replies to the DAV Mara snippet
Instead of reblogging that post endlessly, thought I’d collect my replies here.
@bookwyrmie said: I remember the ask about including Mara in the DAV AU, looks like that turned into yet another thing that was not going to be written and then happened anyway.
Is there anyone that Anakin hasn’t adopted yet? There is the Free Droid Network with Kaydee and friends, the nicer imperial officers and the OBV-Squad, Leia once she becomes a senator, and he is probably keeping an eye on Pooja as well. Now here is a young force-sensitive child, who desperately needs someone to help her learn how to be a person without alerting the Inquisitors. Guess it’s about time he adopted an actual child as well.
Ha ha yeah, I was just waiting for someone to comment about that lol. It’s true I once said I wasn’t going to write Mara in DAV, but three things happened to change that:
1. I promised @astudyinimagination a pick-me-up fic and I knew Sky really wanted a fic about Mara. So I was damn well gonna write one! (The moral here is that you should always make friends with your writers, because then we will happily write you things by request!)
2. I’d been thinking for a while that I needed to somehow address the question of what happened to a Force sensitive kid who was picked up by the Inquisitors before Anakin became a double agent.
3. I’ve said a couple of times that I’ve always liked the concept of Mara, but I’ve always hesitated to write her because I dislike and discard the vast majority of Expanded Universe material and I didn’t particularly want to deal with the inevitable hate I’d get if I wrote my own version of Mara, since she’d essentially be an OC. But eventually I just decided that I get enough hate for not using EU canon anyway, so I might as well just fully embrace my multiverse theory of Star Wars canon and do what I want.
So there you have it! :)
@aeneasoftroy said:# DAV Anakin is a mix of mysterious old wizard and troll dad humor # and it suits him so well
This is one of my favorite things about writing OT Anakin. Not that he can’t be a troll in PT AUs, too, but just...there’s a kind of settledness to his character in the OT, partly a result of everything he’s lived through but also partly just because of the fact that he’s older now. Though there’s also a bit of tragedy to the fact that he can and absolutely does carry off the Mysterious Old Wizard trope in a fic in which he is (although Mara doesn’t know it) only 32 years old.
@hyratel said: #I am Nobody is CLASSIC #and delivered perfectly
It is indeed classical. ;)
@elf-kid2 said: This is beautiful and excellent and fantastic, and I love it. Thank You for writing this.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
@katharkness said: I like this very much, and would love to see it added to the Double Agent Vader series. I also wouldn’t worry too much about your Mara not fitting with the Legends Mara, because everything the rebooted EU has added, the Inquisitors and such, doesn’t really fit with the original Legends Mara. I suppose this is more like a rebooted Mara.
Thanks! I’m not so much worried about Legends canon, though, since I never am lol. I’m more worried about people who do like and care about Legends being unhappy with the ways I’m...basically beating up the EU in a back alley and rifling through its pockets for loose change. But you make a good point about this take actually kind of working as a rebooted Mara!
I mean, tbqh I actually don’t think the Inquisitors fit in with film canon at all. But I’m working on the multiverse theory here, and they do work really well with the story I’m telling in DAV, so I’ve basically borrowed them from Filoni ‘verse and created my own canon. So I suppose borrowing Mara isn’t a step much further.
@shadaras said: I always forget how much I love Mara as a character she's the best EU character and so much of that is because her arc is just 'I was brainwashed and then Luke's refusal to believe I wasn't a person made me able to be a person and I chose good once I could' this AU version is delightful because it stays true to all the essential aspects of her character it just places them in some new-EU elements (because yes that's what the shows are tbh) and also within a great AU context that is already all about what Mara's arc always was it just changes the Skywalker who saves her from the Emperor's brainwashing and that isn't a big change at all really anyway the intro implies there will be more of this eventually and that delights me because that last line is FANTASTIC and so true to the kind of story this is excellent job perfect story
Yeah, that bare bones essential aspect of her character arc is why I’ve always really liked the idea of Mara Jade - she basically hits all of my trope buttons. And the themes of her story when distilled like that are a perfect fit with the themes of DAV.
Also I’m delighted that you recognize Filoni ‘verse as EU because it absolutely is!
@figmentera said: I love this fiercely and cannot wait to see the rest! Mara is such a cool character and I love any permutation of her relationship with Vader. I feel like it's barely ever explored but it's such fertile ground. Plus there's some great glimpses at the rest of this universe, I always love that!
Thank you! I’m having fun exploring their relationship, though because it’s me and this story seems to keep growing, it may be a while before I have it finished. I’m kind of envisioning it as a side story to the main DAV storyline. It’s going to span pretty much the entire timeline, almost from the beginning of Anakin’s double agent career all the way to the death of the Emperor, but Mara’s story line is really running in parallel with the rest, rather than intertwining.
@frostbit-sky said: I still have to catch up, or really I should start again and binge read DAV, but I love 💗 the inclusion of Mara and encourage you to add this to actual fic.
At this point I’m pretty sure I’ve talked myself into including it, so you will likely get your wish. :)
@clockworktea said: people who care Very Much except they have no idea how to express this even to themselves! finding allies and immediately adopting them as Family! kadee the ex-torture droid turned fiercely overprotective aunt gives me LIFE and ''yes master' she whispered' just OUCH mates the levels of mindscrew (is he her slaveowner or is she his padawan or apprentice) (haha jokes on anakin the answer is up to you as long as it's painful) anyway yes good fia is back MORE ANGSTY GENFIC FOR ME MORE PLATONIC DEEPLY MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS TO ENJOY MORE CHARACTERS WHO ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO GET HEARTBROKEN OVER ...... hang on a second this was all a trap wasn't it
*Megamind goattee stroking face* You’ve fallen right into my trap!
In all seriousness, though, I’m delighted to see people getting excited about genfic! I still remember the days in fandom when writing genfic was like releasing words into the void.
Damaged people trapped in horrible circumstances and being insistently human to one another in spite of that is kind of my brand at this point, so I’m glad that’s holding up I guess.
I think basically everything Palpatine does in relation to Vader is a mindscrew on at least one level, but calling him the “Master of the Inquisitors” is definitely a master stroke on his part (if you’ll pardon the pun).
