rthstewart | Snowflake challenge Days 1-3

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Snowflake challenge Days 1-3

Because all the cool kids are doing it and it seems like fun,

Day 1 - Talk about your Happy Place - the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane.

Day 2 - Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

Day 3 - Share a favorite piece of original canon.

Day 1 -- Happy Place
My spousal unit grills me on this all the time, in the form of, where do you want to retire. My happy place involves four things: reliable internet access and my computer; dog; a well stocked and supplied baking kitchen; and some place with natural beauty and abundant wildlife. My favorite places in this regard are the areas around Grand Teton National Park and parts of Yellowstone (without all the people), Hatteras National Seashore, and the deserts of Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego.

Day 2 Recs --
This is so hard. Basically I have to rec all the fics that are posted in the annual Narnia Fic Exchange, such as these amazing Susan stories by a writer that I've followed for 10 years.

Also, this amazing Killjoys vid,
Level Up [vid] (270 words) by Scribe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Killjoys (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Dutch (Killjoys), Johnny Jaqobis, D'avin Jaqobis, Pree (Killjoys), Alvis Akari, Pawter Simms, Fancy Lee
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Festivids, Team Feels, warning: physical triggers (flashing lights), Video Format: Streaming, Download Available, Video Format: MP4, Author's Favorite, Vidder's Favorite
Summary:
Team Awesome Force goes to war.

I"ve also received some pretty spectacular gifts.

Day 3 - Share a favorite piece of original canon.
I'm not sure why this one is so hard...I'm going to go with Star Wars. I'm pretty happy with Luke's recognition in TLJ that the Jedi Order contributed significantly to its own demise through arrogance and blindness. They are AWFUL in the prequels and I liked someone actually acknowledging it. I also like how the prequels seem to get so bogged down in dumb plot -- trade negotiations, really? Clone army? what? where? Why? Who? Except that it is all part of Palpatine playing a very long game to manufacture the pretext for a war (that also marginalizes non-humans), then creates an army in order to fight that war, then isolates the Jedi who must lead that war so that no one can defend them when they are surrounded by and murdered by their trusted troops and then uses that pretext to declare himself Emperor.

I liked that everyone in Rogue One died and that Rogues became Rogues thereafter to honor that sacrifice. In the same way, I'm still pretty pleased that Vader killed the younglings in the Temple and I really thought that George wouldn't go there. And that it's all Obi-Wan's fault and his a rat bastard liar.

Also, it's Legends, so technically only EU canon but Mara Jade. She's awesome in her very first incarnation and nothing every really improved on Mara in the first Thrawn trilogy. Mara is an icon for self-determination and agency and I'm the person I am today, with the friends and hobbies and life that I have due to Mara Jade.

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MARA JADE. She means so much to me and I was OUTRAGED that they erased her existence. I always loved Leia - how can you not? - but Mara is mine in a way Leia isn't. She's one of the big reason I push Zahn's books on people [well, I love Thrawn and that series is what made me truly SEE what war in space could be like and... okay, there are a lot of reasons].

The Problem of Susan was one of the things I considered talking about for Day 3. The older I get, the more I love her [and am, once again, outraged on her behalf].

Those are EXCELLENT choices to retire adjacent to. :)

Mara Jade... Let me tell you my feelings about her in 500,000 words or less... I've tried over the years to tell Tim just how important she is and just how unique she is -- he always says, well, I wanted to write someone you'd want by your side. Well, yes, Tim but let me tell you MOAR.

As for Susan, welp, I didn't put her in the canon discussion because I'm still a million words into telling that story. I had a reader lay it for me in comments this fall but the short answer is that there is no Problem of Susan and screw canon. I did address how there isn't a Susan Problem in my story Food for Thought but I'm going deeper now and just upending canon entirely. There are many very good reasons why Peter fights with Susan and they have nothing to do with lipstick and nylons.

Furthermore I've come to see that The Last Battle as a betrayal and contrary to the other stories of the Chronicles where there is a dilemma and adventure, Aslan coming to aid and rescue, denouement. In TLB there is no rescue and worst Lewis decides to kill it all so you can't ever get there unless you die. So those fantasies I and everyone else had about finding my own way to Narnia -- yeah, nope, unless you die. Really, Jack? Was that necessary?

