#and in this case it’s just easier for anakin to be guilt free if still a bad Jedi

[tennessoui]

hiiii miss kit

re: ur hanahaki fic -

is anakin the one who carried out the jedi culling? i was reading the first chapter and you mention that master vokara che's padawan had not survived the jedi culling.

did anakin carry out the culling?

hey!! nope, in this au Anakin’s hands are clean of youngling blood (so far) - the divergence of this fic from canon rots is a little vague and it’s not something I’m planning to go into detail about. But basically the vague and amorphous is that obi-wan didn’t go to confront grievous and instead he turned around and anakin brought him to Palpatine and they faced him together - but palpatine triggered Order 66 earlier than in the movie, so an untold but unprecedented amount of Jedi still died

[dragonrider9905]

Hi guys! This is a little something a friend and I wrote a bit back:) Now that it’s cold I thought I’d share it! I hope you enjoy it!

Statistics in Stupidity

Summery: Echo decides to have a little fun with the Batch and see whose tongues can get stuck on frozen metal. How many of them will fall for it?

Echo looked out his window of the room he shared with his brothers in the Naboo palace. Since he was just new to the Batch and still healing of his wounds, Anakin thought it would be a good idea to assign Clone Force 99 on slightly easier missions to ground the newly rescued clone and give him time to adjust to …. everything. All the changes that had happened since Echo had been held by the Techno Union. Echo’s mischief-making twin was gone, he had new cybernetic limbs he had to adjust to, and the art of living from day to day. Survivor's guilt was one thing, but so was the trauma of what was endured. Echo needed something to do and a break so naturally, Anakin thought Naboo was a good idea. Commander Cody must have thought it was a good idea too because he didn’t need Rex to nudge him at all to give his special ops force a break. He did it in a wink of an eye.

And Anakin was right.

Naboo was beautiful. A wonderful planet to get into little adventures on, especially around the palace. In winter, when the planet is covered in snow, Theed looked enchanting and for a clone who’s only ever seen a watery storm; the ice reflecting in the snow on a golden morning when the sun rises with the reds, oranges and pinks was a memory truly treasured and imprinted in the mind forever.

The assignment was simple. Guard Senator Padme Amidala at the upcoming gala in three days. . . which left lots of free time on the hands of the Batchers…and Echo possessing the spirit of the 501st mischief and trickery and Fives’ spirit beside him. Echo thought he'd have a little fun.

And here Hunter was worried that Echo wouldn’t fit in and feel out of place. He wanted him to feel at home right away but it was unrealistic to expect that. He was partially right of course. Echo did feel odd with a whole new set of brothers who were not his own batchmates but they tried hard to make Echo feel welcome and the chaos he served under in the 501st and the Batch were startlingly similar. Hunter hoped that in time Echo would be comfortable with their jokes and jabs and their whole chaotic mess; little did he know that oh yes, Echo would fit in just fine. . .

—————————

Everyone knows not to lick frozen metal. That is common knowledge, or at least Echo thought. If you read the How to Survive in Frigid Temperatures manual, section 33 of chapter 2, volume 1, it clearly states that.

——————————

Echo, Wrecker and Tech were walking the grounds of the palace together on the pretense of ‘scouting’ the area to become familiar with their new surroundings when they came upon a simple metal contraption in the center of the garden more towards the back of the palace.

“Naboo’s existence has lasted many millennia. They have kept many of the customs their people held to this day, only modifying a few. Now the royal family is elected but before it was handed down by blood. Children would grow up in the palace in those ages where now that is not the case. It is interesting to see that they have kept the exercise ‘play’ structures around. Being a people of tradition, it does not surprise me.”

Echo’s eyes gleaned looking at the tall windy stairs, slides and firepoles compiled and a sparkle flashed behind his eyes as a memory came to mind. He knew he really shouldn’t do it, but he had to. He just had to. Tech was already on the other side of the ‘playground’ studying the structure. Perfect.

