#across the stars (padme/anakin)

[hayden-christensen]

Death doesn't discriminate Between the sinners And the saints It takes and it takes and it takes

[thekenobee]

I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside And you deserve prison, but you won't get time

[the-far-bright-center]

'Ill-Starred Love / The Good in Him' by Zoltan Simon (from Star Wars Celebration: Chicago Art)

“Star Wars has so many strong motifs and archetypes, I always find inspiration in them. The idea of this image came into my mind when I was standing in a beautiful garden at Lake Como last September, at the shooting location of the wedding scene from Attack of the Clones. The picture catches the dark and inevitable future in a beautiful and happy moment: Darth Vader’s mask building up like a cracked glass coffin around Padmé’s face. From the opposite point of view, if we try to see through Vader’s mask, we can see the love and the good in him — the good that never left him.” 

[leiaamidala]

𝑨𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔

⁣⁣⁣⤞ art by gessueter

⤞ commissioned by me

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

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please do not repost.

[arriettyspin]

A little anidala-related headcanon of mine:

Queen's Hope revealed that Padmé struggled to put her wedding dress together the night before her and Anakin's wedding. Eventually, she ended up enlisting the help of her former handmaiden who was a skilled tailor. Yané was concerned, but also willing to ask no questions.

Yané did of course share the news of Padmé's visit with Saché, but perhaps the couple decided to confide in Rabé as well. Rabé, who chose to study music in Theed after her life as a handmaiden came to an end. Unlike Sabé, she was still living on Naboo. It's very likely they kept in touch and were closer than the others.

This information would stir any young musician, the idea of the grounded young Queen and childhood friend you once served eloping with the unknown. Someone she really shouldn't be with, perhaps. And thus Rabé was inspired to compose the tune Across The Stars as a secret serenade to Amidala and her hidden love.

[spicypepperjack]

If Gwen kissed Miles at the Williamsburg Tower or the water tower and she gets all angsty afterwards, I can totally imagine that they'll be like:

Gwen: I'm haunted by the kiss you should have never given me. My heart is beating... hoping that kiss won't be a scar.

Miles: Gwen, you literally pulled me in and ate my face.

Gwen: You could have stopped me!

[skywalkr-nberrie]

the urge to write a whole load of Anidala meta covering various aspects of their relationships that gets misinterpreted because I feel a lot of the hate they receive is unwarranted in the fandom and it’s due to lack of comprehension and literary skills.

[marvelstars]

Padme & Anakin anger &flaws

I may be in the minority but I do think Padme is principled and brave a lot, she has been that way since she was a kid, she was bassically trained to be that way so she could become a strong/good leader for Naboo and guess what Anakin is/was very principled and brave as well, the fact both of them share this about the other is one of the biggest reasons why they became involved and fell in love but Padme also is flawed, I don´t believe she was without flaws and one those flaws involve being almost as angry as Anakin.

We already saw Anakin´s reaction over Shmi´s death, Padme is almost as angry over Corde´s murder in AOTC, in the novel of Attack of the Clones Padmé has a moment in which she wishes she could murder the trade federation leaders and Count Dooku over Corde´s death and she wonders if that was how Anakin felt with the tusken raiders after they tortured and killed his mother, the main difference between them is that Padme would have to use considerable effort to do that which would lead to her thinking things over better, while Anakin could kill a lot of people just using his mind in the rush of the moment, he didn´t even needs his lightsaber to do that, so his control over himself has to be more constant.

Both Padme and Anakin share a perspective of justice being something that not neccesarily can be always tackled by a system, in fact Padme´s words after leaving the Senate to go rescue her planet was that there wasn´t probably any hope for the republican system, a concept like justice isn´t easily tackled by a system, especially one as flawed as the republic, Padme simply thoguht the republic could be fixed when she grew up and Anakin shared this sentiment as well but he wasn´t as hopeful as her.

So both have this rightheous anger in them and in Padme´s case that included her helping Anakin hide what happened to the tusken raiders, maybe she thought him being expelled from the Jedi Order and going to jail wasn´t the best way to deal with that, I personally think maybe that could have protected him from Palpatine but he surely would have found a way to become Anakin´s guardian and lawyer if that happened but my guess is that Padme simply had compassion for Anakin´s circunstances, because the origin of Anakin´s reaction was precisely being taken away from his mother, leaving her a slave which lead to her death and Padme knew as well as Anakin did that the dead of Shmi Skywalker would not garner justice from Jabba, the Republic or any other system or government body in the galaxy, literally nobody cared she died, only Anakin and the Lars family did which made Padme sympathetic to Anakin.

