#sith texts; headcanons

[sithisms]

HC: Kun hadn't changed his lightsaber color simply because it helps him blend in. People don't get scared at the sight of a blue saber. They see a jedi like any other.

[rochenn]

star wars characters, no matter how old, being awkward at handling paper books because they're too used to digital media>>>

[shibara]

It's done! Have a sith!Obi-Wan, probably plotting nasty things, judging by that leer. I tidied up some thoughts on this lad's AU and figured I'd put them here under the cut, mostly to have a handy place to look them up later, and because I'm never gonna gather enough oomph to actually write a fic about it, so I might as well just headcanon-dump xD

I figured it's a bit like an Obi-Maul switch-up, with both taking the place of the other in the larger narrative: Maul's going around the galaxy with Qui-Gon grumbling mildly about picking up pathetic life forms, and Obi-Wan's been Sidious' apprentice since Palps went on vacation to Stewjon and thought "hmm, that baby over there smells like the Force and future murder".

Now, this version of Obi-Wan will grow into a being driven completely by his selfishness and hedonism. A vain and deeply greedy man, seeking the power of the dark side to own everything he finds pleasing, beautiful or satisfying in any way. And what he cannot own, he cannot bear to see in the hands of someone else.

He is terrified of his master's power, and that has kept him in line, but he's been also stewing in the rage of feeling entitled to so much, and not being free to pursue his hunger to its full extent (I'm assuming Sheev patiently cultivated this mental place for him, too, for what's more easy to manipulate than a person who Wants so much, so desperately).

The story goes mostly the same, with the switched up roles for Obi-Maul, right until the end of Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan's right about to stab Qui-Gon when he has a moment of "Huh, what a waste, though" so he just beats the shit out of them both without actually killing them, then calls Dooku going “mission, accomplished, the Jedi are neutralized, and also, I got me a souvenir :)" Dooku goes "Child, wtf, that's my old padawan“ and Obi goes “well, it's my your old Padawan now“

And this is how you all find out a friend on discord sold me on quiobi xD

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

The fandom used to be so fcking weird about how it went about interpreting canon. There's still some dumb stuff around but looking back on 2000-2010 era SW fanfiction people had the weirdest Legends-inspired fanon ever and genuinely held it as authoritative reading of the text even as the movies explicitly and completely contradicted it?

I'm specifically thinking about "Sai Tok" and how *gasp* the Council was apparently suuuuuper duper creeped out that Obi-Wan used a *gasp* forbidden Sith lightsaber technique on Darth Maul and they thought it was a sign he had fallen a little bit or whatever (genuinely have seen idiot SW youtube bros use the 'sai tok' argument to say that the Jedi code is hypocritical and they all use the Dark Side anyway when they need to yadda yadda).

But remember how the Council immediately knighted Obi-Wan in TPM?? They didn't HAVE to do that. People using the previous argument would go on about Old Republic "traditions" and how killing a Sith automatically makes you a knight and it's in the Code, but that's just another headcanon used to cover up that the first one doesn't make sense. Nothing in TPM says the Council knighted Obi-Wan out of a tradition they were obligated to follow - if it was the case, they probably wouldn't have given him Anakin. As it is, what the movie seems to be saying is that they knighted him because they thought he deserved it. (Especially since he didn't just hold his own, he also managed to calm himself down and center himself and that's how he got Maul.)

The part in the TPM novelization (iirc) about Sai Tok being 'frowned upon' (not forbidden) isn't in the movies and even if it was it's not very conclusive. Bisecting your opponent would logically be discouraged in lightsaber fights because it's been a thousand years since the Jedi have fought Sith, so anytime they pull out their lightsabers it's to fight people who very likely aren't as powerful as they are and the Jedi only go for the kill as a last resort. They just don't like killing people if they can help it, that's why you'd scold a kid at lightsaber practice who always goes for the throat or midsection. Not because oNLy SitH pEoPle dO thAt. And Obi-Wan's situation? was a last resort, so there is zero reason it'd be frowned upon in the Code or whatever.

And again, that's not what happens! They're so impressed they trust him with Anakin when they could have just knighted him. Frankly I think they wouldn't have had much reason to care if he'd bitten Maul's head off at that point. They also put Obi-Wan on the Council right as the war started (so either they made him a Master specifically to get him on the Council, or they put him on the Council the second they made him a Master for other reasons: bc he fought Dooku, bc he led the investigation, bc Anakin got knighted, whatv. the point is: they ABSOLUTELY trust him.) That he used a 'bad' technique is never, ever, EVER hinted at in all three prequels movie, it's never brought up, used to discredit him, talk him down, used by the Sith as proof that he is just like them... nobody EVER makes a big deal out of it because it's not!! To everybody, the big deal is that Obi-Wan SURVIVED! And managed to beat a Sith!! He could have tripped Maul into the pit, shoved Maul's own lightsaber into his skull, or stabbed him with an actual knife and that still wouldn't change their takeaway!!

[theminecraftbee]

okay i know solving counting sheep is an evo fic first and foremost but i'm super curious how the hermits end up dealing with three. it sounds like this is the kind of hermitcraft thats already a sanctuary for weirdos, but i feel like someone whos skin is feathers and wears a mask they can't see out of is a new level of strange. also, would pearl canonically still join the hermits after a few seasons in that universe? sorry to bombard you with questions when you already have a lot queued up LMAO

okay so this is like, a BIG QUESTION, and another one i've talked about with @strifetxt. we've noodled around a lot so off the top of my head, here's a few answers to "things we think three might do on hermitcraft"! (with the note: none of this is CANON. just because i'm saying it, word of god style, doesn't mean that's actually what HAPPENS, you can have your own story and headcanon for this in your head.)

three joins in season seven, not six, in my head. i'm not even going to try to pretend to guess what a season six without grian looks like just know that apparently happens.

three gets like, SUPER into the head games, because its a way to use its combat skills to HELP SOMEONE why wouldn't it get super into that? this is the first real introduction most of the hermits have to three. the hermits are like "okay mumbo where on earth did you find someone this good at murder". mumbo is like "who knows".

we were definitely joking that outside of hermits who know how to recognize a watcher (iskall, probably xisuma, i'd say also maybe like... doc or ren), the hermits just kind of assume three is autistic and roll with it from there because the idea the hermits, on being told three's actual circumstances, go "why would we guess that mumbo you said you met it hiding in a bar from overstimulation with you" is VERY FUNNY TO ME.

we were debating if election still happens; three is less likely to set up events on its own but IS likely to accidentally do something a little overboard.

our hack for if we wanted three to do the election is as follows: mumbo makes a joke with like, scar, about wanting to be mayor, three takes this completely literally, three and false end up in a cold war of "who is the scarier person NOT to vote for as mayor". meanwhile scar is vibing and a sith lord backing stress is very concerned.

grumbot does not happen. i don't think there's a world where three does grumbot.

three DOES befriend etho, at first to learn how to do interiors better, since etho is doing the all-interiors base, but later because etho's brand of tomfoolery actually works well with three. TWO weird dorks in masks now.

i think three would LOVE free glass. it and etho would make the world's Most pranks i think, all of which are technically what they were asked for. three helps work for shade-e-e's.

there's definitely more stuff we've talked about that i've missed and ALSO these aren't necessarily canon! you may have your own COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IDEA of what happens post-scs, which is fine! this was us waffling around about what would be fun to have happen, haha.

as for pearl... i like to think she does eventually still join hermitcraft, after a few years of texting back and forth with three and a bit more healing. she deserves it.

