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broitsf-ckingfreezing · 1 year ago

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Fandom vs. Dooku: Religious Affiliation

Okay, my first rant has been making the rounds, so I wanted to come back and do a more in-depth approach (WITH EVIDENCE). Last time I was rapidly keyboard mashing on my phone whilst simultaneously howling my grievances to the moon, so hopefully everything should be a smidge more... coherent in this one.

This is taking HOURS to type up, so everything will be split into different posts. Possibly, idk. Look I have opinions and ADHD. Gotta peel those layers back like a particularly rancid onion.

(thanks @eloquentmoon for the dividers!)

Something that Star Wars as a fandom often fails to realise is that Jedi Master Dooku (or Yan Dooku, I suppose, if that's your headcanon) and Sith Apprentice Darth Tyranus are not the same. Well, they are literally the same person, but that's not what I'm getting at. The point I am trying to make here is that a character can in fact be an inherently good guy and also a genocidal psychopath. In Star Wars, one is not born a Sith. You cannot just... be a Sith and nothing else. Much is the same with a Jedi. One is either born with the ability to reach/manipulate the Force or they aren't (Force-nulls, for sake of clarity), they are not born Jedi or Sith. Jedi and Sith are religious orders. Like Protestants and Catholics, Jedi and Sith follow the same faith but with different philosophies and restrictions (or complete lack thereof regarding the Sith; anything is game if it eventually means absolute power).

Let's take a look at the best established religious order of Star Wars in canon and Legends. Mandalorians.

(A GIF of the Armourer in The Mandalorian. The subtitles read: "According to Creed, one may only be redeemed in the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore.")

In Legends, to be Mandalorian is to dedicate yourself to the Resol'nare or the Six Actions:

Wearing the armour

Speaking the language

Defense of oneself and one's family

Raising children as Mandalorian (this is the Way)

Contributing to the clan's welfare

Answering the call of the Mand'alor or Sole Ruler

Canonically, to go against the word of the Creed, such as removing your helmet to outsiders or non-clan, was to declare yourself dar'manda or No Longer Mandalorian (not stated explicitly in canon, but widely accepted in fanon/features in SW: The Old Republic). In Christian equivalent, this would be committing sin. As shown in the GIF above, one could be redeemed for "sinning" in Mandalore's living waters. Kind of like confession and repentance in Christianity.

And like the many differing dedications to the concept of God, like Jedi and Sith as you will soon see, Mandalorians have their thoughts on the Force. The only difference here is that where God is not provable beyond doubt, the Force is. Its existence cannot be denied. However, how the Force is/should be interpreted varies from person to person, from religion to religion.

The Jedi Code

Jedi and Sith also follow Creeds.

(An image of the Jedi mantra in Basic and Aurebesh. It reads: "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force.")

The Jedi Code places great emphasis on compassion and bettering one's self; particularly, maintaining control over your emotions and learning to let go. Here especially is where fans like to pick and choose their understanding of canon like rooting through a jar of lollipops at the doctor's to get the orange one. So, I'm gonna highlight my point here with some big ass text:

Jedi do not condemn emotion

(be warned: LOTS of italics incoming)

(An edit of a still of Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones. The text reads: "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life.)

Sure, where Anakin is obviously not the prime example of what a Jedi should be, and he is clearly trying to butter up Padme to embrace his frankly awful flirting attempts, we must also remember that he had been living by the Jedi Code for almost (if not exactly) ten years at this point. AND. AND AND AND. We have IMPERICAL EVIDENCE from the Clone Wars that while not often stated outright (if at all; forgive me, I only just reached the Mortis Arc and believe me, I have OPINIONS), Jedi DO love unconditionally.

(A GIF from The Clone Wars of Mace Windu. The subtitle reads: "I'm going to do whatever I can to help these people.")

Often, their first instinct unless guided otherwise by alternate intel or the Force itself, is to have faith in those who would call upon them for help. There's literally an entire movie about Ahsoka and Anakin delivering the child of Jabba the Motherfucking HUTT back to him. They could've killed the child. Held him for ransom until Jabba conceded to a beneficial alliance. Instead, they hold to the hope that Jabba would hold to some kind of honour as a parent and allow an alliance negotiation on good faith. Jabba. A literal owner of SLAVES. Who planned, because of intel from a Sith Lord, to stab the Jedi in the back.

I bring your attention to this iconic line from my last post:

(A GIF of Ki-Adi Mundi from Attack of the Clones. The subtitle reads: "He is a political idealist, not a murderer)

He is talking about Dooku, ex-Jedi, now publicly politically aligned with and the leader of the Separatist movement: AKA the "let's leave the Republic because we believe them and, by extension, the Jedi, to be corrupt" crew. He is a mark of shame upon the order. One of the Lost Twenty--Legends lore, for those who don't understand, is that there have only been twenty Jedi (including Dooku) ever to leave the Order past achieving Master status)--and yet, they still honour him as one of their own, literally saying: "he was once one of us." If that isn't a sign of unconditional compassion, then I'll eat my lightsaber collection.

I now move on to this:

(A GIF from Attack of the Clones of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The subtitle reads: "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way!")

To be in control of yourself and your reactions isn't to abandon emotion entirely. That is literally impossible. In fact, emotions are valuable to Jedi. However, they are taught to be mindful of how emotions can affect their logical reasoning.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi is ordered to hunt down Darth Vader, whom has just sworn himself to the Sith Lord and literally murdered possibly hundreds of Jedi Masters, Knights, Padawans, and Initiates by his own hand, he actually abandons his logical reasoning and refuses to kill the man he raised and fought beside for the last 13 years.

(A GIF from Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The subtitles read: "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.")

This is a direct parallel to Anakin's refusal to kill recently-revealed Sith Lord Palpatine, Darth Sidious. Both of these instances were done for entirely selfish reasons.

Anakin twists a tenet of the Code upon its head and refuses to kill Sidious because, at the time, he is without a weapon, and Jedi are sworn never to kill an unarmed opponent. Logically, we must reason that these rules do NOT apply to the Sith because A) they had been thought extinct and therefore didn't need exceptions written into the Code, B) it is literally proven within that very same scene that an unarmed Sith Lord is still extremely dangerous, and C) Jedi are sworn to uphold the balance of the Force within themselves and the galaxy, therefore the Sith must be destroyed. In this moment, Anakin has allowed his fear of his wife and unborn children dying to cloud his judgement, allowed the Lord to live, and subsequently doomed the galaxy.

Obi-Wan, canonically a far better Jedi than Anakin, allows his love for the man he raised to stop him from killing him. Even out of mercy as Anakin burns in the heat of Mustafar. Yes, he walks away, believing Anakin will certainly die, but again: an unarmed Sith (literally because ya boy has NO ARMS, lmao) is still extremely dangerous. Just as Maul survived from literally being sliced in half, so did Anakin survive Mustafar. Allowing love, grief, desperation to cloud his judgement, Obi-Wan has (although unknowingly until the Obi-Wan Kenobi series set ten years later) assisted in dooming the galaxy.

It is not Obi-Wan's love for his former-padawan that has done this. It is his refusal to let him go, his fear of being the one who has to kill Anakin, despite being the only one capable of doing so because of Anakin's incredible skill and power.

Despite these contradictions: Obi-Wan Kenobi is still a good guy, and Anakin Skywalker is a bad guy.

Obi-Wan would go on to repent for the rest of his life, cutting himself off from the Force to hide his presence and watch over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, even though the Lars family do not welcome him at all. And he will go to great lengths, putting himself in constant danger, to save Leia Organa. When this is all over, he will face his student one last time and sacrifice himself to ensure the safety of the children, to give the darkened galaxy just one more chance at hope.

(And, as an aside, Obi-Wan's final sacrifice is also to teach Luke about the Jedi tenet of letting go and dedicating yourself to something greater than your own wants and physical being, just as Qui-Gon did for Obi-Wan decades before.)

Anakin, in the meantime, Darth Vader by this point, is literally running around blowing up planets. Let me repeat that: BLOWING UP PLANETS. With billions if not trillions of lifeforms on them. And also murdering Jedi Purge survivors. And, you know, killing basically anyone that doesn't agree with the rule of the Empire. Also, enslaving a lot of people. Like, a lot of people. Including the clones he once thought brothers until he... idk, kills them all? They all die of rapid old age? I'm not exactly sure what happens to them.

Obi-Wan loved unconditionally. He was compassionate. As was in accordance with his Creed.

Anakin Skywalker was possessive. He loved only that which he wanted and that which loved him in return, but only if it was love to his standards. Obi-Wan, who surely loved him as a brother and a son, tried to stop him from taking the galaxy, therefore he had to destroy his former Master.

This is what attachment is.

Unwillingness to let go of something you can no longer have.

Do you pro-genocide fans think Obi-Wan wanted Qui-Gon Jinn to die? He literally cradles him in his arms and cries, for goodness' sake. And do you know what Qui-Gon does in his last moments? He does not fear for himself. He does not tell Obi-Wan everything will be okay. Because he knows it will. He knows Obi-Wan will be okay. Because his padawan will mourn, but he will also accept that it was Qui-Gon's time to pass into the Force. And he knows that Obi-Wan knows that he will always be with him in the Force. There is no death. There is the Force.

What he does instead is so loving and compassionate and so caring. All he wants in his final moments is to make sure that Anakin, the boy in his care, will be safe.

(A GIF from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace of Qui-Gon Jinn comforting Obi-Wan Kenobi as he dies. He reaches up and brushes Obi-Wan's face with his fingertips)

Those who can see that GIF, look at it and tell me that it is not a highly emotional, beautifully intimate moment between a dying father and his son. Look me in the eyes and tell me that and I will call you a liar because your pants are on fire, mother fucker.

The Sith Code

We have a better understanding of the Jedi Code than we do the Sith, largely because Sith are chaotic pathological liars who constantly break their own rules.

(A GIF from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace of Yoda and Mace Windu. The subtitles read: "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.")

Only two, huh? Then tell me, Tyranus and Sidious:

WHO THE HELL IS THIS?!

(An image of Asajj Ventress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars wielding two red lightsabers)

Like Satanism to Christianity, the Sith Code stands as a direct and deliberate contradiction to the Jedi Code.

(An image of the Sith Code in Basic and Aurebesh. It reads: "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The force shall free me.")

Let's take a quick look at the two Creeds side by side:

(An image of the Sith Code (left) and the Jedi Code (right). The one on the left reads: "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The force shall free me." The one on the right reads: "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force.")

Pretty big differences there.

One of these Creeds is dedicated to learning, maintaining balance in the Force, and achieving personal betterment through peace of mind. The other is dedicated to becoming strong, powerful, and unbeatable by comparing putting the needs of the many before the wants of yourself to slavery.

I'll let you take a guess which one is which.

I mean, it is almost explicitly said that an important initiation process for becoming a Sith is to fucking murder a Jedi. In Tales of the Jedi, which is considered canon in the current state of the series (meaning should someone with authoritative control over Star Wars later retcon this, then it will no longer be canon), Dooku kills Master Yaddle as his official initiation after the death and funeral of Qui-Gon--don't forget, before this point Dooku may have been Fallen, but he was not Sith until Sidious loses Maul as an apprentice. Say what you will about Palps, but you gotta give him credit for abiding by the Sith Rule of Two, otherwise the galaxy would've been a lot more utterly fucked than it was. Until this was canon, anyone who was not versed in Legends lore (AKA me) generally headcanoned that Dooku murdered and assumed the identity of Sifo-Dyas for his Sith initiation.

Also, I feel it is imperative to note that the Sith Code was literally inspired by Mein Kampf. You know, ADOLF HITLER'S MANIFESTO. Need proof? Here, straight from the Star Wars Wookiepedia:

What's The Point?

I've been writing for almost 3 hours and I'm only JUST getting to the bit that's actually about Dooku. Let's take a breather and re-establish some points:

Jedi and Sith are religious Creeds

You are not born Jedi or Sith

To be Jedi or Sith is to make CHOICES that align with the tenets of the Creed

To be Jedi is to be compassionate, mindful, and a protector of those who are defenseless

Jedi have rules and regulations to protect their Order from corruption and abuse of power

To be Sith is to put your wants first, to become all-powerful, and to be victorious over all others

Sith do NOT have rules and regulations (that they actually follow faithfully aside from the Rule of Two, which is broken by Dooku multiple times anyway)

Got it?

Cool let's move on.

This is what I mean by the separation of Jedi Master Dooku and Darth Tyranus. On the matter of Dooku, the fandom largely seems to be divided between:

He was manipulated by the Sith! He was actually a good guy who knew the Senate was corrupt! He was just trying to save the galaxy!

