#Also definitely something to be said about Ahsoka’s I just don’t know what

[bluetoothschizophrenic]

One of my favorite little things in Star Wars is when lightsabers are symbolic. Like Kanan’s being able to separate to show how he had to hide both from the empire and himself, Ezra’s first one showing how the Jedi have had to adapt to changing times, or Cal’s being broken to further hit home his trauma. Wish they’d do that more often.

[bobbin-buckley]

The Girl You Once Knew

Summary: You find the girl you once knew after years of forgetting

FEM-READER X SHIN HATI

Requested

Warnings: Slight cursing, mentions of s*uicide, Star Wars violence, slight smut, some praising, knee riding (R receiving)

Y/ls/c: Your lightsaber color

Y/h/c: Your hair color

Y/s/c: Your skin color

~~~~~~~~~

You don’t know how long it has been since you’ve seen her, nor do you know where she’s been.

Sabine had been attacked and you weren’t there to see it and help, you were hanging out with Hera and her son Jacen.

Ahsoka had contacted you to hurry to Lothal ASAP since Sabine was in a troubled state. You waisted no time to hurry into your ship and fly to Lothal. You and Sabine were very close best friends, you were never apart of the rebels because you were always with Ahsoka, since you’re her padawan.

Ahsoka was very ennobled to have you by her side, she found you stranded on Aris. You told her you were kidnapped years ago but was never found and never found a way off the planet. Ahsoka was astounded to see you alive, though we’re you close to starvation. She sensed something in you, the force was strong in you, she nearly recognized it’s power.

Later that day, the day you we’re supposed to be watching Heras son but found yourself in a medical room on Lothal, standing in front of your best friend. Sabine had been struck in the torso by a lightsaber, Huyang had told you.

You asked Ahsoka and Huyang who attacked Sabine, they said the person was a girl with blonde hair and feral eyes, a orange lightsaber was held in hand, she had a brawny stance. You also asked Ahsoka of her eye color, she said she didn’t get a good enough look to tell, since it was dark.

Now, you sat in a chair, face in hands and overthinking if it was really her…

“You’re overthinking again young one,” Huyang spoke up. “Mhm,” you hummed.

“You should get some rest, you’ve just been sitting there staring off into the palm of your hands.” You looked up with a glare.

“Y/n, tell me what’s wrong.” Ahsoka provoked. You sighed, not wanting to tell your master why the bother.

“Y/n.”

“I’m just worried about Sabine is all.”

Ahsoka wasn’t convinced but she didn’t push it. She waited for you to speak first. “Fine, I-I think I know who the person that attacked Sabine.”

“Go on.” Ahsoka nodded.

“The way you described her is different but- I still know it’s her, I sensed her in the force on my way here.” You paused, “her name was Shin, Shin Hati. She was a um…”

A friend? A Best friend? A Home? A Lover…?

She was your only hope when you were younger. Living Surviving on the stranded planet Aris with Shin. You found home and love in her, she was your ‘safe place’ you called her. She called you ‘My light’, you were the light to her dark. It seems cliché but it really had meaning between you two.

After years of surviving together, Shin was taken away from you. Well, I wouldn’t put it that way, Shin left you for power. A man named Baylan came along one evening, he said he sensed something in both you and Shin.

The Force.

You didn’t trust him, he seemed off.

Like there was a dark portal surrounding him, you felt like a black mass was wafting over you. You didn’t feel safe then, you definitely didn’t feel safe when Shin trusted him.

You convinced Shin to stay, to not leave you. But she marked her words.

“If you won’t go, I will.” And with that she left.

“Uhm…a friend, we were very close. We both were stranded on Aris, we built a home in each other. Until a man took her away.” Tears filled up in your eyes, it may have been years but it still damn hurts.

“A man?” Huyang wondered.

“Yeah, he was tall with a bushy beard. He had a hooded cloak covering his shadow. He took her away from me, he took…my Shin.”

Then the tears dropped.

You tensed when Ahsoka put a hand on your shoulder. “We will find her, and we’ll find the map on our journey too.” You relaxed at those words.

“W-what if we don’t find her? Or the map?” “No what if’s, that will slow you down more my padawan.”

Ahsoka was right. The more you overthink It would just bring you down. Ahsoka knew when you’d overthink how you would always give up since that’s how you grew up, doubting yourself.

That’s why you and Sabine got a long, both of you would end up giving up and talk to each other about it.

Ahsoka knew better from you, she knows how you’ll always put up a challenge only to break and forget.

You always think you are a failure to her but all she says is; “There is no such thing as failure”

You can’t help but deny her words.

As you were waiting for Sabine to get ready after she was healed more, all you could think were the possibilities of you encountering Shin. And how you think she’ll hate you for not joining her.

“Shin will be okay Y/n. There’s no need to fear.”Ahsoka spoke wisely, and all you could do was nod.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

You stumbled upon Shin for the first time in years. Ahsoka, Huyang, Sabine and you found Shin and her master, along with a witch named Morgan Elsbeth.

You’ve heard the name before, Hera had mentioned her. You haven’t been sure of what power witches had, but you’ve been told in stories that the witches held great power.

Ahsoka and Sabine were fighting off some inquisitor while you chased after Shin into the woods of SEATOS, the Denab system.

You rushed pass the blood colored trees, desperate to find the one you loved before.

Your so called ‘home’

“Shin! Wait! Please! I just want to talk!” Shin came to a stop, hearing your voice.

“Y/n?” She turned around, facing you. Fear and confusion in her eyes.

“Yes, yes it’s me! Shin! It’s Y/n your light.” You stepped closer but Shin tensed back.

“You don’t have to run or hide anymore. I’m here, I’m here to take you home.” You reached a hand out, but Shin sneered.

Her lightsaber ignited, the bright orange beaming off her perfect ocean eyes. The eyes that were now filled with fury and dread.

The couldn’t help but cry on the inside.

Is this really Shin? The Shin you’ve been looking for, for years? Is this really what you called home?

All there is was wrath and pain…

Shin always had anger issues, but this was different. Evil was over her body, covering the sweet blonde you knew and loved.

“Shin- y-you don’t have to do this!” “Yes! Yes I do! It’s to keep you safe!”

Shin attacked first, her arms swinging at you. Luckily your body had time to react and you grabbed your two y/ls/c lightsabers. You blocked just before your face was slashed, a loud clash when the three lightsabers made in contact with each other.

You didn’t want to fight her, you definitely didn’t want to harm her in any way. You wanted her to join you, leave Baylan and the dark side.

The fight between you and Shin was tough, she was incredibly powerful to your surprise.

Shin has managed to get you on your knees, as her lightsaber was pointed at you. You felt weak, maybe if she killed you right then and there you wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore.

You gave her pleading eyes, Shin knew what you wanted but instead she swung her foot around and it made contact with your head, making you get knocked out right there.

~~~~~~~~~

Your vision was blurry, a raging headache was the only thing you could feel other than the pain on your left cheek.

You looked up from the metal floor, to seeing a tall blonde in the way of your exit.

You scoffed, “heh, watching me sleep now too eh? Creepy.”

“I wasn’t watching you sleep.”

Oh that voice, that voice made you feel butterflies. That deep tone made you wanna beg for her to just talk.

“Sure.”

Shin looked at you, watching your every movement from the cell door as you stepped up slowly. You noticed you were in a cell, the dark chambered walls. To your assumption you were on her ship.

“What do you want?” You leaned against the wall.

“Answers.”

“Pft, same. But blondie here doesn’t seem to like to answer.”

Shin glared at you.

Even her glaring was sexy-

“How are you alive? Last time I remembered you died of starvation on Aris,” Shin ignored your comment.

You didn’t want to answer her, but you also had questions lots of them.

“Ahsoka found me, she had a mission on Aris and- happened to find me. Under a rock….literally.” You tried for some humor, but Shin didn’t even smile.

How you missed that, that sweet smirk

“Hm.” She hummed. “How long have you been training with Commander Tano?”

She was joking right? She kidnapped you to only ask how you weren’t dead and how your miserable life is going?

“Can’t believe you knocked me out and kidnapped me just to ask me about my training. I thought our fight would give you a hint.” You snarked.

“We’ll it seems you haven’t been training long, despite the fact that I beat you.”

You rolled your eyes.

It was silent for a bit, all you could do was stare into Shin’s eyes, waiting for her to say something like an apology for leaving or an ‘I miss you’. But there was silence until she turned away with a small glance, the patter of her feet against the ground then leaving you in the cold cell.

You sighed, the woman you loved left again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sabine and you had escaped Morgan’s grasp and found Ahsoka again. You had thought she was dead, when Sabine had told you she died.

It scared the shit out of you. But thankfully she was okay.

You guys located Ezra, Sabines long time friend. He lived with the Noti on Peridea.

Sabine was happy to see him again. You didn’t really know who Ezra was, Sabine had only talked about him a few times.

When you found him it wasn’t long after Shin and her troopers found you. Ahsoka was after Morgan so it was up to the three of you to watch Shin and find Baylan.

After a while of fighting Shin, she lost her army and fled like a coward.

You were sure she wasn’t afraid of losing, she was afraid to hurt you.

You could sense the regret in her, it was very tiny but easy for you to sense. You knew if you asked her she would immediately decline and say she hates you, which is completely un-true.

Hours went on and you didn’t see Shin again or Baylan. You and Ahsoka fought Morgan and stormtroopers as Sabine helped Ezra into Thrawns ship before he’d escape.

With Sabines help of the force he made it, but you and Ahsoka were struggling to fight Morgan and we’re close to losing if it weren’t for Sabine.

Ezra understood that Sabine had to leave him for the two of you, the three of you hoped he found a way off Thrawns ship and to fly to Hera and warn the New Republic about Thrawn.

~~~~~~~

Morgan was dead. Ahsoka took one final strike and slayed her. (Lol slayed)

Stranded, you three were. Safe with the Noti you decided to stay with them and help them until help arrived and when Ashoka’s ship was fixed (since it was damaged during the flight to Peridea.)

It was nice living with the Noti, they were interesting creatures and the fact they were one of the only species on the planet besides the Howlers and Bandits.

You haven’t encountered the Bandits in a while thankfully, cause Baylan and Shin used them against you to kill you.

Speaking of Baylan and Shin, you assumed they were left stranded by Thrawn, there was no sight of them at the death of Morgan Elsbeth.

Everyday you couldn’t help but worry about her. Day and Night. During the day there was chores, training, hunting, food then sleep. You stayed up a bit later until the stars came out, waiting on top of a hill for Shin. Anxious for her to come home.

Ahsoka and Sabine had asked you if you were okay, sensing the worry in you.

Every time they’d ask your excuse was ‘worried about home’ or ‘anxious about the bandits’.

Neither of them believed you but didn’t push you to tell them the truth.

However, little did you know an angry lone wolf was wishing for you too.

~~~~~~~~~~

You were out hunting, alone this time. Usually Sabine and you would go together but you wanted to go out on your own, not just to look for food but to find her.

Walking past a small river where fish lived, you sat down in front of the water looking in the reflection of it, seeing yourself. Your (Y/h/c) was ruffled because of training, big eye bags from staying up late overthinking, and the scar on your left cheek from Shin knocking you out.

Tears slipped down from your eyes, vision blurry and sobs that you were trying to block from coming out.

From all of your crying and thinking you didn’t even see another person in the reflection of the water, but you felt a presence.

“Go away Sabine, I don’t want any of your talks. I’m fin-” You looked up, only to find a blue eyed girl with white/blonde hair.

You gasped.

“Shin?” You swiftly got up from your feet. “W-what are you doing here? I thought you were dead!”

You stepped back.

“Shin say something!-”

“I didn’t know what to do, or where to go..” she spoke quietly.

You noticed a bit of blood staining her grey vest, then noticed a cut in her vest that showed the split skin.

“The bandits got to me, I tried to take over them. But- uh…that backfired.”

You stepped forward but she stepped back.

“I’m- im not going to hurt you. Where’s Baylan?”

You noticed tears in her eyes. God did that break you.

“H-he…he left me,” Shin sobbed, “I had no where else to go. He said for me to kill you, Sabine, Ahsoka and Ezra then join Thrawn but- I..I refused….to harm you.”

Refused? That’s a first, you thought she really wanted to kill you after everything. And definitely Sabine.

“Y/n.”

The way she said your name made your heart thump. A blush to your cheeks.

“Here your going to bleed out, let me help you.” You reached for your bag and brought out some bandages and gauze.

You always kept stuff on you just incase.

Motioning for her to sit, you sat next to her asking her to lift up her shirt and vest.

“This may hurt..” “nothing I can’t handle.”

You smiled, but it faded when you dabbed the gauze on the cut and hearing her hiss in pain.

“I’m sorry,” you winced.

It was quiet as you patched her up, making sure that it was clean.

After doing so, you asked her where she was going to go but she didn’t know either.

“You could…stay with us?”

Shin looked at you if you were serious.

She thought you were crazy, thinking that you’d ever want her in your life again after everything.

“You? Want me to stay with you?”

You hummed.

“I-”

“Shin,” you placed a hand on her thigh, she tensed but relaxed after a second. “I want you to stay.”

It took Shin a bit to think but she nodded with a slight smile. You smiled like a dumb idiot in love.

You were in love. In fact, you are in love

~~~~~~~~~

“Sabine just hear me out!”

This wasn’t going very well. You were standing in front of a furious Sabine Wren with her lightsaber out ready to pounce at the blonde behind you. One arm reached out to make sure Sabine doesn’t get any closer, looking back at Shin every so once in awhile to make sure she doesn’t pounce either.

You brought Shin over to convince Sabine and Ahsoka for her to stay, since she had no where else to go.

“No! I won’t hear you out! Do you not realize what she did to us?!” Sabine yelled.

“Look, I know your angry at me for this and you hate her, but we have history I’ve told you this!” You did in fact tell Sabine about your and Shins relationship. She didn’t believe you at first but it kinda made since later.

“So what!”

“So what?! Sabine she has no where else to go! She’ll die if we leave her on her own!”

“So then let her! Let her starve on this shit hole!”

“Sabine.” Ahsoka finally stepped in.

You relaxed a bit but still kept your guard, as well as Shin. Sabine only strained more.

“You must calm your anger. I understand how our friend here has invoked us, but it isn’t right to leave her alone to die,” Ahsoka trotted over to the Mandalorian. “Shin can stay, but if she ever tries to harm us then she has to leave.”

Ahsoka looked over at you and Shin, as you glanced at her and she nodded to you, understanding.

“Good. Sabine, come with me and Y/n,” Ahsoka looked at you again. “Get her to rest.”

~~~~~~~~~

It has been a few days since Shin joined your tribe with the Noti. You think she’s happy to be with you again, well, you know.

Shin has opened up to you more about Baylan, and how he was like a father to her. She cried every time she talked about him, but you were there to hold her and comfort her.

Every day was better now with Shin around. You had more confidence.

You and Shin would sleep in the same tent, wake up and go for a morning walk, chores together (you taught her certain things the Noti taught you), you’d spar with Sabine as she’d spar with Ahsoka (sometimes you guys would spar together), hunt, eat then watch the sunset go down till bed.

You both have gotten close, really close

Shin was always teasing you, like brushing your hip when training, teasing words in your ear when doing chores, winking at you when you’d do something she thinks is hot.

It wasn’t making you mad or annoyed, it made you flushed and having the urge to kiss her right there.

You were eye-fucking each other the entire time every day. You got closer to cuddling in your sleep, and not saying a word about it the next morning.

Sabine had caught on quick about it. You also thought Ahsoka caught on too. Maybe even Huyang! Pretty obvious if being noticed by the wise droid.

Every time Shin would do something Ahsoka would give you a look that made you want to tackle her and frown.

You knew these feelings wouldn’t get unnoticed by your jedi master, Ahsoka always knew things you didn’t or things you’d think she doesn’t know but…knows.

~~~~~~~~

“Are you gonna actually woman up at some point and ask out your girl?”

You almost spat out your soup.

“What!?”

“You know.”

“No, I actually don’t,” you fought.

“Dude,” Sabine sat down on the log next to you, eyeing you then the fire. “You guys are eye-fucking each other every time you take a glance.”

You rolled your eyes, face blushing and hoping the blaze of fire hides it.

“It’s obvious, I bet you the Noti even notice it,”Sabine chuckled.

“Okay, I do really like her to where I think I love her. But I don’t know how to ask her out! I’ve never asked anyone out before! What do I say?” You rambled.

Sabine gave you a look, “just- be yourself, take her on an evening walk or something. Can’t really do any dates.”

“Yeah no shit,” your eyes veered to the ground. “You sure a walk will work?”

“Dude, it will! Trust me, I’m a professional at these things.”

You gave her a look, “mhm..sure cause you are totally a professional.”

Sabine rolled her eyes.

“But thanks..”

“No problem, I just need someone to keep that grimlin to calm down.” You laughed and with that, Sabine said good night and headed off to bed.

You sighed heavily, you know Shin likes you too. You’re just worried if it’s the right time, your gut is telling you to. So that’s what you go with.

Later that evening you were compelling wether or not to wake Shin up and ask her to walk with you. You’d feel bad waking her up, besides you couldn’t sleep thinking about all this.

You finally made the decision of going to wake the blonde. You walked to your shared tent and stepped inside, looking down at the peaceful girl.

She was so cute, her blonde hair a little ruffled, her mouth half open and small snores coming from her.

Kneeling down on your right knee, you gently shook Shin awake with your left hand. “Shin, Shin wake up, I want to ask you something.”

Of course Shin was a deep sleeper.

“Shin!” You whisper yelled.

Eventually you heard a groan from the older girl. “Why?”

You blushed, “I was uh..wondering if you’d take a walk with me? I have something important to talk to you about.” You were surprised you spat all that out.

“Hmp…why not tomorrow?..” Shin sighed.

“It’s really important…”

Shin finally opened her eyes, just a little bit but enough to see her blue glare.

“Fine, just give me a second.”

You nodded and left the tent, waiting for her outside.

Once Shin was ready you both started to walk on a path that led to the river you guys met at.

“Why’d you bring me out here to walk?”

Shin broke the silence

“I was wondering…if uh..”

Shit. What did Sabine tell you to do again?

You question yourself

Shin looked at you with her right brow perked up, as she cocked her head.

“Look Shin. I know it’s been a long time since we’ve been together. But I just want you to kno-”

You didn’t even get to finish cause the next thing you knew lips were on yours.

Soft lips

Her lips were so soft

She kissed harsh. Like she’s been wanting to kiss you for years. (And she has)

You kissed back just the same amount of force. Her hands placed on your hips, pulling you closer. Your arms wrapped around her back, digging your nails into her clothed skin, craving more of her touch.

Shin bit down on your lips, causing them to bleed as she then licked up the red liquid. Teeth clashing as she dug her tongue into your mouth.

You groaned when she gripped your ass, trying to get impossibly closer.

“Lay down for me my light.”

Shin laid you down on the soft grass, kissing you once again as she climbed on top of you.

Her hands now placed on your cheeks, rubbing her thumb rubbing over the scar on your left cheek.

“Shin..” you whimpered as she started to kiss below your chin, gripping the skin with her teeth.

Purple and red marks were decorating your (y/s/c) skin, wet kisses trailed down your neck. You gripped her hair roughly, begging for her to mark you as hers. She implied but biting hard next to your pulse as her younger danced across the reddened skin.

She swimmed back up to capture you in another kiss. “Is this okay?” She asked against your puffy plump lips, you nodded with a sigh as she placed her knee between your thighs.

All you could think of now was her

She was your focus

You focused on her knee, lifting your hips as your clothed clit made contact with her knee making you moan.

“That’s it baby, grind yourself on my knee. Come on darling, make yourself cum on me.” She praised.

You felt so loved by her. Everything she was doing was soft. It made you want to never leave this position.

Shin kissed where your heart was, peppering more until she reached your stomach. Brushing her hand over your breasts causing your back to arch.

“Oh-oh fuck-” you cried. “Sh-Shin…”

“Yes babygirl?”

“I want more…please oh fuck please.”

“Yeah? You want more, what do you want more of?” She teased.

“Yo-your fingers..” you gasped when she pulled her knee away. Only to bring her hand down your pants.

“Mhm..want my fingers eh?”

You nodded, biting your already swollen lips.

Shin rubbed two fingers over your clit, bringing you closer to your orgasm.

“Come on baby, let go, let go for me,” she murmured against your lips.

“Oh shit! Yes! Fuck oh my god!” Shin smirked and eased her fingers inside you.

“Cum for me..”

And with that, your body shook as you clenched around her fingers. Moaning her name over and over until your high came to an end.

“That’s it..”

Shin pulled away and rubbed your thigh while brushing your hair out of your face. She leaned down to kiss you again.

“Let me please you in return baby.” You husked.

Shin blushed but nodded.

You sure were in for one hell of a night. But it’s a night you won’t forget about.

Because you were in the arms of your home.

