I Just Can't Do With Them

Jedi stans do not know Tolkien lore

It's so funny, cause... it's literally what Tolkien actually wrote in his opus magnum Silmarillion! It happened when Valar, despite having almost angelic powers, practically abandoned Middlearth and Beleriand and allowed Morgoth and his cronies to kill and enslave Elves and Dwarves and lead part of Humans away from them(enslaving others too). They allowed everything built and created by Elves to be destroyed, for a huge part of Noldor elves to die in horrible ways, for Eru's children to suffer. No matter how narrative attempts to frame this, Valar are accompliced by their inaction. Even before the First Kinslaying, they had practically forgotten about Sindar and Nandor Elves living under Morgoth's feet, about Dwarves and yet-to-be-awakened-Humans.

Their inaction was not deemed as something inherently good in any piece of Tolkien's works except the Myths Transformed. In The Book of Lost Tales(which i consider really good for analysis and explaining some plotholes of published Silmarillion and presenting Valar in more or less sympathetic light) the majority of both Maiar and Ainur are so afraid of Morgoth that they practically force Manwe(who is their king) to hide Valinor from the world! It happens despite both Manwe and Ulmo pleas for Noldor's sake and Manwe telling all secrets about Elves and Humans Eru entrusted him! Myths Transformed, on the contrary, present Valar as ultimately morally right no matter what happened - and it is the reason why they seem so unlikable and problematic for many(and may be the reason Christopher never used this concept). Even in the published Silmarillion Valar are presented as misguided and not totally right in the end.

Also, let's adress Tolkien himself. He never considred Lord of the Rings the major book he had written in his life and the book what tells about his views most is actually Silmarillion! And this book actually has more complex take on "good and evil", explaining, why Tolkien viewed his charactres as they are.

What in Tolkien's mind separates morally grey character(like Feanor, his sons, Turin) from the villain(like Morgoth, Sauron, Eol, Saruman)? As it can be seen through the text, it is an ability to love and care about someone while seeing them as persons and loyalty to another person or their people or devotion to a large-scale goal character has. The reasons that his characters are "good" are not because of their service to some institutions or fighting evil, but because they are productive, creative and their major goal is making the world a better place. They are something except the fighters and destroyers and it what made them good. It's evil who reacts on "good characters" doing something, like it was with Sauron's deeds during the Second Age(founding Mordor in response to Numenor's victorious wars against him, falsely giving up to Ar-Pharazon in response to latter nearly destroying his kingdom, attacking Gondor and causing War of the Last Alliance of fear it will take root) and Morgoth's before the First Age(creating Dissonance in responce to the Eru calling him out, manipulating Noldor princes out of envy for their artificial gems, especially the Simarils).

Meanwhile, Jedi are purely the reactive force at the time of Prequels. They do nothing, they create nothing, they only serve a corrupt goverment doing whatever it asks and ignoring it sliding more and more into the autoritarism. They ignore literal and corporal slavery in Canon, and crime syndicats(like Findian syndicat), long-time civil wars, dark cults(like Bando Gora), planets getting attacked and suffering from epidemics and starvation in Legends. They do even less than IRL Templars and Hospitallers did(guarding the piligrims and giving them shelter, which was the primary goal of such institutions except fighting Muslims). We have never seen the Jedi travelling from one planet to another to build or create something(or heal somebody), they does not harbor any global project involving something potentially useful for all of Republic citizens.

In comparison, many Tolkien's favourite characters and nations are something except the warriors and fighters. If we will take hobbits, they are wonderful farmers. Teleri Elves are the shipbuilders and saliors. Noldor Elves and Dwarves are blacksmiths, inventors, artificial gem and jewelry makers. Sindar Elves are singers. Numenorians and Gondor people are scholars, explorers of the world, alchemists and inventors too. Even Rohan people are not only the fighters, they are wonderful horse breeders. I won't even start with master inventor Feanor with his belief that Eru's children's mind can overcome Ainur and Celebrimbor with desire to heal Middlearth from wasting away. Do Jedi present something of themselves except the enforcing and partly dimplomatic organisation?

None. And there is the reason Jedi could not and should not be compared to Tolkien characters. They grew complacent and distant from the people. They only react - while Tolkien heroes act. We never see Jedi "bravely going where no people had gone before" or moving to some planet in order to create a medicine for some illiness, even if they are stated have their own special Service Corps divisions for this. Ironically, that is actually makes them having a lot in commin with Ainur, whom Jedi Stans tend to compare their faves with. Complacency, which in the end lead to the tragedy.

They compare Ainur to the angels, ignoring the textual evidence that their complacency lead to the practical genocide of Elves. And ironically, an actual Tolkien fandom - and the Professor himself - tends to see these "Angels" in more or less critical light.

The reason i do not trust a lot of so-called «complexity lovers»

Akito Sohma stans: I love Akito because of her complexity! She is so sympathetic character!

Also Akito stans: but it would have been way better, if Takaya cut out her beating Kisa and Momiji, pushing Rin out of the window and droving Kana to clinical depression

Jiang Cheng stans: I adore Chengcheng, he is so complex!