[padawansuggest]

Hey so if you’re new here and haven’t been around longer than ten minutes you might not know that my fave fave fave tropes ever are 1: time travel and 2: Obi-Wan getting adopted by Mandos, so whenever I find a time travel fic where Obi goes back in time and is promptly adopted by Mandos I get so excited trust me there are a lot but rn what I really really really want is a fic where I combine one of my fave headcanon type things that I like to put in fics with my second fave trope being Force Sensitive Jaster Mereel and then combined with Obi-Wan and Anakin (and probably Shmi too lmao let’s have a force sensitive babies party here) as force ghosts with Jaster and suddenly one of them comes back all ‘YALL I KNOW HOW TO GO BACK IN TIME I FIGURED IT OUT’ and so they all go back in time with the pure goal of saving their peoples (Mandos, Jedi AND slaves okay we makin a trifecta of people who got the worst bullshit in Star Wars two of which got all the blame when literally all of it was Sith and slavers faults) and Jaster goes back in time to Korda 6 and looks around for Jango so they could retreat only for little grunts of ouchies I fell to happen and he looks over to see a small pile of toddlers Obi-Wan, Anakin, Shmi, (Boba and like six other clones you know I have to) and is all ‘oh shit. Please be potty trained please be potty trained please be potty trained’ and now he has to go find Jango to call them back to their ships and tell Jango he in fact has a bunch of new vod’ika all of whom still have adult memories and also can you hold Boba please he’s a crying mess he just wants Jango nvm you can be that one’s Buir he bites lmao NO DONT HOLD HIM LIKE THAT JANIKA I RAISED YOU BETTER and now they’re back to Mandalore and Jaster is all ‘shit. We made this plan to save ALL our peoples. Well fuck.’ And now he’s all wait a sec and calls up the Jedi (yes they had him on hold for 3 hours and he kept bouncing between departments it was very annoying with Obi-Wan’s little fangies teething on his vambraces making the most annoying sound ever the whole time) and now he’s able to sorta blank for a solid 30 seconds before blurting out that they have force sensitive babies and the Jedi can’t have them and then Anakin HANGS UP ON THEM YOU LIL SHIT THAT DIDNT SOUND GOOD and the Jedi sorta like text him back all ‘??? Good for you???’ And now Jaster has to call them again and explain that he needs help with these lil shits teething on his armor and throwing people into walls when they sneeze and the temple is all ‘listen we can send out a master with docs but we’re a lil busy looking for a Stewjoni initiate that disappeared from the nursery’ ‘oh you mean this one?’ *holds up Obi by an ankle who’s chewing furiously on a vambrace’ and says they can’t have him back the kara gave him that baby!!!!! So now they have to send out a team whereupon Plo and Dooku are suckered into a -three way with Jaster- a deal upon which the Mandos will help the Jedi leave the Republic who use them like attack dogs and then they can stop slavery together and raise babies!

Anyways. I just think that would be neat.

[circle-around-again]

The Wrath of Darth Maul by Ryder Windham. Notes & Quotes.

Prologue.

*This is something I have been thinking of doing for a while. I'm a weirdo who likes deep reading texts and mining them for meaning. I have been doing it for this text for some time. I thought I might share it, but more importantly, create a catalogue for myself of notes. I don't know how this will be received, if it will be at all.

This catalogue will present interesting quotes, running themes, headcanons, and an exploration of Maul's experiences. Feel free to browse or use at your leisure. Spoilers ahead.

[scene: spidermaul in the tunnels].

"The prong-nosed rat knew that the dark heap lying in the tunnel was a dead man." (Windham, 1).

This is the first quote of the text. First quotes often hold thematic weight, and frame the story that is to come. It is interesting that Maul is described as a "heap" -- an object, not a body, and that he is specifically described as "dead." This narration establishes that 1) he is worthless, and 2) he is doomed. Fitting for his character, I think. Obligatory world-building: he ate rats to survive, scavenged waterproof fabrics to sleep under, and was an ambush predator who played dead to lure in prey.

"The legs were unevenly jointed, cannibalized from the parts of ruined droids, each leg ending with a tapered point." (2).

Cannibalism mention :3. Interesting that what is cannibalised is a droid, a being in star wars that is not even considered alive. For Maul to cannibalise a droid, on some level, he must thematically be considered a droid. Obligatory world-building: Maul doesn't remember how he got there, how he got his legs, where he is or who he is. He lives as an animal, but with one thing added: "pure and total hatred" (2). Note: unlike The Clone Wars, Maul does not speak and rave. In this depiction, he is silent, as he was in The Phantom Menace.

"He knew that he wasn't a man anymore, that he hadn't been one for years. He was just a creature in a filthy tunnel. And then he remembered the object of his hatred. A man... the man who left me for dead." (3).

Gendered reading: Maul states here that he doesn't consider himself a man anymore. One reading is that, without the bodily aesthetics, obligations and power of conventional masculinity, Maul considers himself worthless (toxic masculinity). Perhaps, he has been drawn towards another gender expression. Maul notably, doesn't even consider himself to be "human." This is a very sad glimpse into Maul's sense of self-esteem. He has also internalised Sidious' vision of an absolute hierarchy of life. Obligatory world-building: Maul has a tantrum when he can't remember things, and destroys his surrounding environment. This does not satisfy him at all. It is interesting to note his coping mechanisms at his lowest point.

"It was then, while he felt his hatred burning within, that a spark ignited in his mind. And he saw a sea of fire..." (4).

A couple of thematic links that I would like to point out: "hatred" and "within" encapsulates Sith philosophy; the inverse of kindness throughout. What begins this journey through his memories is a "spark" - a common phrase I know, but also one intensely linked to Sidious and his primary element of force lightning. Sidious is a catalyst, and the secret at the centre of his being. The oxymoron of "sea" and "fire." This is his literal childhood home, of course. But, later in this novel, Maul's beloved memories of friendship will occur by a sea. I believe it intertwines the characters of both Maul and Kilindi. HC: the previous page ended with Maul remembering a Man to blame... yet this novel begins with the memories of his time in Mustafar under his master. It is of my belief that this unnamed man is Sidious, not Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[sailor-hufflepuff]

Posting the full text of my Sith/Dark Side meta/headcanon.

**********

There are two sides to the Force.

This is true.

There is only one Force.

This is also true.

Those sides are the Light side and the Dark side.

This is the lie.

***********

It does not know when it began. It does not know where it began. It only knows that it is not from Here.

