Latest Posts by evanui27 - Page 2
Weep for yourself, my man You’ll never be what is in your heart Weep, little lion man You’re not as brave as you were at the start
Song: Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons
Some personal favs Star Wars art from 2021🥳
Sorry for inactive, work has been crazy busy lately. Hopefully I can manage to squeeze in some time to draw in 2022!
Twi | ins
i love you fictional vehicles that become a main character in the story by extension, i love you ships with iconic names that turn into a home for the characters, i love you humanized modes of transportation with imagined personality quirks, i love you sapient starships with real personality quirks, i love you inherent human ability to emotionally bond with literally anything
these stripes mean something
rating: g (word count 762)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40832574
When the Mandalorian shows up in front of Cara's glossy new officer's desk, asking her to help him spring one Migs Mayfeld, traitor to democracy and accessory to murder, the first thing she thinks is: this man is not the same person who fought by my side on Sorgan. There’s something wrong with the rigid way he moves, with the tightness in his voice when he speaks.
“These stripes mean something,” she says, indicating the badge on her chest.
It’s a no, but not a hard one. More of a please don’t ask me that. She doesn’t want to choose between Mando and her last chance of going straight. (She doesn’t know if she has the strength to choose going straight.)
“They have the kid.”
Cara’s eyes narrow. Oh no, they don’t.
The whole way to Morak, Cara watches the Mandalorian out of the corner of her eye.
There used to be a tenderness to him, an awkward softness that poked out between the cracks of his armor. She saw it first on Sorgan, in the way he watched his son play with the children in the krill ponds. Heard it in the thank you's he clumsily handed the young widow like he wasn’t sure what to do with them.
It's gone now.
There’s an aura of deadliness concentrated around him that wasn’t there before. It’s like he’s a blaster aimed to kill and he’s only waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. His voice is a gaping void. Sure, Mando has always been quiet, but now… it’s like he’s catatonic. Like he only exists when he needs to for the mission.
Cara has never feared him. Not even on that fateful day on Sorgan when she looked up from her spotchka, saw a real live Mandalorian hunter, and thought for the first time in her life, I might be meeting my match. She tends to be more practical than terrified in those kinds of situations, but—
Not gonna lie, the rigid figure sitting across from her makes her a little uneasy. It’s a good thing they’re on the same side.
The old Mando called a truce and offered her soup. She’s not so sure this one would do the same.
Cara can’t believe he agreed to replace his beskar with stormtrooper armor. She can’t believe he suggested replacing his beskar with stormtrooper armor.
It’s kind of dumb, but all she can think is where did your face go? She knows, rationally, that the black T-visor and beskar zygomatic curves aren’t his real face, that helmets are removable and there’s got to be a head somewhere in there. But still. Where is his face.
“I’d say it looks good on you, but I’d be lying,” she says.
The Mandalorian looks at her.
Cara’s always been able to read the crease of a brow and the twitching of lips through a helmet’s tilt. She knows this man as well as she knows her own blaster. Knows the way he fights and the way he stands still, knows what he’s saying when he doesn’t say anything at all. They’ve had entire conversations without speaking a single word. But now—
Now, for the the first time since the day they met, she locks eyes with the Mandalorian and has no idea what’s going on inside his head.
(It’s the lack of doubt. It’s the way he faces her, head-on, like a challenge.)
It shouldn’t feel so jarring. It’s not like he’s done anything yet that Cara wouldn’t do if their places were swapped; the kid is everything to him, so there’s no justification for the strange, premonitory loneliness she feels welling up in her bones. It’s just a helmet.
(It has never been just a helmet.)
Cara will go to the other end of the galaxy and farther if her Mandalorian needs her to. It’s a silent promise she made a long time ago, sometime after a bag of credits and a second chance plunked onto the dirt by her feet. She owes everything she is now to this man, who met an outlaw and saw a former Rebel shocktrooper, who without saying a single word reminded her what it was to have a heart and a code and a people to protect. She’ll hold herself to her vow as long as she’s able, but something tells her the Mandalorian is headed somewhere she can’t follow.
These stripes on my chest mean something, she thinks. That beskar meant something. You were the one who taught me that.
I wonder if you remember.
we are not a people of sand
rating: g (word count 420)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/36747517
Tuskens have no written language. Instead, their ancestors’ memories are passed from the old to the young, their history recounted each night under the indifferent gaze of the stars. In this way is a culture forsaken by the rest of the galaxy kept alive. There are generations in the heft of the Elder’s gaderffii and the tip of the Elder’s tongue.
