#shmi and beru as hildegarde schmidt and greta ohlsson

[anghraine]

please give me every detail of your "murder on the mid-rim express" au (what is the star wars equivalent for the train between paris and istanbul?? coruscant and alderaan maybe??)

It’s even more AU than that, I’m afraid! They’re actually in the setting of the book, more or less. A lot—not all, but a lot of gender switching comes from what first came to mind as RL approximations of their names. 

So, Ben/Kylo Ren is Renata Coehlo. Breha/Bail + Anakin are one person, Dr Beatriz May, née Andor. Her customary introduction of herself was “my friends call me Annie, but you can call me Dr May. :)”

She’s a scientist purely to bring the Galen/Lyra character in (so she can be an unintentional casualty of the crime). So her colleague/friend/co-researcher is Dr Laura Erso, whose death leaves behind a devastated and furious young daughter, Jyn. This is probably one of the roughest analogues—Jyn as the child of someone involved in the case, but originally Hector MacQueen was the son of the district attorney. I always try to compromise between the aspects of each side’s story, but this was a bit “??? how do I... hm, maybe...? a... colleague? there’s a fire to draw attention and Laura is quite accidentally burned to death and Jyn is CONSUMED WITH REVENGE.”

(For Jyn and Cassian in particular, I wanted to accommodate their SW histories/characters as far as possible to keep them ... themselves.)

Since, Anakin = Annie May = Sonia Armstrong (and Padmé is the colonel), either Luke or Leia had to be the Armstrong child. I wanted Leia (Leah Orenstein) for the quietly vengeful parent of the wrongly suspected party—Kylo/Renata is poor Susanne, lol, but we don’t really know anything about her so w/e—which left Luke. So Luke is the universally beloved Esperanza May (switched to match Daisy; I even thought of Margarita, but wanted something reminiscent of Luke, too). And then the heartbroken nurse can be Aunt Beru, here Brianne Lars. 

May as the family name, btw, is from Padmé. She’s Colonel Patrick May, a WWI hero. And mostly for lols, the loyal, stoic wartime buddy is Colonel Davis—aka Draven! 

And the iconic leader of the crew (+ only older woman connected to Cassian in any way) is Mónica Andor—Mon Mothma, of course. The great actress! 

I’d always meant Cassian to be the only member of the family in the actual household to survive—he was largely raised by Annie/Beatriz, since he’s so much younger and Mon was off being an Artist much of the time. So he had to be Helena Andrenyi all along, and Andrenyi/Andor being so similar was a happy coincidence.

Oh, and Finn was easy! I wanted him to be someone with Kylo/Renata and Rey/Rhea King already involved (Rey is the Mary Debenham figure, bc I’m lazy). And the TLJ undercover stuff made Hardman-the-PI an obvious choice. But Hardman is Susanne’s bereaved lover, which since Leia(Leah) = Michel and Kylo = Susanne ... Finnlo? Okay! With Kylo as Renata, I made Finn a woman purely for lesbians. I like het just fine (obviously) but for some reason I found it profoundly boring for them. She’s technically Finnula, but always always Finn. Clients are consistently surprised that “Finn McNeil” is a woman! 

(I was kind of imagining that Finn is British rather than American, and just really good at faking it à la John Boyega—the obnoxious American act is even more of an act. Maybe.)

((McNeil is the detective agency that Cyrus Hardman works for in the book.))

I picked Sabé to take the place of Armstrong’s valet—Sabina Masters, Patrick/Padmé’s iron-willed secretary/assistant (sort of along the lines of Suchet!Poirot’s Miss Lemon, but more so). Shmi becomes Mrs Walker, the cook who doted on Esperanza and used to sneak her pastries. And Han, inevitably, takes Foscarelli’s place as the driver—he talked tough, but everyone knew he’d let Esperanza sit on his knee and pretend to drive the car. 

I thiiiink that Han is not actually Renata’s biological father, since I liked the idea of Han and Leia having this middle-aged romance in the backdrop (vs the kind of ehhhh middle-aged Arbuthnot/27-y-o Mary of the novel). And Han Coehlo seemed a bit much (his real surname is Sully, but he goes by Solo for dashing points). It’s still across social boundaries; Renata was Annie’s intensely devoted research assistant, so I imagine she and Leah came from at least a middle-class background. And Leah (along with Jyn and Finn) is one of the few people involved for a reason other than Esperanza, which I thought might make for some interesting tension. 

Oh, and Obi-Wan is the Princess Dragomiroff character—Mon’s close friend, which fits sending for him in RO, and Annie’s godfather (like a father to me~). 

[anghraine]

*hearteyes* pretty pls share more of this plotbunny w/ complicated lesbian finnlo and anakin as cassian's older sis and war hero padme and agatha christie murder mystery intrigue?

Haha, well, I wrote a sort of rough background sketch during a stretch of insomnia:

OrsonKrennic’s kidnapping and murder of the little May girl was one ofthe most notorious crimes of the decade. To those of a certaindisposition, it was also one of the most incompetent.

Theplan: Krennic and his operation would start a fire in Dr May’s lab,snatch Esperanza May during the ensuing chaos, demand a ransom, senda flunky to exchange the child for the money, and escape. No problem.

