Fanfic / Eye of the Storm (Kenya Starflight)

Kenya Starflight's Eye of the Storm is a set of Star Wars fanfics based off a simple concept: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Boba Fett (and Artoo) are stranded on Earth and must befriend a Star Wars fan club to survive.

In in-universe chronological order, they are:

• Eye of the Storm: The story that started it all. Complete.
• A Midsummer Night's Chaos^note Published fourth.: During the break between the two conventions, Luke and Trapper go to the movies, Boba Fett accepts a contract on an unusual bounty hunt, and Darth Vader gets drafted as a babysitter. Complete.
• Crystal Blizzard^note Published third.: During Anakin's first year on Earth, he and Luke spend Christmas with members of the fan club in Salt Lake... only to encounter an old foe and a plot against the city. Complete.
• The Armor of Vader^note Published second.: A year after the events of Eye of the Storm, Anakin and his friends and family run into a new enemy with a grudge against Vader. Complete.
• Star City, USA^note Published fifth.: A collection of oneshots set in the Eye of the Storm universe.

The series was originally posted on the Luke/Vader Yahoo Group and subsequently reposted on fanfiction.net.

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Eye of the Storm provides examples of:

The series as a whole

• Basement-Dweller: Zack, who's 28 and still lives at home with his mom in the first story. And a year later too. Eventually subverted by the time of the epilogue of The Armor of Vader, three years after the events of the main story — he's married with a child on the way, and has presumably moved out of his mom's house by then.
• Cosplay: A lot of people do it in-series, including the members of the "Vader's Elite" fan club:
  • Austin Owen Powers, president of the club. Wears a Darth Vader costume.
  • Trapper Powers, Austin's son. Also wears a Darth Vader costume.
  • Ryan "Sparky" O'Brian, second-in-command (he leaves during the Time Skip to concentrate on a career as a starship pilot). Wears an Imperial admiral's uniform.
  • Zack Brown, record keeper. Wears a Count Dooku costume.
  • Liz Djedovich, club treasurer. Wears a Zam Wessel costume.
  • Liberty King, handles contest entries for art, fiction, films, costumes and others. Wears a "Lady Vader" costume.
  • Jason and Patrick Osmond, activities directors. Wear Boba Fett costumes (Jason's is green and red, Patrick's is silver and blue).
  • Steve Durrant, technical expert. Wears a Darth Maul costume.
  • Conrad and Diana Church, and their young daughter Rachel, who coordinate the activity schedule. Wear Sandpeople costumes.
  • Brigham Pratt, leader of the Troopers subgroup. Wears a stormtrooper costume.
  • Emily Snow, second-in-command of the Troopers. Wears a snowtrooper costume.
  • Amethyst Andrews, club rep and publicist. Wears a scout trooper costume.
  • Cody Suk, Expanded Universe expert. Wears a sandtrooper costume.
  • Darcy Akers, transportation director. Wears a clone trooper costume.
  • Michael "Mike" Hall, website designer and editor. Wears a TIE pilot costume.
  • Tina Williams, introduced in the Eye of the Storm epilogue as the new second-in-command, replacing Sparky. Wears an Aurra Sing costume.
  • Gregory Skinner, introduced in the Eye of the Storm epilogue. Wears a Royal Guard costume.
  • Opal Patten, Brigham's cousin, introduced in the Eye of the Storm epilogue. Wears a desert-gear clone trooper costume.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Pretty much every member of "Vader's Elite" has one. Their ability to move past it astonishes Vader and plays a role in his working past his own issues.