And:

He was a shit Jedi and everyone should've known he was Darkside. He abused Qui-Gon. He abused padawans. He hated children. He didn't Fall because he was always evil.

My guys.

My dudes.

My homies.

Just... WHAT?

For point A, I present to you:

(A GIF from The Clone Wars of Dooku. The subtitle reads: "I would kill you both if I didn't have to drag your bodies.)

He literally just threatened murder. Actual murder. In another scene, season 1, if someone could find the GIF that would be fantastic, Dooku says he wants the death of the Jedi. All of the Jedi. He wants to slaughter children, the people he once considered family. In season 4, to Savage Oppress, he offers the galaxy. "We will rule the galaxy together." That is a dictatorship. These are not the signs of a healthy man doing what is best for the people. This is selfish desire. This is Sith Creed.

For point B:

(A GIF from TOTJ. Dooku stands before Qui-Gon's favourite tree on Coruscant). Look, I'm not great at image and GIF descriptors. If someone would like to fix this for me, please do. I worked real hard on this analysis and I want it to be accessible.

A man who did not love his padawan, his pseudo-son, would not have visited their favourite place on the entirety of Coruscant upon their death. This was inconvenient. Him visiting this tree when he shouldn't have because he'd just infiltrated the archives and deleted evidence of Kamino brings suspicion upon him that he could've avoided by simply staying away. But he couldn't. He had to go one last time.

He also, in Attack of the Clones, expresses regret at never meeting Obi-Wan before then. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of him. Yes, because an abused child whose evil, evil master, again, abused him, would ever speak of his own child to said-abuser. Dooku may be a Sith of a decade by that point, but don't forget that Sith are entrenched in negative emotion. We have no idea what he was feeling meeting the son of his son for the first time. He could have easily murdered Obi-Wan before Anakin and all of the Jedi arrive. He later tries to multiple times. The first thing he does is offer an alliance. An apprenticeship. He even tells Obi-Wan the truth of Palpatine in the Senate, not that he (Obi) has any reason to believe him (Dooku).

Again, what's my point?

My point is that he is both a good guy and a bad guy.

He can be both.

He was once good. He Fell. He was not always one or the other. Because that is how Star Wars WORKS. His doubts over the Senate, his fears that the Order is falling to darkness, his utter grief at the death of his child; it crippled him. He could not overcome the Darkside. And so he Fell. Perhaps originally he had good intentions.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions after all.

Eventually, the anger, the grief, the fear, corrupted him. As is how the Darkside works. Yes, it is a choice. It is a Creed he chooses to follow. But to walk back from the Darkside is also a journey that requires incredible strength.

In canon, only one achieves it. Anakin Skywalker.

Early on, perhaps Dooku could have been saved. But by the time of Attack of the Clones, he is utterly corrupt and evil and literally planning an absolute takeover of the galaxy. He is far beyond redemption.

Look, thanks for coming to my TED talk. If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more, please consider tipping! I am an unemployed chronically anxious and depressed sewer rat. I also accept love in reblogs and comments XD

I feel like @jedi-enthusiast and @antianakin will like this.

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andiinaraethtash · 2 years ago

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Ta-da! A Star Wars fanfic! Betcha didn't see that coming! And on May the Fourth, too!

Summary:

There has been a great disturbance. Ripples through the Force lead the Jedi to the planet Moraband, where the 501st, the 212th, and their Jedi go to find the source of the disturbance. A Sith planet, Moraband holds more danger than they know…

Notes:

SO! There is a very long story behind this fic. It is my very first Star Wars fanfic, and the first fic I wrote with the intention of publishing. I started it back in… gosh. 2018? Maybe late 2017. My point is that it's been a hot minute. But I wanted to post something for May the Fourth, and I've been chatting about this fic with my sister and some friends on Discord, and I'm finally confident enough to start publishing it! I'll try to alternate between publishing this and my other fanfic Can't Escape the Fallout, which is in an entirely different fandom, don't worry if you haven't seen it. But, well. My history of having a consistent upload schedule is spotty at best. That being said, I'll do my best. I will warn you, though: this chapter may be fairly light, but it gets heavy pretty quickly. If character death triggers you, this might not be the fic for you. With that, let's get on to the chapter!

Chapter 1

Moraband, Ahsoka decided, was now her least favorite planet, beating out Tatooine, which had held that place of honor since her first mission with Anakin. Tatooine, at least, wasn't actively trying to kill them. The sand had been only been kind of coarse, even if it did get everywhere. And the natives could at least be reasoned with. Well, most of them.

Moraband was a different story. Even from orbit, the reddish sand and craggy cliffs looked dangerous. Between what Master Kenobi had called k'lor'slugs and the wicked sandstorms that sprang up with no warning, Ahsoka was fairly certain Moraband would be actively trying to kill them.

Oh, and the pervading Dark Side presence. Couldn't forget that.

“C'mon, Snips, it isn't that bad,” Anakin joked weakly beside her on the LAATi, where he was leaning heavily on the strap hanging from the ceiling, his entire body rigid with tension. She glanced sideways at him, glaring slightly. He could feel the overwhelming Dark Side presence just as well as she could, if not better. He really wasn't fooling anybody.

Behind them, Captain Rex shifted uneasily as the transport ship made its approach to Master Kenobi's temporary command base on the surface of the planet. “I don't like this, General. This whole planet feels… off. What exactly are we looking for here?”

Anakin sighed, staring ahead at the doors of the transport, waiting for them to open. “This planet used to be a stronghold for the Sith. A couple days ago… why are you asking?” Anakin finally turned to look at Rex, confusion evident on his face. “I sent you the briefing. You always read the briefings.”

Rex shifted again, this time in discomfort. His embarrassment was palpable in the Force. “In all honesty, sir, if the mission briefing says ‘Jedi artifact,’ ‘Force disturbance,’ or ‘Sith holo-whatsit,’ I tend to just focus on the needed personnel and equipment, and the location. I won't understand anything else.”

Ahsoka bit back a laugh, glanced at Anakin's blank expression, and bit back another. After a moment of incredulous silence, Anakin shook his head and returned his gaze to the door.

“Alright, well, a couple days ago, the Council- well, the entire Order, really- felt something shift in the Force. Given that that usually means something bad in our experience, the Council decided to send us to investigate one of the focal points of the disturbance. Which led us here. Obi-Wan and the 212th were already in the sector, and they sent us as backup. Seriously, did you just skim all of those briefings? How in the world have you survived this long?” His voice had shifted back to an incredulous tone, as he glanced back at the clone Captain.

“By following your lead, sir,” was Rex's immediate response. Anakin grumbled under his breath as the ship finally slowed to a stop, turning as the doors opened to let the troopers within disembark.

Ahsoka hopped lightly to the ground, grimacing at the way the coarse sand shifted under her feet. The LAAT's engines kicked up a dust cloud, sending grit into her mouth and eyes. Anakin shot her a commiserating look as she spat out the offending sand before leading her and Rex both to the command tent.

Master Kenobi looked up from a holo table, which was displaying a map of the area. “Ah, Anakin, you're here. Good.”

“You sent for us, didn't you?” Anakin snarked at his former master as he strode toward the table to get a better look. “What're we looking at?”

Obi-Wan sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, his mouth pressed in a pensive line under his auburn beard. “Nothing good. Between the local wildlife and some barely functioning droids, there's a fair bit of resistance that will try to keep us from getting to the old temple.”

Ahsoka straightened in alarm. “Droids? Here? But we beat the Separatists here! How can there be droids?” She met Anakin's eyes, and he reached over their training bond to offer reassurance.

On the opposite side of the table, Commander Cody huffed slightly. His helmet hid his expression, but she could feel his amusement in the Force. “They're not clankers, Commander. At least, not Seppie clankers. They've been here too long.”

Obi-Wan nodded. “As near as we can tell, they're old guardians left by the Sith to protect their temple. They're old enough that most of them have broken down, but those of them that are still functioning are armed and dangerous.” He gave her a wry smile. “Don't worry, Ahsoka. Dooku won't be here for another few hours, which should give us enough time to find what we're looking for and get out.”

Behind Ahsoka, Rex coughed awkwardly. “Sir, what exactly are we looking for?”

Obi-Wan gave him a perplexed look. “A Sith holocron.” Turning to Anakin, he demanded, “Did you not give him the mission briefing?”

Anakin raised his hands defensively. “I did! Apparently he tends to skim over briefings that have to do with the Force.”

Obi-Wan shot Rex a disbelieving look over Ahsoka's shoulder and sighed. “Why am I not surprised?” He muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Ahsoka smirked. “So what's the plan, Master? We just run in, find the thing, and get out?”

“More or less.” Obi-Wan shrugged. “Now that we've narrowed down where the holocron is, I've got my men loading up. We'll take a small squad into the temple, find anything useful, and clear out, hopefully before the Separatists arrive. If not, I've ordered my men to create a perimeter around the temple while yours, Anakin, hold the blockade. They need to keep our exit strategy intact. Think they can do that this time?”

The last question was said playfully, causing Anakin to straighten. “Hey! That was as much your fault as mine!” His indignation, however, was undercut by his equally playful grin.

Ahsoka pursed her lips. “I dunno, Skyguy, you were the one in charge of that mission.”

He turned to her, opening his mouth to deliver what was no doubt a stunningly clever retort, but Cody cut in first.

“If we want to complete this mission before the Separatists arrive, we should move out now. Clock's already ticking, sir.”

Obi-Wan nodded and sighed, returning his attention to the map. “Of course, Cody. Ahsoka, would you fill Admiral Yularen in on the plan? I need to fill Anakin in on what we're going to do.”

Ahsoka nodded and exited the tent. As she did, she heard Anakin mutter, “I don't know about this one, Master. I've got a bad feeling…”

________

The approach to the temple definitely could have been worse, Ahsoka decided. Most of the k'lor'slugs attacked one at a time, and they only encountered two droid patrols as they neared the temple.

Looking at it, Ahsoka could definitely tell it was a Sith creation. The imposing (and ridiculously excessive) stairs were mostly covered in rust-colored sand. The few spots that weren't were a dark grey, which didn't appear to be the result of sun bleaching, but rather, the original color. The entrance to the temple itself was a tall arch that, in Ahsoka's opinion, looked way too much like a mouth. Inside was dark, and surprisingly cold considering the blistering desert around it.

Obi-Wan was leading the small squad (Ahsoka hadn't heard their names) with Cody at his back, while she and Anakin brought up the rear. The only lights were the troopers’ headlamps and Obi-Wan's lightsaber, which he held over his head like a high-tech glow rod. As the group marched into the temple, they had to duck to avoid a series of fallen beams and hop over several headless statues. Tattered remains of banners fluttered eerily in the shadows above them. Ahsoka shuddered, but less because of the chill in the air and more because of the soft whispers that emanated from every shadow. Anakin glanced at her, noticing her unease.

“Probably the shades of long-dead Sith. They can't hurt us.” He whispered softly, but it was still startling in the otherwise near-perfect silence.

“Hopefully.” She muttered back. “This place gives me the creeps, though, and I don't think it's just the ghosts.”

One of the troopers huffed. “Sith. Everything they built was designed to scare the kriff out of you.”

Ahead of them, Obi-Wan stopped as he entered a large chamber. The rest of the squad filed out and flanked him, eyeing their surroundings warily. Ahsoka inhaled sharply as she entered, feeling that the Dark Side was… not stronger, but thicker, here, to the point that she could almost see it twisting in the air.

A pair of ruined staircases were on either side of the chamber, and a walkway circled above them in equal disrepair. Several collapsed doorways led out of the chamber, although she couldn't tell where they led. In the center of the room was an obelisk, the tip of which pulsed faintly with red energy. Looking at it, Ahsoka simultaneously wanted to either shudder, gag, or punch something and scream. As most of the clones muttered and shifted uneasily, Obi-Wan pursued his lips.

“Something wrong, Master?” Ahsoka asked as her Grandmaster stroked his beard and stared pensively at the tip of the obelisk.

“I'm not sure,” he replied slowly. “I'm fairly certain that the capstone on the obelisk is the holocron, but… it's not strong enough to have caused the disturbance we felt.”

Cody started. “Not strong enough? Sir, I can feel the energy from that thing, and I'm sure as kriff no Jedi.”

“No, Obi-Wan's right.” Anakin stepped forward. “That thing is powerful in close proximity, but the disturbance was powerful enough to give Master Yoda a migraine all the way in Coruscant. Maybe if it was more than one holocron activated, but just the one? No way.”

“Regardless, it's here. We can't just leave it for Dooku to steal, right, Master Kenobi?” Ahsoka asked, eyeing the obelisk with a calculating gaze. Maybe if I climb up to the walkway and jump….

“Correct, Ahsoka.” Obi-Wan kept his eyes on the holocron as he paced back and forth, obviously trying to come up with a way to safely get it down.

