adragonsfriend

[adragonsfriend]

Many things about the Shatterpoint novel are neat. Important to remember however, that the part at the end where the apparent solution to a decades long exploitation and extermination of the indigenous people of Harun Kal is to put the cop who was (according to some dialogue and little else) only pretending to be evil and/or was less personally malicious than the others, in charge of the colonizing government was, to put it lightly, not one of them

My desire to rewrite parts of shatterpoint to not be a shitty cop out (ha. 'cop' out) which completely undermines all the characters' but especially Mace's alleged understanding of the Summertime War? It exists.

Anyway there's an idea if anyone would like to submit a prompt for charity

[adragonsfriend]

babe wake up, full canon accurate and up-to-date map of the star wars galaxy just dropped

[adragonsfriend]

Fic Requests for Charity…

...continuations of Shadows on the Cave Wall and other star wars fic requests you have for me are available if you're able to donate to Pads for Peace (provides menstrual hygiene kits for Sudanese women), Palestine Children's Relief Fund or The Bail Project (which pays bail for USians in need).

$5 = 100 words of any prompt, just send a DM or an ask with a screenshot of your donation recipient along with "Shadows on the Cave Wall" if you'd like to see that story continued, or another star wars prompt like:

Character: just give me a character whose perspective I should write in

AU: give me an AU idea to write my interpretation of

Fic: pick something from one of my existing fics you'd like me to expand upon

Other: Any of the topics in the Things to Ask Me section of my pinned post

This offer is open until August 20th, and, outside exceptional circumstances, any requests will be fulfilled within 48 hours.

[adragonsfriend]

Fic Requests for Charity…

...continuations of Shadows on the Cave Wall and other star wars fic requests you have for me are available if you're able to donate to Pads for Peace (provides menstrual hygiene kits for Sudanese women), Palestine Children's Relief Fund or The Bail Project (which pays bail for USians in need).

$5 = 100 words of any prompt, just send a DM or an ask with a screenshot of your donation recipient along with "Shadows on the Cave Wall" if you'd like to see that story continued, or another star wars prompt like:

Character: just give me a character whose perspective I should write in

AU: give me an AU idea to write my interpretation of

Fic: pick something from one of my existing fics you'd like me to expand upon

Other: Any of the topics in the Things to Ask Me section of my pinned post

This offer is open until August 20th, and, outside exceptional circumstances, any requests will be fulfilled within 48 hours.

[adragonsfriend]

Primarily for @yellow-faerie, but allso for y'all's reading pleasure, The Plans of Knight Krrea and Du Kalrutva masa Bachel (This was not allowed to be Wanderlust) are oneshots of mine up for the Summer Marokeepu gift exchange.

[adragonsfriend]

☀️CBC Summer Challenge!☀️

For June and July, We get to Apply! *knee slap*

I have some challenges for y'all to apply what you've been learning here. It doesn't have to be all at once, you can do some, though I'd be incredibly happy if you did all of them. You can do these multiple times, make it a habit, even! Again... It'd make me incredibly happy if you did.

The Goals:

1. Find Black creators in your fandom and/or creative space and follow them! This can be writers, artists, poets, streamers, etc. all creatives!

2. Read, and leave a kudos and/or comment of support on a Black writer's fic!

3. Reblog a Black creator's art with genuine, supportive tags!

4. Commit to a piece of media where someone Black is one of the Main characters! This can be books, TV shows, plays and musicals, video games- whatever! Especially if they're by Black creators! Apply what you've learned here- how are they depicted, what did you really like, was there something you learned technique wise? Was there something you felt was not as respectful as it could have been?

5. Read fic where a Black character is the main character! Same idea as number 4.

*Note: I'm not saying you have to leave that commentary on someone's fic. That's a YOU choice. I'm asking you to think about it for your own growth, especially if you're a writer.

6. If there's a Black character in your fandom, share (respectfully done!!) art of them! If there's not one, try looking into spaces where there are Black characters and share those (an easy one to find is Wyll Ravengard. I'm barely in that fandom yet and I get things of him on my For You. Or maybe ask your friends what they like!)

