#look I know they didn’t deserve to all be murdered by Palpatine through Anakin skywalker | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

phoenixyfriend · 3 years ago

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When Obi-Wan gets to AotC, there's also about two dozen Anakin clones on-site. They're all girls because... IDK Anakin is trans. They have a hive mind and are developmentally a few years younger than Anakin himself.

It's incredibly unsettling to Obi-Wan.

It's almost definitely a "fuck with Anakin's already fragile mental health" ploy by Palpatine, along with a "what if Jedi Black Widows, for me, a Sith Lord. Wouldn't that be neat? That would be neat."

Anakin is torn between "this freaks me out" and "GANG OF BABY SISTERS LET'S GOOOOOOO."

(I just finished reading Like Real People Do by glimmerglanger, so this is definitely inspired by that and the obligatory 'lay back in bed and daydream variations on plot points of that fic you just really enjoyed,' and also a little by Same Heart, Same Blood by loosingletters.)

They're physically like 14-16 on average, and Anakin's vibrating out of his skin with a million conflicting emotions, but when he tells Padme she's just like "oh, you have a handmaiden gang!"

I told this to @willowcrowned and she suggested:

Once Anakin decides to repress the part of him that’s weirded out and just regard them as baby sisters he gets. A little strange about it The first time one of them dies he may or may not slaughter every person he can [in response to Padme's comment] Anakin starts worrying that he needs to get them cool matching outfits

I also chatted about it with @firebirdeternal and they said:

Gang of Unsettling Smol Siblings is exactly the Karma that Anakin deserves

Do you think the Clones have a kind of Collective Name that they use at first that eventually just kind of morphs into a new last name? Skysisters or something? Like Palpatine was trying to be clever and name them like the Nightsisters.

I initially went with "functionally one person" hive-mind but I'm torn.

I think maybe they're BASICALLY one person on Kamino but drift into Separate Consciousness once they're far enough apart physically that their minds don't blend from proximity anymore.

Then they start Dating (like half of them are dating Fett clones because they grew up with these dudes, it's like childhood friends romance), and Anakin loses his mind about Protecting Them and They're Too Young.

Padme: You're nineteen and we just got married, they can date. Anakin: THEY'RE EIGHT. Padme: And the Fett clones are ten and dying for us in the field. Get them rights before you panic about their love lives.

Firebird:

it could be worse, one of them could imprint on Obi-Wan. "Anakin I promise I won't yell at you for the next five stupid things you do if you can figure out a way to stop this baby from having a crush on me" (I like the idea of Obi-wan bargaining not with "I won't be mad at you ever" because they Both Know That's Not True, and instead haggling with specific allowances. Like he's handing out Stupidity Coupons)

Please imagine Mace and Obi-Wan's personal responses to the idea of suddenly having to deal with not one, not two, but OVER TWENTY SKYWALKERS.

Plo is delighted to take one off their hands.

So is Yoda.

Willow:

Mace is like. okay suicide isn’t the Jedi way but on the other hand. i physically cannot deal with this Yoda: a skywalker, you say? one who is tall enough to reach the top shelf, you say? such a skywalker, bring me

Anakin would be given at least one because fuck you, suffer with us, but he's still a padawan so Ugh, fine, no.

I want to say one stays on Coruscant to hang out with the Guard, and ends up half-adopted by Padme. She keeps dressing up the Aniclone left with her in handmaiden outfits and sending selfies to Anakin.

"Hanging out with the little SiL!"

Anakin has so many issues about WHEN his genetic material was acquired.

And there's some confusion from the Fett clones about how much of a hive mind is normal for Jedi. They are confused that the answer is basically none, and "this is WHY nobody clones a Jedi"

ONE OF THEM STEALS BOBA FROM THE ARENA ON GEONOSIS.

Firebird:

"I have followed in our progenitor's footsteps and acquired a sibling." holds up a struggling Boba "He bites."

Willow:

Ooooo okay so if they have a sort of hive mind then they probably don’t have names other than their designations on Kamino right BUT When they SEPARATE The one that picks Boba up on Geonosis gets a name specifically for that. Okay what if the one Padmé picks up gets some variant on ‘pretty’ because she’s always being dressed up BELLE Maybe Yoda’s Ani has a name that means thief? Because obviously Yoda is using Anakin to steal sweets

So, to make the timeline work...

I don't think anyone would give Anakin one of his sisters until after he's knighted at least.

So obviously when they're doing initial placements none of the sisters go to him or Obi-Wan.

Once he's knighted, of course they're already all placed with someone, and Anakin instead gets Ahsoka. He loves Ahsoka. She is also a little sister. He said so.

At some point afterwards, one of the sisters is left without a place because the Master that was in charge of her died in the field battle.

That sister then gets placed with Obi-Wan, because he's already mostly-successfully raised one Skywalker, so he can do it again.

Anakin gets to hang out with her basically all the time.

Ahsoka is very very jealous of this girl stealing Anakin's attention.

Anakin is oblivious to the rivalry.

He asks Barriss to look after them while he's discussing Adult War Things with Luminara and Obi-Wan, and Barriss gets an eye into This Mess, which is quickly colored by Ahsoka growing a puppy crush on the lovely Miss Offee herself.

Firebird:

Ahsoka: Ah yes, my nemesis. Anisister: Ah yes, my new older sister whom I want to impress so bad.

"I will impress her by being Stoic and Competent" "Oh my god she must think she's so much better than me what a bitch"

Anakin is oblivious to most things to be fair Anakin: Laser focused precision fighting machine who can read the tiniest body movements and predict your moves seconds in advance, who also cannot understand even the most basic social nuance. I was originally writing this as to Dunk on Anakin but then I made myself sad, because none of those things are really his fault.

So you know that post about like, Sasuke and Brooding, specifically in the context of "Brooding" as it's used to refer to Nesting Chickens? Grouchy and protective and sitting on a tennis ball trying to hatch it because they're just. "These are my Babies." Anakin Broods. Baby sisters. Must protecc. "I'm actually fine and extremely deadly in combat." "MUST PROTECT."

Bad Guy: [catches Ahsoka in a Trap] Aniclone: Must rescue sister! Aniclone: [fights, is not winning fight, gets ouched] Ahsoka tearing her way out of Trap: I lived bitch. Also: stay the fuck away from her. [murders so hard]

Ahsoka catches the Protective Older Sib feels by the traditional method: "Hey, only I'm allowed to be mean to them."

Willow:

Oh Anakin has no clue what’s going on. He walks in on Ahsoka glaring at the Ani and is like!!! Little sisters!!! Bonding!!! When Ahsoka was about three seconds away from tossing her out of the airlock. Ahsoka mistakenly assumes that Barriss has a crush on the Ani, and gets even MORE jealous.

Obi-Wan is like oh god. I can’t take care of an Anakin going through puberty again. He’s great with periods and other stuff because he read about a billion books. He is TERRIBLE with everything else, as he was the first time.

Barriss is like???? YOU'RE BOTH CHILDREN, PLEASE CALM DOWN, I HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN DATING ANYONE, LET ALONE SOMEONE YOUR AGE.

IDK how old Obi-Wan's Aniclone is, probably physically the same age as Ahsoka?

Per @atagotiak on discord:

Also something something, similarities btw Anakin and Obi-Wan where like. "Am I a parent? That seems uncomfortable, I'm too young to be a dad to a kid this age, I mean I'm cool with being a mentor/caretaker but..."

Obi-Wan can't even sidestep parenthood this time.

"Is Anakin basically your dad?" "Uhhhhhh" [Muffled discussion] "So Obi-Wan is your dad." "Okay!" "WAIT NO I DIDN'T AGREE TO THIS"

Ahsoka: She's stealing my brother, that BITCH. Obi-Wan's Aniclone: new sister new sister new sister gotta make a good impression

Firebird:

I feel like the Sister Squad would make very effective interstellar espionage agents Even like, kind of by accident. They just get encouraged to branch out in their interests and figure out what they want to do with their lives and end up all over the dang place, and since they're all pretty dang competent they tend to gravitate towards Important Positions wherever they end up. Except for one sister who just retires to raise Space Sheep.

I like that in this AU Palpatine is just like "I will create an army of Loyal Murderers who will obey my every whim and also be a big psychological lever on my Other Pet Murderer," and then they all just Baby Duckling imprint on the first Jedi to be nice to them instead and he has to just be like "Wait no not like that."

AND one of them Steals Boba

I want Obi-Wan's Aniclone to start dating Fives. All the sisters judge her for it, because he's a Goof. A very competent, ARC Trooper goof! But a goof.

Not as goofy as Anakin, though.

Firebird:

Who expects a clone of Anakin Skywalker to not make questionable lifelong romantic choices impulsively?

#Anakin Skywalker #Ahsoka Tano #Obi Wan Kenobi #Disaster Lineage #Sheev Palpatine #Skeevy Sheev #cloning #Yoda #Mace Windu #Skysisters AU #trans anakin skywalker #Phoenix Posts #hive mind #Padme Amidala #Anidala

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kylo-renakin · 5 years ago

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Death in Star Wars, and How Ben Solo Was Shafted: A Mini Meta

Something has been bothering me about Ben’s death in The Rise of Skywalker. While I’m upset that he died, I echo the sentiments of other fans that just as offensive was the way that he died and how his death was treated in the context of the film. It bothered me because death has always been a part of Star Wars, but usually handled much better.

And so this meta was born.

I will be doing a brief analysis of significant character deaths from the Star Wars movies. I don’t want to touch on all of them because there are simply too many, so I’ll focus on the ones that were either major characters (i.e. trio billing or main villain) or narratively important (i.e. Shmi Skywalker).

This list will be approached chronologically within the Star Wars universe, beginning with:

Qui-Gon Jinn; portrayed by Liam Neeson

Personal feelings: I cried like a baby. Qui-gon holds a special place in my heart. His death was both epic and sombre. It hurt to watch other main cast celebrating their victory after defeating their respective challenges and then cut to Obi-wan cradling his master’s head in his lap, crying.

Mode of death: Killed by Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace. His actual death takes a few minutes of screen time, an outburst/scream from another main character (Obi-wan). He has last words to say to the person he has the closest on screen relationship with.

Aftermath: Held by a visibly devastated Obi-wan while he died. Sombre funeral pyre. Death discussed on screen by the council and Obi-wan.

Narrative purpose: To enable Anakin’s training under Obi-wan, which is pivotal to the overall arc of this trilogy. To provide a tangible loss and character growth for Obi-wan, who failed to save his master from a Sith--later mirrored by Obi-wan’s inability to save Anakin from becoming a Sith in Episode III, thereby providing a narrative ‘tail-end’ to Obi-wan’s journey in the trilogy. To cement the master/apprentice relationship as loving, emotional, familial, which then adds narrative depth to the bond between Obi-wan and Anakin. To introduce a cohesive theme of death, failure, and loss at the hands of the dark side that would pervade this trilogy.

Overall response: This death is both emotional and narratively important. It’s given the weight and time it deserves to have an impact on the characters.

Shmi Skywalker; portrayed by Pernilla August

Personal feelings: Rough acting aside, watching a person die in their family member’s arms is always sad. It’s an extremely dark moment in a film that otherwise leans heavily into romance, action, and detective-mystery storytelling.

Mode of death: Tortured by Tusken Raiders. Died from her injuries. Again, her actual death takes a couple of minutes of screen time. She is able to say some last words to her son, the most important character relationship for this character.

Aftermath: Dies in the arms of her visibly devastated son. Anakin murders the Tuskens for revenge. On screen funeral where she is mourned and memorialized by her family/loved ones.

Narrative purpose: To drive Anakin further to the dark side by taking advantage of his love and compassion and turning this into anger and hate (revenge against the Tuskens). To plant the seeds of Anakin’s inability to save the ones he love. To emphasize his failure to keep his promise to return to his mother and free her. (Despite being freed off screen, she essentially died in captivity anyway, and Anakin was not the one to free her.) To further the cohesive themes of the trilogy: death, failure, loss, the power of the dark side.

Overall response: While not as moving for me personally as Qui-gon’s death, it has a very relevant thematic purpose and furthers the story. Shmi’s death is given adequate time on screen and we are able to observe the responses and aftermath of that loss.

Padme Amidala; portrayed by Natalie Portman

Personal feelings: We make jokes about how she lost the will to live, but her funeral was beautiful and Natalie’s delivery of the line “you’re going down a path I can’t follow” feels extremely important in this story.

Mode of death: Up for debate. She has lost the will to live after giving birth to Luke and Leia in the wake of Anakin’s fall to the dark side. Some have theorized that her life force was taken (or given?) to keep Anakin alive, but this is not made explicit in the movies. She dies beside Obi-wan Kenobi, and has the time to say last words--words of hope for Anakin’s eventual redemption. Her death itself takes several minutes and is followed up with screen time for a funeral where characters acknowledge her death.

Aftermath: The gorgeous and enormous funeral, mourned as a queen and a senator and a good woman. Anakin (as Darth Vader) mourns with a devastated and poorly acted “nooooo”.

Narrative purpose: To fulfill the themes of death, loss, and failure (Anakin’s failure to keep her alive) at the hands of the dark side. To provide a character loss that mimics the loss of democracy, freedom, and goodness that has fallen to Palpatine’s control. To provide a visual and narrative parallel between the death of Anakin (through the death of his love) and the birth of Darth Vader.

Overall response: While this death was definitely poorly handled it did have narrative significance and it was arguably necessitated by having to have this trilogy line up with the original trilogy. Her short funeral was one of my favorites in the series.

Obi-wan Kenobi; portrayed by Sir Alec Guinness/Ewan McGregor

Personal feelings: I feel weird having an opinion about this one because this movie was made well before I was born, and so I didn’t feel a real connection to/nostalgia from these characters the way I did with the prequels and sequels. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan was a huge part of my childhood, so watching A New Hope in retrospect makes this death sad for me.

Mode of death: Killed by Darth Vader/becomes one with the Force. Essentially sacrifices himself so that Luke doesn’t try to come after him.

Aftermath: Luke shouts “no!”. In a later scene, Luke further acknowledges his death--”I only wish Ben were here”. Ben is later seen as a Force ghost in Episodes V and VI, continuing to acknowledge his character’s death and ongoing influence on, importance to, and relationship with Luke.

Narrative purpose: To provide growth for Luke’s character as he grapples with losing a mentor and surrogate father figure who was also the last person (he believed) who was a link to Luke’s (supposedly) dead hero father that Luke looked up to--and setting us up for this narrative complication in VI. To demonstrate that the Jedi/good guys of the film win through self-sacrifice and not through anger, hate, or fear, which is very thematically resonant in this trilogy.

Overall response: Narratively meaningful, and the character’s death is immediately recognized. We get to see the response of the characters who he has the closest relationships with.

Yoda; portrayed by Frank Oz

(I just love The Last Jedi, okay??)

Personal feelings: It was kind of sad, in the way any person dying of old age is. It did feel more overtly spiritual than Obi-wan’s death.

Mode of death: Dies of old age, in his own home, in his own bed, with Luke beside him. His death scene lasts a few minutes and he has some last words.

Aftermath: We see Yoda again as a force ghost, which we are expecting as an audience since his body fades like Obi-wan’s did. There is sufficient closure. Luke is present for Yoda’s death and, at this point in the films, is the only character relationship Yoda has left alive--therefore this is the most significant his death can be to someone. Luke doesn’t look overly upset but this is not painted to be a sad death, as death by old age is usually more a fact of life and a nice reprieve from untimely losses.

Narrative purpose: Honestly, it’s been a long time since I watched the original trilogy so I’m kind of stretching here. I’m going to borrow from The Last Jedi and say that Yoda’s death allows Luke to grow beyond his master and stand on his own two feet as a fully autonomous agent of goodness. He no longer has the crutch of wise older men to lean on and must make his decisions on his own. Yoda’s death frees Luke to be the master of his own destiny, now knowing the truth of his parentage and no longer being guided by others to do what they think is best (kill Vader).

Overall response: One of the less impactful deaths in the series, but I do appreciate how it adds to Luke’s growth as a character and transition into Jedi Master.

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader; portrayed by James Earl Jones, Hayden Christensen, and Jake Lloyd

Personal feelings: This is the big one™ of the trilogy, and it shows. Watching Luke trying to literally drag his father to safety is raw and heartbreaking. Seeing him unmasked for his son is chilling. The funeral pyre is beautiful. This definitely made me feel the feelings.

Mode of death: Sacrificed himself to kill Palpatine. Death lasts several minutes. Dies in Luke’s arms and Luke cries as he dies.

Aftermath: Funeral pyre. Force ghost Anakin bringing peace to Luke and cementing his redemption.

Narrative purpose: Too much to list! Reinforcing that good guys sacrifice themselves to protect the people they love. Bringing balance to the Force by killing the Emperor (thanks JJ for messing that up by the way). Finding peace with Obi-wan as a force ghost. Showing that the belief that people can be saved from themselves is validated. I’m sure there’s plenty more besides but this one is so narratively rich that it would take forever to mine.

Overall response: Extreme narrative importance. Basically ties together six movies. Emotional, beautiful, resonant.

Han Solo; portrayed by Harrison Ford

Personal feelings: Ouch, ouch, ouch! This was... this was angsty. I love angsty. I cannot possibly find adequate words to describe how well done this scene and this death was. One of my top three moments of The Force Awakens.

Mode of death: Struck through the chest with a lightsaber by his son, Ben Solo (under the alias of Kylo Ren), after an attempt to save him from the dark side and bring him home. His body falls into the pit on Starkiller Base.

Aftermath: So. Much. Rey screams “no!” Finn is visibly upset, too. Chewie roars in agony and shoots Kylo Ren with his bowcaster. Leia can be seen feeling Han’s death and cannot find the strength to keep standing. Kylo/Ben looks immediately shaken by what he has done. Rey and Leia share a sad hug at the end of the film. In The Last Jedi, reactions continue. Luke is shaken by the revelation of Han’s death and spends a quiet moment in the Falcon mourning him. Kylo/Ben’s reaction continues to spiral. Snoke, in one of my favorite lines in the film, announces that “the deed split [his] spirit to the bone”. Rey grieves Han and accuses Ben of hating him. Luke warns Kylo that he will always be with him, “just like [his] father”. Han’s shadow is felt all over The Last Jedi without him being present. Even without the further reactions in The Rise of Skywalker (Rey saying Ben is haunted by him, the literal memory scene on the Death Star), the impacts of Han Solo’s death are the most significant in the entire franchise.

Narrative purpose: To advance both internal and external character conflicts. Kylo killing Han provides an external conflict between him and the heroes--particularly between him and Rey as Rey yearns for parents who love her and Ben (seemingly) rejects/kills his that do. It also provides a meaty internal conflict for Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, who is the most nuanced villain I have ever seen in film. While Han’s death doesn’t seem to serve a main theme in The Force Awakens (it is my perspective that JJ does not have cohesive overarching themes in his two entries in the saga), it does blend in pretty well with The Last Jedi’s preoccupation with killing the past. The thematic takeaway from The Last Jedi is that you can’t and shouldn’t kill the past, you should learn from it and move on--and Kylo killing Han neatly fits into this theme by showing that Kylo tried to kill his past by killing his father, and yet he was unable to move on because of it.