Ultimately Aslan's message is, go to your world, find me there. TLB betrays that message that is consistent across all the other books. My million words of Narnia fic have all been about doing what Aslan said -- finding good here, doing good here, finding here what you loved about Narnia, using the skills of Narnia to make this world better. And, well, I've now decided I like my own vision better and that it's TLB that's the problem. Susan makes a choice to live in this world as Aslan instructed and it just takes a little longer for the others to realize that they need to do that too.

Ahem... I have feelings on this. Also there's been lots of Susan in the 3SF.

Edited 2019-01-04 01:58 (UTC)

The fact that Luke dragged the old Jedi Order was literally the only thing I liked about TLJ.

I'm 100% on board with what you say about the Jedi Order. I was so THRILLED with what Luke said, I may have cheered out loud. I also like how he followed it up with the bit about the Jedi don't own the corner on the force. So much about the Jedi Order is shady to me these days. Not just all the stuff surrounding their collapse, but all the stuff leading up to it - the abduction of children, painting their militarization in righteousness, etc.

I'm still not over Rogue One. Such a beautiful story they slipped into canon there. *sigh*

I haven't read the EU books in ages and intend to re-read the Thrawn books eventually, but I do remember Mara Jade and I remember really liking her. Moving that up on the queue now.

Here. Let's curl up with something to warm to drink, something nice to pet that doesn't make you sneeze, and bitch about the Jedi Order.

Mara. Oh Mara. The Thrawn Tril is really more her story than anyone else's. Tim had no idea what he did there. Mara is a hugely formative character and waaay ahead of her time. I think she is one of a handful of really unique female characters who has genuine agency -- she wrests herself -- on her own -- free of her past to to write her own story. How often do we have women characters who are competent, not romantic foils (AT ALL) and control their own destiny? Uhm, yes, I have many Mara feels. And she's so hard to get right. Fan fic hasn't been much kinder to her than the licensed stuff.

*pulls up a chair and plops down with a cat*

The only thing I can think of is that Palpatine really must've clouded Yoda's mind with SOME INSANE MAGIC because... Yoda. There were moments he seemed to sense something was off, but he didn't break free enough to do anything about it until it was too late.
*sigh*
I suppose the only one I really actively dislike is Krell though. What he did to the clones was unforgivable. (I may have clone feelings)

The "don't get attached" reason for not having romantic involvements bothers me, too. It reeks of the Catholic priesthood thing, which was to prevent money from leaving the church via heirs and had nothing to do with romance. It also seems to me that it says the Order doesn't trust their own Jedi not to be able to achieve balance. Make something taboo and don't give your people tools to cope when things go bad and you get Anakin, so they should've rethought that whole nonsense. I mean really.... "don't love" is their message. Come on.

Anyway, I'm definitely re-reading Thrawn sooner rather than later now. I read it when it was released, so my memory is vague.

OK, at work, and can't expound in tens of thousands of words on the "no attachment" but... gah I co-wrote a long, porny thing post TPM that dove into this issue. If you're a species that lays eggs and leaves young to fend for themselves (reptiles, amphibians, fish), or if you are a species that pretty cleanly separates reproduction from raising offspring or that doesn't form permanent pair-bonds, you can see how this might arise and even make sense -- it's no big deal. But for other species, it is surely completely counter. And the idea of duty to the galaxy and everything in it coming before your own bondmate, clan, or offspring, yes, I can see that. But it just doesn't make sense to have this across the board requirement for all species when biologically and culturally, practices would vary so widely.

It's going to cause problems and... this is where my issues with both the EU/Legends and NT come up -- I thought the crystal clear message of the prequels was this no attachment was a terrible idea and that a big point of the OT was Luke demonstrating just how wrong it was -- that his attachments, his love and trust for his friends and family, are what, ultimately saves everything. And so I'd assumed that what we would/should have gotten was a reborn Order that recognized that the Jedi hermetic existence was deeply misguided, unnatural, and not supported by any notion of the living Force. I mean, life creates it, right?

Instead, welp. Nope.

OK back to RL

(Life interrupted me, sorry)

I hadn't even thought about the possibilities of differences in species (which seems so fundamental once you say it). And, as you say, duty can come before family, etc if it's clear you're choosing that from the get go - I also have no problem with that.

TBH, I never really understood WHAT the message of the prequels was - I don't think Lucas did either. He was like... THIS SOUNDS SHINY and OOOOO.... CGI.
But I sort of assumed the same as you and thought that Luke would've obviously created an Order that wasn't really that strict about certain things. But it looks like he just went along with status quo and then it fell apart.