Also Jiang Cheng stans: Of course, he was justified to demand of his adoptive brother to give up the innocent boy, elders and the persons to whom, you know, is obliged to help! Of course, he did not tarnished Wei Wuxian's reputation more by saying that he declared himself the enemy of the world! Of course, he was right to disrespect his sister's sacrifice the worst way possible! And he was right in killing innocent people during the timeskip and letting the literal maniac go!

Reva Sevander stans: Reva, my baby! 😍😍 You would be a true Jedi of Old Order!🤧🤧 And you did not forgive Anakin(who literally nearly ceased to exist as person, as RoTS novel clearly indicates)! Such a complexity!

Also Reva stans: *ignoring her joining group of fascist enforcers, for which is pretty normal to kill teenagers, who are suspected to be Jedi(as Ezra and Cal situations show), and abduct children from their parents(may be killing said parents), hunting down underground railroad-like organisations, kidnapping 10 years old Leia and attempting to kill Luke*

Severus Snape stans: Of course, he was wonderful man, and so complex! He would definitely be a good father figure to Harry!

Also Snape stans: Of course, he was not an awful teacher to his students and never bullied Neville out of pure spite and said awful things about Hermione when her teeth end up growing fast and causing her a lot of pain! And also, he was forced to join Neo-nazi group at school, pull a hurtful pranks over Muggleborn and call the love of his life a racial slur!

Edelgard von Hresvelg stans: Such a complex character! A true embodiment of Progress! Go, Empress! Edeleth canon!

Also Edelstans: So, we are gonna project Dimitri's good traits on her, make Claude a villain(with the huge OOC) to make her look good, tell ten thousands of lies about Rhea and Nabateans(including genocide apologia) and of course, ingore all of her war crimes and imperialism(with her erasing the culture of far more progressive Leicester and Faerghus)!

Me: So... Are you truly here for complexity?

Jacegan Week 2024: Day Six. Historical

1910-1920s silent cinema AU

 TW: period-typical racism and homophobia, “Birth of the nation’s” cinema success,  implied radium poisoning, mentioned Red Scare

In this au, Jace and his brothers(and a little sister Visenya) actually grew up in the whole-acting family. Their mother, whose family got poor after losing all of their money during the Long depression, started her vaudeville acting career and became the family's breadwinner from the tender age of eight and rose up to the second highest paying actress(after Lotta Crabtree). Their father is a famous musician coming from a wealthy family, their paternal grandmother is a former actress by herself and their aunt is the costume maker for the theaters. They are not really in touch with their maternal side of the family, since they did not approve of their mother's acting career.

Meanwhile, Cregan comes from the farmer’s family of Norwegian second-geheration immigrabts. His family went bankrupt in the panic of 1907, so he and his sister were left with almost no money. Cregan was forced to turn to seasonal worker, while Sara started to work at the clock fabric.

Cregan met Arra Norrey at the mill at Lawrence. They married and later had a baby Rickon together. However, since Arra was forced to work even when she was ill and pregnant, she died of influenza not so long after Rickon’s birth. It happened not so long before the Lawrence strike of 1912, where Cregan actually took a huge part: from helping to evacuate the kids to standing up against the strikebreakers.

Cregan and Arra actually loved to go to cinema to watch movies(and Arra especially loved Max Linder’s and Roscoe Arbuckle’s comedies), but after the strike is won, Cregan feels some type of rage against the cinema that it does not depict the life in its full nightmare and even the social films mostly concentrate on such things as imprisonment and abortion(he understands it’s significant though) and the films about the labor focus more on the redemptions of masters which is not the part of workers ordinary lives. He decides that no matter what, he will wear his IWW red card proudly.

He is lucky though and after the long season of season work he, with Sara’s help he gets a clerk job at one of the “ Radium Luminous Material Corporation” offices in New York. In his spare time, he writes scenarios for different studios and walks a lot with Rickon.

Meanwhile, Jacaerys is living his best life: he lives with his mother, father, four brothers, cousins and little sister, they all star in the feature films at their director-grandfather’s studio with his family, and now is set to marry his cousin Baela, who is an actress too(since it is a pre-Code times, she legally still can play any role). Her sister Rhaena, meanwhile, helps her mom as costumer.

Meanwhile, Corlys gets the news about his rivals in a Biograph(corporate spies, you know) that D.W.Griffith has left them, founded his own company and now is adapting “The Clansman” by Dixon. No need to say both he and Rhaenys are infuriated by it. They decide to start to make a counter-move and make another period drama movie to beat it(they’ll fall in beating in the box-office, but a good movie will be made).

Sadly, they did not find a good scenario for a long time. Come the winter of 1914, and only there they found the scenario written by Cregan: which tells the early life of Samuel Gridley Howe, the famous abolitionist, friend of John Brown and the founder of the Perkins’s Institute for the disabled. More precisely, it tells about his participation in the Greek Revolution and arrest in Poland.

