.

“If that’s still what you want.”

“Yeah. Sabine says it’s changed a lot. I can’t even remember before the Empire came anymore.”

Hera smiled. “It’s a good place. Not perfect, but Azadi made it pretty welcoming even before the Emperor fell.”

“You guys were there a lot.”

“Second home, but it will be better with you back.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, looking like his teenage self for the moment of the gesture. “Everything’s different, but it’s really good BEING back. I’m still trying to...fit in, I guess.”  

“Hey. You do fit in,” Hera told him, giving the chair a little kick to spin him towards her. “You’re one of ours. And Jace loves having you around. Chop and I are too busy to play with him as much as he’d like, and it’s been a while since we’ve had anyone else on the Ghost.”

“Yeah, Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight, hero to six-year-olds everywhere.” He rolled his eyes.

Hera laughed. “At first that was the draw, sure. But he had a lot of...anxiety, too. He’d heard stories about you his whole life and he knew how important you were to all of us, and to have you standing before him in the flesh…” She shrugged. “But now I don’t think you’re Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight. I think you’re his friend.”

“He’s really great, Hera. Thinks he can do anything. He...reminds me of you that way.”

She sighed. “He didn’t know you were a Jedi.”

“Okay.”

“He doesn’t know Kanan was a Jedi.”

A pause. “Okay.” Ezra didn’t push. Once he would have pushed.

“The hand game — those were forms,” Hera said. “Lightsaber forms. I’ve seen you practice them with Kanan.”

“Yeah, well…” Ezra ran his hand over the back of his hair awkwardly. “They’re kind of drilled into me, so I guess I just go there automatically when it comes to fighting. Is...that all right?”

“It’s all right,” she said, picking at the fraying edge of the seat cushion. “It’s good. There are so many things I’ve wanted to ask you about that.”

“About lightsaber forms?”  

She shook her head. “Ezra, I know this seems like a subject change, but...were you happy as a child? Or were you...confused?”

“What do you mean? I had kind of a rotten childhood.”

“Before that. When you were small, with your parents, and you could do things that nobody could explain. Did it confuse you or upset you?”

He considered her words carefully. “Let me think.” After a solid minute of silence, he said, “No. I heard things sometimes that I knew were true, and my mom said they were only my imagination. I think that’s not rare for kids, though. It’s just that in my case, they actually WERE true. The rest of the time, it was just fun to run and jump off of things without worrying about how I was going to land, or to know that people were probably going to believe whatever outrageous lie I told. Stuff like that. Hera… Jacen’s definitely Force sensitive. Does he use any of those abilities?”

“Oh…” she laughed to cover her worry. “Yes.” She’d watched for signs all of his life and could give a detailed list of ‘yes’es ‘no’s and ‘maybe’s. “He’s always been good at picking up moods, but I think he’s just a smart, social kid. Sometimes he knows things that haven’t happened yet, but only in a vague way — he has a feeling that someone’s coming to visit, or he knows we’ll find something around the next corner. He can climb and jump off of anything and he somehow hasn’t broken a bone yet. I don’t mean normal child risk-taking. You saw him take a dive off the Ghost the other day. And then there are the animals that seem to follow him around like he’s some kind of magnet.”

Ezra laughed.

“...which I blame you for,” she added.

“How is that my fault?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but the similarity is striking.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“I don’t want him to be a Jedi,” she said more seriously. “I don’t even want him to be a half-Jedi, partially trained. The Force asks...too much. We know how that ends and I won’t give him up that way. But… if I refuse to let him train when it’s available to him, he’s just going to do it anyway, and he’ll end up doing it behind my back, without my support. Or running off.” She thought of her own childhood. “It’s not my place to hold him back if that’s what he wants.”

“Well...does he WANT to be a Jedi?”

“He’s six years old. Every six-year-old wants to be a Jedi.”

“He’d be good at it. Kind. Flexible. Reminds me of someone else I knew.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “That scares me.”

“Hmm.” Ezra thought about that. “There’s not exactly a trade school for Jedi Knights. The few of us left with any ability have no idea what we’re doing. He’ll probably end up using those talents, but using them in some other field.”

“Maybe. But I don’t want to keep him locked away from the world — locked away from himself — because I’m afraid.”

“Hera, you’re not afraid of anything.”

She sighed and stopped picking at the worn corner of the pilot’s chair so he could see her hands shaking. “That’s not true, and I have changed.”