~~~~~~~~~

The ending was cheesy as hell but I did it!

It kinda seems short but also long at the same time cause I needed to find motivation 😭

I hope it’s good!

Let me know if any other requests I might write something with Tara 🤭

[gffa]

Everyone has my absolute sympathy for trying to sort this stuff out, because there is so much source material to sort through and so much of a game of Telephone being played (ie, one person says something they believe to be true, the next person picks it up as hard fact and repeats it as such, then the next person also believes it but adding a bit of their own assumptions to what the previous posts said, on and on until we get to where we are now in fandom) that it can be hard to sort it all out. My best advice is to just start paying attention to sources on things--like when someone posts a quote from Wild Space, I automatically think, okay, that's in the Legends continuity, because I've looked up which books are in which continuity enough to know that.  Once you start doing that often enough, you start naturally understanding what comes from what continuity. Like, for a specific example--the idea of Jedi aging out at 13, when someone posts about that, where does that come from?  It's always sourced back to the Jedi Apprentice books, so, okay, that's a Legends thing!  Can you think of any time that came up in the movies or in TCW?  If not, then it's not Lucas' continuity and it never happened there.  In fact, The Clone Wars (Ahsoka's 14 in the movie and said to be on the young side for being a Padawan) + Disney (the Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama has a 16 year old Initiate who will have to wait another year before trying to be a Padawan again) both show that's not part of those continuities. That's pretty much it, I just constantly go after the source, figure out where something is from, and if I can't find a source, it's probably Legends or fanon.  (Which is no shade!  People should do what they want!  But I do like knowing what's fanon and what's not.) For the Jedi stuff, I can definitely help you out--I have a Jedi reference project, which is a collection of citations from Lucas continuity + Disney continuity (if it's quoted from Lucas, the movies, or TCW s1-s6, then it's Lucas continuity, everything else is Disney on that list) and Part II has an intro section that lists the different continuities as I see them. But I would say the primary differences between Lucas/Disney and Legends Jedi are: (None of these are value judgements!  I have read so many good fics that mix and match all of these things and I hope people continue to do what makes them happy, re: what goes in which continuity!) - Aging out does not seem to exist, the AgriCorps do not exist in the same fashion if they exist in Disney canon. - While Bant and Siri have been recanonized, Garen and Reeft do not exist in Disney canon, nor does Feemor or Komari.  Rael Averross is Dooku's other Padawan in Disney continuity, he does not exist in Legends. - Male Cereans are not endangered, Ki-Adi-Mundi is not married in Lucas or Disney canon. - The post-ROTJ world is massively, massively different, like Luke married Mara Jade and they had a son, Ben Skywalker, Han and Leia had three children (Jacen & Jaina the twins, Anakin their youngest son), Luke trains more Jedi as adults, while in Lucas' views and in Disney, he trains younger students. - The clones are not Mandalorian, in Lucas canon and Disney canon, they consider Kamino their home and they've never spoken any Mando'a.  Honestly,  I'm not sure any Mando'a has ever been spoken in any of Disney's stuff?  (Also, Mando'a was heavily linked with Karen Traviss' writing and, given that she's a Trump supporter and anti-BLM irl, some people really don't want to touch her stuff.) - The Jedi meditation mantra of "there is no emotion, there is peace" is purely a supplementary canon thing, it started in an '80s roleplaying book for the OT, then made its way to PT Legends stuff, and is referenced in Disney's continuity, but it does not exist in Lucas' continuity at all.  Also the "emotion yet peace" version is a prequels era thing, a lot of people will say it's an "older version" of the Jedi Code, but the only time we see it is during the Clone Wars (from the Kanan comics' flashbacks). - Grey Jedi do not exist in Lucas Canon or Disney canon.  I’m not sure if they’re around in some form in Legends (a lot of wild stuff happened in Legends), but they seem to be actively impossible to have in these canons, given the story group’s commentary about how you cannot use the dark side without consequences.  You can’t be a Jedi and use the dark side, pretty much. Oh, no, I'm kind of stuttering to a stop on trying to think of more major differences between the continuities, because honestly I'm better at answering direct questions than trying to come up with something.  (And even then, if I can't write a 25k essay, I feel bad, like, "Is this enough??  Or am I FAILING  here??" because sometimes Star Wars just Does Not Give Us Answers.  orz)

[inquisitor-apologist]

Force, I am SO frustrated with the Filonification of popular Star Wars. People keep on trying to make arguments about Star Wars, yet they refuse to actually watch Star Wars and make sensible criticisms about it because they’re literally just parroting whatever weird non-canonical shit Felony spit out in an article last week.

I was looking at this article:

And I was legitimately trying to look at the criticisms and see if I can agree with any of them, but they don’t make any sense and I can just feel Filoni oozing off them.

So imma rant, got it?

Mistake Number 1 that led to the fall of the order: They were too much into politics.

More specifically, the article claims that “they very much had a hand in the flipping the Senate” with reference to the Vote of No Confidence for Valorum in tpm, but it’s been a minute and a half since I saw the prequels, so I read the Wookie summary, and I might’ve missed something but I don’t think there’s any mention of them, like, voting or doing anything significant in the Senate in ep1? I feel like it would’ve been mentioned if it was even vaguely implied that the Jedi mind tricked the senate or lobbied for the vote to go one way or another, but it isn’t mentioned anywhere and it don’t square with what I remember, so I’m guessing they just made this up and convinced themselves it was canon? Tell me if you can figure out what they’re talking about or if there is a canon basis I missed.

Other than that, I do not remember a single scene where we saw the Jedi do anything more political than take orders from politicians or exist in the senate building in the prequels.

Mistake Number 2 that led to the fall of the order: Suppressing Baby Murderer’s emotions.

…A Take, certainly. So this one’s talking about Anakin’s grief over his mother’s death, which I agree would be a fucked-up thing to suppress. That’d suck. If it actually happened because… the Jedi do not know that Anakin’s mom is dead. They do not know that Anakin and Padmé went to Tatooine, since they were ordered to stay on Naboo. They are utterly unaware of everything that happens on Tatooine aside from Yoda feeling the Tusken Massacre in the Force. Yeah, Anakin told Obi-Wan that he’d had dreams about his mom dying, and he didn’t do anything about it, but that wasn’t Obi Wan suppressing Anakin’s emotions—that was just him saying that it sucked that he had a bad dream, since I don’t think Anakin said it could’ve been a vision or anything, so this one doesn’t land at all. Where did they get this idea???

Mistake Number 3 that led to the fall of the order: ‘Allowing’ Maul to take over Mandalore (somehow?)

I can feel my brain cells dying. Maul joined up with a terrorist group and some crime gangs to forcefully take over a neutral system. None of that was ‘allowed’ by the Jedi. They also say that the Jedi ‘sent’ Obi Wan to get rid of Maul when I remember Yoda telling Obi Wan some shit like “Send anyone to Mandalore the Jedi cannot” and then Obi Wan went to Mandalore anyway and it didn’t do shit. Anyway I feel like the author of this article might own a ridiculously annoying cowboy hat. Just a hunch.

Mistake Number 4 that led to the fall of the order: Baselessly Exiling Ahsoka (Baselessly?? There very much was base)

So. Wrong Jedi Arc my beloathed. Here we are again. The article claims that the Jedi “exiled Ahsoka Tano on mere suspicion alone and didn't even confirm whether she was involved in the bombing of the Jedi Temple or not”. Which. Hmm. So, there was a big investigation into the bombing that pretty definitely said that Ahsoka was almost certainly the bomber. It wasn’t ‘mere suspicion’, it was all the fucking evidence very clearly pointing to her. She ran away, she worked with a damn separatist assassin, she was found in a warehouse filled with the bombs. The audience know she was framed, but the characters don’t because the whole point of framing someone is to convince the other people they did it. If the Jedi had exiled her for this, they would’ve been being very reasonable and justified. Will also point out that the Jedi were forced by the Senate to exile her and did not want to. They apologized and let her back in as soon as they possibly could.

Also there’s this weird (actually!) baseless claim that Ahsoka was one of the most powerful Jedi in the Clone Wars. Which has no proof because it’s untrue—she’s a padawan with max 2 years of training. There’s no way she’s more powerful than a fully trained knight, of which there were still quite a few. But of course she is, because she’s Felony’s beloved OC who can do no wrong.

Mistake Number 5 that led to the fall of the order: Not giving Baby Murderer power

I am convinced that no one involved in writing or editing this article has actually watched RotS, and has only ever listened to Felony talk about RotS. They claim that ‘they invited Anakin over to the Council as a pseudo-member and his only task was to spy on the Chancellor. Not only was this political meddling once again, but it was also an insult to Anakin’ oh no, they insulted Anakin, clearly this means he’s justified in murdering them! Also, the Jedi Council apparently wanted to appoint Anakin, they weren’t literally forced into it by Palpatine. You know, that scene where Palpatine is like “yeah, I’ve forced the council to put you on the council even though they don’t want you there. You’re my spy on the council now” that didn’t happen actually. The Jedi were completely evil in not allowing the unstable baby murderer a full seat on their governing body when they were forced to put him there through nepotism. Them asking the only guy who’s close enough with the chancellor to investigate him because he’s overstayed his term and is overreaching with his powers is also completely evil and awful and unjustified. Uh huh.

Mistake Number 6 that led to the fall of the order: Mace Windu Wants To Kill Palpatine Right Away (direct quote from the article)

Yeah, you read that right. I can’t make this shit up, but filoni sure as fuck can. So, Mace Windu learns that the shady Chancellor that’s been overreaching with his authority and has overstated his term is also an evil Sith that has manipulated both sides of the war to gain power, causing the deaths of millions, including a shit ton of Mace’s people and friends, because said chancellor drafted them to fight in the war that he created. This would make Mace pretty damn justified in killing Palpy imo, but Mace specifically goes to arrest him for his crimes. Palpatine then kills three other Jedi Masters in cold blood and attempts to kill Mace, and when Mace beats him he still tries to arrest him—y’know that whole “You are under arrest, my lord” bit?—until the guy tries to fucking electrocute him with his fucking hands and it becomes clear that there is no way to take him in peacefully. Only after palpatine murders 3 people in front of him, attempts to murder Mace in combat, and makes it clear that he cannot be taken in alive does Mace attempt to kill him. No matter how you slice it, that’s not him wanting to kill the bitch right away.

Also the article tries to say that Anakin wanted to bring Palpatine in because he recognized that he should stand trial, which is technically what he says, but he also screams “I need him!” in that same scene so I think we know why he really doesn’t want Palpy to die.

Mistake Number 7 that led to the fall of the order: They didn’t train Luke and Leia

Now this might seem baffling because the article is supposedly talking about things that caused the fall of the order and Luke and Leia weren’t even born until after the fall of the order, but I can assure you that the article does not explain this in any way.

Still, let’s pretend this makes sense with the subject of the article and press on. The article asks what was stopping Obi Wan from training Luke as a Jedi on Tatooine. I feel like the answer might have something to do with the fact that the twins were so powerful that the Jedi were afraid that the emperor could sense them if they were next to each other. Formal training would make them stronger and more likely to be sensed, so they didn’t do it until they had to. This probably would be the most reasonable thing in here if the article wasn’t about what caused the fall of the order.

Mistake Number 8 that led to the fall of the order: Not telling Luke about Vader

Yet another Thing That Lead to the Fall of the Jedi Order that somehow happened after the fall of the order, but if I focus on that I might start screaming, so we move on.

This article leads you to believe that all the problems in ESB could’ve been solved if only Obi Wan had told Luke about Vader. Hmm. Yoda says in RoJ that Luke wasn’t ready for the information when he was told at the end of ESB, which seems very true based on the fact that Luke was unable to accept the information when told, was described by George Lucas as suicidal afterwards, and is suddenly unable to consider killing Mr. Evil Baby Murderer Space Fascist afterwards because of their family connection, and you want Obi-Wan to tell him earlier?

You know that OT Luke would, upon hearing that information before Cloud City, have immediately jumped in his X-Wing and raced to confront Vader. If he found Vader in that state, Luke would’ve been even more unbalanced and unfocused, which would’ve lead to him losing the duel worse and being either killed or captured by Vader, since Leia wouldn’t have been close enough to save him.

Mistake Number 9 that led to the fall of the order: Not believing people who had been dead for 1,000 years were back without proof

I want you to imagine a hypothetical with me: a guy that is somehow vaguely influential in politics walks up to the UN and tells them that Leif Eriksson and the Vikings are back and coming to kill everybody. This man has no proof beyond what he and a couple of people with him say , and there has been no indication of this at all before he shows up. I know in that scenario I’d want the UN to throw him out until he had proof.

That’s the modern day equivalent of Qui Gon telling the Jedi the Sith are back. He’s making a huge claim with no evidence. You can’t expect the Jedi to immediately believe him no questions asked. The instant there’s actual proof of this, we see the two most influential and powerful Jedi, Mace and Yoda, talking about how they need to look out for other Sith. They are taking the threat seriously, they just aren’t omniscient like the audience.

Mistake Number 10 that led to the fall of the order: When they were enemies of the state who would be killed if they didn’t hide, they hid

Truly, a horrible mistake. Now they’re mad at Obi Wan and Yoda for going into hiding, unlike other survivors of Order 66. Other survivors such as Kanan, Ahsoka, Cal, and Quinlan, perhaps. All of these characters went into hiding. Cal and Kanan were forced out of hiding, and Ahsoka helped with the early rebellion while remaining in hiding, but pretty much every order 66 survivor tried to go into hiding.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry.

[skoulsons]

Baylan and Shin’s parting

The scene that has upset (me) or confused (also me) most people. A chunk of people, who I respectfully disagree with, have said that Baylan is “abandoning” Shin. While I agree she definitely feels abandoned, I do not believe that is or ever would be Baylan’s intention. I just don’t think it works.

There’s an obvious amount of care (love, you could say) in their relationship. They’re not your typical competitive Sith master / apprentice relationship or Jedi master / padawan where feelings like that were repressed. They’re not mercenaries who were put together for a job or purely for the selfish gain of power. Shin has been under his wing as his padawan, borderline his child, for a long time.

He’s very protective of her as we see most notably in episode 4 when he ‘kills’ Ahsoka because she threw Shin into a rock. That sort of protection that drives you to kill someone (I don’t believe his original intention was to kill her—it was that that set him off) doesn’t come from a lack of love or lack of a relationship.

Their first scene on Peridea is another to consider. They’re comfortable, open, and vulnerable. Shin’s tone when she says “I know no such stories (shoutout to the person who made that post about Baylan telling Shin stories about the Jedi when she was younger. i still think about you)” is a sarcastic tone, almost teasing. They both comfortably smile and are way more relaxed being around just each other. Shin asks him questions without fear and Baylan answers without hesitation.

So, no, I don’t believe he’s abandoning her.

Now, nothing is known for sure. What exactly does he hear? What exactly does he see? What vision does he have?

Hopefully we get that answer, but my (and maybe most of you) bigger concern is why part from Shin for a wasteland and some power (yes yes we know he wants the ‘beginning’ but that’s still kinda VAGUE)?

Again, don’t know the truth, just throwing out ideas. i cant wait to be wrong on every front and be completely humbled tuesday night lolol

For one, he’s sensed and understood her questions and doubts and is actually considering them. He’s recognizing “OK, she doesn’t see all that I do”. He isn’t saying “Nope, I’m forcing you to join me in this”. He’d be a jackass if he did that. Since he seems pretty sold on staying on Peridea for… whatever it is he believes is there, he’s letting her go so she can, in turn, find her footing and take her place in the coming empire. Yes, he doesn’t know if that’s even what she wants, but Shin hasn’t exactly told him what she would want. All she’s mentioned (I think) was about leaving Peridea since Thrawn is desperate to leave as well.

Either way, he’s considering her and letting her go her own way instead of forcing her into a future with him that she obviously isn’t interested in.

