#he literally stands for everything padme

[radiosummons]

With the absolute and most genuine of sincerity, I do believe that if Padme had survived Anakin force choking her into an early labor, she would have spent the rest of her life on the run from him.

[corellianhounds]

Amidala the Resilient

Media: Revenge of the Sith

Rating: T

Word Count: 3,942

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, pregnancy, Force-choking, blood and injuries, traumatic labor and delivery, death in childbirth, no happy ending.

Art Credit: Iain McCaig, The Art of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Summary: In a universe where Anakin gradually descended into the Dark side of his own volition from the beginning— where his ambition and love were genuine and admirable, but the temptation of power too much— his turn is something much more destructive and purposeful. Amidala’s plan for retaliation is just as much so.

Padmé Amidala can feel tension twinging in her back and thighs. The pit in her stomach has coalesced into a tight knot as she steels herself for what she must do, bringing a mattock and salt to the ground where pruning shears should have been used long ago.

Anakin had been too far gone for a long time, and the fault lay in her and everyone in his life willingly turning a blind eye too often to his myriad of faults. In the past two hours she has seen actions the result of which came from an upbringing where his temper, jealousy, and ambition were allowed to slide because those who thought him destined for some great cosmic good were willing to overlook occasional— and often objectively justified— acts of wrath and ruthlessness. He had always been so good at justifying his reasons and putting his actions in a more favorable light, showing enough willingness for correction over the years people thought he was receptive to guidance and change.

What she’d come to realize with dawning horror was that the seeds of destruction had been sown long ago, and though the vines had borne occasional good fruit, they had always grown with selfish intent, inevitably choking out everything around them in an effort to keep his own desires hidden behind the barrier of thorns.

In the next hour, she will come face to face with the monster of a man he’s become.

The Jedi master doesn’t know. Kenobi knows she has some plan but wrongfully assumes it is to appeal to whatever mistaken shred of humanity might remain in Anakin. Obi-Wan— even now, even after what they saw— cares for him as a brother and would sooner cut off his own hand than see Anakin completely lost to the Dark. Padmé however has finally seen clarity of purpose.

For Anakin to be stopped, he must be killed.

The ship arrives on Mustafar. Padmé wrenches herself away from the viewport as Obi-Wan lands and she gingerly lowers herself to the cargo hold, donning a cloak. Obi-Wan hurriedly finishes the landing cycle, calling her name as she gathers her strength, but she’s hardly listening to him at this point and she knows she must conceal herself from him so he has no chance of stopping her.

A hand on her shoulder makes her flinch, and the Jedi lets go almost in surprise. “Padmé, you don’t have to do this. I will talk to him.”

“No,” she says, keeping her left hand secured across her waist beneath the voluminous sleeve as she cleared a path to the lowering gangway. “He’s made it very clear he’s past the point of reasoning with the Jedi. I will speak with him, and if I cannot convince him to come with us calmly, or I cannot ascertain his next move, I expect you to do what’s necessary to end this treasonous rebellion. That is an order.”

It was all false diplomacy, of course, for his sake. Padmé had no intention of believing Anakin was anywhere close to the realm of negotiation. They were far past that.

But she needed assurance that she could get close enough to Anakin to act decisively. She couldn’t have Kenobi interfering, not at this juncture.

Oppressive heat surrounded her as she swept down the ramp to the barren ground. Magma roiled and churned, flames flickering at the edge of the peninsula as Padmé approached the figure so cloaked in darkness an aura of blackened energy almost seemed to emanate from his form. The grip of the hidden dagger dug into her hand, grounding her as she approached.

Padmé’s eyes burned with a ferocity to match her husband’s. It was time for this to end.

When Obi-Wan had seen her determination in the hold of the ship he had never for a moment anticipated what it would lead to.

Padmé steadily approached Anakin, cloak and hood protecting her from the blaze. He could see her speaking forcefully with him, her face hidden from view but Anakin’s darkening by the moment in response. His right hand, devoid of glove, clenched the hilt of an already ignited saber, the bloodshine blade standing in stark contrast to his own cloak. Its presence alone was alarming, but Obi-Wan had been subject to so many tragedies that night already, he merely assumed Anakin had readied it in the expectation of facing his master.

What Obi-Wan hadn’t known was what Padmé concealed until she tried to close the distance between them, her own blade in hand. What followed happened in the span of a heartbeat.

Anakin’s saber blocked it on instinct, easily halting the approach of Padmé’s dagger, his eyes widening in surprise. In the following moment his left hand raised and with it, so did Padmé.

Obi-Wan’s astonishment lasted only a fraction of a second as he yelled “NO!” Padmé’s feet left the ground as an invisible force clutched her neck in a crushing, intangible grip, and in the breadth of time Padmé scrabbled at her throat, Obi-Wan acted.

Anakin stumbled back from the force of the bolt hitting his shoulder, releasing his hold on Padmé. Padmé crumpled to the ground in a heap, and Anakin’s sights zeroed in on Kenobi, standing at the mouth of the ship with both blaster and lightsaber in hand. Snarling, Anakin stalked towards his old master and brought his lightsaber down, red clashing against blue.

Padmé Amidala, heartbroken and dying, drags herself bleeding to the communication console.

Kenobi can hear her movement in the bay and yells her name, telling her not to move, that he’ll come to help her as soon as the ship breaches the atmosphere, and she stalwartly ignores him, cradling the underside of her belly with one hand and using the other to support herself on the railing around the sparse artillery deck. Her broken ankle protests at every movement, sending lightning arcing up the leg where she puts her unsteady weight. The cramps in her abdomen spread like bone-coral, sharp and hot and agonizing in her pelvis, sides, back— Every tendon and muscle in her body screams at its owner to relent, to succumb to the creeping darkness pressing around her vision, but she cannot allow herself peace until she finishes what she started.

Padmé staggers at the ship’s turbulent acceleration, her forearm slamming out against the bulkhead as the lights flicker, and she curses the unsteady pilot she thought was her friend. Perhaps if she’d been accompanied by someone more decisive, someone whose fatal flaw wasn’t a love too great for a brother that no longer existed, Anakin would have been dealt with and she’d have the wherewithal to fight against the added pain of a labor she was sure would tear her in two.

Sweat pours from her brow and forces her already shaking, slippery hands to scrabble for purchase on the blasted polished finery of a spoiled noble’s ship. Her muscles spasm and she gasps in abject terror as she feels something inside her snap; the membrane within her had ruptured.

Gravity pulls on her bones as her muscles betray her, and she collapses against the bench. Fingernails scrape vinyl and she chokes out a guttural, rending cry of pain in the effort it takes to haul herself upward into the seat.

Obi-Wan is yelling again. Traitorous coward.

Padmé punches in the covert frequency on the transmitter. Her other hand rests on her stomach, her infants moving restlessly under her touch. She forces the hot flashes of pain back, shoving down every instinctive response to curl in on herself.

“Sabé—,” she says into the comm, gritting her teeth and tasting blood once more; the contractions were stronger and with a strangled grunt she yanks the comm closer, ignoring the frantic waves of worry rolling off of the useless Jedi in the pilot’s seat.

“Sabé, if you find the man who was my husband,” she chokes, the creeping black at the edges of her vision beginning to overtake her.

“Kill him.”

Obi-Wan sat listlessly on a bench in the hold, what bloodied clothing he still wore sticking to him like a second skin. His hand rested on the makeshift bassinet, a gun locker repurposed into a cradle.

He could only imagine what directive she’d felt necessary enough to strain herself to get across the sublight waves; he could only imagine because the message was encrypted and the recipient unknown, and her mind had been shielded from his probing. He didn’t know whether to blame his failed use of the Force on the heartbroken, distracted nature of his psyche being pulled in a thousand directions as he’d manually flown from Mustafar’s orbital pull in order to make the jump to lightspeed, or to blame some unknown energy stalwartly blocking him from Padmé’s mind. Reaching out to her had felt like hitting a steel wall.

The tumult of their departure had preoccupied him until he was sure he’d escaped whatever enemy fighters Anakin’s new master had sent after them, the maneuvering less of a dogfight and more of a half-cocked evasive prayer for the hull to remain intact long enough for them to break atmo. Klaxons blared and the astronav’s interface barked orders, warning him of too many systems he already knew were damaged enough that if they took even one more hit to the hull they would be obliterated; shields were failing, exterior panelling being shorn off, the pursuing fighters gaining on them— Until by some stroke of luck he’d found a slip in space to pull through and immediately jump to lightspeed.

Lightspeed jumps themselves were already hazardous to expecting parents’ health. He was terrified of the condition she had been in when he’d finally gotten her onboard, and the fact he could sense her moving with purpose somewhere below decks while he tried to shake the fighters had sent his heart rate skyrocketing.

Piloting had never been his forte. As soon as they’d hit hyperspace he’d slammed a hand against the autopilot controls and bolted from the dash, scrambling down to the hold below.

He swore under his breath, calling her name and skidding to a halt beside her. Her face twisted in agony, her hands clutching the underside of her abdomen. Obi-Wan knelt beside her, hesitant to move her and instead ran a quick check over her vitals, astonished at what he found.

Broken bones in her leg, fractured ribs, internal bleeding, damaged trachea— how had she even moved?! By all rights she should be dead and yet something had propped her up long enough for her to drag herself to the terminal and send a message.

And now she was in labor.

“Kenobi—” she spat derisively, grabbing his tunic. “Get— up—”

“Padmé, hold still, let me—”

He was cut off as a violent shudder wracked her body, her limbs curling in on herself with a gurgling cry. Panicked desperation lanced through him as he reached out and grasped tendrils of the Force, gingerly cradling her neck and attempting to delicately, swiftly mend ligaments he couldn’t see. If he was even a millimeter incorrect, she would die.

A misaligned vertebrae shifted back into place, and Padmé screamed.

Obi-Wan bit back a sob, carefully tracing his fingers on either side of the back of her neck with as much force as he dared in an attempt to still her and provide what pain relief he could as his own energy was leached from him. Padmé gasped, her eyes flying open, her expression stricken as she looked up at the ceiling. Her iron grip loosened as the tension dissipated, if only in one area. She gulped air as if coming up from the bottom of a lake, and Obi-Wan settled as he felt his strength wane. A concrete task was better than guesswork at unknown variables.

The reprieve didn’t last long; Padmé grunted in pain, convulsing as a contraction rippled through her torso again. Further assessment revealed her leggings and the floor beneath her to be drenched, and Obi-Wan’s panic flared again.

“I have to get you up—”

“If you move me I will kill you,” she spat harshly. She trembled despite the ferocity of her glare, her hand still twisted in his robe. “There is no time— Here and now, Kenobi. Make do.”

“Padmé—”

“Look around you,” she seethed. “There’s no level surface in this blasted ship big enough to work. There are no other choices. There is no one else to help. Sleeves up. Now.”

Kenobi’s brow remained twisted as he stripped off his outer tunic, knowing it was laden with silicate and volcanic dust. Padmé propped herself up on her elbows as he raced to scour his hands and forearms, coming back to remove her boots so he could work her outer garments free. Whether the blood seeping between her teeth was due to the injuries she’d sustained or because she was gritting them hard enough one had cracked, he didn’t know.

Padmé gasped again as the fracture in her shin shifted— He wanted to settle her, to fix this, but the contractions were coming more quickly and closer together. They were running out of time.

He finally seated himself before her, kneeling and shaking in just his undershirt and trousers, feeling acutely unprepared for what was to come. Battlefield triage and casualty care were the extent of his healing knowledge, and though he was adept at relieving or numbing acute nociceptive responses, it was usually with soldiers whose minds were open for him to assess areas of injury. A commander with a blaster burn would be focused on the point where his plastoid hadn’t covered. A civilian’s attention after suffering a fall would be turned to the joints and bones that took the brunt of the effects of gravity.

Labor and delivery were far too different from his experience in the medical field.

And Padmé was still blocking him out.

Her knuckles gripped bone-white to a ridge of floor plating, one knee bent and her foot planted flat. The other lay weakly to the side, and Obi-Wan grit his teeth as he raised it up to rest over his thigh despite the lancing pain he felt radiating from her, tucking a blanket beneath her and readying his hands for whatever instruction he prayed she could give. With him gathering his wits and her gathering her strength, they set to work.

The whole ordeal couldn’t have lasted longer than ten minutes, and it was the longest and most arduous process of their lives. Between her strangled cries, his intuition, and the muscle spasms that told him everything about this was wrong, Kenobi’s concern grew with the pool of blood beneath her, and she forced him to focus on the children, refusing to allow him any modicum of time spent healing her injuries between her screams. Untended bone cracked further as she thrashed, her screams echoing back in the cargo hold.

By the time Kenobi had swaddled the two squalling— living!— infants in what sterile dressing he could find from the field kit, Padmé had gone a sickly pale. Her skin was waxy under the recessed halogen lighting, her hair sticking to her forehead. Dark circles rimmed her eyes and different muscle groups continued twitching of their own accord as if sparked by electricity. Obi-Wan was torn between ensuring the infants had been properly cared for, and wanting to drag Padmé to the captain’s berth to fully assess her wounds and heal her: Padmé kept stubbornly shoving him away, tears tracking unnoticed down her face as she continued to choke out instructions for the care and keeping of her children.

He’d finally been forced to stop when that iron grip returned in full force— Padmé grabbed his arm and yanked him down to where she had propped herself up against the wall. Kenobi lurched forward, her ashen face now level with his. She forced her voice to obey despite the strain in her throat, rasping the words she needed to say.

“Keep them away from him.” The venom in her tone was undeniable. “You keep them safe, Kenobi, get— get them as far away as you can—”

Kenobi grunted, refusing to let her continue her orders. He pressed a palm to her chest, willing those wisps of energy to sustain her just a few moments longer as he tried to haul her up into his lap, coax her arm around him so he could lift her— If he could just get her somewhere comfortable, somewhere clean, if he could focus—

Padmé shrieked in pain, clawing at his chest and arms, and the sum of their separate fights came crashing down on him as the Force dissipated from his mind’s grasp. His knees gave out, his strength sapped from the energy he had poured into her, and they lay heavily back against the terminal yet again. The children cried distantly behind them.

“Padmé, please…” Obi-Wan pleaded, tears streaking down his face, but she shook her head yet again.

“Keep them safe,” she coughed, begging for the first time. “Get them away f-from—”

“He’s gone, Padmé, Anakin is gone—”

She shook her head fiercely, squeezing her eyes shut. “No. He’s there. I can feel him.”

“Listen to me— Anakin is dead, I saw him—”

“You’re wrong,” Padmé said. Her breath rattled. Tears dripped from her chin. “If— If you won’t k-kill him then t-take care o-of them. Wh-Whatever it takes.”

Her chest hitched as she gasped around the liquid filling her lungs. Her bloody hand trembled against his neck. She hiccuped, her eyes went glassy, and her hand fell away.

And in the stillness of hyperspace, Padmé Amidala Naberrie passed from one life to the next.

It had been an hour since then. Only an hour since Obi-Wan had had to keep himself from buckling under the weight of his grief, an hour since he’d sobbed on the floor of a ship as one of his oldest and dearest friends died in his arms. The former queen of Naboo, dying in the bloody cargo hold of a stolen ship, her own life stolen from her by the one person the two of them had trusted beyond measure while her infant children cried out for comfort he felt wholly incapable of providing. Obi-Wan wept alongside them, digging his fingers into the cold, unfeeling floor, wanting to scream as the agony of heartbreak threatened to overwhelm him.

So many dead, or lost. There was no solace even in the Force.

But as Obi-Wan Kenobi found himself doing so often in his life, he shoved his feelings down into the furthest recesses of his broken heart, let go of another loved one returned to the Force, and turned himself back to the task at hand.

The infants were asleep now. He’d shakily scrubbed at his face and arms with cold water and spared only enough time under the sanisteam to ensure he was clean enough to handle them before finding a spare undershirt for himself. He fed them, cleaned them up, and held both of them together against his chest as they squirmed, dissatisfied at their situation before accepting their present accommodations and falling asleep. By the ship’s chrono he had roughly two standard hours before the ship was due to drop out of hyperspace.

He sat unseeing in the captain’s berth with the ad hoc bassinet nearby. Padmé was still in the hold; he couldn’t be two places at once, and he couldn’t stay down there with the children.

Something bothered him about the infants in his arms, though. Once the girl had passed from Padmé’s body, it almost seemed like the barrier keeping him from sensing Padmé’s thoughts had broken. He was too drained and scattered to dwell on it as his last moments with her had been focused on her well-being, but despite his utter exhaustion he had a suspicion that had already begun to crystallize under the sheer openness of the twins’ young presences within hyperspace.

It troubled him.

Whatever message she’d sent was evidently received by the people she’d needed it to. Bail Organa met him at the hastily assembled but covert rendezvous, his ensuing shock and horror upon entering the ship’s docking ramp turning to commanding resolve as he followed the trail of destruction to Kenobi’s station. Organa had to shake him from his stupor before Obi-Wan could tell him of Mustafar, of the newly appointed Sith and Padmé’s scheme, and of Padmé’s last words. The senator’s brow furrowed. He knelt next to the Jedi, looking over the sleeping children.

“What of Anakin?”

Obi-Wan shook his head tiredly. “I cannot sense him. I don’t believe Anakin is alive.”

“… Who else did she contact?” Bail asked.

Tears dripped onto Obi-Wan’s shirt. “I don’t know.”

Bail sighed, bringing one hand up to rest on his shoulder. “I am truly sorry, Obi-Wan. For everything.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t respond.

Bail’s team, handpicked and vetted by the senator himself, worked below decks as the men weighed their options. The aftermath of the despotic coup was rippling out and changing by the minute; the Jedi had been slaughtered and scattered, the clones had broken all communication, and the Senate had reached a fever pitch of chaos. Anything that needed to be done had to be done now.

The feeling of loss that bordered on consuming him was one he’d rarely felt in his lifetime as acutely as he did now. The comfort he found in the Force was absent. He’d felt like a ship unmoored when his master was killed. Now it was as though he’d been dropped into the middle of a hurricane.

Bail’s hands were clasped loosely together against his forehead, elbows resting on his knees as he bowed his head in thought. Kenobi could have been a corpse for how still and gaunt he was.

“Obi-Wan…” Bail began. “Are you certain Skywalker is dead?”

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. “I cannot sense him at all.”

Bail was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “… But you, of all people, couldn’t sense what must have been growing within him. Is it at all possible the body of Anakin remains, but the reason you cannot find him is because the man we knew is entirely lost to the Dark?”

A chilling fissure of clarity cut through Obi-Wan’s senses. His reaction told Bail everything he needed to know.

Even if it was only a suspicion, they could not afford to waste time figuring out the emperor’s next move. Anything that could be used to motivate Vader had to be hidden from public knowledge. They couldn’t leave a trace of his past behind.

Bail mulled over his thoughts, then stood, gesturing for Kenobi as his resolve hardened to steel. “Come. We have work to do. We will mourn when we are done.”

Sabé trembled with the effort it took to control her breathing. She stowed her bag behind the seat of the starship and brought the engine to life, moving with purpose as tears streamed unbidden down her face.

The ship rose, coordinates locked in place to meet the others of her gathering retinue. These weren’t the orders of former nobility, of a governing senator— This was the last request of a dying friend, someone whose very existence was woven into her bones. Padmé Amidala’s death would not be in vain.

Sabé looked out beyond the stars, her breathing finding stasis despite the ocean of grief beneath it.

“My hands are yours, Padmé,” she said to herself. “For as long duty compels them.”

She wasn’t going to kill Anakin. Not until he felt every bit of the pain and suffering he deserved.

Notes:

The line “clarity of purpose” comes from Saw Gerrera in the Andor TV show

I wrote Sabé’s line before seeing that one similar was used in one of the books. Good to know I was on the right track with a character I know very little about lol

[phoenixkaptain]

I love it when pre Original Trilogy era shows how much effort went into making the Death Star. It took decades, literal decades, and it took so much money and so many people and it was such a secretive thing and it’s staffed by millions because it’s the size of a small moon.

I cannot express how much all of the added information makes it so much funnier that Luke blew it up.

Luke destroys literally everything Palpatine built. He blows up the Death Star, which was referenced in universe as early as the second movie. He blew up the weapon of mass destruction twenty years in the making. And he blew it up pretty much directly after it’s first and only successful attack. It was operational for fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes that Palpatine had the thing he’d been building for longer than Luke has been alive, and Luke blows it up. First day retirement, but first hour retirement.

Luke convinces Darth Vader to turn back to the light side, a feat thought literally impossible by literally everybody. Sidious clearly doesn’t see Vader’s betrayal coming. Vader’s betrayal was not in his plans, nor was it something he was prepared for. Sidious is a powerful Force user with all four limbs while Vader is a man in the tin can Palpatine put him in. If Palpatine had seen Vader turning coming, he would not have allowed it to happen.

Luke literally should not even be alive. Palpatine almost definitely got Padme out of the way on purpose, and he almost certainly was trying for her unborn child as well (there was way too big of a risk that a cute liddol bebe would bring some humanity back to Anakin, and Palpatine did not want Anakin to have any humanity) Luke living is literally the first step in Palpatine’s ultimate downfall, especially once Vader finds out that Luke is his son. His very alive son. His son that is not dead, despite Palpatine claiming Anakin killed Padme. Implying that Anakin killed Padme and she posthumously gave birth. But, she didn’t give birth on Mustafar, which was the last place Anakin interacted with her. And once the mother dies, you have to get those fuckers out fast or they die too.

I imagine Darth Vader piecing all of this together is that meme with all the math floating around his head, because how could Padme have died by his hand and then given birth like two hours later?

Luke killing Palpatine is what ultimately leads to the dissolution of the Empire as an omnipotent entity. Luke killed the Empire. Luke spends a good amount of his adult life killing Empire remnants. We see that in the Mandalorian, since he’s so recognizable that Gideon immediately knows he’s fucked just by seeing an X-wing. We read it in Legends’ continuity, where Luke terrifies Imperials because he can walk into their changing room and stand in their for a minute and they don’t even notice.

Luke destroyed Palpatine’s life’s work. Everything Palpatine spent his whole life working towards, and Luke kills all of it. He blows up not one, but two Death Stars (he may not have pulled the trigger on the second Death Star, but without him, it never would have been destroyed). He convinces not one, but multiple Sith and Dark Jedi to return from the Dark Side. He is the only reason that Obi-Wan Kenobi, the biggest pain in Palpatine’s ass ever born, lives long enough to make it to the Death Star.

Palpatine went through so much effort. And just when he had finally won, when he finally had a weapon capable of destroying entire planets with a single blast, making it impossible for any planets or peoples to go against him, Luke shows up nineteen years late to the Jedi party with space Starbucks and a droid twice his age and almost singlehandedly destroys everything Palpatine ever had a hand in creating.

Luke manages to become even worse than Obi-Wan Kenobi, the ultimate thorn in the side of politicians, and Luke doesn’t even understand any politics. He wasn’t trained in diplomacy like Obi-Wan and Leia, no, he’s a farmboy who left home for the first time in his entire life, just this morning. And he is the one to destroy the Empire.

If they rewrote Star Wars and had it entirely from Palpatine’s perspective, Luke Skywalker would be his greatest foe. Luke Skywalker would be the final boss. Luke Skywalker is the antithesis of everything Palpatine believes in and he is the one character that Palpatine cannot predict. He isn’t as moldable as Anakin, he doesn’t respond to threats very well, he’s apparently impossible to kill via Force lightning (still the funniest scene of all times, the progression of Palpatine’s face falling and him looking like “what the fuck??? Is this kid rubber??? I’ve electrocuted him eight times???”), his unwavering faith in his father’s goodness makes Darth Vader want to be a better person, Luke Skywalker is the big bad of Palpatine’s story and—

There is nothing in this world that is funnier than someone’s biggest antagonist being Luke fucking Skywalker. Luke Skywalker, who saved the galaxy with the power of love and who shouldn’t exist, by Jedi rules and by Palpatine’s own attempts, and whose best friends are literally droids, which Palpatine canonically hates!

Everything about this is hilarious, this is the funniest thing in all of media, Palpatine loses absolutely everything to some backwater farmboy who fucking likes droids.

[mayhaps-a-blog]

OK so the thing is

The path to the Dark Side isn't just kriffing up. You don't just go "whoops!" one day and start murdering people for fun. You make decisions. You make choices. And when those choices go bad... instead of standing up and admitting your mistakes, you double down.

Sol's Fall perfectly hits the beats that I think many people lose track of with Anakin - his first Fall wasn't with Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith, but with the Tuskens in Attack of the Clones. Anakin goes from sobbing in Padme's arms that he killed the women, and the children too - he killed them all - to screaming that they were monsters and they deserved it. Instead of facing his mistakes - the lives that he took in anger, in rage - he insisted that you know what, he was right to do that. He did the right thing. He's glad he did it. And he'll do it again.

Sol kriffed up. He was too emotional on Brendok - Indara called him out on it, and she was right. The witches DID love their children, he DID get the wrong end of the stick, and however weird they were and worrisome the bits they saw with the kids were, the answer to that is to find out more information or, I don't know, wait one kriffing day, not charge in, lightsabers drawn.

(I don't blame Torbin, really. He was also totally out of balance, but he was the Padawan learner - the student who needed guidance, not the Master supposed to deliver it. Mother Aniseya had gotten into his head and thrown him for a loop, and Indara needed to sit on him a bit more - but if she'd been on a speeder instead of Sol, I think things would have worked out very differently.)

Instead it was Sol, who dragged Torbin into a dangerous situation without thinking of the consequences - without even considering that he might be wrong.

Honestly, I'm not even sure I blame him for swinging at Mother Aniseya. Mae had said some pretty worrisome things and was literally dissolving into midair. I blame Sol for being there in the first place, where he had no place, and for putting everyone on edge so far that Mother Aniseya felt the need to move to protect her children, and he felt the need to retaliate unthinkingly.

And then. And then.

Hard to say if Indara did the right thing. She was thinking about Osha, and I don't think she was necessarily wrong. She gave Osha a chance to have the life she dreamed of, a chance she would never have had otherwise.

But Sol.

Sol should never have taken Osha as his Padawan. He was too close; the hurt was too painful to hide. He couldn't tell Osha the truth, so he buried it, papered it over with justifications and excuses - he'd done it for Osha. For the girls. To keep them safe. It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do. He did it for Osha. And that gave him the means to look Osha in the eyes and smile, and pretend everything was fine.

But of course, he couldn't let her go, either. He'd done it all for her - he couldn't fail her now. Couldn't admit that he'd failed her. He had to make this right - (but it was right already it was it was) - but the closer he bound them together, the harder it was to let go of his attachment to her. After all, if he told her now... what if she hated him?

Sol loved Osha too much from the very beginning. He couldn't let go of his attachment to her: to his idea that he could save her, could train her, to be the master he wanted to be for her. He couldn't face his own failures, so he refused to see them; insisted that they were correct, right, justified, to the last. And in the end, that's what poisoned Osha - and himself.

He was afraid. Afraid for her; afraid for himself. And his fear led to anger - at the Master, at himself. And his fear led to anger - Osha's, at him, for papering over his fears with lies, lies to her. And anger led to hatred. And hatred? Led to suffering.

No one walked away from Brendok without suffering. Not Osha; not Mae. Maybe Qimir; maybe not. But definitely not Sol.

Sol had to make a choice. And he made one. But he didn't just make one choice; he made many choices, over and over again. And no matter what excuses he gave, what justifications, he could never bring himself to admit that maybe, just maybe, he'd made the wrong choices.

Sol's lightsaber may not have been red. But I think, if he'd finished that swing on Khofar? It might not have been all that far from it.

[aestariiwilderness]

Bad Batch -- Actually Probably Not Spoilers?

But Just In Case:

Like, for plot reasons, I see why they couldn't do it. But my biggest (and possibly the funniest) peeve I have with Bad Batch is this: Canonically, Tech is some kind of master hacker. Can forge chain codes after learning about them five seconds ago. Hacks battle droids -- presumably, you know, SECURED in some way -- on the regular. Masked a ship's signature or whatever. Calculates percentages of plans' successes on the fly while hanging upside down from a screechy flying reptile. Has zero fear (except when Omega is driving the Marauder or someone is doing the Wikipedia entry who isn't him) ("it's not affecting life support. We're fine"; riot racing; everything he's ever done). The moral heart of the Batch pre-Omega ("the systematic termination of the Jedi was a big one for me"; "I understand. I do not agree with you"; "of course we are a family"; "we have not always seen eye to eye with Crosshair but he is our brother and we do not leave our own behind"; but has no issue being pragmatic when it's called for (see: Cid, riot racing again, missions for Rex, interruptions thereof, etc.). Seriously. Wack job of a man. Crazy. Strict moral code arranged almost solely around his family that absolutely nobody sees coming and that, specifically, does NOT preclude massive destruction, property damage, and lethal measures. Ridiculous man. Homeschooled. Genetic Mandalorian. COMPETENT. (Usually.) Bona fide, literal, genetically-engineered test tube genius who is also biologically nine years old. Has no concept whatsoever of overkill. Point being -- he is EXACTLY the kind of person I would expect, once it sunk in that: 1. They are no longer Kaminoan/Republic property 2. They are, in fact, on the run with fam + new baby and - cranky but nonetheless beloved sniper bro who picked a terrible time to be stupid And 3. that "money" is now a thing they must Account For.... Give him two days to study finances, economy, and the various mafia; send him on a weekend trip to Nal Hutta to observe gangs, and hey presto -- the Hutts? overthrown in a year. Black Sun? Under new management. Pykes? A thing of the past. The Senate? Convening emergency sessions to discuss Where All the Money Has Gone. Palpatine's Secret Slush Fund #43? Drained. Hemlock's Science Budget? Currently funding the clone rebellion. ISB 401ks? Being used to pay someone to "retrieve" (read: kidnap) Crosshair from Rampart. Cad Bane's baby-stealing revenue? Currently outfitting the Marauder with gold plating. My point: WHY ISN'T TECH HACKING STAR WARS ATMs Story would have been over six episodes in. Tech would have foreclosed on the Palace; the Death Star would have fallen prey to insurance fraud; Omega would have grown up with more gowns than Padme. The Banking Clan bows to their new and, uh, eccentric overlords. Wrecker has thirteen new Z-6 cannons. Echo has thirteen natborn employees and is thoroughly enjoying himself. Hunter took an actual shower (still didn't get a new bandana). The Empire is turning over the empty coffers and shaking them out, wondering if they have rats. Mas Amedda is standing on street corners with an upturned hat. Crosshair is happily occupied with suing the Kaminoans for emotional damages. The end

[ladyanidala]

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Anon, why do you do this to me :')

(I'm totally kidding, maybe I'll find some motivation to finish some of my WIPs if you guys like them well enough, lol)

I'll give you the title (the titles as they are in my google drive, not the polished ones on AO3) and a sentence. Enjoy! :)

Rebelcaptain Timeloop - "When the blazing heat comes for Jyn like a wraith out of hell, she doesn’t expect to be standing in front of Cassian again."

Mayday/Reader Coworkers to Lovers - "Of course, pretending to date Mayday for the sake of him getting a promotion wasn’t helping your frustration either."

Fox FBI fic, let's goooooo - "I’ve survived worse, my dear. I’ll be there in a few hours and then meet you in the hotel. I can’t imagine that we’ll do anything other than awkwardly talk to each other."

Texas Hold 'Em - Rex - "(As you stared at the TV, you missed the double take he shot your way. You also missed the knowing looks from the other two men.)"

Anidala Stage Actor AU (this one is for an ask that came in a year ago, and I'm so sorry I haven't gotten it out yet!!) - '“Anakin, come on, we’re here to go over our lines, not grumble about how you’d never be as dumb as Romeo,” Padmé exclaimed, exasperated at his refusal to take their lines seriously.'

FOXIYO WEEK 2023 (rip, I never got to participate in it) - "She had a perfect view of the Imperial palace from where she stood - a mockery of everything she stood for and everyone she used to be friends with."

If Anakin and Padme left for Naboo - "I have the secret, my dear boy - the secret that will fix every problem that you will ever face from this point forward. Will you scorn my offered knowledge?"

Send me more roses if you want more lines, shoot me an ask about what a fic is about, or yell at me to complete literally any of these. Any motivation would be appreciated, lol.

[palfriendpatine66]

Actually. Also. 19.

Choose violence ask game

19. Best canon example of good parenting in Star Wars

Ah yes. You know me well. Buckle up everyone

In no particular order because I don’t think there’s a winner here:

Shmi “He Deserves More Than A Slaves Life” Skywalker. Anakin was literally the only thing she had in the universe. She taught him to care for others and stand up for what’s right. And she loved him enough to let him go. If Anakin had been able to follow her example regarding love the Galaxy would have been a different place.

Owen “He Is My Own” Lars and Beru “We’re Enough” Whitesun Lars. I could write an essay on them. They knew the risk, they knew the danger, and they took him in. More than that: they loved him. They taught him to work hard and do what’s right. They, too, loved him enough to let him go. Prolonging the inevitable as long as they could, sure, but weren’t going to hold him back from the life he wanted and squash his spirit by keeping him safe on the farm forever either (one more season!) They protected him and gave their lives for him.

Bail and Breha “You Are An Organa In Every Way” Organa.

In this house we stan Bail and Breha Organa. Far more than Owen and Beru could even begin to fathom they understood what was at stake. Bail witnessed the attack on The Temple with his own eyes and knew exactly what would happen if Leia was found. But he and Breha had already been fighting for what is right - been fighting the Empire before it was even formed. They were committed. And they raised Leia to continue that fight even after she had lost everything herself. They are the true embodiment of family being far more than blood and ironically, raised a daughter who would carry on the legacy of Padme and (Clone Wars General/pre fall)Anakin: Leia spent her life dedicated to the service of others and democracy and fiercely defended what is right.

[zapernz]

guess who’s back (back) back again (again). OK SO IMMA SPEAK MY TRUTH FOR YALL ANI SUB TRUTHERS (aka the ones who are always right)

he would literally get annoyed or mad and try to dom but YALL seen the way his was looked down when padme havé him a look like … 😭😭🫵 YOU SUBMISSIVE WHORE!!!

He would def top sometimes but literally whine and whimper. Cry. And when he’s mad 🤭 hot as fuck but he would NEVER (And I mean NEVER) be a hard dom. Most likely a switch leaning sub and have his brat moments as always (it’s Anakin we talking about). HE NEEDS TO BE PUT IN HIS PLACE. Also thanks for everyone for agreeing OR responding with ur views, if you think he’s a Dom that’s fine! (Even tho ur wrong and the truth hurts 💔🤫) lol no ill intent btw. But sub ani 🔛🔝 (literally. Imagine how hot. HIS TEARS FALLING ON YOUR CHEST HELLO ⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️)

save me sub anakin truthers … save me

I’m pretty sure I’ll be back cuz I stalk you so I’ll just say to make my tag smth dumb or funny like #slimshadyanon cuz I stand on business like Eminem when he hears his name in a diss

THIS IS SO FUNNY I LOVE YOU

he is such a submissive little bitch, even if he tries to dominate he needs your permission for everything, to touch you, to cum, to even fuck you in the first place.

[the-bi-space-ace]

The World Tumbles Down Chapter 15 - Execute Order 66 and Chapter 16 - Fracture Fixation

I decided to do these two chapters together since they are a part 1 and part 2 of each other, really.

Chapter 15 starts their attempt to arrest Palpatine at the Senate. Clearly, everything that could go wrong does and they are all split up. I love splitting them up in times of peril. It’s one of my favorite things to do to them, especially when the way they are split is painful in some way. And Chapter 16 shows you the completion of that part of the mission. They get their intel, Palps is taken out, and they have subdued most of the Coruscant Guard who is under the chip influence.

Rex, Cody, and Obi-Wan

Facing off against Anakin was always going to happen. From fic 1 I knew I wanted his fall to the dark side to be relevant and I really thought him interrupting and ruining their plans would be the most painful way to do it. He still gets to face off against Obi-Wan and now Rex and Cody are there. They’re all separated from the rest of the group, they’re sure they will die here. It’s a punch to the gut to know Anakin betrayed them. It hurts. It was one of my favorite things to write, especially when Cody picks up the lightsaber. I’ve been teasing him doing that throughout the series and it is this moment where it really matters. They are all horribly injured and Anakin has the advantage and Cody picking up that lightsaber, while not saving them, did throw Anakin off enough to distract him.

And then… Cody nearly dies. Anakin nearly kills him and he would’ve succeeded if it wasn’t for Rex using the last of his strength to subdue Anakin. Truthfully, I do not know too much about Star Wars but I was reminded of the scene where Anakin chokes Padme in the movies and when I think of that it makes me sick to my stomach. This scene is similar. Anakin is literally choking the life out of Cody in front of the people who love him. He is purposefully trying to take him away from the people that love him, saying that he thinks Cody makes them (specifically Obi-Wan) weak and without him they’ll have more strength. I think this is up to you whether he means this or not, whether he believes what he’s saying, or if he is just trying to hurt Obi-Wan specifically. He’s betrayed Rex but he wants to harm Obi-Wan. I wanted to leave that up to you.

But I am purposefully mirroring that scene. To me, it is horrifying to watch and really signifies just how far Anakin has fallen. While I am not as well versed in Star Wars as other people that scene sticks with me even as years have worn away my memories of the movies.

Now… I don’t know how the Force works… so I am aware that not everyone can Force heal people HOWEVER I think it is really intense and emotional to heal someone so I couldn’t resist having Obi-Wan do it. Almost losing Cody is a reminder that this is a battle that could very well take everything from them. It’s on the cusp of Order 66. Anakin has fallen to the dark side. Palpatine has nearly won. They could’ve lost. We will still have to wait a little bit before we see how this turned out for them but it really could’ve been so much worse. Cody, so strong and standing tall, was almost gone.

And Rex and Obi-Wan saved him.

Trick & Echo

Yikes. What I did to Trick in these chapters hurts more than I can explain. I almost decided not to go through with it, even though this has been planned for over a year. It hurts to know that he’s done something he always said he wouldn’t and it’s even worse that it’s another clone. I really didn’t want to do this when it came down to it. I really wanted to keep him out of it. But it is as much a part of Trick’s story as it is a part of Echo’s. Echo had to watch. He had to witness the guilt and the pain. He had to keep Trick moving because if he didn’t they are both dead. I included it when I didn’t really want to because I think it adds to both of their stories in a way that is meaningful and really fucking sad. This clone had a name, he had people who loved him, and now he is gone. And isn’t that the thing that both Trick and Echo didn’t want to see? Harm and death for clones who have no idea what they are doing. The medic, the healer, the one who refused to kill a single living thing, had to take a life and has to live with it. And Echo had to watch him fall apart with grief, had to comfort him, had to move him forward.

Because what do you do when you have to make an impossible choice? What path did he have? What do you even say to someone who had no choice? Is Trick to blame? Should he have tried harder? Done something different? Could he even have done that? Or is this the horror that Order 66, Palpatine, and the chips have forced onto the clones?

Yet another thing I wanted you to be able to grapple with and answer for yourself, even if I have my own thoughts. It’s horrifying, sad, and we aren’t done unpacking this moment in this fic.

I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll just focus on these two things for this one. Chapter 17 is my favorite chapter by far so I’m very excited to post that later today :)

I hope you’re having a good time reading the final parts to this story. I’ve enjoyed writing it so much that I’m sad it is almost over.

<3

[antianakin]

Do you think Riyo would have made a better partner than Padme for Anakin

No, not at all. Dear lord, I would never subject poor Riyo to being Anakin’s partner haha.

For one, regardless of Riyo’s personality traits, she’s still a sitting senator and so all of the same problems regarding the relationship between a senator and a Jedi Knight would still exist. We don’t have enough information about Pantora’s rules regarding its senators’ relationships (Riyo’s never seen in a relationship but that doesn’t mean it’s forbidden necessarily), but it doesn’t change that relationships between Jedi and senators is probably discouraged and frowned upon even if it isn’t outright forbidden. It’s just a bad idea still, no matter what.

But if what you’re looking at is more of a personality thing, whether Riyo would maybe stand up to Anakin more or not enable his more evil actions more, I still don’t know if Riyo would necessarily be any better than Padme. Certainly I don’t think Riyo would change anything fundamental about Anakin, his selfishness and his greed and his struggle with attachments. Quite honestly, even if we assume Riyo would have higher standards than Padme and less tolerance for Anakin’s bullshit, she’d probably just dump his ass and that doesn’t fix or save Anakin. 

And that’s sort-of the point. Everyone around Anakin does everything, effectively, right. And it doesn’t fucking matter. Padme is his obedient little wife who strokes his ego and never leaves him and does the secret romance just the way he wants, and it doesn’t stop him from turning on her and destroying everything she cares about. Obi-Wan supports him and is there for him and teaches him kindness and compassion and it doesn’t stop Anakin from turning on him and destroying the Jedi. Ahsoka loves him and believes in him, Rex trusts in him, and it doesn’t stop Anakin from throwing both of them to the wolves when it comes down to it. 

So no, throwing in Riyo instead of Padme would change nothing because, while Padme holds a certain responsibility for what happens as someone who lied for Anakin, the relationship is not ultimately what causes Anakin to fall. If it hadn’t been Padme, Palpatine would’ve used literally anyone else. I’m relatively convinced that Palpatine was probably aiming for it to be Obi-Wan initially, before Padme re-enters the picture. He could’ve just as easily used Ahsoka if he’d wanted. And if Anakin had been in a relationship with Riyo, he’d have used Riyo. The reason Anakin falls is because he is selfish and greedy and this would be true no matter who his partner is, no matter who his Master was, no matter who his Padawan was, etc etc. Changing his partner is like addressing a symptom rather than a root cause of a disease. 

And honestly I just don’t see any real connection between the two of them. I don’t think Anakin has any reason to fall for Riyo, she comes off as very young and very sweet and I don’t really think that appeals as much to Anakin as Padme’s stronger personality. And I don’t see Riyo being attracted to Anakin’s very blase attitude towards life and her work or as enamored by Anakin’s really saccharine romantic gestures like offering her his lightsaber. Riyo seems completely happy to be a senator, she’s fully invested in her work, while Padme sort-of dreams of something else and THAT’S what pulls her towards Anakin. Padme is making a sacrifice in order to do what she believes is her duty, but Riyo never seems to be doing the same. She’s not sacrificing anything, so Anakin has nothing to offer her. 

If Anakin/Riyo is your ship, I’m sorry lol, to each their own, but I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of Anakin as a character and the themes of Star Wars as a story to assume that Anakin would be saved by being in a relationship with someone who wasn’t Padme.

[melhekhelmurkun]

I love love love love the music of Star Wars. I know I’ve said this before (mainly with specific songs) but holy shit I adore it I really do. I could spend literal hours talking about it.

I love how perfectly each character’s theme fits them, I love how every scene has exactly what music it needs to set the tone, I love the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) motifs that call back to all sorts of different stories. There’s a quick analysis under the cut if anyone’s interested 👉👈🥺

I love how Vader’s theme (aka the Imperial March) is slow and steady and intense, it feels confident and powerful just like the character. Vader knows who he is, he knows what he’s capable of and what his job is, he knows what he has to do to get that job done, and he’s more than willing to do said things. In contrast, Kylo’s theme (Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle) is sort of all over the place. You can’t really tell what it’s going to do next - one second it’s fast and quiet, the next it’s slow and very loud; it’s intense in a totally different way. I think that fits his character very well too (he doesn’t have the confidence and surety in his role that Vader had, so his music is a mix of calmer moments that suddenly become very harsh). I also love the very subtle motifs in Ren’s theme that actually seem to reference the Imperial March (there are a few points where the notes seem to follow the same format of the lead-up, only to dip off into something else. This happens particularly at the beginning of the song)

Then there’s Anakin and Padme’s love theme (Across the Stars), which I have already waxed poetic about so many times. I think it perfectly encompasses their relationship (at least at the start) - the song feels very hopeful and peaceful, but also very naive. I don’t know how to explain that lol it just feels like that to me. It’s quick but even, with mainly light strings and few intense sections. There’s a point towards the middle of the song (2:07 ish on Spotify) where it gets a little melancholy before then switching to a more brassy style, and it feels to me like that’s the realization that the war will interfere with their pictured life, but then it goes back into the strings (with the brass in the back) and that feels like they’re trying to push through and ignore the war’s effect. And it gets a little more melancholy and intense towards the end, before switching to what sounds like a harp (don’t quote me on that?) and my personal headcanon is that harps are a big thing on Naboo :) idk that part specifically feels very important since it’s different from the rest of the song.

And don’t get me started on Jyn Erso & Hope Suite holy shiiiiiit I LOVE THIS FUCKING SONG!!!!! I will die on the hill that Rogue One had THE best music in the whole of Star Wars. Hope Suite really manages to encompass the feelings of hope that are simultaneously uplifting and terrifying. It makes my chest go all hdhdhdhshs. It’s delicate while also managing to be very powerful and emotional, and the strength of the melody feels perfect for Jyn’s character. Listening to this, it (obviously) feels very hopeful and eager, but there’s that sort of soft and sweet undertone that makes you wonder if everything will work out the way you want it to. There’s some ominous notes towards the end, where it all slows down and it feels like you’re standing on the edge of something, and then the ending notes trail off. Absolutely crazy. One of my favorite songs fr.

Idk sorry for the rant, I’ve been thinking about this all day and needed to get it out SOMEWHERE bc otherwise it was gonna bounce around in my head and drive me insane

[shadowspellchecker]

<p><h1>8. 7. Timer AU</h1></p>

<p><h1>9. 8. Star Wars meets the Roman Empire </h1></p>

<p>For Rogue One, it is well-suited to a pretty direct one to one translation of circumstances. </p>

<p>Galactic empire = Roman Empire</p>

<p>Coruscant / Imperial Center = Rome</p>

<p>Palpatine = the Emperor</p>

<p>Stormtroopers = Roman footsoldiers</p>

<p>Core worlds:</p>

Alderaan =

<p>Mid-Rim</p>

Naboo =

<p>And the alliance? Assorted resistance groups and enemies of the Roman Empire from within and without. </p>

<p>I'd like to use the period around the reign of Augustus. 1st century. </p>

<p>There wasn't really a Civil War where you have clear Republic and Separatist groups on the scale of Star Wars until late in its lifetime, but the Roman Civil War between Caesar and Ptolemy and that other guy stand in pretty well. </p>

<p>The setting is Roman Palestine, Jedha being Jerusalem. So… 0BBY is 70 CE. </p>

<p>Let us begin there. </p>

<p>Chirrut is a Pharisee who contracted cataracts in his youth. He is a master of oral tradition with a brilliant memory. </p>

<p>Baze went off and fought alongside Judas of Gamala . He left them when Chirrut became blind, and they've been on the run from both the zealots and the Romans ever since. </p>

<p>Chirrut, given the period, was probably literally Pals with Jesus. Or at least a pleasant verbal sparring partner. </p>

<p>Bodhi Rook, not a Jew, is also from the province. Perhaps one of the Greek cities, or the son of an immigrant from Syria. Seeking a better life for his family after his father's death he took work as an animal handler for the Roman Army in that province. Swift and light, he eventually became a message carrier. </p>

<p>Saw Gerrera and the Partisans are Zealots. </p>

<p>Galen Erso is a Romanized Greek; Lyra full Roman by parentage but raised alongside Saw. </p>

<p>Cassian is from Hispania. Specifically, Kenari and Fest are both Basque country. Need to do research on the specifics, see Cantabrian wars, but he's taken in by a couple living in the west of Spain after their death. The big economic trade of hispania is olive oil of course, and other kinds of farming, but let's assume he didn't get such a connected life. Perhaps first a mining village or something, yes they had those, or brickmaking. Something that could lead to a village being destroyed and all the adults killed. After that some sort of blacksmith thing. Then foster parent gets executed (not crucified, just hung), foster mom and him are stuck salvaging and odd jobs in their new community. FYI, he was raised speaking proto-Basque. So… yeah. Language barrier from hell as a child, which in fact led to his sister being left behind in the mountains when he was nabbed. Then he gets in trouble with the authorities, debt slavery as a kid, then later prison, hard labor again, being voluntold into the Roman Army and desertion, etc etc etc. Most of it is a one to one correspondence although Narkina IV is probably mining tar, because I figure that Greek fire would be the equivalent to the death star here. </p>

<p>Or perhaps orichalcum as an equivalent to kyber. </p>

<p>Really, the clone wars backstory is likely multigenerational. So Palpatine wouldn't be just one, no, it would be two … or three! </p>

<p>And Anakin Skywalker. </p>

<p>Born a slave, to a slave woman in Tunisia. A couple of Roman elite soldiers or augers come along and buy him. Ani is an amazing horseman, natural jockey, and an intuitive sailor. Really a genius at everything. They buy his freedom and adopt him. Qui-Gon dies, Ani joins the Roman legions. Excels. He climbs the ranks (see Miscellany) as a soldier and politician. Eventually he saves enough and gets an opportunity to find and free his mother, while accompanying a noblewoman to Egypt, only to learn she was killed and died. He goes, finds the nearest people who match the description, kills them. </p>

<p>The noblewoman is of course Padme Amidala of the house of Ptolemy. She is a Greek Egyptian, see? This is relevant because it allows Luke and Leia to have coloring that conceals them where we put Alderaan. But that's later. </p>

<p>Out in Egypt the two marry. But then Ani is called away to quell a "slave revolt" on the other side of the empire. Yah.</p>

<p>And things go downhill. </p>

<p>By the way, the Chiss? They are the Picts. Blue man group solidarity, dudes. Hehehe. Actually, I'm thinking that the Chiss would be the Han Dynasty, or perhaps even the New World. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Active rebellions between 1 and 70 CE:</p>

<p>Passive resistance groups </p>

<p>With the end of the period of civil wars (44–31 BC), Augustus undertook the conquest of the Alpine valleys (from the Aosta Valley to the Arsia river in Istria) from 16 BC to 7 BC completing the conquest of the Italian geographical region. </p>

<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iapydes">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iapydes</a></p>

<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquileia">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquileia</a></p>

<p>Sardinia: The last organized revolts were repressed by Marcus Caecilius Metellus in 115-111 BC and Titus Albucius in 106.[19] However the Sardinians living in the impervious mountains of the interior resisted the Roman colonization well into Imperial times.</p>

<p>Social War (91–87 BC): The Roman clients in Italy the Marsi, the Paeligni, the Vestini, the Marrucini, the Picentes, the Frentani, the Hirpini, the Iapyges, Pompeii, Venosa, Lucania and Samnium rebelled against Rome.</p>

<p>73bc Third Servile War: Some seventy gladiators, slaves of Lentulus Batiatus in Capua, made a violent escape.</p>

<p> Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC): Pompey conquered Jerusalem and entered the Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.</p>

<p>2nd Invasion of Britain: Julius Caesar's second invasion of Britain.</p>

<p>31 BC 2 September Battle of Actium: Forces loyal to Augustus defeated Antony and his lover Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, in a naval battle near Actium.</p>

<p>30 BC 1 August Final War of the Roman Republic: Antony's forces defected to Augustus. He committed suicide.</p>

<p>The province of Egypt was organized. Augustus took the title pharaoh.</p>

<p>Cantabrian Wars: Rome deployed some eighty thousand soldiers against the Cantabri in Iberia.</p>

<p>19 BC Cantabrian Wars: The last major combat operations ended. The Cantabri and Astures were pacified.</p>

<p><h1>10. 9. Cohortes Urbanae</h1></p>

<p>CU Lucius Racilius recruits deserter Andor, last known survivor of a village in the West, as informant in exchange for legal protection and clean slate (backdated paperwork). Lucius eventually is killed. His adopted son Draven takes over his position in the CU, metaphorically inheriting Andor as client. Eventually you find a plot equivalent to Rogue One. Whether Cassian and Jyn survive, eh. 50-50. I'd give them the live option myself though. There's no death star, and even though the ancient world didn't really do handrails and OSHA, they also didn't have blasters. They had slings and arrows…. Which… </p>

<p>Actually…. </p>

<p>Well, they wouldn't build ludicrous towers in random tropical islands. That's something, right?</p>

[ahvore]

what if i said that “making the bed” from guts aligns very much with anakin skywalker/darth vader’s life and experiences. very surface level but i have examples:

(poor grammar and i’m also a casual star wars watcher so it isn’t as deep as it could be but i just had this idea and needed to write about it. also if i got anything wrong don’t yell at me. very long btw)

from this first verse we have the lyric “another day pretendin’ i’m older than i am”. this stands out to me because all through his jedi training into his time as darth vader it seems like he is always having to be older. from having a padawan at like 19 and being general to him dying quite young in his early 40s, he had to act older than he actually was. its so heartbreaking too because he was forced to grow up so fast and take on so many roles.

moving onto the chorus we have a few different lines first one is “well, sometimes i feel like i don’t wanna be where i am”. very obvious but he felt this way during his time as a jedi and i’m pretty sure as vader so it speaks for itself. next up is “pushing away all the people who know me the best”. again obvious but he pushed away directly or indirectly his wife/children, obi-wan, ashoka, and his mother which helped lead to his downfall. directly followed by “but it’s me who’s been makin’ the bed”. this line is a reference to the saying which is “you’ve made your bed, now lie in it”. this saying very much applies to anakin/vader’s decision which was made at the end of rots. he self sabotaged himself and now has to deal with the choices of which he has made. the line after that which is “every good thing has turned into somethin’ i dread”. i won’t dive too much into this line considering how obvious it is. “and i’m playing the victim so well in my head”, while yes he very much is the victim of many different things he does try to pull the victim card in situations he definitely should not.

second verse starts off with the line, “and every night, i wake up from this one recurrin’ dream”. it fits perfectly with the dreams he had of padme dying in rots and everything else that comes after it. a few lines after, we hear “i read somewhere its ‘cause my life feels so out of control”. this lines up well with how nothing in anakin/vader’s life is in his control. he was always the puppet or prawn in somebody’s game; republic or empire. next line is very literal as it says “they’re changin’ my machinery, and i just let it happen”. palpatine literally destroyed anakin/vader’s body even further than it already was to have a hold over him. the last line of the verse is “i got the things i wanted, it’s just not what i imagined”. anakin/vader got the power and knowledge of the sith, but it wasn’t what he thought it was going to be like. he assumed that padme was going to be with him and he would have his family. that clearly never happened though.

there are of course other lines in the song which apply to anakin/vader, but this is already very long-winded as it is. if there was another song from guts that is very anakin/vader it would be “logical” so i might analyze that but i’ll see. well thanks for reading :)

[vodika-vibes]

I had a crazy idea for a Star Wars AU, featuring Dusk (cause he's my baby)

So, in this AU, Dusk is able to pretend thay he has any idea what's going on when Order 66 goes out. So he doesn't get shot at by his brothers. And when hrs finally able to slip away to the Jedi temple it's after everything.

General Kenobi and General Yoda both end of threatening him with their sabers, but he's able to talk them down by completely disarming himself and stripping off his armor, and is just like, "weird shit is happening, what the actual fuck?"

Dusk get dragged along to Mustafar, but while Kenobi and Skywalker are doing their damnedest to kill each other, Dusk is playing medic for Senator Amidala. Luckily he does have some experience with traumatic injuries, and he's able to stabilize her.

So. Amidala gives birth to the twins (which is so traumatic for Dusk, decanting is so much less violent for clones than nat-borns), and Amidala is injured, but alive.

Yoda and Kenobi are like, "we should separate the twins, for their own good." Amidala is barely conscious. Organa is like, "I'll raise the girl!"

And Dusk is standing there, monitoring Amidala, and is just like, "are you fucking stupid?" It's been a long day. His brothers are literal slaves to the new emperor and the jedi are dead and these people are deciding the fate of children who don't belong to them.

And Dusk's latent Mando genes spring to life and he quietly cusses them out in every language he knows.

Yoda tries to talk Dusk down, but Dusk's so angry that he's vibrating, and he snatches Leia out of Bail's arms and tells them that the only person aloud to decide the fate of these children is their mother, and he can and will fight them on this.

Long story short, Padme Amidala survives to raise her children in a Rebellion that she created. And Luke and Leia end up learning how to fight under the gentle guidance of their Uncle Dusk and Padme's very competent handmaidens.

Luke learns how to fight like one of his mother's handmaiden. Leia preferred fighting like a Clone. The first time Dusk watched them win against their training droids he was so proud he cried for an hour.

[callipraxia]

So, I’m done with S1 of Clone Wars, and have watched the first two discs of S2. Seems like a good time to check in with some Opinions.

1) this stuff is good. It’s the kind of good where, when there’s a moment that’s obviously written to cater to children and/or executives, those moments actually stick out noticeably. It’s a bit like GF: so good that its flaws stand out more than they should due to all the goodness around them, but in a way, the fact I’m bothering to point these little things out as flaws kind of highlights its excellence.

2) Padme’s design and animation weren’t nearly as awful as anticipated

3) Despite my strong appreciation for the writing and mild compliment to Padme…every other creature and thing on the screen has its moments where it looks almost real. Why, exactly, could they animate literally everything else so well (yes, there’s some moments of blatantly cheap or rushed background animation, but considering the sheer number of backgrounds…see my comments in Remark One) but not avoid making all the human characters look just…off, somehow, without exception, even in the best cases? And why, if they had to choose one actor’s face to be extra-insulting to, did they have to do…that…to Christopher Lee? Forget looking like his actor, Dooku doesn’t even look like a person!

4) more on that awesome writing. One thing I admire about it is how willing they are to let the protagonists fail. Yeah, there’s certain losses we know will be losses ahead of time (any time they think they are close to capturing Dooku or Grievous, for instance), but others run circles around the mains/at least take them to breaking even rather more often than they get ahead, and there was no narrative necessity to those characters. It’s tricky to balance letting your protagonists even partially lose regularly with preserving the audience’s respect for them, but they do it well, especially in such traditionally nuance-lacking genres. It’s quite the accomplishment to pull this off and actually convey the intended theme (that war is tedious and draining and damaging and you lose at least as much as if you win even in the best-case outcome) at all, but especially given the format.

5) It would have been a tad more effective had they started building up a few specific clones more as individuals earlier, but the inclusion of individualized clones and Ahsoka, along with recurring secondary characters (ex. Luminara and Barriss) was very clever - they add *some* tension to those episodes where the outcome is predetermined. Any of them could die, and anyone familiar with Revenge of the Sith knows that it’s very unlikely that Ahsoka will end the show in top form - sure, they *could* have just promoted her to Jedi and pretended she was just still on the Outer Rim when Obi-Wan and Anakin were called back to Coruscant, but considering how unstable Anakin is by the beginning of RotS, it seems more likely for her total absence to be explained by her being dead, MIA, in prison, in exile, turned traitor, or otherwise Not Okay. Separatists killing her in particular could have gone a long way to make it more sympathetic that Palpatine found it so very easy to convince Anakin to take up that job at Decapitation Station.

6) on Anakin’s mental health…knowing the future makes the ending of “Senate Spy” so much sadder. He was a bit of a jealous psycho in that episode as per usual…but it really did seem like all his Issues were firmly oriented in his own insecurities and/or pointed at Mr. Gropey McGroperson there, and he sounded sincere when, at the end, he assured Padme he never doubted her at all. Compare to him at the very beginning of RotS, where he almost lashed out at her because he could sense she was afraid of something and instantly drew the conclusion she was cheating on him. I…do not think he would have had the presence of mind, come RotS, to look past her hugging Rush long enough to notice the disc in her hand that she needed him to retrieve. He’d have just killed them both on the spot.

7) continuing on that theme…possibly an unpopular opinion, but I think Anakin and Padme were always doomed. Probably from the start, all things considered, but definitely after the war started. I started writing an essay here, but realized after I started getting into the ways Padme was in almost as bad of a place as Anakin for getting into a serious relationship when she did that I was exceeding the scope of this list, so I’ll make that its own essay, but…yeah. They were very intense personalities, were very intensely attracted to each other, and their mutual need to save people did less to unite them than to further divide them because of the ways it manifested. They’d have almost certainly divorced even under good circumstances, and the very best-case scenario would have been one where they managed to do so before having children and also managed to do so amicably enough that Padme didn’t feel the need to get a restraining order. Nine times out of ten, even without the war, I suspect she’d have ended up needing the restraining order.

8) on the subject of doomed ships…my gut says that Ahsoka/Barriss was/is a popular one. The part of me that produces things like Interproximal Gradations chapters 11, 12, and 15 also has a feeling there was a General Grievous/Obi-Wan Kenobi fandom at one time, and that not nearly enough of it was strictly limited to hateshipping. If I ever go temporarily insane and stick my toe into Star Wars fic, then I will try my very best to forget that suspicion of mine and, if I slip so far into temporary insanity that I read ship fic there, just stick to Barriss and Ahsoka, thanks. No way they realistically work out either, but as far as I can tell they probably had a better chance of than any other ship in this show.

So yeah. There’s some thoughts on Clone Wars Seasons 1 and 2A.

[cypanache]

4, 7, 12, 13, 22, and 27 of the ship ask game (because these were too cute and i couldn’t pick between them) for obidala. :)

Yay new ship asks! I’ve been working on Trap and they’ve been so cute in this section. So I will continue answering on behalf of that version. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to imagine more of their alt-happy ending before I have to break them:

4. What’s their favorite sleeping/cuddling positions? Padme is the big spoon. I mentioned this in the last post but by the time they get together Obi-Wan has almost died one to many times for her comfort. So she likes to shelter him with her entire body. And woebetide anyone who tries to get through.

7. Who is the more romantic one? They are each fairly romantic in entirely different ways. Obi-Wan is thoughtful and service oriented. He knows exactly what’s going on with Padme and when she’s been pushing herself to hard. He’s always the one to get her to step away. He’ll draw her a bath, bring her tea, rub her feet. Little things in the ordinary course of their days. Padme is all about the gesture. She’s preoccupied most of the time and she knows it. But she also never wants Obi-wan to doubt how wanted he is. So she goes big and difficult. A rare force text she had to negotiate two treaties just to purchase. Nine kinds of tea from across the galaxy which may have required reopening a trade route. She wants him to know it took effort so he’ll understand how worth the trouble she finds him.

12. Who gets up the earliest? Who has the worst sleep schedule? Who is the sleepiest?

Obi-Wan gets up earliest to meditate but then he’ll slip back in bed afterwards to spend it cuddled up with Padme. Padme cannot stand to stay in bed once she’s awake. So she’s usually the first one fully up. Padme had the worst sleep schedule after years of flipping back and forth between Coruscant and Naboo plus all those political gatherings. Neither of them are particularly 'sleepy' people. Though Obi-Wan can sleep literally anywhere, and Padme despises him for it. On the other hand Obi-Wan had basically crossed over into a state of exhaustion so deep he didn't recognize it for what it was until he started to come out of it. So Padme's murderous impulses whenever she sees him sleeping while she's still trying to get comfortable and turn her brain off are usually tempered by this wash of gratitude that he's finally getting some rest, and everyone stays safe.

13. What’s their opinions on PDA?

They are very much in favor of it. They just are very bad at it. Like seriously these two waited so long to just really touch each other with any sort of intent, that everything feels like PDA to them. (They're also very good at intense eye sex, and explicit silences, or the ever popular 'not safe for work' touch that doesn't actually happen). They'll go to parties and Obi-Wan will put his hand on her low back for like five seconds, and this is basically foreplay. Padme will apologize profusely to her friend later for them being so obnoxiously handsy . . . her friend will just look at her like she's insane.

22. How do they apologize after arguments?

Mostly they don't, simply because while they're both passionate and resolute in argument, they're not cruel. Neither one of them are the type to lash out with the specific intention to hurt and both of them can take a hit. So even when their arguments get heated, they usually are doing so from a place of respect for the other and they can see that. They're both confident enough in who they are as people to accept that they will not always agree and handle that.

But in the rare cases emotions run high enough that they need to step away and come back they're pretty matter of fact about it. No gestures or gifts, just a simple sincere apology and being prepared to listen to the other.

27. Who would propose? What would their wedding be like?

Obi-Wan does. Padme wanted to. Almost did about ten times and stopped herself out of a desire to respect any lingering qualms he might have from his Jedi upbringing. Then one evening Obi-Wan's watching her get ready for bed and he just asks, almost shyly "Would you ever consider marrying me?" Padme nearly falls out her chair at the realization that she's gone and fallen in love with such an idiot.

There is the wedding Padme plans and the wedding they actually have. Padme plans the most elaborate damn wedding Naboo has ever seen. It is the galactic event of the year. She intends to invite the entire order, and the gungans, most of the senate (not Palpatine). Every handmaiden who has ever stood with her will give her away. She has four wardrobe changes and they all mean something. People are going to remember and know that she went married this Jedi. He's hers.

The wedding they actually have after she sees the look of unmitigated horror in Obi-Wan's eyes when he sees the sketches. Is cliffside in the palace gardens where she sat with him after Qui-Gon died. The council does attend, as well as Anakin, and all of Padme's handmaidens. Bail and Mon come but she leaves the rest of the senate off. She's flexible and willing to compromise while she keeps working on his aversion to spectacle (she's seen him fight, there's a showman in there somewhere she knows it). And she plans on there being many many many anniversaries to work with in the future.