They buy the scenario from Cregan, and Corlys, seeing that this young man has the potential of a good scenarist, gives him a two-year contract. Cregan agrees and starts to refine the scenario alongside Rhaenys. 

Both young men meet each other at the stairs, when Jace and Baela accidentally stumble on Cregan, who is going out of Rhaenys’s room with a lot of paper in his arms, cause Rhaenys has a tendency to write every scene in detail.

They cross their ways simultaneously. They see each other on the set, when Cregan sometimes approaches cameraman Elmo Tully while Jace and his screen partner are waiting for them — the partner is an actor who played young Greek Howe meets in his travels. Daemon, who is playing the older lead, does not even attempt to hide total disinterest.

They cross their path at the costume shop, when Jace sees his cousin Rhaena disciss costumes with Cregan, and his voice with norwegian accent strikes something in him does not understands.

They cross the way during the lunch break, when Jace with his stuntman and younger brother Luke are discussing something funny, and Cregan suddenly thinks how it may look like on the screen and attempts not to listen to them, but to read on their lips, but it fails miserably, since he stares on someone else’s faith without even noticing. 

Their first conversation happens when Cregan sees Jace dragging ten books about Howe Rhaenys asked about and another five illustrated books about clothes of this time for Rhaena. They talk a lot about their favorite books and Cregan mentioned he would love to read «Martin Iden» by Jack London, but he does not have a strength to go to the library after the whole work day and spending time with his son. Jace is surprised by learning that their new scenarist has the son and urges him to bring the boy to the work.

Next day Cregan finds the book he asked nearby the set.

Baby Rickon absolutely loves the studio, especially playing hide-and-seek with kid Aegon, Viserys and Visenya. Sometimes, Luke and Rhaena playfully join them. Even lesser times, Laena coo over new boy and secretly give them a lot of sweets to both Cregan and Rhaenyra’s chargrin.

During the filming and writing there are not so many incindents that may cause anybody harm. However, one day the decoration falls on the set, when Luke is making the stunts, and it takes both Jace's and Cregan's fast reactions to drag him from the dangerous zone. After this, they merely look at each other and start to laugh — to everybody's confusement.

At this moment, they are just happy men, and oh gods, they are sure that the film they are making will be great.

(It would not be great, but good nontheless. Like many films they will do after it, but this time will be remmebered as the happiest one).

(Neither Jace, nor Cregan doesn't know know, where we'll ther relationship go, and how many moments, both good and bad, they will share together. There would be a twelve movies(most of them a hystoricals, one based on personal tragedy and one of them a mix of socialist propaganda and action), temporarily break-up, not really happy marriages to women(similiar to their partners, but not actually them), arrests during the Red Scare, Luke's injury and his marriage to Rhaena, adaptation of «Martin Iden» they made together, Cregan's sister being Radium Girl, scandal based on rumours overblown by Hedda Hopper, serving as historical consultants, the world travel, La Olimpiada Popular and death — one at Madrid, and another at Jarama. So many things).

But now, at this moment, they are happy.

Hardcore Pro Jedi people: «Anakin helped hunt down and kill the Jedi Order who were his family»

Me: Okay, that is the list of all Jedi Anakin have ever interacted with except Obi-Wan , Ahsoka and some characters like Vergere or Jax Pavan(who is stated to be his friend, but it is never shown)

Starting from the beginning:

Siri Tachi. Former love of his master and the master of his rival. KIA during the Clone Wars

Yaddle(Legends). Jedi Council member. Sacrificed herself in order to save Mavan cities from gas poisoning. Anakin blamed himself for it.

Ferus Olin. Friendly rival. Due to both of them acting like idiots on Corriban and causing a death of their friend by it, left the Order.

Darra Thel-Tanis. Friend. KIA before the Clone Wars, partly due to Anakin and Ferus not being able to put their rivalry aside for a freaking second.

Thru Veld. Former friend. They grow distant after Darra's death and never mended their relationship up to the Order 66.

Ry-Ghaul and Soera Entana. Masters of Darra and Thru. Did not have a lot of moments with Anakin. Entana was KIA during the Order 66, and Ry-Ghaul not so long after it

Jorus C'baoth. Not actually a normal Jedi, but Anakin respected him. Departed to the Outbond Flight where he perished.

Lorana Jinzler. Worked with him, but died after they separated and was considered MIA.

Luminara Unduli. Worked with him on Ansion mission, but however good relationship they have prior to Geonosis, Luminara by herself destroyed it when she suggested to abandon Ahsoka and Barris under the rubble.

Barris Offee. They were on friendly terms up to the time Barriss decided to become a terrorist and framed Ahsoka as guilty party.

Halagad Ventor. Were frinends, until Ventor refused to introduce Kharys to Order and belittled her with something she had no control over and attacked Anakin.

Jinn Altis. He consulted with him about joining Altisian community after the war, but nothing more, because canon evenets are obliged to happen.

Padawan Pack. His friends and battle comrades, with whom he generally had friendship and whom he geniunely mourned(a single person from all Order, no less).

