#i just know rei can carry all of her kids at once also lets ignore the wrong age gap idgaf

[beybuniki]

family

#i wanted to compile all of my family sketches but there are too many lets start with this smaller batch first i dont want to scare the hoes #i just know rei can carry all of her kids at once also lets ignore the wrong age gap idgaf #i struggled a lot with the middle one's color palette for some reason help #bnha #todoroki toya #todoroki shoto #todoroki rei #dabi

[linkspooky]

The Todorokis and the Shimuras...

The Shimura family is the set up for how we are supposed to judge the Todorokis. They were the original broken house that fell apart. Everything in Shigaraki’s flashback, informs Dabi’s flashback later. We see the same abusive dynamics repeating again and again, and yet nobody learning from them. @logicalbookthief wrote almost a week ago and it turned out to be near clairyvoyant to this weak’s chapter. 

Interesting that Dabi, Shigaraki and Toga all internalized the idea they’re “bad” or “not good (enough)” as children. Interesting how rather than discouraging this idea, the adults around them reinforce that they don’t deserve the care a “good” or “perfect” child would be entitled to, by seeing their pain and doing nothing to help.

Shigaraki and Dabi are established as foils precisely because, they ar both children who, literally no matter what in their household, kept trying to be good heroes. However, every adult around them treated them like they were the problem, that they were at fault for what went wrong in the household, no matter how hard they struggled to be good they were labeled as “bad children.” They’re the scapegoats of their household, and as they grow into adults they become the scapegoats of society. “Do you really want to be a hero?” is asked to both Shigaraki and Dabi, they can’t be seen as good

Because it’s easier to divide between good children and bad children, good victims and bad victims, then for the adults to actually try to fix their mistakes. That would mean admitting that they might be the problem too. In order to enforce this, they even lift up other children as “good children” creating golden childs, and because they didn’t react as strongly to the abuse then it puts Tenko and Toya as the ones to blame for not trying to be good enough. It’s Toya’s fault he became a villain, unlike Shoto who tried to be the hero of his family despite all of his abuse. Toya must have never really wanted to be a hero in the first place.

1. Tenko and Toya were good boys

If Tenko and Toya were not forced to carry the blame for how their household went wrong. If one actually looked at them as children, it’s easy to notice what good children they were, actually.

When Kotaro punishes Tenko for playing hero again he assumes he was just not listening to his rule, and trying to cause trouble. However, when Nao asks him why he was doing it, we learn his motivation, Tenko didn’t want two bullied kids to be left out.

Tenko is five, so he doesn’t really have like a developed personality yet, but a lot of the positive qualities Shigaraki displays as an adult are all their. 

Tenko always follows his own dream, no matter how much the adults around him try to discourage him. His desire to be a hero is that strong. He has the same quality that Deku is constantly praised for. 

Tenko is also, extremely emotionally intelligent. He realizes that his father is the one in the wrong for always picking on him, and that his parents are siding with his father and not him by reassuring him of his father’s good intentions. Your father has a reason for always forbidding you to be a hero. Your father means well. Everyone puts, Kotaro’s good intentions, and Kotaro’s well being over Tenko’s. It’s Tenko’s fault for provoking him, it’s Tenkos’s fault for not giving up on his dream of being a hero. 

It’s interesting how Tenko and Toya almost come from seemingly opposite households. Tenko comes from a friendly household where he has an extremely close relationship with his sister, where his grandparents are almost always comforting him and doing fun things with him, and yet he still feels smothered by it all because nobody wants to tell Kotaro off, so his emotional needs are neglected. Tenko spends a lot of his time with his family, Toya spends time mostly isolated from his mother and father and yet, they both feel rejected fundamentally from the household dynamic.

It’s because no matter what at the end of the day they are the scapgoat for their household, it doesn’t matter what Tenko and Toya’s actual emotions and intentions are, because they’re perceived as thebad ones. We as the audience see Tenko’s sensitivity, his care for others, his desire to be a hero, but his family labels him as a troublemaker for... having the same dream every other five year old kid his age as. Tenko and Toya aren’t really allowed to make mistakes, or be wrong about things like normal kisd would because they’re not really normal kids, they’re “the problem child” or the “problem” of the household.

It’s not just that Tenko was abused, it was that he was abused in front of everybody, and not a single person tried to help.

He could have stopped if anybody in his family did anything but watch, but in that moment they didn’t. Of course it’s hard to stand up to an abuser, that’s only human, but not only did they leave Tenko to cry alone afterwards, they also created the atmosphere where Kotaro was constantly apologized for, and Tenko was constnatly blamed, which eventually led up to this.

Tenko is not a bad child, Tenko is five. The story repeats for Toya, I don’t think the adults around him realized what an amazing child Toya was. 

He’s just as hard working as any other kid at UA. Isn’t that the motto? Plus Ultra? Always put the effort in and be willing to break yourself to be the best. That’s what Bakugo is taught, that’s what Shoto is taught later on. They always have to be willing to push themselves to their limits and surpass it.

Yet, for doing what any other kid did, Toya is punished. It’s not his father’s fault, it’s Toya’s, because Toya just can’t give up. Literally nevermind his fact that Enji taught him to think this way, that literally every other kid his age is taught to push themselves to be a hero, no it’s just something wrong with Toya. Toya’s the one who won’t give up, and there’s nothing Enji can do to make him give up.

Let’s ignore the fact that Enji is also. you know, a liar. Having more kids to replace Toya isn’t for Toya’s sake, it’s for the sake of Enji’s dream. Enji doesn’t do what’s best for Toya’s welll being like ever, he gives up on Toya because Toya won’t surpass all might so it’s pointless, he continues making kids until he gets one with the quirk he wants, because, that’s what his goal is. Enji’s goal was never to have a family or be a father, it was to get an heir with an ideal quirk.

Yet, Enji is given the benefit of the doubt that he’s doing this for Toya’s sake, and Toya isn’t. Toya is just the proble child causing disruption in the household. It’s Toya who won’t give up on the training. 

Except once again, by seeing Toya as the bad child they’re missing out on what a good child Toya is. Look how hard he tries, look how he doesn’t give up, even when everyone around him tells him his dream is impossible he keeps on struggling agaist impossible odds. Is it wrong for a disabled person to want to run a marathon? Is it wrong for a person in a wheelchair to want to play basketball? Yes, Toya’s quirk may have gotten in the way of him being a hero, but there were ways Enji could have accomodated his disability, supervised him, taught him how to become a hero without hurting himself.

Except, Enji was never ever interested in any of those things. Enji didn’t care about Toya’s dream. Enji didn’t even care about Toya besides the fact that Toya could be made to carry his own dream.

Toya’s extremely hardworking, dedicated, and also intelligent as well. When he was a kid he was capable of comprehending that it was wrong of him to attack Shoto. He realized that in the household he was being abused. A thirteen year old was even capable of understanding that Enji SHOULDN’T be able to get away with what he’s doing. 

Like everyone goes on and on about what Toya says about his sister and his mother this chapter, but no one mentioned the fact that  Toya was right. Toya had the correct political take. An abuser should not be allowed to keep his job as a hero like this if he’s going to treat his family this way. Just like a hollywood producer who abuses women shouldn’t be allowed to keep their job if they’re using it to take advantage of others.

Toya confronts his mother for the fact that she’s failing him as a parent as well. That’s not Toya being misogynist towards Rei, he’s telling her the truth and holding her accountable. Yes, Rei is also a victim, but Toya is thirteen he doesn’t understand that. All he understands is that he’s being neglected by both parents. I mean, look at how Rei sees Toya. Look at how the scene is framed visually. This is Rei’s flashback of Toya it seems like.

She paints him like an incrediblly disturbed child.  As if Toya is the disturbance in the household. As if he’s the bad one. As if he’s the one causing the problem. As if, if he just gave up his dream of being a hero then everything would be better.

Ignoring the fact that, Toya would still be an abused child even if he didn’t react the way he did. If Toya was quiet. If Toya shut up. He’d still have grown up with zero parenting at all. Enji still would have gone on to abuse Shoto. Look at Toya’s reaction in his eyes. Look at the way his pupils shake. He’s being told that if he just gave up his dream of being a hero, the household will be happier, but he knows that’s not true. Toya knows the problem in the household is Enji. If Toya gave up  his dream of being a hero, he’d still be a deeply unhappy individual, he’d just be suffering more quietly. The household would still be an abusive one. Toya in the end, still won’t be parented properly, because, Rei and Enji don’t see Toya as a kid.

Literally all Enji had to do was lift up a finger. All he had to do was walk up to the mountain and talk to him, and he couldn’t even be bothered to do that. Toya was trying so hard to be good, to meet his parents standards, and yet he never would because his parents standards were impossible to meet in the first place. 

“Well, gosh I didn’t know what to say to him it would have been hard.” Yeah, I bet it was hard when he LITERALLY BURNED ALIVE. 

It’s not just the one incident of this though. Enji and Rei both frame it as an oopsie daisy. If only he had been stopped on that one day. And not like, the five continuous years of ignoring him that built up before that point. The fact that he was never really taught how to handle his emotions in a healthy way, because neither of his parents treated him as a child.

However, the narrative of the scapeogat and the good child still remains. Despite the fact that Toya and Tenko were children trying so hard to be good, and all they needed was someone to tell them that. 

When all they wanted was for people to see the good in their own actions, to see how much they were trying, struggling, to be good, because they are the scapegoat they will always be the villain of the family. 

I think it’s amazing that Toya is trying to be good even now. Toya, unlike Enji who only ever cared about the number one spot, is interested in creating a world where heroes are actually taken to task and treated as heroes. Shigaraki cares about people who were similiarly rejected to him, and offers them a helping hand. 

Shigaraki and Dabi are capable of so much good. They still care about the world. They’re still trying to create a world better to others than it was to them. Shigaraki’s goal even shifts from empty destruction, to just, I want to give a world to my allies where they can be free.

Instead of seeing them as victims, they divide victims into good and bad. Shoto is the hero of the family because look how good he turned out even though he went through the same thing Dabi did. 

Is Rei wrong for focusing first on stopping Dabi rom hurting innocent people rather than focusing on getting him the help he needs.

Well, you think Rei would know. That people who come from abusive households. People who are constantly abused. Can lash out and abuse completely innocent people. I’t almost like that’s exactly what she did to Shoto, blaming him and burning him instead for what Enji did.  And it’s almost like Rei didn’t start to improve until she received outside medical help. 

Heroes pretend to protect society, while turning a blind eye to those who they can’t save, who are most in need of their help. They blame bad victims, and uplift good victims to use an example against the bad victims, well why couldn’t Toya have turned out a good child like Shoto.

Man.

It’s almost like. Shoto didn’t burn to death. Because Enji couldn’t be bothered to walk up to a mountain. It’s like letting a child starve to death and then saying “Well, why didn’t this child learn how to cook?” 

They divide the good and the bad and throw the bad out. Well, isn’t it a tragedy that Toya became Dabi. Isn’t it just a tragedy that that child couldn’t be saved. It’s not the five years of neglect, it’s the one day on the mountain that was the turning point for that.

It looks like on the surface that Toya’s family is admitting what went wrong, but they’re really kind of not. Toya doesn’t need to be fought as a villain. Toya doesn’t ned to be stopped. Labeling bad victims as villains and putting them down with violence literally never helps, because that’s thementality that created them in the first place. It was Toya’s behavior that needed to be stopped, he was the thing in the Todoroki household, that made everything else go wrong. If only Toya had not died, then Enji wouldn’t have abused Shoto so hard EXCEPT WE ALREADY KNOW THAT WAS ENJI’S INTENTIONS ALL ALONG FROM THE START. If Toya had lived Enji would have kept on doing whatever he wanted with Shoto, because no one in that house was going to hold him accountable. 

Even now, Enji gets the unconditional support that Toya deserved as a child, that he needs now, just because he happens to be a hero. Certain people are labeled as heroes, certain people are labeled as villain. Good victims are saved and given the support they need, bad victims are violently put down. 

Even Natsuo says this, that he should have just told Toya to stop complaining about the family. 

But aren’t the things the villains saying you know right? That Enji should not be allowed to keep his job. That Enji abused his whole family. Wht would have been different if Natsuo and Toya had their talks? Toya would still be a severely abused child who carried that abuse into adulthood, but he wouldn’t be making a fuss about it? He wouldn’t be loud about it?

It’s suppression over recognizing the victim’s pain. It’s blaming the victims without looking at the cause. The Todoroki family set up Shoto as the hero responsible for saving the whole family because he is the good victim, and as a indirectly, they imply that Toya is the villain in need of stopping.

Once again I return to both the Todorokis and the Tenkos. By refusing to see the good in their children, to see that Tenko and Toya were just children who wanted and tred their best to be heroes and were unfairly punished for it, they ultimately suffocate both children. By labeling them as deviants who need to be stopped rather than victims who they abused, they just, keep suffocating them.

Which is why no matter how much Toya or Tenko may love their families, no matter how much they may sympathize and love their mothers, they still feel denied, suffocated by the whole family. Because their whole family fails to see their good intentions, fails to see who they are as children. They can’t see how much they genuinely wanted to be a hero, and they can’t see how much they were suffering as well, because they’re not good children they’ve alraedy been labeled as bad ones. 

That’s why they ask over and voer again, do you still want to be a hero?

When all they needed to be told was it was possible for them to be a hero. When that was all they needed to hear, they were rejected instead. That’s why they can’t go back either, because they know after all this time their family still doesn’t understand. They’ll be rejected all over again. 

And the scapegoat will remain a scapegoat forever. 

#mha meta #shigaraki tomura #shimura tenko #todoroki toya #dabi #todoroki family #shimura family #todoroki #shimura #bnha 302 #bnha spoilers #bnha 302 spoilers

[szivtalan]

love is in the words unspoken

all these moments are golden,

forever is mine with you

the blossoming of the cherry trees always puts hawks in a strange mood. he thinks they’re romantic, magical - reminds him of a time when he was more naive, more dreamy, didn’t know much about the world. it’s nostalgic, to see the carpet of sakura petals on the streets, reminding him of what is and what could’ve been.

‘hawks!’

it’s ironic that he runs into endeavor’s child just as the flowers begin to fall.

‘hey, it’s todoroki.’ he grins, glancing at the two heroes behind the one already rushing up to him: deku and dynamight. ah yes, the three musketeers, as they call themselves. it’s nice to see the top three teaming up that way. ‘where’s the honorific though, kiddo? i’m still much older than you.’

‘not that much.’ shoto replies, and it feels like a shot to the heart. that’s right... they’re both in their twenties now. ‘and i figured i’d drop the honorifics now that i’m above you on the hero ranking list.’

the tilt of his head would be adorable if he weren’t such an asshole. tokoyami was right when he said that his youngest was different than endeavor - hawks only wished to see such a playful side of him.

‘the disrespect.’ hawks laughs, slapping shoto on the shoulder. he hits harder than what would be necessary, but the boy doesn’t even bat an eye. sturdy. and tall. holy shit, is he taller than hawks now? ‘anyway, i really don’t mind. are you guys patrolling around here?’

‘GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE HALF-AND-HALF, BEFORE I GO THERE AND BEAT IT!’ one youngster yells at them.

‘kacchan, don’t be so rude! he’s talking to hawks-san!’

‘friendly bunch.’ hawks snorts, and shoto just shakes his head with a smile.

‘they’re the best. i’m just trying to catch up.’ he admits, sounding sincere.

‘DON’T IGNORE ME, FUCKFACE!’

‘what are you doing around here anyway?’ shoto asks. ‘isn’t your office in a different city?’

‘yeah, i just came here to stretch my wings, take a walk.’ hawks says, ruffling his feathers a little for emphasis.

‘are you walking on your wings?’

‘n-no...?’

‘then how-’

‘WRAP IT UP NOW!’ at dynamight’s next shout, shoto visibly flinches. he seems more irritated than scared, at least to hawks.

‘i just wanted to thank you for helping my dad all those years ago.’ shoto says then, bowing his head a little. hawks takes it back, he doesn’t have an ounce of disrespect in his body. he’s just a little warped in the social area, and hawks has a fairly good guess where he gets that from. ‘i’ll be going now.’

‘wait, ah- how, how’s the old man?’ hawks tries to aim for anything but desperate. ‘i haven’t heard from him since the retirement.’

shoto looks at him thoughtfully, and those dual-colored eyes make hawks immeasurably nervous. he feels like he’s staring into his soul, opening up the secrets he’s got locked inside.

‘he’s well. i go home on weekends.’ shoto says, pulling up a notebook and a pen. ‘here’s the address. i think he’d appreciate the visit.’

the road to the todoroki estate was the most tiring one hawks had taken in a while. it’s not like it was far from where they met with shoto, but he spent the entire time worrying if he’s dressed well for the occasion, if he should just walk instead of flying to not get gross and sweaty - if endeavor will even let him in, or he’ll just pass by and get told off.

the house is huge, traditional, designed in classic enji taste. hawks could see the roof from a street away, almost walks into a lamppost while staring, his heart picking up the speed both from the scare and the nerves. his feet feel heavier with every step, walking down the street, finally getting to the gate-

and seeing todoroki enji, former number one hero, the feared endeavor sweep the walkway to his door, the scene way too casual to not send an already spring-up hawks into hysterics.

‘what the hell is that?’ hawks spits, laughter erupting from deep in his belly. the look on endeavor’s face just makes him shriek louder, his abs clenching with it. ‘is that- a fucking broom for ants, endeavor, you look so funny-’

‘can’t a man just do his chores in peace?!’ endeavor’s yelling now; sparks fly on his heated skin, and then they burst into flames.

‘now that’s the endeavor-san i know and love.’ he laughs, holding onto his own stomach, wiping his tears. endeavor’s face appears red under all that fire, he walks up to the gate to let him in.

‘what are you doing here, anyway?’ he mumbles, extinguishing himself as hawks walked in. he holds his broom under his armpit rather awkwardly, with the gracelessness of a man not quite used to doing the cleaning. hawks looks at him, observes: the slouch in his shoulders, the specks of grey in his stubble, the blush high on his cheek, the early wrinkles. he smiles to himself, reasons unknown, buried deep in a secluded part of his heart.

‘ran into your kid downtown, he said i should drop by and say hello.’ hawks lifts the nylon bags he’s been carrying, offers a lopsided grin. ‘i brought takeout.’

‘hmpft.’ endeavor is elaborate, as always. a man of few words and plenty actions, something hawks has always admired in him. ‘you can stay. only for the food.’

‘so you’re still very much hopeless in the kitchen, eh?’

‘don’t make me change my mind, brat!’

the house is huge on the inside, at least five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big kitchen and dining room, and one living room all fit into one floor. all of it echoes from their steps, empty and lonely.

‘your boy said that he’s visiting you on weekend.’ hawks pries, shrugging his coat off as he hands over the bag. his fingers brush against endeavor’s fight-hardened, calloused ones and his heart feels like it could jump out of his chest again.

‘whenever he has the time. shoto’s a busy man.’ endeavor nods, his voice dripping with pride. hawks doesn’t need him to say any more to know how fond he is of his son. it makes him smile, actually. ‘why?’

‘and the rest of your family?’ he asks, a little more cautious.

‘i see rei and natsuo on holidays, and fuyumi usually spends her school breaks here.’ enji sets down the bag at the low table, grabs a pair of chopsticks from the dish rack. there are plates piled high there: it seems like he can clean up after himself, but refuses to put things away. hawks figures it’s pretty comfortable, considers that for a second before he realizes how much he can see into endeavor’s private life.

they sit down at the same time, and their eyes meet. ‘i’m not lonely.’ enji immediately turns defensive. there’s probably pity or sadness in hawks’ eyes, he wasn’t paying attention to his expression for a second.

‘i wasn’t suggesting you were.’

‘being alone is something i deserve. so i take my punishment with pride and strength.’ enji squares his shoulder, sitting up impossibly straight at his uncomfortable seat. he takes the boxes out, scatters them across the table for them to reach. no plates, though. ‘itadakimasu.’

they eat mostly in silence, warm, comfortable, and hawks can’t take his eyes off him. endeavor looks so casual, so approachable like this. he looks soft, in the slightly frayed sweatpants, a little weary from use, and the soft cotton shirt hugging his bulging muscles, stretching across his enormous shoulders. his face is a little thin, the wrinkles obvious on its unharmed half. from this close, hawks can see the grey hairs on his temple, too.

‘i’m looking for a place to stay.’ hawks announces once they’re finished eating. the look of surprise and something else - hope? no, it can’t be... - flashing across endeavor’s face startles him, but he’s not about to back down, now. ‘what-... ugh, how much do you think you’d rent out a room for?’

‘what?’ endeavor appears shell-shocked. ‘wh- why?’

‘well, because my apartment building is remodeling, and i’m pretty sick of living in the busier side of the city anyway. figured i’d change it up, move into the suburbs-’

‘that’s not what i’m asking.’ he snaps. ‘why me? don’t you have friends who’d let you stay with them?’

‘not anyone i’d like to move in with.’ hawks shrugs, playing with a few leftover grains of rice. ‘you know, i can cook, and i’m also willing to dry off and put away your damn dishes.’

‘hawks...’

‘c’mon, we can have sleepovers! i can braid your hair and you can braid mine. it will be fun!’

‘i can’t let you do that, hawks.’

‘okay, yes, i admit, your mane’s a little short for a proper french braid, but i can make do-’

‘hawks.’ enji’s voice booms. ‘no.’

‘you’ve known me for almost a decade, old man.’ hawks is talking back, suddenly fired up. ‘why won’t you just let me take care of you?’

‘because i’m a perfectly capable person who doesn’t need anyone to take care of them.’ he huffs, steam seeping from his nose. ‘and because i can’t let you do that to yourself.’

‘what, enji?’ he’s loud. is he shouting? he can’t tell.

‘waste your time on a bitter old man who isn’t worthy of you.’

now they’re pulling up the big guns. hawks deflates, props his head up on his elbows.

‘retired, but still on your self-deprecating bullshit.’ he sighs. ‘will you take it to the grave?’

‘hawks, i’m serious-’

‘and i’ve been serious, too. my entire life, about my feelings for you. you kept shaking me off, saying it wasn’t appropriate for someone your age dating someone so young, saying you were married, but all this time, i kept getting refused because you hate yourself too much to allow yourself to be loved?’

hawks doesn’t know when he stood up, but he’s falling to his knees beside enji now.

‘what kind of an asshole does that...?’ he whispers, staring right into enji’s fearful eyes.

‘an asshole who cares about you.’ enji murmurs, letting hawks hit him in the chest.

‘this isn’t “caring” about someone! this is just lying to yourself and keeping yourself from being happy!’ his fingers tangle in the front of his shirt, pulling him closer.

‘keigo-’ enji hisses, losing his balance and gripping the edge of the table so he doesn’t fall against the other man.

‘tell me no.’ hawks proposes, his free hand coming up to cradle his jaw, so prickly and manly and strong, the shudder that ripples through him from the gentle touch, making him so weak and vulnerable. ‘no more running away, enji, no more games. tell me no right now, and i won’t ever bother you again.’

endeavor furrows his brows, the skin around his scar pulling grotesquely over his face with the struggle. he takes a deep breath, and hawks gets goosebumps as the hot air from the exhale hits his skin.

‘i can’t...’ enji whispers, and hawks can barely hear over the sound of his heart shattering. he starts to let go, but he forgets to breathe and move altogether as enji leans in instead, hand coming up to hold him close by the back of his head. ‘i can’t say no, not anymore...’

the first touch of lips against his have his insides flutter, almost working him into a panicked frenzy. he can only hope that enji can’t feel his heart beating in his throat as he kisses him, deep and desperate and oh so careful. hawks clings into him, lets him chase him for a change, holds on for the ride.

when they separate, hawks feels dizzy, drunk with heat and pleasure. enji looks just about as much present, he seems dumbfounded.

