#Anakin’s effort at being a good dad

[pararararablof]

How about we decorate a gift for Obi?

How about we decorate you?

[luveline]

hi! i hope you’re doing well! could i please request a little something about hotch coming home from a case to non bau!reader and jack watching star wars, just bonding and being cute. he wants to hug you both so bad cause he missed you and loves you but he doesn’t want to interrupt your moment

thank you for requesting! fem, 1k

You drop your head back into the cushions to avoid getting whacked in the chin with Jack’s forehead. “Woah,” you say, laughing as a wave of buttery yellow popcorn kernels drop onto the floor. “Good thing we have hardwood.” 

“Why?”

You grab a handful of popcorn to eat from the bowl. “‘Cos all I’ve done today is make a huge mess.” 

Hotch smiles from the doorway. It’s dark in the house, and the music blaring from the television has occluded his arrival. You’ve no idea he’s watching you now, and you don’t act much differently than if his presence was announced. In fact, he’d say that sometimes you’re so focused on not overstepping your place in Jack's life that you restrain yourself. 

Butter and comfort alike has loosened the reins. You cuddle Jack to your side, the two of you laying across the long sofa with a faux rabbit fur throw wrapped around your two bodies, his head nestled under your chin. Your arm is around his tummy, belting him to you while blue light flashes over your faces. Lightsabers paint your eyes, their zinging and humming near painful in his bad ear. 

“Who’s side are we on again?” you tease. It’s subtle, but Hotch knows you’re joking. 

“Oh my gosh,” Jack says, “you forgot again? That one,” —he points at the screen— “that’s Obi Wan Kenobi.” 

“And we’re team Obi Wan?” 

“Yes, of course.” 

“Of course,” you echo, clearly finding him funny. “But the other one is more handsome, don’t you think?” 

“Am I handsome?” 

“Jack, you are the most handsome.” You stroke his hair back and encourage him to meet your eyes. “You’re so, so handsome, babe, you’re beautiful, and so smart, and so awesome. You’d wipe the floor with Obi Wan Kenobi.” 

Jack manages a reproach through his bashful smile, “I wouldn’t fight him, he’s the good guy. I would fight him.”

“Hmm.” You grab some popcorn from the bowl in front of Jack and eat a few pieces, then offer it to Jack. “I wouldn’t fight him. He’s too pretty.” 

“He’s evil.” 

“He doesn’t look evil.” 

Jack laughs and turns to you completely. “You’re funny. People don’t look evil, they just are sometimes.” 

“I know, baby, I’m just confused because all the good people in my life are beautiful.” You hug him behind his shoulders, looking at him with all the love in the world. “You’re a great example. You’re handsome, so how am I supposed to know you might be evil?” 

“You have to be careful,” Jack says sincerely. 

“Baby, I am. I promise I am.” Your eyes squint closed with your gentle smile, your noses almost touching. “I’m just kidding with you. I love having jokes with you.” 

“I love having jokes with you.” Jack gives you a quick hug, arms tight behind your head and his face nuzzling your collar. “Thanks.” 

“Thanks! Oh, you’re welcome, you don’t have to say thanks!”

“Well…” Jack pulls away, shrugging as you manoeuvre him bodily into a more comfortable position beside you. “I just think you should fight Anakin because he’s not kind, even if you think he’s handsome.” He says handsome with all the intonation of a boy discovering cooties for the first time. 

You shrug, eat another handful of popcorn, and seemingly see the light. “Alright, I’d fight him. I suppose I already have your dad, right? I don’t need any more handsome men in my life. Two is enough.” 

“Yeah,” Hotch says, flicking on the light, “I’d say so.” 

Jack jumps, upending another wave of popcorn onto the floor. You grab the bowl, and Jack has enough wits about him to hop over the spilled kernels rather than crush them as he presents himself to Hotch for hugging. 

“Hi!” Jack says. 

He’s getting longer. It takes Hotch more effort than it ever used to to pick him up and pat his back. “Hi, buddy. Nice jammies, those are new ones. Is Y/N giving you gifts again?” 

“She always gives me gifts.” 

“I’m buying your love,” you say, shielding your eyes from the glare of the big light. 

“I love it,” Jack says. 

Hotch puts him back down on the ground with a kiss. “You should. Did you have a good day? Sorry I was working, I missed our Saturday.” 

“Dad, it’s okay, you always work. We went to the store and we got candy, and now we’re watching Star Wars and you’re back, so it’s okay.” Jack beams and puts his hands behind his back. “Will you watch it too?” 

“Sure, buddy, I just have to wash up. Did you have dinner?” 

“Y/N made me lasagna from scratch, even the pasta,” Jack says. 

He sounds deeply, sincerely loved. His pride at having you put time and care into the meal is evident, and Hotch knows that he and Jack are incredibly lucky to have you and to have Jack be able to experience it. Something as nondescript as dinner can make all the difference. 

You sit on the couch still, a touch bashful. “It didn’t take long.” 

“Was it delicious?” Hotch asks Jack. 

Jack nods hard enough to hurt his neck, head bobbing up and down. “The best!” 

“Well, she deserves a good thank you, huh? For taking such good care of you today?” He lowers his voice to a whisper. “What should we do for her, in return? Did you have dessert?” 

“No,” Jack whispers back. 

Alright, then that’s what they’ll do. You treat Jack like he’s a found treasure, and you love Hotch as easily as breathing. Hotch takes Jack’s smaller hand in his and gives you a look that promises the world’s most squeezing hug after they’ve procured dessert. “Can you pause the movie, honey?” he asks you. “We’ll be right back.” 

You shake your head at him, but your smile isn’t easy to hide. “Your dinner’s under the grill,” you say. 

He adores you more, somehow. “Thank you.” 

[lovelybucky1]

trailer trash!anakin

this au was a joint effort with my bff @fuckmyskywalker 🫶🫶🫶

warnings: DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT, alcohol consumption, smoking, mentions of drug use, age gaps, unprotected sex, mentions of pregnancy, anakin is objectively a bad person in this, 18+ minors DNI

masterlist

Anakin and Padme divorced many years ago because he was a deadbeat father, an alcoholic, and she suspected him of an affair. Little did she know, it wasn't just one affair.

Anakin has three kids who are now all adults. He has an older daughter who's just like her mother and has no patience for her dad's bullshit, and a set of twins, a boy and a girl. His son has his temper, much to his mother's dismay, and his younger daughter is his little princess.

Padme and the kids stayed in the house, so he had to move to a trailer park across town. Padme always did all of the housework, which was part of the reason for the divorce, so Anakin's place is always a wreck.

There's beer cans and cigarette butts everywhere, laundry on the floor, dishes piled in the sink, playing cards scattered around. They're not all his, some of the mess can be attributed to his buddies he invites over on the weekends, but either way, he makes no effort to clean it up.

Since his wife, Anakin hasn't dated. He's brought home plenty of girls, all significantly younger than he is. Any time he's asked about it, he explains that he just prefers younger girls. He and Padme were only 19 when they got together, so he's used to being with a younger woman.

Anakin is in his forties now, but he doesn't act his age. He has a job at the mechanic's shop and he does what minimal dad duties are required of him, though now that his kids are adults, he isn't needed as much. In his free time, he gets drunk and high with his friends, goes to strip clubs, and gambles his money away.

You're a waitress at the diner near the trailer park. Anakin is a regular, though your coworkers told you he only comes in when you're working. He usually orders a cup of coffee and sits at the counter where he can flirt with you every time you walk by.

He's told you a lot about himself; you know what kind of guy he is. Borderline alcoholic, irresponsible, unfaithful. Maybe you should've listened to your parents when they told you to stay away from older guys because you've found yourself charmed by him.

Anakin showers you in compliments, especially when you wear your hair in pigtails. He tips generously even though you know he doesn't have much extra money to spare. He asks about your day and he really seems like he cares.

He knows you don't have a car and one day, when your shift was about to end, he offered you a ride home. You agreed like the naïve little thing you are and got into the passenger seat of his shitbox car. He asked if you wanted to stop at his place for a bit before he took you home. Said he had beer and he could scrape together something a bit sweeter for you if you'd prefer.

The two of you flipped through the stations on his TV until you found something good, but you didn't get to watch it for long. After the second commercial break, Anakin pulled you into his lap and grabbed at your ass greedily. You giggled and slapped at his chest playfully, and though he returned your smile, you could see the hunger in his eyes.

Anakin told you he's been obsessed with you since he first saw you. Said you're the prettiest thing he's ever laid eyes on. Said you make him feel young again. That's the kind of sweet talk that gets him all the girls that don't know better.

He drags you to the bedroom and he kisses you dizzy so you don't notice how the fitted sheet is pulled up over the corner of the mattress or the Baywatch poster on the wall. He gets on his back and sits you on top of him, ever the lazy bastard. He wants you to put on a show for him to watch eagerly like you're his personal porn star.

Your tight cunt grips him perfectly and your tits bouncing in his face mesmerize him. He loves how you're so eager to give yourself up to him. Loves that you're inexperienced enough that every tough feels electric. Loves that you're dumb enough that his promise to pull out is enough.

When you're finished, he holds you in his arms against his bare chest while he smokes. When he looks in your eyes, he knows he has you. You're gonna move in and make this place a home, you'll get pregnant and he'll promise to marry you once he has enough money for a ring. Maybe this time he'll stick around, but Anakin's never been good at breaking cycles.

[eveningserenityyy]

Home for The Holidays | Oneshot

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Luke Skywalker x reader

Word Count: 4268

Summary: Upon bringing you back home with him and his family for the holidays, Luke realises that he misses having you all to himself.

A/N: Merry Christmas! Decided to do something for ~slutmas~, and I do hope you enjoy! The editing isn't as heavy with this one, but I really like how it turned out.

Coming home for the holidays is perhaps the best part of college, now able to relax with family and the perfect aesthetic of the christmas season as school is but a small worry in the back of one's mind; meant to be ignored and dealt with at a later time when the tidings end with the 25th.

Luke had brought you home with him to spend this Christmas with his family, all of whom were perfectly amiable and so very welcoming towards you. A response any partner is lucky to receive.

Your friend Han had tagged along too, being Leia’s guest as well. It made for quite the amusing holiday season, for Han was by no means the favourite of the Skywalker patriarch. Anakin, their father, gave him a hard time even for the simple act of breathing; nevertheless, Han made a great effort to impress the man that he hoped would become his father-in-law in the near-ish future.

You got off lucky, more than Han, at least. Anakin was a very protective father, weary of the partners of BOTH his kids. He made that quite clear the first time he had met you, but your advantage was in the fact that you made a far better first impression than Han ever did.

…That particular incident of Han’s misfortunes gets passed around quite a bit, as often as Anakin can mention it at least. No mere words could truly explain the extent to which this first meeting had gone so poorly, for you simply had to be there; all that shall be said is Han offended his mother, broke two chairs, and almost caused the death of the beloved family dog, Artoo, in less than ten minutes.

Furthermore, you found yourself to be having a wonderful time, perfectly fit for the season. Padme was generous with each of you, making sure that you felt welcomed and loved by the family. You baked cookies with her, helped with the tree (the whole family did, really, but you did almost pull a muscle collecting the boxes of ornaments from the basement), and she even took you around town to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights as you bonded. 

You adored how much she loved both her children, always gushing about her son to you, or showing you terribly embarrassing photos of Luke. Anakin was certainly rough around the edges on the other hand, but you too adored how much he cared about his kids just the same, the only difference being the intensity of it. Yet, despite this you had your moments with the father as well; and at one point had even made him laugh, which is quite the win in your book.

Luke was ecstatic that things, for the most part, were going so great. He absolutely adored and cherished how his family took to you, treating you like one of their own as you fit right in. He hoped many more christmas’ and other such holidays like this were to come, with you by his side each and every time. 

He found himself unable to look away every time you smiled, or laughed at one of his dad’s terrible jokes. He was wholeheartedly in love with you, not at all regretting his bringing you home with him for even one second. This was, in all honesty, the perfect christmas- he had you to thank for making it all the more merry.

He got you under the mistletoe any chance he could, watching your cheeks deepen their rosy tint as you got utterly and completely flustered, especially when a member of his family was close by. 

And when you were helping bake some holiday goods, he always “innocently” made sure to come up from behind you, rubbing against you as he pushed by. At first, it had been a mere accident on his part, but you suspected that it no longer could be when he kept doing it over and over again, leaving you able to feel him growing hard as you put on a poker face. He always came up with little excuses, such as how he forgot a cookie cutter, or needed a glass of water despite the fact that he never actually got one- it made your cheeks ridiculously rosy, constantly blushing every time you felt him against you as his mother asked if you were feeling feverish…

Oh, you were feeling something, but not the kind of feelings you could confide in her about. Ahem. Just imagine what Anakin would think of all the things you wish to do to his son…actually, dont.

He was getting more handsy as the days went by, forgetting that his family is constantly around the corner. He didn't even think about it at times, only driven by the need to touch and hold you close without considering the consequences.

The cons of staying with his family had begun to bother him, never really getting a moment alone with you as of late. As Anakin didn’t like Han, you weren’t even allowed to sleep in the same room- he had to bunk with Han, and you with Leia.

None of you were exactly fond of this, and even Padme fought against it before the horrors of pregnancy and a stagnant college career was planted in her mind. She very much wanted her children to be successful, therefore that was enough to cause her to agree with her husband. 

…okay, there's also the fact that she could understand the uh, the needs her children had…but as long as you’re safe, then for the love of everything keep it out of her house- that was also something she needed to be respected, but would never say when her husband is close by. He just didn't want it. Period. He would rather strangle himself with the tinsel than have such a conversation.

Poor Luke was aching to touch you, missing the privacy you had in a dorm room this past week. He found himself constantly having to hide how hard he was, his pants getting tight every time he even so much as looked at you. It was embarrassing, always sitting with a pillow in his lap when you all huddled together to watch a Christmas classic.

It's just the way he was; easily turned on (By you, specifically- he was head over heels for you, truth be told), and terribly needy for your attention and delicate touch. He had to stop himself from dropping to his knees and begging for you to touch him as he usually would when he got aroused, this not being the time nor the place for that.

You observed how flustered he got himself, how bad he was fighting away the thoughts…and perhaps it was mean, but you couldn’t help but tease him just a little for it. 

It started with brushing a hand against his bulge, or hungrily making out with him in the car before abruptly pulling away as he whined and tried to pull you back into his lap, or kissing his neck in a quiet hallway; which, for the record, you knew quite well would set him off like crazy. Your lips on his throat could have his knees buckling any second, hell- the mere scent of your perfume had him locking himself in a bathroom to stroke the desires away, silencing the noises he couldn’t help but make when he thought of you.

The poor boy was just burning up because of you, so close to fucking you on the family dining table no matter who walked in- okay, i mean…he cared a little about that, but still. Point is that he is so terribly desperate, to the point his brain is heavily fogged and clouded with images of you at all times, images where you adorn the prettiest lingerie as your fingertips trace along his skin, exciting him immensely as he bucks his hips into you…

That's why when he heard the family was going out for some snowmen building competitions, he made damn sure to fool his family into thinking that he was sick, and insisting that you go to the pharmacy and come back whilst his family went without you two.

You genuinely thought he was ill, therefore thought not much of it. Padme was, of course, concerned but relented after Luke argued he didn’t need his mommy to take care of him constantly and that she deserved to go enjoy herself. She laughed, going along with it as she hugged him goodbye.

Han, on the other hand, shot him a look of envy yet said nothing more. He only cared about impressing Anakin, therefore thankfully kept his mouth shut. At this point, there was no room for acting like a little shit- this was, in their horny minds, a time of war. They stood in solidarity with one another.

As soon as you got back and walked through the door, he pounced on you once you’d rid yourself of your winter layers. He pressed you hard against the wall, lips on yours and tongue locked with your own as you let out an involuntary moan at the surprise sensations. The vibrations of your aroused moans were enough to make his erection almost painful.

His grip on you was firm, hands slipping beneath the fabric of your shirt and feeling every inch of your flesh as he so ravenously felt you beneath his finger tips. You were like his perfect little paradise, providing everything he could ever need and love. 

“Luke…luke…” You breathed out, pushing back against him. “You-youre…sick.”

He shook his head, breathing just as heavy as his pupils grew like the grinch’s heart. “I lied, star, I lied, okay? Please, please I need you so bad- will you let me, please?”

Oh, his begging was all you needed to hear. He pleads to have you melted your heart, and you just wanted to wrap him up with a pretty red bow like the cutest christmas present one could ask for. You felt your lips curve into a smile as you nodded, giving him the very answer he desired as you violently tugged you upstairs and to his childhood bedroom. 

He couldn't wait a second longer as he shut the door behind himself, violently slamming shut as he immediately began to unbuckle his belt, letting his pants drop to the floor as he tugged his christmas sweater over his head, messing with the golden brown locks on his head. You loved how he had seemed so pristine one moment with his hair neat and brushed back, to messy and ravenous the very next. 

His hands were on you without you getting a second more to undress yourself, almost ripping your blouse from your body as he then pushed you onto his bed, allowing giggles to slip from between your lips as he tugged the pants off from your legs.

There was so much he wanted to do to you, but so little time, it was almost unfair. He couldn’t spend all the time in the world admiring you as he usually would, needing to be quick with you instead- he loved to kiss every inch of your flesh, playing with your breasts and eating you out for hours before he could even think of being inside of you.

Shivers ran throughout your skin as you gazed at him, watching as his eyes were glossed with love and lust as he looked over you, noticing how your bra and panties matched; a bright red bow on the front of your panties that made him feel like he was about to unwrap the best christmas present ever received by man. He could feel himself throbbing, craving nothing more than to be inside you while you moan for him.

Yet you had other plans, immediately sitting up and tugging at the waistband of his boxers. You couldn’t take the sight of him like this much longer, knowing how bad he needed to be touched. His eyes said it all, and the way his mouth hung open when he looked at you. “Did I do this to you? Oh Luke…let me make it better, hm?”

“Please…” It was as if that was all he could say, all he knew as he begged and begged again. His lips were in a perfect pout, and you would have kissed them if it wasn’t for the idea of placing them somewhere more useful.

He wanted to treat you, but the feeling of you tugging the fabric that felt so tight against his cock broke him completely. He felt like a mess, and he certainly was; but a beautiful one in your eyes. 

In a second his boxers were wrapped around his ankles as your hand came to grip the base of his cock, hard and ready for you as precum leaked from the rosy tip. He was sure he might just cum right there, already letting out a strangled hum of a moan the moment you touched him.

You gave him a few pumps, nice and slow as you felt the pulsing of his veins against your palm, every inch of him begging for more. You thus ran up and along to caress his tip, a whimper falling from his lips as he pouted all over again. He was so sweet, sweet and pretty as he surrendered to you.

“-Need your mouth, oh star…please. It feels so good…” His voice was shaky, needing you more than anything right now. You couldn’t believe the state that had overcome him in only a week of being denied you. 

You adored how he begged for you like this, feeling so wanted and as if you held so much power over him all at once. You could feel the arousal pooling in your panties as you listened to the noises he revealed all because of you.

You licked a stripe up his length before you pressed your lips to the tip, placing a gentle kiss as he shivered under your touch. You couldn’t just let him wait any longer when he needed you so badly, feeling terrible for torturing him in a season so full of love and giving. 

You wrapped your lips around his head, pursing your lips to gently suck the sensitive pink head as he whimpered, fighting off the urge to thrust into your perfect mouth. Your eyes met his own as your lashes framed them so beautifully, and he thought you to appear so delicate as you pleased him like this.

As you took more of him into the velvety warmth of your wet mouth, caressing the length of his cock with your tongue and suctioning your cheeks to suck him off better as you gave a light bop of your head, he was already so very close to drifting off into ecstasy. Every stroke of your tongue had him moaning your name, craving more as his hands slipped into your hair and began to grip either side of your head, carefully guiding you to take him further until tears brimmed your eyes due to his head thrusting against the back of your throat; his mouth hung open as unintelligible noises symphonized from within him, unravelling into a true mess of a man.

He had no time to warn you as the waves of pleasure were released upon him, causing his legs to shake rather violently as he came in your mouth. Fortunately, you already found yourself quite familiar with the telltale signs, having felt the coming of his orgasm as you happily swallowed what he gave you. You took great pride in making him feel so good, such raw pleasure- you enjoyed when he lost himself in it just a little, his grip becoming firmer in time as a desire for more was spoken through moans, knowing it was okay to do so with you.

He was panting as you pulled back, his cock still hard with arousal and need as you looked up at him with the sweetest glossy eyes. You were highly aroused yourself, almost considering grinding into the mattress beneath you as you watched him calm down from the high you’d caused. He thus dropped down next to you at the edge of the bed, looking at you with nothing but love and affection, a hand on your cheek. “I’m- i’m sorry…I didn’t…didn’t mean to do that so soon.”

You placed a hand on his thigh, caressing it as he sighed so heavenly. “Don’t be sorry when you know I like making you feel good too.”

“C’mere…” He murmured, placing his fingers upon your chin as he guided you towards him, pulling you onto his lap as you gave a light gasp at the surprise of it.

He pressed a kiss to your lips that was so sweet and perfectly gentle for the few moments in which it lasted, still breathless as he so suddenly turned the two of you around in order for you to be on your back beneath him and he above you. He grinded himself against your dripping cunt, causing you to moan aloud as his pupils grew again. “Need to be inside you, pretty star…will you let me fuck you?”

The request itself melted you into a little muddle, nodding aggressively to encourage him as a smile tugged at your lips. “I’ve wanted that since we got here.”

You both chuckled, faces pink with lust as he stopped himself from ripping your panties off, instead tracing a finger over the rim in adoration before gently prying them off your legs. It felt like he was unwrapping a perfect present, just as he suspected. He noticed how wet they were, the slick of your arousal dripping from between your thighs as he removed them. 

He lined himself up between your legs, caressing your waist as he did so. He slid his tip through your slit, rubbing up against your cit as you found yourself to be the one whining this time, wanting more of him- needing more.

It wasn’t solely Luke who had been desperate. Both of you had deeply yearned for each other, already quite unable to keep your hands off of each other for more than a day as it is- and even that is impressive.

Neither one of you had time for teasing, that being quite clear as his head penetrated your entrance, causing both of you to moan in unison as he buried himself inside of you after having dreamt of it for what felt like so terribly long. His cock dragged along your walls as he drifted further inside you with ease due to the pool of arousal that he’d been the reason for.

A great fog clouded your mind as he was finally buried as far as he could go, filling you to the brim as he took this moment to relax and catch up to his very much needed breaths. He was so wound up from the past week, so eager to please both you and himself that he forgot he needed to breathe too.

You gripped the toned muscles of his upper arms, keeping him close as you pulled him flush against you. Him now acting almost as a weighted blanket. “Stay like this for a minute for me, if that's okay.”

“Yeah, yeah…” He nodded, pressing a sweet kiss to your neck as you enjoyed the feeling of him inside of you, a feeling you had missed. He could barely speak when he was revelling in the feeling of you squeezing his cock.

“I love your family but…maker…it's so hard.” As you confessed, it did not take much time for you to realise how that sounded, beginning to giggle as he did just the same.

“I mean-”

“I know, I know what you mean.” He had the cutest grin on his face as he lifted himself up just enough to press another kiss to the tip of your nose, resting his arm next to your head as he swiped a piece of hair away from your face. “I missed having you all to myself.”

He felt you clench around him as he spoke such words, holding back a grunt as he was reminded of the effect he has on you when he's being so sweet on you. “Then fuck me before they get home, hm?”

That was your signal for him to pry himself off of your chest, of which he did quite swiftly as his hands flew to your waist, holding you down firmly with care. He began to pull out, feeling the warmth of your walls around him as he pushed himself back, starting slow and steady before warming up to more.

Immediately did you throw your head back against the mattress, a muffled moan struggling to sneak past your lips as your brows furrowed together. He never took his eyes off of your face, enjoying how he affected you with just one thrust inside your cunt. You were too deprived to be less affected. 

It's funny how he was supposed to be the needy one, yet here you are, impaled on his cock as desire fills your head.

Although, it does indeed affect him just as much. His previous pleads with you for pleasure are now happily satisfied by more moans of his own as his cock drifts in and out of your pussy, picking up the pace with every thrust he takes each one faster than the last. Soon enough, he finds himself snapping his hips into your own, his thighs beginning to shake as he tries his best not to cum yet; his lips are in a pout as he finds himself whimpering all over again, denying himself to make sure you get to cum before him.

You're writhing beneath him, the head of his cock pounding into you at the perfect angle as his name passes your lips over and over again. You can feel the heat build within you as your walls clench around him, looking up to catch a glimpse of him when your eyes capture him mid moan, his lips quivering and all. 

“C-cum with me, honey…” You bring a hand to his face, pulling him down towards you as you connect with his lips. The kiss is sloppy and open mouthed as he nods, each of you erupting with sounds of pleasure as the floodgates of ecstasy begin to unleash itself.

At once, do your orgasms hit in unison, feeling his cum fill you up in strings as the warmth coats itself inside you. Your lips meet his neck as he lurches upwards on account of his release, still pounding his cock into you until the waves come to a calm halt.

You wrap your arms around him as he collapses over you, panting as one after such a climax. It takes a moment for either one of you to say anything, for you find yourselves content with the comforting silence, your breaths the only thing to be heard at this moment in time.

You love these moments, the intimacy together; whether that be before, after, or during. You like to listen to the change of his breaths, wondering what he may be thinking as he calms himself down from the high each of you were just on. 

And he likes to do just the same, of course. He could never have this with anyone else, nothing so special as what he has with you, and those breaths of which stem from a session of love making remind him of how absolutely lucky he is to have found you.

Finally, when you do eventually speak, it's to make a joke as your hot breath hits his flesh. “One hell of a christmas present.”

He snorts, feeling his lips curve against the flesh of your neck as you say it. He only then stands up, pulling out of you as his release leaks out of you and onto the fabric of the bed. With that, he pulls you up and into his arms and onto your feet before him, holding your chin with his fingertips. “You’re already mine.”

You blush, shaking your head as you attempt to hide in his chest. Of course, only Luke could make things romantic when you have his cum dripping down your legs. 

You thus chuckle a moment later, finding peace in a moment such as this once again, despite the fact that your legs may give out any second now. You pull yourself back to look at him, taking his hands in your own as you press a gentle and warm kiss to his knuckles. “I love you, Luke. Your family, just…everything.”

“I love you too.” He says back, your words remaining in the back of his mind as he pictures you as a permanent member to the Skywalker clan. “Now come on, we should get cleaned up before my parents come back- i’ll never hear the end of it if they, you know…”

You hold back from commenting on how such a sight would cause Anakin to replace all the presents with coal, knowing it would cause Luke to cringe at the very thought. 

Once each of you are showered and dressed, now safely wrapped within blankets in each other's arms with hot cocoa and a steady fire, you truly do think it to be one of the best christmas’ you've ever had.

You kiss his cheek, causing him to erupt with butterflies in the same way he did when you each had your first kiss. “Merry Christmas, Luke.”

“Merry Christmas, starlight.”

[deusvervewrites]

What were the best fics you've read this year?

I'm narrowing this down to the fics that I started reading in 2023

Genesis: AFO!Midoriya as a Vigilante, and Ashido getting OFA.

Shuten-Doriya: Transfem!Midoriya with an Oni Quirk. She and Inko end up making a highly-popular Sake brand. Hatsume and Melissa make a robot that turns communist.

CoG: The Missing Link: A MHA crossover with Psyren that adapts it to the MHA setting in a fascinating way

Hellspawn: Midoriya with a demonic Quirk

Supporting a Hero: Support course Midoriya dating OFA!URaraka. Hero!Toga.

Oops, Seiai: Midoriya is accidentally enrolled in Seiai. Shenanigans ensue.

Mechanize!: Support course Midoriya who has a Quirk, unknown to him.

Changing Gears: Come on. You already know.

Four Minutes for the Truth: Ace Attorney crossover with Ghost Trick that assumes you know the twists in Ghost Trick. Sissel has to keep Edgeworth alive

Gears & GFs: Quote the summary, "Momo hacks. Mei invents. They fall in love, meet, fight, and kiss— in that order."

Ghost of a Chance: Another Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick crossover, this time with Mia as the ghost

Heroes Beneath the Mask: Persona 5 crossover with MHA with the interesting twist of not having Joker and Midoriya roleswap.

Welcome to demon school, Izuku-kun!: Fucking read it.

