Psa To Anyone Who Follows Me: If I Randomly Drop Out Of A Conversation/vanish From Tumblr Without Warning,

we are not a people of sand

rating: g (word count 420)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36747517

Tuskens have no written language. Instead, their ancestors’ memories are passed from the old to the young, their history recounted each night under the indifferent gaze of the stars. In this way is a culture forsaken by the rest of the galaxy kept alive. There are generations in the heft of the Elder’s gaderffii and the tip of the Elder’s tongue.

“Feel how cold it is at night,” the Elder might say. “Tatooine has always been a planet of paradoxes: sea to desert, desert to ice.” On a longer night, when the Dune Sea is tilted away from all three of Tatooine’s suns, the Elder begins, “Let me tell you the tale of Rgur’okrt, he who tamed the krayt dragon with his mind.”

That is one story that is told in every tribe, though the name is as variable as the wind. Rgur’okrt and the dragon fought thirty days beneath the sand, and the whole tribe thought he was dead. But on the thirtieth day he found that he could sense the dragon’s thoughts, so he reached out and caused it to fall into a deep sleep, such that it would not wake to terrorize his people for the passing of two generations.

Then he burst from the sand, the granules spraying like droplets of water. The tribe rejoiced because he was alive. And from his robe fell out a fruit, and it broke, and spilled out milk. And Tuskens have drunk from black melons ever since.

The young do not always want to listen to these tales. “What does it matter?” they ask. “Why should we care about the history of a primitive people, of a hunted, dying race? Look around you. We choke on sand when the rest of the galaxy walks in the sky.”

So the Elder reminds them, “That is because we are not a people of sand. We are a people of water, of briny, irrepressible waves. Do you think mechanical wings are the only way to fly? Our ancestors crossed oceans on the backs of whales.”

Then the Elder tells the end of the story. All of the Tuskens’ stories end the same way.

As Rgur’okrt burst from the sand, so will the fish and the whales and the crabs. Water will fall from the sky, and water will swell from the sand. “The oceans will rise again one day,” the Elder says, and makes the children repeat the words, one after another. “The oceans will rise again one day, and we with them.”

i am firmly convinced that din djarin is aro-spec and asexual.

(quick disclaimer: i speak for myself. not all aros and aces share my experiences with aromanticism and asexuality.)

one thing that's always struck me about din is how much he values platonic relationships. cara and kuill aren't any less important to him than omera. that's not necessarily an a-spec thing, but it's rare for straight characters on tv. it's even rarer for the focus of the show to be a platonic, father-son relationship rather than a romantic one. aro-coding? definitely.

i've also noticed that a lot of allos, especially straight allos, seem to sort people of their target genders into boxes of "potential s/o" and "not a potential s/o". even if they're happily single, there's still this idea that "i just want to be friends, but i'm fine if it evolves into something more". like, the idea of a romantic/sexual relationship is always in the back of their mind, they’re just choosing not to pursue it.

(second disclaimer: i'm not allo. all i know about allo-ness is what i've observed from the outside.)

din doesn't do that. it's like the "romantic" and "sexual" relationship boxes don't even exist for him most of the time. his only boxes are "enemy", "ally", and "friend/potential babysitter". he's never even considered that cara could be anything other than a friend. i can't describe it quite right, but this mentality towards relationship categories was one of the things that convinced me i was aroace and not just an allo who "hasn't met the right person yet".

and then there's din's relationship with omera. it didn't seem sexual to me, for one thing. second, i'm romance-repulsed, and this is the only romantic tension i've ever seen that i wasn't squicked out by and actually even liked. i just kept thinking, "if i were in a relationship, this is what it would be like." they both felt like they could be happy together, but also like their lives would still be fulfilling if they were single. no theatrics, no cheesiness, just two people who knew they could love each other if only they had the chance. but they didn't. so they moved on.

i don't know exactly what it was. it just gave me a-spec vibes.

all interpretations of din are valid. personally, i think he's asexual and some variant of aromantic - maybe grayro, maybe demi, maybe oriented aro. not sure.

even if he turns out to be a regular ol' hetero, i'm super happy with how this show is combatting amatonormativity. literally the only character in the show with an s/o is frog lady. none of the single characters are portrayed as broken or defective or missing someone. i love that i can watch this show and feel safe from aphobia. thank you, jon favreau and dave filoni.

so show me where my armor ends, show me where my skin begins.

- pluto

why does every sleeping at last song fit din so perfectly???

so slowly i'm losing who i've sworn to be. a promise in pencil that years have made so hard to read. i've spent my life building walls brick by brick and bruise by bruise... a birdcage religion that whispered me to sleep.

- birdcage religion

all of a sudden, you changed my mind. pulled back the curtains a little at a time.

through the static, through the ashes we were brave. through the perils of endless narrow escapes, we’re still here. we’re still here.

- we’re still here

like. does anyone else see it? i only discovered sleeping at last today and my “din djarin vibes” playlist has already doubled in size.

though your heart is far too young to realize the unimaginable light you hold inside,

i’ll give you everything i have. i’ll teach you everything i know. i promise i’ll do better. i will always hold you close, but i will learn to let you go.

- light

YES that is EXACTLY how din feels about grogu.

now i have to write fics to go along with all these...

A persons fanfic tells you a lot about them, i , a fanfic writer, realize in terror

oh absolutely. i’d say it’s a near-certainty. we know bo-katan is planning a revolution and she’s a pretty polarizing figure. i’m sure there are lots of mandalorians out there who Will Not Like That. there also seems to be some sort of (possibly one-sided) preexisting rivalry between bo-katan’s political faction and din’s religious faction which i’m sure is going to come up later.

a civil war would basically be the culmination of the recurring question of what makes a mandalorian (do they have to wear the helmet? be ethnically mandalorian? is it a religous, political, or racial group or a combination?) because any contender for mand’alor has to prove to the others that they’re truly mandalorian. which makes din as a (reluctant) contender quite interesting because not only is he a foundling, now that he’s taken off his helmet he probably doesn’t consider himself mandalorian anymore.

this is pure speculation but they could POTENTIALLY be gearing up for another mando civil war with bobf and mando s3, because we now have A) a claim to the throne by Din that is definitely going to be contested by a lot of people, himself included, B) a historically very politically powerful and ambitious leader who represents a “scorned” faction of Mandalorians in Bo-Katan, and C) Boba Fett, who presumably now controls Hutt Space (? or is it just outer rim territory? I can’t remember) and will probably be roped into the conflict purely based on the fact that he has resources, people, and territory at his disposal regardless of how he feels about Mandalore itself. Add all of that onto the fact that afaik Mandalore has no current ruler now that the Empire is gone and a huge diaspora that is probably eager to return home now that they’re not under the thumb of imperial rule. This would also follow the eternal cycle of “it’s like poetry, it rhymes” Star Wars is obsessed with following, so a capstone civil war is probably gonna happen soon-ish. also lends itself to lots of entertaining action scenes, rule of cool, etc

every time i rewatch the mandalorian, i think “okay, i am now going to write a thoughtful and coherent analysis of why this show is incredible and i love din djarin”

but all i can produce is wordless screaming because THIS SHOW IS INCREDIBLE AND I LOVE DIN DJARIN

i first watched rogue one around the time i was doing a lab in ap bio involving potassium sulfate so now i can never remember whether the droid's name is k-2so or k-2so4

^^^ Nov 3, 2021

AYYYY

i feel like there’s a greater-than-zero chance that mythosaurs are not actually extinct