#star wars eu fan fiction

[krisslegacy]

not a lot just forever (chapter four)

based on the song by adrianne lenker

“and I roll them once or twice can't get much better not a lot, just forever"

characters - theron shan x q'rea kriss (original female barsen'thor)

summary - a nightmare, and words of comfort

word count - 678

warnings - pregnancy, ptsd, waking up from a nightmare

A/N - no beta we die like men please check this out on ao3, and so sorry for being MIA with my fics im on the grind now! i've been at film school :P

AO3

“Hey, look at me, breath.”

Theron’s words sustained her better than the Force as he held her up, gently stroking up and down her spine.

Her heart still pounded in her skull, thrumming through her bones and ringing in her ears. She couldn't help but clench her teeth and press her hands against the sides of her head.

35 years old, and the nightmares didn’t slow down. Q’rea’s future still haunted her.

She pulled air between her teeth, producing an eerie hissing sound before she exhaled. With the release of air, she let herself float on the steady stream of the Force, the rhythm and comfort of her husband’s words. The abyss of darkness slowly eased out of her head, returning to the deepest parts of her soul, hidden away.

Sweat clamored the sheets together, creating an uncomfortable sensation to Q’rea’s skin. Her ligaments and tendons popped and stretched as she extended her legs, easing herself onto her back to desolately stare at the ceiling (which had become a favorite activity over the years)

(Well, before her marriage)

Absently, her hand drifted to the small rise in her stomach. Just the notion of her nightmares returning made her throat dry. The bond she’d formed with the fetus already suggested high levels of Force sensitivity, and what if… what if this child was just as affected with their mother’s dreams as she was?

“Is it happening again?” Theron’s voice returned to her attention.

Swallowing her fear, Q’rea nodded. “Theron…”

He effectively shushed her, immediately taking his wife into his arms. “Together, we face all of this together.”

Silence.

“You promised,” he whispered.

Slowly, she turned to face Theron, pressing her forehead against his. A shock-wave filled with such tender love and warmth rolled through her body as she held his face in her hands. In that moment, she was reminded of the lengths she’d go to keep him safe, the injuries she’d bear so nothing could come between them. It had taken 11 years to finally be his, and though Umbara was a hurt she’d carry with her for the rest of her days, she’d rip the whole galaxy apart for him.

That was attachment, that is what Q’rea had feared her whole life. Only now, she wasn’t afraid of it anymore, running in the dark from something she’d never seen or felt. She embraced it now. Love made her stronger, and the Jedi had been wrong to turn away from it.

Revan’s words 13 years ago made her change her mind on Yavin IV. Her nightmares in carbonite only reinforced it.

“You don’t need the Force to know how much I love you, Theron Shan,” Q’rea finally said as their noses brushed, “and you certainly don’t need it to know I’m telling the truth. We will always do this together.”

Her heart nearly beat out of her chest when he reached to push a strand of brown hair out of her face. The faintest smile painted his lips. “Of course I don’t, I’ve known you far too long not to.” “I’m just not sure I can control this myself.” Q’rea sighed. Her hand dropped to his chest, pushing Theron over onto his back as she rolled on top of him. The groan that escaped his throat didn’t miss her at all. “I’ll talk to Sana-rae about it, how ‘bout that?”

Theron pulled his wife to his chest. “Fine-”

“Theron, did you feel that?”

He raised his eyebrow. “What?”

“That…kick.” Q’rea was quiet now, a voice filled with an excitement so rare nowadays. “Against your stomach, from me?”

Q’rea’s smile was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and never would he be sick of it. Even the musical giggles that levitated from her soul made him tingle with bliss.

“Well, no mistake now.”

“You don’t think the early morning vomiting told you that?” Theron stroked her hair.

“Quite, old man. You’re lucky you can’t get pregnant.”

Husband, wife, and a child the size of an orange laughed until the Odessen sun rose.

[david-talks-sw]

So, why should I care about Lucas’s narrative? Like seriously why should I care? Not to sound dismissive but a genuine curiosity? Man sold it for one thing and the EU and the fans that made it showed Star Wars was may more then his narrative at some point.

If anything Star Wars moved beyond Lucas’s narrative even before he sold it. Even from a grande perspective his narrative stopped mattering in some sense the minute A New Hope arrived and became a hit.

Oh, you're free not to care about it.

But the fact remains:

When Lucasfilm creatives promote new content, they’ll use George as an authority figure to legitimize what they say.

Big chunks of the fandom do the same by using Lucas’ words to make authority arguments on why they believe the new films and the current direction of the franchise is good or bad.

Seeing as there seems to be a general consensus that Lucas’ word holds some power, I'd rather set the record straight on what he actually stated and intended.

You totally can just say “death of the author, what Lucas intended or what he said outside the movies doesn’t matter, what matters is what’s actually on screen” and I’d have nothing to counter that argument with because this is a subjective stance. We can debate its merits, but that’d result in a much larger discussion about the place of authorial intent in fiction.