After all, after the ‘incident’ happened, how could he NOT test out who would do it or not.

“Wrecker, don’t lick the poll.”

“Wha? Why not?”

Echo had to stifle a laugh and keep his face a convincing unconcerned neutral.

“Because I said so.”

“Oh yeah? Watch this!”

Wrecker stalked up quickly to the playground and in less than two seconds, Wrecker’s tongue was stuck.

“Uhhhh Eko, a wi-el hek plea-”

“Wrecker! Wha- how did that happen? I’ll go get Tech and see if he can help.”

“Ank Oo”

So Echo rounded the set and came upon Tech who was intently studying a turning, circular structure Echo remembered being referred to as a ‘merry-go-round’.

“Hey Tech, whatcha looking at?”

“I am merely studying the fluidity and output of the turn per force applied. I might be able to do something with this idea…”

“Don’t lick it.”

Tech stopped up short and looked at Echo quizzically. “Why–why would I lick it?” His eyes got round and he raised an eyebrow at the ridiculous notion. “My tongue would stick to the metal, creating a difficult and painful removal.”

Echo had to let out a chuckle. He couldn’t contain his laughter any longer nor could he keep his mischief making to himself. He had to share his story. “Hehe, I know; once I was on a mission with my twin, Fives, and overnight the planet dropped to below freezing temperatures. It was our first time in the cold and Fives wanted to experience it first hand—by touching and tasting everything in sight. It was an advanced planet like this one and we came across a playground like this. I told him ‘Fives, don’t lick the swing set’ and before I could tell him why, he just said ‘don’t tell me what to do’ and did it.” Again Echo let out a nostalgic laugh and a few tears left his eyes. Red rose to his cheeks and it was safe to say it was not just from the cold wind but the warmth he felt inside at the memory as it bloomed in his mind’s eye.

“I can only imagine how that turned out.” Tech smirked back.

“Yeah, he got stuck for two hours. I left to get Kix who was only a few minutes away. He wanted him to stay there until he learned his lesson but promptly went to him anyway. Afterward when Fives re-created the story he would say, ‘remember when you dared me to….?’ So now, I test who I can get to lick a frozen piece of metal.”

“How many have you gotten.”

“More than you’d believe.”

Tech gave a huff of a laugh then was quiet for a second. With what Echo could call an evil grin, Tech said:

“I’ll keep your statistics for you.”

Echo had to return the impish glint. “You can add that one to the list.” He tossed his thumb in Wrecker’s direction. When Tech followed Echo’s line of direction he let out a big sigh. “Honestly, he should know better. Maybe I just have hope my brothers would develop brains but apparently not.” Echo could only laugh.

“Come on, let’s help him, then let’s see if we can get Crosshair.”

—————————

If Echo thought Tech looked mischievous before, the look that came over Tech’s face was positively scheming. “I’m in. Let’s do it. We’ll have to do it just right if we really want to get him. If this works, I’ll need to save it for the future.” and touched the recording button on his helmet.

Echo and Tech approached Crosshair lazily, talking casually to each other. They didn’t want to make him suspicious but his eyebrow was raised anyway. Echo and Tech knew what they had to do to get him so they had to play it just right.

“Hey Cross, come with us!” Tech called to him.

He just kicked his feet up on the bench he was resting on.

“Why.”

“Because, Wrecker got stuck . . .he licked a frozen structure.”

He rolled his eyes but was smirking and got up. “This I have to see.” So he idly strolled behind the two schemers twirling a toothpick in his mouth.

When he got there, and saw Wrecker stuck to the playset he busted out laughing. “Really, Wrecker?” Wrecker only groaned and rolled his eyes.

Tech chimed in. “Wrecker, how quick of a touch was it? I would like to research the results of this if you don’t mind. Perhaps you held it on just too long and that’s why it got stuck. Perhaps if the timing was shorter…”

“Don’t lick the playset too Cross, I don’t think you’ll end up any better than Wrecker here.”