Cody sighed, also trying to come up with an idea. “I'm guessing using grapnels to pull it down is a bad idea.”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said distractedly. “As is using the Force to bring it down.”

“Could we use the Force to topple the obelisk?” Ahsoka asked, looking back and forth between her Master and her Grandmaster.

Anakin shook his head. “Same problem. If we let the holocron hit the ground, it could break, and nothing good ever happens when a holocron breaks. Using the Force on a Sith holocron? It'll sense us using the Light Side and lash out. Sith protect their artifacts very carefully.”

Obi-Wan stroked his beard. “We could Force-lift someone up there to grab it.”

Anakin snorted. “Well, you're not Force-lifting me. Not that I don't trust you...” The comment earned him a mock glare from his former Master.

“You could lift me,” Ahsoka volunteered before this could devolve into an argument. “I'm the smallest, so you'll have the least problems.” Anakin and Obi-Wan glanced at each other and shrugged simultaneously.

“Better than any of your suggestions,” Obi-Wan drawled.

“Ha-ha.” Anakin huffed and beckoned his Padawan over to the base of the obelisk. Nervously, she followed him and braced herself for the unsettling sensation of being suspended in the air like a puppet.

She took a deep breath before nodding to Anakin, who reached out- both with his hand and with the Force- and lifted . Ahsoka squeaked involuntarily when her feet left the ground, making Anakin's focus falter ever so slightly. The disruption caused her to plummet about half a foot before he recovered and lifted her the remaining distance to the holocron. The moment she got close enough to see it, however, a jolt of fear ran through her.

“Snips? What's wrong?” Of course Anakin had felt her reaction. Between the strong bond between the two of them and his incredible sensitivity, there was no way he hadn't felt it. She really needed to work on her shielding.

“Um,” she gulped. “There's a teeny, tiny problem. By which I mean there's a giant crack in the holocron.”

“What?!” Obi-Wan and Anakin exclaimed simultaneously, their shock and fear palpable in the force for a split second before their mental shields slammed into place.

Ahsoka glanced down at them. Force, that's a long drop, she thought. “Yeah, this thing's split right down the middle. Think the disturbance did this?”

Below her, Obi-Wan tensed. “Possibly. If the holocron was one of the focal points, that much power could have damaged it. But that means that the energy-”

As he was talking, Ahsoka reached out to touch the holocron. The instant her fingers brushed the edge of the jagged crack, an explosion of Force energy lashed out at her. Sparks of pain ran up her arm through her body, lighting her nerves on fire, and she screamed. Her vision went black and she sank into unconsciousness, grateful to escape the pain.

When she woke up, she was lying partially in someone's lap. Beneath her she could feel fabric, which meant robes, so she was resting against either Obi-Wan or Anakin. She opened her eyes with a groan to see her Master kneeling in front of her. Which meant she was lying in Obi-Wan's lap like a child. That was embarrassing.

Beneath her, Obi-Wan's chest rumbled, and Ahsoka realized he was speaking. Focusing hard, she managed to make out what he was saying.

“...see, Anakin? She's waking up. She's going to be fine .” His tone was part amused, part exasperated, and part concerned, a combination he'd mastered in the two years she'd been Anakin's Padawan.

In front of her, she saw Anakin scowl. “She was just attacked by a Sith holocron. Forgive me if I'm a little worried!”

Well, she couldn't have that. As touching (and kind of amusing) as it was when he got worried, it quickly became suffocating because he wouldn't let her do anything on her own. Clearing her aching throat, she managed, “Quit worrying, Skyguy, I'm okay.”

Anakin visibly winced at the sound of her voice. “You screamed yourself hoarse and passed out for almost half an hour. I'm allowed to worry! You're my Padawan, and my respons-”

“Your responsibility, I know. You say that every time I get hurt.” Ahsoka reminded him as she tried to sit up. Her body wasn't cooperating. She was exhausted, like she'd just done five hundred katas back to back.

“Easy, Commander. Rex and Kix'll both have my hide if you hurt yourself worse.” Cody reprimanded her from behind Anakin. She glared up at him, but with almost no heat, as he shifted his gaze to Obi-Wan. “Admiral Yularen just contacted me. Separatist fleet just entered the system. He's scrambled the fighters, but they arrived much sooner than we predicted. We need to get out of here, sir.”

Ahsoka finally managed to push herself to her feet, wobbling slightly as her sense of balance tried to right itself. “Wait, what about the holocron? Did we get it?”

Anakin shook his head as he reached out to steady her. “No point. After it attacked you, it just… died. Like it used up all its power in that one attack.”

“Which is worrying, but right now we've got bigger problems.” Obi-Wan stood up behind her, making a show of brushing the dust off of his robe. “My men should already be evacuating. We need to reach the landing zone now, or they'll have to retreat without us, and I don't know about you, but I've had enough of Moraband's hospitality.”

The end of his statement was punctuated by an explosion, causing the temple to shake and sending everyone inside reeling. Ahsoka closed her eyes and clung hard to her Master's arm, trying to keep from falling over or outright passing out again. From the hallway they'd come in through, a trooper ran in, panting hard.

“General! They're landing troops! Fighters managed to get past the blockade, the 501st weren't ready for them!”

Obi-Wan straightened and nodded. “Alright, then. I guess it's a good thing we had a plan B.”

#Angst #heavy angst #anakin skywalker #tcw #the clone wars #obi wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #no beta we die like battle droids #How Do I Tag

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jedi-lothwolf · 2 years ago

Text

A Month of Whump Day 6: Team Dynamic

Fandom: Star Wars The Clone Wars

Summary: Obi-wan and Anakin are captured by the Separatist.

Anakin and Obi-wan spent most of their time together. After the boy left Tatooien he was Obi-wan's responsibility. Though it was a little much sometimes, practice raising a child, he wouldn't trade it for anything. Anakin gave him a reason to get up when life tried to force him down.

Now he sat in a Separatist cell with him. Both men were heavily injured from torture. The two did their best to help each other. Nothing seemed to help their situation. It felt like they were just barely holding on.

Dooku's footsteps could be heard and not soon after he stood in front of their cell. "Hello" he spoke menaceingly. Neither Jedi spoke. "I'm going to cut to the chase, one of you is dieing today. You won't betray the Republic so I need you as an example."

Fear struck into the men's hearts. They looked at each other with consurn. When the count walked in he started to walk towards Obi-wan. Then he stopped. The man turned slightly and ended right in front of Anakin.

Anakin turned to face him. Fear was evident on the jedi's face. "Scared?" The sith antagonized. Anakin turned back to look at his brother. Then he was unchained and pulled from the floor.

Dooku dragged Anakin out of the room. The man couldn't fight anymore. The injuries he had sustained were too much. He wanted to. Everything he loved flooded his mind and yet he still couldn't move enough.

The chains that hugged Obi-wan's wrist were strained as he tried to reach him. Panic set in. Tears began to well in his eyes as he tried to figure out what to do. "Wait!" He screamed.

Dooku stopped. Anakin looked at him looked confused and tired. "What?" The sith asked.

"Take me! Take me, not him." Obi-wan begged. His voice broke as he spoke. "Please." The last word came out as a desperate whisper.

"My my, and here I thought you were a rule abiding jedi." Dooku's words stung but he didn't care. Right now the only thing that mattered to Obi-wan was Anakin's safety. "Fine." Anakin was thrown back into the room. He fell to the floor and didn't move.

"Anakin?" Obi-wan's voice faultered. Darth Tyranus walked over and chained the young adult to the wall then unchained Obi-wan. Before he could do anything Kenobi was handcuffed and dragged out of the cell.

The Jedi tried to fight back but like Anakin he was out of fight. His last stand has been saving Anakin for now.

When taken to the room in which was set up for the message Obi-wan realized he was going to die.

This was it. Everything he had ever done lead to this moment. He realized he would never meet Anakin's children, would never fight beside the 212th again, would never sigh or smile in the council room when they got off topic. He would never feel Cody's warm touch again. Anakin would grow up without his brother to help guide him. What if the 212th ended up with someone like Krell? Some many things flooded through Obi-wan's head all at once.

Anakin searched for Obi-wan in the force. He regretted not arguing, not fighting. All he could sense was fear.

Obi-wan was thrown into the center of the room. He slid and didn't bother to get up. After a moment Dooku pulled him onto his knees.

Dooku's lightsaber never ignited. Looking at the man in front of him he couldn't kill him, he just couldn't. Obi-wan was all that was left of his son. He could see it in the way he fought and the way he cared for people.

After a moment of silence Kenobi finally got up, deciding he couldn't just accept his fate. Pulling the red saber to him he stood. Igniting it he pushed it close to Dooku's throat.

Slowly he walked him into a corner. "Let us out" Obi-wan hissed. Dooku tried to move and Obi-wan sharply leaned forwards.

Blaster fire could be heard in the hall now. Someone had come for them. A purple lightsaber slid through the door. That's when Dooku decided it was time to go. He force pushed Obi-wan to the ground and grabbed his lightsaber. Destroying the window he jumped.

When Windu entered the room he ran over to Kenobi. "Where's Anakin?" Obi-wan whispered.

"Already being taken care of. Let's get you out of here." The medic came over and got the man on a stretcher and out of Separatist territory.

When Anakin and Obi-wan saw each other again the first thing they did was hug. "Please don't do that again!" Anakin yelled.

"Well what was I supposed to do? Let you die? You have a wife and a child on the way." Obi-wan smiled.

Anakin just stared at him for a second in shock, "you knew?!"

"Of course I did."

The younger of the two sighed, "I love you."

"I love you too Anakin."

#star wars #star wars whump #star wars the clone wars #whump #amow tropeathon 2023 #team dynamics #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #Dooku #Small Windu menition #anakin whump #obi wan whump #anakin #obi-wan

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swombwave · 3 years ago

Note

🌻

TFA Swindle started out as an Autobot but defected to the Decepticons, and I want that to be explored more.

Like, in Strika's profile in The AllSpark Almanac II, it's stated she doesnt trust ex-Autobots... and then mentions Swindle and Blackarachnia in particular (Blackarachnia is also an ex-Autobot, she used to go by Elita).

Not good enough for you? Well wait, there's more! Let's take a look at Swindle compared to the other Decepticons.

mom said it's our turn on the xbox

He's shorter than Lugnut, Blitzwing, and the Starscream clones. Autobots are more often than not shortstacks compared to Decepticons. Also, take note of his purple eyes.

Who else has purple eyes? Wasp! Who's Wasp, you might ask? Well...

Wasp is essentially this teenager* who was falsely accused of treason based on... kinda flimsy evidence, I'm gonna be perfectly honest but maybe that's my inner forensic science nerd talking. Either way, he's an ex-Autobot... like Swindle 👁👁 not a Decepticon, though.

Now, there's a reason why Blackarachnia doesn't have purple eyes, I assume it's because of the organic DNA fused with her, but basically from what I've gathered if a Bot is just... no longer an Autobot for one reason or another, they get cool ass purple eyes. Their eyes... change color... and I want people in the fandom to explore that more with Swindle! I want headcanons and fan art and I swear to God if nobody else does it I'll do it myself because this concept is just so interesting to me

Sure, Decepticon turning Autobot is cute and all... but an Autobot turning Decepticon? Ohoho now you've captured my interest!

Knowing Swindle, and also comparing him to the other ex-Bots, I can't help but feel as though his decision also would've been 100% his own - think about it.

Swindle is an arm's dealer, he makes a profit off of the war, his desire for money and deals most likely played a factor into him defecting - he's literally a war profiteer, he makes the most money off of war. Blackarachnia defected after the uh... organic incident and felt betrayed that she was left behind, Wasp was falsely accused of treason and imprisoned. All things considered, it's very likely Swindle didn't have any sort of personal betrayal that lead him to the Cons, only greed and a business opportunity. And that... personally separates him from the rest for me.

I love me some angst and tragic backstories... but at the same time... I love stuff like this! Characters motivated solely by material desire rather than revenge. It's just... so... interesting... and I love it! I love it! You go you sleazy car dealer!

Basically... I just want more Swindle content exploring concepts like this and if I'm the only one who wants it then I'll probably be the only one who'll make it.

Gotta feed myself, I guess

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atomicblasphemy · 3 years ago

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Can’t promise this will make sense.

But I think I’ve seen people theorize this lovely enormous andominous guy is in fact not King’s dad:

And I’m inclined to agree. I mean, Lilith does mention the island King was hatched at was ancient. So odds are he was being incubated for quite a minute and, when the time was right (which may or may not have something do with that sky window thingy or Emperor Phil’s meddling with the island innate magic), he finally hatched.

