*gently Holds* (trollstuck Designs By @dawsonschristian)

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

Empress

This AU really starts when Anakin finds his mother in the Tusken camp, but only truly works if there is a little set up before.  It is imperative, for reasons that will become clear, to note that in this Palpatine has been manipulating Anakin with the Force, as opposed to only psychologically, since he was a child.  Palpatine has been seeding the darkside, hidden deep so that it was never discovered (even by Anakin), waiting to sprout and spread the darkside like an infection at the appropriate moments. 

When Anakin finds his mother as she dies, he loses it, but not to violence. Instead he panics and shoves every bit of Force that he can into his mother’s body to try and bring her back and heal her. Every bit of the Force, including the darkside seeds that Palpatine had been planting.  Because healing is primarily a light sided technique, thus somewhat purifying, Shmi does not get the full force of the darkside infection that would have hit her son (so we avoid Vader!Shmi or even Full Sidious!Shmi) however there were a number of long lasting effects to the way Anakin panicked and brought her back (incidentally Anakin has now created two new deities for the Tuskans, which Shmi does note and will make use of later).  These include:

A Force bond between her and Anakin that gave her Anakin's memories and feelings for the past decade. 

A working knowledge of what Palpatine knew (From Palpatine’s Dark Seeds), though no firsthand memories. 

Force Sensitivity that is powerful enough to use the various techniques she just gained the knowledge to use.

A significant hit to the moral centers of her psyche.

A Soul Deep and engrossing ambition to rule the Galaxy.

Now Shmi is not evil in the way that Palpatine is (Palpatine is the kind of evil that not only does whatever he wants to accomplish his goal, but actively goes out of his way to create as much collateral as possible and will in fact even mildly inconvenience himself in order to increase collateral damage) but she does now fall closer to Amoral than not. Like her first option is not to kill kids, but it is never not an option. Shmi does justify her new desire to rule the galaxy, based on the fact that she would be better at it than Palpatine. 

By the time Anakin and Shmi have made it back to the Lars homestead, she has her son wrapped around her finger even more than she would have. She had also, through the careful recounting of how one of the men who had seemed so kindly to the slave children had actually been a child murder (couching it it in terms that one of Anakin's childhood friends, who it turned out had been a victim of this man, grave had been found and the man brought to a rather brutal justice), partially broken Anakin’s trust in Palpatine without ever letting on that she knew who Palpatine was.  

After they get back to the Homestead, Shmi tells Anakin that she wants him to visit again and to bring Obi Wan (It was after they had talked about what had been happening since he left). Anakin loves Obi Wan as a brother, and as such Shmi loves him too. Padme has also fallen quickly under Shmi’s influence, which is good considering that Shmi intended to make Padme another daughter in law (Both because Anakin had a crush, and she wanted Anakin to have what he wanted, and because Senator and former Queen of Naboo is actually a decently powerful set of titles).  Shmi gently shoos her sweet, oblivious son off the planet with her future daughter in law (it is for the best that her Jedi Son be off the planet for what she is about to do next) making them promise to visit soon. 

Cliegg and Beru also fall quickly under Shmi’s spell. Owen holds out a bit longer (I am fully convinced that his ability to hold back Skywalker BS comes from growing up with Shmi, not his few interactions with Anakin) but is just as willing to follow Shmi’s lead within a tenday.

While a galaxy wide war is breaking out, Shmi quietly but very firmly takes control of Tatooine. Then, in spite of the fact she had not left the planet in decades, she quickly takes control of the rest of the Hutt Empire.  Her identity remains hidden; she does not want to fight her son or his Jedi family because they do not yet understand her vision for the galaxy. They will, of that she is sure, but it will take time.

One of the many things she does is abolish slavery within her new Empire.  It is both easier and harder than it would appear. Easier in that she does not care about the power or money of the people who made their living in trafficking of sentient life, so she does not care about the economics of the systems she dismantles. Harder because the Hutt Empire was built on slavery; there are significantly larger portions of every population of the Hutt Planets then anyone realized who had spent most of their lives enslaved, with no training or education and very little idea how to exist without being enslaved (with all the psychological and sociological implications therein).  But she does it, quietly absorbing the fledgling Zygerrian Empire as well. 

A year and a half into the Clone wars Shmi is finally ready to make her move. 

In that time she has become well connected with Padme, who asks for approval to marry Anakin six months into the war (Approval that Shmi grants, on the condition that Padme also get approval from Obi wan, as Anakin’s older brother/father. Padme asks, and to the surprise of both Padme and Anakin immediately gets Obi Wan’s baffled, but pleased, approval. In this one marriage is not forbidden to Jedi, it really isn’t even discouraged. No one seems to want to marry a Jedi, as far as the Jedi are concerned. Date a Jedi, well that seems to be common fantasy. Sleep with a Jedi, all the time. But never marry. This all serves Shimi’s true purpose, to continue to break the trust between her son and Palpatine). They do decide to wait until after the war, when they can have everyone attend; in part because Palpatine is pushing them both in a really creepy way. 