Padme also is very principled but imo she seems used to have a pov particular to her station which also leads to ignore some things people who had not been in her place experiment daily, she shares this flaw with Bail Organa as well. Slavery for Padme seemed a very horrible and sad reality but it wasn´t one of her priorities to end it, her priority was to help turn the republic into a more equal and fuctional body that could better deal with those situations and many others around the galaxy and she actually came close to discovering many of Palpatine´s schemes for this reason, which was why he and Dooku wanted her dead and she never semed to quite make the connection between slavery and the clones but then again nobody else did except for maybe Anakin and ironically Palpatine and Count Dooku.

Both Padme and Anakin were children forced into adult situations and both were told or were forced to, since a young age, to reppress their emotions, Padme as Amidala, Anakin as a slave who had to control his emotions so he would not bring trouble to his mother or himself and later as a Jedi. Imo this made both of them develop a kind of double life, Anakin in particular hated the Amidala persona, because Padme seemed so emotionless when she was that way but curiously enugh as Vader, one of his main go to presentation cards is to act almost as emotionless as Queen Amidala.

What I don´t view and never will see as part of Padme´s flaws is her love for Anakin or her wish to save him from himself in ROTS.

Those are not flaws, those are part of her strenght as a character imo because while she certainly wasn´t of the oppinion that eveything would be alright after what Anakin did, in fact Lucas commented she would not have stayed his wife had she lived, she definitely could see he wasn´t in his right mind on Mustafar, so their marriage may have been over if Anakin followed her but she still cared enough for him to try to help him get back to his own senses, because she knew if she gave Anakin that opportunity, his own horror over what he did would be as strong as anything she could tell him and he would have directly taken matters into his own hands even if they meant his death and this opportunity is precisely what Luke presented to Vader in ROTJ, which lead to the biggest victory over the darkside in the series, so no Padme´s love and compassion for Anakin will never be flaws from my pov, just like Anakin only could find himself again because he was able to feel compassion again as Vader. Both are connected that way.

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

What if attack of the clones was my favourite?

[here-comes-the-moose]

Guys I just had a realization while I was driving:

So I’m not sure if anyone has pointed this out before, but the intro to “Across The Stars” sounds super similar to the opening of the famous piece from Swan Lake (please don’t come for me I tried so hard to find what the name was). Obviously John Williams is a genius, so I believe this to be intentional since both pieces have an ominous tone and are part of a larger context of good versus evil, with one of the main characters being someone who plays both characters of good and evil who are one person but also two people (Anakin/Darth Vader and Odette/Odile). I hope this makes sense I have a headache and I didn’t do a super in-depth analysis since I wanted to post this before I forgot.

Edit: Also an interesting coincidence is that both pieces are from works that were unpopular at their time of release but eventually grew to become iconic.

[hayden-in-a-cheguevara-shirt]

Alone in the Chamber of the Jedi Council, Anakin Skywalker wrestled with his dragon. He was losing. He paced the Chamber in blind arcs, stumbling among the chairs. He could not feel currents of the Force around him; he could not feel echoes of Jedi Masters in these ancient seats. He had never dreamed there was this much pain in the universe. Physical pain he could have handled even without his Jedi mental skills; he’d always been tough. At four years old he’d been able to take the worst beating Watto would deliver without so much as making a sound. Nothing had prepared him for this. He wanted to rip open his chest with his bare hands and claw out his heart. “What have I done?” The question started as a low moan but grew to a howl he could no longer lock behind his teeth. “What have I done?”

He knew the answer: he had done his duty. And now he couldn’t imagine why. When I die, Palpatine had said, so calmly, so warmly, so reasonably, my knowledge dies with me… Everywhere he looked, he saw only the face of the woman he loved beyond love: the woman for whom he channeled through his body all the love that had ever existed in the galaxy. In the universe.

He didn’t care what she had done. He didn’t care about conspiracies or cabals or secret pacts. Treason meant nothing to him now. She was everything that had ever been loved by anyone, and he was watching her die.

