#he’s still also with padme

[dragonpyre]

Not so alone

Commission info / ko-fi

[galactic-rhea]

do you think your empress padme (or maybe padme in general?) is the jealous type? 😈😈

Evil Padmé and Vader, jealous??? Naahhhhhhhhh. Lmao, of course they are, yes.

I mean, they both are possesive and obssesive, and only works because their kind-of-damage fits well with the other's kind-of-damage (like a puzzle!), Padmé's desire to see Palpatine dead came more from angry possesive rage than...seizing over the galaxy (how dare he! to treat her husband like that! no one should get to order him like that! except her)

But, tbh there's very little that could trigger their jealousy, like who's out there wanting to shake Vader's bones? (In universe, not here in tumblr(?))

Maybe Boba, idk, that would funny "Could you not hire THAT Bounty Hunter?"

"Why?"

"I don't like how he looks at you"

"....He...wears a helmet...?"

And Vader is a good dog, I mean, good obedient dark lord general husband, he won't kill someone that looks at Padmé unless she asks (or that someone is being actively harmful).

Empress Padmé's possesiveness shines through her orders, she likes to keep him close like her bodyguard instead out there in the galaxy and she likes that she's one of the few that sees him behind the mask, she likes to keep a minimal staff so they can be as intimate and private as they can, and that kind of thing

[varpusvaras]

Fox, in some social gathering he, Bail and Breha were invited to: So...I know I'm here because I'm married to these two, and Cody is here because Kenobi is here, but why are you here again?

Rex: Because these two are here *points to Anakin and Padmé*

Fox: Are you guys like. You know.

Rex: ..........honestly I am not sure, but at this point, I'm in way too deep to leave

Fox: What do you mean by that?

Rex: Observe

Luke and Leia, running up to Padmé: Mom! Can we go and-

Padmé: Oh, you need to ask your father

Luke and Leia, running to Anakin: Dad! Can we go and-

Anakin: Oh, um. Did you already ask your mom?

Luke and Leia: Yes, and she said to ask you!

Anakin: Okay, uh. Go ask Rex if you can go?

Luke and Leia, running up to Rex: Rex! Can we go and-

Rex: No, you'll die and break your legs. Now sit down for a moment and have some juice

Fox: ....oh.

Rex: Yeah.

Fox: This might be a problem

Rex: You don't say

[noperopesaredope]

Me watching the prequel movies: "Padme's alright, but she's kind of boring and I don't care for her that much."

Me watching Clone Wars: "Padme Amidala could dropkick me, step on my neck, and spit in my face, and I would thank her. She is so cool and smart and I want to be her and also maybe be her assistant. She's a savvy politician who believes in peace but is not afraid to shoot a bitch if needed. Revenge of the Sith Anakin doesn't deserve her."

[jessicas-pi]

hear me out on this ok. ROTS AU where Anakin still turns to the dark side but that's Palpatine's problem.

So, Palpatine decides last minute that ehhhh maybe dooku could come in handy later and he doesn't encourage Anakin to kill him, and Dooku gets arrested and imprisoned in the Jedi Temple awaiting trial. (Also he didn't get his hands cut off because of uhh plot reasons?)

Fast forward.

Palpatine is encouraging Anakin towards the Dark side, tells him about Plagueis the Wise, etc. etc. But see, the thing is, Anakin is at the end of his tether, probably hasn't slept more than three hours over the past week, and has no remaining impulse control or inhibitions, and upon hearing that the Dark Side can save people from death, his first thought is, "wait a sec, we've got a Sith Lord in-house at the moment!" and he sprints out of the space opera and books it back to the temple.

Now, Dooku has been calmly waiting in Temple custody, confident that Darth Sidious will arrange his escape. But THEN Anakin barges into the cell like OMG THE CHANCELLOR TOLD ME THE SITH KNOW HOW TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM DYING AND I'M HAVING DREAMS ABOUT SOMEONE DYING AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO SAVE THEM

At which point, Dooku realizes Palpatine's plan. He's going to tempt Skywalker to the Dark side and REPLACE DOOKU. this is totally uncool.