But again, you can discard my posts and analyses by simply saying:

“I don’t care what Lucas stated, I’m a free-thinker and I can interpret any movie I watch however I want.” 

At which point, the only answer I can give you is “cool, good for you”. 

You wouldn’t be the only person I’ve met who takes this approach, either. I have friends who are older than me, saw the Original Trilogy films in theaters and felt Lucas’ dropped the ball as early as Episode VI: Return of the Jedi or the Special Editions, let alone the Prequel films. These friends don’t put Lucas on the same pedestal as everyone else seems to do, and flat out tell me:

“David, either the Jedi are the problem or the Prequels are bad, I don’t care what Lucas was going for, the result is crap and the only thing that makes it all have some degree of sense is that interpretation.”

And I mean… what do I say to that? What can you say to that? That’s a personal interpretation of a movie, it’s not an opinion that’s less valid than anyone else’s. 

But when I’m taking this approach, I’m not saying “your read of the movie is inferior to that of George Lucas” (unless you confer some degree of power to his word, as the creator of the franchise).

All I’m saying is “Lucas’ message was X”. 

You can agree with the message, you can disagree with the message, the message may be factually/morally/philosophically right or wrong, that’s all debatable. 

I’m just pointing out that, when you look at all the data and you go by what George Lucas stated, it’s X, not Y, like most of the fandom and even authors of the franchise seems to keep stating.

Finally, on a personal note:

I don't like the fact that every time I see my childhood heroes on screen, nowadays, they're portrayed as protocol-worshipping stoic assholes.

I don't like that 90% of the fandom thinks that's how they're meant to be seen when the data demonstrates it's not.

I don't like that the reason my childhood heroes keep being portrayed in this uncharitable light is because the fans from the generation prior to mine - whom these characters weren't meant for - wanted to ensure that their childhood hero, Luke Skywalker, would be preserved as "the ultimate Jedi" and concluded that the only way to do so would be to reframe the Prequel Jedi as dogmatic and emotionless.

So now the OT fans have Luke, the Sequel fans have Rey, the TCW fans have Ahsoka... all unsullied protagonists.

Whereas pro-Jedi PT fans need to mentally ready themselves for when Lucasfilm decides to release the nth "Windu was more strict than a droid" case.

[raleighrador]

There is no real Star Wars, it is all real Star Wars

I have never much cared for debates over what "real" Star Wars is.

I don't particularly care what George Lucas (or any author) intended or what he (or anyone else) has said in interviews.

I think this is because I got into Star Wars when I was a literal child and the thought of reading reviews or watching interviews didn't occur to me until I was in way too deep; and I was always a huge fan of the EU - I quite literally read every single published novel - and enjoyed them just as much as the movies.

So for me Star Wars always went beyond some kind of narrow "canon" and was always inclusive of basically whatever published (slop or otherwise) material I could get my hands on.

I have also always been very comfortable picking and choosing what I enjoy and care about. I have no issue with a book or move being bad/not to my taste/not in line with my preferred interpretation and just... not really caring about it.

Any long running & expansive fictional series will inevitably throw up mixed quality and contradictions. Even with a single author. The good thing is literally none of it is real so who cares.

In fact this gives readers/consumers a lot of freedom. We are under no obligation to engage with all of it or try and build some kind of perfectly synthesised "correct" interpretation that takes into account absolutely everything that has ever been portrayed.

No one (despite what it sometimes feels like) is marking your homework. There is no pass or fail. You can't enjoy something incorrectly.

How fandom - and I have in the last few weeks been far more active on Tumblr, the only social media site I post on - interacts with Star Wars does bizarrely feel like some kind of peer reviewed pseudo academic process.

However, it feels like a peer reviewed pseudo academic process which - and this sounds unbearably arrogant so please forgive me - is envisaged by people who have limited experience of how academia treats textual studies.

My majors were history and literature (and I went to Universities in the Global South that were VERY dubious of the distinction between those two). Literally none of the academics I studied under believed in some kind of single correct interpretation of any text.

Any text. Fictional or historical.

So why would the most massive science fiction IP in history that has been consumed by billions of people, which is the aggregate effort of dozens or hundreds of people lend itself to some kind of single correct interpretation?

In fact kind of a big part of academic textual studies is deliberately re interpreting texts through multiple lenses and logics. Just to see if you can. Just to see if it fits.

Historiography is a necessary element of any historical study & you could argue the same is true for fictional texts. We should definitely keep authors biases and intentions in mind when engaging with a text.

But we do not, and cannot, know the inside of their minds. The idea that even what they say in interviews is somehow a perfect articulation of their "true" intention is flawed.

