#tdpl spoilers

[delicatefury]

I have a question about TDPL, about Luke and Leia's Lightsabers. Because Luke doesn't have his green saber with him and as they came from only a year after Endor Leia never made one. So will the two go through The Gathering, either on or offscreen, and what colors will they get if you can answer that? I personally prefer Luke with his green saber as it is more his than the blue Skywalker saber. I love how you write TDPL as everyone feels in character and themselves, unlike the Sequels.

Confession: I hadn’t gotten to The Gathering when I started plotting TDPL. I had based my original light saber crystal ideas off of Jedi Apprentice and some fanon/eu stuff gathered from Wookiepedia.

Confession #2: Anything created post Clone Wars is of questionable canonicity to me, and I use or discard it at my own leisure.

Confession #3: Even in light of The Gathering, the idea that there’s only one crystal “meant for” a Jedi is suspect. See: Anakin’s crushed lightsaber in AotC, Ahsoka’s white lightsabers (¯\_(ツ)_/¯ don’t know how I feel about that) in Rebels, and the fact that I’m sure lightsabers get lost/crushed/stolen often enough that even Obi-Wan went through a few ‘saber redesigns, and... yeah. I do feel that there can be crystals that resonate better with certain individuals, though.

Now that that’s been established (and bear with me, I’m half wrote this when jet-lagged and now it’s after my first day back at work):

Prior to The Clone Wars, there was a fanon/eu idea that Luke’s crystal was either synthetic or (post PT), made by reusing Qui-Gon’s saber crystal. I like this idea. I like it a lot. Especially since any other means of getting a crystal were lost to Luke by this point. Either the knowledge of the locations was lost entirely, or the empire had completely blocked access. He could not get a crystal the traditional way and had to rely on the knowledge/gifts left behind by Obi-Wan.

So, if you’ve noticed, in the TDPL Luke actually is already using Qui-Gon’s crystal. He’s familiar with it, it’s what he used before, and he’s connected with it through the force. Especially with the history of the Darksaber and its prominence in the newer stuff, the idea of connecting through other Force users throughout history and resonating with their presence just appeals to me. So Luke, having already faced his fears and assembled his lightsaber, stays with the one he’s familiar with. I might change my mind about this after I finally watch “The Gathering”, but for now, Qui-Gon’s green kyber crystal is Luke’s crystal. This will create opportunities for some fun stuff later down the line. (Force ghosts and Dooku anyone?)

Plus, I don't like the “Skywalker Saber” thing going on through the Sequel trilogy. It was, like, Anakin’s third or fourth saber. It just happens to be the last one he had before going dark side. And Force, it was used to kill a ton of Jedi, especially children. That kyber-crystal does not have good psychic imprints, and Luke had to be picking up on it by the time he lost it.

Leia on the other hand, has not faced her deepest fears. Has not had a crystal already. She will have to go to Ilum to get her own, whether through a gathering, or a special solo trip because needs-must has yet to be decided (see above for why). I do have a color picked out, though.  Blue with a lavender tint, sleek silver handle that matches alderaanian jewelry. It matches very nicely with Luke’s without being a copy.

[delicatefury]

You know what bothers me? As a fanfic writer, I have spent extensive time and effort getting the characters where I want in the story I want without going OOC.

I’ve got pages of arguments with myself on how characters would react to a situation and what would have to have happen so them reacting a different way still makes sense.

I’ve spent hours going over dialogue to make sure the voice of the character sounded right, then sent it to others to look over to make sure it sounded right to others too.

I’ve worked within m canon and the EU to make even the craziest stuff align with the established universe rules of the GFFA. I even found a way for time travel to work via an existing Force power taken to its extremes!

You don’t have to character assassinate a beloved character to tell the story you want, you just have to put in the work and accept that sometimes things would just be too OOC to work. Which Jar Jar and Johnson obviously couldn’t be bothered to do.

Did I say “bothered” before? I meant “really pisses me off.”

You know EU!Luke made sense to me in all his flaws. It made sense that he try to avoid cutting down his students at all cost – even to the point of having to deal with the fact that his students went out and committed heinous acts of genocide (see Kyp and Kueller). After all it worked with dad! This is what I’ve written about a lot – the Death Star Calculus and how reluctant Luke is to do it.

Later on, it made sense to me that he be unable to let his Jedi Council shoot itself in the foot and collapse. His life’s work, man. I get it and it’s heartbreaking.

These things are in line with what I saw in the OT, where Luke went from as a pal put it “cool laser sword to fuck up the dude who killed my dad” to someone who realized that violence was not a solve-all.

But for Luke to have lived through the throne room at Death Star 2.0, for him to have had his faith in his dad’s goodness validated (his dad who killed kids…and helped the Emperor commit attrocities…) to spiral into a moment of doubt by the gathering darkness in his own young nephew who hadn’t done anything yet, seems fundamentally unsound to me.

[delicatefury]

You said: "meta for Leia and Satine"? Oh, I want see this! (And I love your fanfiction!)

Ask and you shall receive!

