#plus it’s really hard to work leia in properly

[vashti-lives]

The problem with AUs where Vader has a change of heart sooner and survives his fight with the emperor is that I’m never going to believe his change of heart is real or meaningful unless he allows himself to be put on trial and judged for like… the massive amount of genocide he has committed. Justice requires him to acknowledge the harm he has done and offer whatever restitution he can.

And like irl I am DEEPLY anti death penalty but within the framework of gffa like… from the perspective of a normal person what else can you do with him? He’s an evil space wizard who can access magic powers and all the people who would have known how to deal with that are dead because… he killed them… maybe Luke says oh no he’s good now he’ll behave himself in prison but how can most people believe that? Particularly because you know if Vader goes on trial his real identity will be revealed and thus his relationship with Luke.

So while I theoretically enjoy a good Luke & Vader bonding story unless it’s very very AU I don’t really think there’s an ending for them that’s more satisfying than what we got in canon.

[deannaroxannewrites]

Tropetember Day 1: Friends to lovers

The Day After

Pairing: Poe Dameron x GN!Reader

Fandom: Star Wars (Sequel trilogy)

Rating: General Audiences

TW: Alcohol (mentioned), drinking

AN: So, I finally pulled myself together and started properly writing! I'm hoping to do most of @tropetember with various x reader stories but if anyone has requests/thoughts please do share.

Find this story on Ao3 here.

Word Count: 1.5k

We'd won! The Resistance had won! We'd managed to take down the Final Order fleet and Palpatine in the nick of time.

That's great. All good.

Sadly, life doesn't suddenly stop simply because you win the war.

As the rest of the base slept off their hangovers/started day drinking in continued celebration, you sat at your console in the empty main command centre. You were in the process of going over supply runs, inventory and other important yet dull tasks necessary to keep the base afloat. It didn't matter that the majority of personnel were consuming alcohol and nothing else. Even that would run out eventually.

You made it through most of the day, getting through the 'essential for survival' task list and starting on the 'urgent but could do tomorrow' list, before you were disturbed. At least, disturbed by more than the celebratory ruckus outside the building.

"Colonel Y/L/N"

You sigh quietly to yourself. And it had been going so well.

"Can I help you General?"

You don't look up as you respond. You've spent enough time with Poe Dameron to know his voice anywhere. Plus, eye contact only encouraged him. And distracted you if you were honest, but that involved crawling out of that deep pit of denial you were currently living in so you weren't going to do that.

“Well, I don’t know if you noticed,” he drawled, propping himself lazily up against the workstation next to you, “but we won the war yesterday. Could you maybe, I don’t know, chill out and stop working for 10 seconds?”

You scoff quietly to yourself. You understood why Leia had made him General. Despite his bluster and cocky flyboy attitude, he was a calculating strategist whose tactics snatched victory from the jaws of defeat time and again. As a professional with advanced military training though, you had occasionally doubted that he had it in him to deal with the day-to-day aspects of commanding the Resistance. (Was it still the Resistance if the enemy was destroyed? Hmm, pin that thought for later. There might be a full rebrand on the horizon.) At least, he might not be able to manage without support. Good job he had you really.

“I was aware, yes” you respond, continuing to draft a message to the Senate, “bit hard to miss with the sheer volume at the moment”.

That makes Poe laugh. Mirth lights up his eyes and he gets that intolerably cheeky grin upon his handsome face.

"What do I have to do to drag you away from your console?"

"Let me finish my work? Or, you know, since you're here, maybe you could help"

With a fond shake of his head he moves behind you, wraps his arms around you and drags your chair away from the console. You squeak with indignation.

"Unhand me you beast!" You laugh, trying to be stern. It's not very successful.

"Nope. Not a chance. You're coming with me. That's an order."

You grumble under your breath as he stands you up and drags you out of the command centre. You're not convincing anyone that you're not exactly where you want to be though, and eventually allow yourself to be tucked under his arm and led towards the celebrations.

‐------

You're a little overwhelmed by the celebration. Poe had led you straight outside to the bonfire and as soon you had stepped into the clearing, you'd been spotted. You turn yourself into Poe slightly to try and hide yourself. He wasn't having it though, pressing a quick kiss to your forehead before dragging you into the ruckus.

You were immediately accosted by your overly cheerful (and slightly drunk) friends. All of them take a moment to thank you for keeping everything together. It was all very overwhelming, it's not like you felt that you had done anything particularly special.

"Ladies, gentlemen, non-binary individuals and droids of the Resistance" came Poe's voice. You look over to him where he stands on a nearby table. Finn stood relaxed at his side, a bright blue drink in hand.

"We have been through a very difficult time these last few weeks and we have lost many people." Poe pauses for a moment, taking a steadying breath. "Losing General Organa could have been the end for us, even with myself and Finn taking over her role".

A somber silence has overtaken the crowd but many of them are nodding gently or holding onto their neighbours for support. The fire crackles in the background as Finn takes over.

"Generals are only as good as their team, and there is one specific person who has held our efforts together." Finn waves his arm in your direction as he continues. "Colonel Y/N has been an absolute rock, no aspect of this extraordinary success would have been possible without their impressive and dedicated work behind the scenes".

You straighten your spine, keeping yourself tall as all eyes fall on you. You, however, keep yours trained on Poe as he gestures you up onto the table.

"In the coming weeks, we will have a proper ceremony to celebrate all of those who have gone above and beyond. But we felt that we should take a moment to celebrate the backbone of the resistance."

Poe takes back over from his co-General as he notes that "We would have done this earlier but they were busy organising resupplying the alcohol". The crowd laughs at that and Poe turns his sparkling grin toward you. Gosh, he is handsome. All cheekbones and curly brown hair. It's rude, quite frankly.

He wraps his arm around you as he calls out to the crowd. "Let's hear it for Colonel Y/N!"

The crowd erupts and you can't control the grin, leaning into Poe slightly for support. Your entire career you've been in the background, this sudden recognition is a bit much.

Everyone cheers, lifting their drinks in salute.

You take a moment to soak it in, before swiftly climbing down and attempting to blend into the background. Your attempt is dashed by Poe though as he grabs you again, gently tugging you towards the makeshift dance floor.

The music, which had paused momentarily for the Generals’ impromptu speech, had recommenced and there was currently a Nabooian love song drifting across the party. It was an interesting contrast to the boisterous conversations surrounding the clearing.

When you arrive at your destination you once again find yourself in Poe’s arms, this time slowly swaying to the beat. He’s such an affectionate man that it is sometimes really difficult to remember that you’re not together. That he’s not interested in you. You’d met Zorii in her brief visit after the battle and had heard enough from Ray to bring your insecurities to the fore.

You rest your head against Poe’s chest, tucking yourself into him and quietly sighing to yourself. You’re a Colonel of the Resistance, this pining nonsense is not helpful and you really need to get over him. He obviously hears you though and pulls back a little, aiming a questioning glance your way.

You shake your head slightly, smiling to try and deflect but now, with the war basically finished, he seems to have decided you have the time to unpack this.

“You can tell me you know?” he whispers.

You smile a self-deprecating smile and choose not to respond, but he isn’t having it.

“You’re the bravest person I know. You can say it”

You move to pull away but he doesn’t let you. Instead, he pulls you closer and for the first time, you see the way he looks at you.

It’s all it takes to break your self-restraint as you push yourself up onto your tiptoes and press your lips against his. He immediately deepens the kiss, holding you close before slowing the pace and breaking away. He doesn’t go far, resting his forehead against yours.

As first kisses go, it’s the best you’ve ever had.

It’s as you try to return your breathing to normal that you tune back into the rest of the world. You hear the whooping and what sounds like Finn shouting “finally” at the top of his voice. It’s the only warning you get before the other General crashes into you both, wrapping you in a bone-crushing hug.

BB-8 starts beeping wildly as he zooms around you in circles and, in the centre of all the people you love, you whisper gently against his lips, "I love you".

His answering smile is blinding as he repeats the sentiment before your best friend dips you and snogs the life out of you.

And on the evening after the final battle, in the firelight and surrounded by the celebrating members of the resistance, you wonder, as you wrap your arms around Poe, if life gets any better than this.

You doubt it.

[sushiburritonoms]

I've been having terrible writer's block lately, not enjoying anything I've written, not getting anywhere with WIPs. Poor @darkisrising and @bronze-lorica have had to talk me off edges lately (thanks guys you're the best!). I think I finally have a chapter 3 for Sacred Texts but I'm sitting on it for a while to see if that's the direction I really want to go. I'm soooo sorry for the delay.

In the meantime I was looking through my notes for The Father the Son and the Exile and I found a bunch of scenes I wrote and abandoned as the fic moved in different directions. I figured I'd post some of them because they'll never see the light of day otherwise and because I have nothing else to offer right now.

Originally in Exile, Din and Luke were supposed to make it to Tython. I had them meeting up with Han AND Leia on the planet Ajan Kloss (its the planet Luke and Leia train on in TROS). Its interesting looking back at this, Din and Luke have a different dynamic since I wrote this a long time ago back in March when the story was going in a different direction (I also wrote an homage to one of Writer Owl's fics in the dialogue). I enjoy playful Luke, I don't really write him that often and that's a real shame. Anyways here's wonder wall, enjoy!

Ajan Kloss  was a swampy humid hellhole of a planet that no rational, sentient being should visit, let alone enjoy. Of course that meant that Grogu and Luke were comfortable in the sticky humid environment. In fact there was a rare smile stretched across Luke's face and he sounded almost nostalgic as he talked around their campfire.

“There’s a certain type of moss that grows on the trees here that’s edible.”

Din refused to look up at Luke from where he was cleaning their meal.  “I’m not drinking any tea you make out of it.”

“It’s more of a garnish?”

Din sighed. “Don’t touch my fish.” He forcefully stuck a stick lengthwise through the fish as an emphasis.

“Grogu should really have more vegetation in his diet. Master Yoda used to eat plants.”

Din snorted. “You’re welcome to try.” It wasn’t like the kid never ate vegetables but they were always fried and covered in spices. That probably wasn’t what Luke was getting at.

“Maybe later. He did eat two whole frogs.”  Luke edged himself closer to the fire. “Maybe after this we could swing by Dagobah. You know, assuming we’re not about to trigger some sort of sneak attack or trap. There are tubers I could dig up for him that Master Yoda ate, plus I could pick up more gnarltree bark.”

Din blinked and raised his head up to properly look at Luke. He knew what Luke was doing. He was trying to distract himself with thoughts of the future. It was a tactic Din often used himself--strategize every possible outcome in the hopes the future won’t be as terrifying as it feels.

On the one hand, he was amused and touched by Luke’s continued fixation on Grogu’s eating habits, even if it was hypocritical of Luke given his own poor diet.  It reminded Din of some of the older members of the Covert that used to watch Din when he was little. They always used to harass him to eat everything offered to him and gave him sharp nudges when he tried to skip directly to the occasional sweet treat left out for all the foundlings to share. It was very Mandalorian of Skywalker and it felt good. Familiar.

On the other hand, Din really, really didn’t want any more tree bark in the Wayfinder. So Din didn’t really know what to say.

“Hold this.” Din shoved a fish skewer into Luke’s hand. Yeah that worked.

Luke took the skewer with a hint of a smile.  “Master Yoda used to eat certain mushrooms too, I think I can safely identify them. Or maybe I could put together an aquarium in the Wayfinder and we could take more frogs with us. I bet I can repurpose one of the smaller cloning cylinders I have in the back and add a filtration system...”

Din shuddered at the thought  of living with a cloning vat filled with frogs and the likelihood of frogs, moss and tree bark for dinner several nights a week.  Just no. “This is why our people are ancient enemies,” he shuddered. “You live like animals.”

There was silence. Too long of a silence. Din looked up.

Luke was staring at him with a shocked look on his face. “Our people are ancient enemies?” He whispered.

Ah kriff. Din winced. “So I’ve heard.”

“....Oh.”  Luke looked crushed.  “Nobody told--well. There’s a lot nobody told me,” he sighed. “About being a Jedi.”

Damn damn damn. Din wanted to throw his hands up in the sky.

“I guess that makes sense,” Luke mumbled. He was fiddling with the fish skewer in his hands. “All the other Mandalorians I’ve ever met have tried to capture or kill me. I thought it was just the Bounty…”

“I’m not like other Mandalorians.”  Din interrupted, desperate to turn the conversation. It was technically true, probably just not in a way that helped their relationship. Er--their partnership?  Their--whatever this was.

“I mean I like you…”

Din froze. What.

“You’re really good at fishing and Grogu loves you.  I’d hate to have to kill you.”

Din’s heart restarted in his chest again.  Was Luke...messing with him?   “You wouldn’t leave a mark.”

Luke blinked up at him innocently and fluttered his damn eyelashes.  “I could totally kill you in your sleep.”

The little shit!  “I’ll poison your tea.”

“It’s pretty much already poison. I’m immune.”

Heh, true.  “Your fish then.”

“I’ll just go grab a frog.”

“You’re staying here and eating my damn fish!”

Luke burst out into sudden loud laughter.  It was like a sudden fierce rainstorm in the way it showered over the camp. It startled Grogu, who had been ignoring both of them in favor of playing with some shiny rocks nearby.  He tilted his head and then matched Luke’s laughter with a baby chuckle of his own.

“Sorry! I think it's just my nerves talking but that just sounded wrong and so funny--”

Din just shook his head. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what had set Luke off but he didn’t care. “Crazy Jedi.”

“Trigger happy Mandalorian.”  Luke gave him a giant smile.  “Hurry up and finish this.” He gave Din back the fish skewer and chuckled again.  Despite his comment about his nerves, Luke’s shoulders were relaxed and his legs were spread out comfortably by the fire. Din could stare at his lopsided smile all evening, especially as the sun set and the fire highlighted the delight in his eyes. The sun shone through the lighter parts of Luke’s shaggy long hair. It was now untied from the neat bun it had started in and looked soft and golden in the light.

Stars above help him.  Luke was beautiful.  Din was tired of denying the thought. He wanted to touch Luke’s face with his bare hands, run his fingers through his hair and that was terrifying. He hadn’t wanted to take off his armor for anyone, besides Grogu, in ages. Maybe with Omera...but this was much different. The feelings he’d had for her were a momentary weakness compared to the colossally bad idea this was to develop an attraction for this damaged Jedi.  Din had no idea what tomorrow was going to bring.  Even if nothing happened, there was the uncertainty of the next day and the next to worry about. Luke was a marked man and every day there was a chance something could take him out. Take him away. The thought burned in him like a chemical fire inside a reactor.  Caged deep inside of him, destructive it released, and burning with an intensity greater than Din could stand.

This was why he never got involved with people before he found Grogu. He didn’t know what to do with the intensity of his feelings and how to fit them into his unpredictable life.

“Din?” Luke’s smile fell slightly. “You ok?”

“..Yeah.”  Din did what he always did. He pushed his feelings away and tried to focus on the present.  What had they been talking about? Food. He sat and thought for a moment. Maybe...

“I have a contact on Tatooine, from a rural town few people have heard of. Mos Epsa.”

“Mos Eps--I thought that was wiped from the planet years ago.” Luke looked impressed.

“It’s still there.”  Din handed Luke a cooked fish skewer and settled back with his own. “We could go there, for a while. We’d be safe. I’m assuming we can both eat Tatooine food.”

Luke picked at his fish. “I do miss blue milk.”

Good.  “I’ll add it to the list.”

Luke chuckled. “You have a list?”

“Of safe planets we can stop at. We should have alternatives to the drop pods and not be reliant on the New Republic. My list is probably different from yours so we have more options.” Din stabbed his fish a little harder with his skewer to make his opinion of Luke’s employers known.

The smile on Luke’s face got impossibly wider. “That makes sense...Thank you.”

Din grunted. The smile on Luke’s face was too distracting.  Instead he looked down at his food. Oh. Right. Damn.

Luke made the exact realization at the same time. “Sorry! I forgot, I can go back to the ship--”

“Shut up and sit down, Jetti.” Din shook his head. He only hesitated for a half second before he reached up to his helmet and unlatched it. He opened it wide enough to take a bite.

“Or you could do that. Of course.” Luke babbled.  He turned his head so he wasn’t looking at Din.  Which was sweet. But also meant he wasn’t looking at his food.

“Eat.” Din growled. “All of it.” How was it this hard to feed a grown adult? Grogu gave him less trouble. Gods help Skywalker, Din was about to channel some of the fiercest warriors he knew to get him to eat more.

Luke gave him a mock solute. “Yes sir.”

Din began to reach for his sidearm.

Luke responded with a rather unnecessarily dainty bite of fish.

Din began to unhook his blaster.

Luke nibbled at one edge of a fin.

The blaster powered up.

Luke kriffing licked his fish.

“That’s disgusting.” Din gave up. He couldn’t help it--he chuckled as he powered down his blaster.

