#(probably there's a red lightsaber stashed away somewhere which rex WILL recognise with horror)

[arianeemorythethird]

actually you know what, while I still stand firmly behind "the real villain of rex's tcw-era gothic horror story is rex with a control chip in his head" I think there's another option I'm ignoring here...

in classic gothic horror, of course, a hero has two main ways to resolve the problem of the monster:

✅defeat the monster

✅become the monster

and in canon, rex - being the overachiever that he is - gets to do both!

but gothic romance introduces a third, exciting option:

✅marry the monster

and I think rexwalker is definitely at its sexiest when it involves an anakin who is anywhere on the path from rots-era anguished doubt, to full-on commitment as darth vader, turning all his immense capacity for love and his ride-or-die, damn-the-consequences loyalty towards one ordinary (brave, determined, genuinely good) clone