To whit - if you believe an author perfectly expressed the definitive articulation of an idea in an interview (a spoken format where even if they knew the questions before hand they are giving their answer somewhat off the cuff), why do you NOT believe that a movie script or novel manuscript that they have worked and reworked and edited and proof read and reedited and redrafted for hundreds of hours is any less perfect an articulation of an idea?

So all we can do is acknowledge what we think we know of the author and decided if we care and how much weight to give it.

But the text is the text and the evidence is the evidence. We can weight it differently or dismiss it or whatever we want but ultimately we either believe the text itself has independent value or what are we doing here?

We seem committed to prioritising textual evidence over historiographical evidence otherwise we are in a self defeating exercise. We need not watch the movie, we need only watch cast interviews. We need not read books, we need only read the author's blog.

There would be no viable interpretations of Beowulf because we can't speak to the author.

It defeats the very idea of ideas - that they are independent, transmissible, intelligible, far beyond the reach or remit of the people who had them.

Some are good, some are bad, all are out there, and we can pick and choose as we wish.

So do so.

[holonetwork]

The Skywalker Twins and the Expanded Universe This graphic pulls together quotes Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have made over the years regarding their characters' futures in the EU. Although neither of the two actors were readers of the EU material, they knew of the goings-on of their characters through friends and family informing them of the events of the novels. Carrie was said to have picked up a copy of Courtship of Princess Leia in the '90s due to liking the cover art. In 1997, she was interviewed for Star Wars Galaxy #12, where she provided some remarks shown here; later, in 2000, she also commented a bit on the subject of Leia's EU life at the Star Wars Weekends event at Disney Hollywood Studios. When her fictional twins of Jacen and Jaina were brought up, Carrie asked if they behaved themselves, and when an audience member said they did not, Carrie quipped, "They don't behave, seriously? That sounds like they'd be my kids." Carrie would sometimes remark that her preferred lightsaber color would be purple, if she was to have one; the closest this came to being realized is Leia's reddish-pinkish (nearly purple) lightsaber, as presented on the Japanese and American covers of Star by Star, in the New Jedi Order. Mark has remarked over the course of several years on his EU self, repeatedly commenting that he approved of Luke's relationship to Mara. In 2004, Mark even took to the stage with Shannon McRandle, Mara's actress for the trading cards; Shannon says they got along well, and Mark enjoyed meeting her, with him saying later to Insider, "The model who plays her is just adorable." The quotes compiled here for Mark's section are from Insider #73, from 2004, a Tweet of his from 2016, and a Hyperspace chat Mark conducted with fans in 2004. Three pieces of art were used to create this piece: the immaculate Star Wars #20 by Hugh Fleming for the starfields, a piece illustrated of the Solo family for West End Games' The Last Command Sourcebook, and a drawing of the Skywalker family by FalconFan on DeviantArt.

[charlestobiasiii]

Hey!

Hi!

So, this is weird, and random, and I have no idea what I'm doing, so please forgive me for the word vomit I'm about to commit 😁

For the past year I've been writing a star wars fanfiction based in the star wars expanded universe/Legends continuity. Well 😅...I saw writing. Maybe working on is more appropriate. You see, I'm somewhat a perfectionist at heart. I'm scared to write. I'm afraid that the result of my work will not be as good as the story that I have conceived in my mind. I won't have the articulation and writing skills in order to pull it off.

But! I've started a new chapter in my life. Self improvement is the name given on the internet, I'm sure many will have heard of it. Going to the gym, working on competency, taking responsibility for my own life, they're all a part of it. However, I also see this as an opportunity to change my story's progress for the better.

So! Starting today, I'm writing that fan fiction. And here, this blog I suppose, is where I'll be charting my progress 😁

It's mostly that, but also I know I have a whole abundance of small stories, backgrounds, world building/head canon (head EU?? Head legends?) that Ive built up surrounding the story, so this will also manage to serve as a basis for that too.

Also the ability to answer any questions or queries of people that may go on to read the story is pretty cool too 😊

But yeah, that's me, that's the word vomit. If you've read this, then Hi! And thank you 😊 I'm dedicated to making this the best I can, and working on this as a part of my life overall, sharing it with other people and having fun

Until my next post, stay safe and may the forc- is that too cliche?

Meh, who cares

May the force be with you 😂

[torilaa]

So, idk if it's just me or if I'm just in a pessimistic mood...but what exactly is there to look forward to with Star Wars right now? Yeah, I haven't gotten to Ahsoka yet so there's that...but everything else? Mandalorian season 3 was meh...very meh. Movies? What movies. The KOTOR remake, which I wasn't completely positive about, is dead in the water. I think I'm only looking forward to Andor season two. I looked into the High Republic and some things look interesting...but most of it isn't really my thing. Which is fine, that's how it was in the EU, but there were other things to grab my attention.