Moreover, whatever magic is used to cloak that wee island, to produce King sonic rainboom, or to animate Jean-Luc is probably of a different source to that elemental one harnessed by demons and witches from the Boiling Isles since Hooty was unable to pin down what type of demon King was, suggesting he may not even be one. (Also, on a bit of a tangent I just think that’d play nicely with the contrast between Emperor Phil’s bri’ishness and King’s more francophone tendencies).

Lastly, the carvings, the plant life, of the that Island, the fort’s architecture, the writing system, and the very fact that they managed to build what’s probably the most sophisticated bunker in any dimension would in my eyes point to two things: one, whatever civilization made the island was powerful, foreign, and is long gone; and whoever King’s dad was he was important enough a figure to justify a lot of resources being used to protect his son. And you know how monarchies are: the king is dead, long live the King. Also, we know next to nothing about the world beyond the Boiling Isles other than Eda telling the Selkidomus to hide further into sea and the fact that the Emipre has some form of navy (be it it a military of commercial one, in either case this suggest the existence of other nation with whom to wage war or engage in trade).

Now, I know, essentially, this brings nothing new to the table. But there’s to things I’d like to point which might do just that.

First and weaker evidence:

This looks like a place that has a similar origin to the Boiling Isles, but not really it.

The reason why this can hardly be called evidence is simple though: Eda was undergoing a very bad acid trip when this happened. So while that whole sequence offers a lot of insight into her psyche, that’s all you can take from highs. Everything else there has a very blurry relation with reality. I mean, I’m not even sure that figure people thought was Amity is really someone from Eda’s past or just a way her mind found to cope with the trauma from years of persecution by a fascist state on account of factors way beyond her control.

Regardless, if this is a real place (and consequently faux-Amity a real person), this would mean confirmation that lands other than the Boiling Isles do indeed exist, and on top of that would suggest at least one candidate for King’s true place of origin (and possibly of Eda’s curse, after she became Icarus she did turn into that suspicious looking scroll after all). Hopefully though, the show won’t really focus on that. I mean, just look at how the show sidelined Willow this season then just imagine what the sheer amount of lore this would imply would do, especially considering how short the run time ahead of us is.

But hey, I don’t even know why I’m speculating on all this and seeing how given what we know pretty much all bets are off... so you know... no harm, no foul.

Anyhow. as I briefly mentioned before whoever the lovely guy (fig. 1) is, he seems pretty huge. And that’s actually quite important. Because there is one physically big (to fit her big heart ofc) with a very unclear backstory that the show seems to bring up only when strictly necessary. This lovely gal:

The one on the left.

The reason why I point this out is: I like her and want to see more of her; her backstory was left deliberately hanging after her second appearance; what we do know about her is that she was part of the “staff of a giant” some thousands of years ago; she’s takes care of palismen which put her in a collision course with Emperor Phil; I like her and want to see more of her.

Now, those second and third points are important because as previously stated that guy (fig. 1) is buff. And so was that other figure portray on King’s forts walls. Maybe enough to call them giants (we don’t know what their growth limit is), but not so much to be a Titan. If there’s really a kinship relationship between them and King, then we should probably expect him to undergo a growth spurt, maybe not one of continental proportions, but still a growth spurt.

Anyway, not only that, but Luz (the one on the right in fig. 3) did offer to help Bat Queen find out more about her past, and the offer probably still stands. Meaning that the show writers have this avenue open, and if she really was King’s dad’s palisman then that make her the most poised one to give him the insight he needs on his past (and that his dad is, most likely, long gone, making his story pretty much like Luz’s and Eda’s in the sense it could be described as learning to accept what you can’t, change what you can and from that forge a self you can actually like). Not only that, but this would make her have a deeper connection with Luz’s camp against Emperor Phil, giving her chance to avenge all the palismen he ate over the years (which as of now she’s probably not aware of).

Also, if all of that is the case and King’s civilization is as ancient as Lilith suggested that’d probably mean she is among the oldest palismen out there if not the oldest, which could offer a solution to the palistrom wood shortage problem. And it would also raise the possibility of King’s dad being the inventor of palismen or something along those lines, not sure what that’d entail and I’m into way too esoteric territory to comfort.

But on a mostly unrelated note and seeing how I’m taking a few hours to aimlessly speculate: Luz’s palisman. I’ve seen people suggesting she’d pick all sorts of different animals from bats to blue cardinals.

I just think she won’t really get a palisman at all. She will get a staff though, Hunter’s artificial one to be exact.

Here’s the thing, getting a palisman and the accompanying staff is kinda painted as this whole rite of passage from witchling to witchhood so to speak. Meaning that from that point on they are a witch, a part of the Isles. A huge commitment for a human to make, and her character’s whole subtext thus far this season has been a balancing act between her human past and her magical future, culminating in the promise she makes to Camila.

That’s why the Bat Queen (fig. 3) calls her out on her insecure, tentative response when pushed to state her purpose to the potential palismen - even if covered by her usual upbeat presentation (that girl’s mind is a storm right now, poor child). In other words, for good reason, she sees getting a palisman as too much of a commitment, implying certain sacrifices (her link with the human world) she is not ready to make.

On the other hand, she found in the Boiling Isles everything she was missing in the human realm. She was accepted there, she has a family, friends, and a girlfriend now, all of whom see her as a cherished part of their lives as much as they are of hers. She belongs in the Isles, she belongs in the human realm, and those two are on equal measure to her.

That’s a pretty tough place for some who just started learning who she is - I mean, she is 14 after all. And as of the place that the show left after Yesterday’s Lie, there’s really nowhere she can say to her self that she belongs to.

However, since we are apparently getting a Hunter redemption either way because that’s what popular media is now, every story has a quota of redemption arcs to fill (preferably of officials of monstrous regimes, but i digress) him and Luz could form a sort of parallel. If, as certain sects of the fandom believes, he is a clone of Emperor Phil’s brother (Bob, that’s his name), that’d make them along with Phil himself the characters with the closest connection to the human. Phil is the one pulling the strings so I can’t really tell what the parallels there would be other than some kind of “what if Luz had less of a moral center to her”. That’s not the interesting parallel though.

By the way, obviously, this whole word soup’s validity depends on the Emperor being either Phil, Bob, or some derivation. I know the show hasn’t made it quite canon just yet but I mean, come on, they’ve been throwing so many bones at this theory that we could build a skeleton army.

You see, Hunter’s staff is great symbol of the relationship he has with Phil. Something that symbolizes that, the way things are, seeing how he is a magicless witch in magicful world, his only way to truly be a part of the world and of society, the only way he can have a sense of belonging is through Phil, it is through the magic he provides via the staff’s artificial magic.

Moreover, if Phil being human ever comes out, and that Hunter is Bob’s clone, then Hunter would have this delightfully existential question to answer: “Who the fuck am I then?”

Essentially, he’ll be in a similar mind space as Luz buuuut their ways out of that are opposite. In order to make a self for himself the first thing he has to do is to sever his connection with Phil and reaffirm what he wants to do with his life (wild magic). And now he has the means to do just that, he has a staff and a palisman (made of wild magic) of his own, he doesn’t necessarily needs the artificial one anymore. A way he can cut that connection is by giving his old staff to Luz.

From Luz’s point of view that would solve her own existential problem, this staff, made with artificial magic - thus suiting the existence of a human in this magical world - would allow her to either/or conundrum: she can be a witch AND a human. She hasn’t gone through that rite of passage, so she didn’t forgo her humanity (in a metaphorical sense, of course). But she was given, from possibly her biggest enemy, tangible proof that she has a place in the Isle, not by birth, but because she made one for herself through the relationships and bonds she formed, through the way she changed people’s lives just being there and being herself. It isn’t a complete solution, but it is a compromise between those too sides of her being

That leaves that piece of palistrom wood Eda gave Luz out of the equation. What the show would try to do with it is anyone’s guess. But I think something along the lines of “Willow finds out a way to replenish the palistrom wood forests, she needs Luz’s branch to do it, Luz gives it to her out of a sense of moral obligation but is torn about it since she feels she’s giving up her chance at having a staff” would be pretty neat. You know, building up a bit of dramatic tension and whatnot.

Anyway, that’s it. Word soup’s over.

#THE OWL HOUSE #toh hunter #King's dad #King Clawthorne #Willow Park #Luz Noceda #phillip wittebane #edalyn clawthorne #bat queen #lilith clawthorne

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

Text

Its Own Reward

Fandom: The Bad Batch

Words: 2,098

Summary: If, at times of unseemly emotional vulnerability, Tech found himself longing for the one thing The Bad Batch didn’t have... well, that was between him and his overactive mind, thank you very much.

Warnings: Mentions of blood/injury later on, but very minor

A clone's favorite game, in the whole wide galaxy, was Picture Your General.

Picture your general in the heat of battle, lightsaber flashing, tearing through Separatist forces with the intensity of a Kaminoan storm.

Picture you general in the aftermath, entering a meditative state, calming the battalion with their mind alone.

Picture your general giving an order and you, standing tall, accept it with pride. Picture yourself as their right-hand man. Their greatest asset. The tool that will win this war.

Of course, at this stage one brother or another would point out the flaws in the fantasy. "Only a few of us will ever speak to them," they'd say. "You're not making Captain. Commander? Dream on. And watch the arrogance, vod. We're important, sure, but we're disposable too. No one is going to mourn us when we fall, certainly not a Jedi."

From there they would either grow quiet in discomfort, or pummel the offender with whatever was in reach, depending on the makeup of the group. No matter the outcome though, the game would inevitably repeat just a few hours later, picked up by everyone from the youngest cadet, to soldiers a day from their first assignment. Every clone in existence wanted to picture their general; imagine up a person worthy of the Kaminoans' stories and, though shared with more reservations, imagine the place they'd find at their side.

Every clone, that is, but Tech.

Well, he supposed Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair might be the same, but that was a hypothesis he hadn't tested yet. Out of everything Tech still needed to learn, that was rather low on his priority list. Meanwhile, spending time on a useless game was downright foolish. Oh, he had nothing against games on their own — they fostered a number of desirable outcomes, including, but far from limited to, a social comradery that would serve them well in battle — but this game, Picture Your General, had nothing to offer him. For the simple reason that Tech would never have one.

It was a fact the Regs took great pleasure in pointing out. Frequently.

"Ignore them," Crosshair said, stealing an extra ration off Tech's tray. History implied that he wasn't actually that hungry, merely interested in teasing Wrecker with the extra food. He'd pretend to save it for most of the night until, inevitably, handing it off as a grudging, midnight snack. Crosshair played with the food, but Tech knew his attention was on the rowdy group to their left. "They're not worth it."

Given that it was just the two of them, Tech allowed himself a scowl, snatching the ration back. He had nothing against Wrecker receiving additional food, especially given his fast metabolism, but it was the principal of the thing. This was his. "Says the man who instigated four altercations this week."

"I like riling them up." The food moved back to Crosshair's side of the table. "You don't."

"You're mistaken. I take great pleasure in correcting our less cordial brothers. Though their initial claim is sound, the reasons for why we will not be assigned a Jedi are erroneous in the extreme."

"You mean that we're useless, unwanted defects who don't deserve to lick a Jedi's boots?"

"While I wouldn't have phrased it quite like that... yes. It's factually incorrect."

"Hmm. Your face doesn't say 'factually incorrect.'"

"That's because you're stealing my food!"

"You're mistaken," Crosshair mimicked, this time stuffing the ration deep into his pocket where Tech didn't have a hope of reclaiming it. "Ignore them."

Tech rarely denied himself the chance to speak at length on any topic he pleased, but this time he bit down on the retort that he literally could not. The Kaminoans had ensured that he picked up and payed attention to everything around him, even what he didn't want to hear.

Still, clones were nothing if not adaptable and very little in this galaxy was black and white. The very thing Tech craved was also evidence of his greatest joy: the rest of his squad. They weren't made for a Jedi, they were made for each other. The Regs might have seen that as another defect, but Tech understood the inevitability of balance. If he wanted something as remarkable as his team, he had to give up something else in turn.

Like the knowledge that someone else, anyone else, was fighting for them. To the Kaminoans they were property. Expensive and prized property, no doubt, but even the most beautiful tool would be discarded in time. To the other clones they were outsiders, a blight on everything else they took pride in. And to the Jedi they were... non-existent. Or near enough, Tech supposed. When called to assist a battalion they usually did so on the outskirts, getting into the enemy territory their brothers couldn't negotiate, leaving for the next suicide mission by the time they'd caught up. It resulted in a reputation that was, ironically, quite uniform, given their otherwise individualistic looks and personalities. The Bad Batch was a team of four who did what other clones couldn't. That's all the Jedi needed to know; presumably wanted to know. And Tech could hardly fault them for that when in the midst of a war. Like him, they had much more important matters to occupy their thoughts.

