I have not forgotten *crawls out from pit of tax forms*
So I wandered across a post asking ‘why isn’t space magic studied more if I lived in the Star Wars…’ and started listing all the reasons I could think of: the rarity of Force Sensitives, the damage infamous mad scientists have done to their trust of the scientific community, the difficulty of studying something more spiritual than scientific, Force Sensitive Scientific Study being classified as a ‘soft’ science resulting in less funding and lower pay for such scientists, etc.
Then my thoughts turned towards ‘hey a scientist character/Jedi character would be interesting and thus was born the story. I originally wanted to do Ferus Olin x Roan Lands but I couldn’t help insert my favorite Mandalorian nerd Jaster Mereel instead, maybe with Feemor or Jon Antilles, but Jaster, while a nerd, didn't quite seem to fit.
Finally I landed on Arla Fett whose a pretty blank slate in canon. I've seen her written a lot of ways but never as a scientist, which really got ye ole creative juices going. I could out-of-universe contrast her with fanon nerd!Jaster and in-universe with Coruscant student Satine!
Stass Allie, a Jedi healer working through her college medical degree made more sense than my usual blorbos, especially if the university offers the Jedi free tuition...if they volunteer as guinea pigs. I can see that. Plus I didn’t write her enough in Standing Above the Blood. With Jenna Zan Arbor plausibly going to school at around the same time and Galidraan threatening I had the beats of a plot I could really dance to XD
"Arla knew when she came to Coruscant to study Force Sensitivity that she’d be painted with the same brush as Demogol. But studying the Force was so fascinating. It was magic, however its practitioners balked. But magic science could make understandable. Who wouldn’t want to study that?
Well, maybe those who had Dr. Antilles as a professor. “Many infamous scientists forcibly abducted test subjects.” She smacked the desk with her ever-present ruler instead of giving Jenna and several other drowsy students the hiding she wanted. “Not only is this a horrific breach in scientific ethics but as a practical matter been ruinous to scientific study of the Force. The likes of Demogol,” her gaze lingered on Arla several unnecessary moments, “And the flood of similarly inclined experimenters have bottle-necked our volunteer programs. The likes of such...scientists also rarely bother with documentation and what they do bother with is often destroyed as their abductees make their way to freedom. Demogol was, in addition to being an atrocity of a sentient being, a horrible notetaker. I hope you do not follow in his footsteps Arla Fett.”
Arla’s vambraces creaked in protest, her blank pad protested her grip but she squared her shoulders beneath the aur-the students’ gazes who took Dr. Antilles focus to gawk their fill. Even with a compromise of torso armor and open-faced helm in a subdued grey and black – only the mythosaur a vibrant splash of red – Arla Fett stood out among most college students, let alone the type to study the Force. “I have heard this particular lecture before, enough to have it memorized.” She stated as diplomatically as possible. She would not (couldn’t afford) to start a fight but refused to wilt beneath their stares.
“Then you may recite the rest.”
An anticipated challenge; Arla spoke confidently: “That is why we must take ethics courses like this one, properly submit applications that consenting sentients must be able to understand. We must ensure our volunteers’ comfort within our laboratories, never use locks except for data storage and acknowledge consent may be revoked at any time. We must not only take good notes but ensure our experiments are repeatable – morally and literally – by other responsible scientists.”
Which was probably why the Coruscant University’s Force Study program had such a high rate of drop-outs.
The teacher moved on, ignoring her. Sadly that was all the reward she would get for her recitation. Arla stayed, never dropping out as her classmates did. Beyond her scientific curiosityof the Force, this study was the first thing that brought her out of the darkness of her own loss, the first thing to spark her interest after her parents’ death and the first thing she and Jaster really bonded over. Pissy teachers and annoying Coruscant outsiders weren’t going to deter her."
The Force: ok, gonna make a savior. Just give him a mom, nothing fancy.
-Anakin happens-
The Force: that's ok. He avenged his mother and he's got a politically powered secret wife even tho he's supposed to be celi- yeah, ok, we fucked up.
Ok, umm, let's do twins, but split them up. Give one a lot of resources and give the other one what we gave Anakin, but without the slavery part since that gave him revenge feels.
-Luke and Leia happen-
The Force: ok, yeah, there's some balance here. This could work. Aww, look, they're defeating the empire with ewoks. Wait. Leia. What are you doing with Han? Who authorized this?! I did?!
Ok, well, he's got both parents, no slavery, lots of resources... Ok, maybe.
-Ben Solo is about 10 years old and Snoke is all up in his brain-
The Force: find me some drunks who would never keep a child on a planet even worse than Tatooine.
midochlorians would have been cool if it would have been framed as what it really is: microscopic bugs enslaving sentient races to fight their wars for them
Okay, for all people who are so connected to the Star Wars fandom, my apologies... but what the hell are midochlorians, and why do so many people hate them with a passion?
