Are we going to talk about the fact that Erik Stevens is a genius who graduated Anapolis at 19 and did postgrad work at MIT? (Or, by Shuri standards, not a complete dummy.) Imagine how the technological advances in Wakanda would have been jump-started if little N’Jadaka had been brought home where he belonged. Imagine him teaching little Shuri and glowing with pride to watch her shoot past him. Imagine him in a friendly rivalry with T’Challa, pushing each other to be better.
You wanna hear an idea about this AU that made me pause and go “well, shit?”
N’Jadaka is with his uncle and cousin at the UN. He is one split second ahead of T’Challa, and saves his uncle T’Chaka’s life.
one of my patients came in for an emergency visit, because she snapped the wire on her retainer watching the movie when MBJ took his shirt off she clenched her teeth so fucking hard she snapped it. that is the fucking funniest shit ever to me this tiny 17 year old girl thirsting so goddamn hard she busted steel
I certainly plan to once I have some time to sit down and write! I’m also working on a short AU where Ramonda is the pilot in the final battle, so that may go up first. I have some ideas sketched out for future chapters of Fairer Stars (N’Jadaka meeting the family, becoming friends with Nakia and the others, learning the terrible truth later on), but there are a lot of gaps and vague places so feel free to send me more ideas and prompts.
The first chapter of By Fairer Stars, a canon divergent AU where young Erik is brought to Wakanda, can be found here.
Honestly, Erik is everything I think Rian wanted Kylo to be.
Erik is mysterious, dark and brooding. These are obviously traits that Rian wanted Kylo to have. The only issue is that Rian forgets to explain why Kylo is the way he is. That’s the thing about villains. You still have to explain why they are evil and why they are doing what they’re doing. Since we know Erik’s background and family history, his motivation makes sense. He’s doing the wrong thing but we can see why he thinks he’s doing the right thing.
We don’t understand why Kylo is the way he is. People say that he was abused but we have never seen or read anything that supports this. There has been no indicator that Leia and Han ignored Kylo. The only thing we do know that is his uncle was considering him killing him. That’s it. Instead of coming off as misguided, he comes off as a brat.
Erik is a good example at making a villain sympathetic while Kylo is a great example at how not to write a villain.
The difference is, Killmonger experienced a life of systemic oppression. He’s more like Magneto, a Holocaust survivor. Killmonger and Magneto have rage against oppressive systems that hurt them and others. Kylo has angst that’s mostly internal, the genes of Darth Vader, and a raging entitlement complex. He’s not fighting for anyone but himself. That’s a big difference.
The relatability of Kylo Ren is basically that he’s sad, lonely, and white and his mom worked. Which, granted, a lot of people relate to, but they’re shitty reasons to take a violent villain’s side in a story.
Killmonger lost his father and was literally left behind, Kylo killed his father after Luke saw that he had the potential to do just that and more. It doesn’t make Killmonger’s violence OK, but he faced the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile Kylo stans think he deserves a happy ending.
It doesn’t make Killmonger’s violence OK, but he faced the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile Kylo stans think he deserves a happy ending.
*BLACK PANTHER SPOILER*
I didn’t want killmonger to die in Black Panther. I wanted him to live so that he could be with his people and family but most likely they would have imprisoned him and that’s why he DECIDED to die. He wanted to die rather than face his consequences. Just because we don’t want Kylo Ren to die doesn’t me we want him to evade facing the consequences of what he has already done. You don’t have to die to own up to what you’ve done. Nobody expects Kylo to be the new shining face of the resistance if he decides to fight with them. He’ll be a war criminal and will be treated as such.
“Nobody expects Kylo to be the new shining face of the resistance if he decides to fight with them.“
That’s untrue. Many of your fellow shippers absolutely think he flies off into the sunset with Rey.
Have you gotten honest opinions or did you read that in a fanfic synopsis?
Honest opinions. Heck that meta lady ohtze flat said she believes they’re getting a happy ending, and hundreds of you shippers agreed with her.
@reylodream try going to the starwarsspeculations subreddit and suggesting that Kylo will have a war criminal’s ending. The reylos over there (and here on Tumblr, truth be told – I tag everything, those conversations can be easily found on my blog) are emphatic that if reylo don’t have a happy ending, the entire trilogy is pointless. Expect to be downvoted into oblivion for the suggestion and laughed at for thinking Kylo is a war criminal.