*******

The two sides of the Force are the Living (living, dying, growing, chaotic), and the Unifying, or Cosmic (peaceful, sterile, ordered, stagnant, beautiful).

Both are needed. Life requires order: molecules in their proper places, planets in their orbits, warmth from a star and water to drink and atmosphere to breathe. Life also requires change to grow, to evolve, to bring diversity and beauty, to become more than it was.

Neither is good. Neither is evil.

Neither is powerful. Neither is weak.

Neither is Dark.

*******

It slithers through some crack in the walls of reality, falls from some higher dimension, rises is up from some hellish universe.

It is Other.

It is Strange.

It wants to go Home.

*********

Dark is nothing. Dark is absence. The Darkside does not want war, or power, life, no matter what It tells Its victims.

It promises and promises, but only serves Itself.

It flings Itself against the edges of reality.

*********

This is a physical dimension, full of tactile beings and elementary laws. It must take on a physical form if it wishes to create the changes necessary to create a doorway.

But making one proves beyond Its capabilities, so it steals the forms of others.

Microscopic algae at first. Plants. Animals.

Then It discovers sentient life that can move and decide. This, It knows, is better, is superior. It spends a few eons jumping from host to host, reveling in all the pleasures of pains of physicality.

One day, the host is Different. The host is More. The host is connected to the universe in a way that none of Its previous hosts had been.

It discovers Force Users.

***********

The walls of reality are too strong, the laws of physics too rigid for it to create the hole it wants to.

Life too stubborn.

It must grow stronger.

It must find stronger hosts.

*******

Not all hosts can access the Force, It finds. And those that can take time to develop the abilities, like training new muscles. Easier, then, to posses a body already sufficiently strong.

It takes trial and error (and the rise and fall of a few civilizations), but eventually It settles on a system that most suits It.

One Master. The host.

One Apprentice. The next host, for when the current one brings to fail with age and decay, in that frustrating way all life-forms seem to do.

It finds a potential host and trains Its future body up, makes the body strong, promises him or her or them power and immortality. And then, when they chomp at the rules and limitations, they rise up and kill their Master, proving their body the stronger one, the faster, the better.

That is when It makes the jump, from decrepit corpse to Its new host, young and strong, swiftly smothering the existing mind/soul/being that had dwelled there before, absorbing its memories and personality, making them a part of Itself.

Immortality. Power.

From a certain point of view.

********

There are those that worship It, unaware of Its goal to destroy their very reality.

There are those that oppose it, an Order united in the cause of eradicating Its taint from existence.

It takes particular pleasure in using those as hosts.

*********

The Sith, you see, is not an order. Not a long line of beings passing on knowledge and teaching to an apprentice they know will someday kill them. No. The Sith is a single entity, a being, a life, perhaps.

A parasite, jumping from host to host over long millennia in pursuit of its goals.

Palpatine is Plageus is Zannah is Bane.

Every murder, every atrocity, every genocide blamed on that line, in truth committed by one. Single. Creature.

*********

The Dark is not death.

It is not the predator, which kills but does not hate, to feed itself.

It is not decay, which breaks down the dead into the building blocks of new life.

It is hatred. It is destruction. It is the unmaking of reality, of splitting atoms into singular molecules that will never again compose anything.

There is no death, there is the Force, each scrap of energy moving from being to being in a cycle.

This is Chaos. This is Dark.

This is Sith

******

The universe tries to fight the parasite, more and more Force users being born, being trained as Jedi, like white blood cells being sent after a virus.

It only laughs, and hides, and plots.

A child is born strong, so strong units ability to use the Force.

This, It-who-is-Sith-who-is-Palpatine, will be Its next host, finally one strong enough to destroy reality completely and free It from this prison of physicality.

It will watch him with Great Interest.

******

(The Force is life, the Force is death, the Force is predator and prey and a parasite all on its own.

The Force lays a trap.)

********

In its excitement, the Sith overplays Its hand, and the new vessel is damaged beyond use; limbs gone, skin melted, lungs burned. A mechanical monster fit only to use as a tool. A robot guard dog.

Sith is patient, though. It idly brings up a few other apprentices (failsafes), though none of them prove useful. It spends Its time waiting, sowing chaos, burning worlds, setting up systems that will collapse, wiping out entire races, building weapons more terrible than any sentient creature could even dream of.

It is so close, so tantalizingly close to the destruction of all reality when word comes.

A Child.

A Son.

A new host, to replace this body that has become broken and useless as it spends decades channeling Darkness.

Young and healthy and so strong, eyes like his father, words like his mother, It covets, It wants, It needs.

“Strike me down!” It cajoles, kill me, it does not say, so that I may kill you in turn, and take possession of the body you leave behind.

It is so close to Its goal, It can feel it.

******

The Force is Life. The Force is Death. The Force is growth and change and birth and decay.

But most of all.

The Force is Love.

******

It is not the boy that kills it.

It is the Failure.

And when It tries to make the leap anyways, to take that broken and mechanical body as better than nothing…

It can’t get a grip.

For this was the trap:

Anakin Skywalker, Chosen One, conceived of the midicloreans, Son of the Suns cannot be taken.

He can be influenced.

He can be tempted.

He can be corrupted.

But he cannot be possessed.

*******

Starved of Its host, it slips away into the darkness.

A father dies in his son’s arms.

A new Order is born.

Balance is restored.

****************************

[broitsf-ckingfreezing]

Fandom vs. Dooku: Religious Affiliation

Okay, my first rant has been making the rounds, so I wanted to come back and do a more in-depth approach (WITH EVIDENCE). Last time I was rapidly keyboard mashing on my phone whilst simultaneously howling my grievances to the moon, so hopefully everything should be a smidge more... coherent in this one.

This is taking HOURS to type up, so everything will be split into different posts. Possibly, idk. Look I have opinions and ADHD. Gotta peel those layers back like a particularly rancid onion.

(thanks @eloquentmoon for the dividers!)

Something that Star Wars as a fandom often fails to realise is that Jedi Master Dooku (or Yan Dooku, I suppose, if that's your headcanon) and Sith Apprentice Darth Tyranus are not the same. Well, they are literally the same person, but that's not what I'm getting at. The point I am trying to make here is that a character can in fact be an inherently good guy and also a genocidal psychopath. In Star Wars, one is not born a Sith. You cannot just... be a Sith and nothing else. Much is the same with a Jedi. One is either born with the ability to reach/manipulate the Force or they aren't (Force-nulls, for sake of clarity), they are not born Jedi or Sith. Jedi and Sith are religious orders. Like Protestants and Catholics, Jedi and Sith follow the same faith but with different philosophies and restrictions (or complete lack thereof regarding the Sith; anything is game if it eventually means absolute power).

Let's take a look at the best established religious order of Star Wars in canon and Legends. Mandalorians.

(A GIF of the Armourer in The Mandalorian. The subtitles read: "According to Creed, one may only be redeemed in the living waters beneath the mines of Mandalore.")