“Feel how cold it is at night,” the Elder might say. “Tatooine has always been a planet of paradoxes: sea to desert, desert to ice.” On a longer night, when the Dune Sea is tilted away from all three of Tatooine’s suns, the Elder begins, “Let me tell you the tale of Rgur’okrt, he who tamed the krayt dragon with his mind.”
That is one story that is told in every tribe, though the name is as variable as the wind. Rgur’okrt and the dragon fought thirty days beneath the sand, and the whole tribe thought he was dead. But on the thirtieth day he found that he could sense the dragon’s thoughts, so he reached out and caused it to fall into a deep sleep, such that it would not wake to terrorize his people for the passing of two generations.
Then he burst from the sand, the granules spraying like droplets of water. The tribe rejoiced because he was alive. And from his robe fell out a fruit, and it broke, and spilled out milk. And Tuskens have drunk from black melons ever since.
The young do not always want to listen to these tales. “What does it matter?” they ask. “Why should we care about the history of a primitive people, of a hunted, dying race? Look around you. We choke on sand when the rest of the galaxy walks in the sky.”
So the Elder reminds them, “That is because we are not a people of sand. We are a people of water, of briny, irrepressible waves. Do you think mechanical wings are the only way to fly? Our ancestors crossed oceans on the backs of whales.”
Then the Elder tells the end of the story. All of the Tuskens’ stories end the same way.
As Rgur’okrt burst from the sand, so will the fish and the whales and the crabs. Water will fall from the sky, and water will swell from the sand. “The oceans will rise again one day,” the Elder says, and makes the children repeat the words, one after another. “The oceans will rise again one day, and we with them.”
if i had a nickel for every time my favorite fictional character was the father figure to a clone bioengineered to have superpowers i would have two nickels. which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
we all bounce from media hyperfixation to media hyperfixation but we retain our Types of character who we consistently become obsessed with
weary, injured, superpower-less men with graying hair and a dry sense of humor who use their wits against enemies much stronger than them. who risk their lives to protect others but don't always consider themselves heroes, sometimes justifiably. who somehow end up as the mentor slash father figure for a talented and idealistic kid who either has superpowers or is into archery
we all bounce from media hyperfixation to media hyperfixation but we retain our Types of character who we consistently become obsessed with
the reason why din knows nothing about mandalorian history is because 1) he doesn’t ask questions unless it’s directly related to what he’s doing and 2) the armorer doesn’t volunteer information unless she’s asked questions or it’s directly related to what she’s doing
thinking about how the armorer
didn’t fight din for the darksaber after he said he’d taken off his helmet even though a) mandalorians will be cursed if an unworthy person wields it and b) she would have won easily
told din about the living waters instead of just saying there’s no way to redeem himself now that mandalore is a dead planet
let him keep his armor despite the whole “beskar belongs to mandalorians” thing
conclusion: the armorer believes din will restore mandalore in order to redeem himself in the living waters. also she is pro din for mand’alor
on the one hand i think bobf should remain boba's show and a din appearance would detract from that
on the other hand the dopamine from seeing that man onscreen again will keep me going for a solid two weeks
A persons fanfic tells you a lot about them, i , a fanfic writer, realize in terror
there’s been assumptions that din’s covert is an offshoot from death watch or the true mandalorians, and I currently believe that the tsad’ade actually predate both factions, and are descendents of a mandalorian diaspora that occurred after the dral’han. this would explain
their devotion to their armor and why removing it would mean you could no longer be mandalorian—it’s a reaction stemming specifically from the demilitarization of mandalore and installation of the pacifist, unarmored new mandalorians, several centuries removing from the specific context that prompted it
why the jedi are considered ancestral enemies of according to the tsad’ade—because this group was formed immediately after the jedi-led orbital bombardment of their home planet
why bo-katan dismisses them as a splinter group of religious zealots who want to return to the old ways—the tsad’ade predate death watch by many centuries, and were formed by people who prioritized maintaining their traditions over staying on their planet
why din is immediately skeptical of retaking mandalore—unlike the faithful (traditionalist mandalorians who prioritized their planet and practiced in secrecy) who believe it can be reclaimed, the tsad’ade are descended from people who left and likely never intended to return
why din knows next to nothing about recent mandalorian history—the tsad’ade consider themselves to be mandalorians, not the people who stayed on mandalore. what history he does know—like the purges—stems from times when the tsad’ade answered other mandalorians’ calls for aid, much like how bo-katan and her people answered din’s
why armored mandalorians are still recognized by the wider galaxy as great warriors despite (supposed) pacifists having ruled mandalore for the past seven centuries—tsad’ade continued maintaining that reputation prior to the relatively recent establishment of groups like death watch or the true mandalorians
been thinking about how din's religion doesn't seem to be very... religious. there is no deity that we know of, no afterlife, no legends. it's a code of conduct, not a belief system, and furthermore it's a code based on practicality rather than morals. when the armorer talks about the importance of helmets or foundlings, she talks about how they help mandalorians survive. neither aspect of the code has anything to do with belief or morality. is it really true that mandalorian isn't a race, but a creed? or is "the creed" just a set of rules designed to preserve a dwindling race?