Overall response: Poignant. Purposeful. Well-crafted. The effects are long lasting and felt throughout the trilogy. This is not a meaningless death. Of the entire saga, this is the death that is given the most acknowledgement.

Supreme Leader Snoke; portrayed by Andy Serkis

Personal feelings: I was on the edge of my fucking seat. This is not emotionally resonant because we don’t care about Snoke but it was huge and shocking and had these enormous narrative implications moving forward.

Mode of death: Cut in half by Kylo Ren while he narrates his own death.

Aftermath: The Praetorian guards spring into action to avenge their master. In a later scene, we see Snoke’s severed legs topple to the floor. Hux is visibly shaken and angry. Kylo Ren acknowledges the death (by blaming it on Rey) and takes Snoke’s position as Supreme Leader (”the Supreme Leader is dead”, “long live the Supreme Leader”). I’m... going to ignore how The Rise of Skywalker handled Snoke. It was unnecessary to have Snoke clones from a storytelling perspective. It added nothing to the narrative, just used as a clumsy way to justify that Palpatine was really pulling the strings all along.

Narrative purpose: To deepen the perceived conflict within Kylo Ren and showing his unwillingness to kill Rey. This further complicates their relationship moving forward as we’ve established that the new head honcho powerful villain has no real desire to hurt the hero. The narrative implications of this moving forward were so rich. Pity JJ ignored them. Additionally: To show Kylo Ren symbolically surpassing Darth Vader. In Episode III Anakin claims he will overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy with Padme. He never achieves this. But Kylo Ren does (minus the Empress by his side). To deepen the theme of Kylo Ren trying to kill/bury the past in order to become stronger (and ultimately failing). To add Snoke to the list of characters in the movie who embody the theme of failure. To shake up an expected narrative trajectory and provide new pathways for future storytelling. (Again, JJ, looking at you.)

Overall response: Loved it. Loved it. Not as resonant as some of the other deaths but by far to me the most shocking.

Luke Skywalker; portrayed by Mark Hamill

Personal feelings: Okay, this is a big one. Here’s the thing. I did not grow up with the original trilogy. I never really cared for Luke (didn’t dislike him either, just ‘meh’). But this movie. This movie. I went on a journey with Luke. I saw him as fallible. As human. Making mistakes. Failing. Falling into depression. And overcoming it. I cried when Luke Skywalker died. I did not think that would happen. I did not think I would ever love Luke so much.

Mode of death: Force projects himself across the galaxy to face his nephew and save the Resistance; the effort kills him. Luke’s death takes a couple of minutes of screentime, and it is gorgeous. Hamill acts his ass off. The music, the visuals, everything combines to make this the most emotional death in Star Wars--a fitting end for its first hero.

Aftermath: Leia and Rey feel his death in the Force. They speak to each other quietly about it. They know it was peaceful. Luke, knowing he was going to die, came and saw his sister first and gave them beautiful closure and a message of hope. Just before Luke dies, he warns Kylo/Ben that he’ll always be with him. Just like his father. Luke fades into the Force and we know we will see him again as a force ghost (which we do, but JJ managed to trash even that). The boy on Canto Bight and his friends are inspired by the legend of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He ignites hope throughout the galaxy once more.

Narrative purpose: Multiple. As above, inspiring hope throughout the galaxy once more. To serve the theme of self-sacrifice. Achieving victory without violence (pacifistic). Preventing Kylo Ren from killing more people he cares about (Rey, Leia, Luke) and thereby protecting him, at least a little, from himself. Also serves a similar purpose to Yoda’s death--with both Luke and Snoke dying, Rey and Kylo Ren are without masters, the arbiters of their own destiny (thanks again JJ for fucking that up too).

Overall response: I can’t decide if this or Han Solo’s death is more emotionally impactful to me. They are both so, so moving, and so essential to the narrative.

Leia Organa; portrayed by Carrie Fisher

Personal feelings: This is hard. I don’t think her scenes in The Rise of Skywalker worked. They were cut from The Force Awakens for a reason--and then cobbled together like some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster for this movie. As much as I love Leia and Carrie, I couldn’t feel emotion for her death because it was so wooden and artificial.

Mode of death: Uses the last of her energy to reach her son (it is unclear exactly how she is reaching him. Force projection? Did she create the Han memory? Who knows.) Even with so little to work with, they still managed to focus on her death with her lying down, her hand falling to the side--trying to give this some weight.

Aftermath: Chewie mourns. Ben and Rey both feel her death and are clearly devastated. The Resistance gather around her body in mourning. Her body fades at the same time as Ben’s (wtf, JJ) and then we see her as a force ghost with Luke (but not Ben because fuck him apparently).

Narrative purpose: To bring her son back to the light, something that has been a central struggle of this trilogy. Sacrificing yourself to save that which you love.

Overall response: It has a purpose, but I can’t help but think it wouldn’t have gone this way if Carrie hadn’t died. It doesn’t seem as organic as the deaths of Han and Luke.

NB: I’m skipping Palpatine because his death was literally nothing else than “defeat the big bad”. It wasn’t even fulfilling a prophecy, it had no significant narrative weight for Rey, it was a nothing burger.

Ben Solo/Kylo Ren; portrayed by Adam Driver

Personal feelings: Twofold. In the cinema, I felt nothing. Nothing. I actually laughed in surprise. Like, “what was that”? The next day, at home, I cried. I don’t think I cried because he died. I was open to that possibility. I cried because I was so, so angry at how poorly his arc and death was handled. Like he was a footnote in his own fucking story. I think him living was a much more interesting story, narratively and thematically, but I wasn’t necessarily opposed to his death if it was done well. And it wasn’t.

Mode of death: Uses the last of his life energy to resurrect Rey. Falls over. (Plop, there he goes.) Fades into the force.

Aftermath: Like, none? Rey looks kind of surprised and blinks for a couple of seconds. No words are exchanged. He just tips over and dies. Cool.

Narrative purpose (or failure thereof): I am fucking reaching here because all of the previously established trajectories and themes are dashed by this ending. We could argue that this is a self-sacrifice to save what you love theme point. Which is fine, but like, no one mourns. He doesn’t become a Force Ghost. No one acknowledges his death. Ben fading into the Force is a metaphor for him fading from people’s minds. It’s like he doesn’t even exist in the context of the story anymore. Which is insanely baffling because all three of the original trilogy heroes sacrificed their lives, at least in part, to save Ben Solo. So that he could in turn save Rey? So he’s just another cog in the machine? This was always about Rey and never about the love Han and Leia had for their son, or that Luke had for his nephew? If you think about it, the only other ‘main’ characters to die during the course of their trilogy were Qui-gon and Padme. And both of those characters had funerals, and people mourning, and huge narrative implications. The death of Ben Solo reads like the death of a minor character. It serves one very narrow and already over-represented theme. The death of all of the rest of the Skywalkers had huge emotional ramifications for the other characters in the films. With Ben Solo, the Skywalker legacy fades as well, as if JJ is telling us that this saga was not about this family at all, but their whole story existed only for the point of saving Palpatine’s granddaughter. How fucked up is that?

Overall response: Narratively, this just doesn’t make sense. It’s lazy and not impactful. When a character dies in films, you want the audience to feel something, so you show other characters reacting to it. Are they sad? Then we should feel sad too! Are they elated? We should be celebrating! No one reacts to Ben’s death, so we’re not sure how we��re supposed to feel, either. The people who are devastated by this death are the ones who love the character itself and are upset that he got treated this way--the death itself was hollow and emotionless.

So, there you have it. Ben Solo was shafted. Death is extremely prevalent in these movies, and yet, being the only new Skywalker of the sequels and half the protagonist (thank you Rian), Ben Solo has arguably the least emotional or narratively impactful death in the franchise.

Rian Johnson would never do this to Ben Solo.

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ifonlyweknewwhatiwasdoing · 3 years ago

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Choking (02 Whumptober 2021)

Prompt: garotte/choking/gagged

Pairing: Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker

Rating: T+

Warnings: Character Death, Murder (I think I should tag for that??)

Summary: Stuck in an endless loop where Anakin Skywalker always rises as Darth Vadar, Obi-Wan is stuck with an unthinkable choice.

Obi-Wan had tried everything and at this point, it seemed cruel but perhaps this is what he deserved for failing Anakin and the Jedi so completely.

On the day of Mustafar Obi-Wan cut Anakin down and left, unable to finish him and instead leaving him to what he assumed would be his death. And then Darth Vadar had risen and he realized his mistake.

When Obi-Wan was cut down at the hands of Vadar he assumed that that would be it. He would be one with the force, guide look as a force ghost, and see balance brought to the galaxy.

But Obi-Wan woke instead woke the night before he was set to leave Grevious. It had been a shock and for a moment Obi-Wan was sure everything that had happened must have been a terrible dream.

Of course, that only lasted until Anakin woke up, looking at him intently while he propped himself up using his mech arm.

“I’ve got something I’ve got to tell you,” Anakin told him softly.

“You’ve been married,” Obi-Wan told him, trying to bite back the hurt that rose in his throat.

Anakin closed his eyes, having the decency to at least look guilty, “How long have you known?”

“I think I’ve always known,” Obi-Wan murmured softly, “I just didn’t care to confirm it. I didn’t want this to end.”

“It doesn’t have to end,” Anakin insisted, “Padme knows about you. She doesn’t mind and- look I know I should have told you but I was scared. I didn’t want you to leave.”

“Padme knows,” Obi-Wan said mindlessly.

That made him feel a little bit better. The last time Anakin had told him, he’d been so angry that he’d left before the man had a chance to explain anything. He’d lived sixteen years with the guilt that he had betrayed not only the order but one of his closest friends.

“Of course she does,” Anakin said defensively, “I wouldn’t do that to her.”

“But you’d do it to me?” Obi-Wan asked, looking at him intently, “You’d fall into bed with me and not tell me the truth? Am I not as important?”

“No! No!” Anakin sat straight up, blankets pooling around his waist, “I- That’s not what I meant. You have to believe me! I just- force this is so hard to try to explain.”

“It’s okay Ani,” Obi-Wan told him softly, reaching for him and pulling him back down so he could tuck himself as close to him as possible.

It was true, that being lied to had hurt. But he’d had nearly two decades to get used to it. Two decades to mourn the love that he had lost when Anakin had risen as Darth Vadar. He’d do things differently this time. He’d change the storyline.

He’d do things right.

---

He’d tried to do things right. But it didn’t matter what he’d changed from that day. Nothing fixed the problem. He’d tried everything.

He’d tried exposing Palpatine, not leaving to defeat Grievous. He’d told Anakin that he would happily share him with Padme. He’d tried taking the man off-planet so that he wasn’t there when it was set to happen.

Obi-Wan had tried telling Padme, only to be told he was crazy.

Everytime he failed he had to live another fifteen years to die at the hands of the man that he loved. He didn’t know what to do anymore. He didn’t want to live through it anymore.

Then he tried talking to Mace and Yoda and his heart had been shattered when they’d killed Anakin. And when he woke up he wasn’t sure if he should be relieved that time had reset.

“It was just a nightmare. Everything is okay,” Anakin pulled Obi-Wan to his chest as he panted, sweat dripping down his face and neck.

Except it wasn’t a nightmare. It was Obi-Wan’s life and he was being forced to relive it, day after day. He didn’t know how to fix things. He just wanted it to end.

But Anakin’s arms were warm and comforting and it was rare that he got to wake up on this day. He wondered faintly if wandered into Vadar’s path, if it would reset time quicker or if he would just die.

---

By the one-hundredth time, Obi-Wan had lived the equivalent of twenty lifetimes. He couldn’t do it anymore.

And there was one more thing he’d yet to try.

He woke up, trying his best not to rustle the bed, lest he wake Anakin up. The man was still mostly flesh, sleeping peacefully in bed, body curled towards Obi-Wan in the way that it always was when they shared a bed.

Obi-Wan wanted him to stay like this forever. The beautiful man who had all the potential in the world. He wanted Anakin to forever stay Anakin and for Darth Vadar to never rise.

He bit his lip as tears started to fall down his face, trying his best but failing to stop the shaking of his body as he silently sobbed. There was one thing that he hadn’t tried, the very thought of it had been abhorrent. Obi-Wan had decided that he’d never try it.

But he’d lived nearly twenty lifetimes losing everything that he’d ever loved, watching as Sidious poisoned the mind of the man he loved and manipulated him into destroying everything that Obi-Wan had ever loved, including himself.

Obi-Wan shook, holding his hand out as he started to put force against Anakin’s throat. He continued to press until Anakin’s eyes flew open in panic, hands immediately going to his throat as he looked around wildly. His eyes landed on Obi-Wan and in that moment he looked so betrayed that Obi-Wan faltered for a second, before pressing on.

He knew what happened should Anakin be allowed to live.

He killed his wife. He destroyed the Jedi. He sent the galaxy into chaos.

That didn’t make it easier to watch as his face paled and then took a ghoulish blue tint on. His lips kept mouthing words over and over again as he struggled against the invincible force Obi-Wan was applying.

‘Obi-Wan, please stop. I love you.’

Sobs wracked Obi-Wan’s body as he continued to put pressure against the man’s neck until finally, he stopped struggling, body going limp while at the same time the bond between them- the one they should have separated years ago- snapped painfully.

The pain from it snapping was finally what broke Obi-Wan and he screamed, the sound resonating through the halls of the temple.

By the time someone had come to see what was wrong it was too late.

Anakin Skywalker would never become Darth Vadar.

Obi-Wan had killed him so that he could remain Anakin.

But Obi-Wan rose as Darth Paenitet. The most fearsome Sith that had ever been unleashed on the galaxy.

Sometimes, when he had a flash of lucidity, Obi-Wan wondered if the force hadn’t been misguided. He didn’t think it was possible that something so ingrained in everything could have been, but as the Jedi Temple fell once more, he couldn’t help but think it had been.

#whumptober2021 #no.2 #choking #star wars #fic #chracter death #murder #musicsoul1982 #star wars fanfic #obikin #obikin fanfiction

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shakingthestars · 5 years ago

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The problematic conclusion of the Rise of Skywalker – a “whitewashing” of the Skywalker legacy ?

Art by kasiopea-star-wars

Nearly two months after The Rise of Skywalker came to theaters, I have finally found a way to express my throughts about the conclusion of this galactic journey. As a new Skywalker trilogy was announced years ago, I remember not feeling thrilled by the idea of a sequel, asking myself what would be the added-value to the story for an arc that started and ended with Anakin Skywalker. Yet I remember feeling pleasantly surprised by how promising The Force Awakens (TFA) was in introducing the characters, playing on their dynamics and setting up the family dramas : a stormtrooper taken away from his family ; a scavenger waiting for the return of her parents ; an heir rejecting his birth name ; a family desintegrated by a repeating tragedy. The Last Jedi (TLJ) felt refreshing by bringing the family drama to a higher level, deepening the heroine/antagonist dynamic and paving the way for a refined sight of the Jedi philosophy. As much The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) has its entertaining moments as a standalone, I couldn’t help feeling growingly unconfortable about this movie as a conclusion of the Skywalker story.

Why Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) originally felt like a satisfying conclusion of the Skywalker story…

Among the several reasons why TROS fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion to this 42 years old arc, the very last act of the franchise stands out as strangely dissonant with the rest of the entire story. Let’s have a look back at the original ending set up by Return of the Jedi (ROTJ). Far from being my favorite Star Wars movie because of the Jabba the Hutt sequence, ROTJ never failed to get me emotional by the way it beautifully concluded the Skywalker arc. Beyond the joyful atmosphere around the galaxy and the celebration of the victory on Endor, the last sequence sets up a powerfully emotional ending because it’s all about healing the wounds through reconciliation : reconciliation of a man with himself, reconciliation of a father with his son but also reconciliation of a fallen Jedi with the old friends he once betrayed. Thus, as sad as Anakin Skywalker’s death may be, the outcome of his tragic life is counterbalanced by what we get to experience on screen with the characters, from his funeral scene to the appearance of the Force Ghosts. Everything is synchronized in a way that enables the viewer to feel that the hero of the OT, Luke Skywalker, has now completed his journey to find himself, can let the past behind him and move on to build a brighter future surrounded by his « family ». At that point, this conclusion left me as the viewer with the satisfying feeling that the Skywalker arc is complete, bringing me back to my initial question : what was their story worth to continue for ?

…that left the Skywalkers with an unresolved family business

Yet, when we meet the Skywalkers again 30 years later, it appears that the family has completely imploded : a fallen son enrolled in the ennemy camp, the parents separated, the uncle exiled on a planet far far away. TFA introduces the viewer to a family tragedy that repeated itself with a kid targeted by a master puppet for his “mighty blood” in order to follow his grandfather’s footsteps. We learn from the canon novel Bloodline as well as TFA make it clear that neither Leia nor Han ever forgave Vader and very much feared that their only son would take after him: “We’ve done everything we could have done. There’s too much Vader in him”. As impressive as his sacrifice might have been for a 1983 viewer, Vader’s redemption was the result of a sudden turn for the sake of one person, an action that neither Leia nor the Galaxy got to witness, making Anakin only an unsung hero of the victory against the Empire. His sacrifice didn’t enable any reconciliation of his daughter with the dark side of his legacy, paving the way for the tragedy to repeat with his own grandson. As unsettling as Luke’s characterization may have been in TLJ, the attempt to kill his own nephew in his sleep suggest that he probably wasn’t as reconciled with his father’s legacy as he thought. In other words, the wound healing through reconciliation set up in ROTJ was uncomplete and left door open for the tragedy to repeat, which leads to consider the importance of Ben in the sequel trilogy of a family arc that has been told over 42 years in 9 episodes :

- A son who witnessed his slave mother dying in his arms

- A mother who died in childbirth from a broken heart

- Husbands and wives who losed their respective partners

- Parents who lose their daughter

- Kids who got separated from their parents

- A nephew who witnessed his adoptive parents getting killed

- Fathers who died sacrifying for their sons

- An uncle who died apologizing to his nephew

- A son who lose his mother after she sacrificed for him

"As I once fell, so falls the last Skywalker”

Named after Ben – “You’re my only hope” – Kenobi, Ben Solo represented the hope that at least a Skywalker could finally make it through darkness. He was not just the only descendant of the Skywalker family. He was also the bearer of all the abuse, pain and tragedies that this family has been through since his grandfather himself was targeted by their sworn ennemy: Palpatine. Thus, he is the recipient of all the wounds that didn’t heal properly within the family, making his manipulation by Palpatine, his feeling of rejection by his parents and the murder attempt by his uncle all the more tragic. The fact that Ben – and the Galaxy – was kept ignorant of the family connection with Vader certainly didn’t help, making him from early age an ideal target for the revenge of Palpatine: “I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head”. People may argue that the outcome is okay since there will be no Skywalker descendant for the tragedy to repeat one day and that Rey will ensure that their legacy lives on by carry on the name. That Rey deserves to be part of the Skywalker legacy through her personal achievements is unquestionable. However, she is not the bearer of the tragedy that has plagued the Skywalker family for the viewers to witness over 9 episodes. Although her backstory is heartbreaking to say the least, TROS doesn’t let the viewers time to feel the depth of her own tragedy adding to the fact that we didn’t get to relate to the tragedy of the Palpatine family over long-run. Even if Rey shoudn’t be reduced to her bloodline (which was the risk of making her a Palpatine through), didn’t Palpatine achieve what he wanted in the end ? People may argue he lose since his own granddaughter will carry on the Skywalker name as a Jedi. However, if his personal revenge against the Skywalkers was to end their bloodline, then he definitely got what he wanted after being the cause of most of their tragedies:

- He predicted Padme’s death, which he brought Anakin to provoke

- He wanted Anakin’s death, which happened through his sacrifice for Luke

- He wanted Han’s death, which he brough Kylo to provoke

- He wanted Luke’s death, which indirectly happened through his sacrifice

- He wanted Leia’s death, which happened through her sacrifice for Ben

- He wanted Ben’s death, which happened through his sacrifice for Rey

The problematic execution of Ben Solo’s redemption

From the moment TFA had Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren commit a parricide, the question of his redemption was at the heart of his character arc. Beyond the passionate discussion about whether or not he should have lived given his dark actions, it’s the way he was treated in the last act that doesn’t feel right put in the bigger context of the story. It is legitimate that Rey was the one person to ultimately take down Palpatine, all the more so that she is revealed to be a Palpatine descendant. Yet, the role in which Ben Solo was relegated during the final battle on Exegol doesn’t feel right within the framework of the entire arc. The Skywalker descendant – as bearer of the family tragedy – got to stand barely 5 seconds against the abuser of his family, only for his body to be used as a mean to resurrect Palpatines, grandfather and granddaughter. Worse : the entire set up for the Force dyad in the ST was made useful for that sole purpose : draining the Force energy of the Skywalker to death so that the Palpatines could live on. Even if the last Skywalker was meant to die anyway, why giving him the same redemption as his grandfather, knowing that this redemption path only reconciled one person – Luke – with the dark side of the Skywalker legacy? Why having him sacrifice for the sake of only one person instead of putting him in front of a dilemma that would have required to overcome the evil voices once and for all for the greater good of the Galaxy? Why having no witness of his ultimate inner struggle instead of letting the Galaxy finally know what was behind the darkness of both Skywalkers grandfather and grandson ? I am aware that this is easy to critisize directing choices once the movie is out but based on all what was demonstrated above I believe that the Skywalker family would have deserved that their only descendant had a more active part in overcoming their abuser once and for all by overcoming the darkness he planted in them. In my ideal scenario, Rey would have taken down Palpatine all alone in her badass way all alone but there would have been an ultimate twist. The remaining fleet would have been programmed by Palpatine to execute the last order, from a signal sent from a dark artifact on Exegol for all the Galaxy to witness in horror. The only way for someone to desactivate it would have required to overcome his/her darkest struggles within, which would have been a meaningful way to confront Ben with his family tragedy, the dark legacy of his grandfather and his own dark actions. I would have loved the idea that the evil voices put him in front of a dilemma and that his grandfather finally helped him to take the right decision based on his own fateful experience: choosing between saving a loved one from her death state or saving planets from destruction for the greater good. There were several meaningful scenes that could have foreshadowed this kind of scenario. Instead, TROS gave us the same redemption as ROTJ :

- A short-term redemption path

- A sacrifice for the sake of one person

- No witness of the good action other than said person

Yet, disappearing to never be seen, mourned or mentioned ever again...

A whitewashing of the Skywalker legacy

The ending scene of the Skywalker franchise takes place on Tatooine with Rey burrying the Skywalker lightsabers in the sand as a funeral, which is meant to enable her – and the viewer – to move on peacefully. According to Lucasfilm VFX supervisor Roger Guyett and screenwriter Chris Terrio, no Force ghost of Ben was created because “when you see Luke and Leia there, it’s about the Skywalker legacy”. For a movie that was supposed to tie all 9 movies together, the Prequel Trilogy (PT) doesn’t seem to exist as if the Skywalker story began with the Original Trilogy (OT). We get to see Cloud City and Endor after the final victory but no shot of Coruscant & Naboo. The family tragedy begun with the separation of the twin but the grooming of their father and the death of their mother doesn’t seem to be part of the traged. The Skywalker lightsaber is primarily presented as Luke’s lightsaber as if he was its original owner. What is canonly established through is that the Skywalker story began with a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker who was believed by the Jedi to be the Chosen One, which made him the target of a Sith named Palpatine, which led to a long-run family drama in the middle of a never-ending battle between the dark side and the light side. Given the importance of his fall to the story and how it fed the family drama beyond his death, his absence in the sequel trilogy is surprising, aside from a very discreet line to Rey : “Bring Balance as I did”. Shouldn’t Anakin have guided his fallen grandson too instead of helping only the granddaughter of his sworn ennemy ? More problematic is the way the family drama is resolved with the ending of TROS. While the family was split at the beginning of the ST, TROS doesn’t care to show the healing of the family wounds, except for the memory scene between Solo father and son. The reason why this scene is the most powerfully emotional moment of the movie in my mind is precisely for its ability to symbolize the reconciliation of a man with himself and a son with his father. Yet, the ending scene is only about reuniting the all in the white Holy Skywalkers who have never “sinned”, giving the unconfortable impression that the Skywalker descendant was disposable because he wasn’t worthy to have any place in the Skywalker legacy contrary to the heroine. After all, the original script of Duel of the Fates by Colin Trevorrow had Luke telling his nephew “You are no Skywalker”, as if the Skywalker legacy wasn’t made of both darkness and light and Luke himself didn’t contribute to this with his own mistakes. Although TROS is more subtle in its approach, the difference in the handling between Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo’s redemption after their death is telling: kept a guarded secret by the person he saved; not even mourned by the only person he bonded with; not even shown alongside his family. Dead or alive, his treatment on screen left me as a viewer with the unconfortable feeling that the Skywalker family as a whole wasn’t reconciled with the dark side of their legacy. Which brings me once again to the same question: what was their story worth to continue for?

Excerpt of the canon novel Bloodline

The purification of the heroine

Let’s talk now about how Rey ends her heroine’s journey compared to where she began. That journey was announced by Maz Kanata already in TFA: “The belonging (family) you seek is not behind you (birth family), it is ahead (found future)”. She was introduced as desperate to find a place to belong because of her feeling of loneliness, which never incapacitated her ability to be a strong independant woman who knows how to handle herself. Yet, her heroine journey alone on Tatooine where she takes the Skywalker name looking at the Binary Sunset under the watchful eye of the Skywalker Twins as Force Ghosts. Some may argue that she will be okay since she found a family in them and her Resistance friends, which is true to some degree but uncomplete through. However, the ending looks out of place with a key character missing in this scene, whether he was supposed to be dead or alive: Ben. Although it was important to show in TROS that Rey was well surrounded by a supportive entourage (as a constrast to Ben before his fall), the ST established that the deepest emotional connection she had was with Kylo Ren/Rey. I wouldn’t allow myself to judge those who find Reylo abusive and/or questionable because of his actions but I personally don’t think that the outcome of TROS is a feminist as it was meant to appear by having the heroine as a strong independant woman free from any romantic involvement . The ST makes it clear all along that although Rey obviously suffers from abandonment issue, she is more than capable of handling herself, know by herself what is right or not and decide conciously what (who) she wants for herself. Some people may disaprove the very idea of “Reylo” for valid reason but claiming that the kiss came out of nowhere doesn’t make sense when one look closely at their interactions all along the ST. TLJ shows that the hand touch she initiated is the decisive moment where she gets to see what the viewer finally get to see only at the end of TROS : the true face of Ben Solo, without the mask named Kylo Ren behind which he hid himself. From this moment on, my understanding is that Rey perfectly knew how to dissociate the person from his persona, thus her disenchantment in the Throne Room while confronted to his unwillingness to let go of his dark persona. With Rey shutting the door of the Millenium Falcon to his face, TROS could have made their dynamic an unrequited villainous crush afterwards. Although this is what it looks on the surface, the visual subtext tells a different story, which is a huge reason that makes their interactions so compelling to analyze. On Pasaana, Rey is shown staring longingly at little kids, sadly confessing that she has no family (despite living with the Resistance and her friends for a while) and being in deep thought at that moment. Barely 2 seconds after enter her dyad to renew his hand proposal. Of course, different interpretations can be made about this scene. I would argue that the chain of events in a matter ofminutes is meant to convey a specific message if one accept the idea that the hand proposal is metaphorically a marriage proposal. The ST sets the record straight through that despite her attraction to him Rey always rejected Kylo Ren and his entitled behavior while making heart eyes to Ben Solo and the selfless person she knew he was deep inside through their bond. The core of their unresolved business in TROS is all about him being desperate to know why she wanted to take his hand while being frustrated by her refusal to acknowledge it and her being desperate to hide the reason why she didn’t take it while being frustrated by his refusal to acknowledge who he really is. Both lied to themselves and each other out of fear of being rejected and disentchanted again. Thus, the tension rising until a confession that changed everything : “I wanted to take your hand, Ben’s hand”. Rey chose consciously to kiss Ben only once she was sure that the mask had definitely dropped and he had renounced to be someone else than who he really is. Although Kylo Ren was chasing Rey, she was always the one who set the rules and initiated willingly any further step in their relationship and only when she felt he was his true self with her. This teaches an important lesson – especially to teenage boys – that you don’t earn the feelings of someone (no matter what feelings he/she has for you) by hiding yourself behind a virile persona and/or showing off toxic behaviors in order to impress said person. In other words, the love triangle was always between Rey, Kylo Ren and Ben Solo from a female gaze perspective: it’s Ben who was presented as “object” of desire all along. Yet, the choice that Rey willingly makes – and the desire that goes along with it – is taken away from her as if it was decided at her place that Ben Solo was never the right partner for her anyway. After three movie setting up that the heart of her emotional journey was with him, the fact that he is totally erased from screen after – and despite – their love scene looks like a puritan attempt to purify the heroine from the sin she has committed. Worse, she ends her journey where she began: on a desolated sand planet, sliding innocently the dunes, wearing the same all white costume and an adopted child under parental watch. In a nutshell: pretty much like Luke at the beginning of his hero’s journey.

Rian Johnson: “ The hand touch is the closest thing we’ll get to a sex scene in Star Wars”

Luke Skywalker (deleted line): “You’ve opened yourself to the dark side for a pair of pretty eyes”

Tatooine: an iconic place...of desolation

Although Tatooine may appear as a logical choice for the ending scene, the intention to recreate the atmosphere of the iconic scene from ANH falls flat in the context of TROS but also in the context of the whole franchise. According to Chris Terrio, the point was to fix the original sin of the franchise, which was the separation of the Twins by tying the lightsabers together like newborns. Did it make sense through to burry them on Tatooine ? Based on the Prequels, the Skywalker/ Palpatine arc has its roots on Naboo, when a Queen was forced to flee in order to meet the Senate representative of her home planet on Coruscant but met a slave boy from Tatooine on her way. Naboo may have been a less iconic choice for fanservice but in regard to the heartbeat of the Skywalker story, this is where Anakin and Padme’s love story blossomed, where Padme planned to give birth to their babies, where she is now resting forever: “Ani I wanna have our baby back home on Naboo”. Wasn’t the original sin that these kids were separated from their parents and all of them never got reunited ? Yet, Padme’s babies - and her husband by extension - were metaphorically burried on the very planet where Luke was never supposed to end up had the family tragedy not happened, where his father grew up as a slave, where his grandmother had a painful death, where his adoptive parents were murdered, where his sister was enslaved, where his brother in law was imprisoned, where he himself never wanted to return. Yet this is also this place that was chosen to end Rey’s heroine journey. She ends up being the spiritual heir of the Twins, especially the Jedi that Leia would have become by her brother’s side had she not chosen romantic attachment over that path. In general, the ending sends the message that romantic love and children only cause destruction while preventing parents from achieving their ambitions. Padme and Anakin’s love created destruction through the immiment birth of the Twins ; Han and Leia’s love created destruction through Ben’s upbringing, only to have their sacrifice rewarded with his death and his sidelining of the legacy. Terrible message for teenagers that no matter the selfless acts you do, you still deserve to be forgotten or even replaced with someone more worthy if you lose yourself following the wrong way because you were a problem from the start. On a sidenote, DLF probably failed to get people invested in the new characters, precisely because most of the characters and their interactions turned out to feel superficial, interchangeable and disposable on the long run. Jahnnah was introduced to Lando in the very end for no particular reason, except maybe baiting the fans with future added-materials about a potential father/daughter dynamic. Finn and Rose kissed in TLJ? Let’s have her sidelined, Finn friendly tapping her shoulder, telling her to stay away and choosing the company of someone else in the next film. Zorii asked Poe to come with her? Let’s have her refusing to be with him, barely hours after their conversation. Rey and Ben kissed before he died? Let’s have her flying out of Exegol with fanfare, happily reuniting with her friends and paying tribute to the Twins without showing an once of interest in the fate of her dyad. In general, the movie leaves the feeling that there is no deep sense of belonging for anybody and that they all are pretty alone despite forming a big "family" of friends on the surface. The ending feels even more out of place knowing that Rey’s journey was never meant to parallel Luke’s, who only wanted to become a Jedi like his father and ultimately became one. It was never the motivator of Rey’s journey to fight for a higher cause by becoming a Rebel or a Jedi in to follow the footsteps of a loved one and/or a mentor. Yes, she accomplished great things and it is absolutely right to enable her to fulfill any ambition she wishes to accomplish in the future. However, it is not because she had simple human needs too that they were unimportant and meant to diminish her character. Let’s go back again to this Pasaana scene where we are reminded of the core of her heroine’s journey: “The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead”. Of course, that could be interpreted in retrospect as a foreshadowing that she will take a new generation of Jedi as Rey Skywalker continuing the legacy of Luke. But again, the directing choices suggest otherwise: why showing her staring at 1-2 years old babies instead of 9-10 years old kids? Why suggesting that she may not have a family at that point but that she will have this possibility at the end of her journey? More important: why suggesting through the hand proposal that Ben Solo is the one through with she is meant to have a family ? Although her thoughts ain’t explicit, the chain of events suggests an underlying desire: marriage proposal, forming a family, having babies. Yet, Ben and Rey finally coming together resulted in a kiss of death and her ending like a virginal nun metaphorically burrying the kids she’ll never have with him. Terrible message for girls from a female gaze perspective that no matter how heroic she was and all the harships she went through, she is not allowed to get the belonging she chose willingly (contrary to most male heroes). Terrible message in general that the wants openly expressed by women never really come true in Star Wars: Padme never got her babies back home on Naboo; Leia never got her son back home alive; Rey never got the home she really wished for with Ben. Even if Ben was meant to die like Jack Dawson from Titanic (given the few parallels used by TROS), his total absence after his death feels incredibly wrong, especially given how the only person whom with he bonded emotionally appears indifferent on screen to his fate. This closure on Tatooine without him rubs the viewer from witnessing the definitive healing of the family wounds but also from the feeling that the heroine can move on peacefully with her life: fulfilling her goals, being surrounded with her friends and why not raising a family until she’ll be ultimately reunited with Skywalkers in death. Thus, a tragic ending like Titanic where you are aware as a viewer that Jack and Rose technically can’t be reunited in the afterlife feels strangely more uplifting than the ending of TROS where it’s technically possible that Ben and Rey get reunited someday. What is shown on screen is what remains enshrined in the mind of the viewer. An ending scene on Naboo with Ben (alive or dead) would have given a different vibe, reuniting metaphorically all Skywalkers (except Shmi Skywalker-Lars) in the same tombstone and symbolizing the family reconciliation: a husband with his wife; parents with their twins; a nephew with his uncle; a son with his mother ; a father living in his son’s heart since his death. Beyond that, what more meaningful message for Rey Palpatine than choosing the Skywalkers on the very planet where her own grandfather came from like Padme and began tormenting the Galaxy and her family ? Alas, the conclusion of the franchise shows the heroine ending her journey alone on a desert planet, her birth family dead, her found family decimated, without her lover and her friends to be seen, surrounded by robots and ghosts…but with a cool name as consolation prize!

#the rise of skywalker #star wars #rey #kyloren #ben solo #reylo #adamdriver #daisyridley

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evabellasworld · 3 years ago

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Storm of the Republic

Chapter 28

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

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

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Bulldozing through the jungle, an Imperial officer was seated on the transport, recording a list of crates inside the inventory. There were 6 crates of Angel’s Heart that were collected from the mines, and he had to make sure that everything was accounted for. The last thing he wanted was his superior giving him a demerit for his performance at work, or worse.

The Empire isn’t like the Republic. Everything has to be in order, otherwise, he would have to pay the price for his failure. As harsh as they are, the officer thought the Imperial is more organised and fair, unlike the previous administration. Back then, Aaron was stuck as a clerk for 27 years. He hoped that his last boss would notice all the effort he had contributed, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, his deserved position was given to the boss’s son, leaving him disappointed. Most of his friends also had a higher position than him. While they were enjoying life with a higher salary, Aaron had to get by with his husband and two daughters back home. He always dreamed about pampering them with whatever they want, but that only happened once a year.

After this, I’m going to treat them to a steakhouse tonight, he smiled to himself, as he peeked through the Angel’s Heart. And I can finally get the makeup palette Lia has been saving up for months.

The soft pink crystal was shaped exactly like a heart, reminding him of Valentine’s day. It was common for Aaron to see the Angel’s Heart crystal in a fancy jewellery store, but he wasn’t sure why the Empire would want a huge crate of them. To him, they were just there for the pleasure of the eye. There’s no healing properties from the Angel’s Heart at all.

I hope everything goes smoothly this time. The last time I transported these to HQ, we had to deal with raiders.

Unfortunately, that was only a dream. Before Aaron could sit down, the transport braked abruptly, causing him to fall on the metallic floor. “Ouch,” he yelped, as he got up and rubbed the side of his face. “What’s going on up there?”

“Sir, we have a pregnant woman crossing the street,” the B1 battle droid reported to him. “Should we fire, sir?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, don’t open fire. I’ll see what I can do for her.”

As he stepped out of the vehicle, Aaron saw a dark-skinned woman strutting in front of him, cradling her baby bump with one hand and carrying a sack with the other. With a tattered hood, he noticed her feet were adorned with worn-out slippers, prompting him to approach her gently. “Excuse me, but do you need help?”

Odd Eye widened her eyes as she turned towards the Imperial officer, realizing that she was dealing with someone who was flesh and blood. “Thank you for your kindness, but I can handle it myself.”

“I can help you,” he insisted, keeping a safe distance from her. “You’re pregnant and you look like you’re struggling to walk.”

“Are you sure about that, sir?” her voice shook, hiding her hands behind her. “I’m sure you have a lot of things to worry about right now.”

Aaron shook his head as he offered his hand. “Don’t worry about me, miss. I’ll be alright, I promise.”

With a hint of hesitation on her face, Odd Eye took a deep breath and held his hand as they crossed the muddy road together. He was kind, just like Erhan.

She never expected that an officer who worked for their enemy was helping her. She wondered if he was happy with his current job, given that the Imperial didn’t treat anyone with kindness and compassion. Her shoulders slumped as she thought about his fate in Imperial’s grasp.

“Thank you for your help,” said Odd Eye, as they reached the other side of the road. “You’re too kind, sir.”