• Death by Adaptation: Emperor's Hand Mara Jade is killed off in the first story. Lampshaded by a fan who notes she was supposed to marry Luke.
• Distant Finale: Eye of the Storm has an epilogue set a year later (The Armor of Vader picks up right where that epilogue ended). The Armor of Vader has an epilogue set three years later.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": After resuming his original name, Anakin doesn't like it when people call him Vader.
• Dreadful Musician: Cody sings loudly and badly off-key.
• Fan Convention: StellarCon and Nova*Con are the two big ones for Star City.
• Interspecies Romance: At least three occur over the course of the series.
• The Klutz: Mike, as noted several times, who tends to trip over his own feet a lot and falls out of a chair that he's tilting back.
• Meaningful Rename: Vader returns to his original name of Anakin Skywalker in the last few chapters of Eye of the Storm.
• Motor Mouth: Darcy tends to babble.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: Essentially all cursing is subjected to this.
• Never Heard That One Before: Ever since the Austin Powers movies came out, Austin Owen Powers has been getting jokes about his name all the time, and he's not very happy about them. The Armor of Vader implies that Anakin's landlord is the same way when people ask her if she's related to Jimi Hendrix.
• Original Character: Pretty much everyone native to Earth and some others.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Cody, whose sense of humor is practically a Running Gag throughout the series. Emily once mentions that he thinks that "if a joke is funny the first time, it must be funny every time".
• Real-Person Fic: Downplayed — several people involved with the real-life Star Wars franchise make cameos (mostly during conventions and a few other special events), including George Lucas himself when he finds out Luke, Vader and their friends are on Earth.
• Shout-Out: Many, as befitting a series featuring members of a Star Wars fan club. Non-Star Wars references include Rachel Church's Wookie doll Moriancumer, who's named for a location in the Book of Mormon (Brigham gave her the name).
  • The excised chapter "Talent Night" mentions a fanwork contest that the group is holding. Submissions to it involve a Star Wars/Scooby-Doo crossover fanfic and a fan-film titled Godzilla Vs. the Acklay.
• Streaking: Stellarcon has been invaded by Trekkies doing this a few times, including an incident the year before Eye of the Storm. The year after, during the events of The Armor of Vader, an individual is mentioned to have run through the courtyard in nothing but a pair of Spock ears. During Eye of the Storm, Rachel Church does a downplayed version in the privacy of her own home when she runs away from her bath.
• Title Drop: "Eye of the Storm", "Crystal Blizzard" and "The Armor of Vader" all have their titles referenced in narration or dialogue at least once.
• Unfortunate Names:
  • Austin Owen Powers, whose name became this after a certain film series came out. He really doesn't like it when people connect him to the character who shares his name.
  • Amethyst Andrews changed her legal first name from Julie to avoid comparisons to another Julie Andrews. Doesn't stop Cody from belting out tunes from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music around her.

