Sith At The Time Of High Republic/Prequels: Pretty Small And Unknown Sect Clouded In Myths And Considered

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.

Nice day to remind you all that abandoning two clearly alive girls under the rubble and persuading another person to do so because of so called «non-attachment rule» is not cute, fine, a «good example of master-padawan relationship» or, at any point, normal. It's killing, indirect, but killing nonetheless.

IRL, the man or woman who has an a ability to save another person, who is clearly alive and mostly well, from danger, but refuses to do so, is considered nobody else but criminal. But when it comes to fictional woman, that suddenly becomes unrelevant. It somehow gives her the right to read a sermons to another grown-up man, who was never her student and who lost practically a ten of his peers(Bhat Jul, Padawan Pack, Tono) and comrades during the war. Who, unlike her, does not abandon the living for the sake of written rules.

And when the student of this woman decides to become a terrorist and bomb the Jedi Temple, hold in mind, that the thing that may have contributed to it was a knowledge that her master was ready to abandon her to death and walk away with it.

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.

Jacegan Week 2024: Day 7. Whump

Everything was a nightmare. 

It is the thing Cregan repeats by the time he wakes up in his bed.

The first thing he does is reach out for Jace sleeping near him. His eyes are still shut, he lies relaxed on his bed, and the pajama cloth can be seen at his shoulder. His brown hair which started to grow now after the hospital is scattered across the pillow. He looks normal…

Except the hollow part lower, at the place where the left thigh normally is.

The consequence of the car crash which claimed not only his leg, but his mother and adopted father’s lives as well.

While Cregan goes out to the kitchen, he does his best not to push the crutches accidentally. His and Jace’s room is next to the one, where Jace’s youngest siblings - Visenya, Viserys and Aegon - sleep. Next to them is his cousin's room and in front of them, Jace’s middle siblings’s - Luke and Joffrey’s room.

Sometimes, Cregan did not understand how it happened. He got into this family so well, even though he moved here only a half-year ago, after Jace asked him to move here and the tragedy happened. But in spite of the time it happened they accepted him really well.

Cregan moves himself to the kitchen and puts the kettle. A minute passes and the noise of the crutch sounds through the hallway. 

Jace arrives in the kitchen a second later. There is a strange expression on his face but Cregan understands what it means. Both of them actually feel each other's emotions and know what to talk about. He knows that even at his lowest, Jace refuses to talk about the car crash and knows when Cregan suffers from nightmares. 

“It seems somebody overread “Berserk” this night” he replies. “Tell me what you have seen”.

And he tells Jace about everything. About the world with kingdoms and dynasties older than any existed. About the world of dark magic and ice zombies. About the dragon riding dynasty who conquered the continent of Latin America size. About the feud between brother and sister, who looked really similar to Jace’s mother and eldest of uncles and even shared the same names.

Thin nervous line lies at Jace’s face as he hears it. His parents started to sue Jace’s uncles not so long before the car crash and he clearly does not want and expect them to be brought here. There is the surprise and somehow - curiosity in his eyes.

“Were we here too?” he asks.

Cregan nods and answers. About Luke who was eaten alive by the huge monster. About Jace’s aunt Helaena who went mad after her son was killed and later committed suicide. About Jace himself, shot down and riddled with arrows. About young Joffrey falling from his mother’s dragon to death. About raging war and the whole numbers of atrocities committed during it. About his Jace’s second uncle Aemond and the adopted father Daemon killing each other, as well his uncles Addam and Daeron. About his mother, late ms.Targaryen being eaten alive - or worse, fed to the dragon, while young Aegon was forced to watch.

Cregan does not say anything about him ending this war in his nightmares or him here seeing them not for the first time.

For some time both of them end up in silence for the whole time, until suddenly, Jace starts to bombard him with questions:

«What was the inheritance system in this kingdom — salic or austrian? Why were there no analogues of Parliament or Corteses here? Why did both the queen in his dream and her brother…» he specifically avoids calling them by their names. «asked for an army from lords, if they should have had the army from the king's domain? Why are there city councils and militias absent? And why was there an Essie thing when prostitutes were on the very end of the medieval social ladder?”