But yes, back to RL. I will definitely circle back to you whenever I re-read Thrawn. :)

Thank you for those Susan stories.

I love the two TV animated shows developed for the before-Yavin universe. Have not been able to like the characters in the new one, though.

oh gosh, yes. I followed that author back on fanfiction.net when they were in high school. 10 years later they pop up occasionally on AO3 and NFE to write AMAZING things. They never return comments, never engage, just disappear again. The are an amazing writer with a particular and unique Susan characterization.

Welcome to the cool kids' club ;)

Mara Jade is still one of my favourite characters ever. Partly because when I first read the Thrawn books I was young enough to think assassin = cool, princess = too girly (I am deeply shamed by shallow younger me), but mostly becuase... she WAS. SO. GOOD. She represented the really long, hard struggle to reform after being raised a monster. She was a counterpart to Luke who had to narratively work her ass off to be 'worthy' of him (I use that term very lightly and only in terms of their pairing), but mostly I liked her approach to life. No matter how uncertain she was about herself and her existential crises, when she saw a problem - obstacle, enemy combatant, person she has to deal with - she walked up and crushed it. Just. Like a bulldozer. But possibly I'm misremembering, it's been years since I read it. I just remember that sense of a woman who would walk through a concrete wall without being fazed. I idolised that.

Your happy place sounds like a heavenly retirement. Who could want more?

What Mara means to a person changes a lot over time. Absolutely, at first it's her competence, not a princess, assassin cool. That competence is part of what made Mara so appealing. Her sense of agency was something I really adimired without even knowing that's what it was called. And, as I've aged, I've found other things that I admire about her.

Something else important (and this is straight out of the Book of Zahn) is her sense of honor. Karrde gets taken by Thrawn and she feels responsible for it so she's like, OK, gonna go break into a star destroyer and rescue my boss (upending the trope along the way). Thrawn's agents infiltrate Coruscant Palace, and Mara uses her knowledge as Palpatine's Hand and agent to ride to the rescue. Over and over, people don't trust her. Over and over she does what's the right thing to do, the honorable thing to do, and no one ever gives her damn thing. It's one reason why she and work both work so well together. They both have that innate sense of rightness.

And of course at the end of the tril, she and Luke don't end up together. Which at the time, really annoyed me. I later was intensely grateful, both because I saw that they weren't ready, and because that's not the story Tim would feel comfortable writing. Even in my mountains of Mara/Luke fic from the 90s, I never married them off. (They were terrible parents).

As I've aged, I've been very happy to consider Mara without Luke entirely. She doesn't need to be his wife. She's got so much potential and could work so well in the new canon without ever being romantically linked to him. Or they are linked for a time, and then she sees where he's going and is all, Yep, nope, I'm outta here.

Gah. They brought Thrawn back. Why not bring Mara back.

I remember that! (wow it HAS been a long time since I read those books). She doesn't even really question that it has to be done, treats it like fact, I like that.

Mara absolutely does not need to be married to Luke (with or without children. I'd always go for without), but I liked that she let herself be vulnerable around him, which was so important whether or not it was a romantic relationship.

Do you have any of Mara fics you'd rec now? (your own or otherwise)

I saw your request for any good Luke/Mara fic? And, uhhh, I've not read anything good in so long I have no idea where to start. (Admittedly, I have a very specific idea of Mara and I'm very opinionated about it. That's the characterization in my work and if something doesn't align with it, I don't tend to like it or rec it. I did remember this post. I've not ready any of them (or if I did, I've forgotten them) but it's worth a try, https://fuckyeahmarajade.tumblr.com/post/127342926520/lukemara-fanfic-reclist-part-1

And in addition to the things I've done in the last couple of years, I found this yesterday, which I'd forgotten I'd done, https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/80393.html#cutid2

Thanks! I'll bookmark both now :)

Started to read one of the Susan stories, and it's lovely. Thanks for the rec/link.

U.S. national parks are one of my happy places too. One of the best thing about them is that they're so vast, and the majority of people don't stray far from the half a dozen popular paths, so it's possible to find peace and quiet and a view of one's own.

You are so right about that issue of use and access. We especially noticed it in Yellowstone this summer. Most of the people we met on hikes were European.

Your idea of a happy place sounds really good to me!

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Snowflake challenge Days 1-3

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