Chat corner 102: Fairy tales

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

This week’s topic is “fairy tales“, or folk stories in general. This is very much a world-building kind of thing, but I’m really curious: what kind of stories do you think people tell to each other in the galaxy far, far away? What do they tell their children to get them to sleep? What do they share to make each other laugh, or cry?

I’m partially inspired here by this post attempting to collect Tumblr folk tales - thinks like the God of Arepo, the one where the grandma accidentally sumons a demon, and a many more (some of which I’ve never heard of, but that’s its own kind of magic). Which, I know, off-topic, but it made me think about the different communities in SW, and what they would pass around? So, if you have a favorite group, what stories do you think they tell?

Comments

[rose_griffes]

Someday the people of Ferrix will create tall tales about Maarva Andor's funeral. Assuming that the community survives what happens after the funeral, that is. People will brag about how their great-grandparents fought the Imperial forces. Maarva's speech, in all its glory as it existed on the show, will get glossier in the retelling.

Naboo, with its adolescent teen queens, is ripe for strange tales of magical powers, because teenage girls inspire / feed into that sort of thing.

[yourlibrarian]

Agreed on both counts.

[annathecrow]

Cool thoughts!

Ferrix -- I'd say the whole galaxy would hear about Maarva Andor's funeral - although how exactly it will be told might be interesting. Luthen wanted to incite the Empire to be more openly violent, to force people to stand up against it, and for that a funeral of a well-loved community member that Empire turns into a massacre is a good story. On the other hand, Empire will tell it as aimless violence for violence where the Imperials were only trying to keep peace, and look at how many people died, on both sides.

Naboo -- that's a great connection, I need to think about this. What we see of Padmé and the handmaidens is all very rational, but yeah, witchy teen girls - that could make for a good story!

[primeideal]

Self-plug here: I wrote a fic for the Star Wars Rolling Remix that features a story-within-a-story about desert folklore.

[annathecrow]

Thanks for the rec, bookmarked. Also, I haven't heard of that event, that's fascinating!

[fleurviolette]

This is a bit meta but I view Star Wars as a space fairy tale itself.

[annathecrow]

Yeah, I see what you mean! It's space fantasy (so you get the usual fairy tale contrivances like magic, swords, and princesses), relies on familiar archetypes (just like fairy tales), and it's reasonably well-known (again, just like fairy tales).

[fleurviolette]

Yup! It’s more of space fantasy or a space mythology than traditional science fiction.

[sathari]

Oooh, I'm reminded of... I don't know if they have a DW, but I think their AO3 handle is fialleril, who did some amazing stuff with the folklore of Tatooine in a universe where Anakin|Vader turns his coat a whole lot sooner and becomes a double agent for the rebellion--- there was a trickster figure in the lore of Tatooine's slave culture who was his inspiration. I think irnan did some stuff with fables and folklore on Tatooine as well, back in the day.

[annathecrow]

Right, I've seen fialleril's lore around.

This might be an observation bias on my part, but it feels like Tatooine is what usually gets "folklored" in fandom. It's interesting! I suppose it's because it's the only planet the story comes back to repeatedly, the one where two of the main protagonists grew up on.

[snowshus]

I forget exactly where it came up and it was definitely off-hand lore in like a guidebook or something, but it delights me that the old Tales of The Jedi with Nomi and Ulric was "reintroduced" into the new canon as a Jedi myth/fairytale.

[annathecrow]

Aww! At least we get Nomi somewhere.