In Legends, to be Mandalorian is to dedicate yourself to the Resol'nare or the Six Actions:

Wearing the armour

Speaking the language

Defense of oneself and one's family

Raising children as Mandalorian (this is the Way)

Contributing to the clan's welfare

Answering the call of the Mand'alor or Sole Ruler

Canonically, to go against the word of the Creed, such as removing your helmet to outsiders or non-clan, was to declare yourself dar'manda or No Longer Mandalorian (not stated explicitly in canon, but widely accepted in fanon/features in SW: The Old Republic). In Christian equivalent, this would be committing sin. As shown in the GIF above, one could be redeemed for "sinning" in Mandalore's living waters. Kind of like confession and repentance in Christianity.

And like the many differing dedications to the concept of God, like Jedi and Sith as you will soon see, Mandalorians have their thoughts on the Force. The only difference here is that where God is not provable beyond doubt, the Force is. Its existence cannot be denied. However, how the Force is/should be interpreted varies from person to person, from religion to religion.

The Jedi Code

Jedi and Sith also follow Creeds.

(An image of the Jedi mantra in Basic and Aurebesh. It reads: "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force.")

The Jedi Code places great emphasis on compassion and bettering one's self; particularly, maintaining control over your emotions and learning to let go. Here especially is where fans like to pick and choose their understanding of canon like rooting through a jar of lollipops at the doctor's to get the orange one. So, I'm gonna highlight my point here with some big ass text:

Jedi do not condemn emotion

(be warned: LOTS of italics incoming)

(An edit of a still of Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones. The text reads: "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life.)

Sure, where Anakin is obviously not the prime example of what a Jedi should be, and he is clearly trying to butter up Padme to embrace his frankly awful flirting attempts, we must also remember that he had been living by the Jedi Code for almost (if not exactly) ten years at this point. AND. AND AND AND. We have IMPERICAL EVIDENCE from the Clone Wars that while not often stated outright (if at all; forgive me, I only just reached the Mortis Arc and believe me, I have OPINIONS), Jedi DO love unconditionally.

(A GIF from The Clone Wars of Mace Windu. The subtitle reads: "I'm going to do whatever I can to help these people.")

Often, their first instinct unless guided otherwise by alternate intel or the Force itself, is to have faith in those who would call upon them for help. There's literally an entire movie about Ahsoka and Anakin delivering the child of Jabba the Motherfucking HUTT back to him. They could've killed the child. Held him for ransom until Jabba conceded to a beneficial alliance. Instead, they hold to the hope that Jabba would hold to some kind of honour as a parent and allow an alliance negotiation on good faith. Jabba. A literal owner of SLAVES. Who planned, because of intel from a Sith Lord, to stab the Jedi in the back.

I bring your attention to this iconic line from my last post:

(A GIF of Ki-Adi Mundi from Attack of the Clones. The subtitle reads: "He is a political idealist, not a murderer)

He is talking about Dooku, ex-Jedi, now publicly politically aligned with and the leader of the Separatist movement: AKA the "let's leave the Republic because we believe them and, by extension, the Jedi, to be corrupt" crew. He is a mark of shame upon the order. One of the Lost Twenty--Legends lore, for those who don't understand, is that there have only been twenty Jedi (including Dooku) ever to leave the Order past achieving Master status)--and yet, they still honour him as one of their own, literally saying: "he was once one of us." If that isn't a sign of unconditional compassion, then I'll eat my lightsaber collection.

I now move on to this:

(A GIF from Attack of the Clones of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The subtitle reads: "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way!")

To be in control of yourself and your reactions isn't to abandon emotion entirely. That is literally impossible. In fact, emotions are valuable to Jedi. However, they are taught to be mindful of how emotions can affect their logical reasoning.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi is ordered to hunt down Darth Vader, whom has just sworn himself to the Sith Lord and literally murdered possibly hundreds of Jedi Masters, Knights, Padawans, and Initiates by his own hand, he actually abandons his logical reasoning and refuses to kill the man he raised and fought beside for the last 13 years.

(A GIF from Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The subtitles read: "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.")

This is a direct parallel to Anakin's refusal to kill recently-revealed Sith Lord Palpatine, Darth Sidious. Both of these instances were done for entirely selfish reasons.

Anakin twists a tenet of the Code upon its head and refuses to kill Sidious because, at the time, he is without a weapon, and Jedi are sworn never to kill an unarmed opponent. Logically, we must reason that these rules do NOT apply to the Sith because A) they had been thought extinct and therefore didn't need exceptions written into the Code, B) it is literally proven within that very same scene that an unarmed Sith Lord is still extremely dangerous, and C) Jedi are sworn to uphold the balance of the Force within themselves and the galaxy, therefore the Sith must be destroyed. In this moment, Anakin has allowed his fear of his wife and unborn children dying to cloud his judgement, allowed the Lord to live, and subsequently doomed the galaxy.

Obi-Wan, canonically a far better Jedi than Anakin, allows his love for the man he raised to stop him from killing him. Even out of mercy as Anakin burns in the heat of Mustafar. Yes, he walks away, believing Anakin will certainly die, but again: an unarmed Sith (literally because ya boy has NO ARMS, lmao) is still extremely dangerous. Just as Maul survived from literally being sliced in half, so did Anakin survive Mustafar. Allowing love, grief, desperation to cloud his judgement, Obi-Wan has (although unknowingly until the Obi-Wan Kenobi series set ten years later) assisted in dooming the galaxy.

It is not Obi-Wan's love for his former-padawan that has done this. It is his refusal to let him go, his fear of being the one who has to kill Anakin, despite being the only one capable of doing so because of Anakin's incredible skill and power.

Despite these contradictions: Obi-Wan Kenobi is still a good guy, and Anakin Skywalker is a bad guy.

Obi-Wan would go on to repent for the rest of his life, cutting himself off from the Force to hide his presence and watch over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, even though the Lars family do not welcome him at all. And he will go to great lengths, putting himself in constant danger, to save Leia Organa. When this is all over, he will face his student one last time and sacrifice himself to ensure the safety of the children, to give the darkened galaxy just one more chance at hope.

(And, as an aside, Obi-Wan's final sacrifice is also to teach Luke about the Jedi tenet of letting go and dedicating yourself to something greater than your own wants and physical being, just as Qui-Gon did for Obi-Wan decades before.)

Anakin, in the meantime, Darth Vader by this point, is literally running around blowing up planets. Let me repeat that: BLOWING UP PLANETS. With billions if not trillions of lifeforms on them. And also murdering Jedi Purge survivors. And, you know, killing basically anyone that doesn't agree with the rule of the Empire. Also, enslaving a lot of people. Like, a lot of people. Including the clones he once thought brothers until he... idk, kills them all? They all die of rapid old age? I'm not exactly sure what happens to them.

Obi-Wan loved unconditionally. He was compassionate. As was in accordance with his Creed.