She makes her move by going on vacation with Cliegg to a world she knew, from her own spies, was about to be attacked by separatists. A world that it was highly likely the 212th would be deployed to. In the time it takes for the 212th to liberate the planet, it is a relatively minor battle so only takes a few weeks, Shmi and Clieg have connected with the battalion and convinced them to transport them (Shmi and Cliegg) to Coruscant.  If asked, even Obi Wan, Cody, or the Natborn officers are not sure how they came to agree to take two civilians to the Core but everyone Shmi meets becomes absolutely convinced that it was a reasonable decision. During this trip Shmi bonds with Obi Wan, as her son’s brother/father/teacher.  This was one of her goals, to get a clearer picture of who Obi Wan is, and through him the Jedi Order; Anakin’s memories and feelings are a bit mixed on the Jedi as a whole but she also knows, from Palpatine’s knowledge, that Palpatine had been manipulating those feelings for years.  She finds that she does like Obi Wan. Because of this Shmi intends, beyond even what her plan calls for,  that she would ensure that Obi Wan found happiness in her Empire. 

Upon arriving on Coruscant Shmi sends Cliegg (in disguise) to meet with various criminal underworld leaders who know of her fledgeling Empire, while she meets with members of the Jedi council to plant the seeds of her Galactic Empire. 

It is in this that we truly see the difference between Shmi and Sidious. Shmi wants to Rule the galaxy. Sidious wants to Subjugate the galaxy. Now granted the difference between the two is not as much as people who want the former would protest, but is greater than what the people who want the latter would claim. In this case ruling is a small group having a disproportionate amount of power over a larger group. Subjugation is a group or person asserting total control over another group or person. While a ruler can abuse the power they have, in order to subjugate someone, a being MUST abuse them to break them in such a way the subjugator can control them.  

In spite of her forced amorality Shmi is actually a good person and wants to be a good Empress for the galaxy. So for her, subjugation is more work (realistically 90% of the galaxy is not going to notice if they are in a republic or an empire, and not just because the Empire had been disguising itself as a republic for a decade. That same 90% have comparatively simple needs and are going to be fine with a ruler who provides them. Whereas requires constant control measures to apply the exact correct amount of pressure to bend the populace to your will, without breaking them into rebelling. Ruling well is actually less costly) for less benefit. Because of that having the super powered warrior monks, who most of the beings that would oppose an Empress on principle are going to look to as a paragon of wisdom,  buy into the idea that Shmi should be Empress and that they would be happier in her Empire makes more sense than eradicating them.  Also, complicated feelings aside, the Jedi make up part of Anakin’s family and she does not want to hurt Anakin’s family.

Shmi also, at the behest of Anakin, took time to go with him to meet his friend Palpatine.  While in the waiting room she speaks with Fox, on guard duty, who she recognizes from her talks with Cody as the person to place a bet with(No one suspects the stern commander of the Coruscant Guard to be the biggest bookie in three systems). After about an hour of chit chat (During which Palpatine has no idea he has met someone with all of his knowledge, who is planning to abscond with the Grand Sith Plan) Anakin and Shmi leave the Senate. Anakin semi anxiously asks her what she thinks of Palpatine, babbling a little bit that Obi Wan doesn't like him, but Obi Wan hates most politicians. Shmi, after letting a long pause stretch, says that Obi Wan has good instincts (Look I really want Palpatine to be faced with his own manipulation tactics) and casually mentions Obi Wan’s time enslaved and how that must have hond those instincts- which he had not told Shmi about but that she could guess.  Again without directly accusing Palpatine of anything, Shmi manages to get across to Anakin that as the Chancellor, Palpatine actually currently has all the power and has used it to effectively enslave the clones and the Jedi. Fully breaking Anakin’s trust in Palpatine and tying him closer to the Jedi (where Shmi wants him).   During this exchange Anakin asks what she had been talking to Fox about and she answers with ‘placing a bet’. Anakin lights up and guesses it is the ‘CodyWan Bet’, because literally everybody noticed their pining and that neither will admit it (Shmi uses that to drive the point home that both are effectively enslaved and do not feel free to be together if they might be ‘sold’ apart-a concept that Anakin is very familiar with).