When Fangirling Reaches New Heights: Fem!AFO!Midoriya is bad at being a Villain but good at flirting with OFA!Uraraka.

Good Intentions (Make Bad Excuses): Dadzawa arrests Quirkless Vigilante Midoriya in an effort to make him a Hero only to discover that he is in a Midoriya Has Trust Issues fic and just shattered the tenuous relationship he'd built

Those who Help the Heroes: Another Support!Midoriya fic, this time with online friends

Pony Tsunotori's Second Quirk: Bootleg One for All: Look there is nothing here I can say that the title doesn't.

Oops, One for All for All: Same author and description as the previous entry.

Accidental Apotheosis: Ash is actually an Arceus because his dad is secretly the Arceus. Hilarity ensues.

Ghost of Tatooine: From the author of my favorite BotW fic, this Star Wars fic is based around the idea that Anakin didn't become Darth Vader because Sideus fucking killed him and Luke can see his ghost.

Feels Like There's No Gravi-TEA!: A fluffy one-shot of Uraraka and Yaoyorozu getting together.

Grindstone and Forge: Midoriya clears extra-dimensional dungeons to gain superpowers and Yaoyorozu has OFA.

[burnwater13]

Image shows Fennec Shand, Din Djarin, and Boba Fett standing in the bombed out shell of Garsa Fwip's Sanctuary in Mos Espa. Caption reads: This is my city. These are my people. I will not abandon them. - Boba Fett Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 7, In the Name of Honor. Calendar by DateWorks.

Grogu appreciated that the Daimyo was concerned about the citizens of Mos Espa and by extension all the people on Tatooine. He seemed to understand that the people of that planet were independent, but had a hard time doing anything but the work it took to live from one day to the next. Someone was going to have to drive the syndicates off the planet and if he was that someone, well fine. He had good reasons to do it and no good reasons not to do it. Grogu supposed that was part of his nature as a Mandalorian.

Grogu would have thought that Cad Bane also understood that. He might have been Boba Fett’s mentor for some period of time (the Daimyo had told Grogu all about that) but you didn’t just absorb all the behaviors and knowledge from your mentors. Sometimes you barely picked up any of their behaviors at all. Every Jedi Master at the Temple on Coruscant had tried to improve Ian’s behaviors, but Grogu’s friend had been particularly resistant to that sort of influence, a very odd thing for a Jedi youngling. If that was the case for a Jedi youngling, Grogu couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to influence a Mandalorian youngling when you didn’t have the whole weight of Mandalore and the Creed to help you.

He could just imagine the young Boba Fett, quiet, serious, waiting to carry out whatever orders his dad had given him. Asking questions and paying attention because that’s what Mandalorian younglings were supposed to do, but only for other Mandalorians. Then a guy like Cad Bane shows up and tries to order him around and its simply chaos. Boba Fett didn’t learn by being talked at, any more than Ian had. He learned by doing things. Of course learning that way was probably a lot more physically painful, but it was undoubtedly effective if you survived. 

Grogu thought about one of the last times he had seen Ian. They had both managed to sneak into the hanger where all the starships (which were mostly small) were managed and maintained and performed an assessment of them. During their assessment, it became very clear to Grogu that his criteria for a ship and Ian’s criteria for a ship were very different. Grogu liked the ships that had large, private privies, multiple seats on the bridge, and a full galley. Since he could sleep in a hammock without much effort, he hadn’t really cared about cabins, storage, weapons, or sensor arrays. Ian, of course, was just the opposite. He wanted small nimble craft with impressive armaments, top of the line sensors, and preferably just a few hidden compartments that made hiding stuff easy. 

That meant that Ian liked the ship that Anakin Skywalker often used, while Grogu was a much bigger fan of Master Yoda’s ship. They both agreed that in a pinch, if absolutely necessary, they could deal with the ship Master Kenobi used. It met a few, but not all, of each of their requirements, but had the one benefit of being properly maintained at all times with no damage to it. Grogu wasn’t sure why that was the case, but Ian had told him you couldn’t look a gift gundark in the mouth. Grogu had replied that he hoped never to know people who thought of gundarks as gifts. Those critters were dangerous. 

“Kid, you crack me up. You’ve looked right down the gullet of some of the biggest critters I’ve ever seen and pulled Master Kenobi’s cape out before it was digested. Why would a gundark bother you?”

Grogu explained and Ian had laughed.

“Of course they smell bad on the outside. Just imagine how bad they must smell on the inside.”

Grogu hadn’t wanted to imagine that at all. 

Had that happened to Daimyo Fett when he was learning from Cad Bane? They both appreciated different things and worked out different ways to achieve their goals, but somehow, managed to work together when absolutely necessary? Or had the youngling realized that he was just safer if the scope’s target was trained on the taller man? Grogu had no doubt that Fennec operated that way. She was far more conscious of everything around her. Daimyo Fett cared about people right up to the point where they clearly demonstrated that they didn’t care about him. Then they were in trouble. 

Grogu wondered if that was a Mandalorian trait or just something that the Daimyo did? He’d let the Gamoreans work for him because they were willing to pledge their loyalty to him. He’d forgiven Krrsantan because he didn’t consider it the Wookiee’s fault that he had ended up working for the Hutt Twins. He obviously got along well with Din Djarin and Fennec. But somehow, somewhere, Cad Bane had crossed a line and the Master of Mos Espa was not tolerating that. 

There was probably something in the Creed about mentors not attacking their students. Yes, you could test them. Obviously. You had to see how well your training had worked. But betray them? Nope. That was probably like taking your helmet off, or selling your beskar, or refusing to help another Mandalorian. If you did it, you were out. 

Cad Bane was definitely out. Bounty hunter rules must have been a lot less strict than Mandalorian rules and Boba Fett wasn’t about to forgive that. Grogu just hoped that the people of Mos Espa appreciated how much the Daimyo cared about them and Tatooine. They had a chance to make their own way now with a person who was willing to do the hard work they hadn’t been able to handle. Maybe they would have a celebration and take the time to appreciate all the good the Daimyo had brought into their lives? 

They could call it “Mandalorian Foundling Appreciation Day” or maybe just ‘Thanksgiving’? Either way, Grogu was glad that he knew the Daimyo and that counted for something.

Boba Fett speaking to Cad Bane (out of frame) while standing on the streets of Mos Espa, Tatooine. Caption reads: I will not abandon them. - Boba Fett. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 7, In the Name of Honor.

[briliantlymad]

Do you have any Star Wars fanfic recommendations? Especially Anakin centered. <3 Daddy Anakin if possible.

beloved you've come at the right time because i've been slowly going through my star wars bookmarks for like. the 10th time. I hope you enjoy these

there but for the grace of god is a fix it with dadkin sprinkled throughout.

The Exiled is a darth vader lives au. Anakin, Leia and Ben solo centric. it gets the fxcked up relationship between all three of them so well. Also WOO Grandad Anakin lesgo

Grounded Dad Darth Vader. He's trying with luke and the effort counts

Well It goes Like This Dad Anakin but not with the twins and instead with a gaggle of kids he saves during order 66

The Sunrise Fix it. Parents Anidala who realise that a life after war is a lot harder to get used to. it's a good series i love it.

Little Pilots Rebel AU. Anakin bonding with his kids its fucking adorable.

Shades in the Desert Force Ghost Anakin finding out that parenting is a lot harder when your baby is growing up on tatooine and he's the only who can see you

The kind that was burned first Obikin and the twins as babies time travelled and anakin gets the chance to be a parent. its got less dadakin than you'd want but its a good fic with the little bits it does have.

Jupiter Anakin raises the twins while hiding from the empire and its so precious i love it.

Shatterpoints Emperor Vader who raises his kids and ends up actually being good at the emperor bit cus he's purged the senate of every palpy supporter. Still Crazy Cakes but i think i'd describe his chara as a "good dictator" sjsjsjsjsj. very cute Leia and Luke moments im ngl.

There ya go. a perfect 10 out of the last 10 pages of my 50 pages of Star wars bookmarks.

Some are obikin some are anidala. they're all very good. def teared up at some of these.

[lizartgurl]

Namesake (Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo)

"Anakin?" He murmured, "You... You named him after me?"

"She pulled the childbirth card on me," Han chuckled, holding up Jacen so that he could get a good view of the baby in the bassinet while Jaina stood on her tiptoes and held onto the edge of the cradle.

Leia smiled smugly, "Jaina is named after your mother. It's my turn."

"I think it's wonderful," Padme wrapped her arms around Anakin's and placed a kiss on his cheek. Anakin could only stare at the child in complete awe.

"Congratulations, Leia," Luke leaned over the bed to kiss his sister's forehead, slipping a box of chocolates onto the nightstand.

"Thank you," Leia grinned, helping herself to the chocolates while Jacen and Jaina were distracted with their baby brother.

"Can I hold him? Pleeeeeeease?" Jaina begged.

"You need to be sitting down, okay princess?" Han said. He motioned to plastic cushioned armchair in the corner, half-hidden behind a fake plant that was supposed to liven up the room. Jaina scrambled across the room, and once his feet found the ground, Jacen was hot on her heels, trying to share.

"Gerroff!" Jaina smacked a hand across Jacen's face.

"I wanna hold him too!" Jacen insisted.

"I wanted to first!"

"Jacen," Padme smoothly scooped Jacen up into her arms for the time being, "Jaina asked first. It wasn't nice of you to to try and keep her from doing what was asked of her."

"But I wanna hold him too!" Jacen whined.

Leia sighed, sinking back into the pillows. Han quickly fluffed up two of the spare pillows, sliding them behind her back to make her more comfortable.

"Now while I'm sure your baby brother appreciates all the attention, if you two are gonna fight over him, Nana's gonna have to put you in timeout."

"Hey, why do I have to be the one to put them in timeout?" Padme glared at her son-in-law.

"Because Dad's the fun one," Luke chuckled unhelpfully.

"Because I can't enforce anything right now. I have to take care of my wife, who has just been through a long and arduous birth. Also, you're their grandma, they'll actually listen to you."

Padme sighed, "Fine. If you two don't behave, you'll get timeout."

"NO!" Jaina and Jacen both protested.

"I'll be good!" Jacen said, "I promise! I wanna hold the baby too!"

During all this commotion, Anakin had made his way over to the bassinet. Despite all the noise,his namesake wasn't fussy at all. Little Anakin looked right back at him with his big infant eyes, as blue as the skies of Tattooine, with hair as sandy brown as the Dune Sea to match.

"Do you want to hold him, Dad?" Leia asked softly.

Anakin took a step back and shook his head, "Jaina asked first."

"I asked first!" Jaina echoed in delight. She was seated on the chair, as patiently as a three-year-old could, with her little pigtails swinging back and forth as she bounced in excitement.

Leia smiled, "Han, dear, would you go get me my nerf sausage sandwich?"

"Yes sweetheart," Han's eyes twinkled at the familiar banter with his wife and kissed her forehead.

Leia nodded to her father as Han set on his errand, "Would you mind passing the baby to Jaina, dad?"

She was just as clever as her mother, with his stubbornness to match.

Anakin knew how to hold babies. He'd carried Luke and Leia throughout the Rebellion against the Empire, protecting them against the blaster bolts from determined bounty hunters and zealous inquisitors set on impressing the Emperor.

He'd held Jacen and Jaina when they'd been born too, shielding them from the monsters under the bed and teaching them about their connection to the force.

So why did this child feel so exceptional? So different?

Anakin lay his namesake along the length of his prosthetic arm, his hand under the delicate cranium, and balancing him there there with his other hand.

"Hey kid," He whispered, slowly making his way across the room to Jaina.

Little Ani stared back at him, wriggling insistently with tiny "Eh, Eh," noises of effort.

"He's so quiet," Padme murmured appreciatively.

"For the love of force, do not jinx us," Han begged.

Anakin knelt next to Jaina.

"Make a cradle with your arms," He instructed, and waited until Jaina had done so before gently placing her baby brother in her arms.

"If you keep your arm under his neck, you can support his head. Then he can look up at you."

Jaina squinted at her brother.

"He has blue eyes."

Anakin chuckled, "Yes, he does."

"But me and Jasa have brown eyes!"

"And Momma and Papa!" Jacen added.

"How does he have blue?" Jaina was utterly perplexed.

"Hey, I have blue eyes!" Luke pointed out.

"And so do I," Anakin leaned in close so that Jaina could see.

Jaina leaned in closer, and Anakin slipped his hand under Little Ani's head just in case.

Jaina shook her head, "You're eyes aren't blue. They're gray."

Padme couldn't hold back a snort at Anakin's expense.

"Okay, okay," Han said, "Why doesn't Jacen have a turn?"

After Jacen had gotten a chance to hold the baby and Han had snapped every angle the holocam would let him, the twins were utterly bored. Luke took them in search of the mess hall, leaving Anakin and Padme with Leia, Han, and the baby.

Padme was seated in the guest chair, cooing at her newest grandchild, and Han sat on the bed with Leia, watching everyone tiredly.

"Do you need us to leave you to your rest?" Anakin asked his daughter.

Leia shook her head, "Later, probably, but I'm just glad we're all here now."

"We can bring the twins back again later. If we end up having to move again, you won't do anyone any good being on bed rest," Padme reminded her.

Leia bit her lip nervously, and Anakin saw something shimmering in her eye.

"We'll have a lifetime to spend with this one. I promise I can always wait."

A tear slid down Leia's cheek, "Yeah, yeah, a lifetime..." she raised a hand to wipe it away, but Han was already there.

"Oh sweetheart," He whispered.

Tears streamed down her face as Leia reached for her baby. Her throat was too tight to speak any words. Padme placed Little Anakin in her arms and Leia held the newborn close.

Anakin breathed in deeply to control his anger. Palpatine had groomed him and stolen his entire childhood, marring it with sly suggestions and half-baked advice, excusing actions he couldn't come back from. He would not let the same thing happen to his grandson.

Anakin knelt at the side of her bed and placed a hand on her knee.

"It's going to be okay, Leia, I promise."

In the relative quiet of the room, a vision opened up to Anakin and his daughter. Three young Jedi, standing on the horizon, lightsabers blazing from their silhouetted forms as an endless stream of starships shot by overhead, representing thousands upon thousands of Jedi, rising to take the place of the old Jedi Order.

The last time Anakin had one of these visions, it prophesied the downfall of the Jedi, and his own potential to fall down the path of the darkside. He had not let himself succumb to one of these visions in many years, even after Luke insisted that he spoke with the apparition of Obi-Wan, Anakin's beloved brother. But this one was different. This one spoke peace and comfort to Anakin and his daughter.

As the vision faded, Leia drew in deep breaths to calm herself. She had seen the same thing that Anakin had.

The future of the Jedi.

[a-random-pillow]

Absolutely Random Star Wars AU

Made with Wheel Spin:

Reble Crew 

Poilet/Leader: Thrawn

Brawler/Figther: Rex

Gunder/Mechanic: Anakin

Jedi/Force user: Hera

Team Son/Daugther: Ezra

Droid: R2D2

Imperials

Leader: Obi-Wan

2nd: Leia

Mad Scinisteist: Sabine

Goon 1: Zeb

Goon 2: Han Solo

Future Traitor: Chopper

Inquisitor/Sith: Kallus

Droid: C3-PO

Others

Fulkerum: Maul 

Not Imp Sith: Luke

Pirate: Ashoka

Exiled Jedi: Mace 

Force Ghost: Kannan

New Mandalore: Cody

Bounty Hunter: Chewbacca 

Thoughts:

This ghost/rebel crew is a freaking mess! Thraw is leading which means the crew has to deal with regular art exertions and the blue man rarely explains his plans! I assume Anakin just kinda shows up on Thrawn's doorstep after Order 66 with Rex and R2 and Thrawn just decided to help him overthrow the government.

Since Kannan is a ghost and Hera is a Jedi... FORCE GHOST ROMANCE TIME BOISS!! Kannan dies in order 66 despite Depa's best efforts but he sticks around for... reasons idk. He meets Hera who is force sensitive in this AU and I assume he tries to teach her how to be a Jedi. They end up falling in love, despite Kannan being dead.

 Maybe Kannan is still the one who finds Ezra, he is still meant to be the boy's master but the kid can't see him yet. So he calls Hera who helps him adopt his son. Of course, Thrawn, Anakin and Rex are also space dads.

OMG Evil Obi with Evil Leia holy shit. Obi-Wan is a Sith with Leia as his apprentice, if Mustafar happens he probably thinks Anakin is dead so he raises Luke and Leia. Palps is probably dead as well since Obi is a Sith. Since Luke is a rogue Sith I assume he bailed on the empire because he is a good boy. He is probably trying to be a Jedi but he has zero clue how to or what it means to be a Jedi. 

Sabine and Leia are evil BFFs(Or gfs) and I love them for it. Zeb and Kallus are also gay and evil. Ashoka joins Hondo's crew, Maul is being a sneaky bastard helping the rebellion, and Cody is a king! Somehow I imagine this Mandalore is the most functional we've seen in a while. Chewy and Han are still friends I imagine, even though ones are an imp and the other is a bounty hunter. Mace is a depressed Grandpa who is very happy to find out he got a great-grand padawan and is less happy when he finds out Skywalker has 25% Custody.

All that not even mentioning the drama between the Skywalker twins feeling like they got replaced by Ezra. Anakin being that Obi took the kids and Obi-wan just wants them all to be a happy family(Yes even the ghost crew). This would be wild!

[allronix]

Given some of what went down in Legends (see Arren Kae), the fear wouldn't be unjustified.

Now what bugs me is that if I'm following Lucas's logic correctly, Anakin could have a hit and quit hookup with Padme ("Jedi can have sex but not attachment"), tell her "Good luck with that" when she announces a pregnancy, then he ghosts her, never makes contact with his kids, and the Jedi dutifully conscript them upon birth because Force Sensitivity of "yes," making sure they never saw one another or Anakin...then THAT would be the acceptable and preferred way to handle the situation instead of it being a classic case of deadbeat dad.

And that the fact he wanted to be both a responsible husband and father as well as fulfilling his obligations to the Republic and war effort is what made him greedy.

Yikes, this was not the best set of implications to put on the table.

☐ single

☐ taken

☑ thinking about the scene in dooku: jedi lost where yoda and dooku are discussing a jedi named yula braylon who secretly had a son and hid him out of fear that the jedi would hate her for it, aka the exact fear anakin had with padme in rots, and yoda confirmed that if she had told the council, the council would have helped her, just like they would have helped anakin:

[phoenixyfriend]

Fake Sith TCW Trio

I have another fucked up time-travel AU! Who’s surprised? (Nobody.)

So like. Have you guys read that one fic where Luke and his students go back in time and pretend to be Sith Lords and are super hammy about it? (Sith Lord Swell by AMournfulHowlInTheNight)

This AU has contributions by @atagotiak, @the-lunar-system, @purronronner, @gelpenss, @creepingthroughthistidalwave, and @thisarenotarealblog.

I want TCW trio (plus Rex and Cody) to go back to several years pre-TPM and, since the Council DEFINITELY won't believe them about the Sith being back... they'll force the issue.

Anakin is weirdly excited about things and building up their backstory.

Anakin: Okay so I can definitely be a Maul type, with the unhinged ranting and manic laughter, Obi-Wan can be the whole Refined Rich Guy type like Dooku, where you can't even tell he's evil until he starts talking about getting out the eyeball scoops, maybe toss in a bit of mad science stuff? Ahsoka could play up like Ventress OR, oh oh, she can be the Light Side Child we need to PROTECT who's publicly begging us to return to the Light after our big dramatic Falls where we murdered like eighty people to save her, and-- Obi-Wan: Why are you never this enthusiastic about actual undercover missions. Ahsoka: Did you just have all this ready to go, or...? Anakin: WE COULD GET YELLOW CONTACT LENSES FOR ME.

Obi-Wan: How's my evil laugh?

Anakin going “Okay.. so if any of us need to murder someone to sell the bit it should be me, I think I could handle it the best. Why? No reason.”

Obi-Wan: I'm not sure a complete Fall could come from protecting Ahsoka, really-- Anakin: No, no, it could.

Obi-Wan: Surely you’d hold back because you realize neither of us want that for you. Anakin: Uh. Sure. Definitely.

Obi-Wan points out that none of them can channel the dark side to Prove they're Sith and Anakin just goes "Okay, give me like two seconds to stew in my negativity and--right, you can stop staring in horror, please."

Anakin rambles on that they can TOTALLY make the galaxy a better place while playing at being Sith! He's got a whole LIST of slave empires to "take over" and disassemble!

Anakin has a whole excited spiel about how EVIL soldiers and assistants are minions, in this case partly because Cody and Rex are too good at what they do to be mooks. Cody could pull off evil minion very well. Facial scar? Looks good in black? Quietly competent and sarcastic?

He also pushes for Obi-Wan to lounge in a fancy throne with a glass of wine while Anakin stalks the shadows and Ahsoka hangs out on the window ledge. The disaster lineage is dramatic, okay, Anakin’s just leaning into it, he’d appreciate it if everyone stopped looking at him like that.

Qui-Gon, surprisingly, ends up a skeptic about all of this. Everyone is freaking out about the Sith and he’s like “y’know I’m not even sure they’re darksiders.”

Some Jedi, possibly Qui-Gon for his conspiracy board, gets in a real risky situation and one of the Fake Sith saves them, but also panics and kinda drops character for a bit.

Jedi: You saved me! Why’d you do that? Anakin: I uh... just wanted the pleasure of killing you myself?

"You saved me. Why?" "Mmmm. Jedi." [walks away]

Qui-Gon: [trying to figure out what is up with these people semi-competently (from his perspective) pretending to be Sith] Dooku: [trying to protect Qui-Gon from Sith influence]

The gang is the most successful at pretending to be Sith to Dooku. Sure, they’re not gonna punish him for something he hasn’t done, but it’s not hard to act menacing and angry around him.

(They really do have so much fun irritating the heck out of Dooku. He hasn’t Fallen yet, but they want to keep an eye out.)

At some point, future Obi-Wan definitely drops that little tidbit of "What, you didn't think the Banites were the only Sith running around did you? You... didn't even know about the Banites. How... disappointing."

They REGULARLY use Ahsoka as an excuse to be marginally less terrible. They claim that if Ahsoka pouts, they stop. ‘Soka also uses them as an excuse for why she’s a lil feral. (To be fair, that one is accurate. She was already a lil feral before but it’s not like they did anything to stop it.) Ahsoka gets her "breaking into people's offices" jollies by bugging Nute Gunray's office.

The Jedi keep trying to Rescue Ahsoka.

Rex and Cody end up in real beskar, there's a whole Thing with Mandalore and Jango and Satine.

Obi-Wan is CONSISTENTLY worried about Anakin Falling for real, which... hey, at least he knows to be worried about Anakin Falling. Step up from canon, really.

Anakin is WAY too into killing the Hutts but like. It does... technically sell the bit.

Obi-Wan: Sure, I’m not sad that they’re dead, especially because we’re not connected to the Republic, so we don’t need to worry about starting a war and all that. But. Anakin is disturbingly cheerful about this. Rex: Wasn't he a Hutt slave? Obi-Wan: Well yes, but-- Rex: I'd kill Nala Se if I could get away with it.

Cody and Rex are very supportive of Anakin's murderous intentions.

Obi-Wan does understand anger, even killing someone in anger. Like Maul (the first time at least) and D’nar and a few others. All the same, like... y’know. The level of bloodthirst from the others is a little off-putting.

At one point, Anakin accidentally addresses young Obi-Wan by name, despite never having met before, and to cover it up, he... panic-flirts. He panics, and so he flirts, with young Obi-Wan.

(He will later blame this on old Obi-Wan, because he had to pick up the habit of flirting with the enemy from somewhere.)

Anakin vaguely implies that he's a wee bit obsessed with young Obi, and that the padawan should "get used to being the target of a dark-sider's interests," because he’s scrambling for Ominous Shit and, well, future Obi-Wan was pretty frequently a fixation point for darksiders, right?

The second he gets out, he just starts screaming into a bucket while Rex pats him on the back.

For the next however many terrible months, possibly years, he has to keep up the act while having an ongoing meltdown about how That's My Dad As A Twenty-Something.

(It doesn't help that young Obi-Wan reflexively flirted back.)

Old Obi-Wan, meanwhile, is just very "you dug this hole yourself, padawan."

There is an argument at the beginning about Obi-Wan’s outfit. If he’s gonna be a Sith, he can’t just go around in beige, but he’s like “I like this and it’s comfy.” Sure, he’s changed clothes for undercover stuff, but that’s always been temporary, y’know? He likes his beige.

We have a number of options.

My first instinct? Beige linen three piece suit, like a southern lawyer. "Now I may just be a simple Outer Rim force adept--"

And, of course, you can TOTALLY make the beige sinister: he’s impersonating a Jedi! Jedi impersonation would also explain why nobody has a red saber.

“Sure is good that the Jedi don’t seem to realize most of the galaxy doesn’t know red sabers are different and bad.” “Shhhh, stop poking holes in our story where a Jedi might overhear.”

Like.... if you do enough doublethink, it works! How would a Sith hide? In plain sight. Also, it’s a GREAT way (if they were actually assholes) to try to slander the Jedi name.

(Anakin and Ahsoka still think he could stand to put a little more effort in. Add a splash of color, for pity's sake!)

Though tbh part of me is like “What if Old Obi wore, like... a split skirt suit...” Victorian womenswear inspired because he misses his robes, but he has to look Professional, and like he's MOCKING Jedi instead of BEING one, so he wears a vintage-y split skirt thing over his leggings. Ends up looking a lot like what Ventress had for a while, but Beige. I also keep wanting to put him regency menswear.

Anyway. Obi-Wan’s wardrobe aside...

Anakin builds up his Tatoo accent again. It helps him with the (mostly true) "slavery helped me fall" backstory.

Either Cody or Rex offhandedly mentions being made to serve them (the Fake Sith) and now the Jedi are somewhat concerned about brainwashing. Are these Mandos the victims here?

“No like. Literally made for this. In a lab.” This is even more horrifying. So...

On the one hand good! The Jedi should be scared about Sith! On the other hand... it makes the Jedi more determined to stop them, specifically. They keep on getting in the way, just, all the time, and they’re not investigating the actual Sith problem, which is decidedly not great since the Team doesn’t actually know who’s a real Sith right now, except Maul, and who even knows where that guy is.

Obi-Wan, at some point: Do you think we've succeeded at this ruse... a little TOO well? Anakin: I don't follow. Obi-Wan, gesturing at the truly obnoxious amount of wealth they've collected, including "trophies" of their kills: Really? Because I'm a little worried! Anakin, planning out a battle to take on Nar Shadda: ...I'm not.

"How many people do we realistically we need to take over Hutt Space? Apparently... five."

(Mostly because Anakin is ridiculously op.)

ANAKIN AND YOUNG OBI GET KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES TOGETHER. It's tradition.

Anakin: Okay, so, I need to get really angry about something to pass as a Sith... time to think about my WIFE and how I'll NEVER SEE HER AGAIN.

Since Anakin’s life never goes as planned... this does not work. Instead of getting properly angry, he makes himself sad. There are tears. There is wailing. There’s a distraught rant or two. Young Obi ends up awkwardly trying to comfort him.

“Oh no, this… Sith?? Is crying on me. What do I do???”

Later on, when the Council wants intel: "So... one of the Sith cried on me about his wife. I think she's dead? He wasn't very clear about it but it, uh... it sounded like it might have contributed to his Fall. Also the relationship was a little unhealthy? He basically worshiped the ground she walked on and kept ranting about how he would have given her the galaxy on a platinum platter of she'd only asked, but that might be new and inspired by the Dark."

One of the random Jedi is REALLY good at detecting the truth Through The Force, and asks Anakin how he Fell...

Anakin just. Tells the Tuskens story.

They don't get pinged as lying, but oh boy does old Obi have a LOT of questions for Anakin once they're in private.

There are other things happening to help sell the ruse. Some of them are necessary! Some of them are... not.

Obi-Wan: What's the best way to show we're rich and kind of evil, but like... classy about it? Anakin, immediately: I sit on the floor next to the throne, leaning against it, and you call me pet names while stroking my hair, and then when you need something killed I get to do it for you and then I go back to the floor and you thank me for the directed violence, and then you go back to Negotiations with criminals while I’m sitting there covered in blood. Obi-Wan: ...is there something you want to TELL us, or...?

"You're all going to get a glimpse of something normally kept hidden about me." "Anakin, you don't have to do that." "No, I'm gonna."

(Anakin has decided hes going to peel his kink tomato to sell this ruse, and the others are slightly uncomfortable with that.)

Anakin: Okay, I cannot keep flirting with you. Young Obi: Wait, what? But that's the best part of any time we run into you! Anakin: You look WAY too much like my Master did when I met him. Obi: O...kay? If someone looked like my master when HE was young, I'd-- Anakin: My Sith Master half-raised me. He's basically my dad. Obi: ... Anakin: What's that look for? Obi: I mean, you spend a lot of time lounging at his feet, and, like, given how much you hate slavery, I... kind of assumed it was a kink thing? Anakin, brightly: Oh no, I just have a LOT of trauma. And neuroses. Snips says they’re neuroses.

Young Obi is a little upset because he was actually getting REALLY into Flirting With The Enemy and was hoping it would go somewhere. He mopes to Qui-Gon about it. Qui-Gon isn't sure whether to be proud about Obi breaking rules, or worried over Obi-Wan falling for a Fake Sith.

(As Tia put it: "You enjoy making young Obi-Wan have a completely unrequited crush on Anakin, don’t you?")

Fortunately, one of those attractive Young Mando boys very kindly helped him tape up his ribs this one time, and has thus caught his eye...

I feel like having Cody date Young Obi would court an entirely different kind of (internet) drama because clone ages, but whatever.

Also please imagine an element of "so I'm dating the genetic identical of my boss... who's dating the man I'm a genetic identical of..."

(It's probably not actually Jangobi but man would that be funny and also stupid.)

Somehow Young Obi figures out that the "Sith Master" is a future him before he realizes that they're not actually dark. In his defense, Anakin was pretty convincing. Especially with the wife rant. It makes HIM more obsessed with Anakin, in a reversal of the implied earlier dynamic, which is all kinds of weird. Less romantic but like. Still weird.

"Future Me Scares Me" with Extra stupid. "Future Me Annoys Me." "Future Me acts like grandmaster Dooku, but more sass." "Future Me raised a really hot evil guy that refuses to bang Present Me." "Future Me might be a Sith, but I'm getting more and more convinced he's just fucking with us all." "Future Me is really rocking that beard, and I can't BELIEVE we figured out a way around the babyface."

"I’m kinda concerned about the whole evil thing, but I’m also glad that I know I’ll stay hot as I get older."

Quinlan approves of the priorities.

Also a lot of interactions with older Obi are very Anakin: [does/says something deeply unhinged] Obi-Wan: So, do you want to…. Talk about that? Maybe? Anakin: What’s there to talk about?? I’m fine, everything’s fine! Anyways how about those plans for tracking down Maul?

Anakin later, like way after the ruse is lifted, just blankly tells everyone that he did Fall, once, and Older Obi made him get therapy about it after the truth came out between the two of them a few months into the Fake Sith thing.

Where'd they find a therapist? I'm sure there's one SOMEWHERE around. Denon and Herdessa are close enough, and they've done enough "your criminal empire now belongs to me" that they can pay well. They make sure to find one that takes confidentiality real seriously.

It's all very "we need some more time to unpack all that."

Therapy helps get Anakin to figure out Sheev’s whole deal. They don't necessarily figure out he’s a Sith from it, but they figure out he’s sketchy and they need to look into that more. Obi-Wan probably already thought he was sketchy, but the whole active gaslighting campaign was a little surprising. They realize that he kinda benefited a lot from a lot of Sith plots and they still probably don’t think he’s a Sith but Obi-Wan is definitely starting to think he’s working with one.

"Okay, we're already bugging Gunray, should we bug Palpatine just to be safe?"

They get away with a lot of slicing because Anakin is a technical genius from twenty years in the future.

The reasons they're so good at Taking Over Hutt Space: 1. They know parts of the future. 2. They have superpowers and FAR less reason to not use them, now that their actions aren't going to reflect on the Republic. 3. They have Cody and Rex, who are two of the greatest military minds in the galaxy, and know EXACTLY how to wage a war that covers a solid third of the galaxy, starting from a position of relative weakness. 4. Anakin's charisma is scary high, and his knowledge of slave culture means they gain a lot of trust from the people they free, and they just... keep acquiring volunteers for the army they didn't plan to have. Obi-Wan doesn't know what to do. He thinks they might have started a cult?

In his defense, Dooku sort of started a cult, and Komari got kidnapped by a cult, brainwashed into joining it properly, and then took it over as head figure of said cult. It's practically tradition!

Comics Vader is the central figure of like three different cults, it was really just inevitable.

Anakin: Aw, don't worry master, it's not a cult, it's a revolution! Ahsoka: They're worshiping him, though. Anakin: ...it's still a revolution! Just... with some misunderstandings.

Also, if they got wind of people trying to keep people from being able to leave and other culty stuff like that, they’d probably put a stop to it pretty damn quick.

Names! Time for names. As per usual, it's easiest to keep track of Obi-Wan's alternate Older Self by just calling him Ben.

Darth Ben.

Ahsoka: You should be Darth Boring. Obi-Wan: I can still make you run laps, you know.

Anakin: The Force is telling me to call myself Darth Vader. Obi-Wan: ...why? Anakin: I dunno, but it sounds cool, I'll run with it.

Someone: Ben has all the answers; we shouldn’t question him, ever. Ben: One time I lost a planet, and a five-year-old found it for me.

More options: Going with the "evil word with the prefix 'in' chopped off" that we get with Sidious and Vader: Darth Surrectus (as in insurrection) Just random Latin words: Darth Temporus (time) Darth Commenticius (fake)

Anyway, back to Nonsense:

Maul goes after young Obi early, because the Fake Sith are really invested in this one random Padawan (Sidious is saying he might be a cousin of the false Sith Master? They do look similar enough) so someone needs to investigate. Naturally, Anakin shows up with some wild screeching to fight Maul, and when someone questions why he got involved it gets very "Kenobi is MINE!" and like. Okay. So.

Anakin means it in a very Sith "to toy with" and "to torture" way, or the ‘my chosen opponent!’ way, just the same kind of Obsession as Maul had with Obi-Wan in the original timeline. Unfortunately, Anakin’s a weird-ass person who flirts with Young Obi against his own better judgement, so there's some awkward "Like... your boyfriend?" from young Obi. Anakin just screeches in SOME emotion that nobody wants to interpret, and couldn't even if they wanted to, and starts whacking away at Maul again.

(Anakin hasn't explained the "you look exactly like my dad, sorry, it's just too weird" thing yet, and he is HAVING MANY REGRETS.)

There's definitely at least one instance where a person asks Anakin if he's planning on dating That One Jedi Twink, or at least banging out the tension. At that point in time, Anakin doesn't actually know who the fuck they're talking about, because "Obi-Wan + Twink = Does Not Compute" for dear, dense Ani, and instead he just ends up ranting about how he is LOYAL TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LATE WIFE, how DARE anyone so much as INSINUATE that he would TARNISH HER PERFECT MEMORY and UNWAVERING KINDNESS and WHOLESOME BEING, and the person who asked doesn't end up lightsabered but they do end up with a LOT to tell whoever they're reporting to.

Young Obi-Wan definitely hears Anakin mutter the phrase “something to discuss with my therapist later” a few times, and he’s a little bewildered because darksiders definitely don’t seem like the type of people to go to therapy. They’re the type of people to need therapy, sure, but not the type to go to therapy.

I think it would be very fun for Young Obi to continue sighing over Anakin (who's pretending to be fine with it and even flirting back because he's in too deep to stop and hasn't worked up the courage to explain the elephant in the room) while Anakin is covered in grease and infodumping while having a slightly manic hyperfocus on engine repairs while the two of them Somehow got stranded together in the middle of bumfuck nowhere (it's Plagueis's doing, he finds the interactions between THESE two in particular to be the most informative regarding the fake Sith).

Anakin, at some point while stranded with young Obi-Wan, and having actually started unpacking some stuff in therapy, though he’s def still got a ways to go: I’m pretty sure Ben cares about me. He acts like he cares, like he’ll do stuff like put extra blankets in my quarters in the spaceship because I get cold real easily or track down those droid parts I need for a project and he always has my back in a fight but y’know it’d be nice to hear him say he loves me once in a while. Especially because we kinda had a rough start and idk I don’t think he wanted me around at first.

And uh. Obi-Wan definitely relates to that a bit too much, y’know?

I want to say that Young Obi ends up mentioning All That to one of the clones or Ahsoka later, because they seem probably invested in Anakin's well-being, even if Ben is, well, a Sith, so Obi-Wan's a little worried the man's affection really is fake, but at least Ahsoka...

(Ironic, given what Anakin's actual eventual Sith would-be-Master was like.)

Young Obi mentions Anakin’s most recent rant to Ahsoka, and she just goes "Wait, is that why Skyguy likes to sit by the throne and get called pet names?" "Uh... I don't... know... but it sounds like all of you have a LOT to unpack there, Miss Apprentice."

Later on: "Master Kenobi, you need to tell Skyguy you love him 'cause apparently he's been having a lot of emotions about you not telling him you care and he's been talking to mini-you about it whenever they get stuck together and--"

Young Obi-Wan is just constantly the "Now we don't have time to unpack all of that" John Mulaney gif. Anakin in particular is a mess, and young Obi-Wan slowly goes from "I want to date that" to "I want to study that" about him.

Obi-Wan gets stuck somewhere with Ben, tries to small talk, gets on the topic of Vader, and spills the drama. He gets an awkward “Thank you for bringing that to my attention.”

It’s followed by a fairly frustrated “I try, but Anakin refuses to communicate his needs to me, and it feels like I’m always falling short.”

At least one member of the group is in therapy, probably all of them, but they’re still using young Obi as a sounding board for all this stuff. On the bright side, this is probably good for impressing the importance of good communication on Obi-Wan.

Good for Obi-Wan! And... whatever Padawan he eventually has.

As for baby Anakin, who is approximately age four, I want to go with "Anakin decides to be his own uncle, and Shmi just rolls with it because fuck it, she’s not a slave anymore, and a Fake Sith is a solid defense against anyone trying to re-enslave them."

[This is a backstory I've had them use before (see here and here).]

Seeing Big Ani and Little Ani in the same space might be what finally pings the "oh shit, that's future me" thing for Obi-Wan... you know, if he’s ever allowed close enough to see Little Ani in the first place.

Little Ani stays with the fake-Sith and is sorta jointly trained by all of them, and young Obi-Wan teaches little 'Soka at the Temple. Ani and 'Soka still end up friends somehow, but it is fairly different.

Every time little Ani addresses Old Obi as "Dad," it's just like ten kinds of awkward. The one time someone tried to explain that Ben wasn't his new dad, Shmi glared them down. She is of the opinion that, all the gods be damned, Ani deserves to refer to the most mature man in his life, who raised another him in another timeline already, as a father.

Ani doesn't NEED a father, Shmi herself is more than enough, but he does deserve to have this if he wants it.

An alternative conclusion to the time travel is uh. So the Mandalorians are genetically identical (give or take a hair gene) and really resemble Jango Fett, though whether anyone notices that is up in the air. Then the three ‘Sith’ (two fake Sith and their morality chain tag-along) have three younger, identical copies show up….

It could be really weird cloning shenanigans. Now, it makes no sense that they’d make clones, and stagger their production like that, and leave them as babies on various planets for Jedi to find. IDK what reasons Obi-Wan would come up with for that, but it’s a fun little detour before he gets to time travel.

There's a really painful moment (for the audience, who know about canon Vader) where someone tries to convince Ahsoka to leave the Sith and she's just like "no way, they'd never hurt me!” Then she clarifies that “someone has to keep them from doing stupid Sith shit whenever they get bored, you know?"

A bunch of Jedi probably think she’s delusional, but the few that have seen her get into trouble that is legitimately too much for her, which isn't often, have then seen Anakin show up like the devil himself to save her, and it's like. Oh. This is why she isn't scared of them hurting her.

We’ve discussed how Anakin does get concerningly in character with the fake Sith thing. However, Anakin and Ahsoka are, just once in a while, surprised by how Ben gets sometimes when playing the bad guy.

After all, he stabbed a dude with a fork and threatened to eat him during his time as Hardeen…

He has the same dramatic streak as all the rest of the lineage. He can be vindictive and creepy and scary as fuck.

HOWEVER:

Obi-Wan: I know I'm supposed to be playing at evil right now, but how do we feel about me making that evil a little... fruity? Ahsoka: Fruity, master? Anakin, who knows where this is going: [buries face in hands] Obi-Wan: You know, the... [limp wrist] Ahsoka: ... Obi-Wan: I mean, I'm already bisexual and well-groomed, I can play it up.

What’s the point of being evil if you can’t be flamboyant?

Anyway, I had to put in a lot of thought for what to do with Rex and Cody, because there's a solid place for them in terms of strategy, but it doesn't do much to give them independent narrative arcs, and 'young Obi-Wan has a crush' isn't much of an arc, you know?

So, basic info first: Cody, Rex, and Anakin all hold the rank of General in this AU because, like... who else is gonna. Ahsoka remains a commander because everyone declares her Baby, and also to keep up the "I'm a morality chain" ruse.

Cody maintains a very stern and unyielding public persona, but the second they're behind closed doors, he's roughhousing with his little brother.

Rex has some fun pretending to be a sadist whenever he and Anakin have to team up, because hamming it up as an evil bastard in front of Jedi is actually really fun... but usually, he's a competent fucking professional.

Because here's the thing: someone has to be.

They both kind of hate the army they've gotten, because these people don't even have proper trigger discipline, let alone any actual discipline.

This army? Tragic. They hate it. Give them the clones.

They have to be drill sergeants for months before they have anything worth sending onto the field.

I think that might be how/when they end up reaching out to Jango. Like, the first inroad is absolutely "we're your clones from the future and you were a Shit Dad so you owe us," but then they actually talk him around into letting the Fake Sith hire him. He brings along all the Mandalorians he can get to answer his calls, and on suggestion from Those Mando Twins, joins the army Ben doesn't even want.

Darth Boring doesn't want an army! Unfortunately, Cody thinks that's stupid as hell, and is overruling Ben so they can actually work on this 'cleaning up the galaxy of slavery' thing with actual resources.

Cody and Rex are super competent, and it shows in their horrified disdain for the state of their troops.

