#there wasn't much asajj yet so idk

[jewishcissiekj]

yeah I'm not recommending this book.

[jewishcissiekj]

One of the things that upset me most about Dark Disciple & the Quinlan/Asajj romance is just how much it's the writers smashing their action figures together. In general, the entirety of Asajj's TCW storylines also severely lack thought other than somebody playing a game with their dolls.

Let me explain. Asajj has a lot of potential. Her character and themes from the get-go (concept art for AOTC Sith) are full of intrigue and mystery. You want to know this character and whatever is behind her, why is she doing all this, and how she got there. And TCW answers that question pretty well. She was a Nightsister baby who was given to a slaver and later trained by a Jedi Master who died, she encountered Dooku and trained under him, only to get betrayed by him and return to her Nightsister roots, causing the murder of almost all Nightsisters and her transition to a Bounty Hunter and …redemption? leading to her eventual death at the hands of Count Dooku.

The thing is, this story feels so all over the place for me. There are themes, sure, but other than a clear motivation, something is missing. There's no point to her character. When she's introduced in The Clone Wars movie, she's just a flirty villain for Obi-Wan to quip and play off of. In the end, when she dies, she furthers a male character's character development we never even see afterward. TCW has plenty of pointless characters, don't get me wrong. But her story starts nowhere and goes nowhere, only affecting her and having no real story importance or relevance outside of that. It also means nothing. There are no repercussions to Dooku taking on an apprentice, no, uh, how do I put this. Her story is full of themes but no meaning. No underlying plotline or development that feels natural and beneficial to her character. That wouldn't be a problem if she was just a throwaway villain, coming in once in a while to flirt with Obi-Wan or fight with Ahsoka. But because of the natural interest in her, the intrigue and mystery, they gave her a story. Not even a motivation, a story that came out of nowhere and in watching back might feel like just an elaborate build-up to Maul's return. Instead of looking at the character and, idk, thinking about how you can develop her current character and the yet-unexplored background with Obi-Wan and her relationship to the Dark Side, they threw her into that whole Nightsister bullshit. And then that wasn't enough and they made her a bounty hunter because they wanted a Boba Fett & friends episode. For the love of god, if she knew about the Nightsisters, why wouldn't she go to them earlier? You didn't tell us how she found out and who told her, so why THE FUCK would she go to Dooku after her mentor's death and not to her people? What of all things made her go to Dathomir in Nightsisters? Why would an ex-dark sider with (probably) knowledge of Dooku's most secret plans who just lost the people she just found go and be a Bounty Hunter? And what about that redeems her? What the fuck was she doing on Coruscant? If she hated Dooku so much and knew she couldn't kill him alone, why would a single Jedi help her do it? What is her motive and why was she so loyal to Dooku if she's just going to throw the Dark Side and her hate for the Jedi out of the window like that? Does she have principles? Character motivations? Is there a point to any of that?

Legeneds version aside, what does she mean? Is she the last survivor? Is she a failed apprentice? Does she just want to be loved but gets consumed by the Dark Side? She's all of these things but none of them consistently. If character development happened, I'd have no problem with her character changing. But it DOESN'T. Things just happen to her and we barely see any reaction to it from her. To me, she's kind of like Thrawn if we never got the (canon) books, empty and lacking any character motivation.

In Dark Disciple, instead of expanding on the actual character, they just kept on putting her in situations. Because we don't really see her POV anywhere in the book, and she's not written to express emotion openly, she feels like she was molded to fit the story instead of the story being character-focused and following her and Quinlan's development through a situation. The only time her character feels well-written in the canon era to me (not just in a fun comic story) is in Dooku: Jedi Lost, which actually shows us her perspective for once, and even if she still lacks motivation, it feels like a story of her character and not of her action figure. She has a character and a personality throughout all of Canon, don't get me wrong. I can't accidentally write her like Ahsoka. But a character and what the writers do to put it in a story are two different things.

And I know I said I wouldn't get into the Legends part of it all, but even in a few shorts and a handful of comics, there seems to be a much more consistent line of thought and an arc to her character than there is in the canon version. The best way I can describe it, tbh, is that something just clicks with the way her story and role are in Legends, while in canon it feels like 10 different people trying to put together 15 different jigsaw puzzles. Maybe it's the fewer writers, maybe it's the different approach to story-telling in general, it's just very different to me. Right now (since a May comic issue and excluding the mention in Ahsoka), there isn't any new Asajj content, so it's not really a problem. But if they ever do something new with her I need them to get their fucking shit together and make it make sense.

[jewishcissiekj]

A few months ago I woke up (I wasn't sleeping) in cold sweat at night from a story idea and grabbed a paper I found and wrote on it the OC name that came to me in a vision but only now I started thinking about her more and finally fucking designed her so here's my Jedi Master OC and her three Padawans (and everything I have to say about them) if you want to see them

(mouth on the first one came out weird, ignore that) Bliz Karse she/her (Karse pronounced Kuh-rs, not sure about Bliz yet) -Ky Narec's best friend! her main story point lmao. They were partners most of their life, from the crèche to knighthood up until Ky ended up on Rattatak. -Theelin -Qui-Gon's and Ky's age - born circa 80 BBY -Lives up to TCW, probably dies in Order 66 (haven't gotten there yet) -Ky and her are really close friends and like half the temple's padawans gossip about them dating. They aren't together. -Her master is Burryaga from The High Republic! Was thinking about a Master for her and he just fit idk -She's short -Ky and her go around the galaxy as Jedi explorers. They're both aspiring Wayseekers, striving to be independent from the council and help wherever they can (this gets serious for Bliz after Ky crashed on Rattatak) -She takes her padawans everywhere so a lot of times people think they're Ky and hers' children -um idk I think she's aroace?

Padawan I - Sevo Zash They/them -Mirialan (purple!) -I drew them as a Padawan but they're like, older than Obi-Wan. -Bliz took them on not long after her knighting -They love Ky -I need to develop them more (gave them a name like an hour ago and came up with the design this afternoon, I don't know them yet) -Survives Order 66 but is killed by an inquisitor not long after

Padawan II - Nyyra Xor She/her -Falleen (green, naturally) -NOT AURRA but love me some almost bald characters with a pnytail at the top of their head and no eyebrows -I should make a timeline for Bliz but she's like, in her late 20s/early 30s by the Clone Wars -She thinks Ky is annoying but was still Bliz's Padawan when he crushed on Rattatak (that adds up, right?) so she came to miss him after a while -a big fan of annoying the fuck out of Bliz. She also doesn't like traveling as much as the others so she ended up with the worst possible master in that regard -Sevo sees her as their little sister, I feel like all 3 Padawans are kinda siblings in that way -Oldest sibling energy, doomed to be a middle child -Wants to be on the council. Dies in Order 66.

Padawan III - Arck Kyvett she/him -Tholothian (no idea how to draw their head-tendrils but I think I did a decent job) -DIES (killed by Asajj) - her main story point is dying. That's where I started, with Asajj being sent to kill Ky's childhood friend's padawan by Dooku and then Bliz came to me -Bliz took him on 2-3 years before the Clone Wars, and he died very quickly (Asajj's first Jedi kill, maybe even before the Clone Wars started) -I wanted to give all of them some sort of Padawan braid, so Arck gets beads on one of his tendrils, I think that can work -Youngest sibling energy, if she didn't die she'd also become the favorite child (Nyyra and Sevo love her dw) -The Ky in her name is the first thing Asajj hears when Bliz refers to her. Wanted to call her Ky originally but felt this would do instead

Woooo building OC lore is fun I should do it more Talked a lot about Ky but never drew him once in my life. Let's ignore that.