#Where’s Watto?

[moiraiinesedai]

this adorable human being and her grape trick 🥹🤍🍇

[skyyworker]

anakin staining his clothes with grease, some of it ends up in his hair, some of it on his cheeks.

anakin stuffing random objects in his mouth while he’s fixing a droid because he only has two hands but he needs the bolts and screwdrivers of different sizes within reach.

anakin spending most of his days back at the temple locked in his room tinkering with droid parts or in the hangar making... adjustments to his ship.

anakin falling asleep on his most recent project and obi-wan gently moving him into a more comfortable position before covering him with a blanket.

anakin bringing his little projects on missions because he wants to test them on the field and being put off when, at times, they get blown up in the heat of the moment.

[redeemed-wren]

The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker is that he was always in a box someone else put him in. Watto said you are a slave. Qui-gon said you are the chosen one. You are a Jedi, you are a general, you are a good person. And when he knew without any doubt that he was no longer what people told him he was, he had to find new boxes. You are a sith. You are a servant. You are mine.

He spent his whole life being defined by people around him. And then along came Luke. And Luke didn't say 'you are a good person, come back to the light where you belong.' Because Anakin by all rights didn't belong in the light. No, Luke said 'you are my father. There's good in you." Luke said 'you have done great evil, but you can still change.' Luke said 'I do not excuse your villainy but I believe you can make your own choices.'

And that--that--is what got through. Not 'here is another box you must fit into' but finally, after his whole life, someone told Anakin 'you decide who you are.' And Anakin decided he was a man who loved his son.

[sunderwight]

Time travel fic where Vader gets the chance to go back in time, any time, and change his history.

So he goes back to when he was still a slave boy living on Tatooine with his mother.

He avoids the Jedi. Qui-Gon doesn't get the money for the parts they need, so the Queen doesn't reach Coruscant in a timely fashion, and the ousting of the Trade Federation is delayed. Which sucks ass for Naboo. But, on the other hand, the confrontation with Maul happens smack dab in the middle of the desert, so Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan actually overpower him together and neither of them dies.

After the Jedi leave, Anakin uses his future knowledge and expertise in cybernetic implants to remove his and his mother's slave chips. A tragic accident befalls Watto, and a fire in the junk shop destroys most of his records, so no one who inherits the remainder has any knowledge of slaves (or anything else) missing from the inventory.

Shmi knows that something has changed. But Ani's always been a miracle, strange and unknowable in many ways, and yet still her son regardless. She goes along with it, even though she's apprehensive about affording water, shelter, and food as they are.

She needn't have worried.

At every turn, Anakin miraculously seems to uncover things they need, or opportunities for them to explore. Shmi finds decent work in various establishments -- cleaning garages and hangers, and cantinas after closing, mostly. There always seems to be someone willing to hire her on for a while, even if they already seem to have staff. Ani works his magic with scrap parts and whatever better pieces they can afford, when they have enough to spare (which is surprisingly often), and sells contraptions to the Jawas, junk dealers, or other interested parties. If he makes and sells some weapons to some enterprising bounty hunters or mercenaries, Shmi doesn't discern it, and Anakin doesn't volunteer the information.

But mostly, he works in prosthetics.

There's a pretty big demand for such in the Outer Rim, especially Tatooine, where the idea of anyone hopping into a Bacta tank is even less realistic than the idea of public swimming pools. People are losing limbs all the time, and good prosthetics are hard to come by.

Anakin makes good prosthetics. Even with limited parts and visible frustration, by the time he's thirteen, most of the planet knows where you go if you need an "extra hand", so to speak.

It's not long before the Hutts take an interest in monopolizing the resource, and seeing what else this talented young mechanic can build. Even if most Hutts rarely need prosthetics themselves, they like to be in charge of a hot commodity, after all. And it's hardly unheard of for them to lose an arm or two either.

Shmi worries. Anakin doesn't. Somehow, all of the local crime lords start to be met with unfortunate accidents. Their relatives and allies investigate, of course, and no one really believes in coincidences in the Outer Rim. But nothing turns up either. Falling cargo, suicides, misfiring weapons, heart attacks, choking on food, slipping and falling into sarlacc pits, it's all stuff that does happen. It just usually doesn't happen so often, to such a specific group of people, within such a short amount of time.

