#ta'a chume

[incorrectstarwarslegendsquotes]

May the Fourth be with you!

[thisiseditsandstuff]

— QUEEN MOTHERS OF THE HAPES CONSORTIUM

" Hapes can only be as strong as those who LEAD her. "

[jayaorgana]

Planning to become obsessed with Ta'a Chume BTW just as a warning

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The EU is Forever

April 25, 2014, was a dark-ass day for those of us who loved the Star Wars Expanded Universe canon. I was literally in the middle of the end of my first year as an MA student, and 2/3 of the bookshelves in the apartment my then-fiance, now-husband, shared held my Star Wars books. I'm not here to say that every book was great (lookin' at you, Splinter of the Mind's Eye), or even that every bad book was in so-bad-its-good territory (heart eyes at Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor), but the Star Wars EU got me through high school. So let's talk Young Jedi Knights.

There is no "these were the first Star Wars books I picked up and fell instantly in love with" story with these books, my journey to the Star Wars books was random as all hell, partly because this was the franchise that really taught me how to marshall and organize a sprawling set of books, do the research to read them in something like an order, and really start to engage deeply and take notes. (There may have been a 4-inch binder full of notes. It might still live in my Dad's house.)

I actually was first introduced to Star Wars (the original trilogy) when I was TA-ing in 8th grade and that teacher needed something to keep her class occupied for a couple of days. In the last week of school that year, I basically lived in the library and read the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. Needless to say, I had QUESTIONS. Because I still hadn't figured out book research, I then picked up Vector Prime, and STILL had massive questions, once I got over *that* scene.

Young Jedi Knights wasn't the first Jacen and Jaina I picked up--I started with some of the novels earlier when they're younger--but I loved this series. This particular cohort of Jedi ended up being so crucial for so many reasons to the EU timeline, and seeing their training, their friendship, their mishaps, and how they interact with the galaxy made the later novels just so much more poignant.

There was a sense of YA speedrunning a lot of pretty common coming-of-age tropes (lookin' at you, Zekk... honestly, he and Kyp Durron needed to learn to BACK OFF and take no as a goddamn answer) and a boarding-school-in-space vibe, but there were also a few things that I thought were done particularly well. I wouldn't be me if I didn't call out with how much nuance Tenel Ka's arm loss was handled, particularly in terms of letting her have time to grieve and allowing her to adapt on her own without bowing to Ta'a Chume's frankly ableist attempt to use the incident to pull her graddaughter further into her Hapan heritage at the cost of her Dathomiri one. Seriously, for a YA book published in 1996, this was learning to live with a disability done really well. And I appreciated the hell out of Tenel Ka herself not letting Jacen do the guilty hovering and overcompensating with unnecessary and unwanted help. That was an excellent boundary to set, and quite frankly is something that people TODAY are terrible at, so this whole storyline was well done.

Equally well done was the fleshing out of Raynar and Lowbacca in the Diversity Alliance arc. Poor Raynar started so pompous and so absolutely unconsciously privileged, but watching your father self-sacrifice to protect humanity at large is a stiff price to pay to learn a little humility. (The absolute kicker is what happens during the Yuuzhan Vong War and subsequent Swarm War; poor Raynar does NOT have an easy run of life).

Lowbacca was an interesting look at friends/siblings dragging you into an extremist perepecting and RAPIDLY getting in over your head. There is also an interesting look at those who choose to stay in those organizations and those who choose to escape. And again, this was 1997, so the massive resurgence in fascism, right-wing extremism, and incel-ness wasn't the monstrosity it is in the year of our lord 2022. The Diversity Alliance arc just got more relevant the older I got, not less.

The Solo twins are, objectively, the marquee characters in these books, because the EU objective was the Skywalker/Solo show. Just straight out, Jaina is my favorite Solo kid. No contest. Her entire arc over the EU was twisty, detailed, nuanced, and never anything less than fascinating, and that began from the first books that focused on the kids. Her training on Yavin 4 in these books really solidifies her as technical. Jaina likes machines; she likes to take things apart, put them back together, and make them better. She is, like her father and uncle, a pilot at heart. That said, I'd be lying if I didn't say that both she and Jacen are a little one-note 1990s YA protagonists. They have their one major things (she's a mechanic, he's basically the Star Wars Kratt Brothers) and their things and relationships drive everything. They are arguably not the most interesting characters in these books, but they do tend to drive the books because they are the Solo twins.

