#darksider ahsoka who has to figure out where to even GO from here now that she's not a Jedi anymore but she's not quite dark either

[phoenixyfriend]

Fake Sith TCW Trio

I have another fucked up time-travel AU! Who’s surprised? (Nobody.)

So like. Have you guys read that one fic where Luke and his students go back in time and pretend to be Sith Lords and are super hammy about it? (Sith Lord Swell by AMournfulHowlInTheNight)

This AU has contributions by @atagotiak, @the-lunar-system, @purronronner, @gelpenss, @creepingthroughthistidalwave, and @thisarenotarealblog.

I want TCW trio (plus Rex and Cody) to go back to several years pre-TPM and, since the Council DEFINITELY won't believe them about the Sith being back... they'll force the issue.

Anakin is weirdly excited about things and building up their backstory.

Anakin: Okay so I can definitely be a Maul type, with the unhinged ranting and manic laughter, Obi-Wan can be the whole Refined Rich Guy type like Dooku, where you can't even tell he's evil until he starts talking about getting out the eyeball scoops, maybe toss in a bit of mad science stuff? Ahsoka could play up like Ventress OR, oh oh, she can be the Light Side Child we need to PROTECT who's publicly begging us to return to the Light after our big dramatic Falls where we murdered like eighty people to save her, and-- Obi-Wan: Why are you never this enthusiastic about actual undercover missions. Ahsoka: Did you just have all this ready to go, or...? Anakin: WE COULD GET YELLOW CONTACT LENSES FOR ME.

Obi-Wan: How's my evil laugh?

Anakin going “Okay.. so if any of us need to murder someone to sell the bit it should be me, I think I could handle it the best. Why? No reason.”

Obi-Wan: I'm not sure a complete Fall could come from protecting Ahsoka, really-- Anakin: No, no, it could.

Obi-Wan: Surely you’d hold back because you realize neither of us want that for you. Anakin: Uh. Sure. Definitely.

Obi-Wan points out that none of them can channel the dark side to Prove they're Sith and Anakin just goes "Okay, give me like two seconds to stew in my negativity and--right, you can stop staring in horror, please."

Anakin rambles on that they can TOTALLY make the galaxy a better place while playing at being Sith! He's got a whole LIST of slave empires to "take over" and disassemble!

Anakin has a whole excited spiel about how EVIL soldiers and assistants are minions, in this case partly because Cody and Rex are too good at what they do to be mooks. Cody could pull off evil minion very well. Facial scar? Looks good in black? Quietly competent and sarcastic?

He also pushes for Obi-Wan to lounge in a fancy throne with a glass of wine while Anakin stalks the shadows and Ahsoka hangs out on the window ledge. The disaster lineage is dramatic, okay, Anakin’s just leaning into it, he’d appreciate it if everyone stopped looking at him like that.

Qui-Gon, surprisingly, ends up a skeptic about all of this. Everyone is freaking out about the Sith and he’s like “y’know I’m not even sure they’re darksiders.”

Some Jedi, possibly Qui-Gon for his conspiracy board, gets in a real risky situation and one of the Fake Sith saves them, but also panics and kinda drops character for a bit.

Jedi: You saved me! Why’d you do that? Anakin: I uh... just wanted the pleasure of killing you myself?

"You saved me. Why?" "Mmmm. Jedi." [walks away]

Qui-Gon: [trying to figure out what is up with these people semi-competently (from his perspective) pretending to be Sith] Dooku: [trying to protect Qui-Gon from Sith influence]

The gang is the most successful at pretending to be Sith to Dooku. Sure, they’re not gonna punish him for something he hasn’t done, but it’s not hard to act menacing and angry around him.

(They really do have so much fun irritating the heck out of Dooku. He hasn’t Fallen yet, but they want to keep an eye out.)

At some point, future Obi-Wan definitely drops that little tidbit of "What, you didn't think the Banites were the only Sith running around did you? You... didn't even know about the Banites. How... disappointing."

They REGULARLY use Ahsoka as an excuse to be marginally less terrible. They claim that if Ahsoka pouts, they stop. ‘Soka also uses them as an excuse for why she’s a lil feral. (To be fair, that one is accurate. She was already a lil feral before but it’s not like they did anything to stop it.) Ahsoka gets her "breaking into people's offices" jollies by bugging Nute Gunray's office.

The Jedi keep trying to Rescue Ahsoka.

Rex and Cody end up in real beskar, there's a whole Thing with Mandalore and Jango and Satine.

Obi-Wan is CONSISTENTLY worried about Anakin Falling for real, which... hey, at least he knows to be worried about Anakin Falling. Step up from canon, really.

Anakin is WAY too into killing the Hutts but like. It does... technically sell the bit.

Obi-Wan: Sure, I’m not sad that they’re dead, especially because we’re not connected to the Republic, so we don’t need to worry about starting a war and all that. But. Anakin is disturbingly cheerful about this. Rex: Wasn't he a Hutt slave? Obi-Wan: Well yes, but-- Rex: I'd kill Nala Se if I could get away with it.

Cody and Rex are very supportive of Anakin's murderous intentions.

Obi-Wan does understand anger, even killing someone in anger. Like Maul (the first time at least) and D’nar and a few others. All the same, like... y’know. The level of bloodthirst from the others is a little off-putting.

At one point, Anakin accidentally addresses young Obi-Wan by name, despite never having met before, and to cover it up, he... panic-flirts. He panics, and so he flirts, with young Obi-Wan.

(He will later blame this on old Obi-Wan, because he had to pick up the habit of flirting with the enemy from somewhere.)

Anakin vaguely implies that he's a wee bit obsessed with young Obi, and that the padawan should "get used to being the target of a dark-sider's interests," because he’s scrambling for Ominous Shit and, well, future Obi-Wan was pretty frequently a fixation point for darksiders, right?

The second he gets out, he just starts screaming into a bucket while Rex pats him on the back.

For the next however many terrible months, possibly years, he has to keep up the act while having an ongoing meltdown about how That's My Dad As A Twenty-Something.

(It doesn't help that young Obi-Wan reflexively flirted back.)

Old Obi-Wan, meanwhile, is just very "you dug this hole yourself, padawan."

There is an argument at the beginning about Obi-Wan’s outfit. If he’s gonna be a Sith, he can’t just go around in beige, but he’s like “I like this and it’s comfy.” Sure, he’s changed clothes for undercover stuff, but that’s always been temporary, y’know? He likes his beige.

We have a number of options.

My first instinct? Beige linen three piece suit, like a southern lawyer. "Now I may just be a simple Outer Rim force adept--"

And, of course, you can TOTALLY make the beige sinister: he’s impersonating a Jedi! Jedi impersonation would also explain why nobody has a red saber.

“Sure is good that the Jedi don’t seem to realize most of the galaxy doesn’t know red sabers are different and bad.” “Shhhh, stop poking holes in our story where a Jedi might overhear.”

Like.... if you do enough doublethink, it works! How would a Sith hide? In plain sight. Also, it’s a GREAT way (if they were actually assholes) to try to slander the Jedi name.

(Anakin and Ahsoka still think he could stand to put a little more effort in. Add a splash of color, for pity's sake!)

Though tbh part of me is like “What if Old Obi wore, like... a split skirt suit...�� Victorian womenswear inspired because he misses his robes, but he has to look Professional, and like he's MOCKING Jedi instead of BEING one, so he wears a vintage-y split skirt thing over his leggings. Ends up looking a lot like what Ventress had for a while, but Beige. I also keep wanting to put him regency menswear.

Anyway. Obi-Wan’s wardrobe aside...

Anakin builds up his Tatoo accent again. It helps him with the (mostly true) "slavery helped me fall" backstory.

Either Cody or Rex offhandedly mentions being made to serve them (the Fake Sith) and now the Jedi are somewhat concerned about brainwashing. Are these Mandos the victims here?

“No like. Literally made for this. In a lab.” This is even more horrifying. So...

On the one hand good! The Jedi should be scared about Sith! On the other hand... it makes the Jedi more determined to stop them, specifically. They keep on getting in the way, just, all the time, and they’re not investigating the actual Sith problem, which is decidedly not great since the Team doesn’t actually know who’s a real Sith right now, except Maul, and who even knows where that guy is.

Obi-Wan, at some point: Do you think we've succeeded at this ruse... a little TOO well? Anakin: I don't follow. Obi-Wan, gesturing at the truly obnoxious amount of wealth they've collected, including "trophies" of their kills: Really? Because I'm a little worried! Anakin, planning out a battle to take on Nar Shadda: ...I'm not.

"How many people do we realistically we need to take over Hutt Space? Apparently... five."

(Mostly because Anakin is ridiculously op.)

ANAKIN AND YOUNG OBI GET KIDNAPPED BY PIRATES TOGETHER. It's tradition.

Anakin: Okay, so, I need to get really angry about something to pass as a Sith... time to think about my WIFE and how I'll NEVER SEE HER AGAIN.

Since Anakin’s life never goes as planned... this does not work. Instead of getting properly angry, he makes himself sad. There are tears. There is wailing. There’s a distraught rant or two. Young Obi ends up awkwardly trying to comfort him.

“Oh no, this… Sith?? Is crying on me. What do I do???”

Later on, when the Council wants intel: "So... one of the Sith cried on me about his wife. I think she's dead? He wasn't very clear about it but it, uh... it sounded like it might have contributed to his Fall. Also the relationship was a little unhealthy? He basically worshiped the ground she walked on and kept ranting about how he would have given her the galaxy on a platinum platter of she'd only asked, but that might be new and inspired by the Dark."

One of the random Jedi is REALLY good at detecting the truth Through The Force, and asks Anakin how he Fell...

Anakin just. Tells the Tuskens story.

They don't get pinged as lying, but oh boy does old Obi have a LOT of questions for Anakin once they're in private.

There are other things happening to help sell the ruse. Some of them are necessary! Some of them are... not.

Obi-Wan: What's the best way to show we're rich and kind of evil, but like... classy about it? Anakin, immediately: I sit on the floor next to the throne, leaning against it, and you call me pet names while stroking my hair, and then when you need something killed I get to do it for you and then I go back to the floor and you thank me for the directed violence, and then you go back to Negotiations with criminals while I’m sitting there covered in blood. Obi-Wan: ...is there something you want to TELL us, or...?

"You're all going to get a glimpse of something normally kept hidden about me." "Anakin, you don't have to do that." "No, I'm gonna."

(Anakin has decided hes going to peel his kink tomato to sell this ruse, and the others are slightly uncomfortable with that.)

Anakin: Okay, I cannot keep flirting with you. Young Obi: Wait, what? But that's the best part of any time we run into you! Anakin: You look WAY too much like my Master did when I met him. Obi: O...kay? If someone looked like my master when HE was young, I'd-- Anakin: My Sith Master half-raised me. He's basically my dad. Obi: ... Anakin: What's that look for? Obi: I mean, you spend a lot of time lounging at his feet, and, like, given how much you hate slavery, I... kind of assumed it was a kink thing? Anakin, brightly: Oh no, I just have a LOT of trauma. And neuroses. Snips says they’re neuroses.

Young Obi is a little upset because he was actually getting REALLY into Flirting With The Enemy and was hoping it would go somewhere. He mopes to Qui-Gon about it. Qui-Gon isn't sure whether to be proud about Obi breaking rules, or worried over Obi-Wan falling for a Fake Sith.

(As Tia put it: "You enjoy making young Obi-Wan have a completely unrequited crush on Anakin, don’t you?")

Fortunately, one of those attractive Young Mando boys very kindly helped him tape up his ribs this one time, and has thus caught his eye...

I feel like having Cody date Young Obi would court an entirely different kind of (internet) drama because clone ages, but whatever.

Also please imagine an element of "so I'm dating the genetic identical of my boss... who's dating the man I'm a genetic identical of..."

(It's probably not actually Jangobi but man would that be funny and also stupid.)

Somehow Young Obi figures out that the "Sith Master" is a future him before he realizes that they're not actually dark. In his defense, Anakin was pretty convincing. Especially with the wife rant. It makes HIM more obsessed with Anakin, in a reversal of the implied earlier dynamic, which is all kinds of weird. Less romantic but like. Still weird.

"Future Me Scares Me" with Extra stupid. "Future Me Annoys Me." "Future Me acts like grandmaster Dooku, but more sass." "Future Me raised a really hot evil guy that refuses to bang Present Me." "Future Me might be a Sith, but I'm getting more and more convinced he's just fucking with us all." "Future Me is really rocking that beard, and I can't BELIEVE we figured out a way around the babyface."

"I’m kinda concerned about the whole evil thing, but I’m also glad that I know I’ll stay hot as I get older."

Quinlan approves of the priorities.

Also a lot of interactions with older Obi are very Anakin: [does/says something deeply unhinged] Obi-Wan: So, do you want to…. Talk about that? Maybe? Anakin: What’s there to talk about?? I’m fine, everything’s fine! Anyways how about those plans for tracking down Maul?

Anakin later, like way after the ruse is lifted, just blankly tells everyone that he did Fall, once, and Older Obi made him get therapy about it after the truth came out between the two of them a few months into the Fake Sith thing.

Where'd they find a therapist? I'm sure there's one SOMEWHERE around. Denon and Herdessa are close enough, and they've done enough "your criminal empire now belongs to me" that they can pay well. They make sure to find one that takes confidentiality real seriously.

It's all very "we need some more time to unpack all that."

Therapy helps get Anakin to figure out Sheev’s whole deal. They don't necessarily figure out he’s a Sith from it, but they figure out he’s sketchy and they need to look into that more. Obi-Wan probably already thought he was sketchy, but the whole active gaslighting campaign was a little surprising. They realize that he kinda benefited a lot from a lot of Sith plots and they still probably don’t think he’s a Sith but Obi-Wan is definitely starting to think he’s working with one.

"Okay, we're already bugging Gunray, should we bug Palpatine just to be safe?"

They get away with a lot of slicing because Anakin is a technical genius from twenty years in the future.

The reasons they're so good at Taking Over Hutt Space: 1. They know parts of the future. 2. They have superpowers and FAR less reason to not use them, now that their actions aren't going to reflect on the Republic. 3. They have Cody and Rex, who are two of the greatest military minds in the galaxy, and know EXACTLY how to wage a war that covers a solid third of the galaxy, starting from a position of relative weakness. 4. Anakin's charisma is scary high, and his knowledge of slave culture means they gain a lot of trust from the people they free, and they just... keep acquiring volunteers for the army they didn't plan to have. Obi-Wan doesn't know what to do. He thinks they might have started a cult?

In his defense, Dooku sort of started a cult, and Komari got kidnapped by a cult, brainwashed into joining it properly, and then took it over as head figure of said cult. It's practically tradition!

Comics Vader is the central figure of like three different cults, it was really just inevitable.

Anakin: Aw, don't worry master, it's not a cult, it's a revolution! Ahsoka: They're worshiping him, though. Anakin: ...it's still a revolution! Just... with some misunderstandings.

Also, if they got wind of people trying to keep people from being able to leave and other culty stuff like that, they’d probably put a stop to it pretty damn quick.

Names! Time for names. As per usual, it's easiest to keep track of Obi-Wan's alternate Older Self by just calling him Ben.

Darth Ben.

Ahsoka: You should be Darth Boring. Obi-Wan: I can still make you run laps, you know.

Anakin: The Force is telling me to call myself Darth Vader. Obi-Wan: ...why? Anakin: I dunno, but it sounds cool, I'll run with it.

Someone: Ben has all the answers; we shouldn’t question him, ever. Ben: One time I lost a planet, and a five-year-old found it for me.

More options: Going with the "evil word with the prefix 'in' chopped off" that we get with Sidious and Vader: Darth Surrectus (as in insurrection) Just random Latin words: Darth Temporus (time) Darth Commenticius (fake)

Anyway, back to Nonsense:

Maul goes after young Obi early, because the Fake Sith are really invested in this one random Padawan (Sidious is saying he might be a cousin of the false Sith Master? They do look similar enough) so someone needs to investigate. Naturally, Anakin shows up with some wild screeching to fight Maul, and when someone questions why he got involved it gets very "Kenobi is MINE!" and like. Okay. So.

Anakin means it in a very Sith "to toy with" and "to torture" way, or the ‘my chosen opponent!’ way, just the same kind of Obsession as Maul had with Obi-Wan in the original timeline. Unfortunately, Anakin’s a weird-ass person who flirts with Young Obi against his own better judgement, so there's some awkward "Like... your boyfriend?" from young Obi. Anakin just screeches in SOME emotion that nobody wants to interpret, and couldn't even if they wanted to, and starts whacking away at Maul again.

(Anakin hasn't explained the "you look exactly like my dad, sorry, it's just too weird" thing yet, and he is HAVING MANY REGRETS.)

There's definitely at least one instance where a person asks Anakin if he's planning on dating That One Jedi Twink, or at least banging out the tension. At that point in time, Anakin doesn't actually know who the fuck they're talking about, because "Obi-Wan + Twink = Does Not Compute" for dear, dense Ani, and instead he just ends up ranting about how he is LOYAL TO THE MEMORY OF HIS LATE WIFE, how DARE anyone so much as INSINUATE that he would TARNISH HER PERFECT MEMORY and UNWAVERING KINDNESS and WHOLESOME BEING, and the person who asked doesn't end up lightsabered but they do end up with a LOT to tell whoever they're reporting to.

Young Obi-Wan definitely hears Anakin mutter the phrase “something to discuss with my therapist later” a few times, and he’s a little bewildered because darksiders definitely don’t seem like the type of people to go to therapy. They’re the type of people to need therapy, sure, but not the type to go to therapy.

I think it would be very fun for Young Obi to continue sighing over Anakin (who's pretending to be fine with it and even flirting back because he's in too deep to stop and hasn't worked up the courage to explain the elephant in the room) while Anakin is covered in grease and infodumping while having a slightly manic hyperfocus on engine repairs while the two of them Somehow got stranded together in the middle of bumfuck nowhere (it's Plagueis's doing, he finds the interactions between THESE two in particular to be the most informative regarding the fake Sith).

Anakin, at some point while stranded with young Obi-Wan, and having actually started unpacking some stuff in therapy, though he’s def still got a ways to go: I’m pretty sure Ben cares about me. He acts like he cares, like he’ll do stuff like put extra blankets in my quarters in the spaceship because I get cold real easily or track down those droid parts I need for a project and he always has my back in a fight but y’know it’d be nice to hear him say he loves me once in a while. Especially because we kinda had a rough start and idk I don’t think he wanted me around at first.

And uh. Obi-Wan definitely relates to that a bit too much, y’know?

I want to say that Young Obi ends up mentioning All That to one of the clones or Ahsoka later, because they seem probably invested in Anakin's well-being, even if Ben is, well, a Sith, so Obi-Wan's a little worried the man's affection really is fake, but at least Ahsoka...

(Ironic, given what Anakin's actual eventual Sith would-be-Master was like.)

Young Obi mentions Anakin’s most recent rant to Ahsoka, and she just goes "Wait, is that why Skyguy likes to sit by the throne and get called pet names?" "Uh... I don't... know... but it sounds like all of you have a LOT to unpack there, Miss Apprentice."

Later on: "Master Kenobi, you need to tell Skyguy you love him 'cause apparently he's been having a lot of emotions about you not telling him you care and he's been talking to mini-you about it whenever they get stuck together and--"

Young Obi-Wan is just constantly the "Now we don't have time to unpack all of that" John Mulaney gif. Anakin in particular is a mess, and young Obi-Wan slowly goes from "I want to date that" to "I want to study that" about him.

Obi-Wan gets stuck somewhere with Ben, tries to small talk, gets on the topic of Vader, and spills the drama. He gets an awkward “Thank you for bringing that to my attention.”

It’s followed by a fairly frustrated “I try, but Anakin refuses to communicate his needs to me, and it feels like I’m always falling short.”

At least one member of the group is in therapy, probably all of them, but they’re still using young Obi as a sounding board for all this stuff. On the bright side, this is probably good for impressing the importance of good communication on Obi-Wan.

Good for Obi-Wan! And... whatever Padawan he eventually has.

As for baby Anakin, who is approximately age four, I want to go with "Anakin decides to be his own uncle, and Shmi just rolls with it because fuck it, she’s not a slave anymore, and a Fake Sith is a solid defense against anyone trying to re-enslave them."

[This is a backstory I've had them use before (see here and here).]

Seeing Big Ani and Little Ani in the same space might be what finally pings the "oh shit, that's future me" thing for Obi-Wan... you know, if he’s ever allowed close enough to see Little Ani in the first place.

Little Ani stays with the fake-Sith and is sorta jointly trained by all of them, and young Obi-Wan teaches little 'Soka at the Temple. Ani and 'Soka still end up friends somehow, but it is fairly different.

Every time little Ani addresses Old Obi as "Dad," it's just like ten kinds of awkward. The one time someone tried to explain that Ben wasn't his new dad, Shmi glared them down. She is of the opinion that, all the gods be damned, Ani deserves to refer to the most mature man in his life, who raised another him in another timeline already, as a father.

Ani doesn't NEED a father, Shmi herself is more than enough, but he does deserve to have this if he wants it.

An alternative conclusion to the time travel is uh. So the Mandalorians are genetically identical (give or take a hair gene) and really resemble Jango Fett, though whether anyone notices that is up in the air. Then the three ‘Sith’ (two fake Sith and their morality chain tag-along) have three younger, identical copies show up….

It could be really weird cloning shenanigans. Now, it makes no sense that they’d make clones, and stagger their production like that, and leave them as babies on various planets for Jedi to find. IDK what reasons Obi-Wan would come up with for that, but it’s a fun little detour before he gets to time travel.

There's a really painful moment (for the audience, who know about canon Vader) where someone tries to convince Ahsoka to leave the Sith and she's just like "no way, they'd never hurt me!” Then she clarifies that “someone has to keep them from doing stupid Sith shit whenever they get bored, you know?"

A bunch of Jedi probably think she’s delusional, but the few that have seen her get into trouble that is legitimately too much for her, which isn't often, have then seen Anakin show up like the devil himself to save her, and it's like. Oh. This is why she isn't scared of them hurting her.

We’ve discussed how Anakin does get concerningly in character with the fake Sith thing. However, Anakin and Ahsoka are, just once in a while, surprised by how Ben gets sometimes when playing the bad guy.

After all, he stabbed a dude with a fork and threatened to eat him during his time as Hardeen…

He has the same dramatic streak as all the rest of the lineage. He can be vindictive and creepy and scary as fuck.

HOWEVER:

Obi-Wan: I know I'm supposed to be playing at evil right now, but how do we feel about me making that evil a little... fruity? Ahsoka: Fruity, master? Anakin, who knows where this is going: [buries face in hands] Obi-Wan: You know, the... [limp wrist] Ahsoka: ... Obi-Wan: I mean, I'm already bisexual and well-groomed, I can play it up.

What’s the point of being evil if you can’t be flamboyant?

Anyway, I had to put in a lot of thought for what to do with Rex and Cody, because there's a solid place for them in terms of strategy, but it doesn't do much to give them independent narrative arcs, and 'young Obi-Wan has a crush' isn't much of an arc, you know?

So, basic info first: Cody, Rex, and Anakin all hold the rank of General in this AU because, like... who else is gonna. Ahsoka remains a commander because everyone declares her Baby, and also to keep up the "I'm a morality chain" ruse.

Cody maintains a very stern and unyielding public persona, but the second they're behind closed doors, he's roughhousing with his little brother.

Rex has some fun pretending to be a sadist whenever he and Anakin have to team up, because hamming it up as an evil bastard in front of Jedi is actually really fun... but usually, he's a competent fucking professional.

Because here's the thing: someone has to be.

They both kind of hate the army they've gotten, because these people don't even have proper trigger discipline, let alone any actual discipline.

This army? Tragic. They hate it. Give them the clones.

They have to be drill sergeants for months before they have anything worth sending onto the field.

I think that might be how/when they end up reaching out to Jango. Like, the first inroad is absolutely "we're your clones from the future and you were a Shit Dad so you owe us," but then they actually talk him around into letting the Fake Sith hire him. He brings along all the Mandalorians he can get to answer his calls, and on suggestion from Those Mando Twins, joins the army Ben doesn't even want.

Darth Boring doesn't want an army! Unfortunately, Cody thinks that's stupid as hell, and is overruling Ben so they can actually work on this 'cleaning up the galaxy of slavery' thing with actual resources.

Cody and Rex are super competent, and it shows in their horrified disdain for the state of their troops.

Rex: Fucking natborns. Anyone who isn't in the know: What's a natborn? Rex: [leaves without answering] People: WHAT'S A NATBORN???

(I'm assuming that the word smush is harder to parse in Basic.)

I think young Obi-Wan's new crush on Cody should also be unrequited. Cody's just like... bemused. Very "Okay, then, that sure is an Affection you've decided on."

Cody and Anakin both: Sorry, it’d just be too weird. Obi-Wan: Why would it be too weird? Cody and Anakin: Reasons.

Rex has to deal with the "whyyyyy" from both his brother and his (former?) General.

Young Obi-Wan just likes cute boys that fight good! Is that so wrong???

Ahsoka: So since we're not officially Jedi anymore-- Obi-Wan: We're still Je-- Ahsoka: Can we date? Can I date now? I want to date someone before we go back to the Code. It's a classic life experience for most teenage girls, and I want to Have That Experience before we're back at the Temple. Obi-Wan: You're not... you can date, Ahsoka, that's not actually banned by the Code. I mean, you'd have to keep it casual, but-- Ahsoka: I CAN DATE!!!

(Great priorities, Ahsoka.)

An idea I'm toying with is that one of the clones ends up Legally Engaged to Satine for political reasons, and young Obi-Wan is just like ???? because not only can he not date the hot boys, but one of said hot boys has become Mr. Steal Yo Girl.

Young Obi-Wan is suffering, and Quinlan is the worst friend ever because Quinlan is laughing at him.

There is obviously the question of

"How would Satine ever end up agreeing to that, given what their public personas are like and all that? She puts duty ahead of personal feelings but all indications are that it’s a terrible decision both ways." (as stated by Tia)

Which, yes, I forgot to actually say that I was imagining Jango had declared "those twins" his heirs after telling people they were his younger* cousins. Because reasons.

* Jango is about 27 when they land in the past, and I’m going to say the accelerated aging ended after hitting physically twenty because no, I don’t want to deal with that. As far as anyone knows, Cody and Rex are about five years younger than Jango. They’re less than year apart, which isn’t very visible, and most people assume they’re identical twins (except Rex’s hair), and that Cody just looks slightly older because of the scar.

Darth Boring had convinced Satine that the way to keeping Mandalore peaceful was to work with Jango (because Darth Boring, which is not his actual title but it is what Ahsoka insists on calling him in private, has a vested interest in keeping Mandalore and all interested parties calm), and he... maybe accidentally set up a political marriage between her and one of the clones.

It wasn't on purpose! Satine never married in his timeline, okay, he didn't expect her to ever get married here, either! He didn't even suggest it! This just happened!

(I want to say that Cody would be more competent at having a political marriage? But IDK.)

Do I do the Satine thing? It has potential, but also it's a bit of a cop-out. Do I have Cody be a diplomatic representative for their pseudo-Sith empire? He could be, but I think he'd hate it. Do I have Rex date one the Chaos Entities (Anakin or Ahsoka), or is that too repetitive with my other works? THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH GOING ON.

Part of me wants Quinlan to get a crush on Cody, and the crush gets bigger specifically in response to the fact that Cody refuses to take him seriously and/or just doesn't give him the time of day.

Based on their one interaction in TCW, they probably let get along ok. Cody maybe likes him back, buuuuuuut internally he's just a little "you were tolerable at almost-forty; early twenties you is obnoxious."

Just imagine the absolutely puppyish attempts at gaining approval and Impressing The Hot Mando General. Quinlan keeps having vague daydreams of seducing someone to the side of the Light. He really leans into the bodice ripper fantasies of saving someone evil with the power of love! (And also the power of really good sex.)

Bant looks at Quin and Obi and wants to throw them both into the nearest pond because they're idiots, but on this topic they are the same flavor of idiot. She considers calling up Reeft and Garen to help her knock some sense into them.

Quinlan: Can I volunteer to go undercover to the Sith? The Council: No. Quinlan: ...what if I-- The Council: No.

Tholme tries to get Qui-Gon to commiserate over their Padawans getting obsessed with Hot Sith Boys, but Qui-Gon just finds the whole thing funny. He knows from the chats he has with Ben that Anakin feels so completely, utterly, incredibly awkward about all of this.

(Ben continues to hold to "Anakin brought this on himself.")

(Ben also “kidnaps” Qui-Gon a lot.)

Also, hey, at least Quinlan isn’t actually into hot Sith boys! He’s into hot Sith minions which is... probably a step up. At least Cody’s not a Sith himself!

It's a step in some direction but Tholme has no idea which one.

(Quinlan sees Cody in dress uniform once and just keeps the mental image for Ages. It’s in his dreams. Sometimes said dreams overflow to Tholme via Force Mind Magic and Quinlan wakes up to someone smacking his face with a pillow.)

Arguably, Quin's also a lot more romantic about his crush than Obi-Wan is, in this case. Quinlan: I want to save him... Obi-Wan: Hey, hey, cute boy. Look at me. Let’s bang.

Cody: There are currently two future Jedi generals having some form of absurd romantic fixation in my direction. I don't know how to feel about this. Rex: Bed them. Cody: ...I'm not saying that's not eventually an option, but one of them is the younger Kenobi, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Rex: Pat him on the head like a tooka and then bed his friend, it'll be funny.

I think the Quinlan thing and also general exasperation of leading an absolutely useless army can function pretty solidly as the basis for Cody, but I have another idea for Rex now.

Komari is currently brainwashed in a cult, yes? So.

I keep bouncing around back and forth on what to do with Rex, but part of me suddenly really likes the idea of, after Team Fake Sith finds and dissolves the cult (as one does), and takes Komari into custody (because she's dangerous and deeply unwell), Rex kind of ends up her touchstone to being a decent person. He’s not a morality chain, and it’s not really a redeemed-through-love thing, just This Is A Solid Dude who doesn't pity her or thinks she's irredeemable (however you choose to define such a thing), but actually relates to the kind of conditions living like that can involve, and just kind of...

I don’t know. I think Rex's arc in this AU could be very heavily grounded in something to the effect of "You're not the worst darksider I've met. You're not the only person who was in a cult. You're not even the only former Jedi I know that's committed awful, horrible crimes. My question is just this: What are you going to do moving forward?"

Later Anakin: Wait, who do we know that was in a cult? Rex: What did you think Kamino was?

(Rex isn't as chill as he'd like her to think, but he's trying, and she's fairly reliant on the Force to understand emotions, and is currently in nullifying cuffs, so he can bluff.)

Komari needs someone solid and dependable to rely on for at least conversation, and I think Rex needs to feel needed.

I’m not sure if it’d be romance or friendship, but I think there's a solid basis to work with, potentially.

Per Tia:

One thing about Rex and shipping is like. If you want to do Rexwalker again that's fine, but if you're worried about repetitiveness but still want to like. Ship him in a non-political-convenience way. Rexsoka here actually would be different than your other stuff.

I'm trying to figure out if I can make it work because Ahsoka thematically fits very much into a little sister shaped hole here? She feels younger than in other works, despite not actually being younger than she is in, say, Commander Buir. In those other fics, she has some time alone to function and prove herself independently of Anakin and Obi-Wan.

I usually pluck Ahsoka out at sixteen if I'm pulling her from TCW, so she's got most of her competence but hasn't gotten quite all the trauma yet. Commander Buir, in particular, also has baby-shaped Anakin for contrast.

That said, I can see a decent source of narrative conflict in her wanting to experiment with romance and all that, and Anakin trying to tell her she's too young.

A year into this whole time-travel mess, she wants to give the dating thing a shot, and it spirals into "You were only two years older than me when you got married!"

I think I could build a plot out of Ahsoka wanting to do these things, and Anakin as an audience insert not quite processing that she's old enough to make these decisions. If she's choosing to date Rex, whose age works out as being close to hers when one takes into account Kamino fuckery, and whom she trusts absolutely, it’s arguably extra weird for Anakin to be upset with it.

"Senator Amidala was five years older than you, and you married her when you were nineteen and had only really known her for a week! I can go on a date with a guy we both know is one of the most trustworthy people alive if I want, Skyguy!"

I can definitely see Ahsoka getting annoyed with Anakin being overbearing and controlling at some point before that unrelated to romance, too. It’s not exactly a new fault of his.

