#& jedi trained smuggler ↬ ani solo organa.

[surv1vra]

originals

[gingersnappe-9]

In a Crowd of Thousands: Meeting a Master (8)

Din Djarin/Mando X Fem!OC ; Star Wars/The Mandalorian Universe

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4.2K words

The galaxy was so different from what he knew as a boy. Even from what he knew a few years ago. Luke Skywalker – once was only a boy who looked out at the dunes on Tatooine, wondering if he’d ever see the skyline from the cockpit of a X-Wing – was a Jedi. One of the few remaining in the known universe. It weighed on him. It weighed on his twin sister, Leia, as well. Their bloodline was strong with the force. Tainted, some would even say cursed, but incredibly strong. After the brief training Luke received from his late master Yoda, Luke continued his studies and the mystic arts of the Jedi way. He had risen to the level many would consider to be master, but Luke often felt like nothing more than the boy from an outer rim planet. 

In their efforts to move forward, the twins found themselves on the planet Coruscant. The glittering city of Canto Bight was almost overwhelming for Luke when he first arrived. It reminded him of when he first met his sister. It was chaotic and loud, thrumming with life and energy. Leia helped guide him through the bureaucracy, the glamor and limelight. Without her upbringing and pedigree, Luke could’ve easily found himself drowning in uncertainty. But Leia was his touchstone. And he was hers. He advised her when she asked, and even when she didn’t. Their council was sought after in the efforts to bring an end to the tyrannical reign of the Empire, to atone for their father’s – Darth Vader, and formly Anakin Skywalker – mistakes and evil doings. 

But Luke found himself acting as Leia’s gatekeeper. After reuniting, Luke learned that Leia’s adoptive parents had a biological daughter, Aurelia Organa. All that meant to Luke was that he had another sister. Family. He learned the tragic and unknown fate of this young girl. How bounty pucks were sent across the galaxy, like tiny beacons of light attempting to guide the lost princess of Alderaan home. 

After the twins returned to one another’s lives, Leia entrusted Luke with the highly sensitive task of dealing with anyone claiming to have restored Aurelia. She had done it herself for years before the pain and disappointment became too great for her to bear. Luke could feel how heavy it weighed on her. He could feel the guilt that pulled Leia down. She blamed herself for the destruction of her homeworld, for the massacre of her people and family. Her now fiance, Han Solo, tried his best to console Leia, but the former smuggler turned reluctant Resistance legend could only do so much. Luke spent many nights with her when the pain became too great to tamp down any longer. 

So now, if anyone came waltzing into their lives claiming to have found the lost princess, Luke took it upon himself to vet them personally. His sister had been through enough already, lies and deceptions created shadows across their lives. In more recent times though, Luke had felt a shift. There were new forces at work. Both dark and light, and astoundingly strong. Leia even sensed them. Luke recalled a conversation he’d had with his sister many times: the duty they both shared to make things right once more. To rectify the wrongs of the Empire and restore balance. Though they had differing ideas and philosophies on what restored balance looked like, the twins leaned on one another during trying times. It was all they could do to keep from falling apart, to keep the darkness at bay. 

He stood out on the balcony of his too large town home and looked out at the city below him. Crafts of all sizes and occupations flitted across the sky, weaving in and out from the spaces between buildings. They reminded him of the caves and gorges of his childhood, but instead of sandstone red, this world was plated in steely chrome. It reflected everything, good and bad, maybe that was why everyone dressed so lavishly? To hide any sign or semblance of imperfection that might be thrown back at them. As he continued to observe, he felt something new that the city had yet to show him. Something, or rather, someone was out there looking with the same sense of purpose that he was. Luke could feel the light. They were strong. Young. Resilient. And they were not alone. 

This small revelation cast a smile across Luke’s face. A slow breeze ruffled his black robes. Something good was coming.

The force was strong with them.

The streets of Canto Bright seemed brighter than the twin suns of her home planet, if that was even possible. Everything seemed plated in shiny holographic material or any number of reflective metals. They were molded and intermixed with the subtle texture of the stucco plastered to the domed roofs and high walls. The city glittered as brightly as the people who strolled its streets with an air of pomp and circumstance. People with impossibly large jewelry, expertly smithed and as intricate as the stars across the night sky. It was also so noisy. Not like the rhythmic bangs of a hydraulic hammer, or the sound of sand shifting in the wind. It was chaotic and disorienting. But out of everything, what Ava couldn’t stop staring at was Mando. 

His beskar shone differently from everything else. Somehow, he stood out from the crowd. Whether it was the way he walked with certainty, the intensity of his unyielding T-visor, or any number of his ever present weapons on full display, Mando was unlike anyone. Ava found herself being pulled. Beskar had to be magnetic, it just had to be, it was the only explanation as to why she felt the need to be within an arm's reach of him… especially after the other night. Where their bodies intertwined. Embraced. Ava’s fingers unconsciously ghosted across her lips in attempts to mimic the heat that Mando’s gave when they were hungrily pressed against her own. She shuddered at the memory of his voice, husky and low as it reverberated in her ear, whispering things that she never would've imagined someone would ever call her. It excited her, even now. 

“Alright, my dear,” Fett’s voice snapped Ava’ focus forward – in all honesty, it was for the better or else she’d have been lost to a daydream filled with more debauchery than she ever thought herself capable – “I’m going to go ahead and do some reconnaissance. Mando is going to stay with you and find a temporary place to stay until we find Skywalker.” 

The toe of her shoe snagged and she stopped walking, “Skywalker?” Ava was confused. “I thought we were going to see Leia Organa?” 

“Yes, we are. Skywalker is her brother.” Fett had intentionally kept his answer short, and Ava caught on right away. 

“Why would we go see her brother first?” The two Mandalorians tilted their heads towards one another. A silent conversation Ava could tell she wasn’t meant to be in on, but nonetheless, understood something was amiss. “What aren’t you telling me?” Ava finished with an edge of authority she wasn’t used to commanding. It felt foreign, but not entirely new. 

Mando shuffled ever so slightly, “Fett knows Skywalker from his past,” Stars, is he anxious? “But no one sees her Royal Highness without getting Skywalker’s approval first.” 

Ava stood there in the middle of the city of opulence frozen to the floor. Her mouth began moving before she had a moment to think of her words, “You never said anything about lying.”  Her stomach dropped and her heart pounded. Without realizing it, Ava had been staring directly at Mando. Emotion seeped through her words as her face drained of color and her entire being screamed at her to move, to process, and find a quiet place without so much damn noise. 

“Dear one, we were going to tell you eventually, it just never seemed like the righ-” 

Ava cut Fett off, “What, like the right time to tell me? I probably would have appreciated a heads up before I was blown so spectacularly out of the sky.” Her voice was clipped, fear, intermixed with anger, laced her words.

“This doesn’t change anything. We will get you an audience with Leia and our plan will continue.” Fett was clearly trying to regain control of the situation, but something inside Ava was fed up with people deciding for her then goading her into thinking it was free will. 

“It changes everything. No one told me I would have to prove I was the Grand Duchess or princess or whatever the hell she was.” 

“Ava, I-” 

She cut him off again before he could continue, “Look nice. Talk proper. Stand up straight. Yes. Yes. And, yes. But lie?” 

Fett stepped towards her, gently taking the child – who Ava was hugging tight with a bit too much vigor – but it was Mando who spoke, “You don’t know it’s a lie. What if it’s true?” He crowded her space with his broad shoulders, “So there’s one more stop on the road to finding out who you are.” His voice was low, not unlike how he’s spoken in the sweet cover of darkness, “I thought this was something you had to see through to the end no matter what?” 

She wanted to believe him, Ava wanted to lean into the sincerity of his words and let go of her doubt and free fall into the certainty that what she was doing, everything that happened, was leading her to her tomorrow. But a voice deep down – not unlike the one that stopped her from stowing away on every cargo ship that stopped in Mos Eisley – told her… 

“I am not what she was… I don’t even know what I am now.” 

Ava had been looking directly at Mando as she spoke. Her words hurt to speak into existence, but it didn’t make them any less true. She walked away from them, and as she did, Ava could hear Fett telling Mando to let her have some space. She had a small communicator on hand, but for now, she just needed to be on her own.

The chaos of Canto Bight had snuck up on her considerably. Everything seemed louder. The thrum of cruisers whirring and zipping around. People were moving quicker as Ava did her best to weave around them. The whole city seemed to be buzzing and it all seemed too much for the girl who knew nothing but simple sandy dunes. The more she walked, the more overwhelming it became.

What were you thinking? Sure, maybe lonely little girls dream of being something, or someone… but honestly… you?

Her feet came to a slow halt on the side of the walkway. Ava let out a deep sigh. Just as she was about to wearily walk back to the Mandalorians in emotional defeat, a flash of green caught her eye. When she turned, Ava saw an entrance adorned with lush looking plants. Despite her curiosity, Ava’s heart seemed to weigh her down. But as she took a small side step to head back, something inside her told her to wait. Looking back, the archway – an arbor – was made of thin, iron-looking metal, weathered and worn. Small vines had grown through and around the rungs that seemed intentionally placed to help the plant climb. A newer voice whispered inside, Keep going. 

When Ava stepped through, she was greeted by all manner of foliage. They were far different from the plants at Lady Omera’s estate. Impossibly vibrant flowers with petals so soft Ava thought they might melt as she caressed them between her index finger and thumb. Some smelled like syrup, others warm and rich. It was a small paradise. The garden was nestled between two tall, and long buildings creating a barrier from the bustle on the street. Vines scaled the walls with their small leaves making it feel like a jungle was bursting at the seams. 

Ava loved it. 

As she ventured further in, she found a mult-joist structure spanning the width of the garden. There were benches and potted and hanging plants all around. A small fountain gurgled at the heart of it all. It was serene. Her heart rate had steadied and her mind had cleared. Ava took a seat under the beams and tilted her face towards the sun as it filtered through the sparse clouds, not unlike the flowers that kept her company. A gentle breeze blew through creating a wonderful sound as it rustled the plants and tousled the hem of her dress. The warm sun’s rays reminded her of her old life, the way the heat seeped into her skin was welcomed after traveling in the void of space for the past several days. 

Once a few moments passed, Ava reopened her eyes and as she looked around a bit more, she noticed someone new had come in and sat on the bench adjacent to hers. 

He was dressed in modest black robes, a glove on his right hand. His deep blonde hair fell from the crown of his head. The man was positioned just as Ava was mere moments ago – head tilted up into the sunshine – His face was expressionless, but otherwise kind. He couldn’t have been more than a decade other than her, but Ava seemed to get the sense that he had experienced a great deal in life, and all it entails. 

“It’s nice isn’t it?” The man asked without even turning to acknowledge Ava staring at him. 

She jolted a bit and quietly chastised herself for her rather rude behavior. “Y-yes. It’s really nice.” 

He smiled and tilted his head down, “We didn’t have anything like this where I’m from.” 

“Neither did I.” 

The two sat there in another moment of comfortable silence. 

“What brings you to Canto Bight?” 

When Ava turned to respond, she noted the man had opened his eyes and was already looking at her. His face was indeed kind, and far wiser than his age. His eyes were blue like the sky, soft yet capable of immense displays of strength. “I’ve come looking for someone.” 

“Not for the gambling and luxury?” He questioned rhetorically. Ava noted the air of teasing. It felt familiar, and comforting. 

“What could’ve possibly given it away?” She gestured to her clothes – new and wonderful to her, but far too plain compared to the extravagance surrounding them just beyond the garden walls – The kind stranger chuckled a bit. “I guess you could say I’m looking for someone too…” The double meaning of her own words sank deeper into her heart than Ava realized.

“But?” He finished for her. 

Ava looked over at him with a soft expression. “But I don’t know if the person I’m really looking for even exists.” 

The stranger gave her a gentle, knowing smile. His ability to seemingly understand her existentialism without so much as a single word was astounding. “Well why don’t we look for them together,” He stood up quietly and stepped in front of her with his hand gently outstretched towards Ava, in an asking manner. 

“Ava.” She said softly. 

He smiled. “Ava. My name is Luke Skywalker.”

While Ava was perfectly at ease with Luke, Boba was clearly not. The moment Ava returned with a man following close behind, her companions became agitated and protective. Boba’s face was etched with a stern scowl and Mando had not-so-discreetly placed a hand over his blaster. It took a few moments of reassurance that Ava was one, perfectly safe, and two, she had already saved them the trouble of finding the man they needed. The next expression that flitted across Boba’s face was one of nervousness – other than Mando’s brief mentioning that the two knew one another, no one ever spoke of how. When Ava asked the older Mandalorian, he simply mumbled something about a damned sarlacc pit. With the little she knew about sarlacc pits, Ava decided it was best to leave that past buried in the sand – He effortlessly shielded the emotion and announced in a formal manner that they were seeking audience with Leia Organa, claiming that their Ava, was the long lost Princess of Alderaan. 

Ava observed as Luke took in their words with a sense that he somehow already knew their intentions. But with a polite smile, he insisted that they go with him to his lodgings.

Their party hailed a cruiser. When Ava took the child into her lap, she was surprised at Luke’s lack of surprise in the little green creature. Most folks they came across found him utterly fascinating. Almost as if he were a commodity rather than a living, feeling being. Luke found him endearing and marvelous. They two seemed to share the same instant connection that Ava felt when she first met Luke. He gave the child a very sweet smile as he went to sit next to the droid steering the cruiser. 

The city whirred by, but instead of the chaos and business, Ava felt calm enough to actually take in the beauty. The sky was clear with wispy clouds. Tall lamp posts with ornate metal work, reminiscent of times long ago, lined the streets and sidewalks as couples and people leisurely strolled along. They entered a residential neighborhood with houses in neat rows, perfectly tucked in next to one another. As they rounded a corner, the house – more like an estate – came into view. Neutral colored bricks were placed around a large circular entryway. There were decorative boxes overflowing with flowers in the windows of the second level. The baby nestled in Ava’s lap seemed equally entranced. 

After the cruiser came to a gentle stop, the men began to exit. Much to Ava’s surprise as she scooted across the longer back seat, Mando extended a gloved hand to her. As she took it, Ava couldn’t help but remember how those hands spread across her stomach and up her sternum. How they traced along her collarbone and jaw. Held her down by pressing her palms deeper into the mattress – not that she had any intention of running away, but the sensation of being wanted so badly that he couldn’t help but ensure she wouldn’t disappear was enough to make her toes curl right there – He guided her as she stepped out of the cruiser. His T-visor never left her gaze. It took a moment for them to let go of one another, the heat passing from their palms was too nice to relinquish so soon. Before the strange spell was broken, Mando gave her hand a gentle squeeze, so slight Ava thought she might’ve imagined it. 

The estate was much larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. The entryway was composed on a glossy, white stone floor clean enough Ava could see her reflection looking up at herself from her feet. There was a beautiful curved staircase along a wall that led up to the second floor. The windows allowed ample light to spill through creating golden beams against shadows. If she had to sum it up in a few words, elegant and simple. The house seemed lived in, less gradious than most other things Ava had seen in Canto Bight. 

A blue plated R-2 unit greeted them in the entryway and began chirping and beeping at Luke. The friendly way they greeted one another, and how the droid addressed Ava, she found the subtle sass and big personality similar to the droids back in Peli’s shop. Fett and Mando stood off to the side while Ava knelt down to let Grogu pet R-2’s dome. The whole thing made her heart lighten. 

Luke looked on at the scene with a cheerful expression. “If you two wouldn’t mind coming with me for a moment. There is something I would like to show you.” The Manalorians instinctually stepped forward. Luke held up a hand, “Oh, pardon the confusion. I meant Ava and Grogu.” 

Everyone stilled. “Grogu?” Mando asked with his usual monotone voice. The baby immediately turned to acknowledge Mando with a small pa-too.

“Yes. Our small friend here.” Luke gestured to the child. Ava gazed down at him. His large eyes locked with hers. A unique sensation washed over her, it was much calmer but she’d felt this feeling before. Back on the Razor Crest when she had that strange hallucination. The feeling that told her to turn around. 

Ava barely whispered, “It was you.” 

Grogu responded with a happy coo to which Ava smiled even wider. She turned to look at Luke who wore a similar, just smaller, grin. How did you know? 

All in due time. 

“I promise to explain further, but I would like to see something first. Ava, Grogu, would you follow me please?” Luke gestured for them to follow him down a hallway to the left of the staircase. 

Just as Ava took a step to follow Luke, Mando matched her stride and reached out to grasp her hand. Ava whirled her head, the red scarf she wore fluttered from its place around her shoulders. As best she could, Ava urged Mando that it was okay. Something told her that Luke could be trusted implicitly. But it didn’t make the desire to hold Mando’s hand in similar moments of uncertainty any easier to walk away from.

“I’ll be waiting for you.” 

Ava gave an appreciative smile, then slipped her hand from Mando’s as Luke led her and Grogu down the hall. The heat from Mando’s hand still radiated across Ava’s palm as she held it to her chest. Luke led them into the inner portion of the house, which Ava gathered was a long rectangle. They went through two rooms before coming upon a set of double doors. When they stepped close enough for the sensors to activate, an entirely new world was revealed to the three of them. 

It was a lush, open air garden. Thin vines made their way up the column supports that held up the second floor. Surrounded by a small moat with stones so that one could easily access the raised platform in the center. The carefully laid slabs created natural grid lines on the floor. Frawns and a variety of flowers in large mosaic pots were scattered around the perimeter, happy to catch the light streaming through the opening above. “It’s beautiful.” Ava noted quietly. If she thought the garden before was lovely, this one was paradise. 

Luke gave a small smile. “I told Leia I didn’t need a whole estate while we were here but the diplomatic host insisted. It’s quite different from my old home.” 

“And where might that be?” She inquired as she walked about, her hand trailing behind against a tall column.

“Tatooine.” That single word sentence stopped Ava in her tracks as she walked around the platform. She and Luke made eye contact. “What? You didn’t think you were the only kid to make it off that sandpit did you?” 

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Only sand dwellers would manage to find each other in this galaxy.” 

“You’re right,” Luke chuckled, “But there are a great many things to see in this world. Or any world you find yourself on. The universe has a funny way of sending us lessons we didn’t know we needed.” Grogu seemed to chirp in agreement. “Ava, would you come here for a moment? There's something I’d like to try.” She made her way up to the gridded platform and stood next to Grogu, who Luke had placed gently on the floor. He gazed at both of them. “Would you hold out your hand, both of you.” The pair complied. He presented two small pebbles, one in each hand. “Now, close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Feeling it flow gently and out. Notice how your body feels, the energy flowing through you with each breath, each beat of your heart. How these sensations intermix with the energy around you.” 

The more Ava listened to his words, the more everything came into focus in her mind. She could feel the cool tile even through her shoes. The way the air ventilated throughout the space, how it brushed over her face and arms. She could sense the electricity and circuits beneath the walls. Ava could feel the life quietly thrumming in the plants, feel their roots expanding and cells hard at work photosynthesizing. There was life. But it was also dark. The shadows that prevented some flowers from blooming, the sensation of wilting and deprivation crept over her skin, but she did not fear it. She knew it was only natural. Life could not exist without death. Light could not shine without the dark. 

Ava saw Luke and Grogu in her mind. Their faces were clear and welcoming. Luke still held the pebbles in his hands. 

Take it.

His silent urges rang out through the expanse of her mind as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud. But it wasn’t words or thoughts in her mind. It was something broader than that. She felt his intention. His support intermingled with her curiosity and wonderment. She felt something drop into her hand. It was hard and small. Slightly warm. When she opened her eyes, it was the pebble that Luke once held. Ava peaked down at Grogu, who held the other pebble, then back toward Luke who wore a look of conviction. 

“What does this mean?” Her voice suddenly sounded very loud, not only as it echoed across the stone floor, but in her mind as well. 

“It means you’re closer to finding who you were looking for all along.”

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General Taglist: @phandoz @athalien @rosiefridayrogersunday @tanzthompson @littlemisspascal @radiowallet @andiesturgss @tae27

Crowd of Thousands Taglist: @luxmuse33ndee @phandoz @deepknightclod @niall7inches @the-socially-awkward-dragon @ahtanosoka @paledonutpastakid @myguiltypleasures21 @lekkus @littlemissoblivious @grogusyogurt @lokis-army-77 @kitttypalace @annoyinglythoughtfuldestiny @hell-al

Din Djarin (all) Taglist: @elinedjarin @wander-lustbabe @phandoz @mcueveryday @deepknightclod @paledonutpastakid @myguiltypleasures21 @kitttypalace @hell-al

[surv1vrd]

ani  solo-organa  is  the  daughter  of  leia  organa  and  han  solo,  younger  sister  to  ben  solo.  she  was  trained  by  her  uncle  luke  to  use  the  force  and  was  who  he  worried  most  about  turning  to  the  dark  side  as  she  was  morally  ambiguous  than  ben  had  been.

during  ben's  slaughter  of  the  new  jedi  academy,  she  fought  her  brother,  losing  her  right  arm,  and  hearing  in  her  right  ear,  in  the  battle  and  being  left  for  dead  after  turning  down  his  offer  to  join  the  darkside  and  they'd  rule  together.

han  found  her,  and  got  her  to  the  falcoln  where  her  parents  decided  to  take  her  as  far  away  from  ben  as  possible,  let  him  believe  he  killed  his  sister  in  the  battle,  and  raise  her  to  not  use  the  force.

she  was  taken  to  naboo,  the  home  planet  of  her  maternal  grandmother,  where  her  arm  was  replaced  with  a  robotic  arm,  and  then  she  was  raised  by  her  distant  family  on  naboo.  she,  later,  joins  her  father  as  a  smuggler,  learning  to  hide  her  identity  as  a  solo  or  organa,  and  becoming  a  smuggler  on  her  own,  hiding  her  knowledge  of  the  force  and  becoming  a  better  smuggler  than  her  father

[skywalkersolos-blog]

   I'm with you until the end.

The galaxy had been filled with peace ever since the Battle of Jakku where the twin siblings of Leia Organa and Han Solo were born during the treaty signing. The New Hopes of the galaxy that would bring forth a future of light until the darkness rises once again within their family for both twin's held the dark powers of Darth Vader and the kind heart of Anakin Skywalker, the belief to see good in the darkness of times by their grandmother Padme Amidala, the blood of Han Solo that was a smuggler and a scoundrel, the strong will of Leia Organa, and the spirit of their uncle Luke Skywalker. The Skywalker bloodline was one to bring chaos and hope to the galaxy that always kept the candle lit against the darkness brought forth to the galaxy. 

Everyone was positive that Luke's new Jedi school would bring forth a New Jedi Order, one that would protect the new generation from any threat brought into the galaxy which was why he trained his niece and nephew.  Ben never wished to be a Jedi and only did what was expected of him by his family. Breha had dreamed about adventure and being a Jedi to help those keep peace within the galaxy. Only a being by the name of Snoke, who acted like a friend who really wasn't, began to sink his claws into Ben Solo in belief the boy would become another Darth Vader, a legacy of the twins family that was kept hidden from them by their mother, Leia Organa. Only before the truth could be told to them it's exposed in the senate and destroyed Leia's political career as word spread across the galaxy like a supernova and brought destruction into Ben and Breha's lives.  

The twins had been lied to all their lives which brought forth a thought that they would turn to the dark side and destroy the galaxy. Snoke planned and waited for the right moment to bring Ben Solo to the dark side of the force and slowly it worked. Luke saw the dark within Ben's training and comforted the boy only to create Kylo Ren, causing the deaths of all his students with Breha as the only survivor. Kylo Ren was Ben Solo's new name which he created when he was younger and left to join Snoke, leaving a message behind for his sister; kill me. 

Breha trained over the years after Luke disappeared and joined the resistance, working beside her mother after Ben's turn and Han Solo leaving due to the grief. The female legacy twin wondered where it all went wrong for Ben and herself that were supposed to be the new hopes of the galaxy. The shining stars and always keeping within the back of her mind of Ben's last words to her-kill me. Only the female didn't believe that she could live without him due to being twins and always believing the two of them will die together.  

With a legacy at stake within the Galaxy for the Skywalker family. The Force brings forth a new generation of light and darkness that would lay on both Ben and Breha's shoulders along with several others; Rey, a Scavenger from nowhere, Finn, a former Stormtrooper, Poe Dameron, a pilot in the Resistance. Several very unlikely people are given a chance to combat the ever growing darkness within the galaxy. 

The force will be with you, always.

[solohux]

Hi! I kinda took a break from Kylux but I'm getting back into it. Do you have any fic you'd recommend from the past 5-6 months? I really like your taste in Kylux fanwork. It's 100% okay if you don't have time for recs too!

Welcome back, darling! There have been so many great fics recently!

(Please remember that this is my opinion and all fics are great fics! And whilst I may not have read all of these fics, the ones that I haven't are in my to-read list on my phone.)

Enjoy! And thank you, fic writers! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

- To Clothe You in Crimson Roses by need_more_meta Kylo invites Hux to take part in a Dark Side ritual. Hux agrees, for better or for worse. (E, 2.6k)

- Booty Call by DaisyChainz The progression of a relationship, via booty holocall. (E, 4.2k)

- Cross My Heart by soIiIoquy Armitage stared up at the sky. Rich blue drifting softer and darker with the evening light while passing clouds went from white wisps to puffs to bundles of grey as the sweet, static scent of another coming storm filled the air. He crushed a handful of cool grass beneath him, sleek and fresh, inhaling a petrichor breeze. Liar. (M, 27.7k)

- supernovas blast in blood by Polly_Summerisle "I can explain." Hux, his blaster firmly pressed under the Allegiant General's chin, smiled. "Oh, I have little doubt about that, Enric." (E, 2.6k)

- Orbital decay by proprioception Kylo grins, predatory, and Hux wants to hit him, kiss him, bite him, fuck him. He doesn’t know where the genetically coded alpha aggression ends and Hux’s personal animosity for Kylo Ren begins. He doesn’t really care. (E, 4.7k)

- Blood's Left No Room For Rust On Our Blades by Kittens The emperor is missing and his most loyal enforcer will stop at nothing to get him back. (E, 27.7k)

- Morning Routine by Mintysprouts Kylo and Hux have established a new addition to their regular morning routine, one Hux actively enjoys. (E, 1.9k)

- All Work, No Play by RedFae When King Kylo Amidala sees his favorite consort overworking himself trying to put together his birthday celebration he decides that it's time for him to remind the man how to relax. (E, 5.3k)

- The Bastard and the Lord by mysticmilks The whole castle was terrified when fearsome Lord Kylo Ren came to Arkanis to collect taxes. Lord Brendol didn’t have enough to pay and their only chance of survival was to strike a deal with Ren. What might Brendol, who had nothing valuable, suggest to him? What might Lord Ren be interested in taking? How far would Armitage, young bastard omega son of Lord Hux, go to protect his family? (E, 23.6k)

- Don’t Panic by Pizzzazlut “Waking up next to Hux since entering their new life in exile hadn’t lost its novelty. Waking up to Hux having a nightmare, however, was something that Kylo wished he didn’t have to experience time and time again for Hux’s own sake.” Or the one where Kylo comforts Hux after a nightmare about this father. (T, 2.7k)

- To Forge a Double-Edged Sword by FracturedSpine Six times that Brendol Hux was afraid of his son. (T, 7.3k)

- Fever (a lovely way to burn) by AabH Hux and Ren are stranded and must rely on each other. Kylo finds that Hux may need to rely on him for more than the general cares to admit. (E, 13.3k)

- Witness Him by valda With the help of his lover, Armitage Hux takes his revenge on Enric Pryde. (E, 595)

- In Full Compliance by rudbeckia Kylo Ren takes his helmet off in public and shakes out his glorious mane. Hux is beside himself with… with… something at his co-commander’s lack of respect for uniform regulations. Something must be done, and Hux will do it himself if necessary. (E, 1.9k)

- Enough by EmperorsVornskr Hux's body finally gives out from fatigue after being pushed too hard, too long. Kylo tends to him, and glimpses some vulnerability. (M, 726)

- Ginger Slave by mysticmilks Ben Organa-Solo is twenty years old, a trained Jedi Knight, and the son of galactic heroes. His mother is a princess, senator, and general Leia Organa. His father is a general and ex-smuggler Han Solo. His uncle is that Luke Skywalker. Ben is ready to use his Force powers and skills to infiltrate the criminal underworld and find intel on the elusive First Order. He was quite literally born ready for this undercover mission. It's in his blood. It's his destiny to save the Galaxy. He's less ready to meet a ginger slave in dire need of saving and Ben feels protective of this poor boy, who is more than just angry big green eyes and tragic backstory. Maybe this Armie is not that helpless and knows much more than Ben thinks. (E, 11.8k)

- Muffin by KyberKills Hux flusters easily, and Ren likes to see him flustered. (T, 100)

- Veiled Union by oorsprong On Emperor Hux's wedding night he will finally see the face of his new husband. (E, 2.2k)

- The Golden Egg by Kylokitty “It's enormous, Hux. A lot of men can't handle it.” "I’m not a lot of men,” Hux said. The confidence oozing through his tone was palpable. Hux is determined to take all of Kylo and prepares by finding the perfect egg-shaped butt plug. (E, 3.5k)

- The Duel by DustOnBothSides After the First Order storms a Resistance base, Rey decides to duel Kylo Ren to the death. After all, there is no way the force would let the First Order win, right? (T, 1.4k)

- Lovesick by chandrilas Kylo and Hux are wrapped in their bed in the quiet hours, where Kylo confronts his feelings in silence. (E, 1.2k)

- From Now On We Are Enemies by notlikelybutpossible Demoted in all but name, omega Armitage Hux has enough to deal with just clinging to his place in the First Order, without Supreme Leader Kylo Ren demanding his ass-istance when he goes into rut. (E, 45.8k)

- Watch Me Make 'Em Bow by phoenixspencer The doors to the throne room were closed, but he didn’t need permission to enter. The Stormtroopers standing on either side didn’t even look his way when he approached. He opened the doors to find the Emperor seated on his throne, just where he anticipated he would be, and surrounded by advisors, snakes the lot of them. (E, 1.4k)

[steves-on-a-plane]

Destiny Disputed

Words: 2216 Pairing: Ben Solo x Reader Timeline: Pre-Episode VII AU Summary: Ben takes Reader on what they think is a joy ride to an outer rim planet. What Reader quickly finds out is that Ben has come to Tatooine in an attempt to define himself and his place in the force.

“Hold on tight, we’re going in for the landing.” The young pilot behind the yolk of a borrowed tandem x-wing you were riding in told you. His voice came in slightly static through your headset. You looked through the viewport trying to see the planet below. “It’s going to take a while before you see anything good.” He told you as if reading your mind.

“Well, it’s Tatooine, so I won’t see anything good until we leave.” You insisted. “But I never get tired of seeing planets from this high up.” You smiled.

“I used to think that too.” He laughed. “But the magic wears off after a while.”

“I just realized that other than your uncle, who we see every day, you never talk about your family. Did you travel a lot as a kid?” You wondered.

“My mother is in government and my father is the captain of a freighter.” He told you. “So, there was a little bit here and there.”

“A captain?” You commented, clearly impressed. “Is that where you learned to fly?” The curved sandy surface of the planet below finally came into view as the X-wing continued to descend towards Tatooine.

“You could say it’s in my blood.” He answered back. “My Uncle always dreamed of being a pilot. I’m told my grandfather was a pilot too. I’ve been flying as long as I can remember.”

“You have quite the legacy to live up to, Ben.” You told him.

“Yeah.” He scoffed. “Tell me about it.”

“How exactly did you talk Master Luke into letting you borrow this X-Wing anyway?” You asked.

“Right, about that…” His sentence trailed off.

Once the X-Wing was landed and secure at Docking Bay 42, You followed Ben to the crowded streets of Mos Eisley Spaceport. They weren’t streets in the sense that you were used to. They were more like dusty pathways with no clear flow of traffic. Only a few steps off the ship and you were already grieving it’s temperature control settings. The planet of Tatooine was hot, dry, and full of sand.

“What exactly is so important here that you had to steal an X-wing for?” You found yourself coughing violently as flecks of sand managed to find their way into your lungs. Ben rolled his eyes at you.

“Wear this.” Without giving you a change to protest, he wrapped a thin piece of linen cloth in such a way that your mouth and nose were covered. “It protects you from the sand.” He explained impatiently. “And I didn’t steal the X-wing. We’re going to bring it back.”

“You’re still not answering my question.” You remarked. “What’s so special about this place? Other than the fact that it’s a miracle any life forms can survive on it at all.”

“C’mere.” He grasped your hand and tugged your off the street. The two of you were wedged together between two Tatooineian Clay buildings. You hadn’t thought the dual sun planet could feel any hotter, but with your chest pressed against Ben’s, you could feel his every breath on your exposed skin.

“I never tell anyone this. I don’t want the others to make fun of me. Can you keep a secret?” You nodded. “My mother is Leia Organa-Solo. She was the princess of Alderaan. Her husband is Han Solo.”

“As in General Leia Organa Solo?” You repeated.

“Yes, not so loud!” He covered your mouth with his hand. Maybe it was the heat but pressed between him and the building with one of his hands holding yours the other covering your mouth, it was almost romantic. Definitely the heat. You decided. “We can’t be overheard talking about them here, do you understand?” You nodded. He nodded back, removing his hand.

“I don’t understand, you tell everyone your name is Ben Skywalker. Why would you do that?” You questioned in a whisper.

“I couldn’t avoid being Luke Skywalker’s nephew. The others would sense some type of familial bond through the force, but they didn’t need to know about my parents. I want to forge my own destiny. I don’t want to be known as the general’s son, or the smuggler’s son. I just want to be me. You can understand that can’t you?”

“I-I…” You looked into his brown eyes. You could feel the weight of what he was saying. You could feel it in his body language and in the force. You could feel how it had burdened him all this time. How he was pleading with you now to understand him. You were proud of where you came from. Your father was a respectable trader and your mother, who had been a pilot in the rebellion, now worked transport jobs for the republic. She’d even met Leia Organa once or twice and had nothing but kind things to say about the general.

“What’s on Tatooine, Ben?” You asked him again.

“Ghosts.” He whispered. “And we’re going to see them all.” He tugged you out of the ally and towards a land speeder rental.

“You said before that I have a lot to live up to.” Ben recalled your earlier conversation. “Everyone in my family was once a nobody.”

“Everybody is somebody, Ben.” You disagreed.

“Not in the outer rim.” He shook his head. He stopped the speeder. It appeared you were hovering inside abandoned ruins of some sort of colosseum. “When my grandfather was a child, before he was a jedi, he was a slave; a nothing. Where we are now was once the starting point for the Boota Eve Classic. A podrace. A pod race that my grandfather won, his winnings were used to repair the ship of a jedi master named Qui Gon Jin who helped him escape this place. Without pod racing, he never escapes Tatooine, he never becomes a Jedi, he never becomes Darth Vader.”

“There’s no way to know that for sure.” You disagreed. “Master Skywalker says…”

“Master Skywalker.” Ben offered a grunt of contempt.

“Is it Master Skywalker or his teachings that you don’t like?” You asked over the hum of the landspeeder. Ben was already steering the vehicle away from the forgotten racetrack towards another part of the planet.

“What I don’t like are his philosophies.” Ben hissed. You watched his grip on the landspeeder’s yolk tighten. “My father is the sort of man who believes a person makes their own destiny. Uncle Luke thinks all things are determined by The Force. That our destiny isn’t fully within our control. I suppose my mother is somewhere in between, though her opinion was rarely asked about while the two of them debated at the dinner table.”

“So which do you believe? That our choices all mean nothing or that they mean everything?” You watched his brows furrow together. He scowled into the skyline.

“That’s what we’re here to find out.” You traveled in silence for serval miles. You wondered how Ben could so easily navigate the planet. To you Tatooine seems to be nothing but sand for parsecs and parsecs. He navigated the terrain as if he’d spend all of his youngling years there. You supposed it was possible he could have. He’d already admitted to lying about who he was once. You began to wonder if you really knew him at all.

The landspeeder seemed to stop suddenly. You glanced around looking for any type of landmark. Ben reached over and tilted your chin with his forefinger and thumb. He pointed out to the horizon. If you squinted, you could just make out the signature dome shape of a moisture farmhouse. You knew from the stories he shared around the temple that Master Luke had grown up on a moisture farm.

“Is that…” You started to ask Ben.

“Not exactly. Like the legends say, the majority of it was burned down the day my uncle left the planet, but it’s the same land the family farm was on.” Ben nodded solemnly. “The family farm where my great grandmother lived and my uncle lived and where my great uncle died. Did anyone ever tell you who I was named after?”

“Until a few hours ago I’d thought your last name was Skywalker.” You reminded him. “How do I even know your name is Ben?” You turned in your seat and looked at him. You waited for a response.

“I deserve that.” He laughed. “I am named after Uncle Luke’s mentor. A jedi named Obi Wan Kenobi. The people in the area knew him as Old Ben. He lived here for eighteen years here keeping an eye on Luke. Trying to protect him from my grandfather.”

“How exactly is this helping you with your moral dilemma?” You interrupted him. Both Ben and his uncle had an affinity for dramatic story telling. Normally you enjoyed that sort of thing. There wasn’t much entertainment at the temple. Being in the vast openness there in the broiling land speeder, however, had taken away your usual appreciation for grandiose speeches.

“How is it possible that so many people’s stories can be intricately intertwined here, on this one planet?” He didn’t wait for you to answer before asking another question. “How can so many lives start and end here and it mean nothing? Obi Wan brings a baby Luke Skywalker here to this broiling hellscape while his sister is sent to live in the utopia that was Alderaan. What if instead they’re switched? If Luke becomes Luke Organa, prince of Alderaan, does he still grow up dreaming of becoming a pilot and discovering life somewhere else? If Leia Skywalker spends her life here, does she still become the great general who openly defies Darth Vader and helps get the Death Star plans to the rebellion? We have one more stop on our tour.”

The landspeeder gave a sudden jerk forward and you began to move away from the moisture farm and back towards the closest thing to pass for civilization on Tatooine. It was in that moment that you sensed it for the first time. You weren’t sure how you’d missed it for so long. You’d known Ben most of your life after all. Sure, he’d been quiet and mostly kept to himself, but you’d always considered him a friend.

You’d always known he was powerful. That was the burden of the Skywalker legacy. He’d always learned things faster than others and you assumed it was because of his bond with Master Luke or maybe that he’d received additional training on the side. Despite being good friends for years, you realized you’d never been truly alone with Ben. The sheer vastness of Tatooine meant it were just the two of you alone, no other lifeforms for miles.

Your fight or flight response told you to be afraid. You felt yourself stiffen, as if even the slightest muscle twitch would put you in danger. You fought to gather yourself and shake the feeling away. Surely it was the unfamiliar planet that had given you a scare. Maybe all of Ben’s talks of ghosts had put something in your head. Deep down though you knew, the darkness that you were sensing was coming from Ben.

“You’re afraid of me.” He stated. “There’s no sense in lying. I can sense it in you.”

“No.” You told him quietly, your voice barely audible over the speeder’s hum. It was the truth. Ben had been nothing but kind to you, you had no reason to be afraid of him. It was the darkness you were afraid of. You wondered if it scared him too. Had it been the allure of the darkside that had brought him all the way to Tatooine?

“My uncle is.” Ben told you. In the distance the outskirts of Mos Eisley were visible at last. You no longer cared about making it back to the spaceport. “He’s worried I’m too much like Vader. That I won’t be able to fight it.”

“What do you think?” You asked.

“That he doesn’t know me at all.” Ben answered. “That if he knew I had something worth fighting for, he’d understand why I wasn’t really tempted by the dark side.”

“What’s that? The something you’re fighting for?” You questioned.

“You don’t already know?” He stopped the landspeeder a mile from the very edge of Mos Eisley. He turned to look at you. You met his gaze with your own. “My father once said that a man doesn’t get where he’s going alone. You get as far as you can on your own, but sooner or later you need at least one good partner to walk beside. Someone to co-pilot when you just can’t seem to make it that final stretch of the journey. There’s a cantina in town, the same one my father met Uncle Luke and Old Ben at for the first time. You’ll know it’s the right place when you hear a blith band that playing incessant Jatz music. After an hour, if you’re not there, we’ll meet back at the ship, I’ll take you to the temple and we’ll never speak a word of it again.”

“What sort of a co-pilot would I be, if I even got out of the speeder?” You asked reaching for his hand. “You won’t get rid of me that easily, Ben. I’ve got you.” You promised.

[somedayonbroadway]

Oooo Im interested in your Star Wars newsies AU

Ooooooookay so this is gonna be interesting. I will be basing this particular AU off of the original trilogy (the best one by far. Nothing will ever beat it) though if you’d like to see the prequels or any other Star Wars movie done, or a different Star Wars story that I start making up on the spot, just let me know!

This is also going to be very similar to the storyline of each and every character. So I’m only going to do the three main characters, but if you’d like to hear about more, just let me know!

Star Wars AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins — Luke Skywalker

Katherine Plumber — Leia Organa

Jack Kelly — Han Solo

Crutchie Morris — Chewbacca

Warden Snyder — Emperor Palpatine

Joseph Pulitzer — Darth Vader

Medda Larkin — Obi Wan Kenobi

Todd Kloppman — Yoda

Spot Conlon — Lando Calrission

Obadiah Wiesel — Jabba The Hutt

Racetrack Higgins

Anthony Higgins lived his life as a farmer on Tatooine.  

He lives on this hot, desert planet with his aunt and uncle, who constantly try to convince him that everything he’d ever need is right there on Tatooine.

Anthony does not believe them.

Growing up fascinated by any kind of ship he can get his grip on, he acquires the nickname “Racer” from his friends and is named an excellent pilot. He wants to explore the galaxy, but on the insistence of his uncle is forced to stay at the farm on account of the dangers that would come if he left.

Everyone was terrified of the Empire.

Race wanted to make a difference.

Growing up, Race had always been told that his parents had been good people. His father had died as a pilot during the clone wars and his mother had died getting him to safety.

Race never had a reason not to believe them.

He lives a relatively normal life on the farm on Tatooine, though he longs for so much more.

When Race was born, he was secretly given to his aunt and uncle by a woman he believed to be named Medda Larkin who lives in the desert land away.

This woman looks out for him, against his uncle's wishes, though, upon asking him why the old man has such a quarrel with Medda, only to be left without an answer.

Frustrated by his friends following their dreams and leaving the desert planet, Race finds himself staring into the sunset daily, wishing he could fly past it.

And one day, he gets his chance.

After inspecting new droids his uncle purchases, he finds a message of a beautiful girl begging for help from a Medactrine Larkin (I don’t know. It felt right).

Wandering off, Race goes to investigate, asking Medda Larkin if she was related to this mysterious person after being attacked by Sandpeople who knock him out and nearly kill him.

With the droids, M7-TN and BK-03, Race discovers that Medda is Medactrine and was once a Jedi Knight, one that fought side by side with Race’s father, whom she trained in the ways of The Force.

Though he at first declines Medda’s offer to travel with her to help the woman in the message, a Princess Katherine Plumber, after he tries to return to his farm, he finds it destroyed, the bodies of his aunt and uncle carelessly laid in front of the door to his home.

So he goes.

This embarks Racer on the path to him truly becoming The Chosen One.

Upon running from the people who murdered his family, Medda informs him that they have to secure travel off of the planet

That’s when Race meets Jack Kelly.

Race and Jack weren’t immediately best friends, but Jack wanted to protect him. Race was never entirely sure of why.

The Force is strong with Race, even though he never knew it.

Medda begins to train him in the ways of the force.

Race is forced to watch his mentor get struck down right in front of him and while he’d only known the truth for a few days about Medactrine’s true identity, he felt as though he owed his life to her.

Because she saved him countless times over and he didn’t even know.

Racer joins the rebellion after Medda dies, hearing her voice in his head, clear as day, telling him to run.

He is the pilot that blows up the Death Star whilst the majority of all others who tried died around him in their TIE Fighters.

Medda is guiding him the whole time. He uses The Force.

Race has the piloting skills of his father.

Race travels to a galaxy that many believe to be deserted to be trained by another Jedi Master by the name of Klopp.

He trains for a long time, becoming an unofficial Padawan and learning the ways of the Jedi who are nearly extinct.

He nearly gets killed by a yeti

He gets his hand cut off by the very man the whole galaxy fears.

He is told one day that he is the galaxy’s last hope

Jack Kelly

Jack grew up an orphan

When he was young, his parents were killed by the Empire and he was kidnapped by a local gang and made a part of it, a slave to it.

He grew up in a life of crime. He’d never asked for it.

After escaping that gang, leaving someone he loved dearly behind, Kelly, he runs off and joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet, naming himself Jack Kelly in honor of the girl who helped him escape.

After years of service, Jack wants a way out, a way to get away from this life only to be tricked and thrown into a monster’s den by con men who are infiltrating the navy in search of a lot of money.

It is in this monster’s den that he meets a creature with fangs, horns and golden skin with one leg. His name is Charbeddon. Jack calls him Crutchie.

Eventually, after escaping the navy and teaming up with the group of cons and thieves, Jack ends up doing the Kessel run in twelve parsecs in a ship that he nearly won in a game of cards, The Millennium Falcon.

He makes it clear that he’s an excellent pilot. Well, as long as he has his lucky dice with him. They were the first thing he ever stole.

After being betrayed by the small gang, Jack finds that he’s better of when it’s just him and Crutchie

Though he goes back to win the Millennium Falcon off of the man who cheated him at cards, one Mr. Spot Conlon, who is forced to put his money where his mouth is when Jack wins and claims his ship as his own.

After this, Jack and Crutchie leave for a small planet called Tatooine to find a crime lord that had been mentioned to him once who is putting together a big job

Long story short, Jack ends up owing this crime lord a big debt, ending up with a price on his head that sends just about every bounty hunter in the system out looking for him.

Jack meets Race and immediately knows that he wants to protect the kid, though he does not truly understand why at first

Jack Kelly is named the best smuggler in the galaxy at a very young age.

After escaping Tatooine after promising the crime lord he would pay him back within the month, Jack finds himself on a journey that changed him for good.

He saves a Princess, expecting a reward.

He didn’t expect to fall in love

Though he is hesitant to join the rebellion at first, his overwhelming urge to protect Racer like no one protected him growing up takes over and he flies after the kid right before the Death Star is blown up, saving him from being shot down.

Jack and the Princess, Katherine, get off to a rocky start until they finally admit they have feelings for each other

Jack is eventually captured, along with Katherine and their droids, by the empire

Jack is tortured for information; the location of Anthony Higgins, though during the first session of the shock torture, he isn’t even asked any questions.

Eventually, Jack is told he will be the test subject for a trap they were setting for Race. Jack had no hope of escape.

As he’s being led to the trap, Katherine admits that she loves him to which Jack can only respond that he knows

He’s frozen in Carbonite and shipped away to the crime lord that put the price on his head, being fixed as a permanent decoration in old Weasels hide out.

Katherine Plumber

After being given up by her mother, Katherine is adopted by a Senator the Queen of Alderaan

She grows up in a political setting, learning day in and day out about the Galactic Empire.

She vows to be a part of taking it down

She is the reason that Racer joins the rebellion in the first place.

After her ship gets infiltrated, the young princess finds a droid and records a desperate massage for someone her father spoke of often and trusted above anyone else. She asks Madactrine Larkin for help. She’s their only hope.

Katherine had a team of people find a weakness in the Death Star, something they could use to destroy it. She sends the plans with the droid BK-03

And then Katherine is captured by Darth Vader, the man most feared in the galaxy.

Even as she is defiant and strong in her ways, when the evil man aims a planet killer at her home, she caves and reveals what she’d done only for her home planet to be blown up anyway

She is then held prisoner, believing she will be executed soon

Until she’s rescued by a kind boy and a much too devilishly handsome young man who drives her crazy.

Katherine is much more than just a Princess. She’s a senator and eventually, a general

She’s a natural born leader.

Just like her mothers, biological and adoptive

Katherine finds herself often being treated like a damsel in distress, when in reality, she’s tough enough to handle herself.

After she’s captured once again by the Empire and the man she thought he hated but turned out to love was turned into a statue and sold away, she is the one who goes out to save him

Maybe they both get captured immediately, but at least she got that far

She is made a new slave for Weasel even as a newly blind Jack is trying to beg Weasel to leave her alone, that he’d pay him back in full and even more but he is taken away and finds Crutchie waiting for him in the dungeon.

Katherine is forced to wear demeaning clothing and held by a chain around her neck like Weasel's new pet.

Even after Race tries to save them, he gets captured as well. He is fed to the monster they have underneath them only to kill the thing and be taken prisoner like Jack and Katherine has to watch the whole thing.

She is forced to watch while the only friends she has are taken out on Tatooine to be eaten alive by a giant man eating plant

This is where Race gets the upper hand and Katherine is given the opportunity to finally kill Weasel and escape with Jack and Race.

She is very sneaky and very quick and even when Jack tries to protect her, she ends up saving his skin just as much

Katherine Plumber is strong with the force, though she believes Race, her brother, must be the Jedi of the family

She finds out all on her own, through accidental Force Searching that Darth Vader was the Jedi Knight Joseph Pulitzer, who was also her father as well as Race’s.

Katherine is honestly a badass.

Let me know if you guys want to see any scenes from this one!

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[f4iseg69d]

fka twigs: lyra solaris

song: "garden song by pheobe bridgers"

Lyra Solaris is a Solaris citizen and orphan. She gave herself her name, after her home planet and the constellation. She is a force-sensitive individual however she did not become a Jedi as the "Immersion" happened during her youth. She and her childhood sweetheart were recruited for training for the squad however Lyra escaped the training facility for freedom, hiding out in the woods and cities until she found a smuggler willing to take her on.

She is prone to act out, think impulsively and criticise others when she thinks they are doing a good job. However, she is also heavily motivated and offers any important information as she truly wants Solaris to be her's again. She acts out because beneath it all, she's terrified and stressed.

She is very mad that Lady Amedelia has successfully made a killing machine out of the children from her planet. Upon hearing Poe Dameron and Rina Zhang have to infiltrate a training base in Solaris in a bar she immediately asks them about it and tells them she knows her home-planet and the training facility almost too well.

She joins them on their journey, fuelled by anger and revenge. However when she arrives to the base and tries to fight her way through the guards, she realises that alone cannot properly motivate someone through a fight.

She gets into a tries to blast a clothed Deathris figure and they try to blast at each other until he figure out the women is Lyra. He shows her mercy and shows that he is Cassian. At first Lyra is abrasive, rude, mad until she hears Cassian's side, and how scary it had been. She tells him if he makes the choice to join the Resistance he wouldn't be alone. They make peace and he helps her release the others as well as find the plans of invasion, and quickly dispel them. At the end of Episode 7, she realises before there can be peace, their must be forgiveness.

'I grew up here Cassian. You did too, until it all went up in flames. Do you remember the summers we had? Do you remember how it felt? Freedom?"

"I am mad and stressed everyday I wake up. Every time I'm happy, it always creeps onto me that I will feel that way again."

amy adams: jaina organa

song: "chinese satellite by pheobe bridgers"

Jaina Organa is the daughter and the only child of Han Solo and Leia Organa to survive the Immersion. The Battle of Coruscant took her Mother, Father and siblings' lives. She was rescued by Kaenen, an old ally of her father's and supporter of the Rebellion. In her youth, she lived with Kaenen and his wife Lyanna in D'Quar.

She is ultra-sensitive of the implications of being a Jedi and purposely chose not to become one, knowing her grandfather's heritage and how prone to anger she is. Instead, she is the best "techie" in the resistance due to her childhood shadowing the grown-ups.

Jaina experiences anxiety from her separation at such a young age. Kaenen's wife Lyanna is one of her best friends and experiences emotional attachment to her, Kaenen and eventually Lyra and Lenden.

She is extremely insecure due her parents and uncle's legacy, as well as her grandfather's and often lashes out and criticises others as a result.

She isn't very confident in herself and her abilities, which can lead to dangerous situations. She is also shy towards people she is not comfortable around. She often feels like is overcompensating. As much as she is insecure she is also loyal as her fears heighten knowing the "true" extent of war.

She wishes to be better than she is, and feels unexplainably out of place and as if she doesn't belong in D'Quar. She wonders if she'll ever be as good as her parents, and through her character arc through Episodes 7-9, she realises realises her importance to the Resistance and those around her. She is able to stand up for herself against Lady Amedelia and helps Lyra avenge her planet and parents. She is able to forgo and let go of the violence inside her, realising that hatred breeds hatred.

rebecca ferguson: lady amedelia palpatine / empress saken (sith lord)

Lady Amedelia was born force-sensitive and was able to become a Sith Lord as her father, Sheev, had passed down the Force. She was raised with the ideals of the Galactic Empire, indoctrinated from a young age. She might've felt that she could've been good at one stage, but she was able to rationalise it in order to impress her father.

Young and impressionable, as the New Republic Era starts she infiltrates the Royal Family of Solaris and becomes Lady Amedelia through marriage. Using this method she becomes a member of the New Republic.

Former Senate Lady Amedelia successfully infiltrated the New Republic Era and through forming a network with other corrupt Senates, planets and royals such as Aragon, Deair'th, Moraband, her own and others. Through a planned two years she was able to pass law and rules which restricted the New Republic, freedoms of mentioned planets and others in the galaxy. She successfully rose to the top as a Head of Republic (a law passed).

The First Order was successfully built off the fascist ideals of the Galactic Empire. Lady Amedelia now goes by her "true" identity as Empress Saken, a Sith Lord, with her father dead. The First Order started invading other, smaller planets to gain territory, and ruled her home-planet Solaris, with an iron-fist as a breeding ground for Deathris squads. Using her warriors named "Deathris squad" which was supplied using children from Solaris. They are deathly but also scared of Empress Saken and her generals, Lady Aragon and General Sakelaris.

Han Solo, Leia Organa, Kaenen and his wife Lyanna created the Resistance, a organisation seperate from the once peaceful now corrupt New Republic with old alliances and connections.

During the First Orders' invasion of Coruscant, Leia and Han set out to defend it, however the Empress brutally defeats them and the few members of the Resistance present.

This process was called the Immersion.

She now rules over majority of Galaxy and the First Order.

timothèe chalamet: cassian volateris

song: "i know the end by pheobe bridgers"

Cassian Volateris was Lyra's childhood sweetheart however their paths diverged when they reached the age for the Deathris squad.

He was sweet but unlike Lyra he had the fear conditioned into him. As Lyra ran away, he stayed. They did not meet again until the end of Episode 7 where the Resistance was successfully able to infiltrate the training facility in order to successfully free indoctrinated Deathris squads and stop the invasion of D'Qar.

Lyra and Cassian meet again and at first Lyra is abrasive, rude, mad until she hears Cassian's side, and how scary it had been. She tells him if he makes the choice to join the Resistance he wouldn't be alone. He and several other trainees join the Resistance.

"Instead of a chance, there was just death."

"We can't all be as brave as you. As selfish."

characters tba: poe and rina!!

Star Wars trilogy sequels REWRITTEN: CHARACTERS!

[hitbythunder]

Chandrilan Moons -3

A Kylo Ren x Reader story with much angst, possessiveness and dark themes (warnings will be updated as the story progresses) –> Read also on AO3

Summary: Growing up under the loving care of your foster-mother, Leia Organa, there had been nothing for you and Rey to want for. Though not of kin, you loved Rey as your sister and spent a happy childhood with her on Chandrila. But when the boiling galactic politics demanded for Leia to take action, for the Resistance to rise and fight, the girls could no longer evade the cruelty of the world. Kylo Ren sought a map as a key to revenge, to freedom, and had no use for a force-unsensitive young girl like you. You were simply a means to an end. Until his darkness latched onto you, drawn in by your light as you were by the demon that is Kylo Ren - inevitably gravitating towards each other, bound to be one. Like the Chandrilan moons.

**** WARNING: description of violence, mentions of rape

____________________________xXx____________________________

3- A disturbance in the Force

+Takodana - neutral territory+

 Flying through space was amazing and although two experienced and trusted Resistance pilots had accompanied us girls on our mission, the glistening stars as far as one could see was worth it all. While Rey remained slightly pouting for most of the flight, I was glued to one of the side-windows of the ship. It was a small but bulky transport ship, for a star-fighter couldn't hold that many people and would have attracted too much attention once we landed on Takodana. Albeit its neutrality in the war, one should never act foolishly, especially since neutrality itself depended heavily on the benefits of a foregone alliance. But with Maz Kanata, the owner of the famous castle that granted sanctuary to everyone for one night, and proved friend of the Resistance, nothing could go wrong today and the whole mission seemed as good as done.

Leia had sent us there to retrieve the Jedi texts Maz had bought from a smuggler who had passed through weeks ago, hoping that they might help Rey's training in the Force. Or so I assumed as I curiously scanned the texts before Rey put the few scrolls and loose pages in a safety-box inside her back-pack.

 "There's one more thing." Maz rummaged in a small chest among the sheer endless heaps of stuff in the castle's vault, leaving me to wonder how she could possibly remain an overview of what was down here. But perhaps that was why it was such a good hiding-place for forbidden artifacts such as Jedi-texts - as well as the light-sabre Maz now held solemnly in her wrinkled hands.

"Oh my stars, Luke Skywalker's light-sabre!" Rey was beyond herself with joy, her hands trembling slightly as she took the legendary weapon and gingerly inspected it from all sides. Ever the technician, Rey simply had to understand how that thing worked exactly and probably would disassemble the sabre if it hadn't been Luke's.

While I shared my sister's excitement, I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as I watched Rey posing with the sabre. As so often, I found myself lacking as compared to my sister and Maz's talk about destiny and great deeds to be done with that sabre didn't make it any better. So I zoned out, sulking quietly in the background, until the three of us left the stuffy vault via seemingly endless stairs. We reemerged back into the dining hall of the castle's ground-floor where the canteen was, without drawing attention of the guests there. In one corner of the hall, a band played jolly tunes, which echoed off the thick castle walls and arched ceiling in a cacophony with the chatter of people. Because of many nooks and columns, the canteen could house many guests without seeming stuffed and a social-introvert like me could feel quite overwhelmed by all the noises, smells and visuals. I had never seen such variety of alien races, humans and droids gathered peacefully in one place.

 With our mission virtually accomplished, the Jedi texts secured, it was time for us to return to the base and thus I scanned the canteen for our two escorts. But fate had other plans, for suddenly three very familiar faces appeared at the entrance of the dingy dining hall.

"Han Solo!" Maz cried out, shifting everyone's attention to the smuggler and his companions Chewie, a startled guy in Poe's jacket and Poe himself, his loyal droid BB-8 at his heels.

 What in the galaxy are they doing here? I wondered while they approached us, an uneasy tingling overcoming my nerves. In hindsight, to give in and investigate this strange feeling more closely would have spared me so much trouble. But instead I pushed it down and greeted the guys as friendly as ever and soon later we found ourselves seated at the last available table. After getting us some food and beverages, Maz joined us at the round table, listening intently to the quiet conversation. We informed Han about our mission before he could get any wrong ideas (e.g. that we stole a ship and went against Leia's orders) and it felt nice that he cared about our well-being.

 "Kriff, that is amazing!" Rey nearly burst with excitement as Poe, with interruptions of Han and Fin (the new guy), told us about what had happened on his mission. To sum it up, Poe had been on Jakku to get a map leading to Luke Skywalker but had been caught by the First Order and tortured by Kylo Ren himself. I shuddered at that part, because everybody knew not to cross paths with this merciless demon. Ren's cruelty and thirst for blood-shed seemed endless, his hatred for the Resistance only fueling his powers, and I could not fathom to imagine what Ren had done to squeeze every ounce of information out of Poe.

Luckily, Poe had entrusted the map to BB-8, who had remained hidden on Jakku the whole time, until Poe had managed to escape by the help of Fin, a renegade stormtrooper. Well, and as if fate had decided to stir things up even more, they had bumped into Han and Chewie on the way - something concerning smugglers and gross aliens, I didn't listen too carefully then - and due to low fuel and necessary repairs they had to make a stop here on Takodana.

"Wow, what a ride..." I said with awe and respect for their courage and luck, which had at least Fin and Poe smile proudly.

"Yeah, didn't exactly go to plan-" Poe replied between sips of his beer, Han scoffing beside him and mumbling something to Chewie about the recklessness of youth. "-but here we are, map in hand."

 "And as soon as the Falcon's refueled we're leavin'!" Han declared as soon as Poe finished, his tone harsh but one could tell he only meant well for all of us. "Gonna make sure y'all get back in one piece." Obviously, Leia would have Han's head should anything happen to her girls, her best pilot and the map under his watch. And although I sensed his reluctance to face Leia, I was looking forward to the resemblance of a family. Hopefully they wouldn't quarrel from the start on.

 Somewhat lost in my fantasies of a happy family life, I hadn't registered the growing debate between Finn, Rey and Poe.

"... you don't know them as I do! There's no fighting the First Order because they'll slaughter us for even trying. I've seen enough of their horrors and I want nothing to do with them!" Finn declared heatedly and barely kept his voice low as Poe repeatedly urged him to, also keeping the renegade in his chair.

"But that's the point! You have so much detailed insider-information which we could use to fight them! Why would you waste that and cling to the illusion of outrunning them?" Rey retorted with unabashedly directness and not less heatedly, the spirit of the Resistance burning fiercely in her hazel eyes. "Fleeing like a coward."

Finn rose then, anger and shame written across his face, though he didn't come up with a response and after a few seconds gave in to Poe tucking at his sleeve, sat back down and glared into his cup. A tensed silence hung over the table, until Maz subtly changed the subject by engaging Han in a conversation about a mutual smuggler-friend of theirs. With a fuming Rey beside me, I shot Poe a questioning glance, but he looked as helpless beside Finn as I felt and began to talk some sense into Finn in a calm manner. That he should come with us to the base, at least for a little while.

 Next to Han, Chewie was eager to get out of here, groaning impatiently beside his friend and rubbing his bandaged arm.

"All right, Chewie, go on and check on our baby." Han said between Maz's babbling and quickly grabbed his beer before Chewie would knock it over as the giant jumped to his feet.

"I'm coming with you." on impulse I rose too, dismissing everyone's questioning looks as I added: "I need some air anyways."

 Let them cool their heads while I'm gone, I thought and jogged after Chewie.

   Since Maz's castle was built on a cliff surrounded by the ocean on one side and dense forest on the other, the landing-places were spread to a few clearings nearby. So we had to walk a little and although Chewie wasn't particularly chatty, I didn't mind either and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. At the bottom of the weathered castle's stairs, we turned right and followed a lovely path between lush grassy hills at the border of the forest, the rush of the nearby sea accompanying our steps. Suddenly Chewie halted, his hairy arm on my shoulder stopping me too, and pointed towards the thicket. There, half-hidden by the greenery, two humans were carrying a seemingly shut-down BB-8 further away from the castle.

 Hasn't BB-8 been with Poe and us the whole time? I wondered briefly. But then, BB-8 was a small droid and many people had squeezed themselves past our table in the brimming canteen. Perhaps we had all been too distracted by the heated conversation between Rey and Finn to notice BB-8's absence.

"I'll follow them and stop them from leaving. You go use that long legs of yours and get the others, Chewie! Rey'll find me through the Force!" I declared in a split-second-decision, already dashing away into the dense forest and leaving a groaning wookiee behind.

  Deeper and deeper I ventured in my pursuit, steadily closing the distance between myself and the thieves without alerting them of my presence. As children, Rey and I had often played hide and seek in the forests of Chandrila and I had to develop some pretty decent sneaking-skills to diminish her advantage with the Force. Rey had only once admitted that she wouldn't have won all those times if she hadn't used the Force to sense my approach. Thus, even if my sneaking skills should fail me I trusted that Rey would be able to find me. I just had to stall some time, delay those thugs from leaving, until Rey and the others would arrive. At one point, the two thieves halted to catch their breaths and looked around. I quickly ducked behind a tree, easing my nerves. Suddenly I noticed a bright red stroke on the otherwise blue sky above, far away yet ominous to watch. Though I had no clue what it was, I instantly had a bad feeling about it. But more pressing matters were at hand, and after another deep breath I dared to peek around the trunk. There was only one thief beside BB-8 then.

 Kriff, where did the other go?!

  Maybe Chewie should have chased them, not me, I admitted to myself as I was hauled by a pair of large hands and thrown very harshly on the forest floor next to the motionless droid.

"Look what followed us, mate!" said the gruff guy to his companion, who looked terribly scrawny in comparison. Both reeked of ale and whatnot, their ugly visages distorted by sinister smiles.

"A pretty thing like that will make a good price, I wager. Not as high as for the droid though." the scrawny one snickered as he mustered me, while the bear-like guy's eyes roamed over my body with a different kind of greed.

"How 'bout a taste..."

 "No!" I screamed as he grabbed me, trashing against his hold, and somehow I managed to draw my small combat-knife from its holster at my hips. I thrust without much consideration, nor proper aim, stabbing bear-guy right above the knee. The blade sunk hilt-deep into his thigh-muscle. He howled in pain and repaid me with a hearty slap across my face, sending me flying back against BB-8 and onto the mossy ground. The impact caused the droid to reawaken and a small safety compartment at its front jumped open, the object within landing a few feet ahead of me.

 The map! my dizzy mind concluded with horror.

 Ignoring the rising pain in my body, I crept on all fours and frantically scanned the forest floor with my hands in a panicked search for the map. Scrawny guy was still laughing at his companion. Knowing that the guys and Poe in particular, had risked their lives for this map and that finding Luke was vital for the future of the Resistance, I simply couldn't loose it nor let it be taken by those thugs. It was my chance to prove my value as part of the Resistance and failing wasn't an option.

 What would Leia think if I screw this up? Or Poe?

 Then, finally, my right palm touched a metallic longish object and instantly I closed my fingers tightly around it. The very moment I did so, a flash of energy shot through me, momentarily blinding all my senses in its immense light and suddenly the outline of a star-constellation appeared before my inner eye. Planets and stars twinkled in a blueish hue, in between a red dotted line that led to a particular oceanic planet. Though somehow familiar, I could not place this constellation and this strange vision lasted only a few seconds, before a sudden sharp pain in my hand brought me back to my present predicament.

  +++

  In front of Takodana castle, the fight between stormtroopers and Resistance had just begun by the time Kylo arrived there. His ship landed like a looming black bird among the First Order transports and agitation spread in his muscles upon the pending blood-shed, especially since he had sensed another force-user inside the castle. By far not as strong as him, but hopefully they would do for some entertainment compared to the other scum-bags that died like flies at his hand. Kylo was marching determinedly towards the building, when he felt it.

A disturbance in the Force within the forest to his right, faintly but clear as a lightning-bolt at distance and vanished just as quickly. Kylo paused, scanned the area with his powers and concluded that the other Force-user was up ahead at the bottom of the castle - not in the direction of the disturbance. Weighing his options, Kylo dismissed the distraction for being just that and walked on to find his opponent. The Force, however, tickled his senses again, rippling with distinct restlessly as if to tempt him and now it seemed foolish not to inquire further.

 "Find that droid at all costs! And take no prisoners!" Kylo barked towards a nearby officer, before he stormed off into the forest.

 The lightning-bolt had pinned down the exact location and the closer he got, the stronger the Force seemed to pull him there, becoming more insistent with each step. Faster, it seemed to whisper and spurned his steps beyond the capacity of men, neither rocks nor tree-stumps posing a real obstacle in his path. Kylo felt some human presence long before they came into view, two men beating and kicking a woman cowering at their feet. Judging by their appearance, they were either smugglers or Resistance-fighters and either was good enough reason to kill them.

Silent in his approach, Kylo descended upon them like a dark shadow from behind, the hiss of igniting his light-sabre the only foretelling sound of their demise. Effortlessly, the red crackling blade cut through cloth, flesh and bone, drenching the nearby greenery and earth with blood.

[boldlyvoid]

Raising Dawn | Star Wars Fix it fic

AO3

Summary: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Poe's taken it upon himself to house and raise the ex-stormtrooper kids who've lost their families, and in a sense, he made his own.

Word Count: 4.1K

The first child they found was on Exegol, a small boy who was issued the number and told he would become a stormtrooper one day, just like the rest of the children they eventually found. They brought him back to the jungle moon of Ajan Kloss with the rest of the surviving resistance members. He walked off Lando’s ship, 6 years old at most. He was scared, he was sad, but he seemed to warm up to them all the more he wandered around.

He slowly walked up to Rey, Finn and Poe where they were speaking about everything that had happened. “I heard the voices of the Jedi who came before me, people I have come to know now. Obi-wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Mindu, so many powerful Jedi came to me, to believe in me. To help me.”

“Wow,” he said, causing them all to turn around. “You’re a Jedi?”

Rey smiled at him, “yeah, I am.”

“Look,” he said softly, holding his hand out and raising a rock from the ground to his hand, seemingly with the force. “You can do that too, right?”

They all looked at him, dumbfounded, both Rey and Finn nodded.

“What’s your name?” Poe asked, getting down to eye level with him.

“DO-1134,” he replied.

“You know, Finn was a stormtrooper, his name was FN-2187. I helped him pick a real name,” he said with his classic Poe Dameron smile. “Would you like to pick a name?”

“FN, Finn,” he whispered to himself, thinking over how the name came to be. “What was that name you said before?” he asked Rey. “Kenobi?”

“Yeah, Obi-wan Kenobi.”

“What about Kendo?” he asked softly.

“Kendo is a wonderful name,” Poe smiled. “I’m Poe, that’s Finn and Rey. Welcome.”

Lando reached out to them with an idea shortly after being reacquainted with Jannah that day. He had said he wanted to redirect his efforts to help all the parents who lost children and help them find each other again. They knew all too well how it felt to be without one another, wondering if they were okay and if they’d ever see each other again.

He got in a ship with her, and they set off first to find more children like Kendo and then to find their families. Poe offered them a safe place in the middle while they waited, knowing that was what Leia would want him to do. To love and support children without their parents, the way she loved him growing up.

-

Kendo sat with them in the Falcon a few weeks later, they watched from the window as Rey walked into the desert with BB-8 in search for the old Skywalker house. “Where is she going?”

“We lost 2 of our leaders, General Organa and her brother, Master Luke. This was Luke’s home, it seems like the best place to pay tribute to them,” Poe explained.

“Where is our home going to be?”

“Um, we’re looking for somewhere, a nice place where we can find more kids like you before we find your families.”

“I don’t have a family.”

“Yes, you do. Either you have one waiting for you or you let us become your family,” Finn smiled down at him, “if I’ve learned anything from being here, it’s that these people become more your family than anyone else.”

Rey was going to take a few hours, leaving Chewbacca to want to play Dejarik with Finn while Poe sat in the captain’s chair, Kendo in his lap, showing him all the buttons and controls. “There’s an old legend I heard from the original owners of this ship when I was your age, would you like to hear it?”

He nodded.

“Well, Han Solo was a famous smuggler, eventually he helped Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker defeat Darth Vater, but when this story took place, he was just a boy looking for a way to make money for his own ship one day.

“He joined a band of smugglers in search for some Coaxium, and the only place he could find some was on a planet called Kessel, however, there it was only available in it’s purest form and they had limited time to get it reformed once they stole it. In order to do that they had to do the Kessel run as fast as possible, which at the time was in 20 parsecs.

“But!” he shouts dramatically, “their droid, L3 who was supposed to help them navigate their way out was badly damaged! Leaving them without a way to properly get to where they needed to go! That was until Lando Calrissian had the brilliant idea to plug her into the ships hard drive.”

He hugged Kendo close, looking around carefully like someone was watching them, “and some people say that at night, when the ships all quiet, you can still hear her giving them directions, but not always to the way out.”

“Stop scaring the boy!” Finn said from the doorway of the cockpit.

“It’s a right of passage!” he argued. “Han scared me with it when I was little, he needs to hear it too.”

Finn just shook his head and walked back to his game, leaving Kendo still sat on Poe’s lap, looking out at the window.

“So Han Solo went from being a bad guy to a good guy?” Kendo asked.

“Kinda,” Poe said, “he didn’t believe that everyone was only good or only bad. He’s seen too many good people with a bad reputation and vice versa.”

“So even because I was going to be a stormtrooper, I can be good again?” he asked again, a lot softer.

“If you feel it in your heart that you’re a good person, then that’s what you are.”

“I’m a good guy,” he smiled.

“Yeah,” Poe agreed, placing his cheek on Kendo’s head, holding him close, “we’re all good guys.”

-

Rey came back later after the sun had set and Kendo was asleep in the other room. “That was really nice.”

“Are you okay?” Finn asked her.

She nodded, “I feel at peace. Like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

“I still have something to tell you, and I don’t know if it’ll disturb your peaceful feeling but you need to know Rey, I,” Finn said softly. Everyone was looking at him rather seriously, “I have the force too.”

“I know, I can feel it when I’m around you,” she said with a soft smile, she held her hand out for him to take it. “When we get to where we’re going, I can show you what I know.”

“Speaking of which,” Poe cut in, “where are we going to go? We need somewhere big enough for all the children Lando is going to end up finding.”

“Excuse me, sir,” C3P0 said from the hallway. “I was searching my memory for a place that would be adequate for you, I remembered mister solo and the general have a large home on Chandrila that would be available to you.”

“Oh yeah,” Poe said, remembering his childhood there. “I forgot about that place, I haven’t been there in years.”

“Leia would want us there, we should tell some of the others. Then they can join us too,” Rey suggested. “Rose and Kaydel don’t have any family either. We should all make that our home.”

“We’ll need all the help we can get with the children that will come.” Finn said, “It wasn’t easy for me to break out of the conditioning, it’s still hard for me to understand that I’m free and okay, they’re not going to be easy no matter how little time they spent in training.”

“I’ll set a course, we’ll go right there,” Rey said with a tight-lipped smile. “You guys can go sleep or talk or whatever it is that you do. Chewy can stay with me.”

Poe couldn’t help but smile as they reached the closet at the back of this ship. A place that he’d go as a child with Ben to play dress up in Lando’s old capes.

“I was worried that you were in love with her,” he said softly.

Finn laughed at him then, “I do love her, but she’s my family. I felt close to her when we met because of the force, and she was there for me when I thought you had died.”

Poe wrapped Finn up in his arms, he put his face in his neck like he always did when he hugged him. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.”

-

Chandrila was a small world, green land and blue seas. Rolling hills and calming water that mesmerized them as they flew through the land on their way to Leia’s old home. It was on the water, she said she loved it so much because the city felt like Alderaan but the lakeside felt like her birth mothers home on Naboo.

The house was dusty and empty, it didn’t have the same lively ness to it that Poe remembered from his childhood. But that wouldn’t be hard to recreate, himself Finn and Rey have the same dynamic that Han and Leia had back then. Loving, fun, serious yet go with the flow.

It was going to be okay.

It took some time, but they cleaned it up. They added more beds to the few bedrooms that there already was and turned the study and closets into bedrooms too. They were prepared for as many children as possible, Poe would even sleep on the ground if it meant a child had a bed.

He wasn’t sure where this sudden fatherly instinct came from, but he loved it. He felt like he finally found something that he was fully good at. Sure, he was a wonderful pilot, he was a good commander, but he was an absolutely amazing guardian.

Lando brought them many children. From the ages of 2 to 16, there were kids in need of a home before they found their families. At first, they had no way to find what children belonged to who.

An old friend of Lando’s suggested they use a version of a bounty hunter tracking fob, they’d show a hologram of the child so that when Lando met with families of missing children they’d be able to pick them out of the bunch. The Mandalorian man helped them set everything up and even joined Lando in finding the children.

Dan Djarin was a good man, he helped reunite lots of children with their families.

-

Over time they went from having 20-30 at a time to only having 6 full time.

The 6 children they had left had been with them almost the whole time. They would likely stay with them forever. Poe didn’t have the heart to tell the youngest ones, but there was a very high chance that their families had died the day they were kidnapped, and that they’d never see them again. The older ones understood, they felt sad at first but understood that the remaining resistance members their family now.

Every single child that came in sat down with Poe and picked a name. Like Finn and Kendo, every single child understood that sometimes they could create a name for themselves based on their old stormtrooper number. It wasn’t permanent, they could go back to their birth names when they found their families, but for now, it was a place holder. It was something that made them feel like a person, instead of a robot.

A little girl was brought in one day, she clung to Chewbacca as he walked with her off the falcon. She was only 4, the youngest they had ever had. She didn’t speak a lot, but luckily she still had her tags on her. Unlike the other children they had.

IR-1019.

Poe and Chewbacca sat with her later that day after she had a nice lunch and a long nap. “Do you know your name?” he asked.

She shook her head, she pointed to the tag he was holding and snuggled into Chewy a bit more. “Would you like a new name? A person name, like Rey, or Kendo?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

“Is there anything you like? Anything you’ve seen that you’d want to make a name from? You can use the letters in your number.”

“I like the water outside,” she whispered. “I ‘member water, at home.”

“Did you know that the name Iara means lady of the lake?” he asked her with a smile.

“Can I be the lady of the lake?”

Poe nodded, “Iara is a very pretty name.”

“Thank you, Poe,” she smiled. Her first little smile.

He moved from where she was beside Chewy, her little brown pigtails bouncing as her feet hit the ground. Her beautiful brown skin shining in the daylight, her smile was so pure and kind. She gave him a quick hug before running off to play with Kendo in the garden.

He kept a close eye on them even though Rey was over there as well.

In the garden outside the room that was once Han and Leia’s, she had planted flowers for them. And a rock that she engraved;

‘Dedicated to General Organa, Han Solo, and Jedi Ben Solo. for their valiant efforts in the resistance that helped bring balance to the galaxy once again.’

“It’s beautiful,” Poe said, rubbing his hand on her back.

“I miss them, I barely even knew them. But I miss them,” she whispered, crying softly. “I can’t imagine how you feel, you grew up with them.”

“My family is very large because of them,” he replied, softly that no one else heard them. “They brought so many people into my life so that when they passed, we were all still family. Their legacy lives on, their love is in all of us now, and we’ll be okay.”

She turned around and hugged him. “I always wanted a brother.”

He laughed lightly, holding her close. “A sister wouldn’t be that bad.”

-

NE-3002 was a 14-year-old girl, she walked off the falcon with MX-1136. Both of them were found in a crashed star destroyer near Exegol. They were very grateful, they hated the first order as most people did, they couldn’t wait to feel free again.

For the first day that they were on Chandrila with them, they let the girls look around. They went on walks, they swam in the lake, they had lots and lots of food. They were happy, but then it became time for Poe to sit down with them and ask them about their names.

He sat down with NE-3002 first. She looked a lot like him, tan skin, curly brown hair, and a very large scar on her arm.

“Do you remember anything from before you were taken?”

She nodded lightly, “it comes back to me in bits and pieces. Like I know we’re from Mandalore, I know my mom died trying to save me, but I don’t remember my name, and I don’t know what year it is, or how long they had me.”

“The conditioning they did was very deep, it might take a while to remember. But you don’t have to try and remember. Sometimes remembering is more painful than forgetting,” he said, trying to make her feel better.

“Is this the part where we pick my name?” she asked, “I know how Kendo picked his name, and how Finn got his. And I think I know mine.”

“Yeah?” he smiled, loving the tradition that he started with these kids. “What were you thinking?”

“Well, I’m from Mandalore, and I heard that once there was a queen there named Queen Satine. My number was NE, so I was thinking of keeping that in my name,” she explained, like she had been thinking of it for a while. “I like Delphine.”

“That is a beautiful choice,” he smiled. “There is a Mandalorian helping Lando find children, next time he’s in you should meet. He might know of your family.”

“Thank you,” she said as she stood up. “Should I call Max in to talk to you?”

“Max?” he asked.

“Yeah, when we were on the destroyer, her number was too much to keep yelling when I needed her. MX-1136 is a mouthful, so I started calling her Max,” she explained to him.

“Makes perfect sense,” he smiled, “I guess she doesn’t need to come to talk then if she has a name but tell her I’m always here if either of you needs someone.”

-

NF-2203, a 16-year-old boy, was found where Jannah had run off to on the moon of Endor. He was on the mission to drop off Kylo when he fought Rey, but he couldn’t do it anymore. He said he felt the energy of the other ex-troopers and couldn’t stay. He survived off the land, he felt happy.

He was okay there for 6 months till he was found. Now he quietly sits in the garden on Chandrila and meditates, he says the anger he feels for how his life turned out gets too intense, and he needs to sit down and forget it. It doesn’t always work but he tried very hard. He doesn’t want to ever be angry like the people he worked for.

After a few days, he finally sat down with Poe and Rey to talk, “I have something for you,” he said to Rey.

“I see you tend to the garden every day. I have seen you talk to Kylo Ren through the memorial you made for them. I can feel the love you had for their family, and I think you should have this,” he reached into the bag that he brought from Endor’s moon.

He pulled out Kylo’s lightsaber. “I saw him throw it into the water, I reached out for it in shock, not wanting him to lose it. I was still a stormtrooper, my mission was to watch him and make sure he defeated you. Upon reaching for it, it came to me. It washed up on shore at my feet a few minutes later. You should have it.”

He handed it to her. She held it, she ran her hand over it, turning it around to look at it better. “The memorial site is for my friend Ben,” she said softly. “This wasn’t Ben’s. Kylo was manipulated into being who he was. I don’t think he ever fully made his own decisions till he threw this into the ocean. This doesn’t represent Ben. He wouldn’t want it here.”

“I’ve just held onto it because I knew if you didn’t want it, you’d find a way to dispose of it so that no one else can use it,” he explained, his face was soft. He reminded Poe of Ben when he was around 13. Before he went to train with Luke full time.

He even looked like Ben. Long brown hair, brown eyes to match. Freckles from the sunlight. He was tall and slender, he must have lost his muscle from being stranded, but that just made him more like teenage Ben. This kid made him miss him so much.

“Do you remember anything from before you rebelled?” Poe asked.

“No, it’s completely dark in that part of my memory.”

“Do you have a name that you’d like us to call you while you stay here?”

“I was thinking Sabé?” he said softly. “It might be silly, but seeing him get rid of the lightsaber, and it coming to me made me feel like Sabé was the best choice for me.”

Poe was so proud of all the kids who came in knowing who they wanted to be, “Sabé is a great choice, welcome to our family.”

Poe stood up with him to leave, Rey was twisting the lightsaber in her hands and staring at it closely. “Sabé would you mind staying here with me for a moment?”

“Sure,” he smiled, tight-lipped and anxious.

Poe continues to walk away, far enough to give them space but close enough to listen.

“You have the force too?”

“Lot’s of us did. I think they stole us on purpose, to keep up from training and allowing Kylo to be the most powerful.”

“If you’d like to train, Kendo and I meet at Dawn every morning in the garden. You can join us if you wish.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

Poe smiled, seeing Rey redirect her efforts to train as Luke and Leia did before her, it was beautiful. She found her family, she found her purpose. She was a wonderful person, a wonderful teacher, a wonderful friend.

-

When CP-0017 came in he was very timid and shy. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. They all tried, he wasn’t interested in taking. They left him alone after a few tries, telling him when he was ready he could come to them.

Next door, however, Lieutenant Connix had been communicating with other resistance members. She had called them, they were sending her messages and radio calls. He stood in her doorway and watched as she worked.

“Hey, buddy,” she smiled. “Are you interested in this kinda stuff?”

He nodded lightly.

“Did they teach you how to communicate when you were a trooper?”

“Yeah,” he said in a soft voice. He moved in closer to her, looking at all her technology in amazement. “They never let me touch the real ones, only the teaching tools.”

“Well, I have to make a call to Lando to see his progress, would you like to help?” she asked him.

“Yes please, ma’am,” he smiled.

“Oh buddy,” she smiled back, “you can call me Connix, or Kaydel, whatever feels right.”

For the first time, he looked like he felt safe.

He knew all the buttons, he found Lando’s frequency and set everything up for her to make her call. “Well done buddy,” she said, putting out her hand to give him a high five. “I know it’s been kinda scary, everything you’ve been through is really rough, but I’m always here if you want to escape and play around with some tech.”

“Thank you,” he smiled.

“What should I call you?” she asked him, getting down to sit at his level and look at his soft blue eyes.

“Cooper,” he said softly.

“Coop for short?” she asked.

“Yeah, that would be cool!”

Poe had passed the door and witnessed their meeting, he smiled at him finally opening up to someone. “You know,” he said softly. “If you’d like to be a mentor to him, or even watch him in while he’s here, you can.”

“Yeah?” Kaydel asked.

He nodded, “you have an extra room, we’ll have a bed sent over. It’ll be good for you both to have someone.”

Kaydel had been sad without the others. Without Leia as a mentor, without her friends to hang out with, without the family she lost before she joined the resistance. This was what she needed, she needed her own family again, and so did Coop.

-

The sun rose like a fire across the sky. The rays made their way through the small cracks in the blinds and somehow perfectly laid across Finn’s back, illuminating him in a gorgeous glow. Poe was sitting up, drinking the strongest mug of warm caf that he’s ever had. There was only a short period of time before the children woke up and wondered in and started asking about the plans for the day.

He didn’t think that 2 years after the events of Exegol that he’d be living on a planet he visited as a small child, with the man he loves, raising children who were once stolen. He felt himself loving the children like they were his own family a lot faster than he ever expected himself to.

The youngest came knocking at the door first, “Poe?” her tiny voice said as the wooden door squeaked open.

“Come on up Iara,” he whispered with a smile, putting his mug off to the side and holding her in his arms.

“Morning,” she yawned as she settled against his chest, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Finn rolled over then too, he looked up at them and smiled. “Good morning.”

“I have a question,” she asked.

“What is it, sweetheart?” Poe said, rubbing his hand on her back softly and watching as the thought of what to say.

“Are you my dads now?”

He smiled wide, Finn laughed and sat up. He wrapped his arms around both of them. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

“And that means Kendo, Max, Del and Sabé are my brothers and sisters?” she asked again, “does that make Rey my aunt or my sister?”

“She’d be more like an aunt,” Poe confirmed. “So would Keydel.”

“And Lando is my grandpa!” she cheered.

“He’s gonna love that,” Finn laughed.

“We’re one big family now.”

They were a family. He found his family, and it felt perfect.

[mightydragoon]

Prince Luke fanfic Recs

@silvereddaye you know the drill

For all your Prince Luke Skywalker/ Amidala/Organa etc needs.  Also ft a lot of Leia Skywalker along with that. 

1. The Prince and the Bodyguard  Toomanyfandoms99

Bail is unsure why he’s being told this, but he is intrigued. “Where is the boy now?”

“Here,” Mon smiles, “on this base, being cared for by Shara Bey and Kes Dameron.”

Bail nods upon recognizing the names. Shara is their best pilot, and Kes is their best combat leader.

“However,” Mon states, “they cannot care for the boy full-time. There is something...unique about him. Something you are more equipped to handle.”

Bail narrows his eyes. “What?”

“Ezra Bridger is Force-sensitive,” Mon reveals.

Bail leans back in his chair and blinks once. “I see…”

“If your son is anything like his true parents,” Mon says, “he will soon require guidance. This boy also requires that guidance.”

“So,” Bail says, “you want me to shield them both from the Empire. Get them a...teacher.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22633573/chapters/54092221

2.First Impressions   Idhren15

Mara Jade attended the rich party on Coruscant for one purpose: to kidnap the Alderaan heir, Prince Luke Organa.

She didn't expect any of these complications.

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740592

3. Crowned Usurper  planningconquest

Princess Leia managed to capture the elusive rebel Jedi. She finds someone she never expected.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663147/chapters/41657678

4.  The kidnappings of a Sith Lord  maedre13

How a certain Sith Lord may or may not kidnap his rebel son. One-shots. Strongly inspired by sparklight´s “Where Our Intrepid Hero Doesn´t Get Away”.

Current chapter: In which the prince of the Sith gets a new bodyguard (3/3)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10606992/chapters/23453241

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10606992/chapters/52681459 (Part 1)

(Note* Fic is episodic often not connecting, sometimes is, so there is a good variety of stories, some involving Prince Luke others not) 

5. Sparks  SpellCleaver

Vader had every intention of ignoring that petty—if notorious—burglar on Coruscant, until evidence suggested that this "Angel" had Rebel ties.

Meanwhile, Luke never expected his father to actively hunt him down, and he doesn't like it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20031373/chapters/47433331

6. No Distance Far Enough   KaelinaLovesLomaris

Imperial Prince Luke Skywalker is kidnapped by the Rebellion. His father is not happy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549516

7. Hostage  Slx99

AU in which Luke grows up as the Prince of Alderaan and Bail and Breha Organa’s son. When Luke is sixteen Bail becomes too outspoken against the Emperor, who sends Lord Vader to take the young prince as a hostage and cow his father into submission. Held captive aboard Vader’s ship, Luke is faced with the unpleasant reality of being the pawn in this power play under his captor’s watchful eyes; until they both realize a thing or two…

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9707774/chapters/21902741

8. Hostage Interludes  Slx99

Interlude pieces of the ‘Hostage’ universe from my ongoing long-fic that don't fit into the main story, but which I still wanted to share. Some will be more fun, others more serious. They have no influence on the main story.

Basic premise of the main story: Luke grew up with Bail and Breha Organa as the Prince of Alderaan. When Bail becomes too outspoken against Palpatine he orders Vader to take the young prince as a Hostage. Luke now lives aboard the Executor. He finds out rather soon that Vader is his father and the story goes from there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148811/chapters/35129507

9.  Hostage

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1063433

10. Runaway   SilverDaye

Imperial Prince Luke runs away from home to escape his overprotective father Emperor Vader. Jumping from planet to planet he finds himself creditless on Tatooine. While working for more money to leave the planet, Luke meets an old man named Ben Kenobi. But Luke knows he can't stay in one place for long for surely his father is hunting him down.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14630196/chapters/33813027

11.A Song of Dragon's Fire & Slaves Blood   Fan0fFIM17

A Slave is finally truly made Free.

Lost in a strange primitive Land, he takes advantage of his circumstances to rise to the position of King. A Slave, a Jedi Knight, a Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, Father, Son, all this and more. Read as he Fights for the Iron-Throne!

Winter Is Coming!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400920/chapters/35743227

12. My sister has it    jedileia (cptnwintersoldier)

"You want me to fight my dad? Kill him? How could you think I would be capable on any of that, after what I just heard? Have I been training just so I could kill my father? Is that what this Jedi training was about? If so then i deeply regret the evening I went to look for parts for my speeder and ended up at Obi-Wan's yard."

Leia, a farm girl from Tatoiine, learns that she is force sensitive and the daughter of the evil Darth Vader, once known as Anakin Skywalker. She begins her Jedi training, meets her twin brother Luke Organa and confronts his father.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6537682/chapters/14957098

13. what is lost in the darkness.....hanorganaas

Starkiller is destroyed, the great Jedi Hero who saved the Galaxy Leia Skywalker Solo and her husband Han are presumed dead, and Luke mourns. But he isn't alone in his grief

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668604

14. our eyes; they were pointed at the sky (looking for answers) pieandsouffle

The last few weeks have been a nightmare: Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are dead and gone, the farm is skeletal and dead, she found out her father was a Jedi, brutally murdered by a traitorous friend, and now she's going to die because Han Solo is an incompetent nerf-herder who is apparently completely incapable of opening a krething door.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159772/chapters/24904917

15.  Possibilities of If May Be - Valerie_Vancollie

Co-authored by Selinthia Avenchesca.

What if two different Star Wars realities started to merge?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12946578

16.  Skywalker Swap -  stitchy

https://archiveofourown.org/series/930435

(Note Series is a mixture of a fancomic and a fanfic and it is glorious) 

17. There Is Another  stitchy

A comicbook retelling of Episode IV in the spirit of the old Star Wars Infinities!

Luke and Leia are placed in opposite homes after the fall of the Republic. Young Leia Skywalker is called to adventure when she meets two droids that belong to the strange witch, Old Kah.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10597686/chapters/23428284

(Note* Seriously this comic retelling is fantastic ) 

18 Here Among The Clouds   stitchy

In a universe where Leia Skywalker joins the Rebel Alliance of her long lost brother Prince Luke Organa, the Millenium Falcon and her crew arrive to Cloud City with a fully functioning hyperdrive. In the weeks following the Battle of Hoth, Lando Calrissian becomes entangled in their their quest to defeat the evil Empire. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507038

19. A Farm girl, a Twink, and an Uber driver-  Daniellecluck

This is literally just a collection of drabbles of a New Hope rescue scene various original trilogy scenes but gayer and Luke and Leia swapped places.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13345347/chapters/30553272

20. The Adventures of Leia Skywalker, Episode One: The New Hope   MaraWinchester

Nineteen-year-old Leia Skywalker lives with her Aunt and Uncle on the remote desert planet Tatooine, where there’s something ready to kill you behind every corner. Three moons make the nights bitterly cold, and the two suns makes the days unbearably hot. When a droid bought by her uncle contains a message by a prince, asking for help from a legendary Jedi Knight, Leia senses her ticket off world. Little does she know that her journey will take her right and center to a galaxy torn apart by war, involve smugglers of ill repute, and possibly shed more information on her father that she could possibly imagine...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122483/chapters/18619693

21.  Another Kind of Hope  Skyrissian (ErinacchiLove)

In a period of a galactic civil war, the brave Rebel Alliance has won their first victory against the Galactic Empire and stolen the plans of the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star.

When the starship of Prince Luke Organa, who is transporting the plans, falls under the Empire's attack, the future of the galaxy depends on two droids carrying the secret plans and their new owner, a farm girl named Leia Skywalker.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705637

22 The Princess, the Smuggler and the Sith Lord's Son  Sassaphrass

Han Solo was trying to rescue her Royal Annoyingness from the Death Star when he runs smack into Vader's kid. Naturally he does the logical thing and takes him hostage. This is where the story starts. OR

Luke just wanted to get some snacks when he ran into a Wookie, a Princess and a Space Pirate. The day's pretty much downhill from there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5751661/chapters/13252696

23. At Least the War is Over  Sassaphrass

The only thing Luke and Leia have in common are those nine months they spent in the womb and that time they brought down the Empire.

It's hard to build a new family when the last one got blown to smithereens with the entire planet, but Leia's never thought anything worthwhile would be easy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12663834

24. His Imperial Highness Luke Amidala -  Sassaphrass 

https://archiveofourown.org/series/744999

25.  Chiaroscuro  SpellCleaver

A series of oneshots focusing on Luke and Vader's relationship, with other characters occasionally thrown into the mix. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16363772/chapters/38293637

26. Prince Luke Organa: A New Hope   -lightningbisexual

An AU where Leia was sent to Tatooine with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and Luke was sent to Alderaan as the prince. It begins from where Luke is captured by the Empire in A New Hope. I follow more his story than Leia's because we all know she's going to be a badass on her own and I really want to see Luke grow up and learn to face his fears.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024390/chapters/45181531

(Note* see sequel below Leia centric) 

27.  Leia Skywalker: The Empire Strikes Back  lightningbisexual

A continuation of my twin swap fic. Leia Skywalker is being sought by the Dark Side and the Light, who both hope to use her power for their own agendas. However, her ferocity and anger make it difficult for her to train as a Jedi. Han Solo is also developing feelings for Prince Luke Organa and has no goddamn clue how to deal with it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20533487/chapters/48737117

28. Between the Light and Shadows: Luke & Vader One-Shots  SilverDaye

One-shot collection focused on Luke and Vader. All AU.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15128117/chapters/48583628

29. How the Other Half Lives -aradian_nights

(Note* How can I talk about Prince Luke fics without mentioning them cause WOW. 10/10.  I  highly recommend even if you aren’t a fan of the Prince Luke trope cause wow. It is something.  Warning: Angst . )

https://archiveofourown.org/series/609151. 

Trial and Error - https://archiveofourown.org/works/8417668

Layers of Dust  -  https://archiveofourown.org/works/8900971

For Love of a Queen - https://archiveofourown.org/works/9342596/chapters/21167591

Deep Doubt-  https://archiveofourown.org/works/10361913

Vision Void-  https://archiveofourown.org/works/10628475/chapters/23511120

Fate Defied- https://archiveofourown.org/works/10947714

When Destinies Split -  https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017986/chapters/24552093

Risk and Chance - https://archiveofourown.org/works/11506092/chapters/25817655

A Shout in the  Dark -  https://archiveofourown.org/works/11699232/chapters/26341971

Walking the Line Between - https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172817/chapters/30129249

AO3 Tag

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Prince%20Luke/works

[feminist-propaganda]

The Star Wars Saga Is A Meditation On Single Motherhood

It recently dawned on me that the entire story line of the Star Wars saga is built on the lives, loves and tribulations of 3 generations of single mothers. There are monsters to slay and aliens to find and planets to explore, yes, but if you think about the powerful message in the movies, you’ll come to realize it was mostly a reflection on the status of single mothers, the outcomes of their offspring, and the conflict that lives forever in their descendants.

Each trilogy, once reframed, becomes the story of one woman, who finds herself in a situation that is as old as time. She is with child, but the person who planted the seed in her is not by her side.

Shmi Skywalker or The Good Single Mother

In the Phantom Menace, Jedi Knight Qui Gon Jin meets Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy with a talent for repairing machines. The Jedi knight is impressed with the child’s abilities. He’s knowledgeable, intuitive, and most importantly he’s also kind and thoughtful. When a sand storm threatens the group of travelers, Anakin takes them to his own home and offers them shelter. 

We meet Shmi Skywalker, who in many ways is the archetype of the good single mother. She is not just quiet. She has completely erased herself. She has no personality, apart from being Anakin’s caretaker. She expresses no needs, no desires, no dreams. She simply loves Anakin, and when she sees an opportunity for him to leave the desert planet ruled by the Huts, she doesn’t stand in his way. 

In a now famous scene, Qui Gon asks her about the child’s origins and Shmi famously responds “There was no father”. The line continues: “I carried him. I gave birth. I raised him. I can’t explain what happened”.

The immaculate conception myth refers to the idea in Christianity that Mary, much like Shmi, was impregnated by some magical force, a holy spirit. Both are parabols: images we use to discuss painful topics. Single motherhood has probably always been a part of the human experience. Jared Diamond explains in “Why Is Sex Fun?” that in terms of evolution, it is more rewarding for human males to be “super spreaders “ rather than “good fathers “ . The “good father” gene does not pass down to future generations, because in effect, not sticking around to raise the child is a better strategy for a human man to pass on his genes to the next generation. Not convinced? Just count how many women have been impregnated by a rapper like Future (8 last time I checked). If you’re not into hip-hop, you can think of the offspring of the Mongol Genghis Khan

The purpose of the parabol is to provide an image, to extract ourselves from the technicalities of onr person’s story and to instead talk about all single mothers at once. Indeed, single mothers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are widowed, some are abandoned, others are lied to, and some run away from abusive environments.

Shmi raises her son the best she can, and her love for him is unconditional. She doesn’t bat an eye when he is freed while she is to continue her life as a slave. She doesn’t even seem to mind when Anakin leaves the planet and never returns to free her, even after he marries into some serious money. 

But the story of Star Wars tells us that Shmi’s relationship to Anakin, because it was so fusional, because it was all that he had, led to his undoing. In Episode 2, when he senses she is in danger, he jeopardizes his mission to protect Padme to go rescue her. When he eventually finds her, he is so upset about her ultimate death that he commits mass murder, targeting the Tuskan riders of the sea of Dunes.

When Yoda first lays eyes on Anakin, he senses Anakin’s pain, he is just a child whose been ripped away from the only human that’s ever cared for him deeply. The turmoil inside the boy is palpable, and Yoda advises against training him. 

Padme Amidala or The Bad Single Mother

Anakin develops feelings for Padme, and in Episode 2 the pair decide to secretly get married in the lake district of Padme’s home planet Naboo. Their relationship is very intense. Both share a strong sense of civic duty: Padme was elected queen of the Naboo when she was just 14 &  Anakin is a keeper of the peace. They care deeply about issues such as how the galaxy must be governed, how much action needs to be taken versus when diplomacy must be prioritized. 

Their strong sense of service has made them lonely young people. They’re far away from their families, surrounded by advisors, servants and droids - not friends. 

They jump into their relationship with an eagerness that suggests it is their original caretakers they crave for.

Padme becomes pregnant while the Clone Wars are raging, and immediately Anakin begins to experience trouble with his sleeping. He imagines Padme is dying in childbirth, and the visions haunt him during the day. His fear that she will die ultimately leads to his decision to join the Dark side of the force. Senator Palpatine has manipulated him into believing that Sith Lords have discovered the power to prevent death itself. 

Just like his mother before him, we need to look at Anakin’s story in terms of symbolism. It isn’t really about his specific experience with fatherhood : it’s about the universal conflict that men feel towards their own offspring. Even the way it is announced to him, in the Senate chambers, barely hidden from the rest of the Coruscant elite, implies some sort of entrapment. The columns around them seem to be like a cage that is closing in on his life. He is in the middle of the Wars - he should be celebrating his victory over General Grivious, but instead he is stuck with his wife and he has to absorb her anxiety & reassure her. 

Anakin makes a weird, forced smile and says : “This is a happy moment.” But neither Padme nor the audience believe him. Nothing about him feels happy, he isn’t relaxed: he is tense.

At the end of Episode 3, Anakin attempts to kill Padme when she condemns the mass murders he’s committed against the younglings in the Jedi temple. Hr uses for the first time his “strangling” trick, which becomes his signature move in the original trilogy. 

Palpatine makes Anakin believe that he’s killed Padme, but the truth is somewhat more nuanced. She dies of heartbreak shortly after giving birth to twins. For anyone who thought this was corny, it’s actually been proven by the scientific community that heartbreak reduces your life expectation (it diminishes the size of the telomeres in your body cells, which is the molecule that helps replicate your DNA). 

As Lisa Feldman Barret wrote in How Emotions Are Made: 

Emotional harm can shorten your life. Inside your body, you have little packets of genetic material that sit on the ends of your chromosomes like protective caps. They’re called telomeres. All living things have telomeres—humans, fruit flies, amoebas, even the plants in your garden. Every time one of your cells divides, its telomeres get a little shorter (although they can be repaired by an enzyme called telomerase). So generally their size slowly decreases, and at some point, when they are too short, you die. This is normal aging. But guess what else causes your telomeres to get smaller? Stress does. Children who experience early adversity have shorter telomeres. In other words, emotional harm can do more serious damage, last longer, and cause more future harm than breaking a bone

More severe cases involve patients actually dying of a broken heart, the myocardia just collapses under the weight of the sadness the human feels.

The original trilogy should be re-viewed with all of this new information we have. In the 80s, when Empire Strikes Back came out, the “I am your father” line became instantly iconic. But the plot twist was more like an “Oh My gosh!” moment rather than a profound reflection on fatherhood. The audience sympathized with Luke not because his father had been absent and negligent, but because his father’s job was to serve a fachist leader. It was the actions of Darth Vader as a political servant that were questioned, not his refusal to nurture a smaller being. 

Padme is the opposite of Shmi. She is the archetype of the “bad” single mother. The bad single mother is the single mother who can’t deal with the situation and checks out of it. She collapses under the weight that she feels on her shoulders. She can't get over the heartbreak, she can’t find the will to live. 

Society tends to punish the Padme’s just as much as it praises the Shmis. Television programs like “Teen Mom” are set up to shame the young deviants into adopting the correct behavior. The purpose of the show is to judge these young women into becoming self-sacrificing mothers.

Leia Organa - The Non-single Single Mother

Leia Organa is Anakin Skywalker’s daughter. She is raised by an adoptive frailly on Alderaan after she’s separated at birth from her brother Luke. Much like her mother, she becomes a dedicated public servant, a trusted leader and a beloved public figure. 

She is raised by a wealthy family in the central galactic systems. The Organas teach her the ways of the elite political class. As an adult she serves the cause of the Rebels, and when she meets Han Solo in Episode 4, the mediocre smuggler fascinates her. 

In the now famous scene from Hoth in Episode 5, Leia declares her love for Han Solo right as he’s about to be frozen in carbonite. The ultimate bad boy responds his chilling, because realistic  “I know”.

Han is nothing compared to Leia. He drives a broken down ship, doesn’t have any morals or even a simple code of conduct, much less a cause that he’s dedicated his life to. He has nothing to offer her, and is definitely not in her league. But still, in Episode 6, the pair become an official item.

The last Trilogy was an opportunity to explore Leia’s experience with motherhood. By now we know that Leia’s grandmother was a “Good single mother”, she completely sacrificed herself to protect her son & more importantly she never questioned her status of sole caretaker (remember the “there was no father“ line). We also know that Leia’s mother was a public servant, and a passionate woman who allowed herself to fall deeply in love with a sensitive young man with a non existing support system. Leia’s mother was the “bad” single mother: driven only by her career (Queen of the Naboo, later a Senator of the Old Republic) she did not step up to the task when her destiny revealed itself to her.

Leia seems to share her mother’s taste in reckless young men with a lot of attitude and no emotional security to offer. It’s the excitement she craves, not the tranquility.

Her fate will be the same as her foremothers. She has a child with Han, but when she sends him away to be trained by Luke, she loses them both.

Their dialogue in Episode 7 goes like this: 

Han Solo : Listen to me, will you? I know every time you... Every time you look at me you're reminded of him.

Leia : You think I want to forget him? I want him back.

Han Solo : There's nothing more we could have done. There's too much Vader in him.

Leia : That's why I wanted him to train with Luke. I just never should have sent him away. That's when I lost him. That's when I lost you both.

The last trilogy develops Leia’s character in a way that allows her to be something else than just a single mother. She loses her husband, she even loses her son to the dark side: but she never loses herself. Leia doesn’t allow her condition to define her. She becomes a leader of the Resistance even if it means going after her son’s New order. 

In Episode 9, Leia even destroys her son to protect Rey - the symbolism is that she’s overcome her role as a mother, she’s rejected the notion that she must sacrifice everything for her son even if it goes against her own self interest (like Shmi). She also rejects the idea that her partner abandoning her is the end of her. It isn’t. Unlike her mother, she finds the will to live, and to lead the next generation of freedom fighters and peace keepers.

The saga ends on a hopeful note for all of us single mothers out there. It comes with a message for us : we don’t need to choose between the austere Shmi and the weak Padme. We can instead decide that this “single mom” problem is kind of like beauty : it lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Single moms don’t need to think of themselves as failures, they don’t need to live in modest conditions, they don’t need to beg society's forgiveness for merely existing. They don’t need to be ashamed. 

Single moms don’t need to erase their brains and their lives, and sink into an ocean of denial either. They don't need to be obsessed with their careers or caught up in romantic entanglements that are only going to exhaust them.

Single moms can just decide that they’re women, with beautiful, inspiring personalities and kind, loving hearts. Mothers are first and foremost, the leaders of the young, the protectors of the realm and the makers of the future. It’s not that it doesn’t matter that they’re alone. It’s that they don’t have to be alone at all.

[anime-alyssa]

princess alderaan - pt 1

one | two | three | four

You are the daughter of Leia Organa and Han Solo, younger sister to Ben Solo. You are second in command of the Resistance alongside your mother, and have attracted attention from a certain Commander.

also on ao3.

welcome to my prompt series of poe x reader! the establishing story is already done, four parts and then the rest will be requests based on what you send. requests will not be open until all 4 parts are posted. enjoy!

tag-list: @ihavefailedyouanakin, @bitch-imma-head-out, @ravngers, @xxsirensong

-----

“I’m the best damn pilot in the galaxy” “I think you missed putting the word ‘second’ in there somewhere”

-----

Poe Dameron drove your mother absolutely nuts. And she put up with your father for a good portion of her life and dealt with you and Ben nearly killing each other as kids, so if Poe was driving her more nuts than all of that, he was either really talented in a way or just really stupid. You still lived with your mother on base (What can you say? You two were nearly attached at the hip now) and often she would come in after you, cursing him out as she walked through the door. You didn’t have as many interactions with Poe as she did, but from what she said you were thankful sometimes. He was a completely different person with you, still pushy and determined to do the right thing but less… annoying. You couldn’t understand it, but you just assumed it was because he probably was more comfortable with Leia.

You weren’t always with the Resistance. After your brother went off to the Jedi temple to train with your Uncle Luke formally, you went off with your father and Uncle Chewie for a very long time while your mother got things started with the New Republic and also the Resistance, since the First Order was now rising.

“Believe it or not, you’re probably better off with your father and Chewbacca right now. We can holo every night if you want to, sweetheart.” she told you as you clung to her before boarding the Millennium Falcon with your father. You were a teenager at the time, maybe about 16 or 17. You stayed with him until you were 23, a few years after the destruction of Uncle Luke’s Jedi Temple and your brothers turn to the Dark Side. You could have gone back to your mother at any time you wanted, but you enjoyed being around your dad and Chewbacca, and it actually helped you learn a great deal about the galaxy and surviving. It also made you a pretty decent pilot.

Once you were back with your mother, you began to climb the ranks. You wanted to do it properly - not just get to the top because you are the daughter of General Organa. When you got back to the Resistance, Poe Dameron was already a Commander with his own squadron of pilots and you were just a measly Lieutenant who stuck to the General’s side like glue, earning her place among the ranks.

Now, 5 or so years later, you were General Solo of the Resistance alongside your mother. You were respected almost as much as she was, having learned everything from her. At first, you sensed Poe was maybe a bit jealous that he wasn’t picked. He did work equally hard after all and was around longer. He avoided your gaze for a long time after that, but when he caught you quietly sobbing in the corner of the quiet Command Center after the death of Han, he came to comfort you in an instant. After that he was nicer to you. It was that moment where you started to develop some feelings for the man, despite him being how he was. Something changed for you that day, and you weren’t sure what, but you didn’t dislike it.

As much as you just thought he was being nice to you, your mother Leia saw right through him. He had been giving you heart eyes since he first laid eyes on you when you were 23, tangled hair, scruffy smuggler-looking clothes with Wookie hair attached and all. His eyes followed you when you walked into a room and everywhere else you went within it. Poe Dameron was absolutely smitten with you, but he didn’t have enough balls to tell you.

Either that, or he was scared of Leia. She assumed it was a bit of both.

Leia was determined one way or another to get Poe to admit his feelings, or have you both just fall for each other naturally. She knew that Poe would be good for you, because although stupid he was good at heart (and she knew you’d be able to put up with stupid, having Ben as an older brother and Han as your father). Leia also knew that you would be good for him, giving him something to come back to and something to live for. She just needed to figure out how.

“Mom? You okay?” you asked her upon seeing her dozing off, mind elsewhere. You saw her snap back to reality, smiling up at you.

“I’m fine, thank you honey. Just thinking.” she said to you, standing up slowly and looking around the make-shift Command Center that’s been made on the jungle planet of Ajan Kloss. “Have you seen Commander Dameron?”

“Not recently. Last I saw he was working on his X-Wing with the rest of the Black Squadron. I was just about to go help Uncle Chewie with some repairs on the Falcon, I can go find him for you first though if you want.” you replied to her, as she was walking out of the room and into the jungle.

“I swear, he needs to get his head out of his cockpit. He’s always working on that damn X-Wing.” she mumbled as she made way to the X-Wings. You laughed at her as you walked. “You can go help Chewie on the Falcon, I’ll go find Dameron. I have to speak with him on something.” she said to you, leaving you behind as she walked off. Narrowing your eyes at your mother walking away, you backed up and made way to the Falcon.

Meanwhile, Poe Dameron was elbows-deep in some wiring on his X-Wing, BB-8 on the ground trying to assist him. He felt as though his beloved fighter wasn’t flying as quick as it was supposed to be, and went on in to investigate. He was just about to finish some wiring when BB-8 beeped from below him, signaling the arrival of the General. He turned, seeing Leia giving a smile to the little BB unit and then looking back up at Poe.

“What can I do for you, General?” he asked, hopping down from the top of the X-Wing and landing in front of her.

“I swear, you love this thing more than you love yourself.” she said to him.

“Well, I’ve put a lot of work into it. Where’s General Solo?” he asked her. Leia smiled at him when he asked about her daughter. Oh, he had it bad.

“Helping Chewbacca with repairs on the Falcon. You know that was her home for a while, right? She loves that ship. Flies it nearly as good as her father, if not better, actually. Walks away with a whole lot less damage with her than it did with Han.” Leia said to him. His ears perked up. You flew? He didn’t know that about you - he had never seen you outside of the Command Center for the most part. He’d love to see you fly one day, especially the Falcon. Poe didn’t doubt that you were a great pilot, you were great at almost anything to him. “Oh you have it bad…” Leia chuckled. BB-8 chirped beside her as Poe’s face turned red.

“Ex-excuse me, General?” he stammered, at a loss for words.

“Tell me, how long have you liked my daughter?” Leia asked, a little more forcefully. If he wasn’t going to see where this was going, she would have to be forward.

“I have no—”

“Dameron, cut the shit. I can tell just by the way you light up when she’s around or when she’s brought up.” Leia cut him off, tired of beating around the bush. He liked her and she knew it. Poe sighed, accepting defeat and finally meeting her gaze honestly.

“The moment I saw her for the first time. I almost pushed it all away, but when I found her on the floor after Han died… it all came back. I can’t get her out of my mind.” Poe said to her. Leia smiled, taking his hand in hers.

“Oh, I knew it.” she said with a laugh.

“Of course you did.” Poe mumbled. Leia gave his hand a squeeze before letting go.

“Go after her. She’s good for you, and you’re good for her. You need something else in this war besides your X-Wing, Dameron. But if you ever hurt her, I’ll demote you without second thought.” Leia said to him, beginning to walk away.

“Y-y-yes General.” he stammered, watching her walk away from the area. Poe sighed, kneeling on the ground next to his droid. “Well, what the hell do I do now, buddy?” he asked his droid. All he got was a few beeps in response that strung together to be ‘Ask her out, idiot’. Poe scoffed as he climbed back up on his X-Wing, continuing his work. From on top of his ship though, he could see you all the way across the base working on the Falcon with Chewie.

“Try that one, Uncle Chewie!” you said to him, throwing up a wire to the Wookie on top of the ship. He growled back in response, getting to work on fixing the hyperdrive. The inside workings were all fine and dandy, but somehow the outside workings were all screwed up. “Who in the world was the one flying this to get this damaged anyway?” you asked him. Chewbacca looked up, seeing Leia in the distance throw a wink at him, signaling it was ‘go time’ for her little plan. The Wookie growled back a name to you, which was honest, at least, but also divisive to Leia’s plan.

“Poe?! You let him fly this?! I thought we agreed either you, me, or Rey only!” you shouted back to him. Chewbacca growled a rushed few sentences back to you. “No, I do like Poe! I like him a lot, he’s a great pilot it’s just - the Falcon means a lot to me and I only want people Dad trusted flying it.” Once more, you were met with some more growls. “You’re just as bad as mom, you! Don’t read more into that!” you said, face red. Chewbacca laughed as he hopped down from the top of the Falcon, taking you in for a hug. He looked over your shoulder, or actually he just looked up technically, and saw Poe and BB-8 coming over towards you. The Wookie bid her a quick farewell and went off to join Leia. "You two are up to something and I am going to figure out what it - oh.... hello, Poe." you said, threatening the Wookie but cutting yourself off when Poe appeared behind you.

"Is everything alright, General?" he asked you. You quickly glanced over at your mother and Chewbacca in the Command Center staring at the two of you and immediately had a feeling as to what they were up to.

Oh, those sneaky little nerfherders.

You were no kind-of-Jedi-whatever-he-was like your brother, or even just a half-way-there Jedi like your mother, and definitely not a full fledged Jedi like your Uncle Luke (you weren't actually Force sensitive at all, you were fully your father's daughter), but you knew exactly what your mother was up to. She was doing the same thing to you and Poe that she did to Kaydel Ko Connix and Jessika a year and a half ago.

She was setting you up.

Realizing that you hadn't answered him yet, you turned your attention back to the pilot.

"Oh, yeah... everything's good. How's your X-Wing?" you asked him, cleaning off your greasy hands with a towel before throwing it back on the ground.

"Gonna need to take it out later and make sure it doesn't blow up on me. How's the Falcon?" he asked you back, leaning against the leg of the ship. Maker, he was good looking.

"I need to get a droid in to run some diagnostics and we'll see. I heard that you were to blame for the malfunctioning hyperdrive." you said back to him pointedly. BB-8 chirped with laughter next to his master as he sped away, avoiding the confrontation.

"I - yeah... I have no excuse for this. I can help you with the repairs, if you want?" he said to you sweetly, clearly sorry for this. Poe was cursing himself out in his head, clearly trying not to blow any chances he had with you but feeling like he was. You sighed softly and shook your head.

"No, it's fine. I pretty much got her all fixed, anyway. I'm a little particular with who gets to fly her, you know? I'd prefer if it was just Chewie and I, and maybe Rey. But things happen." you said sadly across from him. Poe knew that list was short for "only people who my father actually trusted to fly her could touch" - and Han certainly didn't trust Poe, even though he hardly knew him.

"Hey, I get it. Won't touch her again without your permission. But I will have you know, I am the best damn pilot in the galaxy." He said, trying to lighten the mood. You gave a laugh at him.

"You forgot to put the word 'second' in there, Commander." you said shyly, walking up closer to him.

"Are you calling yourself the best pilot? I'll have to witness it myself, General." he said, his confidence boosting as he took one step closer to you. Your heart started beating faster in your chest as he was now nearly chest-to-chest with you. Poe wrapped an arm around your back and brought his lips to yours quickly, catching you off guard. You kissed him back, sinking into his embrace as your lips moved with each other. Sparks flew and you heard a muffled Wookie cry in the background, parting your lips from each other as you let out a giggle.

"That woman is unbearable, sometimes." you said to him, knowing that he would immediately know who you were talking about. Poe let out a laugh too, keeping you in his embrace to brush your hair out of your face gently.

"That she is, but we wouldn't survive without her." Poe commented. You smirked as he turned you two to face your smiling mother and an accomplished Wookie, along with an overly happy droid at her feet. "Still gonna need to see you fly though. Just to make sure you really are the best." he said. You laughed as you looked up to him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"Consider it a date, hotshot."

[midnightbluefox]

The Reylo Writing Den ( @thereylowritingden ) recently celebrated its one year anniversary, and part of our celebration included a fic exchange! The theme this time was what makes Reylo special to you and what you’ve come to love in the fics that you’ve read or written. Favorite tropes or one you’ve wanted to see done, an idea you’ve been wanting to read, a twist on the first Reylo fic you fell in love with, etc. 

Because of the theme, we got a huge variety of fics written submitted by over forty extremely talented writers. Please enjoy and support our lovely and giving authors <3

+ fic is mature/explicit

* fic is a WIP/ currently incomplete

________________________

+ Night Music by @thelastmorozova for @3todream3 :  Kylo getting it on with Rey while still wearing his gloves and helmet.

+* This Game We Play by @midnightbluefox for @sand-its-everywhere : Rey’s always thought her roommate was attractive, but when she catches him with only a towel on, a contest slowly ensues to see who can drive the other more insane as time goes on.

Or, where Rey and Ben are both idiots in denial and refuse to give in.

+* Red Letter by @ohwise1ne for crossingwinter : His old name—the one no one calls him anymore, no one even knows—stretches in bold lettering across the front of the envelope.

There is no record of that person living in this apartment building. Ben has made sure of it.

They’ve found him anyway.

When Ben is summoned to be bonded with a compatible Alpha mate, everything he’s worked for comes crashing down—especially when she turns out to be the rising protégé of his enemy.

+* When Little Somethings Overturn Everything by CaffeinatedJediRey for @rrwilson66 : Rey's got it all: fantastic friends, a great mother, and a promising tenure-track job as a history professor. Yet, on the eve of her 31st birthday, Rey finds herself wondering where her life's headed while she's eating by herself after a conference presentation.

Ben Solo, a rival professor from her department, joins her for dinner after seeing her dining alone. He turns out to be more than she expects.

Let's just say things will not go the way Rey thinks they will.

+* Clear Skies by @eveningeyes for CaffeinatedJediRey : A handsome smuggler is found sneaking through Starkiller Base, and to Kira Ren's dismay, Snoke hires the guy to take her to find Leia Organa's secret Resistance base.

OR

INTERGALACTIC ROAD TRIP 2019]

+ A Five Percent Chance by @sand-its-everywhere for @hellomelusine :  Ben is alone, and he likes it that way. He keeps to himself, and doesn't really want or need a relationship, but that doesn't stop his mother from trying to set him up with random people... until one day she sets him up with his childhood best friend... and both of them make it their mission for this to be the worst date ever... after all, they've got one hundred dollars promised to them by Leia if it is.

Blushing PINK by @tazwren for @kylotrashforever : Ben Solo is struck by a beautiful girl, for the first time in his life, but has no clue how to talk to her. Enter a friend who gives him highly questionable advice.

Or - how Ben Solo bought bags of lingerie for a non-existent girlfriend!

+ Fucking PINK by @tazwren for @kylotrashforever: Ben and Rey and all those bags of lingerie he bought.

Or - how Ben Solo is a virgin no more.

+* Delicate Matters by @kylotrashforever for @erney007 : His senses trickle back in, and he realizes something is covering his face. Reaching, he snatches the gauzy material that he recognizes is lace of some sort, holding it out in front of him and squinting his eyes.

What the fuck?

He knows without a doubt, with one hundred percent certainty, that he did not have a woman here last night.

So why the fuck is there a pair of women’s underwear on his face?

In which something falls into Ben’s lap (or more accurately his face) that he didn’t expect.

+* is this a sacrifice?  by @deadlikemoi for @kylosgirl9593 : "What are you giving up for Lent?" The question is posed to Rey by a friend of Rose's, a girl who goes by KK, and Rey has to search her mind for an answer.

That is the problem with going to a University that is religiously affiliated; most people assume that you follow that same tenet without bothering to ask, and it has gotten her into trouble more than a few times.

"Rey's not—" Finn tries to save her, it is a valiant effort, but the filter between her mouth and her brain is undergoing routine maintenance and a few words squeak through before she can stop herself.

"Sex. I'm giving up sex for Lent."

+ Bobbing Along by @polkadotdotdotreylo for @sweetkyloren : Ever since an incident as a child, Rey has had a fear of the water.

When your boyfriend owns a pool, who better to teach you how to swim?

+ A Poetic Match by @commandercrouton for @polkadotdotdotreylo : It didn’t matter who was here at the moment. The only thing Rey could focus on was that scent. Her wide hazel eyes circled the room as she tried to see the one who was emitting those delectable pheromones. How was no one else in this room reacting? The smell was making her crazy, and she dug her nails into her skin. She would know this scent anywhere.

She found him frozen by the podium, staring at her with the same look she knew she was giving him. She felt her thighs clench in anticipation as memories of their last, and only, time together filled her brain.

“Rey, is everything okay? Your scent...shifted,” Poe inquired tentatively.

“What?” she asked, not willing to take her eyes off the man in front of the room.

“Why is Professor Solo staring at you like you killed his pet cat?”

At this statement, Rey looked at Poe, realization dawning on her. No, not this, anything but this. This wasn’t a professor. He was something entirely different to her.

Alpha.

+* By The Moonlight by @my-jedi-life for @eveningeyes : Kylo Ren is being hailed as the "next Stan Lee" in the world of graphic novelists... but he holds a secret. His books are really about his life.

Rey Kenobi is an up and coming journalist who lands the interview of a lifetime with Kylo Ren.

* Black Ties & White Lies by @happilyeveraftereveryday for @looc-at-me : The plan was simple. Sneak in, kick Paige's ex-boyfriend's ass, then sneak out. But Rey did not plan on arguing with an unfairly hot but unsurprisingly elitist Greek god of a man while looking for said ex-boyfriend, especially when he took offense to her refusing to dance with him for some reason.

And she definitely didn't plan on kissing him.

Or how a masquerade party leads to unexpected actions, feelings, and consequences, along with Ben Solo's Cinderella dashing away without even leaving him a shoe behind. Nevertheless, he's determined to find her.

+* Your Eyes (Are Holding Up the Sky) by @em-is-writing for DagaGada :  Ben Solo life is falling apart (as much as one high school senior's life can) - he's failing Pre-Calculus, has been put on academic probation, and can't play on the basketball team until he pulls his grades up. When he's assigned a tutor, he thinks this will be an unmitigated disaster. Life has other plans.

+ But Not To Me by @littlethingsfic for ArdeaJestin : “…Ben?”

He memorizes every detail of her face — flushed cheeks, creased brows, dark eyelashes, wisps of loose hair — framed by the eerie quiet of their destruction. His body is restless like it might burst at the seams, thrilled and dazed by her, by their conquest, by their…

He searches for the words to say but everything sounds wrong. He charges in and decides not to say anything at all,

“Rey, I don’t care about the kriffing fleet —”

He grabs her and kisses her hard.

+ Cheers to Phasma’s Flaming Vibrator by @3todream3 for @rakefiree :  An unfortunate office fire has caused renovations, and the ever punctual Ben Solo has to share an office with Rey Johnson with whom he has a history. He just wish he could remember what he did to piss her off. She apparently doesn't like him much and annoys him with Candy Crush and other little things, not letting him get any work done. Being cooped up in the small office is going to be the death of Ben. What on earth could happen when tempers flare and hormones go crazy???

+* Seven Days with my Toes in the Sand by @erney007 for @em-is-writing :  Memory in his dream, emptiness in his hand, with his toes in the sand. Will she be the one who shows him how to love again?

Desert Magic by @roguesinside for @spiegatrixlestrange : He was hungry, always so hungry. He sweated through the sheets when he dreamed of the desert sun. Shivered under piles of blanket when the sand was lit only by the moons. He tried to magic up an apple, a glass of cool water but the lifeforce around him was so dim that the simple charm wasted away in the desert sand.

The dreams saved him.

+ Oh Captain, My Captain by @elleren31 for @littlethingsfic : In the midst of the Civil War, telegraph officer Captain Samuel Beckwith returns to Washington D.C. and is immediately taken by a beautiful young farmwoman. But love in a time of war can be difficult, especially when you work for the President of the United States.

Historical accuracy AND inaccuracies. Earns its rating later on.

+* Royal Blood by @sweetkyloren for @deadlikemoi : Rey has lived on the streets of Aldera for as long as she can remember but when an aide to Queen Leia takes Rey under her wing she finds herself living a life most can only dream about.

In the years that follow, Rey soon finds herself falling for her two best friends who also happen to be the two heirs to the throne: Ben and Kylo.

+ Ready For It? by @rrwilson66 for @elleren31 :   A tale as old as time, the story of a beast of a killer and a beautiful thief fighting to be together.

+* Unrequited by @rakefiree for @reyloandotherfandoms : Ben loves Rey. Rey loves Ben.

He thinks she loves someone else. She thinks he knows how she feels and doesn't reciprocate the feelings.

What happens when they are trapped in the same house for a weekend?

OR

Welcome to Ben and Rey Pain Train! We have a dog... and stuff.

+* Swipes and Seduction (a tinder AU) by @galaxytrueffle for @tazwren : “Ben.” Was still a faceless and detail-less individuum on tinder. Thus he needed to add his career, height and a little text- before rounding up his introduction with a photograph.

Ben. Corporate lawyer. 189 cm.

What else was there to say about him?

“Hi. I am Ben. 32 years old. I work as a tax lawyer for a well known automotive company. My wife died and now I am a single parent- I work all the time and have literally no hobbies beside working out, one weekly WoW session and spending time with my child on the weekends. Oh- and I haven’t had sex for ages. So if you are interested- match me?”

That is what he should have written- the reality.

But- this was the internet...he didn’t have to be so honest. Especially not in the beginning.

.....

IT’S A MATCH!

You and Rey<3 have liked each other.

+* Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost by @loveofescapism for @reyloner : “Okay, what if you do find them and they send you away?”

“They won’t.”

“How do you know that?” he asked, and for once he looked like he was genuinely curious to hear her answer. Which, if he wasn’t pissing her off so much, she would have answered much nicer than she did.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I’m their daughter?” she said sarcastically, “They had a good reason for giving me up, you’ll see.”

---

Rey is traveling the world to find her birth parents after her guardian Maz passes way. She was excited to rediscover herself and more importantly, where she came from. The only thing she wasn't excited about, was the fact that Ben Solo was tagging along for the journey, his pen and notebook in hand.  

+ A wonderous place for you and me by @kylosgirl9593 for @galaxytrueffle : It's Ben Solo's 30th birthday and his friends decide to throw him a little 'Party’ Rey however has a few *special* presents for Ben. ------------ Ben laid on the ground, hands up in surrender. Rey had one foot on his chest, pinning him down to the ground, he could easily take her down, but he had to accept his defeat.“You had to know this was coming. You just had to. You couldn’t run from me forever, Solo,” she said as she pointed the gun to his chest. She smiled in victory. “Game over.” She pulled the trigger and the green laser beamed through the barrel. The sound of Pac-Man dying filled the room.

+ Close Encounters by @deedreamer for @loveofescapism : It’s like Rey's own personal porn reel is playing against the inside of her lids. Her body is reacting without her permission.

She sucks in a breath and re-crosses her legs, suddenly feeling a tingling sensation at her center. Her nipples harden and strain against the fabric of her bra and the silky material of her shell is cool against her belly, making the sensation even more extreme.

Rey feels her chest and cheeks flush, and she wonders if she looks as hot and bothered as she feels. Because that would be really embarrassing. She’s a professional, for God’s sake.

+* Don’t You Forget About Me by @rebelrebelreylo for @my-jedi-life : He wrote the letter ten years ago, but it’s still burning a hole in his pocket.

—

Dear Mr. Skywalker, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are.

You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.

But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…

And an athlete…

And a basket case…

A prince…

And a criminal.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely — The Breakfast Club.

—

A Breakfast Club AU with not-quite-neat-parallels written for MyJediLife for the Reylo Writing Den Anniversary Exchange. (Yes — Rey is more Bender than anyone else.)

+* A Year of Me and You by crossingwinter for @kylolita : “After you move in with one another, give yourself six months to like one another again,” Maz says, looking at Rey seriously through her bottlecap glasses. 

“I’m not going to fall out of love with—”

“No, no. Not love. Love’s not got anything to do with it, child. Like.”

--

Non-linear vignettes of various length, set during the first year Rey and Ben live together.

Ben’s Body by @shewhospeakswiththunder for @thelastmorozova :  AU. Rey is an up and coming sculptor specialising in human shape and form. Her new next door neighbour has a body to die for and she's determined to preserve it in marble forever. Now she just has to convince dashing and reclusive Ben to model for her. 

Preferably naked.

+* Sounds of Passion by DagaGada for @rebelrebelreylo : The Sound of Music Modern AU. The two actors meet in the theater production. He's Von Trapp and she's Maria. He's a big star who got roped into it by his mother, who owns the theater. She's fresh out of Juilliard.

Will they go past their hate at first sight? What if the heated fight turns into something different but equally heated? Will they find passion for theatre and each other together?

* Grabbing Your Attention in Detention for @shewhospeakswiththunder by @ashtyntaytertot :  Ben is a troubled teen in high school and Rey doesn't like him because of that, but he likes her. A lot.

+ Let Me Put My Darkness In You by ArdeaJestin for @terestriel :  Hux catches his boss composing love poems, attempts to wreak havoc, and wonders why smartphones don't exist.

+* At the Stroke of Midnight by @bunilicious for @midnightbluefox : He knew.

The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning, and it was only the warmth of his hand on her elbow that kept her upright. How else could she explain the determination beneath his soulful gaze?

He was iron, wrapped in the finest velvet.

“Rey,” Ben spoke at last, his voice barely above a whisper.

Yes, she wanted to scream. I am the masked woman who waltzed with you underneath the moonlight. The one who ran away when the clock struck twelve. The one who lost her shoe at the foot of the stairs.

But he had to say it first. He had to.

“Rey.” He took a deep breath, eyes fixed upon her expectant face. “I need you to help me find her.”

Her dreams were made of glass. And in that moment they had shattered.

-------

A REYLO VICTORIAN / CINDERELLA AU

+* Ravenous by @aknightofwren for @bunilicious :  38 ABY. Nearly four decades since the Battle of Yavin. The greatest of all great wars has finally come to an end. The Resistance has been disbanded, allowing those seeking comfort and security among their ranks to finally pursue the lives they had always dreamt of. But something sinister is lurking in the lush greens of the Forest Moon of Endor, something that not even the Skywalker's could have seen coming.

+ Shape of you by @looc-at-me for @deedreamer :  Ben Solo has been babysitting a group of grumpy old men who are often referred to as immortal rock legends for nearly two years and he's at his wits end. Deciding to spend the last concert of The Vaders worldwide tour on the ground floor with the other fans instead of backstage, Ben manages to meet a brown-haired beauty and they instantly connect before a family secret resurfaces.

+* Refuse Me by @kylolita for @aknightofwren : It’s the most contact she’s received in years, since her Grandpa was still alive.

This Alpha’s touch is electric, completely unfamiliar but just what she needs. Her eyes automatically find his, they are molten brown, and everything in her wants to examine those eyes forever and-

What am I doing? some sensible part of her screams at herself. Whatever he bids, another part answers.

Rey’s plan to live her life to the fullest as an Alpha falls apart when a classmate discovers her secret.

* And There You Were by @reyloandotherfandoms for @happilyeveraftereveryday : The phone rings in the middle of the night, and it's some man Rey doesn't know, demanding to speak to someone whose name she does not recognize. Why she doesn't just hang up on him is beyond her.

But she doesn't.

+* Love Potions and Legalities by @hellomelusine for @ohwise1ne :  When Kylo Ren, best Law Enforcement Warlock on Leia Organa-Solo's team, is tasked with apprehending a girl, untrained, but blatantly brewing and selling illegal love potions, he's less than enthused, the task beneath his station. What he expects and what he gets are two wildly different things when he finally breezes into Rey's shop in the desert town of Niima, Jakku.

+* Kingdom for a Kiss by @reyloner for @commandercrouton : “His name day is only moonturn away — there’s to be a great feast in his honour. And, best of all, a tourney he’ll be sure to compete in. He’s a good jouster — I have faith in his victory.” She leans in, a sly smile working alighting her elegant features. “Winning make men bold. It warms the blood, inflates their egos. It makes my Husband insufferable and my son want to celebrate.”

 “Oh.” Rey frowns. “How can you be sure he’ll win?”

“I cannot.” Leia admits. “But I can hope.”

-

Lady Rey Kenobi, the last surviving member of a once great house, is to wed the future King of Naboo. 

Only, Prince Benjamin Amidala seems determined to avoid her at all costs - even in consummating the marriage.

+* No Deliverance by @orkindofamazing for @ashtyntaytertot : Kylo Ren had seen beauty, witnessed the splendor of creation and the power of destruction, was well acquainted with desire and longing. Yet none of it compared to the strength and beauty of the tempest he was witnessing here.

The only thing he understood with any degree of certainty was the fact that he inexplicably wanted to be closer. In a trance-like state, he advanced, and his feet seemed to move across the ground of their own volition.

-

Kylo Ren wasn't very good at being a demon, but then he hadn't been a very successful angel, either. However, when he is sent to tempt and bind an immortal named Rey, it's a challenge unlike anything he's faced before.

+ Art for You Octopi My Heart by @spiegatrixlestrange for @orkindofamazing :  An art gift for an amazing person.

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Every single one of these fics was so wonderful and we are so lucky to have such talented people in our discord server! A huge thanks to everyone who participated, we can’t wait to do the next one!

[buddiebeginz]

Robert Meyer Burnett reviews an early draft of Star Wars' 9th episode entitled DUEL OF THE FATES

Title is DUEL OF THE FATES

CRAWL:

The iron grip of the FIRST ORDER has spread to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Only a few scattered planets remain unoccupied. Traitorous acts are punishable by death.

Determined to suffocate a growing unrest, Supreme Leader KYLO REN has silenced all communication between neighboring systems.

Led by GENERAL LEIA ORGANA, the Resistance has planned a secret mission to prevent their annihilation and forge a path to freedom...

Opens at the Kuat Shipyards (man on a mission-style)

BB-8 and Rose Tico (allegedly a key character in script) are infiltrating Kuat Moon where First Order build their ships (workers are oppressed). There is an orbital ring and moon below it.  Finn and Poe are there. No R2/3PO. Rey arrives.

The plan: Send explosive into the power shaft that delivers raw ore into the ring.

Plan goes wrong. (RBM loves dialogue at this moment.) First Order is able to contain blast. Admiral Vaughn says Resistance tactics are "pitful."

Rey disguised as a Tusken Raider is revealed to have created her own weapon (a double-blade lightsaber hybrid  of her staff and Luke's cracked saber).

They battle and Poe, Finn, Rose, Rey, and BB-8 STEAL A STAR DESTROYER (Eclipse-class) and escape.

The Knife 9 a ship containing the Knights of Ren arrives a Kuat. Ataska (?) Ren kills Admiral Vaughn for his failure.

CUT TO: CORUSCANT. No longer a vibrant city. "The new structures are built atop the art deco structure of the old republic." Occupied by the First Order now (they have a citadel/palace there). Citizens are scavengers now. Hux is now CHANCELLOR HUX and is addressing Bisc Kova (traitor who helped Resist. steal Star Destroyer.) Kova is executed with a light blade guillotine.

Hux and Commander Selleck have a meeting with several alien war lords (ode to ANH imperial council scene). First Order has allies. They are aware of Rey being the last Jedi. Council wants to know WHERE IS KYLO REN? He is missing. Hux only knows he has gone searching for something of great power.

CUT TO: MUSTAFAR. Kylo Ren is alone, except for a Darth Maul-esque droid. He has stubble indicating search has been for a long time. Ren is being HAUNTED by Luke's force ghost.

Luke: "This is where the dark path leads; an empty tomb." Kylo (retort): "Where did your path lead?"

Luke is trying to convince him to go back to Leia. Kylo: "I'm going to be more powerful than any Jedi...even you."

In Vader's Temple, Kylo finds a Sith Holocron which reveals a hologram of Palpatine. Recording is for Vader. Palpatine has a contingency for Vader if Luke kills him. Vader is to take Luke to the Remnicore (?) System to see TOR VALUM, Master of Sith/Palpatine's Teacher.

After scanning Kylo, the Holocron explodes and releases red lighting which burns Kylo, who screams.

CUT TO: RESISTANCE BASE on KOR-ALAF (?). Leia is introduced as she feels what's happening to Ben. Chewbacca and Lt. Connix tell Leia that the Kuat team is back. They're shocked to see a Star Destroyer (which is landed onto the planet). Funny moment w/ Rey using Mind Trick on First Order officers who were still on the ship.

Rey confides in Finn that she doesn't feel like she has what it takes to be a Jedi and can't live up to everyone's expectations. Finn asks her if she still senses Kylo. Rey confesses she's been having nightmares. Finn asks if it's Kylo. Rey says she can't explain their connection.

Finn: "You have to shut him out. He can't change. It's too late." Rey: "It's never to late to change. You taught me that Finn."

Resistance realizes that the Star Destroyer stills has most of it's weapons (tanks, TIEs, etc). Only missing piece is an army to use it.

Rey researching the Jedi texts from Anch-To discovers that under Coruscant Jedi Temple there is a communication system (called a FORCE BEACON) from the Old Republic that can send a signal to 50 planets. They plan on using it to get allies. First Order can't stop it, since it predates Imperial tech. Rey: "Hope is all we have left."

Force Ghost Luke appears as Rey trains. Luke is pushing Rey to get stronger in the Force, while he is pushing Kylo to let Ben out.

Kylo makes it back to Coruscant. Face is damaged. Mandalorian armor is smelted and is been applied to his face. Confronts Hux and belittles him, saying he doesn't need titles.

Rey to Luke as they train: "Balance? The dark suffocates the light, light extinguishes the dark. Over and over and over again. How is that balance in the force?"

Luke: "I know that anger. My father had it too.'

Rey: "So says my master and his master before him. A thousand masters so eager to tell us how to live."

Rest of exchange between Rey and Luke is basically Rey trying to back away from being a Jedi (she admits she is NO ONE) and Luke trying to convince her (he says the Force is speaking to her).

Back to Kylo. He and Hux continue to snipe at each other. Kylo says he's leaving again, but not before telling Hux the power he discovered will make destroying planets insignificant. Kylo's last order to Hux: "Find the Resistance, wipe them out, leave the girl to me."

TEAM A (Rose, Finn, R2, 3PO): Going to Coruscant to light the beacon.

TEAM B (Rey, Poe, Chewbacca): Going to a planet to find someone to help Rey figure out what she needs to do. (side: Yes, his descrp. is that vague)

Kylo is going to a Sith Planet/Remnicore. EDIT: Before he leaves Coruscant, he takes Vader's mask and says he understands Vader now. Kylo: "You allowed love to cloud your judgement" and he throws Vader's mask off of a balcony and it shatters.

Leia stays at the base overseeing the Resistance.

Before Rey leaves, she and Leia have an exchange were Rey says she believes there's still good in Kylo. Leia is skeptical, but Rey believes in her Jedi Training. Leia: "You're not like my father or my brother. You're new. Whatever happens, remember the force choose you Rey. You're story isn't written by anyone else."

RMB starts summarizing now:

First Order tracks down stolen Star Destroyer to Kor-Alaf. Resistance escapes.

TEAM A successfully infiltrates the Jedi Temple and turn on the beacon. Cut to different places around the galaxy receiving the signal (Bossk cameo). It is then cut off by the First Order. TEAM A then flee into the underbelly of Coruscant.

TEAM B are being pursued by the Knife 9 (Knights of Ren ship) and eventually reach the planet Bonadan.

Kylo reaches Remincore and confronts Tor Valum (7000 yrs old, alien of unknown origin, spindly, intense sinewy muscle -- very Lovecraftian). Kylo begins training with Valum. Ode to ESB Cave scene: Kylo fights Vader. Fight is brutal and Kylo loses.

Bonadan: Poe takes Rey to a Seer who can pull information out of memories. The Seer pulls a star chart out of Rey's mind from her visions w/ Kylo. Knights of Ren show up and fight Rey in a lightsaber battle. She defeats them and TEAM B escapes.

Both Rey and Kylo eventually get to MORTIS.

Leia asks Lando if he will organize the smugglers and fight the First Order.

Rose is captured and tortured by the First Order, but is able to escape.

Finn/R2/3PO start a citizens uprising on Coruscant around the First Order's Citadel/Palace.

Leia brings her forces to Coruscant to battle the FO. Massive space battle, ground battle (ROTJ-style you know the works lol). Chewie flies an X-Wing.

Rey and Kylo battle on Mortis, using force energy that can pull from each other. At some point is revealed Kylo killed Rey's parents at the behest of Snoke. Towards the end, Luke/Obi Wan/Yoda appear as Force Ghosts to save Ben, but are unsuccessful. Ben is "extinguished."

RMB seems to be at the end, so just for house keeping sake - Resistance won, First Order loses.

One final deet: Han Solo did appear in the script and does confront Kylo at some point.

Towards the end, Luke/Obi Wan/Yoda appear as Force Ghosts to save Ben,

[hrh-selene-r]

Who is the protagonist in the new Star Wars trilogy, Kylo/Ben or Rey?

It’s something I’ve noticed after re-watching the movies finishing off with the rise of Skywalker. We start the series with Poe getting a map to Luke and being intercepted by Kylo Ren, our “antagonist”. Over the course of the movie we find out that he was Ben Solo, son of General/Princess Leia Organa and smuggler/war hero Han Solo, and that he has a personal stake in finding the map to Luke. In his attempts to get the map he meets Rey, a scavenger who’s recruited(?) into the resistance and he finds out that she’s strong with the force because of.....reasons (plot?) and tries to convince her to join his cause. We learn his backstory of how he was born to an absentee father and a workaholic mother, making him a child of neglect, and how he was strong with the force (both light and dark) since his gestation. His parents fear that he could be a new Vader and so they fear him and what he can be capable of, so they send him to boarding school with his uncle, effectively cutting off any parental affection during a delicate age, instead of...I don’t know having Leia train him and console him or Han reassure him....Like a normal parent would do. (I mean Kylo wasn’t Damien in the Omen. He didn’t kill anyone.)

So Ben is in Jedi boarding school and we learn that his uncle/teacher/parental figure grows to fear his potential and in a very unjedi move he contemplates and attempt to kill Ben, but before the blow could land, Ben wakes up, catches his uncle in his murder attempt and is able to block/retaliate in order to run away. He’s chased by the other students when Ben joined a sith like gang “The knights of Ren”. At the end Ben kills out of necessity and finds a sith master; Snoke, who teaches him the ways of the sith and helps him move on from his past to forge his own path. This is when he expresses his lack of agency and how even his name doesn’t feel like his own and takes up the name KYLO REN. Dun dun dun 🎵

During the course of the trilogy Kylo learns that he’s just being used by Snoke and his ambitions to gain agency grow, making him want Rey to join him in an alliance that could truly powerful, she rejects his proposal but he still murders his master to save her, bumping him up to Supreme Leader. This isn’t a result of Kylo’s love for Rey, but more of his own emancipation from all his toxic parental figures; Han, Luke and Snoke. I don’t include Leia here because he still has a relationship with her, albeit an strained one. This type of relationship usually happens when your mom is the head of an opposing faction in a civil war. So Kylo ends up alone and is now the Supreme Leader of the self proclaimed first Order....

Now Kylo’s his own man, free from the influence of others; they can’t tell him what to do, now he’s free. His first order of business?? Track down oppositions in his own ranks and destroy anything that could challenge his position. Basically he wants to consolidate his power as the new Supreme leader. This brings him to search for Palpatine on Exegol to kill him and cement himself as his own authority. During this time Kylo learns that he was nothing more than a puppet to his master, who was, in turn a puppet for Palpatine, who’s been influencing and nudging Kylos path since he was a child, revealing that the character who is desperately looking to gain agency throughout the whole trilogy never had it. Palpatine offers him candy (I mean a naval fleet of star destroyers) and basically unchallenged control of the galaxy (ultimate POWA!!!!) The weird thing is that instead of killing Palpatine, even though he was aware his offers bullshit, he looks for Rey.....okaaay? Keep in mind that at this point Kylo is compelled towards Rey because of his natural curiosity of Rey’s potential while not having a single class in force usage and because he feels a kindred spirit in Rey’s loneliness and good nature. Is there some sexual tension there.....maybe? Then he tells her that they’re a dyad in the force as a way to explain their connection, which feels utterly forced (if you pardon the pun).

So Rey and Kylo meet in the water planet while Rey looks for a mcguffin and they fight, ending with Rey giving Kylo a cheap stab to the belly. Now Kylo’s being the superior fighter would’ve and should’ve won hands down by he senses/sees his mother through force Skype and he gets distracted enough to leave an opening. Rey heals his mortal wound, saving his life before leaving him presumably stranded there to die. Now, we’re expected to believe that because of her selfless intentions saving him, Kylo decides to forgive himself for his acts, including killing his biological father. He throws his awesome lightsaber into the ocean showing him abandoning of the sith or at least the dark side of the force and HE’S A GOOD GUY NOW!!! yay!! Whooo!! 😒

So he goes to Exegol, fights the knights of Ren and joins Rey in fighting Palpatine, gets his life force sucked, gets thrown down a pit, comes back out and then gives his life up to save Rey....okaaay? You can kind of see it from the whole, she saved her enemy and now her enemy is grateful and will repay his debt, hence Kylo sacrifices his life to save her; redeeming his character while having honor...so that angle works and when you look at it that way this is one of the few choices that Kylo makes that are truly his. It’s a waste of one of our most complex characters but sure...

Now, after that whole rollercoaster, let’s talk about Rey. What do we know about Rey??

She’s a scavenger

She’s friendly and nice....so yay altruism.

She makes the best of what she has.

She was abandoned by her parents on Jakku and waits for them in vain...she knows this subconsciously.

She’s strong with the force because of....reasons

She looks to Han and Leia as parental figures because....reasons. Granted Leia started to train Rey, but it wasn’t that long so they barely know each other still.

Luke was her first master and he started to teach her about the force....for a bit.

Palpatine’s her grandfather via cloning.....Although this sounds like a really contrived way to explain her affinity with the force, and it sounds like they made it up on the spot. Plus, that’s not how cloning works!

She an amazing pilot and can fly anything, despite never having flown before the first movie because....reasons.

She’s a great mechanic who can fix anything, despite not being a mechanic but a scavenger....I mean I can take apart a computer, it doesn’t make me an IT genius/engineer.

She can fight with a lightsaber and has beaten Kylo Ren in combat twice, despite having no formal training and having never used a lightsaber before as opposed to her enemy who’s had decades of training and combat experience and studies, because......being strong with the force is like the matrix, so she automatically has the theory, reflexes and muscle memory needed for combat?

She joins the resistance not because she has an emotional stake in this, believes in the resistance’s cause, or has a grudge against the first order; it’s because....she had nothing better to do that day? The gave her free food?

And she’s a dayd in the force with Kylo Ren because.....Reasons. They never explain that it just is because Rey is the rarest thing in the whole universe apparently.

She spends a short amount of time training and reads the Jedi texts, and now she’s a full fledged Jedi at the end of the trilogy...because she’s Jesus? Like remember when Jedism and the ways of the force was a way of life and people spent lifetimes learning and training in the force? Remember how anakin was to old to train as a LITTLE BOY? Or how her enemy in combat has been trained/did studies in the force since he was a child, decades ago?

See how short that was compared to Kylo Ren/Ben Solo? Now, do any of these characteristics help you know Rey? They do a bit, but this is what we know about her, not of her. The problem with Rey as a protagonist is that she’s too bland; she has no negative aspects and, as a consequence, has no character arc to overcome. Kylo searches for emancipation from peoples expectations and to have agency, to be his own person under his freedom. Rey doesn’t change in the whole trilogy.

The only reason she’s even invested in the rebel cause or the people is because of the plot, because other characters (and hence the author) tell her she has to. As opposed to Luke who goes with Obi-Wan because he knew he was destined for something bigger, wanted to get out of Tatooine, and found out his father was a Jedi killed by our main antagonist, motivating him to be like the father he idealized but never met.

Thats’s 3 different motivations to help out Obi-Wan and the rebellion, right there. Rey was just bored, I guess.

So I started to think: “What if our main character is a tragic one like anakin? What if our protagonist is Kylo Ren and Rey is just a proxy for the audience?” I mean, it’s no secret that Kylo got his comic book series (that sold out) apart from becoming one of the most popular characters in the franchise. When you look at it that way, it does make sense; Kylo has a relationship with almost all of the main cast in the movie in one way or another and he’s the most compelling one; the one that changes and goes through a character arc. The most interesting thing about Rey is whether or not she’ll join the dark side. So as much as I hate to say this; Rey is obviously a Mary Sue

The problem here is that the creators didn’t know on who to focus, she so special and flawless that it’s makes her uncompelling and boring. And to add insult to injury they kill of our protagonist, not in the service of a greater cause or to save what he has left, but to bring back this bland sack of Jedi abilities. This isn’t to insult Daisy Ridley, if anything Disney and the writers did them a disservice. Kylo’s story was supposed to be the reversal of Vader, but in the end it was the same story, down to sacrificing himself to save the Jedi fighting Palpatine.

Now, am I anti-Reylo? Kind of, if we go by the movies. My problem is that Rey isn’t a compelling character, so I fail to get invested in her or to even care about her at all, and the sexual tension/kinship that she has with Kylo isn’t a Romance make. You could say “oh they’re a dyad.” That’s not romance, it’s just a bond; you can have a strong connection and not have romantic feelings. Their relationship is about as well executed as Anakin and Padme...and even THEY had conversations in their trilogy. The whole reason Kylo (I refuse to call him Ben at this point) turns good is love, selfless love. From who? The negligent parents that abandoned him, or the scavenger he barely know? Adam said in the documentary that he chose Rey because no one has shown kindness to him, so the moment she shows that kindness and performs a selfless act (which is really not selfless at all, considering she stabbed him while his guard was down) makes him turn good and choose her, he know that if he’s with her he’ll be alright....How is he gonna be alright? Is it because of her Mary Sue powers....If the writers took their time to develop their relationship, maybe we could have something here, but as it’s stands Kylo and Rey have as much romance as Edward and Bella; they have little in common, but god damn they can’t run away from one another! 😒 And that’s not even addressing the troubles of falling in love with someone actively trying to kill you/trying to win a war. So even IF they do have a well developed romance to ship, Rey (being the good guy she is) has drank the Jedi cool-aid so much that it boarders on fanatism and she won’t even consider Kylo’s side or choose an alternative path. If anything Rey could’ve died saving the galaxy, making her a martyr and having Kylo left to forge his own path; not as sith or as a Jedi, but something in between.

So what do you think? I know this has been discussed to death but still...How would you improve the new trilogy? Let me know.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk 😘