Crosshair sighed and leaned up against Wrecker, cocking his eyebrow again. “Is that a challenge?” He smirked.

“No, just don’t do it.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Tech and Echo discreetly glanced at each other. Echo was fighting every muscle in his face trying not to grin because Cross had taken the bait.

Crosshair immediately did what Tech and Echo thought he’d do. He’d lick the playset to try and one up Wrecker. Try to get out scot free—and do it out of spite. Echo told him not to so he would.

“Perhaps we should go get Hunter?” Tech barely contained his laugh.

——————————

“Hey Hunter, would you lick metal in the cold?”

Hunter raised his eyebrows and placed a hand on his hip. “What are you trying to tell me, Echo? Tech’s amused face is more than enough context to tell me something’s up.”

“Well Hunter, would you?” Echo pressed.

“No, that’d be stupid.”

“At least we have three sensible people on this team.” Tech chimed in happily.

“The real reason we came back early from our walk was…we need help…getting….uh….we need help.” Echo stammered out halfway embarrassed and half proud of himself, trying not to laugh.

Hunter’s face when he saw Wrecker and Crosshair, side by side, tongues stuck to the frozen playset was priceless. No words could describe the absolute shock and second hand embarrassment as he pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, just hoping that somehow this was some sort of a dream.

“Ok boys, wanna tell me how this happened?”

“Ii wa Ekoo kault!”

————————————

Later on that night, Tech and Echo re-watched the recordings from that day’s event and laughed with each other, clapping each other on the back while Hunter scribbled away. He had to admit, as un-amusing as it was in the moment, it was pretty funny to look back on and it was one for the books.

@shyranno in honor of your cold comic ;)

[silvereddaye]

When you find the time, would you please write more about Vader helping Luke adjust to becoming a vampire in Blood Red Love?

Luke heard the familiar thump of feet of approaching. He couldn’t help but smile a little. He knew those steps. Their beat was like that of his own heart. It was the march of his sister, who was angry and on the warpath. He had grown up hearing these steps storm down hallways in the Skywalker homes over the years, and now it was coming for him in the basement of his parent’s new American home. The door slammed open and Leia stood in the doorway full of anger and determination. 

“Luke!” she shouted as she rushed over to him. She wore a nice dark green dress and her hair was carefully braided and pinned up. Luke was sitting on his bed, and Leia plopped herself down right next to him and tightly hugged him. He wrapped his own arms around her and held her tightly. “Is it true?” she whispered into his hair. 

He didn’t reply, only just held her. She felt so warm, so alive. She pulled away slowly. Her eyes searched his, but Luke couldn’t keep her gaze. He looked down at his lap. 

“Luke . . . I . . . It’s . . .”

“True,” he whispered. “What Mother and Father told you. It’s true.” 

She bit her lower lip. She wanted to argue. She wanted to say that it was illogical and foolish and a million other things, but she didn’t. 

“Vampires,” she said. She let out a small angry huff.

“Still don’t believe it?” 

She gave him a pointed look that clearly said she did not. Ever since Luke’s . . . accident, as his parents were calling it, and his transformation into a vampire by his father to save his life, he had been living in the basement as he adjusted. His parents had told his siblings he had gotten a sudden and base case of the flu, which meant he needed to be quarantined and the others had to stay away. They still exchanged letters. Ayamé sent him colorful drawings mostly of flowers and animals. Jonin wrote about his day, but Leia’s letters were filled with angry fast scribbled words. She knew something was off. Something was wrong. She demanded to see Luke and knew something was wrong when her parents had told her no. 

But Anakin and Padmé Skywalker could only keep their children apart for so long, especially the twins. Luke had told his parents there was no way he could keep a secret about being a vampire from Leia, and his parents agreed and decided they would be the one to tell their oldest daughter. Finally told the truth, Leia was permitted to see Luke. 

“You don’t look any different,” she said.

Luke gave her a weak smile. “It must be all on the inside because I feel different. Completely different.” 

“Yeah? Is it . . . hard?” 

“Yes,” he whispered.

It was hard. The hunger was the worst. It couldn’t be stopped with regular food, though he luckily could still eat such things. The only cure for the gnawing hunger was blood. Thick, warm blood. He was surprised at how good it tasted. How he constantly thought of it. Constantly wanted it. He had only drunk blood from cups and pitchers given to him by his parents or their servants, who were clearly well informed of his parents’ dual identities. He had yet to bite and drink blood straight from a human. 

A human like Leia. She wasn’t the first human he had seen since he had been turned. A few of his mother’s handmaidens were humans. But none of them had been this close to him. None of them had lingered around him. His eyes looked at his sister’s throat. He could feel the blood pumping through her veins. He could hear her heart beating strongly in her chest. His mouth salivated as her smell filled the air with promises of delicious blood. His fangs were starting to grow longer. 

“Luke?” Leia asked. “Your eyes!” 

No doubt they were turning gold as his vampiric side slowly revealed itself. 

“Leia it’s time to go.” 

Both twins looked up to see their mother. Neither one had heard Padmé enter, but she stood there and grabbed Leia’s arm. She pulled her daughter up and started to push her to the door.

“Wait! Mother!” Leia tried to wiggle free. She constantly looked over her shoulder at her brother. 

“Luke needs to be alone right now,” Padmé said as she finally managed to get Leia out into the hallway. She gave Luke a knowing and comforting but sad look before she closed the door. 

Tears instantly welled in his eyes. What was he thinking? Was he thinking of biting Leia and sucking her blood? How could he ever do such a thing? The door opened and Luke wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt. He was ready to tell Leia or Mother to go away, but it wasn’t either of them. 

It was his father who entered holding a small silver tray with a large pitcher filled with red liquid and a single glass. Anakin Skywalker said nothing as he closed the door then placed the tray on the bedside table. He poured the blood into the cup and held it out to his son. Luke took it without a word and instantly started to chug it down. Anakin sat down next to him sitting in the same spot Leia had occupied moments ago. 

“Your mother and I were in the hallway,” Anakin said softly. “We knew it was your first real time being around a human. We wanted to be there just in case.”

“In case of what?” Luke asked. “That I attacked my own sister? That I drank her blood?” 

He couldn’t look at his father. Shame and guilt burned through him. His father’s hand rested gently on his back. 

“You wouldn’t have hurt her,” Anakin said. 

“But I wanted to! I could smell her blood and it just smelled so good! I couldn’t stop myself. My fangs started to grow and my eyes changed and if Mother hadn’t come in . . .” He finally looked at his father. His vision was blurry as tears filled his eyes again. 

“If Mother hadn’t come in, you still wouldn’t have hurt Leia,” Anakin said. 

“Then why did she come in and whisk Leia if nothing was going to happen?” 

Anakin closed his eyes and sighed. He rubbed Luke’s back in small circles. 

“You weren’t going to hurt her, but you’re going through a rough time. You still haven’t gotten control over yourself yet. Most likely you have bottled yourself up and tried to return to being a human.”

That was what Luke was going to do. Anakin squeezed Luke’s shoulder. 

“That isn’t the way to master your desires. It takes baby steps.” 

Anakin took the empty cup from Luke’s hand, stood up, and refilled the cup with more blood. Luke took the cup and held it in his hands without drinking it. 

“You don’t need to rush through this. It takes time,” Anakin said. 

“You keep saying I wasn’t going to do anything, but I don’t believe it. I was so hungry all of a sudden. And . . . “ He looked at his father. “I don’t think I can be around Leia anymore. Be around anyone.” 

“Luke,” Anakin said. He placed his hand under his chin. “I have been a vampire your whole life. Look at me. I have never thought about drinking your blood. Ever. The same goes for your sisters and brother. Your mother feels the same way. Neither one of us has ever had any desire to harm any of you regardless of how hungry we may be. We would rather starve than harm any of you.” 

“But you-- you have more control! You’re used to it.” 

Anakin let out a soft chuckle. “Exactly. Control you’ll learn. Control you’ll get used to.” He sat back down next to Luke. “It’s hard when you didn’t choose this life,” he said softly. “Though your mother and I didn’t freely choose to become vampires, we both still made a choice.” 

Luke looked at his father questioningly. 

Anakin sighed. “I am sure you remember Sheev Palpatine.”

Luke couldn’t stop the scowl of disgust from growing on his face. Duke Palpatine had died when he was four years old, but yes he remembered that foul man. Anakin laughed at Luke’s reaction. 

“He was a vampire. In fact, he was the leader of the vampire underworld. He killed your mother’s family. He offered your mother a choice: die or become a vampire. Clearly, she picked the latter. He then captured me, plotted so Jedi knights would invade his home, and your mother, who was very pregnant with you and your sister, was kidnapped. I was desperate, Luke. I couldn’t let anything happen to your mother or the babies. So I accepted becoming a vampire. It was the only out I could see at the time. I wasn’t afraid of dying, but I was afraid of losing you and your mother and Leia. 

“But because we choose to be vampires, though both in cruel ways, our transition perhaps wasn’t as hard as yours has been. We had already mentally accepted what we were becoming. But I don’t think you have yet. You haven’t completely wrapped your mind around what has happened to you and what you’ve become. Once you’ve accepted what you are, I think it will be easier. Do you know who you should talk to? Mr. Piett. He was also turned due to similar circumstances like your own.”

“Mr. Piett?” 

He was his father’s assistant and had traveled with them to America. Luke was quite fond of the man. He had always been kind to Luke since he was a child and entertained him. Though Luke couldn’t believe he was a vampire. His parents he could believe. There was always this mysteriousness to them. They always had parties and meetings to go where they wouldn’t give details or allow the children to go to. But Piett was so normal. Luke never would have imagined it. 

Perhaps Luke should talk to him. If Piett could pull off being a normal human so well, then he could as well. Luke nodded to his father and smiled. Anakin smiled back as he pulled his son into a tight embrace. 

“No matter what,” Anakin whispered into Luke’s hair, “I love you and am so proud of you.” 

“I love you too, Father,” Luke whispered back.

[roguewn]

Adam Driver’s statement in VF and what it might imply for Kylo

This is both a personal brainstorming and a reply to this post, I could’ve reblogged it and added my two cents but I prefer to write a new one.

So, Adam’s brief statement about Kylo has caused a little bit of a ruckus, even though he stayed as enigmatic as always (damn you Driver, we want answers!!!).

First of all, let’s refresh our minds. This is what Adam said in the VF interview:

Adam Driver, alluding both to Finn’s state and the scar seen on his own face in the trailer, told me, “I feel like almost everyone is in that rehabilitation state. You know, I don’t think that patricide is all that it’s cracked up to be. Maybe that’s where Kylo Ren is starting from. His external scar is probably as much an internal one.”

Now, this is my personal view on the matter and I’ll tell you right away that is very positive for those of you who believe in the Kylo redemption arc (and to those of you who don’t... why do you hate yourselves?)

I’ll try to be as clear as possible even though I’m not sure if I can make my point come across the way I want it to do!

1. “Almost everyone is in that rehabilitation state”. This can be read literally (as in, physical rehabilitation - Finn) and metaphorically (spiritually), in my opinion. What is rehabilitation? The literal meaning is “to restore a condition of good health”. But “rehabilitation” is also a sort of purgatory, a state in which you’re in between your old self and your new self. Think about people who go into rehab for example: they go through a long and hard process during which they go from their broken self to their new, clean persona. I think this is closer to what rehabilitation means for Kylo. In his case, I think it’s more of a spiritual matter. He killed his father, he met someone who’s probably as strong in the Force as he is if not more (Rey) and with whom he shares a peculiar and mysterious bond with, and overall, his doubts and insecurities might be coming back to bite him in full force. Kylo is probably in a state of utter confusion and inner fights after what happened at the end of TFA. He already was, but now they probably got worse. And he’s probably trying to go back to how he used to be (Kylo Ren), but he might not make it and come out of this ‘rehabilitation’ as someone ‘new’ instead. Aka reedem himself.

