Which means, be careful how you diet. Your body may interpret
your diet as underfeeding and compensate by fattening your descendants.
Make sure that if and when you diet, the diet is shown to be healthy in
all nutritional aspects and that its effects are long-term. (It’s not
good to repeat the same diet frequently to maintain results. If the
effects of the diet reverse quickly even when you’ve kept making healthy
eating choices, it doesn’t work and you shouldn’t do it again.)
Many people are fat because of reasons other than food.
Fatphobic doctors write off patients who may be fat because of a
disease, which the patient doesn’t treat because they think their eating
or exercise habits are the problem. Everyone should exercise and make
healthy eating choices, and if you aren’t your doctor should absolutely
call you out on it (although your decisions are ultimately your own) but
doctors should also keep in mind there are other factors to obesity.
A better approach to food, I would think, is as a means to be healthy rather than a means to be thin–or for your descendants to be thin, for that matter. I mean if your body interprets your diet as starvation that’s obviously not healthy and you’re doing it wrong. If someone is eating too much sugar and processed foods it’s their health that’s at issue and weight gain is just one possible consequence.
Furthermore, the flip side of fatphobia is that thin people, or people who are losing weight, get a pass for unhealthy habits. The article that probably prompted this ask (link) talks about a woman being actually encouraged by her doctor to keep starving herself. I know this from personal experience, too. When I developed hyperthyroidism as a young woman I was extremely thin and all I got was comment after comment about how good I looked. I am considerably fitter and healthier now; where I could hardly climb a flight of stairs back when I was sick, now I can run for miles and lift heavy loads including a squirmy toddler. But because I’m also heavier I get more negative comments about my body. You can’t tell how healthy someone is from their size, and it’s harmful to promote weight loss by itself as a desirable or healthy goal.
I hung onto this ask for like a week because I was living it lol, having been stuck on a scene myself and ashamed of it. I think I see a way out though, so I’m better able to talk about it now.
When I get stuck on a scene it’s generally because there’s some resistance or difficulty. If the scene is truly pointless and uninteresting it should be cut, but I can get stuck on even an interesting and crucial scene–sometimes because it is so interesting and crucial and I don’t want to get it wrong. Sometimes the nature of the block is emotional; I stalled on a fic for months because a major character was going to die in the upcoming chapter. When I finally did write it I was a crying mess and frequently got up from the keyboard to pace furiously around the house, comforting myself. (This was a character I had partly modeled on my husband, too. I have a bad habit of painfully and graphically killing characters I base on him.)
Sometimes a block is mental, as in I’m not clear what should happen in a scene and that makes me resistant to writing it. This happens to me a lot with battles involving a large number of people, I’ve found, and it contributed to my block in the above example too. I am currently blocked for over a week in one such scene where there are three factions and at least five different agendas involved. While I haven’t made progress in writing it, I did write out in my notes how some of the characters might respond and how the story might go. The scene feels less daunting now as a result.
From my experience, in sum, it’s helpful to work out what exactly the block is and then find a way to break it down. Making it more specific is the first step.
Luke, Lando, and Chewie substitute as those uncles who are technically dads
This is canon.
Comics: Establish Shara and Kes and Poe’s background.
Carrie Fisher: Likens Poe to Han.
Oscar Isaac: Says Poe is Leia’s son.
TLJ: Establishes Poe as Leia’s heir and successor.
Episode IX: Poe is flying the Falcon.
Boom.
Finn’s Parentage Theories: Legends Edition
Clockwise from upper-middle-right.
Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian
Luke and Lando raise a child together, either adopted or through a surrogate. When Kylo destroys the temple, Luke and Lando are devastated when they think their child is killed in the fire. However, all children are brainwashed and recruited by the First Order.
Pros: Uses a fan-favorite ship from Legends, largely thanks to the Marvel Comics. Would give Luke and Lando both a temporary happy ending and a good reason to resign to depression for a while. The timeline would add up and it would give potentially sweet scenes for Finn, Lando, and Luke in Episode IX.
Cons: Would be really depressing. Unlikely for Disney to have an onscreen gay relationship not played for laughs or cheap diversity credit. Would cause some people to view it as Skywalker=naturally good, even though Finn wouldn’t be his biological son.
Nick Rostu
A Force-sensitive warrior from Haruun Kal, Nick Rostu was young at the end of the Clone Wars, but seemed to be about Luke’s age when they met. Regardless, in this universe, Knights of Ren took children while posing as Jedi Knights. Rostu, remembering his friends Mace and Depa, let them, believing their lies that it was for medical purposes. The adults were knocked out, and the Force-sensitive children were stolen to make an elite squad of stormtroopers.
Pros: Allows a Star Wars culture only seen in books to join the screens. Would allow Finn to have a big, loving community to return to as well. Nick’s fighting style is also unique, being a sniper trickster.