‘well, uh.’ he says, and hawks would kick anyone who says he doesn’t have a way with words.

‘i can come on thursdays and fridays.’ he offers, for now. ‘that way your kids can still have you on weekends.’

‘thanks.’ that’s all endeavor says before he pushes a few stray strands of hair back from hawks’ face, leans in for another kiss.

it’s a date, then.

#bnha #endhawks #anime #enho #todoroki enji #takami keigo #todoroki shouto #vmine #fluff #future fic #oh look at me not respecting my art and writing in a tumblr post again #oh but well i worked on it all afternoon so enjoy? #tododekubaku #if u squint lol #bakugo katsuki #midoriya izuku

[blackmarketmummy]

All this talk about Din needing to adopt a certain little girl from Jakku inspired me to do a quick drabble. Obviously, I got carried away, so for your own amusement and consideration: dad!Din & foundling!Rey

Warnings: brief mentions of child trafficking, family fluff

• Boba has claimed the throne on Tatooine, and Din is laying low, avoiding Bo-Katan and other responsibilities involving Mandalore and the kriffing darksaber.

• He checks in with Cara, Greef, and Peli occasionally, seeing where he can help out, as a way of thanking them for helping him in his time of need.

• Fennec cleans up house, releases slaves, and comes across a young slave girl, Rey.

• None of the ex-slaves claim her as their kid, saying she's alone, an orphan.

• Fennec asks Boba what they should do with her, and he suggests she look for Din, knowing that the girl's background might hit a little close to home with him, but also could be a chance for Din to heal after having to let Grogu go.

• Unwillingly, Din adopts her after much bribing from Boba and Fennec: "She needs a home." "You wouldn't let a little kid just live their life on Tatooine alone, would you?" "What would your clan think if you ignored this foundling?"

• When Din stops by to visit with Cara and Greef in Nevarro, he has Rey with him.

• She always sits on his shoulders holding onto his helmet. Din had her promise to never lift it up because "it's important to me, ad'ika" and left it at that, and Rey never breaks her promises. She's had others betray her when she was sold into slavery, so she always promised herself to never break her promises. Din has been her protector for a few weeks now and gained her trust quickly when she quizzed him about Mandalorians and asked, "why do you wear that shiny helmet all the time?" Learning about honor, discipline, and compassion for the widowed and orphaned that the Creed emphasized was enough for her to trust Din with her life after being abandoned and sold like property.

• Walking through Nevarro, Din and Rey cross paths with a certain general and pilots flanking her (and of course Din doesn't keep up well with who the heroes of the galaxy look like -- hell, he didn't know who Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker were until Cara and Greef explained to him they were legends that he basically has on speed-dial now).

• He recognized one of the pilots, Blue, whom he encountered on the icy planet with the Frog Lady, and hoped to avoid an awkward "mAy ThE fOrCe Be WiTh YoU" encounter again, so he tried to haul ass through town.

• However, Rey had other ideas, and wanted to tell "the nice lady general" that she liked how her hair was styled and "Din, do you think she would show me how to make my hair swirly on the sides of my head?"

• Din tried to figure out a way to gently tell Rey that "the nice lady general" was probably too busy to explain hair techniques to a six year old, but the general must have overheard their discussion and walked in their direction.

• "Hey, Mandalorian!" The pilot exclaimed happily to Din, reaching out his hand for a shake, that Din unwillingly returned.

• "Oh, General! This is the Mando I was following a while ago that I told you about. How's your ship by the way?" Smiling up at the young girl on Din's shoulders, amused, he added, "and did you have another kid since I last saw you?"

• "Destroyed," Din flatly answered, "and uh - yeah, you could say that."

• "What's your name, little one?" the general sweetly asked the girl, who suddenly became shy, fidgeting with Din's cape underneath her.

• Din picked up on Rey's bashfulness and patted her leg lightly, "it's okay, ad'ika."

• "Rey," she quietly answered, "what's yours?"

• The general smiled kindly, stretching out her hand for Rey to shake, "it's Leia, and it's a pleasure to meet you and your father," winking at Din, who felt his face blush at the mention of his paternal relationship with Rey, and embarrassed at not realizing who the general was until now (Leia knew what she was doing, she enjoyed teasing people, a trait that Han loved to point out).

• Rey giggled as she shook General Leia's hand, picking up on her teasing. It looked as if Rey made a new friend who liked teasing her buir as much as she did.

• Clearing his throat, Din prompted Rey, "isn't there something you'd like to tell the general, ad'ika?"

• "How did you make your hair look like that? Could you show me and my buir how?" she excitedly asked Leia.

• Chuckling, Leia agreed, only if her buir would allow it, to which the Mandalorian shyly obliged and replied, "only if we aren't taking up your time, ma'am."

• Leia waved her hand to shush Din, shooed away the pilots, and insisted she could spare the time.

• Humbled, Din watched as the general sat with Rey as she braided and twisted her hair, noting how she effortlessly did it, and so he could help Rey learn to eventually do it herself.

• He listened to the general talk to Rey about her own child with long black hair.

• "He can be a grump like his father, but if you met him, I think you'd teach him how to open up and enjoy life more," to which Rey giggled, "he sounds like my buir. He's quiet and grumpy, too, especially when I wake him up each morning!"

• Laughing, Leia replied, "maybe our paths will cross again and you can meet my sweet Ben."

• Din didn't miss Rey's blush at that statement and could only groan at the thought that he signed up to not only be her guardian, but would have to be the one to explain the kriffing birds and bees to her when she was older.

• Kriff, he didn't know if he could handle all of that responsibility... especially after having to experience empty-nest syndrome since Grogu was picked up by the Jedi.

• But when he came to sit down near his ad'ika once the general finished braiding and pinning Rey's hair back, he saw the young girl smile so brightly, he realized...

• As long as he could provide a better life for her -- no matter the heartache he might experience in return -- it was worth it. If she could have that innocent joy that she wholeheartedly deserved, then he did his job well. As her buir.

#the mandalorian #din djarin #with this beskar i thee wed #the mandalorian spoilers #grogu #mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian season 2 #the mandalorion spoilers #baby yoda #rey skywalker #mandalorian au #star wars #star wars au #found family #adoption #din djarin fanfiction #din djarin fanfic #mandalorian fanfic #dad!din #foundling!rey

[moceit]

Home Is Where...

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Summary: It's boring being a teenager when you have no friends and are stuck working as a waiter at your dad's restaurant. At least that's what Virgil thought until a set of twins move into town and start attending school with him. Now how will Virgil survive after letting himself befriend Remus Rey? Suddenly Virgil's life becomes a roller coaster of never-ending adrenaline that he wasn't prepared for... and neither were his parents.

Pairings: Platonic Dukexiety, Eventual Prinxiety, Divorced/Eventual Moceit, Background/Implied Intrulogical, Brief One-Sided Logince

Chapter 1

Word Count: 2,906

Chapter Warnings: Lmk if something needs tagged

Read on AO3

Virgil is awoken by a loud knocking on his bedroom door. He pulls his comforter over his head to block out the noise, but his papa has other plans. He pushes open the door and stands in the entryway holding a large mixing bowl under his left arm.

"Good morning, kiddo, how would you like your pancakes today?" he asks his son who moans and rolls over to face the wall away from him in reply.

Patton resumes stirring the batter in his mixing bowl as he enters Virgil's room, careful to not step on the clothes strewn around the floor as he approaches his son's bed. He pulls the comforter off his son's head which prompts Virgil to try and hide his face in his pillow, wanting so desperately to be left alone so he could get more sleep.

"Now Virgil, I know you were up late last night, even after I told you to go to bed, but you do have school this morning. It's the first day of your junior year, isn't that exciting!" 

Virgil groans while sitting up in bed. The teenager glares at his papa who stands innocently smiling down at him while he continues whisking away at an already smooth pancake batter. 

"Chocolate chips." he simply says, then stretches his arms and lets out one big yawn.

"Alright. I'll see if there are some left." Patton puts down his whisk and pats his son's shoulder. "Get ready. I'll see you downstairs." Then he walks out, leaving Virgil sitting alone on his bed.

Virgil strips off the old t-shirt he wore to bed and throws it across his bedroom. He blearily scans the room over to his desk chair piled high with clothes he believes have all been washed. Virgil finally stands from his bed and walks over to the chair. He picks through the pile and pulls out a fresh t-shirt that he smells to ensure it's cleaned before throwing on. He follows the same pattern as he puts on a pair of black jeans, then finishes off the look with his favorite hoodie and some socks he left lying next to his bed before finally walking out of his room and jogging downstairs to greet his papa in the kitchen.

Patton is flipping a pancake when he sees his son walk in and plop down at the breakfast table with a mumbled "morning" before hiding his face with his hood.

"Good to see you up." says Patton. Virgil shrugs and reaches over to the cartoon of orange juice Patton left out on the table. "You were in luck. I had just enough chocolate chips for this batch of pancakes this morning."

"Yippee." Virgil deadpans, standing to get a glass from the cabinet, orange juice in hand.

He fills his glass with the orange juice. His papa asks to pour him a glass of juice as well, so Virgil grabs another glass from the cabinet and repeats his action. He brings the glasses over to the breakfast table and sits back down at his spot.

Patton appears behind him carrying two plates of chocolate chip pancakes. He lays a plate in front of Virgil and carries the other plate over to his spot. He sits down across from his son.

"Dig in." he smiles, pushing the syrup he set out on the table towards Virgil for him to get started first.

Virgil pours a little syrup on his pancakes before passing it back to his papa. He starts scarfing down his pancakes, wanting to finish up so he can get out as soon as possible. He was planning on mindlessly driving around town before he had to force himself to pull into the parking lot of the high school that he dreads attending.

"I'm driving you to school today." his papa says abruptly, as if he is reading Virgil's mind. "And your dad is gonna pick you up for work after."

Virgil rolls his eyes and groans. "Why…?!" he whines as he places his fork down next to his plate.

"He's short staffed and needs the extra help." Patton says matter-of-factly before taking a bite out of his breakfast.

"But do you have to drive me? Do you not trust me enough to take myself there after school?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to carpool with your dad instead?" Virgil glares at his papa something quite threatening, but his papa seems to ignore the look "One time. That's all we're asking you."

Virgil looks away from his papa. "Fine." he huffs. 

His dad beams back at him and thanks him for cooperating before returning back to eating.

---

Patton pulls up to the front of Virgil's school. Virgil sits next to him in the passenger seat with his knees up against the dashboard and his headphones on listening to his music. He lost himself in his thoughts and he didn't even register they have arrived until his papa taps his shoulder to get his attention.

Virgil pauses his music, lowers his headphones around his neck, and looks at his papa.

"Remember that your dad will be picking you up after school." says Patton with his ever kind smile. "Have a good day. I love you."

By this point Virgil has already cracked open his car door. "Yeah." he says in reply before swinging the door open all the way and climbing out of his papa's old Chevy Cruze. 

As his papa pulls away from the school Virgil glances back at the parking lot and notices a brand new Lexus ES pull in and park. The sight of a luxury vehicle being quite a foreign concept to all the students around him so Virgil isn't the only one who stops to stare at the two boys who step out of it.

While Virgil definitely couldn't say he knows everyone at the school, having spent his entire school career fairly alone, he realizes these two guys have to be new students.

Virgil turns back around and shuffles through the front entrance of the school. The halls are crammed with other kids excitedly chatting and catching up after three months apart from each other. Virgil watches as two students run up to each other and throw themselves into a hug. The excitement of the two students catching up in his view is something very unfamiliar to Virgil. Every year he walks down these halls and not once has anybody ever bothered to greet him, aside from a couple friendly teachers and faculty members who like to welcome back every student who locks eyes with them.

With nothing for him out in the halls Virgil continues his trudge all the way to his first period class. He's the first one there, even beating the teacher, though that's not a surprise to him. He takes a seat in the back of class and puts his headphones back on, hitting the play button and letting himself enjoy these next few moments of peace.

As it starts getting closer for class to begin students begin filing into the classroom. One of the kids in Virgil's class he recognizes as one of the boys who stepped out of the Lexus this morning. He appears to have already met a couple of the girls in their first period as he walks in with them, chatting away like they were old friends. The group sit down together with the boy two seats up from where Virgil is sitting. 

They're talking quite loudly and Virgil decides to be a little nosy as he pauses his music to eavesdrop on them. If they are going to be louder than his music then he might as well pick up on a piece of their conversation.

"So are you considering auditioning for the fall musical? We do it every year!" Says one of the girls, gesturing to all of her friends with the last statement.

"This fall we're doing The Little Mermaid!" says another girl excitedly. "One of my favorites!"

"Oh, absolutely!" the boy says with an overly grandiose flare in his voice that almost makes Virgil want to gag. "I've been doing theater since I was five so I'm not gonna miss an opportunity now!"

"Great, another pompous theater kid." Thinks Virgil sarcastically.

"Then we can all go to the audition together!" A third girl chimes while clapping her hands excitedly.

"It'll be great. You're gonna love our director." Says the first girl.

Virgil goes to hit play on his music again, deciding the conversation wasn't worth his time listening in to. Virgil was never interested in theater talk. He recognizes the three girls as being some of the most active members of the school's drama club so Virgil should've figured that this conversation would lead to something theater related anyways. Before Virgil gets a chance to hit the button on his phone he's stopped short when the teacher walks in and immediately grabs the attention of her students.

"Welcome to eleventh grade chemistry…" she begins.

---

The day drags on slowly as Virgil is forced to go from class to class listening to practically the same exact spiel as the teachers read off their syllabus for the school year. Then he finally gets to fifth period and he feels a bit of relief knowing lunch comes right after.

As he walks into the class a couple students are already seated but he is luckily able to get a spot in the back. One of the kids already in the classroom happens to be the other boy in the Lexus from this morning. He is also seated in the back so Virgil chooses  to sit on the other side of the classroom. If this kid is anything like his brother (?) then Virgil wants to stay as far away from him as possible. 

The other boy stays to himself as more students continue finding their way into class, but Virgil notices the boy staring at him out the corner of his eye. This unsettles Virgil as he's never had anyone pay him any mind before, let alone look at him with such intent as the boy across the room from him did. Virgil is anxious to say something to him so he tries his best to ignore the boy's glances. He distracts himself by chewing a hang nail on his thumb and bouncing his leg as he tries to stare ahead of himself and not turn back in the boy's direction.

Virgil could still feel the boys eyes on him throughout the entire class. When the bell finally rings Virgil bolts up from his seat and practically sprinting out the door. He takes deep breaths out in the hall as he begins to calm himself down during his walk down to the cafeteria.

Something tells Virgil fifth period World History will be interesting.

---

When Virgil gets to lunch he goes into his usual routine of standing in line, grabbing his lunch and going to the table in the far corner of the cafeteria. It's the usual spot he sits at where he can be alone, just him and his music.

Except this time his normal lunch will be interrupted. As Virgil is enjoying his time to his self his eyes meet with that of the boy's from history. Virgil's heart drops as he realizes the boy is coming straight towards him.

"Oh no" the boy plops down right across from him. Virgil's single table to himself becoming a table for two for the first time in years.

"You look lonely." The boy states. "But I wanna change that."

Virgil pushes his tray closer to him as he desires to curl in on himself and hide away. There's no way he is letting this boy get too close to him.

"I'm fine."

"Wouldn't you like a friend?"

"I don't need a friend."

"Well, I'm not moving."

"Fine!"

Virgil is hoping that the conversation will end there and he can try to enjoy his lunch in peace as usual. He is wrong.

"My name is Remus Rey. I'm new here and I'm looking to make new friends. I saw you last period and thought you and I would get along."

Virgil takes a second to process what Remus is saying to him. He doesn't understand what about him screams friend material for Remus or why that would warrant Remus to stare at him all period long. Should he feel flattered or concerned? Virgil decides it's better if he doesn't think about it too hard.

"I'm Virgil… Hudson-Bullard."

"That's a unique last name."

"It's hyphenated."

"Two last names?"

"Sure."

"Well," Remus begins, "my family moved here over the summer. We live in Oakland Heights."

Virgil's dad lives in Oakland Heights. When Virgil is over at his dad's he likes going on walks. For several years there was one house in the neighborhood that sat for sale. Virgil has always been so blown away by the house’s beauty and size, but the home was way out of the price range for the average person living in town. At the end of last school year Virgil remembers walking past the same house and the For Sale sign had a big red "Sold" over it. Virgil can't think of another house that was sold around that same time so it's safe to assume Remus is talking about the large home in Virgil's mind.

He can't believe the boy sitting across from him would live in such a nice home. If what Remus is saying is true then that would mean his family is well off. Then again, it would add up. He arrived to school in a freaking Lexus! Virgil shouldn't be too surprised but he's still taking time to process all of this.

"You're not talking about the large home at the end of Berry Street?" Virgil is still in disbelief.

"Yep, that'd be the one. Me and my twin brother, Roman are both excited to be starting school here today! We've never been to a public school before."

Twin brother? Virgil looks past Remus over to another table where the boy in question is sitting at laughing with a bunch of theater kids and other popular students that Virgil would rather not associate with. Roman seems to have found his clique and is hitting it off with the others quite well.

Remus notices Virgil's gaze drift behind him so he turns around and traces Virgil's eyesight over to Roman. 

"We're like night and day." Remus says. "He and I don't really get along. We haven't since around the time we started middle school. We got into two different interests and friend groups. People tend to find it easier to get along with Roman than they do me." 

Remus turns back to look at Virgil who's attention has now returned back to him. "I sometimes think even my parents like him than me… at least in our mom's case."

Virgil is almost beginning to pity him. Perhaps it was because he saw himself in the new boy and didn't want to wish the same fate on someone else.

"I've recently been cut off from my allowance." He continues. "So now I'm looking for a job so I can have a little bit of spending money."

Virgil shrugs. "I wish I knew how to help." He says simply to be kind, but also because he really was beginning to feel for him.

"Thanks. I suppose I'll find something eventually?" Remus finally takes a bite out of his lunch before adding. "I really like you, Virgil. I think we'll be great friends."

---

The second half of Virgil's school day felt just as slow as the first half but luckily it lacked any more sightings of the Rey brothers. When the final bell rang signalling the end of the day Virgil finds himself speeding lightening fast out the doors to the parking lot. He starts searching for his dad's car waiting for him all the way in the back. Figures he would make Virgil walk.

Virgil makes his way all the way to his dad's car and slips into the passenger seat.

"How was school." His dad deadpans as soon as Virgil closed the door. His voice sounding as if he didn't care, though Virgil knows his dad well enough to understand it's just his tone and that he was more concerned than he sounds.

Janus starts pulling out of the parking lot as Virgil replies. "It was fine." He shrugs. "Got a couple new kids. The one decided to sit next to me during lunch." Virgil says nonchalantly.

"Oh~" Janus drawls, "you made a new friend?"

"If that's what you wanna call it." Virgil puts on his headphones to tell his dad he is done with the conversation.

The rest of the car ride is silent as Janus drives the two of them over to the restaurant. Virgil stares at the building with no emotion as he slips his headphones off his head and into his backpack.

"I brought some work clothes and your black work sneakers in case you needed them." his dad says as he goes to open the door. "They're sitting in the back seat."

Janus gets out of the car and starts walking inside. Virgil looks at his clothes through the rearview mirror before he gets out himself. He opens the back door and grabs the outfit his dad had for him before going in himself. Time for work.

#original #sanders sides #prinxiety #moceit #intrulogical #platonic dukexiety #virgil sanders #remus sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #dadceit #ts fanfic #nat writes something #home is where...

[shakingthestars]

The problematic conclusion of the Rise of Skywalker – a “whitewashing” of the Skywalker legacy ?

Art by  kasiopea-star-wars

Nearly two months after The Rise of Skywalker came to theaters, I have finally found a way to express my throughts about the conclusion of this galactic journey. As a new Skywalker trilogy was announced years ago, I remember not feeling thrilled by the idea of a sequel, asking myself what would be the added-value to the story for an arc that started and ended with Anakin Skywalker. Yet I remember feeling pleasantly surprised by how promising The Force Awakens (TFA) was in introducing the characters, playing on their dynamics and setting up the family dramas : a stormtrooper taken away from his family ; a scavenger waiting for the return of her parents ; an heir rejecting his birth name ; a family desintegrated by a repeating tragedy. The Last Jedi (TLJ) felt refreshing by bringing the family drama to a higher level, deepening the heroine/antagonist dynamic and paving the way for a refined sight of the Jedi philosophy. As much The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) has its entertaining moments as a standalone, I couldn’t help feeling growingly unconfortable about this movie as a conclusion of the Skywalker story.

Why Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) originally felt like a satisfying conclusion of the Skywalker story…

Among the several reasons why TROS fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion to this 42 years old arc, the very last act of the franchise stands out as strangely  dissonant with the rest of the entire story. Let’s have a look back at the original ending set up by  Return of the Jedi (ROTJ). Far from being my favorite Star Wars movie because of the Jabba the Hutt sequence, ROTJ never failed to get me emotional by the way it beautifully concluded the Skywalker arc. Beyond the joyful atmosphere around the galaxy and the celebration of the victory on Endor, the last sequence sets up a powerfully emotional ending because it’s all about healing the wounds through reconciliation :  reconciliation of a man with himself, reconciliation of a father with his son but also reconciliation of a fallen Jedi with the old friends he once betrayed. Thus, as sad as Anakin Skywalker’s death may be, the outcome of his tragic life is counterbalanced by what we get to experience on screen with the characters, from his funeral scene to the appearance of the Force Ghosts.  Everything is synchronized in a way that enables the viewer to feel that the hero of the OT, Luke Skywalker,  has now completed his journey to find himself, can let the past behind him and move on to build a brighter future surrounded by his « family ». At that point, this conclusion left  me as the viewer with the satisfying feeling that the Skywalker arc is complete, bringing me back to my initial question : what was their story worth to continue for ?