That said, the plots, side characters, and general vibe of these books made them some of my favorites, and the nostalgia is strong with these books.

[visionhaunted]

@ereneda → continued !

He had never cared much for her royal ancestry. After all, he had fallen in love with her long before he had known about it in the first place. It seemed ridiculous to him that men would all but fall over themselves to fight for her hand if only to gain her status, her influence. The need for power these men longed for never stopped AMUSING him, though it also frustrated him. He, the one person in the whole galaxy perhaps who would want nothing more but Tenel Ka's happines rather than her throne and her power, was the one person forbidden from being with her and for what? The crime of being a JEDI? One would think being related to some of the most powerful people in the galaxy would have granted him some good grace from the Hapans but it only further inspired them in their hatred against him. Ridiculous.

While he dreaded to enter the world the Hapans created every time he came to visit the Queen Mother ( more out of fear over her safety than his own — ) she never failed to make him smile just by being with him. It wasn't fair. They had earned their happiness, had they not? He was a decorated war hero, against his will he had been turned into a man of high status, who were the Hapans to deny him this recognition of supposed greatness now? The one time he'd like to make use of his status and they refused to even let him try. He had to admit ... he never stopped being tempted to simply ask for Tenel Ka's hand in marriage anyway, to suggest that they could simply ... run away if she wanted to. He would go ANYWHERE for her and they both knew it. That was why he didn't ask, because forcing her to say no to him over this would be the worst crime he could inflict on her. She would never abandon her people and he restraint from ever asking her to do so. It would insult her honour and sense of duty and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

" Excuse me for disagreeing with you, your majesty, but I have a feeling your grandmother will NEVER learn that particular lesson. " Ta'a Chume certainly served as the personification of everything wrong with Hapes and her people. Though Jacen was often too well trained by his diplomat mother to ever voice such opinions. Even now there was a good chance Ta'a Chume's spies would hear about it one way or another. He was allowing himself a bit of RECKLESSNESS for one night. " Maybe if she finally died things could change here. " Blunt words to dare speak out loud on Hapan ground, but he was sick of treading carefully. " We both know as long as she is around everything will stay how she wants it to be. Your mother's death was proof of that. "

[gadellvessau]

Who's that snarky looking Hapan on the holoscreen waving to the cameras but giving Ta'a Chume a nasty look at the same time? Why that's Gadell Vessau.

This is an RP/aesthetic journal/love letter to a character I created for a Jacen Solo/Tenel Ka Djo (Star Wars: Expanded Universe/Legends) fanfiction back in the mid-00’s. I needed a character to A.) serve as a villain and B.) be part of the Hapan Royal staff and Gadell was born. He started out as a Commander in the Hapan fleet but has been everything from that to the Queen Mother’s hand to a social secretary. At this point, he’s the Queen Mother’s social secretary and closest advisor.

I would love to play Gadell with any Star Wars characters (especially the Hapan ones, naturally BRING ME YOUR QUEEN MOTHERS but not Ta'a Chume) so bring them all on! ♡ 

links ↬ info/rules || bio (coming soon!) follows from ↬ @neonshadows​!

[bornitereads]

Dark Journey - Elaine Cunningham

Star Wars: The New Jedi Order book 10

Reread: Dec 2023

Following the hideously bad, but ultimately successful, mission to Myrkr, Jaina Solo is having a hard time because she believes her brothers are dead. She has a captured Yuuzhan Vong frigate and she's not afraid to fuck around with it. The survivors of the mission and some of the survivors from the fall of Coruscant end up on Hapes, where the politics are politicking.

This one is really about Jaina and her grief and her being mired in the mud of the Dark side. Kyp Durron does a lot of work helping her through it. Sure there's a lot of things that also happen in this book, but it's still about Jaina finding her way. Hence the title.

Things I liked the most: Ta'a Chume getting blind sided twice in a matter of days. Jaina basically laughing off her offer for the throne, good. Tenel Ka snapping up the throne from under her grandmother's nose, chef's kiss.