When Anakin is fifteen, Sidious sends people to fetch him. They approach him with sweet offers and seemingly-generous gifts, at first, as if it's not the most suspicious way they could go about it. His mother too, but it's such a stupid effort that Shmi finds them suspect even without prompting, and senses something off about them. Anakin's mother might not be nearly as Force sensitive as he is, but she is, and she doesn't like Palpatine's people even if she doesn't know who they are.

The next ones just try and abduct him. It's at least less insulting in its directness. They find themselves falling afoul of the many dangers of Tatooine instead. Such a risky place, people disappear out here all the time. Mind the womp rats and the krayt dragons.

Finally, Sidious goes himself.

His ship suffers a terrible malfunction upon its descent towards a planetside dock. A true tragedy. The Chancellor will be missed.

History remembers Anakin Skywalker as a footnote in the development of several innovative prosthetic enhancements, and a semi-obscure abolitionist who also advocated for the rights of clones.

[tossawary]

I'm rewatching "The Phantom Menace" for the first time in years and ??? It really seems like Qui-Gon Jinn could have bargained for both Shmi and Anakin's freedom from the beginning of his wager with Watto???

Qui-Gon later DOES try to bargain for BOTH Shmi and Anakin's freedom, by putting "his" pod up in a second, separate wager. (And I do love that they're lying about where the secret pod came from. Anakin built it, so legally, it's probably actually Watto's. Qui-Gon is being a little crafty!) But Watto insists that no pod is worth TWO slaves and rolls a dice to pick which one (which Qui-Gon manipulates with the Force so that he'll get Anakin over Shmi).

But it doesn't explain why Qui-Gon didn't bargain for their freedom with the initial wager! The Skywalkers are providing the secretly built pod to Qui-Gon and it was Anakin's idea for Qui-Gon to approach Watto about borrowing him as a pilot for the Boonta Eve Classic. This is apparently THE big race on Tatooine and the prize money is worth a LOT (unnamed amount). Watto suggests that they split the prize money 50/50, but Qui-Gon immediately forfeits that, promising that Watto can take ALL OF IT in exchange for the ship parts Qui-Gon needs and if Watto will pay the entrance fee up-front, AND Qui-Gon agrees to give up his own ship if Anakin loses.

This seems... unbalanced? It really feels like Qui-Gon could have leveraged that prize money plus his ship for both Shmi and Anakin. Watto is angry after the race because he bet on Sebulba and "lost everything", but what about the prize money that Qui-Gon forfeited almost entirely to Watto??? And then they sell "Qui-Gon"'s pod (a race-winning pod!) for more money! (And Padmé even says after the race, "We owe you everything, Ani.")

And narratively, I'm not sure what would be greatly harmed by Shmi being free? She's free anyway in the next movie, living on the Lars farm, from what I remember, and the story-important pain for Anakin resolves around her violent death more than her now past enslavement. The movie could have slipped in a brief appearance by the moisture farmer who wants to marry Shmi, but can't because she's not free and he can't afford her freedom, so Shmi once freed stays on Tatooine to get happily married. And Anakin would still be (sadly by Shmi) sent off with the Jedi for a better life than poor moisture farmers on an Outer Rim planet run by gangsters can offer!!! You could still make their separation really sad with some good writing!

I wish the movie had either freed Shmi or been more convincing about why she has to stay in slavery. It really does end up making Qui-Gon Jinn look unlikably careless. Which is, you know, a character flaw and character flaws are fine! But he does other careless things in this movie anyway!

And this also ends up making the Jedi Council look like ASSHOLES when they (a strange group of adults) pressure a 9yo about his fear for his mother's safety and Yoda, instead of offering any guidance on dealing with fear productively, essentially says that fear (perfectly reasonable fear over his future and his mother's future!) is a path to the Dark Side in some weird slippery slope proverb. HIS MOTHER HAS BEEN LEFT IN SLAVERY!!! If Shmi had been left to a happy marriage as a free woman, then MAYBE you would be better able to frame Anakin's attachment as more of a problem, but so much about this scene makes the Jedi Council look utterly unreasonable. And again, it's fine if they're flawed! They can be flawed with their other objections!

But just... LITTLE edits here and there would make a lot about this movie stronger or at least less grating.

[terratenshi]

Do you think Anakin does the thing abused kids do where they talk about horrifying elements of their pasts like it's no big deal? Like...

