#anyways so if they make her kinda the ''opposite'' or ''what if'' of anakin then i'd love Rex to spend an episode with her

[starbeltconstellation]

So I gotta ask, do you have any headcannons(or cannons I guess since you're the author) about Melanie and Anakin that you can share without spoilers to much.

I'm going through Rewrite the stars withdrawal lol

Awww, thank you so very much for the ask, dear! (And so sorry again about your Rewrite the Stars withdrawal. 😭 Things have been crazyyy in my life. My bro was in the hospital for a while, but he’s okay now though. Also just me fighting my never ending depression spells 🙃). 😅😂

I would be happy to offer some “head” canons! Or canons, technically, as you said. 😂 Lol.

Essentially, this has become like one big, long SW meta analysis and meta analysis on my SW fic, Rewrite the Stars, and Anakin and Melanie’s characters. Sorry for the long response. 😭 I got really into explaining my thoughts. Haha.

I’ll put this under a read more, as it’s VERYYY long:

I’ll just say that the entire reason I started this story is because well, I wanted a fix it fic of course. 😂 But also just because I wanted to write this kind of grand, epic tale in general, just like Star Wars is supposed to be.

A lot of fics I’ve seen like this completely demonize the Jedi most of the time and blame them for their own genocide. And the ones that don’t, also flip it the complete opposite way around and demonize Anakin to where he’s nothing but a cackling demon who kicks puppies for fun (and well… would he do that AFTER the prequel trilogy when he’s in his emo Darth Vader era? Probably. 😂 But he wouldn’t be CACKLING while doing it. He’d be very bitter and callous about it, because Anakin likes to take out his anger on the world when he’s in pain, so by GOD the entire galaxy is gonna be in pain along with him).

But anyways, I’m kinda getting off track.

My point is: the whole reason I started my SW fic is because I wanted to write the type of epic, grand tale of a fic that I’ve been looking for that treats all of its characters with love and respect while ALSO still calling out their flaws and allowing them to grow. That includes everyone: Anakin, Padmé, Ahsoka, Barriss, Mace, Obi-Wan, Dooku, Satine, etc—EVERYONE.

I feel like fandom has become this toxic environment where if you’re criticizing a character, then… (le gasp 😱)… you don’t really LIKE themmm. (Untrue. 😂).

I love, love, LOVE Anakin. He is my hot, insane, child killing bastard of a mans.

… But I also hate him too. 😭😂

I HATE what he’s done and what he believes in after the war and how he just wallows like a child in his pain. I HATE how selfish he is (while at the same time heavily relate to his fear of death and losing those he loves to them dying/growing older). And I also HATE how damn close he was to making a better choice, but he DIDN’T, because in the end, it didn’t MATTER if Anakin technically knew the ‘right’ way to act. He purposely went against it, because he was just too selfish to let go of Padmé (he kinda did a self fulfilling prophecy with her death, but we’re not gonna talk about that part right now), and so he decided his happiness meant more than the entire galaxy, and burned down his childhood home like a school shooter and helped genocide his friends just for the CHANCE to save his wife.

And all of this, in the usual fics I’ve seen, can somehow be undone, just by changing a few little moments in Anakin’s life where he doesn’t get his feelings hurt: ie; Obi-Wan faking his death, Ahsoka leaving the Order/being framed by Barriss, or Mace/Qui-Gon/whoever-the-fuck-you-want-to-say being assigned as his Master instead of Obi-Wan.

And just… no. 😂

As shown through this wonderful SW blog here:

Anakin doesn’t do what he did because, oh, “This, this, and THIS happened to him”, and if you take that away and help him avoid it, he’ll suddenly change and be all warm and fuzzy inside and won’t burn the whole fucking galaxy just because HE cannot handle Padmé (MAYBE) dying and leaving him alone (when he wouldn’t even really BE alone, but Anakin also clearly puts Padmé/romantic love above all else. He might care for his friends and family, but he’d throw them all under the bus if it came down to the wire between them and Padmé). This is something I will go into in the fic as Anakin slowly starts to take a look at himself as he realizes: “wait… wtf? Do I even KNOW what Rex does outside of work? 🤔😨” for him to realize that he’s so obsessive over one person… that everyone else is slowly becoming put to the wayside.

Stopping one or two little things in Anakin’s life during the Clone Wars isn’t going to magically make him see the light and not be a currently ticking time bomb.

That is not how change WORKS. Not REAL change anyway. All of the fics I’ve seen written, usually hand wave a lot of Anakin’s misdeeds and flaws away, and pretend like if you hold Anakin’s hand through certain parts of the war and help him avoid THESE certain moments, that he’ll suddenly just magically become a better person who understands what being selfless and less greedy actually means.

That… is not true change. TRUE change is Anakin HIMSELF realizing slowly but surely as the war goes on that he’s slowly becoming someone he doesn’t recognize in the mirror anymore (*cough* Mel line drop from upcoming chapter? 👀✨ *cough*). TRUE change is Anakin HIMSELF working through his flaws and inner demons, before he gradually begins to realize with a sense of sickening horror that he has been WRONG: ie; massacring an entire Tusken village down to the last child while never telling another soul except Padmé about it and whistling happily to himself without a care in the world as the war rages on.

TRUE change (as you might’ve started to guess from the most recent chapter of my fic) is Anakin HIMSELF slowly but surely starting to question his actions, by comparing them to other people he respects and cares for.

Which brings us to your question on “headcanons”.

The entire purpose of the relationship between Melanie and Anakin (besides me living vicariously through her 😂) is that they are a MIRROR for each other.

Melanie and Anakin, while very different, aren’t COMPLETE and total opposites. There are purposeful parallels between them: their moms, their care of droids, their fear of losing those they love to death, and the PURPOSEFUL CHOICE GIVEN TO MELANIE BY THE SHOPKEEPER 👀 that parallels the choice Anakin is given at the end of ROTS by Palpatine himself in their choice to help the galaxy or be selfish and choose themselves/their own wants instead.

There is a quote I have based their relationship off of. I will share it here (if you are still with me, because I know I ramble a lot 😅😂):

People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake.

—Elizabeth Gilbert

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Melanie and Anakin are meant to have parallel journeys, even though their personalities are very different. But it’s more than that: their fatal flaws are in direct conflict with each other.

Anakin’s fatal flaw is: greed/selfishness.

Melanie’s fatal flaw is: fear/judgement.

BUT as they are forced into working together… the more they interact with each other… the more their fatal flaws are FORCED to be challenged by the other.

Anakin’s more selfish nature is challenged more and more by just being in Melanie’s presence and watching how she acts with complete compassion and selflessness in certain situations, which makes him slowly start to look at himself internally and take a look at his own actions and thoughts, gradually beginning to realize how selfish he’s slowly become without even realizing it.

Melanie, in turn, has the purposeful flaw of judgment, which can make her self righteous at times (even if she IS correct most of the time 😂), and also the flaw of fear, which as readers have seen, makes her a bit more cautious than she should be in her actions on trying to outsmart Palpatine to save the galaxy.

It’s kind of ironic: just being AROUND Anakin slowly begins to challenge Melanie’s fatal flaws (since she was completely fucking terrified of him the very first moment she realized she was in the SW universe and realized Anakin/Darth Vader was real now 😂). She sees things in such a black and white way at first, but as time goes on, Anakin’s need to be gentle with her and prove himself to Mel, makes her question her judgment with him, which allows her the ability to give him a chance. In turn, just being in his PRESENCE challenges her other fatal flaw on fear, since he’s a walking nightmare PTSD trigger for her pounding heart (and not always in the fun way 👀💓❤️‍🔥☠️😂).

Anyway, my point is that they aren’t just meant to be together romantically to be TOGETHER. It’s because I have purposefully tried to develop a romantic slow burn relationship that comes with my story to weave itself against the original theme of Rewrite the Stars, which is this: TRUE change and atonement/redemption.

Anakin physically CANNOT get closer to Mel, until he forced himself to take a step back and give her some space. If he wants to get anywhere with her, he HAS to start looking internally at himself to try and change and be more gentle with her.

Melanie, in turn, CANNOT outsmart Palpatine and win the war without Anakin’s help and working together with him over the next three years of The Clone Wars. She HAS to get past her judgment and allow herself to swallow her terror enough to give him a chance, because she NEEDS him to win.

This is a chess match between her and Palpatine, remember? And if you lose the king, you lose the game.

ANAKIN is the king. 👀

I bet you can’t guess what chess piece Melanie is. 😂 Lol.

Anyway, I feel like I’ve done a whole lot of taking in circles (sorry about that 😅), because I wanted to go ahead and explain my whole process for this fic while I had the time, so I can also refer this post if I ever need to again.

Now! Getting into some more FUN Stuff:

Idk if you’ve looked up my fic on Wattpad, but I have a lot of cool graphics posted there from my mind and from other artists/authors that have gifted me such wonderful cover art ( @shoniwake ! 👀✨❤️), and in a certain subsection, I have a whole playlist page dedicated as a type of ‘outline’ for the entire story of my fic (fair warning, it’s a lot 😅), just because I think it helps me with planning stuff out.

I won’t tell you all of them, of course. But I’ll share a few of my favorite songs that I always think are the PERFECT songs for Melanie and Anakin’s relationship and their slow burn romantic development. 😭🥺💔❤️💕✨

Innocence by Nathan Wagner

Stronger Together by Lou & SQVARE

Now I See by Lou & SQVARE

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I love these three songs so much, because of their theme of two people coming together as a team and/or learning to open up their hearts to the other and to help the other person the see world in a different way. 🥹❤️💕

This is basically what I want for Melanie and Anakin. Their relationship isn’t just about having a romance in the story (although that’s part of it. Haha 😂��). It’s about how their relationship meshes in with the rest of the themes of the story: TRUE change and growth into something better.

Melakin is purposely written to be in direct contrast to Anidala (which is still written with care and not erasing their genuine affection, by the way! I think it’s extremely lazy writing to write a canon relationship OOC just to prop up your OC’s own), which shows the difference between a more healthy developing relationship that is based on genuine care and respect (Melakin) and in contrast with one that is more based around idealizing the other person/ignoring their faults and putting them up on a pedestal that is sure to lead to disappointment (Anidala).

This is, as you know from reading the fic, slowly starting to be shown in how Anidala acts with each other in their trash fire (in my opinion! Don’t kill meeee! 🙌😂) of a marriage, which has them basically talking past each other/not really caring about anything that isn’t SPECIFICALLY RELEVANT to the other person (ie; them. Not anything with their family or job. Just THEM. Because while the love is genuine, it’s also eerily obsessive, which was GL’s whole point of them being star crossed lovers that burn out from their own flawed choices in regards to being together and trying to have it all).

This is also shown in my fic with Melakin vs Anidala contrasting each other in Anakin’s choices and how he interacts with them. Anakin REMEMBERS stuff about Mel’s life and choices that really he has no need to care about, but he does anyway. In contrast, there is a scene in the latest chapter of my SW fic where Anakin forgets a very… important member… of Padmé’s family 😭 (If you know, you know 👀🫣😬). 😂

I guess what I’m saying is is that I’m trying to not PREACH to the readers of my fic. I’m trying to write scenes that SHOW them what I believe to be true in regards to Anidala’s toxic relationship/the Jedi being scapegoats that everyone cruelly blames for their own genocide/how the Jedi culture might not be how THE READERS want to live, but it doesn’t change the fact that it IS a valid culture/way to live, and it doesn’t deserve to be eradicated just because you don’t understand/like/agree with it.

I’m trying to lead up into the themes and lessons of my fic as I go along, is what I’m saying. 😂 Which is a really heavy feat, considering how long it’ll end up being as a grand, epic tale. 😩

And a big part of the theme of my SW Fic: genuine change and growth into something better than you were before (ie; TRUE redemption) cannot happen to Anakin as easily as some of the time travel fix-it fics/other fix-it fics I’ve seen written on A03 before. Changing a few little things so Anakin doesn’t have to deal with a few moments in his life is not GENUINE and TRUE change. What that is is essentially placation. It’s PLACATING and CODDLING someone dangerous, which allows them (for the MOMENT) to calm down, because they are generally happy and have the things they want and aren’t under stress like Anakin was in the ending of ROTS when there was nobody there to hold his hand for him to ‘guide’ him in the right direction.

For TRUE change and redemption to happen for Anakin, he has to admit to himself that he was WRONG.

He has to ADMIT and ACKNOWLEDGE that actions he has taken are horrific (the Tusken Massacre), and accept people’s/the Jedi’s judgment on it without becoming defensive and acting like he’s being unfairly attacked and punished for something not that big of a deal. He has to ADMIT and ACKNOWLEDGE that his thought process has slowly but surely become corrupted over the years without him even realizing it, whether that’s from the war or Palpatine stroking his ego or from the trauma of his childhood making him cling to things too hard—it doesn’t really matter. He has to RECOGNIZE that he has become someone over the years that he can’t even recognize in the mirror in relation to that little nine year old boy on Tatooine (about how selfish he has become), and what he can do to change that.

I know some fans will think I am attacking Anakin and that I hate him or something (and well… I DO hate him… but I also love him 🫣☠️❤️😂), but that is not the case. I LOVE Anakin’s character and truly relate to him on such a deep level in terms of how terrified he is of losing the people he loves to death. I can recognize myself and some of my worst fears deeply in him.

However, at the same time, I can also acknowledge that Anakin’s trauma from his childhood (from slavery/his mother dying in front of him), has essentially made his entire personality completely self serving. Because yes, Anakin can care about other people. He cares about and loves his friends. He’d do anything he could to keep them from harm (at least in TCW era 🥶☠️), but the hard truth is… he doesn’t think of his relationships and saving them from death in terms of what his LOVED ONES deserve or what THEY will lose if they die. He thinks about it in terms of what HE will lose if they die.

He straight up says it in the scene with Mace and then the scene with Palpatine: He NEEDS to keep Palpatine (who he KNOWS is an evil Sith Lord) alive, because it’s the only way he can keep Padmé alive. HE can’t live without HER.

There’s genuine love there. I am not denying that. Anakin isn’t a cackling villain like Palpatine (it’s the whole reason Anakin CAN be talked into coming back to the Light Side by Luke, whereas Palpatine would melt Luke’s fucking face off without hesitation if he tried). He cares and loves his family and friends and wife and kids… in a TOXIC way. In an OBSESSIVE way. In a way that is essentially all about HIM: ie; selfish.

Example 1:

Out of context, this sounds very romantic and simply just a reasonable amount of worry. But in relation to all the other things Anakin will end up saying while referring to Padmé as essentially a possession, I’m placing it here anyway as perhaps a sign of his darkening thoughts.

Example 2:

Yes, yes, I knowwww… some of you ladies will be like: 🥺💔 at the sad murder puppy moment. And I suppose it’s still very evil wet cat bastard level/blorbo of him in a intoxicating way for people who want to feel loved—at the same time, he’s essentially saying: look, man, I don’t care if I gotta murder some kids and betray my friends and descend the galaxy and Republic into darkness (which I know my wife will be fucking horrified at). It’s very important that I DO NOT have to deal with this pain, okay?? 😭 Everyone else can be in pain, but not meeee. I’ll crush and stab my friends in the back just so I won’t be left alone from my wife dying.

Very sad. Very wet cat villain blorbo of him.

And yet—VERY selfish and evil. 😭🤷‍♀️👀😂

He’s essentially saying—fuck the galaxy. Let me get mine, and I’ll go home. ☠️

Example 3:

This one’s pretty obvious. By this point, he’s lost his shit. His mind’s already cracking at the seams as he tries to keep justifying the actions he’s taken, which will eventually lead into his 20 year long dissociation where he essentially goes, “Nahhh, that wasn’t meee. That was DARTH VADER. Anakin didn’t do that, because ANAKIN is still a good person (he mutters to himself over and over like a maniac at night in his emo villain lair), whereas I AM THE DARK INCARNATE. 😌🖤” so he doesn’t have to admit to himself that HE—yes, THAT he, Anakin fucking Skywalker—has become an actual terrible fucking person with no heart. 🤷‍♀️😭😬

I don’t see why this is so hard for SW fandom to get. It’s a METAPHOR George Lucas uses to say Darth Vader killed Anakin (and also just a way to plug up the plot hole of what Obi-Wan originally told Luke in the first movie). It doesn’t mean that Anakin’s consciousness is sleeping inside Vader’s head like a fucking cat. Lmao. 😭

Not only would that not make SENSE in terms of how GL wrote it, but it also just essentially makes Anakin’s ‘redemption’ (I don’t really view it as a true redemption. More like just the Christian version of salvation for his soul by the skin of his teeth. Although GL did say Anakin was redeemed in the eyes of LUKE only, because he said some crap about being redeemed in the eyes of our children) all but useless. 😭 You can’t say on one hand that Darth Vader’s ‘redemption’ is the most iconic one of all time, while at the same time saying on the other hand that “Anakin never did any of those things. It was DaRtH VaDeR! 🤪🤪🤪” because then you’re essentially absolving Anakin of all of his crimes while on the Dark Side, and if Anakin is absolved of all of his crimes… then wtf is there TO make him the most iconic ‘redemption’ of all time??? 😭🤷‍♀️ I mean, like—what IS there to ‘redeem’ at that point??? Ya can’t have both, kids. Lol. 😂

This is also essentially what Anakin wanted in terms of his relationship with Padmé and the Jedi Order. He wanted it ALL. He wanted BOTH. Sureee, he TALKED about quitting the Jedi Order eventually after the war to be with Padmé in a little space cottage. But could he WALK THE WALK? Could he really give up the thrill of chasing an enemy, or the twitch of his fingers in reaching for his lightsaber? 😑🤔 Me myself has some doubtssss.