7. Practice something you've seen! If there's a style of hair you liked, or a way to render brown skin that was really nice- practice! Or, if you read beautiful prose describing a Black character, try it yourself. Practice!

The prize? Your personal creative and perspective growth, supporting and building a safer and more inclusive community, and my pride and joy in you 💖☺️👍🏾 Feel free to send asks telling me how you've been understanding what you've read/watched, or blogs and creations that you'd recommend to others!

[adragonsfriend]

Hey serious talk for a second ok? some of you do this thing where you go “and yeah so the Jedi often take in kids from parents who are too poor to take care of them” as some kind of trump card against antis and I think your need to “defend” the Jedi has outweighed your good sense. Like I fully understand the urge, but you need to take a step back from that argument and think about what you are saying.

“They don’t kidnap kids they take in kids from parents in vulnerable, desperate situations” is not the argument you think it is.

Presenting a strategy and/or habit of taking in kids from desperate people in desperate situations as like some super high charitable trump card thing is some incredibly Christian missionary logic there ok. It is taking advantage of desperation and fear in order to acquire child.

There are so many alternative ways to write the Jedi dealing with situations of finding Force sensitive kids in desperate situations that do not suck!

Jedi who work with communities for an extended period of time, coming to know and be trusted by those communities before being offered a child born after their arrival

Jedi who encounter families with Force sensitive children work to improve the entire families’ circumstances to provide stability before offering to take in the children

Jedi encountering a desperate parent who was already trying to find a way to get a child out of their care before the Jedi arrived for some specific reason (maybe someone who always planned to give up the child for adoption but can’t trust either their family members or the system?)

Jedi actively delaying the guardians giving up a child to make sure they’ve fully considered why they’re doing it, if they’re really sure, to varying final results

In The Living Force, it’s emphasised that upon encountering a force sensitive child in a neglectful orphanage situation, a Jedi should have assessed the whole situation and helped all the children there, rather than just whisking away the Force-sensitive one (and thereby created a situation where the child had a reasonable choice about whether to go or not)

And if you’re thinking “but those seem soo lucky and too good to be true often enough to sustain the order’s population...” then it’s possible that what you actually belive is that the Jedi need to prey on desperation to acquire sufficient children, and if so, you should not be defending that as moral. That is the opposite of a defence of the Jedi.

Personally, I think the Jedi just stumble across and/or work to create the types of situations above—where the guardians actually do enter circumstances where they can consent out of something other than desperation—with greater than average frequency. It’s the will of the Force, destiny, whatever. Simple as that.

Even in the prequels with Anakin, while I do not think it goes far enough in the direction I’m pushing for here, we see Shmi be the one to ask if Qui-Gon can help Anakin after Qui-Gon leaves a conversational opening for it, and then we see Qui-Gon attempt to free Shmi at the same time as Anakin. Even after she implies she might accept Anakin becoming a Jedi if it will save him from the life in slavery, it is still important that she be helped and freed. In her language when Shmi finally sees Anakin again as she’s dying, “now I am complete,” I think it’s reasonable to assume she’s stating that she’s glad the gamble she took letting him go paid off—ergo, she knew she was taking a gamble, not that she was some pathetically grateful recipient of Jedi aid.

If Star Wars were capable of having scenes that intentionally did more than one thing at a time, maybe we could’ve had a scene that did a half decent job of making the improvement of Shmi’s situation essential to the whole interaction on a cultural level (literally just move the “Qui-Gon gave her a valuable object to sell with the understanding she would know what to do from there” plot line someone invented in a comic into the movie itself—use one of Padmé’s dresses lol) rather than using it as something to raise up Qui-Gon’s individual moral status without actually helping Shmi at all.

Helping everyone in the situation so they can actually consent to giving away care of a child has to be essential to the Jedi on a cultural level—not just individual—in order for this to work. I think it is essential to them, and so I try to write that into my stories.

Do you think about what Jedi could actually be, or do you just respond to antis’ talking points with the first idea you can grasp onto? Because the latter can apparently make you say shit like “poor people should give up their kids to other cultures when they can’t take care of them” rather than “everyone should have the resources to be able to take good care of their children.”

