#no she wasn’t inspired by padme but feel free to draw a connection if you please

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

🐈

Your random OC is... Fallensmoke!

Fallensmoke is a gray-and-white molly with teal eyes, long claws, dark whiskers, and faded scars on her back and on the back of her neck. She is the other half of Weaselfur, whose alternate description was used.

Meaning she technically has a sprite.

She is Kestralflight's sister, known as the more rebellious type. Mentored by Webfoot, who very much had his paws full with her. She was quiet, but she had the tendency to question everything, and be a bit of a boundary pusher. Where Kestrelflight fully believes in Starclan, Fallensmoke had quite a few doubts for a while! However, she is extremely family oriented and would do anything for her beloved brother. If he needed her to send a prayer request to the Moonpool because he was too busy, she would be marching down there in a heartbeat.

Also, her name was not always Fallen-suffix. She was originally named Fawnkit until she was grabbed by a hawk a little while before her apprentice ceremony. She slashed at the hawk's belly with her long claws and it let her go into the camp. Not only were the scratches it left quite pretty when they scarred up, but the fall left her completely unshaken!

She sat back, let the older cats fuss over her and asked Onestar "So, when is my ceremony again? Sorry, I didn't catch what you said."

He made her and Kestralkit apprentices on the spot.

She became Fallenpaw, then Fallensmoke during Long Shadows, as she did not participate in the Eclipse battle and failed a hunting assessment.

But later on, during Omen Of The Stars, she fell for someone during those long, warm nights when After-Gatherings ran late. Someone she probably shouldn't have.

Fallensmoke falls in love with Redwillow. His passion endears her to him, he talk of revolution, about how much he wishes the Clans would change, about his grief for his recently passed on mother, died during the Drought.

She listened to him, and they spent a lot of time together. They fall in love and Redwillow swears that he will protect her, he will make the Clans change.

Fallensmoke didn't realize how serious he was. She soon after found out she was pregnant, carrying his kits. He responded to it well enough, but began talking about how exactly he was planning to change things. His Dark Forest mentor, Rushtooth, was going to help him destroy the Clans, to put them back together of course! He began pointing out more Dark Forest Trainees, naming their mentors, more and more horrifying historical figures got name dropped, more and more would a chilling glint form in Redwillow's eyes...

She ran. She never attended another Gathering again. She kept to herself and when the Great Battle came, Fallensmoke heavily pregnant, Redwillow found her again, begging and pleading to just listen to me and please come with us I swear I'll fix it

She didn't say anything, what was she supposed to say when Redwillow looked at her, fur matted and faded like he hadn't taken care of himself in ages, his eyes desperate and pleading and full of love but paired with something Fallensmoke couldn't out to words.

She hid behind Lionblaze, who quickly drove Redwillow off. The last Fallensmoke would hear about him was that he had been killed by Rowanclaw after murdering Blackstar alongside Ratscar.

5 day laster, Fallensmoke gave birth to 2 kits. A tiny white kitten with gray flecks, named Goosekit, and a mottled brown and ginger kitten with a large head, a little copy of its father.

She names it Willowkit.

[medschoolash]

Now that i’ve seen the end and had a chance to really marinate on the saga as a whole I don’t think I was ever the type of Star Wars fan who would be satisfied with what most people view as the main draw to star wars. So I don’t think Star Wars was ever truly for someone like me.

I was never that hard into the OT.  I’ve seen them all and I enjoy the films but they don’t really deeply resonate with me. I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t born when they were created or if it’s because they just weren’t made with a fan like me in mind but the OT isn’t some reverent untouchable piece of fiction for me. I more so connected with characters vs that actual film. I adored Luke and Leia, I adored the concept of a fierce princess and rebellion leader and these two siblings connected by so much tragedy and love. That’s the lasting legacy of the OT for me. 

I’m actually one of those Star Wars fans who adore the prequel films more than the OT. I only watched because I had a crush on Hayden Christensen and it was star wars so how could I not watch and I really really loved those films. I loved Padme, I found Anakin so compelling because I already knew how his story ended but watching how he got there was a good movie experience for me. I adored the themes of Love, fear, friendship, and the exploration of the force. One of my favorite things about the prequels was how it toyed with the idea that the ideas of Jedi are not infallible and pure ideas and how their ideology can create a monster just as much as the ideology of the sith even if it’s in a completely different way. It was compelling to watch Anakin struggle with his love for Padme that is forbidden by the Jedi and how that ban on attachment is what ultimately started to push Anakin over to the dark side because what human being truly wants to live with no love, no real relationships? I loved the politics of the prequels which entertained me for more than the daily adventures of the OT and the prequels. The political landscape in the galaxy and how it allowed someone like the emperor to rise to power was so compelling. It was also so compelling to watch these powerful Jedi be completely powerless to stop these political machinations. I love that Padme was a fierce leader and that she was one of the most sensible and powerful people in the prequel trilogy despite having no force sensitivity. Her love for Anakin was so strong just like her love for her people. She’s literally only a young woman in the films but she can see the democracy they have established crumbling in front of her and she’s one of the few who has the guts to acknowledge it. She believed in the love of her life but even when he turned down a path she didn’t agree with she held strong to her morals. That took so much strength when you see all you’ve worked for crumbling to the ground and the man you love falling apart along with it and he’s not even just the man that you love he’s literally your husband and the father of your unborn children. It was painful to watch but Padme knew what she stood for and not even Anakin could change that. 

