#norcumi

As long as we’re on the topic of characters/characterization, Boba is one of those characters I’m a bit ambivalent towards. In the OT I never cared about him, beyond being annoyed at all the fanboys projecting onto him, and I did like the way the PT re-contextualized his character. The Clone Wars also warmed me up a bit, but overall my feelings were solidly meh. That is until I realized what he was always meant to be: an agsty, sullen teenager who can’t get away with anything because his brothers have done it all before him.

(Sidenote: if I ever get around to writing that clones in the OT series, I am 100% going to have Boba adopted and raised by a bunch of clones and just forever suffering as the youngest.

“I remember when I was your age,” Wooley said.

Boba ground his teeth together. “We’re the same age.”

“Technically. But are we really, though?”

“This is why I wanted to work for the Hutts,” Boba muttered.)

Every time I got to write Boba being a sarcastic little shit embarrassed by his family was an absolute joy and I could have written an entire fic from his pov alone.

I’m going to skip ahead to the scene between Obi-Wan and Cody. Like a lot of heavy emotional bits, I rewrote it and rewrote it and pared it down. I’ve said this before, but one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve gotten is that as a writer your goal should be to distill a moment down to it’s sharpest, purest edge so that it’s a real punch to the chest for the reader. In this instance I think I could probably have done better, but at a certain point you have to just stop editing and accept it and move on.

One of the broader themes I was working with—and yes, it’s high school English class time—was of isolation and loneliness. Obi-Wan had thought himself alone for so long, even before Anakin’s accident and his deal. Qui-Gon and Shmi had died and he was left caring for Anakin; they were all each other had. But then there’s Cody who doesn’t take Obi-Wan’s bullshit and who understands perfectly what Obi-Wan went through. If Echo hadn’t pulled through, he would have done the same (although he wouldn’t have had the chance because Jango would do anything for his kids).

Obi-Wan had cultivated his solitude and grief for so long that it takes Cody shocking him out of it to realize that, hey, he doesn’t have to be alone. Here’s a whole family who knows exactly what he wentthrough and are here to help. He just has to make the choice to reach out, which he does when he shares that anecdote about Anakin. In my head, this is the first time he offers anything without being asked first. It’s always a leap, to trust or not, to stay alone or let yourself be known, to deliberately make yourself vulnerable, and this is Obi-Wan taking it.

Also Cody and Obi-Wan are, as the kids say, my brotp and I honestly just enjoy letting these two assholes bounce off one another.

One of the things I really wanted to do with any scene containing two or more Te Wiatas is that I wanted them to feel like a real family who loved each other but also knew exactly what buttons to poke and are more than happy to give each other endless shit (see: Cody). I did my best to include little inside jokes and nods to their history – Cody pranking his brothers, Rex and Ahsoka’s handshake, Ahsoka and Boba’s pinky promise, Echo’s bowties, Fives’ nudity phase – to make them feel like real people and that one really cool but chaotic family everyone knows.

It made writing them fun, but as I said, challenging. There’s just so many of them and I only have myself to blame.

Let’s move on to the scene between Obi-Wan and Anahera! And to do that let’s talk about Anahera!

So in Star Wars the clones do not have a mother on account of being, well, clones. But in a modern au, or magical realism selkie au as the case may be, you need a mother. Without getting into the gender politics of Star Wars, fic, and whose stories fandom prioritizes and my own complicity in that, I wanted to include another woman that plays as large a role in their lives as Jango. I also wanted to play with the idea of who the clones take after, hence the line of them looking just like Anahera, just for fun.

After Boba, Anahera was probably my second surprise character I really enjoyed writing, if only because there was a lot about her I didn’t explore in the fic as it was from Obi-Wan’s pov. But short version, she is basically the head selkie in her area and she gets shit done. As Jango says, she settles things.

This little scene was just another example of the Te Wiatas basically beating Obi-Wan over the head with the fact he doesn’t have to go through this alone, not anymore. Unlike him, Anahera is equipped to deal with the Fair Folk. Obi-Wan, and Anakin by extension, are an edge, and selkies watch and guard those. She’s going to take care of this because it is her job.

And she genuinely likes Obi-Wan, this sad skinny white boy who Cody dragged home. She wants to help him because her Rex adores him. And he saved her son. She respects him.

She effortlessly lifted the overburdened tray, and Obi-Wan, carafe in one hand and his cup of tea in the other, followed her back to the main room where Rex met him halfway, and said, “I got this.”

“Of course you do,” said Obi-Wan, and passed over the coffee and let Rex lead him back to the sofa where his family were waiting for them both.

Hey,sometimes you gotta forgo the subtext and just let it be text.

Random bits:

Jango embarrassing his kids will never not be funny to me. 30% of my writing decisions are based on what I find hilarious

Rex’s arm was draped over the back of his chair and he rubbed his thumb absently against Obi-Wan’s shoulder.

“You’re welcome.”“Seriously?” said Ahsoka from where she was sitting across from them.

“I know,” Boba said. “It’s gross.”

We all know that one couple that isn’t dating but is clearly super into each other but won’t admit it and everyone wants to murder them. Rex and Obi-Wan are that couple. Honestly, Ahsoka was thisclose to locking them in a closet and being done with it.

I love writing Rex and Ahsoka’s friendship. Of course he would buy her a knife. He knows what she likes.

Nothing delights me more than the image of Obi-Wan in a gaudy Hawaiian shirt.

“Well, I gave birth to you and you brought the drinks,” Anahera said. “So by the law of transitive properties I brought the drinks.” They definitely get it from her.