Rex: Fucking natborns. Anyone who isn't in the know: What's a natborn? Rex: [leaves without answering] People: WHAT'S A NATBORN???

(I'm assuming that the word smush is harder to parse in Basic.)

I think young Obi-Wan's new crush on Cody should also be unrequited. Cody's just like... bemused. Very "Okay, then, that sure is an Affection you've decided on."

Cody and Anakin both: Sorry, it’d just be too weird. Obi-Wan: Why would it be too weird? Cody and Anakin: Reasons.

Rex has to deal with the "whyyyyy" from both his brother and his (former?) General.

Young Obi-Wan just likes cute boys that fight good! Is that so wrong???

Ahsoka: So since we're not officially Jedi anymore-- Obi-Wan: We're still Je-- Ahsoka: Can we date? Can I date now? I want to date someone before we go back to the Code. It's a classic life experience for most teenage girls, and I want to Have That Experience before we're back at the Temple. Obi-Wan: You're not... you can date, Ahsoka, that's not actually banned by the Code. I mean, you'd have to keep it casual, but-- Ahsoka: I CAN DATE!!!

(Great priorities, Ahsoka.)

An idea I'm toying with is that one of the clones ends up Legally Engaged to Satine for political reasons, and young Obi-Wan is just like ???? because not only can he not date the hot boys, but one of said hot boys has become Mr. Steal Yo Girl.

Young Obi-Wan is suffering, and Quinlan is the worst friend ever because Quinlan is laughing at him.

There is obviously the question of

"How would Satine ever end up agreeing to that, given what their public personas are like and all that? She puts duty ahead of personal feelings but all indications are that it’s a terrible decision both ways." (as stated by Tia)

Which, yes, I forgot to actually say that I was imagining Jango had declared "those twins" his heirs after telling people they were his younger* cousins. Because reasons.

* Jango is about 27 when they land in the past, and I’m going to say the accelerated aging ended after hitting physically twenty because no, I don’t want to deal with that. As far as anyone knows, Cody and Rex are about five years younger than Jango. They’re less than year apart, which isn’t very visible, and most people assume they’re identical twins (except Rex’s hair), and that Cody just looks slightly older because of the scar.

Darth Boring had convinced Satine that the way to keeping Mandalore peaceful was to work with Jango (because Darth Boring, which is not his actual title but it is what Ahsoka insists on calling him in private, has a vested interest in keeping Mandalore and all interested parties calm), and he... maybe accidentally set up a political marriage between her and one of the clones.

It wasn't on purpose! Satine never married in his timeline, okay, he didn't expect her to ever get married here, either! He didn't even suggest it! This just happened!

(I want to say that Cody would be more competent at having a political marriage? But IDK.)

Do I do the Satine thing? It has potential, but also it's a bit of a cop-out. Do I have Cody be a diplomatic representative for their pseudo-Sith empire? He could be, but I think he'd hate it. Do I have Rex date one the Chaos Entities (Anakin or Ahsoka), or is that too repetitive with my other works? THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH GOING ON.

Part of me wants Quinlan to get a crush on Cody, and the crush gets bigger specifically in response to the fact that Cody refuses to take him seriously and/or just doesn't give him the time of day.

Based on their one interaction in TCW, they probably let get along ok. Cody maybe likes him back, buuuuuuut internally he's just a little "you were tolerable at almost-forty; early twenties you is obnoxious."

Just imagine the absolutely puppyish attempts at gaining approval and Impressing The Hot Mando General. Quinlan keeps having vague daydreams of seducing someone to the side of the Light. He really leans into the bodice ripper fantasies of saving someone evil with the power of love! (And also the power of really good sex.)

Bant looks at Quin and Obi and wants to throw them both into the nearest pond because they're idiots, but on this topic they are the same flavor of idiot. She considers calling up Reeft and Garen to help her knock some sense into them.

Quinlan: Can I volunteer to go undercover to the Sith? The Council: No. Quinlan: ...what if I-- The Council: No.

Tholme tries to get Qui-Gon to commiserate over their Padawans getting obsessed with Hot Sith Boys, but Qui-Gon just finds the whole thing funny. He knows from the chats he has with Ben that Anakin feels so completely, utterly, incredibly awkward about all of this.

(Ben continues to hold to "Anakin brought this on himself.")

(Ben also “kidnaps” Qui-Gon a lot.)

Also, hey, at least Quinlan isn’t actually into hot Sith boys! He’s into hot Sith minions which is... probably a step up. At least Cody’s not a Sith himself!

It's a step in some direction but Tholme has no idea which one.

(Quinlan sees Cody in dress uniform once and just keeps the mental image for Ages. It’s in his dreams. Sometimes said dreams overflow to Tholme via Force Mind Magic and Quinlan wakes up to someone smacking his face with a pillow.)

Arguably, Quin's also a lot more romantic about his crush than Obi-Wan is, in this case. Quinlan: I want to save him... Obi-Wan: Hey, hey, cute boy. Look at me. Let’s bang.

Cody: There are currently two future Jedi generals having some form of absurd romantic fixation in my direction. I don't know how to feel about this. Rex: Bed them. Cody: ...I'm not saying that's not eventually an option, but one of them is the younger Kenobi, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Rex: Pat him on the head like a tooka and then bed his friend, it'll be funny.

I think the Quinlan thing and also general exasperation of leading an absolutely useless army can function pretty solidly as the basis for Cody, but I have another idea for Rex now.

Komari is currently brainwashed in a cult, yes? So.

I keep bouncing around back and forth on what to do with Rex, but part of me suddenly really likes the idea of, after Team Fake Sith finds and dissolves the cult (as one does), and takes Komari into custody (because she's dangerous and deeply unwell), Rex kind of ends up her touchstone to being a decent person. He’s not a morality chain, and it’s not really a redeemed-through-love thing, just This Is A Solid Dude who doesn't pity her or thinks she's irredeemable (however you choose to define such a thing), but actually relates to the kind of conditions living like that can involve, and just kind of...

I don’t know. I think Rex's arc in this AU could be very heavily grounded in something to the effect of "You're not the worst darksider I've met. You're not the only person who was in a cult. You're not even the only former Jedi I know that's committed awful, horrible crimes. My question is just this: What are you going to do moving forward?"

Later Anakin: Wait, who do we know that was in a cult? Rex: What did you think Kamino was?

(Rex isn't as chill as he'd like her to think, but he's trying, and she's fairly reliant on the Force to understand emotions, and is currently in nullifying cuffs, so he can bluff.)

Komari needs someone solid and dependable to rely on for at least conversation, and I think Rex needs to feel needed.

I’m not sure if it’d be romance or friendship, but I think there's a solid basis to work with, potentially.

Per Tia:

One thing about Rex and shipping is like. If you want to do Rexwalker again that's fine, but if you're worried about repetitiveness but still want to like. Ship him in a non-political-convenience way. Rexsoka here actually would be different than your other stuff.

I'm trying to figure out if I can make it work because Ahsoka thematically fits very much into a little sister shaped hole here? She feels younger than in other works, despite not actually being younger than she is in, say, Commander Buir. In those other fics, she has some time alone to function and prove herself independently of Anakin and Obi-Wan.

I usually pluck Ahsoka out at sixteen if I'm pulling her from TCW, so she's got most of her competence but hasn't gotten quite all the trauma yet. Commander Buir, in particular, also has baby-shaped Anakin for contrast.

That said, I can see a decent source of narrative conflict in her wanting to experiment with romance and all that, and Anakin trying to tell her she's too young.

A year into this whole time-travel mess, she wants to give the dating thing a shot, and it spirals into "You were only two years older than me when you got married!"

I think I could build a plot out of Ahsoka wanting to do these things, and Anakin as an audience insert not quite processing that she's old enough to make these decisions. If she's choosing to date Rex, whose age works out as being close to hers when one takes into account Kamino fuckery, and whom she trusts absolutely, it’s arguably extra weird for Anakin to be upset with it.

"Senator Amidala was five years older than you, and you married her when you were nineteen and had only really known her for a week! I can go on a date with a guy we both know is one of the most trustworthy people alive if I want, Skyguy!"

I can definitely see Ahsoka getting annoyed with Anakin being overbearing and controlling at some point before that unrelated to romance, too. It’s not exactly a new fault of his.

My god, just imagine someone snidely asking Anakin "where's your little shadow?" and Anakin, being Himself and also a Fake Sith, has an emotional breakdown about how Ahsoka yelled at him for micromanaging her and not trusting her to make her own decisions in life and so she got herself a multi-month solo mission from Ben that Anakin isn't allowed to know any details about, and--

It's another one of those "oh, you have PROBLEMS problems with your mental health" incidents for the Jedi to add to the file, because Anakin having emotionally charged rants about his issues at seemingly terrible times is how they get a lot of information.

Some of the rants are planned.

Many of them, actually.

They want the Jedi to know these things.

Just, well. Anakin.

He really is a little Like That.

On that note, I'm low-key imagining that Anakin gets put on mood stabilizers by the therapist in this context, and he's doing good! He's handling his issues! He's--been captured with Obi-Wan the Younger again and his medication was confiscated.

Anakin is... not great. He's a little out of practice managing his unmedicated self, and when adding withdrawal symptoms onto that... poor Anakin.

(Poor Obi-Wan.)

I think it would be best if Anakin makes a bunch of ominous blustery comments at their captors about how they won't like what's coming to them if they take his belongings (AKA the fanny pack that has his backup pills), and then Obi-Wan just gets to watch Anakin get more and more erratic, because like. Yes, Anakin is using the Force to compensate, but unfortunately he's mostly cut off, and the stress of the situation is pushing him away from depression and into the beginnings of a manic episode.

Anakin is aware of his issues to the point where he's mostly managing, and he keeps asking Obi-Wan "would it make sense for me to [slightly deranged, very impulsive action]," and Obi-Wan realizes he's being the morality sounding board for the Hot Sith because ??? reasons?????

Eventually, Anakin does flop back in bed and dramatically throws his arm over his eyes, and says he needs his meds back, he's absolutely going to lose it, and Obi-Wan tentatively asks what kind of medication. There are levels to worry about. Mild allergy medication is one thing, but heart medication that needs to be taken every four hours is another, you know? He wants to know how much panic is appropriate.

Anakin lets him know that it's Psychiatric In Nature. Obi-Wan suddenly realizes that he really, really, really doesn't want to know what a properly erratic, unmedicated Anakin is like.

(An unmedicated Anakin really isn't nearly as bad as Obi-Wan fears. Anakin's been dealing with this for a while, and knows what his issues are and some of how to deal with them. He'd need to be running on no sleep and higher levels of stress, or to have been drugged with something meant to increase his aggression, to really lose his shit and do something worthy of Vader. RotS levels of stress and sleep deprivation is required to pull RotS levels of manic paranoid delusion.)

Tia asked:

How long does it take the Jedi in general to catch on to how like. They have opportunities. But these Sith never seem to harm any Jedi. And it’s not just like, the past timeline parts of the disaster lineage. They probably get opportunities to hurt other Jedi. Ones that are less skilled at saber work. And more importantly ones that they don’t seem weirdly interested in."

I'm not sure, really. The Jedi don't spend as much time in the Outer Rim as they could, and that's where the Team operates, so actually running into them by accident is unlikely for anyone other than Shadows.

Fortunately, it's really easy to toy with Shadows with the excuse of "I want to see how long it takes before you Fall with us."

I do want like... okay. Here’s the mental image:

Qui-Gon calls them out on being Fake Sith pretty quickly, so Ben just sort of eyes him, dramatically, and orders out "Leave us" to all non-team people. The threat of torture is implied but not stated. He gestures with wine to keep in character. He definitely makes sure Young Obi-Wan is ushered out, so it's just five time travelers, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ahsoka's immortal force birb.

"...so, what's the reason for the farce, Obi-Wan?" "How in all the hells did you figure it out so quickly?"

(Qui-Gon cheated a bit. He could feel the broken training bond that was never properly severed due to Traumatic Death Of A Master on Ben's end)

Ben didn't realize he'd feel it! Young Obi-Wan can't feel his older self or a training bond with Anakin or Ahsoka, so why could Qui-Gon?

IDK if there would be anything on the level of crying and hugging it out, but I think it would be very funny if, every time young Obi and Anakin are getting captured by pirates or something, Ben and Qui-Gon are just having a nice afternoon tea and checking their watches to see if their respective walking bundles of neuroses are done with their adventure yet.

The Council is So Done, because Qui-Gon continues to insist that they're Not That Bad, but every time anyone other than Qui-Gon brings up the friendship, Ben laughs and makes a comment about how absolutely gullible Master Jinn is.

Obi-Wan is skeptical of his own experiences with Anakin, at least, if only because he's skeptical about Anakin's everything.

"I don't know if Vader is telling me the truth. I don't know if he's telling himself the truth. I don't think he's a great source of information even when he thinks he's being honest."

Anakin could tell Obi-Wan the full and complete truth, and Obi-Wan would worriedly put a hand to his forehead and start doing tests for hallucinations and paranoid delusions. In his defense, this is a very reasonable assumption to make with an individual like Anakin. It's just also not accurate, this time. I don’t know if Anakin hallucinates in canon without a weird inciting incident like Force Nonsense or getting drugged by the enemy, but paranoid delusion is pretty much all of RotS.

"I’m your time-traveling padawan who’s pretending to be a Sith to catch some other Sith who’re going to start a galactic civil war and those Mandalorians you like are from a clone army based on a template of Jango Fett made to serve the Jedi (because that’s totally something he’d sign up for), and one of the Sith is your grandmaster but he doesn’t seem to have fallen yet, it’s probably fine," is hard to believe.

Honestly, even if he seemed stable before saying that, which he doesn’t, it’s all real far fetched. There's a lot going on and Obi-Wan wouldn't even begin to believe it without evidence.

I've had it in my head that he and Bant and Quinlan have been gossiping about the mess for months if not years about these idiots, and at one point it became common knowledge that Ben was a Kenobi, and Bant convinced them (since the two were among the most likely in the entire Order to encounter the Fake Sith) to get a DNA sample, probably hair or blood since that's easiest so they can figure out HOW these two are related, if they are, and then there's a whole big thing.