Two, Baylan actually knows a lot more than he’s letting on and sees something that is… dangerous. Something he doesn’t want Shin exposed to. Something he knows is dangerous and he’s trying to keep her from (so she doesn’t suffer the same fate as his last padawan—if it’s true, of course). This one seems more selfish than some other thoughts. It can even fit other fandoms—he’ll go into it guns blazing for himself despite its dangers, but not her.

Three, which is just a bit of a vaguer, rephrased Two, he can’t / doesn’t want to lose another padawan if he can help it.

“Oh, then why’d she even follow him to Peridea? Why’d Baylan even let her come if he was going to abandon her anyway?”

He’s her master. Of course she’s going to follow him. It’s the guy she’s known longer than anyone else in her life. Her master, her father figure. Why wouldn’t she follow him? Why wouldn’t she stick it out for him? And, again, don’t believe at all that it’s abandonment or even something that was planned. It seemed very spur of the moment—like an off screen decision being made in Baylan’s head. Parting from her wasn’t something on his bucket list he was waiting to check off.

Fourth, the “ambition” that Baylan said was driving Shin is her willingness (not the word im looking for please read my mind) to embrace the dark side compared to himself. If he truly wants to bring an end to the Jedi v Empire back-and-forth, he’ll stay more Gray. So, he parts from her to give her that freedom. It’s the thing that drives them apart.

There’s even more ways to try and understand why, im sure. These are just word vomits and nothing to be taken as truth.

While I don’t at all believe Baylan’s intention was to abandon her, leave her for dead, etc, I definitely agree that Shin does feel abandoned.

Was the decision easy for Baylan? Highly doubt it. I don’t think he would watch her go, take a deep breath in, and roll his shoulders if it was easy. I don’t think he’d look around after Ahsoka stole his howler and debate going back for her if it was an easy decision. I don’t think he’d wait on the hill to keep watch and protect from a distance if he didn’t care.

I think one thing is for sure. Baylan thinks he’s doing what’s best when it’s really not. Shin looked like a kicked dog when Ahsoka offered to help—and whether that’s because she was reminded of 30 minutes prior on the hill beside him, or 15 years prior when Baylan stood above her and offered his help that started them on their journey (yari put this thought in my noggin), it hurts all the same.

I just hope the finale clears something up

[galactic-pirates]

Romance Tropes Bracket (Round Two)

You can see my first round post here.

Please check out @purlturtle's second round post. I'm doing this in response to them, as they said I could. Such an interesting topic!

So in the BLUE CORNER

Bodyguard vs Workplace

Second Chances vs. Sibling's Best Friend

Rocking that RED we have

Grumpy/Sunshine vs Just To Get It Out Of Our Systems

Holiday Romance vs. Soulmates

The sun shines down on YELLOW

Mistaken Identity vs Only One Bed

Amnesia vs Secretly a Celeb/Royal

Aaaaaand finally working that GREEN

Fake Dating vs. Friends to Lovers

Sworn Off Love vs. Supernatural (vampires etc.)

Under the cut for this round of picks and rambles!

Bodyguard vs Workplace Workplace is a wide field of possibility - it’s literally any place people work. Bodyguard is just one profession but it could protect someone who works in many different fields. Again a lot of options.

I’m going to go with Bodyguard because Workplace is too wide really. It’s a setting, a backdrop. There is a slight inherent prompt (meeting at work) but Bodyguard is that and a dynamic as well. Plus as I mentioned in the first round I find the Bodyguard trope compelling. I have more novel ideas than time/spoons so I don’t know if I will ever get round to writing my Bodyguard concept series but I hope I do! I have concepts for 3 books at the moment. If only I could write multiple ideas at once. Writing takes ages :/

WINNER: Bodyguard

Second Chances vs Sibling’s Best Friend I was decidedly meh on the Sibling’s Best Friend in round one so this isn’t going to come as any great surprise. It has to be Second Chances. Last round I briefly mentioned by serial - “reunited forced proximity due to workplace divorced ex-wives” and for fun I'm going to tell you the inspiration. So I was watching Ahsoka and I did a literal spit-take because I misheard a line and thought Sabine said "Guess I should have married a good one" and what can I say, inspiration was born. I don't really ship Ahsoka and Sabine but boy once I had seen those ex-vibes I couldn't unsee it.

Anyway! I have another Second Chance in my sci-fi thriller series. That’s sort of reunited via bad guy revenge. They are both slow burn on getting back together because while the love is still there, breaking up caused pain. It’s important not to gloss over that. To communicate, to build something stronger, to not repeat past mistakes - learn and grow basically. I do like the idea that the end doesn’t have to be the end. That love can endure. That people can mess up and work their way back. There’s hope in that.

WINNER: Second Chances

Grumpy/Sunshine vs Just To Get It Out of Our Systems Again no surprise as I wasn’t fond of the ‘Out of our systems’ trope in round one. It had to be Grumpy/Sunshine. I have thought about that a little more though because while I described the type of vibe, I didn’t give any examples. The first one that came to mind was the fandom crossover Rushbelle (Nicholas Rush, SGU and Belle, Once Upon a Time). But I also think it applies to Lamia and Cassandra from Librarians. I think I said before it’s not a vibe I like with all pairings, it’s not something I look for. It’s more like a topping? It’s not the cake. With some pairings it works to add something but it’s not something that compels me on its own. But it wins by default.

WINNER: Grumpy/Sunshine

Holiday Romance vs Soulmates This one is a little more difficult if you stretch the definition of Holiday Romance but otherwise it mostly feels like a sweet meet cute. I do like the Soulmate trope. I explained why in the last round. I never thought I would like this trope and then I wrote it and discovered how interesting it can be.

I think it comes back to that iconic line about “I would find you and choose you in any universe” or the other line about “hope there will always be an us, in every world, in every story”. Because when people fit… this is why there’s a million AUs for ships. We watch the same ship fall in love in different settings, with different tropes - across alternate universes and they still belong. I don’t like the whole “only one person destined for you, not being whole etc. without them” - that’s not what I mean. Maybe I’m talking transcendence I don’t know. I think I’m trying to have it both ways with the soulmates trope but I do like it.

WINNER: Soulmates

Mistaken Identity vs Only One Bed Ooof we have reached a tough one. It kinda doesn’t feel fair that some brackets are super easy and then others I would pick both. Only One Bed is the absolute classic but it can’t just win automatically or it will steamroll the whole thing purely for being iconic. I have a deep appreciation for it. I snicker and go awww every time.

But then Mistaken Identity… I spoke last time of that Sophie Devereaux quote “do you let them love the fake you, or hate the real you” and about masks, the deep need to be loved for who a character truly honestly is - true acceptance basically. This definition is present in basically everything I write. Characters are afraid to be truly seen thinking they will be rejected. I don’t know if I am stretching the Mistaken Identity as a prompt but this is how it speaks to me and so I got to go with it.

WINNER: Mistaken Identity

Amnesia vs Secretly a Celeb/Royal I stretched the definition of Secretly a Celeb/Royal last time. I talked of the idea I have tossed around of some rich guy doing a Clark Kent as nobody expects them to be normal. I do like that. It’s one of the old standbys I pull out when I can’t sleep buuuuut Amnesia is another one.

There’s something about memory, like it’s gone but an impression remains. An echo. Like Deja-vu maybe? Imagine waking up and going “who are you” and getting told “I’m your wife” and going home and seeing photos and mementoes of a life you don’t remember. But when you hold her, there’s something. It feels right in a world where everything feels unfamiliar and wrong. OR alternately another variation of two friends who aren’t together but the one with amnesia doesn’t know anyone, but they know their friend, they think they are lovers or married. How can their friend tell them when they are the only thing in the world they remember? There’s a lot of ways it can go.

WINNER: Amnesia

Fake Dating vs Friends to Lovers This is another hard one. Friends to Lovers is basically everything I write, and Fake Dating is like Only One Bed - an absolute classic. Iconic. Now I ruled against Only One Bed because I said it couldn’t win purely because it was so iconic. I said that a definition of Mistaken Identity could be about masks and that was in everything. The same applies to Friends to Lovers. I guess on that basis Friends has to win. I am just hesitant. I don’t know why Fake Dating just tickles something in my brain. So much mutually pining idiots. This is really difficult I want to pick both.

WINNER: Friends to Lovers

Sworn Off Love vs Supernatural (vampires etc.) In the first round I waxed lyrical basically about Helena swearing off love in Warehouse 13 and then Myka happened. I have such feelings I can't tell you. But then Supernatural ugh! This is another super hard one to choose between because they both have such compelling facets to them.

I suppose Supernatural is broader because the conflicts it evokes are dependant on the situation - of which there are many possibilities. Sworn Off Love is the conflict itself. It sort of speaks to a trauma in the past that the person needs to overcome. Not because the new love/relationship will fix them (I don't like that), but because they are still stuck in the moment of whatever hurt them. It is taking their choices and to have control of their life and happiness they need to process the pain. Whether that's accepting love from this partner, or a future partner, or just being more comfortable in themselves - knowing that they can have a relationship if they want, even if they decide they don't.

Having just gone on I guess I kinda need to pick Sworn Off Love but Supernatural is so compelling /sigh. So hard to choose!

WINNER: Sworn Off Love

I saw @purlturtle didn't ramble for this round but I'm not even a little bit sorry. Maybe eventually I will have less to say but probably not. It's me and story, I can usually think of something haha.

[r-2-peepoo]

Did Obi Wan really vote to kick Ahsoka out of the Jedi Order???

All of these things that are wrapped up in Ahsoka’s story, which ultimately make her realize what the audience realizes. “I love the Jedi Order. They’re very important to me, I’ve always respected them. But there’s something wrong here, and I need to walk away from it to assess it.” -Dave Filoni on Ahsoka walking away from the Order.

(Full Quote at the bottom.)

For anyone who doesn’t want to read my ramblings, the answer is NO. You may now continue scrolling. <3

There’s this weird idea I’ve seen showing up over and over mainly in the comments of tiktok edits of Ahsoka and Idk if it’s just one person and I’m just on a very niche part of Star Wars edit tiktok but it’s bothering me so I want to say this for anyone who may have seen this misinformation:

Absolutely nowhere has it been definitively stated that Obi Wan voted in favour of expelling Ahsoka from the Order.

You are more than welcome to speculate but it is not a proven fact so let’s not lie to fans who potentially aren’t aware of that.

This arc in general bothers me, not because I’m a biased Obi Wan fan who thinks he can do no wrong (quite the opposite in fact), but because I do think it could’ve been written better or at least in more detail. I know Dave claimed otherwise but I don’t believe that it would exist if not to explain why Ahsoka wasn’t in Revenge of the Sith. It was necessary, I love how dramatic it is, but I could also live without it. That's just my opinion though.

Did Obi Wan do as much as he could to help Ahsoka? No. That is a fact. Neither did Plo and those are two people who are meant to be in her corner. It’s super disappointing to watch but it’s also not out of character which is a strength of the arc. People you care about can and will disappoint you which is just a fact of life and understanding that is a vital part of growing up. It’s an uncomfortable truth and it would be cool to know more about Ahsoka's perspective on this considering how young she was when this happened.

Furthermore, people rarely seem to consider the perspective of the council. The public is losing faith in the Jedi (for understandable reasons). Not to mention that people were killed in the bombing and they deserve justice. Like it or not, there was evidence placing Ahsoka at the scene. We know she would never do it. Anakin and Padmé know. Certain members of the council definitely know. However, it would go against the council’s beliefs, and would be wrong for them to bend the legal system to protect one of their own. As nice as it would be, it would only end up making things worse not just for the reputation of the Order but for Ahsoka herself too. She would still be a suspect and to outsiders, she would look guilty, so the council has to follow the legal system. Doing anything else would only amplify the spotlight on her. That doesn’t invalidate her reaction at all, in fact, her reaction is the most compelling part in my opinion. It would, however, be interesting to know what she thinks about it when she’s older though because her views on the Jedi are far from black and white.

I'm also of the view that Palpatine and the Senate did the majority of the damage. If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's fuck Palpatine.

When I first saw this arc, my heart sank to see Obi Wan and Plo not giving Ahsoka their full support and it still does make me sad but after reading Dave’s full quote on the issue and reflecting on it more, I understand. Can’t say I’d do the same as I’d probably end up more like Anakin but it was the best thing to do considering the council’s position and the information they had at the time. Not to mention it’s heavily implied through what Dave said and just from watching the show and knowing these characters that the people most likely to vote to save Ahsoka are Yoda, Plo and Obi Wan.

Also let's talk about Obi Wan's reaction to Ahsoka leaving because that shit broke me. He's usually so restrained and composed so Plo having to stop him from going after her and Anakin is a huge deal. I'd love to know what that confrontation would've looked like.

Star Wars characters’ strengths lie in that not a single one of them is a perfect person. It’s what makes them so interesting. Manipulating the narrative to make certain people look like more of a victim and others look worse just picks holes in the story and does a disservice to both the character being victimised and the character being vilified. Ahsoka looks back on her time as a Jedi and misses it and always intended to come back eventually. She didn’t hate them. It would be uncharacteristic of her if she did and Obi Wan was someone who really meant a great deal to her, ever after this arc.

-

Finally, here is everything Dave said on the matter:

“Then at the beginning of the last arc [of Season Five], she basically saves Anakin the way Anakin would’ve always saved her in the past. And Anakin’s unconscious, he’s like, “What happened?” She says, “I saved your life, don’t worry about it.” It’s fun and he laughs about it then, and he’s not embarrassed by it. They’re a team. So we get them to that moment and then we put a ton of pressure on it.

And through the whole trial, Anakin is the only one that stays 100 percent in her court.

I think Plo Koon stays 75-80 percent of the way in her court because he says, “I don’t believe she could’ve fallen so low.”

In Obi-Wan we really see the Jedi because he is compromised. Obi-Wan doesn’t believe Ahsoka is guilty of these crimes, but he has a very hard time arguing politically that the Jedi Council shouldn’t do what they do to her. He trusts in the Force, which is what they love to say when they don’t know what they’re doing, and they expel her. He can’t argue the logic. He doesn’t like Tarkin’s logic [but he can’t argue] that they can’t try her within the Jedi because the public, which we show in this episode arc, who are losing faith in the Jedi, would cry foul ball. “How can you put her on trial? Of course you’ll find her innocent. She’s a Jedi and you’re a Jedi.” So they expose themselves, and we see how they’re exposed.

All of these things that are wrapped up in Ahsoka’s story, which ultimately make her realize what the audience realizes. “I love the Jedi Order. They’re very important to me, I’ve always respected them. But there’s something wrong here, and I need to walk away from it to assess it.” It all feeds into Revenge of the Sith when the chancellor says, “The Jedi have just made an attempt on my life.” When you see these four episodes, I think you have a better understanding of how he gets away with all of that, because you see how compromised the Jedi Council is. And these episodes aren’t just meant to get Ahsoka on her way, but they’re meant to explain in more detail the scene [in Revenge of the Sith] where Yoda, Mace, and Ki-Adi-Mundi are discussing arresting the chancellor, and what a gamble that’s going to be for them. Because you see that to the average Coruscant citizen who’s not impressed with this war or the Jedi anymore, they’ll see it as treason. It’s probably the arc that connects to the movies the most and has the most impact. I think that’s why it works on so many levels for me and is one of my favorite arcs, because it’s such a companion piece to the films.”

[thats-it-im-fallingdown]

I’ve posted my first time viewing thoughts on season 1 of rebels, now here’s the same for the first half of the second season!

first of all: @intrepidmare commented that the reason why rebels animation gets a lot of flack compared to tcw is because it had a smaller team and budget and less production time, but that it improves in later seasons (hablo un poquito español, lo siento!). i should clarify, i don’t think the animation for rebels is all bad, I’m actually very fond of how much more fluid it is! familiar stuff looks really off to me right now (stormtroopers, lando, obi wan, lightsabers), newer stuff looks better (the grand inquisitor, hera). i didn’t like tcw style at first either. it took me time to get used to it, but i did. i bet that by the end of season 4, I’ll have stopped complaining about it.

Siege of Lothal duology

-they’ve stopped translating karabast into caramba in the captions. huh.

-tua seems more frightened by tarkin than vader? politicians are strange creatures no matter what galaxy you’re in I guess

-it makes sense that kanan doesn’t want to get involved in a wider scale conflict, as a Jedi he probably had more direct experience fighting in the clone wars, so he’s more disillusioned with armies and wars than hera is. of course the small scale Robin Hood stuff is more his speed. also, i love how they feel like real adults with different outlooks on life. sabine and ezra are great, but i can’t stand most teenagers (and i literally am one!)

-alright, I’m at the 10:39 mark and I’m betting now that the secret other reason for lothal’s importance is kaiburr mining. it would explain why a seeming backwater planet is so important to the empire to justify sending vader and tarkin, why there’s a Jedi temple there, and ezra finding a crystal in said temple. maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong.

-all this about what zeb smells like, even from himself, and i still have no idea what he smells like. bad like a wet space dog? something else?

-vader baby! i know it’s a departure from live action, but i like the red eye pieces, they seem more realistic for looking out of

-damn Vader’s tall. i keep forgetting that

-“if that doesn’t kill him what will?” “not us” kanan, you have no idea how true that is

-burning the refugee camp to the ground.. we’re pretty far away from stealing fruit noe

-the way they all go with Hera to fight vader, Hera straight up saying “alright kids do mom and dad proud”… this show was literally designed for me to vicariously experience a unified family. fellow “my dad went to get milk and never came back” kids, children of divorce, and/or people who have been disowned by their families how are we feeling. this show definitely isn’t perfect but it’s some of the best escapism for me in particular. screw that team as family but they’re just close friends, team as family found family is where it’s at

-oooo, ahsoka and anakin back in each other’s orbits. i can’t wait! this is shaping up to be a great season already

The lost commanders, relics of the old republic

-ahh, so this is where filoni gets his reputation for cameos. i can’t really blame him, since as a Star Wars fan and writer myself, i couldn’t say i wouldn’t want to write stuff with my favorite characters. since this is an ensemble show (unlike andor, per se, which benefits from focusing on andor with others in the periphery), my opinion is that it’ll work out as long as our original cast doesn’t get crowded out. aladdin bridger and the rest of his family are who I’m interested in watching at the end of the day after all!

-(I saw that rex was in this one from the episode description) I’m curious as to how/why rex and ahsoka got separated?

-I’m digging Sabine’s new hairstyle, it works for her

-i get that it’s for dramatic tension, but i don’t see why ahsoka isn’t just. telling them who they’re looking for, especially since she’s not going along with them. they don’t know him! if you don’t tell them rex is a clone at least how would they know who they’re looking for?

