So I'm writing a Star Wars fic and I have four main characters. There's Com, an ex-con philanthropist; Leela, his adopted daughter who wants to fight in the Rebellion; Apollon, a rebel Leela has had a mutual crush on for a while; and Portia, Apollon's best friend who grew up with Leela before Com adopted her. Background Com spent nineteen years in prison, during which the Republic became the Empire. Because of this, he harbors a deep-rooted belief that the Republic is equally bad as the Empire, and does not support the Rebellion as a result. Com is a philanthropist who does all he can to help the poor, and has instilled Leela with those values, but Leela believes Com isn't doing enough and that the Empire must be overthrown for any lasting good to be done, and finds it hypocritical that he would rather the Empire stay in place than to entertain the hope of a better system. Com is also on the run from the Empire for identity fraud and Leela's kidnapping. (Obviously, she was adopted, not kidnapped, but it didn't look that way to the Empire, so Com is now wanted for child abduction, as if becoming prime minister under a false name hadn't already earned him a life sentence.) Portia's family gets arrested after they try to ransom Com and Apollon stops them. Now homeless since her apartment's been seized, Leela offers to take Portia in and she accepts. Com learns of Apollon's rebel sympathies and forbids Leela to see him again. Meanwhile Portia's family escapes from prison and attempts to get her to come back, but she refuses. They find out where she's living and her father brings a group of thugs to burgle the place. Portia wakes up and sees them, and alerts Leela and Com. Teenage rebellion subplot After they fight off the intruders, Com decides it is no longer safe for him (and thus, Leela, since Leela is in his care) as the incident may attract Imperial attention. It turns out that Com's old enemy and former warden, an inspector (recently promoted to inspector general) named Koss, has been tipped off to Com's presence after receiving a report of the ransoming incident, and with Koss on the case, Com will surely be apprehended if he does not flee. Portia elects to stay behind for Apollon's sake and for the sake of her little brother, Qualdo. Leela sneaks out and follows Portia to the rebel camp, where Apollon's friends are blocking off the streets to disrupt the Empire Day parade in the morning. Com learns quickly of her deception and goes after her. He hires a cab to take him to the place he suspects Leela to have gone and finds a barricade there, along with his friend Koodo, who Leela had recommended to Apollon. The cabbie joins up with the rebels while Com goes looking for Leela. Leela meets up with Apollon, who in all honesty would rather she not be there even if he is glad to see her. She also meets Qualdo and Hondo Ohnaka, a washed-up pirate Qualdo idolizes. They participate in a skirmish and successfully drive back the enemy. Afterward the battle, Apollon, Portia and Leela spend some time together before Apollon is called to a strategy meeting and Koodo calls Leela via hologram to tell her her father is looking for her. Leela leaves Portia in order to give Com the slip. Leela overhears a voice in an alley and investigates. The voice belongs to a spy who is feeding information to the local planetary inspector. Leela holds him at blasterpoint, but the spy pieces together that she is the girl whose abduction by Com he came to investigate, and Leela realizes the spy is Koss. Koss escapes and goes off in search of Com. Leela warns Com of the danger over holocomm, and Com tracks down Koss and distracts him long enough for the rebels to arrest him. He then has Koodo call Leela, since Leela won't answer him, but Leela realizes what's going on and tells him she's an adult and she's going to make her own decisions and stand by her principles and not abandon the cause. Com and Koodo split up to find her. Meanwhile, Apollon and Portia enter another battle, and Portia sacrifices herself to destroy a cannon threatening the rebels' defenses. Leela meets a devastated Apollon and they go to the mortuary to mourn Portia. There they find Qualdo and Enfys Nest (who Qualdo didn't know before but took an instant liking to because of her cool mask and because he desperately needs a mother figure in his life besides his sister.) After Qualdo has a good cry, Enfys sends him off to get some much-needed rest. A smoother, more character-driven sequence So what I've actually written is that Com finds one of Apollon's friends who guesses he's at the mortuary since he lost his best friend, and Com finds Leela in the middle of their grieving. Com drags Leela away but finds out from one of the rebels that they can't leave the battlezone and go to their ship, but Enfys Nest's Cloud-Riders are making a supply run and they can catch a ride offworld with them. Com grudgingly agrees and he and Leela board the Cloud-Riders' ship. Com meets a rebel who is not a Republican but a Separatist, and their discussion changes Com's perspective on the Rebellion. He apologizes to Leela and says they're going to stay and fight after all, instead of having the Cloud-Riders drop them off at a spaceport somewhere. They then conduct a raid on an Imperial supply ship and take a backseat to the subplot back with Apollon and Qualdo until they get back from their mission. But I had an idea recently that it would be a lot smoother for Leela to just go with Enfys in the first place and for Com to continue his pursuit by stowing away last minute and searching for her aboard the Cloud-Riders' cruiser. And I think I want to draw out his change of heart a little more and make it a little less instantaneous, so it doesn't happen just over a conversation and suddenly everything's fine again. I'm just not sure how to do that. As it stands right now, all need Com needs to realize is that not all the rebels are trying to restore the Republic he hates so much and then he won't have any problem with them. I definitely feel like there needs to be more to it than that, and as long as I'm revising, this seems like something worth improving.