Info: Del Rey; 2002

[selunchen]

Remember this one? yeah - I did not like it. Artist curse I guess. ‘’I can do better I thought’’ and I took on this ‘kriffing’ project. Which has a lot of things that need tweaking, but posting things online is a kind of group pressure. So I need to finish this.

To be continued!

@kylorenvevo

[willorcs]

Star Wars Legends: Queen Mother of the Hapes

"Hapes can only be as strong as those who lead her."

[jacen-tenelka]

Hapes: Ladies First -- May 2004

The Star Wars Roleplaying Game was really good about digging into the characters, planets, cultures, weapons -- you name it -- of Star Wars’ old canon/expanded universe. The Wizards of the Coast website (the company who produced the game) had a feature called Planet Hoppers, where they’d look into one of the planets of the Galaxy Far, Far Away and in May of 2004, they focused on Hapes.

Sadly, the SWRPG site is no longer online, but thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, we can still read the story! It’s an interesting look at Ta’a Chume and Prince Isolder, Tenel Ka Djo’s grandmother and father, respectively -- as well as a look at the Star Home, the Gun of Command and of course, Hapes itself.

The following is from the RPG site and the links will take you to each part of the story!

Welcome to "Planet Hoppers," where each month, we bring you a set of articles on a particular world in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game galaxy that a Gamemaster can use separately or as a linked series of events.

This month's installment offers the popular view of Hapes during the Rebellion era courtesy of the best-selling, though poorly fact-checked, datafile Planet of the Amazons: A True Story of Peril in the Hapes Cluster. Be sure to check back each week for a new installment.

Part 1: Planet of the Amazons In which a pirate-turned-author recalls a fateful shortcut through the Hapes Cluster.

Part 2: Return to the Planet of the Amazons In which the pirate prisoners explore Star Home, flagship of the Queen of Hapes.

Part 3: Beneath the Planet of the Amazons In which our pirate heroes endure interrogation by Ta'a Chume in her underground dungeon.

Part 4: Escape from the Planet of the Amazons In which two pirate prisoners face execution on trumped-up charges of crimes against Hapes.

[incorrectstarwarslegendsquotes]

My mother-in-law always said she'd dance on my grave if I died. I'm now planning a burial at sea.

Teneniel Djo

[xulamai]

Excerpt One of Chapter One: Report

Xula Mai didn't bother looking up when her sister walked into the corridor. Elbow deep in wiring, she spoke to Xeno Mai from behind the steel panel.

"I heard Ta'a Chume stepped down."

"That really makes me feel old," Xeno sighed, "I'm sure Kalen's wife will make a fine Queen Mother. Kalen was always such a good child."

Xula froze, her breath caught in her throat. She was glad her sister couldn't see her face, and vice versa; Xula never told Xeno of the war crimes committed by their older sister four years prior.

"Kalen… is dead."

She could feel her ears prick, the ragged sounds of stress amplified and encased in the metal panels with them, her twin sputtering as she struggled toward the paneling that hid Xula from view.

"Dead? H-how?"

Xula braced herself. It wasn't uncommon for any heir to find themselves dead at the hands of their power-hungry relatives. A practice of Hapes' Royal Family for many centuries, it finally found its way into their generation through their sister, the now former Queen Mother. For lack of any true skill she made up in pure greed and ambition, her obsession with status only matched by her obsession with her youngest and only living son, Isolder.

Staring hard at the web of circuitry in front of her, the engineer muttered only to the wiring.

"Isolder spoke of pirates… And of his mother."

[jayaorgana]

That "not evil anymore I want to be loved now/ evil again." Post is Ta'a Chume in YJK vs NJO

[spacecravat]

@everyone: leave jaina alone

[yjk-imagines]

Hops over to gently request anything Jaina related, and especially Jag and Jaina

I apologize in advance because idk anything about Jag and I'm a Zekkna Stan but let's try introducing Jag in the Young Jedi Knights Era 👀

"Hm."

"You keep saying that. Is it a good hm or a bad hm?" Jaina studied Tenel Ka, who in turn studied the young human colonel.