Ezra frowned. “You want me to train him?” he asked. “Is that what this conversation is about?”

“Not...yet. Not now. But I don’t want anybody else to train him.”

“Luke Skywalker is talking about starting a school.”

“NO. I like Luke. He’s a good kid. But he doesn’t understand the dangers… He hasn’t walked that path, and he doesn’t know what it takes to guide your student safely instead of just following the rules.”

“Hera, I don’t know either.”

“That’s okay. Falling is fine as long as there’s someone to catch you. You would never let anything bad happen to him.”

“Hmph.” Ezra crossed his arms and looked out at the clouds, that stone expression on his face. “I wish I could promise that.”

...

From Lira San they traveled to Lothal. Hera let Sabine show Ezra the sights because she had something else to show Jacen.

The bombed-out Imperial hangar wasn’t hard to reach, despite being perched on one of the dolmens at the edge of Capital City. If you took a shuttle, that is. Hera parked the Phantom halfway up the mountain and made them walk the rest of the way because “it will be fun!” Forty minutes into the uphill hike, Jacen wasn’t finding it particularly fun.

“Why couldn’t we just FLY up there?” he asked, perilously close to a whine.

“Because we’re taking a nice hike together and it’s going to be more enjoyable to see if you make it there yourself than if you just fly up and park.”

Poor kid — his hair was a sweaty wreck. “To be clear,” he said. “I AM getting a real birthday party tomorrow, with friends and cake and stuff, right?”

“Padawan’s honor. Sabine even made you guys those robes and staffs so you could dress up as High Jedi. Though I still don’t know what a High Jedi is.”

“It’s like a really wise, powerful Jedi,” Jacen explained. “Kind of like a wizard.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“It’s from Rangers of the Force.”

“I didn’t know you could read books that hard.”

“I listened to it.”

“Oh. Okay. Look, we made it.” Hera climbed the short flight of steps and crawled over the rubble blocking what had once been the workers’ entrance. Then she waited for Jacen to do the same.

“Whew!”

“It’s cooler up here.” Jacen spread himself dramatically on the floor.

“Yeah, we’re out of the sun.” She handed him the canteen and waited for him to take a long drink. “You recovered?” He nodded. “Good. Come see what Sabine did.”

He saw the mural as soon as he looked up, and his reaction was everything Hera had hoped for. A shout, and he rushed up to get a closer look. “It’s you guys!”

“Yeah.”

“You look like heroes! Like you’re from a holoshow.”

“Sabine makes good art.”

His brow creased in that thinking look. “Were you heroes?”

“Yes,” Hera admitted. “We were.”

“Sabine,” he pointed. “Ezra. His head looks small in this picture. Zeb and Chop. Hey, look at these lothcats! There’s you. Where am I?”

Hera touched her mid-section in the picture, right on the buttons of her flight suit. “Here.”

“So I came with you when you were heroes?”

“Sure.”

“So I helped save Lothal?”

“Let’s say you were along for the ride.”

But now he was pointing above mural-Hera’s shoulder. “That’s Dad.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“I don’t think I look very much like him.”

“Well, you’re shorter.”

“Hey!”

She grinned at him, but he shook his head and said, “Uh-uh. You’re sad.”

“Only a little sad.”

“You miss him.”

“Yes,” Hera said honestly, “but that’s not why I brought you here today. I need to show you something else, something… kind of secret.”

“Okay.”

Hera took a portable projector from her bag and placed it on the floor. “Come sit by me. Seven years old is big enough to see this.” They sat cross-legged on the ground and Hera switched on the projector.

“That’s Dad!”

“Yes.”

“What’s he got?”

Kanan was fitting together two metal tubes. He gave them a practiced twist, then ignited the lightsaber.

Jacen lost it. “WHAT?! Where did he GET that?”

“Hi, kid,” Kanan said to the recorder. “Thought I’d go through a few practice drills here, in case you ever need to see them when I’m not around.” He was talking to Ezra, but Jacen didn’t know that. Hera skipped past the part where he demonstrated the basic techniques and on to the segment where he showed the moves in practice by fighting ten combat remotes, leaping into the air, twisting, deflecting shots… He was using the Ghost’s hold as his staging area, which had irritated Hera to no end at the time because those remotes were firing live blaster bolts. The flip from the ground to the platform four meters above his head was awfully impressive, though, she had to admit.

