#the last jedi speculation

[shield-and-saber]

is the "omg did master sol kill all these jedi" thing a precursor to sol going dark in ep 8 and then getting killed by osha and/or mae

leslye. is that what's going to happen. please tell me that's not going to happen

[starry-crossing-zone]

Oh, Captain - Rex (TCW)

Summary: The 501st is getting a new Co-General and Rex wants to be prepared. His brothers, however, dare him to flirt with a woman at 79s the night before. Length: 1370 words Warnings: Unnamed Female Character (Can be Read as OC or Reader); Rex's Horrible Flirting Skills; Fives is a Menace

79s was packed full of clones as usual, though the color scheme of the night was predominantly blue and yellow for the 501st and 212th. They had just finished a battle together in the Mid Rim and returned to Coruscant to resupply before they shipped out again. And in the case of the 501st, they were on Coruscant to pick up their new Jedi general. 

It was the only reason why Rex went out that night in the first place. 

He had to make sure that all of his men were presentable for their meeting with the new assistant general, who had been assigned to the battalion so that General Skywalker could be called away more often. General Skywalker assured Rex that the new assistant general wouldn’t be that much of a stick in the mud, but Rex didn’t want to take a risk. 

“Oh, come on, Rex, you heard the General. The new general’s fun. Have a drink for kriff’s sake,” Fives urged, placing a drink in front of Rex. 

“I’m all set, Fives,” Rex replied, pushing the drink away from him. 

“Who is the new assistant general, anyways?” Echo asked curiously, leaning over. “The Commander didn’t have a name.”

“I bet they’re a brand new Jedi. Young like General Skywalker,” Jesse stated, earning some nods. “He mentioned that they trained together.”

“It’s not for us to speculate,” Rex replied, earning a sigh from some of his brothers. “We need to be prepared. I don’t want the new general’s first impression of us to be that we look sloppy.”

“Oh, relax, Rex,” Cody spoke up, causing the rest of the 501st to perk up. If anyone could talk some sense into Rex, it would be Cody. “You’re going to be fine. Have a drink. We were just in trenches on a dustball for fifteen rotations. Or maybe make a new friend.”

“Like her,” Fives interjected, smacking Rex on the shoulder. 

The entire table turned to watch a humanoid woman take a seat at the bar. A woman alone in a clone bar? It would be about five seconds before she was swarmed. But there was something about her that intrigued Rex. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was just something about her that drew all of his attention without any work at all. 

“I’ve never seen her here before,” Echo stated as the woman ordered a drink. 

“I wouldn’t mind seeing her around,” Fives spoke up before glancing at Rex. “And looks like you wouldn’t either, Captain.”

“Not all of us think with what’s under our codpieces, Fives,” Rex grunted in return. 

“I’m thinking that they are, though,” Jesse pointed out, gesturing to two clones who made their way over to the mysterious woman. “Hopefully her first experience with a clone isn’t one of Fox’s shinies. She’ll never come to a clone bar again.”

Rex glanced over at the woman again before getting up from his seat. Fives looked over at Echo with a shit-eating grin, to which Echo simply rolled his eyes. Rex walked around the bar, nodding to his brothers that he passed, but keeping his gaze on the mystery woman and the two clones that sat down next to her. 

But before they got too far into a conversation, she seemed to say something with a seductive smile and his brothers got up and left her alone without a word of protest. Now, downright curious, Rex found his legs carrying him over to the woman. She turned her head and their eyes met for the first time. His heart seemed to stutter as he took the last few steps toward her. 

“They weren’t bothering you, were they?” Rex asked, causing the woman to smile. 

“No, not at all. I told them that I was just looking for a drink and nothing more. They seemed to do the rest of the math.” She took a sip of her drink, peering over the rim of her glass and practically into Rex’s soul. “Sorry if you were planning on playing hero, Commander.”

“It’s Captain, actually. Captain Rex,” Rex introduced himself, causing the woman’s eyes to widen a small fraction. 

“My apologies, Captain Rex.”

And there was that arrhythmia again. Was this woman part-siren or something?

“You can just call me Rex,” he assured her, causing the woman to smile softly. “And what exactly should I call you, ma’am?”

“Anything but ‘ma’am’,” she quipped, taking another sip of her drink. “You’re making me feel a little too old, Captain.” 

Kriff, he could get used to her calling him that. 

They got to talking. Not so much specifics about themselves, but rather life around them. The GAR, galactic politics, the drink menu. Rex didn’t even realize that he literally didn’t know any basic facts about the woman until she got up to leave for the night. 

“Do you come to this part of town often?” Rex asked, causing the woman to chuckle. 

“Not usually, but I suppose I could make an exception . . . Captain.”

Rex watched her walk out the door before he was suddenly swarmed by brothers, rattling off question after question. Up until Cody, as the highest ranking officer of the bunch, took control of the situation and asked one simple question. 

“What’s her name?”

Rex opened his mouth to reply, but instead winced, causing his brothers around him to groan. 

“He’s hopeless,” Fives sighed, shaking his head. 

“He was hopeless the second that he decided to follow your advice,” Echo pointed out. 

*~*~*~*

Rex walked through the rows of his men, inspecting them one last time while the General and Commander brought aboard their new General. Co-General. Whatever. Either way, Rex wanted to impress them. And that meant that his men had to be in tip top shape. But when he heard the doors to the hangar open, Rex quickly took his place at the front. 

Only to nearly drop his helmet when he recognized the woman walking with Anakin and Ahsoka. And when he heard Fives’s giggle, he could only swallow down a choice set of words.

“And here’s our captain, Rex,” Anakin introduced, causing their eyes to lock for the first time since the bar. “The best of the best.”

“I would expect no less,” she replied with an easygoing and mischievous smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Captain Rex.”

“You as well, General,” Rex practically choked out, trying to not sweat through his blacks. 

“Rex, this the new co-general,” Ahsoka introduced, adding the general’s name. “She was Master Plo Koon’s padawan and served with the Wolffe Pack.”

“Why’d you leave it, General?” Rex directed towards the new general, who smiled at him. 

“The Jedi Council needed someone to babysit General Skywalker and because I value public service above my own sanity—”

“—This whole spiel again?” Anakin complained, causing her to turn to him. 

“You're just upset because Admiral Yularen laughed in your face when I told him what happened back on Corellia when you—”

“—Perhaps we should move on to the rest of the tour,” Anakin stressed, causing her to smirk. 

“Of course.”

Anakin and Ahsoka led the way through the rows of troopers, though she lingered behind them. Looking over her shoulder, she offered Rex a smile that made his heart stop for a moment all over again. 

“I’ll be back to meet the full battalion formally once the rest of my briefings are concluded. If that fits with your timeline, Captain?”

“Yes, of course, General.”

“Great.” She offered him a curt nod before that smirk returned. “And next time we’re at 79s, drinks are on me, Captain.”

The galaxy was testing him today, that was for sure. Rex watched her walk off with Anakin and Ahsoka before slowly putting his bucket back on his head. 

“Fives,” he growled out. “You have exactly five seconds before—”

Fives took off in a sprint across the hangar and Rex took off after him. Echo sighed and shook his head before turning to his comms. Sending Commander Cody a message that Rex did learn that the woman that he was flirting with last night was the new general, Echo couldn’t help but laugh as he watched Fives evade Rex. 

“Well, this is going to be interesting.”

[fen-luciel]

The mistakes of a Acolyte

4

Chapters

Summary: You are pregnant with Qimir's child and the universe is not big enough to hide you from him.

There was an embarrassed silence for a few minutes before Sol decided to clear his throat.

"I understand the fear, but this time we'll be more prepared, we won't let him even touch you" I looked at him unsure, I didn't know what was worse, if I brought them there and he was there... even hiding my belly, being seen with the Jedi would be a death sentence, or he could speak out of turn and get me arrested while he escaped, the possibilities were endless and each worse than the other.

"Excuse me, I need... to wash my face" my hands trembled as I tried to get up, Yord beside me stood up worried before offering me a hand which I quickly took, with a nod he pointed me to the bathroom and I hurried there.

The door opened automatically and I rushed inside, closing the door behind me, the sterile light illuminating the small room burned my eyes.

When I rubbed them, I realized the problem, unshed tears filled my lashes, the burning sensation I was starting to feel was the familiar one of crying.

I turned off the light and turned on the smaller, dimmer one above the mirror, in the dark I took a few deep breaths, hands resting on the rectangular sink before placing one on my belly and gently rubbing it.

The dark atmosphere calmed my nerves and fortunately, I managed to hold back the tears, turning on the water I washed my face with my still trembling hands, my shadowed reflection in the mirror was terrible, like the night before, it was written on all my features how bad I felt, the almost sickly purple bags under my eyes, the reddened irises, a disaster that seemed only to worsen.

As I took more breaths, I realized there was talking in the background happening a few meters from me, I could hear them discussing even with the door closed, especially Yord who seemed to have a particularly loud tone.

I pressed my ear to the door to better understand what they were talking about.

"I'm just saying we could try another way" the rhythmic sound I heard was probably his nervous footsteps, I could imagine him pacing back and forth nervously. "I don't like doing this either, but it's our best way," Jecki replied calmly. "We can get an approximate direction and go—" "With the risk of being discovered?" Sol interrupted her.

"And if he's really there? Maybe waiting for us. He'll assume we've rummaged through his things and found his partner" Jecki speculated. "Ex-partner" Yord immediately intervened afterward.

There was a few seconds of silence, I could imagine them looking at each other grimly. "He could be waiting for us with traps, or see us coming and escape while we search for the way, in the best-case scenario he'll be there to retrieve the last things before disappearing, we must seize the opportunity while it's available. He was injured the last time we clashed but I doubt it will slow him down, we must keep up" more muffled sounds followed, and some words I didn't quite catch as they continued to speak in a more controlled tone.

"We should at least give her time to process and understand if she wants to—" Yord's tone was irritated, you could hear it a mile away, but again Jecki intervened. "We must act now. We can help calm her nerves, but we need her and now."

I pressed my forehead against the metal door, weakly rubbing my eyes, I took a deep breath.