Anakin Skywalker was possessive. He loved only that which he wanted and that which loved him in return, but only if it was love to his standards. Obi-Wan, who surely loved him as a brother and a son, tried to stop him from taking the galaxy, therefore he had to destroy his former Master.

This is what attachment is.

Unwillingness to let go of something you can no longer have.

Do you pro-genocide fans think Obi-Wan wanted Qui-Gon Jinn to die? He literally cradles him in his arms and cries, for goodness' sake. And do you know what Qui-Gon does in his last moments? He does not fear for himself. He does not tell Obi-Wan everything will be okay. Because he knows it will. He knows Obi-Wan will be okay. Because his padawan will mourn, but he will also accept that it was Qui-Gon's time to pass into the Force. And he knows that Obi-Wan knows that he will always be with him in the Force. There is no death. There is the Force.

What he does instead is so loving and compassionate and so caring. All he wants in his final moments is to make sure that Anakin, the boy in his care, will be safe.

(A GIF from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace of Qui-Gon Jinn comforting Obi-Wan Kenobi as he dies. He reaches up and brushes Obi-Wan's face with his fingertips)

Those who can see that GIF, look at it and tell me that it is not a highly emotional, beautifully intimate moment between a dying father and his son. Look me in the eyes and tell me that and I will call you a liar because your pants are on fire, mother fucker.

The Sith Code

We have a better understanding of the Jedi Code than we do the Sith, largely because Sith are chaotic pathological liars who constantly break their own rules.

(A GIF from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace of Yoda and Mace Windu. The subtitles read: "Always two there are. No more, no less. A master and an apprentice.")

Only two, huh? Then tell me, Tyranus and Sidious:

WHO THE HELL IS THIS?!

(An image of Asajj Ventress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars wielding two red lightsabers)

Like Satanism to Christianity, the Sith Code stands as a direct and deliberate contradiction to the Jedi Code.

(An image of the Sith Code in Basic and Aurebesh. It reads: "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The force shall free me.")

Let's take a quick look at the two Creeds side by side:

(An image of the Sith Code (left) and the Jedi Code (right). The one on the left reads: "Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The force shall free me." The one on the right reads: "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force.")

Pretty big differences there.

One of these Creeds is dedicated to learning, maintaining balance in the Force, and achieving personal betterment through peace of mind. The other is dedicated to becoming strong, powerful, and unbeatable by comparing putting the needs of the many before the wants of yourself to slavery.

I'll let you take a guess which one is which.

I mean, it is almost explicitly said that an important initiation process for becoming a Sith is to fucking murder a Jedi. In Tales of the Jedi, which is considered canon in the current state of the series (meaning should someone with authoritative control over Star Wars later retcon this, then it will no longer be canon), Dooku kills Master Yaddle as his official initiation after the death and funeral of Qui-Gon--don't forget, before this point Dooku may have been Fallen, but he was not Sith until Sidious loses Maul as an apprentice. Say what you will about Palps, but you gotta give him credit for abiding by the Sith Rule of Two, otherwise the galaxy would've been a lot more utterly fucked than it was. Until this was canon, anyone who was not versed in Legends lore (AKA me) generally headcanoned that Dooku murdered and assumed the identity of Sifo-Dyas for his Sith initiation.

Also, I feel it is imperative to note that the Sith Code was literally inspired by Mein Kampf. You know, ADOLF HITLER'S MANIFESTO. Need proof? Here, straight from the Star Wars Wookiepedia:

What's The Point?

I've been writing for almost 3 hours and I'm only JUST getting to the bit that's actually about Dooku. Let's take a breather and re-establish some points:

Jedi and Sith are religious Creeds

You are not born Jedi or Sith

To be Jedi or Sith is to make CHOICES that align with the tenets of the Creed

To be Jedi is to be compassionate, mindful, and a protector of those who are defenseless

Jedi have rules and regulations to protect their Order from corruption and abuse of power

To be Sith is to put your wants first, to become all-powerful, and to be victorious over all others

Sith do NOT have rules and regulations (that they actually follow faithfully aside from the Rule of Two, which is broken by Dooku multiple times anyway)

Got it?

Cool let's move on.

This is what I mean by the separation of Jedi Master Dooku and Darth Tyranus. On the matter of Dooku, the fandom largely seems to be divided between:

He was manipulated by the Sith! He was actually a good guy who knew the Senate was corrupt! He was just trying to save the galaxy!

And:

He was a shit Jedi and everyone should've known he was Darkside. He abused Qui-Gon. He abused padawans. He hated children. He didn't Fall because he was always evil.

My guys.

My dudes.

My homies.

Just... WHAT?

For point A, I present to you:

(A GIF from The Clone Wars of Dooku. The subtitle reads: "I would kill you both if I didn't have to drag your bodies.)

He literally just threatened murder. Actual murder. In another scene, season 1, if someone could find the GIF that would be fantastic, Dooku says he wants the death of the Jedi. All of the Jedi. He wants to slaughter children, the people he once considered family. In season 4, to Savage Oppress, he offers the galaxy. "We will rule the galaxy together." That is a dictatorship. These are not the signs of a healthy man doing what is best for the people. This is selfish desire. This is Sith Creed.

For point B:

(A GIF from TOTJ. Dooku stands before Qui-Gon's favourite tree on Coruscant). Look, I'm not great at image and GIF descriptors. If someone would like to fix this for me, please do. I worked real hard on this analysis and I want it to be accessible.

A man who did not love his padawan, his pseudo-son, would not have visited their favourite place on the entirety of Coruscant upon their death. This was inconvenient. Him visiting this tree when he shouldn't have because he'd just infiltrated the archives and deleted evidence of Kamino brings suspicion upon him that he could've avoided by simply staying away. But he couldn't. He had to go one last time.

He also, in Attack of the Clones, expresses regret at never meeting Obi-Wan before then. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of him. Yes, because an abused child whose evil, evil master, again, abused him, would ever speak of his own child to said-abuser. Dooku may be a Sith of a decade by that point, but don't forget that Sith are entrenched in negative emotion. We have no idea what he was feeling meeting the son of his son for the first time. He could have easily murdered Obi-Wan before Anakin and all of the Jedi arrive. He later tries to multiple times. The first thing he does is offer an alliance. An apprenticeship. He even tells Obi-Wan the truth of Palpatine in the Senate, not that he (Obi) has any reason to believe him (Dooku).

Again, what's my point?

My point is that he is both a good guy and a bad guy.

He can be both.

He was once good. He Fell. He was not always one or the other. Because that is how Star Wars WORKS. His doubts over the Senate, his fears that the Order is falling to darkness, his utter grief at the death of his child; it crippled him. He could not overcome the Darkside. And so he Fell. Perhaps originally he had good intentions.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions after all.

Eventually, the anger, the grief, the fear, corrupted him. As is how the Darkside works. Yes, it is a choice. It is a Creed he chooses to follow. But to walk back from the Darkside is also a journey that requires incredible strength.

In canon, only one achieves it. Anakin Skywalker.