5, 12, and 13 for the mandalorian?
thank you for the ask, lovely anon! here you go:
5) Name one character you headcanon as aroace
din. i could see him as a lot of different aro-spec identities, but i've been headcanoning him as aroace since like ten minutes into episode 1. somehow he embodies both the "no emotions" and "extra room for platonic love" stereotypes at the same time. his entire existence is a big aroace mood.
honestly though, the entire cast of characters is free aro headcanon real estate. none of them express any interest in romance except for the frogs.
12) Which relationship dynamics do you prefer to see? Romantic, platonic, sexual, familial, queerplatonic?
i love platonic (and adoptive) familial relationships. platonic din & literally anyone always warms my genficcer heart. and of course there's the parent-child dynamic between din & grogu, or din & the mandalorian who rescued him as a child. i sometimes read romantic din/omera, but i'd prefer queerplatonic if those fics existed. sexual... no. never. in any fandom.
13) Name two or more characters you think are in a queerplatonic relationship
oh, din & omera for sure. i think omera is straight and attracted to din, but aware on some level that he's not into anyone and is okay that a relationship with him will be a little different. i doubt they label it (or even have the terminology to do so) but to me fics where they're strictly platonic or romantic just feel... off.
Aromantic Fandom Ask Meme
Send an ask with a number (+ a specific fandom, if you want)
Name one character you headcanon as arospec because of textual reasons
Name one character you headcanon as arospec just because you feel like they are
Name one character you headcanon as romance favorable aromantic
Name one character you headcanon as romance repulsed aromantic
Name one character you headcanon as aroace
Name one character you headcanon as aroallo
Choose five characters: one that you could see as grey-aro, one as demiromantic, one as quoiromantic, one as aegoromantic, and one as lithromantic
Is there a character you think would be aromantic due to trauma, neurodivergence, or mental illness?
Is there a character you just cannot ever see as alloromantic?
Is there a character you just cannot ever see as aromantic?
Is there a popular ship you can’t stand because you headcanon one or more characters in it as aromantic?
Which relationship dynamics do you prefer to see? Romantic, platonic, sexual, familial, queerplatonic?
Name two or more characters you think are in a queerplatonic relationship
Name a character you think would be nonpartnering
Is there a character you think wouldn’t feel romantic attraction at all, but would still enjoy a romantic relationship?
Do you ever read romantic fanfic while pretending the fic is about non-romantic relationships?
Are there romantic fanfic tropes whose appeal you will never understand?
Platonic soulmates: do you like the concept or not?
What is your dream aromantic themed fanfic?
Which fandom you’ve been in was the most aro-friendly?
Is there something people in fandom do or say that makes you feel uncomfortable as an aromantic?
Do you have an opinion on romantically shipping aromantic characters?
Free question: drop a random aromantic related fandom thought
one thing i want from season 3 is an acknowledgement of what losing the razor crest means for din. that ship is literally his only safe space. it’s the one constant in his unpredictable life, and the one place where he isn’t perpetually under attack. the difference in his body language between when he’s planetside and when he’s flying is huge - it’s the most relaxed we ever see him. in addition, without the razor crest din will be forced to be dependent on other people. he seems to be living paycheck-to-paycheck and i don’t think he can afford a new ship. he has much, much less control over his own life without one, and it’s not like he ever had much control to start out with. i cannot emphasize this enough: losing the razor crest is absolutely devastating for din. i don’t want it to be too overshadowed by grogu.
i feel like there’s a greater-than-zero chance that mythosaurs are not actually extinct
unpopular opinion but chapter 9 is definitely the weakest episode of the show. it’s not bad but in comparison to the rest of the show it’s subpar. plot-wise it’s just a rehash of chapter 2 (fighting a big sand monster in return for getting back something valuable) and chapter 4 (arming the villagers) but without adding the same emotional weight or new insight into din’s character.