He wanted it ALL. He wanted to be married while ALSO having the strength and power that came from being a Jedi Knight. He didn’t WANT to choose. He even SAYS it.

Example 4: Essentially this SW meme

He doesn’t want to CHOOSE. And it’s why it’s BS when it’s argued he was put in this position by the Council’s rules on marriage, because it’s LITERALLY just like a vow of a priest at a Catholic Church. They can’t marry either, just like the Jedi Order. BUT (unlike what fandom likes to believe), the Order isn’t some cult, and you are free to leave at any time (and hell, they’ll even build a statue after you leave, apparently, if the one they built of Dooku that’s in the Archives (I think) is anything to go by), just as a priest is free to leave the Catholic Church at any time. Because it’s a COMMITMENT to that place. And people might think it’s dumb/stupid/not like it—or even understand it! And you don’t HAVE to like something from a religion/culture/belief, or understand something, to still respect it (another theme drop for the next chapter of my SW fic? 👀😂).

So, what some people will probably wonder is—“But, Starbelt! (Le gasp 😱) Then how is the Jedi culture going to be respected in my fic, if Melakin is still endgame at the end of their slow, slow burn?”

And to that question, I say, “I am not a by-the-book-to-the-very-LETTER interpreter of the Jedi Code (although I’m not saying the code of an entire culture is gonna be ‘changed’ for legit one person/couple. Lmao. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️😂), but I AM a Jedi lover who is of the belief that—even if you don’t completely AGREE or even UNDERSTAND the Jedi Order and their code—it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t be difficult to respect it. It shouldn’t be difficult to not scold a culture on their beliefs, while essentially saying that belief is the reason it is ‘good’ for The Force/galaxy that they were genocided as a ‘clean slate’. 😬🤦‍♀️☠️”

What I WILL say, is that I am going to explore the Jedi Order and the different interpretations of the Code and The Force in general in this fic, and what that means in terms of coexistence, instead of the frankly childish notion of just painting an entire culture as emotionless and wrong in their beliefs, like they are some kind of stuck up, snooty and rich culture that ‘deserved what they got’. 🙄🤦‍♀️😬☠️

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ANYWAY, back to my point with Anakin, and how my fic is trying to complete the most massive and epic of all writing tasks: making Anakin slowly change and grow out of his greed and selfishness into a better person in such an organic way, that perhaps may one day be compared with the likes of Zuko’s redemption from ATLA (I know, I knowww. Pretty high hopes for myself. Lol. 😂).

So, essentially, in the original “timeline” of ROTS, Anakin is freaking losing it, and since nobody is there to hold his hand, he descends right into the core selfishness that is buried inside of him, where he basically just decides, “Fuck it,” and throws all of his morals out the window so he can keep himself from the pain of losing Padmé (ie; it’s really about HIM and his fear, and not about Padmé deserving to live and see more beauty in the world) by cutting off Mace’s hand to stop him from killing Palpatine, because—in Anakin’s OWN words:

Example 5:

Like… 🤷‍♀️😭.

People like to sing “Lalalala,” and plug their ears by pretending Anakin is just so shocked in this scene (le gasp 😱) that Mace is being so UN-JEDI-LIKE, and that it just convinced him that the Jedi Order truly has been ‘corrupted’. 🤦‍♀️🙄

Now see… that might hold some water if Anakin literally didn’t scream “I NeEd HiM! 😡” at Mace like an unhinged five year old, which literally PROVES that the only reason Anakin wants Mace to keep Palpatine alive and not to kill the guy yet is because he needs to learn the super-secret-Dark-Side-magicy way of how to save himself from the pain of losing Padmé to dying in childbirth.

… Because like some may recall, Anakin LITERALLY beheaded Dooku himself all but like… what? 12 hours ago? 😭🤦‍♀️

Essentially, this meme:

So, essentially, what I’m getting at here is: Anakin is a goddamn hypocrite. 😂

Now, in relation to my SW fic? What I essentially am TRYING to accomplish, is to have Anakin slowly CHANGE HIMSELF as the war goes on and he interacts more with Melanie and witnesses her compassion, while in turn comparing her actions to his own.

Melanie isn’t supposed to ‘fix’ or ‘change’ Anakin. Anakin is supposed to be INSPIRED to change from how he grows to care and admire Mel’s choices and who she is inside her heart as the Clone Wars rages on.

I do all of this, so in the HOPES that when he is presented with this scene again, it makes perfect sense to all readers of my fic that his choice may become different—essentially choosing for ONCE, a more selfless route, out of no expectation that he will gain anything in return (that only happens with Luke like—20 years later—and it’s not like he had many other options at that point. 😭🤷‍♀️ Lol.).

(And as I said—MAY become different… 👀 After all, Melanie still has a long way to go before the end of the war… 👀)

But yeah—that’s my plans with my SW Anakin x OC Fic, Rewrite the Stars, and how I’m planning it and Melakin’s relationship to go. I placed a big feat on myself. 😂❤️💕

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If you wanna see some of my like… ideas/notes on what I have planned to eventually place in there somewhere, I will show you a few things, because it’s not really SPOILERS, since I already talk about the Jedi genocide a lot anyway (it drives me up the wall when SW fandom refers to it as ThE FaLl Of ThE jEdi 🤪🤪🤪). Guess it makes it easier to blame them all for their own deaths that way if you refer to their genocide and slaughter as a “fall”. 😭🙄 Idk. 🤷‍♀️

I also have some stuff with the history of Churches splitting into different factions (ie: The Great Schism of 1054), which I will be weaving in as a parallel at some point. 👀👀 I will not explain why, as that would be too spoilery, but I’m sure some of my more in depth analysis readers on my work could guess if they thought about it hard enough… 👀

There are also some comparisons on the Jedi genocide in the SW universe, and how it parallels the Air Nomad genocide in the ATLA universe pretty much to a T in terms of how fast it all happens in one day, and also how any survivors were hunted down and lured out with relics of their own culture, not to MENTION just the fact that both of these cultures are just non-western inspired in general (seriously, what is with people and killing monks in Temples? Lol. 🤷‍♀️😂). It’s also just an interesting comparison in general, because where the ATLA fandom usually is quite sympathetic to the Air Nomad genocide, on the other hand, the SW fandom is so nauseatingly nonchalant and cruel about the Jedi Order’s genocide that it’s almost downright weird. It’s almost like the SW fandom has this THING about never calling the Jedi’s “Fall 🙄” what it actually was—a horrific genocide. I swear to Godddd, SW fandom must be allergic to the word. 😂🤦‍♀️

I also threw in the ‘Hero’s journey’ thing I’ve been using for Melanie to try and make her a relatable protagonist, while also still having her own character arc along with Anakin’s. It was really important to me that she had her OWN arc away from Anakin, and that she had more connections and relationships in the SW universe than just him. Not only does it weaken her character if she had been made to be all about HIM, but it also just makes a certain… choice… 👀… with The Shopkeeper (her antagonist who parallels Palpatine, Anakin’s antagonist) hit all the more harder, because saving the ENTIRE GALAXY isn’t even about saving ANAKIN at all for her. Not at first, anyway.

Instead, from the very beginning, it’s all about how Melanie grows to care and feel compassion for the people she meets in the SW universe and becomes friends with, and how she cannot turn away from them and leave them behind to die, when she has knowledge that can help change their fates. It was SO important to me that Anakin is not even on Mel’s RADAR at first. She doesn’t hate him or anything. She doesn’t want him dead, but it’s not really about SAVING him either (if that happens along the way, it’s a happy bonus for her). Because—as you know—she’s TERRIFIED of him in the beginning, and just plans to avoid him like the plague.

And in doing so, she grows closer to others in the SW universe: Ahsoka, Rex, Yoda, Fives, Obi-Wan, all of the other clones, etc. ALL of that is so important for a certain choice she makes with The Shopkeeper (which I won’t spoil for any new readers who may stumble across this post and want to read my work 👀😂).

So, essentially, my fic is a grand, epic tale, that our main protagonist, Melanie Bains, is going on to save millions of lives in a galaxy far, far away from death and suffering.

No pressure, huh? 😂😬

That’s definitely going to crack and fracture at Mel’s psyche as time goes on… 🥶 The weight of such a feat on one’s shoulders essentially all alone becomes overwhelming. 😓💔 (*Cough* Hint for next chapter? 👀 *cough*).

So I’m really trying to follow that ‘Hero’s journey’ format. I already have her character arc outlined with a clear beginning and end. I just have to find the will to write the thousands and thousands of words to get there to that point. 😩😭😂

It still makes me so happy how many people relate and enjoy Mel. 😌🥹❤️💓🥰

Some planned themes I am going to weave in as the story goes along:

Example 1: Genocide

Air Nomad genocide propaganda from ATLA:

Jedi Order genocide propaganda (Not sure if it’s from before or after Order 66. Either way, it’s meant to rile the populace up against them and demonize the Jedi as ‘other’, like emotionless wizards that are barely human and aren’t capable of true compassion since they’re a ‘cult’ and not from ‘true’ familial structures, unlike the ‘good ol’ regular populace with their attachments 🤪’) from SW:

Example 2: Church factions splitting up/The Great Schism of 1054

Example 3: Hero’s Journey (Mel’s character arc)

-

… Now, moving past that long meta ramble, here’s some more songs from my playlist on Wattpad for Melakin’s developing romantic relationship and it’s slow, slow burnnnn. 👀💓❤️‍🔥😂

Borderline by Florrie

Let Me In by Michael Corcoran

The Chain by Ingrid Michaelson

Minefields by Faouzia & John Legend

Unlike the previous songs in the earlier part of this meta post, THESE songs are more about Melakin struggling to open up to each other. I’ll admit, a lot of it is more focused on Anakin trying to get Melanie to open up to him, because he doesn’t understand why she’s acting so terrified of him at first.

The one song that’s more about both of them trying to find common ground is “Borderline”, which is meant to be them both reaching out and trying to meet each other halfway. 😊🥰🥺❤️💕

And if you’re wondering what my favorite song is out of all of them?

It’s the “Innocence by Nathan Wagner” song. WITHOUT a doubt. It’s the PERFECT Melakin song that is basically what the whole arc of their relationship is supposed to be. 😭🥹❤️💔💕

Whew, that was a long post! So sorry about that. 😅😂🤷‍♀️ I just got really into talking about my fic and my writing process. I think this has even helped me with motivation! Losing hyperfixations is a bitchhhh. 😖😖

The only other thing I will add is this to hopefully ease your and everyone else’s minds: I may have to go on hiatuses every now and then because of writer’s block or a family/life problem like the recent one with my brother being in the hospital for a while. BUT! No matter WHAT, I will NEVER abandon this fic. It is literally gonna be my damn life’s work—I swearrrrr. 😖✊😂

To end this long SW meta off, I’m going to link another two great Pro Jedi SW meta posts from the wonderful Pro Jedi blog I mentioned earlier. Feel free to check it out if you want, because it’s a lot of Mel’s thoughts on the Jedi, and part of the problems she has to find a way to solve as the war goes on by trying to keep the Jedi in favor of the public’s eyes:

-

To any new readers that stumble across this and are curious enough to check out my fic:

Tags:

@ensomniaa

@heartfairy

@fangirlteallie

@xreadersunite

@shoniwake

[reconstructwriter]

So I Finally Finished Attack of the Clones

...for the very first time. When did this movie come out again? I am late, is there still room on this bandwagon? Anyway more thought vomiting on this movie...

Sith Pattern: I do appreciate that Palpatine is old, rich, white male fascist. Dooku is old, rich, white male fascist. Anakin shakes things up a bit by starting out young and poor but he’ll get there and has the rest down. Meanwhile our heroes are Padme Amidala, Mace Windu, Yoda, Bail, etc. Would have loved for George Lucas’ original casting of Obi Wan to have gone through! This does make Mirror!verses and morality flip AU's very weird because the Galaxy is being saved from aliens by three white guys? Unfortunate implications aside I can suspend a lot of disbelief about laser-swords and magic IN SPACE but I gotta draw the line somewhere.

Anakin’s attachment: Is well-shown here with convenient comparison to Cleigg – her husband and her son, the two who should love Shmi the most. At her funeral Cleigg is all ‘you’re in a better place. Thank you for the time we had,’ vs Anakin’s ‘I wasn’t strong enough to save you, I won’t fail again’ and ‘I miss you’. Exact opposites. Cleigg was entirely focused on Shmi while Anakin was focused on himself.

Also Anakin’s focus kinda screwed up Obi Wan’s mission when he wasted precious moments FINDING Anakin to get his galactically-important message through.

Mace Windu Not Killing Dooku: Shatterpoint, along with some fanfics, has Mace beating himself up for not ending the war by killing Dooku but my man you’re too hard on yourself! You only killed Jango when he decided to fuck around and find out with you in the death arena. Dooku did not fuck around and find out so your only chance would’ve been to throw away all your Jedi morals and stab him in the back! Thus risking becoming Darth Tyrannus 2.0 and screwing the galaxy.

Jango why did you fuck around and find out? I get Mace held a laser sword to your throat and you had a working jetpack going into the arena…but that arena is No Man’s Land. Even if Galidraan was canon you could’ve stayed back and taken pot shots.

The scene with Boba giving one last keldabe kiss to his father’s helmet is heartbreaking! Ouch!!!

Padme: So I kinda get being willing to confess her terrible taste in men on Space Fantasy Death Row. She doesn’t want to live a lie and is straight up expecting to die so what does it matter if she confesses? And then she does live so consequence time! Still feels like she’s ignoring the genocide – or George Lucas is ignoring the obvious implications. Genocide does work for foreshadowing Jedi genocide and Nazi comparisons (boy howdy does it!!!). But murdering every single member of an entire tribe down to the babes in arms doesn’t work for ‘Anakin doesn’t Fall here, he just dips his toe in the Dark’.

Padme otherwise doesn’t seem too terribly out of character throughout. She stands her ground against Anakin and where she does give in – rescuing Shmi – or chooses to go after Obi Wan? Well both did do her immensely big favors it’d be weirder if she brushed them off. Plus, rescuing both comes with additional benefits – no assassin will look for her on Tattooine (it worked before) and Obi Wan’s rescue could offer the opportunity to discuss peace with the Separatists before war happened.

And it did – in the cut scene :P

Dual with Dooku: So Anakin did put his duty first when Padme fell in the (barren, sans enemies) sand with an ally but damn if his attachment to her wasn’t still affecting him. The hot-headed idiotic attack was the worst possible timing! Why does everyone beat Mace up (including the man himself) for not killing Dooku but give Anakin a pass when he had every chance of ending the war Right There if he’d been able to keep his head on straight for two minutes.

The End: As with the first movie, we end with Mace and Yoda clearly knowing what the Sith are doing, though they're split with Mace believing Dooku while Yoda thinks its a trick. And I think they’re both right because I read somewhere Dooku and Palpatine were hoping to sow doubt between the Jedi and the Senate but also was telling the truth – from a certain point of view. Anyway, they aren't oblivious. Yoda straight up says the Shroud of the Dark Side has Fallen.

The last scene really drives that home! How the beginning of the war is the beginning of the Empire. The war kills the Republic and this is repeatedly smacked into our brains with the imagery of Palpatine standing at the head of everyone else, the most powerful Supreme Chancellor ever as the army of white-clad troopers marches out into the galaxy below him. The Destroyers lift off. The Empire’s freaking theme music plays.

Overall the movie had its high points and stinkers but that was a damn fine end!

[antianakin]

And you know what pisses me off about Ahsoka Tano in the Siege of Mandalore arc? Is that she actually considered joining Maul’s crazy ass and that she actually bought into his inane anti-Jedi rant.

I actually kinda like that she considers it for a minute, because my most favorite version of Ahsoka is one who's also just teetering on the edge of darkness herself. Ahsoka listening to Maul talk about how the Republic is an Empire in everything but name and that it can't be saved, but that he alone can help her take out the Sith Lord anyway so long as she joins him, and she genuinely takes that very very seriously is arguably one of the most interesting things to happen to her since like season 4. I REALLY wish that the idea that she nearly joined a Sith Lord was something that was ever at any point followed up on, quite honestly.

Maul as Ahsoka's Palpatine just WORKS for me. Maul was the apprentice parallel back in TPM, both in opposition to Obi-Wan and foreshadowing what Anakin would eventually become. So for him to end up being sort-of Sith Master to Anakin's own apprentice just has a certain SYMMETRY to it.

I don't even hate that Ahsoka turns away from him specifically because he then mentions that they'd have to take out Anakin in the sense that Ahsoka is SUPER FUCKING ATTACHED to Anakin and this is something that's true within Rebels, as well. Ahsoka is RADICALLY attached to Anakin, to that relationship and the loyalty she feels she owes to him and his memory. And it's something that's absolutely THERE in TCW and Rebels, and it would've been a really interesting thing to explore in the Ahsoka show, the fact that she holds this attachment to him that's super unhealthy and that made it difficult for her to accept the truth about him. But they... didn't. And so instead of this kinda neat parallel where Ahsoka struggles with attachments just as much as Anakin did, we get this idea that her relationship to Anakin is what gives her the most strength, that it's the most positive thing to have ever happened to her, the only part of her life before the Empire she really remembers fondly at all (she does remember the Jedi more fondly in Rebels, but that's not there in the Ahsoka show where she explicitly calls them all failures).