Early on, perhaps Dooku could have been saved. But by the time of Attack of the Clones, he is utterly corrupt and evil and literally planning an absolute takeover of the galaxy. He is far beyond redemption.

Look, thanks for coming to my TED talk. If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more, please consider tipping! I am an unemployed chronically anxious and depressed sewer rat. I also accept love in reblogs and comments XD

I feel like @jedi-enthusiast and @antianakin will like this.

[hotpinkboots]

U know the end scene of episode 2 of kenobi? Could u write something where like ani requests his sith wife to sit with him while he sits in the tank idk😭😭😭

~𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔥 𝔙𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯  x Reader Headcanons~

(𝔖𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔚/𝔙𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯 𝔚𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔢 ℌ𝔢'𝔰 ℑ𝔫 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔅𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔞 𝔗𝔞𝔫𝔨)

~~~~~~~~~~

That's adorable, darling!! Of course!

Note: The word color is black to match Vader's theme. I suggest turning on a lighter theme if you use a dark one as I do.

~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy~

~~~~~~~~~

𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖍 𝖁𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗

~~~~~~~~~

~Vader was feeling extra lonely. He was always lonely, but today, it was almost unbearable.

~You're the only person he can turn to.

~And even then, he still is quite closed off around you, sometimes. Vader doesn't like to show his feelings- he has to keep up his bone-chilling, stoic behavior.

~But at times like this, he felt as if he really needed somebody there with him. You're the only person who has seen him so vulnerable, the only person he feels safe being vulnerable around.

~And so he requested your presence.

~A Stormtrooper had respectfully told you so, and you didn't quite believe it at first- but as soon as you walked into Vader's Chambers, you knew that he most definitely had requested for you.

~He immediately looked up to see if it was you, and you could swear you saw a glint of happiness in his eyes.

~Vader will contact you through the Force, using telepathy, to greet you.

~Darth Vader feels so caged while he is in the bacta tank. It's the only way to get any sort of relief from his horribly painful suit, unfortunately.

~Rests his forehead against the tank, while you do the same. Sweet moment 🫂

~He's quite uncomfortable at first for you to see him like this, but when you just sit by the tank and begin having a conversation through the Force, he relaxes.

~And let me tell you, this man hasn't relaxed in years.

~You're his relief.

~~~~~~~~~~

yEAH YEAH I'M ALIVE STILL DON'T GET TOO EXCITED, D A R L I N G S 💅 🍷

I'm testing out fonts n' stuff to draw attention c:

~~~~~~~~~~

Join my Chat/Roleplay Server! Here, you'll get updates on my videogame/fanfiction, make friends, and meet new roleplay buddies!:

~~~~~~~~~~

~Love, PinkBoots

[sithisms]

✈️ AIRPLANE — have you traveled anywhere that helped you discover something about yourself and/or about the world? // 😠 ANGRY FACE — how easy or difficult is it for you to express your emotions? if you find it difficult, what do you think is holding you back? // 🖤 BLACK HEART — what would you say is the darkest thought you've ever experienced? what do you think caused you to have that thought? have you ever planned on or fantasized about acting on it? // 🌙 CRESCENT MOON — what would you say is your current biggest dream and/or career aspiration and why?

Kun had traveled many places one that was the catalist to his start of becoming a sith was Onderon in the temple of Freedon Nadd. Upon finding his tomb the sith ghost had gladly placed his influence on Kun. Attempting many times to take his life and convert him to the darkside. Eventually at some point on Yavin 4 it worked.

Kun has a hard time expressing true emotions because he believes they share weakness. He only ever shows negative emotions through anger in two ways. Outright rage which involves a lot of angry lashing out and brutal attacks. And silent anger which always indicates fear and axiety within him. If he wasn't so pent up he'd control his emotions better. But why would he do that?

His biggest darkest thought was always dying. Dying and being ultimately forgotten. This happened after the war. When he was cornered in his temple on Yavin four by the jedi. After ge was believed to be dead he was left behind. He had learned to feed off the force for everlasting youth. And yet he knew his second greatest fear had come to fruition. He was eventually forgotten. Left to rot for millennia before he was freed. There was nothing he could act on. He was abandoned and thus after he got his chance. That's when he acted on his escape.

His biggest goal is to bring back the golden age of the sith. And rebuild a sith empire. His true goal is to kill Sidious and vader to obtain their army and forge the galaxy in his name. No more jedi. The sith will rule. He wants this for himself. And believes that the new found 'rule of two' is by all means a waste of the other force sensitive's abilities. Inquisitors being sith in his eyes. Not lessers. He wanted his old ways back and he won't stop until his goal has been reached.

[qqueenofhades]

I always saw Obi-Wan as an asexual kind of guy. Maybe that's because I'm old enough to remember when we only had the OT and he was already old. And dead for most of it. Anyway, part of why I love Star Wars is the emphasis on friendships and how strong and rewarding they can be without romantic feelings (although Han/Leia was my first ship). May we all have such people in our lives. All interpretations are valid of course and people love what they love, just wanted to share another point of view!

I mean, that's basically how I also envision him: my "Obi-Wan Kenobi as queer text" meta described my personal headcanon of him as biromantic asexual, and that's what the other post seemed to be hinting at in: re whatever they put in the book. After all, remember kids, ignore the exclusionists: asexuality is a full and complete queer identity on its own, and doesn't need other modifiers or qualifiers to be considered legitimate. So yeah. But as I said, he has radiated such intense bisexual sass disaster energy for the longest time, and I am frankly shocked that the Disney overlords allowed even a single sentence in a YA book that might hint at confirming this. To be honest, I don't care one way or another what the Mouse says about anything, particularly SW canon, since I reject what they have done with most of it. But hey. It's nice to have anyway.

As I also mentioned in the tags, Obi-Wan is a particularly formative character for me as a queer adult, since some of my first-ever forays into fandom, fic, and slash came as a result of reading TPM-era fics with him back in the dark days, with badly designed Web pages and SLASH!! content warnings. I imprinted on him as queer long before I knew what that was either for him or for me, and so I have a certain nostalgic perspective on it. (Also, nobody could read the Revenge of the Sith novelization in 2005, come out totally emotionally destroyed, and go, "yeah, Obi-Wan is totally straight." Even if I didn't, again, actually consciously realize this at the time.)

Likewise, Obi-Wan's appearance in the original trilogy has always fit the "celibate or asexual wise-old-mentor" stereotype, who exists mostly to guide the hero but doesn't have particular passions or motivations of his own. Then they cast Ewan McGregor as the younger version of him, and Ewan McGregor is likewise very attractive. But then in prequel-verse, all of Obi-Wan's most formative and important emotional relationships were with men (Qui-Gon, Bail Organa, etc) and then, of course, Anakin and the "it's a love story" Obi-Wan Kenobi series. So the more canon we got past just Alec Guinness, the more intensely Obi-Wan read as queer to me. The man cannot even sit straight (see his pose in the Council seat in ROTS), drops his cloaks with utter drama, sasses people, and is the utter opposite of toxic masculinity. He just has Big Queer Energy, in other words, and I felt it for a long time before I was able to properly name it in either him or myself.

Indeed, Obi-Wan would read pretty clearly as gay to me, except for the fact that they apparently added in some pseudo-girlfriend in the Clone Wars animated series and other assorted female interests in the expanded-universe books. Which, quite frankly, can't help but sound like "welp, this famous and beloved character is TOO queer-coded, better add in some comphet to tone that down." However, aside from my personal attachment to queer Obi-Wan, there's another aspect to it which I think is touching and important, and that is the fact that Luke is also often headcanoned as queer/gay/bi of some description (which Mark Hamill has enthusiastically supported). Considering that the original trilogy came out in the late '70s and early '80s, just as we were losing what should have been our entire generation of gay/queer ancestors to AIDS, I would find it very lovely if Luke, a queer man, was being mentored by Obi-Wan, his queer elder, in a way that we were so often denied the chance to have in reality. So yes. There are a lot of layers to it, in my view, and as I said, I don't care whether they bother to put one sentence in an EU book or not. The heart knows what it knows. Ahem. ;)

[bereft-of-frogs]

Favorite Books of 2022:

Okay here's the positivity, I've split my list into New vs Rereads.

New:

Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir - not over it, obvious answer, what more is there to say?

In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado - really clever and creative memoir, I'm currently rereading Her Body and Other Parties because I just love Machado's writing so much.

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - fun fact I originally read this because I'd gotten it for my friend as a late Christmas present last year but then read it before giving it to her, so it was the only one of my top 5 that I didn't own. Until this Christmas when I got it from my brother who, and I quote, 'googled what you should read if you like that lesbian space necromancer series' which is also 100% how I picked it out for my friend and also 100% true.

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt - the seminal dark academia text, I read 300 pages in a single day and I am already planning on going as Murdered Vermont Farmer using things already found in my closet for next Halloween.

The Fifth Season, by NK Jemisin - oh my god this was so good. Both an excellent example of how good second person narration can be and how satisfying good plot twists can be. I 'guessed' this one early and was so gratified as it developed.

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - what an unexpected delight for a book I essentially read because of BookTok drama. In case you'd already forgotten, the routine Classics vs YA drama took an unexpected turn in January when the first shot about how the booktok girlies should read Crime and Punishment was parried with 'um Crime and Punishment is a YA novel actually', and lead to 1) at least one Booktokker trying to read it and gifting us with their angry annotations like 'omg why is this book so bleak and depressing' (it's Russian Lit, there are so many memes about this) and 'um is this book really about him murdering an old lady' (yes that's the plot that's on the cover what did you think the 'crime' was), 2) a solid year of jokes, 3) me reading it sincerely and really enjoying it. So thanks booktok!

Ok, now onto the Rereads:

1. & 2. Gideon and Harrow - yup I read these both twice this year, still faves, still cry every time, not over them either.

3. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman - always a favorite.

4. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel - This one for sure hit different after COVID, but is still so, so good.

5. Lord of the Rings - I really like my new 3 in 1 copy, it’s so pretty and drives home that these are really one extended story spread across 6 volumes rather than a true trilogy, so yeah I recommend a 3-in-1 edition if you are in the market for LotR books. It does make it rather heavy to carry around, but at least it’s paperback and I found this one wasn’t too hard to physically read.

Honorable Mentions: Dracula (Dracula Daily was THE MOST fun I had all year), The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (takes place in the What We Do In the Shadows Universe you cannot take that headcanon away from me, Dracula is the #Drama, no notes, a worthy successor), The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (excellent), The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (the amount of hate this book gets on Tiktok is unnecessary and kind of toxic, imo), Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover (Stover, why are you Like This? Why?)

If anyone has StoryGraph and would like to follow me/be friends, I’m on there under bereft_of_frogs, so please feel free to friend me!

The #Salt (aka my bottom 5 books of 2022 and a little mini rant on each) under the cut:

2. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo - Another really disappointing sequel that made me wish I’d stayed a Six of Crows duology-only girlie. Though I did really like King of Scars, specifically for the continuation of Nina becoming a necromancer and infiltrating Fjerda. That part really fell apart in this book. A lot of things fell apart. It honestly felt sort of like Bardugo just wanted to be finished with this universe? Because a lot of things were resolved in really weird ways and really quickly. It also felt like it lost some of the interesting nuance in the worldbuilding that SoC had. And of course, she really showed off how bad she is at portraying the passage of time in her writing with this one. I was given the impression by King of Scars that it was taking place months at most after the events of Crooked Kingdom, and then out of nowhere it’s actually been 2 years so Nina can totally move on! But it still never felt like it had been 2 years and I feel like the end of the grief narrative was really abrupt and I just…couldn’t get into the romance because of how rushed that resolution was. I hope she’s done with this universe, aside from whatever extra writing/retconning goes on with the TV series - or at least, I’m done with this universe aside from the TV series. In future rereads, I’ll likely stick to my unofficial trilogy of Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom/King of Scars.

2. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo - Another really disappointing sequel that made me wish I’d stayed a Six of Crows duology-only girlie. Though I did really like King of Scars, specifically for the continuation of Nina becoming a necromancer and infiltrating Fjerda. That part really fell apart in this book. A lot of things fell apart. It honestly felt sort of like Bardugo just wanted to be finished with this universe? Because a lot of things were resolved in really weird ways and really quickly. It also felt like it lost some of the interesting nuance in the worldbuilding that SoC had. And of course, she really showed off how bad she is at portraying the passage of time in her writing with this one. I was given the impression by King of Scars that it was taking place months at most after the events of Crooked Kingdom, and then out of nowhere it’s actually been 2 years so Nina can totally move on! But it still never felt like it had been 2 years and I feel like the end of the grief narrative was really abrupt and I just…couldn’t get into the romance because of how rushed that resolution was. I hope she’s done with this universe, aside from whatever extra writing/retconning goes on with the TV series - or at least, I’m done with this universe aside from the TV series. In future rereads, I’ll likely stick to my unofficial trilogy of Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom/King of Scars.

3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by VE Schwab - This book is SO HYPED and for WHAT? I’m a big fan of lyrical, plotless writing, but that means actually having lyrical writing and no plot. This book just decided to do all the plot in the last 30 pages. So it was like 70% meandering, 30% rushed weird romance plot? And I’m sorry, I will NEVER be over the ‘not like other girls’ feminism of the main character. You cannot convince me that she would not have been in favor of the French Revolution. She’s an anti-clerical feminist but as soon as the Revolution happens it’s like ‘ew those peasant women are too violent, fuck all of them, I’m getting out of here.’ It’s a prime example of the hollow historical feminist archetype that is luckily starting to get some critique, where the main character fits perfectly with modern ideas of feminism, without the author actually having to put that much thought into their actual principles and how that fits into the historical context.

4. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, by Eric LaRocca - This one was just bad. Read like a first draft. Went nowhere, said nothing.