…that left the Skywalkers with an unresolved family business

Yet, when we meet the Skywalkers again 30 years later, it appears that the family has completely imploded : a fallen son enrolled in the ennemy camp, the parents separated, the uncle exiled on a planet far far away. TFA introduces the viewer to a family tragedy that repeated itself with a kid targeted by a master puppet for his “mighty blood” in order to follow his grandfather’s footsteps. We learn from the canon novel Bloodline as well as TFA make it clear that neither Leia nor Han ever forgave Vader and very much feared that their only son would take after him: “We’ve done everything we could have done. There’s too much Vader in him”. As impressive as his sacrifice might have been for a 1983 viewer, Vader’s redemption was the result of a sudden turn for the sake of one person, an action that neither Leia nor the Galaxy got  to witness, making Anakin only an unsung hero of the victory against the Empire. His sacrifice didn’t enable any reconciliation of his daughter with the dark side of his legacy, paving the way for the tragedy to repeat with his own grandson. As unsettling as Luke’s characterization may have been in TLJ, the attempt to kill his own nephew in his sleep suggest that he probably wasn’t as reconciled with his father’s legacy as he thought. In other words, the wound healing through reconciliation set up in ROTJ was uncomplete and left door open for the tragedy to repeat, which leads to consider the importance of Ben in the sequel trilogy of a family arc that has been told over 42 years in 9 episodes :

-        A son who witnessed his slave mother dying in his arms

-        A mother who died in childbirth from a broken heart

-        Husbands and wives who losed their respective partners

-        Parents who lose their daughter

-        Kids who got separated from their parents

-        A nephew who witnessed his adoptive parents getting killed

-        Fathers who died sacrifying for their sons

-        An uncle who died apologizing to his nephew

-        A son who lose his mother after she sacrificed for him

"As I once fell, so falls the last Skywalker”

Named after Ben – “You’re my only hope” – Kenobi, Ben Solo represented the hope that at least a Skywalker could finally make it through darkness. He was not just the only descendant of the Skywalker family. He was also the bearer of all the abuse, pain and tragedies that this family has been through since his grandfather himself was targeted by their sworn ennemy: Palpatine.  Thus, he is the recipient of all the wounds that didn’t heal properly within the family, making his manipulation by Palpatine, his feeling of rejection by his parents and the murder attempt by his uncle all the more tragic. The fact that Ben – and the Galaxy – was kept ignorant of the family connection with Vader certainly didn’t help, making him from early age an ideal target for the revenge of Palpatine: “I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head”. People may argue that the outcome is okay since there will be no Skywalker descendant for the tragedy to repeat one day and that Rey  will ensure that  their legacy lives on by carry on the name. That Rey deserves to be part of the Skywalker legacy through her personal achievements is unquestionable. However, she is not the bearer of the tragedy that has plagued the Skywalker family for the viewers to witness over 9 episodes. Although her backstory is heartbreaking to say the least, TROS doesn’t let the viewers  time to feel the depth of her own tragedy adding to the fact that we didn’t get to relate to the tragedy of the Palpatine family over  long-run. Even if Rey shoudn’t be reduced to her bloodline (which was the risk of making her a Palpatine through), didn’t Palpatine achieve what he wanted in the end ? People may argue he lose since his own granddaughter will carry on the Skywalker name as a Jedi. However, if his personal revenge against the Skywalkers was to end their bloodline, then he definitely got what he wanted after being the cause of most of their tragedies:

-        He predicted Padme’s death, which he brought Anakin to provoke

-        He wanted Anakin’s death, which happened through his sacrifice  for Luke

-        He wanted Han’s death, which he brough Kylo to provoke

-        He wanted Luke’s death, which indirectly happened through his sacrifice 

-        He wanted Leia’s death, which happened through her sacrifice for Ben

-        He wanted Ben’s death, which happened through his sacrifice for Rey 

The problematic execution of Ben Solo’s redemption

From the moment TFA had Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren commit a parricide, the question of his redemption was at the heart of his character arc. Beyond the passionate discussion about whether or not he should have lived given his dark actions, it’s the way he was treated in the last act that doesn’t feel right put in the bigger context of the story. It is legitimate that Rey was the one person to ultimately take down Palpatine, all the more so that she is revealed to be a Palpatine descendant. Yet, the role in which Ben Solo was relegated during the final battle on Exegol doesn’t feel right within the framework of the entire arc. The Skywalker descendant – as bearer of the family tragedy – got to stand barely 5 seconds against the abuser of his family, only for his body to be used as a mean to resurrect Palpatines, grandfather and granddaughter. Worse : the entire set up for the Force dyad in the ST was made useful for that sole purpose : draining the Force energy of the Skywalker to death so that the Palpatines could live on. Even if the last Skywalker was meant to die anyway, why giving him the same redemption as his grandfather, knowing that this redemption path only reconciled one person – Luke – with the dark side of the Skywalker legacy? Why having him sacrifice for the sake of only one person instead of putting him in front of a dilemma that would have required to overcome the evil voices once and for all for the greater good of the Galaxy?  Why having no witness of his ultimate inner struggle instead of letting the Galaxy finally know what was behind the darkness of both Skywalkers grandfather and grandson ? I am aware that this is easy to critisize directing choices once the movie is out but based on all what was demonstrated above I believe that the Skywalker family would have deserved that their only descendant had a more active part in overcoming their abuser once and for all by overcoming the darkness he planted in them.  In my ideal scenario, Rey would have taken down Palpatine all alone in her badass way all alone but there would have been an ultimate twist. The remaining fleet would have been programmed by Palpatine to execute the last order,  from a signal sent from a dark artifact on Exegol for all the Galaxy to witness in horror. The only way for someone to desactivate it would have required to overcome his/her darkest struggles within, which would have been a meaningful way to confront Ben with his family tragedy, the dark legacy of his grandfather and his own dark actions. I would have loved the idea that the evil voices put him in front of a dilemma and that his grandfather finally helped him to take the right decision based on his own fateful experience:  choosing between saving  a loved one from her death state or saving planets from destruction for the greater good. There were several meaningful scenes that could have foreshadowed this kind of scenario. Instead, TROS gave us the same redemption as ROTJ :

-        A short-term redemption path 

-        A sacrifice for the sake of one person

-        No witness of the good action other than said person

Yet, disappearing to never be seen, mourned or mentioned ever again...

 A whitewashing of the Skywalker legacy

The ending scene of the Skywalker franchise takes place on Tatooine with Rey burrying the Skywalker lightsabers in the sand as a funeral, which is meant to enable her – and the viewer – to move on peacefully. According to Lucasfilm VFX supervisor Roger Guyett and screenwriter Chris Terrio, no Force ghost of Ben was created because “when you see Luke and Leia there, it’s about the Skywalker legacy”. For a movie that was supposed to tie all 9 movies together, the Prequel Trilogy (PT) doesn’t seem to exist as if the Skywalker story began with the Original Trilogy (OT). We get to see Cloud City and Endor after the final victory but no shot of Coruscant & Naboo. The family tragedy begun with the separation of the twin but the grooming of their father and the death of their mother doesn’t seem to be part of the traged. The Skywalker lightsaber is primarily presented as Luke’s lightsaber as if he was its original owner. What is canonly established through is that the Skywalker story began with a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker who was believed by the Jedi to be the Chosen One, which made him the target of a Sith named Palpatine, which led to a long-run family drama in the middle of a never-ending battle between the dark side and the light side. Given the importance of his fall to the story and how it fed the family drama beyond his death, his absence in the sequel trilogy is surprising, aside from a very discreet line to Rey : “Bring Balance as I did”. Shouldn’t Anakin have guided his fallen grandson too instead of helping only the granddaughter of his sworn ennemy ? More problematic is the way the family drama is resolved with the ending of TROS. While the family was split at the beginning of the ST, TROS doesn’t care to show the healing of the family wounds, except for the memory scene between Solo father and son. The reason why this scene is the most powerfully emotional moment of the movie in my mind is precisely for its ability to symbolize the reconciliation of a man with himself and a son with his father. Yet, the ending scene is only about reuniting the all in the white Holy Skywalkers who have never “sinned”, giving the unconfortable impression that the Skywalker descendant was disposable because he wasn’t worthy to have any place in the Skywalker legacy contrary to the heroine. After all, the original script of Duel of the Fates by Colin Trevorrow had Luke telling his nephew “You are no Skywalker”, as if the Skywalker legacy wasn’t made of both darkness and light and Luke himself didn’t contribute to this with his own mistakes. Although TROS is more subtle in its approach, the difference in the handling between  Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo’s redemption after their death is telling:  kept a guarded secret by the person he saved; not even mourned by the only person he bonded with; not even shown alongside his family. Dead or alive, his treatment on screen left me as a viewer with the unconfortable feeling that the Skywalker family as a whole wasn’t reconciled with the dark side of their legacy. Which brings me once again to the same question: what was their story worth to continue for?

Excerpt of the canon novel Bloodline

The purification of the heroine

Let’s talk now about how Rey ends her heroine’s journey compared to where she began. That journey was announced by Maz Kanata already in TFA: “The belonging (family) you seek is not behind you (birth family), it is ahead (found future)”. She was introduced  as desperate to find a place to belong because of her feeling of loneliness, which never incapacitated her ability to be a strong independant woman who knows how to handle herself.  Yet, her heroine journey alone on Tatooine where she takes the Skywalker name looking at the Binary Sunset under the watchful eye of the Skywalker Twins as Force Ghosts. Some may argue that she will be okay since she found a family in them and her Resistance friends, which is true to some degree but  uncomplete through. However, the ending looks out of place with a key character missing in this scene, whether he was supposed to be dead or alive: Ben. Although it was important to show in TROS that Rey was well surrounded by a supportive entourage (as a constrast to Ben before his fall), the ST established that the deepest emotional connection she had was with Kylo Ren/Rey.  I wouldn’t allow myself to judge those who find Reylo abusive and/or questionable because of his actions but I personally don’t think that the outcome of TROS is a feminist as it was meant to appear by having the heroine as a strong independant woman free from any romantic involvement . The ST makes it clear all along that although Rey obviously suffers from abandonment issue, she is more than capable of handling herself, know by herself what is right or not and decide conciously what (who) she wants for herself.  Some people may disaprove the very idea of “Reylo” for valid reason but claiming that the kiss came out of nowhere doesn’t make sense when one look closely at their interactions all along the ST. TLJ shows that the hand touch she initiated is the decisive moment where she gets to see what the viewer finally get to see only at the end of TROS :  the true face of Ben Solo, without the mask named Kylo Ren behind which he hid himself. From this moment on, my understanding is that Rey perfectly knew how to dissociate the person from his persona, thus her disenchantment in the Throne Room while confronted to his unwillingness to let go of his dark persona. With Rey shutting the door of the Millenium Falcon to his face, TROS could have made their dynamic an unrequited villainous crush afterwards. Although this is what it looks on the surface, the visual subtext tells a different story, which is a huge reason that makes their interactions so compelling to analyze. On Pasaana, Rey is shown staring longingly at little kids, sadly confessing that she has no family (despite living with the Resistance and her friends for a while) and being in deep thought at that moment. Barely 2 seconds after enter her dyad to renew his hand proposal. Of course, different interpretations can be made about this scene. I would argue that the chain of events in a matter ofminutes is meant to convey a specific message if one accept the idea that the hand proposal is metaphorically a marriage proposal. The ST sets the record straight through that despite her attraction to him Rey always rejected Kylo Ren and his entitled behavior while making heart eyes to Ben Solo and the selfless person she knew he was deep inside through their bond. The core of their unresolved business in TROS is all about him being desperate to know why she wanted to take his hand while being frustrated by her refusal to acknowledge it and her being desperate to hide the reason why she didn’t take it while being frustrated by his refusal to acknowledge who he really is. Both lied to themselves and each other out of fear of being rejected and disentchanted again. Thus, the tension rising until a confession that changed everything : “I wanted to take your hand, Ben’s hand”. Rey chose consciously to kiss Ben only once she was sure that the mask had definitely dropped and he had renounced to be someone else than who he really is.  Although Kylo Ren was chasing Rey, she was always the one who set the rules and initiated willingly any further step in their relationship and only when she felt he was his true self with her. This teaches an important lesson  – especially to teenage boys  – that you don’t earn the feelings of someone (no matter what feelings he/she has for you)  by hiding yourself behind a virile persona  and/or showing off toxic behaviors in order to impress said person. In other words, the love triangle was always between Rey, Kylo Ren and Ben Solo from a  female gaze perspective: it’s Ben who was presented as “object” of desire all along.  Yet, the choice that Rey willingly makes – and the desire that goes along with it – is taken away from her as if it was decided at her place that Ben Solo was never the right partner for her anyway.  After three movie setting up that the heart of her emotional journey was with him, the fact that he is totally erased from screen after – and despite – their love scene looks like a puritan attempt to purify the heroine from the sin she has committed.  Worse, she ends her journey where she began:  on a desolated sand planet, sliding innocently the dunes, wearing the same all white costume and an adopted child under parental watch. In a nutshell: pretty much like Luke at the beginning of his hero’s journey.

Rian Johnson:  “ The hand touch is the closest thing we’ll get to a sex scene in Star Wars”

Luke Skywalker (deleted line): “You’ve opened yourself to the dark side for a pair of pretty eyes”

Tatooine: an iconic place...of desolation

Although Tatooine may appear as a logical choice for the ending scene, the intention to recreate the atmosphere of the iconic scene from ANH falls flat in the context of TROS but also in the context of the whole franchise. According to Chris Terrio, the point was to fix the original sin of the franchise, which was the separation of the Twins by tying the lightsabers together like newborns. Did it make sense through to burry them on Tatooine ? Based on the Prequels, the Skywalker/ Palpatine arc has its roots on Naboo, when a Queen was forced to flee in order to meet the Senate representative of her home planet on Coruscant but met a slave boy from Tatooine on her way. Naboo may have been a less iconic choice for fanservice but in regard to the heartbeat of the Skywalker story, this is where Anakin and Padme’s love story blossomed, where Padme planned to give birth to their babies, where she is now resting forever: “Ani I wanna have our baby back home on Naboo”. Wasn’t the original sin that these kids were separated from their parents and all of them never got reunited ? Yet, Padme’s babies - and her husband by extension - were metaphorically burried on the very planet where Luke was never supposed to end up had the family tragedy not happened, where his father grew up as a slave, where his grandmother had a painful death, where his adoptive parents were murdered, where his sister was enslaved, where his brother in law was imprisoned, where he himself never wanted to return. Yet this is also this place that was chosen to end Rey’s heroine journey.  She ends up being the spiritual heir of the Twins, especially the Jedi that Leia would have become by her brother’s side had she not chosen romantic attachment over that path. In general, the ending sends the message  that romantic love and children only cause destruction while preventing parents from achieving their ambitions.  Padme and Anakin’s love created destruction through the immiment birth of the Twins ; Han and Leia’s love created destruction through Ben’s upbringing, only to have their sacrifice rewarded with his death and his sidelining of the legacy. Terrible message for teenagers  that no matter the selfless acts you do, you still deserve to be forgotten or even replaced  with someone more worthy if you lose yourself following the wrong way because you were a problem from the start. On a sidenote,  DLF probably failed to get people invested in the new characters, precisely because most of the characters and their interactions turned out to  feel superficial, interchangeable and disposable on the long run. Jahnnah was introduced to Lando in the very end for no particular reason, except maybe baiting the fans with future added-materials about a potential father/daughter dynamic. Finn and Rose kissed in TLJ? Let’s have her sidelined, Finn friendly tapping her shoulder, telling her to stay away and choosing the company of someone else in the next film. Zorii asked Poe to come with her? Let’s have her refusing to be with him, barely hours after their conversation. Rey and Ben kissed before he died?  Let’s have her flying out of Exegol with fanfare, happily reuniting with her friends and paying tribute to the Twins without showing an once of interest in the fate of her dyad.  In general, the movie leaves the feeling that  there is no deep sense of belonging for anybody and that they all are pretty alone despite forming a big "family" of friends on the surface. The ending feels even more out of place knowing that Rey’s journey was never meant to parallel Luke’s, who only wanted to become a Jedi like his father and ultimately became one. It was never the motivator of Rey’s journey to fight for a higher cause by becoming a Rebel or a Jedi in to follow the footsteps of a loved one and/or a mentor. Yes, she accomplished great things and it is absolutely right to enable her to fulfill any ambition she wishes to accomplish in the future. However, it is not because she had simple human needs too  that they were unimportant and meant to diminish her character. Let’s go back again to this Pasaana scene where we are reminded of the core of her heroine’s journey: “The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead”. Of course, that could be interpreted in retrospect as a foreshadowing that she will take a new generation of Jedi as Rey Skywalker continuing the legacy of Luke. But again, the directing choices suggest otherwise: why showing her staring at 1-2 years old babies instead of 9-10 years old kids? Why suggesting that she may not have a family at that point but that she will have this possibility at the end of her journey? More important: why suggesting through the hand proposal that Ben Solo is the one through with she is meant to have a family ? Although her thoughts ain’t explicit, the chain of events suggests an underlying desire: marriage proposal, forming a family, having babies. Yet, Ben and Rey finally coming together resulted in a kiss of death and her ending like a virginal nun metaphorically burrying the kids she’ll never have with him. Terrible message for girls from a female gaze perspective that no matter how heroic she was and all the harships she went through, she is not allowed to get the belonging she chose willingly (contrary to most male heroes). Terrible message in general that  the wants openly expressed by women never really come true in Star Wars: Padme never got her babies back home on Naboo; Leia never got her son back home alive; Rey never got the home she really wished for with Ben. Even if Ben was meant to die like Jack Dawson from Titanic (given the few parallels used by TROS), his total absence after his death feels incredibly wrong, especially given how the only person whom with he bonded emotionally appears indifferent on screen to his fate. This closure on Tatooine without him rubs the viewer from witnessing the definitive healing of the family wounds but also from the feeling that the heroine can move on peacefully with her life: fulfilling her goals, being surrounded with her friends and why not  raising a family until she’ll be ultimately reunited with Skywalkers in death. Thus, a tragic ending like Titanic where you are aware as a viewer that Jack and Rose technically can’t be reunited in the afterlife feels strangely  more uplifting than the ending of TROS where it’s technically possible that Ben and Rey get reunited someday. What is shown on screen is what remains enshrined in the mind of the viewer. An ending scene on Naboo with Ben (alive or dead)  would have given a different vibe, reuniting metaphorically all Skywalkers (except Shmi Skywalker-Lars) in the same tombstone and symbolizing the family reconciliation: a husband with his wife; parents with their twins; a nephew with his uncle; a son with his mother ; a father living in his son’s heart since his death. Beyond that, what more meaningful message for Rey Palpatine than choosing the Skywalkers on the very planet where her own grandfather came from like Padme and began tormenting the Galaxy and her family ? Alas, the conclusion of the franchise shows the heroine  ending her journey alone on a desert planet, her birth family dead, her found family decimated, without her lover and her friends to be seen, surrounded by robots and ghosts…but with a cool name as consolation prize! 

#the rise of skywalker #star wars #rey #kyloren #ben solo #reylo #adamdriver #daisyridley

[jngles]

Thoughts You Definitely All Asked For on ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Finale!!

These are in chronological order for the show.

One of my biggest fears about them reintroducing Boba Fett was that by removing some of his mystery, they would make him less cool. Thank god that has not been the case. He’s still an aloof and nasty piece of work but with dimensions added.

We all know the Empire is most often a metaphor for America right? At least when it’s not being Nazi Germany? The Imperial pilot talking about destroying an entire planet (of peaceful weaponless civilians no less) to stop terrorism hits a little too close to home of the nuclear bombs the US has dropped and the endless destruction of the Middle East in the “war against terror.” And of course we frame all our wars in similar language like “our troops died to keep our country safe,” which hasn’t really been true since WWII.

I do think it’s worth noting that this is the first time SW has had someone acknowledge the human losses of the Death Star blasts. Usually it’s framed as a loss in construction time, strategical advantage, and power. The Empire proved time and time again that the lives of its soldiers were utterly expendable, which always made me question why people remained loyal outside of fear. Through this pilot’s phrasing, you can see the propaganda Imperial superiors used to twist the truth to their followers, always blaming those deaths on Rebel aggression instead of prideful Imperial neglect (I.e. not abandoning ship when there was still time) or even direct Imperial aggression like Operation Cinder where they fired on thousands of their own (discussed in S2E7.)

You can’t tell me Din wasn’t into it when Cara shot that asshole pilot. That cold faced revenge shot? 100% Mandalorian style, and also very very hot.

I appreciate that it was a pretty equal match between Boba and Koska Reeves. So much of Boba’s advantage comes from his suit, but since she also has one, it’s a battle of wits on how to use it, and they even out. This both maintains his legendary badassery and also that of highly trained Mandalorian warriors, and hopefully avoids asshole chauvinist SW fans on the internet complaining abujt “pandering to feminism” (fuck off @ all of them, especially since Mercedes Vernado who plays Reeves is a WWE champ and could kick all of your asses.)

Din point blank asked how many Death Troopers there are and Dr. Pershing never answered, and that annoys me.

Why is no one suspicious why Dr. Pershing is being so helpful and revealing so much information? He totally did not have to tell them about the Dark Troopers or any of the specifics of locations on the ship. He’s still with the empire post-fall, implying he’s a loyalist, so... wtf on his part (since no tricks come of it), and “be smarter” on the part of everyone else. Unless he’s been captive as a clone engineer all this time. But couldn’t he have made his escape back in Season 1 when Din killed everyone at that lab to get the kid back?

Bo Katan really could’ve just told them how the retrieval of the dark saber needs to work in the flight before the mission instead of being vague about “he belongs to me.”

Boba Fett’s usage of “Princess” and “don’t worry about me” are a good throwback to Han Solo and the culture they both grew up in. You can never quite tell if it’s based in misogyny or resentment for upper classes, but both of them seem to use it as a shield for begrudging respect they hold for a woman they think is brave but following a fool’s errand (the Rebellion and retaking Mandalore).

The Comms Officer (Katy O’Brian) assisting Moff Gideon will forever and always look like Ilana Glazer to me, and then I get swept up imagining what would happen if the Broad City cast accidentally got transported to Star Wars.

The launch tube sequence has some amazing cinematography.

The second I saw Boba was cut off from the pack, I really thought they were going to kill him again and make his return bittersweet. Glad they didn’t.

God this team of Bo Katan, Koska Reeves, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune is SO BADASS. I’m just obsessed with all these characters and their various motivations to get shit done. I honestly didn’t even think about the fact it’s all women until my re-watch, showing that the writers made it feel natural, the way women deserve to have their representation done. You can bet I am SO EXCITED for my future daughter and the wealth of possibilities she’s going to have of characters to play pretend as, action figures she can relate to, Halloween costumes to wear, etc. It’s so validating that we’ve gone from only Princess Leia as a female main character to all these women + Rey, Jyn Erso, Ahsoka, etc. etc.

Can’t wait for the trap remix of the Dark Trooper activation noises. (And the transition from that to the minimalist flute theme is perfect.)

The spy movie version of the main theme music is sick.

The Dark Trooper droid faces have a lot of similarity to Darth Vader’s mask. That callback is especially apparent when the one is literally lit from the inside with fire. He was already a martyr/legend to the Imperial remnants, Kylo Ren didn’t start the trend of ignoring his redemption.

Cara’s “excuse me” right before shooting up Stormtroopers is hilarious. Literally “can’t talk rn, doing hot girl shit and murdering space Nazis.”

Finally an Imperial ship got some frickin security cameras. Truly- the amount of times people just wander down hallways they’re not supposed to be in with no one being able to find them throughout the course of Star Wars is ridiculous when you think about the degree of surveillance our real life society carries out. I also love that this means The Mandalorian characters have also seen The Mandalorian.

The storytelling does such a service to Pedro Pascal and his already heroic efforts to portray emotion through a helmet. For example: Din easily could’ve killed the one stormtrooper outside Grogu’s cell much more efficiently, but instead, to show his absolute rage, they wrote in Din choking him out with a spear.

Moff Gideon would have been the BIGGEST pain in the ass in philosophy class. “Assume I know everything” my ass. I want to hear about his backstory (he would’ve been “coming of age” at the time of the Clone Wars) mostly just to hear about him getting bullied at school.

Smart move honestly, to try to tempt Din with the Mandalorian throne, given the Mandalorian power struggles of the past. Proud of our boy for keeping his priorities straight.

So has the blood from Grogu been transferred out of the ship and back to the remnant empire already, or do they have to find a new “donor” to help with building Snoke and Palpatine’s clones? Will they continue to go after him with Luke?

Lmao Din being so annoyed by Bo Katan being stringent about the tradition of winning the Dark Saber through combat is HILARIOUS, coming from a man who up until like a day ago hadn’t shown his face to a living being in decades.

The dark troopers can punch in blast doors but NOT Din’s helmet?? That’s a wild testament to beskar. Somehow that’s the comparison that sticks out to me, more even than its resistance to lightsabers.

This show works because of the cynicism of so many characters adding contrast to the moments of heart. Cara Dune is not a “fan” the way Rey was (for the record I love Rey, don’t come at her, it’s just different). Cara doesn’t see an X-Wing and go OMG THE REBELLION I LOVE THEM. She’s been through too much to believe in the magic saviourism of the “good guys,” and is instead thinking strategically when she, the one Rebel present, brushes off the usefulness of “one X-Wing.” The only positive things she seems to feel in battle situations are moments of relief and brief satisfaction in hurting the empire, with a dark knowledge that it will never make up for the hurt they did to her.

How do you keep a cloak hood on while fighting? Both from a technical standpoint (my hats fall off without me even having to move- is he expending force energy just to keep it on and look cool lol?) and also because idk, maybe it’s just me, but peripheral vision is helpful when surrounded by killer robots on a thin bridge above oblivion. I know his first lesson was to “see” through the force, but every resource helps, right?