“How did he DO that?”

Another of him and Ezra training together, both blindfolded, going through forms. Hera watched Kanan’s shoulder rotate as the blade spun, the twist of hips as he altered his stance. It was so familiar and so long ago, all at the same time.

“Mama, tell me.” He knew, but he didn’t want to say it.

“He’s a Jedi, Jace. He was raised in the temple on Coruscant and sent out to fight during the Clone Wars. One of the last Jedi Knights.”

“But...” he trailed off.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. Do you want to see a little more?”

“Yes!”

She’d edited this compilation carefully so they got no footage of actual battles. Next Kanan was tossing Sabine in the air over and over, a little Sabine — she couldn’t have been more than fifteen. He’d throw her impossibly high, and then she’d twist in mid-air, draw her blasters, and fire at a target. Jacen laughed. “Ah-ha, they’re good!” Another of that terrible competition he’d had with Zeb, where Zeb picked up Imperial speeder bikes and threw them at Kanan, who caught every one in mid-air. Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to include. One of Hera herself cradled in Kanan’s arms, the laughter near the microphone indicating that Ezra was recording.

“Ready?” Kanan asked.

“Go,” Ezra told him.

Kanan jumped up the Ghost’s ladder one rung at a time, tilted impossibly backwards, holding her. Hera from long ago shrieked in laughter. “I get five credits when I do this, right?” Kanan asked.

“Cheating,” said Ezra’s voice.

“I did TELL you I could do it.” Thunk, up another ring. Thunk, up the next. “See, what you want to do is bend your knees…” Kanan explained, annoyingly pedantic. “Then you absorb most of the shock, especially when you have to land rough.” He rolled at the last moment, still holding Hera, and came up on his feet on the upper platform, neither of them worse for the wear.

“Hey!” Hera-from-the-vid protested. “Warn me!”

“Okay,” Kanan said. “Roll up in a ball, I’m going to toss you to Ezra now so he can practice.”

“No, no, wait!” Ezra yelled. “Wait, let me put the recorder down!” The image went sideways and the recorder died abruptly on the sound of their laughter.

Jacen was watching with a wistful, half-jealous expression. “Nobody ever told me he was a Jedi.”

“Well…” Hera considered. “What DID they tell you?”

“Zeb says he could drink a whole gallon of milk in five minutes without throwing up.”

“Yeah, only part of that is true. And don’t try it.”

“Sabine said he loved you the very most, and he’d never let anything in the whole galaxy hurt you.”

She took a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. “That is true.”

“And that he was a really good dad and he understood when people got upset or lost their temper and he wouldn’t yell at them.”

“That’s true too.”

“But he wasn’t really Sabine’s or Ezra’s dad, right?”

“No, but he...took care of them when they were kids. Big kids. And he taught them a lot of things.”

Jacen’s eyes lit with realization. “He taught Ezra how to be a Jedi! That’s why they were doing those slow moves with the lightsabers.”

Her kid was too smart.

But now he was mulling over something else. “...He was my dad.”

“Yes.”

“He never met me.”

“Technically, no, but he knew you were on the way.”

“How?”

“You know how you can tell where animals are, even the small ones? You found Alexsandr’s baby chicks when the rest of us were looking in the wrong place.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the Force, Jacen. He felt you like that before you were born. I’ll bet you guys had whole secret conversations, what do you think?”

Jacen shrugged, clearly pleased by the idea. “So how come you never told me he was a Jedi? And you COULD have told me, lots of times.”

There was the question she’d been waiting for. “Because it wasn’t safe, Jace. The Emperor killed all the Jedi, even the little kids. Only a few of them got away, and then they had to survive by hiding because the Emperor was still hunting.”

“But he died when I was little.”

“Yes, but being a Jedi is still not exactly safe.”

“You mean people are still hunting them?”

“No, I mean they’re still...heroes. Which is good, but it also means that bad guys don’t like them much. You have to learn to keep yourself safe when you’re a hero, and that takes time. I wanted to wait until you were big enough to understand that a little.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t want to be a Jedi.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. If you want to learn to be a Jedi when you get older, I’ll be right there with you. But I want you to understand that there’s always more to these stories than what you hear. And I don’t want you to think that fighting makes you a good person. I didn’t love your dad because he was a Jedi. I loved him because he was kind and funny and understanding, and he couldn’t bear to see anybody in pain without trying to help. And because he never gave up on people. I see a lot of those qualities in you already. You don’t need a lightsaber to be a good person.” Oh, great, now she was sad again.

