Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy? (21-23)
Added 2024-01-09 23:54:51 +0000 UTC*Note* The art attached is NOT mine. It's the official cover art for the comic run Celeste Morne was part of. I included it so that people have a mental image of what she looks like (as she's a fairly unknown characters). Though, no glowing eyes after being freed from the talisman. Her natural eye color is blue.
With that disclaimer out of the way...time for more Displaced Hero! I'm a bit annoyed I didn't get farther than I did with it. Which isn't saying the update is small, it's roughly 8,500 words. It just didn't cover as much as I'd hoped to. I knew from early on that this particular part of the fic would be among the most difficult/slow to write, specifically because of Morne.
There are very good reasons I want to include her. In the long run, she'll be immensely useful. It's only integrating her into the initial group that's going to be...a difficult-to-write pain in the ass. There are two reasons for that:
1) There isn't much material with her in it. I've acquired and read the Old Republic comic run that featured her, but there was a pretty limited number of them. The only other time she's featured is in a distant future AU, and that material is unusable as reference, since at that point she's been isolated for centuries keeping the Muur Talisman under control. Anything from that era isn't a good reflection of her personality at the point they released her. This, unfortunately, means that she just doesn't have that much character development or personality for me to work with.
2) What personality she DOES have could be described mostly as 'taciturn and stoic.' Completely logical given she was basically brainwashed into a cultist offshoot of the Jedi Order. But it means I have even less to work with than I might otherwise. I'm going to have to build up a believable personality for her over time, and she's not natively someone that is going to really seek out socialization. Give Fay and Aayla some time to crack her and that can change significantly. Right now, she a bit of a pain to write.
With all of that said, that doesn't mean there aren't some bits I suspect people have been looking forward to here. Like, say...Izuku and Aayla officially working out their relationship ;-). As well as us getting something of a breakdown on the Jedi Code. (I'm going to say more on that in a comment, but not here, since it might spoil things a bit). There's even a very short bit of lemon content! Clearly marked, of course, for those that want to skip it. Though it's nothing overly energetic, as it were.
Anyway, enough rambling! Here's the next release of Displaced Hero! Enjoy!
(As always, the new chapters are here in PDF and Epub formats. And updated master files will be added to the Pinned Post shortly)
Comments
I'm glad you liked it ;-). This one was much rougher to write than most. As for what they'll become...the next update should have a pretty big hint about that!
Novus Peregrine
2024-01-11 07:32:53 +0000 UTCThanks for another great update! Love the development in the relationship between Aayla and Izuku and Aayla's revelations in regards their relationship with Mei and its future potential! And I can't wait to see what comes next for our growing group of irregulars! Will they become a new Order/organisation? Who else will join them? What adventure comes next!? I can't wait and am truely looking forward to reading much more of this great story!
Aeden Emrys
2024-01-10 10:29:42 +0000 UTCMILD SPOILER CONTENT IN THIS COMMENT (Sort of) ... ... ... ... ... ... Alright, if you're still here...this comment is going over the stuff I had Aayla/Izuku discuss about the Jedi Code. I'm virtually certain SOMEONE out there (either here or on fanfiction.net), is going to start a debate over that. The Jedi Code in any form almost always starts that sort of debate among fans. As such, before I tackled it, I spent multiple hours doing a deep dive into what we know about it from all sources. I'm not going to lie, despite (obviously) being a fan of the Star Wars EU? What I found actually took me off guard a fair bit. I'd actually originally intended for Ood Bnar to provide them with the old Jedi Code/Oath that was a little bit more...forgiving. The problem is that, when I actually did my deep dive into it? The code isn't actually as fucked up as most fans exaggerate it to be. The deeper you look into what we actually know the Jedi to have said about their code, the less the typical Fanon view of that code is actually accurate. The typical fan interpretation is: "Oh noes! The Jedi forbid attachment and emotions! That's badness!" But the more and deeper I looked, the more I realized how off that is, at least for the EU and for the code-as-intended. Romantic relationships, while somewhat discouraged, actually WEREN'T explicitly banned. They were only discouraged because they tended to go against the 'don't be possessive' part of the code. For those that could separate love from possessiveness, it was actually fine. (Technically. Others that couldn't understand the distinction would judge them for it, most likely). The problem stems not from the code itself, but from the way fallible people interpreted it (as in, far too literally, despite that being nonsense). Most people couldn't separate the two ideas (attachment and possessiveness), and thus came to regard relationships as The Problem. They couldn't grasp the idea of being able to love someone while also being able to accept that they might die or leave. Essentially, it's the trope of 'stop trying to protect me, I'm a warrior too!' played out in large scale and with more general application. An emotionally healthy person who is capable of accepting the loss of a loved one, rather than being fucked up by it to the point of acts of insanity, would be completely okay by the Jedi Code's view. I did my best to have Aayla and Izuku's discussion in chapter 22 highlight this. That the code itself is being sort of twisted and warped by the Jedi Order as a collective whole. That the actual intended meaning of the code is not being acted upon. Aayla is also benefitting from the fact that one of Ood Bnar's closest friends WROTE the modern version of the code...and taught extensively on it. Odan-Urr was, from what information is available on his teachings, far more down-to-earth and pragmatic than the modern Jedi are shown to be. Much more Qui-Gon-Jinn than Mace Windu. All of this, of course, is only what I got from the sources available. It might not be entirely right, and I'm quite certain some readers are going to insist they know what the code was and it's really really bad and supppperrr literal. Unfortunately for them, this is my story (*sticks tongue out*), so I get to interpret it how it want ;-).
Novus Peregrine
2024-01-10 00:39:44 +0000 UTC