Ifhe’d actually thought about it, he would have found many problems.He failed so utterly, in fact, that his attorney argued that heclearly could not have contemplated a crime at all. (This argumentdid not succeed.)

Tobegin with, Krennic had already racked up an inconvenient murder bythe time he cut Esperanza’s throat. Dr May might well have been inthe laboratory during the fire. As it happened, she’d briefly left,but her co-researcher remained. Dr Laura Erso burned and/orsuffocated to death, leaving behind a young, angry daughter.

Secondly,he actually knew very little about the Mays beyond their wealth andtheir immediate movements, less than the most breathless gossip column. PatrickMay was an English colonel, a hero of the war, who retained strongties to many of his wartime friends—most of all, Colonel Davis, a man notorious for lifelong grudges and loyalties alike.Colonel May had saved his life in the war.

Mayhad married an American chemist, Annie toher friends and Dr Beatriz Andor toeveryone else. Upon her marriage, Beatriz bent so far as to switchfrom Dr Andor to DrMay. All compromise ended there.She certainly didn’t give up her profession, as expected, to carefor her husband or daughter. Paddy, she said, was a grown man whocould take care of himself perfectly well. And while she adoredEsperanza, that love did not transcend her work.

Mostof Colonel May’s friends and their social acquaintances found thisquestionable, but not all that surprising, all things considered.Beatriz was the unconventional daughter of an unconventional mother. MónicaAndor had not gone from a frightened girl plucked out of Mexico Cityto an acclaimed Shakespearean actress by balking at much of anything.She loved both of her children, Beatriz and a much-younger son,fiercely protected them, did her best to pass down everything shebelieved—but she regretfully accepted that Art, however essential,could not be mother to two children. Nursemaids and governessesexisted for a reason.

Beatrizperfectly understood this; Cassian tried. At any rate, Mon foundan excellent nurse, a steady, affectionate woman they privatelycalled Bri.Beatriz loved her, and years later, with a young brother and infant daughter onher hands, readily entrusted them to her care. Krennic could beforgiven for not knowing a nursemaid’s name—Brianne Lars, as ithappened—but if you’re going to go around abducting children, youshould probably considerthe possibility of a nurse.

Therewas Miss King, too, a young private teacher chiefly responsible forthe education of Dr May’s fifteen-year-old brother, along with Esperanza’s early lessons. Accustomed toproblems in the lab, she paid little attention beyond glancing towards the chaos. But by sheer mischance, she saw Krennic fleeing withEsperanza—very clearly saw him, without being noticed herself. Itwas her testimony that put him away.

Those were abject failures. In all fairness, however, he couldn’t have known how badly the others would take it. 

Han Solo, the chauffeur, talked roughly, but fooled no one. He used to secretlylet Esperanza crawl on his knee and pretend to drive. Sabina Mastersdid the same with her typewriter—she was Colonel May’s secretary. Mrs Walker, the cook, always slipped her best pastries to Esperanza; she was the one who heard her scream. 

Renata Coelho, Dr May’s research assistant, might have been the only one not enraptured with Esperanza. But she made up for it with her adoration of her mentor. She was the first to reach the laboratory, and consequently fell under suspicion—not helped by a criminal past. While clearly not the kidnapper, the police believed her an accomplice, despite her insistence that she would never harm Dr May and had slipped away to show the laboratory to a very particular friend. 

The fact that the friend in question, Finnula McNeil, was also a private investigator raised further suspicion. Finn—she’d never used Finnula a day in her life—swore to Renata’s story and eventually admitted that the two were lovers, and Renata had slipped away for a rendezvous. This was considered highly doubtful, and Renata, always troubled, felt increasingly hunted until she threw herself out a window. Long before the others began scheming together, Finn and Renata’s mother Leah had turned together and determined that something must be done.

-

Obvious and I went over it before, but just to be clear!

Orson Krennic is ... uh, Orson Krennic, with some Palpatine/Snoke thrown in (Ratchett/Cassetti)

Esperanza May is Luke Skywalker (Daisy Armstrong)

Dr Beatriz “Annie” May, née Andor is Breha(and Bail) Organa+Anakin Skywalker (Sonia Armstrong)

Dr Laura Erso is Lyra+Galen Erso (MacQueen Sr, the district attorney)

Jyn Erso is ofc Jyn (Hector MacQueen)

Colonel Patrick May is Padmé Amidala (Colonel Armstrong)

Colonel Davis is General Draven (Colonel Arbuthnot)

Mónica “Mon” Andor is Mon Mothma (Linda Goldenberg Arden/Mrs Hubbard)

Cassian Andor is Cassian (Helena Goldenberg Andrenyi)

Brianne Lars is Beru Lars (Greta Ohlsson)

Miss King is Rey (Mary Debenham)

Han Solo is Han (Antonio Foscarelli)

Sabina Masters is Sabé (Edward Masterman)

Mrs Walker is Shmi Skywalker (Hildegarde Schmidt)

Renata Coehlo is Kylo Ren/Ben Organa (Susanne Michel)

Finnula “Finn” McNeil is Finn (Cyrus Hardman)

Leah Orenstein is Leia Organa (Pierre Michel)