Cleaned up from my notes (and remember, my hierarchy of canon: OT>PT>CW>EU>Disney at the bottom):

If Alderaan was just as peaceful/pacifistic as Mandalore, then Leia really will be annoyed by Satine’s philosophy. Like “I understand what you’re saying, but that’s suicidally stupid.” And may be tempted (who am I kidding. If Leia’s worked up a good righteous indignation, she’ll stand to the tip of her not-impressive height and downright lecture) to let Satine know exactly what she thinks of Neutrality+Pacifism.

In the movies it’s implied that, despite Leia and Bail’s own thoughts on the matter, Alderaan itself has taken a neutral-to-pro-empire stance in the conflict. It’s a “peaceful planet”, one that has no self-defenses because of it’s commitment to peace (in other words, they’re pacifists).

And when I started looking into it, I saw I was right. In the EU an Alderaanian pilot in the rebellion who survived the death star thinks: Pacifism for the sake of pacifism is the height of arrogant selfishness when that belief prevents you from acting to save others from harm.

Which is pretty much exactly the mindset Leia has at this point. Given the state of the galaxy and the threats Satine knows are heading towards Mandalore (deathwatch) there’s no excuse. Leia can forgive neutrality. With near everyone not knowing the true nature of the war, it’s a valid position. However, she cannot forgive pacifism in the face of such threats. If Satine wants Mandalore to be neutral, she better damn well be able to force other systems to leave hers alone. And this is with Leia not quite understanding what happened to Satine in the first place (she knows Mandalore fell to the Empire. She doesn’t really know what happened during the Clone Wars first).

Continuing with this thought process. Leia really is, like, the anti-Satine in a lot of ways. What I mean is, Leia, her position as Alderaan’s princess, especially after Alderaan was destroyed, her experiences with the rebellion, she is the living refutation of a lot of Satine’s views and policies.

Think about it. To preserve Mandalore’s peace, Satine essentially wiped out all traces of her system’s original culture. Leia, as the last royal of Alderaan, had as one of her duties the preservation of Alderaan’s history and culture. The deliberate destruction of a culture, well, she understands how that may enrage the Mandalorians who aren’t desperate for a peaceful future.

And Satine’s devotion to pacifism as a planatery leader has made her unable to see/adapt to threats even as they happen. The only reason she survived her first two appearances were because Obi-Wan and Anakin dont’ hold those views.

And the thing is, on a personal level Leia actually really likes Satine. She respects her leadership and her ability to keep her kingdom (empire? What do you call a multi-planet rule?) and then her alliance stable despite all outside forces against her, and that Satine, like Leia, is not above getting personally involved.

But man are they going to clash. It will be polite, respectful, and constant. I’m pretty sure Leia is spamming Satine with comm messages on a weekly basis on ‘why you really need to reexamine your commitment to never ever use lethal force ever’. And in turn, Satine will be spamming Obi-Wan with ‘Your Padawan is precocious but please remind her that I am too busy to answer her this week and what did she mean, her planet blew up?!’

And man, I love Satine so much as a character, but pacifism, especially as a leader of others, is something I don’t really understand, especially if you are also simultaneously against the absolute destruction of your people and you know that there are people out there who will do just that.

[delicatefury]

Okay okay so, I looooooove TDPL and I've read and reread it like 6 times and I want to ask a question about it but I don't know what to ask??? So can you please rant about it a bit? Any drop of info about it soothes my soul.

Awww, so much love lately. ❤️

So, this is a bit that I’ve played with and have been pretty tight-lipped about but... since you’ve all been so nice lately...

Original Trilogy Cameos (or maybe more?)

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Several characters from the OT are going to play big parts in TDPL, and several will make cameos at the very least. Like...

Owen and Beru Lars

Yes, I’m gonna send the twins and Obi-Wan to Tatooine at some point. It’s only fair, since Leia gets to/has to interact with Bail on a regular basis, that Luke get the same bittersweet interactions at least once or twice. But emphasis on the sweet (for both of them). Because Beru looks at little Luke and Leia Whitesun who have lost everything (their parents, their adopted parents, their homes) and decides that more family is never a bad thing, Whitesun is her name and its a Tatooine name, they’re obviously related regardless of how distant (Luke by heart, Leia by proxy). She would love to be their aunt and Owen to be their uncle, feel free to write. And of course they take her up on this. Because Leia wants to know Luke’s family the way he knows hers. Because no matter how rough growing up on Tatooine was, Luke missed/has missed/misses Beru and Owen.

R2-D2

Still playing with how to address this, because everything has the Force, but at the same time, Droids don’t really have a Force presence, but if anyone could mess with the proper rule of things, it’s Anakin. I kind of imagine a sort of ‘comes-and-goes’ awareness. That Artoo gets more when Luke and Leia are around, but extra memories, conflicting images/classifications of Anakin, overlapping and contradictory command routines (Anakin-is-master/Obi-Wan-is-master/Luke-is-master. Aka: his change in ownership between the movies) aren’t something R2 droids can handle, so he sparks and sputters, and Anakin basically bans Luke from interacting with Artoo because this only happens whenever that Whitesun kid shows up. But Luke will find a way to fix this, because that’s Artoo and he’ll do anything for that little loyal droid.

And last but not least (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED, I NEED A LAPTOP SO I CAN DO READMORES)

Seriously, you’ve been warned!

Keep scrolling if you don’t want any mid-story spoilers for The Dark Path Lit. I mean the gif gives it away, but if you watched the Clone Wars you knew he was going to be involved at some point. You knew.

Last chance!

CHEWIE!

((I’m honestly surpised that no one’s asked about him yet. It’s been years.)

Oh, it’s gonna take a while, but mighty Chewbacca will show up and he will play a major role. There was no way in hell I was gonna leave him out of things!

Chewie, being much older and wiser, but so tangled up with the OT trio, gets something a lot closer to foreknowledge than whatever happened to our main four time travelers. He’s not really like Obi-Wan, but he’s not like the OT trio either (and even if he was somewhat ‘unmade’, who’d be able to tell. He’d lose like 10 years out of 200. No many people would notice). When Chewbacca finds himself on Kashyyyk, in the middle of the Clone Wars, he doesn’t freak out or panic (for too long, that is). He doesn’t have to intergrate a bunch of memories. Doesn’t have to adjust to being out of time and out of place. He just knows that his family is missing a few members, knows those missing members, their likes and dislikes, their presence and power, their scents and their looks, and that they’re going to need him when they show up.

He keeps an ear and an eye out for a tiny scoundrel who should be somewhere around Coruscant or Corellia right now (Disney is lowest Canon. I can and have elected to ignore Solo. Haven’t seen it, feel no obligation to include it). And makes sure the other Wookiees out and about in the galaxy know to contact him should the boy be found. Because Chewbacca also knows that he owes Han Solo a debt (and he wants to keep the cub safe, keep him nearby, that’s his cub and his best friend and he knows that the universe owed the cub a better life, so he’ll make it give Han one even if he has to rip off some arms to do so).

So you can imagine his surprise when he smells all three of his missing cubs on Ahsoka. Imagine how much more surprised (but still happily so) he is when Luke and Leia show up and they were always small, but now they’re even tinier and they’re crying because Chewie knows them, he knows them!

And then Han shows up, and of course Chewbacca wouldn’t have found him, he was looking for a kid, but Han’s almost a man already (by human standards at least), but he’s still Chewie’s cub that he’d swore he’d protect and they’re all there and calling him a fuzz ball and a carpet and a bunch of other things that are not-really-respectful but said with so much affection, and it’s not like their Shyriiwook names are much better and he’s got all three of them wrapped up in his arms and safe, with his wife and child on Kashyyyk and these three in his arms, his whole family is as safe as warriors can be (for they all, his wife and child included, are warriors. And they all will not give the galaxy to the darkness without a fight.)

And of course General Kenobi is involved, who better to watch after his missing cubs? And it’s perfect too, because Mighty Chewbacca hasn’t been idle this entire time. No, not at all. He’s been working on something that might help change the tides of this war...

[delicatefury]

I’ve found a pattern in my writing

It seems that I like to tug the rug out from under Obi-Wan right when he is in a place where he is least able to step back and process things.

For example (spoilers for TDPL ahead):

Send him back in time to the middle of a battle.

Realize that his connection with Luke is gone while talking to Cody.

Have him realize the seemingly useless mission he’s assigned is of vital importance and tied to said time travel during the middle of a conversation he can’t get out of.

Finally realize that he’s spent over twice as long living on Tatooine as Anakin in the middle of a conversation with Ahsoka.

Tease him with Luke’s presence a split second before he has to deflect a blaster-bolt and join battle.

Reveal that the OT trio are just kids right before he has to engage Ventress to protect them.

Reunite with Luke with Ahsoka as an audience.

(Spoiler for Chapter 5 of TDPL) See Anakin for the first time since the plot started and realize the sheer possibilities that time travel opens up during yet another call with the Temple on the bridge of a ship surrounded by his clone soldiers.

Why is it so fun to write Obi-Wan “outside I may look like I have everything together but inside I’m freaking out so much right now” Kenobi like this?

[delicatefury]

Aaaand I’m coming back up next week.

For the deposition continuation. I honestly thought I was only covering this one day for my coworker. Now it turns out I’ve got the whole thing.

So more travel next week, and since I doubt I’ll be able to get my tires swapped in the next two days, flying it is! Which means more down time. I’m probably going to get a Switch this weekend, but you should all still feel free to send me more asks.

Please send me more asks.

[delicatefury]

“Meet the Word Count” bit - 250 Bookmarks on TDPL

Another milestone, another insight into what sleep deprivation, desperation, and way too much meta diving can do:

SPOILERS AHEAD  - I don’t usually warn for this, but this is actual storyline stuff that will ot be changing and not just general meta or “would that be cool” things.

Okay, I think I’ve got it. The siege of Ryloth is supposed to last a very long time, right? So it makes sense that Luke and Leia join Obi-Wan as his official padawans about here. It’ll be a little spot of happiness for the 212th (and the 7th Sky in general) to have their little rays of sunshine back to join them. Also, it cheers Han Solo up and the kid was starting to get annoyingly moody. 

Leia will be fully aware that she is meeting Hera Syndula’s father. Hell, she might even search out Hera herself, since she was one of the Rebellion’s most competent officers. (Besides, more friends for Luke, Leia, and Ahsoka is always a good thing. Not going deeper, though, cause I haven’t watched much rebels yet). Luke will get to stretch his pilot wings, and we may or may not get the first introduction of the Whitesun Rogues (Luke and Leia’s squadron of starfighter pilot clone troopers.)

[delicatefury]

I found TDPL today and then promptly spent the rest of my night reading my way through your tag. It's so great! I love dad Obi Wan and I also love that they took Beru's name. Star Wars is a little obsessed with Father figures so any shout out to mother figures is always appreciated by me :) I'm a little confused by how much Palpatine knows? You're one post about meeting Leia made it seem like he remembered the OT timeline

Okay, 1) This is seriously one of, if not the, most wonderful things anyone’s written about TDPL. I’ve read fics where I’ve just gone straight through and devoured everything I can, but to have someone do the same for mine. Gah! Every time it happens I just spend the whole day screaming internally.

2) I was so nervous about using Beru’s names for Luke and Leia, and the support everyone gives to that decision has been so vindicating.

and finally: Spoilers below the cut!

3). Yes, Palpatine remembers. Short answer: The whole time traveling thing was his (ghostly) aim to begin with and as such, while he wasn’t able to control the landing he did manage to go back in time with plenty of future knowledge.

Long answer (with more spoilers): What Palpatine, the sore loser, was trying to do was to end up sometime immediately after the fall of the republic, when Vader was still recovering and Obi-Wan was racing to get Luke hidden and safe before anyone came looking for him. Because, except for Luke and the Rebellion, his plans were going pretty well.

An Empire, a powerful apprentice caught completely under his heel, the Jedi down to remnants, if even, and wiped or suppressed from the collective memory. So his initial plan was to intercept Obi-Wan on Tatooine, torture and murder the Jedi and take Luke for his own. Or maybe just kill them both right away; they might not be worth the risk after all.

Well, Anakin panics (as per usual. Even as a ghost he’s a human disaster), forces Palpatine to overshoot, and generally messes with things until you have the set-up of TDPL.

Palpatine’s situation is similar to Obi-Wan’s but not… quite. I’m not getting into that here because I’m still hammering out the details. This is the assumption that Obi-Wan’s working from: At the very least, Palpatine partially succeeded. He’s sure to have enough future knowledge to notice when things go off course. Enough that, Obi-Wan has to be very careful. He can’t risk Palpatine knowing he knows. Because if Darth Sidious knows that the Negotiator is a real and present threat, at the very least he’ll radically change his plans and Obi-Wan will lose any real advantage he has.

There’s more, but it’s pretty much the (minus slice-of-life, fluff, and battles) the plot of TDPL. So I’m gonna stop my rambling right there.

Thanks for asking!

[delicatefury]

So, about the Currently Unamed Avatar fic

Time travel! Because that seems to be my comfort zone with these. It just, foresight and butterfly effects and regrets over things that don’t happen are fun!

But unlike TDPL (my Star Wars fic), this is not really a fix-it because, well, I felt like most of the characters had pretty satisfying endings (in The Last Airbender. The comics and LoK on the other hand...). I mean, some things might be fixed, but some things also go wrong,

Also unlike TDPL: the time span of travel is a lot shorter (8 months as opposed to 20+ years); there’s a lot fewer travelers (I’ll just say the total is less than the 5~ish of TDPL); and a lot less of the plot is spent on making sure other people don’t realize they’re time travelers (a good part of the first several chapters would actually be spent convincing certain people that they are).

Our unfortunate traveler is everyone’s favorite awkward turtleduck, Zuko. I’ve played around with using Aang, but that’s not the story I want to tell right now. Aang’s adventure would have been almost entirely focused on attempting to kidnap Zuko every time they meet (The Waterbending Scroll would end with a “I got him!” And a bewildered Iroh and Pirate Captain watching as the Avatar takes off with the pirates’ boat and the too-shocked-to-react-completely-thrown-off-his-game-what-in-Agni’s-name-is-happening?-this-isn’t-how-this-works Prince of the Fire Nation) and trying to convince him that he’s actually a good person and pretty awesome in his own right and “No Sokka! It has to be Zuko! No one else can be my firebending teacher!”

Zuko, on the other hand... Depositing Book III Zuko into Book I Zuko’s place, on his ship (I’m just going to use the fandom name “The Wani”. Hell, if you search “Wani Avatar”, the first result is “Zuko’s Ship”) with the Uncle he hasn’t seen since before the Day of the Black Sun and a crew he’s certain died during the Seige of the North, well...

It’s mental time travel, so no one can tell by sight that Zuko’s different (because while that’s fun, really fun, everyone freaks out because Gaang Zuko is still Zuko but visibly extremely different from banished Zuko fun, it’s still not the story I want to tell). So Awkward Turtleduck Zuko who can’t look his uncle in the eye, needs to talk to Aang, and is also trying to keep his crew alive while hiding that he’s effectively plotting treason, is our main character. It’s a pretty bad place to be, but even he can admit that it would be objectively worse if he’d ended up immediately post-fall of Ba Sing Se.

Zuko’s start time is barely before the Ember Island Players. So yes to being friends with the entire Gaang. But also no Uncle Iroh reunion, no idea the Gaang knows Jet, limited knowledge of what the Gaang got up to when he wasn’t around, no clue that Uncle Iroh’s grand plan has always been to put Zuko on the throne, and no clue about Azula’s breakdown.

The insertion point is Winter Solstice Part II: Avatar Roku. Specifically right at the end, when Roku shows up to get rid of Zhao. For additional reasons, Zuko gets very little time to orient himself before Katara steals from pirates.

And I swear I’ve got things a lot more clear and coherent than this word-vomit post. But too much would be spoilers and I wanna warn about it in case anyone wants to only see things as they happen in story/in order. I’ll be using a generic spoilers tag until I get a title worked out.

Oh yeah, there will be horror elements, but they won’t show up until Book II.

Also! Feel free to send me asks. I already have a lot of material for this.

[delicatefury]

TDPL ask. Are they going to get in some good time with Cody/other clones/the Council as individuals? (I saw the Leia snippet and I empathize with her frustration, but it's still cute.) And, uh. You don't have to give spoilers, of course, but I am very interested about how the kids and Anakin will react to each other, and if they'll tell Anakin the truth.

So, I don’t know how to do read mores on mobile (and without a laptop it’s all mobile), so I’ll just type ***Spoilers*** when we get to the good stuff.

So first off, of course they’re going to get quality one-on-one with a lot of people. Mace and Yoda are the first Jedi Obi-Wan tells about Luke and Leia’s, uh, heritage so that also makes them pretty first in line for padawan-sitting. (Yoda gets slightly more details than Mace. How much more is still undecided). I can also see them spending time with Depa and Plo-Koon and even Kit Fisto, but other than that, I don’t know enough details about the other members to hazard a guess.

As for the clones, hell yeah they are! Though Cody will probably end up spending more time personally with Han, Luke and Leia are downright claimed by the clones before they reach the Jedi temple. Unfortunately, the 212th doesn’t get nearly as much love as the 501st, so I don’t have as many to play around with and Luke and Leia have already met the three most developed ones. It might take some time to naturally build up OC clones for them to get to know.

And thank you about the snippet. I kinda get the impression that (thanks to the Force, her heritage, and her own stubborn determination) Leia’s pretty used to being the top of the class of things. It would definitely be frustrating for her be surrounded by people with the same natural abilities (not because they’re better, but because the difficulty scale better matches what she’d actually find challenging). She’s used to showing up her own tutors, not having them correct her before she can even see something’s wrong. I kinda borrowed from some of my own frustration of having to relearn how to study in college and law school. It’s hard to develop the work ethic to grind away when you never had to before.

And I’ve written about this before, but I can’t remember where but... Anakin and the kids... have a very awkward relationship. Especially at the start. Anakin’s major flaw is his possessiveness. And now there’s not one, but two little Jedi prodigies taking his master’s attention and affection and having a completely different and more open relationship and it’s not fair. Except, as any big sibling can tell you, a parent’s relationship with your younger siblings is different for a lot of reasons, and actually having child-rearing experience is one of them.

As for the twins, well... Luke’s exuberantly excited to meet Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Republic, Jedi Knight Extraordinaire. This is his dad before the dark side. The man he’s only really gotten glimpses of, and mainly through Ben’s journals. And they have a lot in common! Although, knowing what Anakin’s capable of as Vadar puts a damper on things, Luke’s just that more determined to try and change things. He pesters Anakin on philosophy and what Luke knows of the Jedi verses what Anakin assumes of the Jedi.

Leia glowers. A lot. She knows what Anakin’s capable of, so he’s considered suspicious until proven able to change. She doesn’t trust him, she doesn’t like him, and their personalities can be too similar in ways that pretty much guarantee they’ll clash. But she’ll try to get to know him. For Luke. And Master Obi-Wan.

Now, for the fun.

****SPOILERS AHEAD!!*****

Anakin will eventually be told, but it’s not for a long time. A very long time. A very heightened, plot heavy time.

Obi-Wan would prefer he’d never be told, to be honest. It’s Luke and Leia’s decision and until they’re 100% on board, he won’t betray their trust. Once they’re comfortable, he’ll find a way to break the news to Anakin gently.

Sidious on the other hand knows how important family is to Anakin. And knows how much he hates it when the Jedi keep secrets from him. It’s just a question of when dropping the secret will cause the most damage.

As to which one tells him and in what manner? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you really wanna know, drop another ask and I’ll flag it with #TDPL Spoilers for anyone who doesn’t want to know.

[delicatefury]

Grey Dawn Breaking day 3: You do realize this is basically me outlining the plot, right?

It’s not even subtle. As such, things written here may or may not be entirely accurate to the final product.

Anyway... on to the show!

****Spoilers ahead because I don’t know how to read-more on mobile****

I know you’re all anxious to see the Zuko+Iroh talk go down, but I’d just like to take a moment to catch up with the rest of the Gaang and how they’re handling all of this. I just want to make it clear though, that I love every single member of the Gaang. Like if I wasn’t so invested in GDB, I’d probably write at least a one shot of all this happening to Aang instead and him just being like “In this timeline, Avatar’s chase you!” Before kidnapping Zuko onto a life-changing field trip, because it has to work in reverse, right?

That’s not this story, though, and GDB is eating me up inside and I need that attention for the bar exam. So without further ado...

—————

So, right off the bat, Aang’s been given even more responsibility from the get-go. Not only does he have to master all four elements by the end of summer, defeat the firelord, and save the world, he also has to find Avatar Roku’s great (great) grandson so they can help him find a person who made a deal with a dark spirit to do who knows what and that problem might actually take priority!

In usual Aang fashion, he manages to both kinda ignore it, but also worry about it all the time. Which is avoidance and an issue he struggles with and that as never fully resolved (because while I love the Zuko-episodes, the fact that they’re the last ones before the finale means that some really important pre-finale growth for Aang kinda got shuffled to the side. Just a smidge). What this means story-wise is that Aang is internally anxious but keeps his cheerful facade up complete with side-trips and nonesense.

Which also means that he’s fully on board for searching for “curios” on suspicious ships.

Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara are the only witnesses to Avatar Roku singleing Zuko out during their great escape. When they tell Aang about what they saw (but didn’t hear) they joke that maybe Roku was trying to scare the prince away. After all, Zuko looked pretty shaken after Roku smiled at him. What could that be if not a threat?

(That’s a boy with severe self-esteem issues getting approval from someone he never expected to get it from, comics-be-damned.)

Water Bending Scroll happens similar but differently. Katara’s captured a little later, but not by much, but what’s weird is that when Zuko shows up, he’s creeping in the shadows, not being all stomping and yelling like she’s used to. He, well, asks to save her from the pirates. Actually the exchange is more “will you stop wriggling and let me cut you free?!”(whisper-yelled) “What the - Zuko?!” (Very loud shout). Zuko’s forced to recover, offers the bounty for Katara (she hears that he’s willing to buy her. He will later be upset that that’s how she interprets his actions, yet she gives no thought to what pirates would do), accidentally lets slip that there’s a bounty on her companions too, and well, the rest goes as described in last post.

Between this and Crescent Island and Aang’s secondary quest, the Gaang gets a lot to talk about in their bits in between Zuko’s woes. A lot of it focusing on Zuko’s slightly, but not actually, out of character actions. And one accurate but dismissed joke from Sokka that “Hey, maybe Zuko’s Roku’s grandkid!”.

Actually, there’s a lot to going on with Sokka, Katara, and Aang while Zuko’s stressing out on the Wani, and while Zuko’s our traveler, Avatar (and by extension GDB) is sort of an ensemble story with each character getting a pretty well developed arc/personality and I intend to do the same here.

But back to Zuko, because he’s still the main driving force of this plot.

____________

In all honesty, I’ve blocked this scene out on multiple drives to and from work (I haven’t moved yet, so I still get 20+ minutes each way), and I have made myself cry. But The Padawan Discussion from TDPL did too, and people seemed to love that.

But... you won’t be getting the full cry version. This is just the outline. But it’s a very detailed outline.

I’ve gone over this scene a lot.

_______________

Zuko cleans himself up after his training and goes to join his uncle for tea. It takes a while to psych himself up. He’s fully aware that he’s pretty poorly equipped to handle this... everything... on his own. He needs guidance. He needs help. He needs Uncle. But the guilt is eating him up alive and this is probably the most terrifying thing he’s ever done, and that includes facing Ozai in the Agni Kai arena and in the underground throne room.

He remembers Sokka telling him that Uncle would be proud of him. He knows Katara would say that his sincerity would speak for itself. Toph would tell him to toughen up and just go in, while Suki would remind him to stop thinking only about worst-case scenarios.

And Aang would tell him that sometimes, you just need to take a leap of faith.

With that thought, he goes in.

Uncle is waiting with tea in the pot. Zuko carefully keeps the table between them, instead of sitting off to the side. He sees the hurt in Uncle Iroh’s eyes, but he needs the barrier. He feels like he’s taking advantage of his Uncle if he accepts the comfort.

Uncle Iroh does what he’s best at and approaches his problem from an angle. He compliments Zuko’s bending, and the seeming progress. Makes idle chitchat while he pours the tea and waits for Zuko’s first sip. And sighs in relief when it’s spat back out. Zuko’s incensed. Why the hell is his tea so salty?!

And Iroh explains what Zuko has missed. The men have been gossiping that a Spirit has taken Zuko’s place or put a spell on him or possessed him. Since Zuko’s reaction to the salt was entirely human (and not, you know, dropping an illusion, or fleeing to the spirit world, etc.) Iroh can now let the men know that their prince is not possessed by any spirits. But Zuko asks about spirit deals. He’s not stupid, and he has probably researched every possible lead on the Avatar. He thinks he has an idea of what happened.