-sweet walker they’ve got, really reminiscent of the republic walkers. heck, that’s what it is under years of homemaking

-I really like how kanan still doesn’t trust them completely by the end of the arc. he’s moving in that direction, but order 66 is not something that can be forgiven in a day, even taking the chips into account. not being something that’s neatly resolved in an episode it gives it more weight, and kanan feels like a deeper character for it.

Always two there are

-commander fruit. I’m reminded that this show is a gold mine for expanding the worldbuilding in the produce aisle

-the grand inquisitor isn’t dead, is he. no body, cryptic final message, he’s gonna show up again.

-i like how these inquisitors are kind of incompetent. they aren’t getting a full sith course load, and they dropped out of Jedi college. of course they aren’t the best and brightest!

-i may be. unreasonably fond of zeb. i can’t really say why? he’s big. he’s purple. his older brother energy is off the charts. he survived a genocide. he’s comic relief. he smells bad. he’s literally me. he reminds me of one of my uncles. what more can i say?

Brothers of the broken horn

-man this hits a little too close to what being fifteen years old is like. ezra, you have got to get a day planner, they’re silly but they work! that’s also my advice to my ten followers. if you keep forgetting stuff, planner planner planner. no writing it down on scratch paper or making a “mental note.”

-the classic ship in distress trap. very familiar to a Trekkie such as myself, but is less common in the gffa.

-first he’s Jabba the Hutt, now he’s lando Calrissian. forget Jedi training or blaster practice ezra needs to learn how to make up fake names on the fly

-why is the empire shooting at them? they’re bad guys, but i don’t think they’re fire on broken vessels even if they happen to be on one of their checkpoints bad guys

-hondo’s jaw horns have grown with age. makes sense, but looks both strange and inconvenient

-chopper’s homicidal tendencies make him great backup

-how have none of them hit red guy? he’s enormous! he’s bigger than the broad side of a barn and moves just as slow

-fun episode, but i think they could have focused more on how ezra has changed since getting involved with the rebels. the last lines he has with kanan feel like they’re hastily trying to clean up the flaws in the writing at the last minute mark

Wings of the master

-a blockade episode, classic star wars. there aren’t as many distinct episode conventions like there are for Star Trek, but there are a few. the blockade mission is one of them.

-Hera backstory! Hera backstory! I repeat, we have a hera episode incoming!

-i hope we learn more about her childhood on ryloth during the clone wars. I’ve always been interested by the bits and pieces of Twi’lek world building I’ve read, and the ryloth liberation arc from tcw was one i liked. also, i really like hera’s character.

-kanan asks ezra “are you in” about the supply run in the phantom but the Spanish subtitle is closer to “are you with me” (i think. i think that’s how best to translate conmigo)

-quarrie’s a fun character for a one off. biased because I’m an engineering student and he’s an engineer character who actually acts similar to a real one (yes, this is a tony stark callout. we don’t act like that) also, he’s just plain charming

-now that’s a funky ship. i like it!

-why don’t the rebels divide the supplies up on multiple ships? then it would have the same flaws as a video game payload mission

-okay, so it wasn’t a full Hera Episode, but I’ll take it anyways

Blood Sisters

-sabine, the brightly painted mandalorian… selected for a mission which needs a low profile

-and the way they’re finding this courier is by asking a bunch of people in the port an unusual code? that seems like the opposite of low profile too

-ketsu’s haircut is… hilariously bad. good lord, what’s wrong with a buzz cut if you want to keep it practical?

-i like the backstory we’re getting with sabine a lot

-I’m also noticing that basically all of the human characters who aren’t imperial are poc. Star Wars is still allergic to brown eyes, which is kind of colorist (featurist? is there a term for colorism that includes physical attributes that aren’t skin tone?), but credit where it’s due. kallus is the white person who shows up the most. (I’m not including non human characters in this assessment, since coding is more finicky for them when in animation) i only noticed when ketsu took off her helmet

Stealth strike

-“gravity well projectors” look don’t take this the wrong way but this is what i mean when I say Star Wars doesn’t feel like science fiction. Star Trek would have pretended to explain it and dune would meticulously plot out how this changes warfare

-i see that this episode was set up to put Rex and kanan in a Situation. and i am totally on board this conflict is so juicy

-i had almost forgotten how much I like rex, but him knowing the emergency codes brought back memories of his clone wars version.

-i wonder if he ever met luke or leia knowing that they were padme and anakin’s children

-holy shit ezra really did sound like hera for a second when he was breaking up rex and kanans squabbling

-they keep calling ezra jabba even after they learn his real name i feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears

-Ezra’s really gotten good at using a lightsaber

-well. guess ezra shouldn’t have told that stormtrooper he wouldnt die in his escape. seeing as the ship was blown to smithereens

The future of the force

-oh there is something wrong with that baby’s face

-“if i never see one of those things again it’ll be too soon” was translated as “espero no ver otra de cosas por toda la eternidad” which directly (if I’m not mistaken) translates to “I hope to never see one of those things again for all eternity” interesting! i wonder if that means Spanish doesn’t have a more direct equivalent to the English phrase “if I never [x] it’ll be too soon?”

-I’ll remember this show as the one that taught me ayudar (to help)

-chopper the baby exploding pile of bolts

-aww, the ithorian baby is so cute. heck, the ithorians just look way cuter in the rebels style. in live action they’re much slimier (which isn’t bad either!)

-also lugar, which means place. this show is pretty good for picking stuff up since I’ve already taken a class on the basics plus growing up with it in my home, even though I was never allowed to actually acquire it

-ahsoka ex machina

-this is shaping up to be a multi part thing, so I expect that some of my questions will be answered: the empire’s presence isn’t as strong in the outer rim, same as the republic, so how are they tracking these force sensitive infants down, especially after the Jedi (and to a lesser extent the force itself) were wiped from memory? and if they’re taking babies, how many have been partially inducted into the dark side by the fall of the empire? are some of them running around, ripe for stories in which they’re villains with potential for redemption after the fall of the empire? there’s so much potential

Legacy

-no room in the budget for pajamas or blankets i see. aren’t you guys the opposite of cozy

-and this show is responsible for teaching me ghost (fantasma)! i can’t believe i forgot. and fleet (flota), and message (mensaje). don’t worry, this won’t turn into a Spanish vocab lesson!

-I was almost certain Ezra’s parents were dead, or if not would die shortly after because.. well, the same reason beru and lars had to die, it’s the classic story move. but that doesn’t diminish the emotional weight of the reveal that his parents are dead because of how excited he gets when there’s hope, and how he openly cries when it’s left him

-the shot of the plain on Lothal after the scene where Ryder is introduced is beautiful visually. natural land and skyscapes is where rebels really shines

-what a lovely episode! sad, but lovely

And this is where I’m wrapping up for now! I’m halfway through season 2, and legacy is a natural midpoint. Thank you for reading this far, making these posts is pretty fun for me :)

[ahsokathegray]

I Bleed the Same || Twenty-Six

Pairing: Rexsoka

Summary: Ahsoka and Rex try and make sense of who and what they are after Order 66 occurs. Figuring out what to do with themselves, they remain together for a period of time before parting in their own directions.

Warnings: slow burn, mentions of Order 66, ptsd, injury, death, and future nsfw situations

Word Count: 5,321

A/N: Rex makes a tough decision and some feelings are felt. A dash of distress and a load of tension. Also, I'm having a bit of writer's block, so I'll see ya'll again with an update on 4/25!

read on ao3! / series masterlist

What went from worry over which emergency the Martez sisters could be contacting him about, quickly ignited into hope. Rex might’ve had to leave Gregor behind for now, but an entire squad of clones — already rogue — had just fallen headfirst into their laps. His mouth went dry, “Where do I need to go?”

“The youngest one said they’re staying on Ord Mantell,” Rafa provided, glancing to where Trace sat beside her nodding. 

Rex attempted to steady his breathing. Did the squad have a cadet with them? He hadn’t even considered how this transition might be playing out for younger clones. He shook his head in confusion, “The youngest one?”

Rafa confirmed, “They were traveling with a kid. A girl.”

So not a cadet. That didn’t make much sense at all. Had they rescued the girl on Corellia? Why would they bring her with them inside of a high security factory? He knew it wasn’t safe for the call to go on for too long, there was only time for a few questions to be answered. 

“What were they doing there?” he asked, his words coming out faster now. 

“Same as us. They were after the head — said their employer had a buyer, but they wound up letting us have it instead.”

The employer part made him nervous, but otherwise, it definitely sounded like his brothers. This squad of clones had just forfeited payment in order to help two strangers. “And you're sure they were clones?” he pressed, needing confirmation.

Rafa nodded, “They were clones alright, but they didn’t quite look all the way like you.”

Clone force 99. Echo. He wanted to ask for names, but knew he couldn’t. Instead, Rex squared his shoulders and gave the girl a nod, “Thank you, Rafa.” The holoprojection then fizzled out in his palm and Rex pocketed the small device. 

Ahsoka shuffled her feet beside him and she fidgeted with her fingers. She chanced another look upwards. The Repub— the Imperial Venator still loomed overhead. “Rex, do you know the clones they ran into?” she asked, something like hope lacing her voice. The deep stir within him was practically visible on his face. He knew something.

“I’m almost certain. Remember what I told you about Echo en route to Mandalore? And the troopers he joined — the ones that helped me extract him on Skako Minor?” he prefaced. 

“You think the sisters ran into Echo?” Ahsoka asked, her features lifting. 

The last time she’d seen him had been on the mission to the Citadel. After his presumed death, she felt far less guilty for having secretly traveled to Lola Sayu without her Master’s permission. The ARC’s passing had an impact on everyone; a core member of the 501st gone. She was elated when the Captain had told her of his survival. She’d even hoped to see him after the siege had come to a close. Hearing that he was alive and well was incredible news then, but hearing that it might still be true after the rise of the Empire was even more uplifting. 

Rex was trying not to get his hopes up, but it proved challenging to suppress the good news. Either way, both missions had been a success. Having a third win wasn’t something he was going to turn away so quickly. “I don’t know, but I suspect so. We should get inside. I’m not sure it’s safe to leave the planet just yet, but we want to be ready in case those transports come back around,” he waved, jumping back into the pilot’s seat. 

“You know, one of these days I’m gonna pilot and you’re gonna sit in the rear,” Ahsoka remarked playfully, climbing in behind him. 

“What are you insinuating about my flight skills?” he tossed, wearing a toothy grin and failing at not allowing the news to sway his mood. 

He almost didn’t think about hurtling through the debris of the Tribunal to save her. 

“Besides the fact that I’m the better pilot, you’re going on almost no sleep, Rex,” she responded, half-joking but mostly serious. He only shrugged. Ahsoka looked up again, hoping that the more she looked at the Venator, the less sick she’d feel. 

As the ship's canopies closed around them, the two shuttles flew back out of the mountain, bypassing where their ship sat under the cover of the trees. A weight lifted off their shoulders. They hadn’t been seen on the way in or on the way out. Then, as quickly as the Destroyer had appeared, it took off, leaving the skies clear and blue once more. 

Rex lifted them back up above the trees shortly thereafter and pressed the ship into Daro’s upper atmosphere. Ahsoka peered out the transparisteel around her, catching the smallest glimpse of the hidden military base below. She shuddered. The mental images her mind was crafting were unkind. There was nothing she hated more than telling Rex they’d have to return… that they’d have to leave his brothers behind and come back at a later date. 

Although she never knew any Commandos personally, it still hurt, knowing this was happening all over the galaxy. The thought of men so loyal, so good, walking into something they were told to trust… It was barbaric. Ahsoka couldn’t bear to imagine Rex in the same position, had she and Maul not survived as intended. She couldn’t picture her Captain in colorless, scrubbed armor, or without the helmet he’d welded together himself. 

Defying this was now his life’s mission, but it had to be delayed, despite being close enough to touch. 

She looked out amongst the stars, waiting for the ship to turn in the direction of the correct hyperspace lane. Rex punched coordinates into the navicomputer and they made the jump to lightspeed. Except, he’d gone in the opposite direction. 

Ahsoka pressed her fingers up against the cold panels in front of her, “Rex? What are you doing? We’re going the wrong way.”

“We aren’t. The Wheel is back this way.”

“But Ord Mantell is—”

“I know…” Rex interjected, “I can’t take you with me.”

The iciness of the panels, as well as in his words, send chills up her arms, “What do you mean?”

Rex’s brows lowered a fraction, pinching together in remorse, “Ahsoka… I can’t bring you into the Mid-rim, not on a planet like Ord Mantell and especially not around a squad of clones. If it is Echo’s men, like I think it is, you don’t need to be anywhere near them.” Her head began to ache near the nape of her neck as Rex continued explaining his decision. “I know earlier I wanted to go into the base and extract Gregor, I still do, but you’re right. We can’t do it alone and you… I don’t know if their chips are still active — if seeing you will trigger something.”

Her breath fogged the transparent barrier between them in small patches, helping her to regulate her breathing. He was going alone. She’d be alone, or maybe alone with the Martez sisters, but she’d be without Rex. 

“Rex, I can handle myself. Let me help you.”

“I’m sorry, Ahsoka. Please try to understand where I’m coming from on this. I’m not willing to risk it. I can’t take you with me, I… I can’t lose you again,” he admitted quietly, almost to himself. 

The gunner’s seat that had felt like it was closing in on her, seemed to return back to its normal size. Ahsoka processed his words. At first, she thought Rex was referring to when she’d left the Order; how she’d walked away without offering him so much as a goodbye. Perhaps that is what he meant. Why she started becoming so analytical over his words, she didn’t know. Did she want them to mean more? The flutter in her chest answered the question for her. Could Rex have meant instead that he lost her for the duration that his chip was activated? 

Ahsoka pressed her mouth into a thin line. He didn’t want to lose her. Rex just wanted to keep her safe. She meant a great deal to him. He felt a responsibility for her safety still, just as she did with his. 

Maybe it was the new galaxy blinding her, or the amount of time she’d spent in such constant proximity to Rex, but she began noticing small differences in his behavior. Again, that could be attributed to what had encapsulated them, the end of the war forcing them closer, or what she’d needed him to do on Jabiim. Ahsoka leaned back, sure that she’d only convinced herself that he reciprocated the foreign feelings that stirred in her heart. 