My god, just imagine someone snidely asking Anakin "where's your little shadow?" and Anakin, being Himself and also a Fake Sith, has an emotional breakdown about how Ahsoka yelled at him for micromanaging her and not trusting her to make her own decisions in life and so she got herself a multi-month solo mission from Ben that Anakin isn't allowed to know any details about, and--

It's another one of those "oh, you have PROBLEMS problems with your mental health" incidents for the Jedi to add to the file, because Anakin having emotionally charged rants about his issues at seemingly terrible times is how they get a lot of information.

Some of the rants are planned.

Many of them, actually.

They want the Jedi to know these things.

Just, well. Anakin.

He really is a little Like That.

On that note, I'm low-key imagining that Anakin gets put on mood stabilizers by the therapist in this context, and he's doing good! He's handling his issues! He's--been captured with Obi-Wan the Younger again and his medication was confiscated.

Anakin is... not great. He's a little out of practice managing his unmedicated self, and when adding withdrawal symptoms onto that... poor Anakin.

(Poor Obi-Wan.)

I think it would be best if Anakin makes a bunch of ominous blustery comments at their captors about how they won't like what's coming to them if they take his belongings (AKA the fanny pack that has his backup pills), and then Obi-Wan just gets to watch Anakin get more and more erratic, because like. Yes, Anakin is using the Force to compensate, but unfortunately he's mostly cut off, and the stress of the situation is pushing him away from depression and into the beginnings of a manic episode.

Anakin is aware of his issues to the point where he's mostly managing, and he keeps asking Obi-Wan "would it make sense for me to [slightly deranged, very impulsive action]," and Obi-Wan realizes he's being the morality sounding board for the Hot Sith because ??? reasons?????

Eventually, Anakin does flop back in bed and dramatically throws his arm over his eyes, and says he needs his meds back, he's absolutely going to lose it, and Obi-Wan tentatively asks what kind of medication. There are levels to worry about. Mild allergy medication is one thing, but heart medication that needs to be taken every four hours is another, you know? He wants to know how much panic is appropriate.

Anakin lets him know that it's Psychiatric In Nature. Obi-Wan suddenly realizes that he really, really, really doesn't want to know what a properly erratic, unmedicated Anakin is like.

(An unmedicated Anakin really isn't nearly as bad as Obi-Wan fears. Anakin's been dealing with this for a while, and knows what his issues are and some of how to deal with them. He'd need to be running on no sleep and higher levels of stress, or to have been drugged with something meant to increase his aggression, to really lose his shit and do something worthy of Vader. RotS levels of stress and sleep deprivation is required to pull RotS levels of manic paranoid delusion.)

Tia asked:

How long does it take the Jedi in general to catch on to how like. They have opportunities. But these Sith never seem to harm any Jedi. And it’s not just like, the past timeline parts of the disaster lineage. They probably get opportunities to hurt other Jedi. Ones that are less skilled at saber work. And more importantly ones that they don’t seem weirdly interested in."

I'm not sure, really. The Jedi don't spend as much time in the Outer Rim as they could, and that's where the Team operates, so actually running into them by accident is unlikely for anyone other than Shadows.

Fortunately, it's really easy to toy with Shadows with the excuse of "I want to see how long it takes before you Fall with us."

I do want like... okay. Here’s the mental image:

Qui-Gon calls them out on being Fake Sith pretty quickly, so Ben just sort of eyes him, dramatically, and orders out "Leave us" to all non-team people. The threat of torture is implied but not stated. He gestures with wine to keep in character. He definitely makes sure Young Obi-Wan is ushered out, so it's just five time travelers, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Ahsoka's immortal force birb.

"...so, what's the reason for the farce, Obi-Wan?" "How in all the hells did you figure it out so quickly?"

(Qui-Gon cheated a bit. He could feel the broken training bond that was never properly severed due to Traumatic Death Of A Master on Ben's end)

Ben didn't realize he'd feel it! Young Obi-Wan can't feel his older self or a training bond with Anakin or Ahsoka, so why could Qui-Gon?

IDK if there would be anything on the level of crying and hugging it out, but I think it would be very funny if, every time young Obi and Anakin are getting captured by pirates or something, Ben and Qui-Gon are just having a nice afternoon tea and checking their watches to see if their respective walking bundles of neuroses are done with their adventure yet.

The Council is So Done, because Qui-Gon continues to insist that they're Not That Bad, but every time anyone other than Qui-Gon brings up the friendship, Ben laughs and makes a comment about how absolutely gullible Master Jinn is.

Obi-Wan is skeptical of his own experiences with Anakin, at least, if only because he's skeptical about Anakin's everything.

"I don't know if Vader is telling me the truth. I don't know if he's telling himself the truth. I don't think he's a great source of information even when he thinks he's being honest."

Anakin could tell Obi-Wan the full and complete truth, and Obi-Wan would worriedly put a hand to his forehead and start doing tests for hallucinations and paranoid delusions. In his defense, this is a very reasonable assumption to make with an individual like Anakin. It's just also not accurate, this time. I don’t know if Anakin hallucinates in canon without a weird inciting incident like Force Nonsense or getting drugged by the enemy, but paranoid delusion is pretty much all of RotS.

"I’m your time-traveling padawan who’s pretending to be a Sith to catch some other Sith who’re going to start a galactic civil war and those Mandalorians you like are from a clone army based on a template of Jango Fett made to serve the Jedi (because that’s totally something he’d sign up for), and one of the Sith is your grandmaster but he doesn’t seem to have fallen yet, it’s probably fine," is hard to believe.

Honestly, even if he seemed stable before saying that, which he doesn’t, it’s all real far fetched. There's a lot going on and Obi-Wan wouldn't even begin to believe it without evidence.

I've had it in my head that he and Bant and Quinlan have been gossiping about the mess for months if not years about these idiots, and at one point it became common knowledge that Ben was a Kenobi, and Bant convinced them (since the two were among the most likely in the entire Order to encounter the Fake Sith) to get a DNA sample, probably hair or blood since that's easiest so they can figure out HOW these two are related, if they are, and then there's a whole big thing.

Bant: No, no, this must be contaminated, it's coming up as Obi-Wan! Are you sure you didn't accidentally grab some of your own hairs? I know it's a little long for most of your hair, but the braid-- Quinlan: Wait, they keep claiming stuff about cloning, right? Maybe someone's a clone? Check for artificial telomeres! Bant: ...okay, so, there aren't any artificial telomeres, but the ones from apparently-Ben are... a lot shorter... um... I don't know what to do with this. It's like I have two samples from the same person, twenty years apart. Quinlan: Obi-Wan, what's that face? Why are you-- Obi-Wan: Vader told me he was a time-traveler. I thought it was the fever talking, but...

That’s how he finds out that Ben is future-him before finding out about how he’s not evil!

"Master Jinn... I think... I think the Sith controlling the Outer Rim is me from the future." "Oh, you finally figured it out?" "I AM HAVING A CRISIS HERE."

Obi-Wan, after a few hours of dazed realization, runs screaming to Quinlan and Bant like 'GUYS GUYS THIS EXPLAINS WHY VADER KEPT SAYING IT WAS WEIRD AND THAT I LOOK LIKE HIS MASTER AND THAT IT WOULD BE LIKE DATING HIS DAD.'

You know, the important stuff.

I think Qui-Gon tells him that Ben isn't evil because, like, That Sure Is A Crisis Obi-Wan's Having. He could hold off for shits and giggles, sure, but Obi-Wan’s on the edge of something Really Concerning, mentally. Best help calm him down on at least one or two things.

Obi-Wan’s maybe still a little skeptical until he confronts them over it. Because their Sith act was real good and also like. Maybe Qui-Gon just wants to believe the best of his Padawan, y’know?

Quinlan runs into Ben before Obi-Wan does, after this whole mess, and gets to observe as money changes hands and people act like sore winners about bets made for When Does Obi-Wan Figure It Out.

Anakin was saying 'soon' because he really didn't think the fever-fueled rant would be discounted as easily as it was.

Cody was of the opinion that it would take at least a few more years since they're actually pretty damn good at this whole schtick.

Quinlan: Wow, he's... going to be really disappointed that you have such a low opinion of his intelligence. Cody, gesturing at Ben: Experience. Darth Ben: ಠ_ಠ

Cody just rattles off some of the Extremely Stupid Shit that Ben's done in their time working together.

Rex cheerily offers up "You didn't even realize General Skywalker was married, sir! And they weren't subtle!" "I knew they were together, I just didn--" "Everyone knew they were together, sir. Everyone."

(Rex had the lowest opinion of their deductive capabilities. He claims it would have taken until Baby Ahsoka showed up at the Jedi Temple.)

-Once Obi-Wan accepts that they're decent people after all- Obi-Wan: Wow, Anakin, you're real good at acting unhinged! Anakin: Haha. Yeah. Thanks?

[newswcanonprompts]

Children Fall AU

Padawan Anakin with a group of initiates all ‘Falling’ at the same time

Maybe a Gathering gone wrong or something. Everyone is captured. Pirates or bounty hunters or just awful people.

No knights or the knights are killed.

Anakin is trying to protect the younglings.

Sacrificing himself if he can.

Falls in the process.

The kids are too young. They're not supposed to be in the field yet. There's a reason you're supposed to be a certain age before field missions. Before being chosen as a Padawan.

They can't handle their emotions.

They try to save Anakin right back but Fall, too.

Maybe they get overwhelmed by Anakin's Falling, since he is a supernova? And their shields aren't enough to protect them?

They survive and everyone is dead or dying but Anakin stands among a group of children, all with eyes of gold and he doesn't know what to do.

I want there to be like a noble reason for it?

Maybe but that definitely doesn't help the situation.

Maybe he remembers the tales of the Sith and executions.

He takes the kids and runs.

He doesn't know what he'll do, he just wants to protect them.

Maybe he Falls because he can't defeat the pirates/bounty hunters otherwise

They are kids, they can't be that dark, could they Fall by a Coruscanti Jedi point of view? Not so much Dark as too much attached, multiple Force Bonds attached? The question is more along the lines of Anakin knowing that, though.

They are holding each other together so closely that they would break if you tried to separate them? The pieces make a coherent whole together, but otherwise they would just be broken?

What if the younglings fell first and Anakin fell so that they wouldn't be alone.

Like the idea that the younglings would be hunted or at the very least isolated and he couldn't let that happen (Bariss and Ahsoka could be part of that group, they are in the right age range, right?)

He promised to protect them and he kept them alive but ultimately failed in the way that matters most to the Jedi.

It also could be about healing and building far away from what you used to know and considered home.

So the situation is too much too soon and they all fall. And Anakin with his too big heart and shields that still don't block emotions as much as they should is overwhelmed and he could fight it but…

But these kids need him. They're scared and terrified and he knows that they aren't going to risk heading back to the Jedi, not with the horror stories told about Sith and Dark Side users.

He can't leave them. They need someone, anyone. Even if that's probably him.

You could have them pick up other Force Sensitives kids in bad situations as they flee and protect each other. Like a travelling clan of Forces Sensitives.

The use of the word clan makes me wonder if this version of Anakin would look into alternative Jedi philosophies, like Vizla.

And the Jedi mourning Anakin plus the Initiates because they think they're dead.

The Jedi eventually track down the pirates, but the base has so much blood and darkside surrounding it that they assume that the pirates were blindsided by a dark force user/sith and the children were taken. The Jedi finding the building and feeling the overwhelming about of dark side energy that was used there.

Privately the Council almost hope they're dead because they think that it would be a kinder fate than to be tortured and broken by the Sith.

Quinlan not being able to get a read on anything because it's so heavy with pain and dark side energy.

All he sees is gold eyes and screaming.

He doesn't notice that it's more than one pair. Doesn't realise that they're each filled with tears and oh so young.

Obi-Wan is convinced that Anakin is still alive because the bond didn't snap but it might as well have because it's never been so solidly closed to him.

Anakin was always leaking emotions and thoughts through the bond and now all that meets Obi-Wan is a durasteel wall.

Also, Anakin becoming a bounty hunter to make sure the kids get enough food

If he looks into the Mandalorian Jedi, as a way to teach the Fallen kids, he could become Mando and do the bounty hunting as a way to take care of them. Just an idea, though.

What if they all become bounty hunters and no one realises that they're Sith or Dark Side users? Until a fight ends in a helmet being knocked off.

I like the thought of the kids forming a new Order of nomadic Force Users, you could fit so much Force worldbuilding here as they figure things out away from Coruscant.

What if dar jettii Ani and his gaggle of kids has a run in with Jango Fett. Depends on canon or fanon interpretation really.

I would imagine that Jango would absolutely adopt this smol child (teenager) and his band of even more smol children.

Wouldn't that be hilarious? Jango with 8 new kids?

One sullen teenager that refuses to trust. And then he plops Boba in Anakin's arms and Anakin just freaking melts and it's all over from there.

So, this Jango has his hatred of Jedi balanced by his love of children?

Or is it part of his plan against the Jedi to encourage Force users to create an alternative that won't make the same mistakes the Jedi did that led to the slaughter of his people?

I don't know since Anakin & Co. here aren't exactly Jedi. Though I think this Jango would have his hatred of Jedi balanced by his love of his 8 foundlings.

Jango as the Mand'alor.

Anakin pitches a fit when he finds out about the clones and Jango doing right by them

And all eight new kids have lightsabers, but they're not Jedi, so..........Boba/Jango might get the Darksaber in this!!!

Anakin finds out that Vizla has a Jedi artifact and just gets it back.

Hands it to Jango: “Like what? You needed this, right?”

Jango is a tired new dad. So Anakin is just like running around doing whatever and causing his dad stress.

What if Jango adopted them and didn't tell them?

Like, he said the words and Anakin didn't understand. The others did too, because they had that class, but Anakin didn’t

I mean Anakin would jokingly call him "buir" or "dad" at one point or another and Anakin is like "why do you even care".

He gets it eventually.

When he sits the fuck down and stops running around trying to protect everyone and puts the time in to sort his shit.

Read: When Jango gets the kids to sit on him when he starts looking like complete shit.

Yeah, Jango absolutely enlists his siblings' fellow former-Jedi to get him to slow down and relax.

They have it out at some point that Jango adopted him probably when he's gotten himself injured and doesn't understand why Jango won't leave him

and Jango's like "You kriffing di'kut, you're my son" and Anakin's like "?!?!?!? What?!?!"

Anakin can speak several languages but not mandoa. Jango tries to teach him, but his accent is atrocious.

Anakin can understand Mando'a and he sometimes uses some words, but he can't speak it.

Plus, he sometimes crosses Mando'a with another language or several and it just becomes an incomprehensible mess unless you understand all the languages he's crossed Mando'a with.

how about Mando'a's too close to something else he knows.

He keeps getting it super confused with another language.

Like french and spanish, but there's no cross meanings, so it might sound the same, the meanings AREN'T.

At this point, everyone just goes "you need a translator droid if you want to speak with Anakin"

However, he will offhandedly speak in another language or start writing in one language and end in another no matter how fluent he is.

And his accent is still atrocious. The closest comparison is the bastard compromise between Texan and Yorkshire.

Anakin is that one person who will use words from whatever languages are the best to speak about any given subjects.

Or whichever language he associates with a given subject. That's why he learned how to speak binary in the first place.

Boba becomes fluent in binary before speaking fluently in Mando'a.

I wonder how the discovery of Kamino would pan out in this.

Anakin accidentally starts a clone rebellion, and oops, it looks like there might be a Revolution on Kamino.

Slave rebellions are always very very good.

Dex: Ah yes Kamino, or how the Mand’alor got his groove back. Outer Rim politics got wild a while back let’s just say. Long story short, the Mand'alor adopted eight new children, one of them pitched a fit about clones, and things devolved from there.” 

The Clone Wars are going to be a wreck.

There’s an army missing!

Sheev running around his office like: “Now, where did I put that”

He is furious because there's an army missing, his future apprentice is missing, his future apprentice has a stable support system

basically, his plan just collapses.

Obi-Wan starts to cry because oh thank the fucking force they’re alive but Anakin and the kids misinterpret it.

Anakin's just like "I'm sorry, I wasn't going to let them be hurt anymore! I wasn't going to let anything else happen to them!" Obi-Wan: "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

[siennahrobek]

Prompt

In a new attempt to turn Anakin Skywalker to the darkside, Chancellor Palpatine orchestrates the disappearances of heavily pregnant Padme Amidala and Master Councilor Obi-Wan Kenobi. It backfired.

Nobody really won.

It had been ten years.

Knight Anakin Skywalker and Knight Ahsoka Tano were sent to a distress call far out in the outer rim, almost in wild space. Anakin didn’t mind the long journey. His former padawan was good company and sometimes, sometimes, it was nice to get away from the Temple for a while. Away from the sympathetic and pitying stares and lingering theories or rumors.

Things hadn’t been the same for many reasons.

Ten years ago, the two most important people in Anakin’s life disappeared, the man who raised him and his heavily pregnant wife. Eight years ago, they had found what was left of her body. Five years ago, the Order declared Master Kenobi one with the Force.

Anakin never truly stopped looking, but he was becoming dim in ability and stamina. It had been so long and there were no leads to follow. No trace or evidence of his old masters presence anyway. Nowadays, it was pretty much just research and keeping an eye out for anything that vaguely resembled him. He was trying to have the life Obi-Wan always wanted for him, balance and happiness. He tried to connect with others, with Jedi. He spent quite a bit of time mediating, walking the gardens, helping as many as he could throughout the galaxy. He was a good Jedi, he thought, at least on the outside. He was working on the inside. He had a jedi’s life.

It was all he had now. And he would do his best to make Obi-Wan proud.

But being happy, truly happy, Anakin wasn’t sure if he could truly achieve it anymore. Being balanced with that type of hole in your heart, it was difficult. He could accept loss better now; there was no stopping that sort of thing. When it was one’s time to leave the planes of this galaxy for the Force, it was something to rejoice. It was supposed to be home. It wasn’t so easy when there were no answers.

Ahsoka had been knighted several years earlier and Anakin could not have been more proud. Her friends had been there, had congratulated her and she was happy, he had to believe that. But even she missed the presence of another who should have been there. Obi-Wan would have wanted to be there, to witness such a great occasion. They did their best and afterwards, they had a good time, were happy with the rank that came with her knighthood. It wasn’t that either of them were mourning during the time. It was just, they could feel the missing piece. It has been a few years but lately, they had found themselves partnered up quite frequently for missions. He hoped Ahsoka didn’t mind too much but there was never going to be an easy way out of this. Around it. Because this was the type of thing he and Obi-Wan did. They were the Team. They did everything together, even after knighthood.

The Council was trying, he gave them that.

He didn’t know if it really helped, though. It was nice, though, that they cared. They kept an eye on him. Years before, he would have read that as they didn’t trust him. It took him a very, very long time to realize that wasn’t always the case. And partnering him up with someone he was close to, someone he trusted above most else, it was some way of caring. He still struggled with those thoughts, even years later, but he was easier now.

The mystery however, was not any easier. There was an abysmal void where his loved ones should have been. A tear in his heart from the mystery. The lack of answers. He still found himself grieving for Padme but it was easier now. Although no one was entirely sure exactly what had happened to her, at least they had found a body, they had a storyline about what had happened and how it happened. It wasn’t sometime Anakin liked to think about particularly, but it was easier to grieve knowing. She was gone and eventually, he had accepted that. Let go, so to speak. She was with the Force and Anakin could feel her in some of the things he did, some of the objects and people and actions he witnessed and saw. There was grief, but there was also knowing.

The same could not be said for Obi-Wan.

No one knew what happened to him. There were no clues, no evidence. He had disappeared one day, alongside Padme and no one ever could figure out how it happened or why or anything. Although they had found a body for her, they never did for him. Not even a glimmer of anything.

Some darker rumors, cynical beings, spread that he had abandoned the Order. That the war had made him go mad. That he had kidnapped the senator or worse, was the one who slaughtered her. Anakin had quickly put a stop to it. Everyone had felt it the moment he knew about these ideas and theories, diminishing and tarnishing Obi-Wan’s name that was atrocious. He was not the only one who felt this way, but he was the strongest and most determined and the most furious…

No one said anything now.

No one dared.

The Jedi kept him in high honors. He was mentioned in classes, with his thoughts and theories on the Force, his research on all the things he loved to learn; animals, plants, cultures, languages. His strategies from the war were taught. His negotiation fame was spread; everyone knew the stories of the Negotiator. He wasn’t just a war hero. He was a Jedi, and a great one at that. His faith in the Order, his faith in people, his faith in the Force, was incredible and Anakin hadn’t really come to realize how that was until years after.

Obi-Wan loved in such a way that Anakin hadn’t understood since he was a child. He wished that he could talk with him one more time, just to show his old master that he was right, that Anakin was okay. That Anakin knew how much Obi-Wan Kenobi loved him.

That Anakin was doing his very best to be the Jedi and person he knew he could be.

The clones continued to think of him; believe the best in their General Kenobi. They always had liked him. He was a high general, one that appreciated and valued their input and their lives. He was their finder, all the cadets – former and current – had been told the stories about how he found them like a true Jedi searcher. Even if it was by accident, it had jumpstarted their journey into being free. He had worked to help and protect them alongside other council members and the few politicians who saw them more as canon fodder. It amazed Anakin how long and intense the memories of the former soldiers were because he was still brought up.

Cody and a lot of the 212th had taken it hard; harder that most of the rest of the military. He was their direct general, someone they followed personally up until the very end of the war. Some of them had been friends, even. They had helped Anakin search for a long time, but it was getting harder for them. They had jobs now, they had to start lives, be citizens. Things were expected of them, like for some reason, they had to catch up to the rest of the citizens. It was a struggle and a fight but luckily, they did have allies for assistance.

Many clones got adopted into or employed at the Temple. There weren’t many force-sensitive ones, none enough that they would have made an actual Jedi knight, but the Order was loyal to them as they had been to the Jedi. Many troopers filled in other roles, of teachers, sparring partners, cooks, guards, and researchers. Waxer and Boil had made it from being aides to a creche master to being crèche masters themselves, with leading their own clan of initiates.

Obi-Wan would have loved that.

“Coming up to origin of signal,” Ahsoka announced from the pilot’s seat, flipping a few switches as she began the sequence for landing and attachment. In the middle of nowhere, Anakin noted. There wasn’t a planet near here, in sight or on the scanners. He wondered how they even got out here. Hopefully this wasn’t a mortis situation all over again. He did not want to deal with something like that again. The ship in front of them was small and broken down, floating aimlessly in the abyss of space.

He doubted anyone survived.

“You never know, master,” Ahsoka tried to keep herself upbeat as she shot him a grin, sharp teeth showing unabashedly. “Perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised,” she suggested with a bit of a shrug. The ship had made a thud as it hit the abandoned one and the latches untangled themselves to strike into the hull of the ship.

Oh. He had said that out loud. Oops.

“Latch engaged,” she added and turned to smile at him, tentatively once again. “Come on master. Let’s see what adventure awaits us.”

“I’m no longer your master, Ahsoka,” he reminded her, idly.

She shrugged once more. “Right,” she replied with a small smirk, her voice laced with sarcasm. It was practically oozing out of her. She remained him of his former master sometimes, with her humor and quick wit. With a mischievous side eye, she continued, slyly. “Let’s go, master.”

Anakin rolled his eyes and followed her out, making their way through their ship’s hatch and towards the abandoned one. He still didn’t think that anyone survived but this was their duty. And the calm silence of their journey and the nature of the mission was a bit of a relief from the fast-paced ones that he was normally sent on. Usually, it was a good way to keep his mind off of everything else. This was a nice reprieve.

As the two of them got into the derelict ship, Anakin started talking and he had absolutely no idea where it came from. It was like his mouth had started moving and his brain had not given it permission. “I’m sorry, Ahsoka.”

She glanced at him, curiously. “What for?”

He couldn’t quite meet her eyes, as they waved a flashlight around, searching the cockpit for life or anything else that could give them an idea into what had happened and who may have been there. “I know I haven’t really been…the same since…”

“Since Padme and Master Obi-Wan disappeared,” she supplied with a frown. It had been ten years since it happened and several years since she had been knighted and she still remembered. It was almost always the reason.

He nodded and swallowed heavily. “I…I got through Padme, to some extent at least. I knew what happened to her. But Obi-Wan…I still wonder.”

“Wonder…?”

“What happened. I know everyone says he wouldn’t leave me, not like that but…” he drifted off, looking down, his light flickering towards the floor, near useless. “I was a pretty terrible person around the time he disappeared, unbalanced and in a bad place. Listening to the wrong people, making terrible choices,” Anakin shuddered at the thought of what Palpatine nearly got him to do in his desperation and fury. It had been a dreadful time and everyone else had nearly paid the price for his mistakes, for his foolishness. Ten thousand Jedi, millions of the clones, all the people in the galaxy. He feared now what would have happened if he had not been pulled from the edge, if he had made that leap into the dark side, into the fear and anger and hate. “Perhaps…. maybe it was just too much for even the great and infinitely patient Master Kenobi.”

Ahsoka scoffed good-naturedly as she rolled her eyes, finding the sliver of humor to work through. “One, Master Obi-Wan was not infinitely patient,” she pointed out, glancing at him pointedly. She wasn’t completely wrong. Obi-Wan had a lot of patience but even he had his limits, generally with those he didn’t care for. His patience with Anakin though, that was legendary. Not that he would ever really admit that. “And two, they are right. He would never leave you out of choice. I mean come on. Master Obi-Wan.”

“Yeah. You’re probably right,” he replied half-heartedly and tried shooting her a smile. It wasn’t very convincing, but it was all he had at the moment. After a suggestion of splitting up, the two of them went to opposite ends of the ship, Anakin towards the living quarters and Ahsoka towards the cargo bay. Perhaps Anakin could find some clues with the former inhabitant’s belongings or Ahsoka with whatever they were travelling with.

It was a bust. There was very little there, aside from some blankets. Anakin imagined there were a couple of people stuffed within the quarters, perhaps a man and a child or two, with the toys he found. There were some handmade wooden carved ship toys laying on the bed and Anakin picked one up. It was a Jedi star fighter, he realized. It wasn’t the most amazing rendition of the ship, but he was probably a little bias, considering he had not only flown one of these during the war, he still had one.

What was really interesting about it was the feelings imbued with it. The signature felt familiar, like he should know it, but it was weak. Whoever made this toy was filled with so much love, for the recipient, for those in general, that he cascaded off the toy in waves.

He wondered if the former inhabitant had been force sensitive. It might explain the feelings in the ship and the toys, especially.

“I don’t see anything!” Ahsoka shouted from the opposite end of the ship. He could hear her just fine, even though she was on the other end, but Anakin was still a bit entranced with the toy and the feelings coming off of it. “You?”

There was a brief silence and a clatter. Not big enough to be her body but it had sounded like she had dropped her flashlight.

Anakin glanced back towards where she had headed. He couldn’t see her but it was more instinctive than anything. “Ahsoka?”

Silence.

“Ahsoka?! Answer me?” Anakin started to panic, his heart beating faster and faster as he moved towards the door, calling her name.

She sounded scared and small, like back in the early days of the war and casualties were high. When she was worried about those she cared about, troopers, jedi, citizens. She sounded like she was in tears. Anakin couldn’t really remember a specific time where had sounded so fearful, so worried, so sad. Not in a way that was as blatant as this. “Skyguy?” Her voice called out. That was a name he hadn’t heard in a while. “You…you have to come see this.”

Anakin raced across the ship, panicked, and leaping over crates and objects. She didn’t make it sound like she was in danger, and she didn’t appear to be, but he didn’t stop until he was right next to Ahsoka. He had nearly crashed into it. She was standing in front of a large gray slab, some kind of relief sculpture of some kind. At least, that was what it looked like, although he hadn’t gotten a very good look at it. His attention was on Ahsoka. But he could tell what it was made out of. He had never seen such a large slab of carbonite before.

“What is it?”

She was crying, he could see a multitude of silent tears. They were running down her face in a cascade and although he couldn’t hear them, he could almost hear her sobs in the Force. But she just pointed up and Anakin followed her hand and gaze.

The face was distorted, like it had been looking down when the carbonite had been applied. The slab was huge and only made bigger by the cloak the figure wore. It was sweeping and wide, like he was trying to cover, hide or protect large objects underneath. Possibly, he was. But even with the odd, defensive pose and the face not looking straight on, even after ten years, Anakin knew that face.

He always knew that face.

Frozen in carbonite.

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

[bedlamsbard]

I got a couple of different asks about Luke and Ahsoka in other side AU 10, so I guess I will just make it a regular post after all so I can answer all of them at once.

@slecnaztemnot: 

Okay i just read your latest other side chapter and I wanted to ask about Ahsoka and Luke dynamics. I wonder what exactly where their heretics disagreemts about the jedi doctrine? while i can guess some of the stuff like attachements i guess i mostly see ahsoka as nonjedi and therefore someone who should not be attached to doctrine about attachements (haha) so i am wondering how you see her. i would actually love your take on how their first meetings went. continued in next ask, 1/2

1/2 continuation since most people write them as Ashoka immediately spilling the beans about the whole Vader situation to Luke and yours Ahsoka didn't. So I am curious what do you think Ahsoka feels about it. I got of course lot of it from the fic itself so i am mostly asking about how did you base your interpretation, if that makes sense and what led you to the narrative choices to portray their relationship in such way.

@comentter:

I'm most interested in what Luke and Ahsoka know about each other. Luke doesn't know much about Ahsoka obviously, but does he have any idea why she seems to hate him? He must be desperate lol. And how much does Ahsoka know about what happened on the DS2? And how much does Kanan know about these events? What was Hera able to tell him and what else did Luke and Ahsoka tell him? I always figure that everyone but Luke and a few people he told (like Leia) think the Emperor and Vader from the DS2 explosion.

I now have this image in my head of Ahsoka spending time with Rex and her laughing as Rex does something like tell a joke or a specific gesture. Then Luke walks by, does the exact same thing and Ahsoka is like "Of course, you'd do this stupid thing, you idiot!" :D

I think shortly before I started writing this sequence I had seen some cute art of Luke and Ahsoka hugging, which is a pretty common art trope and which has never sat quite right with me.  I also have the tendency to want to do the opposite of common fanon, which I can’t leave out either.  I also wanted to logic out what the hell was going on with Ahsoka’s charaterization in her Mando episode on a Watsonian level rather than a Doylist one (which I did a few weeks ago), even if other side takes place well before Mando and doesn’t intersect with it in any meaningful way.

When it came to the Luke and Ahsoka relationship (or lack thereof), it came down to three questions for me:

Who knows what?

What do they know?

When do they know it?

I made the decision early on in the chapter to leave Leia out of this relationship entirely, since the new canon seems to at this point in time (within a year of RotJ) be keeping it relatively quiet that she and Luke are siblings, and it’s not something that Hera would have a reason to know.  (Note also that this entire sequence is told from Hera’s POV, which plays into the “who knows what when” angle.)

As per Rebels S4 (not the epilogue, because Mando’s thrown that out the window), Ahsoka knows (or has good reason to believe) the following:

Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader, Sith Lord

Darth Vader was directly or indirectly responsible for the genocide of the Jedi Order and the deaths of any Jedi who survived the Purge (”you and your Inquisitors saw to that”)

Padme Amidala is dead

Obi-Wan Kenobi is dead (Obi-Wan was not dead, but she has no way to know this)

no Darksider can return to the Light side

At the end of RotJ (not taking into account anything that happened in the comics or ancillary novels, which I’m not up to date on), Luke knows (or has good reason to believe) the following:

Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker

everyone Anakin ever knew is dead, mostly because of him

Vader returned to being Anakin Skywalker at the end of his life

(Leia presumably also knows all of this, perhaps with a few more details based on things her parents might have told her, but her feelings about Darth Vader are: Bad, Do Not Want, to be glib about it.)

Now, there’s one other factor here, which is Rex.  Rex knew Anakin and knew Ahsoka and was in the Rebel Alliance -- we know that he was on Yavin IV prior to Luke’s arrival and we know that he fought in the Battle of Endor. (And turns up in a couple of scattered art panels from the comics.)  If we want to take his brief appearance in Galaxy of Adventures with Han Solo’s strike force as canon, then he may have also known Han and probably Luke -- certainly his ears would have pricked up at the name “Skywalker.”  (Okay, there’s one other factor, which is R2-D2, but Artoo never tells anyone anything despite knowing...everything. Or most things, anyway.)  Rex doesn’t seem to know that Anakin became Darth Vader (I believe there’s an interview somewhere where Dave or Pablo or someone says that a meeting between Rex and Vader would be “awkward,” but there’s no canonical reason to believe that he knew about the Anakin/Vader connection), but he probably found out at some point that the 501st was the battalion involved in the assault on the Jedi Temple.  He also, as of Rebels S3-4, assumes that Vader killed Ahsoka -- presumably Ezra would have told him as much as he could.  (And Ezra does know that Vader is Anakin, so he may have told Rex that as well.)  Rex also knows that Anakin Skywalker was having an affair with Padme Amidala, but presumably didn’t know about (a) the marriage or (b) the pregnancy, because how would he know?

Then we come to Ahsoka’s return and unfortunately the current canon gives us no time point for when it actually happened: presumably Ahsoka did not or could not return to the greater galaxy at the point she “left”, during the fight on Malachor (3 BBY), because as of Rebels S3-4 everyone still believes she’s dead.  Maybe she’s still stuck on Malachor without a way to get off, who knows; maybe after S4 Ezra grabbed her into the World Between Worlds she decided to stay on Malachor until she ~caught up with the main timeline, which...you then have to believe that Ahsoka is going to deliberately remove herself from the war, which I can get to, but is not something I’m totally comfortable with.  Or she pops out in the timeline at the same time that Ezra returns to the main timeline and is able to more or less immediately return to the main timeline narrative, plus or minus a few weeks.  (There are, after all, still a couple of Advanced TIE fighters parked in the Sith temple, even if they were potentially damaged in the temple collapse.  Ahsoka could have repaired them or used the comms systems to call for a pick-up -- this is, btw, what happens in Crown.)  We don’t know when the S2 finale scene/S4 WBW scene of Ahsoka walking back into the temple actually takes place in the timeline; it doesn’t have to be at the exact same time as the rest of the S2 finale sequence (since obvs Vader dragging himself out, Maul flying off, and the Rebels crew looking sad doesn’t all take place at the exact same time).

Other side AU is deliberately vague about when Ahsoka returns from the World Between Worlds/Malachor/to the Rebel Alliance; it’s not stated in the story, but I made the assumption that she came back shortly after the (non-epilogue) end of the Rebels finale, but was still deeply messed up from her Malachor revelations.  (Also, like, Sidious, I guess, but she was probably so messed up about Anakin/Vader that Sidious being around barely registered.)  Since she never seems to have held a formal position in the Rebel Alliance, I assumed that after she returned and let everyone know she was still alive, she then immediately took off to try and figure out what the hell happened with Anakin at the end of the Clone Wars, since she saw him like a week before he snapped and at the time he seemed fine.

The problem is that almost everyone involved is dead.

Now, at this point (shortly before Scarif and ANH), a few people are still alive who then die shortly, but whom Ahsoka may have no reason to believe were involved.  Bail Organa, for example, is still around, but aside from him being Padme’s friend Ahsoka doesn’t have a reason to know that Bail was there when Padme died -- and since they were in contact for the nineteen years preceding there’s no reason for her to assume now that he was keeping something for her.  Back in the comics (before I stopped reading them), Vader did some digging to figure out what was going on with Padme and his child; Ahsoka probably would have done the same digging (without having to torture anyone), but without necessarily knowing that Padme was pregnant.  Knowing the date of Padme’s death (same as the Republic, essentially), she may have had a previous assumption that Padme was assassinated on Palpatine’s orders, but knowing that Vader is Anakin probably moves that assumption closer to the truth, that Anakin was somehow involved in Padme’s death one way or another.  Sooner or later Ahsoka will turn up the fact that Padme was pregnant, come to the obvious conclusion that Anakin was the father, and possibly find out the same thing that Vader does in the comics -- that the child was born before Padme died.  (But also probably not that Padme was carrying twins, but even if she found that out, it wouldn’t make a difference.)

While Ahsoka is doing her digging (and there really isn’t much information out there to find), the events of Rogue One and ANH happen, and Ahsoka comes back to the Rebel Alliance to find out which of her friends are still alive.  (Maybe Rex is with her at this point, who knows.)

Everyone in the Rebel Alliance is talking about some young hotshot named Luke Skywalker.

Luke Skywalker who has a very familiar lightsaber, who claims his father was Anakin Skywalker, and who had some kind of relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi, who turned up on the Death Star, fought Darth Vader, and died.

Ahsoka has just spent the past few months trying to figure out what happened with Anakin, and as best she can reassemble the facts it mostly comes down to “Anakin did something dumb for Padme, that something dumb was ‘turn to the Dark Side and kill literally everyone,’ and then Padme died, the Republic was overturned, and the Jedi Order was wiped out.”  Ahsoka presumably walks into a room, hears the name Luke Skywalker -- maybe sees him -- and is all at once face to face with the living evidence of just how badly Anakin fucked up.

This is just too much for Ahsoka to deal with at the moment, so she takes off again, and spends the next five years brushing in and out of the Rebel Alliance doing odd missions that can really only be done by a trained Force-user.  Rex, who seems to have a more stable position in the Alliance, is always going to side with Ahsoka over anyone else; if she tells him not to tell Luke that she knew Anakin, he won’t.  (And for that matter, he may have somewhat fraught feelings about Luke himself.)  She may have the odd interaction with Luke -- who has heard that there’s another Jedi in the Alliance and wants to be friends/get real training -- but Ahsoka just does not want any part of this. It’s irrational! She knows it’s irrational! But this is the living evidence of Anakin’s failure, Anakin who last she saw him TRIED TO KILL HER, who was at least partially responsible for the deaths of everyone she ever knew.  (And honestly, finding out that Vader topped it all off by killing Obi-Wan is not going to help.)

Ahsoka may also be feeling a certain amount of survivor’s guilt: if Ezra had not pulled her out of the Malachor temple at that exact moment, she came pretty close to bringing the temple down on both herself and Vader, and may have succeeded in killing him.  She did not do so, and who knows how many people died because of that in the years between Malachor and Yavin?  (Just because Tarkin was the one who gave the order doesn’t mean that Ahsoka may at least partially blame Alderaan’s destruction on Vader, if she knew he was on the Death Star then.) She knows he killed Obi-Wan.

The Yoda lineage is very good at going “yikes, I am going off to live alone and beat myself up over my failure for years” and Ahsoka is very much an example of that lineage.

She and Luke have a relationship of “Hi, I’m Luke Skywalker, do you want to talk?” and “I have to leave immediately,” maybe with the odd “please stop using that lightsaber grip it is physically painful for me to watch, do it like this instead, okay, bye.”  Luke probably told all of two other people about what happened with Vader on the Death Star, Leia and Han; he has no reason to tell anyone else about it because it won’t matter to them.  Why would he tell Ahsoka, whom he has no relationship with?  He doesn’t know that Ahsoka knew Anakin Skywalker and would only know if one of four people told him: Ahsoka herself (no), Rex (no), R2-D2 (maybe), or Admiral Ackbar (would never have occurred to Luke to ask, might have occurred to Ackbar to say).  (We also don’t know that Mon Mothma knew Ahsoka very well, or at all, for that matter; they never interacted in TCW.)

As for her swinging harder into overt Jedi-ness by Mando after her blatant “I am no Jedi” of Rebels, it reads to me as a response to the Anakin/Vader revelation (especially the attachment thing).  She had made certain assumptions in the TCW period (see her saving Rex in the TCW finale) and prior to Rebels; Kanan’s method of Jediness was something she could accept in the time period and in those circumstances; the Anakin/Vader revelation shattered all of that, followed immediately as it was by Kanan apparently going full Jedi self-sacrifice despite his attachments.  (Her reaction to Ezra being a trauma response about two very different circumstances.)  All of a sudden what she thought might have been mutable based on the circumstances became something that had to be adhered to in case of dangerous results, which she had just had brought home to her in extremely bad circumstances.

I made a crack somewhere about Mando’s central tension being between “being Mandalorian” and “being doing Mandalorianness”; I think in the post-OT period with Ahsoka and Luke we’re seeing something similar with “being Jedi” and “being doing Jediness.”  Even if Ahsoka isn’t actively claiming the title Jedi anymore (because what does that accomplish in most contexts?), she’s leaning far more into the tenets of the Jedi Order -- which Luke doesn’t know and doesn’t know he doesn’t know.

Thus the doctrinal dispute.

Ahsoka grew up in the Jedi Order.  That’s what she knows, that’s how she knows how to be a Jedi; for her being a Jedi is being part of the Jedi Order, whether or not the actions associated with performing Jediness are being actively practiced.  Luke doesn’t have that context.  For Luke, being a Jedi is...being doing Jediness.  (This is super awkward phrasing.)  Performing the actions of a Jedi.  Luke has a few holocrons, but I’m guessing that a lot of what is on those holocrons makes the assumption that whoever is opening with them has the context of being a part of the Jedi Order and doesn’t explain really basic stuff about the Order or what that means.  Luke’s Jedi Order is not going to be the Republic Jedi Order made anew; it’s going to be something that has a resemblance to it and is based on a similar view of the Force, even arguably its heir, but is just not going to be the same thing.  It can’t be.  Luke doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

Kanan, of course, is coming into all of this from a similar context as Ahsoka: he grew up in the Jedi Order, it’s what he knows, it’s who he is.  Except Kanan never walked away from the Order, so while Ahsoka had been disconnected from her Jediness at the time of the Purge, he never lost his -- part of Ahsoka’s tension from TCW S7-Rebels was “I can’t be a Jedi because the Order is gone” and Kanan’s was “can I be a Jedi without the Jedi Order?”  (Ezra is a whole ‘nother thing but is somewhat outside the scope of this.)  The Jedi Order never factors in Luke’s Jediness at all.  (There’s some lineage doctrinal dispute here as well -- the Yoda lineage seems to be very closely connected to the Order as the font of Jediness, the Windu-Billaba lineage somewhat less so.  The Yoda lineage is like...the hardcore conservatives of the Jedi Order, though, and are probably not typical.)

Poor Kanan came back from the dead, after a week in another universe (which had its own problems; he’s been trying to very gently convince his counterpart that even after being an Inquisitor for months he can still be a Jedi), into Luke trying to build a new Jedi Order from scratch, Ahsoka firmly believing it couldn’t and shouldn’t be done and not wanting to be in the same room as Luke at all (not to mention that she really did not believe that they should have gone for “hey, let’s send Hera Syndulla to another universe” as even being an option), and both of them having essentially incompatible notions of being a Jedi at each other -- this is probably the most time Luke and Ahsoka ever spent in each other’s presence.  They’ve probably never articulated their problems at each other, just assumed that the other knew them.  And Kanan has his own “how to be a Jedi” approach, which is from a very different than either Ahsoka or Luke because despite originating from the same context as Ahsoka, he had a very different path to get to his present position.

As for what Kanan knows -- uh, pretty much only what Hera knew, and Hera knew very little?  She was friendly with Luke and Leia, but didn’t have much interaction with them -- she states that she had a tendency to avoid Luke because even if she would never say it to Luke’s face, she silently believes that if any Jedi should have been in the Rebel Alliance, it should have been Kanan and Ezra and not this relative newcomer.  If the Death Star 2 news about Vader and Palps was never common knowledge, then Hera wouldn’t have known it.  Kanan’s in a position of having to play catch-up, but also having a completely different priority (finding Ezra).  He sat through this meeting where after they’d finished grilling him on “you were in ANOTHER UNIVERSE and also you CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD?” they politely sniped at each other with a bunch of context he didn’t have and flat out decided that wow, he did not want to deal with this at all, whatsoever.

(This is also not stated in the story, but Luke and Ahsoka also disagreed about whether Jacen should be trained or not: Luke said, yeah, of course, when he’s a little older! and Ahsoka said nope, he’ll be fine, it will go away. Hera was just very “...I will deal with this later” about it since it wasn’t an urgent issue.)

[jasontoddiefor]

Okay you're my go to person for weird thoughts. So you know how luke tried to revive the jedi order? Was he just allowed to collect force sensitive kids and teach them the five days of training he got or did someone force him to like. Get a teaching degree. Did ahsoka help in any way? Did she force him to go to teacher school to get a degree in teaching? Seriously is luke qualified to teach a bunch of kids a religion and a sword club.

Anon you’re my absolute fave person bc your “weird” thoughts give me an excuse to ramble about my thoughts without feeling like I’m just throwing them in the void so please keep those thoughts coming.

And this house knows parts of canon, but acknowledges even less so say goodbye to the sequels and legends because I Have Opinions.

First of, I think that Luke gets Ahsoka, Ezra & Cal on board with his Skywalker-Amidala charm and stubbornness. Canon, give me the forbidden Luke meeting other Jedi content. He’s not gonna revive the Order on his own, he needs people (and Leia is getting training too ofc bc she deserves a lightsaber but she’s also a little more busy with politics). So, yes, he has help.

Next - and I apologize in advance bc I’m going super off tangent here but it’s kinda necessary and also nobody can stop me - Luke got them all assembled and he kind of assumes they’re really organizing it all as equals while the others are quite happy to have him be the official representative/head of the Order. It takes a while for that particular realization to settle in - I picture something like a person calling him the leader and he wants to protest but everybody else just goes along with it. (He does protest in the aftermath of the talk because all of them have more real training than he, but Ezra doesn’t want to be in charge, Cal doesn’t think he’s up for the job and Ahsoka thinks that if they are starting anew, somebody from the old generation shouldn’t lead. And Luke already Has A Reputation.) So, Luke gets put in charge.

Now to get to the kids rebuilding the Jedi Order!

Okay, so. How do you even go about starting up your new Order? I imagine they start with the people that are already there and are Force-sensitive. So you have Rebels there, people their age or even older and teenagers, whoever has the ability and wants to learn. (I just really want Luke to take a look at a pilot he’s been flying with and go “okay your reflexes are way too good for you to not have the Force” and that’s how he gets his first student.)

They settle on Yavin IV bc it has canon ties and I freaking love that place it looks so cool. Also there is no evil Sith Spirit because I Have Spoken. And like, they might be rebuilding the Order, but they still need people to keep that place running and those that come to train, don’t come on their own. Luke was saved because of his ties to his father, he wouldn’t separate families. So you probably start out with a Rebel base that’s not an active combat base, but hmm maybe they put a hospital here? A refugee camp as well? Anyway, there are people and that means jobs and point is - this new Order isn’t isolating itself and there is a growing community.

So any kids that become Jedi, are likely being raised by their parents and the community as well! And it’s not like any of the Jedi here can teach basic biology. Therefore they might just drop “the Jedi subjects” in-between normal school lessons and work. You can’t rebuild from nothing, you need a community. And if you work in that community, you pick up on things. So The Squad might not get teaching degrees but you learn while interacting with children. I’m studying to become a teacher rn and I haven’t had many didactic classes so far, but I’m also doing afternoon classes for primary school kids and the more you interact with children, the more you figure out how to teach them.

And in the panic that is bound to hit at least Ezra and Luke, they might download teaching manuals from the holonet.

(”’Teaching with games’? Think we can have them throw balls at each other with the Force?”

“Idk, Yoda’s training was kind of more focused on how to not die when you meet Vader and I was more concerned with surviving. Hey, Ahsoka, Cal is that how you did it-”)

But that is also more about how you teach and less what you teach. I mean, nobody thought you could come back from the darkside but guess what! Luke and his compassion proved the opposite! And none of them ever got the full Jedi training. Imagine Cal coming home one day like “Hey so I found this holocron, did you know about *starts going off about obscure knowledge none of them have ever heard about*”. And Force ghosts! How that worked and that they existed also wasn’t common knowledge while Luke probably assumes that is just a thing Jedi know. So, really, they are figuring their new tenets out themselves as well. And there is no 1-on-1 teaching because there aren’t enough even semi-trained Jedi for that.

Would anybody ask them for their Credentials? Maybe. But also, like, this community starts with people they already know. Word gets around. Cal helps set up a garden by decimating the offending trees with his lightsaber. These don’t stay mysterious magical Jedi for long, they get humanized. And if the Mandalorian has taught us one thing, it’s that untrained strong Force-sensitive kids are dangerous. So people might just be happy there is someone who knows what to do when your kid starts levitating their toys.

TLDR Step 1 is setting up a base and trial-and-error based communal teaching without actually going out into the galaxy to find Force-sensitive people.

Now imagine you got that down. They go out to find Force-sensitive people/children or they might also, with their growing reputation, get children dropped on their doorstep. So they are now directly responsible for children that do not have any other guardians. Some might get adopted into the community but otherwise? Congrats, you’re a parent Jedi Master. And because screw the First Order - my OT people get a happy ending, Yavin is not only the home of the budding Jedi Order but also a place to recover, heck they might have a city starting to really take off, so imagine when the Alliance finds a bunch of kids to be indoctrinated into Stormtroopers, they might just... drop them there. And if one or two are Force-sensitive, that means they are exactly where they belong! (Yes, you caught me, I just want Jedi Finn.) Bonus points if the kids pick their own last names or like, just take the name of the moon or, even better, the last names of the Jedi already running around.

So this is a very long-winded way of saying that I think the first years of this new Order are less schooling in a typical institutional setting and a lot more communal and family-orientated raising children in general with the result that Luke has a mug that says Galaxy’s Greatest Dad Jedi Master, a birthday gift given to him by one of the kids that never fails to make Han laugh at him.

TLDR Neither Luke, nor Ezra or Cal or Ahsoka have teaching degrees but nobody asks for parenting degrees either. Are they qualified? Depends on whether you’re expecting them to be people who give you grades for essays, or people trying to support you first.

[asthefirerisesblog]

OKAY GUYS BUCKLE UP YOU DON'T KNOW ME BUT I HAVE AN IDEA.

(We are talking about Vader so if discussing his health issues is triggering for you, go make yourself a mug of hot chocolate and I hug you (or not if you don’t want to) from afar)

(if Anakin the war had been a little less murdery)

In this absolutely ridiculous AU I have in my head, I have imagined the Rebellion (mostly like the Rogues with our dear dear sunshine boy Luke Skywalker) as a group of gen z friends, with ridiculous insides jokes, MEMES and fits of laughter every 2 seconds.

For example, they have the Star Wars equivalent of a Group Chat.

And you must understand that the Group Chat is sacred. If there is a message on it, nobody cares that it's the middle of a very important meeting or even a dogfight, e-ve-ry-one must see what ridiculous meme that random guy you talked to once on a Saturday morning two years ago sent. It is mandatory. 

I talked about stupid inside jokes and for example, there was Wedge who once completely THREW HIMSELF DOWN in the middle in a hallway (actually, he fell, but 1. it was so dramatic even Luke Channel-Boots Skywalker wouldn’t have done it, and 2. he will not admit for the life of him that his foot got stuck in whatever irregularity of the floor) and it made a BOOM so loud and it was so damn funny everyone decided to never let him live that down. So now, when you enter this hallway, you have to put your foot down the hardest you can in remembrance for the magnificent BOOM of Wedge.

Now, imagine that Anakin and the crew of the Executor have defected to the Rebellion when our beautiful murderdad has discovered that he was, in fact, a dad. Anakin is, at this point, half-living his best life. He has his son, he found his daughter (ummm also Alderaan has not really happened okay thank you bye) and they actually care about him (that’s new and scary for this extremely traumatised tin can). He took off the mask and is relying on a clear oxygen mask to breath, + the vital parts of his suit. Doctors are figuring a way to completely remove the suit, but he is not completely down for another extensive surgery, so yep. Beneath the mask, the Rebellion (and the ex-Imps) have discovered a man deeply scarred both physically and mentally, with a lot of issues (about his relationship to his body, to himself in general, his self-worth etc). My vision of things is that during the Clone Wars and his Jedi years, he had already a lot of issues concerning his view of himself (growing up as a slave  and a complete lack of therapy didn’t really help), but there was still a light, a fire in him. I do think that despite everything, there was moment where he could forget about all the bad things and just spend a very happy moment with Padmé/Ahsoka/Obi-Wan. But the Darkside (and Palpatine) erased this fire and now he is mostly empty and quiet all the time (even if finding his children has lessened his apathy towards life a bit, it’s going to be a looooooooooooooooong time before anything visibly changes).

Let’s talk about the crew (= Piett because I love this man, although if I don’t remember if it’s correct timeline wise okay let’s not care about canon we are here to improve it hahah thanks). Piett has served for the last... period of time under Vader, which has probably aged him of at least 50 years. If you have to compress the entirety of Piett into one word it would be stress. The guy can never, never fail at the littleless thing or he will die. He cannot break the etiquette or he will die. He has to be perfect, otherwise (as you guessed), he will die. Piett arrives in a world where you call your superior by their name or even a nickname, you play sabacc with them, you win, you laugh at them, and you never let them live it down. In this world, you mostly communicate through memes, emojis and pranks. In this world, Luke Skywalker will live-tweet the heck out of the battlefield. (The first few interactions with the Rogues are going to be fun I tell ya).

And now, let’s have fun about the meeting of these two worlds. Vader, an ex-slave who hasn’t had fun for the twenty last years of his life, his crew who is absolutely terrified of him, and the Rogues, who have decided that today they were going to go in this Very Important Strategy Meeting in matching unicorn onesies.

[darth-schism]

Proposed Timeline for Sequel Repair

(Disclaimer: Obviously the plot of each of the following shows should be their own. But they should also take the time to fill in the gaps, plot holes, and basically screw ups the sequels caused. Again, if we can’t have a pocket timeline, we should at least get appropriate plot repair/retcon).

(And yes, there will be overlap between this and other post. But this blog is where I dump all my mental Star Wars related ramblings, so whatcha gonna do)? : P

*10 ABY: Mandalorian S3. 

- We learn Moff Gideon is one of the few inside men on Palpatine’s resurrection plan. We get details on how the Emperor used his own DNA, force abilities, etc to make the perfect new vessel. The series ends with Din visiting Grogu at Luke’s temple, and Snoke’s “birth” on Exegol. 

- There is overlap between Snoke’s mind and Palpatine’s. More accurately, Snoke is his own person, but has much of Palpatine’s feelings/memories. The sith cult/inside men are uncertain if it is their Emperor in a different body, a clone, or an entirely new person. To ensure the success of the plan, the cult puts off putting Snoke on the throne right away, and instead retains him for evaluation. Snoke though, despite being a mental mess, gives the order to kidnap as many infants as possible, to ensure an “entirely pure” army of new stormtroopers. 

*15 ABY: Ahsoka Series. 

- Ahsoka faces off against Thrawn, as he works to fully organize and restore the Empire. At the series close, Snoke appears from Exegol, and initiates his hostile take over of the Empire. He rebrands it under the banner of the First Order. 

- It is revealed that Snoke showed a high interest in “returning his master to life,” which caused the cult to concluded that he was not the Emperor, and that they would have to try again. They are uncertain as to how though, in light of Snoke being a “failure.” But Snoke then adds his DNA, and significant power, to the resurrection project. Through his efforts, he made the phantom clone of the Emperor that we see in ROS. (Maybe we could even get a Kamino throwback with Bobba, since he tends to lend the Empire and hand here and there for the right price anyway). Either way, the newly awakened Palpatine realizes his reformation will be too slow, and gives Snoke the order to rule over the Empire in his place, while he instructs him from the shadows. He makes it very clear that Snoke is “merely his puppet that he made to speak through.” He also orders his agent to “deal with his wayward lineage” (Aka, Rey’s parents). 

* 25 ABY: Book of Bobba series. 

- By now Palpatine and Snoke have collectively used their voices to lure Ben Solo to the darkside, and Luke’s temple is left in ruin. Din Jarin makes an appearance, as he wants Grogu found. He and Bobba are confronted by Luke, who simply tells them that, for Grogu’s sake, they must cease their search. However, he eventually relents, and takes only Din to see his son like figure. Luke explains that he and his students must move in utmost secrecy, as Snoke’s ability to reach across the galaxy and connect his mind to others is uncanny. 

- We get a flashback of Luke confronting Snoke immediately after the destruction of his temple in an effort to get Ben back. There’s a cool fight, in which Snoke is badly injured, but ultimately Luke is forced to retreat without Ben. Snoke reins destruction down on every place he thinks Luke his hiding, which brings Luke to the conclusion that he must not only go into hiding, but also give reason for Snoke chase him, without feeling a need to blow innocent people up in mass. Thus the map to Luke Skywalker, and his isolation began. 

- As a bonus, it would be cool if Han, Luke, and Bobba became an unlikely team to address the threat of a common enemy. Personally I like the idea of evil Mace Windu. But we’ll see. 

- Han and Lando also meet up at some point, and talk about how both of them lost a child to Snoke, with Ben having been turned, and Lando’s daughter having been kidnapped. 

- The series ends with Palpatine talking to Snoke on Exegol again. He tells him that he realizes he has a granddaughter, one who wasn’t a “disappointment like her father.” He explains to Snoke they can use her to fully resurrect him via a sith ritual (as his current form is still blind and corpse like). He also instructs Snoke to bring him Ben, as he is “ready to see his new apprentice.” However, Snoke realizes that even though he and the Emperor speak through each other, and have their thoughts overlap, that he is still far more than just a puppet. So he reminds Palpatine not only of the rule of two, but also that for as much as Palpatine made him, he also made Palpatine. And while Palpatine’s growth was slow, his was complete. And now that he had an apprentice, he didn’t need him. So Snoke, despite Palpatin’s protests and claim to authority over him, disables Palpatine’s reformation process, which traps him as the near talking corpse we see in ROS. He tells him that he won’t kill him if he continues to oversee the operations of Exegol, and doesn’t try anything funny. He then leaves, to take complete and total control of the First Order.  

* 30 ABY: Rangers of the New Republic. 

- Snoke is in full swing with his attempt to take over the galaxy. However, his efforts are scattered and constantly distracted by his obsession to find and kill Skywalker. Ever since their fight which left Snoke physically and emotionally vulnerable (not that he’d ever admit it) Snoke’s mind was bent on revenge. He was certain the mere existence of Skywalker would see everything he had worked for to be undone. We get some scenes (both current and flashbacks) of just how cruel the Supreme Leader was/is to his apprentice (Just to make his death in TLJ not only surprising, but feel like a good pay off). Snoke’s obsession with finding the map to Skywalker, draws attention to its existence for the show’s heroes. They find it and, with R2D2′s help, and arrive on Luke’s island. 

- As I described in another post, Luke puts on an act to try and make them leave and think nothing of him being there. And although much of this is because of Luke’s emotional suffering, it is also an evaluation. Through it, the Jedi Master quickly realizes that the ranger’s aren’t asking for him to be a public symbol of hope (as he can no longer do that for the above mentioned reasons) but someone who can accomplish a critical mission that would be impossible for anyone else. Luke explains a little bit more as to why he was isolated, why he had to be so careful, and why he won’t be trying to make a Jedi order anytime soon. But at the end of the day, he states that he would never actually abandon the galaxy to Snoke, and that this wasn’t the first time he’s snuck off to handle matters like this. And so we get another fun mission episode with Luke. During the mission, Luke recovers a file on a stormtrooper (who we see to be Jannah). He makes mention that Lando never gave up going to “all kinds of strange places in the galaxy” to find his lost daughter. Sensing through the force that this trooper might be the one, he takes the information. 

- At the end of the mission, Luke mindwipes the rangers’ memories of finding and working with him, and sends the file information about Jannah to Lando, and the map fragment out once again to distract Snoke, and guide the right people to him. Luke returns to the island. We see that the strain of having to turn on his force abilities for a mission, only to turn them off again right away to prevent Snoke from finding him, causes serious toll on his body.

- We get a scene where Snoke asks if the agent who had killed the Emperor’s son had ever been found. To which no is the answer. Snoke is agitated, but ultimately dismissive of this, and simply assures those around him that if he ever encountered the one he believed to be the Emperor’s granddaughter, he would see to it that she died. This would ensure that the phantom clone of Palpatine could never rise high enough to challenge his position as Supreme Leader.   

(I’m sure I’ll think of more to add to this. But these are the big ones for now: Establish First Order --> Make Snoke an actual character --> Establish the phantom Emperor --> Show that Luke hadn’t actually given up --> Solidify Rey’s lineage --> Make Lando not come off as a creeper).

[spacedragonsxx]

TROS REVIEW (spoilers)

Well...it was better than TLJ and there’s some pros and cons, so I’ll list them below👇👇

Things I didn’t like :

* FORCE ABILITIES

- I already hated force-FaceTiming, now you can apparently teleport objects through force connections??? Ummm yeah no.

-FORCE HEALING HAS ALWAYS BEEN CANON, BUT NOT TO THAT EXTENT WHAT THE KRIFF. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they wouldn’t have done the whole IMPALING KYLO AND THEN HEALING IT COMPLETELY thing😒. Also, it ruins other movies because there are so many instances where this could have been used. And you can say that it’s a new force ability that was discovered by Rey and Kylo (or perhaps Luke? And he taught it to both of them like when Ben was young and when Rey was training) but if that’s the case then, HOW DOES BABY YODA, WHO HAS NO TRAINING OR EVEN CONCEPT OF WHAT THE FORCE IS BC HES A BABY, KNOW HOW TO DO IT!? ok so let’s say that you have to be EXTREMELY powerful in the force to do it. So, we can say Baby Yoda is a clone of Yoda and Rey is the emperor’s granddaughter, ok so they’re really powerful and they can do it. But, why can Kylo (assuming that’s what he did to bring Rey back since both cases are channeling force energy into another being) do it? What makes him anymore powerful than Luke or Anakin? Why couldn’t they do it? Or why couldn’t Yoda do it in the Clone Wars (if Baby Yoda is his clone and obv. Yoda would be strong enough for an ability like this)? Idk the whole thing is very confusing...

- FORCE GHOSTS CANNOT INTERACT WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD!!!! Whyyyyy would they make any indication otherwise because, once again, it ruins other movies. If force ghosts can hold objects and use the force, then why not help in battles? Is there like a force ghost code that says you can’t help your friends after death so that you don’t interfere with anything involving the way or the force or “destinies”? This just opens more questions and plot holes...why not just keep force ghosts how they were (guides/advisors that were at peace)? Instead, Luke can apparently hold his lightsaber and use the force to pick up his X-Wing. Isn’t he one with the force now? Isn’t he just a part of the flow of the force? imo, he shouldn’t be able to interact/interfere with anything in the physical world besides speaking and appearing to others.

* PLOT HOLES (there were lots of wait how did they do that, why is he here wasn’t he just-, can they do that...Moments. Also the concept of time in this movie is really bad...felt like GoT season 8 with the way they just seemed to be here and then somewhere else within 5 minutes with no real concept of time<<<but then again JJ did have a lot to cram in with this movie due to TLJ not really taking the plot ANYWHERE).

* FAKE DEATHS (too many. That’s all I’m gonna say😂).

* LACK OF LUKE IMPACT

- THIS IS HIS LEGACY. He was hardly in the Sequels and had little impact in them overall. I feel like at the end, he should have had something to do with the Emperor’s death ( my thought would be to have his force ghosts appear behind Rey and help her push back the force lightning since apparently force ghosts can do that now and that way he could have a larger role as a hero in the story and be directly involved in fulfilling his fathers final goal).

* Space Jumping

- I don’t think you should be able to exit hyperspace in the middle of the atmosphere of another planet. Also, doing it that quickly doesn’t make sense as well (once again concept of time/plot holes^^^).

Anyways....negativity is over!! 👇

Things I liked :

* The concept of the plot

-I actually liked what they tried to do with the plot, however it was just very jumpy and forced in your face sometimes (more of an explanation for this point with the points bellow). But I feel like TLJ left this movie with a lot to pick up from soooo...once again, I’m cutting it some slack.

* Sith lore

-OK SO THE THRONE ROOM (which is actually original concept art for the Emperor’s throne) AND SITH HOLOCRON/RELIC THINGS AND THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF THE DARKSIDE WAS VERY COOL.

- It gave more of an idea that the sith were a cult sort of thing it felt very tied to the history of the dark side/sith culture and I liked that a lot.

-gave a more in depth look at palps power👇 and his role in the sequels which ties it to the other trilogies as well.

* Rey/Kylo dynamic

- Not specifically Reylo (though I’ve never had a strong opinion about the ship, and I’m fine with them getting together bc I never really cared about that part) but the concept of: Ben👉🏼born out of light (Leia) but falls to darkness VS. Rey👉🏼 Born out of darkness (Palpatine) but raised in the light. Both are tempted to swing the other way around ( Kylo temped by his parents, Rey, and the force itself to go back to the light and Rey tempted by her grandfather, her need for a legacy/purpose, and Kylo to go towards the Darkness). However, in the end, Darth Vader’s grandson and Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter (two of the most powerful Sith in history) must unite to destroy the ultimate evil and the darkness once and for all. Plus Ben’s sacrifice for Rey is really the only thing that made that kiss acceptable to me (other wise it would have been forced for fan service imo).

* Palpatine

- I think his broken body hanging from the crane was extremely terrifying (which is a good thing because you’re supposed to FEAR the emperor) and I loved the whole concept of him repairing himself with the life energy of Rey and Ben. His voice even sounded more demonic before he healed himself and I thought that was cool.

-Him being Rey’s grandfather explains A LOT about her abilities and fixes some of the parts of the movie that I didn’t like while watching.

-making him be the one to create Snoke (via cloning as we saw) was good because it shows how Snoke was just a tool he used to orchestrate this entire thing (in a way it fixed the crap pulled by killing him off in TLJ).

* Lightsaber Battles

- Let’s be real, I may not like the Force face timing or teleportation of objects via force connection....BUT that battle where Kylo figures out Rey’s location by breaking the stand Vader’s mask was on was pretty clever and the fight itself was well done.

- THE BATTLE ON THE DEATH STAR WAS VERY COOL (minus the “killing” Kylo part 😒). I liked the pure rage they both had while fighting and the jumping over the waves

* Other small parts I liked :)

-c3po (he was pretty much the comedy in this movie)

-Lando (he wasn’t in it much but they handled his character VERY WELL).

-prequel references (first time the sequels reference the prequels via quotes, lore, voices)

-voices cameos (along with what I said above^, it was REALLY cool to hear TWO animated characters make an appearance: Ahsoka and Kanan. <<<really ties it in to the rest of the franchise and makes everything more connected)

-Leia/Luke flashback (LEIA TRAINED AS A JEDI AND HER LIGHTSABER WAS SO PRETTY JSIDJDJFKFNFKGK). Side note: I was also fine with Leia’s death (she pushed all of the light-sided energy she had into Kylo, which resulted in her death but Ben’s rebirth 🥺).

-Final Scene on Tatooine (as Maul said in Rebels: “It ends where it all began. A desert planet with twin suns) ...ok but why bury the lightsabers :(

So was it the perfect ending to the Skywalker saga? No. But it did the best it could with what it had to work with. Overall, I’m happy I think and I’m just going to leave it at that. Feel free put your own opinions (I’m open to any and love to discuss SW so😂). Also there were a ton of Easter eggs that I plan on making a separate post about (I’ll probably have to watch again before that to see if I missed any)!

[gffa]

FANDOM WAS REALLY GOOD TO US THIS WEEK, COME CRY OVER STAR WARS FIC WITH ME AGAIN. Because sometimes you just gotta cry over how wonderful these authors are to share such fantastic pieces with us, how reading (and I love that fandom is so invested in reading, when it feels like a dying art some days!) fic makes me fall in love with these characters and this galaxy all over again. We are so lucky that there are all these people wanting to share with us and here’s some of the really good stuff (SO MUCH GOOD STUFF) that I loved! STAR WARS FIC RECS: ✦ drink up, dreamers (you’re running dry) by 31_rabbits, han/leia & luke & ben, 2.6k    She’d expected her tears to be cold, too. But they are hot, and they are bitter. Salt from a vaporized sea. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, some d/s, 72.7k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone. ✦ Anakin Skywalker and the Stray Droid by protos_metazu_ison (larkspyt), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 28.4k    Anakin adopts a stray droid, much to Obi-Wan’s displeasure, which is fine because Rusty doesn’t like Obi-Wan all that much either. ✦ Death Becomes Her by stonefreeak, anakin/padme & palpatine, body horror, 1.6k    Padmé finds herself waking up after she died. Apparently, her husband couldn’t bear to let her go. She’s not grateful. At all. ✦ Armored Oasis by Spectersticks, obi-wan & anakin & cody & ahsoka & cast, 19.9k wip    The Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano to uncover the reason behind these consistent attacks, while defending the outpost from the Nikto clan’s ranged assaults. ✦ tell me what it is you want by sunflashes, obi-wan/anakin & padme/ahsoka, NSFW, modern au, 14.4k wip    Anakin is done as fuck. His philosophy professor and academic advisor, Dr. Kenobi, has been working him to the point of breaking, and he just wants to get really, really drunk. ✦ Things Freely Given by ilcuoreardendo, obi-wan/anakin, vampire!obi-wan, ~1k    “You shouldn’t have come.” Obi-Wan’s voice is strange. ✦ untitled by likealeafonthewind, obi-wan/anakin(/padme) & sidious, 1.5k    So perhaps one way this can go is that Obi-Wan is just sitting in the Temple security room, broken and lost in the turbulence in the Force from all the violence and death that happened there (I imagine it must have created some kind of vortex of negative energy or perhaps fed into the darkside nexus under the Temple). ✦ Carrying the Stone by Makalaure, obi-wan & anakin, 4.3k    “I wish Master Qui-Gon was here instead of you.” ✦ The Virgin Duchess and Other Stories by ambiguously, obi-wan/anakin/padme/satine, ~1k    There were a number of stories about the rule of Duchess Satine Kryze. Some of them were even true. ✦ Saber’s Hilt by lovelykenobi, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, d/s, dirty talk, 2.3k wip    Anakin’s a boy with a mouth and a sassy attitude. Obi-Wan reacts accordingly. ✦ Alternative by Glare, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, dark themes, 2k    PROMPT: In the Negotiation-verse what would it be like if instead of the whole drugging and kidnapping business, they ended up sorting out the kiss and dating. Anakin has no idea his boyfriend is a serial killer. ✦ Your Face Is Like A Melody by Darlings (FromDreamstoEmpires), obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, ~1k    writegowrite asked: #3 for the sexy prompt, please? ✦ Brothers (working title) by Charity_Angel, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme & shmi & yoda & cast, 17.3k wip    In which Qui-Gon has a very near miss on Naboo, Obi-Wan is very stubborn, and they end up breaking a lot of rules accidentally as a result. All because of that kid they picked up on Tatooine. full details + recs under the cut! 

STAR WARS FIC RECS: ✦ drink up, dreamers (you’re running dry) by 31_rabbits, han/leia & luke & ben, 2.6k    She’d expected her tears to be cold, too. But they are hot, and they are bitter. Salt from a vaporized sea.    I’m always a sucker for Leia stories, especially ones that look at the scope of her life, give her room to really react to everything that happens, even in small moments, even when a lot of it is cut short because she picks herself up and keeps soldiering on forwards. And this is set across the span of years that really show just how epic everything is with her story, the joys and the sorrows both, and there’s just something so intense about her here that really fits with her character. A lovely read. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, some d/s, 72.7k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone.    Chapter 15: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. As always, I sort of want to explode over how much I love this fic and how satisfying it is, especially in regards to how much I love this version of (sort of) Sith!Anakin who is doing exactly what I had hoped for when I prompted Lily for this fic–the contrast of him against Jedi!Anakin highlights so many things about his character. It’s not just that, of course, it’s also how this is an Anakin that is more settled in who he is, because he’s entrusted himself to his Master, has chosen to give everything of himself over to this person that he loves and who loves him in return, how that clears away so much of his anger and instead allows Anakin’s charm and charisma to be at the forefront of Isten’s character. He’s just so beautiful to look at and watch, there’s something almost wild and fey about him, but also bright as the sun and so, so easy to fall in love with. And he’s still very much Anakin Skywalker, that’s what makes his scenes with actual!Anakin so fascinating, because they’re not the same person, Isten is more than just Anakin, as Anakin is more than Isten is, but Anakin is still the source and what Isten has figured out about himself has relevance to Anakin.    This makes any interaction they have a delight–just watching them strip down the ship for any parts they might be able to use, because Anakin is having a sulking fit, reminds me that they’re both mechanical geniuses and I’d have enjoyed it just for that. But the purpose of that scene is greater, it’s about Anakin having breathing room after the reveals from the previous chapter, and calming down and having the space to ask about Isten’s relationship with Veris, to show us that Anakin has all these prickly defenses about what he sees as his twin being like a slave to Obi-Wan’s twin. That it gives Anakin the breathing room to really listen to what Isten says and why it’s not what he thinks, to show us whyAnakin is still thinking about this and gravitating towards what he sees with them. That it’s not about the dark, but instead about something that settles them, something good, something that makes them both feel secure, something that Isten wants, that words are frustrating for him, but a firm hand on his back cuts through all that noise in his head and stays there. That it’s about being paid attention to, about being cherished and cared for. And you understand why Anakin keeps coming back to what he knows is between them, the something underneath the surface that we can feel in him, that cannot leave it alone.    And one of the great things that I love so much about this fic is that it doesn’t bring something up just to solve it immediately. There’s discussion of it here, it’s clear that Anakin feels a pull towards all of this, but he’s not there yet, it’s not such an easy, direct path for him. Things come up and get in the way, of course, but it’s more than that, it’s that he’s not fully ready yet and that makes the excitement over future chapters all the greater, because there was progress, there was satisfying forward movement, but there’s still more journey to go!    And, oh, I am so curious about where it’s all going, especially when they finally make contact with their men and I’m dying to know plot stuff, but also Isten being kind of bratty about soon being parted from Veris, that it’s so easy to really sink into thoughts about Isten’s affections, that we’ve seen him be really fond of Obi-Wan, to turn to him and press against him when wanting shelter, to see his affection around Anakin, for the source of himself, how he seems to likehimself in a lot of ways, to how everything is so much deeper when it comes to Veris. That Isten is cut to the core when he’ll be parted from Veris, even just for awhile, and shows it by sulking. That he’s jealous when Veris pays attention to Anakin, even with good reason. That it’s a reflection of Anakin’s desire to be sullen about things he doesn’t like, a freedom to be petulant about it that Anakin doesn’t allow himself, even while it stirs up everyone’s lack of desire to be parted from the one they love.    But EVEN MORE THAN THAT there’s another plot twist that makes perfect sense and yet I DID NOT SEE IT COMING and makes me wonder about where all of this is going, with such a remote planet that nobody is really allowed to go to, if someone should end up staying there, it’s not like there would be anyone to know they were there, and Ugly is still in the house and, oh, I’m not sure if they’ll make it off planet before the end, if Obi-Wan and Isten will spend more time together, if Veris and Anakin will spend more time together, or if Ugly will rear up before they can leave, OR WHAT. And it’s really, really exciting to be so invested in both the relationship progress and the plot progress! As you can see by how I cannot stop talking about it!! ✦ Anakin Skywalker and the Stray Droid by protos_metazu_ison (larkspyt), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 28.4k    Anakin adopts a stray droid, much to Obi-Wan’s displeasure, which is fine because Rusty doesn’t like Obi-Wan all that much either.    All chapters: I’ve recommended this fic at several points along the way, but now that it’s finished I wanted to write a rec that’s for the overall story, because this was one of the most satisfying reads I’ve had in awhile! There’s something so incredibly solid and good about this fic, there’s a weight and sharpness to the characterizations that I really, really loved–I noticed it especially with Obi-Wan, who is this really great balance between stern and kind, that he’s both these things in a way that Obi-Wan Kenobi always should be. That there’s a warmth to his character, that he’s considered and kind, but that he’s also sharp when necessary, that there’s a heaviness to his character that makes him feel unmovable. I also love Anakin, who is this really brilliant, bright character, but who is also kind of a mess who only halfway knows what he wants–he knows that he feels all these things, but he doesn’t necessarily know how to fully untangle them–this is why the ending worked so well for me, because he just did not feel at all settled in his own skin, even when he knew what path he had to walk, which contrasted against Obi-Wan, who does have to wade through a lot to get where he is, but he knows himself and there’s a surety to him once he’s decided on something, that is spot on here.    I loved this fic for the characterization, that Obi-Wan and Anakin and Padme all felt like they were given depth and weight, but I also loved it for the plot! The OC droid character fit so well into the universe here, like this could very easily have taken place in the GFFA and was so incredibly engaging, I genuinely likedRusty the droid and would have read so much more from his point of view. The balance between what the droid himself brought to the story, his own backstory and motivations, was balanced against seeing Obi-Wan and Anakin through his eyes, seeing things with a fresh gaze that could comment on them and nudge them in a different direction, worked so, so well! And I really loved the ending, the way everything rolled towards the final events of it, and I just felt satisfiedafter reading it. “Obikin through the eyes of a droid” sounds like it could go a lot of different ways, but I thought the author absolutely did justice to it here, that it lived up to the concept and made something really engaging and true to the characters. I’m so glad to have gotten the chance to read this one and I think it’s a great read for when you want something that’s not precisely fluffy, but is definitely good for the heart! ✦ Death Becomes Her by stonefreeak, anakin/padme & palpatine, body horror, 1.6k    Padmé finds herself waking up after she died. Apparently, her husband couldn’t bear to let her go. She’s not grateful. At all.    I’m biased because this was based on one of my posts, but it’s legitimately a fantastic piece, it captures the horror of Padme being stuck in this reanimate body, the slow stealing away of her sanity, that none of this is good and, oh, Anakin, he is so far gone and doesn’t understand what he’s done to her. It’s horrifying and yet it doesn’t overplay its hand, instead there’s something almost delirious and unhinged about it in a way that makes me feel so, so much for Padme and it’s just everything I wanted from Anakin finding a way to forcePadme to stay alive! ALSO IT’S JUST REALLY AWESOME. ✦ Armored Oasis by Spectersticks, obi-wan & anakin & cody & ahsoka & cast, 19.9k wip    The Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano to uncover the reason behind these consistent attacks, while defending the outpost from the Nikto clan’s ranged assaults.    I picked this one up pretty much because I wanted some action fic (tower defense fic is a great way to describe it!) and I very much got a fun action plot that was satisfying, but I didn’t expect to get character feelings to go along with it, yet, boy, did I ever! The beginning chapters are a really solid (though, it could stand to break up the paragraphs a bit more imo) action sequences, with some really, really quality Obi-Wan whump where he is a goddamned tank, especially when you see him through the eyes of the clones, they’re just in awe of the larger-than-life presence of their general! But eventually he hits his limit and Anakin kind of loses his goddamned mind over it in a perfectly Anakin way and freaks out over Obi-Wan getting hurt and overreactions in a really fascinating way–both what he’s capable of when he’s freaking out and because the fic shows just how much Obi-Wan means to him, that there’s such love between these characters shown in the way they interact with each other.    It hit so many of my iddy buttons, with Anakin going on a rampage because he thinks Obi-Wan might be dead and he flips out, you can knock Obi-Wan down but I’m not actually sure anything can really stop that guy from getting back up again, that Obi-Wan yells at Anakin in a legitimately heavy way, he’s justified in it, and yet it comes from a place of obvious love, and, oh, it’s this great digging into the thorny issues between them in a way that makes me love them both so very much, because Anakin is in a slippery fall here, but it comes from a place of such care. All of it is so satisfying, getting to see Obi-Wan and Anakain and Ahsoka all have their moments of total badassery, all on top of a solidly interesting and engaging mission fic! I couldn’t ask for more! ✦ tell me what it is you want by sunflashes, obi-wan/anakin & padme/ahsoka, NSFW, modern au, 14.4k wip    Anakin is done as fuck. His philosophy professor and academic advisor, Dr. Kenobi, has been working him to the point of breaking, and he just wants to get really, really drunk.    I think I’d started this fic before, but I recently picked it up again and started from the beginning, and just got really sucked into it. It was the perfect length for me to read now and had enough resolution that I’m not left pining, but instead I’m satisfied with how it was this really fun, cute college AU fic! There was just the right amount of pining-to-getting-together for my tastes, enough to make me enjoy the build-up to it, while Anakin especially just absolutely pined and was totally in love, to when that all finally came to a head and they fell into bed together. And that was wonderful as well, how there was some nice foreplay until Anakin just could not stand it anymore and he was so, so ready, please just fuck him already, grinding down onto Obi-Wan’s fingers and pleading for more, until Obi-Wan finally pushes into him. It didn’t have to be long, but it came at just the right time after the lead up to it, so that in addition to being very nicely satisfying sex (I am always here for Anakin being greedy and wanting more of Obi-Wan in him!) it made for this overall really fun, light-hearted experience in reading this fic! It had that affect on me where I felt energized afterwards again, like I could read another dozen stories just like this one, because I enjoyed this fandom and these characters so much! ✦ Things Freely Given by ilcuoreardendo, obi-wan/anakin, vampire!obi-wan, ~1k    “You shouldn’t have come.” Obi-Wan’s voice is strange.    This was a short but lovely piece of pretty much exactly what it says on the tin! There’s a very nice dramatic intimacy to the story, that there are events that happen around this, obviously before and after it, but it’s about the feelings and connection between these characters more than anything. It’s about how desperate Anakin is, how he’ll give anything (even of himself) to get them through this, to not be pushed away, and that Obi-Wan is hungry for Anakin in this really heavy, rolling way that makes for some very lovely imagery, as he pushes Anakin down onto the bed, his control frayed at the edges, and Anakin’s thoughts pushed out of his head in that way that I love for him. A very lovely read! ✦ untitled by likealeafonthewind, obi-wan/anakin(/padme) & sidious, 1.5k    So perhaps one way this can go is that Obi-Wan is just sitting in the Temple security room, broken and lost in the turbulence in the Force from all the violence and death that happened there (I imagine it must have created some kind of vortex of negative energy or perhaps fed into the darkside nexus under the Temple).    This is a description of a story more than a story itself, but it satisfied me in the same way that fic satisfies me when I read it, so onto a recs list it goes! And I really enjoyed this, it’s a ROTS fix-it piece that balances between how everything is always about Anakin at the heart of things, but that also Obi-Wan is a favored child of the Force, how things might have been nudged in a slightly different direction and then snowballed, if just a couple of little things had been changed. And it’s a super fun, pleasing read and I love the whole point of the fic, that the highlight of it is this moment: Sidious might be the Sith Lord hovering nearby waiting to take it over but Obi-Wan is one of its children, he’s grown up over its heart and called it home and family. Like, yes, GIVE ME ALL THE FORCE LOVES ITS CHILDREN FIC. ✦ Carrying the Stone by Makalaure, obi-wan & anakin, 4.3k    “I wish Master Qui-Gon was here instead of you.”    I was curious about this fic as soon as I saw it because I’ve liked the author’s Tolkien writing, so I was hopeful about getting a good Star Wars story–and, oh, I definitely did. This is a heavier fic in a lot of ways than I expected, there’s such a raw anger to bb!Anakin here, who is upset and hurt in a way that is entirely understandable and makes me ache for both him and Obi-Wan, for how hard this is to struggle through. It’s sharp and he says hurtful words (but he’s a child and the narrative understands that, even as his words hurt, they’re coming from a place of upset themselves and from someone who’s not old enough to control themselves yet, that Obi-Wan too understands this) and it’s not an easy start. But it’s still good and there’s still hope, this isn’t a fic that made me feel worse afterwards, but instead one that I felt really did justice to the way these two were thrown together, neither of them precisely chose this, and yet there’s something there already, something epic in the making. That’s a difficult balance to achieve sometimes, but this one did it beautifully. And, oh, that last line is absolutely perfect, I still grin just thinking about it. ✦ The Virgin Duchess and Other Stories by ambiguously, obi-wan/anakin/padme/satine, ~1k    There were a number of stories about the rule of Duchess Satine Kryze. Some of them were even true.    This worked well for me because it’s not really necessarily a true story, but instead about what’s said about these four characters and their relationship and what happened with them, how they came together. It’s sort of a children’s fairy tale story and I’m always a sucker for these four together, so I enjoyed this! ✦ Saber’s Hilt by lovelykenobi, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, d/s, dirty talk, 2.3k wip    Anakin’s a boy with a mouth and a sassy attitude. Obi-Wan reacts accordingly.    My caveat before I move further on is that this fic has some slur play that briefly gave me pause (though, that may be a personal thing more than anything!) that I think a heads up on would help beforehand, but I really did enjoy this fic a lot! It’s pretty well designed to appeal to my iddy wants, it’s cheerfully filthy and embraces the tropes it uses and is clearly having a greattime doing so, which is always infectious! It’s very much about the d/s relationship, how it gives Anakin structure for when he can’t help backtalking and being a real brat, how you can feel how much more wrung out of all that restless energy he is afterwards. It’s a fic meant to appeal to these elements and I enjoyed it for just cheerfully being happy dirty sex! ✦ Alternative by Glare, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, dark themes, 2k    PROMPT: In the Negotiation-verse what would it be like if instead of the whole drugging and kidnapping business, they ended up sorting out the kiss and dating. Anakin has no idea his boyfriend is a serial killer.    Oh, I really loved this so much, it’s this great mix of something fluff and yet also really creepy, knowing what we do about this serial killer!Obi-Wan. I mean, I gladly would have picked it up just for cute domestic-esque interaction where they talk over Anakin’s casework, then Obi-Wan fucks him over the desk in really sweet, satisfying sex, but to have that undercurrent of something much darker and fucked up? Ahhh, I really missed that blend from Negotation! But also really I super appreciated just how happy the sex made me, how it was cute and charming, that of course Obi-Wan had some lube on hand and Anakin was just as ready to be fucked over his desk, that there was this curl of something in him as Obi-Wan opened him up, spread him wide, and pushed into him, that it said something about Anakin that he liked what this did to him. It’s just a really, really fun, super delicious piece to read! ✦ Your Face Is Like A Melody by Darlings (FromDreamstoEmpires), obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, modern au, ~1k    writegowrite asked: #3 for the sexy prompt, please?    Oh, this was lovely and another fic that came along when I needed it, just a pwp but with the undercurrents of just the right amount of a d/s dynamic, that it’s super hot sex while also giving structure to Anakin, keeping him within bounds and focused, and how much Anakin responds to that, how much he enjoys that attention, that feeling of being caught and guided and held. But also just really nicely done sex, which I appreciated so very much. ✦ Brothers (working title) by Charity_Angel, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & padme & shmi & yoda & cast, 17.3k wip    In which Qui-Gon has a very near miss on Naboo, Obi-Wan is very stubborn, and they end up breaking a lot of rules accidentally as a result. All because of that kid they picked up on Tatooine.    Often times when I read fic that uses Legends and canon together in a fic, which are incompatible with each other, I find myself wanting to argue and yet I was just fine with it here–and it dawned on me anew that it was because this fic is clearly coming from such a great, warm, caring place with it, that it’s clearly just having fun doing its thing and loving everyone and everything, that I got swept up in that wamrth and wanted to read another 50k of it immediately. It’s such a wonderful fic where everything goes right–Qui-Gon lives after Naboo, but is injured so Obi-Wan temporarily takes over the beginning of Anakin’s training. This allows everyone breathing room, this means Obi-Wan now knows what happened on Tatooine instead of being in the dark about it, this means that he can talk to Qui-Gon about what to do with Anakin and isn’t weighed down by grief, this means that there’s breathing room for everyone, this means that things are able to be nudged in a better direction, so that Shmi can be freed and brought to Naboo, so that Anakin can be more settled, that Obi-Wan has more breathing room, and eveyrone is just really wonderful and happy.    It’s not without struggle, they still have a lot of shit to wade through, Palpatine is still out there, but it gives the Jedi breathing room and lets them have the space to take stock and deal with things more slowly. And, oh, all the worldbuilding bits! The classes that Anakin gets enrolled in! The going to get lightsaber crystals! And the characterization is wonderful, there’s such developing affection between Obi-Wan and Anakin, Qui-Gon is healing and is able to better talk to Obi-Wan here, Yoda cackling about hilarious shit that happens, Jedi friends being there to help and/or laughing at silly things! And Obi-Wan especially, my love, is gorgeously written here and we see him becoming the really great teacher that we know he’s meant to be. The way he deals with Anakin, the way he deals with other Padawans, when not weighed down by grief, is so true to his character and so warm-hearted. And Anakin is goddamned precious and Padme is kind-hearted and sparkling–and, really, everything in this fic sparkles! The writing and characterizations are so sharp and just left me with a smile on my face the entire way. It might be a fix-it fic but that doesn’t mean it’s any less engaging or wonderful to read!

[verziehenone]

It’s that time again.  That time for TV shows to bow out for a few months, go into hibernation, and then feverishly work to convince to return to their worlds for more.

Having watched a number of shows hit their finales in recent months, here is my subjective and biased ranking:

Agents of SHIELD

The 100

Z Nation

The Good Place

Arrow

Legion

Supergirl

The Flash

Supernatural

The Legends of Tomorrow

The Vampire Diaries

Superstore

Last Man on Earth

The Walking Dead

Suits

Star Wars: Rebels

Channel Zero

This isn’t a ranking from Good to Bad, but rather in order of ‘I liked it a lot!’ to ‘I could have liked it more’ to ‘It was a finale’.  I don’t think I watched any shows in recent days that I really thought were awful finales, but some were definitely better than others. 

SHIELD was fantastic this season and I can’t even really think of a true ‘lull’ in the action.  First Ghost Rider, then LMDs, then the Framework (’Hydra’) stuff.  Excellent way of divvying up a 23-24 episode season and keeping it fresh and exciting.  Other shows would do well to learn from this example.

The 100 was terrific.  That show keeps blowing me away.  The stories are interesting, the acting and sets and effects are really great, and it’s full of great moments!  The last two seasons have been up and down, but man, those ‘ups’ are really up! 

Z Nation is an oddball to see on here but this show is so ridiculously fun that I have to mention it.  Every episode has some insane ridiculous stupid zombie moment where insane ridiculously stupid things happen to zombies, and then a bad guy says something dumb and then probably dies an episode later and then more stupid ridiculously fun zombie action happens.  So many fun and enjoyable moments of over the top action and effects. 

Odd to see a comedy like this so high?  The Good Place snuck up on me for being a very well written comedy with clever and laugh out loud moments, good acting and special effects, and a very very good finale.  If you haven’t given it a shot, I really really think you should, it’s so surprisingly entertaining.

Arrow did a great job of concluding the present storyline in a BIG way, and also the flashback storyline.  Very interested to see what will happen next season, as the finale left the writers with basically a blank slate regarding ... well ... everything.

Legion.  Wow.  I mean, Noah Hawley is just in a world of his own with directing.  Fargo was instantly a classic (especially season 1) and Legion just proves it wasn’t a fluke.  I loved seeing Dan Stevens break out of his Downton Abbey role in a big way, and obviously Aubrey Plaza was a treat (like always).  The visuals, the music, everything.  And obvs I loved seeing Jemaine Clement.  Because I love seeing him in basically everything.

Supergirl did a great job of being the finale everyone kind of expected and hoped for at the same time.  Big effects, big fights, conclusions to stories, teases for the next season, all of it.  It had more ambition in it than some movies, and did a great job with maximizing the TV budget it had.  And honestly, it’s crazy that this is a TV show.  A decade ago, many of these episodes would have been a movie, for their budget and characters.  And Melissa Benoist is just a treat.

Flash ... well, I love the Flash, but this season wasn’t great, and last wasn’t either.  This was better, but still up and down, very uneven.  The finale was fine, but it had a few things that could have made it much better.  And naturally Barry did a Barry thing in the finale, and despite it actually making sense this time around, it still feels like a pointless cliffhanger.  One of those: Is the main character really dead?  Well, all signs point to Maybe!  (Unless the show got renewed and isn’t Game of Thrones).

Supernatural was pretty solid considering it is in season 10,000.  Sad that Mark Sheppard (Crowley) said he’s not coming back for next year, but maybe it’s a cop out like Ian Somerhalder (Damien) on Vampire Diaries, where it’s really just to ‘sell’ a finale.  I really have enjoyed the last 4 seasons quite a lot and have every intention of tuning in again and again to watch the boys raise havoc and save people (and hunt things) as long as the CW will renew it.

Legends added dinosaurs in the finale, in a city, doing dinosaur things.  This covers a lot of ‘meh’ parts in the finale, though it was pretty solid overall.  I mean, when a season is about getting the Spear of Destiny and then needing to use the Blood of Christ that is buried in a battlefield (that you retrieve during a battle) so that 3 baddies don’t destroy all the things ... well, it’s an insane premise that was well delivered, just not incredibly well.  More Captain Cold is always a good thing though!

Vampire Diaries finally ended, and it ended in (some) ways that people expected, and others that were still (somewhat) surprising.  It smartly left teases to storylines unexplored that will likely payoff in The Originals, and allow us to continue visiting some characters again, but it didn’t feel like a cheap finale for a show that over and over surprised me with how fun and insane it was. 

Both Superstore and Last Man on Earth had finales that reset the status quo and will get me back.  Partly because they’re both terrific in different ways, and partly because both could use a bit of a shakeup in ‘the formula’.  They were fine finales but not ‘OH MY GOSH HAVE YOU SEEN’ finales. 

A simple summary of The Walking Dead finale: from literally the first 2 minutes I could have told you how at least part of it would end.  But some parts were still very entertaining, while other were ... predictably dumb.  This was a very up and down season with a lot of flaws that hopefully will be corrected and some story problems that seemed so simple to resolve.

Suits teased a change that seemed like it took an eternity to get here, despite being eminently enjoyable to watch it come to fruition, still took a thousand years to happen.  It was renewed, so it will be neat to see how it changes things going forward.  And, considering the upcoming spinoff, I wonder if Suits is coming to a close?

Rebels ... next season is your last.  I have mixed feelings about this.  Where was Ahsoka this last season?  I guess that was the answer to season 2′s finale... but come on.  That better not be the answer.  I’m excited for some of the teases for next season, hopeful Thrawn keeps being menacing, and intrigued about how they end it.  And mostly I’m interested to see when Disney will announce the next animated show, hopefully set in another interesting era where we can see big names do big stuff (ala Clone Wars).  Still hopeful that Ezra goes darkside.  We’ll see.

Channel Zero surprised me with how incredibly slow burning the entire show was, taking its sweet old time to add in the scares and the dread.  I enjoyed every episode and thought the finale ended it sufficiently, but it wasn’t as good as the prior episodes.  Here’s hoping that season 2 ends up with a similar slow burn feel.

And the following are ones that have aired but I haven’t yet watched:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Modern Family

Jane the Virgin

Bobs Burgers

Elementary

Samurai Jack

12 Monkeys

The Expanse

Into the Badlands

Yeah, I’ll get there.  I watch a few of these with my wife, so it’s a ‘when we get to it’ kind of thing (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Modern Family, Jane the Virgin, Bobs Burgers), and a few (Samurai Jack, 12 Monkeys) I haven’t watched any of this season.  And Elementary, while I really really enjoy it, I am at least 2-3 seasons out.  The Expanse is the sci-fi show everyone should be watching but not enough are and I think it’s going to end up cancelled before it really hits its stride (and as far as I understand, it got terrifically better in season 2 after a very strong season 1).  Into the Badlands is the show (frankly) that Iron Fist wishes it was and I really need to watch season 2, but its one of those shows you have to watch without doing other things (which tends to be what I do).

And there’s ones that are a still a ways out:

The Originals

The Leftovers

Better Call Saul

Doctor Who

Steven Universe

Adventure Time

Gotham

Fargo

American Gods

Prison Break

Twin Peaks

So much excellent TV in this!  The Originals has been good, The Leftovers is on its way out (and seems to be maintaining its quality and momentum), and what I say that hasn’t been said about Better Call Saul?  Doctor Who has been completely amazing this season, easily the best Capaldi season, and up there with the best ‘Nu Who’ seasons, in my opinion (and many others’).  Steven Universe is so much fun and I know Adventure Time is on the way out ... sad sad sad.  Can’t wait to share that with my son when he’s older.  Gotham is insane and campy and stupid and I’ll absolutely tune in in the fall.  Fargo has been good this season after a kind of ‘meh’ season 2.  American Gods is a great adaptation of the book, and a great show really in every respect.  Blown away by the quality!  And I haven’t actually started Prison Break but I fully expect to enjoy it (and be sad since apparently it isn’t getting renewed again).  Um and Twin Peaks is a show that I don’t understand but am watching season 2 so I can watch season 3. 

And ones that are about to start:

Dark Matter

Killjoys

Fear the Walking Dead

Rick and Morty

Orphan Black

Preacher

Dark Matter isn’t amazing but it’s serviceable, while Killjoys is so so so much fun.  Fear is still figuring itself out but season 2 was much better than season 1 (where they totally abandoned their premise about 2 episodes in).  Rick and frickin’ Morty.  When are we getting more, Dan Harmon??!??!  And lastly, Orphan Black, I can’t believe it’s almost time to say goodbye.  Tatiana Maslany better get some killer roles after this because she is a stellar actress and this show is so good, I hope the finale does it justice.  And Preacher is just insane in the best way.

That’s all for my TV thoughts for now.  I didn’t include Netflix-type binge shows but I watched a lot of those too (Iron Fist, 3%, The OA, Between, Travelers, Santa Clarita Diet, The Crown).  Or shows I might want to watch but haven’t yet (Riverdale, Underground).  And I probably forgot other shows too.  And I probably watch too much TV, but if it’s any consolation or explanation, it heavily influences and inspires my writing.  (And most of it I watch while video gaming anyway).