His agony somehow became an invisible hand, stretching out through the Force, a hand that found her, far away, alone in her apartment in the dark, a hand that felt the silken softness of her skin and the sleek coils of her hair, a hand that dissolved into a field of pure energy, of pure feeling that reached inside her—

And now he felt her, really felt her in the Force, as though she could have been some kind of Jedi, too, but more than that: he felt a bond, a connection, deeper and more intimate than he’d ever had before with anyone, even Obi-Wan; for a precious eternal instant he was her… he was the beat of her heart and he was the motion of her lips and he was her soft words as though she spoke a prayer to the stars—

I love you, Anakin. I am yours, in life, and in death, wherever you go, whatever you do, we will always be one. Never doubt me, my love. I am yours.

—and her purity and her passion and the truth of her love flowed into him and through him and every atom of him screamed to the Force how can I let her die?

The Force had no answer for him.

The dragon, on the other hand, did.

All things die, Anakin Skywalker. Even stars burn out.

And no matter how hard he tried to summon it, no wisdom of Yoda’s, no teaching of Obi-Wan’s, not one scrap of Jedi lore came to him that could choke the dragon down.

But there was an answer; he’d heard it just the other night.

With such knowledge, to maintain life in someone already living would seem a small matter, don’t you agree?

Anakin stopped. His agony evaporated.

Palpatine was right.

It was simple.

All he had to do was decide what he wanted.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (novelization by Matthew Stover)

[thekenobee]

About a million times

[theisleisfullofnoises]

STAR WARS RANT INCOMING!

If I could change two things about the entire Star Wars canon, I would firstly make Anakin Skywalker 14 years old in The Phantom Menace.

It fixes so much that doesn’t work about the prequels.

The Jedi Council evaluation: He’s too angry? A kind, empathetic boy who had been raised a slave on a hard world run by the biggest criminal empire in the galaxy - of course. Of course he would be. That kind of injustice would burn so deeply - at 14, he would not just be a witness to the wrongs, he would understand them, and that’s why he would be “too old”. The Jedi Council would clock immediately that this boy had learned how to hate, in a way so deeply entrenched that no amount of training and meditation would wash that away.

Make him 14, and the Jedi Council goes from a bunch of dicks to instead a bunch of misguided dicks in a way that makes mores sense with the Clone Wars portrayals.

At 14, Anakin would be YOUNG but believable as a genius pilot. Qui Gon gambling on the pod race, him defeating the Trade Federation control ship? An incredible feat! But not ridiculous, as it kinda is in the movie. Also, 13-14 is older enough that I believe he could convince his mother to let him compete at all. If my 8-9 year old was flying in homicidal death races, I would lose my shit. No. Just no.

It’s also more believable (and significantly less creepy) that a 14 year old Anakin could meet Padme, 17-18yo herself, bond innocently in the circumstances and have that develop into a deep love and admiration when they meet again older. So much less cringe!!!

That’s #1 what I would change.

#2 is that I would rewrite Anakin and Padme’s entire doomed narrative.

Padme and Anakin needed parallel character arcs over the course of the wars up until RotS, as the war pushed them father and farther from each other ideologically until finally ending with him tearing down the Republic as she raised the Rebellion to fight the Empire put in its place (which is canon and got cut).

Lucas wrote the tragedy that Anakin killed her because he thought she had betrayed him when she hadn’t - the tragedy should have been because she HAD.

Also, stfu with whole “she has lost the will to live”, I defy you to say Padme would not cling screaming to life every second she could to leave her children a safer galaxy.

Anyway, these aren’t the only things one could change to improve the Star Wars canon, but I think they would have the biggest overall positive impact. We get left with an older Anakin, heroic, full of the desire to do good, and only too aware of the injustices and hypocrisy that surround him in the Order, already walking the knife edge of love and bitterness.

What dya think? I would love to hear other opinions!

[disneyprincessbuffyannesummers]

❝I am not blind, Padmé. Though I have tried to be, for Anakin’s sake. And for yours. Anakin has loved you since the day you met, in that horrible junk shop on Tatooine. He’s never even tried to hide it, though we do not speak of it. We… pretend that I don’t know. And I was happy to, because it made him happy. You made him happy, when nothing else ever truly could.❯

~Obi-Wan To Padme in a deleted scene~

❮You love him, too, don’t you?' 'You do. You do love him,' 'Please, do what you can to help him,❜

~Obi-Wan To Padme in a deleted scene~

inspo from @izloveshorses, @whenanangelfalls & the most important @pwn15

picture source

[arriettyspin]

When I'm listening to a Star Wars audiobook and Across The Stars plays during a romantic scene: