thrawnthemaia

[thrawnthemaia]

Something else occurred to me about Annatar's weird behavior with Mirdania: couldn't this whole progression be seen as a retelling of what happened between Mairon and Melkor back in Valinor, when Mairon was a smith under Aulë?

I'm just envisioning Mairon working as a talented and diligent maia under his teacher, and then Melkor coming in and skulking around the forge and being enticing, and Mairon falling for it, hanging around him, adoring him, touching him on the arm, and being seduced away and corrupted.

Sauron's discomfort with and contempt for Mirdania in this scenario would ultimately reflect his unexpressed and unprocessed feelings towards himself. For being naïve, and infatuated, and condemning himself to an eon of torment.

When he finally throws her off that wall, and lets her believe that Celebrimbor did it, he's expressing something about how his own master, Aulë, failed to save him, and how perhaps it would have been better to die than to end how he has.

[thrawnthemaia]

Been re-reading Chaos Rising. Tbh I never read the other books. But after this one I'll read through the others as well as the Silmarillionand LotR. I'll be spending my freetime in October preparing for my bizarre crossover fic for NaNoWriMo. I work fulltime, so let's see how that goes. Might as well go ahead and read through the canon Thrawn trilogy as well. I want to have a good grasp of Thrawn, Sauron, Morgoth, Ahsoka, and other characters from both fictional works. That's going to be eleven to twelve books in October. Honestly, I'll be surprised if I can do it.

[thrawnthemaia]

Legends Star Wars will always be canon to me. Luke marries Mara and Leia and Han are married with three kids. I prefer this version. The Thrawn trilogy was the actual continuation and Disney's new version is just really bad fanfiction. I don't care if it's not true.

[thrawnthemaia]

The writers’ strike isn’t just about one industry. It’s about all of them. Starbucks, UPS, Trader Joe’s, Amazon, the list goes on. Class struggle in America is not new. Workers have always fought for better treatment, from steel workers in 1892 to air traffic controllers in 1981. And employers have always retaliated with dirty tactics in the name of profit, from using fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators (textile workers strike in 1912) to cutting down trees that provide shade for picketers (writers strike in 2023.)

The Entertainment Community Fund provides workers with emergency financial assistance, affordable housing, healthcare and insurance counseling, and many other services needed to survive on little to no income. One of the best things you can do to support writers and actors during this strike (besides showing up to protest with them) is donating to ECF.

If you donate in the next few days, send me a screenshot. I’ll enter you in a drawing to win this signed poster. Writers work is incredibly valuable. Without writers, there are no movies or TV, no new ideas, no more stories. Don’t let that happen. Donate by Sept 3 and I’ll do a drawing for the poster on Labor Day.

[thrawnthemaia]

I've been re-reading the Legends Thrawn trilogy. Thrawn isn't only much more ruthless, but the very first description of his face is described as a "nightmare image." He's presented as someone very eerie even while being charismatic and charming in a villainous way. Han and Leia both get "chills" when seeing him. Pellaeon prides himself on being able to hold Thrawn's gaze -- something most aren't able to do because of his featureless glowing eyes. Which is telling on how others are creeped out by him.

Thrawn is most alien in Legends. In canon I felt like I was reading about an emotionless Vulcan or blue Data.

I prefer Legends!Thrawn because I find that version to be much more interesting.

[thrawnthemaia]

hilarious how the series treats Thrawn like this demi-godlike being who's return will bring utter destruction to the galaxy.

Meanwhile the original author and creator of Thrawn depicts the grand admiral as this very autistic art snob, who also happens to be good at military strategy but is all in all just a blue guy who has a hard time making friends and loves playing dress up.

[thrawnthemaia]

Mad we didn’t see thrawn in ep 3 but happy i got to finish my dumb comic (҂◡_◡) ᕤ

[thrawnthemaia]

Been trying to re-read the Silmarillion to get more of a feel for Tolkien's lore. As well as finishing the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I also should probably watch the Clone Wars, read Ahsoka, and re-watch Rebels. Or I could just wing it -- but I'd rather attempt to stay true to the characters.

I know I should write my own works but atm I feel like a fanfiction crossover is something I want to do in my free time. It's still practice.

Haven't written a Star Wars fanfic in a long while. And the last LotR fic I wrote was in 2003 or 2004. I've been too busy with life and just grew out of it for awhile.

[thrawnthemaia]

Me: What if I Thrawn was actually Sauron in a fanfic crossover? It'd be very interesting.

Ahsoka series: sO ThRaWn iS bAsIcAlLy SpAcE SaUrOn.

Words cannot describe how much I utterly detest this.

[thrawnthemaia]

Had an absolute crappola of a day. My job back-stabbed a hard working employee who was one of my supervisors. Not the last time they did that. Bastards!

On a much lighter note: Hey, didn't Thrawn have a fortress on Nirauan called the Hand of Thrawn because it was composed of five towers made of black metal that resembled fingers? And wasn't one of those towers broken? Like, say, a chopped off finger?

My crossover just keeps writing itself.

[thrawnthemaia]

AO3 Etiquette

It would seem a whole new kind of AO3 reader/writer is emerging and it is becoming clear not everyone quite understands how the website community works. Here is some basic guidance on how most people expect you to go about using AO3 to keep this a fun community archive that funtions correctly:

Kudos is for when the story was interesting enough to make you finish reading. If it sucked or was badly written, you probably left. If you finished - you kudos.

If you liked it, you should comment. It can be long and detailed or a literal keysmash. Writers don't care, we just love comments.

No critisism unless the author has specifically asked or agreed to hear it. Even constructive critisism is a no-no unless an author note tells you it's okay. Many people write as a fun hobby or a way to cope with, among other things, insecurity. Don't ruin that for them.

