Beyond - Legends Reaching Out (Luke, Ben - AU post-Sacrifice vignette) - cover art added

I come back from Christmas break and what do I find...

Wow! Even though I firmly deny the existance of LOTF and all its messy plot points... this is an inspired work Gabri! You have captured the feelings of loss and love perfectly! To paraphrase little Anakin: "Now this is storytelling!"

 

Jedi_Master_Cazz: They both could use a good hug right about now, definitely. Thanks!

ROTSFan: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, and I appreciate you taking the time to leave such nice feedback, especially if you haven't read Sacrifice.

Rivad: Rivad! So good to see you again! Thank you so much! That's kind of you to say. Hope to see more of you on the boards, RL permitting.

 

Friday, schmiday. I like it anyway.

I thought about delving into another rendition of Emoticon Theatre, but it somehow feels as though it betrays the mood. Your portrayal is much more eloquent and true to form.

It's the little touches that make this vig for me. I love the lack of eye contact, the scorn and exasperation felt towards yet another compassionate stare, the moments of reconnection between father and son in small, painful steps of... compromise, almost. The main points have already been quoted, so I'll just point out a few passages that stood out for me paticularly.

Luke used to hug him in greeting, until the awareness that Ben merely stood stiffly in response, uncomfortable in his father's embrace, intruded upon his consciousness. Then the hugs became shoulder-clasps, and the shoulder-clasps became mere nods. Their shared meals were mostly silent and awkward now, punctuated with the guilty sense of relief both felt when they were ended. He wondered, sometimes, whether Ben blamed him for Mara's death, or whether they truly just had that little in common.

That damn near kills me, because that is just the last thing I expected to see after first learning that Luke was going to become a father during BP. Mainly for the reasons you pointed right out in the vig- he has so much of a convoluted history with his own father, it seems like he'd do anything in his power to maintain that precious relationship with his son, only to have it ripped from his grasp by outside happenings. Which is another travesty all together but whatev.


"You remember the story of how your mom and I first met? This was the blaster she threatened me with."

"The same one?" Ben asked, taking it and turning it over to inspect it.

"The same one," Luke confirmed. "She used it for years--couldn't bear to get rid of it when it finally couldn't be fixed any more. It was always her favorite."

There was an interesting half-smile on Ben's face. "Mom was cool."

"Very," Luke agreed.

Now that part's just plain cool. Like Gabri. I mean Mara. I mean...



I just really really liked this small sense of closure they're both finally allowing theselves to feel. The wounds will never fully leave them, as they shouldn't in a case like this, I'd think, but they're working on healing both through their memories of Mara, which in turn works on healing their relationship overall.

Sorry for being so late on the whole reply thing. Twas worth it, no?

 

Bri-chan: Ah, emoticon theater. It will live on forever in my heart. I completely agree about Luke's relationship with Ben. I really liked the bits and pieces we first saw in Betrayal, because it seemed pretty in character: Luke and Mara didn't talk down to Ben, and Ben seemed genuinely close to them. It only seems right that the three of them would form a close-knit little family, both on account of Luke and Mara's own issues with their own parents' absences and because of the circumstances of Ben being an only child born to older parents. The next few books took the Skywalkers in a different direction, but c'est la vie.

Now that part's just plain cool. Like Gabri. I mean Mara. I mean...

You brat.

Feedback from you is always worth the wait, darling. I'm glad you liked teh angstiness.

 

Beautiful story, Gabri. The part about talking not hurting as much as not talking is so true, as you stated above. You know it will hurt less as time goes on and you forget, but the other side of that is that you'll forget.

Anyway, Bravo.

 

rhonderoo: It's an awful situation for them to be in, no doubt about it. Painful to remember and painful to forget, and when the loss is still new and sharp, I'm sure that sometimes it's hard to tell which would hurt worse. Thank you so much, especially for the cover art.

 

I just read this today, and it is one of the few stories that really had me crying. I haven't read any of that series, but have heard key points. I don't really like what the EU has done to the Solo/Skywalker families. It seems that their struggles in the movies were all for nothing in the end.

Your story, though, took the situation and turned it on its head. It was a big start on the reconciliation of father and son, and hopefully the beginning of their healing process. Hot chocolate and recalling memories really helps. It was good that Luke remembered that he, in his youth, had yearned for a father, so he should really start communicating with Ben.

Well done!

 

Wow, this was a fantastic story!!! You really tugged at my heartstrings and almost made me cry at work. Great job! Thank you for sharing with us.

 

Oh that was amazingly sad and beautiful at the same time...I had tears in my eyes the whole time.

Loved it.



FL

 

dm1: I don't really like what the EU has done to the Solo/Skywalker families. It seems that their struggles in the movies were all for nothing in the end.

*sigh* That's my problem with it, too. Everything they've all done, all the sacrifices and pain, for what? How lasting were any of the achievements? Did their family really need to be ripped to shreds to support a new story arc? Are the fans so jaded that nothing short of that destruction would have kept their interest, or were the authors and editors just unable to see past the usual Skywalker family crisis to create something equally compelling without ruining so many characters' lives?

I don't know. I started out wanting to like LotF, and for all its bad points, it has had some good ideas and twists, too. But overall, I'm very deeply disappointed. Anyway.

Your story, though, took the situation and turned it on its head.

Thank you so much. Considering my own feelings on LotF - and naturally the death of my favorite character, which I think was handled very badly, despite Karen Traviss's good intentions - that's the best thing I could hear about this vignette. I really wanted to make something reasonably realistic and hopeful come out of what I consider to be a disasterous situation, and I'm so pleased that it worked. Thank you for reading and taking the time to leave feedback.

Blue_Milkshake: Thank you! I'm so torn when readers say that this story made them cry or almost cry - I'm sorry to make anyone sad, but, well, it's a sad story, so I'm glad it worked. Thanks for reading.

Flowerlady: Thank you so much! I'm sorry for the sadness of the story, but pleased that it was worth reading anyway, and wasn't only misery. I appreciate the feedback.

 

I was reading through the excerpts and came across this. It was both devastating and beautiful at the same time. I could really feel the sadness, the grief, the blank numbness as Luke was looking through her things and then when Ben came in - ah, just so wonderfully done.

Bravo!