Now that she has the ship, I wonder if Bo Katan can reprogram any salvageable Dark Troopers to help with retaking Mandalore?

There is nothing like seeing Luke’s fighting style, with its efficient choppiness and twinge of darkness. I always wonder how much is natural and how much is influenced by his first fights with Vader (that Skywalker diva flair). I love how they’ve advanced his technique but also kept him extremely “grey” here- like to straight up COMBUST a Dark Trooper takes some violent energy lol.

How tf is Moff Gideon alive after threatening Grogu’s life twice directly? That’s a wild testament to Din’s regard for Cara.

I love how seeing Luke slice through a bunch of murder droids like butter probably was a huge point in his favor for Din actually letting Grogu go with him. Like he will only send his child to boarding preschool if he knows the teacher will be a certified killing machine.

Oh my god they finally brought in some OG Star Wars theme music for Luke to take his hood off to 😭 It felt weird seeing him fight to different music, so the emotional payoff is huge when his themes come back for the face reveal.

Whoever added the digital young Mark Hamill face NAILED those classic shining Luke eyes and the earnest eyebrow lift.

Whoever shines the glass of Baby Yoda’s lil puppet eyeballs each day deserves a raise. The light caught in those babies is devastating.

Din is shaking as he takes off his helmet. This is the most enormous show of love he could give him, and possibly the last he’ll be able to for a long time. He only just got Grogu back and is desperate for a moment of real connection before letting him go once again.

This is the first time anyone has touched Din’s face since... likely his parents as a child.

Whoever wrote this scene clearly actually has kids. Anyone who’s ever had to leave a young child even just to go out for a bit or to drop them off somewhere knows that heartbreak of seeing them look in your eyes and hold on to your leg, trying to keep you with them. Especially when they can sense your mutual separation anxiety. The one thing that starts to make them feel better is something fun like a new toy or friend who can be their guide in the new environment, and R2’s friendly introduction is exactly that (since digital Luke isn’t being particularly emotive or child friendly... I hope that’s just because he’s reaching into Grogu’s mind while also keeping an eye on the multiple people with guns trained on him, not because he’s going to be totally unfeeling raising this kid.)

I love that Grogu and R2 are immediately buddies in contrast to Episode 5 when R2 was like “fuck this guy” @ Yoda stealing food and hitting him with a walking stick lol. I would imagine Luke must be reminded of that first introduction too and entertained by this display of playfulness in a *positive* light between R2 and mini-Yoda.

I need to know if Luke and Ahsoka have met- it is KILLING ME.

Does this mean Grogu will get killed by Kylo Ren when he fucks up Luke’s academy??? I will reincarnate Ben just to kill him again if that’s the case.

How does Luke not even fully SMILE at Grogu?? An adorable little baby version of his beloved master Yoda, and you’re telling me he doesn’t have the same heart stopping gasp we all did when we first saw him?? Maybe he did when they first connected through the force. He has a bit of bemusement on his face, and also wonder in his eyes, but I want a grin of recognition and welcome, dammit.

I really wish Luke had somehow acknowledged Cara Dune. Everyone else seems to see the tear drop Rebel sign and know it means Alderaan. He could’ve been like yo I have a badass warrior sister from your planet that you should meet. Or just “thank you for your service.” (I know this actually wouldn’t have been cinematically good but my heart wants it.)

Luke didn’t tell Din his name?? Or ask for any details about the kid and his care?? I could literally never let my kid go with someone, regardless of how worthy, and not be like, “Excuse me sir who are you and where tf are you taking my tiny beloved green goblin in case I need to find him? Here is my contact info. He likes to eat frogs and eggs, and he can have macarons as a treat. He’s 50 years old and his favorite toy is still a ball. Bedtime is 8pm and he’s allergic to dairy.”

Another reason I wish Luke had identified himself would be to see the mishmash of reactions that would ensue. Cara would be like DAMN IT’S THAT GUY WHO BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR AND KILLED THE EMPEROR, ACT COOL (and she would indeed act cool). Fennec would be like ugh it’s that guy who helped kill my best paying client Jabba the Hutt and then fucked over my boss Boba, I helped save the kid for THIS? And I would LOVE to know how Bo Katan feels about him, assuming she’s heard of him, and especially if she knows he’s Anakin Skywalker’s son. That confusion is probably the reason WHY the writers didn’t have him reveal himself- they didn’t want to break the emotion of the scene.

Let‘s all be real I’m just being needy about wanting things from Luke because of what he meant to me as a kid and my resulting innate need to have more canon of him, whatever it is, whenever I can get it. Especially in this form that’s so similar to ROTJ, a movie I watched on endless repeat. Even getting this was incredible though. Who else could we trust this lil heart-stealing green bean with so fully? Yet who would be so arrogant as to try to train a baby yodling (see: Ahsoka’s wise refusal)?

R2 is reckless as hell lmao. Not that we don’t already know that, but for him to just head on in, effectively abandoning Luke’s ship (how can they know if there are more troopers or not who might blow it up?) and also putting himself in the path of the ridiculously deadly Dark Troopers is NUTS. I’m usually on his side but he absolutely deserves a scolding by C3PO for this one.

I wonder if Grogu has any memories of R2 or vice versa since they did occupy the Jedi Temple at the same time. Can Grogu understand droids? They could swap stories about mutual acquaintances.

Does Din pretty much have to go with Bo Katan now since a) he’s shown his face and may not be able to go back to the Watch, and b) because he has the darksaber and has to figure out how to get it back to her without dying?

How in the hell did Bib Fortuna (whose chins age was not kind to) go from being butler to being boss? Were all the henchmen just like, “Fuck yeah, no Hutt parents no rules, let’s do what we want!!” And then they’ve spent the last ten years living off of whatever money they could salvage from Jabba’s non-banked wealth? Why has no one challenged them for that prime real estate and loot? I would love to hear that story.

Fennec Shand says “respect sex workers” so you better fuckin’ do it.

Idk dude Bib Fortuna really was a good butler, and he seemed pretty willing to comply with whoever’s in power. Did he screw Boba over in his attempt to return from the dead and earn that killing shot somehow? Or was this to make sure there was no one left who would have a claim to loyalty? Or maybe Boba just really wanted to sit in that chair.

Does “The Book of Boba Fett” mean we’re not on Din Djarin’s story anymore? Or is it a new show? I would much prefer the latter. I want to see Din help retake Mandalore or at least get a hug.

#the mandalorian #season 2 #episode 8 #chapter 16 #the mandalorian spoilers #the rescue #s2e8 #the mandalorian season 2 #the mandalorian chapter 16 #star wars #the rescue spoilers #the mandalorian season finale #din djarin #boba fett #fennec shand #bo katan #bo katan kryze #cara dune #koska reeves #moff gideon #bib fortuna #new republic #Luke Skywalker #LUKE FUCKING SKYWALKER #what a bro #death troopers #suicidal droids #r2d2 #Baby Yoda #Grogu

[generallynerdy]

Discovery (Rey X Solo!Reader)

Summary: You take the time after the war to bring Rey to Naboo, one of the greenest places in the galaxy. It isn’t hard for you to understand why it was here, of all places, that your grandparents fell in love. The apple apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Requested by Anon: I don’t know much about Star Wars lmao but I think Rey is neat. Can I get a Rey/Reader please? Something fluffy!

Key: (Y/N) - your name Warnings: holy FUCK this is fluffy anon what have you DONE, finnpoe is only background :(, some self deprecation, mentions of character death, unfortunately it follows canon plot but just ignore it and it doesn’t exist, mention of K*lo R*n Word Count: 1,944

Note: u dont know how much strength it took to not put Jar Jar in this fic just because also WOW holy fuck this is so fluffy i think i choked. Oh also please tell me if that idiom in the summary is wrong because growing up bilingual means I Don’t Get Them. anyway sorry i’ve been inactive things have been...wack.

    “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy,” she’d said when you met her what felt like forever ago.

    It broke your heart.

    Your father later said that he could see it in your eyes. You’d spent your whole life travelling the galaxy, experiencing its every wonder, and there was Rey, who had never been off Jakku in her entire life.

    You wanted, at that moment, to drag her back into the Millenium Falcon, point at a map, and tell her to pick a place, any place. More than anything, you wanted to show Rey every corner of the universe, every sand-free planet or moon that you could possibly find.

    The pity the woman thought she saw in your eyes was much more than that; it was horror, despair at what she had missed.

    You eventually settled for showing her Takodana and D’Qar, after your father was killed, but it never sat right with you. The more you got to know Rey and the longer the war dragged on, the more you wanted to give her the infinite freedom she so desperately deserved.

    To put it simply, you wanted nothing less than to hand her the galaxy on a silver platter.

    It wasn’t until the war was over that you finally had the opportunity to do so.

    You and Rey were still travelling with Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB-8, and D-0, as you had since the end of the war. With their help, it was easy to surprise her.

    Carefully, you led her down the Falcon’s boarding platform and onto solid ground. Poe had lovingly donated his jacket to be a blindfold, in order to keep Rey completely in the dark. Luckily, the Force wouldn’t tell her where she was-- it didn’t work like that.

    “I’m not great with surprises,” she warned, gripping your arm tightly.

    “You’ll love this one, I promise. Now, take off your shoes.”

    “What?”

    “Just trust me,” you laughed, having already discarded your own.

    You watched with pure childlike glee as her feet met soft grass. She wiggled her toes about in the dirt, a smile coming to her face. Sure, D’Qar had gotten her used to grass rather than sand, but you were almost certain she’d never taken a moment to go barefoot in it.

    “Grass?” She asked hesitantly. “Where are we?”

    “Only the prettiest planet in the galaxy,” you teased, already reaching forward to pull the jacket from her face. “Welcome to Naboo.”

    When the jacket came off, Rey found herself gaping-- as soon as she’d gotten used to the brightness of a sunny day on Naboo. You’d landed in the middle of a great, grassy field near the edge of a cliff. A waterfall tumbled over the edge of that cliff from a stream, a feature that Naboo was well known for. You were pretty sure Rey had never seen one of those-- something you had to correct.

    *“(Y/N)--” she breathed out, gawking. “I don’t-- I don’t know what to say.”

    You laughed a little. “Neither did I, the first time my mom brought me here. I spent days exploring.”

    “It’s so...alive,” she said, reaching down to feel the grass.

    She meant in the Force, though even the least Force-sensitive person could probably see how alive it was. Naboo was an explosion of light and life, even for those not strong in the Living Force, and could be overwhelming for those who were.

    “C’mon,” you called to her with a smile, holding out your hand. “I know the best place to take it all in.”

    Her lips twitched up into a grin, one of the brightest you’d ever seen from her. Her eyes shined as she reached out, taking your hand in hers and squeezing it as she stood back up. With her free hand, Rey tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and opened her mouth to say something-- but a shout from the Falcon interrupted her.

    “Have fun, lovebirds!” Poe called with a devilish smirk, waving the two of you onward.

    You shot the man a rude gesture that made him cackle. Rey turned bright red, an adorable look on her, you thought, as Poe was dragged back into the ship by Finn, who chewed him out the whole way-- fondly, though.

    (Bittersweetness struck you at the memory of your mother laughing her ass off at the fact that both of her children, blood or otherwise, were head over heels for Force-sensitives.)

    Rolling your eyes, you dragged Rey along through the field at a near sprint. Her musical laughter in your ear made you run faster and hold her hand tighter. The breeze swept up both of your robes and hair, completely ruining your venerated Jedi facade that Rey had insisted upon since getting lightsabers, which you both wore on belts, though they swung wildly now. If your father could see you right now, he would be so, so proud. Uncle Luke would probably cry.

    At the very edge of the cliff, by the waterfall, you came to a skidding stop with a bark of laughter.

    “Now, this is gonna sound crazy--”

    Rey scoffed. “You always sound crazy.”

    “Aw, thanks,” you said, heavy with sarcasm before continuing. “Uncle Luke told me stories about Jedi during the war, how they’d jump off cliffs without a second thought. Ben and I spent weeks practising how to cushion our falls, just so we could be like the old Jedi.”

    Her eyes were wide. “You what?”

    “Yep! And now it’s your turn!” you declared.

    “What? (Y/N)--”

    Before she could panic, you grabbed her hand again. “We’ll jump together and I’ll stop the fall. You’ll be completely safe.”

    She bit her lip. “You’re sure about this?”

    “Completely,” you reassured her. “Do you trust me?”

    Despite herself and her growing fear, Rey smiled. “I do.”

    “Great! On three.”

    “One.”

    “Two.”

    “Three!” the two of you shouted together, racing toward the edge of the cliff.

    Rey was immediately screaming, out of terror at first, but as you tucked her against your side, holding her close against the resistance, the shriek turned into an exhilarated one. You let out a joyful whoop as you went down, Rey’s face buried in the crook of your neck, which only elated you further.

    As the ground grew closer, you pulled on the Force and the two of you touched ground gently, as if you’d never fallen at all.

    Rey didn’t pull away, but laughed gleefully. “That--” she gasped, breathless, “--was amazing.”

    “Wasn’t it?” you asked, grinning. Then you pointed at the horizon ahead. “But the view’s even better.”

    She followed your gesture and froze.

    You were standing on another lush, grass-covered cliffside, as the waterfall tumbled onto a layered terrain, almost like massive steps. After another two layers, the falls gathered into a lake that stretched out for miles. Surrounding the lake were other cliffs with their own waterfalls, towering trees, and blankets of flora. And in the sky, the sun was nearing the horizon, painting the world in pinks and purples and oranges.

    “Sweet Force,” she whispered.

    Your gaze shifted to the woman next to you. You wore a smile that would make Chewie gag.

    The light of the sunset fell gently on her features, outlining her face with an ethereal sort of glow. Her eyes reflected the sparkling water and the sun, a window into her soul and the flame of fierce bravery that you knew she always carried in it. Lips slightly parted in awe, Rey looked more beautiful now than you had ever seen her, watching something so simple, so unknown and taking a galaxy’s worth of joy from it.

    You wanted to see that look on her face every day. You wanted to drag her across the galaxy and show her every corner of it, if only to watch her smile the way she was now.

    “It’s beautiful,” she said in quiet awe and respect.

    You exhaled sharply. “Yeah. You are.”

    She didn’t process your words for a long moment, but when she did, her head snapped over to look at you and her eyes went wide. “(Y/N)...”

    “Rey, can I-- can I tell you a story?”

    She frowned, uncertain, but nodded. Before you could speak, she reached out and took your hand once more, sending a wave of warmth up your arm.

    You smiled and took a deep breath. “When my grandmother was young, she was the Queen of Naboo and, after that, its Senator. My grandfather was a Jedi and-- and he was tasked with protecting her, so he brought her home, brought her here. She showed him everything about this planet: the sights, the people. He was already in love with her then, but it was here that, with nothing but them, the Force, and the life around them, that she realised she loved him back. He was a kid from Tatooine who had never seen anything like Naboo before and watching him discover something she loved so dearly, she just...knew.”

    “Sounds familiar,” Rey said with a little laugh, her voice soft.

    You echoed the noise before lifting her hand, bringing it to your lips and kissing her knuckles gently. “I have watched you come from nothing, seen you face down the most terrifying people in the galaxy and hardly blink. You terrify and amaze me, Rey, and I-- I think I’ve been in love with you for much longer than I thought.”

    “Oh, (Y/N),” she breathed out. Turning to face you, she put her free hand on your cheek, caressing it with her thumb. “I’ve never-- well, I’ve never really...had anyone. Your family took me in and that-- that means the galaxy to me, having a family. You are so, so kind and so much more than I ever hoped for. I’m nothing. I don’t have anything, (Y/N), just this lightsaber. I don’t even have a name. How could you possibly love me?”

    Unable to resist, you placed a fond kiss to the inside of her wrist. “Take mine.”

    She blanked. “What?”

    “You are not nothing. You are everything to me,” you told her firmly. “If you want more than that lightsaber, more than this family we have, take my name. It belongs to you...and so do I.”

    Rey opened her mouth and then paused, unable to find words. Instead, she decided on an action.

    She grabbed the collar of your robes and pulled your forward, slanting her mouth against yours. You did not squeak as she would claim later, but you did make a wordless noise. After a moment, you pulled her in close, slipping your arm around her waist.

    For an innocent, young desert scrapper who had supposedly never kissed anyone before, she was damn good at it.

    When you finally pulled away, you couldn’t help resting your forehead against hers.

    (A Keldabe kiss, Aunt Ahsoka and Uncle Rex had called it. It was just as intimate as any regular kiss and meant so much more)

    “Rey Organa-Solo has a ring to it,” you murmured against her lips.

    She laughed, a sweet, song-like thing that melted your heart again. “Is that a proposal?”

    “Definitely,” you said, kissing her again. It was soft, but sank into something deeper, the sort of kiss your father would say he and your mother shared after defying death yet again.

    A fairytale moment in a fairytale place. And, technically speaking, you were royalty.

    “I think,” Rey said when you finally let go again, “that we have a lot more to see.”

    You grinned. “Naboo first, love. But after that, believe me, I’ll show you the galaxy.”

River Tags: @hahaboop & @mystoragehatesme

Masterlist

#rey x reader #rey imagine #rey fanfic #rey oneshot #star wars fanfic #star wars x reader #star wars imagine #star wars oneshot #rey #poe dameron #finn #solo!reader #rey x solo!reader #request #anon request #generallynerdy #rivika #river #discovery

[damn-stark]

Crossed Stars Ch.5

A/N— I was thinking about how if you guys want to do some aesthetic boards based on reader and her boys, like a Poe x reader and a Steve x reader aesthetic boards! I would post them on the Masterlist and obviously reblog or post on my page!

Warning- swearing, violence, angst, slow burn, loong chapter! Rollercoster of emotions!!

Pairing- Poe Dameron x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader

Takes place- after Infinity war & after TROS

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

———

Poe quietly watched as Steve and you talked in the distance, a smile on your face much like Steve’s, accompanied by a soft look, one Poe knew well, a look that hurt him. He never knew why you hated him, you were once best friends and then one day out of nowhere you just couldn’t stand the sight of him. He could’ve asked, it was that easy but he was stubborn and a proud man, and well you were as stubborn as him so he never did and let it pass. A choice he always regretted.

He let out a deep sigh and turned to Natasha who was walking his way. She glanced over to what he was previously looking at, and that said everything to her, she shared a slow nod and a half smile, actions Poe didn’t understand, but soon was.

“How long have you been in love with her?”

Poe’s snickered as he shook his head in denial, soon stammering with his answer, “I’m not...in love with her.”

Natasha scoffed, she wasn’t one to be fooled, she knew how to read people and Poe was one of them, he wasn’t hard to read at all. “Don’t lie to me. I know.”

Poe turned back to look at you, his frown replacing the straight line he tried to carry. He wanted to lie again, but it was stupid to do so, he needed to tell someone.

He inhaled deeply as he kept his gaze fixated on you, “since the day I met her.”

—

You quietly admired the fighters that flew off the hanger from the halls of the place you were going to call home now (A huge step up from Tatooine that was for sure) Thinking to yourself that one day that was going to be you. You were manifesting that into the universe. Soon you were going to be one of those pilots. Soon.

“First day here?” A voice asked, causing your shoulders to jump, not expecting anyone to talk to you. You spun to face the voice, instantly seeing an amusing and at the same time an apologetic smile on the mans face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” His eyes showed the same smile he showed on his lips; only his eyes also showed a warmness to them, something that went with the brown of his eyes.

You showed a nervous smile, not knowing how to respond to the charming man in front of you, “it’s okay. Really.” You quickly shared before answering his previous question, “and yes it’s my first day here, is it yours?”

The man kept his gaze locked on yours, seeming as if he was reading into you, just really studying every inch of your face, something that you couldn’t help but feel shy about. He took a moment to answer, but did it nonetheless, this time talking with a bit more of a hidden cockiness in his tone. “Yeah same here.”

“Is it that obvious? Do I really look that lost?” You said, unsure and unaware with the boost of confidence and comfort you felt with this man.

He chuckled, a gesture that made you smile before he answered, “no not lost. Just...how can I explain this, uhh, wide eyed, you look amazed, just really taken by this place.”

“Well I am from Tatooine, there is nothing to see there but sand...and more sand. This place is a complete change of scenery.” You explained.

He nodded in comprehension before asking something else, “what made you join the republic defense fleet out of all things?”

You shook your head while briefly glancing back to the busy hanger in the distance, “you’re going to think it’s a cliche so I won’t respond that.”

“I won’t judge, so please answer.”

“Anakin Skywalker. He inspired me.” You begin with a grin, “I just mean, being from Tatooine I grew up with stories about him and Luke Skywalker, both born and raised there. The more I heard and heard the same stories, the more I realized that we both shared similar childhoods, albeit not compeletly the same but there’s similarities. And after realizing that, they both really became my hero’s, both great pilots that came from nothing, they became famous war hero’s from Tatooine. They got out of there and I wanted to do the same, of being the same.”

You look back to the curly headed man and immediately apologize for rambling on and boring him, “I’m sorry I rambled. I didn’t mean to bore you.”

He remained quiet for a couple seconds, a soft look on his features and a small smile on his lips, he had to blink a couple times to break from his stupor and quickly come up with an answer, “no, no I’m not bored. It was a great. Better than my own reason.” You quirked your eyebrow and before you could ask for his reason he introduced himself with a charming grin, “I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.”

“Y/N. Y/N L/N.” You smiled.

—

“We’re here. This is Tatooine.” You beamed as you practically hopped off your seat to rush to the opening ramp. Not missing Rockets remark to the dry planet.

“This? It’s just a piece of hot rock and sand!”

You roll your eyes and ignore his remark, exiting the the hanger quietly while Steve fell to your side. You looked to him with a smile, grabbing his hand to take him to finally see the ever so anticipated binary suns. “Its not a sunset, but we’ll see that soon. For now though this is Tatooine.” Steve had the same amazed reaction he showed when he saw the flying colors of hyperspace, wide-eyed and amazed by the beauty of space. A world he never knew existed.

“You better hurry before we miss your friend,” Dameron interrupted as he walked past Steve and you.

You scoffed and let go of Steve’s hand, walking ahead to lead the way to the only place where you knew he might be, the tavern. A place where their were all types of people, a lot of them looking for a job to take or a bounty to hunt. Their was the occasional traveler, tourist that just came and went with no trouble. Jaro was, well he was in between.

When you entered the well known tavern like in many of the other places it was quiet, albeit this place had more people than the last. You looked around, but didn’t spot the familiar red headed man you knew, you didn’t give up though, you walked to the bar and ordered drinks before asking the bartender what it was you were looking for. Ignoring the looks and comments sentients shot all of you, especially to Nebula who stood silently at the end of the group, shooting glares to the men that tried to approach her.

“Has Jaro Kestis been around recently?”

The bartender looked at you up and down, leaning on the counter while extending his hand, gesturing what he needed to talk. You scoffed but took out credits nonetheless, handing it to him to finally make him talk.

“The kid has been around, today in fact, he should be back if he knows what’s good for him.” And with that, the sentient turned to attend someone else.

“Let’s wait.” You don’t wait for an answer and instead take a seat in a nearby booth, not being able to stop your leg from anxiously bouncing up and down. Only distracting yourself with the drinks that came to your table. You grabbed the blue moof milk and pushed it towards Steve, “try it.”

He looked at the drink and questioned it, “is it supposed to be blue?”

“Yes.” You interject.

He lifts the drink and takes a small sip, his nose instantly scrunching at the taste on his tongue. When he puts the drink down he feigns a smile and fakes a response, “it’s...good.”

You chuckle softly and take the drink from him. “It’s okay, it’s not for everyone.” You push it towards Natasha and just before you could tell her to taste it, theirs loud commotion from one of the booths behind you, before anyone could ask, Rocket is running to your booth, a new bag hanging around his shoulder and carrying a metal hand...that wasn’t his.