I had to think clearly, now more than ever I was caught between two fires ready to explode in my face, what was happening to me? What was I doing? How many times had I already said the wrong thing without even realizing it?

Was this farce I was carrying on the problem?

Had I become too weak?

Had these months of calm made me more docile or was it just me wanting to be? After all, it had already happened many years before.

Sure.

It had already happened.

When everything around you is a lie, you adapt to it, believe you are part of it, accept it, and carry on that fairytale.

I was doing it again, I had adapted to that desire that had started growing in my chest.

To be a normal person, a mother, a civilian like everyone else.

But I had never been that.

I had never been a victim.

Even what Qimir did to me. I let him do it, because deep down, it was what I wanted.

To feel loved regardless of the consequences, of how it would present itself and how I would live it.

I knew what I had to do.

I left the bathroom after washing my face again.

Immediately everyone turned to me, so I gave an encouraging smile. "Sorry, I needed a moment to think. I'll do it... I just ask that you keep me informed of the plan, if something goes wrong I want to understand it. Especially to escape the danger if it arises" I announced with a deep breath.

The reactions I received were different, it was obvious that Yord was not happy about it, Jecki nodded impassively, but Sol was clearly happy with my choice.

"Certainly, we'll organize the plan this afternoon and let you know when we've decided" Sol replied. I nodded before taking a few steps forward. "If it's not a problem, I'd like to go home, especially if we have to leave early, maybe put some clothes in a bag, or retrieve my old blaster." The three nodded. "If all goes well, you'll be away from home for a maximum of one day, but it's right to prevent, thank you again" Sol replied with a slight bow that I returned.

"Wait, I'll accompany you" Yord offered me an arm which I took with a smile. "Thank you"

We left the ship at a slower pace, the city was fully awake by now, the streets were full of busy civilians, but they seemed to easily step aside as we passed, whether to help a pregnant woman or for fear of the Jedi I couldn't tell.

"You're not obligated if you don't want to" Yord suddenly said, I looked at him with a small smile on my lips, he was deliberately avoiding my gaze, walking with a rigid posture, eyes fixed ahead of him.

"It's okay Yord. I want to end this story. Maybe for real this time" the only response I received was a snort from his nose, it was a rather amusing reaction despite everything, although I didn't understand the reason, sure Sol and Jecki were also worried, but he seemed on another planet.

"How sweet, you're worried" I intoned teasingly as I slightly squeezed his arm, the muscle contracting under my fingers.

"Of course I am. We are putting a pregnant woman in danger, I know you're not inexperienced, but we're Jedi, we should protect you, not ask you to be on the front line" I exhaled a snort of amusement. "Well, I have my Jedi knight to protect me, don't I?" I gave him a playful smile, but I could clearly see a slight dark blush on his cheeks.

When we reached my building he accompanied me to the door of my apartment where I let go of his arm.

"See you then?" he nodded before crossing his hands behind his back in a rigid posture. "We'll contact you as soon as we're organized, I'd tell you to bring something you need so maybe prepare a bag, but I don't think we'll contact you before evening. So rest" rummaging in his pockets he handed me a small comlink which I put in my pocket.

"See you later"

I closed the door behind me, the comlink left on the kitchen table as I quickly headed to the bedroom.

I had to do things right if I wanted to get out clean, to kriff with the Jedi, Qimir, and this shitty life I had tried to get into, peace had never existed, all the notions that had been taught to me were dictated by hypocrisy, but I had come out of it and I would come out of it this time too.

Rummaging through the closet, I took a loose shirt to put on, took off my shoes for comfort, and quickly tied my hair in a messy bun on my head.

Sure, if he didn't answer... but at that point, I didn't care, I would make another plan and another until I freed myself from the problem.

I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, the shutters were still down leaving the room dimly lit, I took deep breaths before closing my eyes, hands resting on my legs.

Over the years Qimir and I had developed a direct bond in the force, which had helped us on many occasions, the more time passed the easier it was for us to use it and outside it was almost impossible to perceive us. In recent months Qimir had repeatedly tried to call me through the force, I had closed the bond as soon as I escaped into hyperspace, the first days were a nightmare, he tried to contact me in every way, dozens of times a day, forcefully. It was obvious he was furious, he immediately realized something was wrong, he was more the type to disappear without saying anything, I wasn't. I would have warned him, I would have told him what I had to do, when I would return, anything, I was paranoid by nature and Qimir was a companion, so it seemed logical to tell him everything.

Even when I had to keep a low profile, I found a way to warn him of the problem, that day 5 months earlier, however, was particularly calm, we weren't doing anything special, so when I took my things and left it took him less than 12 hours to realize something was wrong.

The first calls were calm but insistent, when he realized I didn't intend to answer him, he got furious.

It was absurd how, despite being equals, his presence made me uncomfortable. It was a change I hadn't perceived. It took me five months to realize that what was happening was wrong.

And now I had to reactivate the bond.

And talk to him.

The last time he thought it was a dream, and he still managed to hurt me. I couldn't let him terrify me.

I tried several times, taking deep breaths, trying to reach him through the Force, but between the back pain and the nerves, I could barely concentrate.

I needed to relax, to find his familiar signature.

I lay on my side and closed my eyes again. I had to find Qimir, I had to remember his presence. The night before, we had connected in a dream, more out of visceral instinct, probably. I had emptied my mind of him, had forced myself to forget him, but the arrival of the Jedi had awakened everything, and it would have been hypocritical to deny the truth.

I was worried about him.

Where he was, if he was hurt, if he felt lonely... because of me.

My heart tightened in my chest. A tear rolled down my cheek, but I wiped it away with my sleeve. I hugged one of the pillows to my chest, seeking comfort, rubbing my face against the soft fabric.

The truth was that I missed Qimir terribly.

No matter how much I lied to myself, there was a void in my heart that only he had filled. He would have been so happy to know about this child, would have been by my side, worried about my well-being, massaging my back, and cooking my favorite dishes every day.

I loved him.

And he loved me.

But... the dark side of him wasn't just due to what he had gone through. There was something more visceral, possessive, violent... something that he took out on me.

I thought we were on the same page, that we were equals. But he didn't see it the same way.

I tried again, my arms tightening around the pillow. I tried to imagine him there with me, his delicate yet strong scent, reminiscent of a rain-soaked forest, the warmth of his body, the defined muscles, the numerous scars felt under my fingertips, his soft lips on my forehead... and it was then that I felt him.

It was like seeing a house with an open door from afar. He hadn't noticed that I was searching for him, trying to reach him, but he had left the door open, waiting for me.

And that's how I reached him. The darkness behind my closed eyes was soon illuminated by a cold blue light. I rubbed my eyes from the discomfort before realizing I had made it. My physical form had projected through the Force near Qimir.

I immediately recognized the place, the one I had hinted at to the Jedi. I immediately knew I was right. He had returned here, perhaps for the map, perhaps just to hide.

Looking quickly around, I noticed nothing different from usual. In fact, nothing seemed to have changed at all. It was an old stone room we had turned into our bedroom, although at first glance, it looked more like a storage room. Scrolls, books, devices of all kinds were placed in every corner, on the floor, under or on top of furniture. The windows, usually covered with rudimentary curtains we had hung, were now open, showing the night sky outside.

Walking towards the back of the room, I noticed a backpack carelessly placed on the floor, his clothes haphazardly thrown nearby, and then I spotted some bloodstains but ignored them. I knew who he had fought with, and I remembered Sol and Yord talking about an injury.

And finally, there he was, lying on an old double mattress against the wall at the back, pillows and blankets messily strewn on top, surrounding his sleeping body. A small bandage wrapped around his arm, but apart from that, he seemed fine. He had his back to me, sleeping deeply, his hair tousled on the pillow. I wanted to approach him while he was still asleep, to watch him while he was still peaceful, but I couldn't risk it.

So I did what I had come for.

I approached the small table next to the bed where he kept a flask of some foul-smelling drink and began to hit the metal surface with an open hand, once, twice, three times until Qimir woke up, pulled the lightsaber to him, and ignited it in my direction, terribly confused even as he tried to stand.

"I leave you alone for a few months, and this is the result?" I started, approaching the bed with a flat tone.

I had to be confident. I had dressed specifically to hide the curves of my pregnancy. If I showed any hesitation, he would realize I was hiding much more than I was letting on.

The surprise on his face was almost endearing, his eyes wide and still a bit clouded by alcohol. It took him a few seconds of silence to fully register what was happening.

"Sabrina..." he began to get up from the bed, but I stopped him with a gesture of my hand.

"Let's skip the pleasantries. You're in deep shit" He slowly sat back down on the mattress before deactivating the lightsaber, suspicion clear in his gaze.

"What are you doing here? You disappear for months and then come back to do what exactly?" There was acidity in his tone. This wasn't the dream he thought he was having. He didn't know I was really pregnant, and he didn't see me crying or sad. This probably wasn't the kind of reunion he hoped for. It was just me, waking him rudely and treating him with indifference.

"I've come to warn you. The Jedi know where you're hiding and will be here soon" The surprise and then the confusion were clear in his features. He opened his mouth to speak, but I didn't let him start. "The idiot you were dragging along talked, but I guess you suspected that already. They found... our photo" I added the last part with a frustrated sigh.

"Wait, they found you? Were you captured?" He jumped up, reaching out a hand toward me, but I stepped back a few paces.

"No. I convinced them I was an unaware colleague of yours. But they knew too much, and I had to say some things"

The more details I added, the more confused he seemed. He tilted his head in that cute way I often teased him about, and I held back a smile. It wasn't the right time.

"I'll have to bring them here. We'll probably arrive in less than two days, maybe even sooner. So pack the most important things and hide them on the ship, especially all the Sith artifacts. I don't want those dogs touching or, worse, destroying everything we've recovered..." Without realizing it, I started pacing back and forth in front of him, lost in my thoughts. It was true that many of the things were scattered across the various hideouts we had, but what we wanted to study and analyze, we kept within reach.

