So rouge one got me thinking about the destruction of Alderaan, but not necessarily about the people that died, more about the people that didn’t.
Leia Organa, obviously, was not the last survivor of Alderaan. Alderaan was a wealthy hub of a planet, and it’s citizens were probably everywhere.
There were wealthy Alderaani college kids in their first semester abroad on a distant planet, and they learned they would never go home to their families again.
There were poor, Alderaani smugglers and space ship workers who might have seen their planet explode from miles away, and felt a portion of their heart go with it even if they were running from it.
There were Alderaani recruits at the imperial Academy and in the military itself, who had to hold back tears as their commanding officers told them it was necessary, and they would have gladly done it themselves to rid the galaxy of the Organas’ plague.
Some of these people defect, and some of them force themselves onward, trying to force themselves to believe that their home planet deserved this.
There were families off planet on vacation or visiting family, that are now refugees on that new planet, trying to build lives for themselves and trying to prove they weren’t infected by the Organas’ propaganda. (Or join with the Organas’ rebellion, depending)
There were patches of Alderaani diaspora on other planets, who lost their home planet and try to group together more fiercely and preserve their culture in the face of so many imperial loyalists around them screaming death to Alderaan.
Ooooh you made it tough for my Nonny because I never do dystopias. I never saw the point in making a world more depressing than the one we live in when I have free reign to do what I want.
But here’s how I could see this work.
Imagine a galaxy where the Empire wasn’t defeated. Oh the first Death Star was blown up and for a while many thought that many it could be defeated. At Endor it proved these naive fools wrong.
The Emperor died but Vader, the fist of the Empire, survived and assumed the throne. Some said he’d done it alone, others that he had betrayed the Emperor to his enemies only to kill those enemies once they’d served their purpose. And still others that he had found someone versed in the same mysterious arts as he to stand by his side.
All anyone really knows for sure is that Vader took the throne after Endor and build around him an order of people – all cloaked and hooded – who possessed skills that none in the galaxy could match.
This has been the way of the galaxy for thirty years.
On Artorias the young prince of the planet Finn Galfridian, has assumed power after this parents untimely deaths. He more than suspect Vader’s cloaked order to have something to do with it, but he dares not act openly. He and his family possess a mysterious power that hasn’t been seen openly in the galaxy for over half a century and Finn’s parents impressed on him from an early age to keep his skills hidden, or he would end up dead or in Vader’s hands.
Instead of open defiance Finn has taken to travelling the galaxy, every bit the bored and air headed socialite to all that observe him, constantly chasing what is new and fantastic. But the part he plays is a carefully constructed illusion allowing him to chase rumors of ancient and hidden legacies, such as the whispered ‘Jedi’. It is his hope that he can use such knowledge as he can gain to at one point oppose and defeat Vader.
Along on his travels he comes across a young woman by the name of Rey, a scavenger living on a backwater planet.
In every way his opposite, outspoken where Finn is diplomatic, direct where he is circumspect, brash where he relies on carefully constructed plans, he is drawn to her. Even more so when he discovers that she possess the same power that he does and like him has managed to elude Vader and the Empire’s notice.
He knows the attraction is dangerous. Not only could Rey betray him to the very people he seeks to destroy, the two of them together, both their powers so strong cannot help but draw notice sooner or later.
But he’s been alone too long and he knows that in Rey he has found someone who’s either his doom or a person who can help him save his people and the galaxy.
hey do u know something that upsets me? imagine old ‘uncle wanwo’ finding out han died by his son’s own hand – the son that loved lando – but turned to the dark side. imagine how devastated and broken he would be hearing about han dying so helpless and alone, trusting his son so much, even after everything. imagine how he would feel thinking back to seeing ben as an innocent little kid – turning into something so malicious.
He can understand how the weight of someone’s opinion can push you to doubt your own judgement, to justify actions to yourself that you would otherwise never take.
He can understand being trapped and having no way out, to desperately search for one, while trying to survive in a system that demands total compliance.
But he cannot understand not searching for such an out, understands even less how someone cannot take it when it is offered, not once, but twice. Doesn’t comprehend how anyone can reject that chance of freely offered escape.
There are things Finn can forgive.