“Rocket?! What did you do?!” Nebula exclaimed.

“We better go.” He urged.

You began to protest his comment, knowing that whatever he was doing was ruining your plans, “we have to wait for Jaro. We can’t leave.”

Before anyone could respond, the same sentients Rocket was arguing with stomped towards you with blasters in hand, “this triangle face monkey stole from us—”

“It was a fair game! I won it fair and square.” Rocket shot back, refusing to let go of the metal arm.

“Rocket.” Nebula hissed.

“We want no trouble. Our friend will return your...arm and we’ll get going.” Steve tried to defend, but the sentients didn’t want to listen, forcing you all to pull out your weapons too.

One of them glared at you, aiming his weapon on your forehead, “we can take all three women. And consider it forgotten.” He smirked.

You show a smug smile and slowly lower your blaster to his crotch, shooting him burning glare, and just before Dameron or Steve could do anything, or before the ugly sentient could say anything else, someone new spoke up.

“Wow, wow hey. No need for violence, let’s break it up.” You look over to the voice noticing who it was. Jaro. He walks up to you and takes the blaster from your hand, pushing the sentient threatening you back. “It’s okay these are,” he looks to the group you’re with and notices the new faces traveling with you, “my...friends.”

The sentients say something to him in their native tongue, something he responds to before they hesitantly leave the area you were in. Jaro turns back to you, his eyes searching for someone missing in the crowd, “where’s your brunette friend?”

You frown knowing exactly who he was referring to, “Rey is gone. We’re actually here to talk about that, you’re the only person I know with the connection to the force, we need you.”

“Hmm,” his little droid climbs to his shoulder as he runs his fingers through his red hair, “why me?”

As quick as you could, you explain why you needed him, that and the only reason being that he could contact force ghosts, the only people you knew would have answers. You knew little of how he could do something like that, Rey had explained a lot about it...but it was all confusing that you only grasped a small part of it.

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that sooner.” He exclaims with a grin, “not here though, let’s go to my ship.”

—

You bite your bottom lip before as you pace back and forth impatiently, waiting for the anticipated answer that Jaro was going to provide on how to bring everyone back. The silence and the tension that was built inside was eating you up inside, no one spoke, they all nervously waited, some showing more hidden emotions than others.

The feeling of not knowing if he had found something was just tearing you apart, you just couldn’t take it. You were going to go crazy.

So instead you quickly exit the ship, inhaling and exhaling deeply as if being inside had been cutting off your oxygen. Being in there in fact had kept you distracted from what you wanted to see. The sunset. Now that you saw it though, the excitement from before was gone.

“It is beautiful, you were right,” you suddenly heard Steve muse, his eyes glued to the soft pink, orange and purple colors painted in the sky.

You sigh, briefly looking at the sunset before looking at Steve, noticing the soft colors basking his face in a gentle way, the colors reflecting in his eyes in a beautiful way.

“I would work all day under the burning suns, it was tiring especially when I was younger. The older I got the more I got used to the work I was forced to do,” You explained, his eyes turning to focus on you, “and everyday it was the same, no matter how old I got. The only thing the got me through the days were thinking of seeing this view. Everyday I would look forward to seeing this because it meant that I was done with the day and I got to enjoy the few hours of freedom.”

Telling your story that few people knew, was a way to distract yourself from the answer that was soon going to be known, it distracted you from the anxiety you felt inside.

“Your parents were hard on you.”

You shake your head in disagreement, “I never got to meet my parents. They died when I was very young.”

“I’m sorry.” Steve mumbled.

“It’s okay,” You assure him, “I tell myself that if I didn’t go through what I went through I wouldn’t be who I am, or be where I am today. A slave turned General.”

Steve frowned slightly at what you said, not really knowing how to respond at first. Not until he finally had the right words to say. “Many people with your background would have gone down a different path, making excuses that it was because what they went through, but not you.” He showed a reassuring smile, walking closer towards you, “I know I barely know you, but I see that you’re strong and don’t take anything from anyone. You’re determined and independent, I admire that.”

You smile sweetly at his comment, feeling your cheeks heat up—But that could totally be because of the heat from the lowering suns, or how close he suddenly was; “thank you.” You say in an unwanted whisper.

He looks down at you and you both stay quiet, nothing else spoken and hearing each other’s light breathing, something that slowly picked up. His eyes only left yours to travel further down to your lips, a movement you soon copied, neither of you making the first move to close that small gap left between you two. You were kind of waiting for him to do it, but he wasn’t doing anything, so instead you captured his lips in a sweet kiss.

The action caught him by surprise, but he soon got over it to kiss you back. You followed by bringing your hand up to cup his cheek, deepening the kiss slightly before you both pulled away. The both of you smiled after and before either of you could express anything about what had just happened—which you didn’t even know exactly, it was different, it felt different compared to other moments you’ve shared with...different people. It was sweet though, that you couldn’t deny, he was sweet.

Dameron appeared on the ramp, “Jaro is back.” He announced dryly, not waiting for an answer to disappear back into the ship.

Steve and you didn’t hesitate to head back inside, your nerves presenting themselves again, and only worsening when you came face to face with Jaro.

The ginger looked to the floor with a frown, making your heart race and tears pool your eyes.

“I talked with the past Jedi Master’s and...” he looked back to all of you, noticing the anticipation and hope in all of your faces, his frown deepening at the sight.

“What did they say.” Natasha interjected what you all were thinking.

Jaro hesitated, swallowing thickly before he answered, “theirs nothing we can do,” he paused briefly, “but accept fate.”

You had failed. You had fucking failed.

A single tear slipped down your cheek, but you didn’t let anymore roll down, and instead tried to hold in every emotion, even if all you could hear repeating in your head were the words Jaro said. They didn’t let you hear anything else said around you, everything just tuned out and time passed slowly and you moved without knowing that you were. Nothing registered in your head but the thought of you failing.

It wasn’t until you were outside once again that you returned back to the failed reality you lived in, hearing the commotion coming from your group.

“What the hell did you do Rocket?” Nebula stressed.

Rocket shrugged innocently, but as he did, Artoo pulled out multiple items from his bag. All high value items, weapons and gadgets used by scoundrels, and lastly a small locked box.

“Thank you a lot tin-can.” Rocket seethed.

“Just give it back.” You urged.

“It doesn’t look like they want to avoid trouble. We better hurry back to the ship.” Natasha exclaimed.

Just like she said, you all hastily made your way back to the Falcon, now avoiding incoming blasts.

“Shit.” You cursed whilst pulling out your blaster and shooting back; “we’re not getting anywhere on foot we need—”

“Speeders!” Dameron pointed, leading the way and stealing the speeders to attempt your escape.

Steve, Rocket, Artoo and you got on one, while Dameron, Natasha, Nebula and BB8 got on a separate one. The owners protested against your actions, but you ignored them, Steve though...well he apologized.

“You!” You directed to Rocket, “drive the speeder, I’m going to get rid of these shits.” Rocket didn’t hesitate to take the wheel before you rushed towards the end of the speeder, pulling out your blaster and throwing one to Steve, “I don’t think your shields or your fists are going to work for this one,” you joked before pulling out a hidden one for yourself.

Blasts kept firing at you and at the group a couple feet behind you, blasts that you avoided and returned with equal fury. A smile made it on your lips as you successfully shot one of the thugs shooting at you, but you’re celebration was cut off as another set of thugs appeared from out of nowhere and joined the fight, slamming into your speeder and shooting your blaster out of your hand.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Your eyes frantically searched the speeder for anything you could use as a weapon, but their was nothing on here but crates.

“Take this one.” Steve suggested, trying to hand you back your blaster, but you declined it.

“No you need it, I’ll find—” Artoo ended your search when he handed you gadgets from Rockets stolen bag. You smiled at your little companion, shouting a compliment for his fast thinking, “what would I do without you?” Quickly you activated the gadgets and threw it under one of thugs shooting at you.

At first you weren’t sure it was going to do anything but soon the thug disintegrated in front of your eyes. “Uh. Okay. That happened.” The thugs at your side shot at you again, this time with more anger. Artoo handed you another one and again you threw it to the thugs speeder. One of them tried to climb on your speeder, but before he could, you kicked him back with your boot, and seconds later instead of disintegrating like his companion the speeder blew up in tiny pieces.

A proud smile made it on your slips and while you spun back to face the remaining thugs, a blast hit your shoulder at the same time, the impact causing you to fall off the speeder. You groaned in pain as you rolled on the ground, feeling the sand burn your exposed skin until you finally came to a stop. You lifted the upper half of your body to search for any weapon or just anything you could use, but only disappointed yourself when you saw nothing but...sand.

At the sound of the thugs approaching you at a quick speed, you strained to get to your feet, standing your ground even without weapons in your hands. Wiping blood off your bottom lip with your hand, and shooting them a burning glare that showed them you weren’t scared. A stupid idea really, but you’ve faced worse and they didn’t make the list of people that scared you.

Before they could attempt to hit you, you were tackled to the ground. Once again burning your skin and hitting your wound as you rolled on the sand, coming to a stop with a groan and noticing that Dameron was the one that had pushed you out of the way, hovering above you, one hand on the ground at the side of your head looking down at you with a narrowed gaze.

“I’ve seen you do stupid things throughout the years I’ve known you, and this is one of them.”

“I can say the same thing for you.” You groaned, registering the sharp burning pain on your wound now.

Dameron stayed quiet for a moment, his eyes examining your body for other wounds beside the obvious one on your shoulder. “You know,” he began smugly, not being able to finish what he was going to say as you fully realized—more like finally decided to acknowledge that he was still on top of you.

“Get. Off. Me.” You hissed, shooting him a glare.

He did, but not without adding a stupid remark. “Oh, you’re very welcome for saving you sweetheart.” He tried to offer his hand to help you up but you ignored it and pushed yourself off your feet instead. You looked back up to see that all the thugs were all gone now, only seeing as Steve and the rest of the group came back for Dameron and you.

From the corner of your eye you looked to Dameron and whispered your response, “thank you.”

He smiled, but that smile soon disappeared as Steve came to your side, expressing the worry Poe also felt, but didn’t express because Steve interrupted him.

“Are you okay?”

You managed a smile that didn’t quite reach your eyes before you assured Steve, “I’ve been through worse, I’ll be okay. Let’s head back to the Falcon.”

—

After returning to the Falcon you kept to yourself, assuring everyone that you were really fine, because you were...for the most part. It was all just hard, dealing with what you heard was hard, you didn’t even want to think about it because when you did all you wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. You couldn’t just simply accept the fact that you had lost, so for a moment while you patched your wounds you solely focused on that and nothing else.

“Stupid shit.” You curse under your breath while trying to put bacta on your blaster wound, which was incredibly hard doing so alone. “Shit,” You groan, before dropping the bacta on the ground when you heard the loud knock on the door. “I’m okay Steve. Really!” You shout over your shoulder as you drop to the ground to pick the bacta.

The door slides open and just as you were going to assure Steve you noticed that it was someone else completely, “Dameron.”

His eyes fall to your wound and then dropped to see what you were doing, following your every movement until you stood back up and kept trying to patch yourself up. Again.

“You need help?” He asked, walking up to you regardless of your answer.

“No.” You strained and lied, “You can leave.”

Dameron rolled his eyes at your stubborn response and turned to walk away, without a response or another attempt to help. Because after all you had your....“boyfriend” Steve to help you instead. You didn’t need him when you had Steve—well Poe didn’t know if you and Steve were dating, he had seen the kiss but he never asked, only guessed.

However the case was though, it didn’t matter, you preferred Steve, you liked Steve. As much as that thought hurt Poe, he needed to accept that you and him...well it was never going to happen. He just needed to let you go.

But he couldn’t. He just fucking couldn’t. So he swallowed his pride and marched back into that room, snatching the bacta from your hand even against your protests and annoyed scoff.

Neither of you said anything for a moment, sitting in silence and letting Dameron patch you up. You didn’t groan, whine or squirm around every time he touched your wound. After all you were used to the pain, years of fighting a war how could you not?

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dameron asked as he walked around you to grab the gauze from the counter.

You knew exactly what he was referring to and the answer was a blunt, “no.”

He sighed, debating if he should discuss what the both of you had heard, knowing that it was a conversation you both needed and something he wanted to let you talk about, but he also knew that you wouldn’t say anything on the regard if you weren’t ready. So instead he choose to leave that as it was and continued to wrap your wound.

When he moved to stand in front of you, you tried to ignore how close he actually was. Tried your best to avoid looking up at him, tried to ignore the feeling of his warm breaths that came out of his nose hit your own. Unknowingly swearing that if you really focused you would hear his heart beat in his chest, you tried to avoid focusing on the exposed tan skin that his slightly unbuttoned shirt showed, the way his sliver chain seemed to shine around his neck.

But nonetheless as much as you did try, your eyes ended up on his face, noticing that the clean face he once had was now covered in dark stubble. “You’re growing your beard?”

Dameron smirked, his eyes meeting your own, “You like it?”

You swallowed thickly and avoided eye contact, “I—I”

He chuckled lightly, pulling up your tanks strap, his hand lingering on your exposed shoulder for a moment before he shoved his hands in his pockets, staying still in front of you even after he was finished, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Take it however you like,” you remarked, “just know it makes you seem old.”

“We are old sweetheart.”

“You maybe,” you teased, “not me.”

He let out an amused huff of air, your gaze once again locking with his for brief moment before you pulled yours away; in that moment Poe wanted to talk about Steve and you, to just really clear the air, but as he parted his lips to do so, he couldn’t. Instead he decided that it was best to accept fate. Or whatever the fuck Jaro said. Even if Poe didn’t want to.

“Do you need help?” You asked in almost a whisper, “I just mean you must’ve gotten your skin burnt when we fell.”

“No,” he assured you with a smile, “it was just a couple scratches, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Sure, you weren’t.”

Finally after a long moment of neither of you moving from where you were, you came to your full senses and pushed him out of the way to walk out of the room, and before you could walk out he spoke up.

“What happened?”

You stopped by the door and looked over your shoulder, quirking your eyebrow at his question, a gesture that made him continue.

“With us? I just mean we were once best friends...maybe something more, and you just out of nowhere started hating me. Why?”

Way to ruin the mood.

You sighed and fully turned around to face him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

He scoffed and shook his head, slowly making his way to you. “You always say that. Why don’t you just give me a clear answer? What did I do?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” You try to walk away but he’s quick and grabs your arm, turning you to face him to see that he was serious.

“Just tell me. I...just tell me.”

Your eyes began to water and you did want to explain why. Why it was that you began to hate him, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to explain, not when you still hadn’t talked about the other thing. Not when you knew that you would break down in front of him.

“Leave me alone.” You pulled your arm out of his grasp and sped away, letting him just watch your quick retreating figure. He would’ve followed, he really would’ve, but he didn’t feel like arguing with you.

Even if he really should have pressed further. He should have talked to you.

—

“A symbol to the nation. A hero to the world. The story of Captain America is one of honor, bravery and sacrifice.”

You quietly walked down the path of the museum, watching in admiration every story, photo, and paintings that decorated the walls of the museum. Some place you had wondered to in your attempt to clear your mind. You just walked and walked, getting onto a train and then walking some more. Avoiding the loud protest in the streets, all of them about the hero’s you were staying with.

All you needed and wanted to do was just clear your mind on what had recently happened, your kiss with Steve, the talk that Dameron wanted to have and the knowledge that you had failed. It all just flooded your mind. You just needed to be alone for a moment. Even if you knew that everything was just waiting to overflow. It was all just going to break eventually. Sooner or later you were going to have to face the problems.

In moments like these though is when you missed General Organa and Rey, they always helped you, always seemed to have an answer for everything. Especially General Organa.

“Denied enlistment due to poor health, Steven Rogers was chosen for a program unique in the annals of American Warfare. One that would transform him into the worlds first super solider.”

You stood grounded for a minute, watching the transformation that Steve went through. Coming to realization that apparently in earth years he was one hundred years old, but he didn’t age because of ice and a serum?

Weird...and yet something that didn’t bug you or make you see him any different. He was just a man. No serum changed that.

He was a great man, he was a gentlemen and nicer than other men you knew and others that you’ve dated.

Perhaps. Maybe something more can happen between the both of you. The kiss proved that and well you wouldn’t be against it....would you?

Their was also that other person that you couldn’t stop thinking about. And he. Well he...was different.

Fucking stars. Why couldn’t this all be easy?

You ran your hand through your hair and let out a exhausted sigh, making your way out of the museum and slowly starting your path back to the compound, knowing that they should be wondering where you were. You had left without saying anything, mostly because you didn’t want to talk.

While trying to make your way back though you noticed someone was following you. Their face was hidden behind a creepy green mask and they had a black hood on. Something that matched the protesters from before.

Ignoring the strange figure you proceeded to walk faster, heading back to the train station from before. In the moment the station came to view, two more had randomly appeared, one sporting a red mask and the other one with a mask of a man with golden hair.

You reached for your blaster, but came out empty handed, realizing that you had left back it in your room. “Fuck.” Quickening your pace you slightly look over your shoulder seeing them still on your heels. When you looked forward again their was someone now in front of you with a mask of...Captain America. Without stopping to talk, you tried to walk past the stranger, but you were suddenly grabbed by the men behind you.

You kicked your feet and struggled, tried to scream out, but suddenly one of them behind you slapped their hand on your mouth, slapping a wet cloth on your nose. It carried a weird smell, and the more you tried to fight their hold, the weaker you began to feel, the once clear view was blurred and everything began to spin. Your fight became nothing and your eyes were slowly dropping until...

....Nothing.

.

.

.

A/N- Team Rogers? Or Team Dameron?

Tagged- @itsbuckyb1tch​​, @kaitlynw011​​ , @blushingwueen​​ , @80sthottie, @thescarletknight2014​​ , @bbuckysbeardd​​ , @ellvswriting​​ , @sakurashortstack​​ , @whatthefrickfrackwereyouthinking​, @danicalifxrnia​​ , @lanatheawesome​​​ , @perryoncw​​ , @panic-onthegroundsofbrooklyn​​ , @abysshaven​​ , @valeecruz16​​ , @gummy-bears16 , @winchescumberholland​​ , @a-somehow-functioning-dumbass​​ , @randomhanabananas​​ , @just-a-sad-chicken-nugget-xxx​

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[victoriareyloficlists]

26/11/2020 Additions to Reylo Work Environment

These fics have been added to the Enemies-to-Lovers list located here.

Boss/Employee Relationship

The Christmas Conundrum by Zoa (AO3 2019  Rated T Complete, 9 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: After getting fired from her job right before the holidays, Rey is accidentally mistaken for an abandoned baby’s mother and is forced to take care of him. Ben Solo is the boss guilted into giving Rey her job back. Confusion, chicanery, and romance ensue.) that's where you take me by blessedreylo (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Single dad Ben asks his daughters nanny Rey to live with them during quarantine so she can help take care of her while he works remote. Lots of domestic proximity and mutual pining ensues.) Clumsily Yours by Hellyjellybean (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, 3 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey is injured at work. She is shocked when her boss Ben Solo carries her to his car and takes her to hospital much to her embarrassment. He is over-bearing and over-protective of her during her stay and Rey doesn’t understand...although it is sort of sweet in a way...could it be that the big bad executive Ben Solo actually likes her?) Threads by Hellyjellybean (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben Solo is a cantankerous boss known for throwing away any gift his underlings give him. When newbie Rey decides to knit everyone a scarf for the start of fall, she's warned that Solo will not appreciate it. Everyone is surprised when he shows up the next day wearing it.) Go And Catch A Falling Star Chapter 5 by Ayearandaday (AO3 2020  Rated G Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben reluctantly helps his friend Kaydel pick up lingerie. In the dressing room, he runs into his intern Rey as she's trying out some items.) You Make Me Weak by Hellyjellybean (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey decides to faint to get her boss's attention.) Not your omega by riseofskyloren (AO32020  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Johnson and Ben Solo cannot stand each others, she's way too joyful and he's just so cynical. They're definitely not mate material, not a chance. But what happened when the person you despise the most in the entire world becomes the one your body's craving?) Anonymous by andabatae (AO32019  Rated E Complete, 4 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: At the annual Halloween office party, Ben and Rey hook up, but neither one knows who the other is because of their costumes.) He Made It Through the Wilderness (somehow he made it through) by LovesBitca8 (AO32019  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey has a one night stand with Ben Solo, her hot, moody, and cocky coworker. It's the most awkward lay of her entire life.) Devil Spawn by OptimisticBeth (AO32020  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: After a hot anonymous encounter at The Annual Organa Halloween Ball, Rey realizes she slept with the horrible guy who is her new boss. But he doesn't recognize her! And he asks her to track down his mystery hookup, which she totally agrees to do (wink wink, haha, she's lying). But then she finds out she's pregnant! ) Unmasked by SageMcMae (AO32018  Rated E Complete, 5 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: When Rey meets a masked guy at Maz's annual Halloween party, she is instantly smitten. Her mystery man is perfect -- compassionate, protective and a dedicated Star Wars fan. It's like he was made for her. There's only one problem. She doesn't know Kylo Ren is actually her asshole coworker, Ben Solo.) Miss Johnson & the Professor by ElegyGoldsmith (AO32020  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Professor Ben has his TA Rey accompany him to a conference in Japan but she accidentally booked a single room.) If You Can't Beat Em'.....Join Em' by PrinceofDarkness15 (AO32020  Rated E Incomplete, 4 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: "I really fucking hate you." She grits. "Oh, sweetheart believe me." says Kylo with a sensual smirk that makes her cunt clench. "The feeling is entirely mutual.") The Elevator by someonesbeenhere (AO32020  Rated M Complete, 6 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: A dirty one-shot turned multi-chapter fic. Hard working Tech Support Rey is working late one evening when she gets stuck in a broken elevator with a complete stranger. He manages to distract terrified Rey through some rather promiscuous means. Unfortunately for Rey, her seductive saviour isn’t a random from another department but none other than the CEO of the First Order company, Ben Solo himself.) Coworkers

Lizzy Solo by Hellyjellybean (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, 3 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Its bring your kids to work day and little Lizzy Solo meets Rey for the first time. "Are you the same Rey that my dad told Uncle Hux he was half in love with?") A Child and a Mortgage by AverageEpaulet (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: It was bring your child to work day. Whoever came up with that bright idea had a special place reserved in hell for all Ben Solo cared. He loved his daughter, more than anything, but that didn't mean he liked flaunting her around like a trophy with ”Got laid at least once” engraved on it.) A Reylo Christmas Carol Chapter 2 by altargaryen (AO3 2019  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben and Rey find themselves under some mistletoe.) A Reylo Christmas Carol Chapter 3 by altargaryen (AO3 2019  Rated G Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben wants to know what Rey wants for the office Secret Santa.) In Bloom by Celia_and (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 4 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: The flowers that bedeck her skin don’t lie. Ballet dancer Rey is in love with her partner, Ben. But the years go by and his skin stays resolutely, devastatingly blank. He doesn’t love her. But when his hands are on her body, she can pretend.) Spending Valentine's Day Solo by jyn-z-solo (jynzandtonic) (AO32020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey has the hots for her coworker, Ben, and decides to send him a Valentine's Day card. While at the shop choosing one, she bumps into him. Too embarrassed to confess it’s for him, she lies about the intended recipient. Ben is in love with Rey and gutted the card is for someone else!) let's taco-bout it by kylorithic (AO32020  Rated M Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey invites Ben Solo, resident HR grump, to eat tacos. things escalate from there.) User Not Found by violethoure666 (AO32018  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: It's not Rey's fault that her computer literally never works, but tell that to the grumpy IT guy who never leaves the basement.) Give in To Me by LoveofEscapism (AO32018  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: At the office Christmas party, Rey has one too many wines and ends up spilling her darkest secret to none other than her sexy co-worker Ben Solo. Hilarity and some sexy bathroom shenanigans ensue.) Sensual Storytime by andabatae (AO32019  Rated E Complete, 7 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: When Rey Johnson starts a new job, her initially antagonistic relationship with Ben Solo from IT turns into friendship... and maybe something more. Little does she know he also moonlights as Kylo Ren, the creator of her favorite audio erotica. One day at the office, worlds collide, and she realizes the sweater vest-wearing nerd of her dreams is also the tattooed fantasy man she listens to while getting off every night...) Ben, You Ignorant Slut Chapter 1 by JJJJ12 (AO32019  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Johnson is forced to sit across from irritating salesman Ben Solo. He’s arrogant, prone to temper tantrums, but worst of all, good at his job. To complete the prank of all pranks, she sends him a love letter hoping to turn his world upside down.) Tits v. Porny by jeeno2 (AO32019  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben Solo and Rey Johnson are attorneys, working together to defend their client against claims of plagiarism and copyright violation brought by a published author of original A/B/O fiction. It involves them having to read a lot of online porn and leads to some pretty awkward moments.) Trapped by jeeno2 (AO32019  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey stares at him as she processes what he’s telling her. Then, in spite of herself, she starts to laugh. Ben Solo, the nightmare of every junior associate and paralegal in this firm, somehow got himself stuck in the copier. And now he needs her help to get free.) Client Relationship

Matchmaker, Matchmaker by meeda (AO3 2019  Rated E Complete, 10 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Niima Compatibility Application Results - NEAR PERFECT MATCH If her brain wasn’t so busy being shocked, Rey probably could’ve calculated how much of a statistical anomaly this result truly was. There in black-and-white was the name of the unlucky bastard that had the honor of being her match: Benjamin Organa Solo.) say it with a braid by reylo_mo (writermo) (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: An AU where hairdresser Ben loves to style actress Rey’s hair in braids for events. There’s even a particular type he always goes for.One day Leia texts to ask him why he hasn’t brought his fiancée over for dinner. Thing is... he’s been giving Rey Alderaanian wedding braids.)