Do not comment to ask the author to write/update something else. It's tacky and off-putting and will probably have the opposite effect than the one you want.

There is no algorithm, it's an archive. Use the search and filter function to add/remove the pairings/characters/tropes etc. you want to read about and it will find you the fics that fit the bill.

For this to work, writers must tag and rate stories. This avoids readers finding the wrong things and missing the stuff they want. I don't care how cringy that trope is in your eyes - it gets tagged.

Character A/Character B means a ROMANTIC or SEXUAL relationship of some kind. Character A&Character B is PLANTONIC, like friendship or family.

Nothing is banned. This is an implicit rule because banning one thing is a slipperly slope to banning another and another, until nothing is allowed anymore. Do not expect anyone to censor for you. Because of the tags system, you are responsible for your own reading experience.

People can create new chapters and sequels/fic series any time after they "complete" a story. So it's considered perfectly normal to subscribe, even to a finished story. You can even subscribe to the author instead just to cover your bases.

Do not repost stories or change the publishing date without an extremely good reason (like a complete top to bottom rewrite). It's an archive, not social media. No one cares what's the most recent, only what fits their tag needs.

Avoid deleting a story you wrote if you hate it - orphan it so others can still enjoy it, without it being connected to you anymore.

This is a creative fanfiction archive. No essays on your insights or theories please. There are other places for that.

I KNOW there's plenty more I missed but I'm trying to cover most of the basics that people seem to be struggling with.

I invite anyone to add to this, but please explain, don't berate.

[thrawnthemaia]

Thrawn

[thrawnthemaia]

My favourite part of the Thrawn trilogy is that every single main character sees Thrawn at some point, EXCEPT for Luke.

Han sees him, Lando sees him, Mara, Leia, Karrde, Chewbacca (I’m pretty sure); everyone gets to see Thrawn except for the one person Thrawn is actively pursuing!

And by “actively pursuing,” I of course mean that Luke was literally on the same ship as Thrawn AND he got caught in the Chimaera’s tractor beam twice AND he still NEVER sees Thrawn!

Why is this so funny? Because Thrawn is meticulous! He has done so much research on Jedi and Luke Skywalker specifically and he warns everyone he sends after Luke to be careful because Luke is the slipperiest fucker in the galaxy, but Luke literally has no idea who Thrawn is! Thrawn knows all about Luke, and all Luke knows about Thrawn is that he is a Grand Admiral!

Luke never even sees Thrawn, despite the fact that Thrawn sees Luke multiple times, and there is nothing in this world that is funnier to me than Luke just straight up never seeing the antagonist of the story.

(Though I also rather like that Thrawn and Pellaeon and everyone start the trilogy being like “How could Vader not catch one young man? Vader was so weak, he couldn’t even catch a boy” and then they end the trilogy going “This boy is impossible to catch, no one can do it.” Like, Thrawn in the second tractor beam scene just skips through all the stages of grief and goes straight to acceptance and just: “That was an impressive maneuver, I have to give them credit. I’ve never seen it work before.”

I just feel like everyone is mentally thinking: “Maybe I was a bit too harsh on Darth Vader…” Because goddamn Luke is so slippery even C’baoth can’t keep a grip on him with mind control (Mara helped, of course, but it’s implied (outright stated) that Luke was never convinced in the first place and was just kind of treating C’baoth like an old man with Alzheimer’s). Like, Luke is impossible I love him)

[thrawnthemaia]

You were born of my mother, Yocheved! You are our brother!

THE PRINCE OF EGYPT (1998)

[thrawnthemaia]

So I've been revisiting my Thrawn-is-actually-Sauron AU fanfic idea. I'm thinking, there's two possible ways I'd go about it. After Sauron gets defeated in LotR he can't form a body, so he's to remain formless. BUT Sauron could attach his spirit to someone. Thrawn is cold, calculating, methodical, and his main goal is maintaining order while protecting the galaxy. Thus Sauron is more likely to attach himself to someone like Thrawn, as he, too, shares similar goals -- maybe not so much protecting the Chiss.

Sauron, being outside the galaxy, and a spiritual entity operating outside the Force, wouldn't be easily detected.

The more Thrawn lives the more Sauron possesses him over time. Occasionally he breaks out when Thrawn has an uncharacteristic burst of anger -- grabbing an Imperial officer by the neck or gloating over impending victory over the defeat of rebels.

Another version would be he was secretly Sauron in another form. Sauron, being a master manipulator but not wishing to draw adverse attention to himself in an unfamiliar galaxy, would feign ignorance in politics while secretly causing political upheaval, Sauron's main desire being order and power. He would want to rescue the Chiss, but only so that they are beholden to him and treat him with godlike reverence. "Thrawn"'s altruism is a ruse, as Sauron is fully capable of disguising his nefarious intentions. Sauron, being someone who didn't want to destroy Middle-Earth, and thus the galaxy, would also be appalled at the Death Star as it would not only be a waste of life but also resources. Having been keen on industry and innovation coming up with the design of TIE Defenders would be up his ally.

Also, Sauron would be very interested in different metals and ores, having been the Valar Aule apprentice as a mastersmith.

[thrawnthemaia]

So many years ago I used to compare Thrawn to Sauron and I wrote a fanfic where he actually was Sauron but in a different form. Now I'm thinking of working on another crossover where the two characters are combined.

Btw anyone else out there who likes combining two different characters together into one or they're secretly the other character? It's fun to do.

Anyway, here's more AI pics of a Thrawn-ish Sauron:

Fun fact about Sauron's name: An alternative spelling is Thauron.

[thrawnthemaia]

I downloaded an AI art app and for fun typed in Grand Admiral Thrawn fighting Sauron in the descriptor. Which resulted in the program combining both together: