𓅰 Cool Sea bird 𓅰

Admiral Ar'alani: a star original of Zahns, a badass military leader, ruthless, intellectual, loyal to her country only, but just so good and kind, she even goes through a mini arc of overcoming racism. She is cool enough to stand on her own as a character but also functions as a valuable influence on thrawn himself. The only bitch in the Ascendancy who is allowed to serve cunt in white. Once prompted another military force to send out a medical unit so the opponent would kill them #war crimes. Returned in Treason to tell thrawn how disappointed she was. Also a trans lesbian what who said that

Thalias: a Zahn original. someone once said that she was an example of "traditional feminine values done correctly" and I'm inclined to agree. Wanted to babysit a child soldier while having no experience being a caregiver. In love with thrawn until she spent a day in a box with him and decided to be his sword and shield instead. Compassionate and also VERY manipulative and opportunistic and able to turn a situation to her advantage. Pulled a gun on the Patriarch??? Savage in her loyalty???? Your honor I'm a sucker for a dog motif character.

Padmé: I think the reason Zahn could write Padmé but not Anakin/Vader is because in order to write Padmé you have to know how to write Thrawn to some degree. Both thrawn and padmé are opportunistic, cunning, analytical, and they both have an infectious desire to solve problems that's eating them whole. Padmé has all of this and more in Alliances, added with a little bit of sick yearning for her husband. Flawless.

Karyn Faro: another Zahn original, oh faro the woman you are. Her boss lets her talk shit to his face. She once commanded the chimaera in a battle while thrawn was on the opposing ship. Assumed that Darth Vader was just sleeping behind his mask. Zahn had to have Thrawn promote her because he knew that she couldn't die in the Purgill Event of Season Four.

I am almost done with Thrawn by Timothy Zahn and it has been such a fun journey, so here are my thoughts.

I wasn't an audiobook girlie, but I might be now. It's so well produced and the guy can do so many voices. Every once in a while the imperial march will be playing in the background adding to the vibe. It's wonderful, highly recommend.

When Arihnda Pryce first showed up, I was confused on why she was in Thrawn's book. But I have really enjoyed seeing her character arc. She is the definition of Slytherin and ambition and watching her progressively harden her heart and do what it takes to get what she wants. It is fascinating character development, but it is especially fascinating character development to give to a woman.

Thrawn is blue military Sherlock Holmes. Eli Vanto is Watson. It's great.

I love looking through the lens of the Empire, to see how they justify what they do. Especially how Thrawn is the protaganist in this story, and because I love him as a character, it is easy to cheer for him. Especially when going against space racism. But towards the end, I have to remind myself that I don't want him to win because he is working for an evil empire. It really makes you think.

I also appreciate the lack of romance. It allowed the characters to develop more on their own. There are also not a lot of books that don't have romance and it's nice to see characters defined by their actions and not their romance. It also wasn't needed for any of the characters and would have just felt unnecessary for them.

Past/Present/Future

The companions (and Withers)

I was tagged by @wasteful-sam here (thank you!) and since I'm literally prepping for my songs sideblog's next post for tomorrow morning (about a tune called "Sea and Sky"), I might as well go with that.

And not just because that's what's in progress—because it's also self-indulgent; it was a song I wrote during quarantine, at the exact time I was slipping into the strange and very self-centered personal regression that's defined my 2020s.

The song steals liberally from several artists who were my faves when I was 14 (all of whom will be in the full post tomorrow, because I cite my sources), and it also steals from myself—using my most-signature riff of my arguably "best" song from circa 2002.

"Sea and Sky" is a cipher and a jalopy and a blatant piece of self-sabotaging piracy that nevertheless has one of my favorite tossed-off easy-peasy lyric rhymes that I've ever done:

Lotta hammers out there looking for nails Lotta nails out there looking for wood Lotta square pegs looking for round holes To force angles on as if they could

This week is gonna be heavy on the IRL-freelance-work again, so any WIPs will also probably include starting a Cannor pencil sketch based on this model, figuring out what to do with my Singer x Sailor run in Act 2, and maybe deciding what to do about a new More Origins/Who Runs The World-modded run with all-NPCs.

Cased and presentation engraved double barrel percussion pistol crafted by Bernhard Wilhelm Ohligs for Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. Circa 1862-1863

ITS MY BDAY!!! 🙆‍♀️🙆‍♀️

thanks to everyone who supported me this year, i hold you all close to my heart….very glad to meet new people through new platforms as well as new fandoms 🤩 this post became very fma dedicated but honestly that is the thing that turned me back to active drawing ✍️