Eye of the Storm

• An Odd Place to Sleep: While staying with the Osmonds, Fett sleeps in their bathtub, on the grounds that it's just uncomfortable enough for him to remain on guard.
• Big Damn Heroes: During the rescue mission to the Executor, Fett turns up to help the others, despite having previously said it was none of his business.
• Bouquet Toss: Happens in the epilogue, when Austin and Liberty, and Han and Leia, are having a double wedding. Liberty's gets caught in a tree and, when it falls out, lands in Emily's hands, which makes her yelp and toss them away. Natalie Portman catches them as a result. Leia, meanwhile, tosses her own and it's a startled Luke who catches them on his plate, where he was preparing a hot dog bun. May count as unintentional foreshadowing, since he gets married by the end of The Armor of Vader.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Discussed — according to Zack, true Star Wars fans avert any risk of this by having no love lives.
  Zack: Don't wanna risk lip-locking with a long-lost sib.
• Bunny Ears Picture Prank: At one point, Leia and Vader (and Emily, who comes up behind them as they're sitting together) are looking over some recent holos they'd had taken, including a "revised" family holo of the three Skywalkers and Han... and Cody, who'd snuck in behind them and given Han rabbit ears. Han's reaction to this is never given.
• Chekhov's Gun: A literal case. When Trapper's replacement replica blaster arrives, Luke shows him the safety switch that would prevent a real blaster from firing. When Trapper is captured, he realizes the stormtrooper escorting him has the safety on, giving him the opportunity to distract the trooper and book it to a hiding spot.
• Death of a Child: Long before the story's beginning, Rachel's two brothers, Noah and Eli, both died in their cribs. It's explicitly identified as SIDS by Rachel herself.
• Disney Villain Death: As in canon, Palpatine falls to his death down a reactor shaft, though it's aboard the Executor rather than the second Death Star.
• Drives Like Crazy: Vader is just as wild a driver with Earth vehicles as he was with airspeeders and podracers, and at one point Amethyst's car pays the price, winding up too badly damaged (mostly in the suspension courtesy of a leap over a train) to be drivable anymore afterward.
• Flowery Insults: Amethyst once refers to Palpatine as "That lying, back-stabbing, scum-eating, rotten-toothed, pasty-faced, red-eyed, psychotic, electronic, monk-wannabe, no-good piece of pig refuse!"
  Zack: And he's evil, too.
  Amethyst: Shut up.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: At one point late in the story, Anakin calls Austin's home to contact Piett, only to be told that he can't talk because "Piett's in the john paying homage to the porcelain god" thanks to some bad fish from a local diner.
• Frame-Up: It's mentioned that Mike was set up to take the fall for some friends of his during a bank robbery, and spent three years in jail for it until his appeal went through.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Late in the story, Adam Cage, the Master of Ceremonies, tells the Elite (and the visitors) that they've gotten a sizable donation check to cover the damages to the convention center, "on the condition that her identity be kept secret. I promised Melissa Greenwood I wouldn't tell a... damn!"
• Internal Reveal: After Han, Leia, Chewbacca and Threepio have arrived at the Osmond home, Darcy inadvertently blurts out that Leia is Luke's sister, something that absolutely stuns Han, Leia and Vader and even half-surprises Fett (whose muttered reaction is "How many kids do you HAVE, Vader?").
• Interspecies Romance: In the epilogue, Mike Hall is mentioned to be having a Holonet romance with a Rodian woman.
• Is That Cute Kid Yours?:
  • During their initial meeting (and before their identities are revealed), Luke asks Austin if Rachel's his, and is told no. Incidentally, this was shortly after Austin had told Rachel that "maybe you'd better find your parents now", but Luke didn't hear it because he was laughing too hard over Rachel's comments about Vader.
