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space-blue · 2 years ago

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Kenobi Episode VI fix-it concept

Exact same characters and plot beats, a few tweaks and massive changes to editing and timeline... A more structured attempt at the final episode of Kenobi.

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The episode opens with the Star Destroyer chasing the rebels' ship.

Aboard, Obi-Wan has a serious conversation with Roken and Haja about what he's offering to do, and asking in return. Leia interrupts them and catches on to his plans and gets upset. Obi-Wan doesn't have to justify himself (to a ship full of people who know him to be their only real fighter), but people do look askance as Leia runs off across the ship. The mood is heavy.

Obi-Wan goes to prepare and set up the small ship, and Haja talks Leia into thinking better of her pouting. Obi-Wan seeks her out, offers the blaster holster. Leia can sneak Lola or she can outright offer it to him. I like that option, because in canon Obi-Wan smiles at Lola and then flat out ignores her and puts her up like a dash decoration. We know he doesn't care for droids, so him seeing Leia's gesture, accepting Lola, and making the promise to do his best to return her, would also be a way to show how willing he is to pacify Leia.

When Obi-Wan talks to QGJ, it is to ask for guidance, and apologizes for what he's about to attempt, and nothing more.

Obi-Wan comes out flying, and Vader prompts his captain to follow him. The grand Inquisitor makes a fuss, demands they stay focused on the rebel ship. This has given Obi-Wan time to get close to them, instead of away.

An officer shouts out a warning as Obi-Wan fires on the Star Destroyer. We see a shot reminiscent of the opening to ROTS, with Obi-Wan demonstrating some incredible flying, weaving around the laser fire.

For comedic relief we can have an officer behind Vader be like "Damn" (impressed) and his neighbour (who has clearly seen colleagues die fore less before) be like (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)

Meanwhile in Obi-Wan's cockpit, Lola is having a very stressful experience, shrieking as she tumbles to and fro until Obi-Wan snatches her out of the air and slaps her firmly on the dash. She could spew a stream of binary obscenities, leading Obi-Wan to frown and ask is she talks around Leia that way. (although that's borderline too funny for this show lol)

The Grand Middle Manager wants to send TIEs after him, but Vader counters that he's going out in his own ship. In the background, the rebels go into hyperspace. Dead silence on the bridge as Vader stalks out and the GI stares balefully into empty space.

Vader gives chase to Obi-Wan, who has enough advance to avoid a full on dog fight, and manages to land on the planet. He gets there a mere couple minutes before Vader, and their ships are parked next to each other.

They face off on [whatever world that was supposed to be].

Instead of throwing rocks at each other, there's a lot of Force play. Them pulling and pushing each others limbs, focusing on the Force more than usual. After distracting him with a rock, Vader manages to grab Obi-Wan in a Force-choke hold. He marches up to him, determined to impale him on his saber, nose to nose.

This is personal. It has to hurt. You have the distinctive fear that Vader will start with chopping off limbs, actually. He raises his blade to strike.

He's so focused on his revenge, he has not been paying attention to Obi-Wan's hands, which are empty. His saber is on the ground. With Vader close, Obi-Wan flicks a finger and his saber ignites and flies up, slashing across Vader's chest-plate and helmet.

He lets go of Obi-Wan, choking, falling with both hands to the floor.

They talk then. The conversation is the same, except Obi-Wan is so emotional and wrapped into the horror of Anakin's blood curdling rage, that he doesn't react in time when Vader shatters the ground under him.

Vader is shaking and screaming as he throws more rocks into the open pit.

When it's done he stumbles back, clearly too breathless for pithy remarks. He hurries off to his ship with a halting step. It's clear this is a strategical retreat, no matter if Obi-Wan is still alive under the rocks.

Cut to Obi-Wan, chilling. He's not particularly strained, but alert. Maybe he can murmur something to QGJ again, head falling back, looking dismayed... A whimpery little "I'm sorry, I don't think I can..." It's clear he's biding his time, waiting for Vader to fuck off before crawling out.

A sudden vision wracks him. Owen is screaming for Beru, Beru screaming for Luke, and Luke running in the dark, panting hard, a shadow darker than night itself chasing him with the same halting step as Vader's. With the cape and the haircut, in this darkness, Reva is indistinguishable from him.

Obi-Wan opens his eyes, shaken, whispers Luke's name, and with firm resolve frees himself from the rocks and comes leaping out. We follow him as he races up to Vader, who is still between Obi-Wan and his ship. It's unclear if Obi-Wan thinks the vision showed him Vader or Reva.

Vader whips around, a total mess, a hint of fear in his half-hidden expression and his fumbling movements. This duel is much shorter. Vader seems like he might overpower Obi-Wan, but in a moment the man sidesteps him, steals his saber (in a move that harks back to the flashback training) and slices it in half. Vader roars, furious. He's wounded, down to his knees, without a weapon, and still Obi-Wan is forced to back off as rocks come flying his way.

Vader remains too powerful. This isn't a short or easy fight, and Obi-Wan has no time. He says he's sorry one last time, and turns around and books it. Vader yells after him.

As Obi-Wan is taking off, he's clearly nervous. He asks Lola if she's got astromech capabilities. She bleeps a negative and he frowns, saying that he needs the best route to Tatooine from here and she can try and do her best. She trills and logs into the console. A screen beeps, signaling Obi-Wan that the Imperial Destroyer is in on him. He asks Lola for an update, she replies something testy (probably along the lines of "As I was saying, I'm *not* and astromech, so bear with me")

The screen goes beep beep beep beep beep beep. Obi glances at his console. On the screen, the triangle of the Star Destroyer is hemorrhaging smaller dots.

'Lola?' he asks, pressing and tense.

Just as TIEs come scream overhead, Lola blurts something, and Obi-Wan punches the hyperdrive mid-evasive maneuver.

He lets out a heavy sigh once in the safety of hyperspace. He pats Lola, says he's grateful Leia trusted him with her. He leans back, closes his eyes, and tries to reach out to Luke. All he can see is a dark figure looming, cutting over a bright background of stars. There are three moons in the sky. It looks like a dream.

Obi-Wan frowns and grunts and focuses harder. He sees Luke's face bathed in red light, and nothing more. When he focuses again, he hears a peal of laughter, sees Leia playing with a small child, sees her resting her head down on Haja's shoulder. Clearly, she's safe, and Luke isn't. Clearly, Obi-Wan has a connection to each of them through the Force, and not just an alarm system for Luke.

The effort seems to have completely exhausted him and he slouches in his seat.

This is where things are tricky. But in the end I'm happy with my choice :

Cut to Tatooine. Owen and Luke are walking into town, chatting. They get into the shop, talk about shot speeder belts, and the man comes to warn Owen. The conversation isn't cut. The man says the inquisitor from last time has returned, the same who threatened Owen directly. He says she was asking after him, and seems to be alone and wounded. Owen, deeply concerned, grabs Luke and books it back to the farm.

Beru says they have to prepare. She asks Owen if he knows how far she is. He says he hasn't seen her on the way, but she knows where to find them. Beru replies "If she's half smart, she'll wait for the cover of darkness".

Owen replies this leaves them time to fetch help, to which Beru counters she won't imply anyone else and they have to do this alone.

The conversation with Luke about safety and escaping is a little longer, with Luke protesting that he wants to help, that this is his home and he should get to defend it too.

Beru says, "We know, Luke, we know.'

Owen says, "We all have our roles. Ours is to protect our home and you, and your role is to help—by keeping yourself safe."

Beru nods and adds, "You'll be helping us, that way. You remember, if you have to get out, you run."

Luke nods and promises, and the Reva home invasion begins. The only difference is that Reva battles Beru longer. It's clear she doesn't want to harm her, but eventually loses patience and slices her arm (a flesh wound).

Reva disappears after Luke, shuffling as fast as she can.

Cut back to Obi-Wan entering the system and flying down. When he lands on the dark farm, Beru and Owen, both wounded, are supporting each other and coming out of the house. They beeline for him, and as he comes out of the ship, everyone talks over everyone else.

Obi is asking if they're all right, what happened and where is Luke.

Owen is accusing him, asking if he's led the inquisitor back here to them.

Beru is saying "she's gone after him, we don't know where, we told him to run."

Finally Owen asks clearly "Why are you here?"

Obi-Wan looks almost lost for a moment. He explains he had a vision, thought that Luke was in danger and rushed back.

Owen sighs and visibly deflates, presumably touched that Obi-Wan means it so much, when he says he wants to help with Luke. That he cares.

The conversation turns technical. No, their speeder is broken, and anyway they have no idea where Luke went. Obi raises his hands for silence then and focuses, as if listening to the wind. He turns in the correct direction, says "Over there," and starts *sprinting*

It's made abundantly clear as Owen and Beru hurry after him that even exhausted, Obi-Wan can outpace them stupidly easily. This is the general in rescue mission mode.

Cut to the canyon. Obi-Wan comes jogging in, breathing hard, and just ahead is Luke, sprawled on the ground like in his vision, Reva standing over him, saber ignited.

It's just the two of them, as Obi-Wan left the others to catch up. Reva looks agitated. Tears are already streaking down her face.

"I knew you'd come," she says. "I knew it. " It sounds accusatory. "Who is he?" she ask, pointing to Luke with her saber. "Why is he so important to you, to Organa?"

Obi gives her a pained look, full of emotion, but then tips his head to the side and asks "Does it matter? He's just a child."

Reva is even more agitated by this question. She makes vague guesses, half formed accusations, and increasingly distressed accounts of how she "couldn't do it" and didn't manage to kill Vader.

Obi-Wan steps closer, hands open, trying to placate her. He says "I couldn't either. I tried, but I couldn't."

This gives Reva pause. Her breathing calms down a little. You see her think. Maybe, she realises that if Kenobi, one of the Order's greatest living Jedi and hero of the clone wars, couldn't take Vader down, not even knowing him from childhood, then maybe she never had a shot at all. She isn't blind to the fact she's half baked as a Force user, poorly trained. If she had any doubts about that, her own duel with Vader would have clarified things.

Though she's still hovering over Luke (now moaning and shifting), Reva's attention is inward. She says something about how she failed them. All her crechemates who died in front of her. When Obi-Wan tries to tell her she didn't, because she's tried— Reva interrupts him.

"You don't understand," she says. "You don't understand how many Jedi and Force sensitives I helped track down, I killed, just to survive as an inquisitor. To get close to him."

Obi-Wan shakes his head. "You can come back. You don't have to fall the way he did. You tried to honour them (her crechemates), you can't do that by killing an innocent." He waves to Luke as he says this. Reva looks down at him, seemingly dazed, like she forgot he was there at all. She sees herself looming there, a flash of Vader taking her form. Luke becomes her, she becomes Anakin. The vision hits her hard.

Right then Owen and Beru come rushing in, yelling for her to get back, blasters pointed but unfired. Beru covers Owen's back as he hurries forward to pick Luke up. Reva stumbles back and collapses, her wounds catching up with her. Beru gives Obi-Wan a wide-eyed look as Owen returns with Luke in his arms, and he nods to her. She nods back and runs off after Owen, leaving them to Jedi business.

Obi-Wan goes to kneel by Reva's side. She's crying, clutching her belly. She looks up at him, looking terrified as she asks, "Have I become him?"

Obi-Wan shakes his head. "No... No. You were made into this, and Anakin, he..."

He has no words, and no words are needed. [Ewan McGregor can act his heart out]

"What do I do?" Reva asks. She lets her saber drop in the sand.

"You're free now," Obi-Wan replies. "There are ways you can repay/repent[can't think of a better phrasing just now] for the harm you've done. Ways to honour the people you've lost, better than through revenge."

Reva smiles bitterly through her tears. "No rebel cell would have me."

Obi-Wan gives her a small half shrug and a sorry smile. "Freedom is a heavy burden. You have to find your own way."

He gives her a hand and helps her to her feet. "I don't even— I-I crashed the wreck I came in with," she says, as if in afterthought.

Obi-Wan snorts and says he's conveniently got a ship he has no use for.

Cut to the starry sky. A blue dot moves, growing distant. Obi-Wan comes into frame, looking up at what we presume is Reva getting away on his ship. The camera pans down when he looks away. He's at the entrance of his cave. Dawn is coming. He goes in.

Cut to angry Vader, the scene is the same, except we play a mournful Padme/Anakin theme in the end (and this isn't the first and only time you hear the blasted Imperial March).

Cut to Alderaan. The scene remains the same, except Leia is happy to see Obi-Wan and Lola both. Bail says, "We would ask you to stay a while, but—"

Obi-Wan waves him off and says something placating. He understands, they're best not seen together much. Breha insist that they can find ways to meet more often, and that Leia spoke much of him and will miss him.

His conversation with Leia is the same, except he may phrase it differently, so as to not imply that the qualities he lists are Nature and not Nurture. "Even though you are raised an Organa, you have the same XYZ as you mother, and ZXY as your father..." or something.

They say their farewells, and it cuts to Obi-Wan back on Tatooine packing his meager belonging, saddling up. He makes his way to the Lars homestead. He's wearing his hood because the sun is hot on Tatooine, god dammit!

The conversation with Owen remains the same. Taking the spaceship model, Obi-Wan approaches Luke with a smile and says, "Hello there. I'm Ben."

Luke looks up at him. He looks tired and a little wary, but he gives Obi-Wan a brave smile. "Hi Ben, I'm Luke."

Obi-Wan gives a small knowing nod and a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Luke."

Cut to Obi-Wan riding his eopie. A blue haze comes into resolution. Long dead master Qui-Gon Jinn turns around, arms akimbo.

"Hello there!" he says.

"You can't say that!" Obi-Wan scoffs, "That's my catchphrase!"

yeah yeah yeah I'm joking, whatever, I'm not a big fan of QGJ, or the prospect of Obi-Wan spending the next 8 years as a hermit with him for sole company. Not when QGJ tried to ditch him for Anakin, then foisted Anakin on him, and we all know how that ended. To be a fly on the wall of that conversation...

Anyway, sure, the ending can be QGJ being a smartass.

The end.

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dracowars · 4 years ago

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ten years apart | anakin skywalker

pairing: anakin x reader

word count: 6,0k

summary: where anakin comes back after ten years

a/n: i'm so sorry for the length but i just couldn't stop writing :( please get a drink and snack before reading this hella long os <3

warnings: angst, mentions of blood

universe: star wars

Exhaling heavily, you throw the garbage bag into the shaft and push it down with all your strength. Beads of sweat have already formed on your forehead which you wipe away with the back of your hand. It is, again, incredibly hot on Tatooine today and the unbearable heat has been beating your mind and body all day. But what temperatures can you expect from a desert planet, right?

The desert planet of hell, as you like to call it. Disgusting creatures, pirates, bounty hunters and actually all kinds of insidious henchmen cavort here in Mos Espa. The city you grew up in. The city you have always been stuck in and probably will be stuck in for the rest of your life. You come from a small and poor family, no money to escape this hell, always having to work hard to survive.

And yet you had a better life than other children here. Because you were lucky enough to not get sold as a slave. Your parents could always raise enough money - often in ways you do not support - to save you. Even though you are more than grateful, you cannot help but to sometimes wonder what would have happened if. If you became a slave, maybe just maybe, you might have met the same lucky fate as him.

It has been ten long lonely years since the two Jedi Masters Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were stranded on Tatooine and seeked help. You were still very young, therefore you can barely remember their faces. But you definetely do remember the face of him, Anakin Skywalker. The little boy from Tatooine.

How could you ever forget him? He was the nicest, bravest and most courteous boy you have ever met in your life. You always knew that something about him was different. The way he acted, the way he thought. There was just something about him that fascinated you and before you knew it you had developed a small crush on him. You got along well and you loved to watch him when he was working on his droid yet again. He always told you about his dreams, how he wanted to help, how much he wanted to get away from this dump called Tatooine. With his mother.

And with you.

Anakin and his mother Shmi Skywalker were slaves and belonged to Watto, one of the many junk dealers and human traffickers of Mos Espa. Even though they must have had a terrible life, Anakin always stayed positive. The smile on his dirt-stained face when he was building on his droid was priceless and you can see it in front of you as if it was yesterday. In fact, it has been ten years.

Ten years since the Jedi Masters took Anakin with them to train him as a Padawan in the ways of the Jedi. You were happy for him, you really were. He was finally able to leave this terrible planet and live a better life elsewhere. But to a certain price, since he had to go without his mother and also without you, his best friend.

"Y/N! These tables do not clean themselves!", a voice calls for you from inside and you just roll your eyes before leaving the heat outside, entering the building again. Inside, the musty smell of smoke greets you, low music plays in the background and you go straight towards the round bar in the middle of the room. This is the most popular hotspot of Mos Espa: the infamous Twin Sun, a bar in the center of the city. The place where the creepiest species float around, where the dirty business is done.

You absolutely hate your job in the bar. Every day you have to tidy up and serve under worst conditions. Especially in the later hours of the evening, when it is completely overcrowded, you are running back and forth every second, receiving disgusting comments from the guests. However, hardly anyone is here in the early morning and you have to only take care of the leftovers from the previous day. Unfortunately though, you have to endure this kind of job.

Your parents, who always saved you from the worst, are too old and weak now to raise money themselves and you felt obliged to take on this role. That is also the reason why you have several jobs at the same time. In addition to working in the Twin Sun, you also work at some booths at the weekly market and when you are lucky, you can sometimes even help out on the farms outside of the city. It is the only way to ensure your family's survival.

While you are about to wipe the empty tables, the roaring unpleasant noises of podracers echo through the building, sweeping through the bar like an earthquake, and the following loud cheers of the audience can hardly be overheard. The race is also a reason why it is exceptionally empty here today. Almost every living creature in Mos Espa is in the Grand Arena, cheering on their favorite, probably making some bets beforehand.

Personally, you hate these races more than anything.

Besides being totally unfair and dangerous, it is really just about the money - the money you do not own. The same participant always wins and despite your hatred of these races, you watched one of them for the first and last time when Anakin himself participated, won and was thus able to free himself from slavery. Only his mother remained on Tatooine but he promised he would come back and rescue her once he is a fully trained Jedi.

It has now been ten years and he has still not shown up.

Well, maybe he did show up after all, just did not look for you as he initinally promised. Maybe he only picked up his mother, not you.

A few years ago you had to watch how his mother got sold at the weekly market, but the buyer actually seemed very nice and later you found out that he even gave her freedom and took her as his wife. The man called Cliegg Lars used to come to the bar regularly until a few weeks ago. Does Anakin know, or can he maybe even feel, what happened?

"What do you think you are doing?! Finally work for your money or I will kick you out!", the bartender, who is also your boss, suddenly yells at you and pulls you out of your thoughts. "Sorry", you huff out and continue to clean up the tables at a quicker pace. It is a day like any other day. At least that is what you thought.

After you have cleaned all the tables you stand behind the bar and tidy up the glasses. Meanwhile it is already in the afternoon and the bar is much more crowded than it was this morning, which means more work for you. However, for some inexplicable reason, you are very distracted today, your mind always wandering off, and when you do not pay attention for a tiny second, a glass slips out of your hand and shatters into a million pieces.

"Watch out!", your boss grumbels at you immediately, only waiting for such an opportunity. Quietly cursing under your breath, you pick up some of the broken pieces. With a hiss you reflexively pull back your hand after accidentally cutting yourself on a sharp piece. Quickly, you put the small bleeding area against your lips to stop the blood from flowing.

"A table just got free back there! Clean it", your boss orders, not waiting for you to get up again as he almost throws the wet cloth into your face. Trying to control the rising anger inside of you as best as possible, you stand up, dispose of the broken pieces and make your way to said table. When you reach it, you have an uncomfortable feeling all of a sudden, a feeling of someone watching you. You turn around but do not see anyone looking into your direction. Shaking off the weird feeling, you take care of your task and then go back behind the counter to do your work while you hear your boss talking loudly to one of the guests on the other side.

"Watto, Watto.. Never heard of him before", he says thoughtfully over the music. You frown irritated and bend over to be able to see your boss. He is talking to a young, handsome man who seems quite determined about finding Watto. "Buy something or get out of here, kid!", your boss suddenly threathens, but the young man seems pretty unimpressed. Nevertheless, he turns around and leaves but not without your eyes meeting first. His blue eyes shimmer in the weak light and while turning away, he pulls the brown hood of his cloak over his head.

Even though your boss did not call you for help, something deep inside of you tells you to help this unknown, mysterious man. After all, you actually know Watto. You worked for him in your younger years until he went bankrupt eventually. Therefore, it is very uncommon and suspicious for someone to ask for him.

You put everything aside right away and go to your boss, who seems to be in an extremely bad mood today. "I take my break now", you quickly let him know and without giving him a chance to answer, you already head towards the entrance. When you arrive outside, you take a look around and spot the young man just a few meters away from you. Running after him, you gently tug on his sleeve to draw his attention to you.

"Excuse me", you stop him in his tracks and he turns to you with confusion written all over his face. "I heard you ask my boss about Watto in the bar. I know where to find him."

His face seems even more surprised now and he raises his eyebrows. "Really?", he asks, a hint of hope in his voice. You nod in agreement. "Can you lead me to him?", he resolutely asks and you nod again.

"You do not look like you are from here. What do you want from Watto?", you ask him curiously and go ahead to lead the way while he follows right behind you. "That is not important and also none of your business, I think", he replies emotionless, only looking ahead and not at you. You are a little taken aback by his harsh words but decide that it is best to not ask any more questions. He seems quite serious about it and somehow you still cannot get rid of this strange feeling inside of you.

You lead the way to the market, where some stalls are set up, and finally find Watto at his regular place in the shade of a house. He sits on a small chair and is currently busy examining a screw in his hand as you both approach him. Watto raises his gaze when he realizes that someone is walking towards him and as soon as he recognizes you, he flutters into the air excitedly.

"Oh! I have not seen you in a long time", he laughs and looks at the unknown man next to you. "There is someone who was looking for you, Watto", you explain in Huttese and point to the young man next to you, who bows his head slightly as if he could also understand what you are saying. Which is ridiculous, of course, because only Tatooine people can speak and understand Huttese.

Immediately Watto flies back, unsure whether he has done anything wrong. "Excuse me?", he trys hiding his nervousness, suspiciously looking at you.

Instead of telling Watto what he wants, he picks up a piece of equipment and fiddles with it. "Let me help you with that", he murmurs under his breath while actually speaking in Huttese, fixing the broken piece. "What? I do not know you! What can I do for you?", Watto grumbels but his eyes widen at once as he discovers something. "You look like a Jedi. Whatever it is.. I did not do it!"

A Jedi?

The next words abruptly catch you off guard and your heart completely stops beating.

"I am looking for Shmi Skywalker."

You look at him in shock as he pulls the hood down, Watto looking at him exactly the way you do as he finally lets out the words you were too scared to say.

"Ani? Little Ani?", Watto breathes out in astonishment, now using Basic instead of Huttese. When Watto then realizes that he fixed the broken piece, he happily jumps into the air. "You are Ani! You sure sprouted! A Jedi! Hey, maybe you couldda help wit some deadbeats who owe me a lot of money.."

"My mother."

"Oh, yes. Shmi.. she is not mine no more. I sold her", Watto confesses, obviously feeling uncomfortable about the situation while you are still not able to get out a word as they get stuck in your throat.

You were sure that you would never see Anakin again in your life, that he would have long forgotten about you. And now that he is actually back, that he is actually standing right next to you, you cannot believe it. He changed so much that you did not even recognize him.

And it seems he does not recognize you either.

"Sold her?"

"Years ago. Sorry, Ani, but you know, business is business."

"Who did you sell her to?"

"I-I do not remember, actually. I think it was a farmer, yeah, a moisture farmer probably", Watto stutters and his words pull you out of your trance all of a sudden, hitting a trigger in your head.

"His name, Watto."

"I-I think I do not know-"

"Cliegg", you mention softly, turning your gaze to Anakin whose brows are furrowed in confusion. "His name is Cliegg Lars."

"How could you-", Anakin starts, slowly becoming more tense, but as he looks at you more closely, at your face and in your beautiful glistening eyes, his expression suddenly softens. "Y/N?"

"Anakin", you say barely audible, trying to prevent your eyes from watering at hearing your name out of his mouth for the first time in years.

He does remember you. He did not forget about your existence.

You both cannot help but stare at each other for what feels like hours before he gently pulls you into his now very strong arms, hugging you tightly.

After all these years you were separated one would probably think that the hug would be uncomfortable and awkward. But it is far from that. Anakin's embrace is warm and soft, like it used to be when he was still here. He just got stronger and much taller since then.

He grew up.

On a whole different planet, far far away from you.

He has become a Jedi and fights for justice in the galaxy while you are still stuck on the same old planet, struggeling to keep your family alive.

"I can't believe it is actually you, Y/N!", Anakin gives you a warm smile after breaking the hug, his hands still resting on your forearms to keep you close while scanning you from the top to the bottom. "You have grown so much."

"I could say the same to you", you giggle, hiding your bright smile behind your hand while you blush. His blue eyes have become even brighter than you remember them and his face and stature in general look extremely healthy. If someone had told you years ago that Anakin would develop into such a handsome man, you almost would not have believed them. Yet, in your eyes he is still the same Anakin.

"And you are a Jedi", you mumble, pointing to the lightsaber attached to his belt under his brown cloak. Anakin continues to stare at you for a moment before finding his way back to reality.

"O-Oh yes. My lightsaber", he stumbles over his words and looks down at his weapon, but makes sure to completely hide it behind the fabric after that while clearing his throat. Slowly but surely it suddenly gets a bit awkward between you, none of you knowing what to say or where to start.

You have so much to tell him and still want to ask him so many question, but you do not know how.

"So, you know where my mother is?", Anakin finally speaks up again and breaks the silence, but with a question you did not quite hope for.

"It is very far outside of Mos Espa, yes. I can bring you there", you answer with a little sadness in your voice. Of course, he wants to find his mother after all these years.

"Hey! When you come back, make sure to visit me. Ani, I could really need some help, you know", Watto calls after you both as you show Anakin the way.

"He has not changed a bit", Anakin chuckles slightly next to you and follows you over the street, where you pass numerous creatures and vehicles.

"We need a vehicle to get there", you absently speak to yourself while searching for a suitable one. "Or a Dewback works too."

"A landspeeder sounds good", Anakin immediately answers after you end your sentence, almost interrupting you. With raised eyebrows you look at him sceptically.

"What happened to your sense of adventure?"

"I got older, I guess", he sighs and you hear out some sadness in his voice for the split of a second, but you tell yourself that it must have been your imagination.

"We all did", you mumble and finally agree to take a landspeeder instead of a dewback, even though it is much more expensive. However, Anakin insists on paying and after doing so you sit in the passenger seat, patiently waiting for him to join you and start driving.

At high speed you whiz over the dry sand and out of the city towards the seemingly endless outback. From time to time you glance over at Anakin, who does not look at you once, not even when you tell him the directions. When you catch yourself staring at him for longer than a second, you look away quickly but not without noticing the changes in his apperance.

His face has become much more striking and his hair got darker. The dark brown cloak that is covering his body compliments his eyes and makes them shine even more.

On your way you drive past a group of Jawas with their Sandcrawler, who are currently busy taking apart an abandoned spaceship that has apparently been stranded out here.

After a few more minutes you finally reach the Lars homestead and get out of the speeder, Anakin giving you a helping hand that you shyly accept. He keeps his gaze on the dome in front of you though and you can feel the nervousness that suddenly emanates from him.

As soon as you both walk towards it, a girl, younger than Anakin and you, comes up the stairs after she has apparently heard your arrival. Which is honestly not very difficult out here regarding the fact nobody comes here that often.

"Can I help you?", she asks, concern in her voice, and the longer you look at her, the more familiar she gets until it clicks in your head. She is Cliegg's daughter-in-law. You have often worked together on the farm. It seems like she already recognized you as the concern in her face slowly fades.

"Beru, right? I often helped you out on your farm", you take a step towards her and she nods in agreement before glancing at Anakin, who is standing directly behind you.

"We are looking for Shmi", you explain and Beru's brows furrow, obviously confused as to why you search for her.

"She is currently at the market in Mos Eisley with my boyfriend. But they should be back any moment", she mentions and then points down the stairs behind her. "If you want, you can wait for her inside."

Accepting her offer, you follow her inside the dome and you are completely amazed when you arrive at the open pit, a crater housing a courtyard from which all rooms can be accessed. You saw the huge hole in the ground before but never paid attention to it.

You follow Beru into what seems to be a kitchen and she asks you to sit down, but before you are able to, Anakin suddenly turns around due to a noise and a man in a power chair appears behind you.

"Who are you? What do you want?", he asks grumpily and Anakin's grip around his lightsaber on his belt, probably a reflex, reduces as you step in between. "Oh, Y/N! It is you!"

"Good afternoon, Cliegg. I am sorry for our unannounced visit, but we are looking for your.. wife", you say, almost whispering your last words, your heart stopping for a moment when you realize Anakin does not even know his mother married this farmer.

"What?", Anakin asks, shocked, his eyes widened and his lips split while he takes a step forward.

"I am Cliegg Lars. Shmi is my wife. Then you must be my stepson", Cliegg introduces himself and offers Anakin a handshake, which gets refused as Anakin just stares at him in disbelief.

"How is that possible?", Anakin breathes, directing his gaze to the ground, and you discover how he fiddles with the sleeves of his cloak in despair.

"I bought her from Watto at that time and gave her freedom before I made her my wife", Cliegg explains calmly, also noticing Anakin's displeasure about the situation. "My son and Shmi are just-"

He does not get to finish his sentence when loud screams and shouts interrupt him out of nowhere, silencing all of you. A brief moment later you are already on your way back up, Anakin ahead.

Once at the top you spot another landspeeder that has stopped in the distance, fuming. Due to the bright sunlight it is difficult at first to see that two people approach you, followed by several aggressive, snarling Massiffs. Disgusting beasts from hell that usually only live in the mountains unless they have been tamed by Tusken Raiders for their own purposes.

Quickly, you come to the conclusion that they must have been attacked by Tusken Raiders, who are now chasing their pets after them. It takes another second until you all realize that these two people running towards you are none other than Anakin's mother and stepbrother.

"Owen!", Beru desperately exclaims next to you, hands covering her mouth in shock.

Without hesitation, Anakin and you sprint straight towards them at the same time, hoping to somehow help and save them. But when suddenly a blue light brightly erupts next to you, you almost forget to keep running.

Anakin now runs towards them with his ignited lightsaber, much faster than you, and reaches them in seconds. Positioning himself protectively in front of them, waiting until they have run past him, he kills one of the Massiffs with the single stroke of his deadly weapon.

"Y/N, get them to safety!", Anakin shouts while he is fighting with the Massiffs, and you obey his words, quickly escorting them back to their house.

Glancing back after you have brought them inside safely, Anakin has just fended off an attack and pushes the monster a few meters back through the air, his hand outstretched. Finally, yowling and panting, the few survivors retreat and if you would not have called out Anakin's name, you are sure he would have followed them.

Deactivating his lightsaber, he quickly comes back to you, his face flooded with anger and pain. However, instead of paying attention to you, he walks straight past you.

"Are you injured?", you catch his upper arm worriedly and bring him to a stop. Shaking his head, he immediately removes his arm from your grip and continues his way down the stairs. With a sigh, you follow him.

"Where is she?", Anakin asks emotionlessly when reaching the bottom of the stairs, stopping abruptly and causing you to accidentally run into him.

"Ani?", a quiet voice finally sounds and Shmi steps out.

"Mom", Anakin swallows hard and embraces her tightly in his arms as she comes running towards him. After ten long years, mother and son are finally reunited.

"Oh, you look so handsome", Shmi sobs and takes a closer look at Anakin, taking his face between her hands, whereupon Anakin places a kiss on her palm. "My son. Oh, my grown up son. I am so proud of you, Ani."

"I missed you", he sniffs in response and a few tears find their way down his, her and also your cheeks.

"You came back, I can't believe it", she happily smiles at him, pride showing in her eyes.

"Just like I promised", he gives her the same smile and they hug each other again.

"And you saved us. You truly became a Jedi", Shmi sobs and Anakin gives her a kiss on the forehead before her gaze falls on you for the first time. "Y/N! Thank you so much for bringing him here."

"Of course", you wipe away your happy tears and smile back at her.

"Let us eat something, children", Cliegg then suggests while already being on his way to the kitchen, followed by his son and daugther-in-law.

"You might want to freshen up. I will show you where you can", Shmi offers and leads you both through a hole in the wall into a medium-sized room before she reluctantly separates from Anakin.

"Show me your leg", you order as soon as Shmi is out of reach and he turns around to you in confusion. "Your leg, Anakin. I saw you limp."

"It is not that bad", he shrugs it off and puts his Jedi robe aside, revealing his broad shoulders.

"Please", you repeat again and stare at him worriedly until he is no longer able to hold your gaze and pulls up his pants to reveal his leg. You have to swallow hard when a gaping wound appears on his shin and it takes you a lot of self control to not scream at him right there.

"That has to be treated, Ani!", you rebuke him indignantly, but now he is the one who keeps staring at you until you notice what you have just said. "A-Anakin, I mean."

"N-No, no! It is okay. I like when you call me that, it just... it has been some time since you last did", he clears his throat and your cheeks turn into a slight shade of red.

"Y-Yes, a long time ago. But we have gotten older, like you said", you stutter out, trying to make the situation less awkward. "I will ask if they have Bacta patches here, fix you up and make my way home."

"What are you even talking about?", Anakin raises his voice all of a sudden, rather unintentionally as you notice in his subsequent expression, while he grabs your wrist tightly to keep you from walking away.

"You have just seen your mother for the first time in ten years. I am sure you have a lot to tell her and I do not want to stand in the way", you explain and place your hand on top of his to loosen his grip, but to no avail.

"But.. I want to tell you too, Y/N. You are forgetting that I saw you again for the first time in ten years as well. I do not want you to go now", Anakin admits and takes a step closer to you, his eyes pleading to not leave him. "Apart from that, I will certainly not let you go now when these monsters are out there."

Leaving you no choice and not even a chance to answer, he suddenly pulls you into a tight hug, much like he did with his mother.

"I missed you so damn much", he softly whispers and you can't help but smile while you wrap your arms around him.

"I missed you too, Ani", you mumble against his shoulder and claw your hands into the fabric of his clothes.

Although you already hugged each other when you first met today, this one feels much more intense than before. It makes you feel safe and warm and comfortable, a feeling that you have not felt on this planet for a long time. For ten years, to be exact.

The next morning, you tiredly step outside into the burning hot twin suns and follow the voices coming from the kitchen. You stayed awake late yesterday and Anakin told you everything. From start to finish, he explained everything about his training to you, everything that happened after he left ten years ago. You have eagerly listened to his stories about the numerous adventures and here and there caught yourself staring at him sadly but lovingly.

Even though he pretended to be strong while telling these heartbreaking stories, you could see that he is not. After all these long years you can still read it on his face in an instant. He was not strong after Qui-Gon Jinn was killed shortly after their departure and also not when he became Padawan of a Jedi who was almost still a Padawan himself. He was not strong when he has been seperated from his family and he still is not as strong as he pretends to be. No matter from which point of view you look at it, Anakin is still the little boy from Tatooine.

"Good morning", you yawn when you meet the Lars family in the kitchen.

"Sit down, Y/N. I made breakfast", Shmi happily greets you and puts a plate down for you on the table.

You have not seen Shmi this happy in a long time. You never met her often after Cliegg freed her from slavery, but when you did, she always looked very absent and, above all, sad. She seems like a whole different person now.

"If you are looking for Anakin, he is outside", Shmi mentions when she notices your mental absence. Shyly, you nod and give her a warm smile. After you have eaten up your breakfast, you make your way upstairs. Arriving outside, you briefly get blinded by the bright suns when the dome no longer offers you protection.

However, as soon as your eyes get used to the sunlight, your breath gets caught in your lungs when a huge spaceship appears in your field of vision. The ship landed just a few meters away from the farm, the boarding hatch open. You spot Anakin in front of it, deeply submerged in a conversation with another man.

Said man notices you right away and draws Anakin's attention to you with a subtle head movement. When Anakin then sees you and the worried expression on your face, he waves you over. Nervously, you set yourself in motion and approach them.

"What is going on here, Anakin?", you ask shyly after discovering a lightsaber on the other man's belt, quickly gesturing a bow with your head.

"This is my master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maybe you still remember him", Anakin introduces him to you and, in fact, you actually do remember his face.

"If this isn't the little girl from back then who watched us leave with such a heartbreaking expression", Obi-Wan loudly thinks and scratches his beard before patting Anakin's shoulder. "I will go ahead and meet Padmé on board."

At his words, an uncomfortable feeling of nervousness rushs through your body until it turns into a feeling of sheer fear. Not only because you remember the name and its associated, incredibly beautiful Queen of Naboo, - which Anakin also told you about in his stories - but also because you suddenly feel like your worst nightmare turns into reality.

"W-What does he mean by that?", you stutter out, not really wanting to hear an answer to your question, but Anakin gently puts his hands on either side of your cheeks to calm you down.

"The Jedi Order has called Obi-Wan and me back to Coruscant, along with the senator", Anakin sighs and sadly looks to the ground, his thumb lightly stroking your skin. "My mother is happy here and that is most important for me. I now know that she is fine and safe."

Transforming his words into sharp weapons, they painfully shoot through your heart and you take a step back immediately, breaking the body contact with him.

"But I am not, Anakin!", you yell at him desperately, much louder than originally intended, and he just looks at you in shock from your sudden outburst. "I am not fine since you left ten years ago! I can't do this anymore."

"Y/N-"

"No, do not touch me! Please", you sob and wrap your arms around your own body in order to protect you from further damage. "Would you- Would you have even searched for me at all if I had not found you first?!"

Breathing hard while accusing him, he remains quiet and does not answer. His eyes wander around, desperately seeking an appropriate answer that will not hurt you, but he terribly fails.

"That's what I thought", your voice breaks and a single tear runs down your cheek before you turn around and walk away. However, you do not get very far when you feel a firm grip on your arm and are turned around again to face him shortly afterwards, your bodies only inches away from each other.

"Come with me."

"W-What?"

"Come back to Coruscant with me, Y/N", he begs you, his voice full of sorrow.

"A-Ani-"

"I had a dream about my mother and about you. You were badly injured and I was too late to save you", Anakin confesses, desperation prominent in his coarse voice, opening up to you all of a sudden, letting his guard down and showing you his vulnerable side for once. "That is why I came back. That is why I am back on Tatooine."

"A-Anakin. I can't.. I have responsibilities here", you choke out and look away, not able to hold his pleading gaze while your hands and knees shake in fear. "I have to go back to my parents.. I can't just leave them like this."

Silence spreads between you until Anakin lifts your face up with his fingers on your chin, deeply looking into your eyes. Suddenly your fear is reflected in his glassy eyes. A fear you last saw all those years ago when he left. When he had to leave his mother and you behind. It is precisely this fear that is now reappearing in his eyes and all of a sudden the little boy from Tatooine is back, not wanting to leave his home.

"I understand", his shaky voice whispers as he is close to tears as well.

How much you would like to just go with him. To just leave everything behind and finally get off this dirty planet. But you know it would not be fair to your parents and that you can't just leave them behind. As much as you would love to go with Anakin, you would never forgive yourself if you did.

"I am really sorry, Ani", you carefully say and place your hands on his upper arms to steady yourself before he pulls you closer and places his chin on top of your head.

"I will come back", he breathes into your hair and his voice sounds so fragile in your ears that you can no longer hold back the pricking tears, letting them stream down your cheeks freely. "I promise."

"I will wait for you", you fake a smile through your tears before he gives you a gentle kiss on the forehead, leaving a warm spot there.

The following repeated exclamation of his name coming from his master makes your heart ache even more and Anakin takes a step away from you, breaking off any contact.

"See you soon", he forces a smile and slowly retreats backwards to the spaceship, not averting his gaze from you and repeatedly raising his hand to wave goodbye.

Your eyes filled with tears and your vision blurred, you watch him leave and say goodbye with a heavy heart.

After ten long years you were finally able to see him again. You were ten years apart and now you pray that it will not be another ten years until you meet again.

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themusicplayedherlife · 4 years ago

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To Love is the Greatest Gift

1. The Return

pairing: obi wan kenobi x f!reader (past!din djarn x f!reader) characters: f!reader, anakin amidala-skywalker, padmé amidala-skywalker, mentiones of din djarin, obi wan kenobi, others word count: 2.6k+ warnings: angst, fluff, mentions of rent: the musical (death, second chances) uh... I think that’s it? summary: au!it’s never been the right timing for you and obi wan kenobi; maybe this time will be different. a/n: i started working on this story so long ago it’s ridiculous, but I suddenly had a surge of motivation to continue this story after some tragic family news. this was also very much inspired by @martlands and their amazing obi wan stories, made me want to write my own and here it is

all || next

“You broke up?”

One would think that the immediate reaction to someone asking if you broke up with your significant other would be to cry or begin to ask them what could have possibly gone wrong. But that’s not the reaction you give.

The reaction you give is just a shrug and a strong pop, as you spoon more gelato onto the little spoon his twins love collecting. “Yep.”

“After only three weeks of dating?” Anakin doesn’t know why he’s surprised, but he is. This is probably the shortest living relationship you’ve ever had. “Why?”

“Why not?” you answer easily, nonchalantly and you know it frustrates him. “It wasn’t working out, so we decided to call it quits.”

Not even a month ago, you had been genuinely excited about finally getting out there and meeting someone new, and even more excited when you were telling him all about this person you met while out with some old friends. You had said, word for word, “he might be the perfect contender!”

Where did all that excitement go?

You sigh, finally looking up at him and away from your white chocolate gelato that's just to die for. “Ani, it’s fine. It just didn’t work out. It happens.”

He grimaces. “What happened between you and Din—“

You bristle at the mention of your ex, narrowing your eyes and his widen in defense. You know what Anakin and Padmé think of him and it’s not entirely pleasant (particularly from Anakin’s part). It’s completely unfair. Din is lovely, sure a little socially awkward, but lovely nonetheless. “Has nothing to do with why Gar and I ended things.”

“But—“

“Nothing,” you reiterate with a bit more force and he sighs, lifting his hands in defeat while holding his own cup of gelato.

“Okay. Okay, I’m sorry.” And then, like a light switching, he turns playful. “Was it his name that turned you off—Gar?”

You resist the urge to groan and roll your eyes. “Oh maker, you are annoying!”

You huff as you make the trek back to the trolley that’ll take you both up to the observatory. The rest of your conversation is forgotten as he navigates it towards continuing to tease you and the latest exhibit you had helped set up.

The Coruscant Observatory is one of the most popular attractions in the city aside from the Exotic Animal Sanctuary (where most zoologist work to help rehabilitate wild animals before reintroducing them back into the wild, only housing the ones that have been assessed to not be able to function in the wild on their own—which are unfortunately many).

Your place of work is known for its large, ground telescope; its monthly constellation exhibits; the multiple planetarium theater rooms that house lectures, activities, star projections, etc.; and its Astronomer Q&A program where visitors can ask astronomers questions and even get a tour of the space station.

However, most of your days are spent in your office, planning for the next exhibit or actually executing them with your team; meanwhile, Anakin spends them in tech, sometimes maintaining the telescope, other times helping with IT issues, but mostly making sure the theater rooms worked perfectly for their 4D immersion.

(You like to joke that out of the two of you, he has it easiest; sometimes he’ll run by your office to get to another part of the building while you’re doing something and you’ll yell out, “slacker” and he’ll respond with, “you just work too much”.)

“Are Padmé and the twins stopping by today?”

“Not today, maybe tomorrow,” he says as you both step out of the trolley along with a few tourists. “I think today they decided to stay for some school thing.”

“Shouldn’t you know what that school thing is?” you chide him out of jest.

He scowls, there’s hardly any heat in it and it makes you grin. “It’s a music performance that the CN Theater is putting on.”

“Ah, and we all know how much musicals bores you.”

“I just don’t understand them,” he murmurs defensively as you climb the few steps leading to the entrance. The two of you smiling and greeting Rex at his security post and bypassing the ticket gate with your IDs.

“You mean you don’t have any taste,” you tease.

“It’s weird! I mean, most of them are all about tragedies and betrayals. What happened to the good ol’ romance and happy endings?”

“Not all of them are tragedies, Casanova.”

The main rotunda lobby is full of people milling about, looking at maps or the foucault pendulum in the middle of the room. Low chatter fills the room, shoes clicking and clacking against the marble flooring.

“Name one.”

Spotting the trash can and recycle bin, Anakin holds his hand out for your disposable cup and spoon and throws them away in their proper bin.

“Rent.” There are probably better examples, but you had been listening to the original cast album the night before and have all the songs still stuck in your head.

“Don’t two characters die?”

“Angel and Mimi.” You nod. “But Mimi is brought back to life by Angel, and is given a second chance at life.”

“She may have been brought back to life, but that doesn’t take away from the fact she died.”

“I’m not arguing with you on that, I’m just saying the ending was hopeful—not necessarily a happy ending, but it left you thinking—maybe things can get better.”

“And that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for—“

“What you and Padmé have?” you ask him as you both reach the door of your office.

He pauses, mouth opening and closing before finally rubbing the back of his head sheepishly and saying, “Yeah.”

You smile, genuine and happy for your childhood friend. Who would’ve thought that years ago when you introduced them, they’d be here years later—married and with twins. You and Anakin sure as hell didn’t. For most of your childhood, you both believed you’d live out your life on Tatooine, hang with the same friends you’ve known since your pre-kinder days and eventually get married to each other—much to the dismay of your parents—because of benefits or whatever, until your parents decided they wanted to send you off to a private school in one of the major cities, derailing your and Anakin’s plan (for the better, if you’re being honest).

“You’re still coming over for dinner, right?”

“Yeah,” you answer, unlocking your office door with your key. “I have a meeting that might go over the expected time, but I should be able to make it on time.”

“Just let us know,” he says, rapping his knuckles against the door frame. “But you better be there! We have some planning to do!”

You roll your eyes and wave him away, promising he and his family will definitely see you at five. With a hearty chuckle he salutes you and leaves the door slightly ajar, just like you usually do. It’s your “you can come in to ask me questions, but knock first, please” visual telling.

With a soft exhale, you drop yourself into your creaking office chair, eyes landing on the first picture on your right—a younger you, only 18, fresh out of your uniform smiling wildly with a large bouquet of flowers that you can still distinctly remember the smell of.

“I am in love!” Padmé exclaimed, squealing in absolute delight at the flowers put in your hand.

Blue eyes crinkled with amusement, staring down at you. “Are you?” His voice was low, teasing and almost smug. He had obviously heard the gasp that escaped your lips when he presented you the colorful bouquet created with your favorite flowers that his father grew in their little garden.

“Irrevocably,” you answered, not able to hide your smile as you gently held it against your chest and smiled up at him. “They’re beautiful, Obi. Thank you.”

Obi Wan’s arm is wrapped around your shoulder, caught in the action of a booming laughter. He was always laughing in pictures. There isn’t a single picture you have of him that he isn't smiling.

Your finger gently trails over his smiling face. Maker, you miss him.

Is he still traveling? Or has he finally settled down again? Will he show up and spring some unexpected news on you again? Stars, you hope not. Shit didn’t go as planned last time and it probably wouldn’t again.

Your hand falls limply and you swivel in your seat, looking out the large glass window overlooking the majority of the city and sigh softly—an exhale of wary hope and sadness.

A bird soars by your window, it’s wings flapping effortlessly, diving before flying higher and away.

He’s not coming back. You know this. Coruscant just isn’t the same anymore. Not when he feels this city has taken everything from him.

One more year visiting Gui Gon without him.

The meeting runs longer than it usually would, just like you had expected. Checking the time, you let out a curse and quickly throw your belongings into your car.

Without wasting time, as soon as you switch on your engine, you place your phone on the dock and say, “Hey C-3PO, call Padmé.”

“Calling Padmé,” your phone’s AI answers through the speakers of your car.

“Are you outside?” Is how she greets you. There are loud noises in the background, children squabbling about something or another, and Anakin’s weary voice trying to rally them.

You snort, pulling out of the undergroundparking lot. “Not yet, barely got out of my meeting and am on my way.”

“Please hurry, the twins really want to see you and are dying from hunger,” she says, amusement in her voice and not at all trying to hurry you. “They might start eating Anakin soon.”

“Hey, don’t bite that!” He yells from a distance.

“Hurry, please!” you hear over the phone—Luke. “I miss you,” he says, closer now. Which you immediately reply saying you miss him too, almost cutting off the next voice.

“And I’m hungry!” Leia’s voice follows his, practically yelling into the phone.

You laugh fondly, just imagining the childish glee on their faces at your scandalized gasps and your exaggerated “me too” answers.

“Leia, no yelling,” Padmé scolds her, gentle and kind. “Softer, please.”

“Sorry,” she says. “I’m hungry,” she repeats, softer, almost a whisper.

“Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be there,” you promise. “If not, you have my permission to start eating your dad.”

Leia and Luke break into a fit of laughter, yelling something away from the phone to Anakin, who once again lets out a loud, “Hey!”

Padmé chuckles, moving away from the voices of the children tackling their father and their play fighting. “Take your time, we’re not in any hurry to start eating. The kids had a hearty lunch and a snack after school.”

“What about you and Anakin?”

“We’re fine, don’t worry. Just get here safely and we’ll see you soon.”

You end the call with one last reassurance from her and let out a loud sigh when your car comes to a stop behind a long line of glaring red lights—traffic. You hate traffic.

You might be surrounded by blinding lights and different models of vehicles, but it leaves you alone with your thoughts, the low hum of your engine and music from your stereo drowned out by the chattering in your head.

It’s never just one thing that you think about. It can go from one thing to another, to all of them trying to climb over eachother and be the most present: your friends; your family; the dog next door; Din and Baby; cinnamon apple cookies; the beach house in Naboo; sneaking out of the prep dormitories at 2am with Padmé keeping an eye out and Obi Wan holding his arms out for you; rose gardens and peach tea; freckles on blushing skin; drunken singing in a small living room; 21st birthdays crying in a bathroom stall; that stupid movie quote about choosing life; death; but sometimes (most occurring) it’s Obi Wan that weaves into every thought.

He’s a constant plague in your mind, has been since the first time he left Coruscant in search of himself.

Sometimes they’re pleasant thoughts, memories kept in a nostalgic trunk that you occasionally like to sift through. Other times, they’re not so pleasant; those are the ones you constantly struggle with, try to push into the recesses of your mind and keep them under lock and key. But for some stupid, strange reason, your mind only ever remembers the bad, even when there are better things to dwell on.

“I just—I just don’t understand why you have to leave—Obi. Obi!” you practically yelled, watching him move around his room, grabbing and throwing things he pulled out into his duffel bag. “Listen to me!”

He didn’t stop, not until you reached for his duffel bag and plucked it out from his hands. He stared at you, his duffel bag carelessly thrown to the floor with his clothes spilling out.

Your breathing was labored, a sick feeling swimming in your stomach, words stuck in your throat now that he wasn’t hiding his beautiful blue eyes from you—his devastatingly heartbroken eyes. “I have to,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “I need to leave. This house—this city, it's suffocating me. I can’t—I can’t stay here anymore.”

“Obi… Obi, please.” You can’t leave me. You can’t! Please! Please, Obi.

“I need to do this for me, darling. I’m sorry.”

You should’ve fought harder that night, should’ve convinced him to stay, but instead you helped him pack again with tears obstructing your view and sobs escaping your lips. Maybe if you had, you wouldn’t have lost him.

No, your breath stutters as you lean back into your car seat, there was nothing you could’ve done. Either times. He had made up his mind long before that night.

A car honks their horn to your left and you jump, eyes focusing once more on the red lights of the car in front of you. You wipe at your face harshly and straighten your spine.

That was years ago, little one. Shake it off.

Sighing softly, you look up at the street name and make a turn onto the Skywalker residence street, your shoulders relaxing when their two story home comes into view.

Shake it off.

Parking isn't easy to find in their neighborhood, not when it’s so close to the observatory and some of the most visited parks in the area, but you manage to find one just two cars away from their house.

Gathering your things, you lock the door behind you and quickly make your way down the sidewalk, phone in your hand and typing out a message that you’re here.

It’s while you’re hitting send that you don’t notice the body in front of you, staring up at the house with an almost wary expression on his face, or how his eyes widen when they see you. It’s not until you collide into his body, soft with a fleece cardigan, that you notice him. Embarrassment begins to boil in your blood as you quickly apologize to him, berating yourself for not being more aware of your surroundings.

“Kriff, I’m so sorry—“ you start, but the apology catches in your throat when you look up.

“Hello, there.” Blue eyes, so soft and kind, like the ones you once used to dream of stare back at you—so unlike the pair of eyes you saw years ago. “It’s been a long time, darling.”

You can’t shake him off.

#obi wan x reader #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan x reader #obi-wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan kenobi imagine #obi wan kenobi imagine #reader insert #ben kenobi #star wars imagine #au #f!reader

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norcumii · 5 years ago

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some musings on TCW season 7

One of the things that makes Tumblr difficult is that I really, REALLY don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. I don’t want to be that person who sails in, sneers disdainfully at what people are enjoying, and then ambling out, having sucked as much joy out of the room as possible.

My brother used to do that about ANYTHING I was watching, and I still resent it. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

Meanwhile, I’ve reached my saturation point with Season 7 of clone wars, and in my own tired, perpetually exhausted way, I want to scream. Thus, kvetching under the cut. In all seriousness, if you’re enjoying Season 7, then please, PLEASE skip this rant. I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy and Season 7 continues to entertain.

I haven’t watched it: I’m practicing that much self care, at least. There’s been lots of meta and gifsets running around, so I’ve gotten enough second hand exposure – along with useful meandering through various wikis and such – that I feel able to comment about it.

It is indeed very cinematic, and I guess if you dig the art style, then it is a very good example of said art style. But from a broadstrokes perspective, the writing?

What an absolute screaming dumpsterfire.

The thing that finally pushed me from “meh” to “nope, gotta rant about this” was a fascinating piece of meta here, about how Maul is the prism character – the lens through which the story is told. Now, that’s my phrasing and not the OP’s, and again, I haven’t actually seen this so I’m taking a lot of things at face value.

It’s a fascinating approach, and makes the angst and despair that much sharper – especially if you apply this post about parallels to RotS, and let’s not forget the very impressive mocap for the lightsaber fight.

My question, however, is why the FUCK would you do that in the first place? (Not the mocap. That’s genuinely impressive.)

First off: you’re putting the audience in the same boat with the villain. Your lens character is the one who frames the story, who puts into perspective how one interprets events. In this case, that implies that what Ahsoka, Rex, and the rest of the clones are doing is in the antagonist's position, which might be part of the whole “nothing is true and nothing is false but everything is fucked” atmosphere that they seem to be trying to foster (see: Ahsoka’s arguments with Obi-Wan. GFFA has some good breakdowns as far as I can tell). So Maul is supposed to be the lynchpin of this story, either as the protagonist or the Sancho Panza to the protagonist.

That’s a damn weird take on this particular story. Is it about Mandalore? Is it about Ahsoka’s journey? Is it about Maul’s journey? Or are we trying for something meta about how it’s how Maul and Ahsoka’s journeys parallel each other’s, and how those contrast with Anakin’s?

Have you noticed yet who’s missing from this equation?

For a show that’s called “The Clone Wars,” there’s been astonishingly little clones involved in the broader plot. So let’s take a step back from this one issue and look at the season as a whole.

There’s been ten episodes so far this season, out of twelve total. Six of them have centered around Ahsoka. The other four have been about Rex and the Bad Batch. Now, let’s set aside the whole very valid debate about having so many female centric characters and stories is grand, and we need lots more. That’s a damn good point, and Star Wars as a whole needs better diversity on all fronts. Not the particular lens I’m looking through at the moment.

There’s been four of ten episodes about clones. In the final season of The Clone Wars. Yes, they show up in other episodes, but that’s not the focus.

Why would you do that?? We got five seasons already where the clones are more background noise with the occasional highlight (The Deserter, the Umbara Arc), and the entire freakin’ war has been named after them. Ok, so maybe that’s to some degree social commentary about how the Republic was viewing them – background noise against which the weird mythical Jedi shit really stood out – and the sixth season was more a hodgepodge of “we have THESE episodes nearly in the can, rush to finish them because this is important shit to get out the door to bridge from this series to the movies.”

They didn’t expect to have the chance to make this season. They could’ve done pretty much anything, since they didn’t even default to just using the episodes that WERE 70% done (if not more) and had been released into the wild as animatics.

So why pick these stories to tell? And moreover, why this way? Why not make the last hurrah that the crew could not have expected be something coherent and about the actual people that the damned show is named for?

Let’s play with hypotheticals, since kvetching without reasonable alternatives is considered uncouth these days. Let’s say one wants the Bad Batch “rescuing Echo” arc (and that it’s not agony porn. To be fair, I’m not sure if it IS agony porn, thus the presumption that it’s an arc to be had). Since we already spent SIX ENTIRE SEASONS beating home the point that clones are individuals and to be respected as such, rather than introducing new clones who are “aberrations” just to drive home hey, they’re clone versions of TF2 characters clone versions of terrible action movie heroes individuals, how about this?

Cody calls in the Bad Batch, a squad that gets sent into the worst situations and honestly, isn’t ever really expected to come out alive. They’re bad clones, you see. Their leader is probably a man named Dogma – he’s a Jedi killer, but damn loyal to the Republic. His second in command – not that either of them are happy about that – is Slick, a Brother Killer and all around asshole. The other two members of the squad are two deserters: Cut Lawquane, who was found and brought back to the army, and Boil, who was caught trying to leave after Umbara. They have a civilian support member, Suu Lawquane (a damn good sniper, and she now has armor as well as actual clothes).

Bring so many of Rex’s issues home to roost. Make that poor man question all his life choices. He’s still reeling from the whole chip arc and Fives’ death. Let him see what the Grand Army does with its too loyal soldiers, how Dogma did the right thing against orders and is now leading others into the meat grinder on the daily. Let him see what the Grand Army does to traitors, like Slick whose hands are red with the blood of his brothers – just like Rex’s, after Umbara. Cut, who left after too much death, and built a life. Boil, who lost so much, who had enough and just wanted to go find the one remnant of good things that he’d ever encountered in his short life.

They’ve got slave explosive implants somewhere – three because they’re flight risks, Dogma because – well, no one can say why, but it’s so. Let Slick shove Anakin’s nose into the fact that the Jedi are still leading a slave army, have Anakin have to confront that it’s not hyperbole anymore, not when the clones have chips in their heads and now these have slave implants they literally don’t know where.

Hell, have Anakin blow up at Cody over this, and perhaps Cody has to pull rank – establish on screen that he’s running so much of this damn war. He doesn’t like what’s been done with the Bad Batch either, but he can only put out so many fires, and keeping this from raging out of control is the best he can manage.

Let the audience see consequences. Let there be fallout as they go searching for Echo, and the Bad Batch’s various past issues bounce against the experiences of Rex and whoever’s along with him.

(For that matter, if you still want to tackle Mandalore and all that, have one of the soldiers going along with be Vaughn – get to know the man for a little bit. See how Random!Clone reacts to all this, not just Jesse and Kix. Someone without the history with any of these men. While we’re at it, Dogma had Kix in the firing line against Jesse. GIVE ME THE REACTIONS, DAMMIT! AND! And does Rex ever have to say to Dogma “you did the right thing, that Jedi needed to die”? How much does that blow EITHER of their minds?)

Show us travel time. Show us what it’s like for a bunch of soldiers to be stuck in a tin can flying through space along with an entire penal squad of brothers who spit in the face of what the GAR stands for – for reasons both good and bad. Show us what the years have done to Dogma and Slick, how Cut and Suu have adjusted from a life of growing things to having to murder things. How Boil just is done, and wants to head to Ryloth (hey, maybe Numa is currently living with her new sibs/cousins/friends/arch-rivals Shaeeah and Jek).

Then add poor Echo into that mix. Echo, who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing anymore, who was in the Citadel, then stuck in a nightmare of battle sims, and now in this new nightmare of a war that dragged on even longer – and no Fives.

Let us grieve along with him. Fives got a four episode arc (gee, I wonder why this season wanted to start with a four episode arc dealing with the last Domino >_>) where he fell, let us watch Echo’s rise and how he deals with all this.

Let him decide he wants to leave some of the more painful memories behind, how he can’t stay with Rex because it hurts too much, but at least now he’s got some fellow exiles to watch over.

Let the last we see of him be Echo using his new abilities to dismantle both the insidious little buzzing chip inside his and his team’s heads, along with the explosives they also have to bear. Fives died because of the chip, let Echo help others to live in spite of it.

Then slide the camera focus from Rex to Vaughn. Perhaps he gets assigned to go find the former Commander Tano (did he know her at all? Or had he just heard about her?). We could follow him across Coruscant, meeting various civilians who had Strange Encounters with that nice young Togruta. Maybe we get a fun montage: Vaughn questioning people, their various reactions, possibly as a nice voiceover to What Really Happened – that also gives a grand opportunity to get people’s impressions of the Jedi and their clone lackeys.

Then off to Mandalore, still from Vaughn’s perspective. Let us watch this poor man’s rise, as he has to be the metaphorical third wheel to The Team’s reunion. He’s the poor uncomfortable bastard in the room, but he’s a good man, loyal and skilled.

(Also, why could we not get the clones receiving patches or decals of Ahsoka’s markings, and play with that? Emphasize the clones’ individuality – some have it on their shoulder bells, some did the helmets, some have the design down the arm, along the leg – just...diversify, dammit!)

Have Vaughn keep up with Ashoka all the way through to the fight with Maul. Have him be hit, have him be disarmed for the fight – all he can do is witness it (for that matter, you can echo the Duel of the Fates, with Vaughn being in Qui-Gon’s position of dying on the floor).

Then let us see Order 66 from the clones’ perspectives. Show us the sieges, show us Bly and his squad following Aayla into the woods; show us Wolffe and the pack separating from Plo; show us Fox patrolling the Senate.

We’ve seen the Jedi die already. Show us the other side, if you insist on breaking our hearts, and show us how the clones go from good men to good soldiers.

Let me see Cody, let me see the aftermath on Utapau. Let me see Rex breaking, or refusing to break, or whatever it is that happens.

Let this season be about clones.

#star wars #season 7 #critical commentary #sass and murder show #the clone wars #character analysis #thinky thoughts #inappropriate feels about clones #meta #long post is long #writing #useless screaming #spoilers #SO MANY SPOILERS #just venting

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jedimaesteryoda · 6 years ago

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Palpatine: The Greatest Villain in Star Wars History

For Star Wars Day, I will focus on one of the best villains, if not the best villain, of the Star Wars saga. I’m not talking about Darth Vader, but the man who turned him: Sheev Palpatine. A Dark Lord of the Sith who served as Senator from Naboo, followed by Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and later ruled as the tyrannical Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Palpatine will always be the main villain of the Star Wars saga from Episodes I-VI. He was introduced as the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back, the head of the evil Empire, someone even Vader kneels to. He is the sci-fi version of an evil wizard, the Dark Side counterpart to Yoda. In Episodes I-III, his backstory and rise to power is one of the few aspects the prequels get right. The prequels are his story as much as Anakin’s. The character we see in the prequels helps to cement him as one of the best villains on any screens.

Rise to Power

In Phantom Menace, we are introduced early on to Darth Sidious, who is pulling the strings behind the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo that is driving the plot. Going by his black cloak, raspy voice and the fact that he is a Sith, one can clearly figure out that this is the future Emperor we see in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Of course, the viewer never really sees his face other than the lower half given the upper half is always covered in shadow and we never see his eyes.

We are later introduced to Palpatine, the friendly Senator representing Naboo who first greets Amidala’s party when she lands on Coruscant. He appears to show sympathy towards Amidala and their planet, and comes off as a decent man who is repulsed by what he sees in the halls of power, lamenting “The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good.” He also laments the ineffectiveness of the Supreme Chancellor. By the end of the film, Palpatine becomes Supreme Chancellor, the head of state of the Old Republic.

In Attack of the Clones, Palpatine is trying to deal with the problem of the Separatists led by Count Dooku, and seems at a loss up until he is given emergency powers by the Senate, which he accepts in public reluctantly, if not grudgingly. At the end of the film, we see Dooku, who a first-time viewer would usually be led to believe is the main villain of the film, meet in secret with Darth Sidious from the first film to tell him the war has begun as it is revealed Sidious is actually the one pulling the strings.

In Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi Council becomes increasingly concerned about where the Republic could be headed to the point they have Anakin reluctancly spy on Palpatine. The Senate keeps voting to give the Supreme Chancellor more power, and Palpatine has stayed in office as Supreme Chancellor long after his term has expired. As Obi-wan told or rather tried to tell Anakin “Something is out of place.” Meanwhile, with Count Dooku dead, the Separatists leaders are now taking orders directly from Darth Sidious. Later, we finally learn that Palpatine and Darth Sidious, the leaders of the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems respectively, are actually the same person. He was behind everything from the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo to the Clone War.

How come it wasn’t figured out before?

“Palpatine appears to be a hard-working politician -- and when you say the word politician, immediately you think about equivocation, which is the nature of the job. But at the same time, I know that underneath all that is an evil soul. The undercurrents are always there in his mind and in his gut. Everything he does is an act of pure hypocrisy, and that's interesting to play. I suppose it's rather like playing Iago. All the characters in the play -- including Othello until the end -- think that ‘Honest Iago’ is a decent guy doing his job, and he's quite liked. But at the same time there's a tremendous evil subconscious in operation.”

-Ian McDiarmid

The answer is that on the surface, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious appear to be two completely different people. You can tell almost immediately that Darth Sidious is the villain by his black robe, sinister demeanor, and harsh, raspy voice giving orders. Palpatine, on the other hand, is warm, friendly and charming. We never see him badmouth anyone, and is always polite, professional and friendly towards the people he interacts with, especially a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker. Basically, he is everyone’s favorite politician. Of course, that is just the mask he wears in public. Palpatine is just the performance while Sidious is his real identity. After his battle with Mace Windu, he dons a cloak that he wears in public showing that from then on, Palpatine and Sidious were one and the same. It could be argued that up to Revenge of the Sith, there were signs pointing to who Palpatine actually was.

Firstly, in Phantom Menace, we see Sidious talk with Maul on Coruscant, and in Attack of the Clones, we see Dooku land on Coruscant at an isolated facility to meet with Sidious. In other words, Sidious dwells on Coruscant, which would seemingly be a strange place for the leader of the Separatists to reside.

(Palpatine in Episodes I-III, left to right)

Secondly, let’s look at Palpatine’s wardrobe in Episodes I-III. Lucas often uses black and white colored clothing to show where characters are on the moral spectrum with Luke and Leia wearing white, Vader all in black and Han in black and white in A New Hope as one example. Look at the prequels, and you see Palpatine’s wardrobe get progressively darker with each installment, with Palpatine wearing the colors of red and black, and it is also the color scheme of his office. Both colors are associated with the Sith.

Finally, one must look at Palpatine’s scenes throughout the prequels beginning with the Phantom Menace.

PALPATINE: If I may say so, Your Majesty, the chancellor has little real power. He is mired by baseless accusations of corruption. The bureaucrats are in charge now.

AMIDALA: What options have we?

PALPATINE: Our best choice would be to push for the election of a stronger supreme chancellor, one who could control the bureaucrats and give us justice. You could call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum.

AMIDALA: He has been our strongest supporter.

When Palpatine first suggests removing Supreme Chancellor Valorum, Queen Amidala refuses. However, he does plant seeds of doubt by highlighting Supreme Chancellor Valorum’s scandals and supposed weakness.

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Note the scene above after Valorum fails to get any concrete action taken over ending the Trade Federation’s blockade. Palpatine, by whispering the words to a frustrated Amidala “This is where Chancellor Valorum’s strength will disappear,” manages to get her to do what he originally suggested, and call for a vote of no confidence to remove Valorum from office. He is then conveniently nominated to run for Valorum’s office at the same time, and then perhaps more conveniently, manages to win thanks to the sympathy vote over the situation of his planet being the one suffering from the blockade.

One scene in Attack of the Clones has the viewer focused on the giant millipedes in Padme’s room sent to kill her, usually missing Obi-wan’s words on Palpatine in the background: “I have observed that he is very clever in following the passions and the prejudices of the senators.” Kenobi’s words suggest that there is more to this man than just the polite, warm face we often see, but a cunning political operator who manages to successfully gauge the members of the Galactic Senate and win their favor.

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Lucas also places a subtle hint at the end of Attack of the Clones. We see Palpatine overlooking the deployment of an army of clone troopers (who by their clear resemblance are the precursors to the stormtroopers) after he has been given greater power by the Senate, demonstrating the magnitude of the power he has now. Viewers can miss that the Imperial March from the original trilogy is playing in the background of this scene. It’s practically as if Lucas is saying “This is the beginning of the Empire.”

Then there is Kenobi’s talk with Dooku after he is captured.

DOOKU: He knew all about the corruption in the senate... but he would never have gone along with it if he had learned the truth as I have.

KENOBI: The truth?

DOOKU: The truth. What if I told you that the Republic... was now under the control of the dark lord of the Sith?

KENOBI: No, that's not possible. The Jedi would be aware of it.

DOOKU: The dark side of the Force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of senators are now under the influence... of a Sith lord called Darth Sidious.

Dooku stated that Darth Sidious controlled the Republic with the Senate under his influence. As to who Sidious could be and how he controls the Republic, well, who usually leads the Republic? Answer: the Supreme Chancellor. Take into account Obi-wan’s observation about Palpatine earlier in the film, and Palpatine undoubtedly knew how to make himself popular among the Senators and increase his influence. It was seen when he successfully managed to get the Senate to grant him emergency power with the measure being greeted with applause.

By the end of the prequels, Palpatine manages to turn Anakin, wipe out the Jedi Order and turn the Old Republic into the Galactic Empire. In short, he’s effectively won. He is one of the few villains whose evil plan actually succeeds.

Reign as Emperor

When he becomes emperor he proves to be a megalomaniacal, repressive tyrant. His empire could best be described as a human-supremacist, fascist dictatorship. He overturned many of the norms and taboos of the Old Republic when he turned it into the Empire. The Old Republic outlawed slavery while Palpatine regularly employed it in the Empire as the Wookies can attest to. The Old Republic, like any modern democracy, guaranteed certain rights to its citizens like due process whereas the Empire engaged in indefinite detention and extrajudicial execution. Darth Vader demonstrated that not even Imperial soldiers and high-ranking officers were safe from being extrajudicially executed. The Senate had representatives for every system and nearly every race in the Republic to ensure that every group had their voice heard, whereas Palpatine banned the Senate with nothing in the form of a representative body to replace it, and the powers of the Senate went to the Imperial military and governors who were overwhelmingly human males with practically no aliens or women within their ranks.

Like many rulers throughout history, Palpatine would go on to build a kind of monument to his rule. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs’ rule was epitomized by grand projects like the Pyramids to ensure both a good journey to the afterlife, and a demonstration of their wealth and power. Palpatine went even further with his rule being epitomized by the Death Star, a gargantuan space station the size of a small moon capable of destroying entire planets that served as both a demonstration of his power, and for the more practical, if not evil, purpose of ruling the galaxy through the direct threat of force with any disobedient worlds potentially being punished with complete annihilation. He tellingly banned the Senate, the last vestige of the Old Republic, shortly after completion of the Death Star’s construction. He effectively sent the message that the Republic and its rule by representation had completely ceased to exist, and been replaced by the Empire with its “rule by fear.” By that point, his rule had become naked tyranny.

Fall

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Palpatine comes to Endor to ostensibly oversee the completion of the second Death Star, when in truth it is a plan to get the Rebel Alliance to launch an all-out assault and crush the Rebellion, and turn Luke to the dark side, making him his new apprentice. In the former, he underestimates the resourcefulness of the Rebels. In the latter, he misjudged Luke and perhaps, more grossly, he misjudged Vader. He had successfully manipulated people his whole life, and it came as a surprise when for perhaps the first time, one of his machinations failed. He was of course enraged at Luke’s rejection. With his “you’re either with me or against me attitude,” he then decided that if Luke wouldn’t turn then he had to die. To kill him, Palpatine used Force lightning as opposed to Force choking like Vader often did, simply because he wanted Luke to suffer for the bruising Luke did to his ego.

While Palpatine is an intelligent mastermind, he is still human, and actually slips in this scene, as he is overcome with uncontrollable rage to the point that it clouds his better judgement. Namely, he forgot that Vader was still there. In that moment, he failed to take into account how a man he knew slaughtered an entire village over his mother’s death and was willing to wipe out the Jedi Order to save his wife, would respond to seeing his son writhing and screaming in agony. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Vader wouldn’t feel comfortable witnessing that, and if Vader wanted it to stop, he would have no choice, but to turn on the Emperor since Palpatine was completely set on killing Luke, and wouldn’t have stopped even if Vader pleaded him to do so. Palpatine unwittingly put Vader in a position where he’d have to choose between his master and his son, and Vader ultimately chose his son. Palpatine’s reign ends up coming to an end when he is killed at the hands of his own apprentice.

Personality

Palpatine has some of Yoda’s qualities in that he is patient, calm, disciplined and intelligent. Both wear robes, and devote themselves to the Force, although Palpatine devoted himself to the dark side. Yoda used his abilities to devote his life in service to the galaxy while Palpatine used his abilities to devote his life to taking over and dominating the galaxy. He is the embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force. The end goal of the Dark Side is to dominate and control others. Palpatine has been about control his whole life with his ultimate goals being to dominate the galaxy, and his apprentice, Vader. However, in the end he proved he couldn’t achieve total control over either.

"He has a black irredeemable heart. There's nothing that can be said about him that's good. When we first saw Vader in the original trilogy we thought he was the heart of darkness, and nobody could be darker. But now we understand what happened to him. And one of the exciting things about seeing this movie is that you can follow Vader through Anakin's journey every step of the way even if you don't agree with the choices he's making. In part, his decisions stem from his traumatic childhood, and his impatient lust for power. And it's that which my character takes and then uses against him . . . I've been trying to find a redeeming feature to Palpatine, and the only one I've got so far is that he's clearly a patron of the arts because he goes to the opera"

-Ian McDiarmid on Palpatine

As a character, unlike his apprentice Darth Vader, Palpatine is a completely black villain with no redemptive qualities. We never see him show any compassion or empathy, and his aims are completely selfish, even willing to put others in harm’s way to achieve his goals. Palpatine is the personification of what psychologists call the dark tetrad. When psychologists were trying to list the traits of evil they came up with three, and later four traits:

Narcissism- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual states that narcissists tend to act with grandiosity and self-importance, with a fixation on unlimited success, control, brilliance, or beauty, among many other things. Palpatine had grandiose plans for being the Emperor of the entire galaxy, as the actor who portrayed him, Ian McDiarmid, stated "Palpatine's an interesting character; he's conventional on the outside, but demonic on the inside -- he's on the edge, trying to go beyond what's possible." He sees himself as inherently superior, never seeing others as equals, but either as tools for or impediments to his own schemes. In Dr. Marie-Line Germain’s Narcissism at Work: Personality Disorders of Corporate Leaders, she states that narcissists often look attractive in a workplace setting, because they tend to be workaholics, clever, charming, and charismatic. They also excel at managing crises and at developing a brand. Palpatine possesses these traits as he manages crises well, albeit the ones he manufactured, and manages to sell himself to the Senate and public, appearing to be charming and charismatic. Dr. Germain further says "That is, power, influence, wealth, and fame — and beauty when it’s the case — reinforce their perception that they are exceptional individuals with exceptional talent and qualities and therefore, they deserve the best of everything," or in other words, when narcissists rise in power, their narcissistic traits increase. After Palpatine becomes Emperor, he basically acts like he owns the galaxy. He makes himself royalty complete with a palace. Dr. Germain also notes that "Once they get what they want from [employees] or if they call on them for their bad behaviors, they will discard them," and we see Palpatine basically do this to everyone involved in his schemes, particularly in Revenge of the Sith. After Dooku and the Separatists have served their purpose in his plans he literally discards them by having Anakin dispatch them. He does this to the Jedi, and later in A New Hope, the Senate, albeit, by disbanding the Senate rather than killing off the Senators.

Psychopathy- Psychopaths life often, using conning and manipulation for their own gain. Palpatine practically lied to everyone in the Galactic Senate, the Jedi and the Separatists, giving them false impressions when he had clearly different plans in mind. He doesn’t appear to express any empathy or compassion towards anyone, the only times he appears to do so, it is clearly insincere. Palpatine was willing to have his own planet blockaded and invaded to become Supreme Chancellor, and was willing to start a galactic civil war that resulted in the death and suffering of billions just to become Emperor. Palpatine, like psychopaths tend to do, thinks he is superior to everyone else, treating them as tools to be used and discarded at will. Psychopaths are also known to have short-tempers, and can display excessive anger, but only if challenged or someone gets in the way of their goal. When we see Luke refuse Palpatine’s offer of becoming his apprentice, that is when we see the normally controlled Palpatine go into a rage. Of course, Palpatine for the most part is a controlled psychopath.

Machiavellianism- People with this trait are pragmatic and manipulative. Palpatine had this in spades as he was shown in the prequels to be pragmatic by playing the long game to become Emperor of the galaxy. He was also shown to be incredibly manipulative from manipulating Padme into calling for a removal of the Supreme Chancellor and turning Anakin to the dark side to manipulating the Separatists into starting a war and the Senate into making giving him more power. Machiavellians prize power and wealth over relationships, focusing only on their own ambitions and interests. They often lack principles and values, and lie and deceive when required. McDiarmid commented “It's not so much about not having a moral center, it's just that the only thing that mattered is increasing power.” We’ve never seen Palpatine have much of anything in the way of a real relationship, and he prioritizes taking over the galaxy and his own self-aggrandizement over anything else. The actual Machiavelli would have given Palpatine praise for his machinations in his rise to power, but not for his actions after he became Emperor.

Sadism- In Return of the Jedi, after Palpatine utters the line “And now young Skywalker, you will die” he gives a little smile, showing that he is enjoying torturing Luke with Force lightning. One sees him smiling and laughing after Yoda is lying on the floor from a blast from his Force lightning in Revenge of the Sith. This is someone who clearly enjoys inflicting pain.

Palpatine is a bit like Han Solo in that he is out solely for himself, but unlike Solo, he doesn’t feel any real loyalty or care towards anyone. His line in Return of the Jedi: “His compassion for you will be his undoing,” shows that he regards compassion as a weakness, and he betrayed practically everyone who ever worked with him from the Separatists and his apprentices to his home planet and the Galactic Republic. One can judge just by looking at his treatment of his apprentices that he treats people as tools to be used for achieving his personal aims, and willingly discards them for the same reason. He has his apprentices killed off as soon as a younger, stronger candidate appears, and he has the Separatists pool their resources to support his plan, only to have them murdered in the end. He has the Senate make him Emperor, only to ban it after the completion of the Death Star so as to rule more directly through military force. You can find tyrants like him throughout history.

Historical Parallels:

Palpatine turning the Old Republic into the Empire in the prequels draws from actual history. History is full of republics turning into dictatorships and monarchies from Rome of antiquity to Germany of modern-day.

(Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus)

First, let’s look at Ancient Rome. Rome turning from a republic into an empire is well-known to anyone who has a basic understanding of Western history. The Old Republic borrows from the Roman Republic as evidenced by a unicameral legislature known as the Senate. Palpatine takes his name from "Palatine" the center of the seven hills of ancient Rome, which served as a site of several Roman imperial palaces. During times of crisis, the Senators would pick a dictator who was given emergency powers for a temporary period of time, and he was expected to return his power after his term expired or the crisis was resolved. Eventually, you had someone like Julius Caesar who maintained popularity and an army to make himself dictator for life. In Star Wars, the Galactic Senate gave emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor with the expectation that he would return them when the crisis in the form of the Clone War ended, but like Caesar, Palpatine never gave up his power but made himself dictator for life. Julius Caesar, as well as his nephew Augustus, maintained control over the Roman Republic by commanding the personal loyalty of the Roman legions, since it is a cardinal rule that any government cannot survive without a monopoly on armed force. Palpatine likewise had control over the government through his popularity among the Senate, and commanding an army of clone troopers that he had under his direct control as Commander-in-Chief. As he said "I am the Senate” given the amount of influence he had among the Senate as well as executive power he had, and with the Grand Army of the Republic, he had the military power to effectively challenge any opponent to his rule, including the Jedi.

"Germany in the 1920s was you know the most civilized, at the peak of Western civilization, in the arts, in the sciences, highly democratic, functioning democratic institutions. A decade later, it was, you know, the pits of human history.”

- Noam Chomsky

Let’s look at a more modern example with the transformation of the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany. Lucas borrowed a lot from the Nazis to create the Empire from the black uniforms with skullcaps of the Imperial officers to the name of Imperial troops coming from the paramilitary of the Nazi Party. The Empire had a fascination with superweapons like Death Stars while the Nazis worked on building weapons Europe hadn’t seen before like V rockets, early construction on an atom bomb and a massive multi-chamber gun, the V-3. That is without mentioning that in a galaxy with multitudes of intelligent species, the Imperial military is seemingly made up entirely of white men. Both are also fascist, bigoted regimes as Palpatine’s Empire was speciest just as Hitler’s was racist and anti-Semitic.

Like Palpatine, Hitler became Chancellor before becoming dictator. Hitler drummed up fear through the threat of Jewish and Communist subversion just as Palpatine played on the fears of a galactic civil war. As with any dictatorship, the first targets for persecution are the ones most likely to oppose the regime. In February 27, 1933, Hitler had the Reichstag burned down, blamed it on the German Communists in an attempt to take over the German government and then used the false flag attack to target the left-wing Strasserites of the Nazi Party who were purged in the Night of the Long Knives, and the German Communists who became the first ones put into concentration camps. Palpatine engineered the “assassination attempt” on himself so he could enact a campaign against the group most likely to effectively oppose his rule when he made himself Emperor: the Jedi. He pushed the tale that the Jedi were trying to overthrow the Republic, and used it to justify his campaign to wipe out the Jedi. He would have many Jedi killed off through Order 66, where like the Night of the Long Knives, the element of surprise was crucial. One month after the Reichstag fire, Hitler passed the Enabling Act, which dissolved the Reichstag, ended democratic rule and effectively turned Germany into a dictatorship. Palpatine likewise made himself Emperor turning the Republic into a dictatorship, and would go on to disband the Senate. After Hitler gained power, he violated the Treaty of Versailles which restricted the German military to no more than 100,000 men with no heavy guns, armored vehicles submarines or capital ships, by expanding and rearming the German military. Palpatine had to deal with the fact that the Republic had no military when he first became Supreme Chancellor, and subsequently had a clone army built. After he became Emperor, Palpatine would go on to expand the Imperial military, going so far as to create a certain planet-destroying superweapon to cement his rule (Hitler likewise was obsessed with V rockets). Hitler would go on to replace his title of Chancellor with Fuhrer (Leader) while Palpatine would replace his title of Supreme Chancellor with Emperor.

The events that led to the turning of republics into dictatorships was often war, and it has been noted that in any republic, including the US, the executive branch is most powerful during war. Palpatine knew this, and started the Clone War resulting in the Senate giving him emergency powers. As the war dragged on, the Senate voted increasingly to give the office of the Supreme Chancellor more power, and extend his term in office, in effect removing the limitations on the power of the Supreme Chancellor until eventually he became a dictator.

If you think it couldn’t happen today, take into account that in the United States, the executive branch has been noted to become increasingly more powerful over the decades. Presidents have been able to engage in military action in other countries without approval from the legislative branch, Congress, from Truman getting involved in the Korean War and Nixon bombing Cambodia and Laos to Obama engaging in regime change in Libya and Trump firing missiles into Syria. After the 9/11 attacks, the PATRIOT Act was passed that infringed on the Fourth Amendment with the NSA monitoring citizens’ phone calls without so much as a warrant. President Obama managed to authorize the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike despite being an American citizen entitled to due process, and not convicted or charged with a crime. In France, the emergency measures taken after terrorist attacks resulted in emergency measures that were arguably intended to be temporary, but were voted to be made permanent. The measures increase the powers of executives over surveillance, public space and searches at the expense of the rights of French citizens. Human Rights Watch criticized the move, saying:

The bill would grant increased powers to prefects, the interior minister’s local representatives, to designate public spaces as security zones, limiting who could enter and leave them; to limit the movement of people considered a national security threat; to close mosques and other places of worship; and to search private property.

The courts would have no role in approving the use of the first three powers, although there would be a limited right of appeal for orders limiting where a person has to live and for closing places of worship. A judge will have limited oversight of search powers. The lack of time limits and the bill’s vague definitions of terrorism and threats to national security exacerbates the concerns.

When the executive branch increasingly gains more power, and the government passes measures that sacrifice the principles and rights to its citizens it was founded on, then it is a republic potentially on a path towards a dictatorship. Once a government or authority figures is/are given increased power, they will be reluctant to give up that power. Even if they know the new powers given are only meant to be temporary, the temptation to retain them is great, even after the emergency or crisis is resolved. If they don’t want to give up their power, then taking it back will have already been made more difficult given handing over more power to them usually results in widening the gap in power that exists between the government and its people, or the executive branch and the other branches.

Final Thoughts

Palpatine is easily one of the most memorable and entertaining characters in Star Wars. You got to see all sides of him as a villain: happy, charming, manipulative, angry and menacing. He was menacing and devious in one moment, and charming and likable in the next. He managed to be one of the blackest of villains without the viewer knowing for two and a half films. Having a situation where a seemingly good character turns out to be a hidden villain can have mixed success, but in the Star Wars prequels it absolutely works. Palpatine proves to be so successful precisely because he was the threat that no one saw coming. His story effectively manages to serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers inherent in increasing government power at the expense of democratic principles, given there will always be ambitious people like Palpatine willing to exploit it. He is an enjoyable character, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t think that there will ever be a villain in Star Wars as impactful as him. He will always be an indispensable part of the Star Wars mythos.

May the Fourth be With You.

Sources:

Keen, Tony. (2012). I, Sidious: Historical Dictators and Palpatine's Rise to Power. In Astore, William; Decker, Kevin; Leidl, Janice, Star Wars and History (p. 125-150). Hoboken: Wiley.

Langley, Travis. (2015). The Good, the Bad and the Scruffy: Can We Define Good and Evil?. In Langley, Travis, Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind (popular Culture Psychology) (p. 10). New York: Sterling.

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doorsclosingslowly · 5 years ago

Text

Your death is a number but I cannot count that high (9/15)

Meanwhile: Obi-Wan meets a monster.

Zombie Savage AU | 2.9k | warnings for graphic body horror, dehumanization, past child abuse | also on AO3

If this was an ordinary afternoon, the choked-off screams of clone soldiers over the radio would have been the first sign that something is going wrong. It isn’t: Obi-Wan has been suffering a pressure headache for nigh-on two hours now, triggered when the air grew foul with the presence of unshielded corruption, distinct even against the general lingering taste of the war. A malignant wail, longing and piercing. Desolation. A hole in the living force. A burning maelstrom of loss and terror and the anticipation of rest.

Not Sith, though, not quite: warping the force around itself, hungry for death, completely unlike the refined calm of Count Dooku or Darth Maul’s excitement at facing Qui-Gon or even the unhinged violence of the animal, all grown up and returned, murdering Satine right in front of Obi-Wan’s eyes. This new presence is not rational.

“General Kenobi, we’re under—aargh!” The radio splutters, and the voice dies. Another: “Retreat! Retreat!” Then, a plea. “Why doesn’t it karking die?!”

The screaming on the comms is not the first sign that something is wrong, no. If it was, though, the mere fact that Obi-Wan can see the enemy approaching now, only a few minutes after they must have touched down on embattled Entralla, with barely enough time for Obi-Wan to wake and pick up armor and ‘saber and run towards the explosions—that the attack has already passed the perimeter of the base camp… that it’s one single shape, too, and it has mowed through seasoned commandos as if they were not even an inconvenience… no, this is not an ordinary afternoon.

Quickly, it’s not just a shape anymore. Obi-Wan can see the creature now. It’s stomping through blaster-fire, too ungainly to deflect it, exactly like the day they met. Back then, it looked like complete incompetence—an unwise betrayal of Dooku on Dooku’s own ship, and there were too many droids for the untrained Sith to parry. Desperate grunts of pain. Escape.

Now, there’s not even an attempt to protect itself.

Bolts, hundreds of blaster bolts, enough that they would have cooked any man, sizzle uselessly on half-covered skin and new writhing metal cables. They take a chunk out of the right shoulder. The creature flinches, but it does not stop advancing. Instead, it is gradually engulfed with spurts of bright green light, and then, when the light dims, the hole in the shoulder is gone. No. Obi-Wan looks more closely. Not gone. A piece of plastoid—a clone trooper’s helmet, warped and dripping blood with its individualist paint chipped off beyond recognition, Obi-Wan realizes with horror—is wedged in there, wrapping into and over the wound almost protectively.

The creature is still mostly obscured by green miasma and the thick stinking animus that swirls around its body in the force, but Obi-Wan knows that face. (Knows it well, indelibly, an impassive background scowl while a blade is driven through the chest of—)

It’s Savage Opress.

Count Dooku’s traitor zabrak acolyte, who disappeared and returned as Darth Maul’s henchman, and then, supposedly, disappeared once more.

(Communications out of Mandalore are patchy and rare now, after Obi-Wan failed his mission and fled. After the death of its Duchess. Of Satine. The fall of kind Mandalore to terror and Sith.

A few days ago, though, Obi-Wan received a terse, smuggled communiqué sent by Bo-Katan Kryze. “Outsider gone. Mandalore fully under Nite Owl control. Death Watch scattered.” Obi-Wan allowed himself a sigh of tentative relief at the news, but in retrospect—he’d fallen for that once already. It would have been too much to hope that Obi-Wan would never see Maul or Savage Opress ever again.)

Opress is only a few meters away now, on the other side of the empty space in the middle of the camp’s tents.

He’s—it’s impossible to shake the impression that, even at this distance, Ob-Wan should be able to smell fire and maggots and freshly rotted flesh. It’s not just the white plastoid helmet of a dead man plugging up a shoulder wound. It’s not just the green light making him appear sickly. It’s not just that whatever happened seems to have shriveled him a head size.

The Sith is a trash heap strewn over a day-old battlefield, all punctured unoozing skin and haphazard scraps of durasteel. Bare red muscle tissue peeks through in places, and his armor, still on, is much worse for wear, its metal plates separated and ragged and softly swaying with the breeze, only there is no breeze, and metal doesn’t sway. It looks like chitinous insects, wriggling, eating.

Cables drip like black blood from a deadly-looking hole in his chest—no, it’s not a trick of appearance but an actual mortal wound, Obi-Wan recognizes dizzily, straight through the heart, only that can’t be right. One can’t live without any functioning hearts, and the zabrak’s other organ is plugged—punctured—by scraps of a lightsaber hilt.

This can’t be right.

Opress shouldn’t still be moving.

He is.

The creature finally comes to a rest an arm’s length away from Obi-Wan, unimpeded by the bombardment of blaster fire that’s almost singeing Obi-Wan himself at this range. His yellow bloodshot eyes blink and focus. Then, the living corpse of Savage Opress rumbles, “I hate you.”

Apparently, there are things even death won’t change.

The grin tugging his facial muscles is automatic. Obi-Wan hopes it looks insouciant, and not like someone attempting and barely managing to keep his last meal down. “You came all this way to tell me? I’m flattered.”

Voices explode in Obi-Wan’s earpiece again, worried chatter: General, should we—you can’t seriously consider—weapons ready on your command—it’s dangerous—General, please… He shakes his head. Whispers, “No. Wait. Hold.” The fire ceases.

‘No’: not now. Not yet. Something else has brought the Sith here to proclaim the obvious, and there is the green light to consider and the cables to investigate: the impossible reality that Opress’ putrid existence outlasted the skewering of his vital organs. Obi-Wan recalls a dusty tome on the foul marriage of flesh and droid he’d once hastily pulled from its stack in the Jedi temple library after the reappearance of Maul, lower half severed in a way no ordinary prosthetics should have been able to compensate for. No-one listened to Obi-Wan then. No-one wanted to believe the apparent return of the eccentric darkside perversion called mechu-deru. Obi-Wan should have expected it to get even worse. These days, everything does.

‘No’: no danger. There is no intent behind these words, none of the violence one would expect from a creature of Savage Opress’ caliber. Instead, the statement is old and tired and long resigned to its own impotence. Curious.

This is plainly not a death threat, and so, he will give Opress—or what’s left of him—more time to explain his purpose.

Not that the Sith is in any hurry to get to the point.

“I hate you,” he growls. Light glints when he shakes his head: for an inscrutable purpose, whoever did this to him embedded a shard of metal near the bridge of his nose, three in his right cheek, one over his left carotid artery. “I hate you. You mutilated my brother, you cut him down and you left him fighting for survival, alone and helpless, in a trash heap for ten years.”

Obi-Wan winces. True. Necessary, and nothing undeserved, but true.

“I want you to die. You hurt my little brother, and you laughed. I like your new legs, you said. I heard you! I don’t—I found him mumbling and scared and starving and alone, and there was pus flecking his belly where the metal was digging into it and I couldn’t go near because he was… and you said you liked his new…” Opress looks lost. There is real emotion now in those yellow-devil eyes, a grief howling and insatiable, and Obi-Wan has to remind himself that he is facing a Sith.

A Sith who, instead of making good on his words, slowly reins himself in.

“But I also learned… you didn’t torture him because you wanted him tortured. It was just what you are. You filled your role. A Jedi, fighting a Sith. I want you dead, but… I need…” Opress swallows. His left hand, chipped and half-melted metal—Obi-Wan remembers cutting it off, targeting Savage’s weak defenses to distract Maul—the hand trembles violently. “You didn’t… You didn’t steal a baby from his family. You didn’t punch that baby in the face, over and over and over and over.” He’s breathing wildly now, thick spittle dripping off his fangs and through a tear in the muscle of his left cheek, and the cables hanging from out his ribcage sway and rise and softly caress his slaughterhouse shoulder, as if they were animated by a need to comfort him.

Obi-Wan feels almost voyeuristic watching it, listening in: once he travelled to Dathomir in the hope of learning more about the creature of his worst nightmares, his deepest loss, trying to figure out what drives Maul’s zealous hatred in order to stop him. It didn’t do much good then, and it couldn’t have, if Savage is to be believed. Stolen away. Tortured.

The explanation is rough-hewn, bare-boned, intimate, and it feels like more than Obi-Wan was ever supposed to know.

Savage Opress continues, “You didn’t convince him that it’s normal. That you’re making him strong by punching him. You didn’t stomp on his hands, and you didn’t keep hurting him, until it’s thirty years later and he still wakes from nightmares he can’t tell me about because that would be weak, and Sith are not weak. You can’t—he’s not a Sith! He’s my little brother! He was...” The voice breaks.

Tortured. Stolen. Baby. There’s something taking shape in Obi-Wan’s mind, and he shivers: Maul was the Sith apprentice, and there’s another Sith Lord at the heart of the war. There is still regret in the Temple, at Dooku, a respected Jedi Master, being led astray, but Savage is talking about Maul’s childhood—not the enslavement on Dathomir, like Obi-Wan had guessed and pitied, but something much worse—and Maul was already fully grown on Naboo.

Dooku had left the Order after Qui-Gon’s murder, and then he fell. That’s the story. He’d been well-regarded before that, cordial to his grand-padawan, not warm, but he’d cared deeply for Master Qui-Gon, and once he’d given Obi-Wan a stonenut biscuit.

Yet, apparently, he’d abducted and tortured a child, years before that.

It is a shock, that the rot goes this far back.

“The monster came to Mandalore, and my brother was terrified. I could feel it. And the monster slaughtered him. You never cared about that. You don’t. You didn’t help him. You didn’t… But you didn’t kill my brother. You did not kill all of Dathomir.”

“I see,” says Obi-Wan. There’s nothing else to say. He hasn’t heard anything about an attack on Dathomir, Separatist or otherwise, but there’s no reason why he would have. It’s just a backwater world of force witches and slaves.

He hasn’t heard anything about Maul’s death.

It should be a relief. It’s a just death, Obi-Wan knows, for Qui-Gon, for Satine, for all the corpses on Raydonia, but it’s hard to find righteous satisfaction in present company. The force is a maelstrom gaping with hunger and loss, and the word ‘brother’ shimmers, twists. It is a baby, eagerly gnawing an index finger. It’s a spider scuttling and trembling away. It’s a broken promise. It’s love, love, love. Opress never used to be this powerful. Obi-Wan concentrates, for a moment, on his shields.

“I want you dead, Kenobi,” Savage Opress rants, and out slip green smoke and thin strands of saliva through purpling undead lips. “I want you dead. I want Sidious to beg for mercy. The Mother created me to be her weapon, She raised me to wreak Her revenge, and I cannot die until I tear out his lying tongue. Until his bones break and his skin sloughs off. I’ve been hurt. I know pain, and he will feel it. I want him to beg, I want him to weep, and then I will show exactly as much mercy as he showed my little brother.”

“And you—came to me?”

Opress shrugs. “You’re a Jedi. You want the Sith dead too. You know your role. You’ll help. I don’t know where Sidious is yet, and a weapon must find its target to be effective.”

He’s proposing an alliance, then. Obi-Wan wants to laugh incredulously, imagines the pleasure of rejecting him—a blade pierces Satine’s chest, and in the background, uncaring, Savage scowls—the utter pleasure he’d have felt yesterday, and that is how he knows he can’t. It’s a desire, selfish and in vain, and he knows his duty to the galaxy. Besides, it wouldn’t be in her memory, if it’s what may end the war. He lets go of the impulse.

“If we could find Dooku that easily, the war would have been won by now,” Obi-Wan argues instead, softly.

Savage frowns. “No, not Master Dooku—” he spits the name— “not him. His Master. Dooku’s Master. I heard Dooku talking to him, to Sidious, before I knew what he did to my brother. Taking orders. He didn’t know I could—that I wasn’t unconscious anymore. I didn’t move. I’m not stupid. I heard. I saw. Sidious. No beard, a human, with cloak and wrinkles and snide soft words. That’s who Maul begs—begged for mercy, in his nightmares. That’s who came to Mandalore.”

Another Sith lord. This is getting worse and worse. Only two there are, one to embody power and one to crave it, or at least that’s what Obi-Wan learnt when he was young. We should have known that it’s a trick. Only two, but how many has Obi-Wan himself faced? Maul. Dooku. Ventress. Opress. Grievous.

And now, this Sidious, Master to Maul and Dooku.

Yet another Sith.

More than another Sith, even: the creature at the center of the web, completely unknown.

Fuck.

The Council needs to know, immediately. Obi-Wan needs to find out more. He needs to keep Savage Opress here, keep him talking, the only man who appears to know anything about this Sidious. He needs to—

Unless—no. Obi-Wan looks up at Savage’s face, eyes fever-bright and some sort of dark insect wriggling into the deep scratches in his cheek. No. It’s not just another Sithly misdirection. There are no tells, no signs of a lie. Of unholy mutilation, yes, of the sort of force magic that would need to be studied immediately under any other circumstance—"the Mother raised me,” he said, raised him, it appears increasingly, from the dead, a power unheard of in all of Obi-Wan’s research even into mechu-deru—a magic like Maul’s forcedriven droid parts except far more twisted and degraded; but not a lie.

“We must find this Sidious immediately,” Obi-Wan says.

Savage nods.

“How do you propose we do that? You accosted me. I assume you have a plan.”

“You know the galaxy better than I do,” Savage admits. “My brother told me that Sidious is rich. Very. He has several bases. Maul was kept on the planet of Mustafar at first, he mentioned, and there are several offices somewhere called Coruscant. That’s where he was, most of the time. Contacts to Orsis, too, and to some Hive prison where Maul was forced to—they’re destroyed now. He’s a politician. Maul flinches—flinched at some accents. I asked someone to look up where those people were from. It’s Naboo. Sidious is from Naboo.”

“Not from a Separatist world?”

Savage blinks at him, as if the expectation that the puppet master of the leader of the Confederation of Independent Systems was a Separatist is completely out of the blue. It’s…

The fatigue feels ancient now, everlasting, but the war is less than two years old. That’s not enough for propaganda to deeply penetrate. Why expect the personal alignment of anyone to coincide with their home planet’s choice? Of course Sidious could have been from anywhere, could live on any planet, and for millennia, Coruscant was the undisputed lone center of power. What better location for a Sith Lord?

“That does narrow it down,” Obi-Wan says encouragingly when Savage stops and frowns. Opens it up too, to all the people that stayed within the Republic, but that’s a positive if it puts them on the right track. Not Separatist, then, but Naboo, possibly, and rich, human, old, male. One in a million instead of several quadrillions is much better starting odds, and if they manage to correlate property holdings on Coruscant and Mustafar, provided he’s not going through too many shell companies… It’s much more than Obi-Wan had a minute ago. Still, time is of the essence, and so he adds, probing for anything else, “Albeit not quite to one person.”

“It—” Savage bites his ravaged lip and looks away. Disappointed, not surprised, steeling himself. There’s a backup plan. “I’ve—seen his face. I don’t recognize it. You might.”

“You’re proposing—”

“You have… the force,” Savage whispers. Obi-Wan wonders distantly what he was going to say instead. The armor-shards and cables and scraps jitter, bracing for an attack, and Savage fails to square his juddering shoulders. “You can breach into my head.”

#Zombie Savage AU #Savage Opress #dimtraces makes things

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aniseandspearmint · 7 years ago

Note

So with all that Naruto you reblogged I thought - mentor swap, Naruto gets Obi Wan and Anakin gets Kakashi, how do you think that would go?

Hmmmm, let’s see... Let’s put this in the context of a fusion, with the Naruto verse characters transposed into star wars.

First, some background, setting the stage if you will.

Jedi Knight Kakashi Hatake is the son of retired Knight Sakumo Hatake, and I’m thinking their story is just as tragic this time around. Sakumo went into the diplomatic corps after he met Kakashi’s mother, and was eventually ‘responsible’ for inciting major genocidal war on some planet because of a misread situation and it was either hand his diplomatic team over to be executed or start a war. The story was leaked to the press, and he was branded a galactic pariah overnight. Cue terrible Naruto canon running it’s course.

Kakashi, having no living family, is taken into the creche and our little genius vows to be the perfect jedi, and follow all the rules and never leave the order like his father did, because clearly that was a bad choice for his father (because Kakashi is not Kakashi without his crippling father issues).

I’m thinking he’s a year or two older than Obi-wan, but maybe in the same clan? IDK how that works actually. My memory of the Apprentice books is like 18 years old, lols. Say it works that way, anyway. They know each other.

But while Obi-wan is solidly in the middle top of his class, Kakashi _soars_ above the rest. The the teachers can’t keep up with him, and by the time the youngling is nine he’s already taking classes meant for children five or six years older.

It’s a relief when Sentinel Knight Minato Namikaze bumps into the kid in a hall one day and a padawan bond snaps into place like lightning.

Kakashi grows up under the care of a alternately fluffheaded and terrifyingly intelligent Knight, who cheerfully pulls him into trouble and teaches him that sometimes the rules need to be knocked out and shoved out an airlock (and that his father made the only choice a Jedi could, plight of the many over the few be damned. War would have happened no matter the choice he made).

Kakashi and Knight Namikaze spend most of their time trolling the rim for pirates and slavers, often joined by Master Healer Tsunade and her Padawan Rin Nohara (she likes to keep her hand in the fight despite being next in line for Temple Healing Master) and by Sentinel Knight Kushina Uzumaki (a Noorian woman with long fiery red hair and violet and orange-red striped eyes) and her Padawan Obito.

The Padawans figure out pretty quickly that there's Something Going On between Minato and Kushina, and almost as quickly determine that they’re *gasp* married. It takes Obito and Rin sitting on Kakashi for a while to defeat his kneejerk impulse to tattle to the temple, but they manage to talk him out of it.

((“Master Tsunade clearly knows,” Rin argues, “And if she knows, so do Master Orochimaru and Master Jiraiya, and they haven’t told yet so it’s okay, dammit Kakashi, stop squirming! Ow, why are your elbows so pointy?!?!”))

Then there’s a massive natural disaster on a little no name border planet, and their team is the closest available help for the endangered research station there. Rocks fall, mud slides, and Obito never makes it off planet. (of course, that’s only what they think happened) Kakashi is injured, and receives an experimental bionic eye from the locals (it’s not as cool as the sharingan, I know, but I’m at a loss as to how to fit creepy magic eyes into SW).

Kushina is heartbroken, and, after a very long conversation with Minato, takes a leave of absence from the Order. She sets herself up in one of the small satellite temples on Coruscant, far from the main temple, and spends a lot of time in the salle doing moving meditation.

Then Master Orochimaru Falls, and Tsunade leaves the order. Rin is transferred to another Knight, this one greener than grass. A few months later, Rin and the Knight are brought back to the temple for their pyres. A stupid misjudged situation, and Kakashi is suddenly alone. (Note: Hey, at least he doesn’t have to deal with being the one to put a hand through her chest this time?)

Minato, dealing with a grieving Padawan and grieving himself, sticks closer to the temple for a while, taking few off planet missions. He also spends a lot of his spare time dropping in to visit his wife friend Kushina.

It’s really not a surprise when Kushina gets pregnant a year or so later, is it?

Fast forward a little, and a mysterious attack on the satellite temple the night Kushina was due to give birth ends with not only Minato and Kushina dead, but nearly every living person at that temple. Kakashi is left holding their son.

Naruto is accepted into the creche with no fuss, though he is haloed in scandal, because his parents broke the code.

Kakashi wavers. He’s not quite old enough to go through his trial, but he can’t bare the thought of calling another Knight ‘Master’. But then, an offer comes from Master Drallig, and he takes it gratefully, vanishing into the faceless ranks of the Temple Guard for a time. (I’m pulling on a headcanon here, that says the Temple Guard still maintain identities outside of their jobs, and can and do retire after a while, because that kind of existence is not permanently maintainable for sentient minds. Otherwise, hey look, Jedi ANBU!)

Time marches on, and years pass. Kakashi buries himself in his job to the exclusion of nearly everything else, copes by adopting bits of friends personality traits, gets pounced on regularly by this crazy Guardian named Gai, and tries to find his footing without all the people he loves.

Meanwhile, there are assholes everywhere, and as it happens, the current creche master is such a person. A bastion of upholding the code, they see Naruto as a giant stain on the face of the order, conceived and born out of breaking the code as he was. They treat Naruto badly. Not badly enough to get called on it mind you, the child is never outright harmed, but neglected compared to the other younglings, yes.

And children take their cues from the adults around them. This version of Naruto is perhaps not as mistreated as his ninja world counterpart, but he grows up just as lonely. Still, he’s not called Sunshine Child for nothing! He’s still Naruto. Still unfailingly optimistic and bright.

But with the creche master convinced that such a child does not deserve to be a knight, he grows up ever so slightly sabotaged. He’s awful at traditional meditation (get’s it from his mother) and he doesn’t do well sitting in front of a screen in a classroom for hours a day.

The year he turns twelve, another child is brought into the temple. Naruto feels him the second their ship touches down on the landing pad outside, though he doesn’t know what he’s feeling, not yet. Class isn’t even an afterthought. He’s got to find out what that whirlpool in the force is!

At this point, Naruto is an expert at dancing around the temple surveillance, and in no time at all he’s face to face with a younger boy in strange roughly spun clothing, sitting outside the council chamber doors.

And Naruto being Naruto, he immediately beams at the boy, and rattles off a greeting, and launches into questions.

((”Hi! I’m Initiate Naruto Uzumaki! Who’re you? Your so bright! Have you come to be trained? You look a little old, but I’ve heard that Knight Vos was like, eleven when he got searched and brought to the temple, and you don’t look that old, so you should be fine!”))

Hearing about a child even older than him getting to be Jedi student soothes several fears that had been gathering in the back of Anakin’s mind, just a little, and soon enough he and Naruto are cheerfully chattering at one another, trading stories (Anakin gets a glimpse of what temple life is going to be like from a child close to his age, and Naruto hears quite a lot about podracers and a very nice girl named Padme)

So when Qui-gon and Obi-wan sweep out of the Council chambers, Qui-gon heading off to find a change of clothes, Obi-wan steps to the side and heads for where they left Anakin, to tell him the council wishes to see him now. He rounds the corner and stops bemusedly watching for a moment as Anakin gestures expansively in the middle of a story about the race he won, an older blond, human looking, boy in initiate robes exclaiming excitedly.

((”That’s amazing, Ani! Podracing’s illegal on Coruscant, so I’ve never seen it except for a couple clips on the holonet, but we’ve got swoopbikes! Those go really fast too, and you can catch some really cool races down in level 78!” Naruto enthuses. Before he can invite Ani to come the next time he sneaks out to see one, a soft ‘ahem’ interrupts him.

Whirling around, both boys cringe just a little at the senior Padawan eying them.

“The council is ready to see you, Anakin.” he shooes the boy towards the large doors, watches to see him go in, then turns to the initiate inching away in a not very sneaky manner.

“Odd, Initiate, I was under the impression that swoopbike races were as illegal as podraces here?” He asks dryly, eyeing the boy up and down, cataloging the child’s appearance from the sun bright hair to in the marks on his cheeks and the blue and orange striped eyes.

A Noorian then. Obi-wan is suddenly fiercely reminded of Tahl. Caught up in the thought as he is, plus his Master’s words a few moments ago in the Council chambers, he doesn’t notice the way the force seems to pause for a moment, like a canine pricking its ears at a new and interesting sound.

“Er, well. Um-” Naruto tries, only for the Padawan to shake his head and wave him off.

“Go on, I know for a fact you should be in class right now. I imagine you’ll get enough trouble from your teachers.” He makes another shooing motion.

Naruto doesn’t have to be told twice! He’s gone in a flash, vanishing around the corner.

And unnoticed by both, the force churns a little and spins in his wake, tendrils reaching out to both Obi-wan and Naruto almost thoughtfully, if a powerful omnipresent energy could be described as thoughtful.))

The council visit goes slightly better for this Anakin. Talking with Naruto, meeting a child only a little older than him, talking and laughing together, and hearing that he’s hardly the only child to be brought to the temple past the perfect age settles him.

The council is still not all together pleased by him, and their own fears do still color their interactions with him, but not to the degree they might have. Instead of an outright refusal to train him, there is a different choice made.

((”Deliberate, the council must.” The old tiny master chirps. Then he taps a few lines into the arm of his seat, and a moment later the doors reopen to admit Qui-gon and Obi-wan. He repeats the words for their benefit, and continues. “Into your care the boy is placed, Master Qui-gon for now. And return to Naboo, you and Padawan Kenobi must. But not alone, you will go. Another Knight the council will send.”

Anakin listens to this, a bit confused. But, well, a maybe is better than a no, he supposes.

“Who?” Master Qui-gon asks, brow furrowing as he tries to remember who is in the temple and not on the injured list or already assigned.

“Knight Kakashi Hatake has just returned from a long term mission.” Mace speaks up, long fingers gracefully dancing across the arm of his own chair, doubtlessly informing the knight of his sudden, new orders. “We believe his skill set will be much help on this mission.

Qui-gon and Obi-wan trade a look. ‘Just returned from a long term mission’ might as well be code for a reassigned Temple Guard or Shadow, they both know. And Obi-wan remembers that name, image of a small boy with sleepy dark eyes and coarse silver hair spring to the forefront of his mind.

“Meet you tomorrow, at the transport, Knight Hatake will.”))

Kakashi has just been summarily booted out of the Temple Guard meanwhile. Twelve years is about six years longer than most humans go in the guard, full stop, no breaks.

He might be a little confused and indignant about this. It seems a fact of life that Kakashi is a poorly socialized, bad at personing person in every world he exists in. This one is no exception.

He’s just trying to find his feet and figure out what exactly regualr Knights are supposed to do, when his personal com pings, and he is informed that he’s to be on the transport pad bright and early tomorrow, as extra support for a Master Qui-gon Jinn and senior Padawan Obi-wan Kenobi.

((Kakashi eyes the missive like it’s going to sprout a virus and eat his PC any second now. Then he tilts his head back a little, thoughtfully.

Kenobi, Kenobi, where does he know that name from?

A reedy human youngling with coppery red hair and defiant blue eyes swims up from the depths of his memory. Wait, shouldn’t Obi-wan be twenty-five by now? What in the sith hells is he still doing as a padawan? Most humans got knighted around twenty or twenty-two.

Kakashi had been marked down as passing his trials at nineteen.

Well, he supposed he’d find out tomorrow.

Picking himself up off the couch he ambled towards the bedroom he rarely actually used and idly threw several of the new robes he’d been issued in a travel sack.))

Kakashi is awkward around Anakin, at first. He’s not really interacted much with kids, in his defense! The Temple Guard really isn’t supposed to interact with anyone. They just, well, guard?

Anakin is fascinated though. Qui-gon is busy for most of the trip to Naboo, in conference with the Queen, and Anakin get’s the feeling that Obi-wan doesn't like him very much, so that leaves Kakashi to talk to, and ask all the questions he couldn’t ask Naruto or Qui-gon about.

Slowly, when the kid doesn’t immediately quiz him on his soft squishy tragic past, but just wants to know what kind of things a he’s going to need to learn to catch up, Kakashi relaxes. He even has a laugh startled out of him when the kid viciously mutters a nasty string of Huttese upon learning he’ll have to take a whole slew of aptitude tests and won’t be allowed to fly any kind of ship before twelve, and then only supervised.

((Kakashi can be forgiven for not noticing the way the force swirls idly around the two of them, rather like a cat eyeing up a new toy. He’s never been the most gifted at sensing the force, especially after his family after Master Minato and Kushina had died.

Anakin feels it, but Anakin always feels the force. It’s like air, always there for him. Someday he’ll be trained to narrow his senses enough to pick out fine detail in the force, but for now sensing nuance is beyond him.

So neither one feel the weight of consideration upon them, the questing brushes along their souls.))

Sadly, for all that Kakashi’s presence on the mission does save many lives, Qui-gon Jinn’s life is not among them. He stands with Obi-wan behind a humming energy wall, helpless to stop the sith from impaling the Master.

He and Obi-wan, together, take down Maul. Obi-wan bisects him, Kakashi takes his head off. Both are present for Qui-gon’s last words, his plea for Obi-wan to train Anakin.

Naboo is freed, Qui-gon is dead. Anakin saved the day in space, and Kakashi and Obi-wan fought and killed a sith. A real, live sith.

In the ensuing havoc, Kakashi gets swept up in routing trade federation lackeys and it’s not until the council representatives show up that he sees Anakin again.

He and Obi-wan have just come from meeting Yoda, giving their verbal reports, and Kakashi backing up Obi-wan when he pleads/demands to be given Anakin as a Padawan.

Anakin is waiting just outside the door, having been told by Obi-wan to wait.

He looks up as they come out, his eyes meet Kakashi’s one uncovered eye and the force comes down on them like a pouncing Pittin. A durasteel force bond snaps into place faster than they can blink, to the shock of all involved.

Everyone just kind of stares for a moment in silence before Kakashi mutters several choice curses he’d picked up from Anakin on the trip to Naboo.

The force wills what it wills.

Knight Kakashi Hatake will train Anakin Skywalker.

Force help them both.

((Obi-wan is Knighted, and set adrift.

This... Well, Obi-wan is an odd mix of pleased and guilty for being pleased, and sad, because he couldn’t even do the last thing his father Master asked of him. Logically he knows that this has nothing to do with him, the force willed it and all that, but emotionally, he feels like a failure.

So, while Kakashi and Anakin slowly orbit one another and find some kind of balance with each other, Obi-wan fields comm calls from concerned friends (none of whom are in the Temple right now) and slowly packs up his and Qui-gon’s rooms. He can’t stay in them. Rooms of that size are reserved for Master/Padawan sets. He’s been politely informed he has two weeks to pack up and what his new room assignment is.

It hurts. Far far more than he ever would have thought to give all of the temple issued clothing and gear back to the quartermaster, and carefully pack away all of the collected detritus of his masters life.

A paper book of pressed flowers and leaves from his master’s own Padawan days. Holo upon holo of moments in his life stored on a half dozen image displays.

A collection of blue pebbles in a line before the window in Qui-gon’s room, arranged from pale sky blue to a glittering blue black.

In the bedside drawer Obi-wan finds a handful of flimsy notes scrawled in Tahls spidery hand and he just- he needs to get some air.

And so he goes wandering. He has the vague thought of heading for the gardens, but no, his mind is elsewhere as he walks, and when he rouses himself from his thoughts, he finds himself outside one of the the initiate level salles.

And, well, he’s here now he supposes, so he goes in.

There’s a class in progress, older initiates by first glance, all spinning and weaving in pairs, movements fine and controlled as benefits students of an age to be chosen as Padawans.

A head of bright yellow catches his eyes, and he watches as the boy he saw talking to Anakin (force, had it only been seven days ago?) spins away, grinning widely, from the too telegraphed swing of the Zabraki girl he’s paired with.

And he feels the force prod at him, just a little.

Frowning to himself, he skirts the Salle and comes up beside the instructor, a towering Ithorian fmale.

“The Noorian boy, with the blond hair. Who is he?” He asks in an undertone, not wanting to draw more attention than he already had by wandering in during paired katas.

The Ithorian Jedi blinks large eyes placidly down at him for a moment, taking in his still shorn hair but lack of Padawan braid no doubt, before responding.

“Half Noorian. Naruto Uzumaki.” He rumbles.

“He’s very good. He moves quite well for a boy his age.” Obi-wan offers. Naruto certainly moved better than he did at twelve. At that age he’d started random growth spurts, and it always seemed that his body was never quite the size he was used to.

The Ithorian rumbled in agreement. “Yes. The child moves well. Very gifted in the martial ways. Pity.”

Obi-wan blinks in surprise. “Pity? Why pity? If he moves this well at so young an age, surely he’ll only improve.”

“Moving is about the only thing he does well. He’s bottom of his class in everything else. No Knight has expressed any interest, and with grades like that... Well, Agricorps, or Exploricorps perhaps. But not Knighthood.”

There is another, sharper prod from the force, and just like it’s happening right now, he can see Qui-gon walking away from him, taste the bitter disappointment of crushed hopes and dreams.

The force helpfully prods him again.

‘Oh Hell.’ He thinks, finally catching on. He has a sudden suspicion why he’s there. And, if he’s reading the currents eddying around him right, and the tendrils unfurling towards the half Noorian boy, he doesn’t actually have much of a choice in the matter.

There’s an almost smug thrum from the force.

Well, at least he’ll get to stay in his and Qui-gon’s rooms now? And... Naruto is such a bright shimmer in the force, like sunlight dancing across an ocean. He can’t help but think such a bright spirit would be welcome now.))

SO, Obi-wan caught on to his little force bond match up, unlike Kakashi. After glumly saying goodbye to any idea of peace and quiet (he does recall Naruto cheerfully talking about swoopbike races after all) he goes over after the kids are done with katas and taps Naruto on the shoulder.

Naruto turns around and BAM. Instant Padawan bond.

Naruto is ecstatic. Obi-wan is mostly tired. Cautiously happy, but tired.

The council is convened, and there is much arguing, oh I mean discussing, of what two instantly forming force bonds within days of each other could mean, but the force isn’t talking.

In a rare bout of wisdom and insight, the council decides that since Kakashi is only just come back from his ‘long term mission’ and doesn’t quite have the hang of being a normal (hah!) Jedi yet, and Obi-wan has only just been Knighted and is now saddled with a Padawan, the two of them should become a team.

Anakin and Naruto are far more excited about this that Obi-wan or Kakashi, as you can probably guess. Instant brothers and bffs.

Anakin grows up with a friend this time. Someone who is not an adult and is willing to help him catch up on the things he needs to know, even if Naruto doesn’t really like sitting still and paying attention to learning modules, and someone to show him all the ways to sneak out of the temple (there are a lot, unsurprisingly, mostly on the lower levels)

Naruto gets a bestie who doesn’t care one whit about who his parents were and how they broke the code. Someone who’s nearly as curious as he is, and willing to move with him instead of trying to get him to slow down. It’s amazing.

Eventually Naruto and Anakin befriend several other Padawans around their age. A Togruta girl named Sakura, and a human boy named Sasuke. Because Naruto is still a friend making dynamo once he gets going.

In this verse, Anakin tells his master when he and Padme secretly get married, because he’s heard Minato and Kushina’s story, and knows Kakashi won’t tell the council. Naruto and Obi-wan also get told, because they’re family, no matter how Obi-wan never says it.

When the war comes, Kakashi becomes a general in his own right, leading his own portion of the clone army. it doesn’t sit well with him, this army that was made in the jedi’s name by some unknown, and he’s quietly running his own investigation into things on the side.

Does he find out who’s really running things and about the ticking time bombs in the clones heads? I have no idea, but I hope so.

My steams kinda running out here bc it’s like 4AM here and this got so freaking long omg *facepalm* I meant this to be a quick what if/reply but i started typing and just could not stop. So here, have 4,000 odd words about a hypothetical Star Wars/Naruto fusion!

Other things that spun through my mind while I was working this out;

- Kakashi has a prototype special bionic eye instead of a whirly magic eye in this verse. He still needs to keep it covered, since the record function automatically activates when exposed to light.

- Once Kakashi and Obi-wan loosen up around each other the snark starts flying. OMG the snark. We’re talking epic levels of snark.

- Kakashi and Obi-wan fall into bed together at least three times, but ultimately decided to keep things purely platonic. They just don’t work as lovers.

- They find out they’ve both had relationships with Quinlan and Siri.

- Naruto and Anakin give Kakashi a plush canine every year on his birthday. (My way of working in the ninken pack)

- Kakashi knows really weird people. See: Knight Gai Maito, Jedi Shadow Anko Mitarashi, and other former temple guards ‘other people on the same long term mission’ Knight Genma Shiranui, Knight Raido Namiashi, etc.

- Kakashi get’s along pretty well with Padme. He can respect a woman who managed to rule a planet, become a senator, and still remain such a kick ass and take names kind of girl.

- Kakashi adores Ahsoka and thought it was freaking hilarious when she was sneakily assigned to Anakin.

- Naruto gets assigned a Padawan around the same time, but I don’t know who it should be. Konohamaru maybe? IDK that would be pretty funny.

- Obito eventually shows up as one of Palpatine’s apprentices. That revelation goes just as badly as you can imagine.

- Orochimaru (I’m picturing him as half Echani, half something unknown) swans in and out as a big bad, just like in canon. He probably teams up with Jenna Zan Arbor a couple times because they’re the same kind of crazy.

- Akatsuki may or may not be a thing with deep cover Shadow Itachi Uchiha working undercover (no massacre happened in this verse).

- Tsunade eventually rejoins the order and takes over the Medical Corps. She might find out about the chips in the clones heads, come to think about it. She seems like the kind of person who’d want to know just what the kriffing hell those things actually do. Control aggression her ass.

- Tsunade’s first Padawan, Shizune, is Sakura’s Master, but Sakura spends just as much time learning from Tsunade.

- Jiraiya is a Zeltron in this verse. He still writes porn under a pseudonym, which Kakashi reads. He still wrote a novel about a protagonist named Naruto, but this time about a brave Jedi Knight.

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