#but Anakin as a slave would have been very aware of his status and the social ranking that confers

[elizabethwydevilles]

I think that 'you're like a father too me' vs 'you were my brother' is crucial in understanding the Anakin and Obi-Wan dynamic and their particular brand of dysfunctional communication.

[wantonlywindswept]

Mand’alor Grogu ficbit 1

how about that show The Mandalorian, eh? shame it ended after only two seasons

(i kid i kid. .....mostly.)

anyway DinLuke reincarnation AU where Din became Mand’alor (started, ironically, before 3.6). It’s 500 years later, and now Grogu is the Mand’alor.

btw if anyone has an idea for a title for luke that doesn’t include his name (such as Grandmaster Skywalker) I wouldn’t mind some ideas tossed my way. i want to do titles for him and Din (so Mand’alor the Badass for Din or smth) that make them seem larger than life

using ‘buir’ (mother/father/parent) for din to differentiate from ‘father’ for luke bc...i am lazy, mostly.

this is also very much a grogu that skews more mandalorian than jedi

---

They called him Mand'alor the Eternal.

Grogu thought the title was more than a little silly, because he was all too aware that no being could be immortal, but he supposed that having been alive for over five hundred years could seem like a very long time for many species. 

He also was, admittedly, a permanent fixture of Sundari in the minds of many. He'd been there ever since the city had been restored--including being immortalized in a statue commemorating the occasion, which remained deeply embarrassing but the traitors on his Council wouldn't let him remove it--and was present for all of the milestones that followed.

From being cradled in his buir's arms during the first broadcast speech of a reunited Mandalore to the coming of age celebration just last week, Grogu Djarin was inseparable from Mandalore itself.

"Grandmaster Mand'alor!"

At least his other heritage was never ignored, either.

Though he wouldn't particularly mind if that particular epithet was forgotten. Despite his close involvement with the new Jedi Order and numerous attempts to wheedle him into the position, he never actually had been the Grandmaster.

Grand by definition of old, maybe.

"Nadire," Grogu sighed, watching the young human Padawan bounce into his office, "How many times have I said not to call me that?"

"At least fifty-two," the girl replied dutifully. She was still in the loose brown robes used during sparring, her training saber smacking against her thigh as she stumbled to a halt in front of his desk. A little bit of the Force speeding her steps, perhaps; pre-teen was usually when they started enhancement exercises.

"So why do you persist in using it?"

Nadire beamed proudly.

"Because Master Anakin said it would be funny as f--"

"Grandfather's been skulking around again?" Grogu interrupted, straightening warily. The Temple didn't usually have Force ghosts hanging around anymore; five hundred mostly-peaceful years of a combined Jedi and Mandalorian society didn't often elicit input from the long-gone masters.

(Or ever, from one master in particular.)

"Yep! He said he wouldn't miss this for the world!"

Well. That was definitely not extremely concerning or anything.

"Did he happen to say what 'this' was?" Grogu asked, not particularly wanting an answer. 

This was good, because he didn't get one.

Nadire shook her head.

"He just said someone should come get you."

"Mand'alor!"

Grogu looked up as one of his Protectors marched in through the open door, blue armor polished to a shine. He couldn't help but smile upon recognizing both the Clan insignia and the person wearing it.

"Rikke," he said warmly. 

Tarikke Vizsla saluted sharply, inclining his horned helmet.

"Uncle," he greeted, because no descendant of Grogu's own irascible uncle would ever need to stand on ceremony with him. "One of our patrols saw an escape pod eject from a passing commercial vessel; it was followed toward Mandalore by a gunship that has ties to the slave trade on Nal Hutta. They intercepted and neutralized the crew, and the pod crashed just south of Keldabe. Both occupants have been successfully retrieved without injury from the impact."

"From the impact?" Grogu repeated sharply.

"They had prior injuries," Tarikke affirmed grimly. "And they're requesting safe haven, only..."

Tarikke's hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"They're just kids," he ground out. "A pair of human boys. Mirn said the oldest can't be more than ten years standard."

Grogu stood up from his desk.

Nadire grimaced and took one large step backward. Tarikke stiffened automatically, because Vizslas often had a little bit of the Force in them, and Grogu was positive that whatever he was emanating in the Force right now was not the calm of a Jedi.

Neither a Mandlorian or a Jedi would tolerate violence against children, and Grogu was very famously both.

He pulled on his helmet, and rested his hand on the Darksaber at his side.

Perhaps some people were in need of a reminder.

[outshinethestars]

To Lean on Cracked Foundations (Star Wars fic)

It starts with Anakin noticing.

This is not how it is meant to be, but Anakin was a slave once.  He may never have been observant by nature, and his mother may have been particularly successful in ensuring he was an unusually well-fed, well loved, and sheltered slave, but still he was a slave raised among slaves, so there are some things he can’t help but notice.

Anakin has learned quickly that he is wrong about most things.  The assumptions that he has honed for his survival on Tattooine turn out to be inapplicable in the temple on Coruscant.  So it takes a while for Anakin to bring attention to the things he notices, they’re small things and probably have perfectly reasonable Jedi explanations.

When Anakin finally asks, it’s because he’s afraid.

Anakin has never really had to go hungry.  Gardula was so wealthy that she could afford to treat all her house slaves well, at least when it came to feeding and watering them, as a matter of course.  Watto, on the other hand, was poor enough that owning slaves at all was a point of pride to him, and he valued them far too much as a status symbol to mistreat them in any way that showed.

However, there had been one year when things were hard for everyone, money hadn’t come in, or crops had failed, Anakin never learned what went wrong.  Anakin hadn’t really gone hungry even then, but he’s pretty sure his mother did.  She was sneaky, a little because Watto would have objected, but he thinks mostly because Anakin would have.

Anakin remembers the quick, nervous way that his mother snuck food onto his plate, the casual habitual nature of it.  Anakin never had to go hungry, but he’s pretty sure his mother did on multiple occasions, is pretty sure her childhood, like the childhood of most slaves, was filled with this sort of thing, her elders sneaking food to her surreptitiously, and going without themselves.  Anakin was a slave once, he is aware that this is natural, it is simply what you do.

However that should only hold true in times of hunger, of danger. The rules for slaves bare no resemblance to the rules of Jedi.  And yet, Master Obi-wan sneaks food from his plate onto Anakins, deftly, secretly with the skill of long habit, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world.

And this is different from the faint scars on Obi-wan’s neck that look like they’re from a slave collar, but can’t be because Obi-wan was never a slave.  This is different because it isn’t about curiosity.  Because Anakin knows he isn’t well-liked in the temple, but being disliked doesn’t matter when you’re rich, when there are plenty of resources to go around.  People with enough can afford to be fair.  Anakin had assumed that the Jedi had enough, that they always had and always will, the food at the temple commissary certainly seems unlimited now.  But Anakin knows that there are people who go hungry on Coruscant, he’s felt it on the lower levels.   And he knows that the Temple’s funding comes from the senate, and the senate is ruled by politics, and who knows where they get their money and how they choose to spend it.  And here is Obi-wan, sneaking Anakin food, like someone who has lived through famine, like someone worried for Anakin, like Anakin needs to eat more now, in case there’s nothing for him later.

So this is different.  Obi-wan sneaks food onto Anakin’s plate, and Anakin isn’t confused or curious, he’s scared.

And Anakin was once a slave, so he cannot fully trust a man that he calls master, but he was an unusually well loved and well cared for and well sheltered slave, so still he knows how to trust.

The next time Obi-wan sneaks a piece of falumpaset bacon from his plate onto Anakin’s, Anakin asks,

“Are we going to run out of food?”

And Obi-wan stops, looks at what he’s doing, and goes very still.

It hasn’t been a conscious action, this compulsion of Obi-wan’s to feed his new padawan.  Anakin is not underfed, the healers all assured Obi-wan that the boy was remarkably healthy when he came to the temple.  It’s a subconscious instinct that he acts upon without thought.  Anakin has enough to eat, but he keeps his eyes downcast, he’s a beat out of step with his surroundings and afraid for it; he treats authority like a monster that will eat him if he’s not careful, and it is Obi-wan’s experience that such boys need to be fed.

Obi-wan does not know what to do with a padawan.  He has felt, since Qui-gon’s death, as though he were drowning.  He is not wise enough, he is not powerful enough, he is not old enough. At no point in his life has Obi-wan Kenobi been enough.  How could he be expected to raise any Jedi, let alone the Chosen One?

“Are we going to run out of food?” Anakin asks, fear clear in the force and on his face, and for the first time in this short apprenticeship, it is as though they both speak the same language.

“No,” Obi-wan says, and the moment is gone.  Anakin looks up at him, confused and disbelieving.   Obi-wan doesn’t know how to explain, but he must.  Live in the moment, his master always said, and when he was young it meant not dwelling on his visions, but as he grows older it is becoming more and more an admonishment not to dwell on his past.

He does not know how to live in this moment.  He does not know how a real Jedi knight, one who was not knighted for an act of violence, was not knighted more because he was at loose ends than because he had actually proved himself ready, one who was prepared, one who chose to take a padawan and knew what he was doing, would handle this.

But once, a long time ago, Obi-wan was a general at the head of an army of children.  Once, when Obi-wan himself was small, he was looked at in just this way by little boys and girls used to hunger and to fear.  Obi-wan does not know how to raise a padawan, but once, in a war zone, in the sewers, Obi-wan helped raise child soldiers.

He does not want to raise Anakin as those children were raised.  He does not want Anakin, so small and so bright and so young, so much as within the same planetary system as a war, but already it is too late for that.  Before Anakin was even apprenticed to him, already Obi-wan failed to keep him safe.  And just like those long ago children, Anakin knew danger long before Obi-wan met him.

Obi-wan does not speak of Melida/Daan.  Strange to think that in the present tense, it was so long ago; it is entirely disconnected from the present moment, except, of course, in all the ways that nothing can be.  Obi-wan gave up speaking of Melida/Daan long ago.  It is not that no one wished to listen, it is simply that it was a thing entirely outside of their comprehension.  The fact of that, the knowledge that his experience is alien, and that that is a good thing, because what he experienced should not be, is ingrained in him as an immutable fact of the universe.

