#lightsaber

I took inspiration for Padmé's robes from the final act of Phantom Menace - a combination of her and Sabé's battle getups.

Imperial Princess Leia was the jewel of the Empire and the star of Lord Vader's eye. Her beauty and elegance were unmatched, as sublime as the snow-capped mountains of Alderaan. Many suitors desired her hand, yet even those rare few who could win Lord Vader's approval found the princess's love still unattainable; her heart was as cold and sharp-edged as the clearest kyber crystal, and her interests lay in the cutthroat maze of politics rather than the frivolities of romance.

When the public discovered that she had been a captive of the Organas throughout her childhood, there was uproar and a call to have Alderaan's royal house executed. However, the princess, ever merciful and generous, appealed to her father to spare the Organas. Moved by her pleas, Lord Vader granted her full authority over Alderaan as a gift, and she thus enjoyed many visits of retreat among the planet's magnificent landscapes.

~~~

First post of 2026! To kick it off, here is Leia's official portrait as Imperial Princess, commissioned by Vader XD It's entirely based on Portrait of Victoria of the United Kingdom by Winterhalter; I really wanted to give Leia a grandiose silhouette with a dark velvet cloak, and Queen Victoria really gave off those vibes, so I just went with it loll

I also put the Imperial Palace in the background to symbolize her ties to politics and the Empire; but she reaches for her lightsaber as a way to show dominance through power, especially with the Dark Side of the Force.

Here are some of my ideas for Leia's imperial outfits, some with moon/night motifs! I imagine her style would veer more toward Naboo's extravagance, which would also serve as a link to Padme. The third design is inspired by Padme's black corset dress from episode 2, and I imagine it'd nearly give Vader an aneurysm upon seeing it loll The fourth design (black hole inspired) is supposed to have intricate embroidery like the others, but I got too tired to finish it ^^;;

He is growing into his cool Force powers and unpackaged trauma : )

I'm having a massive Cody hyperfixation right now so here you go,

I read a lot of lightsaber lore when I was younger, and it actually lines up really well with the depth of Maul's duel with Devon in Ep. 3.

Devon states she "Isn't foolish enough to fight [Maul]", but when cornered at the exit, she says "Let me pass, I'm not afraid of you". She then opens into what appears to be an opening stance for Form III lightsaber combat (Soresu), which supports a couple ideas about her character.

1 . She's past the basic fundamentals of Form I lightsaber combat (Shii-Cho), which is what padawans generally start with. She's no beginner.

2. She is prioritizing defense and endurance here, as these are the primary functions of Form III. Her goal here really is to defend herself as long as she has to. You can win a duel with Form III, but she definitely just wants to get past him.

Maul responds with an opening stance for Form II (Makashi), which isn't his typical fighting style. We usually see Form II with Count Dooku.

Form II is a traditional & advanced form, focused on efficiently defeating an opponent in saber-on-saber combat. He wants to flex the extent to which he can easily outclass Devon, because he wants her to buy into the value of his training (much like Vader with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. Wow parallels).

She actually holds up pretty well for a minute, and is very much on the defense, so yeah... Form III.

Unfortunately, he essentially beats her here:

And again

And again.

And again.

Obviously, he isn't trying to kill her, and she can gather as much. He just wants to do this little demonstration, test her, and get in her head.

She ultimately gets away, but only after he frustrates her enough that she perhaps "taps into the dark side" a little bit, as the kids say. He pushes her to be more discontent and ambitious with her life, so that he can be part of the answer. She can gather as much.

I'm curious where this is really headed. As a final note, Maul doesn't open into his typical fighting style with Form VII (Juyo) until Ep 4., when he has to fight both Devon and her master.

You don't exactly need to know any lightsaber lore to extract these ideas from the narrative, but it was pretty fun to see these details lining up.