#rey replies

i.........appreciate this so much! the fact that you took time out of your day to write this long, thoughtful message is super sweet and lovely!

i really wanted to write about episode 4 but also just make it more compliant with a reader-character that has been traveling with din for a while. i also was looking at the transcript for episode 4 and noticed that din says “we caused a lot of trouble a few weeks back” or something similar to that. so take that amount of time, and then also add many another week or two to train the villagers, and like....episode 4 is like a month? or more? and i really loved the idea of that (because i LOVE westerns) and there’s a trope in westerns of the cowboy coming across a village that’s peaceful, setting down roots, and then things go awry and he needs to leave. i love that idea for din within the context of the episode, but i also love thinking about that idea with din + reader. he loves her, but hasn’t really had the time to think about that love/dissect it. but then obvious stuff.........goes to shit. and they have to leave.

i’m very much in favor of a soft mando. i know some writers like to make him a little more.......direct? like any smut fic i’ve read has him kinda taking charge and being all fap fap fap. which is totally fine! we all have our different headcanons for din. but for me, din is so touch starved, so kind and broken and empathetic but with no outlet for it, that he just.....isn’t like that. i’m really trying to explore the soft side of this character that we get to see small glimpses of in the first half of the season and then see a LOT in the second half. he’s sooooo soft, and i love exploring what that would look like in a romantic context.

i’ve always been a fan of slow burn. that’s what i love in general, but i also feel like it just works with his character really well. he’s soft and shy and in love but, like he says in “By the Water” he doesn’t know how to. i don’t know how much longer the slow burn will last, to be honest. i’m gonna keep adding to this series until i run out of steam but in terms of like, how many parts there will be before they admit their feelings for one another? before they sleep together? kiss..........maybe? no fucking clue man. i have no plan.