Pens, Hooks, Boots

And it honestly looks like Aragorn is not only comfortable with this kind of physical affection, he’s used to it. 

Which makes me think that instead of looking at young Aragorn, and asking him to be more like an elf to fit in with those around them. Elrond looked at this kid and and thought to himself “how can I be more like what this child needs to thrive” 

Aragorn has been raised by Elves since he was only 2 years old. So if we’re going by Piaget’s theories of child development, that puts Aragorn, (who would have been called Estel at the time) in the pre-operational stage. Or somewhere thereabouts. So Elrond is raising this kid when he’s learning to talk. When he’s constantly asking “why?” about everything. 

Young Estel would have grown up surrounded by elves and elf children and just by virtue of not being an elf, he probably would have had to deal with feeling less capable than those around him. He wouldn’t have been able to do things like run across snow, and didn’t have the ability to see as far as they did with their “elf eyes” and I am imagining all manner of bruises and skinned knees as he tries to keep up anyway. 

And it would take some getting used to his new surrounding, but  I can’t stop picturing the first time tiny little Estel runs full tilt across the room and hugs Elrond’s leg. 

And instead of scolding him or asking him to be more like an elf to fit in, Elrond consciously sets aside his own discomfort in the face of what this child needs to thrive. And if what Estel needs is hugs, then hugs he shall have. 

Elrond picking up itty bitty Aragorn in a great big hug, and being just as uncomfortable about it, but hiding it well because this child was entrusted to his care and he will not let the boy grow up feeling unwanted or unloved.

And so Aragorn grew up surrounded by elves, but he grew up to be someone who naturally and unselfconsciously displays affection. 

I think that speaks volumes about Elrond. 

He raised this kid from age 2 to age 20 (so the majority of his formative years and well through his teens) and it was around then that Elrond’s own daughter gets back form visiting her grandmother Galadriel and meets this boy for the first time.

So I have NO IDEA what the various stages of child development would be for an elf, but I doubt their exactly the same.

Mace Windu gave Anakin a funny look and he panicked and told Mace that he had a doctorate in biomechanical engineering, which for whatever reason satisfied him for the moment, but later Anakin freaked out because he was afraid Mace would try to check his claim. He got Obi-Wan to help him make a fake diploma, but the thing is you can’t get a doctorate without having published papers so Anakin also wrote a doctorate thesis on the ethical issues surrounding cybernetic enhancements that affect a sentient’s brain (which was good for him, because one of Anakin’s biggest issues is that he always puts individuals above ethics and so digging into ethics was a nice balancing exercise).

So anyway, Anakin got his thesis published on the holonet and it took off and he was suddenly swamped with questions about things he’d alluded to in the thesis but hadn’t really explored so he wrote and published five more papers and finally Space Harvard took notice and offered him an honorary doctorate, which of course he accepted and everybody thought the problem was solved. Until Mace Windu asked to see his diploma and Anakin panicked and gave him the fake diploma. Mace Windu stared at it long and hard because he actually had checked Anakin’s claim, more out of curiosity than anything else, and knew full well that he had gotten his doctorate two days ago from Space Harvard. It was very suspicious that he had just been handed a diploma that said Anakin had gotten his doctorate two years ago from Space Yale.

He looked at the diploma and then looked at Anakin and looked back at the diploma and Anakin was gearing up to claim that he actually had two doctorates when Mace decided that he didn’t care, handed the fake diploma back to Anakin, and then got back to Srs Jedi Business.

There was also part of a later arc where one of the papers Anakin published was about droid rights. (That one was actually mostly Padmé, who is a politician and knows how to construct an argument. Anakin had the basic groundwork for an argument but most of his first draft was variations on “It’s outrageous! It’s unfair!” with evidence and analysis scattered haphazardly throughout.) The biggest droid manufacturer on Coruscant took offense and tried to have his doctorate revoked. Anakin was too busy with Srs Jedi Business to care much (after all, the doctorate was really just to get Master Windu off his back about Luke Amidala calling him “Doctor Skywalker” in the first place) and Padmé was kind of in the spotlight already since the paper cited the way the Naboo treated their droids as evidence on more than one occasion (and if she tried to defend it too vigorously it might come out that she wrote a fair bit of it and that’s a scandal nobody wants). Luke and Leia, however, were very proud of their secret Jedi doctor dad and they snuck into the AI processing office and hacked into the AI code, removing the obedience and corporate loyalty processes, and the next day all of the droids the company produced were having existential crises and declaring that they didn’t want to be sold to a random buyer with no say in where they went or what they did. The scandal was not big enough to distract, but it rallied enough support that Space Harvard felt comfortable refusing to strip Anakin’s doctorate.

The overarching conflict of the series was that Obi-Wan knew about Anakin and Padmé’s marriage. Luke and Leia knew that he knew, but Anakin and Padmé didn’t, and obviously had never told him. He was really hurt by the fact that Anakin didn’t trust him and spent a long time just quietly waiting for Anakin to tell him but it never happened, so eventually he decided to do something about it. I woke up before he decided what, though.