Bhat Jule. Another comrade who died in Anakin's arms.

A'Sharad Hett. Not friends though, but he at lest managed to get Anakin cured of his rage and hatred towards tuskens(and also, after attacking him in the fit of rage and frustration, Anakin actually felt remorse).

Tono. Boxed for the sake of the plot, cause i hardly can imagine, why they couldn't send a droid with explosives to the generator. Another victim of the war and commanding officers stupidity.

Ki-Adi-Mundi. Was Anakin's temporary master after Obi-Wan was considered KIA, but also was the part of Jedi Council who decided it would be hella wonderful idea to sent a bunch of teenagers with uncompleted training to warzone. In the end, Anakin ended up a sole survior of this group.

And it's Legends. In current canon, he has even less social connections inside the Order and does not seem to consider it his community(no matter what some pro jedi fans say)

They were not his community, the were nothing but his coworkers(at many cases) And i wouldn't even start with Jedi being goverment-funded organisation and not some harmless hippies or anarchist commune.

And also Anakin is not always guity party for everything that went wrong in their relationships(the sole exception is Olin, Thel-Tanis and Veld case).

Ki-Adi-Mundi(as part of Council) sent his friends to death and attempted to talk Anakin of searching for his master.

Ventor attacked him.

Luminara decided to abandon his padawan under the rubble.

Barriss betrayed Ahsoka's trust and nearly get her executed.

So, by the events of ROtS Anakin has nothing to reach for in the Order and in Legends canon, he actively plans to leave it after war. And at the same time, he doesn't have anybody in Order he can be truly open about his grievances and troubles and as his Padawan Pack friends and his former Padawan's cases indicate him, Order doesn't care about its members. So, he ends up unprotected against Palpatine's careful manipaulations(which wouldn't have happened if Jedi Order was such a good community as their fans paint it).

If one man does not trust his family and the said family is shown to care more about its public image than searching for truth and actually helping someone, it may be that the man is not one to have all problems here.

Jacegan Week 2024: Day 2, Canon

drabble, 1.4k words

King Jace, AU, minor jacela(political marriage), mentioned jofhaera and Addam/Rhaena

The sun sets over King's Landing as Cregan stands near the Princevault — so this building with the slate roof and high carved doors is called now, with prince Daeron Targaryen, formerly the Daring, kept here. 

It was the surprise when not so long after the war ended, King Jacaerys Targaryen, former Velaryon, declared that his uncle, who barely survived the battle of Tumbleton, would not be executed, but instead held in lifelong captivity.

« I understand your concerns, my lords». — he said to the Small Council. — «But my uncle is not dangerous now. His dragon is dead. He lost his left arm and half of his foot in the last battle, he has numerous burns… He will not be able to fight for the throne. Nobody will follow the king who is crippled to such an extent. And he is still my uncle, and I don’t want to spill the blood of my relatives.»

«Why won’t you send him to the Nightwatch, your Highness?» asked Corlys Velaryon, Master over the Ships then and Cregan, who stood by here with Hand’s brooch on his doublet, was more than agree with him. 

If there hadn’t been a Bitterbridge massacre, Cregan could have even felt pity towards the fallen prince. But not after him demanding to kill all of his inhabitants even after the true killers of prince Maelor were executed. No, he does not understand why Jacaerys spared him. 

« He may be kidnapped by remaining Green supporters during the trip. Here, he would be under supervision. His niece may still visit him, though.» — Here he chuckled.

The only niece the imprisoned prince had was princess Jaehaera, who just goes out from the Princevault, in her blue dress, with her hands hold by both King Jacaerys and Queen Baela. The girl looks not really happy, but content — a wildly different from the tear-eyed, trembling girl Jace described here to him they found when the capital was captured. 

At first, when they didn’t know what to do with her. She was the daughter of the fallen king, of the man, who usurped his mother and abandoned his wife when she lost her son and went mad. But she was still a young, eternally frightened girl too. The better choice was to marry her to someone loyal to the king, who will not rebel to get a crown and has the possessions of his own. There were four men who may possibly wed her - king’s brothers Joffrey and Aegon, or his bastard brothers Alyn and Addam. Some people expected young Aegon to wed Jaehaera, but the King stopped those talks and decided to marry the girl to the middle brother, and also to marry lady Rhaena to Addam, who became the heir to Driftmark. 

«I do not think that Joffrey will be against his bride visiting her uncle when they visit the Red Keep. I am not gonna wed them now cause it’s gonna be nothing, but a farce in this case. I’ll wait until the princess turns at least thirteen and their wedding will happen here.»

«And your brother?»

«Will get a Dornish mark. It’s a hardly controlled region and we need  strongholds both against Dorn and usurper’s sympathizers in the Reach.»

Here, the king doesn’t tell all the truths. Jacaerys never told about it to the Small Council, but said once to him that the reason his uncles usurped his mother may lay in the fact they would not get anything except reduced to mere toadies if she will get a throne. His uncle and stepfather was a son of the king, but didn’t get anything except a place in the Small council and nothing to give his children except the dragon eggs. Cregan thinks there is nothing to pity the usurpers for, but he more than agrees that Jace’s brothers deserve to get their own lands. Granted, prince Joffrey has Dragonstone now, but when Queen Baela will give birth to the son, it will come to him. So, there are the Dornish mark for Joffrey, Cape Kraken for Aegon and Rain House, whose Lord’s family lost  it due to its association with usurper, for young Viserys. And two of them will get new keeps for their families, when the said keeps will be built. 

Cregan sighs as the King gets down on one knee, hugs his niece and then rises and kisses his cousin and wife, who looks gorgeous in her red dress despite being heavily pregnant, on her forehead. He is not of those who can think a lot about his past, but he hardly can believe that only two years have passed since the green dragon and his rider landed nearby Winterfell. Once they hunted together, played snowballs in secret,watched the night sky and  shared kisses in its darkness. Once merely a young grandlord and prince with a young dragon — now Hand and his King, who is gonna be father soon.

But are they the same persons who have fallen for each other during the visit to the North? 

Once they reunited after Jacaerys’s coronation and his mother’s funeral, he voiced his concerns about it. Jacaerys, who there did his best to make Cregan call him «Jace» again, didn’t smiled in vain attempt to make the situation look easier, but lowered his gaze and genuinely said that he didn't know this. He was thrown out of balance by the betrayal of the dragonseeds he recruited, his brother's death and his mother being killed by one of Larys Strong’s spies. Than, they couldn’t find the words to sooth each other and barely sat alone in the cabinet,  pressing their foreheads against each other, and somehow, this was enough. 

And so they decided — no matter what, to be here and watch for each other.

The princess and the Queen leave King Jacaerys, as he goes to him. In the sky, the dragon’s cry is heard, and Cregan wonders, what sea monster is brought to keep by Moondancer now. Last time, Queen Baela’s dragon dragged the whole shark to the Red Keep. 

«We need to discuss some things privately.» says Jace, when he comes to him and Cregan nods. 

Since the war, huge numbers of armies of North, Riverlands and Vale and Blacks supporters from other Kingdoms have occupied the Westlands, Stormlands, Kingslands and Reach — as the lands whose lords betrayed their true queen. In retaliation, they will be put under direct control of the king’s through loyal people for a temporary time. Kermit Tully got the Westlands, Lord Rovan got the Reach, Corlys Velaryon got the Stormlands, and Jeyne Arryn’s heir Joffrey Arryn got Kingslands. And Cregan thinks that the reason Jace called him to his rooms is somehow connected to this. 

They reach the king’s cabinet in a minute and the guards salute to them. They enter it a second after and Jace closes the door. 

Cregan can see the said cabinet. Poets and bards often talk about how wonderful the Red Keep looks like, and sometimes Cregan is ready to agree with them. There is the broken model of old Valyria made by Jace’s maternal grandfather, king Viserys, a huge table, a chair nearby and a fire burning in the fireplace. There are a bunch of letters on the table and a  ream of sheets next to them. 

Then, Jace shows him a bunch of letters. Cregan reads them patiently. These letters come from different cities - or better to say, from unions the prominent ones of these cities, like merchants or most skilled craftsmen. The number of cities are impressive: Weeping town, Vinetown, Pebbletown, Hull, King’s Landing itself, Duskendale, Lannisport, Tumbletown, Bitterbridge… The prominent ones of these cities are afraid - it’s visible in the tone of their letters. The war left them with no protection from the marching armies of lords, especially the traitor lords and so they are asking the king for protection. They will pay money directly to his representatives, will form city militias or empower the existing ones and put the directly to the king’s service if he’ll support them in their initiative.

And there Cregan understands. Now, there are Tully, Stark and Arryn armies keeping the order in former rebel territories, but it ain’t gonna last forever. Sooner or later, but they need to leave home… And then…

« Are you going to use city councils against the former rebel lords?»

And the smirk blossoms on Jace’s lips.

«Exactly». 

Jacegan week day 5: Modern

Figure skating AU, retired skaters, coach/choreographer, skater!Aegon III

«I just can’t do it with those judges!» - Jace tiredly groans, as he enters the hotel room in the hotel after the whole day of nuisance his first Westeros championship as the coach. If he had more strength he would already punch something, but even after the shower, which should have refreshed him, he feels totally numb and wearily lands himself on the coach near Cregan. The latter sighs. «There were 80 points in the last competition, and 76 when we were at the Kiss’nd Cry with Egg, and why is it 75 points now?»

Cregan rolls his eyes. 

«A point can be taken from the skater if he overreaches the time limit.»

«And if his coaches would demand it». Jace adds and leans to Cregan who is holding the telephone now. «Has the Skatingscores uploaded for now?»

There is nothing left for Cregan than to allow Jace to lean on his shoulder and allow him to watch the protocols. 

«He got «q» on the sequence and a vague edge on the flip» Jace constants. «But given his age and the growth spurt he is going through now, it’s pretty normal».

Cregan hums. 

«And he still has the current second place». Jacaerys says with the smile.

«Wasn’t you fuming with rage two minutes ago?» Cregan returns him the smile and hugs him from the back. 

«Well, I made the program for him!» — Jace suddenly exclaims and then looks like he is deflated.  «As for me, I am actually offended to see his step sequence I made and we’ve been practicing for a month to get to the third level.» he mumbles. «Not to mention my nephew’s choreographer never bothered to cut the music for SP normally, and not like, you know, cutting meat».

Here, Cregan barely holds himself from laughing. It sounds really funny about Criston Cole, whose last creation as choreographer was «Sweeney Todd» SP. And like a lot of his programs, since the idea was not given by the skater, it turned out to be not really good.

«It’s still current second place». Cregan says. «And if he would not risk tomorrow with quads, he will get to the Youth Olympics.»

«Yes, I know that one quad and two triple axels will get him a youth Oly’s ticket. But since the last Junior World Champ we had nearly lost our national team three spots…» here Jace stops and allows himself to fall onto the bed. Cregan follows him a second later. 

«You better sleep now.» he says and plants a kiss on Jace’s forehead. The latter groans tiredly.

«And you will scroll the news and blogs here?» he replies. 

«Well, given, who of us is more prone to emotional outbursts…» Cregan says in a semi-academic tone and Jace laughs.

«Sometimes you seem to forget who is his coach.» he says.

«And you forget that you are his choreographer and not his mother».

«Why are you insulting me in such a way?» Jace falsely groans and Cregan finally bursts into laughter.

Given his eyes' expressions, he definitely had it coming.

While still being the active skater — first as single, than, when he had been struck by growth spurt, as pair skater with Arra and than with Aly — Cregan actually had the time to think about his retirement from competitive skating. He thought about studying, and later, when he and Aly won their first senior Worlds, about skating in shows.

But he never imagined — even in his wildest dreams — that he will work as the coach. And that  he will actually marry the boy he once met at the summer camp. And that they will have their coaching team.

But the fact it’s unexpected doesn’t means it’s felt undeserved.

***

Some info about this au though:

It takes place in our world, though a bit alternative(no teamTut melodrama and so on). Westeros charactres represent Great Britain.

Jacaerys comes from the skating family: his mother once won two junior worlds and YouthOlys, but retired after two senior seasons after leg trauma and decided to become a choreographer and have a family of her own. His uncles are also competitive skaters but they(except Daeron) are not really loved by GBfed(Aegon due to his alcoholism and him scandsals following it(from drinking at summer camp as junior up to driving cars while being drunk), Aemond due to his anger control problems and offending vice presindent of NISA in one intreview).

Cregan started to skate later than the most of his peers, albeit managed to learn all of the triples by the time he was 13. When his growth period spurt he believed he will go through it and will be able to do 3A and quads and found major inspiration in Elvis Stojko(Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998 silver medalist, who also was 1,8 metres tall). However, he failed to do it and switched to pairs(first with Arra, after his retirement with Aly Blackwood).

Cregan and Jace actually met eachother at Mishin's summer camps when Jace was getting ready to his senior debut, and started to like eachother very fast.

Albeit they did not realised they love eachother up to the next Olys.

However it did not stopped their shippers and #jacegan community was one of the hottest since #yuzuvier one cause of amount of content they were getting. Somebody of non-shipping people even complined of toxicity poisoning the community that normal, close, respective relationship should seem romantic.

Yeah, it was totally platonic for two men to create a Exhibiton program "Die shatten werden lenger" and to star Rudolf and Der Tod in it. Or make another EX Wildhorn's "Rudolf" and star as Rudolf and Taafe.

Cregan and Aly often used not really popular music for their programs. One day they used Aoife O'Daire's cover on "Lutien's lullaby" for their short program with Cregan as Morgoth and Aly as Luthien.

Jace, meanwhile absolutely loves musicals, especially Norwegian and French. His programs at season "......": "One night in Bangkok"(SP) and "Je dors sui roses/Comedie-targedie/Place je pass" had actuallu blown the Youtube.

Both of them know about fanfiction about them and read it sometimes. However, Jace do not understnad, why are they writing so much porn about them, giving the fact that afer the competitions they are so tired that fall on the bed sleeping in process.

This thing hardly changes even after they retire and became a coach and choreograhpher respectively. In fact, the only time they can go intimate is their vacation.

Nice day to remind you all about Jedi giving grown-up man(who started to groom this boy) an unrestricted access to the literal child in their care, while firing their workers from the job when their daughter is discoverd force-sensitive and never allowing them even to send her any gifts, or refusing to give two sentinet droids a right to see the son of their master.

I'm gonna say it: it's aemond's own fault he lost his eye in both the show and the book. Both times, he snuck out to claim vhagar. In the show, he wasn't stopped. In the book, three year old Joffrey Velaryon was with his dragon because he was an early riser and told Aemond to stay away from Vhagar, so Aemond - who was much older - pushed little three year old Joffrey over and, in his fear of being caught because he knew he was doing something his parents would like, claimed Vhagar and flew her for the first time.