Needless to say, between things to do, other... hobbies, and the undeniable laziness of both of us, a lot of things had accumulated here too.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Qimir suddenly grabbed my wrist. I turned quickly, my heart pounding in my chest, mentally cursing myself for letting my guard down so easily. I shouldn't have let him get too close. Yet in his gaze, I read none of the emotions that made my knees tremble. He looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"Are you okay? How did you reach me without getting caught?" I exhaled deeply before yanking my wrist away from his warm hand. I was sure he noticed my accelerated heartbeat, but it wasn't unusual given the situation we were in.

"Yes. I'm... in a hotel I rented. They left me alone to decide a plan. I hoped to contact you after knowing it, but I doubt I'll have time. We need to think carefully about what to do next." I cleared my throat before sighing. "If you just want to leave before they arrive, I understand. But make sure not to leave any traces. I told that Jedi about our map. If they don't find it, you'll have time to hide and heal," I continued, nodding towards his arm. He shrugged in response, making an irritated grimace. "I'm fine. It's nothing."

"And you? They know about us now. Do you really think they'll let you go?" he continued. I gave him a half-arrogant smile. "I was very convincing in my story. They think I'm just a former colleague and lover. They actually want to protect me from you" I said mockingly, but instead of smiling as I hoped, he lost every ounce of lightness he had. The rigid posture of his back and the darkening gaze made my toes numb from how tightly I was keeping them to avoid stepping back.

"A hotel? Is that what you've been doing for five months? Wandering the galaxy doing what? You left without telling me anything, cutting me off from the bond, and now you reappear, warning me about the Jedi" he began to slowly step towards me with a gloomy look. The anxiety gnawed at my stomach, but I had to keep the façade.

Attack was the best defense, after all.

"And you? I leave for a while, and you find an acolyte, get caught by the Order, and then what?" He stopped mid-step, fists clenched at his sides. I could see how tightly he was keeping his arms contracted. It was obvious he was furious, but my words had hit him at least a little.

"I was looking for you. But I didn't want to let the Jedi go. At one point, I even thought they had taken you, that you had run away to keep me safe... but it seems I was wrong" the last sentence was almost growled, as I raised my arm towards him and instinctively grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards me. With my other hand, I grasped the t-shirt he used for sleeping, forcing him to bend down to my eye level.

The unexpected movement left him silent as he looked back at me, confused.

"I feel like I've always been honest with you all these years. I've always told you everything. I've included you in my personal and non-personal life. For once when I needed my own space, you're angry? And how should I feel?" Both of us were short of breath, our gazes hard, too many things left unsaid, or at least, I was hiding everything from him and continued to lie to his face, since we were friends, an unspoken rule was that I was always honest with him, not because he asked me or some code imposed it on me, but because if there was something my past experiences had taught me, keeping secrets only led to disasters.

But this was different. I had to lie.

I pushed him away from me and he didn't resist. "I'm trying to help you in case you hadn't noticed."

Qimir snorted before crossing his arms over his chest. The muscles in his arms bulged with the movement. Had he become even bigger while I was away? I mentally pinched myself at the thought. It was really the wrong time to fantasize about those arms.

"I have no intention of leaving you alone with the Jedi. Maybe you've tricked them for now, but it's obvious they won't let this go so easily. If they decide to report this to the higher-ups, sooner or later someone will recognize you. And you don't know when or how. I'm staying. And I'm taking you with me," I swore I heard his voice grow huskier towards the end, but I ignored the shiver down my spine and cleared my throat.

"I know. But we have to keep up this facade until the end. At least as an emergency plan"

The silence that followed was tense, almost suffocating. I rubbed my eyes tiredly, and swore I saw him lean towards me for a second before dropping his hands to his hips again, probably bitter and disheartened by how this conversation was going.

"I could pretend to kidnap you" he hypothesized. "You said you're playing the victim, right? Tell me what you told them and maybe I could-"

"No. We want them to leave us alone, not to pursue us more aggressively" it was obvious things would only get worse if we pretended a kidnapping. They were bringing me there, pregnant, by that time they would have felt responsible and there would have been chances that they would call the council. "We have to make sure you slip from under their noses. They mustn't realize you knew about their arrival. But... you could hurt me" an idea finally flashed through my mind. "Of course, they don't know about my Force abilities, you have to attack me-" I began to pace the room as a plan formed in my mind. "No, wait, I don't want to hurt you—" "—as if you could" I interrupted with a mocking tone.

Maybe it was the fact that we weren't really in the same room, maybe it was the months apart, but I felt much less uncomfortable now in his presence, and having the upper hand gave me more confidence. Sure, Qimir wasn't stupid, but I had the advantage. And I needed to get rid of him like the Jedi.

"I told them we were engaged and that I ran away when I realized you were dangerous—" he rolled his eyes before making an irritated grimace "—we can pretend I betrayed you, you attack us in anger, I slip inside and reach the ship we have down here. While you fight the Jedi, I'll activate the doors to buy you time. They'll think a droid helped you, and we can leave on two separate ships" I turned towards him with a satisfied expression.

"Sweetheart. I thought we agreed not to play the kidnapping card" he whispered with an ironic smile on his lips as he took a few steps closer. I ignored the affectionate name he called me, not letting him get into my head and distract me with less important things.

"And indeed, we'll take two separate paths. They'll be too worried about chasing you, and in the meantime, I'll cut off all communication. We'll both have time to disappear"

He looked at me irritably before walking away, throwing the lightsaber casually on the bed as he started taking off his shirt. "This plan sucks" he hissed through his teeth as he continued to undress, calling his usual tunic abandoned in a corner with the Force and starting to get dressed.

"Do you have a better idea? I don't think so. And anyway, for all we know, they could come in four or twenty" I snapped irritably, raising my voice. "Do you realize how many things could go to kriff?" he ran his hands through his hair, frustrated, and I sighed in response, irritated. "I know! We'll improvise, as we always do, but it's better than nothing... Where's Sam?" I asked suddenly, looking around.

"I deactivated him, he kept bugging me because you weren't here and was blaming me" I rubbed my eyes once again before turning towards him and pointing my finger at him. "Reactivate my droid, get help, and keep your eyes open. If everything goes well, we'll drop off their radar for a while, and maybe we can shake them off since you decided to get caught" I snapped irritably.

"Sorry, but can't we just ambush them?" he replied, frustrated.

I swallowed bitterly before answering more calmly, "I can't. Not now. We need to get rid of them calmly" I saw him make another grimace, ready to protest, but I interrupted him again.

"Shut up. You created this problem. That's why I'm the master between the two of us. Don't forget that. You have orders. Execute them." My tone was hard. Disappointed. I sounded convincing. Maybe I was venting a different kind of irritation at the moment, but he couldn't imagine that. Fortunately, I struggled to read him just as he struggled with me.

Ours was more of a dance, armed with sharp claws and lightsabers, ready to attack each other for sport or wound each other out of personal pride. I could suffer as much as I wanted for his actions, be afraid of him, but I had no doubt that deep down, Qimir had the same fear of me.

It was a race to see who would break first.

That's why I couldn't allow him to see my weakness.

"Don't get yourself killed."

And with that, I looked at him one last time before severing the bond. Darkness returned, and when I opened my eyes again, I was still in my bedroom, hugging the pillow, as that forest scent faded from my senses.

[lizardsfromspace]

What's the worst thing about fandom in the last 20 years, and what's the worst thing about fandom that's always been true of it?

The worst thing about fandom in the last 20 years has been the incentivizing of fandom-as-conflict: not merely as a field in broader culture wars but as the field for endless intra-group battles.

This manifests in many ways: as seven hour videos complaining about The Last Jedi, as Twitter backlash campaigns, but also as stans defending their faves from any and all criticism real or imagined, as the endless boom-and-backlash cycle to any fandom meme or joke you see on Reddit, and as the drive for people to look for evidence other people discussing a thing they like are hysterical illiterate dolts, before anything else.

Or, in other words: a lot of fandoms are full of assholes these days, whose main interaction with fandom is using it as a reason to be an asshole, and to defend being an asshole. The actual “fandom” part of fandom no longer really exists for them. The discourse more or less is their fandom; someone whose main fandom activity is sharing videos about how Steven Universe is a fascist (?) isn’t in the Steven Universe fandom, they’re in the videos about how Steven Universe is a fascist (?) fandom. I mean, the chief fandom for many people is their side in the fandom war. What type of fanfic you write is secondary to what your affiliations are vis-a-vis battles over fanfiction

(One trend I've noticed is people who aren't at the stage where they only talk about what they hate and not what they love, but are at the stage where they can only talk about what they love in relation to what they hate. "I love this movie...and it proves this other movie is bullshit made by a hack". No ability to say just "I love this movie", period, end of sentence. This is how like two-thirds of Film Twitter talks about film, the remainder are all the grindhouse people going "man you've GOT to see Wrong Turn 5")

Another one, that I think is related, is that fandom’s become...more transitory, maybe? There’s Big Fandoms that are inescapable and then everything else feels like it’s here for a weekend and then it’s gone. And we’ve always had fandoms that endure and fandoms that vanish quickly, when the show runs short or turns out to be bad/boring, but we did use to have a lot of enduring if small fandoms for Okay shows most people hadn’t heard of and now you don’t really. Or they burn themselves out fast.

So we’ve reached this stage where fandoms are either so big they have seven hour long discourse videos, or they’re a smattering of fanart over the course of two weeks last August. But that isn’t really the fault of fans so much as modern media release schedules.

