Rebirth: A Battle Droid Story

by endertwelve

After the crushing defeat on the First Battle of Geonosis, the Clone Wars is ignited into full force across the galaxy for the CIS. Awakening from the war-torn landscape is one lone B1 battle droid, RK-757. However, this droid has awakened as something else. Across a galactic campaign, Seven will realize that he's more than just a product, as well as his comrades.

16. My Hiatus

First off, I would like to apologize for my year-long absence. A lot has been happening over here on my end that has made it very hard for me to continue writing. COVID, obviously, is the first and foremost. Despite quarantine at the time, I work at a retail store that demanded my attention (more so already because it's full-time). The workload completely demotivated me from writing any further than I wanted to. And, even when I had time to, I had completely lost the motivation to continue writing this or see any future of ending it where people would enjoy it, only because I would enjoy it.

While I do understand that it's important to keep the author's views on their writing in tact, I do want to at least make this story enjoyable to my audience. On that topic, the amount of attention this story has garnered is astonishing, to say the least. And the amount of positivity I've received from your reviews and kind words is really understating how validating it is to see people react so well to a piece of fiction that you may not believe in all that much anymore. I've had several people say that this is very un-droid-like of my characters, that I'm humanizing them more than I should. Or that I had stuck to a specific formula from my writing.

While I do believe that this is true to an extent, I would like to say this: I'm doing it anyway. This is something that I enjoyed writing and one that I was writing consistently until my mojo was ripped out by influences within and without FanFiction, whether directly or not. I started to doubt by writing ability at that point and thought that I should just give up on it completely, never really going to reach the heights I did during my first 10 or so chapters.

But your reviews really helped me realize that I needed some time away from this, that I needed to try and force myself back in (at least what I could foreseeably force myself to do) and try to continue this story I've wrought. I still believe in my story and I still believe in making this journey meaningful, spiritual, and complete with Seven. I based this story off of the short-story Jonathan Livingston Seagull, something that characterized seagulls in a beautiful and humbling way. About teaching, passing down the torch, being open-minded to new experiences, going farther than you're capable of, and understanding peace. I wanted to believe that the battle droids in Star Wars were capable of this, of being more than just (albeit endearing) comic relief and just target practice for the clones. I think they're capable of feeling, of thinking, being more than just scrap metal up for the slaughter.

I love these droids, more than the clones ever could make me. And I wanted to make this story to do them the justice, personality, and beauty that they deserve. Am I capable of doing that? Only time will tell, it seems. I'm not gonna put myself up on a pedestal and say that I can and that I will, because I'm sure that some won't believe that. And maybe they're right, maybe I won't. But, I will finish this. And I do want to see this story through to the end.

I'm not saying that I will be writing this more consistently, I can't guarantee that my life will get any less hectic than it already has been after this. But just know that I do want to see this through. I will see this through. And I'll see it through my way.