Reproduction in the GFFA Part Two:

or The Problematic Implications of the Existence of Jacen Syndulla

Nothing against you, Kid, since you are the product of a loving relationship between two consenting adults, but your existence at the end of Rebels TV show has some harrowing implications for your mother's species.

So when I wrote Reproduction in the GFFA, I figured that no matter how well tab A fits into slot B, human sperm and Twi'lek ovum would need help from someone with medical training/programming to turn into a fetus. Rebels unveiling Jacen Syndulla proved that wrong, but a conversation I had over the weekend informed me that human/Twi'lek genetic compatibility was old news in the Star Wars canon instead of new development like I thought. "That's why everyone wants to get with them," I was told by another fan.

"No, that's because they're exploited," I snapped back. To his credit, the other fan agreed that the Twi'leks are exploited, but I don't think he shared my horror. Honestly it didn't fully hit me until the next morning.

"It's horrible that in canon, they (Twi'lek females) are enslaved and forced into sexual slavery, but I though they had the small consolation that karking human males would not get them pregnant."

And that's exactly what their situation is. Don't offer birth control is an option, because would a slave owner really prevent the birth of more product?

I'm irked but resigned to the disregard to science. (Star Wars is fantasy in outer space, but come on. Can't we all recognize that humans and Twi'leks have two different evolutionary trees rather than really close branches on the same one?) But heaping more of the real world issues that trafficked women have to deal with onto a fictional species and still don't give them a helpful or hopeful future? Read Bloodlines by Claudia Gray. Leia's investigation is started because Ryloth is STILL being exploited and she's the only one in the New Republic Senate that gives a damn.

Kriff you, Disney-Lucasfilms. I'm joining the Free Ryloth Movement.

Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation Teaser 01

The other project I'm working on is the first novel up in the Rescue the Farmboy series. It has reached editing status and I'm almost ready to send it off to my beta reader. I was inspired by a comment on one of Tor.com's Star Wars articles that wanted a fanfic in which Luke actually made it to the Imperial Academy and what kind of hell broke loose then. Then I found the title in the observation that Luke is always getting rescued. And the idea kept going until I have to rewrite the original trilogy.

Now I had shared this scene before on Tumblr but as I pulled it out for Dreamwidth, I realized that my edits had changed things. So you're getting the first glimpse of the new material. To set the scene, Luke has already seen the Academy plans end with detainment and a death sentence, but is going with his hunch that Darth Vader won't kill him and offers to give himself up so Biggs can take Princess Leia down to Tatooine to meet old Ben when the Devastator catches up with Tantive IV.

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