A lot of fandom activities of old are just...impossible now, with many shows? The slow build of speculation and fan works and in-jokes and theorizing and analysis simply can’t exist in a world where the premiere comes out the same day as the finale, and you can’t talk about the finale because you have no way of knowing if the person you’re talking to binged it all in one weekend or is still on episode four. That was the kind of thing that sustained the fandom of something that wasn’t a big hit, or even something that was. My fave fandom experience ever was watching the online Lost fandom wildly theorizing for all six years of Lost, and we’d never get “and what if the Smoke Monster is a dinosaur but only the head?” under a Netflix release model. Now at a base level, we either have shows nobody can discuss because nobody’s sure who’s seen or what, or shows where everyone just discusses the finale right away, and where you get One Week of Show and then a massive hiatus, which either kills all momentum or...drives fandom in the direction of hyper-analyzing everything and fighting because, well, what else is there to do? And that plus the outrage cycles of social media plus the fact that “man who yells at Star Wars” is now a viable career choice result in, well. *gestures upwards* All that

(Really, shout out to Cartoon Network for engineering the Steven Universe fandom to Be Like That through their inscrutable strategy of dropping episodes during one random week every five months or whatever)

As for something that's always been with it...cliques and a certain fannish elitism, like, that sees engaging with media in a fandom sense as more creative or analytical or intelligent than your average person. You see it now in the form of, like, people holding up fanfic above published fiction as more representative or authentic (I’ve seen more than one post on here strongly implying queer rep doesn’t exist in mainstream non-fic storytelling???), or going “well, we think about shows, unlike those normies watching sports”. But that was probably way more pronounced a thing in the past, in the 40-50s sci-fi fans were calling non-fans "mundanes" and calling themselves "slans" as an in-group signifier (a reference to a book with superintelligent psychic mutants known as slans). Like at the very least we should be happy no one’s calling non-fans “muggles” anymore. In the evolution from “mundane” to “muggle” to “normie” normie’s probably the least bad one

[ask-luke-skywalker-rp]

Merci made her way to the planet. She was sure the Jedi was here.

She landed her ship and pulled on her helmet.

It was time to get her bounty. She needed to get away from the empire and unfortunately this was the only way she could think of to do it.

The Kyber crystals tied around her neck clacked together. A reminder that she had killed many Jedi before this one. He would not be her first or last.

And he would not be expecting her to she had been so careful.

She saw the back of his head from where she crouched in the bushes. He was younger than she had imagined. Youthful. Boyish. Probably about her age.

No. Stop speculating. Do not give the target anything you can relate to.

He was meditating. A still target.

She drew her gun and fired. Closing her eyes.

@a-merciful-end

Luke was deep in his meditation, but he was still able to sense the Mandalorian take a sniping position and prepared himself. When the shot fired the bolt curved around his head then resumed its original trajectory, completely missing him. He couldn’t help but smirk a little.

[fellthemarvelous]

Without hope, we have nothing.

(Spoilers and speculation included a bit further down)

This is actually a post about the Bad Batch and not Star Wars Rebels, but this bit is important so...

Try not to cry when you remember that Tech is the one who taught Hera Syndulla how to mask her ship's signature, a move that made her a massive threat to the Empire and a move that she often used to her advantage. She was such a threat to the Empire that they wanted to capture her alive so they could make an example of her for her years of defiance.

And then also try not to cry when you remember that when Hera was taken prisoner by the Empire, Kanan Jarrus sacrificed his life to free her and save the future of the Rebellion. Try not to cry when you think about the fact that Kanan Jarrus aka Caleb Dume was the Jedi padawan the Bad Batch protected (except for Crosshair) from the Empire during Order 66 by claiming Hunter killed him.

Hunter, Tech, Wrecker and Echo lied to the Empire to protect a Jedi.

And Tech taught Hera how to evade the Empire when the Bad Batch helped her family (Chopper included) escape Ryloth after being accused of treason.

Clone Force 99's actions had a direct outcome on the success of the Rebellion. They refused to commit treason against the Republic and all they did was commit treason against the Empire. They were strong enough to resist the effects of the inhibitor chip (Crosshair and Wrecker for awhile), outright ignored Order 66 (Hunter and Tech), or were tortured and turned partially into a machine against his will by the Techno Union and used as a weapon against the Republic who, upon rescue, immediately jumped back into Separatist territory and fucked their asses up (Echo). Luckily, with the help of Rex, they got their chips removed after Wrecker tried to kill all of them.

Everything under the cut is pure speculation. I'm having a galaxy brain moment, I just have no idea if it's pointing me in the right direction or not lol.

If you disagree with me, I don't need you to rudely tell me why.

After his time on Tantiss, Crosshair can now identify with Echo more than anyone else in the Bad Batch (and Tech if CX-2 is Tech).

When they went to rescue Echo, Crosshair is the one who snidely told Captain Rex that he would have left Echo behind too.

Which is exactly what happened to Crosshair when the Empire turned him into a weapon against his own brothers. He had no choice because the Empire attached him to a machine and amped up the effect of his inhibitor chip so he could not disobey orders.

Rex told Cody "I think Echo is still alive" and Cody told him that was impossible. Anakin accompanied him on this rescue mission with The Bad Batch (we know Cody would have too if he hadn't been injured).

I think that if Tech is CX-2, Crosshair already knows or highly suspects it. He's terrified of Tantiss. I think we're going to have a parallel moment of Crosshair possibly saying the same thing, knowing that he could never leave a brother behind again after what he went through, especially if CX-2 is Tech. (I also wouldn't be surprised if Omega suspected something after her trip back to Tantiss with CX-2.)

We never saw Echo's body after the explosion. Instead we got this image. An empty helmet and a droid arm.

Crosshair defected from the Empire when he witnessed the Empire tell him that Mayday was only a clone and not worth giving medical attention to. Those actions resulted in the death of Mayday and that's when Crosshair chose to shoot an Imperial officer between the eyes (similar to Dogma's execution of General Krell in many ways).

If Tech is CX-2, that is the second Bad Batcher the Empire has turned into an enemy against his brothers.

This is the last we saw of Tech.

Hemlock was fucking lying when he said that Tech's glasses were all they recovered. Why the hell would he have found Tech's glasses and not Tech? All we see below him are clouds. And this is the last bit of Tech we see. That gun is in the shot with his glasses for a reason.

I feel like this is going to parallel Echo's rescue from Skako Minor. Tech and Echo are both highly intelligent huge ass nerds (remember that the battle plans being used against the Republic were written by both Rex and Echo, and Cody acknowledged that Rex was one of their best strategists in the GAR) who always ended up working best together.

Part of me wonders if we are heading into a show centered on the clone troopers in a post Order 66 world going up against the Empire as they try to rescue more of their brothers. Enough to become a problem for the Empire.

Part of me also wonders if the inclusion of Force sensitive children in the Bad Batch means Rex will need to call Ahsoka into the fray. Wolffe has only appeared once so he hasn't even switched sides, let alone even started blocking Ahsoka's messages to Rex yet. During the Clone Wars she had to save Force sensitive children from Darth Sidious. During the Rebellion, the saved more Force sensitive children from Darth Sidious. It makes me wonder if she is also going to save Force sensitive children from this too? I might be reaching a bit too much here, but it could be a possibility! She seems to always show up when Force sensitive children need to be rescued from Darth Sidious.

No matter what ending we get for the Bad Batch, I know it's going to leave us with hope for the future because the message in Star Wars has always shown us that hope will always be stronger than fear.

A simple act of kindness can fill a galaxy with hope.

Without hope, we have nothing.

These episodes are all relevant to Echo's journey. The Domino Squad was referred to as a bad batch and Echo was the one who seemed to struggle the most with orders that conflicted with doing what needed to be done. He is the one who memorized the regulations manual after all. And now the Bad Batch are on a similar journey because they have never trusted regs before, but now it seems they might have to trust the regs to come to help them the way they helped Rex and Echo before the war ended. The way they helped Gregor after the war ended.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but that's a fanfic I can always write!! I don't want to get into who I think is going to die or survive, but I have my suspicions there too and I'm already in too much pain to keep going.

[rey-jake-therapist]

I love Oshamir, but it rubs me the wrong way that they're speculated to be a Force Dyad, while it's very much obvious imho that if there's a Force Dyad in the The Acolyte, it's Osha and Mae.

Osha starts getting her connection to the Force back when she starts having visions and hears the voice of Mae through the Force. And she keeps getting stronger after she crosses path with Mae again. It also happens simultaneously when she crosses paths with Qimir/The Stranger, yeah, and it's very likely that he encourages the connection between Osha and Mae (a bit like Snoke manipulated the connection between Rey and Kylo in The Last Jedi)....

And if it's not an enough convincing argument, there's the fact that Sol reveals that they're not biological twins. They're not even sisters, yet they look exactly the same and share this incredible connection since they were born. In the junior edition of The Rise of Skywalker, Leia thought that Rey and Ben Solo were like "twins in the Force", which is exactly what Osha and Mae are...

Also, the song "The power of two" was clearly written in reference to Osha and Mae:

Parts of me will die with you

And I think it's gonna be the good parts

Don't wanna feel at all (Ah)

Thick skin, big scars (Ah)

While I was tethered to you

You cut it straight to the truth

And we're so one and the same

So all my pain is your pain

You thought your soul was a necklace

That you could wear and take off

That you could rip and break off

That you could trade in the dark

But you're mine

Twin flame

I feel the shame when they call me your name

Can you feel the same when they say you're to blame?

Twin flame

I feel the shame when they call me your name

Why work with myself, it's a losing game

Twin flame (Da-da-dum, da-da-da-da)

Twin (Da-da-dum, da-da-da-da)

Twin flame (Da-da-dum, da-da-da-da)

Thought I had a life with you

You know the power of two (The power of two)

But tell me, where was your heart

When you ripped destiny apart?

While I was tethered to you

You cut it straight to the truth

And we're so one and the same

So all my pain is your pain

You thought your soul was a necklace

That you could wear and take off

That you could rip and break off

That you could trade in the dark

But you're mine

Twin flame

I feel the shame when they call me your name

Can you feel the same when they say you're to blame?

Twin flame

I feel the shame when they call me your name

Why work with myself, it's a losing game

I feel the shame when they call me your name

Can you feel the same when they say you're to blame?

Twin flame (The power of two)

Twin flame

I'm at war with myself, it's a losing game

Osha and Mae were created artificially, maybe in an attempt to create a Force Dyad similar to what Rey and Ben would be centuries later. I'm certain that the Stranger will have a significant importance for Osha and I even hope that he'll be much more than a teacher to her (I want my Sith power couple!!). But I also think The Acolyte is primarly Osha and Mae's story. Maybe the Stranger will come to realize that he needs them both on his sides, that he can't get the power of two with Osha because she's already bounded through the Force to her twin. And I really don't see why he and Osha would be a Force Dyad while Mae is right here...

[westdesert]

forgive me for speculating based off an out-of-focus shot, but it looks like, by the end of episode 3, torbin has the scar that we saw last episode. there's absolutely some shit that went down that i don't think sol and osha were present for.

i've also seen a trailer clip that shows kelnacca attacking someone who *might* be torbin- maybe that's how he got his scar? and maybe there's a reason we don't see kelnacca on the ship in this scene, and why he seems to have later exiled himself from the jedi.

i think we're going to get more information on the coven fire from the jedi's perspective instead of osha's. i can't wait to see how this plays out

[david-talks-sw]

I havent watched it yet, but I saw a lot of reports that The Acolyte promotes a lot of Jedi Order "hate" if you will. What did you think about it? As a Jedi fan, I kind of DONT want to watch it because of that.

If you ask me, it's a fine show :) it hasn't quite gripped me, the thick lightsabers that look like toys are a nitpick that keeps triggering me.

But overall it's nice!

Yes, there are some small jabs.

The Jedi in The Acolyte are really reticent towards using their lightsabers, resorting to hand-to-hand or even stun weapons.

From what I've seen on Twitter, people are speculating that this is to show how much more "good" the Jedi were back then, as opposed to the more "square, dogmatic, quick-on-the-draw Prequel Jedi," who lost their compassion and have fully detached themselves to the point of dehumanizing themselves.

Yord is clearly meant to be one of the first "Prequel Jedi" as described above.

It's played for laughs 50% of the time, but yeah. The narrative frames him as being a bit of a dick who's a bit too proud of himself. And I'm seeing reflections of Tales of the Jedi Mace Windu & what Filoni described Episode I Obi-Wan as.

Same goes for Vernestra, dogmatically insisting he return to Coruscant because "protocol" and literally shown playing politics.

I've seen folks draw a parallel between Vernestra's attitude and that scene in Episode II where Yoda and Mace agree that they can't let the Senate know their powers of foresight are waning... and yeah, people interpret that scene as the two of them playing politics.

The director commentary of Episode II states that's not the case. It's more about the fact that if they trying to keep the war from starting.

Parallels between Sol and Qui-Gon

Very evident. But again... if you ask me, Sol is just being a Jedi. Qui-Gon isn't the only one with those character traits. Look at Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace, Shaak Ti.

Finally, there's some hints that some evil shit went down years prior to the show and the Jedi were at the center of it.

I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's not as black and white as Mae or Sol makes it seem. A "big misunderstanding" type deal.

So yeah. Vernestra and Yord strike me as one-dimensional and a bit cartoonish. But overall:

Love seeing Jedi do some Kung Fu.

Love that they finally fixed how lightsaber blades look on camera.

Love the concept of a Jedi-centered detective story.

Mae and Osha are fun in different ways, but I'm kinda scared that, from their mantra, the show is gonna culminate in a "Gray Jedi is the way" kinda direction, and you know how I feel about that.

Love Qimir. And I get the feeling he's more than what he says he is, if you get my drift.

Love the acting in it, the set pieces, the production value, the way some Force powers are used (Sol with the Force speed, fuck yeah!)

Love that the title of "sith acolyte" is an actual thing now. It kinda helps us figure out what Dooku was between when he left in Dooku: Jedi Lost and his last episode in Tales of the Jedi. If I understand correctly, Sidious had an apprentice while grooming an acolyte... once the apprentice kicked the bucket, he promoted Dooku.

8/10 as far as I'm concerned.

[tremendouskoalachild]

what we know: The Acolyte was pitched sometime in early 2020. The Rise of Skywalker had just ended the movie saga. The Mandalorian, which kicked off disney+, had just finished its first season with great audience response. Lucasfilm was reorienting itself to streaming. Rayne Roberts loved the pitch, got Kathleen Kennedy who also loved it, and the show was greenlit.

the show premiered in summer 2024, after a generous marketing campaign (including a clip shown with The Phantom Menace rerelease, an original Victoria Monét song, and plenty of trailers and tv spots). multiple pieces of tie-in media were announced both before and during the show's airing (an Acolyte comic issue, a Kelnacca comic issue, a visual guide, an art reference book, two novels featurig show characters).

the high republic multimedia project (THR), in advanced development when the show was pitched and published continuously from early 2021, greatly influenced the show's development. the costuming is largely based on the look of THR, the show makes plenty of lore references, and includes a main character from the books in its main cast. THR material coming out in summer 2024 has "a century before The Acolyte" prominently on the cover, the upcoming show tie-ins are largely written by THR authors, and often feature other THR characters.

the show was expensive, with a long production period and a great focus on the technical aspects - building large elaborate sets, filming on location in Madeira, detailed stunt sequences with a lot of actor involvement, plenty of attention given to costumes, make-up and creature design. the cast included many high-profile actors. everything suggests the show had full confidence of lucasfilm.

what i'm gonna speculate: lucasfilm was playing the long game with this show, or hoping to. cancelling the show this early was unexpected.

in 2019 star wars was quite literally centered on the original trilogy. the seven decades or so around the OT contained all currently canon star wars media, even as the franchise was spoken of as one with 25,000 years of history. the following years would plug up even more empty spots on the timeline, with the projects often overlapping. this gave the writers much less creative freedom, which was the whole point of decanonizing all pre-2014 media aside from films and shows. over time, fans started clamoring for onscreen content set outside of the known eras, and there were more and more voices in and outside of the fandom exhausted with fanservice (the glup shitto phenomenon).

The Acolyte was set in a whole new era, as far as onscreen content goes, and its only legacy character was from children's and YA books most viewers wouldn't be familiar with. it was specifically introduced as a show you wouldn't need any homework for. it had actors prominent in entirely different contexts (Matrix. sitcom. Squid Game. YA. superhero movies. independent films. relationship dramas.) and the cast was pretty international.

the show had a lot specifically for established fans - you could say it was the most wide-reaching in its star wars references, incorporating elements from every trilogy, the animated shows, canon books, oldschool legends lore, video games. but i believe it was mostly meant to attract people who were not previously fans, and especially target demographics that were underrepresented in the fandom. draw in international audiences, young people who were around for other star wars properties but they never caught their interest, women who either weren't in the fandom or felt pushed away by the reaction to The Last Jedi.

lucasfilm execs definitely weren't planning for viewing numbers comparable to Obi-Wan Kenobi, or even Ahsoka, since those are characters people are already invested in. i think lucasfilm expected the show's audience to grow over a longer period, since plenty of people might check it out because it seems cool and they like an actor in it, and hopefully stick around to watch other star wars and become new fans of the franchise. the audience would get a chance to establish itself through new viewers watching it outside the couple weeks when it aired originally - it's a streaming platform, after all - and the show would have a solid fandom for its second season (which they were clearly planning to make).

these new fans would keep disney+ in order to check out other star wars shows and film, and keep buying star wars stuff over the hiatus. even if they were only into The Acolyte and their interest never expanded beyond that, there were many merchandising products and tie-in materials coming out. the comics and books would have connections to THR, hopefully getting an influx of readers before the initiative finishes next year and boosting sales of already published works. the THR readers who weren't interested in the show originally would see all their favorite authors writing stuff for it and check it out, too.

but then someone higher up decided to cancel it a month after airing so no i guess

[betelgo0ze]

Maul and Obi-Wans cycle of abuse is something so special to me

I’d like to go further down this rabbit hole one day but for now all I will say is this:

Maul was fueled by rage and anger his entire life. Groomed by Palpatine and mauled(pun 100% intended)by Obi-Wan left him broken and a shell of the boy he once was with only anger boiling beneath his war torn skin.

Obi-Wan did what he had to in self defense and we all know Maul would have done the same. He went through so much in the comics as well as the TV shows and needed the aid of magical forces to heal his mind. He may have been mentally ill due to his traumatic life but in isolation he was genuinely broken

(to be clear: mentally ill people are not broken and neither are disabled people. I’m disabled, I’m not broken. But what I’m trying to explain is the fact that Maul wasn’t broken until his isolation. he very well could have stayed his silly goofy mentally ill self but was broken in a way people cannot return from and unnatural forces had to be used to bring him back to reality)

He died in Obi-Wans arms, content for the first and last time in his life knowing that Luke Skywalker would end the cycle of abuse he and Obi-Wan had been stuck in. Hatred and anger and bitterness fueled by actions out of their control. Luke would end what Maul had once fought for. Knowing this, Maul died peacefully in his enemies arms.

Obi-Wan held a funeral for Maul, and he was the only person there. He was all Maul had left. He protected Luke for all the people he fought for, the Jedi, innocent people, Anakin.

But despite everything, he also held Maul to the same standards as he did for his fellow fallen Jedi since Maul was just another one of the victims of the Sith.

I like to think that Maul and Obi-Wan met again as force-ghosts as well as in whatever afterlife their is outside of appearing to the living. I think they would be happy to see one another, perhaps Maul had watched from afar as Luke grew. This of course would rely on the idea that dead people, ghosts or not, could watch over the living which is all but confirmed. That’s more speculation than anything, but I like to imagine it.

I like to imagine Obi-Wan and Maul reunion met with a violently tight hug and tears. After everything, after the blood and torment and abuse, Luke had ended it all and they could finally be together in peace.

Can you tell Mauls my favorite

[bereft-of-frogs]

since it is the last Sunday of Acolyte theorizing and I don't want to go get ready for the work week, here are my collected remaining questions / mysteries, thoughts, and whether I think they're likely to be solved in the finale, left up to interpretation, or saved for next season:

Is Qimir a Sith? Was he really once a Jedi? How old is he? How did he discover the cortosis mine? Who was the master who 'threw him away'? Likely Resolution: Saved for Season 2. I think most of the Sith stuff will be reserved for a season 2, if they get one. Allegedly his character was really only supposed to appear in season 2 but they moved some things up, so I'm comfortable saying most of the Sith stuff will end up being the 4-5 mysteries left on the table for future exploration.

