Comment on With Animal Grace

  1. guineapiggie on Chapter 3 Mon 07 Apr 2025 09:49AM UTC

    zoomed-in image of the milky way

    ENORMOUS SECOND KUDOS! This concept is SO heartbreaking, thanks, I hate it! But I loved this story.
    Everyone broke my heart in pretty much equal measure here, obviously Cassian just letting himself get very nearly murdered before he even starts to seriously defend himself, and then STILL telling Han not to hurt her is. a lot. But also Jyn's reaction! Oh god. That will never leave her head, ever...
    But also. Han, and Chewie, and their gruff, not-as-clueless-as-might-be-believed concern for Their Idiots (and also the idiot who ran in after them). The exchange about the life form detector was hysterical btw. Luke was excellent, too, mostly just blithely swaggering through the horrors, but also kind and empathetic enough to give Cassian exactly what he needed :( And a massive shoutout to Chirrut and Baze, who are just excellent here. They've been in the trenches. They work SO well together, without hardly any words, and you can tell both how much they've been through and with how much competence and how incredibly well they know each other and people in general. Thank you for this fic, I shall go and be upset about the concept in the corner some more now.

    Edit: Forgot to point out how incredibly sweet and smart the resolution is. Cassian just extending the PERFECT olive branch - hey, clearly this wasn't your fault and only proves an issue in MY skillset, and I will prove my continued unending trust in you by asking you to help me fix it. I'm also giving you a task so you don't go insane over this. !!!

    Last Edited Mon 07 Apr 2025 09:51AM UTC

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    1. Pats_across_the_globe on Chapter 3 Mon 07 Apr 2025 12:19PM UTC

      Oh my gosh thank you so much for this incredible analysis! I'm so glad you liked the fic. In my reasoning, the poor man was already overwhelmed and incapacitated, though were it anyone else but Jyn on him, he would probably give more of a fight. Which is both because he hesitated to hurt her back but also because she's so scarily effective at dealing with threats. Cassian might have a bit of a competency kink in my head :) and yes, this is a lesson that Jyn won't forget easily. I hoped to get across that while they're both shaken by the events, Jyn is riddled with guilt, because it really was this close to ending spectacularly badly.

      Yeah Han is not half the cocksure dimwit he pretends to be. Seriously, he actively participated in the Rebellion for 3 years in a frozen hellhole before deciding to get on with his problems. Problems which, let's face it, directly affected the Alliance safety because having an astronomical bounty on your head tends to make certain people keen on learning your whereabouts. He wouldn't do that unless he was personally invested in not only the cause but in the people around him. Luke is a bit tricky for me to write, but I'm glad to hear he sounded believable. In this AU, his Force abilities would be a bit different from canon since he's being coached by Chirrut. And my reasoning is that the Force is another sense you use to inspect your surroundings, and just like any other sensory input, it can - and will - cause strain and pain when you go beyond your limit.

      And yes, my fave two dads. I love writing them because they can do anything - bickering, care, fooling around, comfort, and if there's ever somebody endangering the other or one of their children they will absolutely go ballistic. They are a unit, they know each other’s every move, they can anticipate what the other will do, say or think.

      Aaah, thank you for commenting on the ending! I was concerned that it would come out like, everything has been solved in a neat little package, all is hunky dory, let's move on! But yes, this will have lasting repercussions but the characters are survivors and they know that everything can be a lesson, so they have to learn from it. And yes, the root issue wasn't as much that Jyn lashed out - that's survival mode and it has served her right in the past - it was that Cassian is not well versed in physical combat. Of course he should get help from the master of combat that proved it. I wanted to avoid the cliché of "now I'm scared of you" - no, he knows the situation was exceptionally unique and he messed up, that's all. It could have been anyone that downed him, and it turned out to be Jyn. There's no reason to cry over spilled milk on his part, better to do something about it. He didn't survive years as a field agent without the ability to quickly adapt to conditions around him. It's Jyn who needs to work the emotions out, and the best way for that is fixing what is wrong by herself. Also it gives me an excuse to write future snippets of the two of them getting sweaty in the gym :)

      So glad you liked the fic! Now please let me roll in the corner because one of my fave authors with some of the best AUs ever (I am finally about to enjoy The World through a Scope in its entirety) liked my fic and left such a nice comment :')

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