“Yeah it is,” Luke stuck his tongue out. “Fish is gross.”

“I thought you said you’d eat anything.”

“I do. I don’t have to like it.  I didn’t grow up eating fish, it’s both slimy and spikey at the same time.”

“You eat frogs.”

“You can eat a small frog in one bite! I’ve gotten fish bones stuck in my throat.”

“You’re not supposed to eat the bones.”

“Nobody told me that the first time. What part of ‘raised on a desert planet’ does no one understand?”

“You’re an idiot.”

Luke sat back. “I’m done now, mom. May I go now?”

Din sighed. “No.” He held out another fish skewer.

“You got to be kidding me.”

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“How hard is the har--YIKES! NO! LETGO! ARGHHH!!!!!”

‘Yup’, Din thought to himself as he held the struggling, still too skinny, Jedi in a headlock.  He had it bad and he was going to regret this.

Tomorrow. He’ll regret it tomorrow.

“DJARIN LET ME GO NOW OR YOU’RE GOING IN THE SWAMP!”

Here’s hoping the desert boy could swim.

[meepmorpperaltiago]

Stranger Things future headcanons

My Stranger Things hyperfixation is Strong rn so I’ve slowly been piling up all my future headcanons into this way-too-long monstrosity ✌️

– Hopper and Joyce get married in 1987 and basically live happily ever after

– They get together pretty much as soon as they’re reunited – as the cabin has been destroyed beyond repair and Joyce wants to move back to Hawkins, Hopper and El end up staying at their new house in what’s supposed to be a temporary arrangement but becomes permanent pretty fast

– Hopper struggles a lot post Russia but with the support of Joyce and the kids he gets through it

– Murray is his best man

– El waits a year to go to college and then moves in with Mike when she’s in her second year and he’s in his third. They don’t go to the same college but they get a place close enough that they can both commute to their respective campuses

– They also get a cat named Leia and both get jobs to earn a bit of extra money considering they’re still students – El works at a local library and Mike works in a coffee shop

– Max and El are roommates in their first year of college (Max took a gap year) and Max moves into the apartment opposite Mike and El’s

– Lucas and Max are basically the Ross and Rachel to Mike and El’s Chandler and Monica, they have constant on again off again drama for years until they finally get together and stay together when they’re a little older

– Will goes to art college in New York, while Dustin also goes further afield to study communications, but they keep in touch with the others as much as they can

– Having already had their first concert experiences back in ‘87 with Madonna’s Who’s That Girl Tour, El and Max go to the Blonde Ambition tour together and have the best time

– The gang also all go and see Nirvana together because the image of them all huddled together jumping up and down to Smells Like Teen Spirit is too precious

– Mike proposes to El on a quiet Sunday morning in their apartment – he makes her Eggos on a special plate that says “marry me?” on it

– They find out there’s a clearing in Mirkwood that’s become popular for weddings and they have their ceremony there, on the 7th November 1994, 11 years after they first met. Literally everyone sobs.

– Once she graduates El continues working at the library while she works to get a master’s degree to become a therapist. In the year following whatever’s going to happen in season 4, with the help of Doctor Owens she started going to therapy and it helped her so much that she eventually realised she wanted to help people that way – and with a heck of a lot of hard work, she succeeds!

– Mike studies literature and eventually becomes a high school English teacher, with an ambition to become a writer someday. He stays that way for 6 years, until him and El start having kids and he decides to become a stay at home dad, especially because El earns more than he does so financially it makes more sense for him to take time out of work, plus he really wants to be a more active dad than his own father. While he’s at home with the kids, he writes his first full fantasy novel, which eventually becomes a massive success and allows him to fully launch his writing career in the way that he always wanted.

– Mike and El have 3 kids – Lily (b. 1998), Ryan (b. 2000) and Emma (b. 2004). All 3 kids inherit El’s powers and they work incredibly hard to make sure that a. The kids are raised to keep it concealed and that b. They never experience the pain and fear that El suffered.

– Nancy and Jonathan become a highly success journalist – photojournalist team, eventually getting married and having 2 kids after a few years of travelling the world, Jason (b. 1997) and Clare (b. 2001)

– Steve and Robin remain lifelong friends – they end up working together when they’re older, because he eventually becomes a gym teacher and she becomes a language teacher

– Because I’m basically projecting Ross and Rachel onto them, while they’re on again and off again Max and Lucas end up with an unintended pregnancy, which Max discovers at Mike and El’s wedding – their son Ethan is born in 1995 and they’re great co parents even before they properly get back together

– While Lucas becomes an aerospace engineer, Max becomes a skateboarding instructor and eventually starts her own skate school

– They finally get together permanently in 1999 and never look back, eventually getting married in 2002 and having a second child, Marcus, a year later

– Will comes out to everyone at the end of his first year – he becomes a comic book illustrator and ends up with a comic book writer named Chris Cole. They get a civil union in 2000 and then get married as soon as they can and they adopt twin babies named Matt and Emily in 2005

– Dustin does something techy with computers for a while but him and his wife Demi get a farm out of nowhere (I just love the idea of Dustin’s life taking a completely random direction and everyone being shocked ok) – they say that their animals are like their children

– In 2007 at a party reunion Lily, Marcus, Ryan and Emma put on a truly epic performance of the first two high school musical soundtracks, with Ethan, Matt, Emily and all the adults as their audience

– The party eventually get a group chat that they post in constantly

– Once a year they also all get back together in person specifically to play a big game of D & D (they do it over zoom in 2020 and are planning to do the same this year)

– Leia passes away in 2006 and a year later the Wheelers get a labradoodle named Chewie

– Max and El get a podcast together. I don’t know what the heck they talk about, but they have a podcast. Their children are highly embarrassed by this but they don’t care at all.

– When El first moved out to go to college just over 30 years ago, she promised to phone Hopper every Sunday – they call each other every Sunday afternoon to this day and when lockdown started it became a FaceTime with the whole family.

[icharchivist]

hello icha!! i finally got around to finishing the stranger haha,, by which i mean i just watched it today. was veryyyy excited for it as i really like the poster design for this one. anyways. this event starting w/ the sort of portrait format or whatever / that narration is like. god. threw me right back to autumn troupe. I kind of love that the storytelling format itself is so distinct for autumn! the moment I realized it was omi I started getting teary… like oh man oh man… omi…. And the connection with him taking photos! ahh!! now that I think about it… omi kind of seems a bit like early version tsumugi, huh? also I keep forgetting this man is a college student lol. suspension of disbelief I suppose. onto the play i think like. mankai should invest in a fainting courch for tsuzuru. i also went to watch the play and 1) im betting yuki had a hell of a time costume design wise like the vines on the body? such fun costuming wise and 2) the ethical implications of whatever this play has,,, fun fun. tsuzuru was clearly having some kind of thoughts. i love zeros design and am always up for a3 characters crossdressing bc 1) i think its fun and 2) the costume design. i also dearly wish this whole thing was animated bc I feel like it’d be o fun to see taichi act as zero. or at least I hope this event gets full voiced one day... moving on to the scene where omi adds soy sauce to the paella I know it’s just like haha homare funny so lets five him a lil bit but like everyone in autumn troupe making their comments on the paella and like homare just jumping in. homare autumn troupe besties. just thinking. also the way they just r like. no no no omi it’s fine if u made a mistake!! it’s ok! we like it (you) anyways <3 it’s got it’s own special taste. something something omi’s perfectly pleasant as he is now but even if he weren’t on his a-game and was dealing with all of the biker gang stuff they would love him just as hard. another thing that got me was omi telling banri that he’ll give him something sweet so juza will stop grinding his teeth in his sleep… guys… guys you’ll give him cavities…. mb omi is a college student after all lol.

anyways when i saw the actual costumes. appreciative of them, i like the lil circuit-esque detailing on banri’s outfit, and that sakyo and taichi (nine and zero) both share that like collar detail? its very symbolic and probably also literal but its a nice way to sort of signify their relation to each other visually! also sakyo just looks nice. seeing him without glasses is so great. whoever thought up the like two mole detail for him was doing gods work.

something that confused me was ryo mistaking juza for nachi for a split second? like. does juza… look similar to nachi? or was it just that ryo only heard juzas voice and made that mistake. if it’s appearance wise too. kumon nachi confirmed. I’m joking lol bc I feel like I would’ve heard at least something abt it in one of the like small conversation comments, plus that doesnt seem like itd fit summer troupes style and kumon is for sure the wrong age… but still.

i really like how for this event, the roles for taichi and omi were kinda reversed. and taichis just so like. idk. smiley. rly lifts ur spirits. its kind of nice how this event contrasts to that cg where taichi is crying on omi. I also think like. idk. considering the story of the stranger. wolf gives zero a sense of purpose and life and I think that zero helps wolf lose his apathy. it’s about “the stranger” and the ending makes him like… not a stranger, right? because he’s got a companion. in the same way, taichi brings omi out of his emotional isolation. the picture taking! also the stickers coming back… thats such a good setup! the found family of it all!!

when he was trying to work out zeros character as soon as taichi mentioned a sharp speaking style I KNEW it was Yuki… yuki would never be as honest as zero is though lol… to me i imagine she’s got a sort of juza internal monologue feel? anyways. the taichi yuki dynamic intrigues me. havent yet decided how I feel abt it but when I do… yes. sorry that I make literally no sense. I think it’s very obvious that yuki is my fav chara kind of? I’m just. hmmm it makes me think! I’ve been monologuing to myself abt the yuki and juza dynamic lately which, to my a3 knowledge so far, doesn’t exist, but its ok bc I’ll make it exist! uhhh anyways this event was very good i liked the pacing. i think it didnt drag too hard and it really properly honed in on just omi and taichi, which was quite nice. they really did a lot for just an event!

time to listen to the event song,,, ok so. ah. i rly enjoyed just for myself it was very much to my taste so. out of curiousity i was like ok lemme look up the composer / producer AND IT WAS YUYOYUPPE....... that guy is like!!!! one of my FAV producers ever!!!!!! i know him from like. his vocaloid days and god leia is still one of my fav songs to this day...! this knowledge gives me so much joy omg!!! like wow!! wowwww!!! like i knew yuyoyuppe was out there doing other stuff (i know he worked on a lot of babymetal music which is cool) but like idk. to suddenly encounter it like this. heheh.... its so nice! made me soooo happy. going to relisten to leia now haha

WAIT ONE MORE THING. i was like "haha let me look at other songs i remember liking a lot" which. for me was rakuen oasis and don't cry. anyways. rakuen oasis is ALSO by yuyoyuppe???? oh my god!!! oh my god... sigh. feel like im in heaven.

OH HI FRIEND!! so good to see you with an a3 update!! :D

godd yeah The Stranger started so strongly and the idea to still incorporate portraits in his story was really something to make us cry!

And linking Omi and Tsumugi like this is pretty interesting :O <hat is your reasoning exactly? :O

For the fainting couch for Tsuzuru LMAO and i'm letting you know there's a webcomics that addresses it in Act 2 (hough there's no spoilers aside from the fact Chikage is here)

Im glad you liked the costume and the play!!! yeah i love the designs and it is always a blast to see them this into it, and yeaaah Tsuzuru has thoughts huh. It'll get voiced sooner than later hopefully and there we'll see more in details :3c but also that's what made the seiyuu live so fun bc they perform the songs in play cosplay and replay a bit of the play everytime and it's *chief kiss*

HOMARE AUTUMN TROUPE SOLIDARITY YES. LOVING IT.

And yeah the scene itself was so cute TwT they all want to reassure Omi and be there for him it's so sweet :( but yeah i love how you say it all, Omiimi TwT

and dLKFJDFLKJFDFD Giving Juza cavities is the price to pay for sleep i guess??

yeah agreed on the costume they all look so cool! and nice catch on how those three seem linked like that with their costumes, Yuki (and the designers) does such a good job! and god yeah for Sakyo.. yeah. He has sucha good design dLKJFDF

aND DLKFJD yeah no Juza is supposed to look like Nachi physically, but mostly his face? like i think Nachi was had green hair? we see a sprite of him in a future story, and yeah, everything is in the eyebrows. so Kumon should be safe? Omi mentions he sees a lot of Nachi in Juza, and while it is mostly due to their passions i think, the fact they're also rough looking guy with a heart of gold must play a part as well. but yeah, he does look like Nachi a bit.

and i love your deeper analysis of the event yeah!!

I feel like Taichi is really an emotional core of the troupe in the sense that is, he tends to catch on what others are feelings easily. And he uses it in the early chapters to ease off the tensions and stuff, but he was being held back by knowing he was deceiving them. So now that he's more free, he can be more of himself. but yeah i also love the contrast with how Omi was the one to help Taichi through his breakdown and guilt, and now it's the other way around, it's Taichi helping him through it. and the parallelism between the play and their dynamic is spot on imo! well said!!

and god yeah the sticker things made me cry sO HARD, and the pictures! and everything!! sobs it's such a sweet found family i'm going to cry :(

And! i love what you say about Yuki, Taichi and Juza on this one. I love that Taichi keeps bringing it back to "that childhood friend" and it's always like. so obvious who it is for us rip. But it can make you wonder if Yuki was more honest as a kiddo when Taichi knew him, though now he's clearly not. I love the mention of how Zero is more like Juza's internal speech (which, if anything is another argument about why you should let Juza wear a dress, cOWARD)

but also your mention of the Yuki and Juza thing, while i can't think of them having a dynamic per se yet, but i actually wrote a post during my reread about how i was baffled at the fact they treated Muku the same way?? like both of them tried to push Muku away because they were scared of how people would react if they say pure, sweet Muku was associated to them. And i find it fascinating because i guess those two are pretty aware of how the world see them, and it used to stop them from fully allowing them to be themselves.

I also find it relevant with the fact Yuki says in his personal song that while all of this way people judge him weight on him, he rather be himself, and "I want to love myself". Meanwhile we have Juza who's also aware of the way people judge him and it weight on him, and he wants to change himself from this person he hates, this self loathing - and in a way, he can grow in a way to be "someone" he may not hate, even on stage. I feel like those two have quite a bit in common in this way of being rejected by their peers in some sort of way.

I really want them to share some stuff at some point because there's really a groundwork on it all :(

But i'm really glad you liked that event!! agreed on the pacing and i do love what it brings to the characters! it really fleshes them out and have them move forward a little and it's pretty sweet.

AND OMG THAT'S SO COOL FOR THE SONG!! i'm so glad you liked it, but that's incredible it turned out to be from one of your fav producer!!! ahah sometimes life is like that where you end up finding the stuff you loved back into new stuff! and the fact Rakuen Oasis was from him as well... that's so cool!!! just, so so cool!

im pretty sure he has more songs going forward so i hope you'll enjoy the ride even more!!

thank you once again for sharing your thoughts about a3 :3c it always makes me so happy to see them!!!

Thank youu <3 have a good day :3c

[holdyourfire]

taylir gar Tracyn

hold your Fire (Mando’a)

Fic Rating: General with a couple Mature chapters later.

Fic Tags: Poe x OFC, hurt/comfort, angst, massive slow burn, pining, eventual fluff, Mandalorians, enemies to friends to...,

Fic Warnings: mild sexual content, panic attacks, minor character death.

Chapter 1

No warnings for this chapter.

Chapter 2 - Contact

2.2k Words

      ***

      He was heading to his quarters, struggling against the stream of people flowing in the direction of the mess, when he spotted two familiar faces in the crowd. Snap and Karé Kun, another pilot in his squadron. He wriggled through the mass of people to reach them. 

      “Hey, I’m heading to my refresher, would y-” 

      “Yeah good,” Karé cut in, “You need to. No one wants you stinking up the mess hall while everyone is trying to eat.” Snap wrinkled his nose for further effect and Poe rolled his eyes. 

      “Yeah, yeah, shut up. I was trying to ask if you’d save me a plate of food.”

      “Of course, what else are friends for, right?” complained Snap. 

      Poe just grinned. “Thanks, buddy.” 

      He was about to squirm away through the crowd when another thought crept into his head. 

      “Hey, I need you to do something. There’s a new face on base today, one of the intimidating types. She’s got hair like mine and she, uh, she wears this shoulder pauldron thing. If you can find her, try to sit with her.”

      “Oooh,” crooned Snap, “has Poe got a new crush?”

      Poe shoved him, ignoring an unexpected twist of his stomach. “No, kriff off. I was called to the General’s station today because I’ll be on a mission with the newbie. I’ll explain that later.  Just…” he faltered, searching for the right words. “Just scout her out.” He shrugged noncommittally. “Y'know, see what she’s like. You're not the best reconnaissance flier for nothing, right?” he said, thumping Snap’s shoulder and moving away.

      “Just get me some intel!” Poe yelled over his shoulder. “That is what you’re most useful for after all.” 

      Smirking to himself at the victory against Snap, he slithered through the horde of people, the sound of Karé's laughter blending into the background.