  • Fett gets asked this twice when he's watching Rachel (who insisted that he be the one to take her to the restroom). The first time he's asked, he's sorely tempted just to shoot the people who made the mistake, but his hands are already full. The second time, he's more patient and tells the man asking that she's his niece. Unusually for the trope, they're actually the right ages to be parent and child.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Played for laughs in one chapter — Leia beats Trapper at Stratego (which he's a whiz at) in one chapter, and he considers losing to a girl to be "horrible", while everyone else finds his reaction amusing. To quote, "To a nine-year-old, this was serious business, and Trapper just couldn't understand why the adults were laughing so hysterically."
• Man Bites Man: Or in this case, little girl (Rachel Church) bites cyborg (Darth Vader) as he's trying to give her a bath. He is not amused.
• Mooning: A group of vulgar gatecrashers invade the courtyard of the convention center where Stellarcon is being held to do this. Responses vary, from Conrad's blandly spoken "Oh look, it's the moons of Yavin." to another person throwing a soda can and scoring a direct hit on one of them to various punishments loudly suggested by members of the crowd. Vader finally persuades them to leave by giving them a subtle Force shove into a convenient fountain, which results in much cheering from the legitimate attendees.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: During Fett's aforementioned Big Damn Heroes moment, he introduces himself this way, in a deliberate Shout-Out and Call-Back to the movies he and Liz were enjoying so much earlier in the story:
  "The name is Fett," he announced. "Boba Fett."
• Narrative Profanity Filter: Used on one occasion when Austin has just hit his head:
  There was a bang and a loud expletive as Austin extracted himself from the oven. Upon seeing Trapper he said "If I catch you using that word I'll wash your mouth out with soap."
• Noodle Incident:
  • When Han and Leia are picked up by Zack and Amethyst on Earth, they both are still thinking Vader's evil. Zack counters: "No way, Vader rocks! Besides, he owes me money!" Exactly how the latter came about is never specified.
  • Mike accidentally destroys the Osmond's kitchen light fixture with a shotgun. Patrick's moan of "Not again" suggests this has happened before, but when, how and why are not explained.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • By Vader, as a result of trying to give Rachel Church a bath:
    "She — bit — me," Vader boomed menacingly, spacing the words.
  • From Trapper in chapter 21, after he loses to Leia at Stratego:
    "This is bad! I — was — beat — by — a — GIRL!"
• Ramp-rovisation: At one point, Darth Vader takes over during a car chase with stormtroopers and telekinetically pulls an under-repair sign across the roadway for use to ramp over a train, then using the Force again to keep the car stable. It still doesn't handle the landing well, though.
• Second Love: Liberty is Austin's after his first marriage fell apart. They get married in the epilogue.
• Security Blanket: Rachel takes her Wookie doll Moriancumer (or "Mori" for short) everywhere.
• Seen It All: During the pre-con party, Austin comments that "I believe I've pretty much seen everything at these Cons." When a drunk stumbles into the house in nothing but a tank top and boxer shorts, Austin's reply is "Okay, NOW I've seen everything."
• Serious Business: Trapper considers losing to a girl at Stratego, which he's a whiz at, to be this.
• Spin-Offspring: Minor (and original) character Cleiko "Trigger" Binks is the daughter of Jar-Jar Binks from the prequel trilogy.
• The Teetotaler: Patrick Osmond, and he takes it a step further by trying to impose it on others as well — his brother, on finding out Patrick had thrown out all their beer, grumbles that "You were always the prohibitionist in the family."
• Tempting Fate: Austin does this in the end of chapter 19 with his line "Two more weeks, and then life finally goes back to normal." Mike promptly runs into the room in women's clothing that he got on eBay, and Steve asks Austin if there is such a thing as normal in Star City. (On top of that, it's already been shown that other visitors are on their way to Earth.)
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Fett proposes to Liz moments after they've gunned down a group of hostile stormtroopers. They elope a month later.
  Fett: You're not a bad shot, [...] You should come on hunts with me.
  Liz: Is that a promise or a threat?
  Fett: Liz Djedovich, will you marry me?
  Liz: [laughing] I'll think about it, flyboy.

A Midsummer Night's Chaos

• Bald of Evil: Darth Ramirez, a member of the Sons of the Sith (cultists who worship the Dark Side of the Force, though none of them have any actual powers), has a shaved head.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Vincent the Siamese cat, of all beings, comes to the rescue during the battle in the Sons of the Sith headquarters, attacking Darth Ramirez and allowing Trapper to escape from his clutches.
  • After they're all out, Vincent's owner Mrs. Albany shows up and helps save the day by claiming Vader is her son and an innocent, then saves him again by taking him back to her house to use her late husband's oxygen tank.
• Interquel: Takes place in the middle of Eye of the Storm.
• Loophole Abuse: A customer at the theater that Luke and Trapper are visiting tries to do this, claiming that since he was born on February 29, he's only celebrated five birthdays and therefore qualifies for the children's price. It's not shown if he was successful or not.
• Man-Made House Flood: Conrad Church is mentioned to have caused one once during a past attempt at fixing the toilet, which is why his wife insists on calling a plumber this time around.
• Noodle Incident: Jason Osmond is mentioned as having been banned for life from Star City Lanes (a local bowling alley) due to "the coconut incident", and is "practically on a first-name basis with every park ranger in the state" due to unspecified reasons. Subverted with another incident mentioned in the same conversation, explaining that the local jet ski rental place won't even answer their calls anymore after he used one to jump over a dock at a local lake.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the final chapter, the police try to arrest Luke, Vader, Fett and Nick Staples after they're caught coming out of the lodge where the Sons of the Sith were meeting, and do arrest a number of the Sons in the process. After Austin, Mrs. Albany and Nick all tell their own versions of what was happening (all maintaining that the aforementioned individuals were innocent of any crimes, and Austin reminding the cop that he has no ability to bluff), Sergeant Wilcox sighs and agrees to release the four (plus Trapper and Rachel), just pointing out that they'll probably be subpoenaed as witnesses for a trial later.
• Reckless Gun Usage: While Fett is at the St. Francis' Ark animal shelter, one of the animals present, a monkey, escapes its caretaker and starts climbing on Fett, trying to fiddle with his weaponry. Fortunately for everyone present, the monkey only sets off his dart gun, which is loaded with tranquilizers. Even more fortunately, Fett recovers the dart from the unconscious animal (which had fallen to the floor after it shot itself) without being seen and the shelter woman buys his excuse that the monkey was knocked out because he hit his head when he fell.
• Red Sock Ruins the Laundry: Inferred when Vader suggests that Mrs. Church let her husband do the laundry. She cooly informs him that the last time Conrad handled that chore, "my best white slip turned pink" (and also that "he fried three polyester shirts in the dryer").
• Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times:
  • When Vader agrees to babysit for Rachel while her parents are out, she decides she wants to watch a movie. After rejecting Star Wars, Vader agrees to "suffer through a fifteenth showing" of Finding Nemo (which Rachel adores but Vader can't stand).
  • When he starts to fanboy about the arrival of the real Darth Vader at their Sons of the Sith meeting, Darth Ramirez is reminded of how he bragged about having seen Return of the Jedi "no less than fifty-seven times", and should therefore remember that Vader is a traitor to their Order.
• When Elders Attack: Mrs. Albany discovers one of her former students, someone who take care of her lawn and picks up her groceries for her, is being arrested for crimes committed as a member of the Sons of the Sith. She proceeds to "whale on him with her handbag".

Crystal Blizzard

• And This Is for...: Xizor is on the receiving end of this after he's arrested.
  Ruth: This is for playing with my heart! [slaps him]
  Brigham: This is for brainwashing my family! [punches him]
  Cody: I just wanna tell him thanks... for turning out to be the same rotten old crime lord as always so I didn't look like a complete idiot to everyone. [kisses Xizor on the cheek, who takes it worse than being hit]
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Opal utterly snaps after she's had enough of an almost non-stop argument near the end of the story, leading to an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Xizor has Anakin on the ground and at his mercy, Gideon turns up and attacks him from behind, sending his last shot off its mark. Then the rest of the Pratt family joins in and beats him up together.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Anakin manages to get one in early on when Brigham and Cody are arguing over Xizor. He's beaten to it a second time later on.
• Black Sheep: Brigham was this for his family for the longest time, due to being a single geek with mostly non-Mormon friends. His cousin Opal became one when she lost her fiancé and chose to leave the Mormon faith as a result, resulting in most of the family (save for Brigham himself) effectively disowning her, except for occasional pressure to rejoin the church.
• Bomb Disposal: After disconnecting the lead bomb from a chain of explosives, Anakin ends up chased by Xizor and, with ten minutes on the timer, has to toss the bomb into an empty Dairy Queen nearby. The place goes up in flames, but nobody's hurt.
• Call-Forward: The epilogue of Eye of the Storm mentions Opal Patten as a new member of "Vader's Elite". This fic explains how she joined.
• Christmas Episode: And the only main story not to be set in the summer.
• Cool Old Lady: Alzina Pratt, Brigham's grandmother. Anakin likes her almost immediately.
• Crisis of Faith: Opal suffered one a few years previously when her fiancé died shortly before their wedding, to the point where she had herself removed from the church records, effectively leaving the faith. The majority of her family (save for her cousin Brigham) reacted by not speaking to her unless they were trying to get her to rejoin the church.
• Food Fight: Emma and Gideon get into throwing mashed potatoes at one another during one meal. It's later mentioned that there was a bigger one the year before that resulted in dishes being thrown too.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: Liberty gets sick from a hole-in-the-wall Chinese joint on the way to Salt Lake City.
• I Have No Son!: Emily is mentioned to have been disowned by her family when she came out as gay, and her parents still haven't "forgiven" her for it (though at least her siblings are speaking to her again).
• Interquel: Takes place after Eye of the Storm and before The Armor of Vader, but was published after both.
• Interspecies Romance: Xizor, a Falleen, with Ruth Pratt, a human female. It doesn't last due to his being Evil All Along, a status which surprises almost nobody.
• I Warned You: Cody starts to do this when the children go missing and Xizor was the last one to see them, resulting in another fight. Despite all the evidence, Ruth refuses to believe him until she finds a message from Xizor confirming he was just using her.
• Magic Countdown: Averted. Anakin finds the lead bomb when its timer has 45 minutes to go, and when he throws it away, it still has ten minutes, plenty of time for him to fight and defeat Xizor, who is successfully defeated and handcuffed before the bomb goes off.
• Man Bites Man:
  • Brigham is mentioned once as having to "pry London's teeth out of his leg" while he's talking to Anakin.
  • During the fight between Anakin and Xizor, Gideon shows up and bites Xizor on the butt.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Brigham is revealed to be one of six siblings — his brothers are Hyrum and Felix, and his sisters are Judy, Ruth and Vera (the last of whom is serving in Iraq as an Air Force pilot and thus is not present for the events of the story). Hyrum's children also count, as he has four already and one more on the way.
• My New Gift Is Lame: The last chapter includes a few examples of this, including Luke getting a Force FX Lightsaber and asking "All right, who's the smart aleck?" (though it's all but said outright that it was a gag gift). Then Liberty gets a pair of socks from Austin... which turns out to be a subversion, because one of the socks has a jewelry box with an engagement ring inside it.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: During the Christmas Eve dinner preparations, Austin is subjected to one when he accidentally drops a serving container:
  There was a loud crash and a cross expletive from the kitchen, followed by Mrs. Pratt's shocked gasp and Liberty's stern "Shut your filthy mouth, Austin!"
• Never Found the Body: Xizor's, after the events of Shadows of the Empire (justified in that he was supposedly aboard his skyhook when it was blown up, which would have utterly vaporized him). Turns out he's Not Quite Dead.
• Noisy Shut-Up: Opal interrupts a big fight by screaming at everyone (much to the surprise of Anakin, who was about to do the very same thing), followed by her "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, Mike once told some kids a story about his former cellmate. Details are not given, but the man is said to have murdered his wife and her lover with a vacuum cleaner.
