I'm Gonna Say It: It's Aemond's Own Fault He Lost His Eye In Both The Show And The Book. Both Times,

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

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

Jacegan week 2024: Day 3. Fire and Ice

Semi-crossover with Ice Dragon short story. 

In this AU, Cregan is born a strange boy. He is born cold, but not dead, with grey eyes and part-grey dark hair. Once he starts to grow up, he becomes even more strange: he rarely smiles but never actually cries(even at his fathers funeral), he actually loves the cold weather and can go out even during the bitter cold and collect the snow even with his bare hands. One day, to the great fear of his cousins, he is found playing with the ice lizards without causing himself frostbites. They told their father about it and Bennard is inferred as hell. 

Cregan also has a tendency to disappear from the keep and return after many hours of absence. When one day he says that he flew on the dragonback, nobody seems to correct him or say that only Targaryens can claim the dragons. They are actually afraid of this strange as hell boy.

So, when one day nobody can find young lord Cregan in his chambers, and another day — when Lord-Commander of Night Watch tells them about a huge dragon(the old men of the Watch say that it’s a same size as Queen Alysanne’s dragon) and his rider taking control of Skagos. Another day, there was a rumor about its inhabitants stopping to eat human’s meat.

Nevertheless, Bennard Stark seizes control over Winterfell. Prince Jacaerys still visits him in attempts to get reinforcements for his mother, but, unlike Cregan in canon, Bennard decides to stay neutral and politely refuses. When Jacaerys flies from Winterfell, one of the old servants tells him about the Skagos and Cregan and his dragon living here. At first, Jace doesn’t believe him, but when the servant tells him about the size of the said dragon, he suddenly remembers Aemond and Vhagar’s size. So, he decides to play safe.

If this thing could be said about traveling even further into the North, to the island where cannibals live or used to live(or so it is told). Where it is even colder than at the Wall. 

Nevertheless, he goes here. 

The place is harrowing, to say at least. There are three keeps left and they seem to be fine, but the island himself seems gloomy. Their lord seems the same. When he looks at him, Jace is ready to laugh at anybody claiming Starks are emotionless. By this man’s standards, lord Bennard seems of one of the merriest people Jace has known. His eyes seem to be made of dirty ice and he watches Jace like his dragon watched the food.

He doesn't know that in fact, he seems interesting to Cregan. While Jace gets trouble with deciding what to promise to him for his help, Cregan decides to join him no matter what and asks him to show him the other kingdoms. While he is content with ruling Skagos and wants nothing other than it and flying on the Snowstorm, he is interested in seeing the world in the South.

Nervously, Jace replies: “And you wouldn’t melt?”

To his surprise, Cregan chuckles and says: “Look at Snowstorm, prince, and think again.”

And then he leads Jace to the dragon. His size doesn’t really surprise Jace: he has seen Vermithor, Silwerwing, Grey Ghost and other wild dragons. He, of course, has seen Vhagar and while the dragon is smaller than her it’s nevertheless big.

What impresses Jace is how the dragon looks. The dragon is crystal white, piercingly white to the point of blue, the shade that is cold and hard even to look at. His whole body was covered with frost, so that with every movement the skin was covered with cracks, like a snow crust under a boot, and crumbled in flakes. The dragon's eyes are clear, deep, and icy.

Huge bat wings, bluish-white with iridescence.His teeth are exactly like icicles: jagged, unequal-length ice spears, lined up in a triple palisade to guard the dark blue mouth.

And when this dragon opens its huge mouth and exhales, it does not emit a stream of fire or a burning sulfur stench from its throat, like its smaller brethren. The ice dragon is icy because it breathes cold.

The dragon truly suits the man of the North.

They fly to Dragonstone. On the way here, Cregan and Snowstorm suddenly separate their ways with Jacaerys and Vermax. Cregan says he needs to examine the bay in case of danger. Jace understands it's the right thing to do(who knows whether Greens have their relatives Redwyne’s fleet or not) and flies to Dragonstone. He regrets his brothers would not see him flying with the legendary Ice Dragon.

But soon he will find another type of regret. 

Cregan is present, when they  bury what remains of Luke and Arrax. He stands still, head lowered. Jace by himself is too busy holding Joffrey, but nevertheless he is surprised to see Cregan being emotional about the boy he never knew. 

After the funeral he asks his guest about it and Cregan replies that the killer of his own kin is cursed in the eyes of the Old Gods. And so, he will remain in the South not only to see it but to punish the man who disrespected Gods's law.

It isn’t a promise and lesser than oath of fealty, but now Jacaerys can believe that he will stay. And for some reason he feels happy for it.

It takes a lot of time to convince Prince Daemon not to send the killers to Helaena’s children. Revenge aside, but one of their major alies will not be pleased by this and probably will abandon them to another side. The size of Snowstorm also serves as the argument in the discussion. Eventually, Daemon gives up. However, he and Mysaria still send the spies into the Red Keep and kidnap prince Jaehaerys and princess Jaehaera. The disappearance of her children renders Helaena catatonic and never allows Dreamfyre to be used by Greens. 

