Why Vader Calls The 501st Clones In Fortune's Rule By Their CC/CT Numbers

Now playing: III-V. In the Wake of Fate

In which our heroes (and not-so-heroic individual) deal with the fallout of the Wrea mission.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a Senator survived. A Jedi did not forsake society. Two siblings were never separated. Nor were two Commanders. And a Rogue found comrades.

The Empire has risen, but the embers of the Republic yet glow in the hearts of the just. The stage is set for rebellion, and both within the Rebel Alliance and outside of it, many fates shall interweave, for the luck of the Disaster Lineage and its associates has ever flowed in a peculiar current. And if that current is stirred, from time to time, by the enterprising Pirate… well, not for nothing has it been said that Fortune rules life.

Aka, Padmé lives. The fractured Chaos Clan begins to reunite. Tarkin suffers a raging case of Hondo-induced identity theft. Vader dials the wrong number and ends up connecting to the commlink of a Rebel agent called Revenant. Add in some youngling hijinks, and all of this is slowly building to a massive headache for one Sheev Palpatine.

I really do like you capturing that the galaxy is big and that Palpatine is of course wanting to pick every single fight that he can just cause blood suffering pain and death, spread it all around? kill jedi cant leave them to build roots anywhere but still. the not giving you the option to surrender to occupation, forcing a fight on you cause WANT the fight blood and death some of that being less capability to fight later and clean sweeps? but still galaxy is a huge place and Palps wants it all

Thank you! :)

He absolutely wants it all, and he's not going to think twice about a little violence (or a lot of violence, as the case may be) to get it! Plus, with the economic factors at play, that's just all the more reason to go full-on systemwide occupation instead of settling for diplomacy or surrender of the Jedi in the Sevret system.

And, after all, what's the point of having thousands of Star Destroyers at one's disposal if one doesn't intend to use them for a little bit of conquest every now and again? :P

On a more serious note, though, part of the reason that I made up a system outside of the Republic was that, apparently, a great many of the worlds in the GFFA were not part of the Republic, and I wanted to show how Palpatine is a threat, not only to the worlds that were formerly Republic and immediately became Empire, but also to any world with valuable resources or any world that harbors someone who could possibly be a threat to his power and his security.

And although the Jedi on Errece didn't pose much of a threat in and of themselves---allowing that ideology to survive, allowing them to exist anywhere in the galaxy and possibly go on to spread that ideology to future generations who could build up the Jedi? Who could perhaps continue the Jedi in secret, in the manner of the post-Bane Sith? He absolutely cannot allow that to happen.

(Also, just wanted to add that from a writing point of view, this chapter was pretty entertaining to scheme up because of how Palpatine thinks he's getting it all with the Sevret system. Destroy some Jedi? Check. Gain access to valuable raw materials for the Empire? Check. Humiliate his foolish apprentice? Check.)

And yes, Luke's "blanket" is in fact Vader's cape. Love that trope!

Used Ohuhu Honolulu and Copic Sketch alcohol markers after outlining in black ink, plus Derwent Inktense blocks for the walls and floor. I like using alcohol markers, although the colors are more intense than I would prefer. Currently only have limited colors to work with, so I'm looking forward to getting some subtler shades and earth tones!

Am incredibly pleased with how the kids turned out, especially since I sketched them out late at night and without references. Turned out much better than expected.

Just checking in and seeing how Fortunes Rule is going ❤️🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽🥹😅

It's going. Slowly, but surely! 😅 Nobody is having a good time in this chapter (except the twins, of course), and it's proving rather challenging to write for some reason.

Thanks for checking in! 💛

And here's a little snippet from the chapter :)

The second morning, Beru’s call came while Padmé was pacing her room and rehearsing the finer details of her cover story in preparation for the day’s meetings. “Have you found them?” Padmé blurted, the moment she answered her comm. “No.”  Beru’s voice was subdued.  “There’s still no sign.  No one’s even seen the speeder.  Of course, if they left it somewhere, it’s probably been picked up by Jawas, or some lowlife looking for a ride.” Unless, of course, speeder and twins been collectively taken possession of first.  Frankly, that seemed just as likely.  Padmé continued to pace. “Owen checked the slave markets in Espa,” Beru added.  “He didn’t see them there.” “That’s…” Padmé started, but she couldn’t finish the sentence. That’s good.  It was good, wasn’t it?  Owen hadn’t seen the twins in the Mos Espa slave markets.  That was good.  Unless it just meant they had already been— A wave of blank terror threatened to overwhelm her at the thought of her children being sold as slaves.  They couldn’t have been.  They just couldn’t.  But if they had… I might never see them again.  They might grow up as slaves.  Unless someone discovers what they are, and Palpatine finds out, and—

Star Wars science questions

A couple of questions that my biology major brain won't let go of this morning:

Okay, so I hate the midichlorian explanation and generally try to forget about it, but... if we say that midichlorians do exist, then... they're living organisms in one's bloodstream, yes? So, is there ever something akin to an autoimmune disorder, where the immune system tries to destroy the midichlorians? A person could theoretically lose Force sensitivity.

Force suppressants. How do they work? Are there drugs which target different pathways, or just one drug with a specific target? Do they have side effects? Have they been tested for toxicity? Is it known they are non-carcinogenic? How the heck would you carry out drug testing? Ask a group of Force sensitives if they'd be willing to test the efficacy of this thing that would take away their power—oh, that'll work real well.

Are there therapeutic applications for Force suppressants? Like, what if darksiders were put on suppressants? If it cuts off their connection to the Force, couldn't that, probably mixed with psychological/psychiatric interventions, provide a way to help them sort of reset and step away from the dark side? (And yeah, that's an ethical kettle of fish, right there. Drugging of individuals without consent, but considering that said individuals could be incredibly damaging to the galactic population if left untreated....)

Are there changes in midichlorian gene expression/physiology following dark side use? Are there drugs which could be used to reverse these effects, and would that in turn have any effect on the state of the Force user?

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Cool sw science questions to share?

More art: Rebel graffiti!

It's also a sneak peek for Fortune's Rule p-III, ch-II! (Or possibly ch-III, depending on how stuff works out.)

So, I love it when SW fanart/comics include aurebesh. I really enjoy decoding the secret messages and seeing if there's anything interesting hidden in them! Naturally, then, I needed an excuse to write a bunch of aurebesh in my own art, and what better reason than anti-Imperial graffiti? Plus, it makes such a cool little snapshot of the political situation on... ahem, whatever world this is. (You'll probably know which world it is if you read the graffiti/translations.)

It was a lot of fun to do all the aurebesh lettering! At first, I was really intimidated by the idea of doing aurebesh in different font styles, like how the heck do you do that, where do you even start? But, unsurprisingly, turns out that it's not a whole lot different from writing Latin letters in different fonts.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how the whole thing turned out, especially given that the graffiti was added in a somewhat haphazard manner.

Aurebesh translations included at the bottom of the post!

This piece took two evenings, hand drawing in pencil and then going over that in Pigma Micron pen, and finally erasing the pencil. First night's progress:

I dunno what was up with that shoulder at first. Suffice it to say, things went much better after I remembered that reference photos do exist and are a really good idea.

And second night's progress:

Goodness gracious, that Anakin poster gave me grief. The CW reference pic I used had really dramatic lighting that must have tricked my brain somehow, because even though it showed him straight-on, I ended up drawing his face angled a bit toward the side, the first time? And then after that, he kind of looked a bit anime-style, which was interesting as I've never drawn in that style before in my life and didn't know it was a thing you could stumble into, but also inconvenient.

Final note—whoever was in charge of Imperial PR quite frankly sucked at their job. Because. The Imperial crest. It's insanely difficult to draw freehand. The Republic crest? Pretty easy. But the Imperial one, sheesh. Nobody's gonna be drawing that on their faces to show their support at sporting games.

Click below for aurebesh translations!

Aurebesh translations! Proceeding in order from top left of the drawing, based on location of the first letter of each sentence.

[NA]BOO WEEPS (partially cut off)

FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE---ENLIST! (stormtrooper poster)

FOR APAILANA

FIGHT BACK QUEEN K!

KARKIN' TARKIN

LON[G] LIVE [THE] REPUBLIC (partially cut off)

TO THE DEATH, SHEEV

THE HERO WILL RETURN---HAVE NO FEA[R] (partially cut off)

INACHU MOCO, POODOO LORDA (Huttese: eat maggots, sh*t boss)

KRIFF THE IMPS

FOR [THE REPUB]LIC (mostly cut off, Clone Wars poster)

[MAY THE] F[ORCE] BE WI[TH] US A[LL] (mostly cut off)

VICTORY AND JUSTICE

HER SPIRIT LIVES ON

TRAITOR

QUASH! QUARSH!

DOWN WITH PALPATINE!

DOWN WITH VADER!

🎁 Gift Reveal! 🎁

I'm also excited to share the artwork I created for @artmelody as part of the 2024 Vaderkin Creative Exchange! 🌟 I had a fantastic time working on this pieces and hope it brings as much joy and inspiration to you as it did to me.

Thank you @artmelody for being a wonderful match. Check out the final artwork below and let me know your thoughts!

Happy exchanging! 🎨✨

Whispers From Tomorrow

If you value anything you see around you, any of your brethren, if you love your padawan as I know you do—tell him.

The ghost of Ben Kenobi sees fit to meddle in the past, and Obi-Wan, about to leave for Utapau to face Grievous, suddenly feels a strange certainty that all is not well with his former padawan.  Conversations ensue, secrets come to light, and his relationship with Anakin will never be the same.  But that might just be a very good thing, indeed.

Midnight fluff-drawing strikes again!

I used an old picture of a WWII soldier and a kid as a reference for this one (see below). I cheated a little by using Krita to create a basic sketch directly over the photo. Then I used that sketch as a reference for the actual drawing, which I did freehand on paper and colored using alcohol marker, with the addition of colored pencil for some depth and texture.

So, I've got a question. In an AU where Padmé survives, fakes her death, and goes into hiding, are she and Vader still legally married? Or was that dissolved upon the registration of her death? Or, since her death certificate was falsified, would that mean that all her legal contracts would remain intact? Or would it be a legal question that would have all the experts perplexed because there's simply no precedent, and would result in a lengthy court battle? (Or a not-so-lengthy one, depending on the state of Vader's temper.) Would it even matter anyway, since she apparently didn't marry under her own name? Since neither of them married under their legal names, is it even a valid legal contract in the first place?

I'm probably going to have to end up BS-ing the legal stuff for Fortune's Rule, but if anyone knows if there's a canon answer (or Legends) to the question of whether they would still be married after she faked her death, that would be lovely.

Edit: The closest real-world example I can find is Enoch Arden laws, and while the Republic/Empire probably has something similar, those don't quite fit the situation, since they have to do with someone being missing, not faking their death.