And Jacen had picked up on it. “Were you scared when he died?”

“So scared. But what do we say?”

“Be afraid,” he said quietly, “but do it anyway.”

“Right.”

A wolf howled nearby, in the middle of the day.

“That’s a lothwolf?” Jacen asked.

Hera nodded. “I think they’re coming to see you. I don’t know why, though.”

“I do.”

“You do? Why?”

“They say goodbyes are over. It’s time for hellos.”  

[leupagus]

“No,” Poe repeats, decisive. “Everyone you date turns out to be a spy, or possessed, or something.” from this part to whenever you want to stop :P

I’ll actually start a little earlier: 

“Don’t you like me?” he asks, and he hates how he sounds, hates it.

One of my betas—I think it was spatz—advised me to cut the line I’d originally written for this scene, which was... I can’t even remember now, actually, but I can never read that line without being grateful that she told me to change it. Betas are the best, guys, don’t ever forget it.

“I do,” Luke says, taking both of Poe’s hands and clasping them in his. “I like you tremendously, Poe. You’re a wonderful young man.” He hesitates. “And you are very, very young.”

YES HE IS. I get a fair amount of shit for this moment, and perhaps deservedly so, since the correct thing in this day and age is definitely not to hold hands with the child in your bed offering his virginity to you. But this was a tricky moment that needed to be shown as one where Luke was turning him down, but entirely from Poe’s perspective—with all of his internal biases interpreting Luke’s behavior in the most optimistic way possible.

“I’m sixteen years old,” Poe points out. “I’m not a child anymore.”

lolllllllll

Luke smiles at him. “You’re right.”

And legally, this is true; age of consent on Yavin is 16. But Luke has many, MANY reasons to say no, even if he was attracted to Poe (which, as we see later, at this time he very much was not), and so the legality of the situation has never really been a factor. It was important for me to show that not only will Luke do illegal things that are moral—something he’s shown doing in canon pretty frequently, and are intended to be lauded and praiseworthy—but he also refuses to do perfectly legal things that are, to him, immoral. This is something less flashy, but equally important.

“Then why not?”

I wanted Poe to sound as whiny as possible here and I think I succeeded.

“Would you believe me if I said I was seeing someone?” he asks, like it’s just occurred to him.

It was really fun to write a scene where Luke is trying to lie, because he’s just SO BAD AT IT ALL THE TIME EVERYWHERE. Like, he doesn’t even lie here, he asks if his lie will be believed. Just like... it’s such a good thing he’s an all-powerful Jedi because kid is dumber than rocks. 

“No,” Poe scoffs, before he can stop himself.

Just because 16 is technically of age doesn’t mean he’s not a twerpy teenager still.

Luke looks offended. “I could be.”

I mean, could he though.

“No,” Poe repeats, decisive. “Everyone you date turns out to be a spy, or possessed, or something.”

This is a blatant and gleeful rip-off of the Extended Universe books, which in addition to being of...varying quality, also feature Luke with a looooooooooong string of love interests that are spies, or possessed, or something. There’s one woman from like, a warrior clan, who takes him as her husband because she thinks he’ll breed well or something? I am unclear on the specifics, but Luke seems to fall dick-first into a LOT of shenaniganery in the EU. (Although apparently very little action occurred, which may account for a lot of his attitude tbh.) And from a practical standpoint, the tales of Luke Skywalker, Dating Disaster would definitely be page 6 type gossip, if only amongst academy kids.

“I’ll have you know my last girlfriend was very nice.”

Looking back I can’t remember which on this references—probably not Mara, let’s be real.

Privately, Poe thinks it’s just a matter of time before they find out she was really a Sith lord or an evil goddess. “And the one before that?”

Both women who at one point were positioned as love interests. Just saying.

Now Luke is looking uncomfortable, and he lets go of Poe’s hands to lean back in the chair. “Poe,” he sighs.

This was an important moment for me, even though again it is Tres Problematique and I accept censure for that, but I wanted Luke to forget for a moment that he was the Grown-Up In The Room Saving A Young Man From Poor Choices and treat Poe as a friend again. For me, Poe and Luke’s friendship was always more interesting than their romantic or sexual relationship; despite the age difference, they’re equals in many ways, even now, and I wanted Luke’s exasperation with his friend to temporarily override his sense of duty. Which is a bad thing for a person to do, but an interesting thing for a character to do.