Unintentionally, Cregan catches himself smiling. It is Jace as he is: utterly spoiled by his historical education and searching for every inconsistency in every book about medievity and  every setting which is stated to be medieval and stated to be as the realistic take on medieivity. The way he lashed on Joe Abercromby books(“Where is the religion? Had he read Geoffrey of Villehardouin or Nicetas Choniates? The medieval people were religious as hell! Why are there no thoughts about the afterlife in the North?) still stands in front of his eyes. Jace loves history books very much. And his qualification and devotion to his work never ceases to amaze Cregan.

“Maybe you should write a book about your dreams?” Jace asks him. “Albeit with some changes?”

“And you will work as the historical consultant?” Cregan chuckles.

“Well, somebody has to do it in the end!” Jace exclaims. “I noticed that most modern authors who try to mix Druon with Tolkien fail miserably. So, it’s my duty to observe that my boyfriend will not make their mistakes and write truly accurate books though!” He looks so serious now that Cregan can’t find the strength not to laugh. And by this the nightmare goes away.

The misery is not here. The misery is anyway except this house.

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

🚨 We Need Your Kindness to Survive 🚨

Hello, My name is Mosab Elderawi, and I live in Gaza with my family. Life here has become harder than I ever imagined, and I’m writing this with hope in my heart that you might hear our story.

The ongoing war has devastated my family. We’ve lost 25 family members—each one a beloved part of our lives, taken too soon. I miss them deeply—their laughter, their presence, their love. Every day is a reminder of this unimaginable loss.

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We are now facing daily challenges to survive—things that most people take for granted, like food, clean water, and a safe place to sleep. The harsh realities of life here have replaced our dreams with the constant fight for survival.

Our Current Situation:

💔 Lost Stability: The war has left us without work or a stable source of income. 🍞 Basic Needs: Food and water are becoming harder to afford with rising prices and scarce resources. 📚 Dreams on Hold: Like so many here, my family’s dreams have been replaced by the need to simply survive. 😢 Unimaginable Loss: Losing 25 loved ones has left a void that can never be filled.

How You Can Help:

I’m sharing our story with the hope that someone out there might care. Even $5 can make a big difference for us, and if you’re unable to donate, just reblogging this post can help spread the word.

Your kindness, no matter how small, is something we’ll never forget.

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Your support is not about changing our entire situation—it’s about giving us a little relief, a little hope, and a way to keep going. We are not asking for much, and we understand if you can’t donate. Sharing our story is just as valuable to us as a donation.

Thank you for reading this far. It means the world to us to know that someone is listening. Your kindness gives us strength and helps us believe in a better tomorrow.

With all our gratitude, Mosab Elderawi and Family ❤️

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united states is responsible for not only the massacre of its own minorities but also for the deaths of all the minorities in the countries they fund the fascism of

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 4. Horror

AU, Krabat semi-fusion, minor Lucerys/Rhaena

TW: mild gore and Bloodraven’s red gruel( implied cannibalism)

In this AU, Alicent succeeds in convincing Viserys to punish both Luke and Jace for Aemond's eye scar. She works more subtly here and instead of demanding Luke's eye asks the king to send both boys to Strongs(Larys and Alys) to teach them some manners. Rhaenyra is visibly unnerved by all implications of this, especially after the Harrenhall fire and the fact that both boys are forced to leave their dragons on Dragonstone, but forced to oblige. 

Jace and Luke say goodbye to their mother, father, cousins and baby brother. They are nervous, as well as their dragons(Vermax and Arrax screech a lot, because they sense that their beloved masters are gonna be sent away from them), but they attempt to seem brave. They are sure that the fostering in Harrenhall would not be that long and they'll be at home by the next half of year.

They are wrong as hell. 

When they arrive at Harrenhall, they do not get the rooms at the keep. Instead of this, they are put to live with the strange black-haired woman of unknown age. This is said to be their aunt Alys, but she does not treat them as nephews — or as princes — at all. Even if they are not the only kids who live with her. Most of them are bastards of dragonblood and partically all of them are forced to work day and night. When they work at night, Alys writes the signs on their foreheads with some red gruel, which sometimes is fed to them — and neither Jace, nor Luke are ready to say what  this gruel is made of. At work, they cut some meat and separate veins, fat and vessels from it. Somedays, Lady Alys brings them some broken bones and orders to grind them. Somedays, she is followed by man with strange man with red eyes. 

Not everything is bad, in fact. Once a week, Lady Alys teaches them magic. She recites the spells and her students repeats them. Than, they practice. Most os students(including Velarion brothers themselves) are able to turn into the ravens.