#Reylo #reylo fanfic

[mysteryofren]

You will never forget

part 10 of So Happy Together

part 9

  The  rest of the week went by slow. There was a lot of crying. A lot of late nights with the group. A lot of Elaine coming home to you crying. It felt like a stab to the guy every time you saw him. Your friends knew this, so they decided to start eating lunch out on the lawn to reduce the risk of you all having to see him. You felt bad. Ben was Matt's brother, and even though he assured you he didn’t wanna see him either. You couldn't help, but feel guilty. You wish you could switch classes to avoid having to see him every morning, but you didn't want to go that far. It was finally Friday, and on your way out of calculus Professor Windu had stopped you. 

“I'm concerned. Your grades have never been this low.” he said handing you all your work from the week. 

“Im sorry sir, but a B is still passing.” you immediately regretted saying that.

He sighed before going to close the door. “Yes. a B is still passing, but not for you. For as long as I can remember I've always striven for nothing less than an A. Now you're scoring low B’s, and I even heard from other teachers that you skipped the other day. What's going on?”

“It's personal.” you flipped through the papers. Looking at all the grades. Sure enough you had gotten an 80-85 on all of them. 

“Listen. Your grandfather and I are friends. I know he wouldn't be happy with me if i saw something was going on with you and didn't reach out to see if you were alright.”

You stayed staring at the papers. He walked over and grabbed them. He tossed them in the trash and opened his draw digging out new sheets.

“I remember being a teenager.  I remember how hard it was, but i've gotten to know you well these past few years, and i know you are strong.“ he handed the new worksheets over to you. 

“I know everyone goes through things. I understand if you don't exactly feel like talking to some old guy about it, but i know you're smart. I know you can do better. Redo do them over the weekend. Ill ignore the first ones and put the new ones in the grade book.”  

You put the sheets in your binder. “Thank you sir. I appreciate your concern. I'll get these done.”

“You're a good kid. You'll get through whatever you're going through, and you'll come out of it stronger.” 

 You walked out of his class, smiling. The perk of having your grandfather, was that he was well loved. That meant no matter where you went in town someone was always looking out for you. Lunch came quick and the day was already better than previous ones. You greeted your friends on the lawn and sat. you all talked about things you loved doing, and even started planning a day to go out together. You had felt so much better than you had been lately. You took out the instax camera and started taking pictures of your friends. You and Matt were talking when Phasma had picked up the camera and taken a picture of you both. You asked her to take another where you both were posing. He wrapped one arm around you and gave a weird thumbs up with an open smile while you laughed. just then you heard someone clear their throat behind you guys. 

“I'm gonna need the car this weekend.” Ben said looking at Matt. He slid his arm off of you and looked at him. 

“No way! We were planning on hanging out this weekend and I was gonna drive us!” he said motioning to the group. You noticed the death glares that Hux and Phas were giving Ben. 

“Well i'm taking Rey out.” he looked over at you. You tried to hide the hurt you felt but failed miserably. “I'm sure you can find another way to get to where you're going.” 

  He walked off. The little bit of progress you had made was tossed out the window when he said that. He had ignored you to date Rey. She had everything she wanted. Why did she need him too? You felt tears starting to build up again. When you felt a mass of weight hit you. Everyone had gotten up to hug you. 

“Trust me, had I known he was dating Rey I would've said something!!”

“It’s okay,” you said, trying to even your breathing, ”it's not your fault.”

“Don't worry we're gonna have an awesome day tomorrow. You'll have so much fun you'll forget all about him.” Phasma said, pulling away.

“Just imagine me trying to skate. The image itself is hilarious, imagine watching me do it.” Hux had said. You laughed as everyone went back to their spots. You all continued planning, as you tried pushing thoughts of Ben to the back of your head. You tried not to imagine him and Rey together. You tried not to see him kissing her the way he kissed you. You were failing miserably. 

Later that day you and Matt presented your projects. You had received an A, and Matt wanted to celebrate. You agreed to go out to get ice cream with him. Before you left you needed to go get changed. While changing Elaine walked in. 

“Hey whatcha getting dressed for?” she asked as she put her soccer bag down. 

“Matt wants to get ice cream to celebrate us getting an A on our project.” you informed her while getting your shoes on. 

“Cool, can i come?”

“Yeah I don't see why not.”

“Cool ill meet you guys there! I gotta shower and change.”

  You walked out of your dorm and met up with Matt outside. You guys walked over to the small town like area by the campus. You guys talked about your day, and talked about tomorrow.

“By the way did you see phasmas text in the chat about it being 80’s night?”

“Yeah dude im so excited i already have my outfit picked out! It's gonna be so much fun” 

“Me too luckily my glasses already fit the era well.” he said while pointing at his glasses. 

“Have you ever been skating before?”

“Once when we were kids Kylo taught me and Ben how to do it, oddly he was like a skating pro.”

“What's Kylo like? I mean i know you, and ya know ben sort of, but I don't hear much about him.” 

He pulled out his phone, and showed you a bunch of pictures of kylo and him. He looked more like Ben than Matt did. In fact. You could even say he's hotter than Ben. he had long dark hair, with a wide nose just like Ben, and Matt. in every photo he showed you he had a serious look on his face. Like he was upset about something constantly. He also had a large scar that went from his cheek, over his eye, and into his forehead. 

“He looks mean, but deep down Kylos really is a great guy. He's studying to be a lawyer at harvard. It's his last year.” 

“You sound really close to him.” 

“Im close to both of them, but kylo has always talked to me no matter what. Ben has always seen me as the dorky little brother he doesnt wanna be seen with. We're still close though.”

  You both arrived at the plaza where the ice cream shop was. It was a long walk, but it had been worth it. You guys made your way inside and sat down waiting for Elaine. You both talked and joked around when she finally got there. You saw the way he looked at her. He had it bad for her. He looked at her like she was what made the world spin around. He loved her. Too bad she really was super focused on school. They would make a cute couple. They Are totally opposite, but the same at the same time. He was tall and always trying to make himself smaller. Meanwhile she was short, but she walked and talked like she was 6’6 with two guns. She had such dark and elegant features. Dark skin, with long curly pitch black hair that made her green eyes appear as if they were glowing. Her face was perfectly chiseled. She looked angelic. It was completely opposite of the blonde headed, pale man sat by her. 

“Matt, it's good to see you again, i can't wait to go out with you guys tomorrow.”

“I didn't know you were coming.” he said, hugging her. 

“Phasma invited me today, it's gonna be awesome, I love 80’s night.”

“We should add her to the group chat so she's updated on all our bullshit.”  you said as you pulled out your phone to add her. You unlocked it and saw you had a message. It was from ben. Elaine and Matt walked to the counter to order when you read the message. 

‘So you're hanging out with my brother now? Don't use him to get to me. It's not fair to him.’

What the hell was wrong with him. You knew Matt before you knew Ben, you just never hung out with him before. Even then it was him who reached out first. He had a lot of fucking nerve. 

‘That's pretty bold of you to assume that I care that much. Your brother and I have been friend’s a while now, not that it's any of your business. Besides you have Rey. You don't need to worry about what i'm doing.’

Just then they had come back, Elaine holding your regular order. She handed it to you, and you must've looked mad.

“Uh oh. We were gone for like 3 minutes. What happened?” her and Matt sat in front of you. You held up your phone showing them the text. 

“Oh what an asshole. No offense Matt.” Elaine said.

“None taken, that's an asshole move. The response is perfect though.”

“Yeah you killed it with that. Put the bitch in his place.”

Matt held his ice cream in the middle of you all and smiled. “To putting bitches in their place.” 

“TO PUTTING BITCHES IN THEIR PLACE!!” you all yelled as you bumped your hands into each other careful not to have your ice cream cones touch.

  You all laughed and looked around at all the people who stared at you for what you had just said. For some reason you didn't care, you laughed and ate your ice cream. You stopped for a moment. Taking in what you were seeing. You took out the instax camera that you now carry all the time. As your friends laughed you took a photo. You wanted to remember this moment. This was one of the good times. You felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. You ignored it as you ate your ice cream and talked. Soon you guys decided to leave luckily Elaine had driven herself here so you didn't have to walk back. You let Matt sit up front so he could be closer to her. You watched them closely. It was clear she was interested in him too.. You knew her though. She genuinely was focused on school work.

“Hey I got a switch in my room, you guys wanna come play mario kart or something?”

Elaine had pulled into the school parking lot. “Hell yeah dude, Y/N you coming?” 

“Nah, I gotta redo my calculus work since Windu was nice enough to give me a second chance at it.” you all got out of the car and she locked her car, and took Matts arm.

“Guess it's just you and me Solo.” she said as she led him off. You watched as Matt fumbled over his words as they walked off. 

You got to your dorm, and unlocked the door. You automatically put some upbeat music, and got started on the calculus work. You danced around as you figured out the problems, still high off the fact that you told Ben off. You may be heartbroken, but you'd be damned if he accused you of pretending to be Matt's friend. That reminded you he had messaged you back earlier. You decided to check what he had said. 

‘Just. stay away.’

  You scoffed. Who the fuck did he think he was? Did he really expect you to just stop being friends with Matt because of him? You threw the phone on your bed and continued to do your work. Soon enough you were done with it. You would be able to give it to him Monday morning. You put the worksheets back in your binder and packed a bag. You planned on going to your grandfathers after your night out with the group. While folding your clothes up you thought you heard a knock. You paused your music and heard it again. It couldn't have been Elaine. She had a key. You walked slowly towards the door to look outside the peephole when you heard someone yell from the other side.

“I know you're in there. You can't pretend like you're not.” it was Ben's voice. What the hell was he doing? 

“So what you're gonna ignore me now? Huh?”

“If I remember correctly you were the one ignoring me.” you yelled through the door. “I'm just returning the favor asshole.”

“Stay the hell away from my brother. I've got enough going on. I don't need you around making things harder.”

“Fuck off Solo. he's my friend. You were too.” you said trying not to cry. 

“You're delusional if you thought what we had was a friendship.” you heard him slam his fist against your door then storm off. Without thinking you walked out and yelled down the hall. 

“You can deny the fact that we were friends, but you can't deny the fact that you kissed me. Twice Solo! Twice! That's something you will never forget! Not as long as i'm around!” tears streamed down your face as he walked off ignoring you. People were walking out of their dorms to see what was happening. They stared at you as you walked back into your dorm. That man was going to be the death of you.

#ben solo fanfiction #bensoloxreader #ben solo x reader #ben solo #teen!ben solo #star wars fanfiction #star wars tfa #star wars #star wars au #star wars tros #star wars x reader #teen!reader #reader insert #matt the radar technician

[anabe23bookwormstuff]

Who is Ben Solo? P.I

NOTE:  So this was a sad part to write but I figured that the resistance wouldn't just forget about Ben's past and that his character also needed to prove in some that he is no longer Kylo, or that he not only wants to be in the light because of Rey but because he always felted compeld to go back and know he has the chance to do something for a group of people to ment a lot for his mother. I don't know kids, I'm sorry but happy times are coming I promise. Now enjoy.

"I'll see you soon then" Rey was saying goodbye to Ben with a small smile as they sat on her bed.

"I'm always close if you need me" Ben reminded her.

"Huh, I can't forget it" she was teasing, remembering how once she hated the thing that connected them so much but today was grateful to understand and count on.

"It's okay ,Rey" he stroke her fingers with his thumb. It was good he knew what went on on her mind because she couldn't explain the bad feeling she had.

"I think it's weird they only requested my assistance..." he agreed but didn't want to worry her further.

"You'll be back soon" she hugged him and he kissed the top of her head.

They changed and went out, Rey had to meet with Jannah and check with Poe if there were any more instructions for her.

For some reason Ben felt like there were more eyes on him than usual, he wondered if maybe it was because they somehow figured that he spent the night with Rey and they a problem about it, or maybe the preassure of trying to make everyone realize he wasn't bad anymore had him paranoid.

"Rey, I got you and Jannah some food packed for your trip since, you know, you kind of have to go know" Finn walked to her and hugged her.

"Hey" He muttered quickly to Ben and then ignored him. Ben knew that Finn had something against him but, he could work on that later. He was another name on his never ending list of people to apologize to.

"Morning" Ben replied.

"Rey, I got everything on the ship, are you ready?" Janah appeared followed by Poe and soon there was a small circle of people ready to say goodbye to them.

"Ummm yeah, I'm ready to leave whenever you tell me." she waved to her.

"Well if you'd leave know it'd be great, the coordenates are programmed and they are waiting for you in Keetar" Poe said.

"Well then, goodbye my friends. See you in three days." Rey sighed and said to everyone.

"Come on" Poe said as the group dispersed and only Finn, Ben and him scolted Rey and Jannah to the ship.

Rey squeezed Ben's hand and shared a smile before walking up the platform.

"Wait, wait! Rey, Lady, you forgot something" a droids voice could be heard.

D-O, Rey recognized. The tiny droid carried something behind him and went as fast as he could, Ben bent down to take what the droid was carrying so he could deliver it.

"Thanks D-O" he said picking up Rey's lightsaber and walking up to give it to her.

"Your saber"

"How could I forget it? Well, I think I won't need it, or at least hope so but it's good to have it." she put it on her waist band and resisted the urge to kiss Ben goodbye again.

"Thanks D-O!" Rey shouted hoping to be heard over the engine.

"Good luck" Ben waved and got down.

Rey took her seat next to Jannah on the ship and they started flying.

For some time none of them talked. Rey hadn't got much time to meet Jannah and she was not feeling like asking questions right now.

Thankfully Jannah understood her and only made small talk about the directions and such if she needed them.

"The last time you had to deal with the troopers they requested to join the society right?" Jannah asked when they were near Keetar, grounding Rey back to the ship.

"Yeah, apparently they just didn't want to leave because they didn't have a duty to anyone anymore, and they had gotten used to being in Naboo so, yeah they wanted to be a part of it"

"And how did you manage to do it?"

"Talking... for once, though I do fear that they had to pass a trial and some check some requierements before the queen allowed them to live there." she shrugged.

"That's so unfair" Jannah's hands tightened on the controls.

"Why is it unfair? they are stormtroopers, they may have executed people, harrased them, tortured them, I don't know. I think it was fair for them to go through a process and then given a chance to join society. They coldn-"

"They are just lookin for somewhere to belong" Jannah interrupted her.

"Not all troopers are like you or Finn, not all of them regret what they've done or changed their minds before hurting someone"

"So would you like me to go to trial too? or Finn, do we have to prove you in any other way that we want to help?" she was being defensive.

"What... I-I never said anything like that okay? I'm just telling you how Queen Zorya handled th-"

"Your boy Ben joined society just like nothing happened though, no trial, no answer to his actions." Rey was going to say something but Jannah only spoke louder like she knew Rey was trying to defend him.

"Don't you think you're being a little hypocrite, Rey? Huh? He executed people, harrased them, tortured them, even worst he destroyed planets! and yet, he gets to come back just like nothing. He answers to no one and gets a pat on the back and a place in the resistance wit-"

"Was that why you wanted to join me? To complain about him and how much you hate him?!"

"No, but if I have a chance then... you may as well know that I'm not the only one who can't forget who he is!"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore" Rey saw no good on extending this argument. People would see Ben as they wanted to. Patience, she rememberd, Maz said she must have patience, and making enemies with this girl before even getting the chance to really know her was no good either.

"I have the right to tell you my opinions about him, and my opinion on the issues we've come her to look after" Jannah kept going.

"You do, I just don't want to argue further about it"

"You're not the queen or something, I hope you-" a beep called their attention, they were minutes away from getting to their destiny and soon they'll have to look for a place to land on.

"I don't think I'm anything, okay? I don't want to fight with you... or anyone. That's all Jannah, and I apologize if my comments have been rude" Jannah didn't answer but quit fighting and sighed.

Outside they could already see the purple mountains that made Keetar so interesting, the clear rivers were extending below them and a little yellow snow had started attatching to the glass.

The beauty of this place brought peace to the girls, another ship indicated them where to land and the ladies soon guided them to the King's room.

Back at the base Ben was left with the realization that this would be his first time without Rey here, he was aware that the main reason people either stayed away from him or were minimally kind to him was because she protected him in some way.

Like the first day he was here, that the medical team didn't want to help him until she begged them to do something.

He decided to go for breakfast and then make a plan of what he'll do for the next three days, also he was still thinking of ways to apologyze to Chewie.

Ben took a tray from the large pile on the siting area and then went to the few pots available to check his options.

There was a gooey thing that he was mostly sure would be oatmeal and some type of dish that combined things from the garden with something that smelled sweet. He went for the oatmeal instead and then headed to look for  a place to eat.

He had gotten so used to eating wih Rey that not being with her felt like some kind of betrayal, like something was missing to his morning. Also at this time all the tables were mostly full and he realized, not really to his surprise, that no one wanted him to join them.

They would either turn their backs on him or simply try and cover any empty spaces. He couldn't blame them.

He was walking to his quarters when someone called out for him.

"Do you want to come sit with us?" Kaydel asked, waving her hand from a table close to the improvised wall of the area. The other two guys siting with her didn't look enthusiastic at all with this idea.

"Thanks but I have something to do, see you later" he politely declined and kept walking away.

Once in his room he let out a deep breath he hadn't realize he was holding and then sat down leaning on his bed.

He played with the spoon and his food for a while, trying to feel hungry. It wasn't that the food wasn't good but he was quickly loosing his appetite.

He actually liked some of the food options they had around the day, they felt home made, something he barely got to experience himself and it was something so different than what he had at the first order that it constantly worked to remind him of who he no longer and didn't want to be.

The sound of Rey's droid brought a small smile to his lips.

"Master Ben, when is master Rey coming back?" the droid knocked on Ben's door whit it's wheel a couple of times before he opened it.

"Well in three days she should be back here" he said taking a spoon full of oatmeal.

"Oh" the droid made a sad noice.

"Is there anything you need buddy?"

"Just this squeaky wheel, see? squeaky" the droid went back and forth trying to prove it's point and Ben chuckled.

"Didn't she oiled that wheel two days ago?" he took a can of oil from his working desk and kneeled.

The droid shook his head like saying no.

"Liar" Ben muttered amuzed with the droid.

"Thanks, Ben" D.O said before leaving him alone again.

No problem, he thought.

When he fnished eating he wrote a list of the things he had to do at least for the rest of the day, they included helping Poe, finding a way to apologize to Chewie, think of a way to apologize to Finn, start writing his proposal of what to do with the remains of the first order and their options, gather and archive information of the most affected plantes, the ones he and Rey had alread visited and the ones that were doing okay but had no communication with them.

At some point he heard BB-8 following someone and he tentatively wrote down: build a droid? he could maybe use the help... and the company.

He headed outside tot ackle the first thing on his list.

"Hey Maz, is Poe around?" he hadn't thought about him maybe going out or something.

"Hello Ben, how are you?" she smiled at him.

"Good, thanks. How are you?"

"Keeping up. Have you already eaten anything? I didn't saw you in the morning"

"Umm yeah, I got up early don't worry" she didn't retain him any  longer so he kept walking.

"Hi... I... was wondering if you needed help with anything"

"Hey, well we are getting the boxes of provisions to the kitchen so if you want to lift some things that'll be great" Poe offered.

"Sure" Ben rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and followed Poe to the ship where a line of men and women were takng things down.

A girl he was almost sure was called Rose handed him a big box and with the force he decided to lift another pair, hoping to help.

He heard someone mutter behind his back, show-off, and sadly realized that people took it as if he was wavng his advantage on their faces, when he was just trying to help optimize things.

An hour later they were done and decided to head to eat.

"Are you coming?" Poe patted Ben's back as he walked and noticed that Ben was staying back.

"Maybe I'll eat later... I don't want to- put preassure on anyone" he pursed his lips and Poe reminded what Rey asked him yesterday.

When did he notice that Ben wasn't the same as Kylo, well this could be a wonderful example or earlier helping them. He felt bad for the guy, well not too much, but enough to try and include him.

"It's okay, come on. We're discussing some things after so there's no point in you leaving" Poe insisted and started walking hoping that he would follow.

The strange looks at him weren't absent during their break, but at least no one complained.

Ben had never spent time with so much people during meals before coming to the resistance, or heard so much noice, so much noices and the laughs. He could maybe compare it to his time at Luke's temple but... even there, he didn't think the other kids were as loud.

To his surprise he learned that he enjoyed listening to people's jockes, memories or even gossip. He was fascinated by how close these people were to each other and the natural flow that seemed to suround them.

He could guess who were together, who were friends for a long time and who were knew in the group. Of course no one was as knew at him, or as left out, but still.

"Hey! Jannah and Rey have landed and I got the update from most of the rulers on you know, the voting thing" Finn said coming by, the moment he showed up people try to make some space for him to sit down.

"Don't move, don't move. I'll eat during the meeting, which is in like five minutes so, I'm getting my tray." He winked at them and raised his brows when he noticed that Ben was also with the group.

He offered to take his tray and the ones from the people who had finished too, and even if they were hesitant at first, they allowed him to.

"I see you've joined us" Finn called out to him as he served himself the food.

"Well, there are no vacations are they?"

"Did you have vacations at the first order?" Finn said, and his tone was a little too much rude than he had intended to at first.

"No"

"Just kidding buddy" Finn walked away leaving Ben standing there. Ben sighed, he could feel how much Finn despised him.

When he decided to join the group gathered around Poe and a map they were already in the middle of the meeting.

"So Rey has to figure out a way to do it right?" Ben heard someone say.

"Yeah. And also here and here, there were explotions that left damage so we have to go tomorrow and fix them, I'll tell you the groups later" Poe signaled the map.

Ben stood with his arms crossed at the back of the group.

"Talking about that, since Rey can't go for now we will send another group to Hatarr to check on the village." Finn said.

"Oh, I had forgot abou that" Poe sighed. Finn made some joke about being tha the reason why he was also general and they all laughed.

"What about the votes? Is Rey already working on it?" Some girl asked.