• Not Quite Dead: Xizor turns up alive and well on Earth (much to the surprise of the Star City crowd), and dating one of its people.
• Not What It Looks Like: Brigham gets very concerned when he hears Anakin laughing in one of the bathroom stalls in a rest area, but calms down when Anakin explains he's just laughing at the Bathroom Stall Graffiti that he's reading, and agrees that it's "pretty funny stuff".
• Obfuscating Insanity: Alzina gets away with certain behavior because her family thinks being old means her mind's going (and that she's going deaf). In reality, she's just as intelligent as any of them.
• Persona Non Grata: Thanks to the Noodle Incident above, Mike is no longer welcome at the Pratt home. Thanks to the Xizor incident, Cody nearly ends up this way, but it's ultimately averted.
• Real After All: Gideon Pratt initially claims Santa isn't real. Later on, six of the seven children are found in a replica of a stable, and Gideon finds a man with a white beard and red robes (and possibly carrying a lightsaber), accompanied by a reindeer he calls Donner, are watching over them and keeping them warm. He disappears before anyone else can see him.
• Riches to Rags: According to Xizor, this happened to him after he was reported dead and another took over Black Sun. He's lying.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Alzina Pratt deliberately takes advantage of this, privately remarking to Anakin that she loves being old because "You get to say whatever crosses your mind and no one objects."
• Secret Santa: A variation in which there are too many people in the house (seventeen members of the Pratt family plus Luke, Anakin, Austin, Trapper, Liberty and Cody, and a non-participating Xizor) for everyone to buy something for everyone else, so the participants draw three random names for mandatory present-giving. They can also get gifts for anyone else they want, but it's not required. Among the gifts, Anakin winds up getting books for everyone on his list (which are all well-received), Luke gets a Force FX Lightsaber as a gag gift from one of the Pratts, Liberty embroidered a blouse, a dress shirt and a cloak for Brigham's niece Lexus, Brigham himself, and Anakin, respectively, and receives an engagement ring from Austin.
• Shipper on Deck: Opal doesn't ship Brigham with anyone specific, but does agree with Anakin that it's a shame he hasn't found a woman yet. (She even admits she would be willing to date him if they weren't related.)
• Shrinking Violet: Opal is very shy.
• Spit Take: Anakin and Cody do this, accidentally spraying Hazel Pratt (Brigham's mother) when Mr. Pratt says they need to go to the airport to pick up Ruth's boyfriend Xizor.
• Stock "Yuck!": The kids are none-too-thrilled with the idea of having green bean casserole and cheer when Austin accidentally drops it. Then they react in horror when it turns out there's canned spinach as a backup.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Xizor intended to do this to Temple Square. Instead, the one bomb that isn't shut off in time gets tossed into and destroys an unoccupied Dairy Queen.
• Take a Third Option:
  • En route to Salt Lake City, Gideon and Trapper get into an argument over whether Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins is better, eventually degenerating to shouting the names back and forth. Cody interjects once with a growl that Luke Skywalker is best, but otherwise stays out of it.
  • Anakin does this with the debate over Santa, saying that he doesn't know if Santa's real, but he won't dismiss the story until he has proof either way.
• Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Brigham and Cody get into this as a result of their fighting over Xizor's presence. Anakin gets dragged into it, asking Austin to pass on that they're both "being grossly immature and that if I were them, I'd be absolutely ashamed of my behavior".
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Opal gives one aimed the majority of her family (and Cody) following the aforementioned "Noisy Shut Up" moment, mostly aimed at how they're supporting someone who's claiming to be interested in joining the church, when a member of their own family (herself) is essentially ostracized for having left the faith. She also yells at Cody for his constant fighting with one of his friends due to disagreeing with him over Xizor. Inverted with her comments about Anakin, whom she identifies as the only one who's paid any positive attention to her since she got there.
• Time Bomb: A master-chain cycle of them (removing the master bomb from the circuit disables the rest of the chain) is set up in Salt Lake City by Black Sun. The master bomb winds up going off, but in a place where nobody's hurt, and only after the rest of the chain has been disconnected from it.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Austin's Christmas present to Liberty is a pair of socks, which she uses to smack Cody. In the process, they discover there's something inside one of the socks, and when a small box falls out, Austin takes it back and opens it to reveal an engagement ring before asking Liberty to marry him. She happily accepts.
• We Will Meet Again: Xizor yells this as he's being dragged away by the police.
  Anakin: And a merry Christmas to you too.
• When Elders Attack: Alzina joins her family in beating up Xizor, in her case hitting him with her handbag, when they gang up on him to save Anakin.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Anakin encourages Opal with this when she's afraid her writing isn't good enough to submit to a publisher.