How did Mae survive the fall? What has she been doing for 16 years, aside from training with Qimir? Likely Resolution: Solved in Finale. Confident this one will at least get a sentence or two explanation. Now that we've seen that Sol really does think Mae is dead, I can't imagine he won't ask how tf she survived.

What happened to Koril? What's she been up to? Likely Resolution: Solved in Finale, related to above. Honestly, I'm pretty convinced at this point that Koril survived, saved and raised Mae, until Mae decided to go make a deal with the Sith for additional training. Not sure we're going to get details but I'm pretty sure she'll at least show up.

Why did Mae think Osha was dead? Likely Resolution: Probably left to interpretation. But also I bet she was told Osha was dead either by Koril in the same way that Obi-Wan told Luke Anakin was dead in the OT (dead to them, beyond help), or to keep her focused on her training and her anti-Jedi mission.

How did Aniseya create the girls, and why was Koril so afraid of the Jedi finding out? Likely Resolution: Possibly left vague or for season 2, if it's Sith related. We know it definitely had something to do with the vergence, it was mostly Aniseya's doing, and Koril was very afraid of the Jedi finding out. My theories on this are either 1) it was a deal with the Sith. The Sith want to create life and they collaborate on an experiment with Aniseya. We know from other media and also confirmed by Indara/the Council's insistence on noninterference, that the Jedi don't actually care about other Force sects in the galaxy...with one big exception. Koril might be afraid they're about to uncover something that takes the vibe from 'live and let live' to a much more serious conflict. The Sith presumably would also be pretty pissed if the coven blew a thousand years of secrecy. And 2) the coven might be possessive of the vergence, if it's giving them power, and not want the Order to discover it so they could keep it for themselves. A bit weaker, but the coven might not realize the Jedi already suspect the vergence exists.

What IS the vergence? Likely Resolution: Maybe mentioned? Maybe not? I don't know I just really liked people speculating that the vergence is BOTH the Bunta tree and the spooky dark hole, would fit into the dyadic themes.

What are the origins of the Brendok coven and what did they do to get themselves exiled? Likely Resolution: Unresolved. There's the slightest chance they'd tie this explanation to what Aniseya did to create the girls but I bet they're not going to want to lock themselves into an explanation and will leave it up to interpretation. I'm not sure I even have theories, I could see it going a whole bunch of ways. People are going to come up with their own headcanons probably.

Why is Vernestra so afraid of a Senatorial audit? Likely Resolution: Left for season 2 / Hinted at. I think they might mention it a little bit, but I wouldn't be surprised if they leave it up in the air. Honestly, I sort of hope they do, personally I think it would be wise, because that would allow the books to wrap up and give us a better picture of Vernestra's position at the end of the Nihil crisis. I have my own book-related theories as to why she's so suspicious of the Senate (given where Temptation of the Force left off, I think the Senate is going to sell the Jedi out to work with Marchion Ro for the cure to the blight. This would also dig into her issues with Elzar, since he's the main liaison to the Senate and they've got a lot of unresolved issues. Feeling decent about it ending well though, he still hasn't given her Stellan's lightsaber and that feels like something that would happen at the resolution of their issues). I also would buy that she's starting to see into the future, maybe this is the new topic of her hyperspace visions, and is reluctant to let them be drawn in politically (all her 'something to turn the tide' stuff suggests she's sensing the growing darkness).

Did Indara know Mae was alive / how did Torbin know Mae was alive? Likely Resolution: Left up to interpretation. *Also technically includes 'Did Kelnacca know Mae was alive?' but we just have so little to go off of with that one, we do at least have Indara and Torbin's reactions to Mae. Up until the second flashback, I would have phrased this 'how did they both know Mae was alive' but I am no longer convinced that Indara did. It's possible Indara had no idea until she saw the mark on Mae's forehead and was just doing some very quick panic processing, which could have contributed to turning the tide of the fight. She's no longer focused, Mae can use the dirty trick with the bartender to catch her out. Obviously Torbin knew before Mae actually showed up (he calls her by the correct name, confirmed via CCs ), but they don't specify how long he's known. His 'I've been waiting for you, Mae' could mean he's known from the start and been waiting for 16 years. It could mean the 10 of the Barash Vow, maybe something happens and he finds out which contributes to his decision to take the Vow. But I've always had on my theory list that he'd seen Indara's death in the Force and that's how he knew Mae was alive and probably coming for him next. I think they'll probably leave this one up to us, considering the 3 murdered Jedi's narratives aren't really front and center, I think that ambiguity was just to add to the mystery around the flashback.

How did Torbin make master so quickly? Likely resolution: this is barely a question. This just keeps coming up on Reddit, especially from people who are still convinced 'to become a master you have to graduate an apprentice to knighthood' is hard canon. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't even remember where that comes from, but I'm fairly certain you don't need to have had an apprentice to be elevated to master. Or else Anakin's anger at not being elevated in RotS doesn't really make sense, if he knows he hasn't fulfilled an essential requirement, and Elzar's elevation is a big plot point in the books and he doesn't ever mention an apprentice, nor does Avar.) My personal headcanon is 'overcompensation and burnout.' Becomes an overachiever to try to make up for what happens. Given that they lied, the Order sees nothing but a model Jedi, and keeps rewarding that behavior while he tries to hide the cracks, until it all catches up to him. Alternatively, he's not 'really' a master, and it's just parlance, or there's some sort of ceremonial elevation for special circumstances like the Barash Vow. Nonissue, it's just come up a couple times.

Why did Osha leave the Order? + Why did Indara advocate for her to leave? Likely resolution: might be mentioned, might be left on the 'because I failed' line. I made a longer post about this one, but there are a few possibilities. I don't think they're going to explain it, just allow the audience to believe it was about not being able to let go of her anger at Mae, but if it ends up being my weird 'push-pull, when one twin gains power the other loses it' theory, they might address it.

WHAT AM I MISSING? Any final questions left on the table? Send them to me! I have had so much fun theorizing, I only wish this was longer. I keep joking that in a better timeline there's a 12 episode version of this show but it is not actually that much of a joke lol, it would have really been something if it had been allowed to develop the characters a little deeper and let some things breathe over a longer season.

My final prediction still stands: Sol is going down for training Mae, the deaths of the team of Khofar, and at this point probably the Brendok coven as well, since it's going to look like he took out Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca to keep them quiet. And sorry, I highly doubt he's going to live out the finale. I think he's going to have a final confrontation with the twins, and Osha is going to kill him in an emotionally charged moment. If he was alive to provide testimony, that's problematic for the Sith, but dead he makes an extremely convenient scapegoat. Bazil has also seen a LOT of things out of context on board the ship leaving Khofar, I think his testimony could be damning. Sol's done a bunch of suspicious things, like when he didn't include himself on the list of targets during the meeting, failing to apprehend Mae, (seemingly to Vernestra) lying about Mae's death, Kelnacca didn't seem to put up a fight suggesting he may have known his attacker, turned off his transponder and disobeyed an order to remain, etc etc.

This is the solution to the riddle 'how to kill a Jedi without a weapon', destroying their legacy. Or, the riddle could have multiple solutions, it could also refer to Osha going full Sith. My only issue with the 'Sol is framed' theory is that there seems from leaks to be a formal funeral, which wouldn't necessarily happen if they thought Sol was a rogue Jedi or Sith. But possibly the Order will keep up Sol's good name for outsiders, and this is just what convinces the Council that there still aren't any real Sith out there. Funeral could also possibly be a collective one for everyone else who died.

I think Qimir and Osha are for sure going to live, I'm slightly on the fence about Mae but I'm leaning toward 'also survive'. I am 100% (ok I'll keep it at 90%) sure Koril is alive and shows up at some point. Leaks say there are a couple significant cameos, I'm guessing Sith pulled from Legends books or long-lived High Council members.

Will add on if anything comes to me in the next couple days but it's been nice theorizing with you all! I don't know what I'm going to do after this, wait for Tears of the Nameless to come out. Or, I guess, think about something else? Crazy.

[illuminatedquill]

Sabine Wren (A Quick Study)

Know Thyself to Break Cycles

I was heavily debating whether to make this post because there is always a chance that I’m Talking Out Of My Ass and Looking Too Much Into It but, hey, that’s the fun of it, right?

Speculation and analysis. For this post, it’s about - who would have thought? - Sabine Wren, everyone’s favorite Mandalorian Jedi.

Specifically, there’s a scene in Ahsoka episode 6 that I keep coming back to that I’ll be talking about in this post.

If you somehow haven’t watched Ahsoka yet, then be warned - SPOILERS under the cut.

Here’s the scene:

[gif supplied by @sersi]

Here's why this scene intrigues me so much.

First - Natasha Liu Bordizzo is hella pretty, guys.

(. . . Yes, this is important info.)

Second - notice how Sabine is responding to Thrawn here. It’s not a direct stare. Up until this point in the conversation she's Not Impressed with Thrawn's grand return.

She’s looking at him from an angle; specifically she is tilting her head at him.

That’s significant. Why? Because:

Tilting can similarly indicate curiosity, uncertainty or query, particularly if the head is pushed forward, as if the person was trying to look at the subject in a different way in the hope of seeing something new. The greater the tilt, the greater the uncertainty or the greater the intent to send this signal.

It’s clear that Sabine, despite her bravado, is feeling uncertain about various things regarding her situation.

1. She just doomed their home galaxy to find Ezra.

2. She left Ahsoka for dead.

3. She possibly left Hera (and Jacen!) for dead.

4. She doesn’t even know if Ezra is still alive.

So, yeah. She’s standing on shaky ground and she knows it.

But these matters are the obvious issues. And we all know that there are deeper emotions are at play here for Sabine.

Because this whole conversation has Thrawn - one of the Empire’s, if not the most, brilliant strategists - admit that he is completely confounded about Sabine’s motivations.

Thrawn. Confused. With. Sabine.

Let’s look at it again:

This is Thrawn.

The concept of loyalty is not unknown to him. He understands that; he literally has an entire army and certain parts of the Imperial Remnant that are loyal to him, waiting and preparing for his return!