Bant: No, no, this must be contaminated, it's coming up as Obi-Wan! Are you sure you didn't accidentally grab some of your own hairs? I know it's a little long for most of your hair, but the braid-- Quinlan: Wait, they keep claiming stuff about cloning, right? Maybe someone's a clone? Check for artificial telomeres! Bant: ...okay, so, there aren't any artificial telomeres, but the ones from apparently-Ben are... a lot shorter... um... I don't know what to do with this. It's like I have two samples from the same person, twenty years apart. Quinlan: Obi-Wan, what's that face? Why are you-- Obi-Wan: Vader told me he was a time-traveler. I thought it was the fever talking, but...

That’s how he finds out that Ben is future-him before finding out about how he’s not evil!

"Master Jinn... I think... I think the Sith controlling the Outer Rim is me from the future." "Oh, you finally figured it out?" "I AM HAVING A CRISIS HERE."

Obi-Wan, after a few hours of dazed realization, runs screaming to Quinlan and Bant like 'GUYS GUYS THIS EXPLAINS WHY VADER KEPT SAYING IT WAS WEIRD AND THAT I LOOK LIKE HIS MASTER AND THAT IT WOULD BE LIKE DATING HIS DAD.'

You know, the important stuff.

I think Qui-Gon tells him that Ben isn't evil because, like, That Sure Is A Crisis Obi-Wan's Having. He could hold off for shits and giggles, sure, but Obi-Wan’s on the edge of something Really Concerning, mentally. Best help calm him down on at least one or two things.

Obi-Wan’s maybe still a little skeptical until he confronts them over it. Because their Sith act was real good and also like. Maybe Qui-Gon just wants to believe the best of his Padawan, y’know?

Quinlan runs into Ben before Obi-Wan does, after this whole mess, and gets to observe as money changes hands and people act like sore winners about bets made for When Does Obi-Wan Figure It Out.

Anakin was saying 'soon' because he really didn't think the fever-fueled rant would be discounted as easily as it was.

Cody was of the opinion that it would take at least a few more years since they're actually pretty damn good at this whole schtick.

Quinlan: Wow, he's... going to be really disappointed that you have such a low opinion of his intelligence. Cody, gesturing at Ben: Experience. Darth Ben: ಠ_ಠ

Cody just rattles off some of the Extremely Stupid Shit that Ben's done in their time working together.

Rex cheerily offers up "You didn't even realize General Skywalker was married, sir! And they weren't subtle!" "I knew they were together, I just didn--" "Everyone knew they were together, sir. Everyone."

(Rex had the lowest opinion of their deductive capabilities. He claims it would have taken until Baby Ahsoka showed up at the Jedi Temple.)

-Once Obi-Wan accepts that they're decent people after all- Obi-Wan: Wow, Anakin, you're real good at acting unhinged! Anakin: Haha. Yeah. Thanks?

[gch1995]

Can I just say that one thing I love about the dichotomy between the Jedi and Sith in the prequels is how it’s a metaphor of how it’s just as dangerous to play it too safe and live by the rules and expectations of society out of fear of taking a risk (Jedi) as it is to play it fast and easy by trying to take charge of everything that gets in your way (Sith)?

We see Anakin Skywalker, and at his worst, he absolutely does become an arrogant, horrifyingly selfish, merciless, and tyrannical villain in his self-loathing, fear of Sidious and others with positions of abusive authority over him, and anger and paranoia towards his enemies and those with positions under him. However, at his best, he is capable of being just as much of an amazingly brave, empathetic kindhearted, and selfless hero as his son Luke in the OT movies. Even though it’s been pushed down, stunted, and underdeveloped, at his best, Anakin Skywalker really is someone who wants to make a difference for the better of the galaxy and cares so much about people he connects with that he’ll risk or sacrifice anything to make sure they are safe and happy. He tried to be the perfect Jedi™️ in public, which was already toxic enough as it was, to try to be safe, and live true to himself in secret with Padme and his family at the same time because he didn’t feel confident to be openly true to himself under pressure. Unfortunately, it destroyed him and the lives of many in the end until Luke came along.

You see Luke, and he is pretty similar to who Anakin probably would have been with more confidence in his conscience and personal agency raised under healthier circumstances with more people who encouraged him to be safe by just being true to the best version of himself. However, because he is emotionally driven like his dad, there is an aspect that if he cared too much, or took off his filter too much, he could go dark.

By contrast, most of the Jedi of Anakin’s time who were constantly making an effort to be the perfect Jedi™️ and didn’t struggle with the dark side too much at all . Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda never became seriously dangerous and evil at their worst, but they never were particularly good people at their best either because they were too afraid to ever be their best and stand up for what they believed in much at all. In the end, all they have is each other, and while Order 66 and Anakin’s fall to the dark side wasn’t something their entire Order deserved, you also can’t deny that they partly brought this fate upon themselves by becoming too arrogant and comfortable in enabling and perpetuating “necessary” abuse, crime, and oppression in the Republic that became safer and easier to partake in then doing the right thing.

[rawr-monsters]

My understanding is that Anakin is mostly looked up to by the other Jedi for being a generally heroic, hyper competent guy, and what he wears doesn't come into it at all. People respect his opinion even though by their standards he should still be nearly a child, and almost no one in the order is ever rude to him. The council isn't his biggest fan, as a whole(though from what we see in tcw on an individual level their opinion ranges from exasperation to friendly, not counting his brother dad), but he makes a lot of iffy decisions that only work because he's absurdly strong. So it makes sense that they're often critical, he makes a lot of rash decisions, on account of being young and very stressed.

I honestly don't know why people feel the need to make the relationship between Anakin and the Jedi actually bad on both sides when there's already plenty of canon reason for Anakin to resent the Jedi without them being bad. It's possible to resent a good thing because it didn't help you, or the people who needed help, when you or they needed it most. It's not the most mature but he's like 22 so that's understandable. Like, his mother was left a slave, that's plenty of reason to resent the Jedi, regardless of whether or not it is fair to resent them for it. And then in tcw the council makes a lot of decisions to help the war effort that Anakin personally disagrees with, several of which personally hurt him a great deal. They don't have to be bad people for them to have hurt Anakin, and thus earn his contempt. You don't have to misrepresent the Jedi at all to do it, they objectively did hurt Anakin, and Palpatine convinced him to stew in that anger and hurt rather than let the Jedi attempt to make amends(which I believe they would have if Anakin had let them).

God, is there a word for that fanon thing that's roughly "the fact that it's not proved MEANS it's proved!"??

In SW fic I keep running into the assumption that Anakin is chastened or otherwise looked down on by other Jedi for wearing dark colors. But, given that we see Anakin wearing dark colors and nobody says anything negative about it and other Jedi also wear dark colors with no censure (Aayla, Shaak Ti, Luminara)...why on Earth did so many people come to this conclusion?

When I've asked about it I usually get something like "you know they'd do that kind of thing" and--I really do not! Your experience is not universal! And it's not like this is something there's zero canon data on; even without an onscreen discussion, you can look directly at the several other Jedi who wear dark clothes!

I could understand the conclusion if every single Jedi did wear light colors only, but they don't! So why have so many different people come to the conclusion that 'obviously' this thing actively contraindicated by the evidence onscreen must have happened?

[burnwater13]

Din Djarin standing next to R2-D2 on Ossus. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 6, From the Dessert Comes a Stranger. Calendar from DataWorks.

Grogu was glad that his time at Luke’s Jedi Sleep Away Camp was at an end. He hadn’t had as much fun as he’d hoped he would and when he found out that Luke and Ahsoka had prevented his dad from seeing him, after the bounty hunter had made the effort to travel all the way to Ossus, well that was it! Grogu was at his wits end. 

He supposed it was his own fault. Moff Gideon had tried very hard to hurt the Mandalorian and Grogu couldn’t tolerate that. He didn’t trust that Gideon and his cohorts wouldn’t find a way to come after them again. Instead of staying with his dad, Grogu decided that it was better to go with Luke and see how much he actually knew about being a Jedi. 

As it turned out, Luke really didn’t know all that much. Grogu couldn’t really blame him for that, but he did think that Luke should have been more straight forward about his actual knowledge of the Jedi. He should have explained to Din Djarin, someplace private and out of Moff Gideon’s earshot, that he’d only had two Jedi masters train him and only for a short period of time and that he was Anakin Skywalker’s son, which meant he was Darth Vader’s son. 

The masters at the Jedi Temple had been quite annoyed when Qui-Gon Jinn brought Anakin to the Jedi Temple because he was too old and had formed too many attachments. Okay, that wasn’t quite fair. Anakin had every right to be attached to his mom. But they didn’t bring her along and let her help him get used to the new environment. They left her on Tatooine. That wasn’t right. Grogu knew that. 

So instead of being slowly eased into the Jedi way of life and guided on how to handle his fears for his mother, Anakin was just thrust into the Jedi culture with no friends and no one who understood what it was like for him. Grogu was technically the same age as Anakin. He had no idea who his parents were and 99% of the Jedi younglings and padawans were in the same boat. He didn’t miss what he never knew. But Anakin had known and that was very different.

Grogu had always suspected that once they were old enough and able to act more independently, that many of the knights and even some of the masters had sought out that information. They’d found their family and made peace with the process that took them from the home of their birth and brought them to a Jedi Temple to raised and trained by strangers.

Grogu also knew that Jedi had deep and long term friendships with each other and with the people who had trained them. And they didn’t all remain with the Jedi Order over time. Some left and made their own way, without falling to the Darkside or becoming Sith or anything like that.  They just stopped being part of the Order. 

There had been a rumor for years that even Obi-Wan Kenobi had left the Order for a short time before returning and that he’d even considered leaving it again because of an attachment. Grogu didn’t know more details than that. The fall of the Temple had made such questions moot. Any who escaped had no home to return to and no one to talk to about it anyway. He knew that too well. 

Taking all of that into consideration, Grogu had to wonder who taught Luke, or Ahsoka for that matter, that attachments were best managed by abandoning the other person? Grogu couldn’t imagine that Anakin had ever said that to Ahsoka and he had been her mentor for a good amount of time. It wouldn’t have been Obi Wan either. 

That really just left Yoda. Grogu could tell based on Luke’s fighting style with the lightsaber that Yoda had been his master. How and where that came to be, Grogu didn’t know and he didn’t ask Luke. It wasn’t Grogu’s place to question a person who had helped when he was called to action.  

But it also wasn’t reasonable for Grogu to take Luke’s statements to him about the Force and the Jedi Order without a considerable grain of salt. More like a boulder really. Grogu had spent over twenty years at the temple. He’d been in training his whole life there and then had to apply everything he had learned for the next 28 years. He’d forgotten more about the Force and the Jedi than Luke could possibly know.

The one thing he could never forget was the pain of the loss of his friends, masters, and home. He had been attached to them all and it was because of that attachment he had persisted over the years. He survived to honor their sacrifice and to fulfill his role. That attachment had given him strength and comfort and focus. 

If Luke had done that, then perhaps the Mandalorian would have waited longer. He would have known to give Grogu a chance to meet with him outside of Luke’s obsession with physical fitness and Ahsoka’s reticence to be hurt by anyone ever again. He would have realized that Grogu had his hands full trying to train the young Jedi in the ways of the Force without Luke realizing that he was the one being trained. 

After all, Grogu had managed to save Din Djarin more than once without the Mandalorian realizing that Grogu was a Jedi, the sworn enemy to Mandalorians and even when the Armorer explained it, they both thought he was too helpless to be an enemy. But that wasn’t quite correct. He was too attached to the person who rescued him from the Imps to cause him or any other Mandalorian harm. 

Grogu had learned that attachments provided a powerful framework for peace and he was glad of that. People should be peaceful. This was Grogu’s way. Good thing he was prepared for it.

[boundless11]

The biggest problems with the Cobra Kai writers are:

They have character arcs that look good on paper, and clearly have a starting and ending point for these character arcs. However, they also seem the mindset of "we will get to that endpoint, even if the journey to get there makes no sense." For instance, in season 4, the endpoint of Robby's storyline is him reconnecting with his dad. His dad who didn't even once attempt to reach out to him during season 4, and who, while Robby was being trained by Kreese and Silver, was more concerned with integrating himself into the Diaz family.

The show tries to play both sides of the playing field by saying “there’s two sides two every story”, but this seems to usually be done by glossing over the more egregious mistakes of Cobras while blowing out of proportion the relatively minor mistakes of Miyagi-Do / Eagle Fang characters. The handling of the girls' feud in season 4 is the best demonstration of this, as the writing seems to skew heavily in Tory's favor rather than balance properly with Sam's. They make Tory seem like she was the "innocent" one the entire season and that Sam was just some raging brat, not helped by the lack of scenes to add context to Sam's behavior.* (At the bare minimum, they should’ve added scenes of Sam struggling to sign off on Tory returning to school, scenes of Sam venting to her parents, flashbacks of all the prior times that Tory treated her horribly, and maybe a scene where Vanessa talks and informs Amanda and Daniel about why Sam is acting out-not unlike when she had this talk with them about Anthony.) But I also see it with Daniel too, and how the show barely puts in the effort to paint Daniel in a positive light; I feel a lot of Daniel's insufferable moments are primarily there to make Johnny look better and distract the audience from how Johnny's a shitty dad to his own kid.

(*This isn't helped by the fact that we've only seen Tory's family once, in 3x02 when Kreese was convincing her to come back to Cobra Kai. We don't really have any sort of insight into who they are as characters, especially when we don't even get scenes of Tory talking to them. This makes Tory's home life feel more like something thrown in for sympathy points from the audience.)

Yes these are the exact issues I have with the show too. The writing makes no sense at times. Robby reconciling with Johnny is one good example of many. Johnny didn’t make one attempt to reach out to him! He knew Robby was being influenced by Kreese and Silver, yet he only intervened when Shannon turned up!

The fact that season 4 had so many new storylines, character like Sam were put in a corner or given less narrative, as well as framing her to be bratty, while Tory’s narrative was constantly pushed in our faces by reminding the viewer of her ‘terrible home life’.

I’m sick of this everyone needs to be redeemed narrative. There’s no mystery left with the supposed antagonists. I thought Robby’s ‘Anakin style arc’ or lack of would be carried into season 5. I really wanted him to be a menace!