Ben was starting to get angry for some reason.

"No, don't you know that she's out with Jannah to help with some trooper camp?" Finn said to whoever.

"Oh... no, sorry, I must've been out when they left."

"Well, she'll take care when she's back". He dismissed it and Ben felt something inside him trying to burst. This time he couldn't keep it down.

"Exactly why do you need Rey to do and check everything? aren't YOU the generals?" he raised his voice and slowly people turned to see who had said that. The ones standing in front of him got out of his way, taking many steps away from him.

Which only made him more mad because he wasn't even doing anything wrong. He raised his voice yes, but he didn't shout, he didn't hit anyone, he didn't even clench his fists and yet people looked at him like he had his former saber on.

"Are you mad we don't give you as much protagonism, oh Supreme Leader?" A soldier, or a flyer from the corner of the group said facing Ben.

"I'm just saying that she isn't supposed to just live to solve the galaxy's problems you know? There are plenty of people here that can do some of the tasks that she's been given"

"Like you?" the man insisted teasing him.

"Or you, or anyone here really"

"Yes, we are aware and I asure you that this people also do their job Ben" Poe said.

"You suddenly feel like telling us what to do Ren?" A friend of the man from before said.

They were teasing and trying to see how long Ben would wait before showing everyone how he was just the same monster.

"I understand is hard for you to not be needed, but this is the first time they've asked us for you not to join Rey" Poe explained.

"Listen, again. It's about that, I'm not trying to order anyone around but I just feel like you expect her to solve everything for you, and that you are often losing your time" he admited walking closser to the map where they stood around.

"Excuse me? How are we losing time exactly?" Finn squinted and clenched his jaw.

"Well, you send small groups to one planet, like for a week. And you are two generals, not just one, but two and yet you can't keept track of the work that's been done to save your life, you eat more times than you do anything productive and you just toss must of the activities like Rey is going to do them"

"We know you only care about Rey so who gave the right all of a sudden to give a fuck about what we do or don't do" Finn answered.

"I don't just care about Rey, I'm saying this to you because I think you're working ineffectively to help the galaxy"

"So what do you think huh? Let us step aside so we let you rule your majesty" Finn got very close to Ben, defying him.

The people around had started cheering and whistling waiting for a fight.

"I have some ideas, I would like to tell you all about them, and they can't be executed just by me, I would need a lot of people for them to work and I DON'T think about ruling anyone" he said to everyone but mostly to Finn.

"You know, we don't really have to listen to you, you being here is just courtesy for Rey and our late beloved Leia" the man from earlier said.

Poe had started trying to calm people down but one by one they started yelling Ben their opinions.

"I advise you to better shut up and wait for Rey to come back" Finn said. Ben rolled his eyes making Finn even more mad.

"You think you're so clever, you have no one Ren, Ben, whatever you chose to call yourself. We all know your act won't last."

"You're waiting on Rey once more to come and fix your problems" Ben said.

"We don't just pin everything on Rey because we don't want to do it or something, but because we  know she'll be the best at doing it, and that she has more strenght than anyone here, including you" Finn buried his finger on Ben's chest and pushed him away, earning a grunt from him.

"Now what huh? Are you finally gonna show them who you are? Come on, hit me. Push me, do whatever you do with the force to hurt me. I'm waiting!" Finn exploded.

#reylo #fanfix #fanfic #adam driver #star wars #daisy ridley #dyad

[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 137

Honorable mentions:

I love how blyke called arlo out so dramatically in the middle of the night

One of the ‘King’s responsibilities’ that Arlo mentions is “organizing school events.” …? Like what lol. Turf wars was a separate item on that list, so it can’t be that…?

Blyke and Isen were babies once, true story

#forklo is sailing guys

Was going to make a separate category, but everything kind of merged into one long blurb oof.

I really do assume way to much in these haha

    Blyke believes that to be king, you have to be a fighter and your ability is what makes you a good king. I don’t know what to think about this other than the fact that Arlo should kind of be offended. Like, wow, this kid really believes that my ability got me this far? I mean, yeah it really did play a big part of his kingship early on, but that was because of Rei and what he did, not because all king’s should beat everyone else down. Did Arlo really only show Blyke that by fighting good, you will command and lead well, making the right decisions for everybody and maintaining the order that is necessary for the hierarchy to work as intended?

    But then Arlo says, “It’s not like you lucked your way into becoming a royal. After I’m gone you will be the strongest male in school. That makes you qualified.” At first, I thought this was extremely out of character for Arlo. Like, really. Arlo saying that all you have to do is be strong to lead. But like… I feel kind of stupid now because he is totally in character and I’m just being ignorant (sorry guys, you all probably already knew this). Arlo secured his kingship with his strength. He reshaped the school that Rei had left behind and turned it into something that was functional. Reshaped is the wrong word. It’s more like he defeated it, burned it, and let his hierarchy rise again from the ashes. Because that’s what he did. I really liked that in this episode, we learn how much Arlo had to rely on his powers rather than his given authority. He had to fight to gain control. He didn’t get Isen and Blyke to listen to him by just telling him that he was king. He had to beat their asses to show them who was the boss (granted they were freshmen and hadn’t been really exposed to Rei’s reign). But like also, the girl in the back when Arlo was stealing the fork said, “Who does this guy think he is.” They have no respect at all for Arlo. None. They don’t even know who he is. The only way that Arlo created the name for himself that he has today was to use his ability and “beat them back into their place.” So, yes. Because of the nature of his reign and of his strict belief in hierarchy, it is natural to understand that Arlo thinks the ability makes a person.

    But now, I want to bring up another king. Not Rei, but John. John, the king of New Bostin. Because of his ability, he was qualified to be king. I’m sure everyone reading this know what I’m about to say, but I just want to add another Arlo quote from this episode. He said (to Blyke), “As long as you continue to grow your ability and remain at the top the others will naturally follow you.” Not only is this incredibly sad and disheartening once you really read into it, because Arlo is basically admitting that he can do nothing else, the school will wind up following John, but also this is really ironic because of what happened to John at New Bostin. John was powerful and never weakened. He ruled with an iron fist. And, ya know what, John was turned on by everyone (kjshdfkkjshf you know what I meant). There’s truly not much difference between the actions of John and Arlo as they became king (and notice I said actions not motives). They beat people down to establish their dominance, to establish their claim as the strongest and both did it to gain power and respect, to be in their “rightful place”. So then why did they turn on John, but not Arlo?

    This might have a bit to do with their lack of unity, as Arlo calls it, but Wellston never decided that Arlo was too much of a tyrant to try to overthrow. Because, if we consider how John led to be tyranny, Arlo can’t be treated with any less contempt. So I’m going to attribute that to Rei’s leftover faith. Good thing that that isn’t the kingship I want to compare to John’s because I wouldn’t have gotten far.  Arlo didn’t get overthrown because of Rei, but what kept everyone from turning on Rei?

    Perhaps one of worst reign’s ever shown on UnOrdinary was Rei’s, which is impressive considering how peaceful the guy’s ideologies were. Like Arlo said, he repressed the powerful and gave the weak false hope, absolutely destroying the hierarchy that ruled the world at the time. I honestly don’t know why the authorities or principal didn’t step in. But I’m more shocked that the students didn’t. Sure, the low-tiers didn’t have any reason too, but no revolution was won by the weak. Only the powerful could take down the powerful. One problem...

    Another quote from the latest episode is, “But because Rei was the most powerful at the time, we all had no choice but to listen to him.” Another Arlo quote. Also, really wise when we compare it to the events of literally any uprise in UnOrdinary ever. Because, when the students of New Bostin all teamed up against John (unity and all), they still ended up the ones bloody and beaten. They still fell into their rightful places under their rightful king (which John was, but I won’t get into that).

    Yeah, I’m sick of details, so I’m giving y’all my answer. Rei and John’s reigns ended differently because of the people at their side. (hear me out).

    John had Claire at his side. A usually peaceful girl who only wanted the best for the greater good. The fandom may crucify her, but she reminds me a lot of Remi. She reminds me even more of Rei. Her beliefs that the strong shouldn’t just be able to take advantage of the weak drew her to John in the first place and later caused her to betray him. I refuse to believe that the girl only became friends with John to gain power. Surely if she had that strong of clairvoyance, she would’ve at least seen some of the outcome of her mutiny. Even if her ability is really crappy and she only gets a vague and short look into the future only once in a while, any look after John’s massacre would’ve told her how it ended. So I stand firm in my belief that she was similar to Rei, that is, carried his beliefs to some extent.

    Rei, however, was close to a young kid named Arlo. We don’t know what Arlo believed in before he took over as king. We don’t know how far Rei had gone when Arlo first went to Wellston. We do know that Arlo, before becoming king, had to be like Claire. I don’t mean traitorous, but he had to (at least to some extent) believe in what Rei did. Claire turned on John because her friendship with him and her beliefs were conflicting. She chose her beliefs. Arlo had no such conflict and so, voila.

    (I hate the end of this small analysis, so just focus on the upper paragraphs)

    (like seriously, I could’ve sworn I had something better to say… D:)

    My point here isn’t that anyone who holds the superheroes beliefs is going to screw everything up (though that is an important takeaway). I want everyone to understand that all it takes is one thing to change the outcome of things. All it took was a separate set/coupling of morals to keep Wellston to turn into the bloodbath that New Bostin was. Not to be all dumb and stuff like “be nice because you could make a difference.” More like the butterfly effect. Not original I know, but I feel that the journey was more meaningful then the destination (i preferred what i said in the early/middle paragraphs [most everything but my outcome lol]). But like I just want to say that I applaud uru-chan’s writing. Other than that, I really don’t know what I want to be my point. Because that’s all I’ve been trying to say from the beginning. Uru-chan’s writing makes me so happy and just her in general lol.

#unordinary #unordinary webtoon #webtoon #web comics #uru chan #uru-chan #unordinary comic #episode 137 #official

[silver-and-stars]

Okay fix it pseudo-fic cause I can’t handle this.

It takes place just after the kiss.

I’m too tired and lazy to do a full epilogue on the Resistance.

So it’s only about Ben and Reylo.

Also I’ve never written a fic before, English isn’t my native language and I’ve only reread it once, so yeah, the language may be so-so.

Let’s call this therapeutic writing. 

Ben smiles brightly at Rey and she didn’t think he could have that sort of happy expression, but suddenly it fades and so does hers as he starts falling backward, eyes closed. She tries to grab him but before he could touch the ground two hands reach his back and hold him. It’s the force ghost of Luke and Leia who is cradling her son. Behind then stands another ghost, a young man with mid-long curly hair and something in his face that seems familiar. He has Luke’s eyes and Leia’s mouth. Their father. Vader, no Anakin Skywalker, she realizes.

“Palatine has token too much from this family, and the jedi, already.” says the man.

He puts his hands on his children’s shoulder and close his eyes. Leia and Luke do the same, concentrating. Rey can both see and feel the light, the force, he adds to their and send to Ben. 

They forehead crease as their frown in concentration. It’s not enough. Rey touches Ben’s leg and adds her energy. Still not enough. She tries to stay calm, to control her energy. It has to work.

She looks up when she feels another presence. A small green creature is standing beside Luke, its three-finger hand on his arm. Master Yoda! On each side of Anakin are two older and bearded man. One with white hair, whose picture Leia had shown her before. It’s Master Kenobi. The other has long grey hair. Maybe Master Jinn?

They all gathered here, in this place tainted by the dark side. They are pooling their energy, gathering the Force and passing it into Ben, trying to save the last member of a tragic family that, in their own way, each tried and, at some point, failed to protect. 

Ben eyelids flutter, then open. Rey lets out a small relieved laugh. Confused he meets Rey’s eyes before looking up and seeing the ghost of his mother. He looks behind them trying to understand what happened. Master Jinn and Yoda ghosts’ have already faded but he meets Obi-Wan eyes and then Anakin’s, who gives him a small nod before disappearing too. Only Luke and Leia are left. He sits up and look at the later.

“Mom...”

She shushes him with a loving smile, and take his hand in her. In this moment, he knows she loves him and forgives him.

“What you did for Rey and against the Emperor, it was the right thing. We’re proud of you for it.” 

She gives an encouraging look to her brother who puts his hand on Ben’s shoulder.

“You have a second chance, a chance for a new life, Ben, don’t waste it in the past. Focus on the future.” 

Saying this, his eyes falls on Rey and he gives her a knowing smile.

Leia helps Ben stand up and Rey comes to hold him steady, he is alive but still injured and tired.

Standing before them, the twins slowly fade away.

“Wait!” says Rey. “Leia, Lando told me to give you his love.”

Leia and Luke both smiles.

“Tell him- tell them, we are always with them.”

“See you around, kids.”

–

The X-Wing isn’t meant for two and though it’s design so some pretty big non-human species could fit in it, it’s really uncomfortable. Ben tries to make himself as mall as possible between the seat and the metal wall while Rey pilots the thing. She is receiving many triumphing calls, the first one from Finn who welcome her back warmly.

The fleet divides, going back home or to other planet in need of help during the insurrections. While the Resistance fleet, in dire need of a break, goes back to base with a few more ships that they had come with. 

Rey lands the X-Wing away in a meadow near a cave and Ben gets off to hid in there.

“I’ll come back!” she swears.

Then she flies off, lands in camp and happily reunites with BB-8, Finn and Poe.

–

The night had past and the sun is rising and with him Ben is waking up slowly. Suddenly he hears movements in the bushes and jumps on his feet, wincing as the movement tears on his wounds. He hopes it’s not a member of the Resistance. Most people don’t know his face as he used to wear a mask most of the time but he has no doubts the Resistance knows the face of one of their worst enemy, of their general’s son.

He is already thinking about what he should do if they find him when the bush beeps and R2-D2 comes out of it.

“R2 ?!” 

The droid beeps happily and advances toward him without hesitation. It has always been around Luke, and friendly with his parents but he never got to interact with him since he was a child.

“What are you doing here?”

The droid stomps and beeps. He wants him to shut up and to show him something.

“Alright, alright, go on.” Ben replies sitting back down.

R2 projects a hologram and it’s Leia, sending a call for help to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben’s namesake. Then it switches to Leia her long hair undone, wearing a fluid dress, her arm around Han’s and smiling at Luke and Chewie. They look so young and Ben can hear Ewok celebrations. This must be Endor, after the Emperor was vanquished. Then it’s a young Luke, training with a remote. Then old Ben Kenobi talking to R2. 

It switches to unfamiliar face. A young man, a padawan judging by his hair cut and his robes, with an artificial arm and a woman wearing a veil, kissing. A wedding. C3PO stands near them. Were they Ben’s grand-parents?

“You’ve been with my family for that long?” wonders Ben.

R2 shows him another one. The droids is in a fighter, piloted by a blond child. Then it’s the same blond boy activating what seems to be C3PO without plating. Then a table in a small house made of sandstone, around which are sitting the boy - Anakin he realizes -, a woman who must be Anakin’s mother, Padmé, a jedi master and his apprentice that he recognizes with some difficulty as young Obi-Wan.

“Why did you registered all that ? Why are you showing me?”

Before he could answer C-3PO complaints arise in the calm morning air.

“R2 where did you go?”

R2 cuts off the holograms and beeps angrily at the protocol droid.

“Don’t be rude! If you hadn’t run off... Oh my! Kylo Ren! R2 what are you doing, we have to warn-” R2-D2 beeps coarsely “Fine? What to you mean? It’s-”

Rey voices cuts him off.

“Yeah, it’s fine, don’t worry. He is one our side now.”

She enters the cavern and drops a bag beside Ben.

“Sorry I couldn’t slip away sooner. Everybody wanted to talk to me… and then I felt asleep.”

“Well, so did I and of course they want to talk to you, you are a hero after all.”

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you” she responds with a smile, holding his hand and giving it a squeeze. “Also someone wants to see you...”

He hears Chewbacca roaring before he sees him. The Wookie comes striding toward him and Ben is quite certain he is going to be at least punched. But R2 comes between them and projects another hologram. It’s Han and Leia around Chewie, looking at what the Wookie is carefully holding in his arms. A baby.

“Don’t drop him again.” says Han’s voice.

“I’d catch him again if he did.” replies Leia’s.

“It’s fine R2, we’ve talk.” explains Rey.

“Yeah, we’re cool” adds Lando as he joins them in the cavern.

“We are?” ask Ben clearly doubtful.

“Did you know I once sold your parents to Darth Vader? Han ended carbon-frozen and Leia sold to Jabba the Hutt as a slave.”

“You did what ?!” exclaimed both Rey and Ben.

“What I mean is, I made some pretty bad decisions in my life. It’s nothing compare to yours. Although it helps that Palpatine wasn’t whispering in my head I guess. My point is I turned over a new leaf, I wanted to be a better man, to do the right thing. So I did. And So should you kid. You should right your wrongs, that’s how you’ll can redeem yourself in the eyes of others. In your own eyes.”

“I think so too” adds Rey, while Chewie shouts his approval. “I think we need time away from all this, to find ourselves. What do you say?”

She smiles encouragingly at him and extend to him Luke’s lightsaber. 

“You won’t tell the others?”

"I... I thought Chewie and General Calrissian deserved to know that Han’s son came back. And I’ve already told the truth to Finn and Poe. But I don’t think the other needs to know."

“People need time to heal and forgive. And if you want them to accept you one day you should earn their forgiveness” adds Lando.

Chewbacca’s rumbles fill the cave again.

“Ha yes, you’re right.” says Lando

“Indeed, the name Ben Solo is not unknown of several First Order’s enemies.” mentions C-3PO.

Looking at the saber in Ben’s hand R2-D2 beeps a suggestion.

“Yeah...” mutters Ben. “That’s a good idea.”

–

The Falcon is away from the camp, ready to take off. Rey hugs Finn and Poe goodbye. The two of them plan to keep helping the Resistance rebuild the planets freed from the First Order.

“If you ever need my help, you know where how to find me.” declares Rey.

“Yeah, same goes for you. Take care of yourself will, you.” says Finn, casting a disapproving look toward Ben who chooses to ignore him and to instead watch D-O bidding farewell to BB-8 and rolling into the ship toward R2-D2 and C-3PO.”

BB-8 beeps sadly. 

“Don’t worry buddy, we will see them again soon.” affirms Poe. 

Rey and Ben join Lando and Chewie in the cockpit, standing behind the seats.

“So where to children?”

Rey and Ben exchange a look.

“Naboo” he says.

“and then Tatooine” she adds.

-

They spend a few weeks on the lush world of Ren’s grandmother. There they rest, laying low for a while, enjoying the water and the greenery. They build themselves new lightsabers. Rey picks a yellow kyber crystal and Ben a blue one.

After a while, they leave the planet to go somewhere that carries a lot of meaning for the Skywalkers. For the landing Lando gives the pilot seat to Ben, who accepts only after a few grunts and gestures from Chewbacca. 

C-3PO and R2-D2 chose to keep going on some adventures with Lando and Chewie, so on the sandy planet Rey, Ben and D-O alone find the farm in which Luke had grown up.  It had been abandoned for quite a while, but it could be restored, it could become a home. 

Near Shmi, Owen and Beru Lars’s grave then bury together the lightsaber of Luke -of Anakin- and Leia. 

As the suns are setting, an old woman passes by and wonder who they are.

“There hadn’t been anyone here for a long time.” she comments.

“I’m Rey, and this is Ben.”  

She takes his hands in her, smiling peacefully. 

In the corner of her eyes she notices Luke and Leia’ ghosts watching fondly other them as Ben declares “Rey and Ben Skywalker.”

#okay I feel better know #it's gonna last until i see the actual canon again #but yeah better a little than nothing #sw9 #sw9 spoilers #tros spoilers #reylo #reylo fanfic #fanfic #tros fix-it fanfic #the rise of skywalker spoilers #the rise of skywalker #fix-it fanfic #bendemption #bendemption fanfic #my posts

[coe-lilium]

TroS reaction (1st view)

Necessary premise in bullet points:

- I liked TFA when it came out and still do but as I dug into the franchise/canon (Disney only by choice) my enjoyment of it became more lukewarm. Came out of it dreading a potential Reylo but liking the two charas on their own. 

- went into TLJ worried I’d hate it, came out with it being my favorite saga movie and sold on the Rey-Ren connection, whatever road it would’ve taken. Loved the “Rey’s powerful on her own/bc the Force wants to set Kylo’s wrongs right”. It felt good after two years of being bombarded with “this fucking Mary Sue can have any power only if she’s connected to powerful men of the saga, she has otherwise no right in being powerful” in forums spaces.    

- went into TroS non-spoiled, wary of Palpatine return but relatively hopeful if soured about the “JJ our lord and saviour pleease save us from evil evil Jonhson” (HA!). The rumors about lore from the tv series being featured into the movie had me excited.  

That said, here goes: [SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE, ENDING INCLUDED, RIGHT OFF THE BAT]

I didn’t like it. I really hope to warm up to it more in future views, there’s absolutely stuff I liked or even loved, but as it stands now it was overall a massive disappointment on many sides and -worst of all- threatens to retroactively ruin my enjoyment in other previous stories. 

First, the positives: 

- Parentage notwithstanding, Rey was good. Her rage, her fears, her good heart, her commitment to the fight and the training, her longing for guidance… truly, if the bloodline revelation hadn’t retroactively ruined my investment in the character and themes I’d have fully, 100% loved her even if every single other part of the movie had been the same. 

Except for a brief war flashback to Starkiller game abilities (I lolled) I wasn’t even troubled by all the new abilities or their scope. Movies’ been inventing new powers since the beginning and the Force does what the Force wants. Again, fuck the genetics “twist”, garbage stuff. 

- Kylo, next to… 95% that involved him? TLJ did a great job selling him to me and surprisingly this movie added to that instead of retconning it away. More competent but still stupid and petty from time to time. I’m glad he came back, glad he choose right and glad he was allowed more time on the right side than Anakin. I love redemptions and he was portrayed as wavering the entire trilogy, I don’t even really care that it could’ve done better. I’m happy for him and his family, that’s all. The kiss got a laugh out me but not a malicious one, I was kind of running out of reasonable reactions by then. 

I’m just conflicted on how I feel about his death. Back when TFA was released I wanted him to survive to face what Anakin didn’t: justice (the kid-friendly setting prevented a death sentence anyway), atonement and growth from there, I still wish it happened and maintain that a different pacing would’ve allowed it. On the other hand, I’m also kinda okay with him dying. He righted at least a bit of his many wrongs, he saved a person he cared for, that his parents cared for and that could help the galaxy much more than he ever could and he was at peace. It was a good death.      

- Kylo’s vision/illusion of Han. A surprise but a very pleasant, well acted one. Would’ve I maybe liked Anakin more, as Ben idolized him so much and for all the wrong reasons and because I love that disaster? Yes. Does Han work much better in the economy of the movie and trilogy story and do he and Ben have a much rawer relationship and history? Absolutely. I am a teeny tiny bit baffled as  for why Luke didn’t also show up, but the actual scene was good enough I forgive it.  

- Rey and Kylo bond and connection was one of the saving graces of this mess and I utterly loved it. Both actors worked their asses for for all their scenes and it payed off, oh if it payed off. Their DSII duel was perhaps a tad long but great nonetheless (Republic era Jedi jumps!), the hurt and the sense of absolute loss and grief they both conveyed -and shared!- after Leia’s passing was incredible, Rey regretting the near kill and softly going “I would have stayed, had you renounced the dark side”. She cared, yes, but not to the point of ignoring the horrors (something Anakin never quite understood). The “dyad” stuff was a bit overkill, just call it a force bond, we can see it’s freaking powerful, but the Force Skype and sharing of objects that came with the package, that I loved. Surprise lightsaber, Ren fuckers! :D Bet Anakin and Obi Wan were really jealous, that would’ve come in handy during the war.       