And Uncle Iroh automatically assumes it was Zuko who made the deal. In denying it, and explaining that he’s pretty sure Azula’s done something like that, details of what happened start to come out. Even the fact that Zuko’s 8 months displaced. And Iroh takes it all in stride. Until he asks Zuko if it has anything to do with why he’s avoiding him. If he had done something to anger his nephew.

Zuko, haltingly, forces himself to explain that it’s all his own fault. That he screwed up and ruined everything and how the guilt ate him up every time he looked at his uncle. And when he takes a breath after going on about how much Iroh will be disappointed in him when he knows just how bad he screwed up, Iroh pulls him into a hug, tea and table be damned. He’s an old man and he knows himself better than anyone, even Zuko, and there’s nothing in the world Zuko could do that would ever make Iroh hate him. And that Zuko’s so remorseful and so obviously pained, how could he do anything but forgive him?

So Zuko tells him a very abridged version of the most eventful 8 months of his life. Chasing the Avatar to the poles, their lives as fugitives in the Earth Kingdom and refugees in Ba Sing Se, the tea shops, and Zuko’s first encounter with a spirit fever. With context, Zuko’s betrayal is both more painful and more understandable and Iroh hugs him again before the apologies can start. Then the return to the Fire Nation, the Day of the Black Sun, and Iroh’s happiest surprise of the day, his nephew joining the Avatar as his teacher.

Then they finally get to what started the whole line of questioning: Zuko’s use of the dancing dragon form.

And when the story’s finished, Iroh asks Zuko to show him the full form. His nephew shouldn’t worry about what the crew may think, he’s already coming up with a half-true cover story.

______

This... this ended up being a lot more detailed than I intended. I’m sure you all don’t mind, but still.

Anyway... I stayed up too late. But once I got started writing this out, I needed to keep going. Here’s hoping I don’t regret it in the morning.

[delicatefury]

Where does Azula end up in time? Does she want to win her brother over or kill him? Is she planning to kill Aang from the start or capture?

Ooh, Azula questions! She’s fun.

***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!****

Azula ends up at the same day as Zuko (the Winter Solstice) but not the same time. She’s the one who picked that date, not him, not the Spirits, and unlike Zuko (who’s being piggy-backed on her deal) she doesn’t need to meet quite so specific parameters, so she gets to just... wake up in her bed and have it be 8~ish months earlier. As opposed to Zuko literally waking up in the middle of one of his nightmares.

As to why she chooses this day: it’s one of the few days she could choose. The veil between the worlds needs to be pretty thin for something like this to work. But it is a great date regardless: close enough that any... discrepancies... in behavior are more easily written off, but before she’s assigned to hunt down Zuko. Giving her time to test out the full parameters of her deal with Koh, and to properly decide the best way to approach things. ((And to properly prepare all the ways she’s going to greet Mai and Ty Lee.)) However, because she arrived first, she has no clue that Zuko’s back too. ((Readers of TDPL might be familiar with this little time travel twist.))

As to whether she wants to kill her brother or get him on her side, it depends on her mood and how things are going. (And whether she thinks can get rid of Iroh before he ruins Zuko beyond salvaging). Mainly, she wants to control Zuko. He’s her stupid brother, and so long as he dances to her tune, as long as he behaves predictably, she’s willing to humor him and help him. She’ll even reward him with nice things and scraps of honor nad prestige if he plays his part right.

So it doesn’t bode too well for Zuko’s wellbeing when she realizes he’s not where he’s supposed to be after the Siege of the North. In fact, there’s no sign of him and Iroh anywhere in Fire Nation territory. However, given that Azula may have jumped the gun with changing things (*cough* tipping Zhao off about Iroh *cough*), she writes a it off as unintended consequences and endeavors to plan accordingly in the future.

And because “unintended consequences” gets entrenched in her thoughts (plus her own ego), it takes her longer than you’d think to realize the Zuzu she runs into isn’t the Zuzu she’s expecting.

As for Aang, her purpose with him is to further the Fire Lord’s goals. So she’ll take the opportunity if presented to end him. But that requires him to be in the Avatar state so she can end the Avatar permanently. Otherwise, she’ll just have to track down another Avatar in a few years. So if she can’t provoke him, she’ll settle for capture. On the other hand... he is up there with Iroh on the ‘moved things that should be under my control out of my control’ list...

[delicatefury]

The no Longer Unnamed Avatar Fic

Well, we reached 29 notes, so here’s some more about my no longer unnamed Avatar time travel fic. This is just basic background stuff, so feel free to ignore most of it and I’ll add something juicier in a different post.

First off, yes we have a name: Grey Dawn Breaking. Yes that’s the British spelling. It’s lifted from a poem. Honestly, everything I picked was very dramatic, and fit heavy introspective pieces. That, or it was so friggin’ obvious that I just... I couldn’t do it. Honestly, I wanted to lift something from one of Zuko’s monologues about persistence, but he’s an awkward turtleduck so that didn’t work out so well either. So Grey Dawn Breaking it is. Kudos and love to anyone who can figure out why I picked that name.