Um denial that Kylo committed any war crimes is absolutely RAMPANT in the reylo fandom idk what section of it @reylodream is in but it must be loads better than the one I’ve interacted with. They claim “both sides” did terrible things, that it was a war so it’s okay, that Star Wars doesn’t have the same rules as our world, that Finn killed more people than Kylo did…
Also if shippers do want him to face consequences for his actions, what happens to wanting Reylo to be canon? They really think they’re doing Rey any favors by wanting her to have a long distance/prison romance waiting for a war criminal to serve his time? I can understand this as an angst fic premise, but claiming this is a good direction for canon to go or that it’s empowering for Rey is… just… no.
Are we going to talk about the fact that Erik Stevens is a genius who graduated Anapolis at 19 and did postgrad work at MIT? (Or, by Shuri standards, not a complete dummy.) Imagine how the technological advances in Wakanda would have been jump-started if little N’Jadaka had been brought home where he belonged. Imagine him teaching little Shuri and glowing with pride to watch her shoot past him. Imagine him in a friendly rivalry with T’Challa, pushing each other to be better.
someone please write the fanfic quick
I tried making a start here and the beginning is… uhh… not happy.
Are we going to talk about the fact that Erik Stevens is a genius who graduated Anapolis at 19 and did postgrad work at MIT? (Or, by Shuri standards, not a complete dummy.) Imagine how the technological advances in Wakanda would have been jump-started if little N’Jadaka had been brought home where he belonged. Imagine him teaching little Shuri and glowing with pride to watch her shoot past him. Imagine him in a friendly rivalry with T’Challa, pushing each other to be better.
And he absolutely would challenge T’Challa on the ritual fight BUT yield in the end. And how him, T’Challa, and Wakabi could’ve been this manace-trio creating havoc all over Wakanda. And how he would’ve pick a fight with M’Baku AT LEAST ONCE because mama Ramonda would be so pissed with him. And how he and Shuri would treat each other as guinea pig for their invention… OR BOTH OF THEM USING INNOCENT T’CHALLA AS THEIR GUINEA PIG OMG.
M’Baku would decide that he likes this young, brash, slightly crazy prince a whole lot and they become fast friends, which in this case means insulting each other whenever they meet. (“‘Sup, ape-face.” “COME HERE SO I CAN CRUSH YOUR HEAD LIKE AN OVERRIPE MELON.”) The menace à trois of T’Challa, W’Kabi, and Erik ride rhinos into a state function, which was their idea of making a splash. They are grounded for a month, during which time Erik gets bored and invents solar-powered propulsion in space.
Erik and Shuri make enhancementa to the Black Panther armor and push a nervous T’Challa, who has serious doubts, off a fifty-foot ramp to test it. Yes, T’Challa eventually gets the hang of flying in his suit. No, he never forgives them for the terror-filled ten minutes it took.
Erik and Nakia are the two top students in war dog training and hit it off talking about global racial justice and making their instructor uncomfortable with pointed questions. Erik has a few Thoughts to add to the intelligence profile on the United States. He and Nakia try dating a few times and decide they’re better off friends. T’Challa’s reactions to them dating are so interesting Erik and Shuri make logs of them for science. (“Subject’s blood pressure is elevated, and his body temperature-” “I can hear you!”) Erik gets sick of it and flirts outrageously with Nakia just to goad T’Challa into making his own move.
Characters: Young Erik Stevens/N’Jadaka, Zuri, T’Chaka, N’Jobu (deceased)
Summary: After T’Chaka kills his brother, Zuri makes a request that changes the course of Erik’s life.
Warnings: Character death, angst. An attempt was made at a happier Erik AU, but the start is inevitably dark. Also spoilers for the Black Panther movie, obviously.
“My king, he is dead.”
Zuri rose from where he had bent over N’Jobu’s body, and T’Chaka said nothing. He had not needed the confirmation and needed it, for without those words he would have stood rooted where he was and never moved.
His brother N’Jobu was dead. The words unblocked the flow of time and forced him to take the next step, then the next in this new world without feeling and without a brother.
“We must leave now.” His voice overflowed his tight throat. There was no pain, for he felt nothing.
“Your Majesty.”
“Come, Zuri. We must away before the local authorities arrive.” He turned his back on N’Jobu’s body. There was nothing more important in the world right now than to be away from this place, right now, before he was forced to feel again.
A body thudded to the floor behind him and T’Chaka only just kept himself from screaming, the sound too close to the memory of N’Jobu falling.
“I cannot go. Not alone.”
T’Chaka turned inch by inch, not letting himself look beyond Zuri’s prostrate form. “Our time is short.”
“Yes, and that is why you must leave now, sire. But I cannot, not without Erik. N’Jadaka. He has no one else.”
“Zuri, this is my order as your king. You will leave this place with me at once.”