Cregan never says anything about it.

Once a day, he and Snowstorm are patrolling the surrounding bays. For some reason, Jace finds himself following him. He trusts their new ally fully, and probably, he does in order for Vermax to fly more and get bigger. So, they patrol the bays and, as the time passes, they start to speak with each other. They speak about their past: Cregan about how he became ruler of Scagos and how he got out of his house, Jacaerys about his conflicted family situation. Ironically, despite them coming from different regions and cultures, Jace and Cregan find a lot of themes to speak about. They nearly got the cold throat due to it, but it their discussions seems them worth it.

Everything major from here and up to the Gullet goes the same as canon, except the Dragon Sowing. The Snowstorm is the same size as Vermithor and Silverwing, so there is no need to recruit more riders in order to get the advantage over Vhagar after Meleys’s death. So, only Addam and Nettles get their dragons — Seasmoke and Sheepstealer respectively. 

The Gullet goes differently. With Cregan patrolling the Gullet with Jace, they notice the Three Daughters fleet attacking “Сheerful nonchalance” and go to fight(with Addam and Nettles joining them later). Cregan destroys the ships surrounding “Nonchalance” and takes baby Viserys out of the battle and Aegon on Stormcloud follows him. However, while shielding baby Aegon on the Stormcloud, Jace still falls from his dragon into the sea, breaking his hand and ribs. He is fished out of the water by Nettles and put under the maesters’ care after that. 

But nevertheless he lives, which leads to his mother's mental stability. During the month of his recovery, Jace and Cregan spend a lot of time together. Cregan by himself doesn’t know what feeling urges him to spend more time with the prince. While living as Skaagos ruler, he repeatedly heard the words of love his subjects whisper, once he met Jace and moved to the South, he listened to songs about it. What he understands it means being by this man’s side, supporting him and deciding to stay in the South. Jace meanwhile takes every opportunity to show Cregan everything in King’s Landing as he feels it’s gonna change irreversibly soon.

It does not help that Snowstorm does not actually seem to like the South. He likes and cares about his rider, but feels uneasy of him growing up close to a mortal man. The only ones to bond with him were the Winter Children — boys and girls with suppressed emotions, who were born in coldest winters, who never cried and rarely smiled, whose hearts seemed to be frozen. They spent their youth with Ice dragon kins, but when the playful young man or woman with fire in their blood catched them, they seemed  to alienate from dragons and eventually left for them. And this time, it seems no different. 

At least, he is gonna die a good death, at duel with the biggest of Old Valyria dragons.

When Aemond starts to burn and pillage the Riverlands, it’s Jacaerys and Cregan who go to stop him here(Daemon goes after Daeron, while Nettles and Addam stay in King’s Landing and quell the Shepherd’s riot). Snowstorm is way bigger than Caraxes, and while Vermax is still young, both of them are tested in battle. And Aemond knows that no matter of size, Vhagar would not stand the fight against two dragons. 

Before the last battle, Jacaerys, not entirely knowing what he is doing and not really sure they are gonna live after that, kisses Cregan, but asks him to return the kiss after the battle. Snowstorm watches them strangely. The old dragon understands that winter goes out of his rider’s heart, and, then, he will likely leave him. 

The Battle at the Gods Eye, where Cregan and Jacaerys are going against Aemond, happens differently from the canon. They manage to catch Aemond off-guard and Vermax manages to blind Vhagar with one single attack. At the same time, Snowstorm attacks Vhagar, biting her into the underbelly and then using his cold breath to cause even more pain to the beast. Then he bites into the tail, allowing Vermax to attack her in the back.

However, Aemond is not gonna go down simply. When Snowstorm is biting his tail, he orders Vhagar to bite him at at the neck in order to get rid of one dragon and his rider, and then do it with Vermax again. But Snowstorm refuses to give up and digs his nails and teeth deeper in the older dragon’s abdomen. Vhagar roars and at the same time, Vermax tears her wings forcing her to let Ice Dragon go. In the next move, deeply wounded Snowstorm tears Vhagar’s second wing off and the oldest dragon falls on the land, killed by the last creatures anybody imagined. 

Aemond may live after the fall and Jace may take his second eye in revenge for Luke. Or not.

But nevertheless, Snowstorm also never gets to live past the next hours. He uses all of his remaining forces to bring his rider to the land without any harm and he is successful in this. Vermax lands nearby him.

And here, the first time in his life, Cregan finally has the tears to fall on the earth. Jace holds him as he cries for the first and for a most of his time the only friend he ever had in this life. Until the tears end.

They give Snowstorm a funeral pyre, and the battle over the God's Eye goes in history books and songs as the Battle of Fire and Ice

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.