And that’s important.

(And just to get ahead of the curve, yes I know that what I’m saying is “some variation of Star Wars would be so good if it was good.” Star Wars fanfic/discourse would also be good if it was good, and unlike the movies, fandom is always in the process of remaking itself. So maybe we could make it good, sometime)

[adragonsfriend]

Hello everyone. That character would not have that nickname. That other character would not give nicknames as a form of affection. Goodbye everyone.

[adragonsfriend]

The Language of Alderaan

Alderaan is planet built of mountains, valleys, and oceans. There are hilly regions, which is about as flat as it gets without terraforming, however it is known for those heights. Thus, I pulled a bit of inspiration from Appalachian sounds, and common language patterns that are seen in mountainous regions.

Note, the language is not english. It is nothing like english. Appalachian English is just the nearest mountainous dialect I am familiar with. @yellow-faerie is once again my partner in crime, and this lanugage is still absolutely a WIP. I also have borrowed from @raointean for religious information, which will come in a different post.

Okay. There is the warnings. Lets get into what we have right now.

Sounds!

Here is the current phonology sheet! The preview allows you to see the basic phonology, but I will be sharing a specific section on the spelling patterns, which are very simple at the moment, until I add some variations.

Alderaanii is made of 20 consonant sounds(including some that would be represented by two letters), and 12 vowels, including diphthongs. The vowels sounds can be similar, but usually are doubled to represent a drawn out sound. The spelling patterns are what the IPA symbol sounds like to me in English. (Not Basic, because one of my dearest friends, @krayttahrei-adragonsfriend is creating basic into another conlang, instead of space!English, since its fun. We stand evil conlangs /j) Mostly, the sounds made since and I liked them, with some input from canon names and places, barring one spelling rule that is covered next.

Spelling Patterns and Sounds:

Here are the sounds + associated spelling pattern:

The image above shows the most common spelling patterns, as Fae and I have not created uncommon or old spelling patterns yet. The biggest thing I want to point out is that we made the decision that the letter "i" cannot exist alone. It must be paired with another vowel, or in a double i, example: Alderaanii. This is a change from the original name for the language, which I called Alderaani. This choice is one that looks right, so we shall be keeping it. This is similar to how the letter "c" does not exist alone, it only exists for the "ch" sound. No we do not have a reason for this yet. Probably some hold over from a specific Old Alderaanii word, but we haven't decided yet.

Grammar

Next up is grammar! We haven't done a lot with grammar yet, but here is what we do have:

Normally, word order will be SVO, same as english. However, this changes when in a religious setting, then the word order is OVS. (Nothing is posted with this yet, but Fae has been translating the song Noble Maiden Fair into Alderaanii, and it is so pretty so far I'm obsessed and on tenterhooks for the next bit.)

Nouns in the unaltered form are usually used as names. You add a suffix to mark it as a single, a duo, a triple, and more than triple. In these conjugations(?), if the word ends in a consonant, it follows with a Vowel-Consonant-Vowel, while words that end in vowels (usually) only add Consonant-Vowel(Im looking at you, triple suffix). These are (as of June 19, 2025) located at the top of the grammar tab, linked at the subheading for this section. Example 1, Vowel ending: Breha (means endure, is also a flower that grows as high altitudes). Brehame is one breha flower. Brehabe would be two flowers, brehail is three, and brehade is more than three breha flowers. Example 2, consonant ending: cobal (means tea), would be written Cobalome is a single tea(a cup of tea or a tea blend, this is generally understood based on the context used), Cobalebe is two, Cobalile is three, and Cobalede is many.

Conjugating verbs is done with a suffix to indicate the tense, as I liked that for Kehran and am doing the same with Alderaanii ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This is not written nicely in a chart yet lol, but we have 6 tenses, with one adjusting the other 5 to become something ongoing, the other tenses represent when something was begun. Far past, near past, present, near future, far future, and continuous(the modifier).

Mood will be denoted with a prefix, currently we only have imperative(which is commands).

Names

Now, I touched on names a bit in the Grammar section, but names need to be addressed separately as well, as it has its own section in the Doc.

Names are always an un-adjusted noun.

Names can come from any part of speech, but nouns are most common, and of nouns, it is usually something that is one thing, but has a deeper meaning it presents.

Family is a huge part of Alderaan. It follows this rule of three that we have going on, and some other stuff I am excited to share in another Alderaan post. But, in any case, Names are Who You Are. They are EXTREMELY important. Here are the words of @yellow-faerie who sold me on it immediately:

"My idea is that there are houses which pretty much everyone belongs to (the Royal House, which was House Alde before they died out and became mythicised, and then became Organa after a bit of infighting; the Thirteen Major Houses which rule over smaller subsects of the planet; and then a bunch of minor houses which are again in specific places) You get a first name on your naming day which usually has a meaning of what your parents want you to aspire towards - how vague and metaphorical that is depends on your parents lol - and then you have your House Name, and then your surname. OK so this might be complicated because I'm bad at describing it - but House Name is the house you belong to (you can petition to change this, which is easier when you might be getting married or are adopted in, but you can do it otherwise through appointment by court) which is who you go to for any legal dealings etc etc; surnames are which family within that sect you belong. So, Bail Prestor Organa is still in House Prestor as he's a consort without political power of a reigning monarch, and so remained within his old house (this was a personal choice he made so he could remain as Senator) but is part of the family Organa (as Alderaan is matrilineal in who joins who's family); Breha Organa is part of House Organa but is also part of family Organa (the oldest branch of the house) and so drops the last Organa - typically if someone only has one surname, it means they're a pretty big deal in their family OR that they have no house (and legal dealings are held by The State) Surnames may be gained or changed over the years [REDACTED BECAUSE ORIGINAL STORY] Another example would be Leia Organa Solo (admittedly in Legends) taking Han's last name (non-traditional by Alderaani standards but was a strong statement of how much she was Marrying This Man Fuck All You People Telling Me To Marry A Prince) but remaining a member of House Organa.

So, TLl;DR, no Middle Names. Its Who You Are+Family+House Name+Surname. House Names can be changed or differ from the House you belong to, especially if you are a branch house. Surnames are your close family. You, mom, dad, and maybe aunts/uncles, but not always. NOTE: No we have not yet made all Thirteen Houses.

Numbers

This won't be super detailed because we havent done it yet, but we will be doing a base-13 because number 1, I hate myself, and number 2: Baking. So yeah. We only have 0-3, siiv(0)-iile(1)-eebe(2)-oome(3).

Conclusion

Alderaanii is absolutely a work in progress. However, you can keep up with our progress and make your own words using our doc, though please let me know so I can add it if I think it fits what I am building. (Your own dictionary can be a dialect or something, but I will reserve the right to be picky, lol). I also would love to hear about what world-building you are doing and any questions you have- just send an ask (this is title "Pick Your Poison" because I think I'm funny). Same as with Kehran Amatakka, Ryl, and anything else I yap about on this page! Thanks for reading!

-looseleafteeaves, AKA Teeaves (you can also call me Pehi)

doc is linked in the first word of the Conclusion

[adragonsfriend]

happy Juneteenth to black fans in fandom specifically 🫶🏿 love yall

[adragonsfriend]

Can confirm: death of the fandom + selective necromancy is a very enjoyable place to be

death of the author yeah whatever but death of the fandom is so integral to enjoying legitimately anything like that is just a necessary step to take in ur head always. do not let them affect the text in any way exterminate them all with ur death ray. they r not real and cannot hurt u

[adragonsfriend]

Reblog if you are a fanfiction author and would like your readers to put one of your fic titles in your ask + questions about it

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

2: What scene did you first put down?

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

5: What part was hardest to write?

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

7: Where did the title come from?

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

11: What do you like best about this fic?

12: What do you like least about this fic?

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

[adragonsfriend]

i worry when people follow me after only seeing a single post. where's your inquisitive nature? what if i suck?

[adragonsfriend]

See what I figure the “ringer” would do to you is what would happen if somebody rang a bell while your head was inside it. You would be rung. Dazed. Stunned. Discombobulated and possibly hurt, but not dead.