The Armor of Vader

• Ascended Fanboy: Gabriel DeBour, a member of the Paris, France outpost of the Fighting 501st (a fan club made up of Stormtrooper impersonators, and some other Star Wars fan clubs as well) who visited America for Stellar-Con the year before, is one of Luke's Jedi recruits.
• Babies Ever After: The Elite's second generation are largely introduced in the epilogue — besides Liz and Boba's adoptive daughter Naomi Fett, who debuted during the main events of the story, there's their biological son Jango, Luke and S'kina's son Ben'arri, Han and Leia's fraternal twins — son Shyan and daughter Shmi, Cody and Amethyst's son Brandon, Conrad and Diana's son Isaiah and Gabriel and Chyna's daughter Eponine. In addition, Zack and Opal are married and expecting their own child.
• Butt Biter: Luke's eighteen-month-old son Ben'arri does this to Jason in the epilogue. Jason is not amused.
• Direct Line to the Author: The last lines of this fic reveal that Opal, who was ghostwriting Anakin's autobiography and has had it published, has also completed a manuscript for a follow-up, a dramatized account of how Earth joined the New Republic. Said manuscript is actually Eye of the Storm.
• High-Speed Hijack: It's not moving particularly fast at the time, but Artoo does this to an AT-AT Walker during the battle for Tatooine.
• Honor Before Reason: Tusken warriors would rather die a hero's death than live as a coward, and take offense to anyone who suggests retreating — Tusken chief Sha'kooha whacks Threepio over the head when he does just that.
• Interspecies Romance: Luke Skywalker, a human male, with S'kina, a female Tusken Raider.
• Master of Illusion: S'kina specializes in Force illusions.
• Mind Rape: Krad does a brute-force version when he blasts Aurra Sing's mind with the Force, enough to shut down her brain and kill her.
• Mistaken for Romance: Gabriel DeBour suspects his fellow Jedi Chyna Skleric might have a crush on Luke. She corrects him by explaining that Luke is like a father to her.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: When Luke and his older students to use Korie (a Wookie)'s translator droid to translate the Basic phrase "We are Jedi Knights. We wish to know what the meaning of what you just did is." into Tusken, the result causes the Tuskens to laugh hysterically, and one Tusken who'd learned to speak Basic and acts as their interpreter comments that their machine doesn't work so well. When asked, he explains that it just said "We are Jedi Knights and we smell bad." Even Luke chuckles at this.
• Out of Focus: Most of the Elite are largely absent from this story, due to much of it taking place off-world.
• Power Nullifier: Krad has a technique that can do this, putting a barrier between a Jedi and the Force and giving the illusion that he's robbed them of their powers. It's not permanent though.
• Relationship Upgrade: Gabriel and Chyna go from just fellow Jedi to a romantic (and by the epilogue, married) couple.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Fett is very angry when he finds out the Mandalorians have kidnapped his wife and child, and sets out to rescue them. Unusually for this trope, he doesn't actually kill anyone, just wounding Jodo Kast (who ordered the kidnapping) — it's Liz who shoots Kast dead.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Krad the Destroyer is out for revenge on Vader for this reason — he'd killed Zorn the Swift, Krad's mother.
  • Averted by S'kina, who is initially upset with Anakin when she learns of his identity, but holds no permanent grudge against him and chooses to forgive him despite three bad encounters, including his killing the majority of her family the night she was born, an attack on her adoptive tribe that led them to believe she was cursed, and finally killing Obi-Wan, her Jedi Master, on the Death Star.
  • Also averted by Zorn herself, who forgives Anakin for his past crimes, not blaming he or Luke and S'kina for Krad's death, and even apologizes by healing him of all his past injuries so he no longer needs the armor of Vader.

Star City, USA

• Call-Back: In A Midsummer Night's Chaos, Darth Quinzain mentions he was not the first to come to Earth. Chapter four of this fic, There Was Another, details how Darth Maul visited Earth in 1977, about a year before his death at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

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