2. “I don’t think that patricide is all that it’s cracked up to be”. This was very interesting to hear from Adam himself because I think he’s probably the one who understands his character better than anyone else, writers included. And the first thing that came to my mind is how they said killing Han Solo was a sort of test for him to bring him closer to complete his training to the Dark Side. But we all remember his words before he did the terrible act “I'm being torn apart. I want to be free of this pain. I know what I have to do but I don't know if I have the strength to do it” and we all know JJ Abrams said that Kylo came out of that act “weakened”. So, why did Adam say that the patricide “is not all that it’s cracked up to be”? Maybe he meant that the consequences of that act don’t bring Kylo where he expected? Aka to complete his training and fully become a Dark Side fighter? Could it mean that, on the contrary, the guilt, the mixed feelings about what Kylo has done, could bring him closer to the light? Be careful, I’m not saying we will see a on-the-way-to-redemption!Kylo at the start of The Last Jedi. Not at all. As I said, the rehabilitation process is a long and hard one. It might even take the whole of episode VIII and IX for him to finally come to his senses. But I’m sure we will see the walls around him starting to crack in TLJ, for many reasons.

3. “Maybe that’s where Kylo Ren is starting from”. About this line, the OP of the post I linked wrote “it might imply that the REAL dark side of Kylo Ren is going to start/ come out”. Now, that’s their opinion and I fully respect that. I didn’t write this post to discredit anyone, but just to give my view on the matter, because it’s almost completely the opposite and I thought it would be interesting to see the two sides of the coin, sort of!

So, the real dark side of Kylo is going to come out and he’s going to become a full villain? It may be. There’s speculation that the FO will win at the end of TLJ, so it might be that Kylo turns to the Dark Side completely in the movie. But from what we’ve seen in TFA, I really don’t think so. It’s true that he’s a villain “in the making” and exactly because of that, it might be ‘easier’ for him to turn his back to those who have manipulated him his whole life (Snoke) and decide not to make that extra step that would completely turn to the Dark Side.

If you think about it, the prequel trilogy showed the downfall of Anakin from the “light” to the “darkness”, while the original trilogy showed us how Darth Vader went from being completely “in the darkness” to coming back to the “light”. So they started from the very opposite of what they would become in the end. If they wanted Kylo to become a full-range villain, I don’t think they would have shown him so conflicted in the first movie. I think they left those hints in hope someone would pick up on them and realize that Kylo’s path might not be what everyone expects from him (aka the Dark Side). Killing Han Solo has been a strong and dangerous decision as well, and I don’t think they would have done it if it didn’t have a more than legitimate reason (aka to start the Kylo’s redemption arc). Harrison Ford said he wanted his character to die in a way that had a meaningful impact on the story, and what more meaningful impact could his death have than bringing back his son from the darkness?

So, back to the line “maybe that’s where Kylo Ren is starting from”. In my opinion, this doesn’t mean that Kylo is starting his downfall to the dark side, but on the contrary, Han’s death and everything that happened at the end of TFA might be the starting point for him to realize that he can still redeem himself, save himself and find a way back to who he used to be. And I feel that that line implies that Kylo will have a lot of brainstorming to do which will eventually bring to a deep character development and (hopefully) to a change of heart. What I hope is that, even if the FO supposedly wins at the end of TLJ, Kylo won’t be with them anymore.

I won’t dig into the line “His external scar is probably as much an internal one” because I think it’s WAY too obvious. And this post got way too long, I’m so sorry.

AGAIN, I didn’t write this to go against the other OP, I just took this chance to express my opinion on the interview :) Feel free to leave me your thoughts as well xxx