"Depends." Tenel Ka met Jaina's eyes with her own cool gaze.

"On what?" Was that a huff of jealousy in Jacen's voice?

Tenel Ka gave Jaina a wink, and Jaina burst into laughter. "He is kinda cute."

"Wait, what!?" Jacen spluttered, "What is cute about him?"

Lowie caught on rather quickly with a hearty chuff.

"Oh my-" Em-Teedee translated, "Master Lowbacca says that his muscular build would certainly find him a suitable mate, even among Wookies."

Jacen pouted. "You're all making fun of me."

Jaina reached over and ruffled Jacen's hair. "Only because you make it so easy."

Jacen batted her hand away, "I mean seriously, though, he's here two day to help with communications and security, and it's like the entire temple's fallen in love with him!"

"A colonel at eighteen, my grandmother would approve of him." Tenel Ka mused allowed.

"So we determine eligibility by the Ta'a Chume, now?" Jaina didn't mean to be degrading, she was decidedly curious.

Tenel Ka shrugged. "I merely mean to point out that his ambition and skill could impress many more than my grandmother."

"Ah. Aha." Jaina conceded. Her voice faded to a whisper as she kept her eyes on the colonel.

Maybe it was the way the mid-afternoon sun framed Colonel Fel in the hangar's entrance, or the way a single hair fell from where he'd gelled it into place, or the way he released the fur-beetle back into the forest after it wound up in a Talz's meal. Her heart gave an undeniable flutter. She hoped Jacen hadn't noticed.

"I'm going to go say hi," She announced, standing up from the table.

"What? Why?" Jacen asked.

Jaina shrugged. "He looks lonely."

"So?"

"If he's the fancy of every male-attracted sentient in the temple, why doesn't he have any friends around him."

"Uh, because he's the son of Imperial sympathizers?"

Something in Jaina's stomach churned, making her that much more determined to meet Colonel Fel. "And we're the grandkids of Darth Vader. Did you stop to think about that?"

She left Jacen with his mouth agape, and maybe it was that rebuttal, or the force of her boots on the polished tile that made everyone else in the hangar look up as she passed.

She couldn't take Colonel Fel by surprise, not with the emotion radiating off of her. He turned to face her, and she awkwardly stuck out her arm.

"My name's Jaina. What's yours?"

He looked at her hand for a moment, then straightened at attention with a salute.

"Colonel Jagged Fel of Saber Squadron. At your service, madam."

"At ease, Colonel." Jaina sighed. She was kind of surprised when he relaxed.

"What was that about? Do you not know what a handshake is?"

"I prefer a more formal greeting." He explained. Just barely.

Jaina gave an unladylike snort. "Well I say you're off duty now."

She stuck out her hand again. "I'm Jaina, you're...Jagged, was it?"

The colonel looked absolutely flabbergasted that he was entertaining this, but he nodded, as if in a daze, and shook Jaina's hand.

"I'm Jagged." He said carefully, as if he were afraid a superior would pop out of the walls and scold him.

Jaina grinned. "Pleasure to meet you, Jag."

He his eyebrows bunched together as he thought over this new nickname, and then he nodded again, still shaking Jaina's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, my lady."

[gadellvessau]

↦ @thisisafact - Tenel Ka Djo ↤

   Gadell never minded being the Queen Mother of Hapes' social secretary (as long as it was Tenel Ka Djo and not Ta'a Chume) except for when suitor after dreadful suitor would come to him begging for an appointment with the Ereneda. Their reasons were always highly stupid, huge lies, or both, and today they were no different.

   "I really don't think she cares if you amputated your finger for her," he said to this one, sliding the appointment datapad aside and standing from his desk. Rounding it, he put a hand on the man's shoulder (and tried not to squeeze the nine corellian hells out of it) and began to lead him towards the entrance. Maybe push would be a better word than lead.

   "I'll definitely let her know you stopped by but I don't know when she'll be able to get back to you. She is very busy, you know. 63 planets and all that."

   With an ice-blue eyeroll, Gadell made sure the entrance was locked after shoving the suitor through the door and went back to his desk. As he seated himself back down, he noticed shuffling from the Queen Mother's office.