That naïve indifference — an inability to be seen — might have been bearable if Tech hadn't accumulated such a clear picture of them. Oh yes, much of it came down to his academic nature, scrolling through datapads in the dead of night, soaking up information about anything, but especially that which was so crucial to the war... but there were stories too. The GAR was full of them. Whereas cadets played Picture Your General, soldiers spoke of the real thing, at times even more fantastical than their imaginings. Whispers spread through the ranks of Master Obi-Wan's compassion, claims that he fought for clones on and off the battlefield, giving as much respect as he demanded in turn. His former Padawan was, they said, as much a vod as any of them, prone to establishing an equality based on practical jokes and near-death situations — the kind of insanity clones were genetically predisposed to enjoy. There was talk that Unduli welcomed every soldier into her ranks with a Mirialan ritual, that Windu was fighting for clone rights in the Senate, even jokes that Plo Kloon had millions of adoption papers ready and waiting for the war's end... utter nonsense that last bit, of course. Yet every time Tech scoffed at a Reg's unseemly devotion, an awful little voice in the back of his head pointed out that the jokes had to stem from something. One did not craft rumors about a Jedi's kindness unless they had done quite a bit to establish it in the first place.

Tech didn't need kindness, only assurances. Bonds with the Jedi provided his brothers with a connection outside of the Kaminoans. They were building a network, however small, for the day this war ended. The Jedi Council would fight for the clones, Tech was sure of that... but would they fight for a shadowy, defective squad they knew little about? Their place in this galaxy began with each other and ended with the occasional, dubious acquaintance of Hunter’s. That was not enough to survive on and Tech cared only about such practical matters.

At least, that’s what he told himself for a time, but it wasn’t in Tech’s nature to dismiss facts. Like how once Master Shaak Ti had laid a hand on his arm after training, bestowing a smile and words of praise that Tech later kicked himself for missing, too busy being disgustingly flummoxed by the attention. That warmth, gifted three different ways, stayed with him long after they'd left their simulations behind, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't rationalize it away as planning for the future.

Tech wanted a Jedi of his own. He simply... wanted.

In time those feelings didn't abate, but they were buried under an avalanche of new ones which, from a technical standpoint, he supposed amounted to much the same. After Kaller, Tech had lost his purpose in serving the Republic. Worse, he'd lost a member of his squad, even if he eventually got him back. Crosshair's presence now could no more lessen his past absence than food in one's hand could feed a starving man from yesterday. Tech's home was gone. The familiarity of his brothers' faces, even those twisted with cruelty, was something he craved. Everything from the rooms they'd once slept in to the smell of sterilized halls— all absent. So if Tech sometimes stared out at the stars and felt horrifyingly incomplete, who was he to say what that stemmed from? There were too many possibilities. The data was corrupted beyond repair and trying to divide what he'd lost from what the Kaminoans had denied him was an entirely useless endeavor. An experiment not worth his time.

Still, Tech was made of curiosity. His mind was always on the lookout for patterns and new information, whether he wanted it to be or not. In truth though, he figured that Omega's near death was an experience that would have stood out to anyone, genius not required.

Her screams were quite the conductor for one's focus.

"Shoot it! Shoot it!"

The order was for Crosshair, but Hunter couldn't see that he'd been knocked out by the krykna's last attack, one spindly leg the size of a cruiser slamming into his side. Hunter himself was trapped, hands scrambling to free his leg from the cave's crevice even as he yelled. Tech noted, in the dim way his mind noticed most things during a crisis, that he was now using his knife for leverage, cutting into his calf in the process, uncaring. Meanwhile, Wrecker was overwhelmed by the krykna's cluster, something about his size and boisterous nature attracting them like... well. Like kryknas to a clone. Echo was trying to help, but the planet's magnetic field had been messing with his prosthetics ever since they'd landed. Tech saw them both disappear under a small mountain of the creatures, yelling Omega's name all the while.

And Tech... he was running. Yes. He realized that now, legs pounding across the ground, heedless of the numerous arachnid bodies that crunched beneath his boots. He couldn't say that his attention was solely on Omega, her face now just inches from the krykna's pincers. It never was. Tech couldn't help but catalogue a hundred other observations as she neared death's door, most of them quite distressing. Like the difference in height between him and his brothers. Or his abysmal scores in sprinting back on Kamino. Omega was at least five meters away whereas the krykna, most assuredly, was not.

I'm going to lose another one, Tech thought as his next laborious pant turned into a sob. Probability proves it.

Thank the Maker his calculations were incomplete.

Later, the five of them would describe the sensation as akin to static electricity. Even Crosshair, unconscious, would say that he'd felt something passing along his skin, heedless of armor and all the more disconcerting for being... impossible. An impossible memory. Only Tech and Hunter saw it though, the moment when the krykna rose off the ground and flew, all five tons of it, slamming into the opposite wall where its skull caved in like an over-ripe fruit.

Omega sat with her little hand outstretched, looking just as dumbfounded as her brothers. When he finally reached her, Tech found evidence of the krykna's teeth on either side of her neck. They'd only just punctured the skin.

A moment of certain death, averted through instinct. Destiny? Perhaps some combination of the two.

"It's okay. You're okay. Omega, please breathe for me."

Tech was blessed — sometimes cursed — with an extraordinary memory, the ability to recall not just books' worth of information, but images in perfect clarity too. Superimposed over a sobbing Omega was a cadet from his youth. No one important. No one whose name Tech had bothered to learn, uninterested in remembering it against his will. But the boy's words had already been spoken.

"Kriff, maybe we're wrong, vod! Maybe the defect will get a Jedi. After all, don't they say the Force works in mysterious ways?"

An insult, a taunt, and now perhaps a speck of wisdom that Tech should have heeded. He pulled Omega into his arms, one gloved hand sinking into her curls, the other wrapping tight around her waist. He'd performed this gesture a hundred times before, but this time it felt like something slotted into place.

"There you are," Tech whispered and for now, he'd pretend that this was nothing more than a reassurance.

#TBB #The Bad Batch #TBB Fic #Tech #Omega #Crosshair #TBBfic #Star Trek #SW

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gffa · 5 years ago

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OKAY, IF I’M GONNA DO THIS, I’M GONNA DO IT PROPERLY. WHICH MEANS YEAH IT’S GONNA GET REALLY LONG. A couple of things to say ahead of time: Lucasfilm’s Story Group has always said CANON > WORD OF GOD when it comes to these matters, so when I quote canon examples from supplementary materials that contradict what he says, that’s LF’s official position, but that doesn’t mean that an influential person like Dave’s views couldn’t affect how things will be shaped in the future, like Deborah Chow listening to this may be influenced by it on the Obi-Wan show, despite that Master & Apprentice contradicts him. It’s an incredibly murky area! Mileages are going to vary. Another thing to keep in mind is that Dave Filoni never worked on The Phantom Menace, that was long, long before his time at Lucasfilm (which I think he joined sometime around 2007? and TPM was released in 1999), that he has worked with George more than probably anyone else, but we cannot and should not treat him as infallible or the True Authority on things, because even Dave himself has said things like: “I mean, I know why I did that and what it means, but I don't like to explain too much. I love for the viewers to watch stuff and come up with their own theories -- and they frankly come up with better things that I intended.” --Dave Filoni, Entertainment Tonight 2020 interview Or, in the same episode as the above Qui-Gon interpretation:

So, when I dig into this, I’m not doing this out of a sense of malice or even that I suddenly hate Dave or don’t appreciate all the incredible things he’s brought to SW, but in that I disagree with his take, Dave understands that he doesn’t always get it right, that he enjoys that fans come up with different things than he does and sometimes he likes those even more. There’s room for both of us and, for all that Dave mentions George a lot (and, hey, fair enough, the guy worked with George and I’m just quoting what George Lucas has said) doesn’t mean that this is straight from George, especially because I have never seen George Lucas utter so much as a peep about how the Jedi were responsible for Anakin’s fall. He has explicitly and frequently talked about how Anakin’s fall was his own choice, as well as I’ve never seen him say anything Jedi-critical beyond “they were kind of arrogant about themselves”. I have read and watched every George Lucas interview I could get my hands on and maybe I’m still missing something, but that’s literally the extent of him criticizing the Jedi I have EVER seen. (It’s from the commentary on AOTC where he put in the scene with Jocasta to show they were full of themselves, but I also think it’s fair to point out that Obi-Wan immediately contradicts this by going to Dex for help, showing that it’s not necessarily a Jedi-wide thing.) Before I go further, I want to say: this is not a post meant to tear down Qui-Gon, he is a character I actually really do love, but the focus is on showing why the above interpretation of him is wrong, which means focusing on Qui-Gon’s flaws. He has many wonderful qualities, he is someone who cared deeply and was a good person, I think things would have been better had he lived! But Anakin’s choices did not hinge on him, because Anakin’s choices were Anakin’s, that has always been the consistent theme of how George talks about him, the way he talks about the story is always in terms of “Anakin did this” or “Anakin chose that”, and the Jedi are very consistently shown as caring, they believed very much in love and Dave’s own show (well, I say “his own show”, but honestly TCW was George’s baby primarily and he had a lot of direct, hands-on say in crafting it, through at least the first five seasons) is plenty of evidence of that. I’m not going to quote the full thing because this is already a monster post, I’m just going to focus on the Jedi stuff, because I like the other points a lot, but if you want the full text, it’s here. The relevant part is: “In Phantom Menace, you’re watching these two Jedi in their prime fight this evil villain. Maul couldn’t be more obviously the villain. He’s designed to look evil, and he is evil, and he just expresses that from his face all the way out to the type of lightsaber he fights with. What’s at stake is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” “So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. So that moment in that movie which a lot of people I think diminish, “oh there’s a cool lightsaber fight”, but it’s everything that the entire three films of the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight. And Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George made me bring him back, but he died.“ --Dave Filoni I’m going to take this a piece at a time to show why I really disagree with the content of both the movies and The Clone Wars supporting what Dave says and, instead, contradicts it a lot. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. He doesn’t explain what this means, but I’m pretty sure that he’s referring to this conversation: OBI-WAN: “I am concerned for my Padawan. He is not ready to be given this assignment on his own yet.” YODA: “The Council is confident in its decision, Obi-Wan.” MACE WINDU: “The boy has exceptional skills.” OBI-WAN: “But he still has much to learn, Master. His abilities have made him... well.... arrogant.” YODA: “Yes, yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmm... too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones.” MACE WINDU: “Remember, Obi-Wan, if the prophecy is true, your apprentice is the only one who can bring the Force back into balance.” OBI-WAN: "If he follows the right path.” None of that has anything to do with being “detached” and, further, I think this is something that’s come up with Dave’s view of Luminara a lot, because he’s described her (re: the Geonosis arc): “We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.” Here, he says that the Jedi care, in the above, he says that the Jedi don’t care, which makes me think there’s a lot of characterization drift as time goes on, especially when fandom bombards everyone with the idea that the Jedi were cold, emotionless, and didn’t care. However, look at Luminara’s face in that arc, when she’s talking with Anakin:

That is not the face of someone who doesn’t care. She even smiles brightly in relief when Barriss is shown to be okay, that this really doesn’t convey “detached” in an unloving or uncaring way. (We’ll get to attachment later, that’s definitely coming.) (I’m also mostly skipping the political thing, because I think that’s just a fundamental disagreement of whether Jedi should or should not lean into politics. My view basically boils down to that I think ALL OF US should be leaning more into politics because we are citizens who live in the world and are responsible for it, and the Jedi are no different. This is evidenced by: - M&A’s storyline has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saving the day specifically because they play politics, that’s how they manage to free the slaves, through playing politics and being part of the Republic/having Senate backing. - The Clone Wars has shown that the Jedi believe “lasting change can only come from within” and “it’s every citizen’s duty to hold their leaders accountable” when Ahsoka teaches the cadets on Mandalore, as well as that politics are not inherently bad, given that Padme and Bail are working to make the system better or “create lasting change from within [the system]” - "Trying to serve the greater good does not always make you popular” says Padme Amidala in a very caring speech - Star Wars Propaganda makes the case that the Jedi might have won the war had they leaned more into politics. - Sometimes the Jedi get unfairly accused of playing politics when there’s just no good choice and they still have to choose one or the other.) But Qui-Gon is ahead of them [re: caring and loving] all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. This is flat-out wrong in regards to canon. Mileages are going to vary, of course, on how much one takes a novel into consideration, but Dave Filoni is not a fan with the luxury of deciding what is or isn’t canon, he works on Star Wars where canon is canon. Now, does that mean canon will never contradict itself, especially if Dave gets to write something for Qui-Gon? Of course not, SW isn’t immune to continuity errors and they themselves have never said otherwise, even when fans want to hold them to that standard. However, this is still pretty much a big “that’s not what happened” instance. In Master & Apprentice, the Jedi Council offer a seat to Qui-Gon on the Council, specifically BECAUSE he has different opinions from them and they welcome that. (Excerpt here.) “We hope it will also be our gain,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon Jinn, we hereby offer you a seat on the Jedi Council.” Had he misheard? No, he hadn’t. Qui-Gon slowly gazed around the circle, taking in the expressions of each Council member in turn. Some of them looked amused, others pleased. A few of them, Yoda included, appeared more rueful than not. But they were serious. “I admit—you’ve surprised me,” Qui-Gon finally said.“I imagine so,” Mace said drily. “A few years ago, we would’ve been astonished to learn we would ever consider this. But in the time since, we’ve all changed. We’ve grown. Which means the possibilities have changed as well.” Qui-Gon took a moment to collect himself. Without any warning, one of the turning points of his life had arrived. Everything he said and did in the next days would be of great consequence. “You’ve argued with my methods often as not, or perhaps you’d say I’ve argued with yours.” “Truth, this is,” Yoda said. Depa Billaba gave Yoda a look Qui-Gon couldn’t interpret. “It’s also true that the Jedi Council needs more perspectives.” Ultimately, Qui-Gon is the who turns them down and gives up a chance to shape the Jedi Council because he doesn’t like the shape they’re taking. That he does become less political, but this is after he’s argued that the Jedi should be working to push the Senate harder, so when he has a chance to help with that, he turns it down. It has nothing to do with caring and loving, it’s about Qui-Gon’s desire to not have to deal with the work himself, when he wants to be more of a hippie Jedi. (I’ve written a lot about Qui-Gon in M&A, why I actually think it’s really spot-on to someone who can be both really kind and really kind of a dick, but it’s not the most flattering portrayal, even if narrative intention likely didn’t mean what came across to me. I think this post and this post are probably the most salient ones, but if you want something of an index of the web that’s being woven with all the various media, this one is good, too.) So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. I have only ever seen George Lucas talk about Anakin’s fate in one instance and it’s this: “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ –George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary I’ve made my case about why I think Anakin’s fate is about that moment in Palpatine’s office, and so I’m not fundamentally opposed that “Duel of the Fates” is about Anakin’s fate, but here’s what George has provably said about the “Duel of the Fates” part of the story: - In the commentary for The Phantom Menace during “Duel of the Fates” and none of Dave’s speculation is even hinted at, there’s more focus on the technical side of things and the most George talks about is that it’s Obi-Wan who parallels Luke in going over the edge during the fight, except that instead of a Sith cutting off a Jedi’s hand, it’s a Jedi cutting a Sith in half, drawing the parallels between them. - He does say of the funeral scene that this is where Obi-Wan commits to training Anakin and how everything is going to go (though, in canon we see that Obi-Wan still struggles with this a bit, but Yoda is there to support him and nudge him into committing even more to Anakin, because the Jedi are a supportive community to each other). This is some solid evidence for that Obi-Wan is already caring about Anakin beyond just Qui-Gon. - Then here’s what he says about the “Duel of the Fates” fights and themes of them in "All Films Are Personal": George Lucas: “I wanted to come up with an apprentice for the Emperor who was striking and tough. We hadn’t seen a Sith Lord before, except for Vader, of course. I wanted to convey the idea that Jedi are all very powerful, but they’re also vulnerable — which is why I wanted to kill Qui-Gon. That is to say, “Hey, these guys aren’t Superman.” These guys are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person. “We needed to establish that, but at the same time, we wanted the ultimate sword fight, because they were all very good. It sort of predisposes the sword fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan later on. There’s real purpose to it. You have to establish the rules and then stick with them. The scene illustrates just how Jedi and Sith fight and use lightsabers.” “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. We’ll get to the “attachment to his mother” thing in a bit--but, for now, let’s just say, George Lucas’ words on this are not that attachment to her was a good thing. Fair enough that “not because he cares about him” is up to personal interpretation, but canon has also addressed the topic of Obi-Wan’s treatment of Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped up to the plate on this. In addition to how we see Obi-Wan REPEATEDLY being there for Anakin and being concerned and caring about him, they specifically talk about Qui-Gon and overcome this hurdle.

No, Obi-Wan is not Anakin’s father figure, on that we definitely agree. Anakin never really even treats Obi-Wan like a father--he says “you’re the closest thing I have to a father” in Attack of the Clones, as well as he says Obi-Wan practically raised him in The Clone Wars “Crystal Crisis” story reels, but Anakin has never actually acted like Obi-Wan is his father--”then why don’t you listen to me?” Obi-Wan points out in AOTC--as well as Obi-Wan glides past those remarks, which I’ve always taken that he doesn’t want to reject Anakin’s feelings, knowing that Anakin can be sensitive about them, but neither does he want to confirm them. This does not mean Obi-Wan was not supportive, caring, and loving. He says, “I loved you!” to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, he asks after him and if he’s sleeping well in Attack of the Clones, and even George Lucas himself said that the elevator scene was set up TO SHOW OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN CARE FOR EACH OTHER:

PUTTING THE REST UNDER A READ MORE FOR A BETTER LENGTH REBLOGGABLE VERSION, IF YOU WANT.

This is further evidenced by how the Jedi do see themselves as family, they just don’t need to put it into strict nuclear family dynamics: - “You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!” [–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith] - “We are brothers, Master Dibs.” [–Mace Windu, Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu] - “Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.” A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good. "All the time,“ Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself. [–Kaeden Larte, Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka] - Vos, brought to the Temple even younger than most, felt that he had hundreds of brothers and sisters, and it seemed that whenever he went into the dining hall he ran into at least half of them. [Dark Disciple] - “It was not his birthplace, exactly, but the Jedi Temple was where Quinlan Vos had grown up. He’d raced through its corridors, hidden behind its massive pillars, found peace in its meditation hall, ended-and started-fights in rooms intended for striking blows and some that weren’t, and sneaked naps in its library. All Jedi came here, at some point in their lives; for Quinlan, it always felt like coming home when he ran lightly up the stairs and entered the massive building as he did now.” [Dark Disciple] Brothers, sisters, and other more non-traditional kinds of family are not lesser and Obi-Wan and Anakin absolutely were family, just as the Jedi are all family to each other, so, no, there was no “failing” Anakin, except in Anakin’s mind, perhaps. (In that, I can agree. But not on a narratively approved level, canon too thoroughly refutes that for me.) Rebels as well pretty thoroughly shows that non-traditional families are meaningful and just as important--we may joke that Hera is “space mom”, but she’s not actually Ezra or Sabine’s mother, Kanan is not actually their father, and even if they sometimes stray into aspects of those roles (as the Jedi do as well in the movies and TCW), that they don’t need that traditional nuclear family structure. Mentor figures--and Kanan is Ezra’s mentor--are just as meaningful and needful as a “dad”. And I’m kind of :/ at the implication that anyone without a dad/father figure or mom/mother figure is being “failed”. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” Whether or not Obi-Wan is being genuinely dismissive in this movie (I think you could make a case either way), the idea that Qui-Gon is better than Obi-Wan about this, as shown through Jar Jar isn’t exactly very supported given how Qui-Gon and Jar Jar first exchange words:

QUI-GON: “You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?” JAR JAR: “I spake.” QUI-GON: “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” Qui-Gon is just as bad as everyone else to Jar Jar, he’s not somehow elevated above them. It’s also baffling because, Dave, I have watched your show. The Jedi are specifically shown to be kind to people and creatures, not considering them “useless”. Henry Gilroy (who was the co-writer for The Clone Wars and frequently appeared in featurettes on the same level as Dave Filoni) explicitly draws this to The Jedi Way, that “life is everything to the Jedi“, when he said this about the Ryloth episodes:

(Caps cribbed from Pan’s blog, because I cannot make another gif, save me, please.) Henry Gilroy in an Aggressive Negotiations Interview: "Obi-Wan truly is a Jedi in that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to murder these creatures [in the Ryloth arc of The Clone Wars]. They’re starving to death. They’ve basically been unleashed against these people as a weapon, but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they do. They’re just animals who wanna eat.’ "So the idea was–and I think there was an early talk about how, 'Oh, yeah, he’ll go running through them and slicing and dicing them and chop them all up or whatever, and save his guys. And I’m like, 'Yeah, but that’s not really the Jedi way. He’s not just gonna murder these creatures.’ "And I know the threat is [there], to save one life you have to take one, but the idea of him [is]: why can’t Obi-Wan just be more clever? He basically draws them in and then traps them. "It says something about who the Jedi are, they don’t just waste life arbitrarily. And someone could have gone, 'Oh, yeah, but it would have been badass if he’d just ran in there with his lightsaber spinning and stabbed them all in the head!’ And 'Yeah, you’re right, I guess he could be that, but he’s trying to teach his clones a lesson right then, about the sanctity of life.’ "That is the underlying theme of that entire episode. Which is: A tactical droid is using the people as living shields. Life means nothing to the Separatists. The droids. But life is everything to the Jedi. And even though he doesn’t have to say that, it’s all through the episode thematically.“ It’s also Obi-Wan who teaches Anakin about kindness to mindless creatures in the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic:

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Anakin. I can feel it. They are merely following their nature, they should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way.” Now, fair enough if you want to say Obi-Wan was taught by Qui-Gon, but also Qui-Gon is dead by that point and Obi-Wan growing into being more mature is his own accomplishment, not Qui-Gon’s, especially given that we see Qui-Gon himself being pretty dismissive to Jar Jar in TPM. This isn’t unique thing either, Padme is incredibly condescending to Jar Jar in “Bombad Jedi” and expresses clear annoyance with him to C-3PO when sighing over him. Jar Jar is a character you kind of have to warm up to, pretty much the only one we’ve seen consistently being favorable to him is Yoda (and maybe Anakin, though, Anakin doesn’t really interact with him a ton) and Mace Windu warms up to him considerably in “The Disappeared” and even specifically is shown to be teaching him and helping him, which is a huge theme of the Jedi and how much they care.

So, ultimately, the point I’m winding my way towards is--the other Jedi do show kindness and consideration to Jar Jar Binks, including characters like Mace Windu, so if you’re judging the Jedi based on that, the conclusion of Qui-Gon somehow being more compassionate and loving is really pretty thoroughly disproved by The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars themselves. So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. You could be charitable and say this is just from Anakin’s point of view that it’s a “failing”, but within the context of what Dave’s saying, it’s clearly meant as a more narratively approved take, not just Anakin’s point of view, and I really, really dislike the idea that Anakin--or anyone, really--needs a traditional nuclear family, ie a “mom” and/or a “dad”, or else it’s a “failing” for them. Setting aside that the idea that Qui-Gon would need to be Anakin’s dad to be kind to hi (which is ?????) is contradicted by The Clone Wars as well. Yes, Qui-Gon is warm with Anakin in several scenes, which is what Dave is presumably drawing on to show that Qui-Gon believed the Jedi should be caring and loving, but you know who else is warm to younglings? OTHER JEDI COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Those two scenes have the exact same kind of warmth to them. Ie, THE JEDI ALL BELIEVED IN BEING LOVING AND KIND, NOT JUST QUI-GON. The things evidenced to show Qui-Gon was loving and kind are evidenced just as much in other Council members, in Dave’s own show. As a bonus--have Mace Windu, known Jedi Council member, being super kind and loving towards a young Twi’lek girl he just met in a canon comic:

But I know that this is about the way the Council treated Anakin in The Phantom Menace testing scene, but here’s the thing--when I go back and I watch that scene and the Jedi aren’t ever mean to him, they’re neutral in an official testing situation, where they are trying to determine if he’s able to adapt to the Jedi ways. They never once say he’s bad for holding onto his fear, only that he does--which Anakin digs his heels in and gets angry about, he can’t really even admit that he’s afraid and that’s a huge deal for the Jedi. I’ve made a longer post about it here (and here), but the basic gist is: - That scene has Yoda giving the famous “Fear leads to the dark side” speech which is almost word for word how George Lucas describes how the Force works, showing the Jedi are narratively correct - “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” may be from the sequels, but it is thoroughly supported by the movies and TCW and Rebels and even supplementary canon material, including that the Jedi literally design their tests around both Masters and Padawans for it (Ilum, the Jedi Temple on Lothal, etc. - Anakin cannot admit to his fears in that TPM scene - We have examples of Jedi younglings do admit to their fears and the point isn’t not to have them, but to face them--the younglings in “The Gathering” are the most blatant example of this, but it’s also pretty much the entire theme of Jedi: Fallen Order, especially when Cal goes to Ilum to face his fears and get another kyber crystal. The point isn’t that Anakin--who has very good reasons to be afraid! nothing in the story or the Jedi have said he didn’t!--is wrong or bad, but that he’s not a great fit for the Jedi life because he is “unwilling to accept [Jedi philosophy] emotionally”. And they’re right about this, because this is how George Lucas describes Anakin in commentary: “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.” --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary And so this brings us to A T T A C H M E N T, which, yeah, we’ve been having this discussion forever, but I’m going to state it again: Within Star Wars, ATTACHMENT IS NARRATIVELY A BAD THING. It is consistently tied to possessive, obsessive relationships, to greed and an unwillingness to let things go when it’s time (letting go is a huge theme in Star Wars) and equating love with attachment is fundamentally wrong according to George Lucas’ Star Wars worldbuilding: “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people-- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith If attachment and love were the same thing, then he would be saying, “They should love their enemies, they should love the Sith. But they can’t love.” The way George makes the distinction shows that, no, attachment and love aren’t the same thing at all, attachment is not caring. Further, there’s another instance of him showing there’s an important distinction between relationships and attachment and the association of attachmets with possession: "Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.” --George Lucas, BBC News interview So, yes, when Anakin is attached to people, it is directly tied to obsession, possession, and greed, all things of the dark side: “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.” --George Lucas, Time Magazine “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary ATTACHMENT IS BAD IN STAR WARS AS THEY DEFINE IT. Finally, I’m going to circle back to: Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. Here’s the thing about this: You know who else, by this logic, Qui-Gon should have been a father to? OBI-WAN KENOBI. This isn’t said as “Anakin specifically needs a father” (which I think would be an interesting idea to bandy about and I’m not disagreeing, though, it’s complicated because of what Anakin refuses to accept emotionally), it’s said in a bigger context, that Qui-Gon is better than the other Jedi because he understands the need for fathers (and thus this ties into Return of the Jedi) and he’s ahead of the other Jedi, who apparently think loving and caring about people are bad things, but Qui-Gon does not treat Obi-Wan like his son. Or, if he does, he’s not exactly a stellar dad about it. Within Master & Apprentice, there’s an incredibly consistent theme of how Qui-Gon thinks supportive things about Obi-Wan, but never says them aloud. He thinks he should talk to Obi-Wan about the upcoming decision to be on the Council and then never does. He could have explained why he kept Obi-Wan training the basics but he never does. There are multiple instances showing that Qui-Gon is actually really, really bad at actually handling a young apprentice who needs him to talk to them about important things. Qui-Gon continues this in From a Certain Point of View where he still never talked to Obi-Wan about everything that happened, even after he became a Force Ghost. Damn, damn, damn. Qui-Gon closed his eyes for one moment. It blocked nothing; the wave of shock that went through Obi-Wan was so great it could be felt through the Force. Qui-Gon hadn’t thought Kirames Kaj would mention the Jedi Council invitation. It seemed possible the soon-retiring chancellor of the Republic might not even have taken much note of information about a new Council member. --Master & Apprentice That comment finally pierced Qui-Gon’s damnable calm. There was an edge to his voice as he said, “I suspected you would be too upset to discuss this rationally. Apparently I was correct.” “I thought you said my reaction was understandable,” Obi-Wan shot back. “So why does it disqualify me from hearing the truth?” Qui-Gon put his hands on his broad belt, the way he did when he was beginning to withdraw into himself. “…we should discuss this at another time. Neither of us is his best self at the present.” --Master & Apprentice Obi-Wan walked toward the door, obviously outdone. “At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I couldn’t understand you,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s just as true here at the end.” Only yesterday they had worked together as never before. How did Qui-Gon manage to get closer to Obi-Wan at the same time he was moving further away? Just before Obi-Wan would leave the room, Qui-Gon said, “Once, you asked me about the basic lightsaber cadences. Why I’d kept you there, instead of training you in more advanced forms of combat.” Obi-Wan turned reluctantly to face him again. “I suppose you thought I wasn’t ready for more. The same way I’m not ready to believe in all this mystical—” “That’s not why.” After a long pause, Obi-Wan calmed to the point where he would listen. “Then why, Qui-Gon?” “Because many Padawans—and full Jedi Knights, for that matter—forget that the most basic technique is the most important technique. The purest. The most likely to protect you in battle, and the foundation of all knowledge that is to come,” Qui-Gon said. “Most apprentices want to rush ahead to styles of fighting that are flashier or more esoteric. Most Masters let them, because we must all find our preferred form eventually. But I wanted you to be grounded in your technique. I wanted you to understand the basic cadences so well that they would become instinct, so that you would be almost untouchable. Above all, I wanted to give you the training you needed to accomplish anything you set your mind to later on.” Obi-Wan remained quiet for so long that Qui-Gon wondered if he were too angry to really hear any of what he’d said. But finally, his Padawan nodded. “Thank you, Qui-Gon. I appreciate that. But—” “But what?” “You could’ve said so,” Obi-Wan replied, and then he left. --Master & Apprentice "I owe you that. After all, I’m the one who failed you.“ "Failed me?” They have never spoken of this, not once in all Qui-Gon’s journeys into the mortal realm to commune with him. This is primarily because Qui-Gon thought his mistakes so wretched, so obvious, that Obi-Wan had wanted to spare him any discussion of it. Yet here, too, he has failed to do his Padawan justice. --From a Certain Point of View, “Master and Apprentice” (Further, in Master & Apprentice, Qui-Gon thinks that the Jedi give Rael Averross--who is HUGELY paralleled to Anakin--too many exceptions, were too soft on him because he came to the Jedi later than most and has trouble thinking of them as his family, and he thinks they should have been stricter with him.) It’s also readily apparent within The Phantom Menace itself:

You can take some charitable views of this scene, that Qui-Gon was pushed into a corner where he had few other options (and this is the view I generally take even!), but this is after the entire movie where he’s never once indicated that Obi-Wan was ready, has instead indicated that he still has much to learn (not just of the Living Force, but in general), as well as made it clear that he’s still teaching Obi-Wan, like on the Trade Federation ship. And I do think Obi-Wan got over this because he understood, because Obi-Wan actually is a very selfless person, he clearly cares (which is furthered by how we see him warm up to Anakin very quickly), but look at their faces. This was not a good moment, and they do somewhat make up, where Qui-Gon says that Obi-Wan has been a good apprentice, that he’s wiser than Qui-Gon and he’ll be a great Jedi--but if we’re counting that as Qui-Gon being this great Jedi, then you can’t say Obi-Wan failed Anakin, given that we show him doing the exact same thing, except better. He tells Anakin, “You are strong and wise and will become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”, echoing Qui-Gon’s words, but also he never threw Anakin aside for someone else. This is kind of a major undercurrent throughout The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan never takes another apprentice, where he continues to teach Anakin, to support him, even to the point of occasionally co-Mastering Ahsoka with him. “This has been quite a journey for our Padawan.” Qui-Gon’s treatment of Obi-Wan in this scene isn’t the worst, he’s kind about it later (though, he never actually specifically apologizes for this), but we can see that this is a moment where Qui-Gon hurts Obi-Wan and knows it. And you know what George Lucas has to say about Qui-Gon? This: “So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.” –George Lucas, The Phantom Menace commentary There’s nothing about Qui-Gon being right or better than the other Jedi, but instead that Qui-Gon’s actions here are a source of much of the problems that develop later on. So, ultimately, I liked some points Dave made in that speech, it’s a beautiful and eloquent one, but I thoroughly disagree with his interpretation of George’s intentions for Qui-Gon and I thoroughly disagree that that’s what the movies, The Clone Wars (DAVE’S OWN SHOW), and the supplementary canon show about Qui-Gon and the other Jedi. I still stand by my appreciation of Dave’s contributions to SW as a whole, I think he does a really good job at making Star Wars, but he doesn’t always get everything right and this is one thing where I think the canon and George’s commentary show otherwise, as much as I love his desire to defend the prequels’ importance in the story. Because, my friend, I have felt that every single day of my SW life.

#anakin skywalker #qui gon jinn #jedi order #george lucas #dave filoni #meta #long post #really long post

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writings-of-a-hufflepuff · 4 years ago

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Behind a Name

Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars + Original Character

Collection/Series: N/A

Pairing: Captain Bear (Clone Trooper OC) x Female Identifying Reader

Writer: @writings-of-a-hufflepuff aka @hufflepuffing-all-day-long

Rating: T (Drinking)

Warnings: Characters, not the reader, drinking. Swearing. Yearning.

Summary: Out at a Cantina with Bear and his men, you ask a burning question that’s been on your mind ever since you first met him.

Notes: Hi, yes, i’m still on my Captain Bear Bullshit.

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It’s not something you usually do, grabbing drinks with the clone troopers, but Captain Bear’s little troop had whined and moaned at you about leaving medical for five minutes and actually letting your hair down. The most vocal being Sunny and Kal, who had been adamant that you actually socialise even if it was just with them.

You liked Bear’s little rag tag group of soldiers. They were friendly, approachable and oddly enough not quite as straight-laced as some of the others. You often caught them breaking rules and turned a blind eye, little, harmless things that made them entirely more human and entirely more individual and likeable. You didn’t have friends so to speak, but they were the closest to something like that for you.

Captain Bear was the most intriguing of the bunch. Leading the little troupe he was both a captain, authoritative and strategic, and an almost father like figure to his brothers. You noticed the little things he did for them; making sure they ate enough, got to bed on time, had their wounds seen to, that they were doing okay in every little way. Despite his large size, standing at an impressive 6ft 5 with the broadest shoulders you’d ever seen on a man, he was seemingly one of the gentlest of the clones you’d ever met. He spoke softly almost always, was gentle in the way he hefted younglings onto his shoulders and spoke to them as they drew on his armour. He was a rather good case of not judging a book by its cover, and he made you incredibly curious.

You didn’t know much about them, any of them. They were right when they moaned that you barely ever left medical, that you barely ever socialised beyond small talk while tending to injuries. It was a sudden realisation that you didn’t really have any friends and that maybe it was time that you stopped being ‘doc’ all the time and started being you, a friend. That’s what convinced you to go out that night, that’s what convinced you to ask a burning question that had been on your mind since you met the Captain.

“So how exactly did you decide on the name Bear?” You ask him as you lean back in the booth, your preferred beverage in your hand and your legs swung over one of Kal’s. Each trooper chose his own name, after the Jedi had made a point of encouraging more individuality. Each trooper had a reason for the name he chose and it was something that fascinated you endlessly.

The men around you chuckle, Bear included who looks at you with a soft little grin that shows his teeth. It’s annoyingly distracting, the way his smile looks, comforting and inviting.

“You know what a Garu-Bear is?” Sunny asks you before Bear can answer your question, wide grin across his face, stretching the scar across his lip.

You shake your head, assuming some sort of bear like creature but not having heard of that particular species before. Although the vastness of the galaxy it seemed like every other day you heard about another creature that you’d likely never see in person.

“Massive bastards and very, very protective of their cubs. Big parental instincts, pretty soppy for something that can take your head off.” Delta chimes in, explaining what one was. Before Sunny shoves him over to take charge again, “Well, he’s as big and as protective as one, that’s why he’s called Bear.”

“Cause he acts like our damn Papa Bear all the time! Can’t even go out for a drink without him worrying over whether we’ve eaten enough or drank enough water!” Delta chimes in with a guffaw, practically slapping his knee over his own joke, spilling his spotchka over Kal who shoves him away from him with a groan.

“There isn’t any shame in looking after my troops and making sure you eat and sleep.” Bear insists although it’s clear from the way his brow furrows upwards in the middle and the less natural curve of his smile that he’s a little embarrassed by the teasing. It’s sweet, you think, the way he looks out for his brothers, his men. Even if they tease him for it. It’s sweet that he actually cares. You’ve seen captains who put distance between themselves and their men, who don’t seem to care, not truly.

“Then there’s the younglings! He’d adopt every kid we come across if he could, drawn to them like Sunny’s drawn to stray lothcats.” Kal puts his two credits in, leaning across the table and gesturing in the air, drink in hand. His words are a little slurred and you can’t help but smile at how at ease each of the men are in Bear’s presence, even as he, himself, shifts a little uncomfortable in his seat. Bear scratches his beard as if to simply give his hands something to do.

“Hey, don’t be too rough on the captain, not like he’s allowed to have any of his own!” Sunny chimes in in the man’s defence, but you can see how it only embarrasses Bear more. It’s a known fact that the clones weren’t allowed families, weren’t allowed romantic relationships let alone to have children of their own. It’s sad and unfortunate you think, considering Bear would probably make a wonderful father. It breaks your heart a little to know that something so simple as having a family of his own is out of his reach, something he clearly craves on some level.