Youngling 1: [throws a tantrum after getting shocked during lightsaber practice] Anakin: If I did that my master would whip me. Youngling 2: [eyes wide] Master Obi-wan? Anakin: [scoffs] No, Master Watto, he owned me when I was a slave. Youngling 1: [gasps] You were a slave?!! Random Jedi Master: [sighs and comms Obi-wan] Come get your Padawan, he's upsetting the other younglings.

[frasier-crane-style]

This is what I mean when I say the Prequel Trilogy had good concepts with piss-poor execution. We find out in AOTC that Shmi was freed anyway, why not simply say that after TPM, Shmi's freedom was paid for by the Jedi and she's been living on Tattooine, apart from Anakin but safe and well-cared-for, until he starts having visions of her death?

Same sequence of events, but the Jedi would avoid looking like monstrous idiots, which wasn't George Lucas's intent.

Yeah, it's all well and good to say Anakin shouldn't have attachments, but the man is ten. It might help out with his emotional development if he knew his mom wasn't in a position where she could be murdered at anytime because she looked at Watto wrong.

[gffa]

“If you want to pull the thread, then pull it.” The tpm showing tonight and the acolyte trailer release had me thinking about “fate” and “the will of the force”. In Ep I, Qui-Gon talks quite a lot about the will of the force: he talks about how finding Anakin was the will of the force, and later on tells Anakin midichlorians enable a Jedi’s connection with the force and that they “continually speak to you, telling you the will of the force.” These reminders and the new lines about fate and the force from the Acolyte trailer had me thinking of one specific scene in TPM: the scene where Qui-Gon pushes the falling die on his bet with Watto for Anakin’s freedom. Perhaps he was right and finding Anakin was the will of the force, but in the end it was Qui-Gon’s decision to do anything about it. To me, the “will of the force” is the trajectory by which the die falls. No more, no less. The midichlorians told him which way the die would fall and he acts to change it. The “thread to pull” is Qui-Gon deciding to shift the die. Luke, when told two different destinies in the OT & the “will of the force”, chooses neither and creates his own. Perhaps he was right that finding Anakin was the will of the force, or it was right that Luke and Vader’s confrontation was fated by the Force but past that are the choices we make. It’s our decisions that affect the galaxy as a whole

This has been the hill that I've been ready to die on for awhile and that I think it's the Jedi's hill as well! One of my favorite things about Star Wars is that destiny seems to exist, that Anakin is the Chosen One, George Lucas has confirmed that he was, but nothing within the story itself really pushes him into a specific path about it. The Jedi don't even bring it up around him (other than Qui-Gon pushes it during TPM, which is part of his case to adopt Anakin late) or if they do, it's often presented that they doubt it. It's not until Mustafar that Obi-Wan says a single thing on-screen about believing that Anakin is the Chosen One. On Mortis, Anakin himself expresses doubt about being the Chosen One, he was clearly not spoonfed that idea or had it pressed upon him that he had to do Something. Whether the Jedi believed it or not, various ones fell into different categories, they left Anakin to his own choices. Destiny exists, but it's your choice what to do about it. I fully believe that Anakin's destiny was to be in that office with Palpatine and to side with the light, to defeat Palpatine there, that's what being the Chosen One was about. But because he had free will to choose, his fears and anger made him choose a terrible path. I do think the Force has a will, it has a direction it wants to go, like a river running downstream, but that when you wade into it, you're still in control of the choices you want to make. You can walk upstream. You can build a dam. You can stand still. You can even get out of the river. Maybe the Force did draw Qui-Gon to Tatooine that day, maybe it didn't, they'll never really know. Maybe it nudged things so that Qui-Gon was in a position to see that dice roll, but then it was his choice to flip the die over to what was a better outcome. Pulling the thread if you want to pull the thread is what all evidence we have on the Jedi already points to believing in. The Force exists and it does have a pull to it, destiny exists. But it's still up to you the individual to decide whether or not to do it. (But I'm fine with people in-universe who misunderstand the Jedi and what they believe in the Force, because that's been something that has hung over them in every single era of Star Wars ever.)

[padawanlost]

Anakin's nightmare

“Do you know where [Shmi] is?” “Why, I should expect she’s at Watto’s junkshop. I’m afraid he’s had her doing quite a lot of work there, ever since you ran away.”

Anakin winced. “But I didn’t run away,” he said. “I left. To become a Jedi.”

“Oh, of course you did, sir,” said C-3PO, his voice filled with good cheer. “I never meant to suggest that you abandoned any responsibilities you might have had here, when you were just a child. After all, we’re so very proud of you and your achievements. Not that we actually know about what you’ve accomplished in the past nine years, since we’ve never received any messages from you, but I do get the distinct impression that your mother still cares very much about you. And she does have a vivid imagination, so she very easily assumed that you must be…”

The droid was still talking as Anakin ran out of the hovel and into the broiling radiance of Tatooine’s twin suns. Although it appeared to be afternoon, when the city of Mos Espa should have been teeming with street vendors and pedestrians, there was no sign of life.

Anakin felt a sense of panic. He ran as fast as he could through the empty streets until he arrived outside the tall, bell-shaped structure that was Watto’s junkshop.

Like his own hovel, the junkshop appeared to be exactly as Anakin remembered it. Yet when he ducked through the shop’s entrance portal and entered the cluttered interior, he found that Watto had added something new: In front of a workbench, there was a low cage with thick metal bars.

A filthy figure, clothed in dirty rags, was huddled within the cage.

It was Shmi Skywalker. Anakin’s mother.

She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked. Her voice sounded old and tired.

“It’s me, Mom,” Anakin said, dropping to his knees before the cage. “Anakin. Annie. I’m grown up now. I’ve come to rescue you.”

“Anakin?” Shmi said in disbelief. She slowly shook her head. “But you can’t be. You can’t be here. You’re gone.”

“I’ll get you out, Mom,” Anakin said as he gripped the bars. He looked around. There was no sign of Watto.

“It is you,” Shmi said. “It really is you.”

Anakin tugged at the bars with all his might, but they would not yield. Then he remembered he was a Jedi. He could do anything!

He reached to his belt, expecting to find his lightsaber, but his fingers slapped against his side. His lightsaber was gone. He tried to recall if he had clipped it to his belt before leaving his hovel, or if he had even brought it with him to Tatooine.

He tried to remember when and where he had seen it last. He felt confused. How had he arrived back on Tatooine? He could not remember.

Desperate, he glanced at Watto’s tool shelf and saw a fusion-cutter and power pry-bar. He grabbed for them, but he could not pick them up. He tried again, tearing at them, but the tools would not budge. It seemed they had been welded to the shelf.

Anakin collapsed beside the cage, his head smacking against the bars. “I swear, I’ll get you out!” he sobbed.

Shmi reached between the bars and pushed her oil-stained fingers through her son’s blond hair. “Oh, Annie,” she said. “Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”

“Mom, look at you! Watto left you in a cage!” Anakin said, outraged.

“No, he didn’t, Annie,” Shmi said sadly. “Watto didn’t leave me. You did.”

Suddenly, Shmi, the junkshop, and all of Tatooine were swept away from Anakin’s vision, and he was engulfed in darkness. It wrapped around him like a cold, black shroud that cut him off from the entire galaxy.

Unable to see, his only awareness was of the steady rise and fall of his own breathing.

Something was wrong.

The breathing sounded mechanical and labored, as if it were being done through some kind of respirator. Anakin wondered if the breathing were his own, or if he had been mistaken about the sound’s origin. Perhaps, he thought, I’m not alone in this dark place. He held his breath and listened to the void. The sound of mechanized breathing stopped. And then Anakin felt his throat constricting.

The darkness coiled even tighter around him, working its way through his skin, seizing his lungs and veins and muscles and bones until he knew it was about to consume him.

Then the dream ended as it always did, with Anakin trying to shout but fearing that no one, not even he, would ever hear his cry. And then he awoke. [Ryder Windham. Star Wars Adventures - The Hostage Princess]

[byfulcrums]

Something I love about Star Wars is how Luke didn't fix Anakin, he gave him the courage to save himself.

Anakin Skywalker is both a villain (and an abuser. I mean he tortured his own daughter and cut off his son's hand, come on) and a victim, that much is obvious. He is, most importantly, a slave. There has never been a single moment of his life where he wasn't/hasn't felt like he was a slave to something. Watto, the Republic, Palpatine, maybe even himself — you name it. He has never been free.

When Luke goes to the second Death Star, he is going to his father, to the suffering Palpatine is putting Anakin through (he is the main victim of Sidious's abuse and torture, something many people tend to forget). To the suffering Anakin is making himself go through, because, while it was heavily influenced by Palpatine, Anakin's choice to never leave was his own.