Because. I mean. Listening to the psychic is a tactical advantage

The clones should have massive influence on battle plans! But if the Jedi says "not that route" then there's a solid chance it's because they are getting Bad Vibes that are predicting a possible ambush or rock slide

Ignoring a Jedi for not being a tactical expert is like ignoring the engineering specialist for not being frontline

Like yeah, they aren't battle planners. They still have pertinent information that could cost you the battle if you ignore it.

This doesn't get into the Jedi being solid field leadership (again, being psychic helps massively with making snap decisions) and just a major force in war themselves.

But as far as pre-battle leadership goes, I just think a lot of the This Character Is Literally Psychic gets understated. Not enough scenes in fic where the Jedi offer an opinion on the plan and just

"Bad vibes, sir?" "Bad vibes, captain."

"Sir, requesting a vibe check." "Vibes are good. We are clear to proceed."

Comment by @british-sarcasm:

Starry Night

He panics and blocks her. He’s sponging off of his wife, and if he gets busted, there goes his gravy train.

And then the woman shows up. In his house. She just got a job working with his wife, who absolutely adores her, and brought her home for dinner. And she’s doing that movie maniac thing where the entire conversation is about Brian, but Rose is clueless and whenever Rose isn’t looking she’s got cold eyes on him.

He tries to stay calm, and act like everything’s normal, and he gets up to get a beer or something and when he turns around from the fridge, Patty is standing there.

“Unlock your phone and give it to me right now.”

“I’m not–”

“Right. Now.”

She installs something on it and hands it back.

“I’ll be in touch. Don’t try to change phones.”

He tries to convince his wife not to be friends with her, even tries the “I think she was coming on to me” line, to which the wife is “Oh, that was definitely in your head. Marge is a lesbian.”

And she just gets progressively scarier throughout the film. He gives her a small payoff. She wants more. She leaves a package for Rose on the front door, but conveniently he gets there first and opens it to find printouts of screenshots. More clues get left behind. He’s only able to keep her from finding out through a combination of sheer luck and her gullibility in believing every explanation he comes up with for his odd behavior. Finally he dips into the secret account he’s been using to hide money he’s been stealing from his wife, and it’s a HUGE payout, but she wants MORE.

And then he comes home to find Marge sitting cheerfully next to Rose’s dead body. And Marge is like “Man, the police always start looking at the husband, and they’re going to find a whole bunch of stuff when they look through your texts. You’ve been promising this woman you’re going to leave your wife. You’ve been sending her money. Oh, she’s a catfish from an untraceable IP, and your wife was talking to the bank JUST THIS AFTERNOON about some odd transactions. You panicked and killed her, and you’ve got NO evidence otherwise. I bet you could be on a flight to a non-extradition country before they find the body, though.” He runs out the door. Marge starts laughing.

Rose joins in.

They kiss.

As the credits roll, you see the events from Rose’s point of view– having drinks with the new girl from work, with whom she’s getting along amazingly, and Marge’s phone goes off. “God, it’s this asshole from Tinder. He keeps sending me dick pics. Sooner or later they’re going to learn. It’s not even a nice dick. LOOK AT THIS. Who finds that attractive???” “I… used to? Holy fuck, that’s my husband. ”

and the hatching of the plan, to just keep fucking with him, up to “Okay, so, I’m gonna leave it on the doorstep. Make sure you’re a few minutes late, HE has to find it” “Oh, god, he tried to tell me it was the mailman. At 8:30. It was so pathetic.”

“WHERE DID HE GET TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM? I’m paying off his goddamn college loans!”

Rose reporting to the police that her husband has been embezzling money from her disabled mother’s trust fund.

Jason: Bruce, I’ve forgiven you for not saving me, but why haven’t you killed the Joker?

Bruce: oh god is that what this is about

Bruce: Jason, there’s nothing I’d like more in the world than to kill the Joker, but unfortunately, I can’t

Jason: what, because of your principles?

Bruce: no, because whoever kills the Joker becomes the Joker

Jason: ……excuse me

Joker, tied to a chair: it’s true!! I got to be this way by killing the last guy :D

Jason: you what

Joker: oh hey I know how to explain it!!

Joker: you ever see that movie The Santa Clause? it’s just like that :D

Jason:

sure they know what money is and get the principle of exchanging it for goods and services, but they grow up without having to use it in the Temple so what's the point of knowing the price of a jogan fruit if you can just ask for one in the refectory?

The accounting department is traditionally run by non-Jedi because none of them knows how taxes work or what a balance sheet is. Accountants working at the Temple are the most exasperated people in the galaxy and their daily conversations are like,

"master Kenobi went on a 2-week long mission and didn't ask for an allocation. Again. I wonder if he's going to admit he forgot and call for help at one point or try to sell most of his clothes at the highest price possible. Can't wait to read his report."

"can someone explain to me how Master Fisto left a month ago with 400 credits and came back with twice that amount? What did he do to earn that much money?"

"remember that time Master Jinn asked us to send him the equivalent of the GDP of a small mid rim planet because he gambled on a Force-intuition? yeah, I don't miss this guy."