Pairings: Ed/Stede, Ed/Izzy, Stede & Lucius bromance, Stede & Izzy learning not to immediately murder one another on sight
Chapter: 3/5
Tags: poly negotiations, no one in this show is okay, Ed just straight up failing to notice he’s been functionally married to Izzy for the past 30 years and should have checked first before getting a new boyfriend, Stede has no idea what polyamory is but he’s going to make these idiots talk about their feelings if it kills him, Ed Stede and Izzy are Lucius’s own personal soap opera, there’s hardcore BDSM going on just out of shot but this is mostly just people drinking tea and talking about their feelings
~*~
Izzy rolls his eyes. “Tell Ed, next time he’s thinking about calling me a whore he can do it to my fucking face.”
A bit late this month since I had to send my computer off for repairs (RIP my stickers, but at least it was mostly cosmetic damage), but I made it! I’m putting the 7 Star Wars fics of various pairings above the cut, and the 5 miscellaneous fandoms (Nirvana in Fire, Life 2005, Lord Peter, The Untamed, Our Flag Means Death) underneath.
“You need to show him what you have to offer,” Fives said, which sounded shockingly like relevant advice. Cody blinked over at him.
“What?” he asked, because, honestly, he’d take any advice he could get, at this point. The war had been over for nearly six months, and he’d made no progress on his own.
Fives slammed back a shot of his own and then–kind of leered over. “You need to give him a look at the goods,” he said, and then, pointedly, dipped his gaze down.
OR, the one where Cody takes some very bad advice and has to deal with the consequences.
*wheezing with laughter* AKA the one where Cody sends a dick pic. Post-war, no Order 66, very funny and sweet. Also, it didn’t really hit my embarrassment squick despite being tagged for that, because it’s not mean-spirited about it, and has some good perspective about how there’s a huge gap between the clones’ life experience and their socialization for things outside of fighting a war.
Triptych of stories about Obi-Wan and Cody set post-Order 66, with absolutely GORGEOUS prose. The first two will break your heart (especially #2, how DARE), but the last one will gently patch it.
A few things are slightly different, which means everything is different. Boba and Fennec arrive just a bit later, Din takes his jetpack back up to the temple, and so he and the child are both taken prisoner by the Empire.
Fascinating AU and a lovely h/c series that deserves a lot more hits than it currently has.
Admittedly, this is not the first time Luke has wound up at someone else’s kitchen table in someone else’s clothes. But it’s not breakfast, Luke’s not an undergrad scarfing down bacon and eggs to cure the common hangover, and Din doesn’t strike him as the kind of guy he’d meet at a house party. The baby is definitely a first.
Luke is a grad student trying to finish his linguistics PhD after an unexpected leave of absence. His neighbor, Din, is a single dad and delivery guy at Pizza Parsec. (Actually, Pizza Parsec is just a front for the bounty hunters’ guild. But Luke doesn’t need to know that.)
Fantastic modernish AU that hit the sweet spot for me regarding Luke being a emotional mess with disaster family issues but ALSO a very smart and competent person in his field. I also really enjoyed how the Skywalker family drama was translated into this setting.
Luke reacts strangely to Din’s bared face and an overheard conversation leads the Mandalorian to believe the Jedi thinks he’s ugly. Things spiral out of control from there.
Featuring Mandalorian combat without armor, Han and Leia being a little into Din, and Luke being so much into Din he accidentally makes him think he’s unattractive.
This one has been widley recced already, but I finally read it and it’s just as charming as promised without the secondhand-embarrassment I feared.
Newly knighted Obi-Wan Kenobi and his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, have been sent to Ryloth on a simple diplomatic envoy. While there, an unsettling incident causes Obi-Wan to look at Anakin in a new light and re-evaluate…everything.
The Galaxy will never be the same.
aka: “come for the obikin, stay for the tzai and deep emotional discussions that dismantle every single misunderstanding in the prequels.”
Very satisfying fix-it AU on many levels, with lots of time and detailed work on building their relationship in a healthier way.
I’m gleefully angry about how perversely perfect the lyrics are for this Jingyan vid, and at the vidder for making it work both on a straightforward editing level and a cheeky ‘let me vid this serious historical drama to this iconic pop song’ level. I love it <3
“I don’t do undercover,” said Dani. Not anymore, anyway.
“I’ve never really done undercover, or not anything longterm,” said Crews, frowning.
Tidwell leaned back in his chair, unmoved by their protests. “Yeah, gonna be honest, you two are not the preferred undercover picks. You are, however, the only two detectives available who could plausibly pass for a married couple in search of a precious baby to adopt.”
Classic execution of the undercover-married-in-suburbia trope, but perfectly written for these two characters and their whole thing. Post-canon, Charlie/Dani.
Next time, Lan Qiren swore he would stay in bed with Xiao Jingfei. Wei Changze could be the one to take their wretched spawn to the market.
AKA Accidental Child Acquisition: The Fix-It Series. So delightful! Low-key Cangse Sanren/Lan Qiren/Wei Changze, which some of you might remember the author writing in a different AUfroma prior rec set - that isn’t the same continuity and isn’t a prequisite though it does develop the triad more if you’re curious. This one’s all about the (literal) found family and making things happier!
“Stede,” says Ed, “I’d sit on your cock all day for a chair and captain the ship like that if the option was available.”
I haven’t read a ton of OFMD fic (I think this is gonna be another Old Guard-like fandom for me where I loved the canon but my brain doesn’t really want fic), but this one is a gorgeous piece of kinky smut with sharp characterization.
Ok but episode 5 is such a turning point and I feel the need to ramble about this a little.
When I first saw the almost kiss at the end of the episode, I was kind of surprised. I knew from tumblr that the relationship between Ed and Stede was going to develop into a romance, I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly and so explicitly (the damage queerbaiting does to a mf). That scene signed a tone shift that I wasn’t expecting, and the more I think about it the more absurd it feels that I didn’t see it coming.
While Edward and Stede have lots in common and get along from the moment they meet, they are not on equal footing at first.
Stede treads Blackbeard as a friend, but he is also in a kind of hero-worship situation. He’s known about him for a long time, he just had his life and crew saved by him, he is learning crucial skills from him.
And Ed, well, Ed also liked Stede from the moment he heard about him but, as lovable as he thinks that Stede is, Ed is still going along with his own plans. He decides to contact Stede because he’s bored. He’s learning about upper class because he wants to be one of them. As much as he likes Stede, he does not need Stede, while Stede pretty much needs him to survive.
What changes this dynamic? Well, the way Stede reacts to Ed’s vulnerability.
In episode 4 we see Blackbeard in complete control of the situation while Stede panicks, until we learn that Blackbeard was wrong about the day. At that point Ed just… gives up, and retreats to drink himself into a stupor, and is joined by Stede. While they don’t exactly bond in this moment, they are for once on equal footing, both musing on their own failings, and come up with the same plan at the same time. They work together, and while Ed still does not needStede in his life at this point, he has learned that, at the very least, Stede is not the kind of person that would stab him (physically or emotionally) the moment he shows weakness.
Then episode 5 comes along and, despite Blackbeard’s attempts, Stede starts to see more through the facade. Stede sees how the “rich donkey” comment got to him, and offers a support that Ed is not yet ready to accept. But later, when the party gets ugly, Stede “soft boy” Bonnet tells motherfucking Blackbeardto stand down, with so much authority that Ed actually does listen to him. Stede not only sees how much those comments got into Ed’s head, not only stops him from doing something extremely rush and stupid in response, but actively takes the matter in hishands,punishing a boat full of people for the crime of hurting someone he cares about.
Ed has grown up in a world where every man has to fend for himself, where pirates don’t have friends, where weakness means your crew will mutiny, and suddenly he is faced with someone who not only doesn’t shame him for his moment of weakness, but tells him don’t worry, I can deal with this so you don’t have to. The look that Ed gives Stede as the boat burns is, I believe, both because he didn’t think Stede had it in him, and because he definitely didn’t expect Stede to do this for him.
Cut to the moonlight scene. Ed is still processing everything that just happened, when Stede approaches him and offers, once again, support for what he just went through. He gently takes (after asking!) something that Ed cares about, a symbol of his softness, and treats it with such care and respect, showing Ed how to display that to the world. Ed knows, in this moment, that he can trustStede, that it’s safe to be vulnerable with him, something that he probably hasn’t felt with anyone in years. Of course he takes that step forward, of course he is tempted to kiss him.
And this fully progresses in epsiode 6. The episode opens with a montage of the two of them enjoying each other’s company, finally on equal footing, because Ed has realized that he doesneed Stede, not for his plan, but as a person he wants to spend time with, someone cares about (much to Izzy’s chagrin). Not only that, but the hilarious/flirty “stab me” scene is all about physical trust. Ed trusts Stede enough that he’s willing to be physically vulnerable when he’s around. But this isn’t the highest level of trust for Ed. Ed would probably rather be stabbed than talk about his feelings, but by the end of the episode he’s ready to show Stede what, by pirate standards, is the worst part of him. He’s crying, he’s scared, he’s showing all of his emotional vulnerability, and once again Stede only shows him care. Stede reassures him that he’s not a monster, that they’re friends, and that their friendship won’t change because Ed planned to kil him or because he was too soft to go through with the plan (there’s a wonderful post about this, I can’t find it right now).
It’s not a coincidence that from episode 7 onward these two are clearly and openly head over heels for each other (still screaming about Ed trusting Stede to take something out of his beard), so much so that other characters start to fully acnowledge theirs as a relationship. The progression of their romance - from the instant chemistry to the weird tension to the full flirting - is dictated by how vulnerable Ed is willing to be with Stede, and how gently Stede treats him in response. And it breaks my heart because when Ed finally brought down his final defenses, when he was ready to leave it all behind for Stede, he had his heart broken in the worst possible way.