      ***

        When Poe reached the mess hall after his (much-needed) shower, he automatically glanced towards the Black Squadron’s usual corner table to find it empty. Yells, accompanied by some arm waving from Snap and two other pilots, Jessika and Iolo, alerted him to his group sitting at the far side of the hall. Uncharacteristically he found himself hoping he looked good, as he sauntered over.  

       I’m not nervous, he thought running his fingers through his hair. As he approached the table he scanned it. Iolo, Jess, Snap, Karé… and Commander Deccol. So they did manage to find her. Neat.  

       Nodding at the group, he settled down on the empty stool left for him, with his plate in front. Funnily enough, it was directly opposite Deccol. Jess’ doing for sure. He uncovered the plate and dug in, and the conversation that his arrival had interrupted, restarted.

      “So what made you join the Resistance?” Jess asked, leaning over the table.

      “I haven’t really joined long term, this is more of a one-off job for me. I sympathise with the cause, I’ve seen what the Empire did, and the First Order is that all over again. So when I heard the Resistance needed someone like me, I came. Plus, it pays well.”

      “So you’re just here for the money?”

      It slipped out of Poe’s mouth before he could stop it. The air around the table thickened and Jess and Snap groaned softly while Karé pinched the bridge of her nose. Iolo bit his lip to hide a nervous smile.

      Deccol looked up slowly to meet his gaze with her own.

      “My family, my people, need as much help as they can get." She spoke softly, but the anger in her voice was evident. “I left them, to look for work. To earn for them.”

      Jess dug her elbow into Poe’s side as he leaned forward, before he could sneer a reply.

      “Your people?” asked Karé, her voice gentle, trying to clear the hostile atmosphere. “Where are you from?”

      The burning in Deccol’s eyes diminished as she shifted from Poe to Karé.

      “I think Nevarro. That’s where I spent my early years. I was adopted by a Mandalorian and now I’m one too.” 

      Suddenly all their eyes were on her. Even Poe who'd been sullenly staring at his plate.

      “A Mandalorian? I’d heard stories, I thought they were all dead,” Snap said, awed.

      Poe hated the fact he was suddenly interested in Deccol’s story. Just because she’s a part of a fabled warrior culture, supposedly as skilled as the Jedi...

      “Nope, there’s still a few. Just scattered around the galaxy. Imperial rule was not kind to the culture and the First Order is the same. We were and are a threat to them. We’re rebuilding, but it's hard with a junta like the Order in the galaxy.”

      “And that,” said Iolo, pointing at the pauldron on Deccol’s shoulder. “That’s Mandalorian, right? Mandalorian steel? I’ve heard of it before, but it’s so rare.”

      “Yeah, it’s Beskar."

      Snap shot Poe an impressed look, flicking his eyebrows suggestively.

      Great. I’m the only one here, who doesn’t like her.

      Poe forced himself to tune out for the rest of the conversation, focusing on his food instead, feigning disinterest. When he finished his meal a few minutes later, he scooped up his plate and stomped over to the row of sonics against the back wall, still fuming. 

      He wasn’t surprised when Jess appeared next to him, silently washing her plate as if he wasn’t there. He lasted about five seconds before he burst.

      “Oh for kriff’s sake!” he snapped. “Say it already! Tell me I’m being an idiot and that I’m being unnecessarily rude.”

      She turned to him, her half-washed plate lying discarded in the basin.

      “You’re being an idiot and you’re being unnecessarily rude.”

      He scoffed. “Very funny.”

      “Poe, this is serious. Snap and Karé said you’re going on a mission with her. You won't survive with this destructive friction between you. You’ll get yourself killed.”

      “That’s what the General said,” he mumbled, his anger fading.

      “And, as we know, the General is always right. If you can’t get along with Avara, you need to back out of this mission.”

      “I can’t do that! The General needs me to-”

      “Organa would rather you drop out than receive the news that you're dead, all because she took a risk.”

      Poe fell silent, staring at the floor, clenching and unclenching his fists. She’s right. I just have to suck it up and try to keep my mouth shut. I can do that. For Leia.

      “I’m not going to drop out of the mission,” he declared softly, looking his best friend in the eye.

      “I was never expecting you too,” Jess said, amused. “You’re too stubborn. If you do end up getting killed, it’s going to be because you’re saving the Mando’s ass, trying to prove you’re better than her.”

      The corner of his mouth twitched up. “Thanks.”

      “It wasn’t a compliment, wise-ass,” she retorted, swatting the back of his head. 

       ***

       He stayed mostly silent throughout the rest of dinner, but this time, in a much better mood. His friends had watched him carefully as he’d sat back down, relieved he was no longer smouldering. Deccol was still civil with the other pilots, but also quiet, just watching. When it had been time to leave, Poe stretched as he stood, straining his arms over his head with a huge yawn that was instantly caught by Snap and Jess. The latter punched him for it.

      “Every time, Dameron,” grumbled Jess, mid-yawn. “Every damn time.”

       ***

       As the group of pilots, plus the one Mando, strolled towards their barracks, Poe found himself trailing behind, lost in thought over his to-be partner.

      Why did Leia have to get this hot shot assassin for the mission? he found himself grumbling. Couldn’t it have been someone I would instantly get along with? Just my luck.

      He jumped when someone bumped his shoulder. Karé.

      “Hey, Poe. So… you wanna tell me what this is about?”

      “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      “Don’t be difficult, Poe. This is why some people don’t like you.”

      He turned to her pretending to be shocked. “What? Who doesn’t like me?”

      She laughed and he smiled down at her, his laugh lines deepening as he properly relaxed in her company.

      “No but seriously. What’s so bad about her? Did she do something?”

      He pursed his lips. “No. She didn’t do anything.”

      Karé was quiet for a second before turning to him. 

      “I’m gonna ask you something, a serious question and you’re gonna answer seriously. No laughing.”

      “Go on.”

      “Do you like her? As in, do you have a crush on her?”

      Poe laughed. Hard. Are you kidding me right now?

      “You said you wouldn’t laugh!” she groaned, shoving him.

      “I never said that. And no! I don’t! What am I? A kriffing teenager ?” he snorted, lowering his voice. “I don’t get crushes.”

      “Urgh, whatever. Just apologise to her. I’m gonna tell Snap to brief you tomorrow.”

      “Brief me? What?”

      “You asked him to gather intel right,” she said grinning. “Well, he did.”

      Poe rolled his eyes. “That idiot either does too little or too much. No in-between for him.”

      “Hey! Don’t talk dirty about my boyfriend.”

      He turned on her with a yelp. She was trying to keep a straight face.

      “Boyfriend?!” 

      The group in front turned at the sound of his shriek, and Karé almost collapsed in a sudden burst of laughter.

      “SNAP!” Poe screamed at the group in front. “Get your ass over here!” 

      Jess and Iolo cracked up, grabbing each other for support as Snap jogged towards Poe grinning widely. Deccol looked a bit puzzled but Poe wasn’t paying attention to her.

      “You idiot! We’ve been together a week and you didn’t notice!”

      “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whined pathetically, slapping Snap’s shoulder.

      They all just continued to laugh, not bothering to answer. He doubled over with a moan, his palms pressed to his eyes for a second.

      “You’re all asses!”

      They laughed harder. He straightened, pursing his lips and shaking his head in mock anger, stalking towards their barracks. Iolo pounced on him as he tried to walk past, dragging him to a halt.

      “No, no wait! We-” Iolo’s words were lost in more cackling.

      “What Iolo’s trying to say,” Jess said, somehow controlling herself, “is that we were betting on whether or not you’d find out by the time a week had gone by.”

      Deccol had started to smile, catching on to what was happening.

      They- they what?       “You were betting? On me?” He paused, blinking. “Who won?”

      “Honestly, all of us. Your reaction is the prize we all just received,” Jess managed to say before snorting back into laughter.

      “You,” Poe growled, pointing at Jess threateningly, “you shut up. Who won?”

      “Me and Jess obviously,” called Karé. “The boys are oblivious to your obliviousness.”

      “Do I get a cut? How many credits did you earn? I deserve some .”

      “They just got a hundred and fifty credits. Each,” said Iolo, suddenly forlorn.

      Poe couldn’t help himself. Starting to smile, he pointed at Karé. 

      “I better be getting some of those kriffing credits!”

       ***

       The group somehow made it to the pilot’s block of sleeping quarters, still breathless with giggles. 

      As a Commander, Poe had a bottom floor room, with his friends on the floor above, as they were lieutenants. They peeled away from Poe to head upstairs, leaving him standing there, grinning and shaking his head up at them as they trooped off with the usual raucous hoots. Leaving him with Deccol. 

      Kriff. Now isn’t this awkward?

      “What room are you?” she said, scuffing her boots against the gravel.

      Was she… nervous? 

      “I, uh, I’m in eight. You?”

      “Three.”

      Poe nodded and jerked his head. “This way.”

      She fell in step with him as they strolled to the far side of the block.

      Could time really not go faster? he found himself thinking desperately, running fingers through his hair. Twelve more rooms to walk past. Eleven more. Ten. Ni- Urgh, just talk to her! 

       “I was-”

      “Did I-”

      Both of us starting to speak at the exact same time? More likely than you’d think, he thought sarcastically.

      Caught off guard, Deccol spoke first. 

      “Uh, please, you first.”

      “I was, uh, I was out of line at dinner today,” he began slowly, forcing himself to look her in the eye.

      Her gaze was piercing as she turned to him when they stopped walking to face each other.

      “I’m sorry. I guess I was in a bad mood or something.”

      She nodded. “I- I understand. We just... need to be able to work together.”

      He snorted. “Y’know you’re the third person to tell me that today?”

      She chuckled. “It’s because I’m right.”

      “Y’know no one likes a know-it-all?”

      “Why do I feel like people also say that to you?” she teased back, lifting her chin to meet his eyes.

      He narrowed his eyes at her and she didn't smile, but her eyes seemed to spark at him playfully.

      They turned to continue walking, Poe feeling much lighter.

      “I’ll see you at breakfast then? Is it in the same hall as dinner?”

      “Yep. There’s a base-wide alarm that sounds to wake everyone up, and then the second alarm signals first-meal.”

      “Convenient. See you there,” she said with a nod.

      He returned it with a slight smile and watched her walk the last few steps to her room as he unlocked his door.

      Maybe this would work after all.

      The instant he stepped into his room, his little white and orange droid began zooming circles around his legs in greeting.

      “Hey, Beebs. Boy have I got some stuff to tell you.”

      ***

[whatelsecanwedonow]

Below a cut/tagging for spoilers initial TROS things:

Here’s my brain dump. That wasn’t Into Darkness bad, not at all, and I thought it might be considering I saw the leaked image of Kyle Ron and Rey standing together with two blue sabers months ago. I’ve been dreading what that meant. And there are definitely problems. This film isn’t Endgame-type good for wrapping up a saga. Yet... this is my favorite Star Wars movie, I think? Right now it is, we’ll see if my opinion holds on multiple watches. Despite there being a few moments of this:

And one particular moment of OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FUCKING GROSS MAKE IT FUCKING STOP. You know which moment!! Even if you reconnect with some light side of that man, Rey ol’ buckaroo, my gal, he has committed acts so evil, he has ended so many lives, you can’t fucking kiss him like even if you have compassion and empathy for the goodness that resides in him and for the man he once was and has found again. I LOVE Rey so much, so so much, for having those qualities but you need to have limits!! This has always been my problem!! Idk. I’m going to have to block that out for the rest of time, tbh. But I can then focus on why I love so many chunks of this movie: it’s Rey’s movie. Bulleted points:

Teaming everyone up worked for me, a lot. I loved that most everyone was together for long stretches of the film. I love the family they are.

Keri Russell must have shot for this movie for like... 2 weeks total, max, and I love her for it. I only wish Zorri and Poe would legit fuck and we could have a movie of their adventures.

Whoever edited this movie literally snorted a mountain of cocaine and then shoved another mountain of cocaine up their own ass. This movie was paced and edited horribly. And the writing either suffers because of it or has its own problems, idk. That was a TWO AND A HALF HOUR long line of Star Wars coke I just consumed. Like... I loved it, in a lot of ways, but also it makes this film so hard to fully absorb and certain plot points just don’t have the impact they should if within 5 minutes you’re onto another HUGE moment. If TROS were three hours long like Endgame in and the story had time to breathe I would have enjoyed it even more. It would have been more satisfying for other characters, other stories... it would have been something really special maybe, if it weren’t so fucking frantic.

Rey realizing her commitment to the light. REY TALKING TO LUKE AND REALIZING HER COMMITMENT TO THE LIGHT!!! MY TEARS!!! So many tears. Rey looking at his old X-Wing!! REY FLYING LUKE SKYWALKER’S X-WING LEADING THE RESISTANCE. Rey being spoken to, encouraged, given power by all the Jedi that came before her. “THESE ARE YOUR FINAL STEPS.” I DON’T EVEN CARE THAT “AND I... AM ALL THE JEDI” is Tony Stark-like I’m still so emotional I can’t even properly express it. And her GOLDEN REY OF SUNSHINE SABER!!!! REY SKYWALKER - not by blood, but by CHOICE. 😭😭😭 I’m crying again. I love REY SKYWALKER.

Rey’s goodness is a choice - one that is always a struggle, but always guided by her purest of hearts - her FRIENDSHIPS, her care for people, it leads her to the goodness in people, even one as awful as Kylo Ren. I just cannot EXPRESS MY LOVE FOR THIS CHARACTER ENOUGH.

Finn is FORCE SENSITIVE??? HELLO!!!! FINN IS FORCE SENSITIVE!!! WE NEED MORE INFORMATION. Will we EVER GET more information?? Maybe we will in the LITERALLY telegraphed spin off with Jannah lol.

I don’t love that she seemed willing to relent to the Emperor to save the Resistance but I know she was doing it because of her love, and her heart - she was being taken advantage of because of her capcity for empathy. Plus, I’m not sure if I buy that the Emperor ever intended for that to really happen, seeing as how he was able to resurrect so much of his life force just by draining from Rey and Kylo and leap right into “I’LL ALWAYS BE THE EMPEROR” bullshit.

Rey defeated ALL THE SITH by PROTECTING HERSELF and all her friends, her family, the galaxy, not by lashing out, not reacting in anger but by turning the evil of Palpatine around on his own dumbass. GOD.

The humor and banter between everyone was wonderful, this kinda goes along with “teaming everyone up” but I loved that. Even as messy and rushed as some of it felt, a lot of it worked for me.

God I hated the kiss. I hated that she force healed him lol I fist pumped and almost jumped out of my seat when she got ‘em.

We got so much more Leia than I expected and only a small bit of the effects they used to get her in the film that much felt off. I loved that she got to be such a significant part of the story.

CHEWIE GOT HIS MEDAL!!!

[shadowsong26fic]

Milestone Bonus Fic!

Title: Surprises (Precipice Bonus Fic)

Author: shadowsong26

Rating: PG

Fandom: Star Wars

Characters: Luke Naberrie, Motee, Elle, Ahsoka

Warnings: Just the general background stuff going on in the fic proper–war, separation, etc. Nothing on-page.

Summary: The first time Luke actually properly meets his Aunt Ahsoka.

Disclaimer: All characters are the property of their respective creators.

Note: There is a very vague spoiler for an upcoming chapter in the main body of the fic, relating to what Ahsoka’s doing on the planet. But you can read this story without knowing what Ahsoka’s talking about, and I think she’s vague enough about what’s going on that it doesn’t really give anything away? But, just as a note.

This is in commemoration of reaching 200k words in the fic proper! \o/

It was a pretty straightforward mission, or at least it started that way. Bistaad was a medium-sized and fairly remote planet in the Chomell sector, with most of the surface and economy tied up in mining and refinery efforts. The planet’s crust had, according to the Luke’s notes, abnormally high levels of iron and nickel. Despite producing nearly two percent of the dursateel used in construction all over the Empire, the planet’s economy was in shambles, after two heavily contested and maybe-fraudulent local elections, plus a massive fire in the biggest refinery on the larger of the planet’s two landmasses. Between the various investigations, lawsuits, and lost production time, basic necessities were punishingly expensive and what little functional government the planet had was crippled by massive debts.

Mom, as the sector’s Senator, was working on a long-range solution to Bistaad’s crisis (that didn’t involve the Emperor taking direct control of the planet’s industry and appointing a government to supervise). In the short term, though, she had sent Luke--with Aunt Motee and Aunt Elle for protection--to provide food and medical supplies and hopefully take some of the pressure of the planet’s citizens.

The trip to Bistaad was probably the sixth relief mission Luke had gone on in the last three years, and he had a routine down for it. And, up until his second-to-last night on the planet, Luke managed to stick to it pretty well. Even the hard part--meeting with planetary officials, walking that fine line between being supportive and helpful and not promising things he and Mom couldn’t provide--wasn’t as intimidating as it used to be.