most of it just seems irrelevant. it was definitely too long in proportion to its importance — really the only point of the episode was to introduce boba and cobb for later episodes. i wish the main conflict had been around boba’s armor rather than the fight with the krayt dragon because that was actually relevant to later themes in the season, while the krayt dragon was just like... big scary monster. that’s it. you could substitute any other antagonist and it wouldn’t change anything. i felt similarly about din - this was the first episode in the show where some of his lines and actions felt like something anyone would do or say. there were just a lot of things in this episode that i didn’t feel like there was strong reasoning behind their inclusion.
this reminds me of chapter 8 when it’s revealed that all the mandalorians in din’s covert were forced to take off their helmets after saving din. the armorer, who in the show represents the ultimate moral authority on the creed, appears to approve of their decision because they were prioritizing one aspect of the creed over another (i.e. helping fellow mandalorians > keeping the helmet on). she considers it a tragedy but not a sin. this is evidenced by the fact that she says “we were forced to reveal ourselves” rather than morally separating herself from the others by using they/themselves.
I keep seeing people say that Din broke his Creed in Chapter 15 but I think that is a misread of the scene and the show overall. I think what happened was that Din re-ordered the collection of tenets his follows so that the child’s safety supersedes all else.
The two most important parts of the Creed (as represented in the show) are wearing armour and protecting foundlings. In Chapter 3, Din is faced with a moral problem - does he protect this foundling or reclaim his peoples’ armour? His chooses the latter, and then goes back on that decision to rescue the child. That episode is titled The Sin for this exact reason - he made the incorrect moral decision, but he was no less of a Mandalorian for it.
In Chapter 15, he is then presented with the exact same problem, but this time he chooses the child over the armour. This is why that episode is titled The Believer - Din is in the process of reorganising his religious priorities, not abandoning them. Just as he was a Mandalorian when he decided to forsake the child, so too does he remain a Mandalorian when protecting him.
me: okay brain we have to do things
my adhd brain: IT’S HYPERFOCUS TIME
me: ...really? wow. thank you for actually working for on--
my adhd brain: MANDALORIAN HYPERFOCUS TIME
me: wait no
Din’s covert could conceivably be the direct legacy of the true mandalorians and i can make it make sense without even being that convoluted: an essay
How to Write Din Djarin
I made a previous post here on how I go about writing various SW characters, but I think Din warrants his own post because he’s pretty unique in a lot of ways that can be difficult to translate into writing sometimes. A lot of people have asked me how I approach writing Din, so I thought I would share my notes!
Now, this is just how I write him personally. This isn’t meant to be a definitive interpretation of his character, but it’s the way I approach him whenever I’m writing, and I hope people find it helpful.
This is a lot more in-depth than my other post, so this will be more like a DND-style character sheet for him lol. I’ll go into his general outlook/worldview, mannerisms & temperament, how he talks and thinks, etc, along with some other stuff like his dynamic with Grogu.
As always, this is all going under a cut ↴
Keep reading
oh absolutely. i’d say it’s a near-certainty. we know bo-katan is planning a revolution and she’s a pretty polarizing figure. i’m sure there are lots of mandalorians out there who Will Not Like That. there also seems to be some sort of (possibly one-sided) preexisting rivalry between bo-katan’s political faction and din’s religious faction which i’m sure is going to come up later.
a civil war would basically be the culmination of the recurring question of what makes a mandalorian (do they have to wear the helmet? be ethnically mandalorian? is it a religous, political, or racial group or a combination?) because any contender for mand’alor has to prove to the others that they’re truly mandalorian. which makes din as a (reluctant) contender quite interesting because not only is he a foundling, now that he’s taken off his helmet he probably doesn’t consider himself mandalorian anymore.
this is pure speculation but they could POTENTIALLY be gearing up for another mando civil war with bobf and mando s3, because we now have A) a claim to the throne by Din that is definitely going to be contested by a lot of people, himself included, B) a historically very politically powerful and ambitious leader who represents a “scorned” faction of Mandalorians in Bo-Katan, and C) Boba Fett, who presumably now controls Hutt Space (? or is it just outer rim territory? I can’t remember) and will probably be roped into the conflict purely based on the fact that he has resources, people, and territory at his disposal regardless of how he feels about Mandalore itself. Add all of that onto the fact that afaik Mandalore has no current ruler now that the Empire is gone and a huge diaspora that is probably eager to return home now that they’re not under the thumb of imperial rule. This would also follow the eternal cycle of “it’s like poetry, it rhymes” Star Wars is obsessed with following, so a capstone civil war is probably gonna happen soon-ish. also lends itself to lots of entertaining action scenes, rule of cool, etc
ten credits says when din finally paints his armor it'll be purple because he's not like other mandalorians
so i noticed something when rewatching mando s2e3 - when din's (crash)landing at the start of the episode, the razor crest's screen reads 'landing gear offline' (www(.)cap-that(.)com/starwars/the-mandalorian/203/1080/images/mandalorian2x03_0217(.)jpg), then next shot it says this - www(.)cap-that(.)com/starwars/the-mandalorian/203/2160/images/mandalorian2x03_0291(.)jpg - i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure that says 'of course (i?) still love you' ?? is the crest trying to tell din something??
first of all, you are the sharpest-eyed, biggest-brained person on this website. has no one ever noticed this??? I'm truly mindblown! second of all, you're 100000% correct.
here are some zoomed in screencaps and gifs I made which show the 3 messages the razor crest's screen displayed in s02e03:
first, "stabilizer error":
second, "landing gear offline":
THIRD!!!! "OF COURSE I STILL LOVE YOU"!!!!!! :
(edit: note that the “I” on the Crest’s screen is backwards to denote a capitalized letter. I didn’t capitalize it in my subtitles which is why it looks like a 1)
then right back to "landing gear offline":
now, while the headcanon of a semi-sentient razor crest is very interesting... (although, wouldn't that be so sad considering the tragedy? I pretend I don't see it) (also, that would remind me of L3-37 in solo being uploaded into the falcon)
the easter egg is more likely related to the SpaceX spaceport drone ship called "of course I still love you":
it's docked in long beach, ca and floats on the ocean surface as a large landing platform, similar to the dock on Trask where Din was trying to land the Crest. I think it's probably just a fun nod from a couple of fellow space nerds haha.
but isn't it nice to think that some of the last words the Crest — Din's only sanctuary for years — said to Din were "of course I still love you"? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
the debtor
rating: g (word count 598)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32755144
The Mandalorian watches her do the dishes sometimes. Omera isn’t sure why; she wonders for a while if he’s just lonely, but he never speaks or announces his presence. She figures it out when he joins her at the washbasin one day and picks up a bowl.
“Have you been trying to learn how to wash dishes this whole time?” she asks with a smile, handing him a soapy rag.
He tenses.
“I’m not making fun of you,” she clarifies. “It’s—” Sweet. “Appreciated.”
“I don’t have dishes on the Razor Crest,” the Mandalorian says after a moment. “Mostly I eat ration bars.”
“You must be sick of them by now.” Ration bars have all of the nutrients and none of the taste of real food; Omera can’t imagine eating them on a regular basis.
“They suit my purposes.”
He really doesn’t like empathy, does he. She hands him a wet plate and starts scrubbing at the next one. They work in silence for a while, scrubbing the dishes with soap and then setting them aside to rinse later. Eventually, the stack of dirty dishes she’s already run water over dries up, so they rinse off the soapy dishes and set them aside to dry in the sun before getting the dirty ones wet again. Omera picks up her scrub brush and starts on a cup.
“You’ve been very kind to me,” the Mandalorian says, breaking the silence.
She inclines her head. It’s hard to keep a smile from her face, hearing the way this hardened warrior shyly shapes politeness. “You’re my guest.”
“I know my presence is—hard for you. I take up space. And I frighten the children.”
“You don’t,” Omera says, though she’s not sure which part she’s responding to, taking up space or frightening the children. He doesn’t really do either. Only Winta was ever afraid of him, and that faded quickly. The Mandalorian is stiff around children, like he’s afraid he’ll break them if he makes the slightest move, but he is always gentle. No one in the village fears him anymore. And he takes up little space, so little that sometimes she wishes he’d take up more.
“I owe you.”
Is that why you learned how to wash dishes? “You don’t,” she repeats. “Besides, this is your payment for helping us with the raiders, remember? You asked for lodging.”
The Mandalorian’s head tilts toward her before turning back to the washbasin. “You’ve given me more than lodging.”
Not much, she thinks. Just extra bedding and warm food and an ear to listen on occasion. She wonders what his life has been like, that such basic kindness is a luxury. “Hasn’t anyone ever done something for you just to be nice? Without expecting anything in return?”
The Mandalorian’s head scythes towards her, his chest rising and falling sharply. Omera meets his gaze. The question hangs between them: too forward, probably, but she can’t take it back now. She doesn’t bother disguising the mingled nervousness and curiosity on her face, though she does hide the sympathy. She knows he wouldn’t appreciate it.
“Once,” he says.
She hesitates, wondering if he wants her to ask further questions. He doesn’t seem like the sort of person who likes to talk about his past, but sometimes—
“It’s why I swore the Creed,” he says before she can work out a response. His head slants away from her, staring at the last plate in his hands. “I will never be able to repay that debt.”
The Mandalorian sets the plate out to dry and ducks out of the hut.