Star Wars Rare Pairs Exchange

Hey hi hello! We have one initial pinch hit; take a look below and let us know if you would like to claim it. This PH is due at the same time as assignments, Saturday, November 28th @ 11:59PM EST. If you are interested in picking up this PH, you can either comment below (comment screening is on) or DM SassySnowperson or nightingalesighs on Discord. Please include your AO3 username. Happy creating shippers!


( Pinch Hit 1 - CLAIMED )

Hello! Thank you for your patience as the mods clean up the tagset. We have one ship clarification.

• Cal Kestis/Nightbrother/Nightbrother leader (Fallen Order)

To the mods' knowledge, there aren't any named Nightbrothers in JFO, however as there is not an 'OC' modifier attached, we just wanted to check. If this is your ship nom, please comment below with your clarification. Anon is on.

- Nightingale

Hello! The mods would like to remind y'all to check that you're nominating your tags correctly. If you're confused, we have a Nominations Guide here. If you still have questions, please reach out to one of the mods through DMs, comment below, or send us an email (swrarepairsexchange @ protonmail DOT com). You are also welcome to join the exchange discord!

We have rejected a number of nominations and as such, they will no longer be able to be edited. Most nominations have been rejected due to the fandoms not being one of the pre-approved fandoms that are already in the tagset or being in the wrong fandom category. As a reminder, only these fandom categories may be used:

Fandom Categories
• Original Trilogy
• Prequel Trilogy
• Sequel Trilogy
• Star Wars Disney Canon
• Star Wars: Legends EU
• Other Star Wars Universe
• Star Wars Crossovers
• Crossovers (non-Star Wars)

These are the categories you should be putting in the 'Fandom' field of your noms. These are the ONLY fandoms you should be putting in the ‘fandom’ fields of your noms. Any fandoms NOT on this list will be rejected.

HOWEVER. We are offering rejected noms amnesty. If your noms have been rejected, you may submit them below through comment. These will only be added if you properly format them as follows: fandom,relationship,relationship,relationship

Only one fandom category can be listed in the same line. Use a new line for each fandom category.Please only use the above listed fandoms and disambiguate your ships. We will only accept these if they are properly formatted, using the correct fandom category, and disambiguated.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the mods! We would much rather help you out than reject your noms!

- Nightingale

Special note for 2026: we have a new tagmod helping us out this year! So in addition to sassysnowperson and nightingalesighed, you may also direct any questions you might have about nominations to ancslove! (Thank you, ancslove for volunteering to help us out!)

• Ships must have fewer than 250 works that are complete, over 1000 words, and in English on AO3.
• Every participant may nominate up to 20 ships in up to 10 fandoms.

Nominations Guidelines

To Nominate

• Read the Nomination Guidelines (you're doing it now!) and make sure you understand them—please don't be afraid to ask any of your mods questions if you have them.
• Make sure you're logged into your AO3 account and make your way to this year's tagset.
• Click the 'nominate' button and fill in the nomination page with tags you want to request.
• Only nominate in the fandom categories listed in the Fandom Nomination Guidelines section below. We are not using Star Wars - All Media Types as a fandom. When in doubt, copy and paste from the fandoms listed down below.
• When the mods have time, we work on approving them throughout the nomination period...assuming you filled it out correctly and we understand your nomination.
• Good news for you, if you follow this guide (and ask the mods if you have any questions! We are happy to help you correctly nominate your ships), your noms should go through no problem!
• If there's any confusion, there will be a nominations clarification post on this Dreamwidth community. We can't see who's nominated what so we can't ask you directly. You just have to comment on the post or email the exchange to clear things up!
• Incorrect nominations will be rejected, but we will be willing to add the correct versions in for you if you provide correctly formatted tags within the nomination period.

( Fandom Nomination Guidelines )

( Relationship Nomination Guidelines )

( Optional: Specific Fandom Names List )

Hello hello!

As of posting, there’s a little over five hours to our deadline! Are you excited? We are! We also have a couple reminders for you and info on what comes next. There’s still time to ask for an extension if needed; please just reach out to either mod (SassySnowperson or nightingalesighs on discord) or leave a comment down below with your AO3 username. Comments are screened. The same goes for defaulting! If you need to, you can still default without a penalty right up until the deadline. To do so, you don’t even need to contact one of the mods—there’s a “default” button on your assignments page in the upper right corner. If you need an extension or to default please please please do so before the deadline. We don’t need a reason for either, nor will we be mad; we just want to make sure we can help where we can.

However, if you do not default or contact us and you have not fulfilled your assignment by the deadline, in other words: you’re a “no show”, you may be suspended from the next round of the exchange. Please, we would much rather work something out <3

Speaking of extensions, we have already granted a number of them and as such, if you don’t see a work under your “gifts” tab, do not fret! Your creator just needed a little more time to finish theirs up. We also see a lot of gifts roll in in the hours before the deadline so rest assured we will get you a gift.

These next few hours are also a great time to check your assignment—make sure it isn’t a draft (unpublished drafts do NOT count as a fulfilled assignment and we may mark you down as a no-show if you don’t publish your draft!) or that you have published the correct draft (and deleted the others!). Change those placeholder titles. Add any extra tags you thought of after hitting ‘post’. Just give everything a general once over to make sure it’s all in order!

What’s next?

Mods will start our checks to make sure everything meets requirements.

For you all though: Treats and Community Bingo! We lengthened the time between the deadline and reveals after everyone had such a great time with our Community Bingo last year and Senket has been hard at work on it this year. What is Community Bingo? Glad you asked! There will be another post with more details following this one. But these two weeks are the perfect time to go trawling through requests (AutoAO3 link here) and create some treats. As a reminder: treats do not have the minimum requirements of assignments, however they MUST still respect the recips DNWs. You may also treat the collection if you want to make something but there’s no one to gift it to. To post a treat to the collection, you may either use the “post to collection” button on the collection’s “dashboard” or “profile” tabs (this will bring up the “post new work” form) OR post a new work and use the “post to collection” field under the “associations” box. The collection name is ‘swrarepairs2025’ (if you use the “post to collection” option, the collection’s name will already be filled in.)

For our post-deadline pinch hits, those will be posted to the comm either later tonight after the deadline has passed or early tomorrow so please keep an eye out for those if you’re interested in picking up a pinch hit.

And lastly: a huge thank you to all of our participants thus far. As Sassy and I have been checking works, we’ve always been so blown away by all the things you all think up and all the enthusiasm y’all have for this exchange every year. We wouldn’t be doing this without you guys. So, thank you for being such a great community <3

- Rares Mod Team

All pinch hits claimed! Thank you to everyone that reached out; y'all rock! <3

Hey hi hello! We have a new pinch hit in addition to one remaining pinch hit; please take a look and see if you might be able to give one of these little tookas a home. Pinch hits are due at the same time as assignments - Saturday, November 22nd @ 11:59PM EST though this can be negotiated if need be. To claim, either comment here, send an email to swrarepairsexchange @ protonmail.com or DM one of us on Discord (SassySnowperson, nightingalesighs). When contacting us please include your AO3 username and the PH number you wish to claim. Comments are screened.

( Tooka 1 - CLAIMED )
( Tooka 2 - CLAIMED )