“Alright, alright! Enough! Why don’t you interrogate the good doctor now, huh?” He gestures towards you with a large hand covered in little scars, pulling the attention away from him as he goes to drink from his cup. You give him a glare that’s not truly annoyed so much as teasing as Delta turns on you this time, clearly the tipsiest of the bunch.

“She’s as much a mama bear as you’re a papa bear. Always fussing over us like we’re her kids!”

“In my defence whenever I see you, Delta, you’re usually filled with blaster holes!” You don’t have much of an argument against it, in truth, because he’s not wrong. You are a naturally caring person, that’s why you went into medicine. Combine that with a healthy sense of right and wrong and a protective streak and it was evident that you could in fact be a bit of a mother bear.

“Yes, ma’am, doesn’t explain all the times you bring Sunny those little sweets he likes or how you remembered that I like spotchka the best.”

“Okay, okay...I'm a mama bear, are you happy now?”

“Oh, plenty!”

The night continues in that vein. Questions are thrown about and answered, with many a teasing remark as you get to know them all a little better and in turn they learn a lot more about you than they ever thought they would.

Once Delta and Kal are a little too drunk to keep going responsibly, you all make your way out of the Cantina. Bear with Delta slung fully over one shoulder and with his free arm underneath Kal’s as he helps them on their way back to the barracks. Delta being by far the most intoxicated. You trail behind with Sunny, making sure the tipsy, but not quite as drunk, man doesn’t fall over or run into anyone either.

Bear and yourself are it seems, the only two sober individuals. It almost makes you laugh, how clearly caring the two of you are, that you fell into the role of the sober friends without meaning to. You just did it because it made sense to ensure your friends got back to barracks okay. It was a startling similarity between the two of you.

Once the two of you have dropped all three men back into the barracks and effectively tucked them into bed, you turn to leave and make your way back to your own quarters across the base. But a gentle hand on your wrist stops you, careful as if worried he’d break you just with a little touch.

You face him, not shrugging off the touch, in fact revelling in it a little too much. A sure sign that your lack of social behaviour has led to you being just a little bit touch starved. It shouldn’t feel that good, shouldn’t cause a yearning in your chest, to have someone hold your wrist gently.

Bear looks at you as he brushes that curl out of his face, the one that promptly falls back into place across his forehead. He’s gentle as his thumb strokes your wrist and he smiles softly at you, those teeth peeking out from behind his lips, dimples forming at the corner of his mouth.

“Let me walk you back? Please?” You don’t need to think, just nod with a bashful smile and slip your wrist from his hand only to bravely slip your hand into his. He twines your fingers together, his so much larger than your own make you feel delicate in a way you haven’t ever felt before.

You feel the warmth in your cheeks, the stutter in your chest as you walk together back towards your quarters. It is early in the morning and no one is wandering about, it makes it easy to forget that you’d both be in trouble if caught with your fingers locked like that. Makes it easy to forget that he’s not allowed an entanglement of the romantic sort.

Despite his significantly longer legs, he slows his pace to match yours, considerate of the difference in your walking speeds. Something little, something that shouldn't matter, but it does, it makes your chest ache. You don’t talk on the walk back, just enjoy each other’s company, the warmth of your hands in each other’s the brush of your arms and the feeling of something new.

There are a few moments where you catch his eye, the two of you caught staring at the other and you laugh awkwardly and look away, warm and giddy and decidedly not feeling like a qualified doctor, like an adult in charge of a series of medical droids and nurses. You feel like a child, a little one with a brand new crush.

But, it’s not new. You have to admit to yourself that you’ve been attracted to Bear since you first saw him, since he introduced himself and his team. He is handsome, warm, and inviting. Like a summer’s day, a soft breeze that plays with your hair and a beaming sun warming your skin. He is gentle and kind too, something which is a stark contrast to so many of the men you are surrounded by every single day. He is careful with his voice, his words, and his actions. Aware of every move he makes, aware of how he is perceived and how he can intimidate. It is his consideration for those around him, his care and protection that warms your soul. You want to be one of those people, one of the people he cares for, protects, looks after...and you want to look after him in return.

Your quarters are isolated, the head doctor, you are given private quarters away from everyone else. A privilege that has often left you feeling isolated, now as the two of you stand in front of your door, hand in hand, you are thankful for the quiet and isolation.

His thumb strokes the back of your hand as you look up at him. Eyes roaming over the freckles on his brown skin, the scar that covers his cheek, that stubborn curl that falls over his forehead no matter how hard he tries to move it.

“Goodnight, Mesh’la.” The mando’a falls off his tongue like honey, soft and sweet it caresses your ears and brings a sigh from your chest as he watches you intently.

“Goodnight, Captain.” But neither of you actually pull away, neither of you untangle your fingers or make to leave the other. Instead the two of you stand there staring at each other in silence, fingers tightening and loosening against each other as you shift them.

You want him to kiss you. You want him to ask to, your tongue sliding across your bottom lip, nervous and full of anticipating. You’re sure he wants to kiss you too, his brown eyes follow the motion, glancing between your eyes and your lips as if ready to ask, to move.

He doesn’t. He takes a deep breath as if steeling himself and pulls away, slowly, ever so slowly, untangling your fingers with a sad little smile that is filled with regret and longing.

“I...I should get back to the barracks...in case the commander comes by.”

“Of course...of...of course.” You can hear the disappointed loud and clear, riding your voice, and so can he, but Bear knows it’s a bad idea. It’s a terrible idea no matter how much he wants to kiss you, he knows he shouldn’t. Knows it’s against the rules, knows he can’t offer you what you deserve. You don’t deserve to be a dirty little secret, a hidden relationship. So he pulls away.

You watch him, leaning back against the door to your quarters as his broad form walks away. Watch him look back not just once, but twice. Watch the sad dip of his brows, the longing smile as he moves away from temptation. He rounds a corner and then he is gone and you wonder if you will have to live with this ache in your chest for all your days. If it is your burden to bear.

------------------------------

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@charradelange @belfry-bat @gabile18 @beccaboo929

#captain bear x reader #captain bear #clone trooper x reader #clone trooper oc x reader #clone wars #clone trooper oc #clone wars reader insert #star wars #star wars reader insert #female identifying reader #female reader

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hellyeahheroes · 4 years ago

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Let Molly Punch Wolverine: Why I’m worried about X-Men appearance in Runaways

I want to preface this by saying that I have strong trust in Rainbow Rowell and while I am behind her series due to financial and pandemic related reasons, I trust her to deliver the best story she is allowed to. The worries I express below come from the fact I do not trust X-Men editorial and Jonathan Hickman enough to believe they will allow her to tell the best story.

The way I see it, Runaways are the quintessential Millenial comic in that it perfectly captures Millenial generation’s disillusionment with world and society built by Baby Boomers. A disillusionment that was to be expected in face of failiure of American defenses to prevent 9/11, the government and mass media wholeheartely embracing islamophobia and homophobia in it’s wake and American war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of myriad other problems that were already present in the 00s and only got worse as we went ahead.

This is not seen just in the core premise of the original series, the idea that the parents kids are taught to respect and look up to are actively evil and damning the world for their own benefit. But also in the general potrayal of adults and adult superheroes in the series, who are mostly useless or outright malicious in case of Doc Justice. Sole exception being somewhat Spider-Man, who himself is portrayed as having gone through what Runaways have and so having insight and empathy other adults lack.

While that theme has become more gray over the years, as Runaways managed to gain a good footing with teachers and students of Avengers Academy alike, and Nico and Victor were on Avengers offshot teams, even then it was clear that the older heroes are not these perfect ideals too look up to, but flaved in their own way. Entire Avengers A.I. is about fixing one of Hank Pym’s screwups and A-Force’s premise is the team doubles as a support group, every member having gone through traumatic experience in the past and being on different stages of healing process (not to mention how it crashed and burned due to mistakes made by Carol in Civil War II). Even X-Men themselves started as outright antagonistic to Runaways under BKV. And then uder Yost went into the mutual “MAYBE they aren’t THAT bad” relationship with Runaways. Every meeting so far had Molly punch Wolverine.

In current series most of the team moved from teenagers to young adults and their experiences still reflect those of late Millenials. There is this feeling in current series of powerlessness, Runaways making it to the adulthood only to find all it gets you is more problems and all ability to fix the world have been systematically wrestled from your hands by the very people who broke it just so that you cannot fix their mess. It is a story about trying to live in a messed up world with that realization and how your found family can help you carry on whatever it will throws at you. I think in this way is why I can turn a blind eye on things like Nico in Strange Academy - it makes sense she would want to at least try to help kids who are going through what she did to not have as much a hard time. And, you know, Strange didn’t invite A NAZI WHO ACTUALLY WORKED AT AUSCHWITZ WITH MENGELE to help him run the school.

I do not beleive X-Men editorial can play along with that. Right now X-Men and their fandom are at the height of drinking their own kool-aid, portraying their stupid sex island as the msot perfect and best thing ever, to the point they ignore the blatantly fashy things happenning like making up new minority groups (precogs and clones) to oppress, or abovementioned inviting of Nazis, mass murderers and islamophobic crusaders who want to “take back Jerusalem”. They are so into the “mutants are a minority” metaphor that they outright demand that every other book touching on it portray negatively anyone who does not immediatelly bows down at their feet. Something we have seen in X-Men interactions with Fantastic Four, where Sue Storm’s legitimate complaints about X-Men’s current position are caricaturized to cast her in a “uniformed homophobic mom” stereotype just to keep the metaphor working. Even in Fantastic Four’s own book. In wake of this I can somewhat see why the infamous “Franklin is not a mutant” retcon took place.

I cannot beleive that current X-office could allow X-Men to be shown in a way that adheres to themes of Runaways. I mean for Pete’s sake, look at their treatment of New X-Men Academy X - another Millenial at heat series. And another one that tackles disillusionment of that generation with Baby Boomers’ run world with its own 9/11 equivalent in form of a terrorist attack that killed many of its students and traumatized the rest. It is a known secret editor Jordan White considers this a “mistake” because it made old X-Men look bad. And under him in particular X-Books had a history of undermining and derailing NXM kids to show them as inexperienced, dumb kids who never had any hardships and do not know what it really takes to be an X-Man, who see it as all the glamour and no work. All in spite of the fact they may have suffered more than all their elders except Karma, writers’ favorite punching bag. Now the books are outright lobotomizing the surviving kids while bringing back dead ones not to explore any stories with them or how such return could affect the ressurected and their friends alike and maybe allow a possibility to heal. No, this is done solely to erase that massacre from ever happenning because it make Jordan White’s heroes look bad.

I’m supposed to believe this editorial will allow Cult Sex Island to be shown as imperfect or not a place that would “obviously” be much better for Molly? That it will allow Runaways to not be cast as “bigots” for not wanting to handle Molly to “real family” (as determined by genetics) same way X-Men treated Fantastic Four? As things stand now X-Men, a franchise and fandom that is ever entitled to special treatment to the point it cried Marvel wants to bury them when having “only” four books a month. One that has demanded for Kamala Khan to be handed over to them and made a mutant just to spite Inhumans over some perceived slights. A fandom that has wished death members of every superhero team with a mutant who refuses to hand the mutant over and celebrated brutal murder of a kid with a reprogrammed Sentinel. This blind entitlement is not jsut a fandom thing but also infects creatives working on it. Need I remind you how Jason Aaron made a big deal out of making Firestar join the X-Men? He took a character who canonically didn’t care much for the team and wanted to do her own thing and retconned her to be a total fangirl who dreamed of joining but was never before truly “worthy” of this “honor”. Right now we have more and more evidence every franchise interacting with X-Men needs to bow down and play a secondary role to it. but the respect here is a one-way street, Jonathan Hickman outright complains about having to adhere to work of other writers. I have absolutely zero trust that editorial will not try to force the story in Runaways to also be worshiping the ground X-men walk on. Worst case scenario they insert themselves like they did with Fantastic Four, becoming recurring plot thread and casting rest of Molly’s family as evil for not wanting her to join what is effectively a cult.

I wish I’m being wrong here. I do not want Runaways to become a glorified advertisement to a bigger franchise that has become souless and vile and whose fans turned into bullies. I have faith in Rainbow Rowell but that faith is outweighted by my distrust in Jordan White and Jonathan Hickman and their egoes. I hope I’m wrong. All I want is a story that ends with X-men fucking off and Molly staying with her real family, the Runaways. And of ocurse, her punching Wolverine. Which I do not trust White and Hickman to allow either.

PS: Some of you are probably already typing some sort of “if you don’t like the X-men, just don’t read them” response. To you I say: I would be glad too. Too bad they keep forcing themselves into things I actually like. Like a mold. Which is a good metaphor for what this old, gross thing the franchise has become.

-Admin

#Runaways #X-Men #Molly Hayes #Marvel

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