“Luke, I’ve been wanting this since—“

Someday Luke is going to hear the end of that sentence and it’s going to horrify him probably.

Luke lunges forward again to clap his hand over his mouth. “For the sake of your mother’s memory and the fact that somewhere out there, your father is probably having a stroke,” he orders, “Don’t finish that sentence.”

Again, showing Luke as a friend rather than an elder here, despite how much you wouldn’t want this kind of conduct in real life, because along with Luke realizing that Poe has HUGELY different ideas about their relationship, this scene is also permanently changing how they relate to each other.

Poe grins, and bites at Luke’s hand. Luke swears and pulls it away. “You don’t have a girlfriend,” Poe tells him. “Or a boyfriend. Or anybody.” Then the implications of that set in. “So — so why don’t you want to—“

It’s telling that Poe a) only thinks Luke wouldn’t sleep with him if he was seeing someone and b) feels that being in a relationship is a reason not to sleep with someone else. B may sound obvious, but Poe is portrayed a lot in fic as someone who just sleeps around and doesn’t care who’s in a relationship, including him. It’s not the characterization I prefer.

“I really can’t have this conversation with you while you’re naked and in my bed,” Luke announces abruptly. He gets up and goes to his closet, pulling open drawers and throwing clothing over his shoulder at Poe’s face. “Get dressed. How did you even get in here?”

This was meant as a funny moment—certainly I can imagine Luke saying this in a really irritated way—but rereading it, I don’t know how many people actually see the humor in Luke being like “STOP BEING NAKED” at Poe. I have been frequently told that my sense of humor wrt this fic is mega bad.

None of Poe’s friends would appreciate getting involved in this. “I’ve got talents,” he says, and pulls on a soft grey shirt and the worn brown trousers in his lap. He has a sudden pang of longing for the stark all-black getup Luke used to wear, instead of the neutral colors he favors now. The hard-on has mostly gone away — getting slapped by a pair of pants will do that — so he risks looking up to gauge Luke’s reaction.

Poe’s loyalty to his friends is a bedrock part of who he is, so not even Luke could get him to squeal on them. Also of course Poe has something to say about Luke’s fashion choices.

Luke still hasn’t turned around. The line of his back is one long cord under tension, and Poe wonders if he pressed his fingers into the small of his back, softly, if everything in Luke would give way.

This was a fun moment to write, because it’s so clearly unreliable narrator—or just horny narrator—who’s interpreting Luke’s irritation and stress as some kind of secret longing for him. Because of course this asshole thinks he’s irresistible at age 16. Serves him right for falling in love with the only dude in the galaxy who will actually resist him.

But Luke said “Stop,” and so Poe knots his hands behind his back and adds, “I’m dressed. Promise.”

HEY LOOK IT’S POE’S FEELINGS ABOUT CONSENT. With the caveat that of course Poe doesn’t actually have any power in this scene, I wanted to set Poe up as the type who is always about consent, who takes people at their word about boundaries and who tries his best to honor even the unspoken boundaries. Weirdly I’m reminded of the scene where he and Finn fly off of the destroyer and they introduce themselves, and Poe says, “I’m gonna call you finn, is that all right?” 

[daltonifth847]

Just How To Attract Baby Yoda From The Mandalorian.

The androids and also Ewoks in Return of the Jedi crawled to make sure that the porgs and also ice foxes in The Last Jedi can walk to make sure that Infant Yoda can run (or like, float, I think). I do not recognize if this is my favored episode of the program, however it's still great, and I believe it's one of the most psychologically resonant so far, more than many personality beats have actually remained in the online activity Celebrity Wars films, truthfully. Just when he's about to ditch his small ward and also proceed, an additional bounty hunter tracks him to the town, indicating it's no more safe for either of them. So they both need to leave, and we will most likely never see that rather widow once again.

What is Child Yoda?

That in a single week of motion pictures and television we found out about Pressure healing as well as Strand-Casts, Sith spirit transfer, along with our previous expertise that Baby Yoda and also cloning are somehow associated, seems no mistake. Palpatine later transforms the Republic into the totalitarian Galactic Empire, declaring himself emperor permanently, as well as orders the clone cannon fodders to kill their Jedi generals.

What race is Yoda?