Moving on: for those of you who have never seen/read my Star Wars fic, I tend to deal with tiers of canon. Original material is king. In Star Wars, that’s the first six movies and the clone wars. In Avatar it’s The Last Airbender saga. Everything outside that is fair game for me to lift from, but don’t come at me with “in the comics they explained/but in Legend of Korra they said-“ because I don’t really care. If you really want me to explain my thoughts on the matter, drop me a question in my inbox. Because of storylines that I pursue in this fic, some of my feelings on certain comic plot lines will be made apparent, however.

I want to get a buffer going before I start posting chapters. I do not have a buffer in TDPL and as such, readers have to wait until I get past myriad writer’s block problems. This has been exacerbated by the fact that the Clone Wars is not currently anywhere that it can be viewed cheaply and legally. So my main inspiration source is kinda... stuck for that. On the other hand, I got all three books in Avatar bundled together for the price of a single season of the clone wars (out of six!), so I don’t think I’ll have the same problem here. Still, buffers are nice since they buy you time when your brain looks at a blank word document and goes AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

I will be tagging everything from here on “#GDB spoilers” if you wanna block them. And I mean everything, as until I post chapters, everything’s a spoiler!

And now: On to the show!

[delicatefury]

In tdpl is Obi-wan going to get a nap and or break or does he have to over throw palps before he can nap?

Ooh, tricky question.

So on the one hand, *small spoiler*, he’s got Han helping him out on the whole “General running about a sixth of their forces” thing. Because Han is 1) a general in his own right via the rebellion, 2) trained in Imperial naval/armed forces procedures , which is basically just the Republic’s with more corruption and ass-kissing and backstabbing so he already knows what he’s doing, and 3) a pretty damn good smuggler who’s been blockade running and figuring out logistics for years. Which frees up a lot of time even without Luke and Leia’s help as well as the clones Han recruits to help with the time consuming stuff (volunteering free time to help the general and learning extra skills while they’re at it).

On the other hand… Obi-Wan is biting off a lot more this time around. Because he now sees how perfectly Palpatine’s manipulating the entire galaxy to be hostile, or at least indifferent, to the Jedi, as well as the ethical questions that were always put off to worry about “after the war”. Not to mention all the extra attention he has to pay Anakin to try and undo the decade of damage Palpatine’s already inflicted.

… so generally, no he does not think he has time to take a nap. But the twins and Han are investing too much into his health and wellbeing to let him get away with running himself into the ground. They can and will shanghai him into breaks, with the gleeful help of his soldiers and fellow Jedi.

[delicatefury]

Okay, wow

There were a lot of notifications on my phone this morning. Good to know I'm not the only one upset about the implications from the trailer regarding our favorite Tatooine Farmboy.

(And Hi new followers! I hope you enjoy the rest of my stuff as much as the angry rant).

I'm gonna try to respond to some of the reblogs, replies, and one anon message quickly. I still intend to get TDPL updated before the 18th so that's priority for my fandom time right now.

But for the record, my only intention to give The Last Jedi a chance is to read spoiler heavy reviews after it's been out a week. Because, like I said, I have no intention of giving Disney money for the privilege of seeing another Star Wars character fall. Also for the record, a single moment of baddassery on the part of Luke means little if Rey has to push him towards it like she had to push Han to do the right thing. The Ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin collectively smacking some sense into Luke and reminding him he's Luke New Hope Skywalker and there's not a Force user alive who can defeat him if he Trusts the Force? That would be a step in the right direction.

((And now my head's buzzing with sequel rewrites that would preserve the characters while keeping the general flow of the movies. Same starting points, even very similar events, but with different dialogue and context... oh it could've been so good. No! Bad Fury! You're still only on Chapter 4 of TDPL.))

I used to be excited for an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie too. But between what's happened to the OT trio and the lack of news on whather Ewan McGregor is tied to it yet (outside of a "padawan days" type story, literally no one else should touch that role. Ewan made sure to play Obi-Wan Kenobi, not his "interpretation" of the character. He matched Sir Alec Guinness, right down to the ticks and mannerisms) I am not hopeful.

Any recommendations for EU books/comics/materials? I hear amazing things about Mara Jade.

[delicatefury]

TDPL 300 Bookmarks - Another Meet the Word Count bit

So here’s another bit (spoilers for TDPL, of course):

Pretty sure the trapped padawans thing is first, so I’ll start there. Well, for one, there are twice as many padawans on this mission. And the age gap is wider, though Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are used to hanging out with older teens like Barriss. I’ll have to rewatch the episode in it is entirety, but Luke’s little crush on Ahsoka will become a lot more apparent during these events (especially to his sister), and Obi-Wan will be one of the Masters searching for his student. Which will let him see the cold distance between his elder sister Luminara and her own student. How easily she gives up and labels it “The Will of the Force.” This upsets him. The Light does not require them to be passive. Patient, sometimes, yes, but they don’t have to sit back and just accept whatever happens. Oh, my padawan’s trapped. Time to give up on her even though she is still alive and the bond hasn’t severed, and They are broadcasting a distress signal. Obi-Wan is Concerned. And remembering how Barriss went off the deep end quite spectacularly and dragged Ahsoka, the Order, and Anakin down with her. Maybe he should start extending invitations to family dinner beyond just their little circle