They still have time to train with swords, and Luke is actually getting better with it. Flying in raven's forms and terrorising Larys and his servants can be actually funny. They have a free day to play with other kids, albeit they do not know them really well, except the girl named Nettles, who seems to be the brightest student Alys has and teaches them to fight her will. 

They still miss their family. One day, Luke and Jace attempt to escape the castle, but they fail — no matter where they go, they still can not get out of Harrenhall's outskirts.

Nettles catсhes them, when they get back. She tells them that not only they are the bastards, they are also fools. No one, who is sent here to be Alys Rivers's student, can get out without her decision. Even the suicide won't help, as her first disciple, the same man who claimed to be Maegor's bastard at Great Council, discovered in rather hard way. The only way to escape Harrenhall is to have a woman, who loves you, to go to Harrenhall and ask Lady Rivers to let her loved one go. It is not an option for herself, as Nettles remarks, so she will fight Alys or lose, as she is doomed anyway(because Alys needs to kill one of her students every seven years). Next day she goes straight to Alys's chambers. She never comes back — her body ends up  brought into the rooms by the man with red eyes, who visits Alys this time. 

 Both boys are devastated. The fact that they can't write to their parents, do not help. Lady Alys, nevertheless, never fails to taunt them about their father dying or their mother marrying another man(Daemon) and having another children(Aegon and Viserys). 

One day, Luke starts to fail every work with meat that Alys gives him. Jacaerys is shocked by it, and actually afraid that his brother will get the witch's ire, but she frees him from work with meat and resigns to the mere servant. Strangely, Jace does not think that this is the  humiliation, cause they are already mere meat cutters, what can be worse?

This day, he sees the first dream since he and Luke got here. He sees the boy with a long face, dark hair and gray eyes, who stands nearby him. In this dream, they play in the half-ruined castle in the snow. The boy is a good climber and helps Jace to climb the top of the wall with him. He is more than ready to tell his name, but Jace stops him. He does not feel it's good idea. The boy does not insist.

For a monent, Jace doesn't feel ashamed for how he looks now. 

Next seven years pass like mist. Jacaerys studies the magic, becomes if not the best, then of the brightest students of Alys(while Lucerys is still her servant boy), whom she constantly praises, acts like an good brother to another younger students(whom he grew to care about) and still see the dreams about the Boy from the Snow Castle.

In this dreams, there are no games and walls climbing anymore, except playfull training in swords(which Boy from the Snow Castle wins, yet Jace harbors no jealosy towards him). Sometimes, they walk together in the snow forest. Sometimes, the Boy offers him to swim with him in on of the lakes nearby Winterfell, which Jace gladly accepts. Sometimes, they just sit together in the room and the Boy sings old Northern ballads to him. One of those is the ballad about two cousins, one whom get captured by the Night King, and the other, who went to save them. Jace chucles of the painful irony.

«It would be great if we could have hunted together». exclames the Boy at once. «Or you could be here to taste our cuisine. Or...» he stammers and lowers his eyes. « Whatever. I don't know why I have such a feeling... but i would love to see you here, Jace».

When Jacaerys awakens from the sleep, he feels even more captured than before. And it is even worse that the seven years passed and the time of new sacrifice that Alys must make is coming. He grew up in these seven years and started to turn into a man, and the Boy of the Snow Castle is not a boy at all: he is now a grown-up young man, as Jace is now. And yet, they have never seen each other in reality and he is still a de-facto prisoner in the half-burnt gloomy castle with a bloody witch as mentor. 

One day, Alys brings another young man home. It's a black man called Alyn and Jace is assigned to train him. Given seven years passed, Jace deduces that time is coming and he needs to watch out cause he thinks that his little brother is in danger. 

Meanwhile, the Westeros is gonna turn upside down. Neither Rhaenyra, nor Corlys and Rhaenys are going to let the Greens and Larys to get away with disappearance of two princes and their constant attempts to declare them dead. Neither Arrax, nor Vermax allowed another people to mount them, which, in Rhaenyra's eyes, indicates that their riders are alive and mostly well. Viserys still sends the searching groups for his grandsons, but with no avail. Meanwhile, his niece, Rhaena Targaryen surprisingly claims the Grey Ghost, and maester Gerardys says that she managed to do it after seeing her late(as it is presumed) cousin in her dreams. Rhaena gets a great interest in flying on her dragon and often flies away to different places without her father or sister knowledge. One day, she decides to travel North with her sister(they say that they are gonna visit Cregan and probably check on Stark's loyalty to their stepmother).

One night, when Jace and Cregan(who tells him his name that night) meet in their dreams and walk on the seashore, Jacaerys accidentally spots a strange figure following them. It's a cloaked man,but soon it turns into a black fox and runs to them. Jace understands it is Alys and changes himself into the crow, attacking her. She ,in turn, changes into cat, and wounds Jace’s wing, then changes to snake and bites him. Cregan attempts to rush to them, but he is stopped by Jace’s plea not to intervene. Jace turns into the cat too and bites Alys again, and the battle with them changing into stags, roosters and other animals, but ends with Jace turning to a fire and burning Alys. Both he and Cregan are in awe(Cregan cause he dated the wizard, Jace cause he actually managed to defeat Alys, which was not the case in their previous battles).

Jace awakens with snake bite and scars on his arm

The same day worn off Alys with massive burns on her face calls Jace in her chambers and gives him a proposal: to take her mantle as the leader of the magic school, but at the expense of his brother(or another student's) or Cregan’s life and having a connection with dark man visiting her. She tells him that she is tired of staying at Harrenhall and wants to meet a man and have a family with him, and she sees that this man, sooner or later, will come to her school. Jace says no. She, in her turn, gives him a month to submit to her, or die in the end as sacrifice, and strips him out of his magic.

Meanwhile, Cregan Stark, Lord of Winterfell, greets his guests, Targaryen ladies, with open arms. He is more than happy to affirm his allegiance to their stepmother's side, but he feels that it's not the point of their travel. And he is right: one day, he sees the boy in his dream, who is strikingly similar to the one he sees  since his twelve nameday. He introduces himself as Luke, says that Jace's life is in danger, that Alys will kill him if she would not be stopped earlier and that the only way to stop her is to fly to Harrenhall and to demand her to free any of them. But both Cregan and Rhaena should beware: Alys should release any man or woman, if their loved one will come for them, but only if they'll pass the special test. 

It is not surprising to him that Lady Rhaena meets him in the morning and says that she had the same dream as him. When Cregan asks her about the things Luke asked him to do, she says: 

«To fly to Harrenhall and free them. And pass the test.» she also adds that the tests are passed in the form of knowing the person in their animal form. 

They and Baela decide to waste no time, and fly on Grey Ghost's and Moondancer's backs to Harrenhall as fast as they are able to. But Alys challenges start even there. Both Rhaena and Cregan start to see nightmares, sent by Alys. 

« It is part of our test.» Rhaena once says to him. «Luke told me about the girl, who was so tortured by these nightmares that she had thrown herself into the river.»

And, for Old gods's sake, Cregan understands her as no one. He can't stop this nightmares and he endures them, like the Starks of old endured the coldest winters, where no war(be it with White Walkers, ironborn or lords, that are their bannermen now) was waged. It’s strange to think about them now, when he is heading to the castle of Harren the Black, where the man he cares about and sees in dreams since childhood is held by the witch. And alongside Targaryen princess, no less.

Sounds like a romantic southern song, he thinks. But his dreams are far from it. He sees Jace in his dreams, like their last one, when he defeated the unknown witch, but in those, he loses badly. He sees Jace's arm torn and him being abandoned in the forest, dying in fever and Cregan himself being unable to do anything. He sees Jace being beheaded and his head being thrown to animals and the crows gathering nearby it. 

Which is worse, he knows that this may already have happened. Jace may have lost the duel against Alys, may have already been dead and Cregan is racing here to collect his dead body.

«It is not the case here.» says Rhaena to him. « If he is dead, you would have been too.»

«And how did you know it?» Cregan asks in turn. She blushes, to her sister's taunting smile. 

« Luke told me about it. » she says and tells the story. A story about the little boy, who gave her a flower and did his best to console her at her mother’s funeral, who protected both Rhaena, Baela and his elder brother from their uncle, who attempted to smash his skull with stone. Who, while being sent to live with the witch, deliberately failed every work entrusted to him to be made a servant and be able to enter Alys’s room to be able to read her spellbook, find a spell to enter and connect people's dreams and connect with her.

Even if he did not meet Lucerys Velaryon in person, Cregan feels nothing but an utter respect towards him. He knows what it means to be powerless since the time his father passed away and he was left alone with his cousins and uncle trying to usurp him, but this time he was at home, with bannermen and servants at his side. Lucerys was even younger than him when he was sent away to another castle and yet managed to outsmart his gaoler and use her powers to her own end. 

“And Jacaerys too. He too did everything to fight this witch and was brave no matter what”. 

Cregan doesn’t know why those thoughts fill him with so much tenderness and pride.

Meanwhile, Jace learns that his arm is now affected by poison. What worse, he is now forced to work with others again, but now he finds this tiresome again. He is barely able to stand after the whole day and night of work again, and Alys gives him the red gruel no longer. He don’t know, should he be angry or relieved because of it.

Alys still attacks him  in dreams at night. He still fights back and sometimes even wins. He never sees Cregan in dreams again, and at some point is happy for it, because Alys would not be able to harm him. He still waits for something he doesn't know. When one day she comes to his room and demands him to go outside, he follows her. He goes out of the room and follows her to the meadow nearby the  castle.

When he sees Luke, Alyn and other dragonblood orphans with him, Jace is shocked at first, but settles down the same second. He understands that Alys is gonna kill one of them and is glad that if it would be him, he will be able to see the sky(where he could fly as raven) before he dies.However, instead of taking any of them to be killed, Alys orders him to turn into the ravens.

And then the Dragon roar is heard and the huge gray dragon descends from the sky, with a young man and woman on his back. Another dragon, much smaller and light green, is circling over the castle.

When the grey dragon lands nearby Alys, the man jumps from the back and Jace doesn’t know what to think and how to act. Because the last thing he expected to happen is Cregan coming to Harrenhall alongside a beautiful black woman in red dress.

«Witch Alys Rivers of House Strong.» Cregan says. « I demand you to free both princes of House Targaryen you keep imprisoned here.»

Alys laughs, but her laugh sounds broken.

«And why do you demand them?» she sais. «Do you have a thing for two of them?»

«We ask them to be free.» adds the woman nearby Cregan. Even at night, she looks somehow familiar, and Jace wonders where he could have met her.

«Please, set our loved ones free or… » she pauses. «My sister will repeat the deed of the Conqueror.»

Alys grins smugly.

«If you insist, my lord and lady.» She says. «Find your loved ones in this flock of crows and be free».

She turns to them and smiles. It may have seemed somehow heartwarming to others, but her will falls on them like a stone. She demands them to fly as usual, to keep croaking and seem normal, but Jace knows better. Nettles taught them really well. While other ravens are croaking as loud as they are able to, Luke and Jace stay silient. 

From what he sees now, Alys’s smile doesn’t seem victorious at all. 

It takes a few steps and even less minutes from Cregan to cross the meadow and point the finger to Jace. 

« It’s him.» he says. « It’s always him». 

A minute later, Rhaena follows him and points her finger on Luke. 

Nobody remembers what happened to Alys Rivers that night. Maybe, the fire suddenly gets from her shoes and burns her in a moment. Maybe, her body melts in a second like snow under the sun. Maybe, the man who has been visiting her tores off her face in a second and disappeared. The fact is clear — she disappeared without a trace.

At first they do not know how to react to it. The silience breaks when Rhaena jumps at Luke, crying «It worked» and dragging him into the hug, and Luke hugging her too. None of them cares that Luke’s clothes are worn off and dirty, and, after feeling nervous for a moment, Jace decides he should not care too.

He looks at Cregan Stark. He does not look really different from the man he saw in dreams — everything is here, even the tall height. Sometimes, when they first met, Jace believed that he is nothing but his hidden desire to have a friend, but when Cregan angrily taught about his uncle and cousins, he understood he was wrong.

But nevertheless, it is difficult to believe that he is truly here, that he came here for Jace no less and that Alys is truly dead and gone. Nettles didn’t believe in stories about love saving from dark magic.

But it did. And Jace reaches for the only person from the outside world he has known for seven years.

Cregan’s arms are warm as his gray eyes and his hug is so tender, it’s hard to believe it’s real. 

Luke and Rhaena are dancing near them, and for a long time in his life, Jace feels himself free.

P.S. If somebody failed to find the similarities

Alys - the Master/Miller

Jacaerys - Krabat

Lucerys - Juro

Cregan - Die Kantorka/The Songstress

Nettles - Tonda

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?