The other Stormtroopers, the cadets that trained alongside him, he finds it difficult to judge them harshly. He knows what they all went through, the violence both mentally and physically they were subjected to, the abuses heaped on them to make them comply. He can’t find it in his heart to condemn those that gave in, those that could not find a way out and – knowing that defiance meant death – obeyed orders, though he asks no one else to share his forgiveness of them.
But he cannot forgive those who visited violence on others with malicious glee, those who had a choice, had the rank and influence to choose differently, but didn’t. Nor can he forgive those who inflicted violence on him, those who for their own goals, or their own joy, caused him pain and injury.
This is why he’ll never understand Phasma, nor forgive her.
This is why he’ll never understand Kylo Ren, nor forgive him.
This book is anti Reylo. Love it. And Rey wanting to quote Finn! Yass. And rubbing it in that she kicked Crylo’s ass! The following passages are so strongly heroine/villain dynamic. Good shit.
Wasn’t Rey unconscious when Finn said that, though? Was she clinging to consciousness, or maybe this is force vision juju going on?
Yep, Rey was unconscious. She didn’t begin to wake up until Finn screams when Kylo drives his lightsaber hilt into Finn’s shoulder.
So really there’s no ordinary way she could have know what Finn said to Kylo, the only explanation is the Force. And since I doubt Rey goes around reading other people’s mind without permission willy-nilly all I’m saying is: Finnrey Force bond.
Plus that would explain how she found him so unerringly on Starkiller Base after she kicked Kylo’s ass, though the fight itself had taken the two of them far from Finn and the planet was busy breaking apart under her feet.
I always kinda fixate on how Sam’s gaze lingers condescendingly on Steve after he delivers this line, and it’s produced this headcanon where after the VA scene, Sam and Steve go out on a date and hit it off really well and go back to Sam’s place and bang, but Steve wakes up while Sam is still making breakfast and is like “I’m sorry to do this, but I have to go” and is apologetic and cringe-y and Sam kinda watches him dubiously with his spatula in hand but is like “alright, man, see you around.” Whether Steve left because he got cold feet or a mission kinda varies in my head. But it makes Sam’s “if u EAT breakfast u fuckin shit” face in this scene (and the startled but slightly reserved way he initially answers the door) funnier to me.
Like I have not been able to stop thinking about this????
It… also kinda explains Steve’s little “okay I deserved that” head bob?
Bb!Poe helped Shara make churros on rainy days, and they would laugh and sing as they got the batter ready, and Poe would insist that it wasn’t too hot and he could knead it but would blow on his hands when he thought mamá wasn’t looking (of course she was). So Shara would help him and Kes would smile at them from the kitchen doorframe, then the oil sizzling would accompany the drumming of the downpour outside. Then they would set the whole system, Shara pushing the batter out of the churrera, Kes cooking the churros in the oil until they got golden, and then Poe would roll them on sugar to coat them really well.
And then Shara was gone, but they kept the tradition. It was one of the many ways they had to remember her.
While Poe has had fairly few sexual partners, he has in fact literally slept with the entire Resistance. Space is tight, hours are weird, and people frequently fall into whatever bed is closest. He can confirm that Pava snores, the general kicks, and one of the medics is the most obnoxious sleep cuddler in the galaxy.
*wakes up in the middle of the night* KILLMONGER BURNED ALL THE HEART SHAPED HERBS EXCEPT THE ONE THAT NAKIA SAVED WHICH IS GREAT FOR T’CHALLA BUT NOW THAT ONES GONE TOO WHAT ABOUT ANY FUTURE KINGS WHAT HAPPENS IN THE FUTURE WHATS GONNA HAPPEN TO WAKANDA
WHAT IF SOMEONE CHALLENGED T’CHALLA AGAIN HOW WOULD HE GET THE POWER BACK WHAT ABOUT WHEN HE DIES IN HOWEVER MANY YEARS OF OLD AGE OR SOMETHING WHAT HAPPENS THEN
Let’s be real, the priestess tricked him. You really think there were no seedlings or anything and she was going to tell the guy who just shivved her mentor before her eyes that there is, indeed, more?
L.J.'s Obsessions 