“No worries miss, I’m glad to help,” Aaron gave her a warm smile. “Though I don’t mean to pry, but are you currently living with your partner?”

She frowned, her head hanging low. “He’s not here anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied. “I’m sure he was a great man.”

“He was a decent man,” Odd Eye sat down, nestling her bump. “My partner was overjoyed by the news. It was too bad he would never get to meet his son.”

He nodded, pressing his lips together. “I bet you miss him very much. It must be painful to carry your baby all by yourself. I mean, I can’t imagine being separated from my husband and my two kids. It’s the saddest thing you could experience in life.”

“You have a family back home?” she looked at him, forcing a smile. “Are you close with them?”

“They’re the joy of my life. My family is the reason I’m still here, even if life turned gloomy. We always have each other’s back, no matter what.”

Odd Eye bobbed her head silently as she noticed Boil, Faven, and Hyewon infiltrating an Imperial Troop Transport, taking down the droids without a single sound, along with Thire and Stone taking on the second vehicle. Thire and Stone assisted the three of them, giving them a thumbs up.

They seem to understand the assignment. I'm impressed.

She then shifted her focus towards Aaron, who was showing her a picture of his family, which was taken in a professional studio. “Lia is my oldest child. We adopted her from a foster home when she was 2 years old. She likes makeup and fashion, and she wanted to be a stylist after she graduated from trade school.”

“That’s cool. What about your other daughter? What does she like to do?”

“Mika loves to sew dolls in her free time, especially creepy dolls. She likes them very much, even though it scares me from time-to-time.”

Odd Eye chuckled, watching Nygma pulling out a droid’s head from its sockets. “Well, it’s good she enjoyed her hobby. I would kill to make myself a doll like her too.”

“You have no idea what she’s capable of,” Aaron gleamed, as Odd Eye signalled Tarot and Draco to take on the first transport, without the officer paying attention at all. “She loves horror movies a lot. She doesn’t even flinch whenever she sees blood. It’s pretty creepy, if you ask me.”

“I see a bright future for your daughters, sir,” she praised, as she glanced at Cody stabbing a droid with a knife. “I have faith that they will thrive in the future. Say, may I know your name? You seem like an interesting person.”

“Aaron, my name is Aaron Koo,” the officer introduced himself, not knowing that Obi-Wan had slashed the enemy with a lightsaber. “What about you, miss? What is your name?”

Before Odd Eye could answer him, Aaron heard the blaster clicking behind him, causing him to turn around with his hands up. “Surrender, Imperial scum,” ordered Cody, pointing his weapon at his face.

“Take it easy, Codes,” Odd Eye stood up, holding out her hands. “He doesn’t mean any harm. He’s only doing his job, that’s all.”

“You heard the lady, trooper,” Aaron gestured towards Cody. “Drop your weapons. No one is getting hurt here.”

Reluctantly, Cody lowered his blaster as Obi-Wan and Mina approached them, putting down their weapons. “You’ll be safe with us, officer,” reassured Obi-Wan, before turning to Odd Eye. “You did a splendid job, commander. Well done.”

Aaron froze as he stared at Odd Eye. “You were going to kill me? After what I’ve done for you?”

“I’m sorry, Aaron, but you have a good heart, and I didn’t want to hurt you at all.”

“Please don’t do this,” he begged, dropping to his knees. “I still haven’t told you about my husband. I don’t want to die without saying goodbye to him. I love him so much. You would understand, miss, considering you’ve lost your partner without any closure.”

He’s right, thought Odd Eye.

“You’ll be safe with us, officer,” the Jedi kneeled towards him. “You have my words. We won’t let anything happen to you and your family.”

Aaron could only stand up with his arms behind his head as he saw Thire stepped out of the transport. “We have successfully taken over all the vehicles, general,” the Coruscant guard reported. “Permission we proceed with our next plan?”

“Granted, commander,” Obi-Wan approved. “Let General Gomez and General Almarez-Guttierez our status report.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

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sistersofthelightforce · 4 years ago

Text

Facing Facts: The Diplomat

He supposes it’s fair that Padme still is angry at him. Of all people, she probably has the most right to be.

After that first mission, things change a little. She doesn’t leave the moment he arrives in Luke or Ahsoka’s chambers.

“Anakin, just in time, I was about to put on some tea,” Ahsoka chirps. She bustles into the kitchen, leaving Anakin and Padme in the lounge together.

Normally, Padme would make excuses and leave, but today, she stays seated and gives him a small smile. “How are you today, General Skywalker?”

“I’m doing well, I guess.” Anakin rubs the back of his neck. “How are you?”

“Busy, but well. Trying to set up the New Republic from beyond the grave isn’t an easy task.” Her tone is casual, but Anakin feels like there is a bite to it.

The silence between the two of them is horrendous. Anakin feels frustrated. They used to be able to talk for hours, or spend equally as much time simply enjoying each other’s company. Now that bond is ruined, and Anakin-

Anakin is furious with himself for it. It’s all his fault, all because of his actions. He misses his wife, and he knows he’s going to have to work hard to even have a chance of her forgiveness.

The old Anakin would blame her, would be angry and insist none of this was his fault, that everyone should be nicer to him about it.

Now, he knows better.

(But he doesn’t understand until a lot later why Padme smiles so widely when Ahsoka comes in, curls up against Anakin and informs him, “you’re warm.”)

It’s not always good. Padme is under a lot of stress trying to help Queen Karee get everything under control. She seems very pressured, and Ahsoka often murmurs with her in soft Boona. (He knows the difference between Boona and Asna now. Boona is more flowing, and sounds quite elegant. Asna is more guttural, but just as beautiful in Anakin’s opinion.)

He supposes he was bound to misstep at one point.

It’s just an ordinary day when he bursts into Ahsoka’s chambers, only to find them silent, except for Padme.

Padme is sitting with tears running down her face, clutching a holo of a baby girl- Leia, he assumes.

“Padme?” He asks softly.

She whirls around to look at him, her distress growing.”You!”

Anakin isn’t sure what to do so he stays silent.

“This is all your fault! Everything is your fault!” Padme shrieks. “I missed everything! Their first words, their first smiles, their first steps! I didn’t get any of that! I didn’t get to raise them because of you!”

Oh. Oh no.

“You took everything from me! I finally get Ahsoka back and you’ve broken her. You kill her time after time and still she forgives you? You left her to rot on some Sith poodoohole!” Padme shouts, fists balling at her side. “How could you?”

“Padme I-” He begins, but she cuts him off.

“I know! I know you’re sorry! I know Palpatine manipulated you. He manipulated everyone! I was the one who put him in power for force’s sake! But that doesn’t excuse what you did. You can’t just come back here and expect everything to be fine!” Padme is sobbing now, anger radiating off of her in the force.

“I didn’t,” he says softly, not quite talking to her.

“You did! You did! And I get everything is fine with Ahsoka, and whatever the hell went on with Obi-Wan, you guys seem fine now. But we were married! We were married and I’ve spent the majority of the time I’ve known you trying to fight you, trying to clean up what you’ve destroyed!” Padme lets out an anguished sob. “We were married and you tried to kill me. You used the force to strangle me and you didn’t even think of what could have happened to the twins!”

Anakin doesn’t like to think about that day on Mustafar. He feels so guilty. “I should never have used violence upon anyone I care about. Especially my wife. That was the worst thing I could have done-”

“YOU MURDERED CHILDREN!” Padme shrieks. “YOU’VE DONE SO MANY AWFUL THINGS. AND NOW I’M NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO BE ANGRY AT YOU!”

Ahsoka comes in at this point. “Mom? Dad? What’s going on?”

“Everything was getting better.” Padme sounds so quiet, so broken. “Why did he have to come back?”

“Oh Mom.” Ahsoka sends a quick look to Anakin (he wonders, later, if it is to make sure he isn’t going to destroy anything), but he makes a gesture towards Padme, and Ahsoka wraps her arms around her mother. Padme murmurs brokenly into Ahsoka’s shoulder. “I know Mom, I know.”

Ahsoka comes after him later.

“I’m fine,” he says sharply.

“She’s been bottling it up for a while. She should have talked to you and processed it, she should have talked to one of us about it, but she didn’t,” Ahsoka explained.

“I deserved it, it’s fine,” Anakin replies firmly.

Ahsoka tucks her head against his shoulder. “It’s all so complicated. She’s right to be angry at you, I can’t be mad at her for that. But you’re still my dad, and I hate you guys fighting.”

Anakin nods. “It’s ok that she’s mad. It’s fair.” He presses a kiss to Ahsoka’s forehead. “I think I’ll leave her be for a bit. I’ll give you guys space for a couple weeks, then I might just give her space at family stuff. I think letting her cool off might be the best plan.”

“Like after senate debates.” Ahsoka laughs.

Anakin chuckles earnestly. “Just like after senate debates.”

So he spends the next two weeks avoiding Padme as much as possible, then at family nights, he sits away from her and tries to be as out of her way as possible.

Anakin decides the best way to get through this is just to spend time with his kids, so he goes to meet Ahsoka at the gym. He freezes when he sees Padme.

She’s sitting on the bench while Ahsoka practises with a training droid a distance away. His daughter slices through it with ease, then puts it back together with her magic and goes again.

Padme is on her holopad when Anakin sits down beside her. “You know, she’s always been good with those things,” he muses.

“She certainly has. Her lightsaber skills are among the best.” Padme looks up and smiles gently. “She had a good teacher.”

Anakin chuckles a little and sighs. “Look, Padme, I know that I’m probably the last person you want hanging around-”

“Can you blame me?” She interjects.

“No! That’s what I’m saying!” He says quickly. “I don’t blame you, you have every right to hate me. And I’m truly sorry. I’ve done horrible things, and I promise I’ll spend every day trying to make up for it.”

Padme’s eyes are calculating, then a dangerous grin appears on her face. “Spar with me.”

“What?!” Anakin replies, sure he’s heard her wrong.

“You heard me, General Skywalker. Spar with me, and if you even get close to beating me, maybe I’ll consider forgiving you,” Padme explains.

“I-um- if you’re sure.” Anakin gets up, and follows Padme to a space nearby.

Ahsoka looks over at them and sighs before grinning. “Ota.”

“Here, Obi-Wan always insists I carry a spare lightsaber. I’ll go easy on you.” Anakin passes her his spare blade, tone genuine. He doesn’t want to hurt or humiliate Padme.

Padme smirks. “Oh, I’m quite sure I’ll be fine, General Skywalker.’

Padme pulls out her own lightsaber, and the blade glows a deep purple, more blue than Master Windu’s magenta blade.

Ah. Alright then.

Padme swings and Anakin has to move quickly to block it. She strikes again and parries quickly.

Padme stays at his level, striking forcefully and blocking everything Anakin throws at him.

Padme is good. Better than good. She could beat some of the best in the order, Anakin thinks.

Her style is disciplined, but forceful. She moves quickly, and adapts just as fast. It’s not a style he recognises. He guesses she’s had some formal training, but has otherwise learned through experience. It makes her skilled though, possibly even more than him.

Soon the two are in a lock, blades pressed together, both of them gritting their teeth in effort.

Padme pushes his blade out the way, throwing off Anakin’s balance and his blade skitters to the side.

Anakin falls backward, and Padme has her blade at his chest, a triumphant smirk on her face.

“Alright, you win!” Anakin concedes, putting his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

Padme puts her lightsaber away and offers him her hand. He takes it, and she pulls him up.

“I’m going to guess you’re a Sister, aren’t you?” Anakin asks.

“One of the originals, just like Ahsoka,” Padme replies with a laugh.

Anakin looks over at his daughter, who is cackling. “Did you know about this?” He demands, but his tone is light.

“Of course she did. She helped teach me to use a lightsaber, Anakin,” Padme explains.

“Your face when she pulled out her lightsaber!” Ahsoka exclaims while laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. I should have known. Come on, let’s go get something to eat.” Anakin slings an arm around the still-snickering Ahsoka.

Padme gives him a fond look. “Sounds good to me. I could kill for some shurra fruit right now.”

He decides not to doubt that.

Iith has an official ball every year, and now the war is over, it appears people can afford to focus on it (much to its queen’s despair).

Padme obviously, as one of Iith’s top advisors, organises a great deal with it, and her eyes shine with pride on the night.

His children are happily talking to other people their age, others of a new generation of Jedi (and some of the old generation, in Ahsoka’s case).

He watches Ahsoka talking with the old apprentice of Master Billaba, Kanan, as he’s now called. He walks up and puts a hand on Ahsoka’s arm. “Hey kiddo, who’s this?”

Ahsoka rolls her eyes and smiles at him. “This is Kanan Jarrus, Sister Syndulla’s husband. Kanan, this is my father, Anakin Skywalker.”

Kanan looks at him with wide eyes and Anakin braces himself for the reaction he’s become quite used to getting. “General Skywalker. It’s an honour,” he says breathlessly.

Anakin almost has to steady himself. It’s been a very long time since anybody has reacted positively to meeting him. “Pleasure’s all mine. And please, call me Anakin.”

He chats with them for a bit, then he spots Padme being interrogated by some old lord. To anyone who knows her well, she looks horrendously annoyed at his questioning, but she seems to be keeping her cool.

He nudges Ahsoka through their bond, and she looks where he is looking out the corner of her eye.

“Hey Dad, maybe you should go rescue Mom,” she jokes.

“You’re right. See you round, Kanan.” He pats the starstruck man on the shoulder and walks over to where Padme is standing.

And suddenly he feels like that padawan again, baring his soul.

On reflection, the way he spoke on Naboo all that time ago back then was odd. He was just a kid and truly, he didn’t actually know Padme then, and he was way too forward about it. He’s glad it worked, but it was still weird.

He’ll do it right this time, if she still wants him.

“Sister Amidala, may I have the honour of a dance?” He shifts awkwardly, barely looking up at Padme.

When he does look, she seems relieved, in her diplomatic way. “I would be happy to oblige, General Skywalker.”

Anakin offers his hand, which she takes with all the grace of the Queen she once was.

She leads them both to the dance floor, and they slip easily into the dance, swaying side to side, and Anakin watches those around them stare. He decides he doesn’t care.

“Sorry for all that. He looked like he was being a sleemo so I thought I’d-” he stammers.

“Anakin. It’s fine. Thank you,” Padme says gently but firmly.

The silence isn’t uncomfortable this time. They sway, and he spins Padme, then almost falls backwards when he brings her back in. Padme very subtly uses the force to keep him balanced.

“Thanks,” he mutters.

Padme laughs softly. “You’re welcome.”

They get back into such a natural rhythm that it reminds him of the days in Padme’s apartment on Coruscant, where they’d play music and just dance the night away.

He supposes she must be thinking the same thing, because she rests her head on his shoulder, then starts back, remembering where they are.

“Hey-hey, it’s alright,” Anakin says quickly, as Padme looks horrified. “I don’t mind.”

“I- I just forgot,” Padme stammers. “I just-” she sighs. “Just because I’m angry at you doesn’t mean I don’t miss the time we spent together,” Padme admits.

“I miss it too,” Anakin confesses. “I did awful things. I’m trying to make it better. Our family-” he glances around at his kids, who, though scattered about the room, are all staring at them, “-are the most important thing to me. I’m so glad to finally have the chance to be with them.” He looks over at Obi-Wan, who is dancing with Satine. “I have my kids, and my brother, and I’ll do everything I can to fight for them.”

When he looks back at Padme, she is beaming. “It is good to be a family, finally, and not have to hide anything anymore.”

He meets her eyes, and smiles.

Kissing Padme feels like coming home.

—-

Ota- Mother/Mum (Boona)

#facing facts series #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #anidala #Ahsoka Tano #Star Wars #Star Wars AU

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adelcrait-old-account · 4 years ago

Text

Lost and Found— Chapter 15: The Boss

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24522103/chapters/64196512

After discovering a security breach, Vader sends Luke and Piett undercover to a bar frequented by criminals, hoping to run into the woman that is planning to defeat the Empire.

Meme spoilers and a rant under the cut:

Hello!

This chapter was a long time coming thing. I wanted to change the scenario and get them all to an actual planet with real air. Luke’s been up in space for weeks, but Piett must have been there for a few months, if not a year. I’m sending him on a vacation, he deserves it.

July me also thought it was the funniest idea to write Piett, unmasked Vader and Luke in a bar talking about Vader. Luke would introduce unmasked Vader as “his mortal enemy”, and Piett would believe it. I also find it incredibly amusing (to me) that Vader refuses to act as another person because: a) *dramatic spotlight* He is Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, current temporary Emperor, Leader of the Imperial Security Bureau, Leader of the not-so-secret Investigation against the Galactical Insurrection....He will not do something as foolish as acting. Do you even know who he is? He is Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith- b) He refuses to act as Agent Broly because he just doesn’t care. In the end he did reveal his identity to Piett, and he knew it was a risk coming there unmasked, but there is trust between them, and so Vader doesn’t see the point of acting as this Agent Broly.

For some reason when I first started writing Agent Broly I imagined a tall surfer himbo of some sort. Do with this information whatever you want.

1. The Boss

Now onto the star of the night, Anak- sorry. *coughs* the spotlight please? Thank you. nOW ONTO THE STAR OF THE CHAPTER: Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, current temporary Emperor, Leader of the Imperial Security Bureau, Leader of the not-so-secret Investigation against the Galactical Insurrection... My mans a bit out of character, but hey! This is an Alternate Universe where Vader when stressed acts like clone wars Anakin because there is enough love in my heart for all versions of this character.

The real boss of the chapter is Miss Celissa Vanis, finally making an appearance after Chapter 6, when Luke and Vader just found her in the Coruscant rebel base. Remember those times? Feels like ages ago. Where has she been? What is she doing? Does anyone know what she’s doing? Do I know what she’s doing? What is her Modus Operandi? Does she have one?

Listen.......She’s out there getting stuff done. It took her less than six months to scare The Darth Vader, kidnap Palpatine and Mothma and start a very organised clandestine riot. SHE’S GETTING SHIT DONE.

I really like her. She is the antagonist of the story, yes, but hey! She’s charming and makes some very good points even if the execution of her ideas is....well, bad. People are dying. But she makes sense, even if I, as a person that is also reading the story and has opinions, disagree with her.

Celissa had a dramatic entrance, and she also got a dramatic exit. It has taken me over 70,000 words, but I finally decided to include something about...you know. That guy.

Celissa stared at the ship. Her people looked at her for guidance, but she didn't have any. She was already planning to get rid of Darth Vader's new Sith apprentice. "You! Pick up the blasters and let's go. The Emperor has some questions to answer."

Palpatine, answering questions? Celissa, teach me your ways.

2. ‘The Skywalkers: I am The Last Skywalker Left, both Skywalkers say’ A STAR WARS STORY

These two... I know they’re related, you know they’re related, everyone knows they’re related, and I know that they will know that they’re related (I’m not telling you the How yet ;D) but...they share one brain cell, and in this chapter Luke has it. Which is understandable, because Vader is out of his comfort zone and has a lot on his plate. He probably hasn’t been to a space!bar since that time Hondo kidnapped Obi-Wan and him...about twenty-five years ago.

