Star Wars Fanfic Ideas, Recommendations, and Discussions Thread

[Lord Sovereign]

The biggest problem that I've had with Legends is that it was mostly made up of what is an authorial oneupmanship contest that most authors after Zahn had with each other. Disney is far too much into 'reality ensues' and not making a coherent story out of it (but to be honest, I've constantly stated my piece on the matter of that dumpster fire).

I can't disagree. Zahn was actually quite good at giving a bit of realism whilst maintaining a "Star Wars" feel, which he incorporated into a good plot populated by good characters. If anything, I wish he'd been on the lucasfilm writing team instead of all the other diversity hires.

 

[DarthOne]

I can't disagree. Zahn was actually quite good at giving a bit of realism whilst maintaining a "Star Wars" feel, which he incorporated into a good plot populated by good characters. If anything, I wish he'd been on the lucasfilm writing team instead of all the other diversity hires.

I think he's talking about the other Legends authors here.

 

[Aaron Fox]

And what, pray tell, would you do instead?

First, I'll have a 'datamine' team -so to speak- going through the entirety of the Legends EU, looking at what was good, what was bad, and what can be saved while I complete Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I would tell Disney that, right now, a Sequel Trilogy can't be in the cards so soon but I would go for more movies like Rogue One to set up the sequel trilogy. Pull a Marvel, if you will. I would also state to the fanbase that there will be no Sequel Trilogy for quite some time due to the fact that we'll have to set it up.

One show that I would produce would be a 'teen-rated' show called Rogue One, maybe have the subtitle of Stories of the Rebellion's Best and have it as a combination SpecOps and Espionage show... and the 'end' of the series would be when the New Republic disbands them, largely to placate the significant voter base who want to return to the Old Republic in full...

Another thing will be ensuring that the Sequels will never get the director swap problem, which caused all sorts of problems in the Sequel Trilogy.

I can't disagree. Zahn was actually quite good at giving a bit of realism whilst maintaining a "Star Wars" feel, which he incorporated into a good plot populated by good characters. If anything, I wish he'd been on the lucasfilm writing team instead of all the other diversity hires.

I was talking about the...

I think he's talking about the other Legends authors here.

... and ninja'd. From what I've read about the Legends EU authors, outside of a number of them that you can literally count on one hand with fingers left over, most of them kept trying to one-up each other like fucking children.

 

[BlackDragon98]

Warspite's bridge got broadsided by an MC80 star cruiser, a little after a chunk of another unfortunate warship bisected one of her shield generators. Thus her bridge wasn't entirely annihilated, and was intact enough to be repaired later.

Now, Claudius is an officer but a young one (he's a twenty-two year old lieutenant, who'd only been in the Imperial Naval Academy for a year when Alderaan got flattened). He was likely in another part of the ship, overseeing a gun battery or something of that variety, when Captain Solan and his officers were killed.

Engineering perhaps?
There's still the problem of rank, as a Venator has a crew of over 7000.
Thus, there's going to be a lot of people who outrank Claudius.

It's more of a case of "who they bump into." Scattered elements of other Imperial fleets are among them, namely in the form of some Raider Corvettes and an Interdictor. There's also a lone Arquitens patrolling a backwater system, a shiny new Gladiator class Star Destroyer that escaped its dockyards with a skeleton crew, and even a full blown Imperial II star destroyer (ISD Persecutor), the personal ship of a fleeing Moff. All in all, it is quite a rag tag fleet with plenty of room for disagreement among its officers.

Thankfully, Natasi Daala is nowhere to be found.

 

[Lord Sovereign]

Engineering perhaps?
There's still the problem of rank, as a Venator has a crew of over 7000.
Thus, there's going to be a lot of people who outrank Claudius.

Nah, Engineering sounds too much like hard work for him. Although he could have been sent down to supervise something.

So in order for a Senior Lieutenant to take command of a Destroyer, the ship must have suffered catastrophic damage. Perhaps with her shields down, she gets raked from bow to her command tower by an MC80, which kills thousands of her crew (via direct damage and decompression) and it's only by the miraculous survival of engineering and the intervention of another Star Destroyer (ISD Chimera. Good old Captain Pellaeon) that she isn't lost with all hands and is able to make an emergency hyperspace jump.

Out of those hundreds of commissioned officers, all but a few dozen would have been incinerated or spaced. Perhaps there is one superior (like a Lieutenant Commander) but he's dying and passes his authority along to the next in line (Claudius). This could lead to some interesting character conflict, as the crew liked that Lieutenant Commander but feel either apathetic or hostile to Claudius.