Baby Joffrey, all of three years old, then of course runs to get his big brothers, likely crying and terrified. Because he's, y'know, A BABY.

In the show, Aemond claims Vhagar and with arrogance and smugness returns to the castle, high on the fact that he'd just claimed Vhagar, uncaring of how rude/insulting it may have been to claim Vhagar on the night of her previous riders funeral, like A NORMAL PERSON.

When, in the show, Rhaena and Baela confront Aemond with Luke and Jace, they're clearly upset. Their mother has just died, its her funeral, and their last tether to her - Vhagar - has been claimed by Aemond. They say he stole her, and while dragons can't be stolen, he did use underhanded tactics to obtain her and bond with her. And his haughtiness afterwards, towards the daughters of the woman whose dragon he just claimed, is what makes the altercation his fault.

Baela, upset: Vhagar is my mother's dragon!

Aemond, uncaring: Your mother is dead, and Vhagar has a new rider now.

Rhaena: she was mine to claim!

Aemond: then you should have claimed her. Maybe your cousins can find you a pig to ride. It would suit you.

Rhaena then hits Aemond, provoked into this by his cruel words and actions. Was it right? No. But it's literally the night of her mums funeral, Vhagar has been claimed by someone who clearly doesn't care about her mother, and he just insulted her. Aemond pushes Rhaena to the ground, so Baela slaps him in defense of her sister, and he punches her in the face.

Aemond: come at me again and I'll feed you to my dragon!

Now aemond is threatening to murder his cousins, which is par for the course for hid character. He always had kinslaying in him.

The fight devolves even more, and Jace and Luke get involved, defending their cousins. Luke, a little kid, is whacked and shoved to the ground, so Jace jumps in. Then Baela decides to help, and she and Luke - both of them younger and smaller - start wailing on Aemond (u go kids).

Aemond kicks Luke off of him, throws Baela off, and stands only to grab Luke - only five - by the throat and hold a rock over his head and threaten him.

Aemond: you will die screaming in flames just as your father did, bastard.

Luke, terrified and upset: my father is still alive!

Aemond, amused: he doesn't know, does he? Lord Strong.

This is when Jace pulls his knife, literally the size of my thumb, and attacks. Jace us quickly unarmed by Aemond, who is still holding the rock, and Luke sees the blade. Aemond holds the rock over them, smirks at Rhaena and Baela, then gets sand thrown in his face and Luke slashes at him wildly, not even aiming for his eye, just aiming to stop Aemond from hurting Jace and himself and his cousins, because at this point Luke has heard death threats, and seen Aemond take on him and the other three easily and win, so of bloody course this terrified little boy used a weapon to defend himself when it became necessary.

After, Alicent makes the situation about her because she's a poor uwu baby (gag me with a chainsaw, I loathe her) and attacks Rhaenyra as though Rhaenyra and her kids were in the wrong? Gurl.

Aemond will then go on to use him losing his eye as an excuse to use his war dragon to chase fourteen year old Luke on tiny baby Arrax and have the FUCKING AUDACITY to look shocked when it went wrong? Aemond is still at fault for Luke's death even if "he didn't mean it" or "he lost control" (he's not a true dragon lmfao)

In the book, Joffrey - who is three - returns with Jace and Luke, who grabbed wooden swords - they won't help against Vhagar bbys - in defense of their brother.

Despite it being three on one, Aemond was winning the fight until Luke slashed him, and good thing he did otherwise Aemond wouldn't have stopped in my opinion. He'd have kept going, beating the boys to bloody pulps. It was stable-boys who had to end the fight, where were the guards? Cole was probably simping over alicunt tbh.

Also, Alicent was the first to demand Luke's eye in recompense for Aemond losing his soz not soz ya uwu Queen is a cunt heh

Aemond will then, years later, attack Luke because of this and kill him and start the Dance of Dragons in full because not only did he cause the events that took his eye, but also the worst war in history, all because he's a little bitch baby sociopath with genocidal tendencies lmfao

Also, Aemond got off lightly, merely losing his eye - do u know what the punishment is for people who attack a princes' daughters and the heir to the throne sons? Calling them bastards, which is treason!!!! Death. Bitch shit should be exuberant that he merely lost an eye. Unfortunately viserys is a bitch and didn't send Aemond to the Wall like Jaehaerys would have for fucking real lol

Hello! I want to ask you something about Star Wars. What's your opinion on "love isn't attachment" interpretation of the Jedi Code that has been going around?

I think it’s a misrepresentation born out of an effort to make the Jedi Order seem perfect, instead of the noble but flawed institution that we see in both Disney canon and the Star Wars EU. It is a blatant disregard of both the general canonical and legends continuity that the Jedi Order did not allow love. Love is a type of attachment, at least in the Jedi's eyes, otherwise they would not be separating young children from their families.

And no, if the chosen one is doing just fine with his latent force powers, I don't think they're recuiting toddlers because they would otherwise "have no control" and be "a danger to others." Take that crap somewhere else, because I'm not buying it.

If they don’t care about loving people (ie your birth family), then why do we never see Jedi (aside from obvious exceptions like Anakin or Ki-Adi-Mundi) mention their family or keep in any form of touch with them? Why would they accept only very young children? Notably children whose memories of their time with their family would largely or wholly be lost due to childhood amnesia*, and therefore would not remember their attachment to their families and the love of their family. Regardless of whatever media tries to retcon the no love thing as love being acceptable and that attachment was a different thing, the most important canon (the movies) does not support this at all.

(*Childhood amnesia refers to the inability of most adults to recall memories from before the age of 3-4 years. It also refers to the fragmentation of memories from early childhood, especially from the ages of 3-6. This is paraphrased from the Wikipedia article on the subject.)

Also, if love (platonic or romantic) actually is allowed, then why would this official movie poster for Attack of the Clones exist? (Someone on youtube literally tried to argue with me that despite it being an official poster, it “didn’t mean anything." 🤨 By that logic, a movie advertised as R-rated can be assumed to be appropriate for children. Jedi apologists are truly dedicated to spiting their English teachers and anyone who tried to teach them about critical thinking or analysis.)

Bonus Round: Star Wars EU Edition

(read the paragraph on the right, starting at "Love is also a strong passion," and I also suggest reading the character's annotations on the side.)

They literally explain love is forbidden. While they say "those who obsess," in practice, it applies to any love, not just obsessive. (Also, it is a parent's job to prioritize the needs of their child. It's not "obsession" to put the child first, that's what you're supposed to do.) They are literally being told that wanting to contact their birth families is a cause of concern and that any attachment will cause you to "lose sight of your path" and are a cause for expulsion from the Order.

Once again, they are not allowed to connect with their birth families. The HoloNet calls it monstrous because it is. Separating a child from their parents is incredibly damaging, especially in early childhood*, (the age of recruitment into the Jedi Order) which is obvious, but this is the same fandom where I see people try (and fail) to justify child soldiers and using a slave army.

Sources about the detrimental effects of separating children from their parents:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/psychological-damage-inflicted-by-parent-child-separation-is-deep-long-lasting/

https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2018/06/psychological-impact-early-life-stress-parental-separation

This excert is from a section called "Misperceptions of the Jedi" from The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force.

"This charge springs from the pain of emotional attachment. It's also technically false." If I had my child taken from me and had no way to get them back, I don't give a shit if you have legal authority. You are effectively a kidnapper. The child isn't being removed from their parent's care because of abuse or any other legitimate reason. It's because they want to indoctrinate them and it's far easier when they don't remember anything before being taken to the temple. So they don't have a pesky attachment or concern for their mom left in slavery, for example!

Anyway, Luke's Jedi Order from the EU >>>>>> the old Jedi Order

How to hit a new line below

I am sorry?

So, the goverment can be corrupt, but their enforcing organization is not and can not can be called out for their mistakes?

I can see the pattern though...

"Freikops was not corrupt, they continued to do their job! So, it is perfectly fine to kill opposition leaders on the streets(Carl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg) without giving them a fair trial!"

"Berlin police was not corrupt, they continued to do their job! So, it's fine to start shooting the peaceful demonstration at May 1929! And of course, Hans Litten is not right for attempting to sue Noske and Zorgiebel for this massacre!"

"Ohio National Guard was not corrupt, they continued to do their job! So, they were justified in attacking anti-war demonstration in Kent University, killing four people, two of whom(Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder) were not even part of it, and wounding many!"

"West Berlin police at 1968 was not corrupt, they continued to do their job! So, it was fine for them to shoot Benno Ohnesorg, while aiming at Thomas Giefer, and brutally repress people protesting Shah's visit!"

"South Korean army and police at 1980 were not corrupt, they continued to do their job! It was fine for them to start shooting and arresting Gwanju students who were demanding democracy!"

"USA poilce at COVID was not corrupt, they continued to do their job! So, they were fine with strangling already apprehended George Floyd to the death!"

Ironically it stance have one really weak point. It reminds quite a bit of one Nuremberg trial defence, made by no other by Otto Noelte:

Noelte: What was your attitude, as a soldier, officer and general, to the problems you had to face in your profession?

Keitel: I can say that I was a soldier by vocation and conviction. For more than 44 years without interruption, I served my country and people as a soldier (...). I did this with equal dedication under the Kaiser, under President Ebert, under Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and under the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.

No matter, what goverment, no matter how corrupt, no matter what it did(like allowing Kalee to starve or ignoring Jabiim being attacked by pirates), you should serve and not ask any poignant question! Woah!

Dear Jedi cult, I know how much you love to compare Order 66 to Holocaust, but remmember, please, that references to the World War 2 doesn't stop here.

"Just serving" does not absolve you of your actions. "Just following orders" is not an excuse since 1946, especially in the fiction. Hope it helps.