So, I'm making my own fun which...is fine. Better than nothing. I consider a lot of the fan stuff/fan fiction right now to be more akin to the old EU and so I'm happy for that. I miss the EU times only because there was so much content to comb through. Look at Wookiepedia. Look between the "Canon" tab and the "Legends" tab. Which one is bigger? Most of the time it's Legends. I just feel like Lucasfilm dumped so much good material. Though at this point...I doubt they could do any of it justice. I wish I didn't think that way since I love Star Wars and want it to succeed. But that's how I feel.

[unbound-shade]

I would care so much more about what Star Wars Legends/EU novel fans had to say about the new history being written post RotJ if more than a handful of the EU novels hadn't been glorified fan fiction. Mischaracterizations of the original cast of characters, multiple reiterations of the original trilogy plot, bad tie-ins, bad ideas, and a crowded timeline with no one keeping track of continuity; the EU was rife with issues comparable or worse to whatever people want to complain about Dave Filoni doing.

Take off the nostalgia goggles and pray they leave the stupid fucking Yuzan Vong on the cutting room floor. We should be glad we're not bound by the "canon" of 2 dozen Rogue Squadron novels and Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

If they'd all been Courthsip of Princess Leia or Heir to Empire-levels of good, it would be a shame to rewrite so much, but most of it was fanservice by authors who didn't think they were going to get more of the universe unless they wrote it.

[supremechancellorrex]

I've a few people trying to bring in Legends/EU content to argue with Star Wars canon and even try to disprove credible fan speculation and theories with it. Legends and the EU aren't canonical. Legends, a rebrand from the EU, was created by a variety of authors, artists and creators over the years in rather free-form environment and doesn't incorporate on-screen canon material like TCW Season 7 into its lore or work with what we know of Order 66 and the inhibitor chips.

Moreover, George Lucas reportedly never bought into the tier system and the canonicity of Legends/EU. He also infamously hated Mara Jade and saw Luke as someone who wouldn't marry. That isn't to say George Lucas never ever took inspiration from Legends, as lots of authors take inspiration from fiction both related to their work or not, but that doesn't make Legends and any of its assertions intrinsically canon. It isn't.

Dave Filoni, who worked with George Lucas on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, also spoke about how there was always a demarcation between the on-screen canon and the EU/Legends. Disney simply reiterated it.

[darthkvznblogs]

With May the 4th upon us, what do the aliens living on Earth (Bumblebee, House Tarron, etc.) think of Star Wars?

-Bumblebee was very confused when he first watched it. He repeatedly tried to explain to his human friends that that's not how the galaxy actually works (what he could remember of it, anyways), but when he got that it was an entirely fictional story, he liked it well enough. He doesn't really care about the Jedi and Sith stuff, and he actively hates the Empire, but he likes the droids and the more down to earth stuff like smugglers and rebels trying their best to survive.

-Aja and Krel obviously haven't watched it. I think Aja would fucking love Luke Skywalker and she'd totally start making lightsaber noises (and maybe even petition Krel to modify her Serrator so the blade mode looks like a lightsaber). Krel would scoff at all of it, though, at least at first. Definitely the type to point out every single thing that's wrong compared to real life. Like all things Terran, he'd probably grow to appreciate it later on.

-The first time Hala watched it it took her an embarrassingly long time to realize the Imperials were the bad guys. It's not even that she agreed with their actions, they just reminded her of the Kree enough that they kinda triggered the loyalty response instilled on all Kree by the Supreme Intelligence. She kinda broke the spell when she saw the smoldering corpses of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, though.

-Stuart is a lifelong fan - as in, he's been living here long enough that he was able to watch every movie in theaters. He debates lore on the forums, he'd defend the prequels to his dying breath, he's read every EU novel and comic...I think he'd definitely cry MUH GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN post-Disney acquisition lol, but he'd persevere and become a loremaster for the new stuff, too.

[nicad13]

Star Wars fans: Gah new content invalidates EU dammit I've wasted my time!

Transformers fans: New rebooted continuity? New content? Cool!

Doesn't always play out that way, but having started out watching Transformers evolve over various continuities and watching most everyone judge them on the merits of their quality, I'm perplexed at the number of SW fans rejecting announcements of new content sight unseen.

I see no reason how a different continuity invalidates the enjoyment anyone got from the old one. It didn't go away. It still exists. It's no more or less fictional than the new stuff. If you enjoyed it when you consumed it, your time was well spent.

[mannatea]

Every role in every fandom you've ever been in! GO!!!!!!

Uhhhhh, I’ll try.

Dragon Ball Z: Reader for some years, then writer. Someone in this fandom illustrated one of my ‘fics (the first time that had ever happened to me!) so that was a fun experience.

InuYasha: Obsessive writer with many WIPs. Met my husband through this fandom in 2003 so it’s special. Eventually I actually stopped writing for the fandom and went back to read. I still have fond memories of a specific AU writer (one of the stories they wrote was Bottled Genius).