5. Nothing But Blackened Teeth, by Cassandra Khaw - I almost put this together with the above, because I think they had similar problems. Really under-developed, but at least this one had good writing. It was beautifully written, it just…went nowhere. The characters and their relationships were really surface level, and the intriguing premise just…never really went anywhere. Both I think get more hype than warranted because they’re rather short and they have striking covers. Both I compared to short films that a young/student horror director would send around to short film circuits or use as film school theses while they were working on developing and funding the feature-length project, but unfortunately that’s just not how book publishing works so we’re not going to get to see the fully developed works.

Dishonorable Mentions: Dead Space by Kali Wallace (just finished it, the flattest characters I think I’ve ever encountered in fiction), If We Were Villains by ML Rio (I had this rated higher and then I actually read The Secret History and was like…oh my God, this is so much worse, what a poor imitation), Winter’s Orbit (I feel real bad about this one but…maybe I just don’t like romance, but I could not stand how 50% of the book was just miscommunication), Lost Stars by Claudia Gray (still got 3 stars, but I think this one is just overhyped. If you want to know what reading this book is like, just watch the original trilogy, pause at any major plot point, watch the ‘are we the baddies?’ Sketch and then continue on), What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (I also gave this one 3 stars, and I think it’s…really not that bad but I can’t stop thinking about the hubris of saying that you’re going to write a more fully fleshed out version of The Fall of the House of Usher and then add on a whole sub genre, 4 extra characters, another whole plot, and barely make it any longer)

[thenightmarketofdathomir]

Ok, dumb day. I need something wholesome to start. Give us a small glimpse into the everyday, the mundane. A fly on the wall observing how breakfast plays out, how birthdays are celebrated, what a quiet life day would look like. The simple moments between the action. There is a certain found family feel. Who plays pranks on who, who’s tries and fails terribly. Please and thank you!

Ugh this is the good shit. I love it.

Headcanons from a world where they just lived and moved on, but never did anything special. (It's okay, Maul. Destiny shmestiny.)

They all came back to Dathomir, for one. An attempt at reclaiming a lost legacy. Not the mountain -- not the night sister's citadel. Just a little cottage, out past the swamp where the gods wouldn't bother with them and the rancor wouldn't come sniffing around. A little bit different. A little bit dull. But hidden, and quiet, and an utter ruin... worth fixing up.

Savage discovers he's got a handy streak. Likes fixing things. Likes hard work. Likes making repairs. Gives him a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes they break again, but he's diligent, and he gets back to it each time without fail, making things stronger. Rebuilding their little world.

Feral tackles the garden in the back: a gnarl of vine and creeper and snapping things, full of insects and malevolent creatures he's unfamiliar with... but he learns. First about the plants and their properties, and then about how to pair them back and prune them. They grow better under his attention, and with his care, soon, things start thriving. Mostly medicines, but some poisons too. It's quiet work, but it keeps his hands busy. He learns slowly how to be still.

Maul. The problem with Maul is that he's so skilled that the mind wanders. It sometimes becomes a treacherous place. When there's nothing left to learn and there's nothing left to brood over, what does a person do? He picks up a book. Not the Sith texts -- those are Feral's now -- but the ones on his datapad that he deletes the covers for. Authors hidden, he sinks into those stories, losing himself into uncertain territories whose only villains are the crimes of committed to keep lovers apart.

Feral is the runner, but Savage loves the hunt. One is faster, one is stronger, and Maul observes until it gets dark or their stalking doesn't pay off. He intervenes occasionally, but it's rarely a demonstration of prowess anymore. It's an efficient but respectful kill. They eat together often, though the conversation sometimes lulls into the memories that shore up. The time before and what comes after is a preoccupation, but if the answer is something different than what they expected, no one complains.

Savage still trains. Feral does too. Maul develops a pot belly because of Feral's cooking. No one mentions it. They're all well-fed.

The ghosts don't often bother them, though occasionally, a spirit will drift in to hear Savage's stories over their nightly bonfires. It's tradition, and he's been reciting the stories since Feral's infancy, so there's no question about stopping. Feral always shows up to listen, and sometimes Maul pitches in, though his are frequently of a more bloody variety to dissuade his mother’s haunt from showing up. She often does, mid-sentence.

The idea to scale the citadel was Savage's on a day when he was feeling ambitious. Feral volunteered, but Maul dissuaded them both with the assurance that he would make the ascent on his own. They didn't let him. What they found there might've been revelatory, because they all left it behind without another thought. Haunted rooms, too-interested spectres, an old world that time was gradually forgetting as the days rolled on.

They took things that would benefit them after their trek home, however: the talismans, and Talzin's spell book, which Maul took an interest in studying, but Feral deciphered from the old tongue.

Maybe that's why things started changing in the months that followed. Maybe that's why when Maul laughs for the first time out loud at one of Feral's practical jokes, everything stops. Savage, his horns draped with bane back spider silk, was just as shocked.

There's a rhythm and a cadence, sounds in a formerly empty-house and over land that stretches endless and empty for miles around, but the fire is lit, and occasionally you can hear someone shout when a green light flares up from the chimney -- the deep laughter of three unlikely brothers who've rediscovered what it means to be a family on the mend.

[iconac]

headcanon. the jedi in the late golden age are pretty confident that returns from the dark side are impossible. so holding to this, revan's 'return' to the light (via brainwashing, which in my opinion doesn't count regardless) is never properly recorded/never makes it into the history books. what the jedi did to revan was kept pretty hush-hush at the time, so even less information actually made it out of their era. in the history books, revan is slain by the strike team bastila shan was a part of, and bastila herself becomes the 'protagonist' of the story so to speak, tracking down the star forge and slaying malak herself. i mentioned this on my old blog, but i believe there are almost... 3 1/2 different revans that exist in the golden age. to the mandalorians they are the butcher (of malachor, of te ani'la, of their progenitors), both a historical figure and a metaphor, wrapped up and buried deep in the context of mandalorian culture. to the jedi they are a cautionary tale, another example of how even the most righteous of causes can become corrupted and how heroes can turn against all they once stood for. the republic's revan is an extension of that, a war hero turned war criminal, someone grander than the actual tragedy of it, an early master of strategy and god of war that is admired by some [ in that way you can admire anyone given enough time stretched out to destroy the context between your two lives. ] and the sith have their own darth revan, one who saw truth in the dark side, who laid groundwork for what the sith were meant to become. and none of these are accurate, of course, just exaggerated facets of a broken legacy, but they're still there. [ the most 'true' part of their legacy is their name lost in a list of many in a record of conservation on various ancient jedi texts. ]

[evaeros]

INFO

character bio ; rules ; list of verses

MAIN VERSE

prelude ; steel sky ; anxious heart

OTHER VERSES

aerith lives ; modern-day

CHARACTERS

cloud ; tifa ; barret ; red xiii ; yuffie ; cait sith ; cid ; vincent

MUSE

headcanon ; aesthetics ; faceclaim meme ; inbox ; reply photo ; text post self ;