It doesn’t help when the runtimes are short.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 302: As the Todoroki Turns

Previously on BnHA: 

Today on BnHA: We have a very fun chapter in which (1) Shouto grows up lonely on account of his parents being worried that his siblings will literally try to kill him, (2) Natsu and Fuyu grow up neglected on account of not being special and/or self-destructive enough to attract attention, (3) we get to revisit all of that exciting spousal abuse from chapter 39, and (4) Touya burns to death right on cue, pretty much exactly like we expected it to happen. Thankfully since this is a shounen manga, Horikoshi finds some hope in all this misery as the Todoroki family rallies together, with Shouto getting his long-overdue credit for being a perfect sweet angel who put up with all of this shit for sixteen years and somehow came out of it strong and kind and empathetic and determined. Anyway, so that flashback was a barrel of laughs. But now that it’s over, we can put all of that angst behind us, and move on to... well I guess, probably, more angst. Look, we’re short on variety at the moment. Bear with it.

ouch. we knew this was coming, but still

A+ parenting move there. “ho boy, our eldest just tried to murder our youngest, now what? hmm how about we isolate our youngest from all human contact”

though in their defense, we probably shouldn’t have expected this rabidly strength-obsessed fire man and his wife who was groomed since childhood to obey her family’s whims to have any idea of how to raise stable, well-adjusted offspring

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS

this is a perfect example of Enji’s tragically self-revolving viewpoint right here. just because being a hero is your entire world doesn’t mean you can just excuse yourself from anything outside of that and act like it’s out of your control. “alas, all I care about is hero stuff and my son can’t be a hero, we are doomed to inhabit two different worlds” no you jackass, it’s called having more than one hobby?? figuring out how to spend some time with your son that doesn’t involve training?? the same exact thing you were telling him to do last week, while ignoring that you’ve never done that yourself in your life??

that said, yet again we have that complexity though because it’s obvious that Enji at least on some level is aware of his own flaws, even though he seems unwilling or unable to confront them. honestly, from what we’ve seen so far, Enji’s obsession with surpassing All Might might be more accurately called an addiction. he literally can’t let go of it even though he’s fully aware of how it’s slowly destroying his life. and so in the same way that a lifelong smoker or alcoholic might tell their child to stay away from cigarettes and booze, Enji tells Touya not to follow down the same path as him, even though he himself doesn’t know how to leave that path. so yes, it’s hypocritical as fuck, but there’s also an element of helplessness there as well because Enji literally doesn’t know how not to be like this

though all the same he sure could stand to put in more than just a token effort. but it is what it is, and we already know how much he’ll come to regret it

and meanwhile Baby Shouto has frozen his sleep bubble with his quirk lmao. so I guess his quirk did come in early. that’s a recipe for chaos right there

once again Shouto is ruining every single dramatic panel in this flashback

this was so dark and intense... and then I spotted the lil bubs in the corner. Horikoshi please control yourself

“some hero you are, running away” and then all of a sudden, “FIVE YEARS LATER” lol what. OKAY THEN

(ETA: love the confirmation that eight-year-old Natsu comes from the Iida school of puberty and is basically a fully grown man, and meanwhile Touya comes from the hobbit school of puberty and has been perpetually eight for the past five years.)

“HEY BIG BRO WANNA COME RECREATE AN ICONIC FLASHBACK SCENE WITH US. WE’VE GOT THE SOCCER BALL RIGHT HERE, BUT HURRY UP OR WE’LL BE TOO LATE FOR SHOUTO TO WALK ON BY AND STOP TO LOOK”

lol and that’s literally the next three panels. but Horikoshi did add this extra bit after Endeavor starts to drag Shouto away

seriously Enji what the hell did you expect was going to happen here. “Touya went nuts and tried to kill his little brother out of jealousy, so let’s make it clearer than ever that Shouto is the important child and all the other children are just rejects. this will definitely not make the problem 100x worse, and will surely lead to Touya giving up and living a happy life, having been emotionally abandoned by the person he admired more than anyone.” good for you pal you figured it all out. no need for that plan b, “we all just go to therapy”

anyway so he’s telling Shouto he can’t play because he needs more endurance training. and meanwhile Touya’s patented Todoroki Drama Genes are going through puberty as well

definitely the face of a happy, emotionally stable child who’s not still plotting to murder his younger brother in his sleep

“WELL ACTUALLY MAKESTE” lol I stand corrected??

apparently during the five year interim Touya actually stopped blaming Shouto and realized Enji was the one at fault. good for him! a bit inconsistent, given what we know happens later, but I assume we’ll get to that in good time

anyway. “yeah man I agree that dad sucks, but it’s the middle of the night and I’m only eight and you’ve been monologuing for the past two hours bro”

LMAO

the manga is making my jokes for me, only better. fine then

looks like someone’s still miffed about that disagreement he had with his baby sister back when she was like four

“Fuyu doesn’t get properly riled up like I want her to so ranting to her is annoying.” okay but having been in Fuyu’s shoes, it really is just a different way of coping, and I can guarantee she’s not as fine with the whole situation as Touya might think. but making your peace with something is often a decision that’s made for emotional self-preservation reasons. and I sure as hell don’t fault her for trying to shut out a situation that she had no control over, and trying to make the best of it, and scrape together as normal a childhood as she could manage

and now in Touya’s defense as well, that is of course easier said than done, and I’m sure if there was a “push this button and instantly get over all of the trauma in your life” switch readily available for Touya then he would have pushed it too. unfortunately it’s not always that simple

so now Rei is pleading with Touya not to go train up on his little emo hill again, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed since he was eight

I don’t think he gives two figs about being a hero; he just wants his father to look at him again with pride. fucking hell, stop doing this to me you damn Todorokis

guh, they keep telling him the same thing over and over again

even if we hadn’t already known he was gonna go melt his jawbone off soon, I wouldn’t have expected a line like that to go over well

yep. fuck

that Todoroki puberty angst, though. nothing else quite like it

“you have a part in this too, Mom” ooooooh man

okay but look, he’s not entirely wrong. like, I’m not saying any of this is Rei’s fault at all! she’s in an impossible situation where she’s afraid to stand up to Enji (who by this point has shown that he’s willing to physically attack her if things get too heated, which is terrifying), and doesn’t really have anywhere to turn for support. her parents aren’t helping much if at all, and Japan in general is just a terrible country to be in when you’re in a domestic abuse situation. everyone’s expected to put on a brave face and deal with their problems all on their own in private. Rei is basically completely isolated at this point, and she doesn’t know what else to do, and so she’s just trying to keep the situation as stable as possible for the kids

but on the other hand, “for the kids” is also where that argument starts to break down a bit, because at this point Shouto is also being physically abused by his father, and the other kids are continuing to be neglected (emotionally if not physically), as they have been for years. so the situation really isn’t stable at all for them. and as a kid, what you end up learning in that type of situation is that you can’t rely on either parent. not the abusive one, certainly, but also not the other one who can’t protect you from any of it. even if they love you and they’re trying, they’re just as helpless as you. Rei is struggling to deal with all of this with one hand tied behind her back, and I get it, and I’m not blaming her at all. but all the same, particularly given that she’s (understandably) putting almost all her focus on Shouto, the end result is that the other kids have basically been left to fend for themselves

so yeah! a shitty situation all around. and one of those cases where it’s not really anyone’s fault (aside from Enji’s), but I can understand the resentment Touya is feeling all the same. and I’m so glad Horikoshi is acknowledging this, because it’s something I probably would have been too uncomfortable to bring up otherwise. as it is it’s still an incredibly heavy subject, and one that I probably have too many personal feelings about

anyway, so once again the whole “we’ll try talking to him and then just shrug our shoulders when it doesn’t work” parenting strategy doesn’t really pan out for the Todoroki fam

sob this boy is Anakin Skywalkering before our very eyes. all that’s missing is AFO to come and start whispering in his ear. any minute now...

“anyway so then he got taller and his fire changed from red to blue”

guess we’re getting pretty close then huh. this is the part of the flashback that I really don’t want to see, but also unfortunately the part that I’m most curious about :/

oh for fuck’s --

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IGNORING HIM FOR FIVE YEARS DIDN’T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM” sob. back to the drawing board I guess

I thought he got taller, why is he still only like a third of Enji’s height here

oh fuck me these are armor-piercing feels. this is the heavy artillery right here

ENJI I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE STOP AND THINK FOR ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE DOING SOMETHING YOU’LL REGRET FOR THE REST OF ALL TIME. your child just told you that he still thinks beating All Might is the only thing you care about, and that he believes his existence is a mistake unless he finds some way of doing that for you. please stop for a moment to contemplate that and choose your next words with care and grace and oh who the hell am I kidding

-- OR WE COULD JUST BLAME REI

go on and blame everyone but yourself then!! that’s a great solution!! jesus christ man I know this is Endeavor at his literal worst but still this is fucking hard to watch

POOR BABY SHOUTO IS YELLING AT HIS DAD NOT TO HIT HIS MOMMY THIS LITTLE BRAVE BOY NEEDS SO MANY HUGS OH MY GOD

AND MEANWHILE THE OTHERS ARE HUDDLED IN THE NEXT ROOM TRYING NOT TO CRY AH FUCK

(ETA: Fuyu covering Natsu’s ears cuts RIGHT TO THE CORE OF ME. Horikoshi if you’re really not gonna get these kids some therapy then at least consider giving your readers some. what is this.)

you know it’s bad when you’re starting to think the part where the kid burns to death might actually be a less traumatic thing to cut to right now

holy shit, actual Rei thoughts

“I was the one who ultimately made that choice” well there we go, wonder if that’ll put that whole argument to bed at last. I doubt it, but you never know. actually who am I kidding it’s not gonna settle jack shit lol

oh thank god, they decided it was getting too intense and cut away back to the present to narrate this next (final?) part

get ready to cue up that Alicia Keys. THIS BOY IS ON FIREEEEEEE

yeah I think that’s one thing we can mostly all agree on. neither of them had any clue what the fuck they were doing pretty much at any point. though I will say that the hypocrisy of him being all “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HIM” followed by him IMMEDIATELY DOING THE EXACT SAME THING is a bit rich

(ETA: and he still has this problem, doesn’t he? he froze up when Ending snatched Natsuo, and again when Dabi was attacking Shouto. he’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing that he ends up not doing anything, which of course is exactly what led to Touya’s death. damn Enji I guess you’ve still got some additional character development to unlock.)

and of course neither of them could possibly have known how badly it was going to turn out. like, the consequences here were WAY disproportionate even for the shittiest of parenting. no one expects “I didn’t know how to talk to my son” to snowball into “my son burned to death and then somehow came back as a villain and murdered thirty people”

ohhhhhhhh fuck me

LITERALLY INCINERATED THE ENTIRE HILLSIDE. fuck. and I am so not ready for the scene of Enji finding the remains of his jawbone afterwards. at least we were spared anything super-graphic (for now at least)

I feel like the timeline here is off, btw?? wasn’t Touya’s death supposed to happen after Rei got hospitalized? this might be the first actual retcon of the entire flashback. although I think it makes more sense this way tbh

I do appreciate that ten years later Enji is finally reflecting on the fact that if he’d just given up his stupid obsession he could have stopped his family from crumbling apart. that probably sounds sarcastic as fuck, but it’s not. there are countless jerks out there who would have still managed to find a way to blame literally everyone and everything under the sun except for themselves. at least he finally figured out how to take responsibility, even if it came too late to stop his son from dying and being radicalized into a villain terrorist organization

and speaking of, it seems to me we’re missing a third and final part to this little tale of woe, and one which only Touya himself will be able to shed any light on. so we’ll see how that goes

oh man seeing the other kids blaming themselves even though none of it was their fault hits hard af. Rei wasn’t kidding when she said they’d been bearing that burden of guilt far longer than Enji

SHOUTO I SWEAR TO GOD IF THE NEXT PANEL IS YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BEING BORN, I WILL... WELL I’LL BE VERY SAD, I GUESS. SO DON’T DO IT

oh good he’s just being quiet. good. it absolutely is not your fault lil bean. it’s not theirs either, but feeling guilty about things that aren’t your fault is a time-honored shounen tradition

goddammit I braced myself for the angsty Shouto panel a page too early. gotta do it all over again now lol. okay here goes

;_;

well well well would you look at that

imagine that. talking things out with your child before they make a rash decision. looks like the Todorokis’ parenting skills are finally leveling up

OH MY GOD

holy shit. this is the most quintessential moment of father/son Todoroki bonding in the entire series. for me it even tops the “nice scar” scene lol. Enji sobbing at the fact that he still has a chance to set things right. and Shouto offering his hand in what is actually the most mature and selfless gesture I’ve ever seen, and being all “we’ll stop him together” to his dad who he hates, but also doesn’t really entirely hate anymore. and all of that is incredibly moving... BUT ALSO HE STILL REFUSES TO MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH HIM AND HE WOULD LIKE HIM TO STOP BEING SO FUCKING DRAMATIC ALREADY IF YOU DON’T MIND. “WHEN YOU’RE DONE CRYING...” fkjldsk

OH MY FUCKING LORD

(ETA: wouldn’t be a Todoroki drama fest if there wasn’t somebody listening in on the whole thing in secret just around the corner lmao.)

“you think we should have waited somewhere else?” “yeah, probably.” “are you feeling a lot of secondhand embarrassment too?” “god, you have no idea.” STFU HAWKS IT’S NOT EMBARASSING TO BE MOVED TO TEARS BY YOUR FAMILY ALL COMING TOGETHER IN YOUR DARKEST HOUR TO GIVE YOU HOPE THAT YOU PROBABLY DON’T DESERVE BUT ARE NONETHELESS INDESCRIBABLY GRATEFUL FOR

and anyway you chose these guys as your found family, bucko. too late to back out now. next time go get yourself adopted by the Iidas then

AND MEANWHILE NO WORD ON THE WHOLE “HOW DID A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SURVIVE A FIRE THAT COVERED HIS BODY WITH HORRIFIC SCARS AND MELTED HIS JAW OFF, AND HOW DID HE SOMEHOW THEN MANAGE TO GO INTO HIDING FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS, AND WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INTERIM TO CHANGE HIS GOAL FROM ‘SURPASS ALL MIGHT TO IMPRESS MY DAD’ TO ‘KILL ALL HEROES TO MAKE MY DAD SUFFER’.” as if we don’t know the answer to that. but still, would it kill Horikoshi to just confirm AFO’s involvement in all of this already. at this point it’s basically just a formality

so here’s hoping next week we’ll either get that, or more Hawks action, or (DARE I EVEN SUGGEST, I’M AFRAID TO JINX IT) finally cut back to Bakugou and Deku and All Might omg. either way I’m hyped