Those are the themes and nuances I loved about star wars. Not the fun battles and action scenes, the endless adventures, the cool displays of the forces. I got sucked in by the themes of the force, not the power, by the character dynamics, and the themes that were explored through those dynamics. I liked the OT trio because of the themes of friendship and love and how they all are different from each other but fit, not because I like seeing three cool characters go off on adventures together to defeat the bad guys. I guess for me Star Wars was never just about fun action-packed adventure even if that aspect was enjoyable to see on screen. Without the character relationships and depth, without the exploration of relatable themes that weave together into a narrative beautifully and in a compelling way these films are just shallow spectacles. 

When the Sequal trilogy was announced I wasn’t immediately deeply excited about it. I didn’t even see the force awakens in theaters. I watched it months later when I was bored one day and I’m glad I did because what I saw was so interesting and exciting and it inspired me to really get into a whole new generation of Star Wars film. A modernized Star Wars sounded amazing and the prospects after TFA seemed endless. But even with the ST what drew me wasn’t what drew a lot of people. I didn’t really care about seeing Luke, Leia, and Han again just for the thrill of seeing them. I cared about being able to see the original heros because they were weaved into a story where they have a fallen son, a fallen son who just so happened to be the most interesting new character in the films. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was such a mystery when he first came on screen and then he proceeded to be the only character really explored on a deeper psychological level in the film which made him the most compelling as well. I was so shocked when it was revealed he was Han and Leia’s son but I loved the reveal because of the themes it explored. How the weight of legacy is contemplated, how the failures of parenting are explored, how relentless love for a child is demonstrated. My favorite theme was also how failure was introduced. How the Jedi were not a myth that some people barely even believed truly existed, how all that the original heroes worked for somehow crumbled and even took one of their own with it. That was interesting to me, that was the thing that made me want to see more. 

And then there was Rey, this nobody from nowhere who had all this power and years worth of baggage due to abandonment and isolation. Using her to explore another side of family, the theme of absent family and absent purpose and legacy directly contrasted with the way family, legacy, and purpose were explored with Kylo and it made for such a rich narrative which is why the idea of them coming together, the idea of them being the missing piece of the puzzle for each other made so much sense and felt so compelling. 

Even with Finn, we got an interesting perspective of someone who was conditioned to be in the FO from birth and someone managed to break free to live on their own. I loved how they explored how you don’t really have your own identity after an experience like that so you latch on to the only things you know like fear and self-preservation. It was a perspective that was new and fresh for star wars. After TFA everything felt new and fresh and inspiring. 

Then TLJ happened and it did so many good things on a narrative level that the entire scope of Star Wars was expanded in new and interesting ways. The way it truly explored the failures of the Jedi. The way it showed a broken hero grappling with his biggest failures and feelings powerless to fix then so only shame and guilt exist. The way it explored the idea that the people we love are never really gone and love can bring even the most broken of us back. The way is even dissected the black and white dichotomy and suggested that the true solution was something in between. The way it explored how two completely different people from two completely backgrounds can both feel alone and connect with each other. The way is pretty much shot down the idea that a hero is only bravado and brash behavior, and charm mixed with the desire to do good but true heroes are those who make sacrifices, those who listen, those who think bigger picture instead of small victories. I love the idea that heroes aren’t just a great speech with an improbable plan but the heart to make people believe in it, but instead, they can be mild-tempered women who are short on encouraging speech but are big on plans that will save them all,  people who know that doing the obvious and taking a big risk isn’t always what counts as heroics. 

TLJ also even expanded the mythology of the force in a way that made it more than just a cool supernatural thing to talk about with friends. I loved how the force was once again talked about as a thing that can exist in all living people. How it gave the force space to exist outside of the skywalkers and any huge legacy at all. I mean that moment where the little slave child is shown to be force sensitive was such an amazing moment because it made you dream of all the other people out there who might be the same, the other nobodies and forgotten people like Rey who hold this great power that can save the galaxy. It made the legacy of our favorite original heroes and characters so much bigger than was it was before, so much more meaningful and it was exciting and fresh and new and IMO paid homage to the themes and concepts that George Lucas originally established in an amazing way. 

But quickly I learned that this wasn’t what a lot of Star Wars fans wanted to see or cared about. They wanted more action, not family names, more force powers, more badass moments from their favorite old characters, more shallow evil villains, more boom bang, more trio adventures just for the sake of having adventures and TROS has really highlighted this because most of the people who say they enjoyed it only say “it was so fun!” “it was so cool to see X old character!” “the trio got to go on adventures!” “the good guys won!” “The Jedi was right!” “wow, this person was related to this person!” . None of the stuff that seemed to matter to a fan like me even registered for a lot of people and none of the creators seemed to care about making it matter. I didn’t come for the action, I didn’t come for nostalgia, I didn’t come for adventure, I didn’t come to hear old last names, and see old faces. I came for characters and themes, and relationship dynamics, and exploration of belief systems and people how they fail or succeed, I came to see the force finally explained for what it truly is instead of having it confined to bloodlines. I came to see how a new generation of people, some with a great family legacy before then and some with no legacy at all can come together build a new legacy and a new world for themselves and the galaxy out of the ashes of all that came before them and I feel like with the final film I’ve finally realized that what I came for was never what this was meant to be and that realization is both freeing and disheartening.