But, of course, sometimes, the galaxy was full of surprises.

So, here he was, in one of the rougher districts of Sa’ad City, after finishing up an outreach session, when he felt--something.

It wasn’t an Inquisitor, let alone a Sith Lord--he knew what those felt like--but it didn’t feel exactly like Dad or Leia or Uncle Obi-Wan, either. Closer to them than the alternative, thank the Force, but not the same.

Not something he’d ever felt before.

He reached out and brushed Aunt Motee’s wrist lightly to get her attention.

“Problem?” she asked, in an undertone, while Aunt Elle shifted position slightly on his other side, to better screen him from danger.

He shook his head. “Just…weird.”

“We should get back, then,” she said, firmly.

But he hesitated. “I’m not sure that--”

And then he spotted a tall Togruta woman in a close-fitting black dress heading towards one of the bars.

Her, he knew, right away, and he thought--maybe--

“Heading into the Grey Alaktri,” Luke said, restraining himself from looking directly and giving them away. “You see her?”

“Yes, I do,” Aunt Motee said, after half a second. “That’s…hm.” She exchanged a few quick hand signals with Aunt Elle; he couldn’t quite see them, but he could guess what they were saying.

“Is there any way I can go up and say hello?” he asked. “Without causing problems?” Because if his aunts recognized her, there was no way she wasn’t who he thought she was.

And the last thing he wanted to do was pass up what might very well be his only chance to actually meet his Aunt Ahsoka for years.

Another quick flurry of hand signals, then Aunt Elle said, “Leave it to me,” before slipping off into the crowd.

“Come, young lord,” Aunt Motee said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You remember that little restaurant we spotted on our way down here?”

“Yeah,” Luke said.

“I think, since we have a moment, that we should sample the real local cuisine, rather than what they feed us up the hill, yes?”

Luke nodded, catching on. “I think that’s a great idea.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The real local cuisine, as Aunt Motee put it, turned out to be some sort of dense red meat coated in a thick greyish sauce that surprisingly spicy, which came with thin-sliced fried tubers that had no right to be as delicious as they were.

Aunt Motee just got a mug of the local variety of caf, which was way too bitter for Luke’s taste, and then guided him to a small table in the corner, half-screened by a fake potted plant.

“Eat,” she urged, taking a sip of her caf and hitting a few hidden buttons on the underside of her bracelet. “Elle might be a while.”

“Right,” he said. He took a few more bites of the unidentifiable meat, then asked, carefully, “d’you think she’ll come?”

“Hard to say,” Aunt Motee answered right away. Quietly, but right away, which meant that she’d already done something to any surveillance devices this place might have. “Depends on why she’s here in the first place.”

Luke nodded, a little disappointed. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of that, exactly--for Aunt Ahsoka to come this far into the Mid Rim, it had to be Important.

On the other hand, Mom and his aunts generally tried not to send him into any situation that might lead to him crashing into an active operation. He didn’t ever have enough information, and there was always the chance that he’d be identified as his very recognizable mother’s only son, so he’d just be in the way.

“Just be patient, young lord,” Aunt Motee said, taking another sip of her caf. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

She’d barely managed to say that when one of the stones on her bracelet lit up; a few seconds later, the fake plant shifted aside and Aunt Elle joined them, followed by the Togruta in the black dress.

It was all Luke could do to keep from bounding up in excitement, but all that Polish and Manners Mom and his aunts had drilled into him took over, and he shifted it into standing politely. “Hi,” he said, and grinned.

Aunt Ahsoka grinned back, and slid into the booth next to Aunt Motee, while Aunt Elle joined Luke on his side, nudging him to take his seat again.

“Hey there, kid,” she said. “I probably shouldn’t stay long, but there was no way I could pass this chance up.”

Luke nodded. “That’s…kind of what I thought, too,” he said. “When I saw you. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?”

She shook her head. “No. Nothing official. Rex is here on some personal business, and I came along to watch his back.”

Luke perked up at that. “Is he…?”

“Sorry,” she said, making a face. “He’s back with our ship. I came ahead to scout out the club we’re heading to. It’ll take him almost an hour to get here without making a lot of noise.”

And Luke knew they probably shouldn’t wait that long. “Oh,” he said. “I’m still glad I got to meet you. Like, actually meet you, finally. Maia’s told me so much about you.”

Aunt Ahsoka grinned. “Good things, I hope.”

“Well, obviously,” Luke said, grinning back.

“I hear good things about you, too,” she said. “When you got your license, your dad would not shut up about it for, like, a month. It was hilarious.”

Luke felt himself flushing, but he couldn’t help but keep smiling. “Really?”

“Really, really,” she said. “He’s super proud of you, kid. We all are.”

“Well,” he said, straightening his shoulders in his best imitation of Mom’s Accepting a Challenge posture, “I’ll just have to live up to that, won’t I.”

Aunt Ahsoka laughed at that--not like she was making fun of him, like she was pleased, and it warmed something deep inside him. “I have no doubt you will,” she said.

Luke nodded, and relaxed again. “I hope everything’s going well? I mean…I know you can’t tell me a whole lot, not here and now, but…”

And that was the problem with meeting like this, he realized. There were so many things he wanted to ask Aunt Ahsoka, about some of the things Dad and Leia and Uncle Obi-Wan had shown him on Alderaan that he wasn’t sure he remembered exactly right, plus things about her life, and the adventures he knew she’d had, during the Clone War and more recently, and…

And he couldn’t say any of it. There wasn’t time, and Aunt Motee’s bracelet could only do so much.

“Things are…going,” Aunt Ahsoka said, carefully. “More things are going right than wrong, at least lately. I’m not sure this trip will pan out the way Rex wants it to, but I don’t think we’ll run into any trouble. Just disappointment.”

“Right,” he said. “Well, I hope it doesn’t. I mean. That it ends better than you expect.”

“Me, too,” she said, then, before he realized what she was doing, reached across the table and snagged one of his fried tubers.

“…aren’t you an obligate carnivore?”

“Well, yeah,” she said. “But these are really good. And if I only have a couple, it’s okay.”

“All right,” he said, but he pulled the plate a little closer to himself just the same.

She laughed again. “Anyway. All that aside…you’re gonna be able to come see us soon, right?”

Luke blinked, and looked up at Aunt Motee--this was news to him. For all he’d asked Aunt Sabe about going to a base way back when…

“If things go smoothly,” Aunt Motee said. “We’re in the process of putting together a cover. Assuming you’re still in the same place in a few months.”

“Really?” Luke said.

“You’ve talked about this with us before,” Aunt Elle pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but…”

“It’s a little different when it’s not just a hypothetical?” Aunt Ahsoka guessed.

Luke nodded. “Yes, exactly.”

“Well, either way,” she said. “With a little bit of luck, we’ll see each other again in a few months. And we’ll have a little more time and space to talk.” She winked at him. “Maia was telling me how sloppy your footwork is, which I need to see for myself so I can fix it. And, more importantly, properly tease your dad about it.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Luke protested. “Plus, she’s been doing this for ages, and I was new.”

“I know, I know,” Aunt Ahsoka said, holding up a hand. “Just teasing.” She considered for a minute, tilting her head, then stole another. “I should probably get going, but…it was good seeing you, kid. Give your mom and everyone my love, okay?”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, the same. I mean. Mine.”

“I know what you meant,” she said. She stood and bowed, carefully, small, but Jedi-style; he copied the motion and she smiled one last time, softly. “Until the next time, kid. May the Force be with you.”

And, just like that, she was gone.

Luke watched the plant for a minute, until it fell still again after she’d passed, then leaned into Aunt Elle just a little. “Thank you,” he said, softly.

She wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Of course, young lord,” she said, and let that rest for a moment before saying, “although, if you really want to thank me…”

He looked up at her, and she had her best innocent, wheedling expression on.

“She wasn’t wrong about those tubers.”

He giggled, and pushed the plate into the middle of the table.

This trip to Bistaad had started out mostly ordinary, and it looked like it would end that way, too.

But in the middle…for a moment, in the middle, it had been something special. Something he hadn’t even really thought to hope for.

The galaxy was like that, sometimes. Full of surprises.

[tsunamijonny]

Make Do-it-yourself Delights Within your Kitchen area For Offering Or Personal Consumption

To make it easier to peel boiled eggs, operate them less than cold water promptly just after getting rid of from them the stove. The moment they are neat ample to the touch, faucet them flippantly to crack and roll on a counter. As soon as you start peeling and have an opening in the shell, operate this beneath cold water therefore you will discover the rest of the shell will peel off with the biggest of simplicity!

For the people dishes which have for a longer period cooking periods, you'll desire to increase your spices and herbs about an hour or so or so ahead of ingesting. If these spices are cooked way too prolonged, then the resulting flavors may possibly be way too powerful. Moreover, it's most effective to maintain it simple by not utilizing anymore than three herbs or spices in almost any dish.

Essentially the most hard and time consuming matter about cooking is performing most of the prep function. You can buy pre-prepped vegetables or prep your ingredients the working day right before to chop down within the time you might be in the kitchen. This is incredibly valuable if you want to have meal out in a hurry.

como fazer salgados para vender

When you are seeking to create a good sandwich, be sure you put the mayonnaise on from corner to corner. You don't want to hurry this stage. Doing it by doing this will make sure that just about every bit is full of flavor. This could make the entire sandwich that rather more delicious.

When roasting any kind of meat, make sure that any time you clear away it within the oven you give it time for you to "rest" before you decide to carve it up and provide on the desk. Allowing the meat to sit down in its personal juices for ten minutes or so can make guaranteed that the meat will not be dry or overly chewy.

For stir-fry dishes, meat should be sliced pretty thinly and over the bias. This can be quite tough and time intensive. Place the meat from the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes until it is really partially frozen: this can help it become a lot easier to slice. Take away the meat when it is actually agency (but not frozen) and slice in a forty five degree angle through the grain on the meat.

For those who have already cooked prior to for somebody that you know and really like, endeavor to shake points up somewhat and incorporate some new spices to your recipes.  Shifting matters up can hold points fresh and make your cooking pretty spontaneous.  This could make improvements to your skill and competencies during the kitchen.

Cook your pasta 1 minute a lot less than the offer implies, then end cooking it inside of a pan with sauce.  Your pasta will absorb far more from the flavor of the sauce without possessing an over cooked texture.  This can be a fast and powerful way to get ready a pasta food. 

Who has not made a sauce much too thin? There's a trick to save your hard work and be able to employ it instantly. Blend 1 tablespoon of corn starch and 2 tablespoons of drinking water in the bowl. Stir the answer in the simmering slender sauce to make it thicker. Insert the starch little by little and stir the sauce constantly in order to avoid rendering it far too thick.

Partially freeze meat to create slicing into slim strips much easier. This is perfect for Oriental meals like Chinese dishes or Thai dishes. By partially freezing meat elements, slicing is cleaner plus the fibers do not stretch and tear as conveniently. Having said that, make sure to permit the meat strips to thaw right before cooking them, for even cooking.

One particular from the matters you will require to appreciate if you are producing meats or fish is usually that you need to unfold your seasoning evenly.  Incorporating as well considerably seasoning in a single region within your foodstuff can minimize the flavour or produce a tangy flavor that could minimize the standard of your respective meal.

For those who are baking, one thing that you can perform is always to depart your eggs and butter at space temperature overnight.  This could prepare them to become utilized as components once you bake another working day.  Being familiar with the temperature to keep sure components can help to optimize the convenience of making your food.

leia aqui

The best matter which you can perform when you're building hamburgers would be to engage in trial and error. As an alternative to guessing that the meat is cooked perfectly, make a modest patty and flavor it by yourself. This will enable you to change your volume of seasoning and prepare dinner your burger much more if it demands it.

Purchase a high-quality loaf of bread which you can use for a facet piece to your assortment of meals. Bread goes wonderful with any dish which includes sauce or cheese, as you can dip it inside of a wide variety of different toppings. Include a loaf of Italian or French bread using your subsequent food.

Right after you might have cooked a food for somebody, never rush them into having as you should really generally choose your time and efforts and have interaction in discussion to offer one's body a chance to digest.  Element of your food would be the smells and aromas it gives off even though the other portion is your genuine use.

Store your drop apples properly and they are going to last for months. Individuals are likely to make use of lots of apples for cooking in the slide and winter season months, however, if they're stored improperly they will quickly spoil. Apples rot in dry heat air, so retailer them in loosely tied plastic bags inside the refrigerator or a great basement. Preserve an eye on them while, simply because just one rotten apple in the bag will spoil the rest of them right away. 

Just after you have cooked a piece of foodstuff from the oven, you'll want to give it many minutes to rest ahead of serving. The last matter which you will desire to do is provide any aspect of one's meal which is far too incredibly hot, that can wreck its general quality to the human being you are serving.

When you find yourself visiting the shop, never always use a huge searching list that may restrain you to just acquiring sure objects.  See what you like and whatever you are within the temper for and buy determined by that.  This will likely give you the spontaneity to cook dinner no matter what you select.

[nadjasantipaxos]

Talking meme

Jan. 9- @birdwithteeth asked for the top 5 female characters who are the most important to me, and why.

This is one of the most difficult questions I've ever had to answer, lol. It's incredibly hard for me to pick just five, as many ladies affect me. The order changes pretty often.

1. Joan Holloway- She usually stays in the top spot most often, but that's because she and Mad Men were mostly responsible for me getting back into TV rather than just film, and for discovering the love one can have for characters. Joan had her flaws, yes, but she was still able to survive as a woman in a man's world and man's era. And leave it a millionaire.

2. Juliet Burke- My angel who deserved literally everything and got so little of it in the end. She really had one of the best character introductions ever, and every time I hear “Downtown” all I think about is Juliet getting her house ready for book club. Her character arc was fascinating, especially since, for awhile, no one knew who she was or where her allegiances really lay. Despite being a prisoner, she met the love of her life and lived happily with him for three years even if it all literally came crashing down.

3. Leia Organa- Leia kinda sorta laid the groundwork for strong female fictional characters. She went from royalty to being a rebel and then a general, with a superpower. Plus, she overcame (implied) sexual assault and not only killed her abuser but everything he represented, and then went on to lead the movement that would do the same. Leia Solo Organa is a legend.

4. Elizabeth Swann- I love my Pirate King. Idek if I can properly articulate the reasons why, besides the obvious "Pirate King" thing. Her arc was similar to Leia's except that there was a tighter expectation on her remaining a "proper" lady. But despite that, she ended up living her dream of freedom on the seas, even if I disagree with her ending. She took zero shit from those hardened pirates.

5. Tie between Annalise Keating and Rachel Green

These ladies barely have anything in common, but I look up to Annalise and her tenacity and I relate to Rachel's need for something more, and then she worked hard to get it.

[kenrik]

Conflicted - that was what I felt after my first viewing of TLJ.

My journey from “???” to “WTF!!”. Comparing my insight from my first viewing of TLJ to my second. 

1. I am Reylo shit. But after watching TLJ, I couldn’t process what I’d just seen. I felt like there was nothing bridging the gap from “You’re a monster!” to “Let’s work together, Ben Solo~” So, I thought, initially, that their relationship was poorly constructed. And, I felt conflicted because - although I would love Reylo to happen, I didn’t want it to happen in a mucked up sort of way. 

2. The first scene - the bombing scene. I couldn’t understand it. Where the hell did those vessels come from? Who the hell was that woman. And why the hell do we care about the medallion around her neck? Just - who the faq? 

3. Poe is an idiot. A dolt. A trigger happy fool. (A stark contrast to his soundness from TFA.)

4. Then, after the first scene - I guess everything happened and my brain went haywire - thinking - W.T.F.????!!!??? My brain proceeded to shutdown afterwards, I think. And just let the images pass. 

5. Holdo’s sacrifice was very cliche. Best sacrifice scene for me was Lelouch’s. Going back to it, I guess anime’s sacrificial themes make western ones pale in comparison. Anyway, I didn’t appreciate this scene so much - even with the spectacular cinematography - because it was what it is - cliche. Also, there would be zero casualties other than herself. I mean, as far as logic went - anyone with half a brain would’ve done what she did. “It’s only logical.” lol

6. Too many jokes. Hux became a punchline which I found annoying. I felt it was forced (lol). Also, the recurring about Poe being trigger happy - wanting to bomb everything in sight. That was just, very cringeworthy. (And I understand why they did it, though. Curse you Marvel! And your many jokes! DAMN-IT.) 

7. Luke’s snarkiness. Maybe I need a refresher course on his character. Last we saw him, he’s been battling with incredible shit as a kid. Then now, we jump to his old master type guy who smirks a lot... BRIDGE. THE. GAP. 

8. Kylo Ren - the GIGANTIC. PAIN IN THE ASS. CRYBABY. One of the reasons I left the movie house utterly conflicted was this character. When I though he had progressed (somewhat) - he goes reverse psycho mode and losses all his shit - and with it, all that development he made in the middle part of the film. As a Kylo Ren buff - this was incredibly frustrating to say the least.

