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Author	Topic: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post) - replies May 28
JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 1/21 5:49pm Subject: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post) - replies May 28 - Date Edited: 5/26 6:35pm (3 edits total) Edited By: JediNemesis
	Title: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Heart Author: JediNemesis Genre: Dark AU. Angst. Er . . . Era: Several years post-ROTJ; most of the post-ROTJ canon never happened. Characters: Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker, OC, others mentioned Summary: What happens when the one you love is a monster? Notes: This AU exists only in snapshot form. It came to me at five o’clock in the morning a day or two ago, very nearly complete, and so I dutifully wrote it out without the slightest idea of the events leading up to those described. The song echoes some of the lyrics of Black is the Colour, a folksong of (possibly) Scottish origin. Cover art [done by the author] DISCLAIMER: The Star Wars universe is the property of George Lucas. EU characters are the property of their respective creators. OCs are mine. No money has changed hands. I hate my love who loves not me – I love my love regardlessly. Black lies the shadow of the day we part, Though black is the colour of my true love’s heart. * Leia likes the lilting sound of the old, old songs from the Rim. She’s barely four, but she dances around the room to them, golden hair flying out behind her. Sometimes she’ll grab for her father’s knees and demand to be picked up, swung around, danced with; usually he’ll oblige, no matter what affairs of state are waiting for him elsewhere. The galaxy is ruled at my husband’s whim, and he by his daughter’s. He’ll pick her up and swing her round, singing the words she doesn’t know about things she doesn’t understand: old songs about knights and maidens, lovers and mourners, ships sailing off into the distance and letters written in the sand. She loves the sound of his voice. There’s one ballad she wants again and again, one I knew when I was a girl, though to my shame I had little time for music then; a song that tears a wound a little deeper in me every time I hear it. Luke picks her up and swings her around; she laughs, he sings, quietly and more like chanting, the words that lament the curse of loving one who will never, can never, has not the capacity to, love you back. To him it’s just another song. All the love he has in the world is for her, his princess, who one day he will teach everything he knows, and she loves him back in the way that children can, unreservedly and with a whole heart. Sometimes it’s clear as crystal, that love; and in those moments I can bring myself to love him the way I used to, for a little while. Then, inevitably, as soon as I begin to think of him as the old Luke, the old echo starts in my mind, tireless and tiring as the sea beating against a shore. [You will kill Luke Skywalker.] For years I’ve fooled the compulsion by refusing to equate my husband with Luke Skywalker. Skywalker is long gone; what remains bears the same name and face but is not the same man. Luke Skywalker had a heart and loved. If he has a heart now, it has no place for me. It’s a hideous thing, that I must hate him to stop myself from killing him, but still – still – I love him too much to do anything else. It’s easier to loathe him in his aspect as Emperor. Faced with the haunted, accusing holos of Rebels executed or killed in battle, I can hate him. For years it was easy. Then Leia was born, and without warning his light shone out again. (They say the brightest lights cast the darkest shadow, and I can believe that. My old Master, may he burn, never fell so far into the abyss as Luke did; never had so far to fall.) I thought that he lost the understanding of light and love a long time ago. Of course I was wrong. There’s always been a Luke and a Leia; there will always be a Luke and a Leia. Never mind that the other was my sister-in-law, whom he killed; there will always be a Luke and a Leia. I was there when he explained to our daughter, laughing and stroking her hair, that his sister had to go because his little princess had just been born, and there could only ever be one Leia. She giggled in the way little girls do, and snuggled deeper into his lap. She went to sleep a little while after, as unperturbed as if he had told her that he’d swatted a fly rather than murdered his own sister in cold blood. She has all the unthinking cruelty of a child, coupled with all her father’s power. Not only does she have all his gift, intact, waiting somewhere in her mind to grow to maturity as she does, but she wields his power as well as her own, he loves her so. Leia has only to take a dislike to one of her high-born playmates, and their family are liable to find themselves fallen from the Imperial favour, stripped of their rank and privileges, and if Luke feels the need to particularly gratify his darling, exiled to the Outer Rim. So I too spoil Leia, because though every part of me is revolted by what she is becoming, I know that my life rests in the palm of her little hand. All children declare at some point that they hate their mother and want her to go away forever, but only my Leia’s demand will be granted. If she has a fit of hatred for me in Luke’s presence, I will never see her again. It is a terrible thing to be afraid of my own child. But what else can I be? I can see myself in her too: she adores her father with the same absorbing selflessness with which I once gave my soul and body to the service of the Emperor. I’ve wondered, sometimes, often, over the years, if it wasn’t some great cosmic joke that in pulling me away from the darkness Luke ended up slipping into it himself. I haven’t had a thought of the old Emperor in ten years that wasn’t a curse: Luke took the broken fragments of the Empire, the Empire he brought down, and welded them back together stronger than before. One by one, the last lights of Rebellion go out. Millions are dead, and Luke comes home from his place at the bridge of the Imperial flagship to bounce Leia on his knee and sing her rhymes. I hate him then. I hate him with everything I have. He has no right to be able to love, not when every day he gives the orders that see families like ours shattered and children like our daughter orphaned. He has no right to be able to love one child and yet without a thought wave away the lives of thousands. Yes. Dwell on that. Hate him for it. Luke Skywalker would never harm a child; Luke Skywalker is dead and the old order still rattling in my skull is void and will not bother me . . . I’ve thought about giving in to it. Most likely it would be for the best. There is no clear heir to the Empire, bar Leia, and no self-respecting officer of the Imperial forces would allow a child to rule when there are so many capable successors who could be chosen. I could be close enough to kill him. We still share a bed sometimes, even though he barely sleeps now, watching over his kingdom night and day. I could kill him now. But hating him I am myself as I now am, with the old cold instinct of a killer long since gone. Only when I give in to loving what he once was does the conditioning come back, and then I have no will to use it. I love Luke Skywalker. I grew to love him and I love him still, though now I only see him distantly in another’s eyes. I could kill him out of love. Luke would understand, my Luke, comprehend that sometimes only self-sacrifice can stem the flow of evil against which we are pitted. Once he was willing to die rather than take his place at the Emperor’s side. I loved him then. I hate him now, for what he has become. However much I try to deceive myself, I see his face, hear his voice and the lie collapses. He is Luke Skywalker still, the same man, who ended one Empire in flames and raised another. [You will kill Luke Skywalker.] I hate my love for him, I hate myself for loving him still. I love Leia, and I love Luke for loving her. I can’t kill him. I will never be able to, compulsion or no compulsion: Leia loves him so completely. I hate myself now, but I would rather die myself than take my daughter’s father from her. I can’t condemn him for tearing families apart and then plan to shatter my own. I’ve had this conversation with myself so many times. So very many times. It’s become an endless loop, a spiralling track that I know has no end but still work round and round again in the hope that a way out of the circle will appear. I love him and I hate him in himself, love him and hate him for his devotion to our daughter. One day she will be Empress, and that will set the seal on my failure once and for all. Now she appears just as she is, a four-year-old girl with untidy blonde hair who wriggles out of her father’s arms and slides messily to the floor. She dances in a circle around her father’s knees, demanding that he sing to her. Of course he’s willing to sing for her; he always is, even if there are messengers from the frontline commanders standing in the lobby biting their lips. But today I want her to myself, to be my centre, my only certainty. Her I love. . . . Leia, my darling, come here, and let mama sing to you. She comes over and I lift her into my lap. She pulls my hair, grey strands peppering the red. I gently disentangle her hand and sing the old words softly to her. The tears well up. I hate my love who loves not me - (One of my oldest memories, before the Emperor took me, is a bare schoolyard, barely more than a square of duracrete between four looming walls, and a tiny girl crouched beside the one flower that succeeded in winding its way up through metres of stone to see daylight; she pulls the petals off it with careless abandon, and sings a line of the song for every petal gone. We all believed it could tell the future, once upon a time.) - I love my love regardlessly. Leia snuggles into the crook of my shoulder, her head heavy against my chest. I sing on, aware out of the corner of my eye of Luke standing with one hand on the doorpost, looking back, shining in the Force like a newly made sun. Black lies the shadow of the day we part, though black is the colour of my true love’s heart. Feedback much appreciated as always. Nem -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 Somewhere To Fly - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28898463 Spindrift - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28478326 NEW Lightning and Diamonds - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29251762 NEW Into The Shining Day - http://boards.thefor
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Gabri_Jade Title: Fan Fiction Archive Editor Emeritus Registered: Nov '02	Date Posted: 1/21 7:10pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	I just love this. A snapshot it might be, but it's a very vivid and believable snapshot. Mara's dilemma is a horrible one, and it's easy to feel the despair right along with her. I suspect that this story will stay in my mind for a long time. Very well done. -----signature----- Evil Twin of LadyPadme This concept of "wuv" confuses and infuriates us! - Futurama All I can do is be me. Whoever that is. -Bob Dylan The Space Between Heartbeats - L/M AU vig http://boards.theforce.net/b/b1/28870280 !!11!1eleventy
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ginchy Registered: May '05	Date Posted: 1/21 7:35pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Very scary! The line about the two Leia's actually made my mouth drop open. What a place Mara and Luke find themselves in... Wow, very intense piece! -----signature----- ginchy's gambit: http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/29089731/p1/?73
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Dana-Skywalker Registered: Jul '07	Date Posted: 1/21 7:51pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Wow. That was dark, but beautiful. Mara's conflict is so real and vivid, I can see her teetering on the edge of despair. Very nicely done! Dana -----signature----- -taking a break from the Boards...DRL (aka school)-
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Meredith_Kenobi Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 1/21 9:19pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Whoa. That was very chilling, but it was also a very good read. I gobbled it up; I couldn't tear my eyes away. And that poem, the song, did you write that too? It was beautiful, hauntingly so. I was there when he explained to our daughter, laughing and stroking her hair, that his sister had to go because his little princess had just been born, and there could only ever be one Leia. She giggled in the way little girls do, and snuggled deeper into his lap. She went to sleep a little while after, as unperturbed as if he had told her that he’d swatted a fly rather than murdered his own sister in cold blood. Yikes! What a fascinating story you've written here, JediNemesis. -----signature----- Proud to be ZaraValinor's Padawan Delighted to be brodiew's Master
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Alkibiades Registered: Dec '07	Date Posted: 1/22 12:47am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	I hate my love who loves not me – I love my love regardlessly. Black lies the shadow of the day we part, Though black is the colour of my true love’s heart. A dark 'fic! I always love these. The darker, the better? 'They lived long and evilly ever after', could be a favorite ending line of mine. Leia likes the lilting sound of the old, old songs from the Rim. She’s barely four, but she dances around the room to them, golden hair flying out behind her. Sometimes she’ll grab for her father’s knees and demand to be picked up, swung around, danced with; usually he’ll oblige, no matter what affairs of state are waiting for him elsewhere. The galaxy is ruled at my husband’s whim, and he by his daughter’s. Hmmm. Someone very much in love with his daughter. For a split second, I thought it was Vader + Amidala, but then I realized the board we are on. Still, the ambiguity is entertaining. He’ll pick her up and swing her round, singing the words she doesn’t know about things she doesn’t understand: old songs about knights and maidens, lovers and mourners, ships sailing off into the distance and letters written in the sand. She loves the sound of his voice. There’s one ballad she wants again and again, one I knew when I was a girl, though to my shame I had little time for music then; a song that tears a wound a little deeper in me every time I hear it. Very much in love with his daughter. And, like all four year olds, she just loves the voice, and the cozy feeling that comes with it. And Mara doesn't like it a bit. Luke picks her up and swings her around; she laughs, he sings, quietly and more like chanting, the words that lament the curse of loving one who will never, can never, has not the capacity to, love you back. Does Luke understand the irony of what he is singing? Does he sings it to tick Mara off? He isn't fooling himself, is he? To him it’s just another song. All the love he has in the world is for her, his princess, who one day he will teach everything he knows, and she loves him back in the way that children can, unreservedly and with a whole heart. Sometimes it’s clear as crystal, that love; and in those moments I can bring myself to love him the way I used to, for a little while. Ah, no. It is just Luke thoroughly spoiling his little daughter. So there is some good left in him; he has not lost his capacity for love... yet? Then, inevitably, as soon as I begin to think of him as the old Luke, the old echo starts in my mind, tireless and tiring as the sea beating against a shore. [You will kill Luke Skywalker.] Hmmm. Methinks old echo's are better sometimes? For years I’ve fooled the compulsion by refusing to equate my husband with Luke Skywalker. Skywalker is long gone; what remains bears the same name and face but is not the same man. Luke Skywalker had a heart and loved. If he has a heart now, it has no place for me. She is fooling herself. She knows she is doing it, but she can't escape it. Twisted. It’s a hideous thing, that I must hate him to stop myself from killing him, but still – still – I love him too much to do anything else. Very twisted. It’s easier to loathe him in his aspect as Emperor. Faced with the haunted, accusing holos of Rebels executed or killed in battle, I can hate him. For years it was easy. Then Leia was born, and without warning his light shone out again. Does she hate herself too, then? She was once like that too. And then, the light returns? (They say the brightest lights cast the darkest shadow, and I can believe that. My old Master, may he burn, never fell so far into the abyss as Luke did; never had so far to fall.) Or is it all visual trickery? Palpatine was all black, all bad, so, once you'd be used to it, you wouldn't notice so much. But someone who can go from a loving, caring father to a horrible monster - the contrast is way bigger. The larger the contrast, the lighter the light and the darker the darkness seems, yes? I thought that he lost the understanding of light and love a long time ago. Of course I was wrong. There’s always been a Luke and a Leia; there will always be a Luke and a Leia. Never mind that the other was my sister-in-law, whom he killed; there will always be a Luke and a Leia. Always a Luke and Leia. Hmmm. But still, it shows he is not utterly evil. There is a good side in him. Through their daughter, he could be redeemed, couldn't he? Shouldn't Mara be working on that? I was there when he explained to our daughter, laughing and stroking her hair, that his sister had to go because his little princess had just been born, and there could only ever be one Leia. She giggled in the way little girls do, and snuggled deeper into his lap. She went to sleep a little while after, as unperturbed as if he had told her that he’d swatted a fly rather than murdered his own sister in cold blood. Ah, yes. Children are cruel, often because they have not developed a feeling of empathy. And Luke having lost his, they make the perfect evil couple. They are the evil couple here, aren't they? Mara is just the observer on the sidelines. Luke is Emperor and Leia is his Queen already. She has all the unthinking cruelty of a child, coupled with all her father’s power. Not only does she have all his gift, intact, waiting somewhere in her mind to grow to maturity as she does, but she wields his power as well as her own, he loves her so. Leia has only to take a dislike to one of her high-born playmates, and their family are liable to find themselves fallen from the Imperial favour, stripped of their rank and privileges, and if Luke feels the need to particularly gratify his darling, exiled to the Outer Rim. So, she is naturally cruel. But more than that. Luke is already corrupting her. Mara better be fast, or there will never be any good in Leia. He is giving her a thoroughly evil education in a way she likes it. Is he trying to foster her will and her evil tendencies in a way Leia finds pleasing? So I too spoil Leia, because though every part of me is revolted by what she is becoming, I know that my life rests in the palm of her little hand. All children declare at some point that they hate their mother and want her to go away forever, but only my Leia’s demand will be granted. If she has a fit of hatred for me in Luke’s presence, I will never see her again. Hmmm. So, this is why Mara can't influence Leia for the best; it would be the death of her. Luke did read the Evil Overlord list, I daresay; he is spot on with the feeling consorts are replaceable, and Mara seems to know he sees her as a piece of furniture. It is a terrible thing to be afraid of my own child. Sad, but true. Wonderful! But what else can I be? I can see myself in her too: she adores her father with the same absorbing selflessness with which I once gave my soul and body to the service of the Emperor. Trapped, and no options. None whatsoever. Frustrating? I’ve wondered, sometimes, often, over the years, if it wasn’t some great cosmic joke that in pulling me away from the darkness Luke ended up slipping into it himself. I haven’t had a thought of the old Emperor in ten years that wasn’t a curse: Luke took the broken fragments of the Empire, the Empire he brought down, and welded them back together stronger than before. One by one, the last lights of Rebellion go out. Millions are dead, and Luke comes home from his place at the bridge of the Imperial flagship to bounce Leia on his knee and sing her rhymes. The contrast! Great! I hate him then. I hate him with everything I have. He has no right to be able to love, not when every day he gives the orders that see families like ours shattered and children like our daughter orphaned. He has no right to be able to love one child and yet without a thought wave away the lives of thousands. Frustrated. Yes. Dwell on that. Hate him for it. Luke Skywalker would never harm a child; Luke Skywalker is dead and the old order still rattling in my skull is void and will not bother me . . . Definitely frustrated! Poor Mara. Trapped between the man she loves, their daughter, and herself, she has nowhere to go. If she still were evil, at least it would be enjoyable. Now, it is just sad. I’ve thought about giving in to it. Most likely it would be for the best. There is no clear heir to the Empire, bar Leia, and no self-respecting officer of the Imperial forces would allow a child to rule when there are so many capable successors who could be chosen. But she can't. Trapped, trapped by her family and herself. I could be close enough to kill him. We still share a bed sometimes, even though he barely sleeps now, watching over his kingdom night and day. So, she still is his consort. His only one? I could kill him now. But hating him I am myself as I now am, with the old cold instinct of a killer long since gone. Only when I give in to loving what he once was does the conditioning come back, and then I have no will to use it. I love Luke Skywalker. I grew to love him and I love him still, though now I only see him distantly in another’s eyes. I could kill him out of love. But she wouldn't. Kill Luke - now that she can, she doesn't want to any more. Not really, anyway. Luke would understand, my Luke, comprehend that sometimes only self-sacrifice can stem the flow of evil against which we are pitted. Once he was willing to die rather than take his place at the Emperor’s side. I loved him then. Nostalgia? I hate him now, for what he has become. However much I try to deceive myself, I see his face, hear his voice and the lie collapses. He is Luke Skywalker still, the same man, who ended one Empire in flames and raised another. [You will kill Luke Skywalker.] I hate my love for him, I hate myself for loving him still. I love Leia, and I love Luke for loving her. I can’t kill him. I will never be able to, compulsion or no compulsion: Leia loves him so completely. I hate myself now, but I would rather die myself than take my daughter’s father from her. I can’t condemn him for tearing families apart and then plan to shatter my own. And she arrives at the same conclusion she has for so many years now. I’ve had this conversation with myself so many times. So very many times. It’s become an endless loop, a spiralling track that I know has no end but still work round and round again in the hope that a way out of the circle will appear. I love him and I hate him in himself, love him and hate him for his devotion to our daughter. One day she will be Empress, and that will set the seal on my failure once and for all. "The end is near. The way is shut. The way is shut..." Now she appears just as she is, a four-year-old girl with untidy blonde hair who wriggles out of her father’s arms and slides messily to the floor. She dances in a circle around her father’s knees, demanding that he sing to her. And she is innocent again. The innocent. Belle and the Beast, for real now. Of course he’s willing to sing for her; he always is, even if there are messengers from the frontline commanders standing in the lobby biting their lips. But today I want her to myself, to be my centre, my only certainty. Her I love. . . . Leia, my darling, come here, and let mama sing to you. She comes over and I lift her into my lap. She pulls my hair, grey strands peppering the red. I gently disentangle her hand and sing the old words softly to her. The tears well up. And Mara is drawn in by her innocence again. But how long will that innocence last? I hate my love who loves not me - (One of my oldest memories, before the Emperor took me, is a bare schoolyard, barely more than a square of duracrete between four looming walls, and a tiny girl crouched beside the one flower that succeeded in winding its way up through metres of stone to see daylight; she pulls the petals off it with careless abandon, and sings a line of the song for every petal gone. We all believed it could tell the future, once upon a time.) - I love my love regardlessly. And the circle comes round again - although it is considerable more twisted and darkened than it was at the last revolution. Leia snuggles into the crook of my shoulder, her head heavy against my chest. I sing on, aware out of the corner of my eye of Luke standing with one hand on the doorpost, looking back, shining in the Force like a newly made sun. And Luke plays nice again - just as the Emperor did? Black lies the shadow of the day we part, though black is the colour of my true love’s heart. So, sad, but wonderful. Thank you! Alkibiades
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divapilot Registered: Nov '05	Date Posted: 1/22 3:09am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Wow. You've really caught Mara in a twisted web here! She's paralyzed by fear and love. She can only love him when she hears the command to kill him. When the command stops, she hates him. And little Leia -- a blonde haired, laughing, dancing monster in the making. No conscience or empathy. She will make a wonderful Empress. The part about Mara dreading the inevitable day when Leia decides she hates her mother was creepy. She knows Leia will have her killed. Mara has gone from the servant of the Emperor to Luke's servant, and she knows she will be little Leia's servant one day, too. There is no escape. -----signature----- Never tell me the odds. AKL "Beyond the Wall" http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/28964433/p1/?6 The Society for Girls Who Like Things that Go Boom. (M. Corde, Pres.) "This is your badness level." ~ Lilo!
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Jade_eyes Registered: Aug '04	Date Posted: 1/22 3:33am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Unique twist on the "last command" and its consequences I also noticed the parts others have mentioned--but what also struck hard was that Luke still has the capacity to love a child--but his love for his life partner is all gone.... or maybe he doesn't love Leia--she's just someone he can remake into his image?? For something just "whipped up" LOL this sure gives the reader a lot to ponder -----signature----- Luke/Mara--without end forever ginchy, Irish =I Squggles before I read a word
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Mira_Jade Registered: Jun '04	Date Posted: 1/22 5:19am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Wow, that was beautiful, haunting, deep - just, wow! I loce the way you have twisted "the last command", and Luke himself for that matter. The little girl is a monster in the making, and yet she is adorable at the same time. The line about Mara fearing for her own life should her daughter ever come to dispise her was particularly chilling. The poem too fit wonderfully with this story. Well done, but can we perhaps request to see anymore out of this plot arch? Just a suggestion. ~MJ -----signature----- I couldn't . . . I shouldn't . . . but I will! "The Drabble Drop" http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=29101933&brd=10477 Force help us all.
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Valiowk Registered: Apr '00	Date Posted: 1/22 5:48am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	You've done a wonderful job here, Nem! From the moment I read the poem at the beginning of the story, I was captivated by it. I love the way you've made Mara's dilemma seem so realistic (and for a story that could be said to "start in the middle of nowhere"!). I also really liked the way you made the first few paragraphs sound so innocent, but at the same time, suggesting that something is slightly wrong--Leia having golden hair, for instance. The part that perhaps touched me the most was the way you changed the second line of the poem--from "I hate my love regardlessly" at the beginning to "I love my love regardlessly" at the end. For even though the first version makes sense, it's really the second that describes Mara and her dilemma accurately, and which breaks our hearts.
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Jade_Pilot Registered: Dec '05	Date Posted: 1/22 9:08am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Wow! Love the intense character development you've written here. It's almost too painful to read. Bravo! -----signature----- I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult. - Rita Rudner
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mara_jade_rox Registered: Jun '07	Date Posted: 1/22 4:39pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	I loved it despite the sadness! You reached into Mara's heart and soul and captured it beautifully. Wonderful fic! MJR -----signature----- What happens when everyone you love leaves? Do you waste your time grieving? Do you love others? Even when the don't love you? What happens?
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JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 1/23 2:52pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Hi there everyone Gabri_Jade I just love this. A snapshot it might be, but it's a very vivid and believable snapshot. Thank you so much. Mara's dilemma is a horrible one, and it's easy to feel the despair right along with her. I'm glad it came across well I suspect that this story will stay in my mind for a long time. Very well done. I'd be honoured if it did. Thanks for reading ginchy Very scary! I try The line about the two Leia's actually made my mouth drop open. I've always held that getting a physical reaction from something as insubstantial as fiction is worth any number of compliments. Thank you! What a place Mara and Luke find themselves in... It's a pretty hellish place. Shame I have no idea how they got there Dana-Skywalker That was dark, but beautiful. Mara's conflict is so real and vivid, I can see her teetering on the edge of despair. Thanks very much! I'm genuinely relieved - I have next to no experience of writing Mara and I'm glad she seems real. Very nicely done! Ta Meredith_Kenobi That was very chilling, but it was also a very good read. I gobbled it up; I couldn't tear my eyes away. Chilling is pretty much all I can do; I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless And that poem, the song, did you write that too? It was beautiful, hauntingly so. I'm such a sucker for including snatches of song in my stories. Yes, it's original, though I'm sure something very like it's been done before. Alkibiades My usual thing of pasting and replying just wouldn't wash here, would it? Thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed commentary. Just a couple of things: the line about Luke reading the Evil Overlord list made me giggle ridiculously; and, on a more serious note, the line It is a terrible thing to be afraid of my own child was the first one I wrote. This was one of those stories that got built from the middle outwards. divapilot Wow. You've really caught Mara in a twisted web here! She's paralyzed by fear and love. She can only love him when she hears the command to kill him. I think paralysed pretty much covers it - when she can kill him, she doesn't want to. And little Leia -- a blonde haired, laughing, dancing monster in the making. No conscience or empathy. She will make a wonderful Empress. I concur. What is it about freaking scary little girls? Mara has gone from the servant of the Emperor to Luke's servant, and she knows she will be little Leia's servant one day, too. There is no escape. No. None. Thanks for clicking! Jade_eyes Unique twist on the "quot;last command" and its consequences. Ooh, thanks. I like 'unique twist' I also noticed the parts others have mentioned--but what also struck hard was that Luke still has the capacity to love a child--but his love for his life partner is all gone.... or maybe he doesn't love Leia--she's just someone he can remake into his image?? It's at least possible. He may even think he loves her. But he's very much into the whole raising-an-heir thing. For something just "whipped up" LOL this sure gives the reader a lot to ponder. That can only be a good thing, surely? Mira_Jade Wow, that was beautiful, haunting, deep - just, wow! Thank you very much The little girl is a monster in the making, and yet she is adorable at the same time. The line about Mara fearing for her own life should her daughter ever come to despise her was particularly chilling. In line with the rest of Luke and baby Leia's attitudes, though. The poem too fit wonderfully with this story. I always like making up bits of poems and songs to go in fic Well done, but can we perhaps request to see anymore out of this plot arch? Sorry but I can't say I've any plans for one. Maybe if inspiration strikes again . . . Valiowk You've done a wonderful job here, Nem! From the moment I read the poem at the beginning of the story, I was captivated by it. I love the way you've made Mara's dilemma seem so realistic (and for a story that could be said to "start in the middle of nowhere"!). As I said to someone above, thanks. I'm genuinely flattered - I have very little practice at Mara and I'm so glad she came off real. The part that perhaps touched me the most was the way you changed the second line of the poem--from "I hate my love regardlessly"; at the beginning to "I love my love regardlessly" at the end. I like that interpretation - in fact now I'm wishing I had changed it. If you look, they're actually the same . . . For even though the first version makes sense, it's really the second that describes Mara and her dilemma accurately, and which breaks our hearts. She does love him still, regardless of everything, and that's what makes it so terrible. Thanks for reading Jade_Pilot Wow! Love the intense character development you've written here. It's almost too painful to read. Thanks for the 'intense' and I apologise if I've induced physical pain . . . mara_jade_rox I loved it despite the sadness! You reached into Mara's heart and soul and captured it beautifully. Wonderful fic! Why, thank you very much Thank you to everyone who read and replied. I'm very grateful Nem -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 Somewhere To Fly - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28898463 Spindrift - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28478326 NEW Lightning and Diamonds - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29251762 NEW Into The Shining Day - http://boards.thefor
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SithGirl132 Registered: Dec '05	Date Posted: 1/24 5:36am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	So psychologically believable and very powerful! So creepy and a very plausible AU. Great job! -----signature----- if loving you is wrong, i don't want to be right the life of a crazy college student. beware. give me coffee and no one gets hurt! Fics in Prolific Writers' Thread.
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JediNemesis Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 1/26 3:28pm Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post)
	Hello, o solitary reader SithGirl132 So psychologically believable and very powerful! Thank you very much - I don't find Mara easy and I'm glad people were convinced by her situation. So creepy and a very plausible AU. Great job! I like creepy, it's what I do Thanks again! And up we go . . . whoosh . . . Nem -----signature----- BeTS Best Author '08 Somewhere To Fly - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28898463 Spindrift - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/28478326 NEW Lightning and Diamonds - http://boards.theforce.net/a/b1/29251762 NEW Into The Shining Day - http://boards.thefor
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VaderLVR64 Title: Fan Fic Manager in Combat Boots Registered: Feb '04	Date Posted: 2/19 9:28am Subject: RE: Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Heart - post-ROTJ dark AU, L/M (one post) - replies Jan
	Oh. My. Goodness. That was stunning. So I too spoil Leia, because though every part of me is revolted by what she is becoming, I know that my life rests in the palm of her little hand. All children declare at some point that they hate their mother and want her to go away forever, but only my Leia’s demand will be granted. If she has a fit of hatred for me in Luke’s presence, I will never see her again. It is a terrible thing to be afraid of my own child. Absolutely gorgeous! -----signature----- If you have to choose between tears and laughter, remember that laughter burns more calories. Proud New Army Mom - off to bootcamp!
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