Yoda trained Jedi for 800 years, finally peacefully dying at age 900 in 1983's Return of the Jedi. He still shows up as a Force ghost, however, to advise and help characters in need. And apparently he was born naturally, however this species reproduces.

Yoda's syntactic singularity is evidently an outgrowth of the very same inner calmness that makes him such an efficient warrior. Espindola believes that Yoda's speech is insane, however insane like a very kind fox. This five-toed version remains the least utilized in any kind of incarnation of Star Wars media. Adults of the types were characterized by sharp, elfin ears, ridges on their foreheads, tridactyl hands as well as (most frequently) anisodactyl feet. The diet regimen of the most famous member of the types, Jedi Master Yoda, consisted of nutrient most other beings thought about disgusting.

Is Yoda a Sith baby?

Baby Yoda is not a Sith, nor is he a Jedi. He is a blank slate with the potential to become either one.

In the 7th episode of the program, "The Projection," audiences experienced The Kid, aka Baby Yoda, make use of the Force to heal Greef Karga. After that, the really following day, never-seen-before Force recovery powers took a main role in The Surge of Skywalker. The Duplicate Battles have surged across the galaxy for almost 2 years, when the Master of the Jedi Order, Yoda, gets a message from Separationist leader Count Dooku.

They live for hundreds of years and are recognized for being Force-sensitive, which makes them wonderful Jedi.

Therefore, it is highly likely that the Yoda species is really a sentient plant or fungi.

A fourth Jedi Master of claimed varieties, Oteg, offered throughout the Cold Battle.

We know that theStar Warsuniverse is a really, large area.

Palpatine has actually by now amassed near-dictatorial emergency situation powers, as well as starts interfering in Jedi events by appointing Anakin as his personal representative on the Council.

The Phantom Threat hints very highly that the future Darth Vader had no father and was conceived by the Midi-chlorians. Possibly the similarly Force-sensitive Infant Yoda began at the same time in the same way, as component of the Midi-chlorians' efforts to bring equilibrium to the force. Cloning is a big component of the Celebrity Wars cosmos-- certainly, clones fought a whole war-- so the theory went that Infant Yoda might be a young duplicate of the initial design. However, in Phase 7 of the program, Kuiil (Nick Nolte) remarks that the character doesn't look like he's been engineered, based upon his experience on gene ranches. The Child Yoda duplicate theory recommends that Dr Pershing is really a cloning scientist, based upon the icons on his attire.

Is Baby Yoda a reincarnation?

Series creator George Lucas opted to have many details of the character's life history remain unknown. Yoda's race and home world have not been named in any official media, canonical or otherwise, and he is merely said to be of a "species unknown" by the Star Wars Databank.

By the time the occasions of Surge of Skywalker take place, Baby Yoda would theoretically be in its mid-70s-- as old as or older than a lot of significant players-- but by its species' price of aging, it would still be a young child. Twenty-six years is not a lot of time for an animal that lives to be 900.

We do understand, however, that Yoda's types is normally strong with the Force-- and also not just because Yoda himself had an incredibly effective job as a Jedi master. Also as an infant, Child Yoda has the power to levitate a giant (and upset) Mudhorn, while the only other participant of the types to include on display, as stated earlier, was Yaddle, a women participant of the Jedi Council. Completion of The Mandalorian season 2 suggests that its titular protagonist will be looking for Baby Yoda's homeworld.

Does Baby Yoda stay with mandalorian?

Return of the Jedi (1983) Yoda then peacefully dies at the age of 900, his body disappearing as he becomes "one with the Force". He leaves Luke with the knowledge that "there is another Skywalker".

It's unlikely the merchandising bosses at Disney were grumbling when the production group introduced Baby Yoda to the The Mandalorian's story. Certainly, personalities as cute as him are a desire come true for anybody who wishes to offer lots of playthings and clothes-- unsurprisingly, there's currently some merch available (consisting of the inevitable Funko Pop! Plastic number). We would certainly be very stunned, however, if it didn't have something to do with the Force-- and also restoring the Realm into what will certainly come to be the First Order in Episodes 7, 8 and also 9. Perhaps they're planning on getting rid of the Midi-chlorians (Force-carrying bits) from his blood-- that would describe why they were so keen on recording Baby Yoda alive. Likely as a result of the above incongruity, different Hasbro action figures of Yoda generated since Return of the Jedi have featured 3, four or five toes in a range of setups.