8.5 Rey’s constant rejection of Kylo Ren. But who can blame her?? That guy’s a mess! One of the reasons I left the movie house conflicted was Kylo’s flipflopping character development. By the end - I was like - of course she’d leave you - you’re an idiot! Two rejections in one movie plus that one rejection in TFA... how many times does Rey have to reject you before you clean your act up, stupid Ren?! I felt angry and sad for Kylo, for being conflicted, lost, close to something certain, solid, then all out batshit crazy and lost and conflicted again. It was a rollercoaster for me and my rooting for Ben Solo’s character. Damn did that guy take me for a ride. 

9. Phasma v Finn scene. Phasma is an incredible baddie. I loved their fight scene. My comment is, though, - that it was minute. Ever so tiny. And her “death” was so anticlimactic - I can’t even. It was cliche. The fight could have been longer. 

10. Finn and Rose - IDIOTS. What were those two thinking sharing their plans to an absolute stranger?? And they get shocked that the thief sold them out the first chance he got. Seriously - their whole subplot was like stepping on dogshit. I get the message the team wanted to bring across. But seriously, that same message could’ve been said with a better subplot. There was no answer as to who the man with the rose pin was - no recall to the past story, to any story in SW. Use the old characters for some substance! We have so many more of them at the team’s disposal. :/ 

Cookies (Parts I loved since the first viewing.)

1. Leia is kween. That force stunt she pulled was epic. It was incredible. I can’t even. (Proves to show you how strong she is with the force - and FU fanboys whining - “The force ain’t werq dat wei betch!”) 2. Luke and his liberal approach to the force. Preach!! 3. Rose’s message about weapon dealers (AKA AMERICA, RUSSIA, CHINA. H8CHU FUCKERS - fighting each other when you’re basically on the same fucking boat - HU U THINK UR FOOLING).  3.5 Rose hitting deserter Finn with a stunbaton/gun. 4. That immaculate contrast of white and red minerals.  5. BB8 DOING ALL THE WORK IN ROSE and FINN’S ARC. I mean - GIVE THE DAMN DROID/ROBOT AN OSCAR! 6. Rey’s druggy self-discovery scene. That was just crazy good.  7. The bitchy fish nuns.  8. Chewie roasting porgs while porgs watch in tearful horror.  9. Luke’s leap from one hill to the next.  10. Ben’s slide/glide when he first talks to Rey via force bond. 10.25 Rey’s incessant bitching to Ren via force bond about how Ben is a monster. How she beat him. How she found Luke before him. How she beat him. How he’s a loser. How he’s an idiot. How she hates him. (During that scene, I just can’t help but laugh at her intense lashing out at him HAHA) 10.5 Rey shooting Ren the first opportunity she got.  10.75 Ren standing in the bridge? looking at the platform thing? And Ren being all savage and unforgiving and shooting the fighter planes of the resistance.  11. Snoke’s labyrinth scene!!!!*#*#JMNFUWNF!!!*@(#*$ 12. Epic Yoda is epic. I watched the film with my blockmates, impromptu right after our last finals exam. His quote "Failure is the best teacher.” literally made us ball out in tears. DAMN IT. Yoda got us again! “Do or do not, there is no try.” is so good it’s unfair.  13. Kylo ren practically throwing a tantrum when he faced his uncle Luke.  14. “You came from nothing.You are nothing... But not to me.” 15. Luke’s deep backwards dip in his face off with his nephew Ben.  16. Hux’s screaming repeat of Ben’s order to proceed, earning a “dafuq” look from Kylo.  17!!! Kylo Ren and Anakin = obvious blatant parallels! The hair, the attire, the anger in their expressions! 

My SECOND VIEWING gave me clarity. So, here is my feedback after not having been taken by a shitload of surprise.  1. The scenes had okay pacing. Just unnoticeable because a lot was shoved to our face in less than three hours.  2. Finn/Rose subplot was meh, not exactly the worst thing in the world. And, it makes sense that they get that type of subplot. Rose was a low-ranking member, delegated to catching deserters. Finn knows next to nothing about the Resistance. And Poe is a loose canon. Of course the quest they’d end up in is only as good as what their character’s can make up. This is very realistic actually.  3. It’s a kid’s movie. Of course it would be riddled with cliches.  4. Vulnerability - that’s what bridged the gap between Rey and Ren.  5. Captain Phasma is coming back! *hopefully* She deserves a better send off!  6. Kylo Ren’s character development. I was devastated after my first viewing. I thought he had regressed to the point of no return. Man, I was so ready to throw all my Reylo hopes away because dammit if an idiot ends up with Rey. But, I failed to appreciate that last scene between them properly. 

Ren is kneeling, head bowing low in remorse.  And Rey were eyes hard and unforgiving, her expression, swelling in disappointment of him.  Wow. That said a lot. This is a huge step. After Rey left him (wow it’s like leaving a lover after having had sex), Ren just catapults himself into a raging fit. How could he not? How could he not lose all of his shit after having LOST ALL HIS SHIT. HAHA (Shit is such a good placeholder for the dumb.) I mean - he just killed his Supreme Leader. He offered his heart out to Rey - to this stranger. For once in his life, nothing had been clearer to him - he wanted to join forces with Rey. Forget everyone else. So long as she joined him, nothing would ever be unattainable. But she rejected him. And then - he lost all his shit. He was so certain for once - that Rey would join him. That she saw the same future he saw of her, of them, standing together towards the same goal.  With her rejection - he was thrown back to confusion. To that irrational conflict he could never make sense of. Everything that happened after was an intense blur that he could do nothing more but work in automatic mode. And his automatic mode is work like a bitch baby. Imagine this - everything happened so fast after than one moment of clarity - The resistance found a safe haven. The Millennium Falcon was shooting at them. And that one person he’s been searching for all his life resurfaces out of thin air. All the lies that Snoke told him, all the hatred that scum put in his mind, just exploded. 

Everything happened so quickly. He had no second to think straight. He went to what was natural - what Snoke taught him.  Which is why~ that moment of realization at the end, of regret, remorse, guilt - towards Rey, towards this person who seemed to genuinely believe in him - is so important. It makes me believe that he’ll be thinking of his actions more rationally. And this makes me happy for my favorite character. 

A lot have said this, but I think a year or a few will pass in the timeline before we rejoin the characters. We’ve seen their conflict. Now, we’ll see them in their fullest form - allowing for the ultimate battle. This, I’m really excited for. And I give zero fucks whether or not Kylo will be good or bad. I just want him to know who he is and what he is fighting for. And for the briefest moment, we saw it in TLJ - the death of the past - of the Republic and of the Jedi Order - and hopefully of the ashes of the Empire - the First Order. 

TLJ was a really good film. I can’t say it was a really good SW film, but it was an incredible film. You haters need to get your shit together and progress with everyone else. Also, I hate you all for crying Mary Sue on Rey. We women had to deal with countless Mary Sue men in our blockbusters. Now we have one of our own, you’re bitch crying at Disney. FU. 

Stay calm. Stay chill.  KenRik. 

[jediofgrace]

30 Kisses

So, I have written this little fic instead of finishing my Cloud City story. I’m sorry or you’re welcome? I posted it on ffn, but since it’s only 1500 words, I thought I’d post it here too. Enjoy!

Leia studied the datapad, squinting as the sun reflected on the screen. She closed her eyes for a moment, mentally calculating. Yes, that was enough. After closing the bin and locking the lid, she lifted it and handed it off to Luke.

“I hear the next place we’re going is a bit cooler,” he said as he hefted the bin.

“Where did you hear that?” She gave him a wry look as she shook her head. “It’s cooler all right. Frozen solid, in fact.” She studied the datapad, making sure the next bin was ready to go.

“Oh,” Luke said as he walked away. “Well, maybe it’ll feel good after this.”

She tucked a strand of hair, frizzed by the humidity, behind her ear. Yes, maybe the cooler, or frozen, planet would feel good. The temperature on Yavin today, it being the middle of summer, had to be nearing 100. She wore light military-issue brown pants but had taken off her button-up, long sleeve shirt awhile ago, leaving only her sleeveless gray shirt. She almost wished she could shed that one as well. The men around the base, at least the ones working outside, were mostly shirtless and glistening with sweat in the sunlight.

She looked up to see Han Solo striding towards her. Speaking of glistening…

“Hey. That one ready?” He pointed to the bin at her feet.

“Yes.” Did she just whisper? She quickly bent down and grabbed the bin to give to him. He reached for it, his fingers gliding across hers as he transferred its weight to his arms. She shivered, apparently her body forgot it was a million degrees out here.

“This is heavy. You can just leave them on the ground, you know. We can pick ‘em up.”

“I don’t mind.”

He shrugged as he turned to carry the bin to the door that led to the hangar, where the cargo transport waited. Luke nodded to Han as they passed each other.

She knelt down to seal the bin, hoping she did it right. She felt her skin prickle and flush as she thought of last night, when Han had-

“Oof, these bins are sure heavy. We have to carry all of them?”

Leia smiled at her dear friend, all tanned, but still a bit on the skinny side, at least compared to Han…

“Yes, I’m afraid so.” She gave herself a silent cheer for sounding normal.

“Oh well. We’ll get it done.” Luke turned and walked away. Now Han was back, smiling just the way he did last night before he-

“I hope you gave Luke the heavy one. That boy needs the workout.”

“I tried to spread the weight evenly,” she responded.

“Luke’s the one complaining, Princess, not me.”

“I am not!” Luke hollered just before he disappeared.

Han came to stand in front of her, and thinking he was going to take the bin at her feet, she moved to the side. When he didn’t take it, she looked up at him, and before she knew it, he leaned in and kissed her; quickly, firmly. Then without a word, he picked up the bin and walked away.

She moved to the next bin. She was right, that was the same smile he had just before he had kissed her last night. They had been outside, enjoying the cool evening. That was the only time there was any relief from the heat these days, so she had taken to walking through the forest outside the base before bed. Until last night she had always walked alone, but Han had seen her leaving and had followed her. She had been glad for his company and the walk was nice. She was having a hard time fighting her attraction to him lately, her thoughts turning to him at the most random times of the day. Several times a day. Every day. Then in the dusky evening light, alone in the trees…

She tapped on her 'pad, attempting to focus on the task at hand. If it was discovered after the move that her bins weren’t properly categorized and labeled, and if someone were to ask her why… Well, she couldn’t very well say she had been busy daydreaming. She nodded to Luke as he took another bin and walked off.

Her mind quickly wandered again though as she checked her messages on comlink. She smiled to herself as she remembered how it had gone off last night. When she had stopped to check it, Han had stopped too. She’d leaned against a tree as she answered the message, aware that he was standing very close and seemed to be getting closer. She had kept typing as out of the corner of her eye she saw him put a hand on the tree above her head, leaning over her just a bit.

“Watcha writing?”

“Riekeen wants to know my schedule for tomorrow.”

“Hmm. Aren’t we moving the computer equipment from the north-side comm center tomorrow?”

“Yes, but he needs to organize a run to Ord Mantell either tomorrow or the next day.” She had looked up at him, wondering what that light stubble on his chin felt like.

“Would you be, um, able to take me?”

He had just grinned at her. Had she really said “take me”? No wonder he’d smiled like that! She felt herself blush right there in broad daylight. He must have known she hadn’t intended that bit of innuendo, and he’d simply answered, “Sure.” But then he had leaned down and kissed her. He didn’t rush, he just gently put his lips on hers. Tasting, feeling, asking. She was pretty sure she’d answered his kiss in a definite yes. Now she was blushing in earnest. She didn’t dare look up as she heard Han approaching. She tapped on her 'pad, hoping whatever she was typing was right. She sealed the bin and stood up. She felt the heat in her face and hoped maybe he would think it was just from the temperature. He probably knew better.

Feeling a bit flustered she picked up the bin to give to him again.

“Hey, really, just leave them on the ground. No use straining your back.” He came to her, kissed her lips for a full five seconds, grabbed the bin and walked away again. She watched the muscles of his shoulders and arms, all taut and beautiful as he carried the heavy load. He met Luke in the doorway and handed the bin to him, then he turned and was walking back to her before she had time to look away. She would be here all day at this rate! She quickly turned and started working again.

“Luke says that one wasn’t heavy enough.”

She smirked at him. “Well, tell Luke he can carry two next time.” She added a couple of wire spools to the next crate, marking it on her list. There. She could do this. This one goes here, that one goes there. She turned to see he was behind her. Right behind her. The heat from his body…and oh, he smelled good. He was sweaty, but it was a good sweaty. He smelled masculine and hot and just so, so good. She turned to face him completely, almost daring him to kiss her again. He didn’t disappoint, his tongue grazing her lips before he broke away. He stacked one of the crates on top of the bin, and with a grunt, he lifted them both.

“I’ll tell Luke you said to buck up and take two at a time.” He grinned at her before turning to walk back. His arms were huge with muscle and…

Okay. Fine. She wanted those bulging, muscle-filled arms around her. Right now. Hot and sweaty? Not a problem. All of a sudden she felt cold and lonely. She needed that extra heat of his body. Couldn’t they go for a walk? Like, right now? This work could wait for awhile…

What. Was. She. Doing…?!

She peeked up from her 'pad. Han was at the doorway, handing his load to Luke, who wasn’t quite as strong, or quite as tall, and seemed to have a bit more of a struggle to carry them both. Han slapped him on the back as Luke slowly made his way back inside. Once again, Han was heading back to her. He had apparently worked out a little relay system, putting him within kissing range every few minutes.

This time Han didn’t stop for a bin but came straight to her. She lifted her head to accept his lips. He didn’t put his arms around her (like she wanted), but as he kissed her, his hands went to her shoulders and ever so slowly, they slid down her arms, and when he reached her hands, he pulled back, then picked up the bin and walked off, just in time to meet Luke in the doorway.

She looked around her. There were probably 30 bins plus several crates left. Would that mean 30 more kisses? She could only hope.

[willidleaway]

Star Wars, episode 8

There’s been a lot of divisive back-and-forth about The Last Jedi on the Internet, with opinions diverging so hard towards the three groups of

it was the worst thing ever

it was the best thing ever

it was okay I guess

that as I prepared to do my part in helping fund Disney’s Fox acquisition, I couldn’t help but wonder whether people were seeing three different movies.

And as a matter of fact, they kind of were.

In short: Having three subplots just because you have three main characters ... maybe wasn’t a good idea. One of them had a lot of good moments if you could overlook some gaping holes (and giant regressions from the original trilogy), one of them wasn’t terrible but was also kind of pointless and didn’t have to be, and one of them was just mostly needlessly stupid.

Overall, I came out of the theatre more impressed than not, but this movie isn’t one that stands up terribly well to any extended thoughts about it. I also fear that in many places Episode IX may have to bite off more than it can possibly chew, as if this movie hasn’t done enough of that as it is.

Spoiler-y thoughts behind the Read More break.

In less short:

the Finn subplot was kind of okay;

the Poe subplot was inexcusably flawed;

and the Rey subplot was—well, it wasn’t the best thing ever and had a few critical points of badness, but it had a lot of good moments and I can’t help but enjoy them.

I really can, for the most part, treat these subplots as three different movies. Finn’s subplot branches a safe distance away from Poe’s subplot rather quickly and never really integrates properly back into it. Rey’s subplot doesn’t join back up with either of them until the very end.

This was true of Episode V too, to a large extent. But there, at least, the trio had the decency to split into two groups, with Luke’s subplot seeing Yoda teach him and Vader pursue him, and Han and Leia’s subplot leading them (eventually) to Cloud City. But Episode V had just those two subplots for the most part, and a relatively tight ensemble of characters and locations.

This episode ... not so much. I personally would really have liked to see Poe join an expanded version of the Finn subplot, with the existing Poe subplot dropped or considerably downsized, and I really think this would have improved the movie. But as this will never happen, I may as well give thoughts on the triple feature as it stands. So, thoughts on ...

Finn’s Big Adventure: It was okay.

I did find Canto Bight interesting—it’s a side of the galaxy you don’t normally get to see in Star Wars, which is normally all about either the military and political centres of conflict or the grimier parts of town. We get a peek at the economic elite life here, and it’s apparently equally disgusting in any galaxy.

But Rose never really developed into her own character, I’m afraid. She had a cursory backstory of suffering and a consistent compassion, but was mostly defined by love for her sister and for Finn. The codebreaker took so many moral swerves that it was impossible to ever get a great handle on him as a real character, and his apparent argument of ‘well the First Order and the Resistance both use machines from the same suppliers so it’s all part of the system, man’ was just weird and frankly kind of disconcerting. I’m sure I’ve oversimplified that in some way, but not by much, I think.