Mishearing a saying or word but coming up with something similar in meaning to the original anyway is called and eggcorn, itself an eggcorn of the word “acorn,” and eggcorns are beautiful. Language, especially figurative language, changes and grows, and eggcorns are just one of many ways that happens!

btw, since i've seen this mistake several times in the last week:

it's not 'been put through the ringer.' what would that mean. what would the ringer do to you.

it's the wringer. a device for squishing the water out of clothes so they'll dry faster on the line. wringing them out.

[adragonsfriend]

Biting His Own Tale:

The final chapter of Between the Desert and the Sea, Yoda's Life Changing Field Trip, is up now!

[adragonsfriend]

If anyone ever wants to know the mass of Tatooines suns I have that information. You do have to suspend your disbelief about like…everything that’s not simple Newtonian physics about it, but tbh that’s just Star Wars for you. Can you imagine the problems if special relativity existed in Star Wars…ugh

[adragonsfriend]

on the aesthetics of asian erasure in star wars: obi-wan kenobi and the planet of naboo

when we talk about representation in star wars, the conversation often stops at what’s visible or credited. star wars has a long-standing problem with the lack of asian leads or asian-coded worlds, but sometimes what’s more insidious is the erasure of asian influence where it once existed, or where it was clearly intended to be.

take obi-wan kenobi. before alec guinness was cast, george lucas had reportedly wanted a japanese actor to play the role, toshirō mifune, most famously known for his work with akira kurosawa. lucas has never strayed away from citing the hidden fortress as a direct inspiration for a new hope, and the jedi, in their original conception, from eastern philosophies, particularly bushido and zen buddhism. this was not accidental. it’s embedded into the language, “obi” (the sash of a kimono), “wan” (a name component common in chinese and southeast asian names), and “kenobi,” which emulates the structure of japanese surnames. it is an asian-inspired name, heavily so.

but when mifune declined, lucas pivoted. and instead of keeping that vision intact, the jedi master archetype, the wise elder, steeped in tradition, was lifted from its asian origins and handed to a white british actor. and then later, to ewan mcgregor, whose performance, while incredible, westernized the role further. we are told obi-wan is from “stewjon,” a planet born out of a joke, a merging of jon stewart’s name, after he asked lucas where obi-wan was from. then “space scotland” became the shorthand. that change from asian inspiration to european performance was never really questioned.

it’s not about demanding obi-wan look asian. it’s that the character was rooted in an asian framework, and that framework was abandoned the moment it became inconvenient to uphold. and that sets the tone for much of star wars, aesthetic borrowing without meaningful credit.

naboo is another case where this shows up. the common narrative is that naboo was inspired by renaissance europe, with its lush italian architecture, baroque dresses, and romanticized monarchy. those elements are there. but there’s a consistent thread of asian influence that is almost never acknowledged.

the names of the monarchs are a starting point. padmé, from the sanskrit “padma,” meaning lotus. sabé and saché, echoing asian and hindi name constructions. queen jamillia, whose name stems from arabic roots, suggests influence from islamic culture. even the name “naboo” itself sounds curiously close to nebo, a mesopotamian god, or nabu, the sumerian deity of wisdom. the planets closest to naboo in the galactic grid, like sereno and ord mantell, also carry vague echoes of eurasian tone.

but most significantly, look at the costume design in the phantom menace. trisha biggar drew from a range of global influences, but some of queen amidala’s most iconic gowns were directly modeled after traditional mongolian royal attire, specifically the headdress and layered robes worn by mongolian empresses. the high collars, rich brocades, and facial makeup are unmistakable. yet, in the lore, naboo is labeled as european. not central asian. not global. and certainly not asian.

this is not to say star wars owes its worldbuilding to any one culture. it doesn’t. part of its power comes from its ability to merge and reimagine cultures. but there is a problem when the contributions of asian cultures are stripped of credit, while european aesthetics are exalted as canonical. when a jedi’s name can be asian, his values drawn from eastern philosophies, his robes loosely modeled on samurai garb, and yet his face, voice, and homeworld are made definitively western.