He Fell, and that wasn't his fault, but he chose to stay there. Many people — namely Padmé — gave him second chances. Padmé gave Anakin the chance to leave and stay together, but he didn't take it. He did all of it to save her, and it the end, he ends up believing he was the one who killed her (he 'destroys' his goal, because that's what the Dark Side does. You may begin as a noble person looking to save someone, but the Dark Side isn't good, and you will lose track of yourself along the way.)

And now here he is, inside a prison that is seen as his own suit. A prison he was put in, a prison he chose to stay in. By the time of ROTJ, he truly believes that it's over for him. That nothing can save him. That there's no hope. Anakin, the lifelong slave, is resigned to his fate. “It is too late for me, son,” he tells Luke, who willingly came to him wearing shackles.

And Luke, still believing that there is some humanity in Darth Vader's armor, doesn't deter. He doesn't let his father's words stop him. He shows that he's willing to give himself away, to die, just to save him.

Luke Skywalker, son of Padmé and Anakin and the last Jedi Master left, shows a man turned monster that he loves him unconditionally. He shows him that no, it's not too late for him, not now and not ever. And this — his selflessness, his compassion — is what finally gets through Anakin. Someone loves him, and he loves them back. And he would do anything to keep them alive, including killing his own Master and breaking his chains.

It's Luke's own sacrifice that inspires Anakin to give up his life. It's Luke's undying hope that motivates Anakin to finally break his own chains. It's Luke's trust in him that gives Anakin the courage to save himself, and in that single act, he saves the entire galaxy.

The light comes to him in the form of one Luke Skywalker, extending his hand for the last time — the light comes to him when he takes it.

The Prophecy is fulfilled when Anakin kills Palpatine and leaves the dark. The galaxy is saved when a father dies for his son.

[stealingpotatoes]

Hi! I love your art so freaking much!!

Potato question: Have you had Irish Nachos?

Star Wars question: Have you ever wondered what would have happened to Anakin if Mandalorians found him before Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan did?

Thanks!!

i haven't, but googling them makes me regret that!!! will have to try someday omg

honestly that would fix him. u KNOW the mandos would've killed watto and saved shmi and anakin would do great in a religion where they're more cool-ish with you being violent-angst georg

[david-talks-sw]

I am reminded of how many people misremember what happened in that scene where Qui-Gon talks to the Council needing to be trained.

Like, it's an impression that Qui-Gon told the Council to "go fuck yourselves, I do what I want, when I want!"

Whereas what really happens in that scene is this.

Qui-Gon: Train this kid I just found. Council: Nope, he's too old. Qui-Gon: NO?! *puts hands on his hips, outraged*

Qui-Gon: Wha— what do you mean “no”?! He’s the messiah, c’mon, it’s obvious. The messiah: *glares angrily*

Council: Actually, it's not, his future is clouded. Qui-Gon: Okay wise guys, then I'll train him! Council: Uh no? You already have a Padawan. Qui-Gon: Well... I'm still keeping him! Council: Nobody's disputing that. You just can't train him.

And Qui-Gon just goes with it, as indicated by what he tells Anakin in the next scene.

He's on the back foot the whole conversation and eventually relents.

He does so begrudgingly and finds a loophole, but if he was as "fuck the establishment" as fans make him out to be, guess what? He wouldn't be looking for loopholes.

Does he push the envelope? Is he a bit of a maverick? Sure.

But he's not the type to straight-up go "fuck you" to the Council. While he may not always agree with them all the time, when he doesn’t, he still:

Respects their decision and follows it.

Tries to work within the constraints he's been given.

Which is literally what any Jedi does. Doing what they must within the limits of their mandate.

It's for this same reason you don't see Qui-Gon decapitate Watto and take Shmi and Anakin off-planet, or starting a war with the Hutts. That's not his mandate.

Qui-Gon's a standard Jedi who sometimes has ideological disagreements with the Council. That's it.

ADDENDUM:

[marvelstars]

Shmi, Anakin and the Sun - Dragon

Often, however, Watto was unkind, understanding that nothing could stop him from doing what he wanted because Shmi had nothing valuable to trade, besides her son whom she would never trade. Thus, Watto took advantage of this frequently , requiring the boy to podrace, much to Shmi's anger. During one race, she watched in horror as Anakin crashed once again, but was surprised when he had not been thrown from his podracer for once. Watto approached her, yet again dismissing her concerns that Anakin could be seriously hurt before flying off. She made her way down to the racing pit where she reunited with Anakin and saw that his legs had become twisted from the crash. While she knew that Watto would pay to ensure his slave's legs recovered, Shmi held onto her son's hand to comfort herself. Before the rustic, yet effective, medical droids made Anakin unconscious to work on his legs, Anakin promised he would always be with her, yet Shmi privately wish he would one day leave her for a better life.

Despite the horrors in which Anakin grew up, Shmi still tried to give him a normal childhood. She taught him how to fix things and fend for himself, since the Republic was never there for her. She taught him that he deserved more than a slave's life. Most of all, she taught him compassion.

On hard nights, Shmi would tell Anakin the Tatooine myth of the sun-dragon. The sun-dragon was a beast who lived inside the core of a star, guarding everything it treasured. It could survive through the hardest circumstances because it had the biggest heart in the galaxy, able to protect anything and everything it loved. Shmi told this story to her son to remind him that he was the sun-dragon. She never wanted Anakin to doubt in himself and the power of his love for others. Anakin recalled this story many times as an adult when he needed to remember what should guide him. It was something he kept close and told very few other people.

Sources:https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Shmi_Skywalker_Lars

[spell-cleaver]

One thing I've always wondered is how Vader didn't sense either Luke (or Leia's for that matter) force presence on the first death star. I guess he was super caught up in with the whole "I sense the old coot who cut off my limbs amd left me to burn" thing, but I like to think obi-wan was masking the pair by just being obnoxiously loud with the force (the force equivalent of him walking into a room with multiple air horns and a boom box blasting away)

Wow, I had THOUGHTS about this one.

Honestly? I'm not a fan of the assumption in a lot of fic and by fans that it's super easy to passively sense someone in the Force. I have used it myself, of course, but I say from experience it restricts writing a lot while... not actually having a ton of backing in the films? (I'm referring to the films here, not to any other media, just because when I want to analyse lore, I only take them as canon; when I'm just looking for cool worldbuilding for a fic, though, anything goes.)

It's not just Leia that Vader doesn't sense on the Death Star. He doesn't sense Luke either, even though Luke is right there screaming when Vader kills Obi-Wan. It's more of an issue with Leia ofc because he literally used the mind probe on her but only finds that "her resistance... is considerable". An easy answer is that I headcanon Leia is a naturally good shielder, which is why she was never found on the Death Star and also why all of the Jedi in ROTS were surprised there were two babies - Leia had been naturally shielding herself, so they just sensed Luke.

But if we go more in-depth into the films' representations of the Force, Vader only senses Luke when he's actively chasing him as a pilot; he comments that "The Force is strong with this one" only when Luke is using the Force to aim and fire his shot. For me, this implies that you can only sense other Force users powerfully or distinctly when they're actively using the Force. I know why fic prefers not to go that way - I for one have used the "Vader senses Luke immediately" plot to get Luke captured many a time - but it's a fun thing to consider. Also, the Force is a soft magic system. It does functionally whatever the story needs it to.* Which is why Vader can sense Luke approaching Endor in ROTJ when Palpatine couldn't, but he had to be told by an officer when Luke's ship was approaching Cloud City in ESB.** There are many examples where a Force user just didn't sense someone else. Luke not sensing Yoda in ESB, Obi-Wan not sensing Dooku's presence on Geonosis, the Jedi non sensing Maul in TPM, the Jedi not sensing Palpatine for the whole prequel trilogy.

You could argue that those examples are of trained Force wielders shielding themselves, but I would argue that Qui-Gon can't sense Anakin in TPM. He doesn't show interest in Anakin until after they've left Watto's shop and Anakin starts talking to him. Anakin is the literal son of the Force and the most powerful Force wielder ever, but Qui-Gon was talking to Watto for a while without batting an eyelash at the small supernova in his shop. He didn't start to suspect until he heard about his racing, his instincts, spoke to him to notice his insights. Then still he spoke to Shmi about him to confirm his suspicions that "he can see things before they happen", watched him while he flew, and took a midichlorian count. I think the Force might well have been nudging Qui-Gon to look at Anakin, to suspect something, but I don't think he sensed Anakin himself as Force sensitive - at least, not immediately. Which is how I think you can explain all the instances of people going "I felt his presence." They were either using the Force, or familiar as Force sensitives to the person sensing them, or the Force wielder in general had an instinct that there was something special about this person, I should pay attention...

This has been a long ramble, but the short answer is: I headcanon Leia as naturally good at shielding. I think it fills multiple Star Wars plot holes.***

But I think it's also worth interrogating the fact that fandom seems to approach and conceptualise of the Force as a hard magic system, with clearly defined rules, rather than the soft magic system it is.**** Anything goes in Star Wars! It can be annoying if the writing doesn't sell it well enough, but I really love that aspect of the worldbuilding. And considering that the Force is a big fat plot device as well as giving people magical instincts for things that are Plot Relevant and things that aren't, I think it's a lot more interesting to consider that the Force isn't a superpower that lets you sense everything. Vader didn't detect Leia simply because he didn't. Sometimes they fail to do that. And it allows you to show growth in character and situation when that fact changes. Vader doesn't sense Luke in ANH until he's Plot Relevant to Vader's personal story. He doesn't sense Luke until he's fighting him in ESB. But in ROTJ, once they're both invested in their relationship and fated to meet, they're drawn together like stars caught in a mutual orbit.

That's the explanation I prefer. Because although it's less consistent, it's not unbelievable. It leaves uncertainty, mysticism, the chance for exploration in the galaxy. And most importantly, it tells a damn good story. Which, while this may not be true of people who love collecting lore and figuring the galaxy out, is ultimately what I'm here for.

*This is why so many random new powers can get added and explored in later movies and such, and also why I don't really get het up about it when they do add them. It just depends how you incorporate that new power. Usually, if a villain suddenly has a new power no one knew about (like Palpatine's lightning in ROTJ) it just ups the stakes, while if a hero suddenly has a new power it can feel like it cheapens their victory, like they haven't earned it; a deus ex machina. So messing about with Force powers is fine, it just depends how you incorporate them in the story.

**Admittedly this can be explained by the bond being formed when Luke learned the truth, but you know what I mean.

***I was only talking about the movies here, but there's also that moment in the Kenobi series where she's captured by Inquisitors and still no one notices she's Force sensitive??? There's just a lot of moments like this littered all over Star Wars, so this headcanon covers a lot of them.

****I kept using the terms hard/soft magic system without really explaining it here, but here's some good videos to dig into it: Soft Magic Systems | Hard Magic Systems

[of-tatooine]

where it truly lies. | chapter i - prologue

revelations came early to the youngling, if only he knew.

From the very moment the twin suns’ pink and orange hues illuminated your face, a young Anakin knew.

It was the kind of feeling that lit a gentle fire within the soul, the origins of which unbeknownst to the wandering yet growing minds of children. The kind of feeling so grand it engulfed his very being from within. A sentiment, sense of belonging and excitement he did not yet know how to describe, but oh, could he feel it.

It made his heart falter, skip a small beat. It made his baby blues sparkle internally, rays reflecting out into the world of chaos around him with a fresh breath of happiness. His hands were just a bit faster, just a tiny bit more nimble as he worked with spare droid parts at his master’s shop.

He knew.

Just like he knew he would see the suns rise again. That he would see his mother that night with open arms and heart, beckoning him in to share a meal.

Like he knew, from the bottom of his heart, that he would be free one day, his family slaves to no one.

If only you knew.

A merely nine year old boy, albeit an exceptionally wise one, but just a little boy, knew he loved you.

How could he? How could a small boy know about love, let alone feel it?

That must have been love, right? The kind he heard whispers and stories of on the streets of Tatooine. The feeling that made all the beautiful things in this world appear - hugs, kisses on the cheek. Blue skies shining back at him. The sparkles on his red and orange speeder. The gentle beeping sounds of a functioning droid.

A dreamland full of water and beautiful trees adorned in all shades of green, the ones that existed in the better half of his dreams.

Love was happiness to him. The kind that made him laugh and smile even after being exhausted all day. Ever since you beamed into the shop looking for some scrap sensors to fix your passion project, it had been nothing but happiness when you were around, so much so that he lately did not mind his master’s ordering around.

He wanted nothing more to understand that little gentle light within him, to make sure it never disappeared from his life.

He wanted to find a way to keep the twin suns from setting. That would make it daylight forever, allowing you to stay with him.

That would convince your parents to let you stay out with him just a bit longer. Anakin was very confident that he could make that work, even if it took him forever.

He would not let go.

The gentle hum of buzzing machinery and a certain girl whispering a shallow profanity after a series of mechanical thuds took him out of his thoughts and back to reality of the desert.

Back to the sand that kept hitting his skin no matter how much he covered.

“Do you have it yet?”

“Almost,” came your voice from a bit afar in the scrapyard, knee deep in all the spare parts, screws, scrapped metal of all sorts around Watto’s shop. His master being gone to the outpost to scour for his necessities meant a certain relief, finally being able to work on something a bit more fun. A few more broken rotors and springs thrown out from the pile followed by an “aha!”, you quipped in excitement to the newly discovered part.

The slightly rusty body of the partially disassembled protocol droid stared at him, waiting to be granted life. With a clear intention in mind, the little Anakin had worked on the droid whenever his master’s watchful eyes were not all over him, and sometimes overtime after he was dismissed. Working on the manmade creature also gave him an excuse to tinker with you.

He had worked hard to dig for spare parts in the vast scrapyard, his talented fingers tightening each bolt and screw that connected the limbs together, the network of wires originating from the motherboard to each corner of the machine to grant energy to the droid when all parts were tied together.

Up until then, he had been missing the servomotor, if not the most crucial part of it all. He had been searching for it for the better half of a week now, and had requested your assistance as a second pair of eyes and hands.

How else was the protocol droid supposed to move to help protect his mother, if not for the motor?

The smile stretching your lips was contagious as your running legs carried you  towards a waiting blond boy, clutching the motor tightly in your small hands as you skipped occasionally to avoid the leftover parts, sand flying around under your boots with each stride taken. An excitement ran through Anakin, as he readied the metal opening to, almost ceremoniously, tie the missing piece altogether.

“Let’s do this.”

Sounds of metal clinks, wires strapped to their place, a few huffs following the cutter as the motor clicked into it’s place. The moment he had been waiting for for a while now, as he made sure to securely attach all the mechanical limbs and double check the circuits. With his heart thumping and you crouching next to him, he hit the switch.

He shot a smile mixed in with a laugh, catching your eyes with the biggest joy when he heard the whirl, focusing back when the droid’s eyes lit up a calm yellow, head turning with a screeching sound - but moving nonetheless.

The two little troublemakers found themselves laughing with content, celebrating their creation. Now, his mother had someone to help protect her against the heat, even if it required a bit more maintenance, polish and oil.

Your eyes found Anakin’s light blue ones, partially shaded under the fabric of the tent, yet the sparkles in them were enough to light the galaxy.

“You will do great things, Ani.”

The words flowed out as if they were the most natural. You always had meant everything you said to him, it made him believe that yes, one day, he would indeed do great things.

To that, he responded with a wide smile, laced with a child’s innocence and pure hope.

While he believed your words, he found himself only hoping for them to become true if it meant seeing you smile.

[dailyadventureprompts]

do you have anything on the Neogi?

Coincidentally this ask came in around the same time as I'd watched the above video and had a lot of disagreements with it (in addition to being annoyed out of my brain by the editing style).

In my opinion: the Neogi are actually a great villain monster because in their role as merchants/slavers of the cosmos they embody the most monstrous aspects of capitalism IE the willingness to reduce other living things into commodities for the sake of self enrichment.

Several lore entries on the Neogi refer to their mindset as "utterly alien" because they see all life as property. This makes me laugh because all you have to do is spend any time around Anarcho-capitalists and you'll hear people who are so far up their own profit-driven-asses that they'll not only defend the property rights of slave holders, but the "rights" of impoverished people to sell themselves and their families into slavery.

We live in a world today where people who need medicine that costs pennies to make have to go into life-ruining debt in order to afford living another month, year, etc. None of us are truly free when all of us need water, food, shelter, and yet all of these things cost money, forcing us to work to continue our existence. In this way, you can see the funhouse mirror logic of Neogi thinking it's reasonable to use magical compulsion to force others to do their bidding. What's the difference between the Spider-merchants using their mindbeams to force someone into indenture, and a grain merchant who jacks up their prices during a famine? It's just good business, and at least the Neogi are honest about it.

Conversely, their position as merchants puts them in an interesting place in the monstrous rogue's gallery. Unlike most other enemies the party is going to fight, the Neogi are willing to cut a deal. You could probably pay them to stop their villainous plan, or even outright help the heroes... it's all just a matter of whether or not the party is capable of meeting their price ( materially or ethically). Failing that, they can just show up as sketchy merchants provided you avoid any and all comparisons to Watto

They also have great utility in causing other adventures to happen, whether it be in transporting strange creatures that will inevitably escape, or kidnapping the party to sell off on a hostile world.

While I'm at it, check out my take on umberhulks, the default Neogi henchman.