Cons: Would come out of nowhere for fans outside of the EU. The timeline wouldn’t add up well. A white director could easily default on stereotypes when designing a culture of jungle-dwellers.
Qu Rahn
Qu Rahn was a young survivor of Order 66, and lived into the early years of the New Republic. With a bit of time displacement, we could change his noble end to be at the hand of Snoke, and his defense of Finn is similar to his defense of Kyle Katarn.
Pros: Would fit with Finn being based off from Kyle Katarn. Adds a connection to one of the most popular EU stories. Would be a way for Finn to get his own lightsaber.
Cons: Could anger Dark Forces fans. Wouldn’t allow closure for Finn’s arc.
Giddean Danu
As one of the signers of the Delegation of 2000, and a founder of the Rebellion, perhaps the Senator of Kuat was imprisoned in a secret Imperial jail, along with his family. His son and his son’s wife had a child after the death of the Emperor, but the Imperial Remnant led by Rae Sloane kept them in captivity and took all Rebellion children to be First Order grunts.
Pros: Reference to the prequels. Allows a new surge of Resistance allies. Some resemblance between Christopher Kirby and John Boyega. Has ties to the Space-Prince Finn theory.
Cons: Would be a bit of a surprise. It’s unlikely Palpatine would take prisoners from the delegation instead of killing them.
Novoc Vevut
In Legends, Novoc adopted and raised the boy who would go on to marry Boba Fett’s grandfather. This version would be biological father to one of the stolen Mandalorian children that he and the new Mandalore Boba Fett have been seeking. Novoc would also have his adopted son Ghes Orade, who would act like a big brother for Finn.
Pros: Similarity to both Mandalorian Finn theory and LJ-writes-verse Sequel Trilogy. Provide a plot-based excuse to bring in Mandalorians and Boba Fett. Would be suitably epic without contradicting previous material.
Cons: Always have to deal with the “Boba should be dead” crowd. Morrison and Logan are both a bit too young to play old Boba (but makeup would fix that). Would raise the question of “where were these guys in the last two movies?”
Barney
One of Luke’s earliest Jedi apprentices, despite not having any real demonstrable Force powers, Barney is a humble, kind man from Marvel comics. He lived on Belderone, a world where AT-AT’s were built, making it a target for First Order raiders. After his home was raided, he has been working any job to pursue any lead as to where his son might be.
Pros: Barney is both sweet and determined, and would be a likable addition. Would also be poor enough to explain a lack of Galactic presence in previous films. Also provide a cute moment for Rey and Finn when she talks about living in an AT-AT, and Finn’s dad makes an instant connection.
Cons: Is named Barney, which is reminiscent of a certain purple dinosaur. Might not reasonably find Finn on his own power. Likable but potentially devoid of conflict once he reunites with his son.
Akanah Norand Goss Pell
Akanah was an ex of Luke’s, and a member of the Fallanassi, a religious organization that thought of the Force as a river known as the White Current, flowing and rippling. Akanah was absorbed into the entity Abeloth, aka Mother of Mortis, and died. However, what if when Abeloth was defeated, she and her avatars transferred to a different timeline rather than a different time period? Akanah, revived, and driven mad by the process, is unable to keep her newborn son in safety.
Pros: Bridge the old and new timelines. Provide a set-up for a potentially grand tenth movie. Add some mystery to an otherwise straightforward saga.
Cons: Somewhat depressing. Akanah would be a bit too old to have a child (but it is sci-fi). Would derail the main conflict of the sequel trilogy.
Katya M’buele
Katya was a friend of Han’s before the Battle of Yavin. In Legends, she died helping Luke fight demons in Marvel’s comics, but this version could live past the battle and become a Rebel Hero like Kes and Shara. She would be in the Resistance, as a slightly older woman, running smuggling and transport operations, always looking for her son that went missing at a young age.
Pros: Ties to the Resistance strengthened. Could appear as a young woman in a Solo sequel. Would not derail the conflict.
Cons: Underwhelming reveal. Ultimately too serendipitous to happen naturally (but there is the Force.) Not a very popular character.
Those are just some theories to rebut the idea that nobody’s thinking of some potential parentages for Finn! I might do a canon one, if this goes over well. My favorite is Luke/Lando, but I think Novoc would make for the best story. (Moth)
[Princess Cruises guest entertainment manager Phil Kaler] tells me about a night in 1984, when he was twenty-eight. “Our
manager, Frosty, was the only one who knew I was gay,” Kaler says.
Frosty introduced Kaler to another male dancer he knew Kaler was
crushing on, toasting the duo to “just be happy,“ mere hours before
dying of a heart attack on the ship’s dance floor.
L.J.'s Obsessions 