So he's like "...who are you dreaming about, exactly?"

Anakin freezes. He can't admit it's Padme because their relationship is top-secret and he can't admit how important she is to him so he tries to think of a good fib and goes "uhhhh OBI-WAN! Obi-Wan, it's Obi-Wan, I'm dreaming about Obi-Wan dying-" and he just throws himself into the drama because now he IS imagining obi-wan dying because Obi-Wan is fighting grievous at the moment and he MIGHT ACTUALLY DIE and that's in addition to Padme dying and he's totally spiraling at this point- "pleasepleaseplease you gotta help me he's like the only father i've ever known I don't know what i'll do without obi-wan I have to save him YOU GOTTA TELL ME WHAT TO DO I'LL DO ANYTHING--"

Dooku begins to smile.

(Would stealing Skywalker out from under his Master's nose be petty? Oh, yeah.)

(But it would also be very, very satisfying.)

---

Obi-Wan calls in to a council meeting to report his defeat of Grievous, but before he can say so, Mace announces that Dooku has escaped and the Sith Master has been killed.

Silence falls between the eleven councilmembers (eleven, not twelve, because their newest one is conspicuously absent. Obi-Wan wonders just what Anakin's up to now. Honestly, that boy will be the death of him.)

Obi-Wan clears his throat.

"...indeed," he says, trying to handle the shocking news with composure. "Well... at least we're down to one Sith, now."

Another awkward pause.

"Yeah, about that--" Mace begins.

[tennessoui]

Ah, has Padme noticed that Obi-Wan is assigned to Senate duty and that's why she's making assumptions about why Anakin is worried?

this chapter and the last chapter take place within like...an hour or so of each other -- so no one knows yet about obi-wan's new assignment cause he's been given it only a little bit ago!

i think padmé really is trying in this chapter, trying to speak anakin's language and understand him - and i think she really does, as much as she can. she's relating her experiences of being worried about anakin to anakin's experiences being worried about obi-wan (which baby, honey. are you really not going to notice that you're talking to anakin as if he's obi-wan's wife).

in my opinion, she's not really making assumptions about why anakin is worried here. anakin flat out tells her that he was worrried that obi-wan was injured, that that's why he stayed.

she's really just trying to get him to realize that he shouldn't go running off to be by obi-wan's side every time he gets an intrusive thought that obi-wan could be hurt when logically there's a very slim chance that he has been been and a very big chance that he could get help IF he ever was. because the war is over. obi-wan has amazing access to the best healthcare on coruscant. he would be FINE if he felt a sudden twinge in his chest or whatever.

it's just that anakin doesn't want to hear that. anakin doesn't want to live in a world where he can't drop everything to get to obi-wan's side. anakin doesn't want space between him and his master. he doesn't get why he should. if that's because of the war, like he sorta implies in the chapter, or if it's always been like that for him--for them, i don't think matters as much right now as the fact that anakin and anakin's wife are on solidly opposite ends of this debate

and it's really only going to get more rocky from here as we move away from the end of the war and both of them have different expectations of what comes next

[prismatica-the-strange]

Thinking about if Anakin fully killed Frei. Like... they "fight" and he runs her through with his lightsaber but instead of being immediately horrified by his actions he moves on to the younglings and the rest of the story goes on as canon.

Except!!! Darth is constantly haunted by her Force Ghost.

Everything he does is constantly critiqued and gets snarky remarks.

Just imagining him force choking some empire goon or officer and he hears Frei behind him go, "That'll show 'em. Killing off your staff one by one. Great job Ani."

And he just drops them with an annoyed sigh then turns to glare at her.

And after the og trilogy? When he's redeemed and they're reunited as force ghosts. Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. The first thing he does is kiss her cause even as a sith he couldn't help but miss and love her. And they spend eternity together in the afterlife.

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Update on how reading Thrawn: Alliances is going

I am s t r u g g l i n g to finish it..im barely past halfway

[eliza-makepeace]

I think a lot of people would laugh if I said Padmé was attracted to Anakin's maturity, but when he's not showing off or being selfish, he can be very mature indeed. In fact it's these moments of maturity that lead his teachers to wrongly assume he's responsible enough to pursue a relationship with Padmé without letting it interfere with his Jedi commitments

I'm certain Padmé was attracted to Anakin for his maturity. She saw him as the "boy she knew on Tatooine" and the only way to have that idea broken is by showing him as a grown-up, as someone who is intelligent and has mature thoughts about things. And I think there's a scene in aotc where she does.

It's the scene where she and Anakin are travelling to Naboo as refugees, and she asks him about what it's like to be a Jedi and whether or not he can love people, since she believes it to be forbidden.

Anakin's response is incredibly deep, and thought out, and mature: "Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi's life. So you might say that... We are encouraged to love."

He proves then and there that he knows the rules, and that he has his own reasoning for them, his own "philosophical" understanding of them. Personally I really love the "which I would define as" part, because it shows he's been thinking about it long and hard (perhaps as a means for self-justification because he doesn't fit the actual dogma).

Her reply is looking at him with the most loving eyes, the first way she looks at him like that, and saying "You've changed so much". This is the first time she sees him as someone grown, as someone she has to learn to know because she actually doesn't know him anymore, she knew the kid he used to be, not the grown guy he is now.

It's a shame the scenes where they visit Padmé's family were deleted because I feel they show a more relaxed, young adult Padmé who has parents and an older sister that treat her like the daughter and younger sister Padmé is, and Anakin acting as a grown person who offers a bit of reassurance and comfort to Padmé's concerned relatives, and wants to make a good impression. It makes their dynamic, them rediscovering each other (Anakin seeing Padmé not as a queen or as a woman who has an ambitious political career, but a girl with parents and a sister; and Padmé seeing Anakin the way her parents and sister do: a young man who clearly has passionate feelings for her) much more organic and natural.

However I don't really agree with the idea that his teachers "allow" (or, rather, look away from) his relationship with Padmé because of his maturity. I don't think they really consider their relationship at all. Obi-Wan does, but he turns a blind eye because he loves Anakin and knows Padmé makes him happy. Not because he thinks Anakin is mature. As for the rest, e.g. Windu or Yoda, I don't think they know Anakin and Padmé are together, and if they do I don't think they care. Anakin is their biggest asset during the war, he's the poster boy, a beloved general, the hero with no fear. Forcing him to leave the Order in the midst of a conflict is counterproductive, and it would bring a lot of bad press for the Jedi. As long as he complies with the Serious Stuff the council asks him to do, as long as his presence helps the morale of the troops and the republic in general.... They've got bigger things to worry about than Anakin occasionally slipping into Senator Amidala's bed.

Still, I truthfully don't think that's the case. Regardless, I 100% agree: Padmé is really attracted to Anakin's maturity, and in fact it's what makes him appealing to her from the beginning. That and his amazing cheekbones.

[somestorythoughts]

Radioactive Eldritch Jedi

Okay so when I say radioactive. The Force is primordial and eldritch and the jedi (and any other force users of a comparable level) resonate with the echoes of this primoridal of-the-world-and-yet-not-the-world energy like your body when you’re so close to a marching bacd you can feel the drums in your bones and they’re not the music or the instruments, they’re only the echo thereof, but the echo of something from the depths that bore the universe is still A Lot.

And when you look at them. There’s teeth that aren’t there the next minute, you could count them again and again for half an hour and never get the same number twice in a row. And that’s not mentioning when their teeth don’t fit in their mouth, don’t match each other, when there aren’t teeth in their mouths but claws...

That’s just one element of their face which is one element of their body.

You can smell them, even the species that don’t have particularly good senses of smell though it is far more distracting for them. Something fresh with light or rotting with dark, herby or sea salty or citrusy or floral and threaded with sweat or blood or sex to suit whatever they’ve been doing and it wouldn’t be remarkable except they smell simultaneously like their species and like something else entirely in a way that is clearly but indescribably not caused by soap or perfume or oil.

There’s a resonance in their voices. Something like there’s a drumbeat in their throat, like they’re speaking with the vibrations of a song you’ve always heard without knowing it, but always perfectly understandable. The sound of jedi singing in harmony with feeling has reduced cities to tears of joy or tears of pain, blood dripping from their ears in mirror of their tears.

Don’t get me started on their shadows, on the way they move in the dark

And they’d be leaking this strangeness 24/7 except they keep themselves so tightly shielded, not only hiding themselves so that they appear uncanny and not terrifyingly Other (they’ve been there time and time again and it is a problem. There are Consequences) but also keeping any of this force-energy-resonance leaking out into the world. Places where force sensitives have lived a long time thrum like a pulse, are touches with the energy of generations of force users relaxing enough to let their shields lower and their selves to leak and brush the walls and tables, etching their presences into the place like fire into wood, and when this touches people it changes them.

Not immediately. Not quickly. It can take months for anything to change and this is why jedi keep their shields maintained, because if you’re fully shielded nothing will happen, and this is part of why attachments are risky, because the emotion can affect the shields can change the one you love, because to say you love a jedi is not the same as accepting all that they are and being willing to change along with them because you can’t dodge that forever, and saying you’re willing to do this isn’t the same as being willing.

The changes aren’t quick, and not as Eldritch as the jedi, but they are permanent and definitely Other.

When shields crack or break, when a jedi lashes out with the force, it brushes an imprint on everything around them (those with any kind of vision skills can find this difficult or comforting to deal with, like a too-large gulp of hot tea) and a few times on the same thing doesn’t matter. Genuinely. Repeition is an entirely different matter.

War is hell. 

War is hell, and the jedi are holding on to each other for support, clinging interlocking arms, but they’re scattered around the galaxy and it’s so hard to actually reach each other.

Sometimes to know you’re supported isn’t enough. Not when you can’t reach their shoulder to lean on, for just a moment.

And the clones are going through hell with them, are dying around them, and they reach out to support the jedi who are doing their best not only to help them survive but to help them live in a war that wants them dead for a senate that doesn’t care and the jedi recognizes them as people so they reach out and the jedi can’t help but reach back.

The clones catch them when they fall, love them in different ways each as sure as the tides, and the jedi relax into it without realizing. Their shields crack over and over again because war is hell, but they also find them relaxing them, instinctively and unconsciously, because so little is certain but the clones’ willingness to go to hell and back for them is one of them and they feel safe.

And the echoes of the force that resonate in the heartbeats-nervepulses-bloodflows of the jedi leaves imprints on the clones that rises like paint added layer by layer and it changes them.

The clones don’t have a childhood of familiarity to fall back on, much less the shielding techniques to keep them looking “normal.” What they have is legions of brothers willing to support each other come hell or high water or unending clankers and jedi who at first beg their forgiveness for changing them (because it wasn’t supposed to happen and because they like how they are but everyone already sees them as strange and to beg forgiveness for making them like them is many jedi’s first instinct) then teach them how to hide it when they need to and the comfort of singing together, their voices ringing through their ships in tune with the thrumming in their blood, bone-deep.

[thetwofaced]

And on today's fandom petpeeves

God fucking redeeming Vader. Like, I'm sorry but Darth Vader IS NOT REDEEMABLE.

Is Vader am interesting character ? Yes.

Is he somewhat tragic? Kinda.

He also MURDERED CHILDREN.

BABIES.

WILINGLY.

And Vader is 100% aware of his choices. He KNOWS what he did. He's a monster and that's just what it is. Anakin? Sure he is redeemable- he can still be brought around. But Vader? Absolutely the fuck not

EDIT:

Since I apparently need to make this clear. This is in context to Vader lives fanfics specifically

[nintenderniere]

WIAT okay okay Star Wars AU where during order 66 Anakin ends up sacrificing himself to finally complete the prophecy and bring balance to the force by destroying the sith. He does this by merging with the force and he basically ends up loosing his humanity in the process.

It’s like they’re just one now. He took ‘being one with the force’ to the next level. Like when the Jedi said that shit they meant what happens after death Ani they didn’t mean THIS my guy.

You know how it’s kinda sorta a thing that Padmé got her life force snatched by Palps to give to Vader?? Something like that would probably happen here. Palply would’ve stolen her life force and Anakin would’ve merged with the force to save her.

It’s like yay he did it!! And everyone is celebrating and they’re so full of relief because it’s going to be okay! Anakin killed Palpatine! He saved the clones!! And Padmé goes running up to him, she holds out her arms and she cannot wait for him to pick her up and spin her around and-

She phases straight through him.

And suddenly everything comes crashing down when they realize he can’t stay. That he has to go, that he loves her but he needs to be out there and there’s nothing anyone can do. He’s Anakin Skywalker, child of the force, and now he has to be one with the force as well. That’s just how the prophecy was written.

[tonyglowheart]

following up on this post though where I pinned down that by Chap 23/24, Shen Qiao already exhibits a shift in attitude wrt Yan Wushi. Which isn't to say he still doesn't rise to Yan Wushi's provocation, lol, because he very much does. But clearly by Chap 24... like, if he wanted to leave... he could? (Yes maybe Yan Wushi would stalk him and pop up wherever he went like :3 owo did you miss me? :3c) But he doesn't

And so that begs the question for me of like... why. Why doesn't he just leave? There's that line later in the chap about how if it were just a few days earlier, then he'd be uncomfortable all over (with Yan Wushi's provocation), but stuff like the goosebumps (he got), they decreased bit by bit until they were gone. - so yes he got used to it, but by early chap 24, he hadn't yet gotten to the point of, like... habituating to Yan Wushi's provocations?

so. really. I can only conclude that actually.... Shen Qiao likes it, lmao. Cuz, like, sure if Shen Qiao gives an inch then Yan Wushi will take a mile, but I also don't get the feeling that Yan Wushi really crosses any boundaries that Shen Qiao ultimately doesn't concede.

It's not like with Bai Rong - who he sets very clear boundaries with and doesn't really yield on them - or with like Huo Xijing or Sang Jingxing or the rest of Huanhe, who I think we can all agree are on another level of Bad, and who clearly SQ also sees as a different breed than Bai Rong (and tbh I think he sees Yan Wushi as being more akin to Bai Rong than like Yuan Xiuxiu or Sang Jingxing etc.)

With Yan Wushi, it's like... clearly Yan Wushi pushes his buttons and pushes his boundaries, but so far anyway, YWS doesn't seem to have done any pushes that are just a step too far beyond what Shen Qiao can tolerate.

So. Where does this leave us. Shen Qiao finds Yan Wushi irritating and but also stimulating I would guess? And at least tolerates his provocations if not continues to tacitly encourage it by being so permissive to Yan Wushi's antics. But also it gets his blood going and gives him jitters... hm why does this sound familiar........

Is. Yan Wushi. like a caffeine high that Shen Qiao is chasing lmao?? *insert all of the coffee memes of like it's so good but at what cost, sometimes it gives you accelerated exhaustion etc* i've connected the two dots dot.jpg

Which also means that, any time anyone asks Shen Qiao about Yan Wushi and like, what the heck clearly he just pushes your buttons and tries to get a rise out of you, why are you even sticking with this old man,. this is him:

[varpusvaras]

I'm back on my Bail/Breha/Fox bs (I haven't left even for a second but anyway) and I was thinking of that one post where someone said that just imagine the political implications these three together would cause, and I think there would be one moment where everything would start to go different with them in the timeline, and it's the wrong Jedi arc.

Padmé is close friends with Bail. She is close friends with Breha. They belong very closely to the same political movement and couldn't make things work without each other. I'm not saying Padmé's political career is wholly dependent on her relationship with Bail, but them working togerher is one of the main things that keeps them afloat against the war. Now, Bail would be professional enough to work with her even if they have personal differences (which they do already), and he knows better than putting one person above everything else, but I do think he wouldn't take Anakin threatening Fox lightly. I don't think he would make up a huge fuss, but he would, most likely, make his disagreement about his behavior known to Padmé. Now, Padmé knows about the whole Tusken massacre, so she knows how Anakin can get when something gets in his way. She knows, even though she wants to pretend that Anakin is a good person, that her husband is perfectly capable of treating people he doesn't like badly and even worse. She can try and tell herself that no, Anakin wouldn't do anything, but she knows. This is about Ahsoka, after all, whom Anakin has said is like a little sister to him. His personal feelings are on the line.

Padmé can either be delusional about it, tell herself that nothing will happen, and hey! Maybe nothing will happen! But she cannot be entirely sure. Because what if. What if something does happen. What if something happens to Ahsoka, and Anakin reacts badly? What then?

She would have to decide then. Does she stay with Anakin, to the end, and thus claiming that his personal feelings are more important to her than what's good for everyone, and thus ending his friendship with Bail and Breha, which would more than destroy her whole career and put everything she stands for in danger? Or does she say no, and stand with her ideals, no matter what Anakin feels is correct or justified? Because this time it's not a group of people who have no impact on her life and who she can forget about. This time she would have to decide her course of action even before anything happens.

Maybe trying to decide would make her think harder about their relationship in general. Maybe, just maybe, something that he does having consequences to her would make her do something about it before it's too late.

[wisteriander]

literally still thinking about that post but the only reason luke succeeded at all was because of padme. the child he fell to save showing up echoing the words of the mother he killed. he didn’t stand a chance.

[tennessoui]

i really like your take on padme in mermay au, she is straight up vicious, it somehow suits her better than her canonical persona? i don't know i never saw her as particularly, overly kind in canon, more like someone who definitely cares but is downright manipulative? idk if i'm making sense, long story short, this version of padme scratched an itch in my brain i didn't know i had

i think padme is always fun to write because versions of her can be very complex and when i write her i like to focus on her capacity for anger (in fics where she and anakin are still together when the fic starts) i'm sure that gets a bit tiring to read for people but i just can't see her character just being calm and placid and ok with losing anakin immediately. she seems too fiery in canon, and she seems to love anakin too much to just let him go

and when im writing padmé in canon fics, i want to balance that part of her with her other parts, like her kindness and a sense of justice and empathy ('a more perfect union' padmé for example is all of those things), but i think all those parts are important.

so i've really liked how easy it's been to lean into padmé's viciousness in the mer au!! it's been super fun for me, because one of my favorite parts of writing different aus is playing with how much a character is of a particular trait (ie., how much of a bitch obi-wan is, how much of a brat anakin is, how much of a good jedi is anakin, how much infinite sadness does obi-wan have etc etc) so i've liked dragging padmé's viciousness all the way up to the top of the scale here

she's a mermaid queen who is queen of a vicious and vain society and being queen means different things in this au than it does in star wars canon, a lot of which boils down to never really hearing the word no and maybe being a bit callous and naive because of it. she's also the most mer in the au because anakin was human for 21 years and obi-wan was human for likeee ~15 years (?) but padmé has been mer all her life and would never want to be human - she's fascinated by anakin, but not in the same way obi-wan was by the humans when he first discovered them and i love trying to distinguish that