He studies the culture of a species; their art, their music, their history to understand them - and to exploit weaknesses that are revealed through that same study.

He’s not a stranger to the Ghost crew, either! He’s even seen Sabine’s art. He knows her - or so he thought.

And, yet, he does not understand why Sabine made such a risky gamble. It goes beyond loyalty.

And I think that puzzles Sabine, too. Because my belief is she thinks she knows why she's gone so far to find Ezra.

But if Thrawn is confused about why're you doing something, then wouldn't you start to question your own motives, too?

Hence, the head tilt. Sabine, seeking to understand why he's so confused about her motivations - and, maybe, realizing that he's not the only one who is confused.

Third and last point:

Kudos to Natasha's fantastic acting here. There's a level of nuance to her expression at the end that I am obsessed with.

It's a blink or miss it moment but pay close attention: right at the end, after she says, "You wouldn't understand."

Sabine goes from steely-eyed determination to . . . something that looks a lot like surprise. And a hint of realization.

It's like what she said or how she said it just surprised her. It's just the slightest lifting of the eyebrows and widening of the eyes but . . . that's how it looks to me.

Sabine, as stated earlier in the episode, is not one for self-reflection. But here, in this confrontation with her old foe, she ,maybe, partially, realizes something about herself here.

What could it be? Personal interpretation: that her reasons for finding Ezra are not so cut-and-dried as she once thought. That there are deeper forces in motion, driving her forward.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom. - Socrates

I've talked about this before that Sabine not understanding herself - and not being in tune with her feelings - is a huge reason for her actions in the show. And because she lacks this self-awareness, her judgment going forward will remain clouded.

(Which is, you know, not good for a Jedi.)

I know I'm treading close to dangerous waters here . . . but I'm coming from the perspective of someone who watched Rebels and saw Sabine and Ezra as wholly platonic. Deeply, truly, best of friends.

And now, after having watched Ahsoka, I don't see that as being the case anymore. At least for Sabine. It's different now.

There is something more going on here. It's been talked about and analyzed before in this fandom by smarter people, but there's quite a number of scenes that dance around the subject of Sabine's feelings towards Ezra.

It's never addressed head-on but acknowledged, indirectly, by four other notable characters -

Ahsoka

Baylon Skoll

Thrawn

Shin Hati

Ahsoka comes the closest, telling Sabine she knows how much Ezra means to her - but also warning her to put her 'personal feelings' for him aside to service a greater good.

Baylon Skoll says Sabine's 'focus' on Ezra blinds her. And, you know, tempting her with, "Do it. For Ezra." at the end of Episode 4.

Thrawn - well, we discussed him already. "Gambled the fate of your galaxy on that belief," what a line. It goes so hard, I love it so much.

And, interestingly enough, Shin Hati also indirectly acknowledges it with the casual observation: "the one she so desperately seeks".

(Hera also clocks Sabine from the get-go, knowing precisely how to hook her in to working with Ahsoka again. "She'll do it for Ezra.")

It's the rancor in the room! They're talking around it, but never directly addressing it!

These dialogues they have about Sabine and her feelings for Ezra - it's so similar to how someone tries to describe the shape of something but it's obscured or hidden, you know?

You get a detail here and there - bits and pieces of a larger, more coherent picture, but never the whole thing.

That's what it feels like to me, in terms of the dialogue; like they can't quite grasp what she's feeling/what's driving her, but catch just enough to make a close estimation.

(I can't tell if any of this is intentional and it's driving me nuts. What are you playing at, Filoni.)

Sabine does get past her fear of losing Ezra with her decision to stay on Peridea with Ahsoka, though. However, much as that is a pleasing 'full circle' moment for her character arc in this season, there's still greater tragedy on the horizon -

Because Ezra still doesn't know what she did to find him. It's one thing to lose someone physically, as in death, but to lose them in the sense of a relationship: a foundation of trust, respect, and love is uniquely devastating.

That's one of my main issues with the ending for Ahsoka. Sabine's arc rings a little hollow because she didn't open up to Ezra like she should have. That was the real test, I think, and she failed.

It's going to be a never-ending cycle if she doesn't come to understand herself and her feelings.

One of Ahsoka's main themes is actually breaking cycles, it seems. Baylon wants to break the cycle of never-ending wars plaguing the galaxy.

Ahsoka wants to break the cycle of darkness inherent in her Jedi lineage; she stops Sabine's training precisely because of this fear that her pupil will turn to the dark side.

And Sabine wants to stop the cycle of loss that's been all too prevalent in her own life.

Baylon thinks he's found the 'start' of his cycle which has something to do with the Mortis gods.

Ahsoka came to terms with Anakin's legacy and is coming around to mend the relationship between herself and Sabine . . . but Thrawn's pointed observations in the finale and her reaction to them still show that's something she will continue to struggle with.

Also, judging by the expression from hearing this conversation, Sabine doesn't know about Anakin or how his legacy has cast this large, looming shadow over their master-apprentice relationship. So Ahsoka has still yet to properly break that cycle if she does not open up to Sabine about why she stopped her training.

(Or how Ahsoka is afraid of Sabine's potential should she fall to the dark.)

As for Sabine . . . she never told Ezra the truth. About any of it. And the loss she truly fears may yet come to pass as a result.

Breaking cycles is all about knowing thyself.

For Sabine, that means coming to terms with how she really feels about Ezra. Being honest with him about everything . . . and willing to let him go, if that's what it comes to.

I don't know how you repair a relationship after committing such a terrible act.

I've literally written several fanfics regarding the consequences and potential angst of how Ezra and Sabine could fix things.

(And I'm still writing them now, I promise! Right after finishing this. And getting some sleep.)

It's Sabine and Ezra. She loves him. Doesn't matter how you interpret it, that's a fact.

And he loves her. Maybe even enough where he can "love her more than anything she could do wrong", which I'm paraphrasing from Andor.

(It's such a great line. Up there with my favorite from Doctor Who: "Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?")

Star Wars is all about that, right? About how it's never too late to make amends; that love can turn back the darkness and drive out hate. It's one of the reasons why we love this franchise so much.

It shows that we can always forgive and love each other and fight for each other, no matter how far off the path we have wandered.

They'll find their way back to each other. Not because of the Force; because it's those two.

[jessequinnfirstofhername]

controversial opinion (I don't think it is tho) : I think people who hate on Shin are kind of unreasonable to be honest? It seems the core hatred for the character was born when the wolfwren ship got celebrated by the stars of the Ahsoka series, by conflicting ships. The idea she is a "bloodthirsty, violent, psychopath" is... not really founded when you look at every minute she is on screen. She is on the opposite side of a war, so yes she kills people who see as "good", but there are no moments in the series where the villainy she is accused of truly comes out.

The truth is that aside from cool fights here and there, Shin doesn't talk that much and doesn't make that many decisions that are not someone else's (her Master's.) So the very few words she does say and the very few decisions she does make on her own matter all that much more. The fact Filoni made sure that the stab wound made to Sabine is visibly at an angle certainly explained her survival, but it seems people who hate Shin reject the nation of asking themselves "why stab someone non fataly?" Because yeah... why do that? Another few moments is her pursuing her fight with Sabine in her rage, stopped by Baylan. And last big action she commits on her own is questioning her master about the promise he made to Sabine. Breaking the promise achieves their goal, there is little since to questioning it if ahe is as evil and bad as she is framed to be. She doesn't have a clean slate, but people can love Anakin for commotting the jedi equivalent of a school shooting and they can love Maul for killing plenty of beloved characters. Shin's crimes pale in comparison for the level of hate she gets.

My opinion is that she is villainized this hard because certain people think that if Shin is bad and evil and crazy, she won't be shipped with Sabine Wren. And when you hate a character for what people think of the character inside their heads... you kind of lost the plot?

I just think so many people are missing so much of the mysteries and intrigues around Shin specifically. Baylan knew the jedi order, he knows the millenias of history between the sith and the jedi, but Shin? She wields a red lightsaber and has a jedi padawan braid. When she talked about a jedi, she said "just like me." She has no conception of this hard solid line between light and dark, she sees opposing goals, she doesn't hate the jedi, Baylan certainly seems to have no hate for them and he is her master. Clearly he never taught her something that goes against what he fundamentally believes. So we are left with a New Empire hired padawan of a former jedi, who cannot draw the line between the light and the dark fully, who relates to a jedi and value to some degree promises made to them, who now has to confront the other side in a serious way to know where she stands in the full big picture of the fate of the galaxy. COME ONE THIS IS SO COOL.

Why so much hate? All for a ship? Shin to me was the highlight of the Ahsoka series. Many speculate she will be a jedi and I think they may be right, I think Baylan and Ahsoka are different shades of grey, and their padawan are destined to choose to be jedi like those who trained their masters. Or maybe their own separate shade. People summarizing Shin as a villain to vanquish really seem just focused on keeping Sabine away from her, but whether they remain nemesis or become allies, it is a bit ridiculous not to think they are doomed to have plenty more of story between them.

I like Shin! I also like Wolfwren, I think it's a cute ship.

However, I'm not really involved in the fandoms (or the anti-fandoms) for either, so I don't know too much about The Discourse. I can't really speak much on this issue.

The only thing I feel confident speaking on is this: the fact that Shin is scrutinized for actions that are far, far less severe than what- for example- Anakin Skywalker has done probably has less to do with Wolfwren discourse and more to do with plain old sexism.

If Anakin Skywalker was a female character, we'd live in a world where the character would not be being brought back for nostalgia, and her actress's career would've be destroyed.

A female Hayden Christensen never would've gone on to do movies like Jumper, and there would be no female equivalent of The Haydenaissance.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.

That was a really interesting ask, Anon. I'd love to know what people more involved with the Shin/Wolfwren fandom think!

[jonathanrogersartist]

Anyone else irritated by how both the lovers and haters of The Last Jedi seem to totally miss the point of the ending of Luke's storyline in that film? Haters ignore that Luke redeems himself for his mistakes and goes out with an epic final act that reaffirms the value of mythic stories and why we need heroes, and thus is an explicitly pro-Jedi moral. So Luke's whole story is about him rejecting the cynicism of old age and failure, and snaps out of that insufferable attitude that tries to paint all sides as equally bastardly. It's a story about WHY the fundamental ethos of Star Wars, the dichotomy of genuine good vs absolute evil represented by the Jedi as avatars of ultimate love, and the Sith/Snoke/Whatever as avatars of ultimate hate, is eternally relevant and something we need for spiritual nourishment during dark times. And.... the lovers ignore this too. They tend to latch onto Luke's bitter words from earlier in the movie about how the Jedi were a corrupt and hypocritical institution that needs to end. These kinds of people are passionately anti-Jedi, and LOOOOOOOOOOVE that for a few minutes, a canon SW movie was saying that they all suck. They also unironically take Kylo Ren's 'let the past die' mantra at face value and think that THIS is the moral of that movie. They look at the messages of past Star Wars with a kind of preening disgust, seeing it as childish and one-note at best, damaging and corrupting for society at large, at worst. It is what I'm going to call 'Knight Templar Syndrome.' I speculate that they think old things are automatically dumb or ignorant or worthless, and can only see it through the lens of 'how can I make this so irredeemably problematic in my brain, so that my rejection of it is therefore morally right, and makes me feel like a great person?' So of course, the Jedi as a representation of the wisdom and value of certain 'traditions' were doomed to be targeted by such transparently performative people. And for the first two hours of TLJ, these fans were having the time of their fuckin life. I am also pretty sure I've seen some posts where they take Yoda's words at the burning tree extremely literally, and think that entire scene is also about the need to destroy the past (the literal burning imagery does kinda give this impression at face-value, to be fair), and that Yoda's advice to Luke is "Move forward and never look back," when he is ACTUALLY saying "Move forward with all that you have learned, the good and bad, and make sure the good parts live on." It's little wonder then, that TLJ diehards are completely convinced that Rise of Skywalker ignored/insulted/changed everything about their darling. If they thought Last Jedi was about the need for an ideological scorched-earth, only to then watch Rise be about the reconciliation of the past with the future, then yup, their vicious reaction to it, rife with conspiracy theories, demonization of JJ and Terrio, etc. makes sense.

[thevibraniumveterans]

STAR WARS — The Acolyte

EP 4 - Day

MAIN THOUGHTS:

Very curious title, I wonder what that means in the context of this episode… would that mean that the next episode’s title would be “Night”? I mean, I’m speculating. I wouldn’t know, but would also not be surprised if that turns out to be the case.

Seeing Mae spooked was unexpected.

I love that this episode had its moments of brevity.

This episode also had some pretty deep insights into how the Jedi (as people) thought, but also how the Jedi (as a whole) operated.

Spoilers in my notes below.

- Dawn on the mountainsides of Khofar, a planet last seen in Ep2. Clouds hang low, and Kelnacca heads home. He is wearing his robes. On the walls of his abode are symbols of pseudo-yin/yang imagery. Kelnacca takes what looks like his food off the stove, and the camera zooms in on a dotted outline of two yin/yang circles, one big and one small.

- One classic Powerpoint transition later, we open on Coruscant during the day. Jecki and several other padawans are practicing their forms using training sticks while their teacher provides pointed advice. Osha stands in the doorway, silent. Jecki greets Osha, who says she’s leaving. Jecki is surprised. Long story short, Osha thanks Jecki for aiding Osha in finding and apprehending her sister Mae, whom she long thought dead but was and is still alive. Jecki says she was just doing her duty. Osha doesn’t want to find Mae (as she’s already done that), so passes the responsibility on to the Jedi, as in Osha’s own words, “I’m not a Jedi.” She can’t deal with having to apprehend her own sister, as Mae may view it as further betrayal. Osha wants to leave and not cause further “trouble” for Master Sol.

- On Khofar. Mae and Qimir unpack, but Mae stands up to walk away, something Qimir warns against. He tells her that Osha being alive “doesn’t change anything”; Mae being Mae, she pointedly ignores the comment, bemoans the lack of sunlight left (“three hours”, she says), and says to get going before it gets too late to kill Kelnacca.

- TITLE CARD!!

- In the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, the Masters gather around a holoprojector, analyzing a recording of Mae’s attack movements. All, except Sol, do not know who she is. Sol notes that not even Mae knows who trained her, just that she has training, and must be stopped. Vernestra reminds the gathered Masters of how dangerous Mae is, pointing out how she targeted Kelnacca, Torbin, Indara, and Sol. “The four Jedi stationed on her home planet when she was a child,” says Vernestra. “How odd.” Does she notice the irony? Of going somewhere they should never have stepped foot, and removed a child from her sister and community? Vernestra thinks that a rogue Jedi has trained Mae, saying “even a hologram can tell” her that. Other Masters raise concerns, but she knows that raising this concern to the Council would lead to the Council informing the Senate, and that’s something nobody wants. Supposedly this is the first seeds of what will be, in decades to come, an entanglement of the Jedi with politics; hence why Vernestra wants to keep this off the books, so to say. She wants Kelnacca taken back to Coruscant and Mae intercepted. Hopefully before Kelnacca is accosted. Vernestra and Sol speak in the corridor; he insists to be the one to bring Mae in, but Vernestra knows that’s not gonna happen without a price.

- On Khofar. Qimir and Mae trek along a path. They speak; Mae brings up her sister Osha and Master Sol in the same breath, and Mae stares at him.

- Back at the Temple, Sol meets up with Osha as he requests her to join him on his mission to intercept Mae. Osha declines this offer, but Sol insists otherwise. He tells her how he knew Mae still had something of a soft spot for Osha. “There is still good in her,” Sol tells Osha. “The part of her that loves you.” (This was also evident last half-scene when Mae had asked Qimir about Osha.) Osha knows she still loves her sister, but states the cold truth that Mae is a murderer. (Which in some sense is true.) Sol is optimistic and says, “But she is still your family.” Osha finally agrees, oddly stating “I am not wearing that civilian robe.”

- …Which is EXACTLY the thing she ends up wearing the immediate scene later. (This trope is hilarious.) Yord briefs the room aboard the transport ship, and refers to Osha as a “civilian”; she snarks back and says it’s “very comprehensive”. Jecki wants to laugh, but doesn’t. On Khofar, Jecki asks for directions, and is told not much of Kelnacca’s solitude. The group of Jedi, including Sol, Jecki, Yord, including Osha, come to a precipice overlooking the dense forest. Sol says he knows Kelnacca is within said forest. Regardless, they begin to trek in the direction of the forest. Osha tells Yord of her concern that she might not be of much help, but Yord says, “Mae has always been your wound. Maybe Sol brought you here to face her, but maybe he brought you here to face yourself.” (Which on a meta level is hilarious because Amanda Stenberg does play Osha AND Mae.)

- Elsewhere on Khofar, Mae and Qimir run into the dense forest, reaching a seemingly dead end that isn’t a dead end. Without Mae and Qimir knowing, the Jedi group also trek deeper into the woods. Osha finds the group surrounded by flying, multi-segmented, arthropod creatures (I don’t know what they’re called — the subtitles say this is an umbramoth); Sol deals with creature and warns the group to keep moving.

- Still on Khofar, it’s sunset. Qimir and Mae keep running; he seems overexcited. Mae says killing Kelnacca is “not a test” but the “final lesson” that she has to “teach herself.” But if she has four Jedi to kill, two of which she has disposed of, that means that she has two more to kill, with one literally finding his way to her. Mae is befuddled by the impossibility and ironic juxtaposition of killing an Jedi, unarmed, and the Jedi not being able to kill her unarmed.

- The group of Jedi continue to trek forward, when they hear Mae screaming for help. Qimir, somewhere nearby, hears it too. Might this be part of Mae’s plan? To appear in need of help and vulnerable and when people least expect it, to aim and swing? Turns out that was half right; she’s lured a trap, and inadvertently trapped Qimir. However; what she tells him next, I did not expect in the slightest (although it makes half sense): “After running through that forest for an extremely long time, I realized something. I don’t need to do this anymore. I don’t need to kill a Jedi without a weapon. I don’t need to keep this deal. You were wrong. Osha being alive changes everything. My loyalty is to Osha. Not your Master.” Mae states that she will surrender to Kelnacca and turn herself in. Qimir warns her against this, saying the Jedi would imprison her, but Mae has a plan for that. (Is this part of her plan? To appear harmless? Does she really want to up and surrender, and not fight for her Master? If this is true, then the Acolyte is in fact NOT Mae but her Master, who serves somebody else. If this is the case then Mae is a red herring, a plot device to lead us astray into thinking she’s the acolyte when in fact she is not who we think she is.)

- Somewhere nearby, the group of Jedi remain on the search. Osha tells Sol she’s ready to face Mae, but similar to what Yord told her earlier, Sol tells Osha, “You’re not going to face her, you’re going to face your past. Both of us will.” (Meaning, Osha will face the sister she thought she lost but knows now is alive, and Sol will face again the young woman he couldn’t save but hopes to save now.)

- Mae keeps running, and eventually finds Kelnacca’s abode. She falls, only to look up and see a tracker, who tells the group of Jedi, who are now hot on her heels. Here’s the thing. They don’t know Mae’s plan to surrender herself. Whether she is actually going to surrender herself, we don’t know now, but will know soon. She runs into his abode, only to discover he has been murdered, a smoldering slash across his chest. Mae starts panicking, knowing that her Master is planetside and that she has failed. The Jedi come to a stop outside Kelnacca’s home, and call Mae by name, knowing she is inside. She however, is afraid, not knowing where her Master is but knowing he could be very close by. Sol turns around, and a dark figure floats menacingly behind Osha, who has a “he’s right behind me isn’t he” moment. The other Jedi turn around, and so does Osha. The helmeted, black-clad figure comes face to face with Osha, who is frozen in fear, and ignites his blood-red saber. The Jedi ignite their lightsabers too, and shout for Osha to run. The figure uses the Force to shove Osha aside, and to blast the approaching Jedi back in a cloud of dust.