Rurouni Kenshin: Obsessive writer with many WIPs, most of which were REALLY out there. "Stomach-chewing Demons" still haunts me to this day. (IYKYK.) Also embarrassing? I wrote a lot of poetry here.

G Gundam: Casual enjoyer and fic writer. Unfortunately I still wrote poetry, including a particularly stupid piece about Argo's eyebrows. I have to be kind to this fandom though, it started my tradition of writing "A Kitten for" 'fics.

Fire Emblem: Obsessive writer who wrote hundreds of fics for this fandom over the course of a decade. EXTREMELY prolific but because I wasn't picky about what I wrote I just posted anything that came to mind. I was super super annoying about my ships too. (RIP to everyone who dealt with me and still talks to me from those days.)

Tales of Symphonia: Eager writer in early 2005 who made a lot of friends early and was active on the Namco forums. Mostly flipped between writing humor and angst. I'm haunted by my humor contributions to this fandom. This was my first foray into dark fiction too (we all had our cringe years please be nice to me). When I got back into the fandom some years later I focused more on angst. The third time I was in the fandom I did more reading/commenting and ended up doing RP (as Regal ♥). This time I haven't settled into a role yet, but hopefully it's as the new R/R writer idk.

Star Wars: I read fics for this fandom for years and only ever wrote one. I was heavy into the EU back in like 2002 onward and would reread the Thrawn trilogy and duology on REPEAT. To this day Luke and Mara are the only enemies to lovers pairing I like.

Fushigi Yuugi / Ranma 1/2 / Trigun: Fringe enjoyer, though I did write a fic for FY and Ranma. Don't worry, they both sucked ass.

Pokémon: I used to write AAML and random sad things for no reason. Mostly a casual game enjoyer though. When S&M came out I was the resident fallershipping writer and an RPer until I got bored.

Rose of Versailles: The first regular English writer for the fandom who then dragged a bunch of other people in too, heralding an interesting time for the thirsty fans desperate for fic. This was probably my favorite fandom I was ever in; everybody was just so nice. I wrote my first sex scene for this fandom lmao.

Ouran High School Host Club: Casual writer. This is the fandom where I first wrote a "twist ending" fic and won a contest on LJ with it.

Warcraft: Salty healer gamer. Usually a discipline priest for some reason. (It's the shields. I love the idea of a healer that protects/prevents damage in the first place.) I have tons and tons of OCs in this universe for literally no reason. I've also written a few fics over the years, mostly about characters nobody cares about.

Gilmore Girls: I watched this as it was airing and would talk about it at work with a guy I worked with who watched the new episodes with his wife every week. I wrote a fic but mostly preferred to simply watch it.

Road to Avonlea: Avid viewer, obsesser, and lover of this series. I love love love the characters and the character development and almost all the storylines given to the cast. I only ever wrote one 'fic because this is the kind of series you just don't feel needs a lot of extra stuff.

Kaze Hikaru: Mostly just enjoy the series tbh. I haven't finished it, I just buy my latest manga every year and suffer with the knowledge that death is imminent.

Harry Potter: Got into this late, liked only two characters enough to write about them, disappeared almost instantly again from the fandom.

Full Metal Alchemist: Like Road to Avonlea this series just doesn't need me to write for it. It stands alone very well. Casual enjoyer.

Frozen: I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW. This movie touched me in my soul and meant a lot to me, what can I say. I hardly EVER see movies in theater and I went back more than once to see this one. Elsa was just so relateable to me. I wrote 6 fics somehow and also made some friends.

Attack on Titan: My obsession for writing for this series came out of aBSOLUTELY NOWHERE and decimated me and probably many friendships of years gone by just because I could literally not stop writing stuff. I wrote 100 fics while I was in the fandom and made many friends and acquaintances so I can't regret the time I spent there, even though the last few years were really fuckin' rough. I think there was something really fresh about the 2014 vibe in the fanbase that made it a fun and exciting place to be. Everyone was speculating and having a good time writing about their blorbos back then; it was contagious! This is where I cemented myself as a rarepair enjoyer too because I'm an idiot. (Gelyn. ♥)

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: Casual enjoyer who wrote a couple of fics for some reason I no longer remember.

Psycho Pass: I needed a new obsession, I got it. The second season sucked so much though, that it made it hard to stay in the fandom, and also the vibe there was kind of bad. Fun while it lasted I guess. I only wrote 8 fics.

When Calls the Heart: What's this Hallmark shit doing here anyway... LOL. I grew up reading Janette Oke's books so seeing a series on Netflix based off of one of her novel series HIT ME LIKE A BRICK and I got a bit obsessed, at least until things fell apart in Season 5. I cared most about characters that felt the least liked by the fans AND the writers so it didn't feel like continuing to write for it was worth my time. 11 stories was enough.