Anakin, Obi-wan thinks, might understand Melida/Daan, at least in part, if he told him.  It is a deeply horrible thought.

Anakin does not want to go hungry.  There is very little that Obi-wan understands about what goes on in this child’s mind, but Obi-wan perfectly understands this.

Obi-wan does not know how to teach safety.  He did not teach it in the dark, in the sewers.  He could not teach safety where there was none, only hope and perseverance.  Anakin does not know safety, does not recognize it here in the Temple, and now that it is brought to his attention, Obi-wan sees that it is obvious.  What reason has Anakin to know safety?  Where might he have learned it before now?

It is against Obi-wan’s instinct to show weakness.  To allow Anakin a glimpse of his own vulnerability feels as though it must be a failure, the antithesis of his role as Anakin’s guardian, his shield before the galaxy at large.  He had shown no weakness on Melida/Daan, not where any of the littles could see.  He had not shown weakness to his master, or tried not to as best he could.  He had shown no weakness on Mandalore, and Satine had afforded him the dignity of pretending she saw none, just as he did for her.

It is antithetical to all that Obi-wan is, all he has been trained and trained himself to be, to show weakness to anyone on whom he might in any way depend, much less a child who depends on him.  But he realizes in this moment that he must.  He must take that brief moment of accord, this brief instant of harmonization between himself and his padawan, and ensure that it does not break.

“When I was younger,” Obi-wan says, “I went on several missions where food was scarce.  One in particular lasted the better part of a year, and there were many young mouths to feed.  There is no famine in the Temple, and there never has been; you will never go hungry here.  But the past has a way of following one, I suppose.”

This is a thing that Anakin understands.  Or, it is a thing he understood before, in the world of slaves where all the rules were different.  Before, no one needed to explain the way that fears bury deep and make a home for themselves in your skin, in your flesh, in your bones, the way they grow as you grow and are with you always.  It is a terrible thing, the way fears shape you, it would be unbearably terrible, except that love is the exact same way.

But that was in another world.  Here it is different.  Here, the grandmaster of the order looked at Anakin and said he had fear in him, as though fear were something he could choose to not have, something he could have discarded if he were someone better. 

But Obi-wan is a Jedi.  He is wise and solemn and entirely alien. If even he is what the world has made of him, if his fears have helped to write the story of him just like every other adult that Anakin’s known, then maybe Anakin is missing something.

“My teachers say that we gotta let go of the past and not center on our anxieties,” Anakin says.  This is what they have been trying to teach him in his Jedi philosophy classes, trying to cram years worth of learning and knowing and being into him so that he can catch up to his agemates.  Anakin is not good at learning it.

There is something complicated in Obi-wan’s face, or maybe something complicated in the force.  His whole life Anakin always knew exactly how people were feeling, exactly what they thought of him, exactly what he needed to do or say or be in order to be safe.  Here it’s like he’s lost in fog, and the people around him have no substance, and Obi-wan is the worst of all of them in that respect.  But Anakin gets flickers still, not enough to understand the shape of them, but enough to know they're there.  Obi-wan is full of flashes that Anakin can’t quite catch, just for half a second, and then he is all warm, steady resolve.

”Sometimes,” Obi-wan says, “The past is like a scar.  It’s over, it can’t hurt you anymore, but the mark of it is still there. Things happen, and they hurt you, and maybe if we were better or knew more we could heal the wounds clean.  But sometimes the best we can do to leave the past behind, to let go of the pain, is to leave the scars be, and not reopen them again and again in hopes of peeling them off.  The wound is healed that way, but the mark of it is still there, and maybe it will fade with time, but maybe it won’t, and you simply must carry it with you.”

”Is that why they didn’t want me?” Anakin asks, “Because I scarred wrong?”

Obi-wan moves to Anakin’s side of their table and sits very close, not hugging him exactly, but letting Anakin lean into him if he wants to.  Obi-wan is impossible to feel in the force as ever, but Anakin thinks he feels warm somehow, angry but in a safe way.

”We all have scars,” Obi-wan says, “Sometimes that makes things harder for us, but that just means we have to learn to be better.”

[phoenixyfriend]

Got the okay to respond to this, so here we go.

So the reasons it's controversial boil down, in my experience, to three things:

Backlash against those who use the scene as evidence of how the Jedi were bad people; the 'should have' implies 'wouldn't have.'

The assumption that they were informed of Anakin's status as a slave before they were introduced to him.

The assumption that they were not planning on helping him at all, and would not have.

The first tends to mean that calm, rational discussions get skipped because of bad prior experiences. This post by @david-talks-sw sums it all up pretty well, but you probably already know all of it. Still worth touching on, because it contributes to this being an actual controversy instead of just a talking point, unfortunately. It is, in fact, my kneejerk thought when I see that you phrase it as "should have helped," because it implies that they not only didn't, but wouldn't have.

Next is the point of Anakin being a former slave. There's no point on screen where the Council are told of how Qui-Gon got Anakin. You could claim that he told them, because it's a basic piece of information and a major element of the adventure on Tatooine. However, it's equally likely that Qui-Gon was keeping that detail to himself, to avoid pulling up a major discussion on his somewhat questionable actions on Tatooine (gambling for the freedom of a slave, gambling the entire Nabooan ship, threatening someone with Hutt justice), because the hours that discussing Qui-Gon would have eaten up could have been used on arguing Anakin's case instead.

Whichever it is, we as the audience don't know. We do know that in Legends, Qui-Gon arranged for Shmi's freedom by sending her a valuable item that could be traded for her. It's unclear in the text if the Council is aware of his actions, but given the phrasing (which you can find in that post I linked), I get the feeling Qui-Gon did this independently.

Ultimately, a basic assumption in "should have helped this 9yo child slave" is that they knew he was a slave, and they very well might not have known until after Qui-Gon's death. They could have! But we don't actually know that they did. At any rate, it seems like they considered Anakin to be under the guardianship of Qui-Gon Jinn as Finder until something else could be arranged.

And finally, whether or not they did, or would have, helped.

In the vacuum of the movie, we have a timeline that contains a lot of variables, where something could be hours or could be days, and we just aren't informed one way or the other. What we do know is that the timeline is relatively tight. The turnaround from 'Padme finishes up with her Senate business' to 'we return to Naboo' is pretty much immediate.

So, between the Council seeing Anakin as being a ward of Qui-Gon's until otherwise arranged, and the amount of time that was spent discussing the possible return of the Sith, the possibility of a Midichlorian Messiah, and the sheer urgency of Qui-Gon once again leaving, it's entirely possible that their approach to 'this child needs to have care and education arranged, even if it is not with us' was to put it off until Qui-Gon, Anakin's legal guardian, had the time to sit down and discuss it. As one of their own had removed Anakin from his parent, the Jedi Temple would have been responsible for either returning him to that parent (which they wouldn't have realized was a problem if they weren't informed of his being a slave; and would have addressed once they had time if they were informed), or arranging for non-Jedi schooling and housing, like a boarding school on Coruscant or through the Naboo delegation that had partial responsibility for him.

I am of the opinion that they would have helped Anakin, had they known that he needed it, but between Qui-Gon's generally secretive nature (he's a bit of a bastard, after all) and the time crunch, it was simply delayed.

There are holes in this, but no more or less than in the movie itself (like Anakin going to Naboo at all), so I feel that it's an entirely reasonable interpretation of the scene, even if it's not the only one.

TL;DR: While it's possible to interpret the relevant scenes as the Jedi refusing to help Anakin, it's also reasonable to interpret as them simply delaying arrangements due to the situation on Naboo, possibly fed by a lack of information from Qui-Gon. This basic difference in reading the text is exacerbated into controversy by existing tensions in fandom interpretations, and in this case the controversy element rests heavily on the 'should have' part of the statement.

I like the Jedi, but TBH, I’m always kind of stunned that the idea of “This group of twelve adults whose mission is to help people probably should have helped this 9yo child slave” is such a controversial take in fandom.

[himboskywalker]

Tag you are the horniest person I know and I can’t get the image of Anakin accidentally coming in a situation he’s not even supposed to be horny in,please Tag help me my children are starving.

Simply for being addressed with my proper title of the goblin I am, have some shameless undercover slave smut.

Obi-Wan had been,from the very beginning immensely apprehensive about this mission. He loathed to put Anakin in any situation more stressful than called for of his former Padawan,who had already seen more of war than anyone his age should. But he especially despised any callbacks to his upbringing,putting Anakin in a situation that reminded him of his childhood,of slavery.

And yet necessity and their duty sometimes required more than he or Anakin felt willing to give. And Anakin,always full of surprises,had simply shrugged at the mission briefing,seeming far more cavalier and uncaring than Obi-Wan did.

“Master,” he had said, “it’s alright. It was a long time ago,I promise I won’t fall apart just from acting like your slave for a day. The worst that will happen is you get to reprimand me like you’ve really been wanting to for years.”

Anakin had laughed it off carelessly,young,still young enough to think himself invincible and that everything would always somehow slant in their favor. But the worst that could happen turned out to be Obi-Wan writhing with horror and discomfort as he led the man he raised behind him in nothing more than a banded thong and a hinged collar by the metal ring at the hollow of his throat.

Obi-Wan leaked regret and apology and discomfort into the force like the cracked fuel tank of a ship,but it was Anakin who hummed with quiet ease for once in their lives. He felt—oddly still in their bond,peaceful while Obi-Wan squirmed with discomfort. Anakin even went so far as to brush sparkling warmth against his mind in answer to the forced and pained, “good boy” he choked past his bared teeth as he pushed him to his knees on the cold marble between his black leather boots and the shivering awareness of space between his spread legs.

All of the slaves sat like that in the atrium,heads bowed and collared necks bared as they perched on thighs spread taught and inviting,with only thin gold straps to give them the barest sense of decency,or more probably allure, Obi-Wan thought with mild revulsion. Anakin braced his weight on widened knees just like the others,between his master’s legs. But he was not like the others,even oddly placid for the situation and naked by nearly any definition,he retained a sharp look in his eyes and a petal soft curve to his mouth. And unlike the other slaves in the room,Anakin was honed from far more muscle and strength,with gilded,sun-warmed skin and broad plains of shoulder and chest and back.

Anakin was not a still being,always on the move as a child,always brimming with restless energy and coiled action ready to spring,even in dire situations that didn’t call for it. But he was still now,as unmoving as a statue save for the rapid rise and fall of his stomach,that even Obi-Wan could see from his ribs expanding and contracting beneath his golden skin.

But Anakin,despite every alarm bell clanging in his mind,was neither the focus nor the priority here,merely a key piece of their undercover operation meant to save hundreds of lives. And so he wrangled his attentions to the negotiations and ignored the sweat gathering in the crease of his knees from his own tension,until the young king,with his own pale and whispy slave between his legs,brushed the back of his hand against his mouth and tittered.

“Honestly, Ja’heê,are you going to ignore him in that state? It’s magnificent to watch him but the poor thing has suffered for hours.”

Anakin somehow stilled even more,steadying the rapid rise and fall of his chest so that he seemed a thing of marble and gold between his boots. Finally,in the force Obi-Wan felt the jagged and ticklish strike of his embarrassment so hot it burned like lightning between them.

He blinked,searching the force for an answer to his confusion,but remained empty handed and wrong-footed at a pivotal moment of the negotiations.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” he responded airily,and returned to the matter and hand.

The king allowed him to do so with an odd smile crookedly quirking his mouth in an amused expression. Obi-Wan’s confusion,and even annoyance grew as the king continued to listen with half-hearted nods and obvious flicks of his eyes down to Anakin. His annoyance only deepened the more the king grinned and let his gaze linger on Anakin,heated and interested.

“...Your highness,” he finally faltered,unsure of where to go with the king’s attentions so obviously drawn to where Anakin still sat ridged and still as rock between his legs,so that he only saw a bowed head and the muscles of his back locked taught and strung like a bow.

“Forgive me,Ja’heê,” he lilted back with a finger pressed to his mouth in delight. “I’ve just never seen a master prolong such a beautiful thing’s agony for this long. I would think it cruel if not for the way he is smearing pleasure against his own stomach. He must be a divine fuck.”

“I beg your pardon,” he squawked back.

The king leaned forward,chin in palm and practically cooed to Anakin. “Stars he’s magnificent,and to be so close to release just from a little praise. I would pay a planet’s ransom to have him if you were willing to part.”

“Absolutely not,” he found himself snarling and laying a protective hand against the back of Anakin’s neck,forcing himself to ignore the hard line of the collar against his fingers.

“Then surely you would at least do me the honor of watching him come.”

Obi-Wan floundered at that and glanced down to Anakin,finally daring to peer over his broad shoulder and see that—he was—he was hard and flushed and indeed smearing wet,sticky trails of precome against his stomach where his swollen cock had escaped the gossamer hold of his thong.

“Anakin,” fell from his numbed lips as some unnameable frisson of electric,painful heat ached sudden and sharp in his gut.

“Master,” he breathed back,barely audible and wobbled through dewdropped tears in his eyes.

“Oh darling,” slipped from his mouth,unbidden and said from behind the white static throb of his pulse in his own head. “Darling,you’re doing so good for me—my beautiful—wonderfully good boy.”

Anakin’s head fell forward and his overgrown curls hid his face,but there was no hiding the high noise he made,girlish and desperate as he came completely untouched between his spread knees. His knuckles whitened against his thighs but he did not take his cock into hand nor budge from his submissive position,he merely shuddered as he pulsed onto the marble and ran hot rivulets of pleasure into the force.

[hellowkatey]

Febuwhump Day 9

Prompt: buried alive

Warnings: very brief mentions of panic attacks 

Read on AO3

All That Remains

Anakin Skywalker was never claustrophobic, but maybe Vader is.

He thinks this as he is encased in a medical tank, flooded with oxygen and bacta. The procedure is not as gentle as when he used to get it at the Temple healers. It's rough and frantic, his limbs, or what remains of them, being tugged in various directions with no regard for his burnt, raw flesh.

If he could scream, he would. The oxygen mask only makes it sound like muffled gurgling, and it only makes his lungs burn and feel as though they are deflating. Maybe they are. Black dots dance in front of his vision, sweet Force will they please put him under a sleep suggestion or some kind of pain killer?

Eventually, he does fall into unconsciousness, but he can't even be given a break in sleep.

Vader sees his face, standing upon the lava rocks Mustafar. His wretched mentor who left him for dead. Through his tear-stricken eyes, he told him he loved him, told him they were brothers-- obviously he meant the man Vader used to be, but still. Obi-Wan Kenobi walked away as he asked for mercy.

You were my brother, Anakin!

Not anymore.

He wakes up in a new hell. Lying on a hard table, still in agony. It feels like someone is sitting on his chest, but when he tries to look at himself to see the perpetrator he realizes he is not just lying on a table, but strapped down. Panic courses through him, making it feel as though he is breathing through a straw. Vader sputters, gasps, and then something is thrust into his arm, coldness sweeping through his veins, and the darkened room blurs into a darker void.

He sees his padawan. Former padawan. He used to consider Obi-Wan as more of a father than a brother because if anyone was Anakin's honorary sibling it was Ahsoka. Strong and snippy. Her departure was one of his biggest regrets, but the young woman she came back to be turned out to be his biggest moment of pride. Ahsoka is a firecracker, cloaked in a blanket of the light despite the injustice the Order did on her. He will never be as strong as her. He will never forgive himself for their bond that now hangs tattered in his mind like an exposed wire.

Vader is glad she is dead though. He isn't sure what he would do if he ever has to face her.

A blinding light. Vader opens his eyes and finds half a dozen medics surrounding him. Implanting mechanical arms and legs and electric nerves to the tattered remains of Obi-Wan's handiwork. Someone at least had the sense to give him drugs so he doesn't feel their surgeries, but his consciousness isn't appreciated. He feels nothing. Not his body, not the Force, not even a singular emotion. Vader is drifting through the twilight, just feeling the seconds of time in their entirety as they pass. It's tedious. Almost meditative.

Long ago, his mother used to tell him that one day he would count the stars. He would visit so many places, see so much of the galaxy, that he would be the first to know exactly how many there are. But in order to do that, he must practice. So Anakin did. He would play games while he worked. Counted how many people passed by his window, or how many times Watto swore during a workday. He even tried to count every grain of sand one day. Then he would go home and tell his mother how high he made it.

"Oh my sweet, Ani," she would say. "Every day you grow closer to having the patience and diligence to count every single star. You made me so proud."

Of course, her game was a tactic to keep his young mind off the horrors of their servitude. It didn't work-- Anakin was well aware of his status as a slave, but it did give him something to do. And when he did become a Jedi, he would look into the sky and count as many stars as he could see. Just for her.

Now he doesn't count stars, as there is no sky to gaze at. So he counts the seconds as they pass.

When his surgery is over, they dress him. He's stuffed into a thick, compression suit with cutouts where the new cybernetic portions of his body are easily accessible. Vambraces, thick gloves, black boots that fall below his knee. When a heavy panel is strapped to his chest to control his erratic vitals he longs for the body he once had. Never again will he move with the same ease. He will undoubtedly have to relearn how to wield a lightsaber. Despite the time he spent in bacta, his skin has lost the ability to feel as it once did. Warm sometimes feels cold, and cold feels like his flesh is burning off all over again. Never again will he be able to feel the breeze on his skin, the relief of jumping into a cool lake on a hot day. Or the silk sheets of the bed he shared with his wife.

Padmé. Guilt riddles him at their last interaction. His anger took over him. She wasn't supposed to be there. She was never supposed to see him like that.

He looks up as the sound of hydraulics catches his attention. From above, a black helmet descends. They told him his lungs are too damaged to not be on a constant respirator. They assured him the helmet would protect his skin and improve his eyesight. He knows these things, but as he watches it grow closer and closer, Anakin can't help but feel like this is the lid of his coffin closing.

"Padmé," he whispers to himself as it encloses over his face. "Help me,"

For a few long moments, before the respirator kicks in, Anakin Skywalker lays in his final resting place. He is surrounded by darkness, both in a literal and in the Force. His new suit is suffocating, feeling like he is being lowered into his grave instead of being reborn into the Sith Lord is to be. Maybe death wouldn't be so bad. He wouldn't have to live as half man and half machine. He could see his mother again. Ahsoka. Everyone else who perished.

Then it dawns on him. They wouldn't want to see him. His hands are covered in their blood, and there is no way back. He betrayed the Order. His best friends. Everyone who trusted and loved him. There is nobody to go back to, now.

Vader breathes. The respirator makes an exaggerated whooshing noise as he inhales and exhales, pushing fresh oxygen into his lungs. The operating table tilts his body back to a standing position, and next to him stands his Master, wrapped in a dark hooded cloak.

"Lord Vader," Sidious croaks. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Master," he replies between heavy breaths. For so long he has been unable to say a word, and now he finally can ask the question that has been sustaining him through all of this. "Where is Padmé?"

The beautiful thing about non-Force sensitives is that they have no concept of their presence in the Force. The Force is everywhere, flowing and surrounding every living thing in a special way. Just as Jedi could sense one another through their signatures, and subsequently block their presence from others, non-wielders also have a specific signature. They usually have no grasp of reigning in their signatures, so they are easy to distinguish. And then there are some who manage to project those, shining brighter than the others.

And Padmé, oh... if there were a star at the center of the galaxy, it would be his Padmé. He can sometimes feel her worlds away, her bright presence like a beacon made specifically for him. Padmé is his home, his love, and he will give his life for her to live, as he couldn't do for his mother.

"Is she safe?" he asks when Sidious doesn't reply. "Is she all right?"

His master falters a moment, his chapped mouth opening and then closing. His pulse quickens at the hesitation. "It seems, in your anger, you killed her."

You killed her.

In your anger, you killed her.

"I? I couldn't have," he rasps, his knees feeling like jelly all of the sudden. "She was alive! I felt it!"

But when he reaches out through the Force, drawing on the raw strength of the dark side to amplify his request, he doesn't find a beacon. He doesn't find his home. Padmé's Force presence has been eliminated from every corner of the galaxy. She's dead. He killed her.

His wife and his child are no more.

Something within him snaps. Maybe it's the last remaining strand of light. Maybe it's his heart. Grief clouds him, pressing on every wound and burn that covers his body because all of this was to prevent her from dying. This entire plan, his devotion to the dark side, and the fall of the Jedi were for the light of his life who he didn't even manage to save. Now he truly feels like he is being buried alive in the thick ink of darkness.

The dark side feeds on his pain. It wraps around him, but unlike when he would bask in the power of the light, the darkness just engulfs him deeper and deeper.

Everything around him is shaking and crumbling as he saturates the Force with his despair. Durasteel medical devices crunch as though they are sheets of flimsy, syringes explode, and he smashes through the restraints that bind his hand to the table. Though it is Vader's power, he recognizes Anakin is the one who wails, both for the death of his love and the last moments of his own existence. Without Padmé there is no more Anakin. Darth Vader is all who remains.

[dalekofchaos]

What if Qui-Gon Jinn lived and trained Anakin?

Much like my what if Mace trained Anakin post, I will be doing it for if Qui-Gon trained Anakin.

First of all, let’s say Qui-Gon did not allow Maul to bump him with the hilt of his lightsaber. Qui-Gon successfully manages to cut Maul in two much like Obi-Wan did on Rebels.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan rejoice as the Sith Lord has been vanquished. Qui-Gon knows this isn’t over as the master is still out there.

Obi-Wan will be knighted and Qui-Gon will be allowed to train Anakin despite the Council’s warning.(fuck Yoda tbh)

It's obviously speculation, but I'm going to say that Qui-Gon would have managed to keep Anakin from falling to the Dark Side.

Anakin's core problem was that he wasn't a good fit for the Jedi Code. Anakin was a very passionate person, and he wasn't able to suppress his emotions and remain detached. Despite the teachings of Orthodox Jedi doctrine, it's not true that all emotion leads to the Dark Side - positive emotions such as love and joy belong to the Light. If Anakin could have been taught to sublimate his emotions rather than suppress them, he would have been able to handle his anger and anxieties issue much better. Moreover, if he hadn't felt like he needed to hide his marriage to Padme, he would have been able to go to the other Jedi with his concerns, rather than to Palpatine.

Unfortunately, the prequel-era Jedi Order had become rigid, dogmatic, and arrogant. They were absolutely certain that their way to the Light was the only way, and they kept try to force Anakin to follow a path that he just wasn't suited for. It took twenty years and two civil wars before Anakin was finally able to follow his passions to the Light.

Qui-Gon was known as a maverick Jedi, and I always got the impression that if anyone in the Order could have taught Anakin how to handle his emotions, it was him. Qui-Gon was very much a pragmatic, in-the-moment sort of person, who wouldn't let detachment blind him to the realities in front of him, and the reality was that Anakin simply couldn't do it the Jedi way.

Regarding Anakin’s training. I believe Qui-Gon is the only one who could have saved Anakin from the dark side.

Qui-Gon Jinn was notoriously known as a maverick Jedi. His own master, Count Dooku, was also known to buck commonplace trends of the Jedi Order. Jinn frequently challenged the status quo of the Jedi High Council and was a consummate student of the Living Force.

He did not subscribe to all of the notions within the Jedi Code and sought to find his own answers instead of merely accepting what he was given by his High Council masters.

It was his challenging mindset that ultimately precluded Qui-Gon from becoming a member of the High Council and considering how things eventually developed for the Jedi, being totally decimated by one of their very own, perhaps Qui-Gon Jinn’s ”outside-of-the-box” way of thinking could have prevented that devastation.

In the comic Star Wars: Age of Republic:Qui-Gon Jinn, it showed that Qui-Gon placed his faith in the force over that in the council. The Jedi Master's doubts and true intentions are finally explained. Qui-Gon didn't fail to notice the Dark Side boiling up inside of Anakin Skywalker: he believed that darkness was exactly what was needed to bring balance to The Force. Showing once and for all that Anakin could have brought peace to the galaxy... if Qui-Gon Jinn had trained him. But for all their talk of "balance" the Jedi Order of the Star Wars movies had grown rigid in their prejudice. And in the pages of Star Wars: Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi's crisis of faith long before The Phantom Menace is finally shown. Not to overstate it, but Qui-Gon seems to realize what no other member of the Jedi Council is noticing: that they have lost their vision. And to get his back, he leaps blindly into hyperspace with only The Force to guide him, and accepts the lesson it has to teach him. On an alien world teaming with both life and deadly, "dark" growth, Qui-Gon communes with The Force. Sensing both the life-giving Force and the darkness to balance it, he awakens from his vision to see that the darkness has been driven back. Light triumphed over it, returning true "balance, but through a means beyond conflict." The lesson sticks, and Qui-Gon returns to the Order keeping this knowledge to himself. The Jedi believe the Dark Side to be resisted by any means necessary... but only in the face of darkness can light restore the balance. A principle that clearly occupies Qui-Gon's mind when discovering a small slave boy on a planet called Tatooine. The lesson taught by The Force was clear, so when he, of all possible Jedi, happened across a boy conceivably born of The Force itself, Qui-Gon knew it was no accident. As he tells the Jedi Council in Episode 1, "It was the will of The Force, if that I have no doubt."

Qui-Gon and The Council believe in two different things when it came to “Bring balance to the force”. For the Council, it means The Force has produced a champion to vanquish the darkness, leaving only the light. While Qui-Gon's encounter with The Force has shown "balance" to be the acceptance of darkness, so that light might overcome it. The Council senses the potential for the Dark Side in Anakin, and views it as a threat. Qui-Gon would have sensed the same, but understand Anakin's potential for darkness was the entire point of The Force's lesson (and by extension, the prophecy).

Qui-Gon saw the problem with the Jedi. They stopped serving the force and only served the will of The Republic. Qui-Gon expresses that very concern to Master Yoda (who, despite his wisdom, fails to consider it). After a rescued dignitary wonders why Qui-Gon didn't let his blade do the talking, he realizes just how far the Jedi Order has strayed from their intended mission. Qui-Gon argues that "our actions are a reflection of our purpose." That years spent enforcing have made the Jedi think like enforcers, until even Yoda can not see the danger Qui-Gon does before them: that "violence sows the seeds of the Dark Side. Unchecked, the Jedi could become that which we fight against." Stay blind to this reality too long and it would be possible for the Jedi to, say, march into the office of the democratically appointed head of the Republic to kill him in the name of defeating darkness - giving even a good man reason to think that from his point of view, "it is the Jedi who are lost."

The comic makes it clear that Qui-Gon kept his newfound understanding of The Force and the Dark Side to himself, raising the fact that the Jedi must remain more flexible and open to changing beliefs than their ancient enemies, the Sith. But after meeting resistance from his own Jedi Master, concluding the chat by conceding to Yoda's (Sith-like) absolutes concerning the Dark Side. Just in case anyone needed a bit more proof that Qui-Gon Jinn was the only Jedi who could possibly have understood how to train and educate Anakin in the truth of his power. And, let's not forget, fulfill his destiny as the One to restore balance to the galaxy "through a means beyond conflict."  At least, that's assuming The Force really did create him, imbue him with both light and darkness, and drop him into the lap of the one Jedi Master who could help him truly restore balance, knowing his darkness was to be understood, not branded as bad, wrong, flawed, and to be ignored until it consumed him. Now the only question to consider is how much Darth Sidious may have sensed the will of The Force himself, sending his apprentice Darth Maul to kill Qui-Gon before he could serve his purpose. The death of Qui-Gon Jinn was always heartbreaking for fans, but will be doubly tragic, now that Star Wars fans know The Forces hopes for Anakin Skywalker died along with him.

If Qui-Gon had lived to train Anakin himself, that lesson would almost certainly have proven true. Because by that point, even Qui-Gon had come to realize what Anakin eventually would: that the Jedi had lost their way.

Let’s talk about the Legend of Qui-Gon Jinn. I’ll hit some key points, but you should read his Wookiepedia page sometime. He’s one of the characters that’s filled out more in the Legends material than the movie itself, so there’s quite a few points you might not be aware of:

Apprentice of Dooku, great swordsman, and holdout believer in the philosophy of the Living Force

One of those unfortunate Jedi Masters, along with Mace Windu, who has trained a Padawan that lost it and went Dark

Recognized and reputed for his abilities to teach and train

Trained two Jedi, including one that was arguably too old to be a Padawan anymore (Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Loved another Jedi—A blind Noorian by the name of Tahl who was Head Archivist—but they agreed to decline acting on it despite mutual feelings

Suffered from visions of Tahl’s potential death, just before she goes on a mission and disappears for 3 weeks…

Eventually gets sent after her, finds her captive, and witnesses her death…narrowly too late to save her.

Slips into depression, then almost loses it in rage and desire for revenge…

Sensing a pattern yet? Qui-Gon is just about the only Jedi in the universe that could hear EVERYTHING Anakin went through and honestly say “I understand, and I know how you feel”

Whereas most of the Jedi just tell Anakin his life will be better if he lets go, Qui-Gon would have concrete advice for him and could sympathetically say he’s been through the same situations. They would have bonded over Anakin’s worst emotional moments. They could have had honest conversations about how nebulous those feelings were. Qui-Gon could help the younger boy sort those feelings out and get to the core values behind them. And he’d have been able to help Anakin make the right choices while he was calm, rather than having the wrong choices leak out of him under stress.

He might have also warned Anakin about the possibility of dreams being self-fulfilling prophecies… but also Qui-Gon would’ve given Anakin the idea that doing something about it (other than letting go) is a valid option. When Ahsoka was troubled by the possibility to losing someone close to hear, Yoda tells her meditate on it. with Anakin, it’s all about the dark side. Qui-Gon would’ve heard him out and who knows, Qui-Gon and Anakin would’ve saved Shmi together if Anakin had Qui-Gon to confide in.

Beyond that, I think learning the Living Force would have been important for Anakin, because his natural personality fit its tenants better than the Unifying Force view of the other Jedi:

All living things are connected, and we should be mindful of how we impact one another

“Mom, you said that the biggest problem in the universe is no one helps each other.” — Anakin, in The Phantom Menace

“Why do I have the sense that we’ve picked up another pathetic life form?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, clearly not thinking like his Master or Anakin does

Qui-Gon is noted in the Legends as constantly annoying people — including his Master Dooku as a Padawan—with his convictions about saving other living creatures from bad situations. So Obi-Wan’s comment wasn’t just referencing Jar-Jar…

Live in the moment, rather than focusing on the future. Be mindful of the future and consequences, but remain focused on the present.

Anakin often worried about the future too much, particularly with his dreams. Even having someone there that could urge him to think about what he could do now, might have helped him calm down.

Rely on your instincts

Skywalker was always instinctive, and it shows in how he pilots. He can learn the controls to almost anything in 5 minutes tops, and he can intuit what’s wrong or off about a machine and adjust for it. Likewise, he’s the same in physical combat — an instinctive natural with a blade. Anytime he stops thinking and just goes, he’s good…

Obi-Wan often tried to get Anakin to avoid acting on his instincts and follow a plan. He called on Anakin to think coherently, and to focus on strategy…Anakin never really took to it very well, and frequently charged in, falling back on instinct when he was stressed.

Qui-Gon would instead have tried to get Anakin to hone his instincts. Double down on your ability to use your senses and listen to them…learn to assess the situation in front of you fully, so that you don’t miss details. Then, be the best YOU can be, and stop worrying about everything else.

Qui-Gon was a Jedi experienced with a Padawan going astray, so he would no doubt have been sober and measured in his approach to training Anakin. But, he lived his life with compassion as a major tenet, so he would have done everything in his power to hear the boy out and not have him feel alone. He also is unafraid to disagree with the Council, so he’d stand up for the boy when he thought the approach they wanted to take was not a good one. Qui-Gon would have been a great influence on Anakin, leading him to believe that you can both disagree with the Council AND still have respect for them.

That, and Anakin’s trust in him, lead me to think he might have confided in QG about some things that he instead took to Palpatine. Can you imagine how differently things go if Anakin talks to Qui-Gon about Padme? In my mind, I see a big scene after Attack of the Clones, where Qui-Gon helps Anakin sort through his needs and wants, and perhaps urges him to leave the Jedi Order and go have his family.

What exactly does Anakin need to be a Jedi for at that point? Go be Lost Jedi #21, and live a happy life. Or, if you still want to fight, take a moment and decide what’s the best path forward for your family. One honest conversation here might have helped Anakin come to some convictions, rather than spinning in a confusing downward spiral later on. He would have felt much less cornered and confused in most of his situations, had he had a father figure in his corner that understood the way he thought and felt about things.

Also, having a few more Living Force thinkers might have helped them realize that the only person who really had anything to gain from both the Naboo Invasion and the Clone Wars WAS Palpatine…he could have garnered much more suspicion early on. Qui-Gon might have noticed how much the Jedi Order was shifting in the midst of the war, and would have actively fought to bring that to people’s attention and urge the Council to do something about it in a productive way.

Look at how much Qui-Gon’s existence messed up Palpatine’s plans in The Phantom Menace. I am firmly convinced that Qui-Gon’s continued existence would have been a major threat to the rest of Palpatine’s plans. He knew how the other Jedi thought. He apparently didn’t have the same read on the sort of tactics Qui-Gon used. Chances are, Palpatine would have to orchestrate a situation to specifically take him out of the picture, or watch large swaths of his plan get foiled.

Now since we take this all into account, let’s go into what would change in canon

Qui-Gon would train Anakin in the Lightsaber Form IV Ataru and Anakin would master it beautifully

Anakin and Obi-Wan would become friends throughout Anakin’s training. 

Qui-Gon and Anakin would’ve saved Shmi from the Tusken Raiders as Qui-Gon would’ve wanted to enact on Anakin’s visions, The Council be damned

Qui-Gon would have complete faith in Anakin protecting Padme, while Qui-Gon would seek the aid of Obi-Wan in investigating Kamino

Qui-Gon would confront his old master, Dooku

As they reach Geonosis, I do believe Qui-Gon would send Obi-Wan back to contact Anakin and The Council about his and Qui-Gon’s findings

Qui-Gon would be captured in Obi-Wan’s place

Qui-Gon would be confronted of his old master, Dooku. He is in disbelief that his master turned to the dark side and tried to have Padme assassinated. He rejects his offer of joining him and the Separatists.

Because of Qui-Gon’s training, Anakin is more calm and less headstrong. Together they would take Dooku. Dooku knows the fight will turn in the Jedi’s favor, so he attacks Anakin’s weak points and uses that against Qui-Gon. So then we have Dooku and Yoda’s fight which remains the same.

As The Clone Wars rages on, Ahsoka would become Obi-Wan’s apprentice

Anakin and Ahsoka would be close friends

Qui-Gon would be trying to stop the war, he would be much like the Padme of the Jedi Order

Qui-Gon would be spending the majority of The Clone Wars to getting to the bottom of the source of The Clone Wars, while helping Anakin

Qui-Gon and Padme are pretty much Palpatine’s biggest thorns in his side, they are fucking his plans up left and right. 

With Qui-Gon by his side, Anakin would not lose his cool against Clovis

Both Qui-Gon and Anakin would believe Ahsoka, when Obi-Wan and the Council have abandoned her

What happened to Ahsoka and Barris betrayal showed Qui-Gon that this war has gone too far and the Jedi have betrayed themselves. He goes to Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme. With the truth. Palpatine is Darth SIdious, the very man behind everything. He tells them all we must expose him in front of the Senate and “Execute Order 65″ while on Kamino, Qui-Gon learned all there is to know of the contingency orders. And knows this is the only way to bring the Sith down. "In the event of either (i) a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) to be unfit to issue orders, or (ii) the Security Council declaring him or her to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."

By ROTS, Anakin and Qui-Gon would faced with Dooku, while Obi-Wan goes to find Grievous. As Anakin cuts his hands off, Qui-Gon wakes up and thanks to his teachings, Anakin would not execute Dooku. Anakin does not see the value of executing the leader of the Separatists and the information he could tell. Qui-Gon would tell how proud he is of his padawan. 

Obi-Wan would’ve killed Grievous on the Invisible Hand. 

At this point Palpatine is shaking in his boots. Qui-Gon Jinn is still alive and dangerously close to exposing the truth. General Grievous is dead. Dooku is held captive. 

This is the plan of Qui-Gon Jinn. Expose Palpatine to the public. He knows the Jedi confronting him directly would be turned against them, the Jedi would be on high alert and be watching for any type of assassin or bounty hunter. Dooku tells the truth to all. Dooku declares “my lord, you have lost��� “no, no no YOU HAVE LOST” Palpatine states before executing Dooku with force lightning. Anakin, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Mace rush to face Palpatine. As they face the Sith Lord, Padme broadcasts this to every Clone. “Execute Order 65.” Every Clone Trooper would be ordered to arrest or kill Palpatine. Any clone who dares to approach Palpatine is disintegrated by Palpatine’s Force Lightning. In the end it is Anakin and Rex who kill the Sith Lord. The war is over. Balance has been brought to the force and the Empire is over before it can begin

The Council is reformed. They finally see their ways have blinded them and embrace Qui-Gon and Anakin’s way of thinking. They see the value of attachments and admit they were wrong about Anakin

Qui-Gon is at peace knowing he helped train the chosen one and brought balance to the force. Anakin is allowed to have a family and be granted the rank of master. He lives in bliss knowing his visions never came to pass. Luke and Leia are born. The Clone army have disbanded and are allowed a life beyond duty. Padme has become Chancellor of the Republic and will usher in an era of peace and freedom for the Galaxy.  

[diwatang-sirena]

Food For Thought: Is it possible that Daenerys' storyline is going to go a similar route to Darth Vader's?

Now before you guys protest, especially the die-hard Dany stans, just hear me out on this. I’m a fan of both Vader and Dany, and as much as I wish that Dany will not turn into an antagonist, let’s not discount the possibility and try to look at her story in a different perspective. Okay? Then keep reading.

If you’re not familiar with Vader’s story in Star Wars (but how tho??), protagonist Anakin Skywalker started out as a poor, innocent slave boy who happened to have a very strong connection with the force. He’s even assumed to be the “Chosen One” from the prophecies that would balance the Dark and the Light sides of the Force. So he ends up training to become a Jedi with the hopes of freeing his slave mother whom he left behind in Tattooine, his home planet.

Eventually Anakin grows up to be a good but slightly arrogant teenager who is manipulated further by Emperor Palpatine (who’s posing as a good guy in the Senate). And because he’s fully aware of his natural talent, he’s even pushed further by the fact that the Jedi Council does not fully acknowledge his merits when he deserves them. One of the key moments in his transition is when he finds his mother murdered, which led him to his first act of madness when he massacred the tribe that stole her away.

But the final straw was when he dreamt that his secret wife, Padme, might possibly die through childbirth. This made him seek even more power to save his wife and unborn child, of which he was unable to do with his mother, and it eventually blinded him from seeing the good that his comrades and loved ones were trying to do to help him. 

At this point, he concluded that by being the most powerful, most fearsome Jedi on earth, he can prevent every terrible fate that could happen to the ones he loved. So he helped the Emperor massacre the whole Jedi Council, including the innocent children, in order to be stronger using the dark side of the Force. And you know the rest, his wife died in childbirth, indirectly because of his actions, and thinking that his mentor and brotherly figure Obi-Wan betrayed him and left him to die, he eventually became reborn as Darth Vader, now completely overwhelmed by hatred. 

And it’s not until the last minute when Luke, his son with Padme, helped bring him back to the Light when Vader chose to protect his son with his life instead of letting Palpatine kill him, ultimately fulfilling his prophecy as the Chosen One.

See the pattern here? Daenerys seems to be following quite a similar path, with her initially being a poor, helpless girl with a very tough upbringing who eventually gained power to protect the common folk. Not only that, but she also has something to do with the “Azor Ahai” Prophecy about the “Prince/Princess that was Promised”, although whether or not this means her, Jon, or their future child is yet to be seen.

Unfortunately, just like Anakin, Daenerys has been shown to have lingered in between the light and dark at times, such as burning her enemies or using fear to bend people to her will when her patience runs out. Of course I won’t deny that some of these actions are considered necessary considering that some of her enemies don’t do well with peace pacts or respectful discussions, most especially when they go through lengths to disrespect her as a woman.

But as much as I love Dany, I can’t deny that some of her actions, regardless of where she came from and how she came to be, are not doing her any favors with the Westerosi. Like Anakin, she has been slowly losing sight of what has been her main goal in the beginning of her pursuit; to save the people who suffered like she did and to find a place to truly call home. Now most of her focus is gaining her right to the Iron Throne, while slowly losing bits of emotion here and there especially when betrayal hits her at one front to another.

That is, until dear honorable Jon Snow came along.

Just like how Anakin and Padme’s forbidden love story ended up changing the Jedi forever, Jon and Dany’s love story seems to be a must in breaking the wheel of the current world, not just in politics, but the fate of the world itself. After all, Melisandre has prophesied that both of them have a very important role to play in the Azor Ahai prophecy in stopping the Night King.

Whether you ship them or not, you can’t deny that these two were bound to have a special connection thanks to their parallel journeys and their secret Targaryen relation. It’s interesting to note that in the beginning, all that Jon ever wanted was to become acknowledged as a Stark, arrogantly thinking that he had it worse than everyone else. Now that he’s constantly given all these burdens and high positions, he’s become more humble and doesn’t enjoy being the leader that people turn to.

Dany, on the other hand, was a meek and afraid little girl, having no idea in the beginning that she was capable of becoming more, no thanks to Viserys’ abuse. But as time went by, she began to grow as her own person and became more and more powerful, which unfortunately led her to become quite arrogant at times. 

While Jon’s been shown to have a harder time killing more and more people out of duty, especially when he began to realize that not everything is in black and white, Dany has been shown to be having an easier time disposing people who defy her, even the ones who used to be on her side. It’s not to say she hasn’t tried doing things the gentler way, but a lot of if not all the peace talks she’s attempted with her adversaries have never really gone smoothly. Not to mention, most of the people she had placed her trust in in the beginning have either betrayed or left her at some point.

To be fair, we can’t have two exact copies of “Jon Snow” in the GOT world. That wouldn’t make much of an interesting story now can it?

With that said, it seems possible that Jon’s role in GOT is quite similar to Luke’s trope as the reluctant hero of the story, the one who saves the whole world by saving their loved one from being completely immersed into the Dark Side.

Of course, we haven’t seen Dany turn completely mad just yet, and I personally hope it would never happen. But the first two episodes of Season 8 has compelled me to imagine the uncomfortable possibility of what it would be like if Daenerys does end up becoming a villain. Her thirst for the crown has been focused on too many times to deny in the first two episodes of the final season, and it seems that not even her love for Jon would let her set aside her quest for the crown completely, at least not yet.

But there’s also a possibility that their future child, if the constant foreshadowing in Season 7 comes to fruition, might also be a strong factor in changing her mindset, just like how Vader’s love for Padme and his children compelled him to eventually turn away from the Dark Side. Most importantly, their child might also have a huge role in stopping the second Long Night from happening, however possible that is, if he/she/they have something to do with the prophecy.

Another interesting possibility that’s been pointed out by some fans is that the only person other than Jon that might stop Dany from her road to Mad Queen status is the woman who currently checks up all the boxes of said status.

Cersei may not have the pure intentions that Dany has, but they do have a common factor of wanting to gain and remain in power no thanks to their past experiences of having their father/brother control most of their lives in the early parts of the series (Tywin with Cersei, and Viserys with Dany). I’d personally wager that Dany is still far from Cersei’s “Mad Queen” level, because at the very least Dany still has a few good and true comrades to help keep her feet on the ground. As Tyrion told Cersei, at least Dany has enough brains and empathy to listen to their advice at times, whereas Cersei would never do so unless it benefits only her.

This Cersei-Dany parallel would be a pretty similar situation with, again, Darth Vader and Luke. Just when Luke battles with his father and was almost on the verge of killing him, he stops when he sees his father’s robotic hand, realizing how similar they actually are and how much the Dark Side has affected Vader in the worst ways, which he himself almost fell into if he didn’t see the truth with his own eyes.

After the Battle of Winterfell is over, and Daenerys sees the remnants of the Night King's power while also coming to terms with Jon’s status as the rightful heir, perhaps Dany might reconsider and reflect on her true purpose in attaining the Seven Kingdoms. True there's also a huge possibility that she'll turn even darker than before, especially if her close comrades die/leave her, leaving her feeling more alone and out of place. But perhaps after seeing Cersei the way she is, with no true friends, no family, and no love left in her except the crown on her head, this might lead Dany to see the hard truth; The Iron Throne isn’t worth her humanity.

With that said, whether or not Dany turns into a true antagonist is yet to be seen. Contrary to some fans' predictions of her dying in the end, I actually believe that she'll survive, but not without huge consequences of course, which is carrying the guilt with her for the rest of her life. For some people, continuing to find the will to live can be much harder than dying a quick death. 

Having her killed off easily as a villain without redemption or in childbirth for me is a very big disservice to those who have watched/read her whole journey since Season 1 and the 1st book. I doubt that George R.R. Martin created Dany only to make her a Cersei 2.0 in the end. It would be the such an injustice for the series to conclude with Dany’s faults completely overshadowing the many good things she has done for the ones without power, especially during her time in Essos.

We have yet to see how low Dany would go to seize power as Vader would, and I’m extremely worried about how much it would affect everyone’s view of her till the very end, especially as a character that was so beloved for the whole 7 seasons, only to have her hated by most without proper redemption at the final season. Yes, as a GOT fan I’m glad that Dany’s being given a wakeup call that her idea of ruling has its flaws and does not suit everybody. But if she is really meant to betray Jon and the rest, I seriously wish that whatever payoff the writers have for Dany will be worth it in the end. Especially when there’re only a handful of episodes left.

And if people really think that Jon would easily leave Dany just like that, then boy, have they not been paying attention to Jon’s character development. Jon has already chosen duty over love several times, with one of those choices leading indirectly to his first love’s death. I highly doubt that Jon would ever leave Dany alone like that, even with all her faults, especially if she’s with child and if they do get married even if out of duty.

Just like how Padme never stopped believing that there is good in Anakin till her dying breath, it’s in Jon’s persona that he would do everything in his power to keep Daenerys from falling completely into the dark and feeling alone. I won’t be surprised if Jon would choose to take the fall for/with Daenerys if she is to be punished for whatever wrongdoing she’s about to do. That’s just the type of guy he is.

With that said, we have no choice but to wait until Episode 3 and 4 to really see where Daenerys’ morality will be going. As with every season, with every new episode that comes out, anything is possible. I still hold onto the hope that the writers know exactly what they’re doing with Daenerys and that it’ll be true to what George R.R. Martin really intended for her, although I’m already a bit wary at how they’re currently handling her responses. If her path is to go the same way as Vader’s like I guessed, I can only hope that they can do enough justice to make her memory worthwhile.

If not... there’s always hope for the books. And fanfiction.

[padawanlost]

Anakin Skywalker & Slavery

Continuation of this post (a question by @ask-the-almighty-google)

Anakin, as a Jedi, had a unique approach to slavery. I’m aware this is a divisive topic with opinions ranging from “Anakin was worse than Jabba” to “Anakin did nothing wrong”. Instead of doing a “opinion piece” I decided it would be more constructive if we could look at the facts. My personal opinion will still be a part of this but today I’ll try to show more and talk less.

Anakin, as a child born in slavery, was deeply traumatize by his experiences and that certainly influenced how he look at it. His reactions to slavery were personal because it was something deeply personal to him. Anakin was wrong in not fighting for the clones but to expect Anakin to passionately the cause is unrealistic because he spend the previous 10 years old his life behind constantly criticized for that exact same behavior. He did want to save all slaves but the Jedi “beat” that dream of out him.

“Worried about helping Jabba? Don’t worry, everyone else is, too.” Anakin could never answer her. He tried not to think about it, but the thought was like a corris weevil, eating away at his resolve. The Jedi had never tried to rescue his mother or buy her out of slavery. Instead, they had taken him, given him this new life, but left her behind on Tatooine. He had just accepted it at the time, but now … now he knew how much power Jedi had, and all he could wonder is why she hadn’t been worth their time and trouble, too, if only to keep him happy. Not even Qui-Gon Jinn had cast a backward glance at Shmi Skywalker. As the months and years wore on, the question would not leave Anakin alone. He didn’t want to let resentment eat away at his fond memories of his old Master, but he couldn’t stop it sometimes. […]The Jedi Council had credits. Real wealth. Would it really have been beyond them to buy his mother out of slavery? Anakin accepted that some things had to be learned from the cradle. He was already full of attachment and emotion, too set in his ways of being a messy, ordinary human to adopt the aloof serenity—the unloving detachment, the arm’s-length and measured compassion—a Jedi needed. He did his best. Why wasn’t my mother worth saving? [The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss]

Why won’t they help me free my mother? It’s not fair! It’s not right! Countless times, Obi-Wan explained that every Jedi had to obey the directives of the Jedi Council, and could never use the Force for selfish purposes. He urged Anakin to consider how freeing one slave on Tatooine might lead to the deaths of others, as some slavers might prefer to destroy their “property” than release them from bondage. The Jedi also had to answer to the Galactic Senate, and for the time being, the Senate had little interest in anything that happened on Tatooine. Why do the Jedi have to answer to anybody? Anakin wondered. Despite Anakin’s desire to distance himself from the slave he had once been, he was unable, or unwilling, to shed the other aspects that had defined him on Tatooine. [Ryder Windham’s The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader]

This was a constant in Anakin’s years as a Jedi. every time he tried to bring up the subject he was told how wrong he was by these powerful and wise beings he so admired. Eventually he stopped asking. He buried his dreams.

When they'd met, Anakin had been a warm-hearted nine-year-old boy with an open nature. He was twelve and a half now, and the years had changed him. He had grown to be a boy who hid his heart. [Jude Watson’s Deceptions]

Slavery became a sore topic. Something he tried to hide at all costs. And, if possible, avoided thinking about at all costs.

Anakin regretted it as soon as he said it. He’d made it sound more as if he had some wild, dark past, and nothing was better guaranteed to keep Ahsoka asking questions than that. If he explained he’d been a Hutt’s slave, she’d dig away at it until all the bad stuff came out. It was hard enough telling Padmé, and she was his wife. [The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss]

I think he internalized and eventually blamed it all on himself. He admitted to himself he had a part in  it too and that guilty ate away at him.

When the war was over he’d go back to Tatooine and see. When the war was over he’d buy any child he found enslaved to Watto and find them a home where they might live and love in safety. Belonging to no one but themselves. I should have done it before now. Wasn’t that my other childhood dream? Become a Jedi and free the slaves. Instead I became a Jedi and let myself forget. Let them convince me that it’s not our job to remake the Republic. The Jedi were keepers of the peace, not legal enforcers. That was the Senate’s job. How many times had he been told that? He’d lost count. But the Senate was falling down on the job, wasn’t it? What was the use of having anti-slavery laws if the barves who broke them never paid for their crimes? It was enough to shake his hard-won and harder-kept faith. If scum like Watto and Jabba and the other Hutts kept on making their fat profits on the backs of living property—and if the Senate continued to turn a blind eye—how could anyone believe in the Republic? How could he? [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Anakin wasn’t sure how he’d react when he saw Watto again. Although his former master had been kinder than other slave owners, Anakin had always resented the fact that Watto refused to free his mother. Watto isn’t entirely to blame, Anakin mused, wondering just how hard Qui-Gon had tried to liberate Shmi. Slavery is allowed here, and Watto is just a businessman. [Ryder Windham’s The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader]

There are credits in slavery—and credits trump justice. Always have. Always will. And the Jedi? They didn’t want to get involved. Even Qui-Gon … So I guess it’s up to me. I failed my mother. I didn’t go back for her and she died. But when the war is over I’ll make good on my word. I’ll fight slavery wherever I find it … and there’ll be no mercy for those who steal lives. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Jabba grew fat on the misery of beings like Anakin’s mother. He’d probably taken a percentage of the very transactions that had kept Shmi Skywalker in slavery. And still I have to save his son. Because we need his goodwill. His space lanes. The idea stuck in Anakin’s throat like a splintered nuna bone. The pain was palpable. [The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss]

He buried it so deep he became a Jedi. on the surface, he was very much a Jedi (not as dismissive of slavery as the detached Jedi but still unwilling to face the full reality of the situation). However, it still hurt him.

 Anakin wondered whether it was expedience, simple logic—both he and Kenobi spoke Huttese and were experienced in covert missions—or some exercise in character building. Yoda knew Anakin’s past, that he and his mother had been slaves of a Hutt. Jabba raked off a cut from the slave trade, too, so he was personally connected to Anakin’s boyhood misery, and even his mother’s ultimate fate. Callous didn’t begin to cover it. Anakin’s instinctive reaction would have been to tell Jabba that it was too bad and that people you loved got killed all the time. [The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss]

Again, he buried his feelings and thoughts because that’s what the Jedi taught him. when the Clone War begins, that’s what he does. He buries everything. It’s a result of his traumas and his jedi upbringing. But let me you, Anakin did care about the clones. No, he did not fight for his rights or recognized their status as slaves but this idea that Anakin didn’t care about the well being of his men is as fanon as fanon gets.

I know this is a contraction hard to grasp. I mean, how can’t some fail to notice someone is a slave, keep them enslaved and still care about their life and grief for them? sounds impossible, right? But it’s not. These kinds of contractions are what makes us humans, what makes great characters great. How can Obi-wan love Anakin and still cut of his limbs and leave him to burn? He is human. This is not a simple matter that can be summarized with a simple right or wrong answer.

It’s not darkness. I’m not dark. This isn’t anger— It was okay; they’d always told him so. He was fighting to save his men, and if he did terrible things out of compassion, out of love, then he wasn’t turning to the dark side. That was the Jedi way. For my mother. For my men. For Padmé. [The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss]

Impatience. Concern. Relief. Loneliness. Weariness. And grief, not yet healed. Such a muddle of emotions. Such a weight on [Anakin]’s shoulders. Months of brutal battle had left [Ahsoka] drained and nearly numb, but it was worse for Anakin. He was a Jedi general with countless lives entrusted to his care, and every life damaged or lost he counted as a personal failure. For other people he found forgiveness; for himself there was none. For himself there was only anger at not meeting his own exacting standards. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Under [Anakin]’s careless confidence, she sensed a hint of that unhealed grief. The loss of greenies Vere and Ince during the Jan-Fathal mission … the loss of other Torrent Company clones since then … his pain was like a kiplin-burr, burrowed deep in his flesh. Anakin had a bad habit of nursing those wounds, and no matter what she said, tactfully, no matter what Master Kenobi said without any tact at all, nothing made a difference. He hurt for them, and always would. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

[Anakin] looked at Ahsoka. “Fine. You can go. But I want to be kept informed of Torrent Company’s status. Don’t make me chase you for updates, is that clear?” She managed to smile. “Yes, Master. Thank you.” “And Ahsoka …” He felt his heart thud. “Tell Rex—tell all of them—that anything less than a full recovery is unacceptable. Tell Rex I—” He had to stop. Obi-Wan was in earshot, and they were not supposed to care so much. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

 [Anakin] hit the cockpit canopy switch, fast. “Obi-Wan’s fine, more or less,” he told the anxious droid, firing their fighter’s thrusters. “Ahsoka’s pretty banged up, though. So are Rex and Coric. They’re on their way to Kaliida Shoals.” R2’s mournful whistle said everything Anakin couldn’t … or didn’t want to. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Rex. Coric. Ahsoka. And fourteen dead pilots. Scores more dead and wounded ground troopers. Why can’t we stop this? Why can’t we catch Grievous? Dooku’s only one man. How can he defy the entire Jedi Order? Who is his Sith Master? Why can’t we find him? Day and night the questions ate at him. They ate at Obi-Wan, too, but somehow his former Master seemed able to live without knowing the answers. Or else he was just better at hiding his dismay. His fear. [Karen Miller’s Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth]

Anakin did ask himself questions but over 10 years of being told he was wrong does take a toll. And we need to remember Anakin was 19 years old kid pushed into a war by his superiors. A lack of self-analysis, a narrow view of the world and political nativity comes with the package. Anakin *is* concern about slavery but he is a flawed person with his own blind spots. It’s the famous cognitive dissonance we all know so well.

I’m not saying Anakin is right but deference is an important part of the character. Anakin cannot be the sort of person who is too aware of what’s going on around him or else he wouldn’t turn into Vader. He had to be written this way to explain why Vader exists. If Anakin had questioned the Republic’s slave army he wouldn’t have become the Vader knew from the OT. He had to be kind of guy who blinds follows his superiors even against his own self-interest.  

[benperorsolo]

I had thought until now that Vader’s disdain for the Death Star was based on principle and a complete belief in the superiority of the Force: I had never considered that it was about the loss of his own utility, almost like a reminder of his mortality and humanity. It should’ve been more obvious in hindsight given the way some of the Empire officials taunt him, but it’s a really neat character note. George Lucas dropping wisdom like the thoughtful guy he is.

It really is great how Lucas adds these subtle beats into the story. I highly recommend reading Lucas’ interviews if you can (some faves 1 2 3 4), because he really is very thoughtful and sincere and totally dedicated to the idea of irrational romanticism and anti-cynicism. It’s a breath of fresh air after all of the fandom fuckery in a fandom that’s probably disowned GL…for reasons having less to do with GL and more to do with them being unable to admit that the Star Wars they like isn’t the Star Wars the story was created to be. There’s a huge through-line in these interviews where George emphasizes not only Anakin’s anguish and tragedy as Vader, but his flunky-slave status to the Empire and the fact that Anakin is quite aware of the fact that nobody respects him, cares about him, or would mind if he died (the Vader comics emphasize this disrespect by other Imperials, and even other Sith like Momin’s ghost, a lot). The fandom likes to act that Anakin is some mindless killing machine for the Empire who gets off on all this power he possesses, but George always brings it back to how Vader is a normal person who was corrupted by his own flaws, and is miserable because of it. One of the quotes that always sticks with me is from the first Rolling Stones interview I linked, where the interviewer says that ‘He’s not Satan, he just goes down to the corner and gets Satan’s cigarettes.’ 

It’s a very human thing of Anakin to hate the Death Star. Look at all he’s lost to the Dark Side– his wife, his children, his body, his soul. And now some Imperial is telling him that he’s outlived even that usefulness. 

[inkognito97]

Youngster III

Sequel to 'Youngster II' Summary: A newly Knighted Sith Warrior learns what it means to take care of somebody...

With a soft and happy look did Sith Lord Qui-Gon Jinn watch how his former apprentice was walking in front of his Padawan. A part of Qui-Gon couldn’t believe what he was seeing. One moment he had taken the young and dirty orphan under his wing and in the next moment the young orphan child had turned into a full Knight of the Dark Side. The pup had become a wolf, who himself had now a new pup running after him, another member for their steadily growing pack. Fondly Qui-Gon watched how Obi-Wan, who looked very regal without his Padawan braid and with a Jedi robe, stopped walking and turned to call for a certain blonde whirlwind, who stopped what he was examining to came running towards the ginger haired man.

“They are a good match,” Dooku stated next to him.

“Indeed, the Force itself has created their bond, it was simply meant to happen.” And thanks to the Force it had all ended well. The Council had deemed Obi-Wan ready to become a Knight, since he singlehandedly defeated a Sith, and they even allowed him to train Anakin Skywalker. It had taken a lot of hours and some frustration on both sides, but in the end the Council had realised that a bond had already formed between Obi-Wan and Anakin and no Jedi was keen on breaking this bond, it was simply something they would not do.

And wasn’t it just ironic that the Sith trial would also count as the Jedi trial? If asked, Qui-Gon would find it highly amusing and he knew that Dooku did too. Only Obi-Wan had shrugged, but then again, his mind was on other matters, or rather on another person, namely the Padawan, who was asking him thousands of questions all at once. The three of them had silently agreed that Anakin was to be trained as a Jedi. Obi-Wan had outright refused to train the boy to become a Sith, arguing that the boy’s greatest dream was to be a Jedi. Dooku had disagreed with him and Qui-Gon, he had taken his former apprentice’s side. He owed him at least that much.

An aggravated sigh brought the long haired man out of his musing and he focused enough to realize that Obi-Wan was standing to his right. Anakin was running ahead, only Force knows what had caught his attention now.

“Please tell me that I was not like this,” Obi-Wan pleaded his former Master.

Dooku and Qui-Gon chuckled. “Don’t worry,” the taller man finally said and he rested a hand on the ginger haired Sith’s shoulder, “you were always a good apprentice... even though you had the tendency to seek out trouble.”

“I did no such thing,” the freshly made Sith Knight replied, his eyes never leaving Anakin’s form, “trouble just had the tendency to find me.”

“I don’t see the difference,” Qui-Gon retorted cheekily, which earned him a mock glare from his young charge. Right this moment, a crash sounded somewhere before them and three pairs of eyes landed on a certain boy, who stood before the sad remains of a sculpture. Unfortunately the three Sith were not the only ones in the hall and angry eyes as well as partly hidden insults rained down on the poor boy, who looked absolutely miserable.

“Apparently I am not the only one,” the ginger haired male replied to the two older males, before turning away from them. “Anakin,” Obi-Wan called out and he took one step forward, shrugging of the taller man’s hand that had still rested on his shoulder. Blue eyes that were glittering with unshed teats settled on his Master’s form.

Qui-Gon’s heart broke and he was about to rebuke all those so-called ‘Jedi Masters’, who scolded a bright boy for such a stupid little accident. Dooku, who apparently had sensed what his former Padawan was about to do, laid a comforting hand on the younger man’s arm and he silently signalled him to let Obi-Wan handle this one.

“Come here Padawan,” the ginger haired man’s voice was gentle, yet fear kept Anakin from moving. It didn’t need the ability to read another being’s thoughts to know that Anakin was afraid of what his Master might do to him, or rather, if he would have to be punished or if he would even have to leave again. “Come here,” Obi-Wan coaxed again and he kneeled down, opening his arms in a silent invitation.

This time the young Padawan learner did not hesitate. He came running straight back to his Master, almost running over a second sculpture, but not caring. He only stopped when he had literally thrown himself into his young Master’s arms, who immediately engulfed him into a tight embrace.

“I’m so sorry Master,” the boy cried and Qui-Gon saw salty tears run down the former slave’s cheeks. He was undoubtedly terrified and truly sorry. “I didn’t mean to... I just wanted to look...”

“Sh, sh, it’s alright young one,” the words came naturally to Obi-Wan. “I know you didn’t. It’s alright.”

“It most certainly is not,” one of the surrounding Jedi Masters suddenly exclaimed. She was looking down at the kneeling pair and an air of arrogance surrounded her form. “Your Padawan,” the last word was said in a mocking manner, “has to learn discipline and restrain. But clearly we cannot expect such a young and inexperienced Knight to know how to properly train a Padawan.”

Qui-Gon balled his hands into fists and Dooku’s grip on his elbow tightened as well. Nobody insulted their little (grand-) son, especially not somebody as pompous as this so called ‘Jedi Master’. To the two Siths’ surprise, Obi-Wan remained utterlycalm. Instead he stood up to his full height. It was not really impressive, especially not with Dooku and Qui-Gon standing behind him, but he was still hovering over the female Jedi. Anakin was still sobbing into his tunic, face buried in the young Sith’s neck.

“That may be so,” Obi-Wan replied in a calm tone. Qui-Gon gaped openly at those words and even Dooku looked dumbstruck for a moment, but only until the next words came out of the young Sith’s mouth. “But I am rather a young and inexperienced Knight – who has slain a Sith just so you know – than being an old experienced Jedi Master, who apparently has forgotten what it means to be young and reckless and curious about the world. It’s quite sad actually, that you seem to have forgotten the joy of learning and discovering new aspects of life. That you stumble and fall... and sometimes even break things on the way, is just a process of learning. And if you remember this, then maybe, just maybe, I’ll take your critique a little bit more serious. Besides, it is not the Jedi way to be attached to anything or to own such trivial things.”

The humanoid Jedi Master was gaping openly after Obi-Wan had finished his little speech. She reminded Qui-Gon a lot of a stranded fish. At some point during his Master’s speech, Anakin had realized that Obi-Wan would not cast him aside and he would not be punished. He had stopped crying then, even though his face remained buried in the older male’s neck. Obi-Wan’s natural odour and his Force presence were the blonde Padawan’s anchor and he knew he was save and well loved. He had never felt this way with another being – except his mother of course – before.

“Well said, this was,” Yoda’s voice cut. The three Sith turned around in shock, but they were not the only ones, who had not noticed the green troll approaching.

“Indeed,” Mace Windu agreed. He was stepping towards the green Jedi’s right.

Yoda hummed, “Never liked that sculpture, made me look old.” A few Masters, mostly those who had not said a word against Anakin’s accident, chuckled. It was true that the sculpture, a statue of the green and wise Jedi Master, was not well liked. It had once been a gift from a wealthy and very grateful friend of the Order. “Replaced it can be... perhaps by something self-crafted,” the Master’s eyes were sparking strangely and Obi-Wan immediately caught the hidden message.

The green Master was very much aware of his artistic talent, even though Obi-Wan rarely had time for it. It had become something like a hobby, ever since he had accidently taken a class in ‘Art and Crafting’, Qui-Gon had been very pleased.

“It would be my honour, my Master.” The Sith in Jedi disguise replied dutifully and he shot his former Master an amused look that was immediately returned.

Yoda hummed satisfied and he hoppled away with Mace Windu right behind him. The other Masters were slowly getting back to what they had been doing previously as well.

“Master?” Anakin’s small voice broke the comfortable silence.

“Yes my Padawan?”

“Can I... can I help you? Replacing the statue I mean...” Obi-Wan rested his chin on blonde locks.

“Of course you can... I am proud of you for suggesting this on your own.” Obi-Wan replied gently. It was true that he was not really behaving like a proper Jedi Master would, but then again, he wasn’t and Anakin was a special boy as well.

“I am truly sorry...” the boy hastily replied. It seemed as if he hadn’t completely overcome his fear yet.

“I know you are and I know you didn’t mean to destroy it. You just have to learn to be more careful... don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to be. I am going to make you into a great Jedi.” Obi-Wan promised and he slightly pulled away to look into a tear stained face. The young Sith automatically reached up and wiped the stains away with his thumb.

“Thank you,” new tears were already forming, but they didn’t fall this time. Instead, the young child wrapped his arms around his Master’ neck and quickly pecked the older man’s cheek, before hiding his face in the other’s neck again. “Love you Master...”

Obi-Wan’s expression was extremely comically after those three words. His eyes were wide in surprise and he had to blink a few times before he understood what had just transpired. But eventually he had regained his composure again and with a quick kiss on blonde locks and a whispered, “And I love you, young one,” everything was alright again.

Qui-Gon ruefully looked at his son, who had become something like a father himself. He would miss the time they spent together, fully knowing that Anakin would require most of the ginger haired man’s attention and time from now on. Of course that did not mean that he and Dooku would be completely pushed out of the new team’s life, but it still hurt just a little bit. He briefly wondered if Dooku had felt the same way when he had taken on his first Padawan and a quick glance towards the older male told him all he needed to know. Suddenly the long haired Sith could not help himself but to wrap an arm around both his heirs and the other around Dooku’s shoulders, pulling the older man close. With an exaggerated sigh, Dooku succumbed to his fate and joined his line.

They were a family, probably the strangest family in the whole galaxy, but they were content this way. Obi-Wan was very much aware of the ‘burden’ and the responsibilities that had been placed on his shoulders. He was very much aware that there would undoubtedly be countless of sleepless nights, days full of stress and worry, but also days of joy and pride ahead of him. He knew that he would need to be father, brother, mentor, friend, healer and everything else that Anakin needed him to be. It would be a long and hard way, but he was determined and he would not trade his Padawan with anything in the whole galaxy, for he knew that it would be worth everything he would have to face. Even if that meant that he had to remind certain Jedi Masters of their places. Even if that meant that he had to do a few ‘unjedi’ like things to free a certain strong minded woman from slavery and to make sure she was taken care of. Thankfully Padme had agreed to his crazy plan. Anakin would be very pleased... if he would be pleased to hear that he soon had a step-father and step-siblings remained yet to be seen. But at least Shmi Skywalker was freed, that was all that counted to Obi-Wan this moment. And he was sure Anakin would agree.

Meanwhile Dooku was just content with following his own former Padawan’s advice, enjoying the moment and living in the here and now. It was not he, who had taken on a student and it was not HIS apprentice who had taken a step towards adulthood. He had that already behind him, thank you very much. Still, he would be there if Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon needed his help and guidance. That much was clear, to all of them. There was just no way he would abandon his line.

Anakin on the other hand was not bothered by anything right now. He was still not over the shock of being a Padawan, in the middle of his journey to become the best Jedi the galaxy had ever seen. He had promised his mother as much. He was just glad to have a Master as Obi-Wan. He had thought Qui-Gon would become his Master at first, but now he was glad that it was the ginger haired Jedi. He was not as intimidating as the taller male, even though the way he had talked with that mean lady had been very impressive. Burying himself deeper in his Master’s warmth, Anakin was happy to be alive, perhaps for the first time in his relatively short life.

The long haired Sith’s mood was slightly clouded. Despite the rightness Qui-Gon felt for their current situation, he could not help but shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen in their near future. He could not quite make out what it was, he only knew that it was something dark and he got the feeling that it would break their little family apart, even if it was only temporarily. Needless to say, he did not want this to happen and he swore, then and there, that he would to anything to protect his loved ones and that included the new addition to their family. Anakin might not become a Sith, but he still belonged to Qui-Gon’s line. He was a part of Obi-Wan and therefore a part of the long haired Sith. He knew Dooku thought the same. Still, the feeling remained... but only time could tell what they would have to face. For now however, he wanted to enjoy the present and not dwell too much on the possible future. Because for now he had a former apprentice to take care of, who would need his advice and his helping hand; at least once in a while.