Luke, on the other hand, spent most of his life on Tatooine. He probably befriended ‘cool looking people’ in Mos Eisley when he was five and his Uncle had to drag him away because those people were dangerous. Luke in a bar filled with dangerous people is like a fish in the sea. But I think that the fact that Luke and Vader are related by blood will just be a major Plus when the truth is revealed, because I already see that they’re vibing as friends. Hell, they even argue like children through the Force because Vader’s being snarky (because he’s out of his comfort zone) and Luke is just not letting him get away with things Vader usually did.

Hey, and I love them for that.

3. ‘The not-a Commander, Someone Help Him’

I would quote Rickey Thompson’s you are my ride or die video, but I want you to watch it. This is me talking about Luke in this fic. The Commander, Ben Starkiller. As I said before, Luke is more comfortable in the ground with the normal people because he spent most of his life on Tatooine with his Aunt and Uncle, moisture farmers. He understands people, he understands crime, he has seen people being wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit. So when Darth Vader starts talking about criminals, Luke steps in. He said this in Chapter 3, and his position still stands. He might not officially be a rebel anymore, but his morality hasn’t shifted:

Vader continued staring at him. “Why did you join [The Rebellion] ?” Luke clenched his jaw. “The Empire is a rotten, corrupt fascist state that supports slavery and massive genocide,” he said calmly with a shrug, “I have witnessed enough to see that something must be done against it.” “That is all theory, Commander. I am asking what caused you personally to be against it.” “I won't watch how innocent people are killed because the Emperor threw a tantrum.” Vader wanted to say that his Master never lost his composure: out of both of them he was the most likely to throw tantrums. Sidious was more strategic in his murders. “The Empire took the life of someone you knew.” Luke clenched his jaw. “A great deal of many people, sir. This is a war.” He would never reveal what the Empire did to his aunt and uncle, he wouldn't give Vader that pleasure. "No one cares about murders on Tatooine."

4. Hondo Ohnaka, Forever Young

I loved him in the Clone Wars and in Rebels. This is the man that when confronted by Darth Maul and Savage Opress, said the following:

Darth Maul: "Filth, you will pay for your insolence." Hondo Ohnaka: "Insolence! We are pirates! We don't even know what that means. Open fire!"

I can only imagine the kind of stories there are about this man in the galaxy, and Luke has heard them all, so when he heard that Hondo said Vader tried to kill him, I just imagined this:

Imagine sending this without context to someone that hasn’t read my fic but knows the star wars lore....I would be very confused. It could also be an AU where Hondo finds baby!Luke and raises him as a pirate, and then Vader comes for his child and finds Luke Ohnaka speaking fluent pirate slang with the man that raised him.

In case you didn’t know, Hondo kidnapped Anakin and Obi-Wan for ‘business’ in the clone wars TV show. After that, Anakin was too distracted with the war to go find Hondo again, so they left on neutral-to-bad terms. On the long list of people that Vader wouldn’t want to see him unmasked, Hondo is at the bottom, because Vader doesn’t even remember he exists. Imagine you’re Vader (I know, I know), you’re approximately forty-five years old, drowning in work, undercover in a mission, arguing with this boy who is accusing you of being “impossible”, and then he goes very quiet and says “That’s Hondo Ohnaka.” The name is oddly familiar, and you turn around and you see him. That dude that kidnapped you when you were only twenty years old. This was over 25 YEARS AGO, surely he won’t remember you, right?

Right?

5. Captain Kathmir, who?

Captain to Darth Vader at the start of the Empire, led the 501st to battles, a very well known figure in the Imperial Fleet...so why doesn’t Vader want to talk about her?

Piett spoke. "Yes, precisely. [...] Everyone knows what happened to Captain Kathmir."

The Force stopped ticking.

Luke frowned. "Who?"

"Nobody," said Vader urgently, "Drop the topic, now."

She disappeared after failing him. What happened?

The Force became cold, and Luke shivered when Vader spoke. "The story is a lie built on childish rumours." he spat quietly.

In case that you’re thinking Vader might have had something with this Captain, the answer is No. In my humble opinion, in canon, I don’t see Vader having anything with anyone that wasn’t Padmé, and this extends to all my fics. There are enough headcanons for everyone.

And to conclude, a wholesome one:

Thank you for sticking with my nocturnal ramblings about this story! I’m posting another chapter in a few days, where they will do Force magic in the snow.

#lost and found #My posts #my fics

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dalekofchaos · 5 years ago

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Ways I would improve Rise Of Skywalker

My post on how I would fix TROS

Exegol would be Moraband

They are Holocrons, not Wayfinders

The Resistance base would be Batuu, not Ajan Kloss

There would be no Death Star ruins, the final Holocron would be on Kamino

Ben would have an existential crisis after his meeting with Palpatine. The revelation that Palpatine has been manipulating him all his life, shakes him to the core. And at this moment, the force ghosts of Luke and Anakin reach him. First. Luke. Luke tells him that he kept his promise, that he’d always be there for him. Luke makes amends to his nephew. Luke finally realizes the truth, he didn't kill his fellow students and shows Ben the truth through the force. The truth that he hesitated and regretted his moment of instinct and they forgive each other. And Anakin finally appears before his grandson. Ben is in disbelief and says “....Grandfather????” Anakin finally speaks to his grandson “I never wanted you to repeat my mistakes. That pull to the light you were feeling was always me. I wanted you to be better than I was, who I could have been” and showing Ben his memories and what he had to go through. His life as a slave, meeting Padme, meeting Obi-Wan, becoming a Jedi, losing his mother, Order 66, losing Padme and being saved by Luke and finally destroying Palpatine(lol but not really). And telling Ben “Let the light in. You still have a chance, no one is ever really gone“ And as a parting gift, Anakin and Luke use the force to will Han’s spirit, and finally father and son can speak for real. Their talk remains the same, especially the “Kylo Ren is dead, my son is still alive.” line and with the Skywalkers and Han talking through with him, Ben decides to renounce the dark side and Palpatine, but realizes it won’t be easy to leave, so Ben will play the spy.

Pryde is not with the First/Final Order. Hux is 2nd in command and is the perfect tool for Palpatine to use against Ben when he feels his turn to the light.

Senator Enric Pryde is the benefactor for The Resistance and the last surviving Senator of the New Republic. His aspirations is to bring the Republic back and plans to lead by Leia’s example as he was the only one who listened to her claims, but red tape held him back.

Rey would have her yellow lightsaber from the beginning and it would be a Yellow Saberstaff

The tie in novels matter and The Resistance is in a giant fighting force

Knights Of Ren are Sith warriors who serve the Sith Eternal

Rose joins Rey, Finn, and Poe

Connix would be featured more prominently on the Black Spire/Resistance Base. We would also have it established that Poe and Connix are in a relationship. Cause Billie Lourd deserved to shine and if Poe had to have a girlfriend, at least let it be with someone he already has great chemistry with.

FInn and Rose are together. Cute displays of affection like kissing, nicknames like “Commander Tico” “Jedi Prince” and Rose made a matching pendant for Finn to match hers to show that Finn and Rose are soulmates

During the time skip, Rey and Finn would’ve trained together and Finn would be her Padawan. Finn, like Rey would craft his own Lightsaber. A Purple Blastersaber.

Hobbit boy would be cut from the movie entirely

Instead of doing nothing, Chewie fights the Knights Of Ren and loses, that’s how Chewie is captured.

Jannah is inspired by Finn’s defection and the defeat of Phasma. Jannah explains that it’s because of him they got the courage to rebel when he left and when Phasma was killed, there were small rebellions, but only Jannah’s group survived. Jannah and her people even call Finn “Phasma slayer” this inspires Finn to help Jannah start a Stormtrooper Rebellion. And Rose is there to help broadcast a signal so Finn can give a speech to incite Rebellion

Finn, Rose and Jannah are able to sneak aboard Hux’s flagship. Rose helps using her skills to help Finn to broadcast a signal to every Stormtrooper. I think it could be something like this. “My name is Finn, I was FN-2187, a Stormtrooper. Like every one of you, I was taken from a family I will never know. I was raised to do one thing… but my first battle, my friend Slip died and that death marked me and made me realize We are people and we have a choice. I wasn’t gonna kill for them. I had nothing to fight for. Until I met my friends, they gave me a name, a purpose and something worth fighting for.(cue Finn smiling at Rose) So I am here to tell you. You have a choice. You are people. You do not have to kill for them anymore. Take back your lives and fight the people who took your lives away from you. I am giving you the one choice they never gave you and choose for yourselves. You can either storm this very room and kill us or you can take back your lives. The choice is yours.” Then we get a very emotional scene of Stormtroopers led by Finn’s last surviving Squad member, Zeroes removing his helmet and tossing it to the ground and then we see hundreds, to thousands of Stormtroopers ripping their helmets off and tossing them to the ground. Officers DEMAND they put their helmet back on and kill The Resistance scum, but they don’t. It happens. Rebellion. Finn, Jannah and Rose have successfully led a Stormtrooper Rebellion and together burn The First Order from the inside out and Rose could say something that calls back to TLJ. “It was worth it, though. To tear them up, make ‘em hurt.” Finn would embrace Rose in a kiss and say “Now it’s worth it.”

No fake out deaths. Chewie is shown on a different transport, but C-3PO does give his life to translate the holocron(just let him translate the holocron, translating a weapon is fucking stupid) and C-3PO asks R2 “let me take one last look, at my best friend”

After interrogating Chewbacca and reading his mind which shows him his happy childhood memories with “Uncle Chewie”, Ben reveals his true allegiances to Chewie and frees him

Finn and Poe are captured and are at Kylo’s mercy and awaiting their execution. To their surprise, Kylo Ren kills the Stormtroopers and allow them to escape. Ben tells them “I am the spy” then Poe goes “I KNEW IT!” Finn retorts “NO YOU DID NOT” Finn asks Ben why and then he telepathically tells Finn everything, Finn understands and they shake hands.

Replace Zorri Bliss with Jacen Syndulla(played by Matt Smith), and this gives Poe a ex-boyfriend, which also cuts out that horrendous racist stereotype. Jacen is undercover for The Resistance and he helps Poe and they embrace in a kiss. Poe tells Connix “we used to date” this way we can show that Poe Dameron is Bi

Ben tells Rey the truth of everything in his quarters. And Rey would ask Ben to prove that he's changed and together they destroy Vader's mask to symbolize his turn to the light.

During the scene where Rey flies into the hangar. Instead of Ben asking Rey to take his hand, it’s Rey asking Ben to take her hand. With this, Hux enters the room and claps. Hux displays Snoke’s murder for all to see and displays Ben’s conversations with Rey. “Did you think The Emperor a fool Ren? Or me? You are a traitor. OPEN FIRE! and with that, every single Stormtrooper begins to open fire. Ben then flies into the Falcon with Rey, Finn, Poe and Rose.

Together they leave for Kamino for the final Holocron together. Rey’s fight with Dark Rey still happens, while Ben fights Vader(a projection from Palpatine obviously) Leia’s death causes Ben to lose his fight and is left for dead, Rey saves Ben via force healing

Rey is still horrified by her inner darkness and that Palpatine is her grandfather, so she still goes to Ach-To. So cue the same scene between Rey and Luke, only, instead of Rey going via X-Wing, it’s Ben and Chewie in the Falcon who come to Rey

Chewie comes to Ben’s aid for saving him earlier, for saving him and showing that Ben has a change of heart, Chewie hugs Ben and takes Ben to Moraband to save Rey. Chewie even gives him Han’s blaster. Showing that Chewie forgives Ben for Han’s death and to help him save Rey.

When Ben arrives, Rey hugs and they embrace each other. Ben parts ways with Luke. Luke would encourage Rey and Ben to heal Ben’s Crossguard Lightsaber, so with their combined powers, Ben’s Crossguard Lightsaber is healed and it is now white. Luke then tells Ben and Rey, “1000 generations of Jedi lives within you now. This is your fight.” and tells them “may the force be with you” Before leaving I could see Ben rebuilding his saber hilt and it would most likely be Grey.

Prior to landing on Moraband, Ben changes his attire. He removes his dark Kylo Ren aesthetic, for something you would associate with the son of Han Solo art by machodoodle and Phantasy Studio

Ben asks, “how do we look?” Rey tells him “perfect” Ben will say”no, almost perfect” and Rey realizes what he means and undoes her buns and frees her hair. “Now we’re perfect” how Rey with her hair freed would look, source

Before exiting the Falcon, Ben believes this is the last time to tell Rey, so Ben would talk to Rey and tell her “I never wanted power, all I wanted was you. You were never nothing, you were everything to me and I love you Rey” Ben would hold out his hand and Rey would take it and Ben would kiss Rey. Both Ben and Rey believes this will be their last night alive, so Rey and Ben make the most of it by making love. Your standard movie sex scene, but nothing too explicit

When they land on Moraband, they are greeted by the Knights Of Ren. Rey and Ben fight the Knights Of Ren together.

Instead of space horses to land on a Star Destroyer, it’s basically the result of Finn’s message. Stormtroopers start rebelling and Finn is leading the assault. Stormtroopers vs Sith Troopers. And we’d see Finn igniting his Lightsaber to lead the charge. Just imagine how emotional it would be to have the lightsaber of a former slave to be used to lead and free other slaves. It’s an awesome battle, but it results in Hux’s defeat. Hux shares Pryde’s fate.

After Hux’s defeat, Finn senses danger. So Lando drops Finn off to save Rey and Ben

Due to Finn’s presence, Ben and Rey are fully rejuvinated.

Rey, Finn and Ben are able to kill Palpatine together(Anakin, Leia and Luke are able to empower them both to end Palpatine once and for all) however it would not end the with Rey and Ben just deflecting lightning, Palpatine would draw two red lightsabers and faces Ben and Rey in a epic lightsaber duel. It is easily the best lightsaber duel in the sequel trilogy with Williams brand new edition of Duel Of Fates playing in the background. It ends with Palpatine saying “I AM ALL THE SITH! and Finn, Ben and Rey say “we are the Skywalkers” and it finally ends with Palpatine destroyed.

Pryde and Ben sign a treaty to end the war

We’d get a scene of Ben making peace with Finn and Poe

Also a scene of Lando and Chewie hugging their nephew

To help cement his redemption. Ben goes off on his path of atonement to right his wrongs by wiping out FO holdouts. Ben insists he has to do this on his own, but Rey will tell him “we’ll do it together” and the final scene is Rey and Ben in the Falcon, sharing a kiss before they head out to end The First Order hold outs.

Epilogue. The war is over. The First Order is no more. The New Order is established. Think Galactic Federation of Free Alliances from Legends. Lando Calrissian is the Chancellor of the New Order. Leia passed away and is entombed on her home of Chandrilla with Han. Finn leads a program to help properly help his brothers and sisters integrate back into galactic society and to help them all find their families and worlds. Poe and Finn would be the Ministers of Defense, always keeping The New Order’s Military strong and on their toes so they can prepare them for whatever threat there is to come. Finn and Rose got married and Rose leads a sanctuary for all the children and animals who have lost their families due to the war and helps take care of them, but also Rose would lead an attack on arms dealers and war profiteers who have profited off the war and suffering of the galaxy. In time, Finn and Rose would bring relief and restoration to Hays Minor and together Finn and Rose Tico would return home and have a family. Poe and Connix get married on Yavin IV. I believe that Rey and Ben would get married on Naboo, have their honeymoon on Chandrilla, then setting down on Mortis to reform the Prime Jedi and balance the Force while raising their family. Basically Rey and Ben would either gain a peaceful life on Naboo or build a New Order where both sides of the force can come together in order to achieve balance, where they can love freely and use their passions and compassion for the good of the force without suppressing their emotions and I think the best place for this new Order to take place would be on Mortis.

#Reylo #Finnrose #Anti TROS #Kylo Ren #Ben Solo #Rey #Finn #Poe Dameron #Rose Tico #Armitage Hux

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a-confused-turtle · 5 years ago

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Thoughts about The Rise of Skywalker

I wrote this a few days ago and have been trying to find the courage to post... AGH. Here goes.

Spoilers Ahead.

I was apprehensive walking into the theater for this film. I found myself daring to be hopeful, which I think I rarely do. Getting your hopes up only to have them thrown right back in your face hurts. It hurts a hell of a lot. Lately, I’ve experienced a lot of disappointment - primarily in myself. I’ve been depressed, anxiety-ridden, and overwhelmed with my inability to write because of all that. That’s partly why The Rise of Skywalker hit me so hard today. I have so many feelings, thoughts, and questions about it. This movie stretches across generations (both fictional and real), connecting them all into one culminating event. I’ll do my best to keep this brief. I don’t really expect many people to read it, but thank you if you do... I’d like to get writing again and this seems like somewhere to start.

From the beginning, I wanted a freaking redemption arc. I’m not kidding. From the very first scenes of that tall angry boy brooding in his edgy mask, I wanted that. And I wanted it to be different than Anakin’s, we deserved a complex villain. Honestly, who doesn’t want to see that people deserve second chances? That being said, I have never been a Reylo shipper (I’m referring to Rey and Kylo Ren here). I definitely ship Rey and Ben Solo now though.

To start this off, I have to mention Adam Driver’s and Daisy Ridley’s performances. Their scenes on Exogul are particularly beautiful and enthralling. We got to see their journeys and character development throughout the movie, and then those last scenes of them were so emotive even though so few words were used.

So, let’s skip to the end for a moment: I am SO HAPPY we got that smile. And it’s so fitting that we only got half of it, with the other half obscured by Rey’s head. He felt some amount of peace and belonging and that makes my heart swell. Both of them looked so happy and it was beautiful.

Honestly, I thought the kiss was just as beautiful for the story (after all it gave us that smile). It didn’t feel forced to me, it felt like the characters truly felt that way after all they had gone through...

I know there are people out there that are quite angry about it and how the ‘abusive’ man gets the girl or whatever. I take issue with that (and I’m not normally a confrontational person). Rey initiated a kiss with Ben Solo. That soft, caring man that held her so tight and with such crushing anguish on his face was Ben Solo, not Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren was swept away when Rey healed that wound on the Death Star and when that pokey lightsaber was thrown into the sea. In addition to that, the movies portray Ben as much more of a monster than he really is - from the beginning he was a victim, a manipulated scared boy that felt he had nowhere else to turn but to Snoke. He didn’t burn down the temple or murder his classmates, he wasn’t an Anakin slaughtering younglings. Snoke did those things. He just wanted to belong, and when everyone in his life seemed to fail him he did something much like a form of suicide: give into Snoke’s manipulation and become Kylo Ren. Rey didn’t kiss her abuser, she chose to kiss Ben Solo, a man she felt a connection to, a man that wanted to return to his family but didn’t know how, a man that wanted to be good, and a man that found belonging and comfort with her. The way he looked at her...

Now, with Ben Solo’s death... I felt heartbroken seeing it onscreen. He runs in, looking so much like his father, demeanor and expressions entirely different than anything we’ve seen in the previous films (because he’s not Kylo), and he does it for her. He races in to save a woman he admires and has felt a deep connection with for years. But then, he dies because it’s poetic or because people would not see him as redeemed if he did not... Ben deserved better than that, the Skywalkers overall deserved better than that. (What is it with every romance in Star Wars just falling apart and ending in disaster?) It’s a trope too, redemption through death, one I’m not a fan of because people that want to be good should be able to atone in other ways (An example here of a successful redemption without death is Zuko in The Last Airbender, so we know that it can be done).

I’ll get off the soapbox about that one... Anyway...

While we got a lot of Rey and Kylo/Ben scenes and story (they moved the plot along the most tbh), that left many of the other characters reduced down to much less than they had been in previous movies. Rose is the biggest example. Dominic Monaghan (love him from LOTR) had more lines and was more memorable than Rose in this film, and she was a huge character in The Last Jedi. I wish she had a bigger part in this one. The introduction of more characters, like Jannah, made this aspect weird. First, it was ‘okay these characters will just take a backseat’ but then it became ‘forget them, look at these people you don’t know.’

Poe and Finn should be a damn couple, it’s as simple as that.

Rey’s heritage was an interesting surprise, but it cheapened The Last Jedi for me... That movie went through how Rey was no one in terms of big force using families, and that was pretty uplifting - kind of like Lord of the Rings’s ‘even the smallest person can change the course of history.’ Anyone can save the galaxy, anyone can become a Jedi... Oh, wait. Nevermind. She’s a Palpatine. (Also, isn’t there source material that says Palpatine never had children??? Maybe I’m just affronted by the idea of Palpatine actually getting laid.)

Looking back at these sequels overall, they feel incredibly uneven. Each film possesses its own commendable features... I found that The Rise of Skywalker, however, significantly departed from The Last Jedi. It was hard for me to believe that both Leia and Luke just knew Rey was a Palpatine when they really had no idea who she was when they met her...

The trio was absolutely adorable. I enjoyed the interactions and their different dynamics with each other. In some instances, it felt slightly forced, really just because of the film’s pacing...

Lastly, the ending scene... It felt remarkably unsatisfying and uneven. I thought Rey’s emotions were all over the place, I’m guessing they must have used footage from different takes? It is at least comforting that since Ben’s death wasn’t heavily mourned and he wasn’t present as Leia and Luke were, there has to be something that we don’t know. I do love the yellow saber suggesting Rey has become some sort of a grey Jedi. That’s amazing, and with her surviving, there had to be something to highlight the new balance in the force.

Oh god, I hope that wasn’t too terrible... If you actually read it, thank you.

#star wars #rise of skywalker #kylo ren #ben solo #rey #star wars sequel trilogy #the last jedi #star wars the rise of skywalker #star wars the last jedi

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demigodofhoolemere · 5 years ago

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Saw The Rise of Skywalker last night. I went in totally expecting to hate it because that tends to be the way with my favorite franchises these days and I’d heard about how bad everyone seemed to think it is. No one is more surprised than me, but... I really liked it?? I do understand why others don’t, plenty of the content is pretty subjective in terms of the tastes of individuals. But I really didn’t have all of the problems I thought I was gonna have.

Plenty of spoilers below.

~~~

Negative:

- I can really only think of one huge negative which is just knowing behind the scenes info, assuming this redditor’s source is telling the truth (looks credible to me and we already know that things have been disastrous behind the scenes of the sequel films in general so I really have no trouble believing this): https://www.reddit.com/r/saltierthancrait/comments/eisnd8/heres_what_ive_been_told_from_a_source_that/ . In which case my biggest problem is how severely Disney/Lucasfilm screwed JJ and the cast over and altered what they’d made. From the perspective of ‘this isn’t what we created anymore’, if I were among them I’d be ticked, too, and I am ticked on their behalves. I do want to see the un-altered, complete version that they did and even though I enjoyed the movie as is, I would probably enjoy that version even more because it sounds like important emotional stuff got shelved, and it didn’t deserve to be (Finn being force sensitive, dang it!). There were a couple of things that made less sense because of the way it got pared down (like the fact that Han’s appearance was apparently Leia manifesting him to Ben and that’s what sapped her strength so badly - that wasn’t made clear at all to me) and I’d love to see what it was like before it got messed with. But this knowledge is really my biggest problem. If I’d never seen this, I wouldn’t have anything truly bad to say about the released product.

Iffy:

- Re: Leia, without it being made totally clear what was happening, I thought they were repeating Padmé’s ‘lost the will to live’ send-off. It’s not something that particularly bothers me about RotS, Padmé did just have the stress of pushing two human beings out of her body all while living with the stress of her husband falling to the dark side and all of the Jedi are being murdered and the list of awfulness goes on, so even though she definitely has her kids to live for, I also know that she was undergoing unimaginable agony both physically and emotionally, and you CAN die from your body physically giving out and from broken heartstrings, so I don’t think that was stupid the way others seem to. But they needed to make what happened to Leia clearer, because I thought they were reusing that, and *that* I did think was weird, and kind of a cheap way to take her out of the picture. Not that Leia hasn’t been through hell enough for broken heartstrings, and losing her son on top of having lost her husband and brother could certainly do it, but because the movie didn’t give any further context for what was happening and what she was doing, it just looked like she passed out and then the next time we see her she’s covered with a sheet and I’m like, “Wait, that’s it?” So I do wish we’d gotten a little more in the way of explaining that sequence, so that Leia didn’t die from just passing out. That didn’t feel completely right to me. I much prefer the idea of her using up her strength to save her son.

- Leia dying at all. I get why, but... owie.

- Shortchanging Rose. I don’t feel terribly strongly about her but in any case it’s not fair to her and especially not to Kelly.

- Very convenient dagger rofl.

- The Palpatine stuff was very sudden. No prior hints anywhere. I don’t know if it’s something they decided late in the game, or if they were going to allude to it but felt TFA was too early and would have in TLJ if Rian hadn’t had such full control over doing whatever he wanted, but whatever the story there is, it felt very out of nowhere. We’re supposed to suddenly accept that Palpatine survived the fall down the shaft and has been living on life support in a cave making creepy clone Snokes. And like... it seems like the sort of crap he’d pull, so I can buy it and I’m not really too bothered, but wow. I can also get behind Rey being his granddaughter, I thought they dealt with that very well and I surprisingly enjoyed it, but again, it’s very sudden, and also because of the implications of that I have to live with the mental image of Palpatine getting it on with someone and for that alone I could have added another to the ‘negative’ list.

- So... Reylo. I constantly have mixed feelings about Reylo. I’ve very much enjoyed their force bond (one of the only things I did like in TLJ), I love the focus on redemption and good winning out, their dynamic is very interesting and I can see the allure of pairing them because of the balance of light and dark, they just have a fascinating thing going on. But I also can’t help but think about him having tortured her in TFA, and as much as I’m here for redemption and I love Rey’s heart I still think it’s weird how TLJ is like three days later at best yet she’s so ready to look past what he did to her, what he did to Han, and to plenty of other people, and those things still really aren’t acknowledged. We can have redemption without having amnesia lol, especially when those are the things he needs to redeem himself of. By all means, redeem him, I love a good redemption and I’ve found myself far more attached to his character than I would have ever expected, but don’t have Rey immediately ignore the past to do it, and... I don’t know how to feel about that kiss. Part of me liked it (especially his sweet genuine smile), but part of me still kind of goes, ‘Wait... no. Didn’t want this. Not like this.’ It’s not the affection that bothers me at all, but the fact that it’s romantic affection. I love the dynamic that’s been built between them but considering their history I’d prefer that they actually get some footing as proper friends (whether that be before anything else happens, or it just stays that way). Way too sudden for anything romantic. And really I just wish this trilogy hadn’t attempted any new romances at all, because I feel like things would be more meaningful if they were all left to be platonic friendships. There really wasn’t room for couplings in this trilogy and it sours things a bit for me that they tried to fit them in anyway. So tl;dr, I very much enjoy Rey and Ben as a dynamic but I’m more here for a platonic Reylo.

- I get the poignancy of having him use his life force to save her, I understand killing him off, but for ONCE can I have a redeemed character continue to live their new life and figure out how to navigate that? It also makes better sense to have characters like Ben try to pay for their past while they’re still, idk, alive and have the chance to do more. For once. Please. I’m not mad that they did this but I’m tired of redemption=death.

Positive:

- Pretty much everything else. I can’t believe how much I actually liked this movie.

- LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN

- FORCE GHOSTS!!!!! ANAKIN. OBI-WAN. AHSOKA. ALL OF MY FAVORITE JEDI FOLKS. LIGHTS OF MY LIFE. I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SEE THEM THIS ENTIRE TRILOGY AND I FINALLY HAVE THEM EVEN IF THEY’RE JUST VOICES. NEW HAYDEN-AS-ANAKIN CONTENT. I’M OVER THE MOON. Ahsoka must be dead then but I’m overlooking this.

- Whatever the heck they did to use the deleted Carrie Fisher footage to give us more Leia in such a seamless way... hats off.

- Seeing the sequel trio actually all be together and working as a trio. I can finally feel like they’re actually a unit.

- That hug between the three of them at the end, my heart.

- I really do adore Rey. She has such a good heart. Seeing her fight against her ancestry and adamantly trying to be a force for good makes me happy, I love that she believes so strongly in redemption despite her anger, and I love that they still keep character details like her brilliance with mechanics and the way she’ll use scrap to slide down sand hills. I’m so proud of her progress with using the force. Rey is precious and I love her.

- Ugh I love Finn, too. He has a strong spirit and he’s come so far. I love that they delved (or tried to delve) into him being force sensitive as well, and that he has such belief in it now. It made me so happy to see other former Stormtroopers who couldn’t live that life and that Finn can have those people to relate to. Can’t say enough good things about Finn. Very proud of him.

- Interesting learning more of Poe’s past, and I enjoyed getting to watch him try to be a leader in Leia’s absence and feeling like a failure, since I felt he was the least developed of the trio up to this point so I’m happy I have more to go on. He felt a lot more fleshed out in this one and I really appreciated it. I’m glad to be able to say that I genuinely love all of the new trio now, because it used to be that I casually liked them but couldn’t connect. Although I connected to Poe’s love for BB-8 from the start and that’s still going strong. Only he and Anakin have ever truly understood my droid love.

- Always a sucker for redemption arcs. I never used to have many feelings about Ben one way or another, I didn’t feel there was anything in TFA to make me like or dislike him from the get-go because it was too soon to say, but TLJ (for all my issues with it) made me care more about what happened to him, and now this movie got me super invested. Did not see this coming. I’m glad I was able to like him and be emotional about his conflict and his ending.

- Already covered this but I really like Rey and Ben’s dynamic. I loved seeing them use their force bond to their advantage and work so well as a team. And I love that her healing his wound also healed his scar, symbolically healing him of Kylo Ren. GAH.

- Han!!! Just Han.

- CHEWBACCA GETTING A MEDAL. Both incredibly emotional because that’s probably Han’s medal and incredibly satisfying because darn right he deserves a medal! In your face, ceremony scene from A New Hope! Now give them to the droids and I’ll be appeased.

- Chewbacca just generally destroying me. His wailing hurt me even more than Leia’s passing itself did. Did not need that but also thank you. (Why am I such a masochist?)

- C3PO taking one last look at his friends 😭 I cannot tell you how relieved I was that R2 really did have his memory backups, because I was fully prepared to put “C3PO losing his memories!!! 😡” under the negative column. Thank goodness for droid friendship.

- Speaking of droids, new droid! D-O really had little purpose for being there but I’m a sucker for a new cute droid to love so I’m all for him. Bring on all of the new cute droids!

- Really liked that planet with the festival. So many cute baby creatures and I loved the subtle Easter egg of 42 years referencing the original release in 1977.

- Rey healing the snake thing! I’m all for NOT shooting or killing Star Wars creatures, there’s too much of it and it makes me sad (R.I.P. Rancor, so sorry Rancor handler. And I’ve never gotten over Ratts Tyrell and his crying family and I never will. Stop killing Star Wars creatures 2k20). Rey gets me.

- Liked the new characters. Zorri was interesting and Jannah made me emotional.

- With the context of Jannah having been meant to be Lando’s daughter, the scene she has with him in the end has even more to it than on the surface (not that either of them would know, but still), but I really do just appreciate Lando reaching out to a stranger to help her uncover her past and recover her life. Sweetheart.

- I loved that Hux was the spy, and not because he cares one wit about the rebellion but just because he really hates Ben. Talk about petty.

- The fact that Palpatine was behind every voice Ben has ever heard means that he manipulated him his whole life just like he manipulated Anakin and now I hate his guts all over again for the same darn thing. Incredibly satisfying to watch him shrivel away. Screw you Palpatine.

- LUKE AND LEIA FLASHBACK. LEIA TRAINING IN THE FORCE AND OWNING A LIGHTSABER. FINALLY.

- Briefly seeing other old characters like Nien Nunb and Wedge Antilles. That kind of thing just makes my day. Also pretty sure I saw Naboo ships in that enormous fleet and I know I’m never getting Padmé back in any shape or form so I’ll take it.

- Seeing Luke’s old home wrecked me. Seeing the binary sunset wrecked me. Luke and Leia’s force Ghosts wrecked me. Rey calling herself a Skywalker wrecked me. That ending wrecked me.

I think I covered most of it which leads me to my verdict:

I understand why this isn’t popular with everybody. A lot of it is completely dependent on personal taste. Luckily for me it actually was very largely to my taste, somehow, which I never would have seen coming because I’m usually so frustrated with recent things in the big franchises like this, and after TLJ I had no trust. But I was pleasantly surprised and actually pretty satisfied. They hit a lot of nostalgia buttons for me, made me care a lot more about the new characters, made me cry a ton, and generally delivered something I could be pleased with. Don’t know how it happened but I really liked this movie and no matter what people feel about it I don’t think it deserves the sheer vitriol it’s received (there’s criticism and then there’s yikes). I thought it was a pretty good movie and I’d watch it again willingly.

#star wars #the rise of skywalker #spoilers #tros spoilers #sw spoilers #sw: sequels #review

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years ago

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In Which Palpatine Leaves the Door Open

So, @purronronner suggested this on discord:

au where anakin finds out about palpatine during clone wars era like, coming in for a visit and overhears a conversation with Dooku about war planning he’s been pulled between palpatine and the Jedi/obi-wan/various things but I want to see him pulled between palpatine and his men could go either way on the sith part of the reveal even

palpatine is not aware! unless anakin’s course of action is to go “hey palpatine I must have misunderstood something right? :(“

(This was a group effort but there's a thing I wrote that requires this context so please bear with me.)

I'm just imagining Anakin backing out, closing the door, and turning to the Corrie Guard by the door to say a thing... and not finding words.

Eventually "Did you guys know he was evil?" "He's a politician, sir." "But like the evil ranting..." "He's a politician. Sir."

He's willing to use his men to save R2, but that's because R2 was part of the team and helping, not arranging battles to make things worse.

Anakin: Normally, I'd go to Palpatine to talk about my problems, but right now he is the problem... Obi-Wan and Yoda are off-planet.... Anakin, phoning up Padme: Help?

Per @atagotiak we also have some Intense Thoughts

Oh hey. The deception arc. And the subsequent argument that we don't see and stuff. Like there's all the ways you could justify it especially from an opsec standpoint (If Anakin acts like that around Padme why would anyone assume he can keep a secret about anything?) And it was a pretty tactically important thing for the war as far as anyone knew. But just. I've heard some people say that perhaps also Obi-Wan reasoned that hurting Anakin is an ok price to pay to make sure someone Anakin cares for doesn't die for real which seems plausible enough.

Anyways. My point is. Anakin gets a front row seat to sheevception when he actually sorta knows whats going on. Gets sidetracked halfway through yelling and stuff to think about how convoluted this whole mess is.

For more clone-centric things all the times Palpatine's like "I wish I could do more, it's truly regrettable, but..." Would just seem awfully fake now.

Anakin, belatedly: Wait, does this mean that, behind all the layers of bullshit, Palpatine was the one trying to kill Padme at the start of the war???

WHICH IS WHAT LEADS TO A WHOLE LOT OF FUN and yes this is the part I'm sort of proud of.

Okay so: Anakin's a shit liar, yes?

After he meanders over to Padme and has a breakdown, he then goes off to tell the Council about all this. I imagine she goes with him as moral support, and also because she wants to protect him from them calling him out on his legitimately terrible decisions. They're trying to come up with a plan to take Palpatine down without tipping their hands too early, because they need to investigate; for the sake of this plot point, we'll say that Palpatine mentioned a contingency plan while talking to Dooku, even if he didn't directly name the chips.

Someone mentions that Palpatine is going to ask to see Anakin, because he does regularly. And, as experience has shown, there is very little that will stop Palpatine from insisting that Anakin come see him. They can stall for a bit, maybe, but not for long.

"You could send me to the other side of the galaxy," Anakin suggests. "Short notice, so sorry, won't be around for a bit."

They point out that won't work forever.

"So... arrest me, or put me on a mental health hold?" Anakin tries. "Say I got violent at civilians or the clones for no reason and you need to make sure I won't hurt him, and then even if he visits me in the cell, I don't have to act normal 'cause he'll EXPECT me to be upset."

Palpatine presumably has spies all over, so he'd know that hadn't actually happened. Also, Anakin's too important to the war effort for anything short of a cold-blooded murder of an innocent, and they can't just take him off the field without an absolutely massive violation of the Code or his orders.

"Tell him I Fell," Anakin offers.

A Sith Lord would be able to feel that from across the galaxy, if it had happened, especially with the amount of time that he's put into grooming Anakin.

"Oh," Anakin says, and his stomach drops out as he realizes that he can either keep his secrets, or keep people alive.

He thinks about how Palpatine had targeted Padme already, and how if Palpatine thinks Anakin's betrayed him, then he'll probably do that again.

He thinks about 'a Sith Lord would know' and realizes... well.

Anakin values his freedom, but he also values his men, his padawan, his master, his wife... the wife that's in danger if Palpatine knows that Anakin caught him out.

The Order has to keep Anakin away from Palpatine. They need an excuse to arrest him. They need an excuse to hide him away, one that Palpatine won't question too hard.

A Sith Lord would know if Anakin fell. Even if he came back afterwards.

"So... so tell him you found out about the Tusken Massacre."

The what.

"...tell him you found out about the time I actually did Fall," Anakin says, squeezing Padme's hand. She knows. She's the only one who knows, on Coruscant, other than the Sith they're hunting. "On... on Tatooine. You can claim it was an anonymous tip. He already knows about that one. He's one of the only two people outside Tatooine that do. He might not question it."

(He won't question it.)

What did you do, Skywalker.

"I killed... a lot of people. A Tusken tribe. Including the children. Right before the war hit."

----

It's a hell of a way to fall on his figurative sword.

(Mace is... both impressed that Anakin would take the hit to make sure they can handle the Palpatine problem, and horrified about the Massacre, because... who wouldn't be.)

(Mace is unfortunately Anakin's main handler on this project.)

Anakin puts in so much effort, all the time, into not Falling, so it’s surprisingly (terrifyingly!) easy for him to fake a 'near miss' with the Dark just by thinking really hard about things that make him angry. Nobody wants him actually Falling for the ploy if they can help it, but they need to sell the bit, and Anakin's... well. He's Anakin. It's easy to think about his own emotional volatility until any control goes out the window.

He's sacrificing a lot for this mission! It's fine! He's fine!

(Padme, the council is judging you so hard right now.)

Palpatine comes to visit Anakin in prison, and it is very easy for Anakin to disguise his anger as... a different anger. I have a very intense mental image of Anakin working himself up into a frenzy when Palpatine comes to visit, and then at some point in the following conversation he just snaps something about how "you said they were animals who deserved to die."

The Council can even eke it out a bit, make it so they don't want to admit why Anakin's in prison or under a psychiatric hold or whatever they claim it is, so their "I'm hiding something vibes" look like "I'm hiding the fact that one of our most recognizable war heroes just came clean as a mass murderer and we have no idea how to handle it" instead of "I'm hiding that we know you're a Sith Lord and are working to take you down."

Obi-Wan comes back from an off-world mission to find out that Mace arrested his former padawan and Ahsoka hasn't stopped crying for three days because nobody will tell her what's going on.

(The Council decided this couldn't be risked on even an encrypted comm.)

(They maybe tell him soon enough? But also they might treat it like the Hardeen thing and use his reaction as fuel to keep Palpatine convinced.)

SKYGUY GOT ARRESTED AND NOBODY'S EXPLAINING WHY.

Rex is overwhelmed because it's been his job to keep her calm.

Anyway, padawanship has been temporarily transferred to the grandmaster. You were half-training her anyway.

Insert a subplot about Obi-Wan being horrified and betrayed and aiming the feeling at Padme because she knew about the Tuskens and never told.

#Anakin Skywalker #Sheev Palpatine #Obi Wan Kenobi #Padme Amidala #Mace Windu #star wars #the clone wars #Tusken Massacre #Ahsoka Tano #Captain Rex #Phoenix Posts

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burningsoprettily · 5 years ago

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NO MORE - Star Wars Fic (2/2)

[Read the entire work on AO3]

[Part One on tumblr]

"We, as Jedi, have lost our way. We were once truly neutral, serving the people. And look at us now."

"Master Kenobi, we still serve the people to the best of our capabilities."

"No. We serve the people in power, rather than the people who truly need our help."

Of all Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the infamous Masters. He is known for his compassion and grace, implacable serenity in face of adversity. From the Initiates to his fellow Masters, most aspire to be like him.

So, when the Jedi in the Temple were faced with a Jedi Master, known for his unshakeable calm, striding through the corridors, simmering with fury, they knew something significant had happened.

All the Jedi could think was, 'Someone's going to get their ass kicked.' They know that Jedi aren't supposed to feel gleeful or hunger for drama, but when Obi-Wan karking Kenobi has thrown away his vaunted serenity for pure murderous fury, they think they can be excused.

The Force was swirling with whispers of change.

In the Council chamber, Master Yoda's ears flicked and he hummed. Yes, change there is. Change, there will be.

Elsewhere, Darth Sidious was filled with a strange sense of foreboding. Something was happening. Something he did not foresee. And he did not like it.

"Know better, you do, than the Council?"

"Considering the recent history of the Order's actions, that's not really setting the bar high, Master Yoda."

Tales of how Obi-Wan Kenobi stood up against the Council ('Stood up?' some would snicker on hearing about it. 'More like he gave them all a tongue-lashing so bad, we can still see Master Windu wincing at times.') was spoken in awed whispers, and passed on to the Jedi in all the corners of the Galaxy. Obi-Wan didn't know it then, but he had just set the precedence for the future Jedi, and that would save the Order from being decimated many times in the future.

Within few weeks, news slowly spread from planet to planet that something monumental was happening in Coruscant, in the Jedi Order and that it was all centered around General Kenobi. The troopers of 212th and 501st exchanged wary glances, knowing that General Skywalker would be right in the middle of the mess, side by side General Kenobi. Commander Cody steeled himself and started making contingency plans, and if worst comes to worst, evacuation plans too.

Some whispered that the Jedi were requisitioning clones of Kenobi. Others muttered derogatory comments, while hiding their curiosity. And there were some, tired and weary, who looked at the whispers and rumours with hope dawning in their eyes.

"What would you propose that we do, Master Kenobi?"

"Simply put, we need to declare ourselves as a neutral organisation again, instead of being beholden to the whims of the Senate. And we need to stop being people who condone slavery- no, do not deny it. Slavery is what the clones are being subjected to. And if you do not realise that, you are being willfully blind."

Anakin went back to the battlefront, after extensive discussion with Obi-Wan. He knew that his Master had a plan. So, while Obi-Wan will be tackling the Senate and the Republic as a whole, Anakin will be holding the fort, so to speak, along with Ahsoka.

"What do you mean when you say we have lost our way?"

"Look at what we have done, Masters, in the name of peace. Do you think this is what the Force intended for us? To become warmongers?"

After talking with Cody and Rex, it was unanimously decided that the 212th will be grounded at Coruscant, at the Temple to be precise. The public were told that the troopers needed a break. The true reason was that their General needed round-the-clock guarding of his person. (When asked if the clones don't trust their General to take care of himself, Cody gave them a look that it made the person, who put forth the query, feel like their entire lineage and their mental capacity had been called to question.)

"You say that you follow the Will of the Force. Tell me, Masters, can you really sense the Force's Will when there is nothing but Darkness on Coruscant? The Force is choked with so much despair and confusion on Coruscant, that it is a miracle we have not all Fallen already."

Ahsoka had always heard of how proper her Grandmaster was. From Anakin, the description was a bit more explicit, both fondness and exasperation coloring his tone. And from the remaining Jedi, she only ever witnessed utmost respect, admiration, sometimes envy, with regards to Master Obi-Wan. But for the first time, Ahsoka was seeing the side of Obi-Wan Kenobi that was the most true to him, the part that would stand for no injustice, the part that was truly Jedi. She understood then, as she watched her Grandmaster take apart and rebuild the Republic with just his words, that this was what inspired the loyalty and the bone-deep devotion that she had witnessed in the people who had been fortunate enough to have come under Obi-Wan's brand of protection.

"We were trained in the arts of diplomacy and negotiations. Let us be what we were trained for. Let us be Jedi of the Galaxy, rather than Generals in this pointless war. Let us negotiate for peace between the systems. The people deserve peace, not more bloodshed."

In another world, Anakin refused to believe Fives when the clone brought the chips to his notice. In this world, though he was filled with skepticism and disbelief, there was a part of him that Sidious hadn't managed to poison against his Master. And so, with the unwavering faith that his Master will be able to clear the confusion in his head, Anakin confided in Obi-Wan.

That changed everything.

Sidious did not know it then, but his plans had already crumbled to dust. As the Sith Lord, he had wanted to spread more pain and suffering in the Galaxy. He had seen the opportunity in Idien II, and had taken it.

And that? That had cinched his fate.

Afterwards, no one could be sure as to which declaration produced the most opposition; when Master Windu stated that the Jedi will stop participating in the War or when he stated that the Clones will be inducted as members of the Order, and hence out of reach of the Republic. (When the Senate appealed to the Kaminoans, their succint reply was, "The Clones were made for the Jedi, and hence they belong with the Jedi.")

Leaving the Senate building in an uproar, Windu recalled the Chancellor's face when he had made his declarations on behalf of all Jedi. The man had looked like he had been slapped in the face with a fish. Windu had taken great pleasure in that reaction as he had never liked Palpatine.

The withdrawal of Jedi from the war had one unexpected outcome. The Separatist Army, instead of continuing to take over planets, had come to a standstill. Though General Grievous was quite outspoken regarding the untrustworthy nature of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi in particular, the other members of the Confederacy remembered the times when the Jedi had come to their aid without any reservations.

When voted among themselves, the majority was overwhelmingly towards biding their time. They would wait, and if the Jedi (not the Republic) were to extend their help in negotiations for peace, then they would decide accordingly.

General Grievous' howls of outrage were rather unpleasant to hear for the others.

Jedi Masters Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker were lauded for their defeat of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. The revelation that it was Chancellor Palpatine who was the Sith and the puppeteer who had controlled both sides of the war, produced shock and horror throughout the Galaxy.

Anakin had been reluctant to believe the worst of his friend. He had confided in the Chancellor, unloaded his deepest fears and darkest secrets. He had almost trusted him more than Obi-Wan ('almost' because the reason he never confided in Obi-Wan is not because he didn't trust him but because Anakin could never bear to see the look of disappointment on his Master's face).

When the Chancellor had pleaded and cajoled with Anakin, he had hesitated. But then Ahsoka had burst in, worried and determined to help them (Force, she was so much like him. He wondered if his child would have the same impulsive tendencies), and Sidious reflexively caught her with the Force, tightening his grip on her windpipe.

Seeing his Padawan in the air, hands grasping uselessly at her throat, unable to breathe, Anakin was struck dumb. He breathed in, focusing on Obi-Wan's singular faith in him, and surged into the fray, like a mother gundark attacking the enemy who dared to threaten her children.

The battle was over in minutes.

In the next second, Anakin was holding Ahsoka tightly and Obi-Wan joined in. Mace Windu looked at them and smiled, a little uptick in his lips, his Force presence surging with satisfaction and serene contentment.

It took two years for peace to be established again, between the Republic and the Independent Systems. Obi-Wan was the most sought after Jedi for negotiations, and him being who he was, he never refused a request. Hence, by extension, Anakin ("Like kark I'm letting you go without me, Master!"), Ahsoka ("I am your Grandpadawan, and Anakin's Padawan. Where you go, I go.") and Cody ("With all due respect, General, but you're not going anywhere without me.") were run ragged too.

There was an inner peace to Obi-Wan that Anakin had never observed in him till now. Knowing how much of a toll the War had taken on all of them, he was not surprised. Rather, he was glad that his Master could be who he was always meant to be.

The Galaxy will always be in chaos. There will be unrest, yes. But now the Jedi can focus on doing their Force-given duty.

Seeing Obi-Wan guiding a batch of clones in meditation, Anakin smiled softly.

Things were looking up, finally.

"Master Kenobi, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, youngling. And call me Obi-Wan, dear one."

"Okay, Master Ken- sorry, Master Obi-Wan. What made you want to take decisive steps to stop the Clone Wars?"

"There will come a time for every Jedi, where our faith, in everything we hold true to, will be tested. You will have a choice then. You can choose either to keep going, taking what is being thrown at you and continue enduring. Or, you can stop, and say no. Is whatever is happening the Will of the Force? Remember, we are Jedi and we are part of the Order. But being a Jedi means more than just following orders and living by the Code. It means following the Force. And sometimes, rarely when the Council says yes, and the Force says no, you'll have to choose what kind of a Jedi you are. The one who follows the Council or the one who follows the Force."

"Is that what you did, Master? You said 'no'?"

"The Force was screaming 'no', little one. It had been screaming for a long time. So, I chose to say 'no more'."

#Star wars fanfiction #No more part 2 #Obi-Wan Kenobi #Anakin Skywalker #Ahsoka tano #Mace windu #Fix-it #Canon Divergence #Posted in ao3 #Bamf Obi-Wan #Palpatine dies like the worm he is #Ao3 #Ao3 fanfiction #Star wars #The clone wars

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diwatang-sirena · 6 years ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That is, until dear honorable Jon Snow came along.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#daenerys targaryen #a random thought #darth vader #got #got spoilers #game of thrones #jon snow #jonerys #star wars

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eirianerisdar · 6 years ago

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Hey, I recently discovered your blog and I just wanted to say that love your fanfics! Your writing is beautiful. If you're taking requests, would you mind writing something to show the bond between Anakin and Obi-Wan, you know, the famous Kenobi and Skywalker duo and your take on how the Galaxy viewed them?

Sorry this is so late, anon! This fits into @finish-the-clone-wars’s 25/7 Writing Wednesday prompt let me convince you. I wanted some good third-person perspective so this is a companion fic to A Face in the Crowd.

This fic is also cross-posted to FFN.

For the Brother I Did Not Deserve

Generals.

Jedi.

Heroes.

At the height of the Clone Wars, Skywalkerand Kenobi were household names across the galaxy.

Adults spoke of them in cafés and bars as Generals Skywalker and Kenobi, trackingthe progress of the Open-Circle Fleet across the Outer Rim sieges by war-reelsand holonet news. Senators and aides alike called them Masters, as politicians have called the Jedi for ten thousand yearsand more, since the Jedi Order first swore their service to the Republic.

But the young knew them as heroes.

Siblings squabbled over which would win ina full-out duel, Obi-Wan’s devastating calm against Anakin’s fiery resolve;friendships were formed and broken over the keenness of Anakin’s sword-hand andthe steadiness of Obi-Wan’s voice. And yet these petty arguments bonded all theyounglings the galaxy over; there was no skirmish, battle, or campaign thatcould not be won if Obi-Wan and Anakin were there. The fact that they were twomen in an army of millions did not matter. As far as any youngling whoseparents supported the Republic was concerned, the war was already good as won.Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker would see to it.

It was in such a spirit that Yorrick gavehis all in a terrific (and oft-repeated) argument with his best friend, Meron.

“General Skywalker leveled an entirebattalion’s worth of super battle droids last week on Malastare!” Meron yelledas he flailed around Yorrick’s room, nearly knocking over Yorrick’sneatly-stacked collection of Kenobi collectible info-cards as he did so.

“So?” Yorrick interjected from where he satprimly on the edge of his bed, crossing his arms as Meron turned to glare athim. “General Kenobi would have talked his way out of needing to fight them atall. He did as much before.”

“An entire. Battalion,” Meronhalf-shrieked, eyes aglow and looking every inch of his current eight years.

Yorrick rolled his eyes. They might be thesame age, but there were times where Meron’s excitement over GeneralSkywalker’s latest exploits only manifested itself in long, ramblingconversations where Meron’s utter hero-worship surged like the waves ofCoruscant’s Western Sea, beside which Yorrick’s family had a summer home,courtesy of his father’s position in Galactic government.

It wasn’t as though Yorrick didn’t admireGeneral Kenobi as much as his best friend did Skywalker – it was just thatYorrick thought it best to express said admiration in quietly collecting Kenobimemorabilia and keeping up with the holonet news on the Open Circle fleet,instead. He may have sent a fewletters here and there, but he had never received a reply, nor had he expectedone. General Kenobi had a war to fight.

Meron, on the other hand, loved nothingmore than to recount for the billionth time the moment where his heroacknowledged him.

“–I didn’t think he’d actually salute back, you know, since my father and I were so farback from the parade line and there was so much noise going on–”

“I know, Meron,” Yorrick said, a faintsmile curving his lips despite himself as he watched his friend’s face light upat the memory. “He saw you, and he returned your salute. Congratulations. I alsoseem to recall you telling me that you forgot to lower your hand until basicallyall of the 501st had passed by.”

Face flaming red, Meron punched himgood-naturedly on the shoulder. “I’ll convince you Anakin’s better even if it’sthe last thing I do,” he mumbled.

“That’ll take some convincing, “ Yorrickgrinned. “But go on. I dare you.”

“I’m going home in a week. I’ll have youconvinced before then.”

“I’m sure the Alderaani Royal Academy willbe very happy to take you off ourhands,” Yorrick said, dryly.

That earned him another punch.

But Meron’s next words wereuncharacteristically quiet. “My father said you could visit in the winter. Youwill, won’t you?”

A pause.

“That’ll depend on my father,” Yorrick said, earnestly, “but I’ll fight both him and the RCA for it.”

Meron scoffed. “The Republic CoruscantiAcademy’s filled with spoilt brats with their noses in the air.”

“And what does that make us?” Yorrickpointed out. “Alderaani Royal isn’t that much better.”

“Spoilt brats with our noses completelylevel.”

“Oh, shut up,” Yorrick said, smiling.

Meron waved goodbye a week later, nothaving convinced Yorrick in the slightest but glad to call it a ceasefire. “Maythe Force be with you!” they yelled at each other, as was their custom. It madethem sound cool, like the Jedi Generals they loved so much. Meron as Anakin,and Yorrick as Obi-Wan – brothers in all but blood.

The Siege of Coruscant began a monthafterwards.

And another week after that, Yorrick’sworld fell apart with a single announcement from the newly instated Emperor.

Red-eyed and sleep-deprived, Yorrick wentto school two days later to find that it had been renamed the Royal ImperialAcademy overnight, and that there was a new uniform waiting for him, grey andhigh-collared and stamped with the Imperial crest over the left breast,claiming his heart.

He came home in his new uniform, enduredhis parents’ proud fawning over how dashing it made him look, and stood in hisroom alone staring at the Open Circle posters still plastered over the walls,the imitation lightsaber in its brackets reverently hung over his desk, therows of real flimsi books on Jedi and Republic history, and the packet ofStewjon tea he had begged his father to order for him just last month sittingbefore them, still unopened.

He’d been taught how to hold a blaster forthe first time that day; the first lesson in a new mandatory courseacademy-wide.

The Emperor had said General Kenobi was atraitor, as was the rest of the Jedi. An Order now eliminated utterly andcompletely, in a heroic effort by the GAR that once served them.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was dead.

Yorrick crossed to the comm at his desk. Ithad been there, undisturbed, for two days now; the light blinking at its edgeshowed that there was at least one missed message there waiting for hisresponse, but only now did he sit at his desk and flick it open.

Yorrick buried his face in his elbow for amoment, and sighed.

Then he keyed in his friend’s comm code.

The comm channel fizzed to life, andMeron’s voice issued from it, warped with static and yet clear as the day heleft over a month ago.

“Blastit, Yorrick! It’s been two whole days–”

“I know,” Yorrick said, quietly. “Ijust…haven’t been feeling that good.”

A pause.

“Iknow,” – and there was a telltale tremor in Meron’svoice not caused by static or interference – “I can’t believe it, either.”

Yorrick’s eyes prickled with tears – thefirst since he heard the news. “How…how could they betray us like this?”

“Right?I don’t know how Chancellor Palpatine could have done this!”

Now that caused Yorrick to sit up, and to stare at the comm in his hand.

“What…what are you talking about?” hewhispered.

“TheChancellor,” Meron said, with a note of confusionin his voice. “You don’t believethat…that drivel he said about the Jedi, do you?”

“Drivel?” Yorrick said, slowly. “That’s nota word you would use. I would, butnot you. Who’s been talking to you?” A feeling was building in his chest. A scream.

“That’snot the point,” Meron retorted, after a tellingpause. “You don’t seriously believe theJedi betrayed the Republic?”

“I…” Yorrick began, and faltered. “I don’tknow what to believe.”

“Yorrick,this is Anakin Skywalker,” – Meron’s voicequavered, and then steadied with determination – “and Obi-Wan Kenobi we’re talking about.”

Hearing the name set something off withinYorrick’s chest. Perhaps it had been there since two days ago, or longer, but he had read about the five stages of grief before, but for the moment, he waswell past denial and fully into anger.

“I know!” he yelled, and cared not that hisvoice cracked dangerously on the word. “What do you think I’ve been doing these two days? I’ve been thinking. That’sall I’ve been doing. I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten. I went to school todayand everything’s the same but also different and we’re not allowed to talkabout the Jedi any more, and the teacher played this audio recording from theEmperor’s office that showed the Jedi trying to assassinate him,” – Meronyelped at this but Yorrick plowed on, relentless – “and then,” he shouted, asthe tears spilled over his cheeks and scalded invisible scars down to his chin,“I come back home, and I look at my walls, and I realise that I’ve got enoughillegal posters and things here to warrant my arrest. Do you understand me, Meron?!”

A long, long silence.

“I do,” Meron said, quietly. “But audiofiles can be edited, you know that. And you knew Obi-Wan Kenobi as well as Iknew Anakin Skywalker.”

Yorrick barked a bitter laugh through histears.

“Did I, really?” he murmured. “And didyou?”

“Yorrick–”

“The Chancellor was crying for help,”Yorrick was sobbing, now. “And General Windu just told him not to resist hisown murder. Treason. What am Isupposed to say to that?”

“TheJedi didn’t do this,” Meron said, helplessly. “I can’t tell you how I know. But I do.”

That did it. “You don’t know that because you’re not a blasted Jedi, Meron!”Yorrick shouted. “And neither am I! We never were, Meron, and be glad weweren’t, or we’d have betrayed the Republic and been executed like all thosetraitors deserved.”

Meron was silent for a long, ugly moment.

And then: “You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” Yorrick said, wiping his nose onthe pristine sleeve of his new uniform.

“Yorrick,I don’t want this.” Meron sounded far, far olderthan his years. “But I see I can’t convince you.”

“I don’t, either,” Yorrick said,straightening although he knew the other boy could not see it – reaching forhis uniform cap as though it would lend him strength. He placed it on his head,and felt steadier than he did a moment before. “But this is how it is.”

Meron’s breath was loud through the channelstatic. “Fine,” he said, and therewas such a wealth of control in that word that Yorrick felt for a moment ashamed.“We’ll talk later. May the F–”

Meron cut himself off with a sharp inhale.

Yorrick stared at the comm. The words oftheir familiar greeting and farewell echoed through him. He let them go.

“Goodbye, Meron,” he said instead.

“Goodbye,” Meron said, and as the comm channel collapsed, it caught thebeginnings of a sob.

Yorrick stood, and placed the comm back onhis desk.

And then he crossed to the nearest posteron the wall, grasped its edge with the sleek leather of his new uniform gloves,and tore it down, uncaring of how it split neatly in the middle, dividing theopen circle insignia upon it exactly in two – a rending that left a chasmbetween them.

Yorrick repeated the motion again andagain, broke the lightsaber on the wall over his knee, hurled the bag of teainto the growing pile of discarded objects and stared, narrow-eyed when itsplit open on the broken wing of a shattered Jedi Starbird.

His father, when he found out, praised himfor his initiative and helped him carry it all out to the trash compactor, asteady hand on his shoulder as they watched each box go in.

Time passed.

Meron’s comm number faded in his memories.

Yorrick redecorated his room in pale greyand black, opting for the bare minimum of decoration except the six-spoked-wheelof the Imperial Crest painted on one wall.

And then he focused on his studies to theexclusion of all else.

Utter conviction.

At fifteen, he was an Imperial Cadet.

At eighteen, he accepted a commission fromthe Imperial Navy as an Ensign.

And at twenty-eight, he was a Commander. Ayoung one, at that, and his meteoric rise to that rank did not go unnoticed.

Being on the same ship as Darth Vader wasas terrifying as scuttlebutt told, but Yorrick employed good sense and stayedsilent unless he was called upon, whereupon he did every task assigned to himin as quiet and efficient a manner as possible.

He got quite good at ignoring the twist ofguilt in his gut.

And then, of course, came the Death Star.

Something stirred in the depths ofYorrick’s memory when he heard of the superweapon, of course. Somethingconnected to the mind of an eight-year-old child, who loved a hero for hisability to talk his way out of a conflict without a single drop of blood spilt;but by that point in time he had learnt to treat his Orders as though he were adroid and nothing else. It protected his neck, and by extension, his parents.

And so Yorrick was on the Death Star whenthe Princess Leia was brought in, and he was a shadow at the rear of the bridgewhen Tarkin gave the order to fire on Alderaan.

Millions of voices, silenced in a matter ofmoments.

Meron’s family home, where he and Yorrickused to play hide-and-seek amongst the gardens.

Meron.

The name chipped at the walls around hisheart, and threatened to unbalance him.

Yorrick returned to his cabin and threw up.

And then he stood up, and carried on.

And then the call came in that there wereintruders on the station, and he ran to his post, well-heeled Imperial Navyboots clacking on the durasteel floors, and as he ran, a sound drifted towardshim; a familiar noise of plasma meeting plasma, the scream of kyber crystalsand Force-borne blades.

That sound used to signify hope – hope thatObi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had won yet another campaign, the sound oftheir lightsabers a victory cry in war reel after war reel.

Yorrick rounded the corner to the hangar,and gaped as Vader’s lightsaber locked with that of the old man in anunmistakably Jedi cloak.

“Kenobi!” Vader roared.

And with that single word, Yorrick’s world collapsedagain.

This Obi-Wan Kenobi was not theblade-dancing hero of his childhood memories; this man’s arms shook with theeffort of deflecting Vader’s powerful strikes, and his beard and hair werewhite where they once had been russet.

And yet-

He was still every inch the Master;commander of a situation where there should have been no hope. Not for him.

A young, golden-haired boy darted into thehangar, closely followed by the princess, a man who had the look of ascoundrel, and a Wookiee.

Obi-Wan glanced at them, then back atVader, and his lips curved in the sly smile Yorrick remembered so well – thesmile that said you’re beaten, evenif nothing seemed to be working in his favour.

The smile of calm in the face of whatshould be an inescapable storm.

Yorrick had always understood it. Now itfelt utterly wrong that he should be on the other side of it; part of thatstorm, about to be destroyed by something he did not understand.

It felt horribly like guilt, and the denialof a truth that he had suppressed for too long.

Obi-Wan withdrew his lightsaber and raisedit in a salute, still smiling–

–Yorrick threw out a hand before he knew whathe was doing, mouth open in denial–

–andVader cut down Obi-Wan Kenobi.

But in the ringing emptiness of the momentsafter it happened, Yorrick’s shout lodged in his throat as he realised thatthere was no body.

Only a cloak.

“No!” The boy with the golden hairscreamed. He drew his blaster and fired uselessly at Vader, even as hiscompanions yelled at him to join them on the ramp of battered transport.

They were only metres away.

Yorrick should probably have drawn hisweapon to stop them. He didn’t.

He turned, instead, as what seemed to be anentire battalion of stormtroopers raced past him; as he heard the firing of thetransport’s repulsors, over the lash of blaster-fire.

Yorrick found his way to the nearestseparate hangar, climbed into a shuttle with nothing on his person but hisuniform and his regulation blaster, and set off. It helped that in the chaos,he managed to get to hyperspace with only a few scanting brushes with the DeathStar’s turbolasers.

And then – when the star-studded expanse ofspace beyond the viewport morphed into the blue-white streaks of hyperspace –only then, did Yorrick allow himself to weep.

Months later – after a long circle of theOuter Rim and a delicate situation involving many repeated yellings of “Don’t shoot! I’m a defector! A defector!”Yorrick found himself, at last, on a Rebel base, having gone through a verygrueling interrogation courtesy of Crix Madine.

At least he’d proven his loyalty wasgenuine.

He asked around if anyone had heard of aMeron Junshi. It was the barest sliver of hope, but the last time they spokewhen they were both children Meron had seemed on a one-track road to theRebellion even if Yorrick had not known enough to suspect then.

“Junshi? That’s an Alderaani name,” onepilot said. “I think you’d be better off finding–”

“Junshi. Meron Junshi,” a clear, soft voicesaid behind him.

Yorrick turned, and his eyes widened.

Princess Leia smiled at him. “And as I keeptelling every new recruit, I don’t bite.” She led him to a quieter corner, andher face grew gently serious. “How did you know Meron?”

Did.

Past tense.

He watched her watch him take the news.

“He was by best friend,” he eventuallysaid, although it felt like a lie, now, after twenty years of silence. “He was a brother to me, and I–”

Her brown eyes softened further. “You’reYorrick. He spoke of you often.”

All the breath left Yorrick at once. Tearsstarted at the corners of his eyes. “I owed him an apology. Now I won’t have achance to say it.”

“I’m sorry,” Leia murmured. “He died on theTantive IV – my ship. He died protecting me and the plans I held for the DeathStar.”

In a way it made sense. Meron had spent somuch of his childhood in hero-worship of Anakin Skywalker that it was fittingthat he should die as a hero. Yorrick had loved him so much as a brother, likeObi-Wan did Anakin – but Obi-Wan had never spoken it out loud, either. Yorrickknew it with utter certainty.

How deluded Yorrick had been, to throw itall away on a lie.

Yorrick dashed away the tears. “We wereclosest during the Clone Wars. His role model was Anakin Skywalker. Mine wasObi-Wan Kenobi.”

Leia smiled at that. “As half theyounglings in the galaxy did, it would seem.”

Yorrick laughed. It was a weak, feeblething from too many years of disuse, but it would do.

Leia took his elbow in a soft grasp. “Ithink you should meet someone.”

Yorrick allowed her to lead him intoanother room, where the blond-haired young man whom Yorrick had also seen onthe Death Star was sat, tinkering with a pile of mechanical scraps.

“Yorrick Calder,” Leia said, “allow me tointroduce Luke Skywalker.”

Skywalker.

Luke extended a hand with a blinding smile– the same smile Yorrick recalled from the war-reels, two decades before.

Yorrick shook Luke Skywalker’s hand, andfelt a weight lift off his chest as he did so.

And for the first time in twenty years, he was convinced that there was something to hope for.

END

This is a companion fic to A Face in the Crowd; read that if you want to hear Meron’s perspective.

This is also cross-posted to FFN.

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evabellasworld · 3 years ago

Text

Storm of the Republic

Chapter 9

AO3 Link | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

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Jumping out of hyperspace, the 212th Attack Battalion and Coruscant Guards have arrived at the planet Horuca. Led by General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Thire, respectively, both the battalions were armed to the teeth, prepared to take down their enemies.

Horuca was a planet which was surrounded with colourful plants and mountains on the surface. Similar to a tropical jungle, the rainforest was thick and was surrounded with fog, showing that it was raining cats and dogs.

The ocean surrounding the planet was pastel pink, but thanks to the dark purple clouds in the sky, the water looked rough to swim or catch some fishes in the sea. But Marshal Commander Cody doesn’t let it stop them from fighting.

To him, the heavy rain gave an advantage for them to hide themselves from the Imperial battle droids, which weren’t equipped for this kind of weather. Still, that doesn’t mean the Empire wouldn’t send aqua droids after them.

“Alright men,” he spoke, catching the attention of his troops. “In a few minutes, we will land in the shallow part of the beach. Make sure you get into position. We don’t want to leave anyone behind.”

“Yes, sir,” the 212th answered in unison. Faven put on her helmet as she took a deep breath, hoping she would die in this battle.

“You seemed down,” Boil pointed out, making her face him with her unimpressed stare. “Is everything alright?”

“Who wouldn’t be down, Boil? For all we know, this could be my last mission in the war.”

“Hey, come on. Aren’t you supposed to be cheerful right now?”

“How can I, when Amala is not here anymore?”

Boil was speechless. He knows who Faven was referring to. Both of them were close since the Second Battle of Geonosis. They didn’t know each other on Kamino, but it didn’t matter to her.

Faven blamed herself when she watched Amala killed in the trenches. It happened so fast. One moment, she was firing against the battle droids. The next thing she knew, her best friend was lying on the ground, blood spilling from her helmet.

I miss her so much; she thought about her. I wish I could see her again.

“I’m really sorry, Fav,” Boil sympathised with her. “It’s difficult coping with someone’s death, especially when they’re close to you.”

She bobbed her head and turned to her brother. “I’m sorry about Waxer too. He was a great guy.”

“Yeah, Waxer,” his voice quivered, before clearing his throat. “Well, at least he’s in a better place now. Somewhere peaceful, where there are flowers everywhere.”

Faven smiled. “Waxer always loved flowers, especially the yellow ones. And I’m sure Amala is there with him too, carrying a bunch of rabbits in her arms.”

Boil chuckled as he put on his helmet, agreeing with every word she said. “We should get moving. We don’t want to be left behind.”

“Right beside you,” she gave a small salute, as she stood in front of Obi-Wan, who gave her a warm smile.

“Good luck, all of you,” he wished them. “May the Force be with all of us.”

The trap door opened below them, with the icy wind blowing towards them. Taking a deep breath, Faven and Boil exchanged a look of determination with each other and jumped towards the pink ocean.

Holding her breath, she quickly swam towards the surface and exhaled, wiping the surface of her helmet. Glancing at the rings in the rainy lavender sky, Faven stared at the beauty above her. Amala would have loved this place.

Commander Cody and Obi-Wan were the last ones to join them, along with the Corrie Guards, with Commander Thire and Commander Stone leading them. “Is everyone accounted for?” Cody asked, counting all of his troops present.

“We’re all here, Commander,” Crys reported.

“Thire, Stone, are all your troops present?”

“They’re all here, Cody,” Thire informed him. “Though I wish Fox and Thorn were here with us right now.”

“We can’t all have everything. Now come on, Team B is counting on us.”

“Yes, sir,” Hyewon saluted respectfully, marching beside her brothers and sisters.

Since she survived the Battle of Coruscant, the Corrie Guard is determined to prove her worth on the battlefield, where she had no experiences at all. Hyewon may have trained in a simulation, but when she was shipped off to Coruscant, she didn’t get the chance to fight battle droids like the rest of them.

Instead, she had to deal with prisoners who caused nothing but stress. There are prisoners who were decent with her, and there are prisoners who made a mess for her to clean up.

Hyewon pitied the ones who were in jail for something they’ve never done, and she also felt sorry for prisoners who were only there for self-defence. She thought they deserved better, and the Republic had failed them. I hope they’re okay.

As they approached closer to the island, Obi-Wan sensed something unusual in his surroundings, prompting the troops to stop in their tracks. “Be on guard,” he advised them, gesturing towards the rocks. “We may be watched.”

“You heard the general,” Cody barked. “Stay hidden behind those rocks. Our enemy might be closer than you think.”

Hyewon nodded as she hid beside Boil and Faven, who she never interacted with till today. “I hope you don’t mind me joining you both. All my friends died on Coruscant.”

“Don’t mind at all,” Faven offered her hand. “I’m Faven, by the way. This is Boil. We went all the way back to Kamino.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” she shook her hands. “I’m Hyewon, from the Coruscant Guard. I was discharged from a coma a few days ago, so this is my first time on the battlefield.”

“I have faith that you’ll survive this,” Boil encouraged her. “Trust me, you’ll do great out there.”

Thire saw the three of them having an animated conversation with each other and tossed her a binoculars, making her attentive. “I understand you want to catch up with what you’ve missed, but please pay attention. We’re at war right now.”

“Sorry, sir,” apologised Hyewon, as she scanned the entire area, which was suspiciously empty. “But where are our enemies, anyway? I don’t see anybody in my scope. Not even a single soul, Commander.”

“It’s strange for the Empire to sneak around, but we’ll have to be patient,” Stone said. “It’s one of our best options right now.”

“That sounds boring,” Harley expressed her opinion, expecting more fun for her. “I came here for some action, not to wait the entire day long.”

Cody couldn’t agree more with his subordinates. The wait made him more anxious, aware that this wasn’t what the Empire was like. Out of countless battles he fought against them, the droids aren’t like this. Something is up. I can feel it in my gut.

“General, what do we do?” he asked the Jedi Master. “We can’t go on like this. Team B is waiting for us.”

“I have an idea.”

Stroking his beard, Obi-Wan stood up and climbed on the rock, crossing his legs in meditation. As he closed his eyes, he reached through the Force and levitated the rock towards the mangrove, causing the battle droids to pop out from their hiding spot.

“There they are,” Obi-Wan pointed out, activating his lightsaber. “Everyone, get into position.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Thire responded, turning towards his troops. “Come on, blast those clankers.”

”I’m happy to do that,” Stone laughed as he opened fire. “Eat that, you fucking clankers.”

Hyewon’s eyes widened as she saw Boil and Faven blasting the droids with their blasters, listening to the sound of blasters firing against each other for the first time. She wasn’t used to all of this, but luckily, she can adapt to a new environment. Well, this seems more fun than babysitting a bunch of prisoners.

Gripping on her weapon, she shot down a SBD in front of her, making her pulse run. She had training in shooting, but she hardly had the chance to utilise her skills, until today. Shooting another droid, Hyewon couldn’t contain her excitement as she repeated her actions again and again. “Okay, is anyone going to tell me that this feels good, or am I the only one?”

“You’re not the only one,” Boil shared his feeling. “Wait until you have to deal with the bigger droids. That one is an immense challenge, even for me.”

“I can’t wait for that.”

If only she knew the genuine horror that comes with it, Faven sighed.

Stone stepped forwards and gunned down the B1 units with his twin pistols, not missing a single aim at all. Jek continuously fired with his favourite weapon, the rotary blaster, destroying every droid single handedly. He never had this much fun since accompanying Master Yoda on the moon of Rugosa.

As the B1 were cleared from the field, Cody spotted the Super Battle Droids heading towards their position, making him signal towards Boil, Faven, and Hyewon. “You three, get over here.”

Hyewon let out a soft gasp. “Are we in trouble?”

“No, we’re not,” Boil calmed her down, dragging her towards her commanding officer. “What do you need, commander?”

“Take these to the other side of the line,” Cody passed them a box full of ammunition and supplies. “These are important for all of us here. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Faven acknowledged. “We won’t let you down.”

“Good luck out there. You’re gonna need it.”

Together, the trio took a deep breath together and counted to three, lifting the long box with their bare hands. They had their armour on, but Hyewon wasn’t sure whether they were going to last this long. She didn’t think it would be this intense.

Watching her comrades getting shot to the ground, she was horrified at the sight of blood soaked on the soft sand beneath her. Some of their helmets were separated from their heads, revealing a horrifying face that stood out. Hyewon noticed one of her sisters was coughing out blood, desperately fighting for the will to breathe.

Is this what war is like? Hyewon questioned herself, realizing the truth. I don’t want to die like this.

Thire shifted his attention to Harley, who was killing the droids with her sniper. Trained as an assassin clone, she could kill without hesitation, which was hardly utilised until they fled to Raxus. She was stuck as a call operator for three years, dealing with obnoxious citizens that abused their services. Harley’s grateful she doesn’t have to do that anymore.

“Harley, I need your help,” the commander requested for her assistance, much to her satisfaction.

“What is it, boss?” she jumped in excitement.

“I need you to go rogue right now. It’s what you’re good at.”

“Easy-peasy lemon greasy,” Harley squealed loudly as she grabbed a couple of explosives and sprinted towards the excitement, releasing a war cry. The rest of the troopers who observed her crazy act did the same as well by joining her antics.

Cody could only blink in confusion as one of the Corrie Guards bombed the barbed wires that shielded the Imperial army without getting shot. The rest of them followed suit by infiltrating through the trench, ambushing the droid army. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Thire assured him. “We’re doing what we can to divert their attention towards our scouts. They’re the ones carrying our supplies.”

“Speaking of Team B,” Obi-Wan joined in their conversations, deflecting the blasts. “Once we’re through, we need to let them know when they can land.”

“I hope they’re doing much better than us,” Stone maintained his positivity despite hearing one of his brothers screaming in pure agony. “We’ve lost a lot of lives today.”

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