I'm probably forgetting something because I've been in a lot of fandoms, but these are the ones that were more serious, at least to some degree. If I wrote even one fic you know I cared. LOL

[darthbreezy]

I'm reblogging this and riding it's coat-tails because I have big thinks on this that won't fit into to little reply blurb.

I'm sure 'you've' heard the adages about opinion and assholes, and religion and penises* (OK, That one is a favourite because it often REALLY pisses off the person it's directed at which admittedly is something that makes my wicked heart happy - so sue me) OK... We've got THAT out of the way -

The short version is. the FIRST RULE OF FANDOM (Should be) Thou Shalt NOT Harsh another's enjoyment. Yes, I admit I used to violate this rule to the point of painfulness. I've never been a fan of the Star Wars Expanded (I honestly tried. but some of it is just so... YARK!!!!) I still crack about 'Artsy Smurf', but there's no actual malice behind it, and I actually like how he was portrayed in Rebels. However, there is one character whom I would happily see wiped from the face of literature and fandom. The character just.... AUUUUURG!! No, wild horses will not pull the name from me. I have friends who LOVE that character, and I refuse to say anything that would hurt them (anymore). I won't read fan-fic about them and I sure as hell won't say a single nasty thing about a story that features them. It's really not that hard to do. I have a rather particular taste in my choice of Fan-fiction readings - Maybe it's a side effect of being 'Neuro-Spicey ' (That's a new term to me - never considered if I am 'on the spectrum' but I'm old and that's just not something that was considered for us 'gifted weird kids'). In my current 'what tickles' I'm still drawn to 'cannon compliant/leaning' stories. I'm not super fond of 'character A/U' (I DO like some story A/U's like Kanan Jarrus Lives because we were robbed) but where Aziraphale and Crowley are Human? I'll probably hard pass. Am I missing out on an amazing story? Very probably, of hits/kudos/comments and recs are anything to go by - Hey, it's like the Star Wars EU! There are shed-loads of books I wouldn't use to start a campfire with but there are millions of people out there tat think differently. The DIFFERENCE is, me not liking a book or even a character isn't going to make a scrap of difference in 'sales' - Granted being bitchy in my circle of friends and acquaintances is a whole different story.... The same is true when it comes to Fan Creations (both Art and Storytelling) - the circle is SOOOOOOOO much smaller, and the ripples are so much BIGGER. I made mention that I'd put my pencils down because of one nasty comment - I know of two insanely gifted writers who stopped writing, because someone (or a group of someones) were asses.

At least one of these writers was on the cusp of making the jump from Fan Fiction to Paid Writer. And they stopped because someone harshed their joy...

No. I'm NOT saying 'other people are responsible for our happiness - (keep yer foot outta my mouth, please,) Just perhaps engage in a little more kindness... It's not that hard. *Penises and Religion - Some people have them, and are innately proud of them, but no one wants to have it waved around and shoved in their face unasked...

I do think big fandom fics are a little too easily hated on because they have thousands of kudos or comments people start to think it’s ok to publicly trash them but the authors of those fics are just humans who put out a piece of their soul into the world and are probably also insecure about their writing just like us medium and small authors like i’ve seen big name authors get chased off tumblr or stop writing altogether what i’m saying is stay classy and keep the hate to DMs with your friends

[new-california-veteran]

So Disney's entire plan with Star Wars has been to trash The EU...but poach it's content...but do it worse. Nearly every original idea introduced by Disney has been garbage as well, so I can see why they need to ape The EU. I just wish they didn't do it so badly...

Thrawn, Palpatine returning (though this was dumb as shit in The EU as well) Han and Leia's son falling to the dark side, all major plots/characters ripped straight from The EU but done badly. Not to mention the rampant anti-Jedi agenda surging through the new material. It's just so sad. Star Wars used to be something amazing. Now it's just a bloated corpse being used as a vessel to pump out mediocre corporate fan fictions...

That being said, I don't hate literally everything Disney has added to Star Wars. Lightsaber blade color being determined by the force user bonding with the kyber crystal is excellent. Way better than a Jedi just choosing their favorite colored crystal. And The Sith bleeding and corrupting a kyber crystal to turn it red? Immaculate.

I just think it's too late for a course correction. Star Wars has been beaten to within an inch of its life, and the acolyte might just be the last hit for me personally. And that depresses me because Star Wars has been important to me for most of my life. And its always sad to watch something you love become a shambling, decaying corpse puppeteered for profit by a soulless corporate owner.

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2024 - March

Dark Disciple by Christie Golden (2015)

I couldn't binge SW without going to the library like the old days to grab one of the recent EU novels. This one continues the Asajj Ventress arc that was cut from the final Clone Wars seasons, and I'm ambivalent about the course of events. But it looks like I chose the perfect time to read it because the final season of The Bad Batch will address things that annoyed me about the ending.

Cathedral by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels (2002)

It was feeling a bit shaky in the previous novel (This Gray Spirit) with a lot of time spent on less interesting nuance, but this novel saves this short series by trimming off the expositional fat and keeping up the pace. The cliffhanger ending was fantastic and I've been jittery waiting until I can move on to the next one.

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville (1851)

Herman, pal, I know what you were going for with the middle 2/3 of this book, but that really should've been a standalone expansion. Tolkien (or maybe his editors) knew to leave that to its own thing. In any case, WHAT A BOOK. How is this from the mid-1800s? Great beginning, great ending, interesting middle for those who can get through the instructional texts on whales and whaling.

"leave your laundry on the floor for them" by Pocketss (2024)

It's good to recycle.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor dev. Respawn Entertainment (2023)

I miss some of the more alien environments from the first game. They definitely borrowed spaghetti western cues from Mandalorian for this, and you see below how much I gripe about that show's influence. Cal's still kind of a dud. But it's great overall. What a fun, huge, expensive-looking game. How does any SW developer going forward beat this?!

Drive-Away Dolls dir. Ethan Coen (2024)

It's reaching out toward those 90s crime comedies the Coens had going, but just kinda falls short. I can't put a finger on what exactly is missing. Maybe it doesn't go far enough?

Madame Web dir. S.J. Clarkson (2024)

One of those laugh-at-the-dialogue-that-isn't-meant-to-be-funny affairs.

Perfect Days dir. Wim Wenders (2024)

I've over the moon for this movie. Just perfect in every way. I felt it in my bones, watched it ten times at theaters all over the area as I chased down showtimes, and I'll gladly watch it again.

The Peasants dir. DK Welchman & Hugh Welchman (2024)

Holy crap, I missed Loving Vincent but this makes me wanna go and check that out, because this animation technique is gorgeous. All of the performances were great, too.

Stopmotion dir. Robert Morgan (2024)

Stopmotion, puppets, horror, madness. It's a perfect combination.

The Taste of Things dir. Tran Anh Hung (2024)

I haven't seen food shot this beautifully since Food Wars.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Hashira Training dir. Haruo Sotozaki (2024)

Never watched an episode before and I can say that was a helluva fight.

Maestro dir. Bradley Cooper (2023)

Man, I mean, he did it, he sure damn did it, but should he have?

Land of Bad dir. William Eubank (2024)

When the shit hits the fan.

Imaginary dir. Jeff Wadlow (2024)

I was in from the get-go, but it did need a certain something. Maybe 25% more creepy toys.

Love Lies Bleeding dir. Rose Glass (2024)

You'll think you know where it's going but it does not go there.

The American Society of Magical Negroes dir. Kobi Libii (2024)

Justice Smith and An-Li Bogan did amazing work in The American Society of Magical Negroes. Everyone in the cast and crew, really, but they portrayed a lot of complicated feelings and fears with aplomb and also had a really sweet romantic scene that got to me like no romantic scene in recent memory. I fell for Bogan’s character just like Smith’s character did. (And they respond to that by the end.)

Shayda dir. Noora Niasari (2023)

Scheming and plotting to convince my higher-ups to cast Zar Amir Ebrahimi in any of our projects because I just wanna see her cast in more stuff.

One Life dir. James Hawes (2023)

More than most of us.

Problemista dir. Julio Torres (2024)

When there's no choice but to suffer and no one will understand.

Luca dir. Enrico Casarosa (2021)

Oh, this is just The Little Mermaid retold (affectionate).

Late Night with the Devil dir. Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes (2024)

They needed more insanity and a higher frequency of it.

Immaculate dir. Michael Mohan (2024)

Whoa BUDDY, props to Sweeney for going for it in the end.

Exhuma dir. Jang Jae Hyun (2024)

I feel like I'm missing a critical cultural understanding here to get past my tepid response.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 dir. Rhys Frake-Waterfield (2024)

I didn't need to do this again.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire dir. Adam Wingard (2024)

Closing in on minimal humans and maximum giant monsters.

The Bad Batch - Season 2 (2023)

Yep, nailed it. They have great character moments here and it continues the tradition of "oh the clones are more interesting than most everyone else."

Andor (2022)

First half is two thumbs up, second half is one shaky thumb up. Big Mandalorian vibes with the whole return from whence you came narrative arc. I'd like to see them break away from Favreau's influence (I unfairly pin the live action ups and downs on him).

The Mandalorian - Season 3 (2023)

It's getting weird with the father figure thing. And it's befuddling when one has to catch a different show to understand key beats in Mandalorian and Grogu's story. Hype status for more seasons is low.

Ahsoka (2023)

The get-togethers are fun, but it meanders a bit and the ending was a headscratcher. Great combat and Star Wars-iness though. I'd come back for more with a hopeful glint in my eye.

Star Wars Resistance (2018-2020)

They could've had something good here, but they really whiffed most of season 1. It starts to get good at the end of s1 and maybe through half of s2, but then they seemed to tie things up hastily when they knew they were getting cancelled. Can't recommend. :(

Tales of the Jedi (2022)

Anthology Star Wars?! Anthology Star Wars!! They make me care about characters from the movies that meant nothing to me, as is Filoni and co's way.

Star Wars: Visions (2021-2023)

MORE anthology Star Wars?!! And "Screecher's Reach" in the second season kinda wrecked me. Just typing this out makes me think of it again and the tears well. It's from the Secret of Kells studio and it's just a phenomenal short. Both anthology shows are must-watch.

The Outer Limits - Volume 2 (1964)

I'm surprised how little of this first season carries through to the 90s revival that I love so much.

[legendtraineremily]

Hey let’s do a random Sunday post about some writing projects I’ve got going and maybe a warning about how…eclectic my many projects are? Like I’ve got a whole series of action-spy stories planned and moving along, a semi-fantasy duology, a couple stand-alone short stories, some small plays, and a million and one fanfics about a thousand different subjects and franchises. (Do I have ADHD? I don’t know for sure. Still figuring that out with a therapist.)

So how about I just start with my current fixation—Star Wars Fan-fictions. First of all, I want to be very clear that I accept the current canon (Disney) as valid and fun. Do I like all of it? Heck no! Do I miss the old EU (Legends) continuity? A bit, but I move on. Secondly, my Star Wars fan-fictions were always oriented around what was considered canon at the time of writing. I’d implement story elements and parallels to the established story and when the canon was reset with the Disney purchase, I started plugging in parts of the old continuity, much like how things are still going in current Star Wars projects. I usually focused on my own original characters and didn’t involve the officially licensed characters if I could help it. The Star Wars franchise contains an enormous universe, ya’ know?

Anyway, enough rambling. My stories focus on the Tahn’s: a long-established family of Force-adherents and Jedi of my own creation dating back to my first play-throughs of the MMO “The Old Republic” (circa 2011-‘12). Usually living on the edge of glory and fame, the Tahn’s typically prefer getting things done and surviving rather than on performing grand heroics. I’ll probably start posting some character bios and sketches after this to give you an idea.

Anywho, let me know what y’all think! Love and Force-related wishes! -Emily

[auditect]

"If you don't think my personal preferences are more valid than official statements and sourcebooks, you're a weirdo and I will spend exactly zero seconds of my life providing evidence for my claim!"

Look, I know the Star Wars fandom has a reputation for being kinda toxic, but this is pretty ridiculous. Not to mention that wether or not Luke supposedly is a gray Jedi in the EU (and I don't think he was ever portrayed as one, he was just a full-on Jedi) is not proven or debunked by wether the EU ever was canon or not. It'd be like saying that Durge isn't a Bounty Hunter because the EU isn't canon.

Plus, even if you had been correct, I strongly disagree that being mistaken on the canonicity of a fictional continuity is worth such a hostile and condescending additude in the first place.

But eh. Guess that's just what I expect from Star Wars fans nowadays.

And I'm not going to get into the utmost hypocricy of regarding EU Luke as fanfiction, but not Ahsoka freaking Tano.

I don’t think some people realize why the gray jedi thing pisses some of us off so badly.

Imagine you like lord of the rings and you decide to look around the fandom.

And it turns out that 10+ or something years ago someone wrote a piece of fanfiction where they rewrote the rules for the ring. So instead of it only having one master and corrupting everyone else that tried to use it, it sometimes chooses to take a new master if it feels the person is worthy of it. And therefore this author’s self-insert OC can now use the one ring in all its glory without getting turned crazy.

This fanfic gets published (as some fanfics do) and most of the fandom has read it and loves it.

Now, when you (someone who has only dealt with canon works written by Tolkien) see this fic you go… huh. That’s nice, but it goes against the very point of the books and the lore tolkien created. So while it’s a good fic I’m not going to interact with it.

But then people keep harassing you for taking about/ writing the one ring the way tolkien wrote it to begin with.

And they SWEAR that this is the Actual lore of the one ring, and that YOU are wrong. Which is completely insane to you, because FRODE TOOK IT TO MORDOR FOR A REASON. There is only one lord of the ring!! That’s literally the name of the series that’s what it’s about!! If what the fandom was insisting about was possible, there would be no plot. In the original books.

This is why we are so upset over gray jedi!! Bc if it was possible to use the dark side but still be a good guy then wtf is wrong with Anakin? Why the fuck did Darth Vader fall to the dark side? Why did Luke struggle so much? If you can have your cake and eat it too why are the movies so fuckin long?? Why did Luke fail against Vader in Empire? what lesson did he learn in Return? Why would the movie be called Return of the Jedi if Luke had not learned the Jedi ways????

You can write OC’s as gray jedi all you want but when you start forcing it into canon it literally ruins the movies!