“Okay.”

~~~

Rex made three trips around the Martez’s unit to make sure he’d not left anything behind that he might need. Each of his possessions were accounted for, as the majority of them never came off of the ship, but he still felt some discomfort in not being able to check the Silver Angel. He couldn’t find his helmet light. 

“I know you want to get there as soon as possible, Rex, but they may not even be back on Ord Mantell yet,” Ahsoka tried to settle him. They were sitting on the mismatched couches in the living area and Rex’s relentless knee-bouncing had yet to cease. Against her better judgment, Ahsoka placed a hand over the knee, “Relax. There’s no need to rush. You need a plan first and the girls are still on their way. And you and I would both feel better if you slept beforehand.”

Outwardly, Rex sighed, but he didn’t know how he was supposed to relax when Ahsoka’s hand was on him, her fingers wedged between the plates of his armor. He could feel her warmth, her skin flush with the fabric of his blacks. He swallowed and leaned further into the couch, the action only causing him to struggle that much more with her touch. He pressed his knees closer together. “I’m sorry. Just knowing that they’re so close… that we’re actually finding them has me a bit on edge,” he confided.

“There’s no need to apologize,” Ahsoka smiled in an effort to ease his mind, “Maybe you should eat something, too.”

He closed his eyes for a brief moment and felt the exhaustion present in his bones. Now that he’d actually stopped for a moment, Rex realized he was rather hungry and hadn’t thought about it until Ahsoka brought it up. The corners of her lips tugged ever higher as she felt the realization wash over him. “Let’s see what they’ve got in the kitchen,” she laughed, standing and leaving him on the sofa. 

Rex allowed his head to lean back as he watched her, finding that the couch was nearly as comfortable as the bed was. No wonder Rafa had opted to sleep there on nights Trace’s snoring got too loud. His eyelids began to grow heavier and he attempted to keep them open, intent on watching Ahsoka prepare a meal — something he’d never seen her do before. It was all so very… domestic… and, as his eyes closed, he decided he didn’t mind it. In fact, he was becoming rather fond of the new roles they’d been forced into.

Next thing he knew, there was a comforting weight on him, pressed into his chest. His eyes were slow to open as he surveyed the room in a sleepy haze. There weren’t as many lights on as before. Something warm and hard was hooked onto his shoulder and he looked down, finding Ahsoka nuzzled into him, her left montral balancing on his collarbone and keeping her upright. Her full lips were parted and pressed against his chest, a small patch of saliva darkening his cloak. Rex couldn’t help but smile and conceal a light laugh.  

A gloved hand cupped Ahsoka’s shoulder and he shook it gently, “‘Soka.”

She mumbled something against him and her eyes squeezed once before they blinked open. Long eyelashes brushed against the brown fabric of his cloak and she lifted her head away. There were nap marks all over her arms and face. Her cheeks flushed crimson as she rubbed the back of her hand; Rex was almost certain her lekku had darkened a shade as well. 

“Sorry. I must’ve passed out at some point,” she said, rubbing her eyes. 

“S’okay,” he whispered and then cleared his throat, “How long was I out for?”

Ahsoka looked off to the side. 

Rex sat up, “How long?”

She pulled one leg under herself and scrunched her nose in thought, “Five standard hours, give or take.”

“Five hours? I’ve slept too long… I — I have to go,” he rushed, suddenly out of breath and attempting to stand. Nimble orange fingers wrapped around his wrist, stilling him. Ahsoka convinced him to take his seat back on the couch with only her eyes. Swallowing, Rex tried to regain his composure. She didn’t even need the Force. With just a look, Ahsoka could compel him to do anything she wanted. He swallowed, finding that he was wound tightly around her finger… and that he wanted to be wrapped around all of them. 

“You still need to eat,” she whispered, “Stay here and I’ll reheat what I made before you dozed off.”

“How long did you sleep?”

“Maybe four of the five hours,” she guessed, sending him a soft smile. 

Rex rubbed his hands over his face, still in disbelief that he’d slept for such an extended period of time. It wasn’t normal for him to sleep for very long at all before the nightmares visited him. He then sat up and was plunged into thought. He’d been nightmare free the entire time. 

It had also been that way the last time Ahsoka had slept so close by. Had she kept his nightmares at bay? Was she getting enough sleep herself?

His thoughts were abandoned as the smell from the kitchen wafted his way, filling his senses. Rex groaned and his feet carried him to where Ahsoka stood behind the bar. He put a few more portions than was necessary on his plate and the Togruta beside him giggled. In the low light of the kitchen, Rex decided he could’ve kissed her then. He could see himself pulling her close and pressing one to the tip of her montral. Rex could picture himself embracing her from behind and swaying with her in the little kitchenette. The adoration in his eyes seemed to not be so subtle, prompting Ahsoka to take a bite of toast and look away. As soon as the food hit tongue, he gave a noise of satisfaction. 

“I’m exiting the bedroom!” Trace called from down the hall minutes later. “Just announcing my presence for no particular reason! I definitely wasn’t sent in here to see if all the moaning was— Oh hey guys,” the younger Martez smirked, leaving up against the food cooling unit. 

Ahsoka grinned and shrugged her shoulders, “Sorry if we disturbed you, Trace. Rex finally woke up and I was getting him something to eat.” She bit her tongue after the words left her mouth, preparing for her words to be twisted into a sexual innuendo. 

“Oh okay,” Trace smiled, glancing at the chrono on her wrist very politely, “Welcome back to the land of the living.” A touch of relief ran through Ahsoka, thankful that her friend had opted not to give her a difficult time. 

Rex was half finished with his meal before he spoke, “You have the droid head?”

Trace’s face contorted, “Yes and no. The head was destroyed actually, but one of the clones copied the contents over to a data rod before it got shot. They were after the head too, for a buyer they knew nothing about. We told them that our employer needed it to help people and Rafa said that the leader guy just gave it to us.”

She grabbed the rod from a mess of factory clothing that sat by the door and placed it in Rex’s palm. He was pleasantly surprised. The mission hadn’t gone as expected, but the sisters had managed to adapt to the obstacles thrown at them. “I’m actually impressed with you girls,” he said to Trace, “Run into any other issues?”

“Well, we couldn’t leave from the original rendezvous, but R7 and the Angel swooped in to save the day. Thanks to Ahsoka for fixing it of course! Oh, and it’s all because the police droids started shooting at us, so I reprogrammed the tactical droid head to command the other droids to take them out! And it worked!”

Rex almost choked on his meal and turned his attention to Ahsoka, who had a knowing look on her face. She’d presumably been awake to hear this story when the sisters arrived back at The Wheel. 

The youngest sister continued on, “It was pretty wizard. We kinda clashed in the beginning, but once we started working together, we made a pretty solid team.” 

That comment caused Rex to think about what it would be like to have a band of brothers at his six again. It was second nature for all clones to rely on one another. He just didn’t want the pain that came with it… the inevitable pain of losing a team member. The idea of clone deaths had always hit him hard, but they struck harder in this new galaxy.  

He thanked Trace for the debrief and for the data rod, to which she smiled and bid the pair goodnight, throwing Ahsoka a thumbs-up as she backed out of the kitchen. 

“We shouldn’t go through the contents of this here. Do you think we can get the data over to your contact?” Rex asked, gathering dishes and removing his gloves to clean them. 

Pressing herself into the counter, Ahsoka agreed, “Yes. I can transfer the frequency over to you and we can sort it out before you leave.”

“So in the next hour or so,” Rex clarified. 

Her expression fell, not yet wanting to be without him, but knowing that duty came first. This was something they’d always done, all throughout the war and ever since they’d known one another. It hadn’t affected her then, but it was like a punch in the gut now. In a way she’d never been able to before, Ahsoka began to sympathize with Anakin, thinking only now how he must’ve felt when he was pulled away from Coruscant… from his wife.. She likened herself to Padmè before ridding herself of the comparison. 

“That should be doable,” she answered, hopping up onto the counter. Her legs swung out of nervousness, waiting for Rex to finish up at the sink. 

He scrubbed their dishes and dried his hands with a pink, floral towel. The small light by the sink and the lower ring’s fluorescents peeked in from the blinds, casting a soft glow onto Rex’s face. He looked so gentle; he was gentle, but in that moment, he didn’t look like a war-hardened soldier. The friend she’d had for so long had grown to be so much more. He looked handsome, enticing, and as if the Force itself had designed him. Ahsoka supposed that in some ways, it had. 

Except, he didn’t look like Jango Fett. He didn’t look like a copy, or like any of the clones she’d come to know over the years. He was Rex and there was only one like him. 

A tanned finger lightly dabbed the healing scar on his head and the fluttering in her chest returned. The pink towel was returned to the sink and Rex stepped closer to where she sat on the countertop. The swinging of her legs ceased altogether as he neared her, his frame towering over her, backlit by the dim lighting. Ahsoka couldn’t help but bite the inside of her lower lip, a desperate attempt at keeping herself still. Her montrals felt warm and her lekku grew hot. Rex pressed his hands onto the countertop, on either side of her. Her pupils were blown wide, locked with his, and intent on being present for every second of this interaction. 

She watched as he swallowed, his throat bobbing. Rex scanned her features and his eyes — darker than normal — lingered on her lips before flicking up to meet her gaze. “I’ll come right back, you know. No matter how this goes, I won’t stay long. I’ll come back to you,” he promised her in a low voice.

Ahsoka inhaled deeply, out of breath and finally allowing herself to reel in from his intoxicating presence. She let her lip go, “I wish I could go with you. But, I agree with your decision. It’s not safe… not yet.”

“When it is, I’m not leaving your side again,” he said firmly. In his pause, that window of opportunistic tension returned. Ahsoka’s hands started to feel clammy. “Now, what do you say we give your Senator friend a call?” His arms fell from their place beside her and she sucked in another breath. Her lekku swayed as she quickly nodded, leaning forward and descending from the counter, following Rex into the guest bedroom. It took her a minute to steady herself on her feet. 

Bail’s comlink was in the bottom of her med pack, underneath Republic-issued ration bars, bacta patches, and beskar armor. She held the device loosely in her hand, knowing everything that came with it. 

Her heart pumped furiously in her chest. There was a time she’d not been so privy to the politics of the war, but once she started paying attention, it was difficult to turn a blind eye to. Everything she’d ever heard Bail Organa fight for in the Senate, was moral and right. It was why he and Padmé were such close friends — they’d held similar views in a galaxy full of credit-blinded politicians. 

Even without her encounter with the Alderaanian Senator at the funeral, one would be foolish to assume that his views aligned with that of the Empire. Of course he opposed it. 

Rex was leaned against the ‘fresher door with his arms crossed when Ahsoka finally turned to him. His jaw flexed and his eyes softened as he held the button down on his own comlink, prepping it to receive Bail’s frequency.

Ahsoka delivered it to him within moments, causing the blinking light on his wrist to change color and then switch off completely. Rex thanked her and Bail’s comm fell limp in her hand, its capabilities feeling both less daunting and yet more so. She returned it to the bottom of her bag. Out of sight, out of mind. 

Meanwhile, Rex had taken a seat on the window ledge, leaving an empty space for her to join him. The air in the room felt too still, almost stale as she took a seat next to him. She much rather preferred the tension that resulted from other moments they’d shared, this kind of tension gave her a bad feeling. 

Her heart would still be in her throat right now from how close Rex had gotten in the kitchen if this wasn’t what followed that interaction. Selfishly, she wondered what kind of conclusion would’ve resulted from it. Surely after a display like that, Rex felt something comparable to what she did. 

Rex noticed her trepidation. “You don’t have to say anything,” he said, dropping his wrist to give her his full attention. “I’d be a fool to not know how you feel about this kind of thing.” Her pulse quickened and Rex continued, “This is… a lot to digest so soon and I understand your position completely.”

All Ahsoka could do was nod and he initiated contact with the Senator. The bedroom grew silent, save for the faint beeping of Rex’s comm. The quiet was so deafening that Ahsoka had no choice but to feel what the Force was telling her. Her fingertips thrummed with the nerves bundling inside of Rex, their hearts beating in unison as his anxiety became her own. She watched as he swallowed thickly and his long fingers twitched. 

Then, the light stopped its pulsing, now illuminating in a steady yellow glow. A scrambled voice responded, “This is a private channel. How did you obtain this frequency?”

“Senator,” Rex started, his voice wavering in urgency, “I was given this frequency by a mutual friend of ours. She saved my life. I believe you can help me.” The Captain’s brows were tightly knitted, waiting for the inevitable rejection as he knew his voice gave him away as a clone. 

There was a hefty pause as, who they could only assume was Bail Organa, processed the answer. He spoke once more, “Who am I speaking with?”

Rex was hesitant to give his name, but reminded himself this was a private channel, “This is Captain Rex, Senator, of the 501st Legion. I survived with Ahsoka Tano. I was with her on Naboo when she ran into you.”

Ahsoka sat in front of him, her legs hanging off the edge of the seat and ankles crossed, one foot tapping in anticipation. She hadn’t been looking at him, but off somewhere, nowhere in particular. She worried her lip, glancing to his comm and then back at him with the utterance of her name. As they waited for Bail’s reply, he reached out and placed a hand over hers, squeezing her fingers softly. The action was a surprise, but not at all unwelcome. He mouthed to her, “It’s okay.”

She believed his words, but didn’t know how she’d ever recover from the feeling of his bare hand over hers. 

“Captain Rex,” came Bail’s voice from the comm, no longer disguised, “I must say I’m relieved to hear that you survived. Is Ahsoka with you?” By the tone of his voice, they could both tell he was disappointed to have not heard from Ahsoka first, and instead hearing from someone she’d shared his contact with. 

The conflicted Togruta opened her mouth and then closed it, the words not coming. She couldn’t find it in her to confirm her presence.

“She’s not, sir,” Rex responded with, offering her an understanding nod, “I was hoping to deliver to you quite a bit of Separatist intel that my team and I were able to get our hands on. There’s a data rod packed with valuable information that I want to offer you. It would be a useful asset in your line of work.”

“I hope you’ll understand my hesitancy, Captain, but would you mind if I asked to see your face?” Bail questioned, keeping his cards close to his vest. All parties involved seemed to know that this was a game of trust.

Rex fetched the holoprojector from one of his pockets, “Not at all, sir.” The skeptical Senator then flickered to life in his palm, blue light waving as the connection was transferred over. Ahsoka pressed herself further into the wall and Rex adjusted as well. 

Bail seemed satisfied and smiled upon seeing a familiar face, “I must ask, why offer me this information?”

“Well, sir,” he began, “I think we both know the answer to that question.”

“Are you sure you're ready to jump back into this, Captain? 

“I’m sure,” Rex answered without hesitation.

The small, blue projection of the Senator crackled as he took time making a decision. He glanced for a minute at the long scar on the side of Rex’s head before responding, “I’ll send you coordinates to a rendezvous point. Ping me when you're ready to meet. I look forward to seeing you, Rex.”

“You too, sir.”

~~~

Rex found his helmet light aboard the Silver Angel and clipped it to his helmet, switching it on and off to check if it worked properly. Ahsoka put a hand over her hip and then crossed her arms, unsure how to conduct herself in this situation. Goodbye was something she and Rex had never done. Everything inside of her body pulled her towards him. She wanted nothing more than to hop into the back of the Y-wing and leave with him for Ord Mantell. She wanted to see Echo again. She wanted to see clones again — alive — after having seen too many dead. Moreover, she wanted to protect Rex from whatever dangers might await him.

He stood in front of her, his helmet tucked under his arm, and a hand went behind his neck. His gaze was unfocused, so far from how it had been just earlier in the kitchen, moving from the crannies of the garage and back to her in a vicious cycle, his usual confidence missing.

A wish of good luck died on Ahsoka’s tongue before she could say it. Her last interaction with Anakin came violently to the forefront of her mind. So much was left unsaid because she thought she was promised tomorrow. Even when she’d had the opportunity to relay a message to her former Master, she’d declined the offer. Too many tomorrows had been taken for granted, too many people — people she’d never get to speak with again. 

Telling Rex goodbye had been unbearable when she’d left the Order behind, so she’d declined that opportunity as well. Goodbye wasn’t something she’d ever been too keen on, and that was before the galaxy did a one-eighty. Rex approached her and she likened herself to Padmé once more. She didn’t like it. 

He didn’t look the way he did when he was normally prepping for a mission. His features weren’t hardened or his mouth in a scowl. The lines in his face were less prominent and his expression was soft, remorseful.

“I want you to know…” he started, “I’ll be back in no less than two standard rotations.”

Rex watched as she lifted her chin a little higher, “I know. Ord Mantell is only a little farther than Daro.”

He shifted awkwardly in front of her, a touch of pink flushing his cheeks, “Being apart from you — Uh, it’s the last thing in the universe I could want right now, but if it means ensuring your protection… I have no choice but to handle this alone.”

Ahsoka’s arms returned to her sides, feeling what Rex was feeling in his chest. Did she dare tell him? Back on Naboo, she promised herself that she would. Was this that time? She held an inner debate, not able to decide if her love for him had evolved into something new.  

She smiled weakly, “Good luck. Not that you’ll need it.”

That relaxed him, causing a very attractive grin to grace his face, “Don’t hesitate to comm me. I’ll rendezvous with you back here if you just say the word.” He pivoted before stopping short, “And don’t forget to scramble your voice.”

She waved him off and laughed, “I know, Rex.”

He sent her a wide smile over his shoulder and made for the ship, tossing his helmet into Ahsoka’s seat. “I still wish you’d take one of these,” he called, fingering the pistol over his right hip. He’d offered to leave her with one after their call with Bail, to which she’d again declined. 

“You’ll need them more than I will,” she called back. A lump formed in her throat as she watched him from the door, a mixture of emotions vibrating inside of her and threatening to bounce free. Something between an embrace and a confession tugged violently at her insides. She hugged her middle and shouted over the low hum of engines beginning to purr to life, “Hurry back!”

Rex threw her a mock salute from the closing canopy of the ship, paired with the same look he’d given her aboard the gunship during their descent onto Mandalore. Her heart seized in her chest as the distance between them grew larger by the second. She continued to watch as the ship backed out into the ring and disappeared from view, no doubt having already made the jump to lightspeed.

[tragcdysewn]

here is my combo event plotting/starter call! like for me to dm you and if you want a starter, make sure to specify who for and from! (also i definitely owe like three starters so those are on here too)

abigail mckinnon - marlene mckinnon

abi is pretty into this, she does genuinely enjoy winter and likes shopping and exploring, so girl is having a blast with this whole thing. come ice skate with her she will try not to pull you down but i can not promise anything

ahsoka tano

is neutral, considering her whole family is falling apart. she may lurk for a bit but she probably won’t be spending a ton of time there when she has bigger issues to deal with.

allana solo - sella palpatine

allana is having a great time, spending time with their girlfriend and ignoring her problems by throwing themselves into various activities? a blast. will absolutely try the polar plunge to see if she can manage it

alphonse elric

al has never been to something like this, and will be dragging ed to hang out with him and try all the snacks and shit, man is having a great time and wants to try everything

ariana dumbledore

had said last year that she was going to be an annoying mom around the holidays this year, and she was absolutely telling the truth let her be a cringey pinterest mom who’s taking photos of everything thank you

bela dimitrescu - rachel green

hell no. absolutely not, no way bela is going anywhere near any of this, it is cold and she does not fuck with that shit

bellatrix black - narcissa malfoy

eh, might drop in for a bit but she isn’t going to come to really do anything. this is stupid muggle shit

cassie lang

she’ll probably walk around a little bit, but she isn’t a super super big fan of the cold so catch her hiding with hot chocolate and a very thick pair of gloves by the bonfire

davina claire - hope mikaelson

davina grew up loving festivals and markets and all of that, so she’s honestly thrilled about all of this and will be dragging her friends to everything she can. she’s a huge fan of art and music, so she’ll be at the nutcracker and the live shows 

elphaba thropp

it is highly unlikely elphaba is going to this, considering the one thing that usually makes her go is glinda and rn she doesn’t actually remember her beyond her weirdly perky rooommate so she’s at most passing through to grab some last minute gifts

feng xin - xie lian, lyra belacqua

will definitely be going and trying stuff out. he doesn’t know what christmas is about, exactly, but he’s always down for new experiences and there’s competitions, which feng xin absolutely adores and loves so watch out

feyre archeron

will be taking nyx and trying to get omega to come as well to get her mind off what happened to hunter a few months ago, also is running a charity art stand, but she’s not going to be there much, she’s got volunteers actually handling the stand itself

hallie parker - jester lavorre

is going, will be recording everything that happens and dragging random strangers to do fun stuff with her and challenge them to races just for vibes

howl jenkins pendragon - sophie hatter

they absolutely took morgan out of school for the day to have some fun, so he’ll be doing anything a small child would enjoy and being an absolute Dad

james potter

he’s got to do some christmas shopping because i know he left it to the last possible minute so if you’re his friend and you see him buying stuff no you don’t

james witherdale - bree tanner

he’s chilling honestly. not a huge fan, but he’ll find some enjoyment in it after a while. may have to snack on someone though, a guy’s gotta eat and unfortunately he can not consume anything sold

jin zixuan

another one who doesn’t really celebrate this holiday, but he thinks everything looks nice and he’s sure his friends are going, so why not, right?

korra

she’s going to take a picture with sexy santa, because why not, it’ll be funny as all hell. she also definitely has to christmas shop, so that’s getting done asap. also will be throwing snowballs even outside the actual competition when they inevitably get kicked out for water bending

lan wangji - wei wuxian

he’ll be going solely because he’s positive most of the people he cares about will be there, and it’s an easy place to find them and talk now that i have unfortunately made him aware

lumine

lumine has been here long enough to start understanding the customs of this world, so she gets the basic idea of the holidays, and she thinks it’s cute, so she’ll be participating and probably going with some friends

lyanna stark

she loves the winter holidays, even if they aren’t the ones she celebrated back in westeros. she will be making the stark-targaryens decorate and do gifts and all that, so she needs to get them all gifts and get them into the holiday spirit

marinette dupain-cheng

will be running a bakery stall, but will also try ice skating and all of that when she takes breaks, so come have some fun with her

mj jones - gwen blake

mj actually will be spending a ton of time ice skating, she genuinely loves it and will have a blast, and then probably sit by the bonfire and make some s’mores. could also be convinced to hop in a carriage or join the snowball fight

mo ran - antonia dreykov, sha hualing, milton greasley

i went back and forth on if he would go or not, but i decided that since he’s from the second timeline AND unaware, he’d probably go check it out, flirt with strangers, fling snowballs are strangers, etc

mobei-jun

man is THRIVING catch him living in the ice bar it is way too warm for him in dc he will be living it up in the freezing cold

nie mingjue

he doesn’t get what’s so important, but apparently people are supposed to give gifts and he unfortunately has a brother who will whine forever if he doesn’t participate so he’s gonna try

renesmee cullen - alice cullen, kaiden monsula, omega archeron

nessie has about twenty family members she needs to buy gifts for, and they have bought gifts for about zero of them, they are in crunch time rn

rose weasley - roxanne weasley, victorie weasley, albus potter

she definitely enjoys the holidays, and she’s a bit competitive, so sled races and snowball fights, the wotters will be dragged into any game she can find

sheev palpatine - anakin skywalker

he’s not going. literally not a chance unless one of the siblings really wants him to go for some reason

shen qingqiu

he’s going both because any and all modern traditions are a fun little nostalgic thing for him, and also he’s sure binghe will enjoy it and qinghua will want a gift so here he is

shi wudu

i doubt he even knows what’s going on, he may walk through out of curiosity and see what’s up but that’s really it

thanatos

they may go for a bit just to see what’s happening, but they aren’t super preoccupied with mortal traditions, so he’s just probably going to observe more than participate

wanda maximoff - daisy johnson

i don’t know if she’d go unless billy or steve really wanted her to, the whole thing with tommy and vision is way more her priority 

wen qing - jo wilson

they're definitely still getting used to stuff in this world, but she’s nothing if not eager to try new things, so she’ll be giving pretty much everything a shot

xiao lanhua - sam giddings

she's absolutely loving this, and wants to try everything she can. girl will be making gingerbread houses, going on a carriage ride, probably falling on her ass attempting to ice skate, and being as excited as a five year old the entire time

yor forger

yor is in full mom mode, doing holiday prep and figuring out gifts for her family, also making sure anya has fun. she could probably be convinced to join in some games and contests, though it’s not her priority. don’t let her throw snowballs i’m begging you the woman once threw a tennis ball so hard it broke the sound barrier and shattered the other persons racket

[noddytheornithopod]

Alright, some more Ahsoka thoughts under the cut. Spoilers beware.

So we actually get an opening crawl of sorts, and the Star Wars logo is red too. Filoni definitely trying to make this an event.

People have been rightfully comparing the opening scene where Baylan and Shin break into the New Republic ship to The Phantom Menace and A New Hope’s openers. Honestly not as on the nose as I was expecting.

The opening scene with Ahsoka where she finds the map did feel a bit too long. Like I understand trying to set a slower tone, but I feel like this went on for a bit.

Speaking of the map, anyone getting The Force Awakens flashbacks? All they needed to do was give it to Chopper, lol.

So the three figures in that mural... I have no idea if it’s going to be significant down the line, but the fact that there’s three of them makes one wonder... Mortis gods?

“Location of the last missing Imperial Grand Admiral”. So do they know where Sloane is? Or is she going to be presumed dead (along with the proto-First Order types?), like they seemed to think Thrawn was until the whispers of his return? Either way, just a small detail, and one that people are probably gonna get way too hung up over.

I will say Ahsoka definitely looks better than in previous appearances. IDK if it’s the performance, my own jadedness based on the controversy around Rosario Dawson, or an intentional character choice that is making it harder to connect with her at first, but Ahsoka weirdly doesn’t have that much of a presence? Like, there’s a stoicism to the character, but even when other characters are around, they always end up feeling like they stand out more than her. Hopefully they’re building to something, otherwise it’s going to be weird to have your lead character feel this distant.

“It’s never a straight line with you Jedi”. Why do I feel like Hera was thinking of Kanan when she said that? Maybe Ezra too for that matter.

I do wonder what Ahsoka specifically heard that lead her on the trail to Elsbeth, TBH.

So with Ahsoka and Sabine, we still don’t really know what happened. We know at some point Ahsoka agreed to train her, but then gave up on her and left.

Lothal looks cool! Okay maybe some shots do look clearly fake, but I like seeing that aesthetic translate into live-action, and also seeing Lothal after the Imperial occupation rebuilt.

Ryder Azadi is back, wasn’t sure if he would be back but it’s a cool connection nonetheless. Jai Kell is apparently Lothal’s senator now too. Stuff like this definitely adds to the feeling of it being a continuation.

Not sure how I feel about Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera. I THINK I like her? There’s one or two scenes where I find myself questioning it, but then there’s others where I think she works perfectly fine.

Of our main heroes, Sabine was easily the standout character. I do feel like they could’ve found a better actor to look the part (I do think she’s a bit pale for Sabine’s complexion, but that’s a whole can of worms to open and I’m probably not the person most invested in this topic), but even if her performance is quite different to what Tiya Sircar did, I feel like she manages to embody the character well in her own way.

I do like seeing Sabine the way we did. That opening scene for her with her on the speeder chased by the E-wings was pretty cool, the fact that the Kiners decided to have a rock track play over it only added to the feeling of Sabine’s rebelliousness (also NGL with the sudden change in sound from the usual Star Wars score, I thought for a moment they were playing a licensed song, but nope it’s just an in-universe track I guess XD). You do get the sense she’s feeling pretty lost after everything that happened. Like Sabine’s lothcat too.

Also, confirmation that Ezra recorded another message specifically for Sabine. No real comments on Eman Esfandi’s portrayal yet, but I do hope to see more of Ezra.

“But you’re like a sister to me.” This line is sweet of course but primarily I find it unintentionally hilarious because Season 1 Ezra was really trying to hit on her. Obviously this is Ezra at the end of Rebels and he grew out of that crush and his bond with Sabine was more serious and of course platonic... but still. Lol.

Just noticed Shin has a padawan braid. Seems like Baylan is still doing Jedi stuff but isn’t operating as one? Also, neat touch that Huyang was able to identify Baylan from his lightsabre, but not Shin because obviously hers would be constructed well after he was around to document it.

Speaking of which... no explanation on why Huyang is around. I mean, I’m not complaining, but it’s kind of wild this major piece of Jedi history was able to avoid being hunted down and destroyed by the Empire.

Morgan Elsbeth confirms she’s a Nightsister, and the temple on Arcada Ahsoka was raiding (which is what she got out of her in Mando S2) was apparently built by them. It sounds like the Nightsisters may have been bigger many millennia ago.

Alright so we still don’t know what the deal with Marrok is, if they’re a familiar face or just some new ex-Inquisitor. Elsbeth is lucky to have managed to hire three Force Sensitive mercenaries, huh? Marrok doesn’t even have any lines, lol.

So with Ahsoka and Sabine’s relationship, we’re not really sure what happened yet. I think we might learn more over the course of the show, but from what I can tell, Sabine’s feeling pretty disillusioned after losing Ezra (even acting surprised at the idea he might be alive), and even if it’s yet to come up, I’m sure the Great Purge on Mandalore affected her too. She isn’t at the celebration of Lothal’s liberation because that day is painful for her. She seems to be lacking a sense of purpose. Ahsoka probably saw these things and realised she couldn’t commit, hence leaving her. The fact that Sabine and Huyang confirm that she never showed any Force sensitivity is just salt in the wound. So I guess that still begs the question: what happened to make them initially train together in the first place?

I love how Huyang makes sad eyes when Ahsoka talks about how she left the Jedi (I think he does it in other scenes too but this was when it stood out to me the most). “Sometimes even the right reasons have the wrong consequences” I think is a standout line for sure, Ahsoka definitely still feels guilt for Vader’s existence. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is affecting a lot of her decisions, like her lack of faith in Sabine (maybe she’s afraid that being taught by the Jedi who became Vader would cause her to create that again?).

Oh yeah, Ahsoka saying she did some stuff that wasn’t very Jedi to get the map info from Elsbeth... yeah, still no Jedi, apparently. Even if she’s gotta get dark.

When Sabine reacts to Ahsoka mentioning the Nightsisters, I definitely think she was thinking back to the creepy ghost possessing her.

Shin is obviously young and seems quite impressionable, always asking questions and needing to know what to do from her superiors, so she’s still clearly inexperienced. She definitely wrecked Sabine there, though. Cue someone complaining about another character surviving a stab wound when characters like Qui-Gon never did or whatever.

I do think it’s cool that Sabine is still showing her wide skillset to do things like analyse the map and get info out of the HK assassin droid head. The one to one with Hera was nice too. I like that Hera thinks they’re gonna work best if they’re together and she’s trying to make that happen, heck even Huyang is. Lol at Hera also saying that them both being difficult is what she thought would “make it work”.

We catch up with Elsbeth on Seatos, who has some big teases and reveals. She describes the location she’s showing the map with it as being built by people from a distant galaxy millennia ago. So yeah, Star Wars is finally going extragalactic, at least in a major way. Seems Thrawn and Ezra wound up in this distant galaxy these people that traveled here did (I wonder if the connection between the Arcana and Seatos locations implies the Nightsisters also built this, implying that they themselves are extragalactic... which is one big can of worms to open for sure).

So Baylan describes the route they’re taking as the “Pathway to Peridea”. IDK if Peridea is this new galaxy or a specific world or place in it, but yeah. Apparently even the Jedi had stories about this.

Elsbeth acts and sounds very witchy, appropriate for a Nightsister. In a particularly eerie moment, she says Thrawn “calls to her” (which must be how she knows all of this shit to even get to him in the first place, how she knew she needed the map with the right route to this galaxy and all that) and even describes it as being from “across time and space”. Those specific words make me wonder if there’s some World Between Worlds type shit going on. Also what is even calling to her? Is it really Thrawn, or someone from this distant galaxy? If this IS Thrawn, what does this mean for him? What has he found that is enabling him to reach out this far?

Morgan is constructing a ship called the Eye of Sion to travel to Peridea, one that is pretty huge and requires hyperdrives of super star destroyers. Side note, but it’s cool that the villains seem to be ahead of the heroes here. And this is even without Thrawn’s strategic genius.

Okay, hiring a Jewish actor to play your shady businessman character... I think someone should’ve thought about the optics of that a bit more.

That one questionable casting choice aside, I do think it’s an interesting idea to have ex-Imperials who are still loyal to the Empire still working in places like these shipyards. Big structural change is hard, and it tracks with the New Republic we’ve seen to rush things and overlook things like this.

We see Chopper again, which is cool.

Huyang saying “Lady Tano” gives me Maul flashbacks, lol.

Sabine feels like Ahsoka came back just because she was useful to her, and well Huyang’s account of things certainly doesn’t help that (because it WAS Hera’s idea to let Sabine know the news). Also, Sabine cutting her hair and putting her armour back on. The haircut definitely called back to Kanan’s for sure.

The final conversation between Bayland and Elsbeth was interesting too. Through these episodes I’m definitely getting the impression Baylan is following some kind of code, or at least isn’t just simply just a bad guy there to do bad guy things. Honestly, Shin has seemed more ruthless so far, lol. But especially when he says stuff like “it would be a shame to kill [Ahsoka]” and how he doesn’t immediately attack in the opening scene of the first episode is intriguing. Anyway, the giant hyperdrive ring that is the Eye of Sion seems close to completion, I have a feeling next week it might be.

I do like the tone the show’s going for. It’s no Andor, but it does feel a bit more serious than The Mandalorian, with more scenes that slow down for character beats and such. Also appreciate that they’re truly trying to make this feel epic, even for a TV show filmed in the volume. Filoni is definitely getting better directing live-action, and of course after her Boba Fett outing Steph Green is great. It definitely is adding to the Space Opera feel more than say the Space Western that is The Mandalorian.

So yeah, enjoyed this premiere! Goddammit Filoni, still finding ways to suck me in. :P

[thecleverqueer]

I’m not going to say that Ahsoka won’t ultimately show up in The Bad Batch, I’m just saying it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for her to show up unless Filoni opts to retcon his own stories….

Ahsoka may be mentioned. Trace and Rafa have her droid, and they’re working with Rex. She definitely introduced Rex to Rafa and Trace. She may not have even done it first-hand. Maybe she told Rex about them, I don’t know. Something to the effect of: “Yeah, so, I dated this girl in the lower levels of Coruscant between leaving the Jedi and the Siege of Mandalore. It didn’t work out because I’m a Force God, but we decided to be friends and her and her sister are cool. Maybe they can help you in your quest to remove all the inhibitor chips from our brothers’ skulls.” I’m sure he needed all the help he could get with that task.

Based on what we know, Ahsoka needed a break after all of that death. She went to try and live a quiet, mundane life in hiding much like Obi-Wan…except Ahsoka was in closer proximity to village girls because, let’s face it, Ahsoka can’t not. I don’t know exactly where she went. If the book is still cannon, a lot of places, but mostly that farm planet that she was on in “Tales of the Jedi” with farm girl girlfriend. We know a long minute had passed before she reached out to Bail to join the Rebellion because Bail said, “I was beginning to think you lost this” when referring to the com device.

We also know she’d been out of touch with Rex for a considerable amount of time. It’s clear in “Rebels” that she had attempted to reach out to him to no avail, but she knew his general location (likely because she was the head of a f*^%ing spy network and knew everything). They had to use the Tactical Droid’s head to pin point his location. It’s also pretty clear that when they see each other for the first time in “Rebels” it had been a long time. We know this because he said to her, “you’ve gotten old.” I would take that to mean that he hadn’t seen her since she was still a kid. It would seem to be implied.

We’ll see, but if Filoni starts reconning his own shit, we might as well just burn cannon to the ground (which may not be the worst thing).

[princesssarcastia]

here, have the start of the next story in that one series I wrote two years ago, about what would have happened, if ahsoka tano thought to ask maul who his sith master is.

in which time has passed, old wounds are healed if still tender, and there is a new generation to shepherd and nurture.

—

Ahsoka meets Cilghal for the first time when Obi-Wan volunteers her to lead a group of younglings to Ilum with Master Windu.  Normally, the Temple respects her status as a Ranger too much to snatch her up for missions during those periods she’s on Coruscant to rest, but somehow, this time was different.

She has to jog through the hangar to catch the Crucible in time, which she also doesn’t appreciate.  Force, she didn’t even manage a real shower, just a quick run through the sonic in her quarters, which means her montrals are a touch out of sync with the rest of her; it’s not quite a headache, but it makes her…cranky. 

That’s something she can admit to herself, if not Master Windu, who eyes her when she sheds momentum by nearly sliding up the ramp into the ship, projecting faint irritation in the Force.

Catching his gaze calmly, she pulls her emotions back behind her shields and gives a faint bow.  “Master Windu, it’s nice to see you again.”

“And you, Knight Tano,” he returns, and they walk deeper inside together, the younglings already scattered to set up their bunks in the berth.

It’s been a while since they’ve spoken at any length; most of their interactions are consigned to polite acknowledgement as they pass one another in the halls of the Temple.  Ahsoka honestly wouldn’t put it past Obi-Wan to be forcing them to finally get over themselves, after all these years.  They don’t dislike each other, it’s not that.  But there’s a hum-thrumming of sensitivity itching under her skin whenever they spend too much time together, force-memory of a shatterpoint shared and echoes of tortured laughter cut brutally short.  That’s something she’s spent the last eight years trying to put down.

Though on rare occasions, that edge of a reminder at the back of her head makes for a spectacular spar between them in the salles, and their last bout drew what felt like half the Temple before it was over.  Her musing actually pulls that particular clash out of both of them and into the surrounding Force, and they both soften at once.

Just in time for a little Rodian youngling to dash into the room across from them, chanting, “Knight Tano!  Knight Tano!  Padawan Katooni said when you took her to Ilum you were kidnapped by pirates is that true?  Are we going to be kidnapped by pirates?”

She gets a blinding flash all her own of Ganodi pouting in disbelief at the idea of learning from a droid, but before she can even smile, a chorus of half a dozen other younglings gasp, “Pirates?” and practically stampede into the room in the wake of their fellow.

Mace audibly sighs, and Ahsoka’s not-quite-a-headache has definitely solidified.

But she spends the next hour or so recanting the frankly ridiculous series of events that followed her last trip to Ilum, including being attacked by pirates, being kidnapped by pirates, the worst circus acts she’s ever seen in her life, teaming up with those same pirates, and a brief and terrifying battle with General Grievous. 

Fucking Hondo.

By the end of it, she has all their attention wrapped around her like a cloak, wide eyes following her hands and, in some instances, seeing what she saw through the Force.  A few of them definitely have a talent for clairvoyance, if not outright precognition, which will make this trip interesting, to say the least.  Ilum is strong in the unifying Force.  She does her best to tuck the sheer desperation of that final duel away as she tells it because it’s just another fun story, for them.  Jedi, fighting the forces of evil!  The ups and downs of battle are exhilarating, not horrifying, because they still know in their hearts a Jedi can do anything they set their mind to.

—

Creating a lightsaber is a sacred process, one that unites every Jedi.  These younglings will remember one another for the rest of their lives, remember the feeling of each other in the Force every time they held the physical manifestation of their lives in their hands.

All the crechémates Ahsoka built her first lightsaber with are dead.

—

aaaaand that's as far as I got, back in 2021. Cilghal is a real star wars character, a healer-knight from the days of the new jedi order. i figured bariss and ahsoka probably ended up sharing a padawan, given the ending scene of Had we but World enough, and Time.

[writingforfun0714]

Hi all

I’ve seen Ahsoka eps 1+2 twice now and I’d like to share my thoughts on the show.

Warnings: Spoilers for Ahsoka ep1 and ep2, not a fic, contains thoughts/personal opinions and guessing ages

Here’s what I like about the show in general: I like it, and wanna see where it goes.

Overall I’m interested. While I don’t think the show is bad, I definitely don’t think it’s the best show I’ve ever seen. The effects were decent and I loved the sets. I also loved the scores of music—though I don’t think I’ve ever hated the sound design/music for any SW show. The mural looked a little different from Rebels’ version but personally I still think it’s good, though I was hoping for more shots of the whole mural instead of mostly closeups of Ezra. I also liked the costume designs but the only change I would make would be having Ahsoka show up in white robes at the end of ep2 to match Rebels’ finale. I loved that when Sabine’s not wearing her Mando armor, she wears things almost identical to Hera and had a similar hair-cutting scene to Kanan 😍

Now for the story. I think the main story of finding Thrawn+Ezra is great. It’s something I’ve wanted since Rebels’ finale. I also love the new characters introduced. Baylan Skoll, his apprentice Shin (Hati?) stole the show anytime they were on screen. I love everything about them so far. Their personalities, their costume designs (Baylan wears all black while Shin wears more neutral colors and still has her padawan braid) and especially Shin’s unspoken body language has been amazing. I’m super curious about their dynamic, since it seems like any time Shin is unsure, she looks to Baylan. I’m wondering, since Ahsoka and Anakin had a sibling dynamic going on, if they’ll go opposite and make Baylan and Shin have a more father/daughter type of relationship cuz I’ll be honest and say when I first saw them, I immediately thought of Silco/Jinx from Netflix’s Arcane.