This subplot also had to quite rapidly manage its own mission expectations, going through a few stages:

we’re going to get hold of a master codebreaker to gain access to a critical weakness in Snoke’s ship

okay, we’re just going to use whatever codebreaker we've found to gain access to a critical weakness in Snoke’s ship

okay, we’re just going to die on Snoke’s ship and hope the Resistance survives because we can’t actually do anything now

okay, everyone else is just going to die too

wait is that the Resistance cruiser ramming into Snoke’s ship

and that probably didn’t help this subplot being so utterly unremarkable. Really, it was a little odd that this was the subplot they kind of chose to end on, with the Force-sensitive child slave sweeping and looking up at the sky.

And really the worst thing is that Captain Phasma (and by extension Gwendoline Christie) was simply tragically wasted as a villain, which is bad because Captain Phasma is clearly one of the more competent and awesome First Order military personnel. Plus, more screen time with Captain Phasma could have given us more development of Finn. It wasn’t too late to show more of her after Episode VII. It is now.

Who Framed Poe Dameron: Be careful what you wish for. I wished for Poe to have more screen time, and look what happened.

What we’ve got here, to quote Cool Hand Luke, is failure to communicate—not just between the Resistance personnel, but also between the writers and the audience. Let’s take this one failure at a time:

Poe’s demotion. Why does Holdo bring this back up as if it’s that important? How far down is the rank of Captain from Commander? (In most real-world navies and air forces, isn’t Captain actually one rank above Commander?) Is that proportionate to his act of insubordination per se, or more proportionate to the severe losses he caused through that insubordination? And how rigorous is the Resistance ranking hierarchy anyway? Can they even afford to be rigorous about it, given how short-staffed they are (even before the Battle of Crait)? Han went from starship captain to a General in the Rebel Alliance basically right after he had been frozen in carbonite for a good long while. Are you telling me that it would be so difficult for Poe to get that far back up in no time at all?

The secrecy around the evacuation. Why wasn’t there just a standing plan known to all Resistance fighters of ‘look if things get really bad we have a base we can fall back to with a decent set of resources, and its location is definitely on a need-to-know basis but just so you know we will fall back to it if the First Order really start hurting us, so please don’t mutiny’? If no one else, how did Leia not trust Poe with this plan when she trusted him with retrieving a piece of the map to Luke?

Crait. How is this place uncharted to the First Order? Is their map information just that bad? Shouldn’t it be on the First Order’s maps given that the son of erstwhile Generals of the Rebel Alliance is in the First Order leadership? Where do the First Order maps come from? And regardless, wouldn’t it have become charted the moment the Resistance cruiser came out of hyperspace to try and make a run to somewhere within reasonable distance of it? How does galactic cartography work, anyway? Is that even relevant, given that a First Order flagship should probably be able to detect transports launching from the cruiser with or without life signs and track their trajectory anyway?

Some of this, I think, is hurt by lack of significant context about exactly what the Resistance is, what the First Order is, what their relations are to the Empire and the Rebel Alliance and the new (short-lived) Republic, what their standing is in the galaxy, what resources they have, and so on. Certainly the original trilogy was never quite as rigorous in this sort of thing as the prequels were, but after just a few minutes of Episode IV, you saw enough to know that the Empire ruled the galaxy under an iron fist, and the Rebel Alliance was a ragtag volunteer army. Here, the First Order is ... governing? Is it governing anything? Does it have provinces? Is Snoke on billions of propaganda pamphlets, pictured in his best dressing gown? Does it claim to be a legitimate continuation of the Galactic Empire, or merely a de facto one? And what of the Resistance? Is it funded by the new Republic? Well, I know their political centre was wiped out in Episode VII, but maybe they actually have a civilian government in exile ... or don’t they? If they have access to old Rebel bases and equipment, how did they end up with only one cruiser by the start of this episode?

This seems like nitpicking, but I am genuinely left a bit confused by the scope of the Resistance, which is apparently fine to rebuild even if the new Republic it sought to defend is in tatters, its allies have abandoned it, and its military strength is now small enough to fit in its entirety inside the Millennium Falcon.

I get that this episode is going for an ominous ending like that of Episode V, but as of the end of Episode V, the Rebellion still actually had bases and cruisers and fighters and Admiral Ackbar. It was just that Leia was shaken by the apparent loss of Han, a capable if reluctant member of the Rebellion, and Luke was shaken by revelations about Darth Vader. As of the end of this episode, the Resistance fleet is just the Falcon. There are people skilled enough to take down an entire military fleet with one starship, but most of them are Time Lords in a TARDIS and they aren’t in this universe.

Also, I’m not sure whether to file this under Poe’s subplot or Rey’s, but ginger!Tarkin is just hilarious. I’m sorry, I’ve got nothing against Domhnall Gleeson as an actor, but I’m pretty sure he’s being directed to ham it up as much as he can and it’s ridiculous and silly to the point of being wonderful. At the same time, his character’s a bit useless and the movie seems painfully aware of it.

The Last Jedi (that is, the parts of The Last Jedi that were actually about, you know, The Last Jedi): Oh, Luke, what happened to you?

No, really, I want to know and these movies won’t tell me. I want to see what happened to Luke between Episodes VI and VII in this brave new Disney-enforced canon, and it’s really unfortunate that this was not a core concern of the sequels. We got some inkling of it in Episode VII, sure, and now get unreliable tellings of what happened between Luke and Ben/Kylo specifically. But this simply isn’t enough.

As it stands, everyone telling the story seems to agree that Luke definitely showed intent to kill Ben, however transient. And that is so jarring given that we’ve been here before and overcome it, in Episode VI. The original trilogy was all about Luke succeeding where Anakin failed, overcoming his darker side and even pushing Anakin to do so in the very end. Given this, where Luke stands at the start of this episode—having attempted to kill Ben, mistrusting Rey so much—is undeniably a very abrupt regression that lacks any significant development to support it. What did it take to break the unbreakable cinnamon roll?

This is a fundamental problem with the plotting of the sequel trilogy. In fact, I wonder if it should really have been a trilogy. The prequels, of course, were forced to be a trilogy because Lucas had pre-emptively numbered Episodes IV through VI. But while there is a massive gap between the prequels and the original trilogy—and even within the prequels, which jumped from precious child Anakin to teenaged Anakin to war-weary Anakin—that was excusable because nothing terribly interesting happened in that gap to the Skywalkers or the Jedi. Darth Vader kind of kept on Darth Vader-ing, Luke had a fairly peaceful moisture farmer’s life with some occasional piloting excitement, Obi-Wan and Yoda went on their eccentric hermit ways, the Emperor kept on with his Galactic Empire, and most of the Jedi stayed dead.

The gap between Episodes VI and VII, as it stands ... not so much. Apparently in that gap we had

the re-establishment of a peaceful Galactic Republic

the establishment of a new Jedi Temple

the training of Ben Solo

the rise of Snoke

the fall of the new Jedi Temple

the rise of the First Order

which frankly should have been a movie or two, maybe even a television series. (It really could work. The gap between Episodes II and III were the entire Clone Wars, which of course had its own lovely series, cut short by the Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition.) In fact, I’m beginning to think the rise of Snoke and the Knights of Ren should have been the core of Episode VII, with Luke going into self-imposed exile at the end, until one day a mysterious young woman shows up and holds out a lightsaber, her face full of hope ...

... but that will never happen now. I wonder if it even could have happened in the 2010s, given the age of the original cast and the scenes that would be required of them. And frankly, I wonder if Disney/Lucasfilm, instead of making the abrupt jumps that they did between the original trilogy and the sequels, should instead have been making what they now plan to after this sequel trilogy—movies following completely new characters with their own stories.

And this is the good subplot, huh? Yes, yes it is.

There are moments in this subplot that I can’t help but enjoy, which is not actually true for either of the other subplots. Luke reuniting with Artoo was when Luke felt most like himself. The return of Yoda, with a surprisingly faithful CGI rendition and perhaps a moment of overpowered mischievousness, was kind of amazing. Rey and Kylo joining forces (Forces?), however briefly, was frankly surprising in just how effective it was. Kylo has actually risen above being ‘a child with a mask’ and become a far more credible character, if not a credible villain. Rey’s moment of self-reflection was ... not subtle, but still worked for what it was. The revelation of her parentage was exactly what it needed to be.

And Luke’s projection ... was a bit ridiculous—hadn’t he cut himself off from the Force for quite a while? Wouldn’t he need to retrain a lot before he was able to do that again and/or possibly for the first time ever, given that this is the first time we’ve seen Force Telepresence, which I would have thought was some kind of transient Force bond with every living thing in the vicinity, except apparently even droids can detect your projection? (So it’s definitely just a new Force power, because we didn’t already have enough of those and definitely had rules around those sorted out really neatly ...) I mean, it was awesome, but kind of odd and didn’t seem to really have concrete rules.

And really, if you were willing to overlook Luke not being himself for the majority of the movie and what might be a fundamental flaw in the planning of this entire sequel trilogy, this subplot was pretty good (and the one that I’d wager the critics paid most attention to). It sounds like I’m saying that facetiously, but I’m only saying it half-facetiously.

The one rather unsatisfying thing was the fact of Snoke’s anticlimactic end after all of the buildup around him (more so than how it played out)—but if Darth Maul can come back from being sliced in half, perhaps Snoke can too. Hmm, maybe not in this case. And that’s a pity, because Snoke’s motivations surely more or less inform Kylo’s motivations, and both would have been great to learn more about.

Final thoughts: So, basically what the writers of Episode IX have to do is

figure out how the Resistance is going to be a credible threat to the First Order when right now it fits inside an old Corellian light freighter

work in Leia’s off-screen death and pass her part of the story on to someone appropriate

complete Kylo Ren’s arc, without Leia

figure out if Poe actually has an arc to complete given that Poe’s screen time was taken up by setting up Finn’s subplots and inciting mutiny without much of a result, and given that the only ship he can now fly is a light freighter

figure out if Finn is actually going to do something useful this time

make ginger!Tarkin look like a competent second-in-command

actually show Poe being competent and not deceived by his superiors

congratulate themselves on outdoing RTD and Moffat in writing themselves into a massively tight corner for the final episode

That seems like a fairly tall order, and I don’t hold out much hope for answers here. If George Lucas were in charge, we’d have more answers than we needed. But JJ Abrams is in charge, and I’m afraid any answers we get here are going to just give rise to a thousand-fold more questions.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

On the droids: BB-8 was fantastic, as always. I still can’t get over just how expressive the design is compared to Artoo or frankly even Threepio.

I guess we also saw BB-8′s Imperial—erm, excuse me, First Order counterpart, which I really wanted to see do more. Kind of like Phasma.

On slot machine guns: Professor Layton did it better.

On the critters infesting the Falcon: Chewie, how dare you eat them.

Also, I think we’ve now potentially got the Star Wars equivalent of Tribbles. How quickly did those things take over the ship, anyway?

On originality: Say, do you remember a Star Wars movie where

the rebels are chased off their main holdout on a snow-white planet;

the Force-sensitive protagonist trains with a reluctant teacher on a remote planet with a submerged X-wing, dips into a cavern to confront the dark side of the Force, and ultimately interrupts their Jedi training to help the rebels;

the non-Force-sensitive protagonists seek out a rogue to help them, but are double-crossed and face dire prospects;

someone says ‘I know’ in an unusual context;

and the Force-sensitive villain reveals the parentage of the Force-sensitive protagonist, who is then asked to join them so that together they can rule the galaxy?

I mean, it’s not a straight-up recycled Episode V the way that Episode VII was a blatant remake of Episode IV, and the original trilogy codified a lot of modern sci-fi filmmaking to the point where it would not be possible for a sequel to not have some overlap with the original. But, to quote the judge from Ace Attorney, two coincidences at the same time seems more like a pattern to me.

Thinking about the submerged X-wing makes me a little peeved, actually, because it feels like the writers basically throwing the regression of Luke’s character in your face through one succinct image. It also feels like lifting the X-wing out of the water and flying to Crait in person would have been a less cheap way for Luke to go out, and actually would have also made for an extra nice callback to Episode V. Really, it’s surprising that this was so overlooked.

Random thoughts on the trailers I saw before the feature presentation:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom looks like it’s going to be gloriously silly. Also, Jeff Goldblum’s memetic line ... finds a way.

Ready Player One looks good (did I spot an Overwatch character?) although that could just be the Van Halen music. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s mostly the Van Halen music.

Eek, creepy large lifelike anime eyes in Alita: Battle Angel. It looks like one of those images you see on the Internet where you splice real-life photos together to represent a cartoon character, except now with a multi-million dollar budget.

Incredibles II. This is where it’s come to, is it, Disney/Pixar? I mean, I’m going to reserve judgement because the trailer was astonishingly short on content, but are you going to really start ruining every perfect movie you ever made?

I have no opinions on Avengers: Infinity War since I don’t follow the MCU, but involving the GotG makes me worried for their safety.

[beyond-far-horizons]

My thoughts on Last Jedi, the backlash and its relation to the archetypal storytelling of the Star Wars Saga.

I have been trying to gather my thoughts on this film, the reaction and the Sequels in general. My overall reaction, after two viewings, some reflection and looking at both sides, is the same as it was when I first saw it - mixed. But given how much the series means to me and others I think analysing our reactions is important.

Spoilers for Star Wars including TFA and TLJ and the film Labyrinth. This is my opinion - repeat just my opinion and won’t be tagged because I don’t want to get into a fan war or debate. Aggressive attempts to do so will just be blocked so play nice ;) Warning for a long-ass post.

Let’s start with what I liked -

It was fun overall. 

The opening fight with Poe was amazing, fast, funny and emotional.

More Poe was a good thing (mostly) and his dynamic with Leia was great - I loved that they had a headstrong male pilot with Leia as his mentor. I also liked the fan observation that Leia puts up with some of his antics because he’s like the son she should/could have had (no disrespect to Ben/Kylo.) Oscar Issac even notes the maternal relationship and that is super cute. 

Leia - nice to see her more front and centre - a general, a stateswoman, a force-user (yes), a mother, a sister and still looking fabulous. Carrie will be missed so much. I grieve for her, her family and for the story we could have gotten in Ep 9.

That moment between Leia and Kylo - sad face.

Rey, Kylo/Ben and Reylo - very happy they went in this direction. I can understand certain people’s/groups misgivings about this when projecting a RL dynamic on it, however the large section of us that enjoy this dynamic, I believe, do so on an archetypal level - which is primarily what Star Wars is about. The fairy tale, the myth - the Light and Darkness battling it out to transcend the opposites in the end. I loved their connection (even though the cuts were quite modern), I always adore it when the hero/heroine and villain start off hating each other, are opposed to each other and then gradually find parallels and similarities, and since ESB, Star Wars has always been fantastic in finding that Yin Yang and Jungian Shadow concept. The way they show the dangers of the path - that Rey could make the same mistakes as Ben and therefore why she wants to save him, just as Luke did with Anakin. It’s so human. The acting was fantastic, the moments soft and then intense - I loved the ‘Force skypes’ and the Throne Room scene. Indeed that application of the Force was just an extension of Luke and Vader in ESB and in a deleted scene in Jedi too. Also as sad and heartbreaking as it was I’m so glad Rey did reject him and didn’t give into his bullshit. I can sympathise with him but she didn’t compromise herself and that is so important. Like in the film Labyrinth at the end, Rey chooses her own sovereignty and morality despite temptation and it was the right thing to do. Also I feel (without getting too RL and social justice on this) women are often seen as the always loving, forgiving redeemers, the healers, the saviours and the nurturers - a powerful archetype that can sometimes be in play but also can be terribly damaging when constantly applied. No person can forever hold the weight of an archetype and in some cases shouldn’t, no matter how sad it is. Rey did her best but Ben ultimately needs to save himself, to make that choice as Vader did and that can be a hard pill to swallow especially when we see he hasn’t got the critical mass (yet) within himself to do it. 

Rey - in two minds given how TLJ treated plot points from TFA - but I continue to love her spirit and vulnerability as well as her moments of humour. 

The Throne Room confrontation was fricking epic! I loved it and I loved seeing the Battle Couple/Back to Back Badasses/Dark and Light take on the guards.

Rose - not so keen on the plotline but the character was adorable and we need more like her. It was also special for me because for years when I was training to be an actress in London, the friend who let me live with her for minimal rent had a Far East background and looked like Rose and always struggled to get decent parts despite her talent and tenacity. Seeing the hope and inspiration Rose gave to her in her career recently was amazing. 

The planets!!! Ahch-To and Crait just blew me away - oceans and islands - check, crystals, deserts and rock formations - check. Glorious!

Those crystal foxes!

I will always be a Reylo fan but Finn and Rey still have a special place in my heart and that hug at the end was gorgeous. If they get together at the end it’s okay with me as long as I can have some Reylo resolution too. 

Rey and Poe finally meeting. Okay I’m Reylo, I like Finn and Rey…but I always liked the idea of Rey and Poe too - yes I can have my cake and eat it thank you. 

The Supremacy - I may consider joining the Dark Side if I can have that ship!

The Codebreaker - there’s always a place in Star Wars for crafty grey characters and I liked DJ, not 100% keen on where they went with it but I liked him.

Holdo’s sacrifice - amazing  - those shots and that silence - just epic.

The initial idea of Luke as a hermit and the Balance which they sort of went with and then…hmm we’ll talk about that next!

Things I didn’t like or thought could have been handled in another way - 

This is interesting and has taught me a lot about how we project ourselves onto stories and what we do or do not get or expect to get out of a story. As we know this film has caused huge dissension and rather than throw crap at people - I respect they have their opinions - I want to analyst mine and other’s responses and find out why. I’ll note my personal reactions and then the issues that may have contributed to such a division.

Luke’s arc - I can see the de-constructivist allure of having Luke fail and why some people have taken heart from that message but as Mark Hamill has said it just isn’t Luke to me. As for him trying, even in a moment, to kill his nephew and best friend’s son after he was willing to sacrifice himself and everything else for his ideals to show his father - Darth freaking Vader -  a better way, also doesn’t ring true. Then to abandon the Republic/Rebellion for the First Order to take over - nah…If they want me to buy it, they need to give me more than what we got.

Admiral Holdo - ugh. I see what they were trying to do but if you have to withhold plans and make a character hold the Idiot Ball for you to do a plot twist it just doesn’t work. Also the whole feminist message was patronising and I say this as a woman and lifelong feminist. Treating men like idiots isn’t going to make them respect you. Also as others have pointed out, Leia was already a trope-breaking example of this done in a much better way in ANH. People were making the point that Holdo was soft and feminine and that’s why Poe and the menfolk in RL didn’t like her or feel she could have been in the military. I’m all for surprising people and frankly she can wear what she wants even though it was incredibly impractical but as an actress I noticed in her physicality she does not convince as someone of any gender who has been in a military force let alone in command. It does something to the way you stand and behave that she didn’t have and putting examples like her in only undermines the progressive course to me. 

Godspeed? God fricking speed?! We are in a Galaxy far far away! It’s the Force you idiot! Also ugh her and Leia just sounded like they were at a socialites party in the US not Star Wars when they say goodbye. I’m so up for female bonds and unexpected characters and roles but it was handled badly in my opinion - an example of shock value, not well thought out world-building. 

Snoke - WTF? Don’t build him up just to kill him off early! He is the reason all the shit in the Galaxy has happened - the return of the Dark Side, the corruption of Ben Solo, Luke’s Hobo arc - how does he link to the OT or even the Prequels (it’s a saga remember - a family saga, themes etc). To kill him now, without those answers, undermines the whole plot and undermines Kylo Ben as a result. Snoke was the reason he did all those heinous things, Leia says in the book he has been essentially grooming her son since he was in the womb (gross!). The OT draws out the Emperor until ROTJ and the Prequels spend 3 movies giving us insights on his dynamic with Anakin that primes us to understand (despite poor execution at times IMO) Anakin’s fall to the Dark side. We have none of this for Kylo bar a few hints. This lends weight to the accusation he is a pathetic, whiney (angry, privileged, white) boy who turned to the Dark Side cos Mummy and Daddy (our OT heroes) didn’t love him enough. Then we are given a vague flashback that Luke Skywalker of all people wanted to kill him for an instant and yeah…it doesn’t do anyone - Kylo, Snoke, Leia, Han or Luke - a service. Plus the ridiculousness of Kylo and Hux at the end undermines the finale and the hopes for Episode 9. I admit Snoke freaked me the f out - the undertones of the child molester/evil guru were strong and might have been a bit too much for kids but hell a good writer could have found a way to develop it properly without being too full on. 

Canto Bight - Finn and Rose. It was…okay…but again I could see the message loud and clear and there’s a difference between an archetypal mythic theme and hitting someone on the head with identity politics. Also I loved Finn and Poe’s dynamic and Finn and Rey’s dynamic in TFA - I wanted more of that. The plot arc just didn’t interest me or feel woven into the main plot as much as I wanted it to. And that sucks because Finn and Rose were cool and it was groundbreaking for Star Wars to include them in their own arc. Due to the lacklustre scenario I felt Finn wasn’t utilised enough. I felt he was slightly short changed by TFA and TLJ didn’t really shift that for me.

The Crait Plan - why not tell people the plan? To have it suddenly appear like a Deus Ex machina was shoddy esp when the First Order find out immediately anyway.

Leia’s Superman impression. It was a shocker and beautifully filmed. Extra poignant when remembering Carrie’s loss but…it’s not Star Wars! There’s a difference in developing the world-building and the magic system (I know this as a writer) and crapping all over it to introduce something ‘cool’. I have wanted Leia to use the Force since ROTJ. I would have totally been down with her using it here (like Nynaeve in The Wheel of Time) when she finally surrenders to this mystical power she doesn’t understand (and likely associates in her heart with Vader) in the face of her political and military might being crushed. It had the potential to be such a beautiful moment. She could have been in a pod or something and then dragged the exploding pieces back together - that would have been in line with previous Force users - Yoda, Dooku, Vader. But to be exploded into space where the vacuum alone could kill you, lack of air, cold etc etc and then fly like Superman just felt so wrong. Yes you need to suspend your disbelief to watch SF/F but the created world needs internal consistency (look up Tolkien’s On Fairy Tales or Mark Wolfe - Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation or the Laws of Sanderson for confirmation on this.)

Luke’s Force Projection and Death - it was beautiful and shocking (again) but (again) didn’t ring true with Star Wars for me even with the call-backs to the Binary Sunset and Obi-Wan’s cloak. Those just made me sadder. If they wanted to make it more Star Wars, more full circle, then why doesn’t he do a proper Obi Wan - face Kylo and become one with the Force in their duel? Also I just felt there was so much more for him to do, so much more to be shown and frankly as much as I love the Sequel characters, I and most of us are here because of the OT characters. This is and always was Luke’s story. We care about Anakin initially because of his connection to Luke even if he wasn’t really in the Prequels, so to have him go out that way and have so little relevance ultimately to the story of the Sequels just felt wrong. I’m not ready for this to be fully Rey’s story yet as much as I like her and what she brings to it. 

There was no real training arc - Luke didn’t even finish his third lesson to Rey. I would have loved to have seen Luke and Rey training and duelling. This also highlighting the unfortunately implication that Rey is a little bit of a Mary Sue and I hate that. The Force just made her awesome - again not consistent with Star Wars. Anakin and Luke, even after training, get their asses handed to them by Dark sider users. Yes Kylo had handicaps and Snoke does well to highlight them in TLJ but it would have been much better to either have had her train under Luke before and had her memory wiped or be trained now to account for her aptitude. It undermines her positive points as a character and it is irritating now to look back at TFA and see her so good at everything just..because…

A main point many people have pointed out - TLJ doesn’t respect the plot points and setups of TFA. This is worse than not respecting the previous trilogies because it’s bad storytelling and each episode is supposed to reinforce the arc of the others. Sure Lucas made similar mistakes but Abrams, Johnson and Disney had years of reflection and fan reaction to draw upon to make sure that didn’t happen and mostly in the OT Lucas made it work to a point they do make senseas whole. Why aren’t Disney and co making these stories to fit each other? They are a trilogy - a beginning, middle and end, not an opportunity for each director to ‘make their mark’ on Star Wars or ‘bring something different’. That’s like hiring a new director for each LOTR film! Again people can cite upending expectations but this was throwing out substance for the sake of shock value and that never works. The Vader plot-twist worked because it deepened the story, the plot-twists that Snoke and Rey’s force sensitivity and parentage don’t matter cheapened it. For the record I liked her parents being nobodies but we don’t get to see her explore that and JJ drops numerous Chekhov’s Guns about Rey’s background in TFA - Han, Leia and Kylo’s reactions to her, Maz’s talk, her visions, Luke’s reaction - that all now looks stupid. Kylo lets an officer go after his tantrum then force grabs him as soon as he mentions a girl. This and his latter interactions with Rey, esp in the novel, make him look like a desperate virgin that has never been exposed to a human female before. 

Phasma - where art thou?

I could go on but those are the main points.

Now to the deeper issues -

Most of us loved the Original Trilogy and while we want to repeat the magic  - to have the same but different - that story was essential told. It has a poignant, satisfying ending - Luke redeems Vader, the Empire is defeated, the Jedi are reborn, Leia and Han get together. It reached a natural conclusion and that conclusion gave it its power. That is a lesson that many of us and especially the entertainment industry don’t want to learn, hence why they milk franchises and stories until they mean nothing. Just as death gives life meaning so does the ending to a good story. However I have always been intrigued by a Sequel trilogy because it was something Lucas toyed with for a long time. I heard rumours of Leia and Han’s children in a forest scene for years and that was so magical! What happened next?! Lucas was notorious for tinkering with his creations and then saying he planned it that way all along (read Star Wars - A Secret History for confirmation and also an amazing insight into the creative development.) As an aside I think that part of the creative process is that it evolves and it interests me how many directions and stories could be told branching from A New Hope, ESB, Jedi and then even TFA. The stories that different groups wanted to be told and the story we got. However something that lent more weight to the Sequel idea was also Lucas’s inspiration of Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers and those old sci-fi serials that suggested the story could have gone on for episodes before you arrived in the cinema and continued long after, so I was interested to see if they could make it happen. Perhaps it would have been better done years earlier so the original leads could have had a more active role or set in the future so their legacy would have held longer but this is a family saga so…

Despite their love for Star Wars and its superficial appeal I’m not sure JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson and Disney understand the core of Star Wars and the archetypal themes underpinning it. This is the absolute core of the issues with Sequels (the Prequels) for me - I think it could have worked despite everything else but you need to understand the archetypal motif which is textbook Star Wars. A fantastic book that illustrates this is Star Wars - The Magic of Myth. I think they got bits of it but they didn’t really understand the whole and had other agendas in play that meant the worthwhile messages in Leia/Poe/Holdo, Finn/Rose and Luke/Rey’s storylines were lost, dissonant or just sledge-hammered in without respecting the characters, plot or themes. I was so looking forward to seeing a development in the mythos of the Light/Dark sides of the Force and the Balance - how acknowledging anger, abandonment and desire for power and control aka the Shadow, can help you understand yourself and the human experience but not(like Kylo did) by giving into it. This understanding grants you Balance and Transcendence - a true expression of the Jungian Individuation process and the Taoism way that Star Wars was inspired by. This could have been accomplished even with Luke going off to be a hermit which is counter to his character as Mark Hamill stressed. If you want a new story you need to set up conflict and this would have been a great conflict for a more mature Luke to have - that the Dark Side will always return in some way, so how does one counter it? When we found out in TFA he had gone looking for the first Jedi Temple, then we got the 1st trailer and the hints about the Balance of Light and Dark, I was excited. Luke hadn’t abandoned his sister and friends and the Galaxy! He had a painful setback but was still searching for something more. When they dismissed that in the movie and had him be this despondent bum who had vanished just to find some hole to die in, I was so disappointed. Yeah you could have it (as they did) as part of his character arc, to learn failure, to repeat the cycles/mistakes of his masters and be reminded of his younger self in Rey, but as others have pointed out Yoda and Obi Wan went into exile because they needed to and Luke transcended them at the end of Jedi anyway. So it needs a deeper reason for me than what we got.

The Backlash/Conflict and the questions it raises.

It seems broadly to come into two camps, but there are also many people in the middle across a number of different issues. The main camps boil down to either loving the OT - its themes, characters and relationships within the Skywalker Saga and feeling the Sequels haven’t respected that, and the other is enjoying the new direction of the Sequels and feeling Star Wars is now more modern, more progressive, more inclusive, either as a worthy development of the OT or without caring about previous instalments.

This, as I said at the start, comes down to stories - our stories, internally and in the outside world, and the archetypal stories we cling to across generations. Star Wars was always going to matter because it is one of a kind - a modern myth that called to us on this archetypal level as well as being so pervasive in the physical world through advertising, merchandise and different media that it has literally become a religion to some people and inspired many more.

Given that, the stories I’m hearing from the media and the progressive side is that the Last Jedi is fantastic because it’s breaking boundaries, it’s passing the torch, it’s giving us feminism, inclusivity and life lesson moments that are much needed in the current climate. And in a way stories do need to change and adapt to stay meaningful or, as we see, people change them to fit - create fanfiction, art, create their own worlds, write meta taking the pieces that make sense to them. Many people feel more included in the Star Wars saga and as such a powerful phenomenon I’m glad about that.

However to others, Star Wars already deeply meant something to them and some feel the Sequels, in their urge to move things along or having done so brashly, haven’t respected that legacy. Although there are undoubtedly racist, prejudiced idiots out there using Star Wars as part of their ideology, this goes against everything Star Wars and Lucas was trying to convey. So personally I think a lot of the deeper backlash is because of the Sequels ignoring the archetypal hero journey and themes at the heart of Star Wars - a journey first brought to us by Luke and his companions. Star Wars is not the type of story that lends itself to deconstruction, shock value twists and hopelessness - it’s a hopeful fairy story, that while filled with peril and battles with evil, nevertheless gives us the strength to face the dark symbolically and find the best in ourselves. While it has had its storytelling and world-building issues (especially with the Prequels hence the backlash with them at the time) it does have its own mythos and internal consistency, something I feel the Sequels have ignored time and again,and even undermining the setups in TFA. To call people ‘losers’ stuck on simple nostalgia or ‘man babies’ (as a friend of mine did) for having these objections is unfair. Archetypal stories/myths come from the Collective Unconscious and that moves very slowly in relation to society which is why we read stories from thousands of years ago and they still resonate. That doesn’t mean you have to copy the Hero’s Journey from the OT point for point - there are a galaxy of myths out there and our own minds for exploring how the legacy of the OT can be respected and yet developed, as well as including more women and POC as it needed to.

I will still watch Episode 9 and take the things I liked from it, TFA and TLJ, but to me the OT will always be the true Star Wars. However nothing is in vain and honestly I think this debate can be used by anyone to learn from the power of stories - what works and what doesn’t for them and go on to create their own original narratives as Lucas did all those years ago…I’m also really interested in getting the perspectives of kids seeing the Sequels vs the Prequels and OT as these will be ‘their’ Star Wars and the things we see and love as children always have special significance as they are the first to charge our awakening imaginations.

[rawringryu]

tEn cHaRaCtErS

I was tagged in this meme by the awesomely rad @francisthegreat whom I’m lucky to have as my friend :) Also I’m sorry this is so late! I didn’t see you tag me until like yesterday, I had exams this week haha. This was very hard to make because I have a LOT of feelings.

Ten characters from ten fandoms:

This list is going in ascending order, meaning my very favorite faves will be last on the list.

10. Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls) First of all on this list is this asshole, gosh I have no idea why but there was a period of time where I absolutely loved Gravity Falls and I shipped with a human form with Dipper mostly because of the amazing art and some pretty complex fics written for the ship. It was a wild ride and honestly thinking about this phase of my life always makes me feel weird, like I liked him purely because I liked reading shippy fics starring him. 

9. Pearl (Steven Universe) This one is kinda weird too? Idk man I absolutely love Pearl’s design and the way her character is written. I’m not in loop with the SU fandom because ugh it’s not a happy place to be but I absolutely love browsing art of her. I love how she’s such a broken character for a kids show! I used to read SU meta and they’d go on and on about how she’s a shit character, an asshole towards Amethyst and toxic. But tbh, I feel like she’s just a complex character that made bad choices at times, she’s trying to get better, she’s trying to cope with the loss of Rose someone she probably loved in more ways than one and how she felt Rose chose Greg over her, and now she’s gone. I mean, she just can’t let go and I think that’s very human.

8. Pitch Black (Rise of the Guardians) Alright but this fandom was the first one I’d ever been in once I started out in tumblr. It was very cool and leaves bittersweet memories tbh, I absolutely adored the art and fics this fandom churned out, I used to ship Pitch and Jack Frost. The thing about Pitch is the fact that the fandom practically merged the movie with the lore from the original Guardians of Childhood the movie is based on. In the book, Pitch has such a tragic backstory, his name was Kozmotis Pitchinier and he was the best general of the Golden Army. After capturing all fearlings, he was designated to guard the prison of their imprisonment , he was haunted by their whispers and pleading and his only solace was his daughter, of whom he kept a photograph of in a locket. But one day, sensing his weakness, the prisoners imitated her voice and hypnotized Kozmotis to believe she was being held inside with them. Frantic, he opened the doors to release her, but was instead possessed by ten thousand Fearlings.

Sorry for the long summary but I just want people to know more abt his backstory haha.

7. Loki (MCU) I didn’t really know about Loki until I watched Thor: The Dark World in the cinema and I was instantly in love despite this movie being the absolutely worst of all the MCU movies, which looking back I’d have to agree. Loki is yet another tragic character whom I’m sure everyone already knows about. I think Loki is a vulnerable character who tries to be good, wants to be good but he just can’t, or he tries and other people just won’t accept him. He’s a frost giant and those people are considered monsters, how can he not be bitter that he’s the very thing ha’s been indoctrinated to hate and fear. He is a very complex character that the MCU practically does not do enough justice mostly because he’s portrayed as a villain in the movies. But I wouldn’t consider him a villain, more like an antihero, nobody trusts him and he doesn’t think anybody can love him either. I’ve only read a bit of his comics and I gotta say Loki deserves so much more than what he gets.

6. Dr Strange (MCU) (I’m breaking the one character per fandom rule idc) I know a shit ton of people absolutely HATE Dr Strange, and for a variety of reasons too. They hate him because Benedict Cumberbatch plays him and hating on BC is practically the new edgy on tumblr. People think Dr Strange should have been played by an american asian and all that yada plus the ancient one being whitewashed. While I agree some aspects of Dr Strange is problematic, I think people need to give it more credit, at least watch it for the cool effects that the stupidly huge amount of people worked on. Also as an asian, I can guarantee you most people outside of America doesn’t give two shits about these controversies and movies should be a source of pleasure instead of thinking about all the negative shit only. Dr Strange deserves so much more, he’s an interesting and while he does share some qualities with Tony Stark, he’s his own character with his own issues. Plus his comics are very fun to read, come on, magic in the Marvel is such an awesome concept. Fuck you haters, I just wanna have a good time with the magic man.

5. Sherlcok Holmes (BBC Sherlock) This is also one of my earliest fandoms on tumblr. Sherlock season 4 absolutely ruined it with all the queer baiting and the shitty plot. But Sherlock had always left bittersweet memories for me too. Mostly because of the absolutely amazing and complex fics written for it, I will never understand how fic authors do it but Sherlock fics were amazing and I would gladly choose these fics over canon any time. 

4. Asuka Langley Soryuu (Neon Genesis Evangelion) I have so many feelings about this bitch right here, honestly one of the most relate-able characters for me. Asuka is a very human character, she’s very proud and has emotional issues. She was considered the best of the best and was trained to be an Eva pilot since she was four because she’s a child genius. However she has a tragic backstory, her mother underwent some tests and became insane, believing that Asuka's doll was her daughter and refusing to acknowledge the real Asuka, referring to her as "that girl over there." She eventually commits suicide by hanging herself; Asuka found her body when she went to tell her the good news that she had been chosen to become an Eva pilot. She couldn’t let go that Shinji the main character was starting to become a better pilot than her despite training for months only. She suppresses a lot of her emotions and had unhealthy ways of coping. I just want her to be happy.

3. Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is what I would consider the holy grail of anime tbh. Edward is just about the most selfless person out there in the fictional world of anime. I love the fact that Ed and Al started their journey off with mildly selfish reasons that is to return their body parts whom they lost to in a deal with Truth to bring back their mom which ultimately failed. In the end, Edward is willing to lose his alchemy, the very things that defines him, that started this whole mess, that is the source of his joy and misery for the sake of gaining his brother’s body back instead of selfishly using the Philosopher’s stone that’s made using human souls. I just want this shorty to be happy and I’m glad he is with that satisfying end.

2. Hitsugaya Toshiro (Bleach) The reason this guy is ranked so high in my list is mostly because, he’s been there for me since I was a smol kid, I’ve had a crush on him ever since I was 10 and I could never let go. He’s the one fictional character whom I still fallback to every time things stagnant, I love reading fics about him, he’s just so cool! He’s a child genius with a sword that can shoot ice dragons. Plus he’s always written in such a complex way in fics, Kubo missed his fucking chance by not expanding more about his character in the manga, but clearly Kubo is incompetent when it comes to plot so whatever I guess.

1. Kylo Ren (Star Wars) The Star Wars fandom or specifically the Kylux subfandom is probably the happiest plave I’ve ever been in since forever. It’s the first time I’ve ever talked to anyone at all online, I only lurked around in other fandoms but Star Wars made me able to brave the fandom and talk to people in it, I’ve met so many amazing people and read amazing fics in it, it’s mostly due to the KRB discord chat that I’m still going strong with this fandom. I absolutely love Kylo Ren and can he please crush me between his thighs. The thing that attracted me to him besides his unconventionally attractive appearance is his emotional vulnerability. Kylo has been neglected by Leia and Han as a kid and sent away to jedi school with Luke, he’s been manipulated by Snoke as a kid and Leia and Han just don’t think they can take care of him properly, they’re afraid of him and always too busy with their work, Kylo wasn’t planned, the way their relationship worked just wasn’t ideal for child rearing, Kylo was left alone with Luke, unable to understand why his parents don’t want him anymore, how he was too emotional for the jedi way. While what Kylo did was not justifiable with all that murdering, it’s not a stretch to say that he was very mush a victim of circumstances too. I related to Kylo a lot as I’d been sort of neglected as a child too, both my parents were always busy with work and I only saw them during mealtimes and before bed.

Sorry for the long post ya’ll! I have so many emotions about fictional characters haha.

I’ll be tagging @magicandmalice , @omega-hux, @tezzypants, @darktenshi17, @comraderevelin, @kylocatastrophe, @dargason-under-the-fantasia, @oblioknowlton, @evilblubber, @plasticpill and @glass-oceans that is if ya’ll want to, I had fun and went super overboard.

[gffa]

@skymurdock​ asked:  “Have you ever seen Pushing Daisies?” @darthluminescent​ answered, “I’ve seen enough to know the premise of it!” @skymurdock​ said:  "GOOD.  Pls imagine Obi-wan as a baker who can bring the dead back to life and Anakin as a former murder victim.  Former bc he's not dead anymore! Unfortunately he can't touch his boyfriend." And then... this... happened.

Legally speaking Anakin is dead, thank you witness protection program you are sure great at doing your goddamn job, but also he's currently hanging around Obi-Wan's bakery as a waiter and, like. Trying to find new ways to make plastic wrap sexy.

He can't touch him because he might die again??? NO PROBLEM, Anakin is going to get Very Creative then.

Obi-Wan is both endeared and tempted to roll his eyes skyward.

Obi-Wan missed him so much and yet!  He still can't touch him because if he does Anakin will die again and he can't take that.  He would like to be selfish just this one time, but he can't.

And there will be so many romantic kisses through plastic wrap!

Anakin showing up, completely naked, except for the plastic wrap all around his body and a suggestive smirk and Obi-Wan's like, oh, thank god you're attractive, because this is terrible and not at all sexy.  And it's really not.  But it is adorable.

They go through so much plastic wrap it's a wonder neither of them have developed some kind of Pavlovian response.

Eventually there are full body suits, but, like.  Before that.  SO MUCH PLASTIC WRAP.

It's also really hot and doesn't breathe AT ALL. After about half an hour, Anakin's just like, "[flops back onto the bed] [whines] This was a terrible idea."

"Can we go back to mutual masturbation and not go through so much plastic wrap?" "NO. I'll figure something out!!!"

There are a lot of late evenings where Anakin wraps himself in a sheet, like a full on burrito with only his face still exposed, and he sort of hop-shuffles over to Obi-Wan and then curls up against him and snuggles against his side.

Burrito Anakin tends to flop himself over Obi-Wan's lap if there's a couch and a TV nearby, like, dammit, he will have SOME semblance of normal cuddling while watching TV!

He just fucking wraps himself up in a bedsheet like a burrito and leans against Obi-Wan that way. Occasionally they hold hands through the bedsheet.

A few times he'll throw the sheet over Obi-Wan and just go full octopus on him, wrap arms and legs around Obi-Wan and he can feel SOME of Obi-Wan's body heat that way.

This is. Well, it's the closest thing Anakin can have to actual touch, at this point, and while it sucks he will take it anyway.  He aches for skin to skin contact, to feel the warmth directly on his own skin, but in the meantime, burrito Anakin will take what he can get.

He's pretty starved for touch, and the fact that he'd literally die if he touched Obi-Wan is, well, he is deeply unhappy about that. It's like, hey, great, he's not dead! But now he has to use a fake identity and not go see his kids and not touch his boyfriend.  None of which he is enthusiastic about.

BUT ALSO:

Ahsoka is totally the PI of this whole mess and works part-time at Obi-Wan's place for the employee discount.

She and Anakin once attached wheels to a chair and then used fire extinguishers as rocket boosters.

Ahsoka asks him one time if she can hug him and he's like "...please?"  And that's how Obi-wan walked in on the both of them snoozing on each other during lunch break.

He kind of randomly sneak hugs Ahsoka, just walks up behind her and wraps his arms around her and cuddles her for like three minutes straight, no warning or words exchanged.

She just pats him on the arm and relaxes into the hug and lets him press his face against her shoulder to feel someone.  But it can only fix so much.

Ahsoka occasionally complains a little about Anakin hugging her out of nowhere but like, she missed him too. a lot.  And he hugs really well.

Padmé is pretty sure her ex is dead but also for some reason she keeps seeing him sometimes?? Must be the grief. That's all. It's not like his ghost is hanging around haunting her.  Meanwhile Anakin is quietly hanging out nearby whenever Luke and Leia are in his vicinity.

He wants to hug them. He wants to tell them he's here and not in the ground, he wants to make up for lost time and tell them he loves them but he can't.

Luke probably wanders off one time bc he saw something and nearly falls somewhere and suddenly he gets caught and it's his dad!!! he's so happy!!! confused as well bc mom explained that dad couldn't ever come back ever because he was dead.  But like. He's just happy his father came back to keep him safe.

And it breaks Anakin's heart to have to tell him not to tell Leia or Padmé because he is supposed to be dead, after all, he's got a gravestone in the cemetery.

"But why???" "You just—can't, okay? Some very bad people are after me, and it's safer for you and Leia and your mom if I stay dead.  Please, Luke, can you keep this a secret?"

AND IT’S STILL SAD:

He missed Ahsoka too! but sometimes when he hugs her it's really just bc there's nobody else he can touch around here, Obi-Wan is obviously off-limits if Anakin wants to keep breathing.

He really loves hugging Ahsoka, but sometimes it's definitely a substitute and he'd like nothing more than to go crawl into bed with Obi-Wan and have both of them actually be naked.

It's nice that he can touch other people at least, he's not totally alone, but it's no real replacement for being able to ride your boyfriend's dick when GOD you haven't gotten properly laid in so long.

He just has to settle for like, long showers by himself instead if he can't use cling wrap.

He misses hickeys and bruises and properly rough sex, he hasn't gotten laid in such a long time jfc.

On the bright side though he had no idea he had a thing for gloves, so that's New.

It gets really hard to hold still and not accidentally dislodge the plastic wrap sometimes.  But on another bright note, apparently he has a thing for being tied or handcuffed to the headboard while Obi-Wan blows and/or fucks him.  So, well, at least that's a plus.

But he really wants hickeys NOT done through a thin shirt or a sheet.  He wants to feel Obi-Wan's tongue against his, he wants to feel the rough callouses on Obi-Wan's hands, he wants to feel the warmth of Obi-Wan's skin, he wants to press his face against the scratch of Obi-Wan's beard, he wants to hold both of them in his hand while they rut against each other, he wants to feel Obi-Wan's hand on his neck, wants to put his own hands on Obi-Wan's face when he leans in to kiss him.

Honestly sometimes he is just really tempted to say fuck it and kiss him anyway, it would be nice if that was the last thing he did on this earth but at the same time.

He has really terrible impulse control, he's kind of afraid he'll actually do it one day, just because he can't live like this.  And also he'd never see his kids again and ONE kiss is not worth the thousand ones he actually wants.

BUT THAT’S TOO MUCH SAD.  FIX IT.

Honestly if they ever somehow fix it he'd probably end up pretty much making up for it by kissing Obi-Wan as much as he can.  The song said a thousand sweet kisses and by god he's going to get those kisses.

Eventually they fix it--THEY DO, OKAY--and Anakin literally leaps onto Obi-Wan, who thankfully was sitting down when they were sure it would work, they tested it on other things a whole bunch of times, so many insects brought back to life and stayed that way!.  And just won't get off Obi-Wan's lap as he kisses everywhere he can reach, a hundred smacks all across the plans of Obi-Wan's face.

On his mouth, on his cheeks, on his forehead, on the bridge of his nose, on his neck, and right back to his mouth again to start all over.  Butterfly kisses and then slightly harder smacking kisses and then soft kisses again.  He's going to have a thousand of them THAT AFTERNOON, by god.

And then the long, long slow kissing, the gentle roll of their tongues against each other, the way Anakin can frame Obi-Wan's face between his hands, run his thumbs along those cheekbones of his, feel the warmth of Obi-Wan's face against his palms finally, he refuses to stop for literally an hour.

Every night ends with a goodnight kiss, every morning with a wake up one, it doesn't matter how foul either of their breath is, Obi-Wan can complain all he likes that he should brush his teeth first, that they BOTH should, but he's not getting out of that bed without a kiss.

Same for middle of the night bathroom runs, Anakin is octopused around him, he can FEEL when Obi-Wan gets up, NO YOU CAN'T GO UNLESS YOU KISS ME FIRST and then waits until Obi-Wan gets back to get another kiss before wrapping arms and legs around him again.

And they are, of course, immediately wiggled under Obi-Wan's clothes.  Mostly not even in a sexy times way, just that Anakin wants to feel skin against skin.

Anakin, himself, obviously, is naked, NO CLOTHES EVER AGAIN!!!! he shouts the first night.  \:D/ Clothes SOMETIMES, Obi-Wan says. NO CLOTHES.  NEVER AGAIN.  \;D/ Obi-Wan pinches the bridge of his nose, which is difficult with the way Anakin is attached to him.  "Clothes in public then.  When Ahsoka's here.  Or any other people." Anakin just kisses him again.  "Eh, maybe." It's going to have to be good enough for now.

He's spent years settling for the ghost of a touch, kissing with a sheet of plastic in between, so like he is not wasting a goddamn moment when he could be touching Obi-Wan.

He's just like, "Oh my god I missed this so much I am never wearing clothes again." "If you start a nudist colony, Anakin—" He kisses him. It's great, the way Obi-Wan makes this little protesting noise and then just sort of melts into the kiss, he missed that.

The first night, Anakin ceremoniously throws the sheets to the floor.  He tried to throw them out the window, but Obi-Wan managed to convince him to just the floor, that's good enough, The Evil Sheets That Kept Us Separated For Too Long And Were A Symbol Of All That Stood Between Us (Obi-Wan repeats with a sigh, but at least a straight face) have been vanquished, Anakin.

He proposed a Viking funeral.  Obi-Wan immediately shot it down by pointing out that it would set off all the smoke alarms and wake up his neighbors.

It's the middle of the night when Anakin is shivering and trying to burrow into Obi-Wan's side, when Obi-Wan finally brings it up. "Perhaps--and I'm just speculating here, no need to jump to conclusions--the bedsheets are NOT the root of all evil and everything that kept us apart." "No," Anakin says Very Firmly.  "NO MORE SHEETS, EVER." Obi-Wan looks at the ceiling and prays for patience.  Then maybe smirks a little, because he's kind of an asshole.  "Well, if you're really cold, we can get some plastic wr--" "DON'T YOU JOKE ABOUT THAT."

Ten minutes of shivering boyfriend later, there's a very sullen, "....okay, maybe ONE sheet.  But it can only go over the top of both of us!  NOTHING BETWEEN." "Nothing between," Obi-Wan promises solemnly.

Anakin ends up hogging the damn blanket anyway.  He gets easily cold and he got into the habit of wrapping up like a damn burrito, it's hard to break it.

He's so offended in the morning, too.  "You PROMISED--!" he starts to yell indignantly. "I was not the one who stole the blanket in the middle of the night and wrapped themselves up like a burrito out of habit," Obi-Wan sharply responds.  Okay, so, maybe he's a little grumpy at being denied contact now that they finally can.  He didn't expect it to be quite so sharp, though. "I WOULD NEVER," Anakin is aghast at this. They argue about it for a good ten minutes, WHILE Anakin is still kissing him all over this face.  "I [smooch] would [smooch] never [smooch] because [smooch] I [smooch] want [smooch] this [smooch] more [smooch] than [smooch] [smooch] [smooch] ANYTHING."

Anakin protests that he DIDN'T, and meanwhile Obi-Wan points out that he certainly didn't wrap Anakin up like a burrito in the middle of the night, because for one thing he was asleep by that time.  At least up until he woke up and it was cold and Anakin had stolen the blanket and wrapped himself up like a very tall and very cold burrito.

Considering Anakin was clutching the blanket in his fist, yes, Obi-Wan is certain that it was him who wrapped him up like a burrito. Anakin starts to puff up to argue again, so Obi-Wan offers an olive branch and kisses him.  It has nothing to do with that Anakin can't argue if there's something else trying to work its way down his throat, not at all.