Zuri raised his head, the tracks of recent tears shimmering on his face. “You gave your own brother’s life to save mine, and it belongs to you now more than ever. Do what you wish with it, my king, strike me down for my disobedience if it please you. I will not leave that orphaned child while I live.”
Or while you are conscious. T’Challa considered knocking Zuri out and taking him onto the transport. It would be easy, with the power of the Black Panther coursing through his veins.
Just as he could have done with N’Jobu.
Against his will his gaze was pulled from Zuri to the body that lay on the floor. He flexed his hands, which remembered the sensation of claws slipping into his brother’s chest. Why had he not punched N’Jobu instead, incapacitated him to go back to Wakanda and justice? Was it the cold-hot fire of rage that had whipped his claws out? Was it the heartrending cries of the Border Tribe child who had lost his parents?
“This is my order as your king and sovereign. You will return to Wakanda with me.”
“Your Majesty!”
“And you will bring the child.”
Zuri stared at him, absolutely still, not even breathing.
“Quickly, Zuri. I will take N’Jobu’s- I will take him to the transport. Find N’Jadaka and bring him at once.”
Zuri bowed his head down with such force it thumped on the floor, and T’Chaka winced in sympathy. Zuri rushed out the door with what T’Chaka could only assume was an aching head, and with his enhanced senses he heard the young shaman’s feet pound down the stairs.
What have I done? He looked down at N’Jobu’s face, peaceful now in the wake of the rage that had consumed him in life. And what did I almost do?
He put on his helmet, putting that barrier between himself and the world. He gathered N’Jobu into his arms, the weight of his little brother bringing back memories of a drunken trip back home after the rain fest.
Lulama and Sisipho, his Dora Milaje attendants, greeted him at the top of the building where the royal transport awaited. If they were shocked at the sight of him carrying N’Jobu, they were too well-trained to show it. He refused their offer to take his burden from him, the weight of him a comfort now that kept him from floating far away into unknown skies. He could think for a moment that his brother was unconscious. He would wake up and they would talk again, for how could it be otherwise?
He had just laid out N’Jobu in the ship’s infirmary when he heard two other footfalls, one an adult’s, the other a child’s. He came out to meet them and faltered at the sight of the boy.
“Uncle James, where’s Dad?” The child who must be Erik looked around at the sleek interior of the ship like a bewildered antelope. He fell silent when he caught sight of T’Chaka’s armored form.
In the few steps he took toward the child T’Chaka walked through an ocean of memories, looking down at his baby brother in his mother’s arms, the wind blowing through his hair as they spurred their horses down the border plains, splashing in the shining threads of the river.
My brother, I have lost you…
He knelt before N’Jadaka, son of N’Jobu his brother who was gone now to the ancestors, to face their justice or welcome.
“Erik.” Zuri placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “This is His Majesty T’Chaka, the Black Panther and the King of Wakanda.”
“Uncle James?” The boy looked up sideways at Zuri but stood his ground. A cautious and intelligent child, thought T’Chaka, yet brave.
“I am your father’s brother.” He met his nephew’s eyes through the visor of his helmet, not trusting himself yet to compose his face. “The enemies of Wakanda have harmed your father, but you are safe with us. You will grow up in Wakanda with my children, T’Challa and Shuri, and I will raise you as my own.”
“Harmed my… where’s my dad?” The child’s voice rose in panic.
T’Chaka stood. “Lulu, escort Prince N’Jadaka to the infirmary. Zuri, go with them. Sisi, with me.”
He strode to the cockpit as though to keep ahead of the wails that would rise behind him, the sound of a child made an orphan at his hands.
“Set a course for home.”
Home, to Wakanda so beautiful and so aloof from the world. Wakanda that he had given a brother’s life for. Wakanda where he would bury his flesh and blood. Wakanda where he would raise N’Jobu’s child, and teeter on the edge of truth and lies through the years, and know pain and joy and pride and not an hour of peace.
“Take us to Wakanda.” The tears flowed at last behind his mask of star-steel, and the hum of the engines lifting them into the sky almost covered the screams of a bereaved child.
Are we going to talk about the fact that Erik Stevens is a genius who graduated Anapolis at 19 and did postgrad work at MIT? (Or, by Shuri standards, not a complete dummy.) Imagine how the technological advances in Wakanda would have been jump-started if little N’Jadaka had been brought home where he belonged. Imagine him teaching little Shuri and glowing with pride to watch her shoot past him. Imagine him in a friendly rivalry with T’Challa, pushing each other to be better.
L.J.'s Obsessions 