I also liked Morgan Elsbeth. I wasn’t sure about her in Mando and because she wasn’t super important like Moff Gideon or something, I didn’t really give her a lot of thought. But I liked her revealing to be related to the Night Sisters and I loved the Night Sisters Temple. I’m also interested in Inquisitor Marrok. I definitely think Marrok is Starkiller but we’ll have to wait and see.

I loved seeing familiar characters as well. Of course Hera, Chopper and Huyang were confirmed to come back from the trailer so I knew I’d love seeing them, but I was pleasantly caught off guard by Ryder Azadhi aka CLANCY BROWN, and Jai Kell. I loved that they got who they could to come back for their characters (Clancy Brown, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen). I loved Huyang’s scenes as well and I know some people were on the fence about MEW as Hera, but I actually liked her (though we gotta talk about THOSE CONTACTS). That being said Vanessa Marshall is still Hera to me. Her voice, her character in Rebels, will always be Hera.

AND CHOPPER!!! Need I say more?❤️

Now for what I didn’t like. These will be more specific instances/scenes compared to the show in general since, as stated above, I do like the show.

Of course I noticed the ‘Former Jedi Knight’ in the opening crawl. She was never knighted, just like Luke in the OT.

There is one part I didn’t mention above. Ahsoka and Sabine’s relationship. I get that it’s the first 2 episodes. However, I think it’s really jarring to go from Ahsoka and Sabine being friends in the Rebels’ finale to look for Ezra+Thrawn now to cold and snippy with each other, especially given that Sabine is supposed to be like 30?? And Ahsoka at like 45-47? There was no indication of what happened between them for most of ep1, just that SOMETHING happened between the two until it’s revealed that Ahsoka walked away from Sabine, like she did with Anakin. But this also plays into another problem I have with Sabine. She is Mandalorian and was not force sensitive in Rebels. She had a whole arc about reclaiming her culture and training with the Dark Saber w/ Kanan. There was no need to make her a Jedi. Not only does that disrespect Sabine’s character, it also disrespects the Jedi. The Jedi were originally a religion that was meant to be a safe place for select few across the galaxy born with the connection to the Force. It’s not something to ‘train/work towards’.

Yes, Ahsoka ‘is not a Jedi’ however times when being referred to as one, she does not refute it or say otherwise like she did in Rebels. It seemed out of character for her.

I know some people love the idea of ordinary people/beings being able to train hard enough to gain a connection to the Force, but I personally think that Jedi are those born with the ability. Huyang even says that she sucked as a Padawan.

I also know that Dave Felony has a habit of changing canon but that’s no excuse for poor writing. In fact, I believe he’s been at the head of Star Wars for so long that he’s just gone unchecked about what makes a good story.

Aside from those aspects of the show, I enjoyed it and am interested to see where it goes nonetheless. If you made it this far, thanks for your time.

-Maisy❤️

[survivingcollegeonefanficatatime]

biology 2

star wars, just as eddited as the last one (it's not) although I spelt Ahsoka's name rigt more often than before

After the first impromptu lecture, Ahsoka made plans for the event to be a regular thing. She’d passed her first exam, not exactly with flying colors, but with a wide enough margen she was sitting happily above class average. The entire 501st was ecstatic at the news and practically demanded to be a part of Ahsoka’s next ‘I forgot there was a test coming up and I need to study RIGHT NOW’ binge. The little Togruta had flushed in embarrassment, and tried to explain that she’d definitely host more of these events after each lecture rather than waiting until the last minute to go over everything at once…. Except…. She forgot. In her defense there was at least one battle and a minor mision she’d participated in after clases but that didn’t really change the fact that it was, yet again, the day before the exam, and Ahsoka was in a panic. So she took over one of the less used rooms on the Resolute and set up shop.

Rex was busy this time, having been claimed by Anakin to go over mission reports (read: write them for Anakin) and Pebble, Jesse, Shadow, and Pattern had been called away to do something or another but that still left Echo, Fives, Kix, Dogma, Hardcase, Suture, Leif, and Wraith behind. Ahsoka took a deep, steady breath, as she looked over the room. 

“Unit two is about plants.” she explained “they originally came from protists if you remember them and can be divided into groups just like animals could be. Plants are multicellular, they’re eukaryotic, and are generally photosynthetic, so, in other words they typically eat light in order to get energy.” the clones' attention flicked into place, zeroing in on Ahsoka all at once. 

“Phyte means plant, so you’ll probably see that affix show up a lot, and Sterpto means twisted, so the clade sterptophyes means twisted plants. After that is the kingdom Plantae, or land plants, so that means the stretophyes include some ocean plants, that said most ocean plants are not ‘true’ plants. Seagrass is, but uhhh anyways under plantae which are also embryophytes are the vascular plants, tracheophytes, and then the seed plants, spermatophytes, we can divide plants into green algae, bryophytes are nonvascular plants seedless vascular plants, gymnosperms and angiosperms.”  Ahsoka took another breath, there was a lot to explain.

“Land plants came from green algae, they started their transition to land a long time ago, over 475 million years ago, like most things on the scale of planetary and biological time, it’s such a long time ago it’s almost impossible to imgen, does anyone know what some common features of land plants are?”

Echo spoke up. “You mentioned photosynthesis? So I assume that’s something they can do” Ahsoka nodded. She waited a few moments and was just about to continue when Kix spoke up.

“Cell walls?” 

“Yeah, cellulose cell walls, chlorophyll which is the pigment that is involved with photosynthesis, and common enzymes, they have a common sperm structure and use starch to store carbon. well photosynthesis too but we already mentioned that.” nodes passed around the room “there’s a big difference between water and air, so plants had to compensate, one of the ways they did that was through tissues that came from something called the Apical Meristems which are growing tips. Plants are very diverse, and are often sessile, which means they don’t move a whole lot.” 

The padawan szed, she was hardly a few slides in and she already had to get into her least favorite part of the plant section. She wrinkled her nose, why couldn’t plants be easy or at least easy to understand, why did they have to delight in being so strange. She steadied herself and jumped in.

“Plants are, annoyingly weird. They have a life cycle which honestly gives me a headache, but unfortunately, it’s real, and it's going to be on my exam so…. Plant life cycles. Plants can reproduce sexually, and they alternate between haploid and diploid phases, however both phases are multicellular, so basically an entire portion of their life, and this is called the ‘alternation of generations’ which is a headache and a half to deal with.” The men smiled, a few huffed breathless laughs. Ahsoka wished it was as amusing to her as it was to her men. She used the force to flick on a holo projector, a different kind than the one she used last time, and pulled her stylus out. With a gesture the projector forms lines around where she draws. A circle appears in the air. 

“Alright, the alternation of generations is going to get a lot more complicated but let’s start with something simple.” Ahsoka writes ‘gametophyte’ at the top of the circle, and ‘sporophyte’ at the bottom. She takes a breath and starts filling in steps, mitosis after gametophyte, then fertilization, mitosis again, the sporophyte and a longer gap to meiosis before mitosis hits and the circle completes with gametophyte. To finish the circle off Ahsoka draws a horizontal line though the middle, between fertilization on one side, and meiosis on the other, on the top, towards gametophyte she writes ‘haploid’ and on the bottom ‘diploid’ 

“We’re going to start with this mitosis' ' she points towards the word that directly follows ‘gametophyte’ and it lights up as she tapps the stylus to it. “O wait, uh first, Gametophyte is the word for the haploid multicellular part and sporophyte is the diploid multicellular part. A good way to remember that is that the Sporophyte is the Diploid generation, there’s this holo-vid franchise Master Obi-Wan likes, and his favorite sub-series in the franchise is called Digital Space nine or DS9, so DS--diploid sporophyte.” Ahsoka huffed out a breathless laugh, it was a stupid way to remember but it worked well, Anakin had never been all that much of a fan of ‘digital voyage’ he was much more interested in the more action focused ‘distant conflict’ but Ahsoka liked both, and if using Obi-Wan’s interest in media with a heavy dose of political drama helped her pass her exam then she’d use it. 

The togruta blinked and continued “Anyways, uh mitosis, the gametophyte made a haploid gametes via mitosis oh and haploid cells cannot undergo meiosis because meiosis is the process of a diploid cell splitting into haploid cells and you can’t do that without a diploid cell. Anyways, after the gametophyte makes haploid gametes the gametes fuse to make a zygote” Ahsoka moves her pen to highlight ‘fertilization’ then slowly moves her pen to the next ‘mitosis’ as she speaks “this zygote develops into a diploid Sporophyte” she traces the circle, passing over the sporophyte as it’s more the product of something than a step in and of itself. The next word highlighted is meiosis “the sporophyte which has made haploid spores can undergo meiosis which transitions the plant from diploid to haploid, or at least leads to it, because the final step has spores germinating and dividing to make the haploid gametophyte” 

“That seems complicated” Leif huffs Ahsoka and can't help but nodd, and it will only get worse as they pass through the lecture. She’s already dreading angiosperms. 

“Despite its seeming complexity we can compare this to the reproductive cycle of naboo's native sapients. which do technically have a haploid stage, but the main difference here is that the plant generation is multicellular and also more confusing.” the little jedi paused for a moment, she basked in the amusement that flickered through the small crowd. 

“Sperm and eggs are unicellular, so despite being haploid they’re not like plants. It’s also worth pointing out that where gametophytes--the haploid generation--reproduce sexually, sporophyes--which are diploid--repoduce axesually. That may also be confusing considering they're both sorta involved in sexual reproduction but…. That’s just how plants are.” Ahsoka waved her stylus dismissing her little doodle, she tapped it against the datapad that rested on her arm, and flicked upwards, transferring the diagram from her notes to the air in front of her. 

“Over time, or rather, with evolution the gametophyte--haploid--generation has become more prominent, conversely the diploid, or sporophyte generation has gotten less prominent. This means that bryophytes have a large gametophyte generation and a much smaller sporophyte generation. Vascular seedless plants have a larger sporophyte generation, and smaller gametophyte generation, and angiosperms have even smaller gametophyte generations.” she gestured to her diagram, highlighting the generations in different colors, it demonstrated the way the gametophyte generation got smaller over time. 

“Plants, as I mentioned had to overcome some challenges when coming to land. Start thinking about what those challenges might be, we’ll go over an official list later but for now I just want you to come up with a few on your own.” She paused for a few beats “one of the ways plants had to adapt was the creation of sporopollenin, which is a resistant polymer that protects spores and pollen, this helps them prevent drying and decay. On land plants need to survive in a way that means they won’t dry out. Creating spores is one way they do that. There are special structures, called sporangia, that help plants make, protect and send spores out. This is important for land plants. Te gametangia do the same but for gametes. This makes it fairly easy to remember, spores come from sporangia, gametes come from gametangia. The gametangia are one of the key adaptations of land plants, as I mentioned they help prevent the plant from drying out. There are also the antheridia which are haploid and produce sperm, and the archegonia which are also haploid and produce eggs. Young plants also come in embryos, that are inside a protective structure, if you remember the land plants were also called embryophytes, this is why, green algae don��t have embroeos but alnd plants do. Individuals that are larger diploids produce more spores, this is why a lot of plants have chosen to grow up.” 

“There are nine phyla of land plants. The first three are bryophytes which are nonvascular plants, these are liverworts, mosses and hornworts. Seedless vascular plants have lycophytes, and pteridophytes, then the gymnosperms have cycads, ginkgos and conifers, finally the angiosperms just have angiosperms. I’m going to go over all these phylums so we can learn a little more about them. The bryophytes could be a clade, anyone remember what clade means?” 

“It’s a group that includes a common ancestor and all its descendants right?” Wraith asked, Ahsoka nodded. 

“So bryophytes might be a clade, they’ve got mosses, liverworts, and hornworts which are all monophyletic phylums, which means?”

“A group with only one phylum, which is similar to a clade but not quite” Dogma added. 

“That’s right! All three bryophytes grow in damp environments and are nonvascular, they don’t have roots and they don’t produce seeds. They’re very early on the timeline of plants, and they’re gametophyte or haploid dominant, if you remember simple plants are more often gametophyte dominant. And they also introduce us to our second plant life cycle chart!” Ahsoka cimed with mock enthuseasum, her men groaned, already starting to see the pattern. “Don’t worry, this one’s more complicated!” The smile on her lips did nothing to prevent the glare that Gives leveled her with. 

Once again Ahsoka took her stylus and held it to the air. After a second she decided to fill this one in as she went. First she drew a tallish structure, and labeled it as the gametophyte, the top of which was the gametangia ``this will split into two paths, one of the archegonia, and one to the antheridia, what were those again?”

Leif perked up “the archegonia is where eggs are produced, it's the female part of the plant, and the antheridium is where sperm is produced, it’s the male part of the plant!” 

“Perfect!” Ahsoka doodled with little structures, then drew them slightly larger and indicated that the two plant parts were in water. “In bryophytes water is necessary for sexual reproduction, this is because the water helps the sperm flow from the antheridium to the archegonium so federalization can take place.” she drew an arrow from the doodle and labeled it ‘ferelization’ she then drew the archegonium again, only this time, instead of drawing a little ball for the egg, she drew it with the opening closed, and a bundle of cells that were slightly larger than the egg had been in its place. “This is where the diploid or sporophyte generation starts. And in mosses theory grow a sporangium, to house spores right from the archegonium, it rises up in stalks” she drew the sporophyte form of the moss, then an arrow from it, and wrote meiosis, before drawing the sporangium opens with little dots escaping it, she labeled these ungerminated spores. Then she drew a few sketches in quick succession, between each arrows were drawn. From the ungerminated spores to a germinating spore to a bid placed on a protonema and a rhizoid, to that bud growing larger and then the circle completed back at the gametangia. “As you can see the haploid or gametophyte generation is larger, with the diploid stage only taking up a single step. You can also see that the steps are quite similar to the previous example, only there’s a bit more going on.” several men were squinting at her doodle, a small line of frustration or confusion clear on their faces.

“Clear as mud, Sir.” Hardcase huffed, causing Ahsoka to snort. 

“That’s about how I felt about it” the togruta admitted, unfortunately my exam is coming up and I need to at least attempt to understand this mess, so moving on to vascular plants, horsetails and ferns, or lycophytes and pteridophytes” Echo held his hand up.

“Yes?”

“Does Not pterid just mean fern?” 

“Huh yeah I guess it does, so that makes it easy enough to keep track of this one . These were the earliest plants to process stems, roots , leaves and a vascular system. They had to use lignified cells to gather straight to fight against gravity. The vascular tissue system has xylem which carries water. These cells are dead at maturity and will form sort of… empty tube like structures, then there’s the phloem which is alive at maturity and transports carbohydrates and other such neuterants. To be honest it’s not so much that the phloem is alive that the companion cells are but it’s still alive enough to count. There are consequences to having a more structured and strengthened vascular system, anyone got any ideas as to what they may be?” 

“They can get bigger? If they've got more strength then they’ll probably grow larger, and you said that larger plants can send their spores farther.” Dogma phrased his words like a question.

“Yeah, they can get bigger, in some dryer environments especially, in peat bogs you may not need to have such massive plants because the water is closer to the ground, this will leave them mostly as grasses but in some larger forests you can maintain stable water content and get very big. Vascular plants also maintain stable internal water content because they have a waxy cuticle and stomata, the cuticle is a coating outside the cell that limits water loss, and the stomata is a closable opening that regulates water loss and gas exchange. Lycophytes and prediophyes are diploid or sporphyte dominent” Ahsoka took a deep breath, how she was still in the first lecture was beyond her, but she still had so much to cover. She swore it didn't take quite so long to cover everything the first time around, but then again, she understood the first unit more than she understood the second one. Growing a little frustrated she let emotions over her, and jumped back into her lecture. 

“After vascular systems seeds showed up, these appeared in gymnosperms, which just means naked seed, because the seeds are uncovered. In this case the seeds protect the embryos and have chemicals that help plants grow and develop. In this case gymnosperms include cycads, ginkgos and gnetophytes and conifers, which lack flowers, fruits, and endosperms. In these plants the eggs and sperm are usually contained in cones, with te male cones being much smaller than the female cones. After that we have angiosperms which are covered seeds or seeds within vessels, they’re flowering plants. They’ve replaced gymnosperms as thedomente plants on Naboo. They make flowers fruits and endosperm they also have wood ovules seeds and pollen. As well as xylem and phloem. If we go back to gymnosperms there are a few of them, cycads which are the oldest phylum and are endangered, like a lot of species on Naboo. The planet as a whole is facing a mass extinction event, and current top scientists are working to help them prevent it from worsening. Regardless, the second group is the Ginkgo which only really remains as the ginkgo biloba, it's almost extinct in the wild and is often used for decoration. They can live for over a thousand years but every modern one was grown in captivity. Conifers are easy to remember because they’re named for their seed cones, and modern conifer families have more than 50 genera, they often appear in cold and dry climates, and are commonly referred to as pine trees, they’ve got needle leaves and are often evergreen. These are going to be our next life cycle!” 

“Let me guess?” Fives called “it’s even more complicated than the last one?”