I am not sure where it ends, except that Shmi does indeed become Empress and her Force powers work as such that she gains power through being loved, so in being a good ruler she stops aging. The Jedi do buy in and Palpatine does end up dead. Someone in Shmi’s smaller Empire, before she becomes Empress, discovers the chips and their purpose, which leads to the entirety of the Clones transplanting themselves (GAR, Cadets, everyone) to a planet in the former Hutt space (deeply freaked out over what they could have been made to do to their Jedi) and refusing all calls for like a year, while they dechip. The Jedi (all of them) transplanted themselves to the next planet over, waiting semi impatiently to be allowed to visit their men again.  Shmi meeting Ahsoka after she becomes Anakin’s Padawan and deciding that, as her oldest grandchild, Ahsoka would have the option to be her heir if she would like (Ahsoka really wants to be a Jedi, but agrees to hold the status until another heir comes along-she gratefully passed the heir status to Leia when Leia was born, as she could not be knighted while still the Empress’s Heir). 

Oh and Obi Wan does get to be happy with Cody in the new Empire, with frequent visits from Satine (I like the idea that they were childhood sweethearts/first loves that knew they would not fit well romantically but still loved each other and got to be overprotective of each other-Satine adores Cody, thinks he is perfect for Obi Wan and thy find time every so often to take an evening to drink over whatever ridiculous situation Obi Wan go himself into this time)

It’s taken a bit longer to finish than intended, but here at least is another Ghosts fan comic. I’ve simplified everyone a bit compared to the first one, but such is the nature of comics.

I’m gonna just throw this out before it happens:

Even if Sabine somehow “unlocks” the force through hard work, the Jedi were STILL RIGHT to only recruit force sensitive children.

There has only been one episode of Sabine learning to be a jedi so far. Look at how terrible of a time she’s having. She’s making zero progress, and we know she spent a long time with Ahsoka before quitting because she was making no process.

Why is she putting herself through all this grief with no reward? No idea. That’s another post.

But the point is Ahsoka isn’t even teaching Sabine what younglings were usually taught. She’s not trying to get Sabine to deflect blaster shots (bc she’d never be able to) and she’s not trying to teach Sabine how to move things with her mind (bc she’d never be able to). It’s just lightsaber lessons. Something Kanan taught Sabine already just as a Mandalorian wielding the dark saber. Sabine would be doing so much worse if she was in a normal youngling group.

Sabine has only gotten this far because she is a natural warrior. And she still already quit once. Ahsoka’s really not helping at all. She’s just telling Sabine to “feel it”

And sure! The other jedi masters did that. But they did that knowing that their students actually had a natural ability to feel the force!! Their students knew what they were trying to feel.

For someone who went through the public school system with dyslexia I honestly felt so frustrated and bad for Sabine last episode. Ahsoka and Huyang are telling her to do things she just has no ability to do. At least Huyang is being honest with her about why.

There is nothing more frustrating when you’re struggling and someone tells you to just. Do it better. Huyang and Ahsoka are not giving her any real instruction. Bc there is no instruction. There is no shortcut like there was with reading.

But unlike me and reading, Sabine does not have to be a jedi. She does not have to learn how to use the force. So why is Ahsoka putting her through this? Why is she putting herself through this?

Imagine if the Jedi order did that with little kids? Kids who may not have the option to quit like Sabine did? That would so so terrible for them. It’s already terrible for Sabine. How long did Sabine try the first time around? How terrible did it get, not making any improvement for so long, before she quit the first time? She doesn’t have to be a jedi. If you’re not force sensitive there’s no reason to force it. (Hehe, get it? Force it?)

If Ahsoka wanted a padawan she should have found someone force sensitive and trained them. Honestly this whole thing feels like a cruel joke on Sabine: someone who works hard and is naturally talented at many other things.

Impermanence is not insignificance

By the way, I moved all of my prints to Inprnt (better quality than Redbubble); you can get a print of this piece here!

✨Behind the scenes of Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Radio Drama from 1982.✨ It’s cool to see Mark having fun recording for the series 😁!

Stewjoni people are considered highly dangerous, there is a huge reason why not much is known about them, anyone who has ever gotten close never came back.

So Palpatine discovering Obi-Wan is stewjoni? He decides to use this against the Jedi and to further his manipulation over Anakin, not by telling him Obi-Wan hid his biology no.

He tells Anakin of the stewjon and their background, how everyone was afraid of them and still is to this day, how it was strange the Jedi managed to capture Obi-Wan and “made” him the perfect Jedi in their eyes.

Palpatine even mentioned certain appendages Stewjoni people had, like nails being extra long or teeth being a little too sharp to be considered human and how weird it was that Obi-Wan didn’t have them.

“Something must have happened you see….they don’t just disappear in adulthood” Palpatine says with a frown, glancing at the slightly enraged face of the forces child.

He smirks in glee when Anakin abruptly stands and excuses himself, unknowingly signing his own death warrant.

CWRB Team 3!

I’m super excited to finally post the art I did for @codywanreversebang ! I had so much fun working with the incredible writers, @itsgoldleaf (AO3), @ihathbenobiwankenobied (AO3) and @catfur-and-greenscales (AO3) for this year’s Codywan Reverse Bang! Please check out their incredible fics! (Seriously, their writing is so good! I’m blown away at how amazing each one is! 🥹)

“Rewinding the Skein”

@itsgoldleaf

“A Remedy Painted Blue”

@ihathbenobiwankenobied

“Behind the Scenes”

@catfur-and-greenscales

Fic previews under the cut!

Rewinding the Skein

@itsgoldleaf

The encounter will be lousy and frantic and will come when Ben turns down the alleyway. His face will meet a rough-cast wall and the sunburn will be scraped raw from his cheek. A blaster - no, his mind had touched the outline of something wittier clasped in a damp hand - a *knife* will be pressed into one of his soft places and he will be given the luxury of one breath with which to punch out the futility of this endeavour, that his credits are too few and his life too pathetic to expend the effort of doing him the mischief. Move along, move along.

The shape of the hand that holds the knife is tugging another fibre loose in the hindlands of Ben’s consciousness as he draws back from the stall. He’s seen the creases of that palm before. Another thing he doesn’t remember.

He walks towards the alley. The first sun drops lower.

The footsteps behind him are as loud as the blood in his ears.

A Remedy Painted Blue

@ihathbenobiwankenobied

Ten years.

“Cody?”

The man nodded once, then swallowed.

Then nodded again.

It had to be impossible–had to be a lie. Obi-Wan could still remember his first nights on Tatooine, unable to sleep as he considered all he had lost. He imagined Cody had gone on to serve the Imperials, only to die in the line of duty.

Obi-Wan had mourned him.

After ten years, Obi-Wan had settled himself with the idea of death–the idea that the people he cared about most were long gone.

He had grieved for so long.

“I didn’t think I would find you.”

Behind the Scenes

@catfur-and-greenscales

“Spare any credits?” Obi-Wan stopped on the spot, feeling a cold sensation creeping down his spine.

He knew that voice as he had heard it hundreds of thousands of times.

With wide eyes Obi-Wan turned around and saw a man, not anyone he could say he knew, but those features were more than familiar to him. Perhaps the Force could have provided him more information, but he dared not to use it to reach for the man. It had been ages since the last time, so starting now was not an option.

For a moment they both were just staring at one another, until the rough looking man lifted his bandaged arm, with a helmet. Obi-Wan could not help himself but … There was no facial scar. And there shouldn't have been, since even after everything, the man in front of him was still wearing the colors of the 501st. This man was not Cody. Of course not.

He should have known better to not hope.

But the seconds their eyes were locked felt too long to Obi-Wan. The tension was broken only when the clone just lifted his bucket a little higher and said:“Help a veteran to get a warm meal.”

Obi-Wan wanted to say something, but what could he have said?

So he said nothing. Saying something would have caused him to get engaged to this unknown man. Cursed compassion would have led Obi-Wan to ask questions he had no time to ask while being on an urgent mission.

The few credits he had … this man would have deserved way more than Obi-Wan could have given to him, so withou speaking he searched his pockets and put whatever he could find into the bucket pointed in his direction.

He could not be sure if the man had recognized him or not, but there had for sure been a moment when they both had measured one another.

The Jedi just turned away, his heart beating a bit faster than before. What else was he going to find from this wretched planet?

a very distinguished gentleman…..

Enoch is my only character who ill concede to being unironically pretty, but they make up for it by being a perfect idiot

Researching for WIPs : A Collection

Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress

–

Historical Fiction

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : High Middle Ages & Renaissance

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1600s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1700s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1800s

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1900-1939

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1940-1969

Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1970-1999

Resources For Writing Royalty

Procedural/Scientific

Resources For Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers

Resources For Writing Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Stories

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Resources For Writing The Mafia

Resources For Writing Injuries

By Genre

Resources For Fantasy/Mythology Writers

Resources For Writing Science Fiction

Resources For Romance Writers

Other

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Describing Physical Things

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Creating Characters

Resources For Worldbuilding

Resources For Describing Emotion

–

Masterlist | WIP Blog

If you enjoy my blog and wish for it to continue being updated frequently and for me to continue putting my energy toward answering your questions, please consider Buying Me A Coffee, or pledging your support on Patreon, where I offer early access and exclusive benefits for only $5/month.

Shoutout to my $15+ patron, Douglas S.!