- Finn was now fully invested in the cause, at ease, visibly happy to be with his friends, ready to bond and reach out, quick to plan, to act and to adapt to the situation, brave but cautious and calculating. I wish it was given a bit more focus, but I loved he found other young FO defectors. Also fuck yeah, he’s force sensitive and his ability is used, not just thrown in as a useless wink. Jedi Finn in future material, c’mon!

- Poe’s also grown. He was probably going to have more screen time with Leia had Carrie not died but there was nothing to be done for that. I’m not as happy as for previous 3 charas for the backstory retcon I’ll tackle in the negatives.

- Jannah was cool, the addiction of other FO defectors a welcomed one and the scene were she and Finn excitedly went over their “I broke free” moment was adorable. Good bean, I’d read more about her and her company. 

- A bit lot annoyed at Bloodline being kinda tossed outta the window but getting Leia with lightsaber was nice. Give me some ancillary material to deal with the clash and I’ll fully forgive it. 

- Jedi! MY GIRL AHSOKA MY MAN KANAN! I mean, I sure wish they were in a better movie, but hey, recognition for something more than the OT? No slandering of the Order but all of them collectively kicking Sidious ass once and for all? I’ll gladly take it. Anakin, my dude, I’m sorry your sacrifice was next to nullified but it was good to hear you again ;_;  I didn’t hear Ezra’s voice anywhere so I can still hope he’s alive, well and with the Ascendancy teaching all their Navigators. “I am all the Jedi” remains a terrible line. 

And now, oh boi. Here comes the long list of annoying - bad - stinking shit stuff: 

- If I wanted to watch a 2 and half long videogame cutscenes I’d have done that in the comfort of my home without spending money for tickets. Go to level x to retrieve related macguffin, move to next level to get next macguffin and so on and so on. I liked close to everything in the DS II sequences, but what would’ve that dagger pointed at if the wreckage had fallen even a little bit differently?   

In general, many plot points gave me the feeling they were stolen from the tv series and badly executed, like a mockery (or incompetence?). Case in point: Hux betraying the 1st Order out of personal, spiteful hate? Potentially good! The execution? A poor man’s Rebels Agent Kallus, already over in little more than 5minutes. 

- Palpatine himself is a poorly, ridiculously poorly executed Maul resurrection storyline from tcw and rebels. 

Because Maul was 1. explained and 2. got a good, long arc that made you forgive the undoubtably contrived ass-pull it took to bring him back while Sidious is just… there. You gotta accept it because the writer said so. 

How did he survive? We don’t know and fuck you if you expect an explanation (they really had the absolute galls to have him say the iconic/meme line from Rots and apparently it was supposed to be enough?!) How could he “have all Sith reside inside me” when canon’s clear that Sith do-not-get-to-retain-their-individuality-in-the-Force, do not work well together (lmao) and he as an individual never gave a shit about the Sith except when they could serve his own personal desires? His entire approach to the rule of two and other Sith stuff is “fuck that noise, everything in the galaxy exist to serve me”. He’s fine dying as long as “the Sith rule”? Who IS this character, because he’s not Darth Sidious (as presented in Disney’s own canon, mind). Oh, you wanted explanations? FUCK YOU, screams the movie. 

The mess gets somehow salvaged in the end as he comes to his senses and siphon the life out of Rey and Ben to de-rotten/revive himself to rule in person, now *that* was in character. Was he actually lying his ass off the entire time waiting for the moment he could siphon them? Hopefully but who the hell even knows.

In the end it just wasn’t worth bring him back. A holocron, a different Sith, even a hive-mind of old records/tainted wraiths of Sith (perhaps wearing Palps face to buy the old empire aficionados loyalty, idk) would’ve been better than “actually, Anakin suffered nearly his entire life and sacrificed himself for barely more than 25 years of peace and it still wasn’t enough to rid the galaxy of the monster who destroyed his and countless other lives”. But Johnson was the one shitting on beloved characters legacy and accomplishments, uh? Surely at least he’s got company. 

Ian was clearly having a blast, so there was… that? And the initial sequence being legit creepy and the Sith storm or whatever the fuck was that. That can stay, it was cool.     

- Poe, the latino character, got retconned from former Republic pilot (a backstory established before TFA came out and faithfully respected ever since) into a smuggler and gang member. Classy. What does Lucaslfilm have a story group for if not for stopping stuff like this from happening? Bonus Zorii being used for a “no homo! homo? no homo?” wink wink and for generally being a poor man Solo’s Qi’ra.   

- The movie makes you worry for a character death three (3) times in a row only to immediately backpedal on it. The survivors are grieving, the scene is sober… and then suddenly! they’re alive! isn’t it wonderful? let’s insert a comical scene now that we’re at it! Sigh.   

- The whole Threepio stuff was a contrived waste of time in a movie already full of more relevant plot treads that could’ve put that screen time to better use. 

- Rey’s parents apparently aren’t assholes anymore bc they sold her into slavery to protect her from Sidious, which is… supposed to make it alright, a sacrifice in the name of love? If they had been shown trying to give her to a trusted person and then she was kidnapped that wouldn’t had been their fault, just unfortunate, but the movie shows them leaving their 5yo daughter with her in-all-but-name slaver so?? 

- Rey Palpatine… Rey. Palpatine. Gesù Cristo benedetto che minchia mi è toccato di vedere. That hurt. That was so hilariously over the top bad I just…I started laughing. On top of the entire thing, thank you so, soo much for validating all those fucking assholes who demanded Rey be connected to a powerful man in the saga to accept her powers and value, you hack. Jedi were never about power of blood and then you went and reinforced the very opposite. She ain’t powerful bc the Force recognized her as worthy to stop evil and chose to aid her anymore, she’s powerful bc grandfather was. Lovely stuff. Hilariously, now she has a lot more legit “Mary Sue” traits than before. 

- Rose’s sidelining was a blatant bow to her and her actress haters whims. If in VIII she jumped at the chance of action, now she was fearful and “had to stay behind” studying maps. Fuck that noise. 

- Even if she rejected it, underline is that the Skywalker line is wiped out and the Palpatine one thrives. I… just… wtf wtf wtf. A final “Just Rey” would’ve been more powerful -because now it would’ve been reclaimed- and less corny and in poor taste than a Palpatine taking on the Skywalker name. I’m not sure if Sidious is more offended or if he’s laughing his ass off in space!hell. Probably the 2nd. Bad.      

- The final scene on Tatooine. It rang so empty because the planet brings warm memories only to the audience, not the characters. In-universe, that place brought nothing but misery to the Skywalkers: Anakin and Shmi were brought there as slaves and lived as such for years, Shmi was tortured to death and Anakin began his descent into the dark for crying out loud. Luke had to hide and saw his relatives murdered. Leia had no connection whatsoever to the place. The mera idea of burying Anakin Skywalker lightsaber into the sands of Tatooine and considering it a way of paying respect is… I don’t know, hilariously in bad taste? Rey, dear, what did you have personally against the guy? Put those sabers to rest on Naboo! Ah, but we can’t truly acknowledge the PT now, can we? Wack.   

- It’s not TroS complete fault, that “honor” mostly sit at TFA’s feet but for all its omages, copies and almost slavish references, from a in-universe point of view it’s like the OT barely occurred. 

The same evil man has been defeated (until next time?), the Republic must be rebuilt from scratch, a evil military is all over the place and must be dealt with, the Jedi Order has to be rebuilt… it’s depressing. A new evil taking advantage of the empire leftovers would’ve been one thing, but Sidious? He’s been effectively winning nonstop ever since he was elected Chancellor. He had all the power, all the influence, all the control and he maintained it all even as a rotten corpse in exile, the entire galaxy marching on his tune, controlled by his strings. And as the cherry on top of the cake he even managed to wipe out the family that could’ve, should have been his undoing! He effectively destroyed the Skywalkers. He outlived every Jedi, every survivor, every clone. I hate this. It’s sickening. I can’t even be happy Rex was on Endor anymore.      

In general, the best word I can find for this movie is: coward. 

So blatantly desperate to please, to be “forgiven”, to reference every single irrelevant thing -except the PT and the TV series in a intelligent way-, to throw fanservice after fanservice after fanservice no matter how nonsensical from all over that crossed the “corny” to wander into embarrassing territory many times over (Maz giving Chewie a medal outta nowhere? Come the fuck on now). 

The cartoon series had twenty time the guts of this movie and I vehemently wish for Filoni to take the helm of the entire creative team in a very near future.                  

#tros spoilers #sw tros #star wars #star wars spoilers #tros negative #the more i think about sidious the more it sickens me #tros negativity

[onceuponmystory]

I Have Finally Found Peace With The Rise of Skywalker

And it's all thanks to my crazy, wonderful, just-as-obsessed-with-Star-Wars-as-I-am best friends.

But before I tell you how we did it, I have to give you guys two rather important warnings concerning this post. 

First and foremost, please beware that there will be MAJOR SPOILERS for The Rise of Skywalker in this post. If you haven't seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, and don't say I didn't warn you.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this post is quite critical of the movie. I examine in detail everything I thought was bad about The Rise of Skywalker, and give my opinion on how it could have been done better.

But that doesn't mean this is a negative post - in fact, I hope to achieve quite the opposite. With the help of my friends, I realised that the best way to make your peace with The Rise of Skywalker is to talk through it and play Teacher With A Red Pen on the parts you didn't like.

I have to warn you that I tend to get a little carried away playing Teacher With A Red Pen. There's just so much to say about this movie... But if you're up to reading an insanely long post, I really think it'll be worth your while. 

Now, since this is a free era, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and this is mine. You are perfectly welcome to disagree with me, just please do it politely. And with that out of the way, let's jump right in, shall we? 

First Things First: Ben Solo's Death

I think one of the biggest WHY??? moments in the entire movie was Ben Solo's sacrifice and death. I'll say it now - I hated that twist, absolutely hated it. And not just because I'm a huge fan of Reylo, either. 

To start, it's predictable, the exact mirror of the Darth Vader sacrifice/death scene from Return of the Jedi. And while it worked for Darth Vader, doing it again with Ben was not only cliché and repetitive, but also a slap in the face to the character.

Because Ben Solo deserved better. He really, really did.

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was from the start a very conflicted character - the son of two of the galaxy's greatest heroes, and the nephew of the last Jedi, manipulated from birth by Emperor Palpatine. Yes, he did terrible things, but he also had terrible things done to him. At the very least, he deserved the chance to atone for some of those terrible things.

While we're talking about slaps in the face, Ben dying made the deaths of Han, Luke and Leia mean so much less. All three of those people gave their lives so that their son (nephew, in Luke's case) would turn back to the light. Especially Leia - she literally used the last of her energy to reach out to her son and turn him back. Killing Ben off makes her sacrifice almost meaningless - didn't she die so he would be able to live a better life? 

And my last point about the Massive Unfairness of Ben's Death has to do with Rey. She and Ben love each other, don't they? They are literally described as "two of us who are one" - which is about as close as we're going to get to soulmates in Star Wars. With Ben's death, Rey lost half of who she is - not to mention the man she loved.

George Lucas once said, and I quote, that "I have always hated that in movies, when you go along and one of the main characters gets killed. This is a fairytale. You want everybody to live happily ever after and nothing bad happens to anybody."

So yes, maybe it's not the most perfect of arguments, but this is Star Wars. And after all these years of love and admiration, we all deserve that happy ending. 

And While We're At It: Ben Deserved A Proper Redemption Arc

I know I've just spent a long time ranting about why Ben deserved better, but I'm not quite done yet. Because yes, Ben absolutely deserved better - and most of all, he deserved a proper redemption.

Now, I don't know how many of you have seen Avatar The Last Airbender, but that show contains a prime example of a really good redemption arc. It's not simple, and it's not at all easy, but it's worth it.

In ATLA, Fire Prince Zuko starts off as the villain of the series, but ends up seeing that the way he was raised was wrong. He decides to make amends by joining his former enemy, Avatar Aang, and helping him save the world.

But what makes it really good is that it's not easy for Zuko. He struggles, he genuinely does, and he has to really work to earn the trust of the people who used to be his enemies. And time-consuming and difficult as it was, it ultimately ended up being worth it a thousand times over.

That, my friends, is a redemption arc. It takes time, and work, and real atonement. More than anything, I wanted to see that for Ben. I wanted him to struggle, and be distrusted, and hate himself, because that is the only way he can really redeem himself - by rising above all that and saying, "I was wrong, I'm sorry, and I'll take whatever punishment you want to give me, because I really want to change."

Death is taking the easy way out - in fact, it's lazy writing. Ben didn't have to die - his whole story, which is already so defined by struggle and conflict, would have been far more meaningful if he had had a final struggle, this time to prove that he really had changed. 

Unfortunately, the writers chose to take the cliché easy way out, killing off the character instead of giving him a much deeper, more meaningful ending.

If there was one thing - just one thing - I could change about The Rise of Skywalker, it would be that. I would give Ben the chance to properly redeem himself, because he really, truly deserves it.

Moving On: Rose Tico

With the Ben arc out of the way, I can move on to the next biggest issue I had with The Rise of Skywalker - and that's the horrible sidelining of one of my favourite characters from The Last Jedi, Rose Tico.

Now, I get that not everyone liked Rose's character - and that's fine. But there was no reason - none at all - for basically removing Rose, who played quite a significant role in The Last Jedi, from the new movie. Additionally, given all the racist and sexist harassment that Kelly Marie Tran suffered at the hands of malcontent fans, cutting Rose from the film almost seems like caving to those trolls.

And that is not acceptable. If you let a bully have his way, stopping him becomes near impossible. So even if it was just to show the trolls that bullying will not get you what you want, Rose Tico deserved a bigger role.

What bigger role, you may ask? Many people have said, and I grudgingly agree, that there wasn't really space for Rose to go along on the whole wayfinder quest. All right, fine. But sidelining her completely is not the right course of action. If you can't take her along on the main quest, then give her a significant sub-plot, for example joining Lando to call for aid for the Resistance.

Remember, Rose Tico was the person who turned Finn from an ex-stormtrooper more than ready to desert the Resistance into a loyal fighter for the cause he believes in - to such an extent that he was willing to sacrifice his own life for the survival of the Resistance. If there's anyone who could give the galaxy enough hope again to send help to the Resistance, it's Rose Tico.

Oh, and some more Finnrose would have been nice. You don't have to agree with me - I know many of you don't - but you have to admit that Finn and Rose definitely had some sort of a bond forged in The Last Jedi, even if it was just a platonic one. Basically ignoring that like they did in The Rise of Skywalker is just bad writing.

So I'm not saying that Rose needed to be the main star of the show - that would have been unrealistic, after all. But I do think, and I will stand by this opinion no matter what, that Rose deserved a lot better than what she got.

And On That Track: Jannah Was An Unnecessary Character

Don't get me wrong, I love Naomi Ackie, and I appreciate that Star Wars is trying to incorporate a more diverse cast. But despite it all, I just couldn't bring myself to like Jannah's character, or see why she was actually necessary.

See, if you take out Jannah, nothing much changes. Yes, it was nice for Finn to have someone to talk and relate to, but it wasn't necessary. We already know that Finn was a stormtrooper, just like we already know he left it behind him.

Also, Finn already had a female character he had a significant bond to - none other than Rose Tico from my previous rant. Why force in an all-new potential love interest at the last minute when you already have one with far more development? Not only could Rose have conceivably replaced Jannah in pretty much every scene, she also has a lot more development and history with Finn than Jannah does, which would have made their interactions that much more meaningful. 

And as for the attack on Pryde's Destroyer with the Orbaks (and no, I didn't know that's what those cow things were called, either, until I Googled it a few seconds ago) - that was a nice touch, but there's a simple way it could have been much better. Instead of introducing an all-new character and cow things with a name no-one knew unless they looked it up on Wookieepedia, bring back the fathiers from Canto Bight and that little Force-sensitive kid with the broom from The Last Jedi.

At this point, some of you may be wondering why I'm not attacking Zorii Bliss as well - isn't she also a brand-new character with very little real development? The answer to that is yes, she is, but she gives Poe Dameron some much-needed backstory. If you cut Zorii, Poe has no significant backstory, which means that she was actually important to the plot. (Also, Keri Russell is awesome, and has stunning eyes. Enough said.) 

So I'm sorry, Naomi Ackie, but I really wish that Jannah <i>wasn't</i> in The Rise of Skywalker. She's just there for too short to have any real development, and I'd rather use the time I gain from cutting her to focus on Rose and the actual plot.

While I'm Talking About The Plot: What On Earth Happened? Is Star Wars A Video Game, Now?

Ah, yes. Another big issue with The Rise of Skywalker is its rather disappointing lack of actual plot.

I'm sure some of you are frowning quite heavily at me right now, so let me backtrack a little and explain.

Upon first watching, The Rise of Skywalker seems like quite a good movie, really. (Except the ending, of course - but We Do Not Talk About The Ending.) It's only when you re-watch the movie that you realise that there is, in fact, very little really significant plot there.

To put it simply, a large part of the movie is a group of characters going to a Place to find a Thing that will help them find another Thing that will take them to another Place where they will save the world. Does this sound like a video game to anyone?

The thing with this kind of plot is that it works well the first time, when you don't know what's going to happen, and when the lack of plot can be hidden by dramatic explosions and cool fight scenes. Oh, and flying stormtroopers.

This is Star Wars, so there just has to be some explosions, as well as a quest of some kind. I don't deny that. But when said quest and explosions fill the story to such a degree that they become the plot, you're in cinematic trouble.

This is pretty much proven when you re-watch The Rise of Skywalker. Where the heroic quest and explosions and jetpack-sporting stormtroopers had you at the edge of your seat last time, now that you know what's coming, you start to see that very little actually happens in these scenes. Sure, they look cool, but they don't really affect the overall movement of the story in a significant way.

And that's a problem, given that most of the movie consists of scenes like these, or exposition. There are precious few scenes in which two or more characters have meaningful development in a way that will continue to affect them and the plot. This, unfortunately, means that the movie falls flat a bit when you watch it for the second time.

How would I change this?

Well, for starters, I would focus less on the actual hunt for the dagger and the wayfinder and whatever and more on the characters. How do they feel? Why do they feel it? And most importantly, how does this affect what happens to the rest of the characters and the plot?

Also, like I said before, more attention has to be given to a) Ben's redemption and b) an interesting sub-plot for Rose. And you know what? The lightsaber fight scenes could have been a lot cooler, as well.

Some More Complaining About The Plot: This Time, It's Plot Holes

Where to start, where to start. All movies have a plot hole of some kind, it's only natural, but The Rise of Skywalker is simply riddled with them.

Of course, this can be attributed to the lack of plot as explained in the previous rant. Since there is so little time spent actually developing the plot, it just stands to reason that said plot isn't the most watertight.

It's sort of spectacular, though, how quickly the first plot hole pops up. It must be just five minutes into the script - you guessed it, on Exegol.

Not only was the Emperor's resurrection never properly explained, but we also have about a thousand creepy Sith guys who are just suddenly there when needed for plot purposes. Who are they? Where did they come from? How did we not know about them before?

The Rise of Skywalker doesn't even try to answer any of these questions. It just gets glossed over in a classic example of How To Write A Glaring Plot Hole.

And while we're talking about Palpatine, let's take a look at his lackey-in-chief, Allegiant General Pryde, who oh-so-dramatically declares that he serves Palpatine "as I served you in the old wars."

Wait a minute. The old wars? As in the Return of the Jedi wars? Well then why on earth haven't we heard of Pryde before?

Sure, maybe he wasn't a major enough character to show in the original trilogy. But if he was such a faithful servant of Palpatine's, shouldn't he at least have made some kind of cameo in The Last Jedi or The Force Awakens? That would also have been some nice foreshadowing for the Emperor's return. 

Also, when and how did Rey fix Anakin's lightsaber? As I recall, at the end of The Last Jedi, it snapped in half. But when we skip to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker, it's perfectly whole again, with not a hint of explanation on the horizon.

Yes, maybe this isn't the biggest plot hole, but it's annoying. At least just have someone mention in passing "Oh well done Rey, you finished fixing the lightsaber" so it's not quite so out of the blue. 

And there's more. When Rey and Kylo have their big fight on Kef Bir, Rey quite clearly takes Kylo's TIE fighter. Since the Falcon most definitely did not stop by for him, how did Ben get off Kef Bir? 

This is never explained. He just pitches up on Exegol, and immediately starts fighting the Knights of Ren so you forget about wondering how he got there in the first place.

Can I just say the Knights of Ren were a disappointment? I was hoping for a lot more... anything, actually. They did pretty much nothing except look menacing for the entirety of the movie, unless you count getting thoroughly beaten by Ben on Exegol. 

I've probably missed another plot hole or seven, but I think I've had enough for the moment. You can only pull faces for so long, after all. I'm moving on.

  Last Thing: Too Much Fan Service

Picking up from where I left off - bad plot - I'll start by breaking a few hearts and saying that I thought Chewie should have died.

Wait, wait, don't run away screaming "Traitor!" like that! Dead Chewie would have been absolutely heart-breaking, I know, but it would have made for a really good plot point.

Rey thought she killed Chewie, and that quite understandably broke her heart. But then she finds out, oh no, wait, he's actually alive, there was another transport in the desert, ha ha, don't worry, fans. 

While that satisfies fans, looking at it critically, it would have been better to really kill Chewie. Very sad, yes, but better.

Let me explain. If Rey killed Chewie, really killed him, she would have been devastated. Being Rey, she probably would have isolated herself so she wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone else. She would have grieved, and her friends would have had to really work to comfort her and get her to trust herself again. This experience would have left Rey that much sadder and wiser, but stronger because of it.

This can be summed up quite simply: sad moments make the happy moments mean that much more.

But unfortunately for Rey's character development, Chewie is not really dead. The fans might be happy that they didn't lose a beloved character, but what they don't realise is that they lost a significant character progression instead.

And, sadly, this is not the only spot where the movie indulges its fans rather than a deeper plot.

For example, Rey buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers on Tattooine, and we fans get a warm tingly feeling in our stomachs because yay, we've come full circle.

But have we?

Tattooine holds nothing but bad memories for the Skywalker twins - Luke spent his entire life trying to get off the planet, and that homestead holds only bad memories for him. Easy as it is to forget, the last time Luke saw that homestead was when his aunt and uncle had been brutally murdered there. I somehow can't imagine that's where he would want his lightsaber buried - that's the equivalent of burying Harry Potter's wand at Number Four Privet Drive, for crying out loud. 

The same can be said for Leia. Her one experience of Tattooine was the infamous gold bikini scene with Jabba the Hutt - totally the place where she'd want to have her lightsaber, her legacy, buried, hmm?

My conclusion is that the "hopeful and uplifting" Tattooine ending scene is really only that way if you don't think too hard about it. Pure fan service, in other words.

Which is sad, if you consider the ending we could have had. We could have had Rey burying the lightsabers on Naboo, because that's where her grandfather came from, to symbolise that she really was leaving the past behind.

And if you have to be fan service-y, at least do it in the right way. Give Rey and Ben their happy ending, because as George Lucas puts it, having the boy and the girl walk into the sunset hand-in-hand adds ten million to the box office. (And a sunset across Naboo's seas would look very pretty, wouldn't it?)

In Conclusion: TROS Being So Bad Is Actually A Good Thing, Because Now We Get To Fix It The Way We Want

Take a moment to consider that. If The Rise of Skywalker was so bad that we no longer consider it canon, well, that means we can invent our own canon, doesn't it?

This is how I made my peace with The Rise of Skywalker - by accepting that the movie Disney gave us needed some severe changes, and applying them in my head. You won't believe how much better I feel now that I have "my" version of The Rise of Skywalker accepted as canon in my head.

That's my message to you all: if TROS has upset you as much as it did me, don't try to deny it to yourself. Gather a group of good friends around you and have a The Rise of Skywalker fix-it session, and talk it out until you've made the movie into what you want to see.

We are the fans, my friends, and we deserve the movie that we want to see. So get out there and make it for yourselves!

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