And this is one of those things that frustrates me the MOST about Ahsoka's trajectory. There's so many times that they could've really explored Ahsoka's own darkness, her true struggles, and REALLY honed in on that to showcase not only the impact of things like the war and Order 66, but the impact of having had that relationship with Anakin at a foundational time in her life when Anakin was arguably at his WORST (before he became a literal nightmare genocide machine obviously). She's a gullible, malleable child put into a position where she has to have a lot of trust in Anakin and give him a lot of power over herself and Anakin is at a point in HIS life where he's giving into his darkness more and more. He's already someone who's massacred an entire village of innocent people, he's already a fascist who believes in MAKING people do what he wants, he's already a baby killer who feels no real remorse over it, he's already a massive racist who uses that prejudice to justify murdering people. He is selfish and he is greedy and he is losing his battle against his own darkness more and more to the point that he can be four bad days away from double genocide. I find it kind-of impossible to believe that that WOULDN'T have had an impact on how he trained Ahsoka and the way Ahsoka ultimately turned out.

But because the person writing Ahsoka is a fucking anti-Jedi Stanakin, what we get instead is a story that refuses to acknowledge Anakin was super dark at all and so refuses to really look at Ahsoka's OWN darkness at any point and mostly just justifies what Anakin did and the choices Ahsoka makes and her feelings about the Jedi as complete and utter failures because it helps fuel his agenda of making Ahsoka into The Greatest Jedi specifically because she was trained by The Greatest Jedi.

So, in a vacuum, I DO actually like that Ahsoka nearly joins Maul, and I even like that she ultimately refuses to do so specifically because of her attachment to Anakin causing her to be loyal to him over the possibility of getting more information about the Sith Lord. I think that that WORKS narratively and that it could've been a really interesting jumping off point for Ahsoka's character journey. But what I DON'T like is that this moment ended up turning into, as you mentioned, Ahsoka agreeing with the anti-Jedi sentiments and that her connection to Anakin is the better one because it's what allows her to reject darkness or whatever. I don't like that, I don't think it makes ANY sense, and it's boring. It makes her BORING and that's by far the worst criticism I can give any character.

[phoenixyfriend]

Time-Traveled Clones Give Anakin a Mental Breakdown

So @purronronner​ suggested the below on discord:

mental time travel au but it’s only clones (definitely Cody and/or Rex, possibly others)

Which we obviously all took and just... ran with. Contributors include Purrs, @the-lunar-system, and @atagotiak.

Initial brainstorming was just us trying to figure out how many clones did the mental travel, from when, etc. - Ended up deciding on 'significantly post-O66' and 'some but not all' - Mostly it's the angle that the only people who have an idea of what’s coming are the ones who aren’t even seen as people by most. THey have very little leverage to work with but they’ve gotta do something.

(I personally like the idea that Boba travels because Jango has to deal with the fact that His Baby Boy is suddenly much more adult and serious and also telling him that the whole Kamino thing is going to Destroy Everything Including Mandalore, And Revenge Against The Jedi Won't Be Worth It, but that idea got scrapped because he's got too much influence via dad.)

Rex and the clones that died when Rex & Ahsoka were escaping 66. Because Rex would probably be very regretful he couldn’t save them. The others would probably be understanding of the situation and even worse some of them would be thankful that he stopped them. - Strategic mass desertion via faked KIA reports as medics smuggle people out to investigate what's trying to kill the Jedi through the clones - Also they can manage a lot by doing surgeries and reprogramming Med droids and stuff. At the very least Palpatine can’t manage such a sudden and decisive victory without subverting the clones. The political angle is probably still a complicated mess but he can’t just snap his fingers and do a genocide, y’know? - IMO at least Fives is definitely on the list of time-travelers.

The Krell Situation is, uh... handled. Quickly. - Sometimes friendly fire just happens, you know? Accidents.

Mass Distrust of Anakin Skywalker - He knows they don't like him but has no idea why. - On the one hand, they loved them some TCW Anakin. On the other hand, look where that takes him...

Anakin keeps feeling like the clones are mourning him while he's standing right there. More than the other Jedi, even! All the Jedi feel vague grief from some of the clones, usually in a way that makes no sense, but the vibe they have around Anakin is a mindfuck. - Some of them want to get away and fast, some of them want to figure out how to fix him, none of them are at all happy with this.

He does one of those somewhat concerning TCW things where Imperial March plays faintly in the background, and while in the first timeline the clones would write it off as him being a little bit angrier than most Jedi (and he never takes it out on them, y’know?), this time they’re reacting… poorly. - They're scared of him this time. - And lbr the clones... while they’re largely good, moral people, have less rigid ethical rules than the Jedi and are more used to thinking of things in terms of us-vs-them as well as the Jedi-know-best conditioning, so they probably wrote off a lot the first time around (and now blame themselves, just a little, for Vader).

They, uh, they maybe get a bit twitchy... and the specific fear a few of "Vader's Fist" feel is so similar to the fear Anakin sensed around slaves in Gardulla's that he starts having flashbacks. - Anakin at one point spirals so deep into a flashback that he mutters something about how "she" is going to eat him and nobody can figure out who the fuck he's talking about, because nobody knows about Gardulla, possibly not even Obi-Wan, since that was TODDLER Anakin and while Watto may have come up, Obi-Wan probably didn't even think Anakin would have remembered toddler-age stuff, so Gardulla was never really discussed. - All anyone knows is that Anakin is fine with Ahsoka, so it's not her, but she's the only person on board using she/her pronouns so far since none of the clones are socially transitioning yet. - (Apparently Gardulla just ate her slaves sometimes? And Anakin had to live with the knowledge that that was a possibility for him? Until he was three? Fucked up, bro.) - (I'm just really invested in AUs where Anakin's 'not going evil' path kicks off in part with a breakdown where he can't keep himself in denial about the slavery element of the clones anymore.)

"They're scared of me." "Sir--" "They're scared the way we all were at Gardulla's what did I do?"

This would be pretty soon after Return to Tatooine, and Tatooine Three: Electric Boogaloo so Anakin is like... peak slave trauma rn anyway.

Anakin has a breakdown much earlier than in canon, and in precisely the opposite direction, loudly and blatantly enough that the Temple has to ground him for a bit, and even Palpatine can't get that overturned until the medics say so. - Also one of the key points: Anakin doesn’t resent it in the same way. - It’s uh. Less. The “The Jedi are afraid of my power (and Palpatine says that’s why I can’t just do what I want)” and more “the clones are afraid of my power (arguably with good reason)”

people above you fearing (+ limiting) you: hits right in the slave trauma people under you fearing you: still slave trauma but flipped all the way around

This is just back to back: - Mom died because you couldn't save her, on Slave Planet - You slaughtered an entire tribe of Tuskens, including the children, and have been putting a lot of effort into convincing yourself you're not a monster - You got chained up and threatened with public execution via Consumed by Big Thing (and are abruptly reminded of toddlerhood, where you were at risk of being Consumed by Gardulla, a Big Thing) - Clone army, basically slaves, can't think about that too hard or you'll freak out - (Secret marriage, which is stressful but not hitting the slave trauma button.) - You had to save a baby Hutt -- You had to help a slaver Hutt -- ON SLAVE PLANET AGAIN -- WHILE THE HUTT IS THREATENING TO KILL YOU - (Someone just GAVE YOU A CHILD, which is stressful but not hitting the slave trauma button.) - Half the clones treat you like a more impuslive Obi-Wan, and half of them are... scared and wary and you don't know what to do about that - You did something kinda fucked up and now half the slaves clones are fine and the other half feel like they're waiting for you to kill them in your anger - Fuck - Fuck

[rise-above-the-grave]

[smashes down door] who is Bail and why do you like him? I could look it up but I'd rather you gush over him

OH BOY.

So first off, a quick (canon) history lesson: Bail Organa was the Senator and Viceroy (aka Prince Consort) of Alderaan. If you don't know what that means (because old titles are Weird - I'm not judging the only reason I know this is because of this very character), it means that Breha, Bail's wife, is ruling Queen of Alderaan and was the heir to the throne. She married Bail, making him a ruler by marriage, though technically she still held the crown. He, at some point, was also elected Senator of Alderaan, and was Senator leading up to and during The Clone Wars (and after, but we're getting to that).

So Bail, we come to find out, became (best) friends with Padmé Amidala. We see him in a couple of scenes in Attack of the Clones with Padmé, just kinda vibing and making the occasional commentary. We know he stood with her on the Opposition bill (the bill Padmé was nearly killed over at the beginning of AOTC, which was against the formation of a Republic military), though we don't learn much about the rest of his politics until later.

So he's kinda...there, but obvs isn't the focus of the story, and is really just a minor background character. The first real insight we get into Bail is, actually, a really tiny character moment right at the end of AOTC, when Palpatine and some of the Senators are looking down at the Clone troops loading up onto the ship, watching their new military gear up for war.

Bail looks away. While everyone else is staring down at the (slave) army, some of them smiling (like Sheev), some of them just serious, Bail looks away from them and makes this tiny little hand gesture: a simple, closed fist knocking against the banister of the balcony.

It's this, I think, that first piqued my interest in this character. He was the only one not triumphant in that situation. He was the only one who saw things for what they were: a tragedy, and a horror, and that this wasn't something to celebrate but to mourn.

Then we come to Revenge of the Sith, and boy howdy. The man may have like 10 minutes of screen time, but does he make those 10 minutes count!

A quick bullet point of the Important Things Bail Does in ROTS:

When the Jedi Temple is burning, what does Bail do? He flies to it to figure out what's going on and see if he can save anyone. He then watches as a youngling is shot and killed by Clone Troopers, and manages to escape because he's a fucking badass.

Please note, to our knowledge, Bail is the only one who actually goes to check on the Jedi Temple.

As soon as he escapes the Temple, Bail immediately - like immediately - takes his ship and goes to find any surviving Jedi. He is almost certainly the reason both Yoda and Obi-Wan don't walk into the trap that is the Jedi Temple, or are captured - and even if that's not true, he most definitely is the reason they manage to sneak safely onto Coruscant and figure out what happened.

He's the one who rescues Yoda (again) after Yoda's failed duel with Palpatine in the Senate. Which, let me rant about the SYMBOLISM of that for a second please. Because holy shit, the entire duel between Yoda and Palpatine takes place in the Senate, with the Senate building and pods. Here Palpatine proves to Yoda that yes, he is the Senate, he controls it, the new Empire is under his control and no one can stop him. But then - but then - Yoda escapes, and who saves him? Bail. Bail sneaks in with a speeder, saves Yoda, and gets him back to safety. Which is such a huge fucking metaphor for the fact that Bail will be the one who, ultimately, is responsible for Palpatine's defeat. But, more on that later.

Bail is there when Padmé (remember, his best friend) gives birth to Luke and Leia. Bail is literally one of 3 sentients in the galaxy who canonically knows about both Luke and Leia.

Bail instantly offers to adopt one of the children, saying "She will be loved with us." (And then she absolutely is.)

And he does all of that in line 10 minutes of screen time.

He shows up again briefly in Star Wars Rebels, and again in Rogue One, but I'm going to take a trip down a side alley here into a territory that is grossly unused in the SW EU: the founding of the Rebellion.

So we don't actually know much about how the Rebellion got started. What we do know is that Bail was one of the (if not the main) Founders. Bail was the mastermind behind the Rebellion, by all accounts knowing...everything about it: who was who, who did what, where they were located, etc. He knows (and controls) Fulcrum in Rebels, as just one example, and Fulcrum is considered by that text to be one of the most powerful Rebel operatives at the time. In Rogue One (regardless of whether you liked what they did with the Rebellion which, side note, I did not), we see he certainly has a position of great authority and power. People respect him, and listen to him, and he's on an even footing with Mon Mothma (or Mom Mothma as my autocorrect tried to say) who is canonically one of the most powerful people in the Rebellion, according to ROTJ.

More than what he did, though, we can look to his character as a reason I love him. He is a good, kind, honorable man who does (or at least tries) his best. We see again and again, throughout all of SW media he's in, that he consistently chooses the right path, regardless of whether or not it's the easy one. He fights corruption, fights for justice, fights for freedom, fights against tyranny.

He is also, canonically, an amazing father and (according to EU content, since Breha literally doesn't have a spoken line in any media content) an incredible husband. We know he's well-loved by his people, and by the Rebellion, by the extraneous texts and mentions about him in the wake of his death on Alderaan. He's also respected by many Senators during his time in the Clone Wars (Padmé makes a comment in a TCW episode about how he's the best and most respected speaker and Senator she knows), and regardless of how people felt about him after the Rise of the Empire (which is, unfortunately - or fortunately maybe, because I don't trust Disney to do it right - up to headcanon), the fact remains that Bail played an incredibly tricky position as an Imperial Senator, having to balance fighting for his people, the people of the galaxy, and setting up the Rebellion, with not making himself too much of a nuisance, or too much of a traitor, that Palpatine straight up had him executed.

Which, speaking of that, can we also take a moment to appreciate the fact that Bail knew almost every single secret that Palpatine and Vader wanted??? He knew where Obi-Wan was, and possibly where Yoda was. He knew where both of Anakin and Padmé's children were. He knew everything about the fledgling Rebellion. Like...that man, had he been captured and interrogated (and had he broken) would have damned the entire galaxy. Yet he never was. He played his cards perfectly, and was either never suspected, or was able to somehow hide all of the information they wanted to know from being found. Personally, I suspect a mixture of the two.

Furthermore, Bail Organa is a great father and husband. He is directly responsible for Leia being the amazing woman we know and love. The one shot we get of Breha, you can practically see and feel the love and adoration Bail has for her radiating off of him through the screen. Literally the most unproblematic ship in Star Wars. I have never seen a single person say they aren't amazing (unless they just want to break them up to make Bail gay? Which, come on, bisexual and polyamorous people exist, y'all. But that's a talk for another time).

If you're still not convinced, the only thing left that I can say is: I'm a raging lesbian and like, while I definitely wouldn't fuck him, Bail/Jimmy Smits (his actor) is handsome. Have some pictures that I have saved on my phone for when I'm feeling sad.

Tl;dr: Bail Organa is singlehandedly responsible for putting into motion the events that secure the galaxy's freedom, not only by being one of the founding fathers of the Rebellion, but also by reaching Yoda and Obi-Wan before the new Empire can, and getting them safely to Coruscant. He is a good, kind, and noble man who does his best in shitty times, and even if he has to make hard choices, he always makes them for the right reasons. He is a loving father, husband, and ruler, who does right by his people and his family. He fights for what's right, even when that fight is nearly impossible. He's a badass, and arguably a literal genius (you'd have to be, to do the kinds of things he does in canon).

Anyway, Bail Organa is great and I love him - and you should too.

[peridotite]

Asking this out of curiosity because I do kind of wonder about something relating to rose and pretty much part of why I was asking earlier about whether or not she could have convinced the diamonds. by the end of Future, are we supposed to consider the good she did and the bad more? The people who kind of feel rubbed off the wrong way by this are in the wrong and miss the point of and are invalid, especially rose fans? Was all that intentional to kind of drive further the whole tragedy surrounding her and that the good she did if she did is being overlooked due to how much bad she did in her life and how it hurt everybody, especially Steven and how realistic it was? Rose worse more then White?

Honestly I kind of feel like the whole story behind Rose in SU will make me think about her for a while due to how things was written and kind of makes me feel like Rose is one of those characters that kinda feels a bit more unique compared to other characters with massive complexity because these other characters while they did some fucked up stuff they....... I might be wrong about this but they kind of seem to be given some kind of treatment that isn't on the level of what Rose had? Even I kind of feel like Anakin/Darth Vader had a lighter treatment in his end despite being kind of the opposite of Rose/Pink.

It might be the best writing, there might be some criticisms surrounding that writing that I just can't simply wrote off as invalid or wrong, the point is I'll keep thinking about rose and I just don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing

OH BOY this is kind of a lot but i'll do my best to voice my opinion

rose is in fact a very complicated character, yes, but ultimately she started off as a bad person and later on became a good person, we just saw her "redemption arc" backwards. the rose who fell in love with a human and gave up her life to have a child who would grow up like she could not, is not the same person she was when she hurt pink pearl during a meltdown and abandoned spinel. while she didn't fix her mistakes or get closure on most of her issues, she did get better. i think we are supposed to take into account everything she did, the good and the bad, and just conclude that, like mega pearl said, she was someone who tried to change for the better, tried to do good, but sometimes failed in doing so and other times not. i don't think steven hates her in the end, and thus i don't think we are supposed to either. i know i joked that people who hate her didn't understand the show, but personal opinion is fine, i just think it's wrong when people call her the villain of the show or something. like you can't tell me that's the conclusion you came to after watching the entire series lol

anyway yeah its true she's one of those characters that give you food for thought for years. her story is pretty intricate and the way it was slowly unwrapped as the show went on definitely adds to that.

[multi-fandom-imagines8]

Easily Corruptible

Request: Hi!! I was wondering if I could give you a request? It could be like reader and Anakin are on a mission and he acts like he hates her when really he has feeling for her. Anyway get into some trouble and have to hide in a really small closet together like chest to chest, legs between legs. The whole time the reader is apologizing and trying to stay still because of how close they are, like very move they make causes friction. Also if you could make it smutty that would be amazing!!💕. Requested by anon.

A/N: I don’t do smut, but it’s kinda implied.

Word Count: 1530.

You and Anakin were the exact opposite. You were the perfect padawan that obeys orders without questions asked. The Jedi Council liked and trusted you completely. Anakin, on the other hand, was a rebel. He questioned everything and disobeyed orders. Even though he was the chosen one, the council didn’t trust him completely, nur were they happy with his actions. Sometimes, they were even disappointed in him. That sparked jealousy in the two of you. For you, it was because he was the chosen one and no matter how hard you try and train, he’ll always be better than you. Not to mention, he’s the best pilot in the galaxy. For him, it was because you were loved, trusted and respected by all Jedis.

He disliked you, or so you thought and he didn’t even bother to hide it. You’d try to avoid each other when in the Jedi temple. Sometimes, you’d meet in the council when the master’s are discussing missions, but it either ends with the two of you arguing who should go on which mission or totally ignoring one another.

“I’m sorry I’m late” Anakin interrupted the meeting.

You rolled your eyes as you stood next to your master Windu.

“I would like to nominate my padawan Y/n to go on this mission” Windu spoke.

“I was going to suggest my padawan Anakin” Obi-Wan chuckled.

“Hmm… together then they should go” Yoda instructed.

“Agreed” Windu said.

“I don’t mind it either” Obi-Wan added.

“Forgive me master Yoda, I don’t mean to question your wisdom, but I’m sure there must be another solution” you spoke.

“For once, I agree with Y/n. You can’t possibly put us on the same mission together. I can go alone and if not, I’m sure there’s another padawan that can accompany me” Anakin cockly said.

“Anakin” Obi-Wan nudged him “forgive me young padawan! Sometimes, he doesn’t know what he’s saying”.

“No other solution there is. Been decided, it has. Dismissed, the meeting is”.

“Masters” you bowed and exited the room with your master and soon after so did Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Their voices could be heard from afar, specially Anakin’s complaining.

“Master, I’ve never questioned an order before, but are you sure that I should go with Skywalker?”.

“Yes, Y/n. You heard Master Yoda and if he says that you should go together, then there’s a reason for it”.

“Indeed. Then I will trust you decision and Master Yoda’s”.

“I don’t mean to interrupt but I think we should go” you approached Anakin and Obi-Wan.

“That, you should do. May the force be with you” Obi-Wan smiled at you.

“Thank you, Master” you smiled back and walked with Anakin, keeping a big gap between you.

“Just so you know, I’m in charge of this mission” he informed you.

“Uhm, no, you’re not”.

“I am. I’m stronger and a better pilot than you are” he reminded.

“That’s not how it works, Skywalker. The council chose me to accompany you for a reason. I’m starting to see why”.

“Well, do enlighten me”.

“You are impulsive and have a habit of disobeying orders, but I would never do that. I think I’ve been sent on this mission to keep you in check”.

“You wish”.

“You think they suspected anything?” Obi-Wan asked Windu.

“Not Y/n. She had doubts, but not enough to question them”.

“Good! If Master Yoda is correct, which he always is, then they shall let go of their jealousy and start to see each other as allies and friends”.

“We shall see”.

—-

Anakin was having fun speeding, while you were trying your best not to sound scared or annoyed.

“Are you afraid, Y/n?” He smirked.

“No”.

“I can sense what you’re feeling. Are you sure you don’t want me to slow down?”.

“Can you like not talk till we arrive or better yet, ever?”.

He smirked and flew even faster. When you arrived, it took you a moment to gather your strength after all that Anakin did with the ship.

“Just don’t throw up inside. I’m not cleaning up after you” he teased.

“It’s okay, Y/n. Breathe in, breathe out” you muttered to yourself to calm yourself down.

As you were getting the information the council needed, you heard some clones coming your way. Anakin lit his lightsaber and was ready to fight them.

“No! We should hide” you suggested.

“I’m not a coward. We should fight” he refused.

“Do you really want to kill them all?”.

“They would’ve deserved it”.

“Can you just for once do as you’re told!” You pressed your hands.

“But where’s the fun in that?” He grinned.

“Skywalker, do not let me drag you into that closet!” You said calmly.

“I can see that you are struggling with anger issues. I can assure you that you will lose if you decide to fight me”.

“What would it take for you to get into that closet and not kill those people?”.

“Hmm...nothing”.

“Fine. Then, I will report you to the council and tell them that you killed those people when there was another way to spare us the bloodshed”.

“You are no fun. Lead the way, but I’m telling you, if they open that closet, I am going to attack” he warned.

“Deal”.

The closet was very small and dark. The only light was coming from the room. You went in first and Anakin followed, closing the door, it made the space you had even smaller.

He had to lean on you, since there was no place. Being shorter than he is, made your hair be in his face, making it difficult for him to see or breathe easily.

“I’m sorry” you tried to adjust your position.

“You should be. If we followed my plan, we wouldn’t be in this miserable position”.

“I will evade bloodshed at all costs”.

“You’re too soft. Less bloodshed isn’t always the answer”.

“I’m starting to question if you’re a Jedi”.

“What is that supposed to mean?”.

“I can sense the darkness inside of you, Skywalker”.

“And you’re an expert now?”.

“Oh, just shut up!” You grew tired of arguing with him.

For some reason, you thought that if you turned your back to him, it’ll make things better.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Adjusting the way I’m standing” you wanted to be able to look straight instead of lowering your head, so that you won’t have skin to skin contact.

“Now, I have more hair in my face” he complained.

“I’m sorry, what am I supposed to do?”.

“Why did you turn your back on me?”.

“I thought this would be more comfortable”.

“For you or for me?”.

“Both of us”.

“Well, this isn’t very comfortable to me” he complained again.

“I can’t do anything about it now, can I?” You took a deep breath and exhaled.

“You know this isn’t going to help, right?” He whispered at the back of your ear, making the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

“What should I do then?” You rolled your eyes.

“You can turn around and face me” he muttered.

“Why?”.

“So, I could see the look on your face”.

The air got hotter and hotter and you started sweating.

“What look? What are you talking about?” You turned your head to the side so you could see him.

“That look. You can’t deny it” he grinned as he touched your face.

“What do you want Anakin?” You turned to fully face him, looking up.

“I believe that’s the first time you used my first name”.

“So?”.

“Nothing… I can hear your heart beating” he informed you.

“It’s a small room”.

“I can feel it against my chest”.

“I apologize”.

“Don’t!” He traced the outline of your lips with his fingers.

“They’re gone. We can go out now” you turned your face towards the door but he returned it to him.

“Why are you running away from me?”.

“I am not”.

“I know what you’re feeling”.

“You can’t use the force for everything”.

“But I can” he removed a strand of hair that was blocking your view.

“Why are you doing this?” You asked almost out of breath.

“Doing what?” He pretended to not know what you’re talking about.

“You know what”.

“I don’t”.

“I can sense it. I have the force, too”.

“Who knew you were so easily corruptible”.

“I thought you disliked me”.

“Well,... I like you so much that I hate the feeling” he admitted.

“That doesn’t make any sense”.

“It’s not complicated. I love you and I dislike you for making me have those feelings”.

“It’s not like I forced you. Wait- did you say you love-“.

“For once, don’t argue with me” he pressed his lips to yours and lifted you up. Your legs wrapped around his torso as he slammed your body against the wooden wall of the closet.

“Wait, it’s dark in here” you broke the kiss.

“Don’t worry about it, he lit both of your lightsabers.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Anakin” you smiled.

“You’re playing with me, so I have no fear” he started kissing your neck and left marks as he went lower.

Tags: @mother-dragon-and-her-hatchlings

[redspaceace-writes]

Love - (Obi-Wan Kenobi x Reader)

Request: Hello there (😏) darling!How are u ? I hope good!Anyways I saw u write for obi wan and I was wondering if u could obi wan coming home to the reader after a really long mission and they just kiss a lot and cuddle so u know super fluffy plz ??Love u precious ❤️🥰💙

Author's Note: Thank you for the request, my dear friend, @starwarsprequelfangirl 💜💜 I hope you enjoy. I made the reader a senator because (mostly I was lazy, lmao) of the GIF. I wanted it to kinda connect with the story. This also follows the storyline of Revenge of the Sith after they rescue the Chancellor. Dialogue from the movie has been incorporated.

Word Count: 823

Warnings: So much fluff

Tags (open):

Forever: (already tagged the lovely lady above)

It is late afternoon when Obi-Wan arrives back on Coruscant. Palpatine, Anakin, and his droid R2-D2 exit the shuttle onto a landing platform at the Senate Office Building. Obi-Wan stays, leaning against the doorframe of the transport.

“Are you coming, Master?” Anakin asks Obi-Wan.

“Oh no. I’m not brave enough for politics. I have to report to the council. Besides, someone needs to be the poster boy,” Obi-Wan jokes with a small, close-lipped smile.

“Hold on,” Anakin protests. “This whole operation was your idea.”

“Let us not forget, Anakin, that you rescued me from the buzz droids. And you killed Count Dooku, and you rescued the chancellor carrying me unconscious on your back.” Obi-Wan reminds him.

“All because of your training.”

“Anakin, let’s be fair. Today you were the hero and you deserve your glorious day with the politicians.”

“All right. But you owe me one, and not for saving your skin for the tenth time.” Anakin warns.

“Ninth time. That business on Cato Neimoidia doesn’t-doesn’t count. I’ll see you at the briefing.” Anakin grins at his Master before turning to join the chancellor and senators gathered around him. Obi-Wan watches him leave and sense someone’s attention on him. He searches for who the culprit is and finds your gaze. You stand just outside the group of your fellow senators staring directly at Obi-Wan. You give him a tiny wave. He returns the gesture with a loving smile, one that promises his return to you later that evening. He retreats from the doorway of the shuttle and it flies off in the direction of the Jedi Temple.

Your excitement at Obi-Wan’s return is difficult to contain. You feel as though you’ll burst from happiness. Padme startles you as she grabs your arm.

“I see Anakin and Obi-Wan have come back from their mission,” she states giddily. You nod.

“Yes, I am delighted they are safe and out of harm’s way,” you say, trying to maintain a professional and respectful demeanor. She lightly smacks your arm.

“Oh, c��mon, Y/N! What’s the point in hiding your care for him if I already know and you know about me and Anakin?” You shrug at your friend. “I’m going to greet Anakin. I’ll see you at the meeting!”

Padme runs off, her dress gripped tight in her hands, disappearing from sight. You sigh and join the rest of the senators, trailing at the back of the group behind Palpatine. The one thing on your mind is the reunion you get to have with your lover.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Night had fallen, the moon shining through the windows, illuminating the apartment. You lounge on the couch, sprawled out. Your head rests on one end, a pillow under it. Your legs are stretched out to the other side of the sofa, a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the opposite. The lights are dimmed so you can enjoy the natural light. Then a knock interrupts the serene environment. You turn your attention to the door.

“Door’s open!” you announce loud enough for the person on the side to hear. The door slides open and an exhausted Obi-Wan steps through. When it shuts behind him, he locks it before making eye contact with you. You set your drink down on the table next to the sofa and offer him an elated smile. He returns it before collapsing onto you. You groan in surprise at his action. His head rests on your torso, burying his head there. His legs dangle off the furniture.

“Obi,” you call. “Are you all right?” He nods against you.

“Just tired and missing you, Y/N,” he speaks. It is muffled.

“Do you want some dinner?” you ask.

“No, I just want to lay here and enjoy this time with you.” You smile at his admission.

“I’ll read to you then, how about that?”

“That sounds lovely, dear.” You clear your throat and start reading aloud from where you left off. The other hand not holding the book slides down to card through his hair. He hums at your touch. Obi-Wan decides to press kisses to your body through your nightgown. You try to refrain from giggling. 

After a while, you feel his lips stop moving and hear quiet snores drift through the silence. You put the book down, marking the page you’ve ended on and gaze at his sleeping form. Obi-Wan had been gone for five months on this past mission and you could tell that each day away from you was draining. It was for you, too, being apart from him so long. At least now you got to enjoy the time until his next assignment.

“My perfect Jedi General,” you whisper. “What would I do without you?” Not wanting to wake him, you reach for the lamp on the table and switch it off, making yourself comfortable in his embrace. Then you drift to sleep, dreams filled with you and Obi-Wan.

--------------------------

Requests are open. Check out who I write for and feel free to ask for anyone not on the list.

Posted: March 6, 2020

[evabellasworld]

Storm of the Republic

Chapter 17

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

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Summary:  When Tup murdered General Tiplar during a battle, Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex dispatched Ahsoka, Fives, and Yara to solve the mystery that was plaguing the Clone Army. Meanwhile, Senator Padme Amidala contacted Commander Fox, Commander Tori, Riyo Chuchi, and Dipper to help her continue investigating the death of Palpatine, suspecting that Dooku was behind the evil plot. But when Dooku send an ISB agent to stop them, the team had to race against time to search for the truth, which could alter the course of the galaxy.

————————————————————————————

“Agent Darling,” Admiral Trench contacted her through a hologram. “I regret to report to you that our assets were taken by the Jedi. They had ambushed our shuttle and destroyed every one of our droids.”

Rhea could only nod, her hands guarded behind her. “No worries, admiral. I’ll handle it from here,” she replied in a calm tone. “I wish you luck on your battles on Ringo Vinda. May the odds be in your favour.”

“Thank you, agent,” Admiral Trench bowed as their transmission ended.

Those Jedi are so naïve, she laughed to herself, holding a lighter in her hand. It was just an ordinary lighter which she bought on Coruscant yesterday, but she treasured them by decorating it with assorted stickers.

This was her 43rd lighter that she owned currently. Since Rhea could smoke, she spent her allowance on cigarettes and lighter. Though she would throw the cigarette box after finishing all 20 sticks in 20 days, she was fond of the lighters.

The current one she was holding right now was painted in fuchsia, which matched her personality. It was originally silver, but Rhea attempted to make it more eye-catching, and her talent in arts and craft had paid off.

If she wasn’t an agent, she would sell crafted lighters to her customers instead. She could make some money out of her hobby once she retired from her service for the Galactic Empire.

Looking at the time on her heart-shaped clock, she straightened her posture and adjusted her hair, before reaching out to Lenora on Coruscant. “Hey Nora,” Rhea addressed her by her nickname. “How are you doing today? Did you miss me?”

“Well, kinda,” Lenora replied, in a cheerful voice. “My office feels quiet without you. It’s not the same eating all by myself, you know.”

“I wish I could join you, but duty calls, unfortunately,” she twirled her hair. “Anyway, how’s your progress with Senator Amidala? I heard from the Emperor that you’re getting there.”

“I’m doing great on my mission so far. From what I gathered, Senator Amidala left her office much earlier during the day and headed straight back home.”

“Okay, what was her excuse this time?”

“She had a headache, and she needed to rest,” Lenora spilled the tea. “Honestly, though, I don’t buy it. She used that excuse over three times.”

“Obviously she’s lying. For all I know, she could contact someone outside of Coruscant. Did you figure out who the caller was?”

Lenora shook her head. “Unfortunately, it was a cloaked transmission, so I wasn’t able to figure out, but it was definitely outside of Coruscant. Do you think it could be the Republic remnants’ army?”

“It’s possible,” Rhea agreed with her. “Most of her allies were on the other side, such as Anakin Skywalker and Senator Chuchi. She was extremely close with them throughout the war.”

“That’s true. It’s only a matter of time before this mysterious caller exposed themselves, along with Senator Amidala’s treachery to the Empire,” Lenora stated, before changing the topic. “So, what about you, Ri? What did the Emperor ask you to do this time?”

“It’s something related to Protocol Order 66,” she told him. “Apparently, a clone trooper killed his Jedi General mid-battle. Crazy, right?”

Lenora chuckled. “What an odd coincidence. I read about this protocol in Palpatine’s and the Young twins’ file.

“Well, tell me more about it. That could be useful in tracking down that clone.”

“Wait, did that clone get away or something? What happened? I thought you already captured him.”

“The Jedi got him, for now,” she flicked her lighter. “But I’ll have them, eventually. It’s only a matter of time before someone spotted them on another planet.”

Sitting on the co-pilot’s seat, Yara crossed her arms and glared at Fives as he sat beside her, with a wide smile on his face. “Sorry, Yara, but the captain seemed to favour me more than you.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Yara cussed at her brother as she looked away from him. “At least I have a brain cell, unlike you.”

“Well, I’m not the one who’s constantly late to training every single day,” he pointed out her flaw, causing her to pat him on the shoulder.

“Fuck you!”

“Anyway, we’ll be jumping into hyperspace, so try not to fall,” he teased her, making her hold her tongue.

I wish I could kill him instantly; she sneered at herself as she rested her head on her seat. He’s such a pest sometimes.

As their shuttle made the jump, Yara breathed in relief as she closed her eyes and hugged herself, hoping she could wake up by the time they reached the Anaxes. After what happened with Tup, she could finally have a long rest for herself.

On the other hand, Fives was bored. He was tempted to poke Yara’s puffy cheeks and show his tongue at her, but it was too boring for him. “I should just check on Tup,” he groaned, as he got up from the captain’s seat and walked away from the cockpit.

Tup was deep asleep on his gurney, his arms and legs restrained from any movement he made. His pulse was slowing down and Fives could swear that his body felt warmer than usual. “Hang in here, vod,” he squeezed his hand. “You’ll be okay. I know you would. You can do this, Tup.”

He paced back and forth in the room, wondering if he would arrive at the base faster. He knows it’s a long journey back home, but he wanted time to fly faster. If only he could control time, just like the stories he heard from his friend Dipper.

Yesterday, Fives was playing a board game with Tup, Yara, Jesse, and Kix in their barracks, competing on who gets to be the richest. All five of them were buying properties with the game money and had to pay each other rent every time someone landed on an owned property

Yara was cursing non-stop at having to pay rent to her brothers, while Tup was just relaxing in his jail cell, hoarding all the game money. Ronopoly was the game that had caused many breakups between family, friends, and romantic couples, but Fives thought it did the opposite.

Sure, the five of them argued with each other about who was going to win, but as soon as Kix packed up the game, they were having dinner together at the mess hall, forgetting what had happened in their barrack. Tup was an expert in Ronopoly, and Fives was pleased that he won the game seven times in a row.

I hope he’s okay; he smiled at Tup as he headed back into the cockpit, only to find Yara asleep on his seat. Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me. Seriously, she’s such an ass sometimes.

“Yara, get up,” Fives tapped on her cheeks. “You’re in my seat.”

His sister turned away and continued to sleep in her arms, leaving him to constrain his frustration. “I know you’re still awake. Get up, bitch.”

Without looking or saying a word to him, Yara showed the middle finger to him, her eyes still closed. Fives huffed as he was about to drag her by the leg, only to be kicked in the face. “Oh, you motherfucker-“

“Fuck you, Fives,” Yara jolted from her seat. “I slept here, so that makes it mine now.”

“Bitch, I was there before you.”

“Well, you neglected your duties as a captain, so now, I’m in charge.”

“Says who? Rex put me in charge, so technically, that makes me more competent with you.”

“Fuck you, bitch. You can’t make me move.”

Without hesitating, Fives picked up Yara with all his strength and put her back in the co-pilot’s seat, much to her protest. “Fuck you, Fives!” she yelled. “You’re not my brother anymore.”

“I’m honoured,” Fives bite back. “You were found in a garbage bin on Kamino.”

“Fuck your mother!”

“We were made in the test tube, you di’kut.”

“Then, fuck your test tube!”

“Fuck your test tube too, Yara,” Fives cursed at her, when he heard the radar beeping, much to his bewilderment. “Wait, are we back at the base already? That was fast.”

“I don’t know,” Yara shrugged, scratching her head. “I don’t remember the journey being this short.”

Realizing what was going on, both of them frantically jumped out of hyperspace, only to find themselves surrounded with fields of asteroids. “Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.”

[twilightofthe]

So...about that Obitine Anidala rant. Also, you said something about how Sidious and Obi-Wan are foils. I would love it if you elaborate. (Also, I love your blog.)

Awwwww thank you anon!  I just be yelling on here!

*wheezes* okie doke!  Tho I stress that this won’t exactly be a rant because I adore Obitine and Anidala and rant kinda implies aggression towards them, this is more of just a long-ass ramble because while I love them, I don’t always love the way canon portrays them in the narrative, particularly in relationship to each other, because I often do not feel that what the show is trying to push us to think about them is accurate to how they actually act and come across.  Notably, the show attempts to draw comparisons to the two relationships that really don’t exist below surface level similarities.  Again, these are my own personal opinions, and in fact, I welcome discussion!  I truly do!  Please politely debate me on this if you disagree!

(god dammit it got long again, so long I’ll actually put ur Sidious and Obi Wan as foils part in a separate post)

I’ll get to why exactly the show compares the relationships very strangely in a moment, but first we gotta explore the reason why it does this in the first place, which is that the Clone Wars show has decided to make Obi Wan and Anakin narrative foils to one another.  Narrative foils, by the literary definition, are two characters that contrast one another.  They don’t have to be the protagonist and the antagonist, these characters can be on the same side, basically the thing is that they have “opposite” personalities where if one character is hot, the other is cold, if one character chooses to go right, the other will go left.  It’s usually used to show one character’s qualities as more favorable for the situation as opposed to anyone else’s.

TCW does this whenever they possibly can with Anakin and Obi Wan.  I get its reasoning behind it.  I do.  The reasoning is that while Anakin is supposed to be a main character, he makes questionable decisions quite often and for the kiddies watching, those decisions must be seen as Bad even if the hero does it, so they have Obi Wan, the unquestionable good guy, encounter the exact same scenarios Anakin makes his questionable decisions in, and then has Obi Wan make the Right(TM) decision to teach the kids a valuable lesson.  They turn Obi Wan into the voice of reason for the entire show, which turns basically almost everything Obi Wan and Anakin do into a constant competition in the narrative in a way the movies do not do (and I’ll get to the movies later).  I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing, making them foils, but it’s definitely more of a show-only thing and it does it quite, quite often.

So yeah, TCW likes to compare Obi Wan and Anakin to the point that sometimes they try and use Obi Wan to diminish Anakin’s genuine trauma and struggles by going “well why didn’t you do it like THIS?” and I think that writing parallel plotlines for the purpose of shaming/criticism is kinda ://////, but that’s another rant for another day that again, if y’all wanna hear about, lmk

Anyway, the need to compare them absolutely made its way into their romantic relationships as well, as they acknowledge the similarities in the show, and Filoni and the crew explicitly compare the two relationships in interviews.

Basically my problem with how they try and draw said parallels can be boiled down to one quote by Filoni that a cursory Google search could not find but I know exists so y’all can take my word or not, that went along the lines of “Obi Wan and Satine are like Anakin and Padmé but better because they know how to stay unattached and let each other go.  They’re a success story.”  I disagreed with this quote so much it inspired me to write a whole-ass fic about it (Mutuals update: yes, it is coming soon, Darth Maul is just himself and therefore an utter pain in the ass to do a POV on and is fighting me like the bitchass he is)

My thesis that I will be arguing today is that while TCW tried to create Obitine as an Anidala parallel, they’re really not similar in the way the writers think they are.  Obitine is not a success story to Anidala, they’re a goddamn tragedy too; the real parallel to Anidala is that Obitine also ended in death and tears despite making all the “right” decisions instead of all the “wrong” ones, and that is what is sad about them.

Like, on the surface level?  Yeah, the crew-intended parallels are there.  A fancy politician and a Jedi get together after the Jedi is assigned as the politician’s bodyguard.  The first time they see each other in over a decade the guy’s first words are basically “damn girl you’re still hot”, there is Conflict(TM) and the choice to try and be together or stay yearningly apart because they are Forbidden(TM) to be together, and ultimately a Sith Lord fucks them both over because he’s obsessed with the Jedi and uses Politician Lady to his advantage, finds and exploits a vulnerability of hers, destroys her life’s work, and then lets her die to make Jedi Man sad.  The difference is all that one pair said “yeah we aren’t gonna break the rules to be together” and the other said “fuck it yeah we are, let’s do this”

But beneath all of that, they real similarities are different and not at all focused on by the narrative.  Obi Wan and Anakin are extremely different people, as are Padmé and Satine, so their relationship dynamics together will not be the same.  You want to try and compare Obi Wan and Anakin and then compare Satine and Padmé like the crew attempts to, and you can’t, they have the same job but not nearly the same life.  Namely, the funny coincidence is that Obi Wan and Padmé are much more similar in personality, while Anakin and Satine are also much more similar in personality, so the first time they meet again, it’s both Anakin and Satine as the one who’s been pining for over a decade and the one more actively pursuing the relationship, while Obi Wan and Padmé who are more like “uh, hi, wow, you’re hot and this is a Problem because I have a job to do pls don’t look at me like that but also I will Cause Problems On Purpose and flirt with you anyway because I can’t help it”.  I get the Corruption TCW ep with Sati and Pads was mostly intended just to help Satine pass the Bechdel test and also show how similar the two leading lady love interests are, but it was a genuinely creative episode that actually ended up showing how much Satine and Padmé compliment each other instead of mirroring each other, much like Obi Wan and Anakin do.

And, onto my next point, despite the character parallels being wrong, the parallels in the relationship are different too.  Like I said, the parallel isn’t that Obi Wan and Satine aren’t attached like Anakin and Padmé are.  The parallel is that Obitine is actively running from what that attachment means instead of embracing it like Anidala is.  The show would argue that since they try to avoid it, that they are able to live without one another, means they aren’t attached like the Jedi define it, but I argue that they definitely still are attached to a degree because they cannot give each other up.  They held torches for each other from a timerange of 15 YEARS.  Yes I know they spent an entire year together at a young and emotionally volatile point in their lives, but I stand that NO ONE is that hung up on their ex for that long unless there is some serious emotions involved.  Anakin was hung up on Padmé for ten years, and that was because Palpatine was constantly bolstering those affections and reminding him of Padmé.  Obes and Sati both-- or at least Satine, the show always makes Obi Wan’s feelings for Satine in return much more vague --held on to their feelings for five years longer without the influence of a Sith Lord.

And the thing is, they know it.  Obi Wan and Satine are both fully aware that they haven’t been able to shake each other off like they should and that that is a Problem, that’s why they’re both a mite venomous with each other beneath the flirting at first, they’re both extremely frustrated with themselves for not being able to get over this thing they have, and frustrated with the other for being there as an active temptation.

And yet, they still are attached to each other.  They try to avoid it, they definitely try, and that’s what makes them different from Anidala, but they are definitely still attached.  You can see it in Obi Wan’s actions in Voyage of Temptation when Merrik is threatening to blow the ship, the way he hesitates in attacking him because that would be “striking an unarmed man”.  Obi Wan Kenobi does not prefer violence, no, but he has never hesitated to cut a bitch before if it’s for the good of the many.  This is the man who stabbed someone with a fork and threatened to eat him just to maintain his cover as a dangerous criminal.  This is the guy who had no problem killing Zam Wessel for information to protect Padmé.  This is a pragmatist who prefers peaceful solutions, but he does not hesitate if he feels it is a justified offense.  But this time, when an entire shipful of people is at risk, Obi Wan hesitates.  Because he doesn’t want to upset Satine.  Because he’s probably thinking on how she told him that if he had killed the last terrorist they encountered, she wouldn’t speak to him, how she had criticized every time he used violence to escape Death Watch before.  He hesitates because he’s putting her happiness, just for a second, over the sake of duty.  Do I think that if Anakin hadn’t shown up to save their moral compasses, Obi Wan would have eventually taken out Merrik?  Absolutely; hell, I honestly think Satine might have done it.

But the matter was, Merrik could have pressed the kill switch any second of Obi Wan’s hesitation, and Obi Wan knew that, and was hesitating anyway.

I am calling this attachment solely because if the situation was reversed, if this was Anakin and Padmé in this situation, with Anakin not taking out a dangerous criminal because he doesn’t want to upset Padmé (lol ignoring the fact that Pads 1000% would have shot that bitch, and even if she didn’t, Anakin would because he is perfectly fine with hurting his loved ones’ feelings if he feels it’ll keep them safe), god, the narrative would have eaten Anakin alive.  

No, I won’t take criticism.  I know how the show handles the Anidala dynamic.  It would have shown Obi Wan popping up to take out the baddie as him doing the right thing and saving the day, and then Anakin would have been shamed for letting his feelings for his wife get in the way of protecting a shipful of people.  THAT would be the Vader foreshadowing, none of this “only a cold-blooded killer” shit, no way would they ever stick that label on Obi Wan.

So yeah, I’m going off of the fact that if that would have been classified as attachment for Anidala-- which, it would, then. it counts for Obitine.

And then Obi Wan and Satine continue to be hung up on each other for the rest of the eps they’re in, Satine saying in words multiple times how much she loves and cares about him and wishes things could be different, and Obi Wan performing it in actions, risking his own neck and political standing to help her even when she’s a fugitive, probably personally putting in to send his own grandpadawan to help her later.  Right up to the time when Satine decides that she is going to call Obi Wan when she is deposed.  Not the Senate.  Not any powerful politician friends.  Not even the Jedi Order or the Council as a whole.  She calls and addresses her distress call to Obi Wan alone.  And Obi Wan, as now revealed to us by TCW S7, defies Council orders and breaks a century old neutrality treaty to try and bust her, a convicted murderer in the eyes of the Republic and Mandalore, out.  He didn’t even know Maul had her.  Just knew she was in danger and came running to her aid.  He risks starting a potential war to come save her.  They acted so in love that Vizsla was able to guess from being around them for like five seconds, and was able to tell Maul exactly who he would need to bait Obi Wan.

That is where the attachment comes from.  It’s the fact that Obi Wan and Satine tried so, so hard to give each other up and do the right thing, but when it came down to it, they couldn’t lose the other one so they put them first when logically they shouldn’t.  And thus, Satine ended up dead.

Now I know most people will argue with me that actually Filoni means that since they didn’t stay together after the year on the run, THAT is what makes them able to give each other up, and also the fact that Obi Wan didn’t go dark side and murder everyone when Satine died.

But I still think that at least the murder front is a fairly low bar to cross, and anyway, that just because they could live without each other didn’t mean they weren’t still attached.  Anakin and Padmé were apart for 10 years and then even after that, they were apart almost constantly during the war.  Just because they could live apart or even past the other’s death didn’t mean they weren’t attached, as they both still had not let the other go mentally and also broke rules to try and ensure the other would not die, even if the rules said they should let it happen.

So yeah, that’s my big theory.  We can’t compare Obitine with Anidala by saying Obitine was a success story, we compare them by acknowledging that both struggled with attachments and letting the other go, but Obitine at least tried to the bitter end to do the right thing while Anidala didn’t really bother, and both ended up with dead women and broken men regardless, and that is the true sad parallel to me.

[malfoysdarkprincess]

Power of the Darkness ⇝ ii.

Summary: Before the galactic domination of the First Order, we follow a young Y/N and Ben Solo through their creation as the new found Lord and Lady of the Galactic Empire under the reign of Supreme Leader Snoke. Both are Jedi’s gone dark, making you both extremely powerful and feared by every civilisation in the galaxy. Will the first order come out on top or will the new found heroine Rey and the resistance destroy and last remainder of the dark side?

Pairing: Kylo Ren/Ben Solo x Reader Word Count: 1.4k A/n: Chapter two yippie!!! Alsooo, we’re gonna ignore the fact that technically palpatine is anakins father because we aren’t about that incest life lol. I was also thinking of splitting this into three ‘series’ like the movies and follow the timeline in each one? So this ‘series’ is pre-tfa and during tfa, then second ‘series’ is during tlj and third is during tros. Lemme know in my ask box if you like that idea or if I should just keep it as the one? Next chapter is when the action starts ;) Enjoy ! x Part one

Y/N’s eyes snapped open and she was back in her Jedi hut, her heart threatening to break her rib cage with how hard it was beating. Tears begun to spill onto her face, and she held back a sob. Y/N was beyond confused and felt like she didn’t know who she was. Ever since she was little, she felt more of a connection to the dark side then the light, but she trained with Luke to get rid of that connection but that only deepened it.

You now know what the right path is to follow, my child.

Y/N allowed herself to sob once she knew Snoke was no longer in her head. She was confused and didn’t understand anything but one thing. Who she thought herself to be was a lie.

*

“Again!” Master Skywalker yelled, his eyes thoroughly assessing his Padawan’s. They were perfecting a normal Jedi stance form, but it was clearly too hard for some, making the whole group have to repeat it.  “Again!” he repeated again, Y/N huffed and repeated it, as did Ben.

“If he says again one more time, I’m going to shove this saber up his-”

“Again!”, he cut Ben off; which caused Y/N to stifle a laugh. Surprisingly, the group got it after about one hundred attempts. “Alright, go and rest we will be training again in an hour. Y/N I need to speak with you,” Luke said as he turned around stalked into the temple. She swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled at Ben.

“I don’t know Yasmina, I think she should get kicked out for almost killing you the other night by using sith techniques,” Y/N’s ears perked up when she heard Yasmina, Andria and Matthew talking about her. Her eyes narrowed at them.

“I’m telling you; she’s conspiring to be the next Sith leader. I mean, she’s friends with that weird boy who was related to Darth Vad-” Matthew was cut off by Y/N force choking him. His face went purple and red as he struggled to breath. The girls were yelling by Y/N was blinded by rage, but she was pulled back out when Ben grabbed her shoulder.

“Stop.” He whispered in her ear. She stopped concentrating on it and let go, Matthew took in a large breath very audibly. Y/N narrowed her eyes at them, making them turn away and walk to the other students. Y/N placed her hand on top of Ben’s and sighed. She looked up and noticed Luke staring at her. She sighed and went up the steps to speak with him. He only shook his head and walked back into the temple with Y/N trailing behind.

*

“You have been disobeying orders and being reckless. What are you doing? You almost killed Yasmina and now Matthew?” Master Luke yelled at Y/N; his hand been thrown about in anger. She went to open her mouth, but he cut her off. “Whatever it is, you need to fix it. From now until future notice, you will not be allowed to train with the other Jedi student; including Ben.” Luke had stated. Y/N’s eyes widened at what he said. Then she felt her anger bubble.

“What? You can’t do that! You can’t just cease my training over things so... so... insignificant! They’re going to have to learn how to battle like that Master Skywalker! This is such bull-”

“Not another word from you. You will only be able to watch and study the movements, but you will no longer take part. That is final!” He yelled, his hand slamming into the table. Y/N’s chair pushed back abruptly as she got up. She slammed the door behind her as she left for her hut. Luke only sighed and sat down, R2D2 whirring and beeping next to him. “I know I was harsh I have to be. Ben’s turned to the dark side and he holds such a terrifying future. But Y/N… I need to get it through to her that the right place is here and not with Snoke.”

R2 just whirred. “She scares me just as much as Ben does. I just… I need to make sure she doesn’t choose the wrong side.”

R2 just beeped.

*

“Ugh! This is frustrating” Y/N collapsed onto Ben’s bed, him peering over his textbook. “They can get away with speaking badly about you, his own goddamn nephew, but when I force choke them, well aren’t I the bad guy!” Y/N threw her hands up and groaned.

“I hope you realise there’s a big difference between both of those actions, Y/N” Ben stated, merely flicking his page over. She grunted in response and stared at the ceiling. In that moment, she wanted to scream and cry. She was so fed up from Snoke, to Luke and finding out her true identity. She also wanted to stab Matthew, Andria and Yasmina in their stupid faces. Y/N was beyond pissed. She felt the bed slightly move, then felt the pressure of Ben’s head on her stomach.

It only calmed her down slightly, but she distracted herself by threading her fingers through his black hair. She inhaled deeply and exhaled it all out. “Relax love, everything is going to be okay” he mumbled into her stomach, which slightly tickled. This gave Y/N to think. If they continued their path to be Jedi knights, they would not be allowed to love each other. No emotion only peace. Y/N was only here because Maz wanted her to learn the ways of the Jedi, how to control her force sensitivity.

Although, if it wasn’t for that, Y/N more than likely would not have met Ben. Her best friend, her right hand, her lover. He was her first friend ever at the mere age of eleven and twelve. They were drawn to one another, it was a weird sensation that neither of them could describe, even to this day. It was weird sometimes she swore she could hear him speak, but his mouth never moved. Y/N had always dismissed it as some weird mind game that the force puts on the young apprentices.

“I’m kinda hungry, let’s go see if supper is ready Love,” Ben mumbled against her stomach, making her softly smile at the boy. They waltz into the dining hall and, sure enough, supper was served. They grabbed their usual servings and sat at the opposite end of the table from everyone. “I think you really scared the shit out of Matthew,” Ben noticed, lifting his bread roll in the direction of the boy. Y/MN raised her eyebrows, mouth full of food, and turned in the direction of where the asshole would be, and sure enough, when she made eye contact, he instantly diverted it.

Y/N turned back to Ben and smiled, some of her half-chewed food showing on her teeth. “You are vile,” Ben joked and threw his bread roll at her. Y/N laughed and swallowed.

“Don’t worry, someone will have something smart to say. How much more trouble can I really get in?” Y/N joked. It was tiny things that they would say about you, but as soon as they mentioned Ben, you swore you would kill them. Ben would get enraged, but you would always beat him in harming that assholes that you called fellow pupils. Besides, you didn’t really mind anyways. Y/N noticed Yasmina whispering something to Andria and them giggling. Y/N sighed and shoved more of her food in her mouth.

“I don’t understand how she, out of everyone in the galaxy, was chosen to be force-sensitive and to come here to train. Her parents were nobodies, she’s a nobody. Her parents more than likely sold her off to get some spice and alcohol, I mean look at the state of he-” Andria was cut off by a dinner knife impaling her right hand. She screeched in pain and Y/N’s jaw dropped and stared at Ben. She had never seen him that violent, truly violent. Andria began to wail more, and Luke came bounding into the dining hall. He helped Andria up and escorted her to the infirmary, his eyes glazed with fury. “Ben why did you do that, you know I can hold my own.” Y/N whispered to the boy. He twirled the fork in his hand and stabbed it into the tabletop.

“I know you can, still pisses me off. She needs to learn a lesson and respect us. They all do. We’re more powerful than them.” Ben growled, his eyes narrowing at the fork. Y/N sighed and smiled.

“Ben?” Y/N question, her lips perked up.

“Yeah?” he looked up, his gaze light on the girl in front of him.

“Nice Shot.”

TAGLIST; @gossiprenxo @stray-luna @thecourageousmyanmar @itsallaboutkey @fandomshit6000 @lizmarvel @gracielou0518 @iamaunicorn4704 @blackheartedspider @ah-callie @solariiium @manylivesofkc @annaweirdo21​ @ohhh-boo-tiful​

[emeraldspiral]

HOW JEDI LEIA FAILS ON EVERY CONCEIVABLE LEVEL AND OMITTING BEN FROM THE FINAL SCENE NOT ONLY HAD THE OPPOSITE EFFECT JJERRIO WERE GOING FOR BUT THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF TRYING TO MAKE THE FINAL SCENE ABOUT LEIA’S “ASCENSION” TO THE JEDI PANTHEON WAS NEVER GOING TO WORK ANYWAY.

First of all; Leia reaches out to Ben as if he's at his worst and she's pulling him back from the brink when it's actually Rey who's going nuts and Ben just defending himself, never taking a single offensive swing at her, even already lowering his blade before she acts. This results in him getting stabbed, confusing the audience as to whether that was her intent or not. Leia then dies and it's unclear even how or why. This could've been explained, using pre-established rules set-up in TLJ, as Leia using the fatal Force projection technique to bring Ben a vision of Han, or introducing the ability of Force Sensitives to recall non-Force Sensitive spirits from the afterlife, which would've been perfectly believable as a fatal technique, even if it wasn't set-up beforehand. But instead, Terrio the Terrible claims Han was entirely a figment of Ben's imagination and Leia had nothing to do with it. So what should’ve been Leia’s greatest moment of heroism ends up being confusing, achieving way less than anyone thought, and kinda making her look bad, actually.

Second; Leia gives up her Jedi training because she had a vision that her son would die at the end of her path. Then Luke gives Rey Leia's saber and tells her she'd want her to finish her journey. None of that makes any goddamned sense.

What is a Jedi's path? Is it the trial they take to graduate from Padawan to full Jedi, or Jedi to Master Jedi? Is it a life mission, or just whatever current mission they're on? I mean, arguably Leia's whole life was dedicated to destroying the Empire, so even if she never met Palps or knew anything about how he'd personally victimized her family you could say defeating him was finishing what she started. But Leia was fighting the Empire long before she started her training, before she ever knew she had the Force, and she didn’t stop fighting after she quit training. She didn’t need to be a Jedi or a Skywalker to fight Palpatine and the Empire anymore than any other non-Force Sensitive in the Republic/Resistance. Her life would’ve been pretty much the same if she never found out about her lineage or abilities. The concept of a "Jedi path" is just words in a sequence that means nothing to the audience, so how was anybody supposed to get that Rey using her saber to defeat Palpatine would complete it so she could “ascend”?

Not to mention that the very idea that you can complete someone else's journey that way goes against any natural train of logic that anybody would have. Like, it'd be one thing if Leia died like the characters in R1, who give their lives so others can complete another leg of the journey, or to pass along something crucial to achieving victory. But she doesn’t save Rey when she dies, because she’s not in danger, and she certainly didn’t need to die to pass along her saber to Rey, even if you want to argue that her saber was crucial to Palpatine’s defeat.

Leia's death had no correlation to Rey's victory and that's not even how Terrio explains it. He frames it like using Leia's saber fulfilled her Jedi path, rather than Leia’s Jedi path being fulfilled by her making a sacrifice that allowed Rey to finish what she started by defeating Palpatine. This, coupled with the “burying symbolic infants” thing indicates that JJerrio are trying to deify lightsabers as if they’re extensions of a Jedi’s spirit, rather than tools, despite canon indicating otherwise. Anakin broke at least two sabers before he got the one that was passed on to Luke and he and Obi-Wan wielded random spares in the climax of AotC. Luke loses the legacy saber and just builds a new one, then tosses it aside when he commits to not killing in anger. Lightsabers are cool and sentimental because they’re handmade and personalized, but at the end of the day, they’re still just tools that can get lost or broken or even thrown away and it’s not that big a deal. It’s not even like in Harry Potter where you only get one wand that bonds to you and you’ll never be able to perform your best magic with any other so you’d better not break it.

Third; After Ben dies, Leia's body disappears and Maz smiles and nobody understands why. It sounds like Terrio's intent was that Leia could only "ascend to the Jedi pantheon" when her path was complete, (which goes against the canon explanation about who gets to become a ghost and how) and the conditions for completing her path were apparently 1) Palpatine had to be defeated by someone using her lightsaber and 2) her son had to die. But because the Jedi path thing made no sense and directly contradicts canon on multiple points, nobody gets it. So everyone grasps at straws trying to come up with reasonable explanations like, "She was waiting to meet her son" or "She was supposed to use the last of her life force to save Ben and subvert the prophecy before the ending was changed.”

Fourth; Ben's body disappearing ends up muddying the waters further because we don't know what the conditions are for someone to become a ghost either at the moment of their death or after a delayed period of time. Why do Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Ben's bodies disappear instantly but Leia, Anakin, Qui-Gon, and all the other Jedi killed during Order 66 don't? It's only ever briefly mentioned to be a technique that you have to learn at the end of ROTS so in most people's minds becoming a ghost, whether it's instantly or not, is kinda considered the default for Jedi and not just reserved for the elite few.

Because of this, Ben disappearing reads as significant to the audience because it means he died a hero like Anakin and went to space heaven. But you expect that of Leia, because she was always a good guy, and had Jedi training, so even if you remembered that tidbit from ROTS about it being a skill you have to learn, there’s no reason to think she wouldn’t have learned it when she trained with Luke. Nobody thinks of it as "Oh, I'm so proud of Leia! What a big moment for her! She did it! She learned the super secret technique and now she’s in the Cool Kids Club" because it doesn’t click for anybody that there should’ve ever been any doubt that she could.

Fifth; Finally, we get to the end of the movie and JJerrio decided to only feature Luke and Leia as ghosts, reasoning that Ben or Anakin or anyone else's presence would distract from Leia's moment. But as outlined in the previous points, the entire premise behind that never would've worked in the first place. The fanservice was already had just from seeing Leia wielding a lightsaber and being told she had trained with Luke and knew all the badass stuff he knew and therefore was an equal to him because god forbid anyone in SW have value if they don't have a laser sword. Leia appearing as a ghost was something we already expected even before that retcon, ever since we first learned she was Luke's sister.

Her merely appearing as a ghost doesn't get across to anyone that "NOW she's a REAL Jedi and not just a mere Force Sensitive who went through all the Jedi training and learned all the cool tricks but never got her diploma from Jedi school so it didn't count before.”

By contrast, if Luke and Leia were surrounded by other Jedi, that would've made it much clearer that the moment was about how she was a fully initiated member of the Cool Kids Club. But because it's just the two of them, the audience reads it as a family thing that excludes half the family, who were both Jedi anyway, so they should've been there regardless of whether you actually wanted it to be read as a Jedi thing or a family thing.

So in JJerrio's alleged efforts to prevent Anakin and Ben from stealing Leia's thunder, their glaring omission ended up overshadowing everything about her "big moment" when no one was even going to think it was a big deal that she was a ghost in the first place even if they hadn’t fucked up the execution so hard.

Meanwhile, if they HAD included Ben, audiences might've just felt the slightest twinge of comfort and closure seeing that at least he and his mother were reunited in death. And for as nonsensically as it was executed, people at least still understood that Leia’s death was supposed to have saved Ben somehow, so having him there would’ve been a much greater statement about her heroism than simply showing up as a ghost because someone else used your sword. It’s like if you signed up to sponsor a needy child in Africa and instead of putting up pictures of the kid with new clothes and textbooks that your money helped pay for on the fridge, you put up a printout of your bank statement with the line showing your monthly withdrawl circled. Like, it’s not the cost to yourself that makes you a hero, it’s the good your sacrifice accomplished.

But what would've made an actual memorable and satisfying end to both Leia's story and the saga as a whole would've been if she'd done as the conspiracy theorists suggested and held out on exiting the mortal plane in order to transfer her life force to her son. Then she would've done at least one actually heroic thing, instead of something that just made no sense and kinda looked like the opposite of what it was intended to be and then whatever it was supposed to have accomplished was undone an hour later anyway but that's fine because she's gonna get credit for something someone else did because they used something of hers to do it.

[lucy-shining-star]

So, I rarely do episode reactions but this is finale, so I need to do it:

Mingo, Zoom and Estrella <3

Hi Marlena. I think Marlena is my one of my favourites minor characters for if only because I think she has sibling like relationship with Mateo. So I’m glad she did get lowkey bigger role this season even though it’s still small.

I must note despite everything kids didn’t boo at ‘lying cousin Esteban’

Shuriki from Spirit Wolrd: I do not do high-fives, and did you just make me dance? And I wouldn’t let Esteban dance also. 

Puppets facial expressions are something else

I love how Armando had puppet Gabe on his head for a moment

Lmao, I think getting public to not be angry at Esteban wouldn’t be that hard if now it can be singed ‘Poor Victor and Carla Delgado’ after they have been wanted criminals for like...two years?

Puppet Esteban hiding behind puppet AshXD

Armando and Marlena are so cute

I love the parts when kids are singing

I really love ‘long may she reign’ part

Also, I was confused everytime when someone was singing/saying ‘four years’ cause I was not sure if that was ‘four years’ or ‘for years’

Zuzo, don’t scare her

‘You can’t believe everything a whispering campfire tells you’ I love Zuzo being dissmisant of prophercies.

Elena with that excited ‘I waited four years’ 

I saw that people were worried that Francisco was dying because of that and later and I’m like...it didn’t cross my mind that it could mean that.

Well, it’s not last

Naomi,Isabel,Gabe and Mateo are relatable.

Sorry, Dona, Zuzo ruined your chance in previous episode

How Elena doesn’t know she has to do these things? She was heir to throne since birth? She was so busy preparing two episodes ago? HOW litterally everyone else knows and treats like it’s obvious!? 

Elena making Gabe and Mateo hold hands <3

Royals <3

‘I can’t wait to try your fine cuisine’ I see king Toshi has same priorities as me.

I see Alonso looks slightly different than last time?

Valentina being in carriage with Alonso and his father <3 Now that I think about it, Cordoba and Paraiso are both close to Avalor, so they are probably close to each other too?

Hector in carriage with these two kings who he used to boss around until Elena came. I assume they made up and now are equal friends?

Poor Armando. Also, Valentina little too late to say thatXD

Wait, what they were about to do? What runthrough?

That looks beautiful

Lmao at Ixlan not caring

Warning isn’t enough, but does that mean they didn’t warn her? Or they did? Though, if they did they shouldn’t be surprised that she came

Lmao at them knowing she will go anyway

So...that means when Craig said that Franciso may now be ashamed (that was what he wrote?) of his vote about Esteban he was probably just tired of that question and decided to troll?

Elena’s ‘Not anymore’ is kind of scary.

I still can’t believe how naive Ash is

Chatana...Tziloco found it? Okay, he didn’t notice that he found it, but still, that was joined effort.

How did she know it’s under the ocean not on it?

I love how they look at Isa with such admiration cause she invented poisonous arrows.

Only Antonia from the rest of the guards?

Ooo...you are both adorable sidekicks.

Esteban and Elena conflict third season is really direct opposite of Cassandra and Rapunzel conflict in tangled third seasonXD I mean in how how traitor-antagonist and protagonist react to each other.

I’m lowkey surprised that Mateo is surprised that she got his name rightXD 

Esteban and Ixlan sceneXD

I think Isa also thinks that jellyfish is a baby.

Marissa!

Poor Carla.

Why Esteban teleported there?

Wow, Elena really control her emotion powers.

Unforunately, she still let emotions decide for her.

Lmao at Shades renaming themselves.

Mateo, sweetie, that was stupid.

Ixlan finally seeing challenge.

Mateo with glowing green eyes looks nice. Scary, but nice.

Isa already taking charge.

At first I thought Elena’s angery magic started kicking in here. Also her angery face here is glorious.

Okay, Vuli’s face colours changing are like Elena’s dress, but his main colour is green so...I dunno,it’s kinda weirdXD

I think that is my favourite song in whole episode. 

Those Shades really likes to invade Esteban’s personal space

I heard Ozai with angery ‘Tell us!’

I see Hetz actually have to think about what to sing.

Cahu’s voice hypnotizes me. Like when she talks also,but singing is double powerful. Also, I’m not sure if she is the most powerful? Like,on one hand, her powers is the scariest. On the other,she is the only one that needs a tool.

Oh, even Cahu saluted

I love how Cahu sang ‘We’ll meet them’

‘So you can rule your subjects like their puppets on a string’ I see Yolo is planning Esteban rule to be like this Zuzo au.

Did Esteban realize something is off when Cahu sang ‘And we’ll finish what we started long ago?’ I guess he did and then forgot the second she finished that line.

I’m sad we didn’t get to see Ash face when Bobo said ‘The one and only’. She was probably like ‘Hey,that’s my line’

...Now I’m imagining Ash trying to rule the Zanies. Just out of spite.

I wonder, did Isabel and Elena tell anyone else about that vision?

I see Naomi remembers Valentina’s got magic since I guess it’s like ‘Valentina definitely can help, and maybe someone else’

Elena finding out she has more body count than she thought.

‘Oh,drama’XD He is so happy about it

She plays pretty well for someone who can’t stand it.

‘Us probably’ it’s great line,but they are already looking away.

So the answer is Valentina.

Do they know Marissa? Also it’s nice to see Naomi and Marissa coming here together after Naomi hated Marissa that much.

Lmao at Raul and Lucia’s reactions.

Hi Orizaba

First of all: Zoopitole is Mateo’s body count

Which makes me remember I used to think Mateo is ‘looks like cinammon roll,is a cinnamon roll’ while Naomi is ‘looks like they could kill you,can actually kill you’ but it sure looks different. Naomi, you dissapointed me.

So I need to completely change how I see this meme when it comes to all four amigos. So Mateo ‘looks like a cinammon roll,could actually kill you’, Naomi is ‘looks like they could kill you, is actually cinammon roll’ Gabe is ‘looks like a cinammon roll, is a cinammon roll’ and Elena is ‘looks like could kill you,could actually kill you’

Although actually I think they are all capable of killing.

Second of all: Here they should be Flo shouting ‘I was right!’

‘Elena victims club up high!’ is great, tho.

Oh, I didn’t notice earlier that Cahu did little ‘no,don’t say that’ geture to Vulu after he said ‘let’s make it ours’. It looks kinda cute.

‘It’s that you,moustache’ ‘That’s king moustache too you’ lmao

‘They are our allies’...um,Esteban? 

It kinda looked like Vuli is about to touch Abigail’s bust

They are pretty calm for being touched with chaos touch. Like they just hit the hitting bals with clubs.

Chloe and Dona hereXD

Also, is Dona escaping and Naomi right after saying she has some ideas finale foreshadowing on her being new chancellor?

‘If I told you,you wouldn’t let me do it’ ‘What? Isabel!’ Isa, he has enough of this with your sister

‘Your forecast, looks bleak’ I like that line

Isa on her way to have body count

Isa killing powerfulf shade. Gabe and Luna being proud of her <3

Yolo getting scared and Hetz appearing in spirit world immadietely. I love this whole sequence

Hi,Cacahute

Elena looks so cute here when she realised she should go after Ash

‘If you keep hearing in the darkness of your past, you will never see a brighter future’? Though I’m not sure if hearing was the word used here

Wait, that’s still don’t explain everything. Did Esteban make deal with Shuriki knowing that she would invade anyway hoping if he help her she wouldn’t hurt his family? Did he try to convince her to not attack and then she manipulated him with saying she is going to listen to him when his family didn’t?

Vuli really likes to sing.

Ixlan is sure confident.

What exactly Valentina wanted Alonso to do? He has no magic, no sword, no lasso, no fancy cool inventions? I doubt he has much body strenght?

Oh, Vuli being sad for Hetz <3

Oh, Alonso protecting Valentina <3 

Did Esteban just...slide down the railing?

Luisa had great speech 

Esteban really did not realise he is a villain? 

Cahu summed up Esteban great.

But that also mean they saw everything...I think they know that is was really Ash who freed them.

Also, Elena is too focused on revenge, is too emotional, and too focused on past, and Esteban trusts who pretends to listen and wants power to be heard...

They are both Anakin 

That’s why everything ended well in episode with Mark Hamill XD

When you walk in to some evil lady being dangerously close to your first cousin who happens to be often swayed by evil ladies (oh,and also you grandparents are turned to a stone right next to it). No, but seriously she really was close. Isa is going to have trauma

Some time later:

‘Isa: Please tell me you are a gay or ace.

Esteban: What? Why...I’m...

Isa: Please!

Esteban: Okay...So...I’m ace?

Isa:That’s a relief, thanks.-she goes

Esteban:What was that about?

Elena,seeing scene from some distance:No,seriously, what was that about?

Naomi,Mateo and Gabe who know what this is about exchanging”we are not telling her” looks in the bakground’

Rafa didn’t notice something is wrong?

Hi,Alacazar

Flo making sure she annoys Grand Macaw enough she would let her out too

...Actually Elena could just tell him she brought Flo to life with her emotions and he would kick her out to not risk having more creatures like this in his nest.

Thank you Bobo for vocalising your irritation with that. You saved Elena

Didn’t Ash find it suspicious that Elena stopped Bobo or she didn’t notice?

Hi Sanza 

Hi Shuriki, I see you saw that kid eating popcorn during the song in the beggining and decided you want it too.

Also, she is probably happy right now that Elena loses only to find out Elena goes back to real worldXD Unless she knew it, Troyo didn’t seem surprised.

Also, I wonder how music and dance hater feels about being stuck at eternal party. I suppose she found that olaball game moment of relieve

Zoopitole, that was harsh. I can’t believe they made me feel sorry for Ash. I hope she didn’t hear ir.

Mateo’s sad voice when he told shades had taken over Avalor :(

Isa’s sad voice when she said ‘I’m sorry’ :(

‘Pride had put my heart to sleep, but now I’m wide awake. I have hurt everyone, the damage is done’ I love this part. Also love Esteban’s eyes when he opens the door.

The change of scene with fountains is beautiful.

I’m little dissapointed that Isa didn’t talk during that part so I would have all main characters kinda-shared song. Even though only two sing, but still that would be little something.

Elena hugging Skylar <3

Esteban on that throne :(

Carmen’s face after little touch of chaosXD

‘You don’t wanna mess wtih Vuli’ ‘Okay’ I love Migs here

Vuli, you really are attacking your friend for accident?

I love that Gabe didn’t use tamborita in the finale but got his main skill show off just with his tool powered up by a Mateo. 

Also love that got to use his signature move that got stolen by two peopleXD in real fight.

Also, Antonia used tamoborita...I’m kind of starting to think there is some general rule that women more often have natural talent for magic.

‘Or send us’ and not reacting to Elena’s ‘wait, you didn’t mention that’. Same feral energy as Isa’s earlier.

Oh, Yolo (Vulu too? I’m not sure) is happy to see Hetz again <3

Mateo and Gabe turned into a stone right after their sucess :(

Also, I think they are the only one besides Francisco and Luisa to be two people turned into same stone? That’s kind of shippy

Elena’s face after that

Skylar :(

That’s sadistic on one side, but on the other,good that she decided to torture her before killing

Good choice, Esteban. Extremely predictable way to reedem him but that’s a good thing.

Congratulations Esteban on earning your redemption.

Hmm, now all of show main male characters are turned into stone. 

<3

The forgivness dress is white! Yeah, I thought so for longer time!

Though the reason is most probably either cause white is angelic colour or mixed coulour of rainbows I thought this because of that dress (and...that might be foreshadowing of white forgivness dress?):

And to lesser extent that:

Because of that first dress being in episode where Esteban after making mistake decided that he (well,and Naomi and Mateo and Luna.Though not really Luna) owes her more than apology, and also because that’s where we got little more of his backstory.

And the second because Esteban was reffering to this episode in his clue, even though she didn’t have that dress in scene he was reffering to. Also, in that episode Elena was especially worried about being noble leader, and she was afraid of losing everything again even though there was no real threat at those point.

Also, that’s why I kinda tried to find connections to certain episodes in Elena’s other colours. 

'You can’t change what you did before, but you can change what you do next’ right?

Wow, how she control that. And it’s beautiful <3

Oh, and she remembers that others need to be saved to without having to see them

Valentina hug-spinning Alonso <3

Gabe and Mateo nicely landed.

Also, I was lowkey surprised here that Naomi first checked on Mateo, despite being suggested to being in love (in relationship?) with Gabe, but since every other from amigos ships was teased, and that was only Naomi and Mateo one-on-one interaction in the whole special, I’m happy with that.

...How Esteban managed to aim correctly when Elena has to work on that pretty long?

Elena:Well, I let you use my tool, so now I’m going to use yours

Did flames told Quita Moz after the test what it was or he just didn’t tell Elena earlier? Or he figures out himself what test was?

Wow, Luisa is surprised that Elena forgave Esteban

Elena and Esteban hug <3

Elena and Isabel hug <3

Amigos hug <3

We have a queen to crown <3

That pose during changing of the scene is cute:

Mingo, Zoom and Estrella <3

Hector bowing <3

Tomiko doing ‘<3′ <3

I love how all teen(wait,no...young adults?) royals are in the same shot <3

Elena looking at Esteban and he bowing <3 Dona smiling <3

Hi Sofia! And Amber! And James! And Miranda! And Roland!

Although James, Sofia and Amber look kinda weird

Technically, Elena isn’t one yet too, since she isn’t crowned yet

 Also now I kinda wish we had seen Vor in spirit world cause I still don’t know if Sofia has body count or that was just exorcism

‘Elena,queen of Avalor’<3

‘All hail the queen’<3

Lmao at Gabe and Mateo

I saw people saying it looked like marriage proposal before I saw episode, and I thought it was just shipping googles, but damn, it really did look like that.

Daniel and Scarlett already proud in the background

‘With the best insticts in the kingdom’ Naomi, you are awesome

‘Gabe,you’ve been by my side since my first day of rule’ <3 Love Gabe’s eyes here. 

‘Mateo,we’ve been through so much together, you and I’ <3

Mateo is so cute here

Okay, so that was like super cute and ship teasing all ships between Elena and her amigos,but...Does Gabe and Mateo’s new titles change anything for them? Or was Elena just like ‘Okay, I’m going to be queen, I’m going to make Naomi chancellor and Isabel royal inventor...boys would have feel left out. My boys also need fancy titles’

Isa being royal inventor and that hug <3

Elena teasing Mateo and Gabe XD

Kinda thought she might choose Esteban. Still,cute <3

Four servants giving guitars, to four people, and one of them isn’t even from royal family. Wow

Elena touching all amigos hands <3

For some reason I kinda don’t like line ‘And now you’ve crowned me’ but like. Literally only that line. And I don’t know why.

Elena dancing with Francisco <3

Elena hugging Isa and Luisa <3

Elena twirling with Naomi <3

Gabe and Mateo twirling Elena in the while lifting her <3

Gabe putting his hand on Mateo’s shoulder <3 

Elena hugging Skylar <3 Luna being only one eating, relatable. And Skylar coming for more hugs <3

She seemed surprised that they started signing here. But only for a moment

That hand move with ‘I know we gonna be alright’ looks so cool

Mateo and Gabe lifting Elena while she is sitting<3 

Esteban breakdancingXD Though, for being such major character there was very little of him in that last song.

I love the way Naomi pulled Gabe into dance

Isa and James look cute

Lmao, Craig said that he THINKS Ixlan and Antonia share some scene when they actually had a dance with in which Antonia holds Ixlan down with that face? 

Also, Ixlan is impressed

‘Are you ready for day two?’ ‘I am!’ <3

Mateo and Carla buming heads and holding hands <3 I was hoping for some positive interaction that could be seen as ship tease with tight shipping googles but turns out googles didn’t need to be that tight. Also I think I would be happy if that actually means they are confirmed. Like, eleteo is still my otp, but I really love this one too. Kinda like I’m happy with ichihime being canon depsite ishihime being my fave Orihime ship also though it probably helps that ichiruki is my notp and renruki is my otp for whole manga but also why i’m taliing about bleach while didn’t read most of it. Altough that could be just, okay now let’s dance together like normal people

Alonso and Valentina being their extra selves together <3 I waited for any interaction for so long, and now I’ve been fed so much <3

Oh, Hector and Abigail walking-jumping hand in hand. Cute

Marissa twirls beautifully. I lowkey laugh at Marzel’s walk though.

Dona seemingly kissing Julio behind that fan really took me by surprise. I didn’t expect that level of ship tease.

Elena and Sofia being last dance <3

I didn’t notice earlier Naomi threw scepter to Elena

That beautiful spoiled shot <3

Elena’s crown falling down, and she having to adjust it, and Naomi’s face and Isa laugh <3 

Wow,background to credits is stunnigly beautiful.

So anyway, I really love the finale! It’s so emotional and beautifully concludes everything. 

[darnloveablecharacters]

Universal, Part Three: The Hotel

Series Summary: Simply a multi-part, self indulgent reader insert with John Wick universe kinda plumbed in. Fair warning…. SLOWWW BURN. Ignore canon and timing and crap, that’s not important….  Gifs and recognizable characters are not mine, but the story and all of the mistakes are!

The Universal - Masterlist

Chapter Notes: Interwebs are back and we are in business! Eh, it gave me time to edit this chapter some more so here we go! This is actually the chapter that started it all! I had so much fun writing this that it prompted this whole stinking mess. Speaking of mess, I actually had to cut A LOT out of it because while it was fun, the extra parts didn’t really work with the chapter. Stupid flow anyway... there is one piece that didn’t make the final cut that I think I’ll post as a bonus, just for the hell of it lol.

Warnings for this chapter: Spoiler alert for the Jedi Apprentice series (it’s small but there), drinking (drink choices are probably not Canon but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to give Obi Wan a bright blue drink.... then the gif wouldn’t have worked.)

R2 tracked the Sith to a system with no name. The only occupied planet was home to a massive hotel. The Universal.

Obi Wan and Anakin entered the hotel and to their immediate shock, the Sith was sitting in front of the reception desk patting a whimpering hound gently. Obi Wan caught the end of her statement as they slowly approached. “He’ll be back soon.” She was saying. He didn’t catch any more of her conversation with the hound as the concierge stood in their path.

“Good evening Jedi, my name is Charon. How may I assist you this evening?” The concierge said politely.

“We are here on business, we are looking for Lady Y/L/N.” Obi Wan said, watching as the Sith stood and winked at him before leaving the lobby.

“No ‘business’ may be conducted on Universal grounds, Master Jedi. I must ask that if that is your only purpose, then please leave.” Charon stated calmly, bringing Obi Wan’s full attention back to him.

Anakin bristled. “Who exactly do you think you are? You can’t…”

“What my padawan is trying to say Charon” Obi Wan began, shooting Anakin a warning glance. “Is that we are here on behalf of the Galactic Senate. We have been tasked with bringing Lady Y/L/N in for questioning for crimes against the Republic.”

“With all due respect, Master Jedi, we do not recognize Republic laws in our establishment.” Charon replied, eyeing the Jedi suspiciously as they glanced at each other. “I can see that you do not understand, perhaps you wish to meet with the Owner?”

“We will speak with the Owner.” Obi Wan agreed reluctantly.

Charon bowed respectfully. “Follow me, Gentlemen.” He said as he turned on his heel and headed in the same direction that Y/N had walked.

Obi Wan placed a reassuring hand on Anakin’s shoulder before following the concierge. He led them into a dimly lit bar toward a man who was contentedly swirling a glass of bourbon while watching the other patrons. He glanced up as they approached and smiled. “Why Charon, you’ve brought me Jedi! This is surely an unexpected surprise!” He exclaimed cheerfully as he stood to greet them. “Please sit and tell me your story!”

Winston gestured to the chairs opposite him and they took their seats. Charon bowed and left them as Obi Wan began. “We are here to take Lady Y/L/N in for questioning.” He stated simply.

Winston’s smile never faltered, but Obi Wan could feel his tension. “That is unfortunate as I am sure my concierge informed you that no ‘business’ shall be conducted on Universal grounds?”

“He did, but surely you would be willing to help bring justice to our Galaxy?” Obi Wan said, discreetly waving his hand under the table.

Winston narrowed his eyes. “Surely, you must be joking.” He said, catching them both off-guard. “Mind tricks will not work here Jedi. If this is all that you are here for, I will have to ask you to…”

Suddenly, two gold coins landed on the table in front of them. Obi Wan and Anakin tensed as the Sith stood over them; however, she ignored them and directly addressed the Owner. “I’ll vouch for them. Deadly killers, these ones… But, they will follow the rules as any Jedi does.”

Winston scooped up the coins and nodded, “So be it, but their actions will reflect solely on you. Should they bring any disruption to my establishment, it will fall on you Lady Y/L/N.”

“Understood.” Y/N conceded with a polite bow.

Winston nodded in return and turned back to the two Jedi. “I will leave you to it.” He glanced at the coins for a moment then back at the Jedi. “This will pay for room and board for two days. Please enjoy the full extent of our hospitalities while you are here, but be warned: The Universal does not condone any violence within our territory. This one rule is sacred and you do not want to witness the consequences of breaking it. Jedi or no, this is a place of peace and we recognize no formal laws. We are far more efficient than that.” With that, he stood and gave a curt bow before glancing up at a dark figure entering the room with the hound at his heels. “Covered in blood, why is he always tracking blood into the hotel.” He muttered grimly as he headed toward the new arrival.

Anakin was enraged, he knew a threat when he heard it and wanted to retaliate. Obi Wan tensed as he felt the anger within his padawan and reached out with the Force to calm his spirit. When he sensed his padawan was under control, he turned to the Sith. “I thank you, but I must admit I do not understand. Every time we have encountered each other, you have tried to kill us. I’m sure you understand my unease.”

Y/N smirked as if expecting this response. “You’re not wrong Master Kenobi, but I’m on holiday. I don’t particularly feel like fighting right now.

Obi Wan had expected many things when they entered the hotel, but this turn of events was not any of them. He reached out to the Force again and was surprised to feel that the dark ripples that had surrounded her before had been replaced with an overwhelming sense of contentment.

She raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged it off as she turned to Anakin. “By the way Padawan, I found the homing device shortly after arriving here.” She tossed the small sensor to him and grinned. “That was a great trick, perhaps if you decide to leave the Jedi you can show me how you pulled it off?”

This time Anakin was caught slightly off guard as his joy for the praise battled with the annoyance at the insult that he may ever leave the Jedi. Much to Obi Wan’s shock, Anakin took a calming breath before he responded. “Thank you for the compliment, Lady Y/L/N. But as I won’t be leaving the Jedi I guess you’ll have just have to teach yourself to fly better.”

Y/N laughed at that, and both Jedi finally relaxed. “Enjoy the amenities Gentlemen, I’m sure you will be well… entertained.” Y/N said with a bow and turning in the direction of the bar.

“I suppose we need a new plan.” Obi Wan said rubbing his beard thoughtfully. He glanced at Anakin after a few moments of silence and followed his distracted padawan’s gaze to a stage where a few exotic dancers were beginning their routine.

He stood with an exasperated sigh and left Anakin to his amusement. Scanning the room, he saw an overwhelming collection of high-power individuals. Senators, bounty hunters, gangsters and all types of individuals he would normally have a run-in with. I suppose this place is a haven for criminals, and there appears to be nothing I can do about it. He thought with a touch of annoyance. He continued his scan of the room until his gaze fell on Y/N nursing a drink at the bar. He rolled his eyes in frustration and headed in her direction.

“You’re troubled, Master Jedi.” She said, as he silently took the stool next to her.

“That is not your concern, Lady Y/L/N.” he said in an undertone. “Whiskey, please.” The droid tending the bar began to poor immediately after his request. He took the drink gratefully, feeling the warmth flow through him immediately after took a sip.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” She said, turning to watch Anakin be entertained by the dancers with an amused expression. “Everyone needs a break, even the heroes of the Galaxy.”

“We do not need a break, we will always fight for Justice.” He said, regarding her coolly. He took another sip before adding, “We do not take kindly to cold-blooded murder.”

She focused on him then, piercing him with her gaze. “Don’t you? Tell me something, Master Jedi. How many people have you killed in your life?”

He opened his mouth to protest but stopped when the image of Bruck Chun’s hands slipping through his fingers was pulled from his memory. The pain was in his eyes was there for only a moment, but Y/N didn’t miss it. She simply nodded and continued. “Now, tell me how many people that you know for a fact that I’ve killed.”

Again, Obi Wan tried to speak but couldn’t. Reviewing their encounters, no sentient being had died in either. Only droids had been destroyed. The ships protecting the transport had been shot out of the air, but every single one of the pilots had miraculously survived only with minor injuries. He dropped his gaze back to his drink as he considered her point. “You do seem to be extraordinarily careful, for a Sith.” He finally conceded.

Y/N choked on her drink. “You really think I’m a Sith Lord?” She said after recovering from her laughter. Obi Wan just shrugged uncomfortably and she laughed again. Her eyes twinkled as she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Oh, my dear sweet Jedi. I am no Sith. I have no hate for the Jedi, we simply have opposing views and get in each other’s way.” She removed her hand, smile never fading as she finished the remainder of her drink while he mulled over what she told him. “You have a few days’ respite here.  Enjoy it while you can, Jedi.” With that, she placed her glass delicately on the bar and stood. She leaned close to him and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek before lowering her voice so that only he would be able to hear. “Always a pleasure, Master Kenobi. I’m sure we’ll be fighting each other again shortly.”

The abrupt loss off contact left Obi Wan slightly staggered, though he would never admit it. He watched her leave the room feeling a mixture of shame and a frustration that seemed to be reserved for his encounters with her. “I’m sure we will, Lady Y/L/N.” He said quietly to the empty space. He downed the last of his drink and worked his way to the stage to “rescue” his padawan from the dancers.

As he all but dragged Anakin through the lobby, he was certain that they were being watched but continued toward the elevators without turning. After ensuring that Anakin would stay in his room, Obi Wan retired to his own and collapsed on the sleep couch. He closed his eyes and attempted to meditate but was unable to clear his thoughts. He thought of how she spoke, of her lingering touch and the ghost of the kiss that he could still feel against his cheek. As he drifted to a fitful sleep, the memory that had been plaguing him since their first meeting consumed him.

“That was… unexpected.” She admitted breathlessly.

“Yes, well I do like to keep a duel interesting.” Obi Wan said, still straining against her. Her strength didn’t waver.

It was too dark to see her, but he could feel her leaning into him. Her breath caressed him as she spoke. “You’ve accomplished that. I do wonder what you plan to do next.”

They were at a stalemate. Neither of them would be able to pull their lightsabers without her releasing her hold on him. Obi Wan relaxed and stared back into the darkness, feeling her energy. “I suppose we are at an impasse.” He said, choosing to bide his time until Anakin arrived.

“I suppose so.” She said sensually, leaning in close enough that her lips brushed his own.

A shocking wave of desire flooded through him. The feeling was strong and he wasn’t entirely certain that it was only his. He instinctively tilted his head to meet her in the kiss.

Before he could reach her, the room suddenly flooded with light as the bay doors exploded open and Y/N was forced off him. Obi Wan scrambled to his feet pulled his lightsaber to him as Anakin ran in but froze when he turned and finally saw her. In the heat of that moment, he couldn’t help but notice that she was undeniably beautiful.

She had moved to her feet as well and her lightsaber was in her hands, the red glow accenting her features in the best ways. She glanced toward his padawan running toward them then back at him and deactivated her lightsaber. “Until next time, Master Kenobi.” She said with a smile. She turned and disappeared into another hallway with an inexplicable speed.

“Until next time.” Obi Wan choked out in awe.

Obi Wan awoke with a start to the sound of his comlink buzzing. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to shake off lustful thoughts in his mind. When he was finally able to center himself, he checked the comlink and saw that it was the Council.

“Obi Wan, we have a new mission for you.” Came the stern voice of Mace Windu.

“That is good news.” Obi Wan said with relief. He would need a distraction.

“We need you to travel to Ansion to settle a border dispute.”

Authors Notes: Kudos if you caught the cameo! I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it lol. Also, Star Wars universe hounds are ah.... yeah, just not what I pictured when I wrote it. I actually googled it when I wrote him in and immediately said “nope, I’ll just write and think of John’s dog. lol

ALSO, for those of you who are not full blown Star Wars nerds (it’s okay, I love you anyway) the border dispute on Ansion is the mission they were sent to just prior to the events of Attack of the Clones.

[arabian-bloodstream]

Why I love ‘Attack of the Clones’

I think that Attack of the Clones is the underrated gem of the Star Wars universe. Yeah, I said it. And here is my review of the film and why I think so!

The beginning of the film sets up the rest of the film so well. It's beautifully done. We begin with Amidala's attack, which is a neat reference to how Padme had her bodyguard/double all throughout The Phantom Menace. From that we get the concise, digestible explanation of the Separatist vs. the Republic, and why the Jedi Knights are needed and why Amidala specifically needs Jedi protection as well. It wasn't ham-handed, it wasn't confusing, it flowed so naturally. By the way, it also proved how wrong the Machete Cut is (which cuts out TPM). You *need* TPM for the moments between Amidala/Palpatine to work, and boy, do they work.

Speaking of Amidala needing Jedi protection, what that scene also gave us what further insight into Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship. Further insight because our first introduction to the two with Anakin as a young man was fantastic. Say what you will about Hayden Christensen's acting–and, no, I don't blame him, I've seen him in other things, he's been good–but he and Ewan MacGregor are fantastic together. Great chemistry, wonderful ying and yang. Their quick ride in the elevator showed a bit of sibling, but also a touch of a father/son vibe, with a dose of mentorship. Overall their friendship shone through. Ah, until that scene with Amidala when the mentorship came into strong play and whoo, boy! that little "discussion" about what a Jedi mandate is and is not right in front of Amidala and her entourage was the very definition of AWKWARD! It set up the differences right off the bat between Anakin and Obi-Wan and really Anakin and the Jedi.

OK, fine, the scene could have been better (as so many in this film--but the same could be said for Revenge of the Sith) had Hayden Christensen done a better acting job. However, as I wrote above, it's really not that Christensen is a bad actor, it's that he's an actor who truly needs direction. For example, Samuel L. Jackson is not a bad actor. At all. And, yet, he's kinda dreadful in these films. Frankly, I never thought I'd think that SLJ is a bad actor. However, He is in this Prequel Trilogy and that's because George Lucas is not a strong director for actors. So Christensen's acting woes can be laid at the feet of Lucas. MacGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid are simply the types of actors who can deliver a performance without the aid of director to guide them. Some can do so better than others. Christensen isn't one of them. So essentially I just accepted that I could harp on the less than stellar acting coming from the co-lead thanks (or no thanks) to the direction or enjoy the overall storytelling, the brilliant weaving together of the threads and how well the characters, the plots and the action pieces worked.

Yes, the actions pieces... like the chase sequence with Obi-Wan, Anakin and Amidala's would-be assassin. That was awesome. Thrilling, sharply-directed and I just loved the humor. The banter was just top-notch between Anakin and Obi-Wan. When Obi-Wan asked what took Anakin so long, had he stopped with just saying he was looking for a speeder he liked it would have been eh, a one-liner without any punch but he kept it up while Obi-Wan was giving directions, with bits about what he liked in a speeder which gave just enough resonance that it had the feel of a long-running joke. This gave it a touch of realism, familiarity to their relationship. It was great, and, again, Christensen and MacGregor are just so good together. Lucas wrote these two so, so well.

And he knew how to twist the knife! Obi-Wan to Anakin: "Why do I think you're going to be the death of me?" {SOBS}

OK, so I wrote above about how if one can put aside Christensen's acting issues it is very possible to see the good of this film. A shining example of this is the juxtaposition of Kamino and the Lake Country on Naboo. Firstly, let's just talk about the awesome of Kamino itself. I simply cannot get over how GORGEOUS everything about Kamino is. The aliens, the design of the infrastructure, the costuming, it's just all top-notch gorgeous. I love every single, solitary moment of the Kamino stuff. The creation and history of the clones, Boba Fett's backstory, him being a clone of Jango–the one who wasn't changed or accelerated, how it so naturally fit into the introduction of the Clone Wars. So brilliant. And also how Jango and the clones were tied into that exhilarating open sequence/attack on Amidala. Aah, just so good.

Now, let's tie that brilliance in with Lake Country... because it *does* tie into Kamino and that is a big reason why I just can't hate on the love story as presented in Attack of the Clones. Because of *how* it's presented. By giving us Anakin and Padme falling in love in the Lake Country at the same time we (through Obi-Wan) learned about Kamino and the clones we saw love and war side by side. It made perfect sense juxtaposing the Lake Country and Kamino. You have the two young lovers falling on the one side, and the Clone army, set up for war, on the other. We know that Anakin falling in love with Padme is going to eventually lead him to take the Dark Path, and the Clone Army is going to turn on the Jedi somehow. Having the introduction of the clones and the introduction of the love story juxtaposed is brilliant because here you have the two key forces that BRING THE JEDI DOWN: Order 66 and Anakin Skywalker falling in love. It's so perfect.

Yes, yes, again, the love story section probably features Christensen's worst acting, but again, I blame Lucas. As for the actual scenes themselves (outside of his acting), well, I like them. I'm fine with the over-the-top dialogue. I don't think there was anything wrong with it. Was it extra? Yes. Is he a Skywalker? Yes. Are Skywalkers extra? Is the sky blue? It's who he is, he's gonna go overboard with his exclamations. It's completely in character for the Skywalkers and for Anakin Skywalker. Totally. Also, in addition to his over-the-top exclamations of love, these scenes also showed us that before he went fully Dark Side, yes, Anakin already did believe in the idea of someone like the Emperor. That idea was something he was for.

Oh, and biggie here, I absolutely think that the "I don't like sand" was a fantastic line. It was about Tatooine and all that it represented, and like he said the opposite of what Padme was. It just meant so much and was (a) a callback to his childhood as a slave, being owned by someone, and the freedom that his mother never got, and (b) foreshadowing for what was to come with Shmi's death because "sand" was representative of Tatooine. *sigh* Yeah, Shmi. Man, oh, man. Shmi's death scene just guts me every time. Seriously, it makes me cry. Now, this... this is easily Christensen's best acting in the entire trilogy. The love and connection is just immediately there between them and when she's gone his devastation is so real and that switch from pain to anger is just ON! Ugh, and when he starts killing and then it swipes to Yoda and we hear Qui-Gon crying out "Anakin! Anakin!" it just breaks my heart. This is one of the best scenes in the entire Saga.

And then were back to the action. The "machines making machines" set piece and the arena sequence are both awesome and fun, with Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan showing off their skills, wit, bravery, bravado and just overall awesome. And in between the two, oh, I loved, loved the scene between Anakin and Padme before they were brought out into the arena where she confessed her love ("I truly, deeply love you"). It was a beautiful scene, my favorite Anakin/Padme scene. I don't think that Christensen and Portman had the best chemistry or that Anakin/Padme love story was the best written, but this scene was one that I think showed the best promise of what could have been had a better director (sorry, George) and a better love story writer had taken on that aspect. Anyway, back to the action, past the arena battle where the trio were losing despite a valiant effort before the Jedi showed up was awesome, but then they were losing too... until Yoda showing up with the clones and took over and that was awesome!

OK, we're reaching the end now and still we're continuing to get those signs of what's to come. Anakin is truly caught between love over duty, wanting to save Padme over going after Dooku and Obi-Wan is witness and has to really push to keep him on the right path. But wait there's more goodness ahead! Oh, yeah, the triple header of a lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan and Dooku! But wait! There's even more! And better! I just... man... I will never not love the Yoda/Dooku lightsaber fight because, dude, Yoda in a lightsaber fight is AWESOME!

Finally, we reach the end and for those who have seen the Original Trilogy we know where this all leads and so it's perfect. This wedding of Anakin and Padme with no dialogue, just the two at the Lake Country on Naboo where they fell in love. It's perfectly done because it should be a happy occasion, but it's a somber affair. Even during their wedding kiss, neither is really smiling. The final long shot of the two, with R2 and C3P0 as their only guests on the balcony where they shared their first kiss against that gorgeous backdrop is so lovely... ah, but we know, we know there is no happy ending here. As the overall feel of the scene tells us despite the visual beauty of it.

So, yeah, this is why I love this movie. This is all the good, the great I see in it.Attack of the Clones: Underrated gem of the Star Wars universe.

[tatooines-ghosts]

*show up 3 days late with the little plotlet I've been chewing over*

(A side note before I begin, how bad does your writer's block have to be when you start thinking up AUs of your own AU?) Also, I'm not taking this seriously at all. It was just a fun thought exercise.

SPOILER WARNING!

I talk about subjects that if you are not caught up on the main story, may be a spoiler to you. Turn back now if you don't want spoilers.

Sorry for the super long post. I'm on mobile and can't do a read more cut.

I'm calling this the "No Jedi Allowed" AU of Shades.

We start off a couple months later than where Shades started. Anakin, of course, won the Boonta Eve race, everyone was happy, no Jedi got called over to investigate weird Force shenanigans on Tatooine.

Anakin's favorite bounty hunter just finished a job for Jabba and she got picked to be his "completion bonus" for the night. She's actually, for once, happy to serve a client, because Jango Fett is a pretty decent human being.

I've always hc'ed Jango as aro/ace (the man cloned his own son. Cmon, we all know what he looks like. He could fuck if he wanted to and have a child the natural way. But he didnt. Coincidence? Not in my projections on fictional characters!)

Anyways, Jango can't exactly refuse a gift from Jabba, but he has exactly 0 interest in sexing up any slave of any gender or species, so people actually like spending time "servicing him". Because 90% of the time Jango's just like "wait an hour and leave. I'm doing to sleep. Don't touch my stuff." Anakin in particular really likes Jango. He teaches her useful stuff, and she is actually interested in hearing about Boba. (Everyone knows how rare it is to find another adult genuinely interested in other people's children.) And so they become sorta-kinda friends over the years.

Anyways. Cut to a couple months past the Boonta Eve. Anakin is still pregnant, and everyone knows. Jabba is "making up his mind" about what to do about that, and Anakin is in full blown panic mode. Her options are a. Jabba will force her to terminate or b. Her child will be born a slave. Enter her guardian angel in beskar armor.

So Anakin breaks out the "help me Jango Fett, you're my our only hope" routine. He's not budging. No way Jango is gonna put himself on every crime lord's shit list for stealing a couple slaves.

Then Anakin informs him that she's pregnant. And Jango says "fuck" because now he's going to put himself on the shit list of every crime lord in the galaxy. Good thing he has a mostly forgotten planet to hide out on.

So he manages to break Anakin and Shila out if Jabba's palace and they rocket back to Kamino to lay low for a while. (Side note. Anakin and Shila both fucking HATE Kamino, because it is the exact opposite if Tatooine in all the worst ways. Too much wet. No dry land. Cold and constantly raining.) So Jango brings Anakin and Shila home and introduces them to Boba. And Boba is a precious child and goes "I have sisters now? Thanks Dad! Best souvenirs ever!" And the Kaminoans are fascinated by Anakin too, because she's naturally carrying a human-pantoran hybrid child, and the genetics of that are scientifically fascinating. They ask very nicely, and Anakin agrees to let them science with her.

And naturally, since Jango lives within spitting distance of the cloning complex, Anakin probably stumbles across the clones and I'm 100% certain all 4 million of them reach an agreement that the Strange woman, her sweet baby sister, and her actual baby are the most precious people in the galaxy and should be protected at all costs. Thanks. This is executive order one through infinity now.

So Anakin basically hangs out on Kamino, safe and sound, and has her baby, and things are great for a while. Jango somehow got out of Tatooone without becoming suspect number 1 for who stole Anakin, so he's been milking that as long as it lasts and purposfully misleading the hunt for her. He also takes on other jobs, because now there are three new mouths to feed in his house. He needs the moneys.

(Also also. You will pry Mandalorian Jango Fett from my cold dead hands. As soon at they were free he totally adopted Anakin and Shila into his family, and they're a clan now.)

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, things are going approximately according to canon, and Obi-Wan through a series of events finds himself on Kamino, looking for a certain bounty hunter. And he's introduced to Jango by the Kaminoans after checking out the army, and he was expecting the boy that he had been told about, but not the young woman, or the toddler, or the baby. And there's something really strange about that woman and her baby, other than the baby's half-human genetics, but he doesn't exactly get the chance to pry into things too deeply.

So Obi-Qan pretends to leave, and the Fett clan high tails it off Kamino. Anakin's not about to let this Jedi creep split up her family, so she joins the fray once the kids are safe on the ship. And Obi-Wan is impressed and also scared for his lofe because that woman is Too good of a shot with a blaster.

They get away to safety.

Idfk what happens next. I'm in half a mind to think Jango would tuck Anakin amd the small children away somewhere safe with trusted friends while he an Boba go off to Geonosis. But I'm also of the mind that they all gonto Geonosis because there's no time.

Maybe Jango survives the battle because the Jedi get a bit distracted by that super strong Force user they don't know.

Maybe Jango doesn't survive and Anakin helps Boba with his revenge plan and becomes a general pain in the ass to the Jedi during the war. I imagine they would team up with some other bounty hunters, like Aurra Sing. And since all the clones know and love Anakin, they kind of "forget" of they ever see her someplace she shouldn't be.

Does Anakin get trained in the Force by Dooku? Do she and Obi-Wan develop a sexually-tense repartee over the course of their meetings in the war? While under cover and hiding from Hutt spies, does Anakin meet and fall in love with a certain Senator?

The world will never know, because I don't fucking know. And I'm not turning this into a full story.

That's the end of that plotlet.

It hasn't done much to help my writer's block on the main story, but hoo boy was it fun to play with.