Also, here's a really controversial thing (which I might have indicated by saying "playing fast and loose with canon"). I might downsize crew size. For example, Warspite might have five thousand crew instead of seven thousand, with a battalion of Imperial Marines (five to six hundred men) on top. Reason for this is that alongside computation and the sheer amount of rations needed, some of the crew sizes in Star Wars are a bit...absurd. Venators, hilariously enough, are probably among the more realistic crew compliments for a ship of that length, because Imperial class are just mad by comparison. Also, I think I might be able to get away with it as crew size is never stated in the films.

Thankfully, Natasi Daala is nowhere to be found.

Oh Christ, got to love Daala. My man Pellaeon looking absolutely terrified in the background.

 

[BlackDragon98]

Nah, Engineering sounds too much like hard work for him. Although he could have been sent down to supervise something.

Makes sense.

So in order for a Senior Lieutenant to take command of a Destroyer, the ship must have suffered catastrophic damage. Perhaps with her shields down, she gets raked from bow to her command tower by an MC80, which kills thousands of her crew (via direct damage and decompression) and it's only by the miraculous survival of engineering and the intervention of another Star Destroyer (ISD Chimera. Good old Captain Pellaeon) that she isn't lost with all hands and is able to make an emergency hyperspace jump.

Based on your numbers, a crew of about 5700 with 600 Marines gets decimated down to 1700 crew in fighting shape, another 300-400 wounded in varying degrees, and about 200-300 Marines.

Out of those hundreds of commissioned officers, all but a few dozen would have been incinerated or spaced. Perhaps there is one superior (like a Lieutenant Commander) but he's dying and passes his authority along to the next in line (Claudius). This could lead to some interesting character conflict, as the crew liked that Lieutenant Commander but feel either apathetic or hostile to Claudius.

So bridge takes the worst hit and gets vented out to space?

Also, here's a really controversial thing (which I might have indicated by saying "playing fast and loose with canon"). I might downsize crew size. For example, Warspite might have five thousand crew instead of seven thousand, with a battalion of Imperial Marines (five to six hundred men) on top. Reason for this is that alongside computation and the sheer amount of rations needed, some of the crew sizes in Star Wars are a bit...absurd. Venators, hilariously enough, are probably among the more realistic crew compliments for a ship of that length, because Imperial class are just mad by comparison. Also, I think I might be able to get away with it as crew size is never stated in the films.

Totally understand.
On the other end of the spectrum, you thankfully didn't take my suggestion of a Dreadnaught class heavy cruiser, because I just remembered a detail about the class and went to Wookipedia to check.
"In addition to the technical drawbacks, Dreadnaught-class ships also required over 16,000 crewmembers to run at optimal performance—perhaps the highest crew per kilometer ratio of any modern starship. This high crew requirement put strains on recruitment efforts and turned supplying a Dreadnaught into a logistical nightmare."

Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser

The Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser, or simply the Dreadnaught, was a type of capital ship built for planetary occupation and space combat used by the Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, New Republic, local governments, and various other organizations. In use for over a century, they were one of...

starwars.fandom.com

There is the slave rigging system and Katana fleet, but that's a whole other can of worms.
On the subject of Katana fleet, will Thrawn be making an appearance in your fic? (You mentioned Pelleon)
Ysanne Isard?
Mara Jade?
Baron Soontir Fel?
Natasi Daala?

Oh Christ, got to love Daala. My man Pellaeon looking absolutely terrified in the background.

She and Tarkin were romantically involved for quite a while, so you can guess what type of person she is.

 

[DarthOne]

Daala is certainly a 'missed opportunity' sort of character when it came to how she was intended to be portrayed vs how she was actually depicted/written.

 

[BlackDragon98]

Daala is certainly a 'missed opportunity' sort of character when it came to how she was intended to be portrayed vs how she was actually depicted/written.

yeah.
They kinda messed up her characterization a bit

 

[DarthOne]

yeah.
They kinda messed up her characterization a bit

Just a little bit.

 

[LindyAF]

There's a lot of things that bug me about the prequels in terms of ways I think they make for an awkward precursor to the Original Trilogy. As someone who often roots for the Empire, at least on aesthetic grounds, I'm also kinda interested in the idea of a First Order Rising fic painting them in a more sympathetic light, but in order to make that work I think the Prequel Era and the Clone Wars need to be revisited a bit, but on the other hand I wouldn't want to shift a bunch of things for no common reason other than Empire apologia.

So idea I had, which I probably won't write at least for a while but wanted to jot down: Palpatine's attempted assassination of Darth Plagueis fails, however, neither is Plagueis able to kill Palpatine. Palpatine outs Hugo Damask II as the Sith Lord to the Jedi claiming to have been attacked in an attempt to have the Jedi do his dirty work, which fails but drives Plagueis from Coruscant. Hugo Damask II goes into hiding, becoming the shadowy master of the alliance between the Trade Federation, Banking Clan, Techno Union, Corporate Alliance, and Retail Caucus. Hereafter I'll just say the "Trade Federation," for a general term, which will be related but distinct in this universe from the Separatists.

The general outcome is that instead of the Clone Wars being essentially a phony war with Palpatine just using the Separatists as an excuse to gain more and more power, the it's a genuine war with the Trade Federation's proxies seriously threatening the Core Worlds, waged alongside a shadow war between Plagueis and Sidious.

Would generally be Disney canon, mostly because I'm not very familiar with Legends, and also for having less established.

 

[marsolino]

There's a lot of things that bug me about the prequels in terms of ways I think they make for an awkward precursor to the Original Trilogy. As someone who often roots for the Empire, at least on aesthetic grounds, I'm also kinda interested in the idea of a First Order Rising fic painting them in a more sympathetic light, but in order to make that work I think the Prequel Era and the Clone Wars need to be revisited a bit, but on the other hand I wouldn't want to shift a bunch of things for no common reason other than Empire apologia.

So idea I had, which I probably won't write at least for a while but wanted to jot down: Palpatine's attempted assassination of Darth Plagueis fails, however, neither is Plagueis able to kill Palpatine. Palpatine outs Hugo Damask II as the Sith Lord to the Jedi claiming to have been attacked in an attempt to have the Jedi do his dirty work, which fails but drives Plagueis from Coruscant. Hugo Damask II goes into hiding, becoming the shadowy master of the alliance between the Trade Federation, Banking Clan, Techno Union, Corporate Alliance, and Retail Caucus. Hereafter I'll just say the "Trade Federation," for a general term, which will be related but distinct in this universe from the Separatists.

The general outcome is that instead of the Clone Wars being essentially a phony war with Palpatine just using the Separatists as an excuse to gain more and more power, the it's a genuine war with the Trade Federation's proxies seriously threatening the Core Worlds, waged alongside a shadow war between Plagueis and Sidious.

Would generally be Disney canon, mostly because I'm not very familiar with Legends, and also for having less established.

It's an interesting premise, but: what stops Plagueis from doing to Palpatine what Palpatine did to him? Post a video on the holonet, send a message to the Jedi etc, and out Palpatine as his apprentice. Of course, given that this is information coming from a Sith Lord it won't be immediately believed, but I reckon Palpatine will be in hot water and will have a lot of difficulty in clearing his name and even keep the chancellorship after that

 

[LindyAF]

It's an interesting premise, but: what stops Plagueis from doing to Palpatine what Palpatine did to him? Post a video on the holonet, send a message to the Jedi etc, and out Palpatine as his apprentice. Of course, given that this is information coming from a Sith Lord it won't be immediately believed, but I reckon Palpatine will be in hot water and will have a lot of difficulty in clearing his name and even keep the chancellorship after that

I'd actually planned on Palpatine not getting the chancellorship until much later in the war- in part due to his suspiscious friendship with Plagueis, but also because the Trade Federation is actually trying to use their substantial influence to stop him, rather than putting on a show but having been reassured that he's actually on their side.

That ties into another way the conflict would be changed- the sides would be much less a clear cut binary of Separatists vs Republic than in canon. For instance, the Separatists aren't one cohesive thing which is a transparent front for the Trade Federation. Rather, the Trade Federation would be supporting and bankrolling many different Separatist movements, and coups against governments within the Republic in order to eliminate competitors and reduce the Senate. Many of these would also be explicitly for various non-human alien interests, as I think it's pretty nonsensical that the Empire is so anti-alien without any lead up.

On the Republic end of things, things would also be a lot more muddled, with the Senate more prone to inaction. Rather than being directly part of the Republic, most of the Imperial-precursor organizations would be part of paramilitary organizations acting directly against the Trade Federation and various Separatist factions, the largest being directly run by Palpatine, "the New Order." These organizations would also skew heavily human. The Jedi are also more split, with some fighting on each side. Various kinds of Dark Siders would also be present on both sides as part of the Plagueis vs Sidious shadow war, with some of the Jedi on each side trying to rout them out and some getting corrupted.

Additionally, Plagueis is not going to want the entire Jedi order focusing on hunting him down, so as part of going into hiding he'd fake his death, or at least arrange things so as to imply that he probably died. The Jedi would suspect that he hasn't died, and at least know that if he did die then his apprentice is still out there, but it'd be unclear enough that he doesn't want to clarify it for them by acting too directly.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Right now, the biggest problem with Star Wars is that life-action is incredibly limiting in comparison to animation, and this Star Wars Kids clip shows it in full force. The biggest problem with animation, however, is that everyone and their brother is willing to consider animation to be 'kids only' in a self-enforcing feedback loop.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

The biggest problem with animation, however, is that everyone and their brother is willing to consider animation to be 'kids only' in a self-enforcing feedback loop.

Western nations consider it for kids only. Cultures like Japan consider animation valid for adults too.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Western nations consider it for kids only. Cultures like Japan consider animation valid for adults too.

Eh, from the way I see it, it's more schizophrenic largely because of differing underlying culture structures in terms of entertainment and what is 'kid' friendly. The initial companies kept this up largely because it was what sold, especially in the US where most of the animation was being done. Walt, oddly enough, tried to break a trend that he kind of started via works like Fantasia (and the Disney Corporation itself via works like The Black Cauldron), but those flopped in the box office.

When Japan started its own animation studios post-WW2, they patterned things off of Walt Disney, but as time went on they tried to go on their own path. But, due to how the US is so dominant, they had to adopt some of the mentalities into their own animation in order to get a foothold anywhere else.

Hence why you rarely see foreign animation (unless they're contracted to animate the shows, like what happened during the '80s and '90s where foreign animation studios did the animation work while the American companies did pretty much everything else) on the world stage but a lot of US animation everywhere.

As I said, it is also a self-enforcing feedback loop, which is very hard to break. We've seen that the loop has cracks in it but it has largely not collapsed yet due to how strong it is.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

As I said, it is also a self-enforcing feedback loop, which is very hard to break. We've seen that the loop has cracks in it but it has largely not collapsed yet due to how strong it is.

It would help if executives could stop insisting that a "mature" cartoon means it must have sex, gore, and swearing in it. That's literally Chuniboo talk. Blacksad is a good example of a mature comic-series.

 

[Aaron Fox]

It would help if executives could stop insisting that a "mature" cartoon means it must have sex, gore, and swearing in it. That's literally Chuniboo talk. Blacksad is a good example of a mature comic-series.

No, we've seen when comics tried to break out of their own version of the Animation Age Ghetto, and that was the Dark Age of Comics (aka 'the '90s'), which gave the lessons necessary to make comics more acceptable after comics got out of its dark-edgy phase. Given that history loves to rhyme, it'll be a few more decades before the loop breaks completely...

 

[Aaron Fox]

First, a possible explanation/reconciliation of The Dark Side of the Force:

First, we must note that the Dark Side has multiple 'groups/schools/styles' under its banner. Most of the Dark Side practitioners (like the Witches) are of the exploration of The Force variety, just using the Dark Side as the methodology of said exploration. These practitioners simply study and utilize the Dark Side in a sort of 'mad science/magic' sort of way, as long as you don't do shit like, oh, completely break the cycle of life and death.

Second, the most dangerous aspect of the Dark Side is not the passion but negative emotions with said passion. Passion gives you a moderate power boost to force abilities in general but negative emotions even more so. Both in combination is extremely dangerous as it is powerful for it makes the force user act like a druggie looking for his next fix. Sidious is powerful (and dangerous) not because he is a master practitioner of the Dark Side (he's probably in the top five list in terms of practical ability) but because he is able to stay sane despite being, effectively, on extremely copious amounts of Force!Hard Drugs.

What The Force wanted is to completely and utterly annihilate the Banite Sith and basically UNPERSON their entire existence. Period. Why? They broke some seriously high-level 'rules' and what results from these rules being broken is why the Blade of Mortis is still around. Sidious and his predecessors broke those rules and would break even more to ensure that they would win against the Jedi.

Yeah... have fun with that implication.


Ok, fanfic idea time:

Basically, Grogu becomes a Jedi Master but in his timeline, Sidious's return turns the galaxy into a complete and utter clusterfuck, and with the help of Ezra and The Force, Grogu gets transported back into the days of the Old Republic and the Jedi Order - in body and soul I might add.

What Grogu doesn't know is that The Force wants him to finally kill Sidious once and for all. Grogu simply wants to prevent the fall of the Jedi Order and the Old Republic... leading to interesting butterflies (maybe even have Grogu be Anakin's Master ).

 

[Aaron Fox]

Insignificant compared to the power of COMMUNISM!

A Day Long Remembered

Just a few images from a Sins of a Solar Empire mod turned its own setting.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Yeah, this kind of makes sense, overall. Then again the biggest problem with the Sequels is that we've been literally dropped off the deep end first...