“So you’ve noticed the trend huh?” Ahsoka asked

“Unfortunately It was fairly clear from the start that this was only going to get more confusing.” Kix admonished. The padawan nodded and groaned, she quickly realized she hadn’t waved away her last chart and tapped it away. Then she looked down at the datapad in her arm, she had no idea who she was supposed to transfer the mess of a chart in her notes to something she could explain. If she was being honest it was so busy she struggled to read it in places. Still that didn’t change the fact that, fundamentally, it held the same steps as the others, so she took a deep breath and held her stylus to the air. “Sporophyes produce ovule cones and pollen cones” Asoka explained as she doodled a conofer, she wrote mature spophye next to it, then drew two arrows one to the ovule cone and one to the pollen cone, “this is where the paths split, in ovule cones emaspores are made by meiosis within the megasprangia, in pollen cones microspres are produced by meiosis within the microsprangia” she drew the larger cone and labled it, then followed the ovole cone, following the path by drawing a megaspora dn megasoprangim with scales, she proceed to draw an egg, and spoke “in ovoule cones megaspore onder go mitosis and produce female gamaphotes these have eggs and are in the achregnonia, the entire structure includes the oter integers and each of the cones has two ovoles” she labled the drawing with the intergument the female gametophye, the megasporangium and the archegnonium, then she drew a diagram of the polen grain entering the ovule “pollen grains are dispersed into the wild and will encounter ovules” from there the last drawing on the ovole path was a male gretophtye, she then returned to the pollen cone, and traced it’s path, staring with mitosis “in pollen comes micorpsores undergomitosis develop into pollen grains which are young male gemotphyes” she then drew the pollen grains that would fly away form the microsprangium, te two arrows met back up under the label of ferterlization, “the pollen tube delivers sperm to eggs where fertalization occures, only one egg per ocule is fertalized” she wrote mitosis next, and continue d”the zygote produces and embryo in a seed, amtrue seeds are then dispersed” the embryo was abled 2n, and finally Ahoka drew a scale, withcontained seeds “seeds germinate and embroidery sporophytes grow into seedlings” the last thing she drew was a seedling. The togruta huffed and moved on.

“Conifers also include gentiles, a gentum, and ephedra, they also include welwitschia which only has one living species and angiosperms have flowers.” she grinned as she waved away the image on the projector, and shifted it to images of flowers she gestured to a ball-looking plant that was made up of a collection of flowers

“An inflorescence is a group of flowers! And umble is one pod of a group of flowers, there are also flowers that look like they’re only one flower but in reality they have ray flowers at the edges and disk flowers inside” she waved towards the image of a red flower with the center surrounded by little yellow blooms'' her smile was genuine she loved the way those flowers looks

“Flowers have a bunch of parts” she explained and gestured to the flower diagram “the stamen contains the male parts of the flower and contains the anther and filament, the pistil contains the female part and has the stigma style and ovary, then there’s the perianth, which ahs the petal and sepal” Ahsoka waved away her diagram and continued “carpels are also what bear the female megasporangia, although Pistil is also sometimes used but I think the pistil is more spsuficalc. And carpels is just the general term. Statements don’t have a more general term, a perfect flower has both megasporangia and microsporangia, so male parts and female parts.”

“Like--” someone called and was instantly cut off by noise

“We’re talking about plants right now” Ahsoka emphasized with a roll of her eyes. “Plants which are monoecious have both male and female flowers on the same plant, mono-one so one plant, whereas diecious have male and female flowers that are on different plants, a monoecious plant can be perfect or imperfect but a dioecious plant cannot be perfect. Plants also go through something called double fertilization, this basically means that a male gametophyte will end up fusing with two cells both the egg and gametophyte nuclei” Ahsoka huffed she could have made another plant life cycle chart but this one was fairly simple and she was tired. 

“There are two main types of angiosperms, monocots and dicots which will be referred to as dicots, I’m not sure why they have two names but they do. Anyways here’s some difference, the monocots have onle ctyledon and includes grassees cattails lilies orcheds and palms, whereas the dicots have two cotyledons and are most species of seed plants, or at least the familiar ones.'' The padawan took a breath, and wrapped up the first lesson. 

“Flowers have a lot of variation, monocots and dicots are included in this, dicots often have organs in sets of 4 or fives, whereas monocots often have flower organs in mutables of fress. There are variations of shape because of this and flowers can have radial or bilateral symmetry, like like animals could plants also have their own life cycle diagram we have to cover” and the room groaned, Ahoska couldn't help but huff in amusement, at least her mene didn’t need to take an exam about it tomorrow she was getting increasingly nervous about the whole office.

“It’s similar enough” she said waving her stylish, she drew a circle and labeled the top diploid and the bottom half lid. “If you remember, angiosperms are sporophyte dominant. So the diploid stage is bigger” she explained as she drew a little flower at the top, she labeled the ovary ovule and anther, then drew the male sporangia much larger, and drew a microsporocyte common from it, she also drew the megasporocyte much larger next to it. “The sporangia surround the gametes, and after meiosis there are 4 microspores” she drew this and then drew the pollen grain landing on the gametophyte, she made a little wiggle down from the plen grain and reaching towards the egg “they make a spleen tube so the sperm can travel from the pollen to the egg” she drew this and then traced an arrow away from it and wrote double fertilization “double fertilization is when thee ends up with an endosperm nucleus and a zygote this then develops into a seed and seedling and back around it goes.” she was scared, and continued. 

“In meiosis there end up being 4 haploid megaspores, which make 3 megaspores degenerate and leave one megaspore behind, it undergoes mitosis three times and ends up with 8 haploid cells, then two dissolve and we geta  7 celled female gametophyte” the men huffed at her, confused but said nothing. She moved on to seeds ``dicots seeds often have an epicotyl which is a portion of the embryonic stem, seeds can become dormant and dry, but they do need water to sprout. Monocot and dicot seeds are different. Monocot seeds have an epicotyl within a first bud, they’ll typically shoot up straight from the seed. Fruits are basically ovaries that form around the seeds, although sometimes they come from other portions, they’re designed to help with seed dispersal, to attract animals or some other such thing.” the second chapter had gone much faster than the first so Ahoka smiled as she wrapped it up “plants can also have asexual reproduction, some roots stems and leave can function as reproductive structures, and somatic embryos can develop at the edges of plants, that’s not to emotion apomixis which is where fruits and seeds are produced in the absence of fertilization. Once again Ahoska took a breath and moved on, there was more to deal with flowers. 

“Here’s some of the differences between monocots and dicots, the embryos of monocots have one cotyledon, they have scattered vascular tissues in their stems and their leaf veins are usually parallel, they’ve got fibrous roots and have floral organs in sets of threes. Whereas dicots have cotyledons, vascular tires in a concentric circle, veins that form a network, a taproot and flowers in multiples of four or five organs.” she yawned despite herself, and moved right along “plants have distinctive architecture, they have a shoot system which are the leaves and stems and also a root system.”

“Let me guess, that contains the roots?” Fives snarked

“Yeah, got an idea of what the roots do?”

“They help the plant get water and nutrients?” Echo offered

“They act as stabilizers?” Wraith asked.

“Yes to both they also store the products of photosynthesis and increase surface area. Primary growth is lengthening of shoots and roots whereas secondary growth comes later and is an increase in thickness.” 

“There are also different types of tissues in plants, there’s the parenchyma which are the most abundant and have thin cell walls, they can photosynthesise the collenchyma which have thick cell walls and provide support then there’s sclerenchyma which have thick cell wall reinforced with lignin. We already covered the xylem and the phlegm so I’m not going over that again. Going back to the monocot vs dicot dichotomy we can see that monocot stems have vascular bundles that kinda look like little faces, and their roots are kinda circular whereas the stem from dicots form a lateral ting and look more like ovals whereas their roots form a distinctive x shape roots have a pith xylem phloem a previccle endodomers a cortex and epidermis, although a monocot root salsa has a stele” she sighed

“We’re moving on to angiosperm nutrition, remember angiosperm means covered seeds so it’s stuff that has its seeds covered, this is the group that includes flowers. Now plants, well most of them, are autotrophs. They have limiting factors, light for energy, carbon fixing from the atmosphere, hydrogen and oxygen from water, nitrogen from the soil well from the bacteria and fungi and also phosphorus and other such mineral nutrients. That said, not every plant is an autotroph, there are some parasitic plants, which I think are pretty neat. Ahsoka flicked her wrist and prompted the projector to display a list “here’s some essential elements that plants need, they can be divided into macronutrients and micronutrients, which means the plants need at least one g per kg of dry plant mass. These include carbon which is a component of all organic columles, and oxygen which is also a component of organic molecules, and hydrogen, they also need nitgorgen while we’r ein the acronym they also need phosphorus and sulfur, if you remember the acronym CHNOPS carbon hydrogen nitrogen oxygen phosphorus sulfur then you remember that living things need CHNOPS, although plants also need potassium which is important in iconic ballance, calcium which is a component of cell walls and magnesium which is a part of chlorophyll. Plants also need micronutrients less than .1 g per kg, these include chlorine ironmagnesese boron zinc sodium and copper, fertilizer can provide these nutrients but you don’t want to add too much or it may result in blooms'' with a Sigh Ahsoka continued “soil is important for growing plants, they have a lot of comprent, living things like plant roots bacteria and such and nonliving things like rock fragments, it’s important to understand the difference in types of soil they have sand which is the largest piece, silt which is smaller and clay which is the smallest, it also has bacteria, fungi, roots and root hairs, and air and water. If the soil is too thick with water plants can die. Soil with organic matter is called humus, and humus which is a good food sources, there are also types of sil, sandy soil which is proosu and allows air and water, silty clay souls which retain more water and minerals and loam soils which combine the aeration benefits of sand with the water and iron retention of silty clay soils, soils are also a part of nitrogen fixation because mycorrhizae is a fungus that grows on the roots of plants and helps the plant get nutrients, there’s also nitrogen fixing nodules which are bacteria in a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. Nitrogen must be fixated, going from atmospheric nitrogen to NH4+ or ammonium, then from that to NO2 and then NO3 then from there to organic nitrogen and then to ammonia and then NO3 back to atmospheric nitrogen, this process has steps called Nitrogen fixation nitrification assimilation ammonification and denitrification. Nitrogen fixing nodules are bacteria this is because bacteria is the thing that can fix nitrogen.” Ahsoka scrolled on her datapad for a few moments before she continued

“We also need to cover diffusion, osmosis is diffusion but with water, there’s also facilitated diffusion that flows through a specific transport protein path and then active transport that requires energy.  Secondary active transport requires energy in the first step but not in the second. There’s also three tissue level transport forms, the first is transmembrane, the second is symplastic which is like using the slow lane and then apoplastic which is much faster plants use bulk flow to transport water, bulk flow occurs using negative pressure and this is called the cohesion tension theory this is kind of like a straw, when water evaporates it creates a negative pressure and sucks more water up into its place, this is happening nearly constantly and allows the plant to transport water through its body with extreme efficacy. There are three factors to this, transportation cohesion and tension. Blue light is absorbed by a guard cell and activates H atpase, which then pumps protons and K and CL enter guard cells, then water enters by osmosis and increases turgor pressure which opens the stomata, so during the day water is transferred much faster. Some plants have adapted to drop all their leaves when water is unavailable so they can preserve water and not let it evaporate too fast. This can also happen seasonally in a process called leaf abscission.” 

Finally she was onto the last lecture. This whole thing had been exhausting, and although there wasn’t nearly as much content as there was last time, it was still so much to cover. 

“Plants have behavior” the little jedi announced “they can respond to changes, environmental cues like day lengths, they use receptors to sense environmental cues, and hormones for chemical signals, some of the plant behaviors include shoots growing towards the light or roots growing towards gravity, seed germination, seasonal flower production or protective responses cell communication happens by receptor activation, signal transduction and then cellular response. We also need to go over a list of hormones and what they all do.” with a breath Ahsoka pulled up her list “Auxins establish optical basal polarity, they’re often called a control hormone because they encourage a lot of stuff, they promote formation or doors and himiti leaf and fruit drop, they also help with fruit development, cytokines promote cell division and inference cells cephalization, gibberellins stimulate cell decision, and stem elongation and flowering, ethylene is the reason fruit goes bad so fast, it promotes seedling growth induces fruit ripening and plays a role in leaf and petal aging, abscisic acid slows or stops metabolism during stress it also induces bud and see dormancy and prevents germination in unfavorable condition brassinosteroids promote cell expansion” 

“The effects of auxins can make plants bigger or taller, they can also help with phototropism, and gravitropism, so in other words movement, although auxins can inhibit cell elongation. In a curve the cells that elongate are on the outward edge. Cytokines are a part of cell division and they increase cttokensisis which is an important factor. Gibberellins are similar to dioxins but they also promote fruit growth and seed germination. Gibberellins are sprayed on fruits to get more product out of them. Ethylene is a gas and it promotes ripening, it’s how some fruit ripens and goes bad so fast. It also is involved in a positive feedback loop so the release of some amount of ethylene encourages more ethylene, ABA or abscicic ascid stops plant botabalsisum and bratheostariods induce vacule water intake and foster cell expansion.”

“Seeds can germinate in the presence of light, Pr absorbs red light and Pfr absorbs far-red light, if the sun is out then there’s plenty of red light and Pr switches to Pfr so the plant can germinate, in the presence of far red light the reverse happens plants can also respond to touch and curl up in a really cool way, plants are also chemical weapons, and they defend against predators by releasing a volatile chemical which then prompts the rest of the plants to produce the volatile chemical” Ahsoka paused for a moment, remembering the anecdote her professor had told her “scientists found this out during an experiment where they decided to simulate predation by getting a bunch of plants and whacking a few with a broom, or at least that’s the story I was told.'' There was laughter in the room, and the padawan took a breath before continuing. “There’s also ways for plants to defend against pathogens, plant pathogens produce compounds known as elicitors which promote infection they can feel these chemicals through the use of receptors, and then they can use mRNAs to destroy the nucleic acids and well as chemical defenses, these things can change things like strengthening plant cell walls, programed cell death or producing a compound that will kill the pathogen. A hypersensitive response is a local reaction to a pathogen attack that’s supposed to limit the progression of the disease, they can kill pathogens or stimulate the synthesis of chemicals, or induced programed cell death, killing sections to stage out the pathogen and protect the rest of the plant a systematic acquired resistance is an immune response of the WHOLE plant.” with a smile Ahsoka realized that she’d reached the last of her slides, and slumped in releaf.

“That’s all for now, with any luck I’ll pass this exam!” she chimed. 

[ravenheartxvi]

So I've had this Tumbler for a while now, long time lurker and rarely posting. Just thought I'd give a little better introduction of myself than what my bio says.

I mostly prefer to keep to myself so excuse my sparse social interactions, haha. You can call me Charlie and I am definitely female. I was born the year Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the remains of the Titanic and for some inexplicable reason, I feel a connection to the “unsinkable” ocean liner. I had a minor obsession with the ship as a teen, and tend to enjoy reading about it, or watching documentaries or youtube videos of it. I am also a lover of Tudor history. 

My main interest here on Tumbler surrounds the Sims and fanfiction. I’ve been an avid simmer since the original Sims came out. I don’t know about anyone else, but for some reason I can get a kind of god complex when I play the sims, lol. I discovered mods during the Sims 3 and have been hooked ever since. My two favorite mods are MC command center and Wicked Whims. I’ve also used the extreme violence mod before and some of the sims storylines I created with these mods are rather, ahem, interesting. I would be willing to share if anyone is interested, just fair warning, these interesting sims stories are NSFW. 

My other love includes fanfiction. I first got involved in 2001 and was introduced in a now defunct Harry Potter site. My earliest fics are now lost. I later became prolific on fanfiction.net and you can still see my works there through the link in my profile. In 2005 I switched from Harry Potter over to Star Wars. For a brief time I had drifted into Gilmore Girls before drifting back to Harry Potter and back to Star Wars where I am currently firmly based. I have grown annoyed with fanfiction.net and decided to switch over to Archive of Our Own where all my current fics are being posted. 

My favorite fic trope is time travel/ time travel fix-its. 

I enjoy a variety of AU’s Such as: Anakin doesn’t fall, Darth Vader/Padme Amidala fics where Anakin was raised as a Sith, Character X doesn’t die, Luke and Leia were raised by at least one of their parents, and a multitude of variations of these tropes. In recent months I’ve gotten into modern au anidala fics, a trope that I’ve avoided for a while. 

My ships include:

Harry Potter/Hermione Granger

Rory Gilmore/Logan Huntzberger

Anakin Skywalker(Darth Vader)/Padme Amidala

Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade

Leia Organa/Han Solo

Ships that give me the willies but I wont judge those who enjoy them:

Anakin Skywalker/Obi-Wan Kenobi * Because they literally equate each other as brothers/family and have both said so more than once. 

Anakin Skywalker/Ahsoka Tano * These two have a big brother/little sister dynamic and nothing anyone says can dissuade me. 

Hermione Granger/ anyone who is a Death Eater. * Because, WTF? You know what I’m talking about, don’t lie.

Psychology is an interest of mine and I enjoy incorporating it into my works in recent years. If I could pass math and had the finances, I would pursue a degree in the subject. Mental Illness is a subject that is very important to me and I like to consider myself an advocate for the support of mental illness and fully believe in the benefits of therapy. So I do not, under any circumstances, tolerate the use of words like crazy and all its synonyms as a form of insult. Everyone struggles with something so a little kindness and understanding, compassion, is something we should extend to everyone around us, including those who have wronged us. I am very open with talking about my own struggles, in the hopes that I can help someone else struggling in whatever way I can. Sometimes, it helps to know that you are not alone in your struggles. 

I am not perfect, in any way, but I try to be a decent person with integrity. I make mistakes and often struggle in how to fix those mistakes. Often, I need people to come to me and tell me if I have hurt or offended them due to my own lack of a filter and impulsivity. I am very open to listening to grievances and to finding a way to work through those grievances. However, what I will never do is blast those grievances or work through them in a public forum. I prefer not to stir drama on the internet. It is preferable, IMHO, to work through any issues privately rather than air it all publicly. I have seen a lot of examples when grievances are aired online and it only ever invites people outside the situation to insert themselves into the situation and stir the drama even further. I have no interest in participating in such situations, it is way too stressful. This is why I have distanced myself from facebook. I would much rather save this account for stress relief fun. 

And here, I feel that I should reiterate another point I made in my profile. I very rarely, if ever, check my messages here on tumbler. When I first joined and for quite a while, the only messages I would receive was porn spam. So I found myself avoiding my messages here. I have zero interest in accepting porn spam. No, I will not check out your webcam. No, I am not interested in watching hot women or connecting with hot women. While I appreciate the female form and have had some celebrity girl crushes, I am very interested in men. And no, I am also not interested in unsolicited penis pictures either. Why do I appear to be interested in this shit? 

Back to a fun topic. My love for history, sims, fanfiction and geeky stuff is also accompanied by my love for music. My two favorite genres of music are Rock and Classical. I have a wide variety of music tastes but I can’t stand country music and disco. Ick…lol! I was exposed to a wide variety growing up so of course I love music. I listen to music during a majority of everyday tasks and while I read and write. My music library is absolutely huge! 

If Interested, I have compiled a personal playlist that expresses my life through song. You can check it out here: