#tbh i wonder how this all affected ahsoka

[hanasnx]

HEY DEAR, it's ya boy, just wondering if you've seen tales of the Jedi yet because I think you'd love anakin's episode, HE'S RUTHLESS. Like you're telling me there's not just a little bit of sadism in there (I mean of course there is, that's literally Darth Vader)? I won't spoil anything that isn't in the trailer/common knowledge, but there's this lovely juxtaposition between him having a ruthless teaching style but speaking in a very caring and loving manner that's just so gooooood. Animated Anakin rarely feels like Hayden's Anakin (I still subscribe to the belief that prequels Ani is Ani as he is in internally, and CW Ani is how Ahsoka, the 501st, and the general public perceive him), but its always good to see some darkness in him. Anyway, hope you're well 😎💝

-👑

HIIIII i just finished totj tbh i’ve been taking a little break from writing sw stuff bcos i finished tcw and it obliterated me. so tales of the jedi wasn’t something i was ready to face til now BUT I WATCHED IT SO I COULD ANSWER THIS

spoilers under the cut for totj up til episode 5 <3

i love the description u added, where tcw ani is how people perceive him vs film ani is more intrapersonal. i dont have any problem with tcw anakin other than the fact he was created bcos the creators gave into the male power fantasy expectation of anakin. (still sad as fuck about the fact hayden wanted to voice tcw anakin and was not chosen for the role…. like his character … it feels so disrespectful just cos he didnt have a deep enough voice but whatever. not my circus not my monkeys)

i love tcw anakin he’s got good moments, but film ani portrayal is my fave

i did love how hard he was on ahsoka in that episode of totj! i felt like it was very true to him, and how he realizes how much harder a war is compared to normal jedi training. and since this war thing is a new thing for the jedi rn, its worth upping the stakes in the training in order to be prepared for actual war. he probably had his fair share of realizations when he was actually in battle how ill prepared he really was for such an event and didnt want that for his padawan.

i really cared for all the tender moments they had. how he spoke to her and touched her (i feel like anakin has a hard time with physical affection in any capacity. hes not a hugger, and he probably acts like he doesnt like being touched but secretly wants you to touch him) so it only added to my adoration for him when we got to see him reach out to her to help her up with his hand or put his hand on her shoulder etc. i really love anakin and ahsoka’s relationship in tcw its like my favorite thing.

also yes hes a sadist and a masochist and i feel like its not just in sexual contexts he is. so hes very hard on other people and himself with sometimes impossible standards bcos he feels as though pain builds a tolerance within you. he wants ahsoka to be untouchable, and she honestly is. as we’ve seen in the ending of tcw, ahsoka did the impossible.

i cant remember where i read it, but someone had said that crediting anakin’s training as ahsoka’s reason for being able to stay alive in the last episodes of tcw during order 66 had erased the specialness of rex’ resolve to tell her to find fives etc. id like to add my take

i dont think that it takes away any specialness. i think it simply adds more to the story. ahsoka was able to stay alive because of rex and rex’s help that much is true, but anakins strict training regiment didnt harm her either. it only aided. i liked that facet of the story tbh.

i like how star wars explores the lack of omniscience in force users. yes they can sense your intention, but why would they be on guard against allies? they explored that in the katri episode when dooku and mace investigated her untimely death in totj.

it only makes sense that jedi in order 66 were susceptible to fatality because why would they be on their guard with the allies theyve served alongside for years?

im sorry im all over the place i had a lot to say. bottom line I LOVED SEEING ANAKIN IN EPISODE 5 hes my sweet bbg

[phoenixyfriend]

Re; Ahsoka and Quinlan being the same age, now I'm picturing Ahsoka, Quinlan, and Rex eventually ending up in a weird sorta thruple where Quinlan comes in and out of the relationship but the door is kinda always open for him? And Rex spends a lot of mornings eyeing the tangle of orange and brown skin on the other side of the bed like he has no idea how he ended up here but he's (mostly) okay with that tbh

Context: Commander Buir in chronological order

YES okay so this is wild to me that people are invested in this but like half the time-travel fics with Ahsoka in the same age-group as Quinlan have me wondering if I should ship them. Let me just. Ho shit.

So, okay, I've explored a lot of possible dynamics but there's something really engaging about how Quinlan, trained as a Shadow before the Sith came back, could react to a War Padawan. Ahsoka isn't really infiltration material yet, she's very much a frontline fighter, but she's got a lot more experience with a kind of consistent dark atmosphere that most Jedi don't. They get exposed to plenty of dark stuff, sure, but not the kind of all-encompassing "this is my life for the last two years" thing that is usually reserved for the long-term field agents like Shadows and Watchmen.

The War Padawans, for all that they were supposed to be just normal Jedi Padawans, were living in the kind of consistently negative environment that's normally experienced by those Knighted Sentinels.

So Ahsoka, while still generally pretty young in these AUs, is a very odd kind of person to be around, because she's spunky and vivacious and snippy and affectionate and snarky and knows how to break every bone in your body from harrowing experience as the only thing standing between death and thousands of brothers.

And Quinlan, I imagine, really likes that about her. She gets it, and she's still an energetic and loving and trying to do her best to be a good person despite everything. He gravitates towards her and she... well, she's not blind. She can tell he's interested. And she's not upset about that.

ANYWAY, ONTO REX

So, Rex is... technically twelve. He hasn't exactly got a whole lot of experience with romance. He is also, up until the point of time-travel, legal property of the Senate and the Jedi Order, which means that Ahsoka, or at least her community, owns him. He was indoctrinated to serve her and that community. She also outranks him, for all that she usually lets him take the lead in the field due to experience. He's older than her physically and maturity-wise, but she's also had a grow-up-faster-than-you-should adolescence, and she has superpowers.

What I'm saying is, the power dynamic is fucked up.

(Unironically I spent hours last night realizing that it balances out a lot more than C*dywan does, which I'm censoring because by god do I not want discourse on this post. I like both ships, and don't want to argue about what's the most problematic. It's Star Wars. The only unproblematic ships are Bail/Breha and Owen/Beru.)

Here's the thing, though, because the main thing people seem to argue here is the age/maturity difference as a problem area:

The age difference in actual time is four years, which is smaller than the two main ships of the franchise (Han/Leia and Padme/Anakin, to be clear). The age difference in maturity is ??? We'll say that the clones started aging normally after they hit twenty, so the age difference in maturity is six years... which is still normal for SW ships.

(This is why I don't have any issues with the ship in a post-O66 context, once they've had a few years to move past the traumas and whatnot. The age stuff all evens out with time, they're a good team, and neither was grooming the other. It's not objectively any more problematic than most SW ships at that point, and I'm okay with that. They deserve to be happy if they want.)

But they get yanked away from all that structure of who owns what, who reports where, who has which rank, who's legally a person in the eyes of the Republic when they end up on Dagobah. Once they've registered when they are, the only remaining complications are:

He grew up in a cultlike environment and was indoctrinated to serve her (but has been replacing that indoctrination with genuine respect and affection for her as a person because they've worked together for two years).

She has superpowers (contextually not a big problem: we see several Force-Sensitive/Non-Sensitive ships that don't consider those powers a complicating element)

He's several years younger than her (canonically less of an issue than it could be: Cut got married and has kids) and has next to no experience with what a normal romance looks like except for hanging out on the edges of whatever the fuck his General has going on with the Senator

She's several years less mature than he is (...something of an issue)

So a lot of this is mostly okay. She feels weird about the fact that she's got more knowledge of romance and all that it entails. He feels weird about the fact that, despite her being older, he looks at her and sees someone that's still a little young, not quite a shiny. Except she is older than him, and he's seen her behead four people in a single move, and they've saved each other's lives more times than either of them can count anymore. He respects her, and the fact that she's babyfaced doesn't change the fact that, in terms of who they are as people and warriors, they're on a level playing field.

She still looks at him and mourns his lost childhood, and he still looks at her and takes a moment to see past the too-big eyes and adolescent proportions.

But they really, really care about each other, and maybe part of them is starting to recognize that there's a bit of a crush before they time-travel, but neither one wants to make a move. There's a lot of baggage on both sides, a lot of "but they're a child" and "but they're (literally vs functionally) below me in the chain of command, I can't take advantage of that" and all that fun stuff. It's the kind of situation where two people circle each other for ages without making a move, because actually making that move is terrifying on account of not knowing whether the other party knows they can say no, on top of the usual "what if it ruins our friendship?" thing.

What happens on Dagobah, though... is very tropey. They're sort of stranded until Ahsoka can fix the ship, and that takes time. The area is also very heavy with the Force, dense and heady with the energy it carries, and it's... actually really not great for Ahsoka. She keeps feeling like she's back on Mortis, and has nightmares from the trigger there, but also keeps hallucinating because she wasn't ready for the thickness of the energy (like Yoda) or still new enough to the Force that she couldn't feel how dense it all was (like Luke). She can't work on the engines as constantly as she'd like to get them out of there, and while Rex is a competent mechanic, he's not as skilled with it as the girl who jumped headfirst into lessons with Anakin.

Rex spends a lot of time holding Ahsoka and wiping her brow with a wet cloth while she's feverish and out of it. Yes we're going full Florence Nightingale romance here, let me have my fun.

They get the communications relay working earlier than the engine, find out the year is wrong, panic a bit. All is well. (It's not, but they're holding it together for now.)

Ahsoka keeps working on the engine when she's lucid. Rex keeps hunting up game and edible plants for them while she does. They cuddle at night, because it's not cold but it is empty of the people they care about, and they kind of want that reassurance of someone they trust and love at their back.

(Morai visits.)

(Daughter shows up in the nightmares, tells Ahsoka that age will not come for her beloved until the time is natural for it. The phrasing is dumb but she does manage to convey that the accelerated aging is no longer an issue, if it even was after they hit adulthood. Ahsoka is relieved.)

And, you know, emotions happen. She takes his hand while they're leaning up against each other. He kisses her forehead while she's having a bad spell. They cook together and tell jokes to keep sane and spar. They hug each other through nightmares and panic attacks. There is much blushing. There is much cuddling.

Once, they kiss.

They break apart, flushing and stammering and being very awkward about the whole thing, and make excuses to leave and panic about the fact that they!! Kissed!!!!!

A couple hours later they find each other again, and have a long and complicated discussion about why they like each other (war makes bedfellows, there's trust and affection and all that fun stuff) and why they're hesitant (age stuff, maturity stuff, prior indoctrination), and make the decision to take it slow. They cuddle, and kiss, and blush a lot because both of them are basically just dumb teens having their first real relationship.

They eventually leave the planet, make it to Coruscant, etc. It takes a bit for anyone except Obi-Wan to realize that something's changed between them. Most people didn't know them before, and Anakin's observation skills are currently at a very low ebb. But they sit together and hold hands, and flirt when they spar, and once or twice people find them kissing (both standard and Keldabe) in a corner while holding hands and then just smiling at each other like loons.

They end up rooming together because nobody has the heart to separate them after hearing about all the war stuff. Like yes attachment's bad, but these two do seem to understand loss of loved ones and recognize that they could lose each other at any time and death is natural and they won't lose their entire shit about it, and if even General Kenobi is anxious as hell about being separated from the people he fought side-by-side with for two years, then maybe it's just... really normal for those two to want each other's company, and everyone can just turn a blind eye to the romance happening.

They share a bed, but they only ever sleep in it. Like, there's some goodnight kisses and cuddles, but everything is very G-rated until they've had time to settle into being true equals instead of just the "well, I guess the power dynamics balance out? Maybe?" of before.

And just... yeah. Rex does not believe that he's in this good of a position whenever he has the time to think about it. He's got a girlfriend! A really pretty, smart, strong, skilled one! Who thinks he's a cool dude! How the fuck did a clone like him manage that? He wasn't even legally a person a year ago, how did he end up in bed with one of the most amazing people he's ever met? He spends multiple nights just staring at her while he tries to fall asleep, asking himself how he got here and just like... marveling at her. She's worth marveling at. He's in love and she's amazing and he has no idea how to handle it at all.

...yeah no I have a lot of feelings now.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian Chapter 13 reactions

Well, that was... well. in short I quite enjoyed some of what happened while din was there and I didn’t really care about what happened while he wasn’t there lol. I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that I just don’t care for the episodes dave filoni writes for this show, which is simply a matter of taste I guess. 

(if you loved this episode wholeheartedly -- probably look away now, I’m going to be a bit of a downer about it and I don’t want to shit on your joy haha)

- let’s just get this out of the way first: there’s a lot of stuff around rosaria dawson and transphobia in real life and yeah, of course that affects how I watch the show. I don’t even want to talk that much about ahsoka in this because of it. she was not that good in the role, after seeing how it played out I don’t think the character needed to be in this show at all, and she should never have gotten the role in the first place and that’s about it for what I’ve got to say. 

- dave filoni consistently does things with din’s characterization that feels off and weird to me, subtly out of place with what we see in other episodes (he’s... ruder? more short tempered/cocky/actively or aggressively interpersonal? more prone to express himself directly than he is usually? idk how to describe it but filoni!din always feels one step to the left of what he should be and I’m so hyper-attuned to this character that when something’s a bit iffy with him it throws everything else off haha. it feels like a shallower, more convenient read on him and I don’t like it)  

I also think filoni is almost too familiar with and in love with the source material sometimes? “A Mandalorian and a Jedi? They’ll never see it coming” is undeniably a great line that echoes in decades of deep lore and so on, but dave my good man din had no real idea what a jedi even is until literally this morning. we, the audience, know about this long and storied history, but unless ahsoka spent the afternoon explaining it to him din still only knows the faint outlines of it, he has no personal experience of or attachment to it. it’s not bad, as such, it just rings false to the character based tone of the show for me personally 

- positivity break: baby sitting perched on the dashboard to be close to papa while they’re in hyperspace........sd sdfskdjhfdsakjksdhfkasjd  

also this is some full on madonna and child in the manger shit and I am LIVING for it (odds he’s crying quietly behind the helmet here? pretty damn good if you ask me). the mundanity of what’s essentially the shitty spartan bathroom of the razor crest on one side contrasted with the light and tenderness and love on the other? amazing, a perfect microcosm of what this show does with combining the grittier everyday down to earth stuff in the star wars universe with myth and wonder and magic and through it elevating both

 - the idea of having an iconique samurai/sword duel standoff and a western standoff going on simultaneously is genuinely inspired, but in action it didn’t really work for me. (the sword duel stuff needs these moments of stillness with sudden outbursts of violence and then stillness again, the western standoff needs mounting tension until it’s nearly unbearable, and cutting between them the way they did you sort of didn’t get either to its full potential. again it’s a cool idea, though, I hope someone picks it up and does it better at some point)

- seeing a jedi and a mandalorian wander together through a burned out wasteland left desolate by greed and warfare should have hit me harder than it did but for some reason it didn’t, idk. thematically sound, though, I like it a lot on the metaphor level

- I LOVE that pure beskar makes a specific sound, and that it’s an almost ethereal noise like the high clear chime of a distant bell. also now din has something to fight light sabers with that isn’t the dark saber which makes me so happy because you guys I do not want him to be the mand’alor. keep that funky laser sword away from my dad, apart from killing him at the end that is literally the most boring way to end his arc pls do NOt 

- wow they really went in hard on the samurai stuff in this one huh! there is a part of my mchanzo-loving heart that thrives on seeing a space cowboy and a space samurai team up, *wild otp-fuelled whisper* they’re twin genres inextricably entwined okay they belong together if you see this spreadsheet I’ve made over here -- 

- even knowing it was just a trick I felt such intense distress seeing the signet pauldron away from din. like the attachment I have to these pieces of metal because That Armour Means Dad... wild  

- they really chose the dumbest name possible for the baby huh fsajdfhsaj I agree with din his name is ‘kid’ now (eh just give me a while to get used to it probably I’ll come around)

also... you know what I’ve said before about shrinking the big unknowable galaxy ‘the mandalorian’ has been setting up? wow did they do that big time in this one, and it makes me feel decidedly :/. why does the baby have to come from the jedi temple, is there truly no other tradition of force users in the entire galaxy he could be from? WHY do you have to pull thrawn into this when most people watching this show won’t even know why he’s such a big deal? is this a stealth tease for a rebels sequel? if so why spend an entire episode of this show that only gets eight precious episodes a season on it??   

- on a more fun positive note: baby’s clothes are clean again, so it’s confirmed that din does wash them (and I guess that he does have some means of washing clothes aboard the razor crest!). I loved... most of the dad and baby stuff in this one, but then don’t I always I’m easy to please that way haha (the ‘playing catch’ sequence felt a bit off to me but I don’t know why. din being like ‘he’s so stubborn’ wasn’t... eh. didn’t land right. “that would be a first” was fun tho lol) 

- having ahsoka state the baby’s feelings out loud like that felt... weird? and also kind of unnecessary in parts, like yeah he’s a baby who’s been passed along to different groups of strangers and experimented on by empire scientists, you don’t need to spell it out for me that he’s been scared and lonely, or at least spell it out more interestingly? it’s such blunt force storytelling where it didn’t need to be? there are more elegant ways to get the same things across, I am absolutely convinced 

- ...wow while I was watching the episode I was mostly like ‘okay this is Fine I can go along with it’ but seeing what I’m thinking about in hindsight... yeah probably my least favourite episode of this show full stop haha, it took the spot from chapter 5 which was also a filoni ep

- I did 100% genuinely adore the whole part of din approaching the town and meeting the magistrate. consistently hiding the baby behind his cape and his arm? being deliberately, teeth-grindingly dispassionate with everyone, just giving them nothing? getting to see a bit of professional bounty hunter din again? wonderful in every way, I love this man  

- lots of meaningful shots of baby in the middle with a mando on one side and a jedi on the other, it’s almost like they’re setting up some Themes here lol 

- ...do you think din told ahsoka about either the rhino-levitating or the force choking. because girl I don’t think not training him is going to make this just go away haha, he just won’t know what he’s doing  

- it makes me so sad that baby connects his force powers with being abused :( (also a heartbreaking sign of just how much he cared about din from the very beginning, since he used it on the mudhorn to save him anyway ;________; was that like. literally the first time he sensed kindness and affection in anyone in like twenty five years or... ) 

- I understand why ahsoka would feel this way because of her past and specific traumas, but tbh attachment in a baby? probably a good thing, he doesn’t really have the higher brain functions to cultivate non-attachment yet and needs a safe figure because again. he is a baby. 

good on her for realizing it’s not a task she can take on both for the baby’s sake and her own, and also that din is that baby’s Dad though. the way she smiled at the end watching them leave seemed vaguely hopeful/had a little bit of wonder in it, like maybe she felt the potential for something good there, something she couldn’t conceptualize from her background but could sense the tentative outlines of anyway?  

(also so much pressure on a lil bb to decide his path... his dilemmas should be limited to what colour socks he wants to wear today not the course of his entire life :( I know he’s a magic baby but.......) 

- idk maybe I’ll find more affection of this episode through rewatches, you never know

[communistkenobi-archive]

i love the discussion about kanan's and ezra's relationships w the force being different from the disaster lineage/any pre-o66 jedi in that they use it separate from themselves, as opposed to an extension, and how that maybe gives them less power/flexibility in using it? and also the suggestion that the force is weaker after o66 (or specifically the light side), so I'm wondering how that affects ahsoka's strength in the force, since she does still seem very capable in rebels s2. (pt 1)

(pt 2) or maybe those are the two factors (among others) that decide how strong force users are: their base relationship w the force (tapping in vs extension of themselves) and the actual strength/potency of the force around them (does presence of more light-side/dark-side force users strengthen the respective sides?) and the spatial-temporal argument where certain locations e.g. Malachor, various jedi temples are stronger in the force (tbh does the force delineate itself into light/dark?)

(pt 3) anyway that's a lot of words to ask about your thoughts on ahsoka in regards to her relationship w the force post-wrong jedi and/or post-order 66

SO okay there are a lot of points here, so I’ll break up my thoughts into chunks. this is way longer than I originally intended so I’ll put this under a cut lol:

re: Kanan and Ezra using the Force

They both seem to struggle with using the Force a lot more than the PT-era Jedi we’ve seen, and are much more in line with how low-key the OT-era Jedi are. tCW basically makes Jedi into superheroes, which is probably a combination of it A) being a kid’s show and the writers wanted to make the episodes visually interesting, and B) the Jedi were incredibly powerful during that time. Kanan also suppressed his Force-sensitivity for years, and Ezra has had zero formal training, so it also makes sense that they’re far less adept at it.

And I don’t think there’s any explicit canonical basis for this, but the “is the Force an extension of your body or a separate field of energy that you use and access” thing is super interesting because it could potentially mean that the WAY people conceptualise their relationship to the Force actually guides how they access and use it. And Kanan talks about the Force in A New Dawn as this thing that hangs over his head that he wants to be rid of, and basically externalises his connection to it as something that is outside of himself. I’m very certain the author didn’t think that deeply about it, but it is an interesting difference between the more traditional “the Force is apart of you and all living things” mindset a lot of other Jedi have.

re: Ahsoka

I haven’t finished the Ahsoka novel yet so they might touch on this more, but I always got the sense that Ahsoka was particularly gifted in Force-use. That probably has to do with her forming a close bond with Anakin and Obi-Wan and studying under them during a war, but she is also a very capable and critically-minded person, and she likely would have excelled regardless of who her Master ended up being. 

And her struggle with not being a Jedi is distinct and unique enough from Kanan’s own conflict that I think she probably reacted differently to her Force-sensitivity than he did (more with reservation and this like, resigned sort of familiarity, rather than this problem/disgusting secret to shove away and keep hidden). That’s mostly speculation, though, and like I said I still need to finish the Ahsoka book. But I think that, regardless of where or when she is, she will always be extremely adept and talented at wielding the Force, even if the massive loss of virtually all Jedi does take this aggregate toll on the “strength” of the Force.

re: the dimensions of the Force

I have to explain a bit more what I mean by the Force being spatio-temporal, because I’m using the geographic/social science definition of those words that are separate from the physical science/mathematical usage (I cannot articulate what that difference IS since I’m not a physicist, I just know they are used differently in these fields, which is a common thing in academia and is extremely annoying). 

So when I say that the Force is “spatio-temporal”, I mean that it is bound to those four dimensions (3 axes of space + 1 axis of time), and that the Force has a space and time “budget” - both space and time are resources that can be used up, but there is a limit to those resources (assuming that neither infinite space or time exists). For example, all human beings have 24 hours of time as a resource for every day they live, and we spend that time as we travel across space (another resource we have to allocate accordingly - we can’t be in two places at the same time, for example, so we use discretion and a bunch of cost/benefit models to decide where we will be in space at what time. those budgets work in tandem with one another).

I’m only prefacing with all this nonsense to get to my main point, which is that like, if you conceive of the Force as this continuous field that “blankets” space and time, then it is bound by those things and is limited by the constraints of the dimensions it exists in. IF THAT IS THE CASE (which idk if it is, this is just a thought experiment), then there are both spatial and temporal “locals” within the global environment the Force exists in (which is the entire universe), where it is either weaker or stronger. Spatial locals would be things like temples (where it is stronger), or pockets of empty space where no life exists (where it would presumably be weaker). Temporal locals would be things like the High Republic era (lots of Jedi, tons of power, etc), or the years following Order 66 (where the Jedi were wiped out, and only a few Sith exist). So the Force is continuous (ie has the potential to exist everywhere in space-time) but is unevenly distributed across space-time.

This is all just theoretical, and even if you accept the model I’m describing, you have to then account for other things, which is that the Force seems to build networks between living things, as well as non-living objects (like kyber crystals). This means that its distribution across space-time is complicated by all the other shit that exists at the same location in space-time as the Force, and interacts with it either consciously (ie Force-wielders) or unconsciously (things like animals and plants, who presumably are not aware the Force exists at all).

re: Light vs Dark Side

Canon seems to suggest that the Light/Dark dichotomy is a natural one that the Force subscribes to, and sentient life has just picked up on that and used it to inform their religious practices. Which is sort of boring to me? Like I know the Force seems to have a will independent of the people who use it, but I much prefer the idea that the Force is ultimately unknowable and the best people can do is approximate the truth of its existence via different models - the Light/Dark one just happens to be the most popular (if not most accurate) one that has endured for thousands of years. Because there are tons of Force-users who don’t fall along the Jedi/Sith binary at all, and their alignment (from the material I have consumed anyway) with the Force seems to be intentionally difficult to discern or even amoral altogether (in the case of Bendu, for example).

The out-of-universe explanation is that “blue versus red” is a simplified way of communicating who is good and who is evil to the audience, and afaik the only non-Jedi/Sith users we see are the guardians in Rogue One (who are still guarding a Jedi temple though? It’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie). The EU definitely goes way deeper into Force-wielders outside that binary, which is probably the “real” explanation for why that confounding problem exists.

So to circle back, is the model a lot of Force-wielders are using (Light/Dark or Jedi/Sith) also informing their relationship to the Force itself, in the same way as the “extension vs external” thing I mentioned above? Because that would be super cool and probably explain why it’s difficult to grok the morality of Force-wielders who intentionally remove themselves from that binary. They are operating under a model entirely outside the traditional/normative view of the Force, so like of COURSE they are going to be morally confusing, both to Jedi and to the audience. 

I have no idea if that answered your question lmao, but I hope it did!

[bedlamsbard]

you've probably been asked this before, but-- thoughts on jedi fallen order? your star wars meta/fic/etc is always my favorite and i'm very interested to hear what you think of the new game!

I liked it a lot!

So, as I’ve said before, I haven’t played it; I watched a playthrough on YouTube about a week or so after it came out, so I’d gotten spoiled for it despite trying to avoid spoilers, and the particular playthrough I watched actually had the sound cut out on two of the big scenes, so that was a disappointment.  Watching it rather than playing it means that I definitely missed some things that I’ve seen people mention about it, and I’d like to play it at some point if I can get the tech to cooperate, though that likely won’t be for a while.

I was a little wary about Cal Kestis going in because of the comments that the creators of the game had made about not wanting to have a female/POC/alien main character, but for me Cal was good enough, sweet enough, and interesting enough to overcome that.  I really liked how much weight JFO gave to trauma, living with it, and overcoming it, with Cal, Cere, Merrin, Trilla, and the other characters.  Obviously the poncho is Peak Star Wars, and BD-1 is very sweet.  And I love Inquisitors.

I know JFO has gotten some criticism for being ~yet another padawan survivor story, but Cal is so distinct from either Kanan or Ahsoka that that’s not really how it feels to me, and I think his interaction with Cere, Trilla/Second, and the Ninth Sister really make his story unique compared to the other two.  I love the beginning of the game; it’s such strong world- and environment- building, and the strong sense of Cal’s personality really comes through in his introduction (headphones, blasting music, “I’m trash, I’m just not approved trash” -- he’s peak 2019 gen Z, in my millennial POV).

As far as the actual plot goes, it’s *flips hand* pretty much eh.  It’s a MacGuffin and there’s no way around that; it’s also revisiting plot points from TCW and the Charles Soule Darth Vader comics.  I can understand why Lucasfilm would want to continue to revisit that particular plot point but also, I’m tired of it.  As far as JFO goes, the MacGuffin is mostly an excuse for the journey, which was...interesting.  There are parts of it I really liked; sorry, my dumb brain loves gladiatorial fights even if that probably wasn’t, like, necessary.  Kashyyyk was fun; it’s fun to see Saw Gerrera again even if I’m also kind of like “dude, you haven’t changed your armor in fifteen years?”  I enjoyed seeing Dathomir again even if I have mixed feelings about the choices made insofar as the worldbuilding, but Merrin was really wonderful.  The Zeffo...I still feel that the Zeffo, aesthetically, belong in Stargate rather than Star Wars; their actual use in the game also felt a bit more Stargate rather than SW, for me?  I mean, they’re also a MacGuffin, but I suppose insofar as SW go they’re on the same order as Loo Re Anno’s species from the Han Solo comic or the Rakata from the EU, so not really something that doesn’t have a place in Star Wars.

The Inquisitors. I love Inquisitors.  I don’t necessarily love these Inquisitors. I unfortunately got spoiled for the Second Sister’s reveal as Trilla/Cere’s former padawan, which kind of affected how I felt about her, and I’m also in the FB cosplay build group for Second and it’s a little cutthroat, so that affected it too.  She’s...fine?  Something about her just doesn’t hang together for me, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is at the moment.  The Ninth Sister has such a strong personality from the Darth Vader comics, and while she’s in character between the comics and the game, it also means I was a little taken aback by her abrupt ending.  (And I note that it feels a little weird that Trilla gets the name and the tragic backstory and the personal attachment and the not-actually-redemption, but Ninth doesn’t get any of those.)  It was also weirdly surreal for me to see the Fortress Inquisitorius, a.k.a. the canon version of the Crucible from Backbone, but tbh I think the decision to put it on another planet/moon(?) in the Mustafar system actually weakened it.

I got spoiled for Darth Vader’s appearance and that was one of the places where the sound cut out on the playthrough I watched, so it didn’t quite have the effect that it probably would have done had I gone into it cold.  That said, Cal and Cere should probably be dead; as I’ve seen pointed out, Vader hasn’t been allowed to kill anyone of significance in the new canon, which kind of undercuts him.  (The closest he’s come has been Jocasta Nu in the comics.)

All right. The ending. I don’t like the ending. Not because I really thought that Cal and Cere should have refounded the Jedi Order, but because I feel like they put the destruction of the holocron in the wrong place; I think they should have destroyed it to keep it away from Vader.  The conscious decision made not to re-found the Order is really uncomfortable for me, especially in light of the way that the new canon has treated the subject over the past couple years.  I was talking about this with @reena-jenkins a while back, so I’ll just copy and paste what I said there.  (Note that this was back in November, before TROS came out.)

(I’ve cut most of Reena’s responses and a little bit of other conversation we were having.)

So yeah, I have some problems with the ultimate ending decision, but as usual a lot of it comes down to how that intersects with other plot lines that Lucasfilm has done over the past five/six years.

Another thing I kept thinking of throughout the game was something one of the creators said -- either in an interview or at SWCC earlier this year, I can’t remember which, that there was a lot of debate on where to put the hyphen in Jedi: Fallen Order, i.e. that it could have been Jedi Fallen: Order (though title-wise that doesn’t stand up as much).  I do like how much emphasis there is on “fallen order” -- the Jedi Order, of course, but also the Nightsisters, the Zeffo, the Inquisitors and Purge troopers as a kind of twisted version of the Jedi and clone troopers, even the structure of the Republic being corrupted into the Empire.

One thing that took me by surprise with JFO was also how much intersection it had with Galaxy’s Edge!  Not to the extent that I would have noticed it if I hadn’t already been to Galaxy’s Edge, but having gone and also having the kind of brain that literally just absorbs stuff and then retains it.  Like, for example, the Galaxy’s Edge sporks that are now no longer used because people kept stealing them; they’re used in one of the meals on the Mantis.  Cal remaking his lightsaber and using the parts you can get at Savi’s got picked up by a couple of news outlets; I think this is actually a bit unfortunate, because they went for the Galaxy’s Edge lightsaber proportions for many of his lightsaber options and in my opinion, those are less elegant proportions than usually seen in Star Wars, so it ends up looking clumsy to me.  Another proportion thing that follows Galaxy’s Edge -- the holocron, both Cere’s and the MacGuffin holocron; the Galaxy’s Edge ones seem to be proportionally a bit bigger than the holocrons seen in Rebels and TCW, and the ones in the game follows Galaxy’s Edge rather than TCW/Rebels sizing. The Nightsister zombie crate in Galaxy’s Edge may also be a JFO reference rather than a TCW one, though obviously it could also apply to both.

I really enjoyed the Clone Wars/Order 66 flashbacks, though actually Order 66 was ANOTHER place the sound cut out!  I told you that it was the most dramatic reveals where I lost sound!  I loved that Jaro Tapal was a Lasat; I also like that, as far as I can tell, some of Cal’s specific movement types (wall-running and his tendency to be like “cool, gonna climb that”) seem to be more Lasat-inspired than other types of Jedi movement we’ve seen before.  I really like the design of Jaro’s lightsaber; I remember in the promo I was confused about the fact that it didn’t seem to be proportional to Cal, but of course it’s not!  It was made by a Lasat for a Lasat!  Order 66 is always such a mess -- and actually, I’m struck by how different Cal’s and Caleb’s experiences of it were?  I think one thing that the game made clear to me is how lucky Kanan got, in all ways.

The ending is obviously setting up for a sequel; I don’t really think Cal and Cere should have survived, but it we get a decent sequel out of it I guess I’m okay with it.  I know I’m missing details in this review, but I really did enjoy watching it; I liked the characters, I liked the worldbuilding, I think it did some really intriguing things even if I don’t agree with every decision made. (And, selfishly, I like my Inquisition better than the canon one.)

[padawanlost]

You know what really gets me about Yoda? When Ahsoka goes to him about her vision of Padmé dying, he's like 'choose, you must, how to proceed, but be careful because the future has many paths.' When Luke has a vision about Han and Leia, he went 'You must choose, but I'm dropping major hints that you shouldn't go.' When Anakin goes to him with his visions of Padmé? 'Rejoice for those who join the Force.' What kind of hypocritical nonsense advice is that, Yoda??

BINGO! Yodais a hypocrite, that’s a fact. What astonishes me is this notion that Yodagives good advice. He has a terrible track record with counselling people. Infact, thing only work out well (or less tragically) when people ignore whateverhe’s told them. Yoda speech pattern might make him sound wiser but when youconsider all the things he has said and how it affected everything it becomes obvioushe causes harm. Yoda, when not being a complete hypocrite, is busy preaching unhealthycoping mechanisms and manipulating the truth.

Yoda’sadvices are some of the most quotable Star Wars moments and yet when I thinkabout them I see nothing but empty wisdom.

However,before I get more into it I would like to make a few things clear: this dealswith grief and coping mechanism so if this may trigger you, please do not readany further. Also, this is not an attack on people who find this particularadvice useful or comforting. If Yoda helps you deal with whatever is going onin your life, good. I have no problem with that. I just wanted to write about my own feelings on this matter and whyI believe this particular advice didn’t work for Anakin or for me.

This isquite long, personal (kind of, but not really) and it might be triggering soit’s under a “read more”.

It’s allvery pretty and helpful at first glance but once you begin to think about whatit all means or how to put it into practice you realized most of Yoda’s advicesare not helpful at all. One of his most famous quote is “Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you whotransform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leadsto jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go… ofeverything you fear to lose.” from ROTS and it’s also the one that bothersme most.

When Ifirst heard it I thought “oh! This isgood advice”. I was a sweet summer child. TBH, part of it could be consideredgood advice, especially the first part. But when you consider context and applicability it all falls apart. Ibroke it down into parts, trying to figure exactly why it doesn’t seat quitewell with me and here’s what I got:

“The fear of loss is apath to the dark side.”

Terribleadvice #1. When someone troubled comes to you with their fears, telling themfear is wrong and evil is never a good idea. You’re only reinforcing theinitial fear. Now the person is also afraid of their own fear as well. Imaginesomeone coming up to you and saying “I’m afraid my mom will die”, now imagineyourself saying “Fear is wrong. Let it go”. Does it really sound like good,healthy advice?

“Fear is a vital response to physical andemotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves fromlegitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are far fromlife-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason. Traumas or bad experiencescan trigger a fear response within us that is hard to quell. Yet exposingourselves to our personal demons is the best way to move past them.”[x]

Yes, toomuch fear is a problem (in fact, that’s Anakin’s problem) but what’s  wrong here is that the fear is neverrecognized or validated. Being afraid is wrong and it leads to evil. That’s it.There’s not even a hint as how to deal with fear. There’s no “you need to faceyour fears”, or “you need to learn to control your fear”. Nope, all we get hereis: fear is wrong and you shouldn’t feel it.

It’s just awarning (not at all what Anakin was looking for) and an unhelpful advice.

“Death is a naturalpart of life.”

Fairenough. Can’t argue with that. However, I wonder if death affects Yoda (themost detached being in the Galaxy) the same way it affects Anakin and everyoneelse. Yoda is talking about grief, but grief is tied to one’s ability to feellove and empathy. Death is heartbreaking because of the loss attached to it.When you’re not connected to anyone and you’re incapable of deeply empathizingwith people, seeing death as fact of life is much easier. But here Yoda istalking to someone who:

Has a history of fear, emotional     instability, and deep attachments.

Just admitted is talking to some close to him:

Anakin: They are of pain, suffering. Death. Yoda: Yourself you speak of,or someone you know? Anakin: Someone. Yoda: Close to you? Anakin: Yes.

Ourattachments are what makes loss so devastating and personal. When we aretalking about Death as a concept, sure, there’s nothing wrong with reminding usthat Death is natural and unavoidable. But in a more immediate situation, wherethe threat is real (Anakin believes it’s real) it’s a rather cold thing to say.It’s the equivalent of saying “people die” to someone in a life-or-deathsituation. It’s not a lie, but it’s hardly helpfuladvice.  Anakin was not afraid of“conceptual death”. He was a soldier and a former slave. He was aware of deathas a fact of life. He was seeking advice on personal loss. Yoda, being the detached Jedi he was, was incapableof understanding the difference because to him there was no difference. ToYoda, every death is a fact of life, not a personalloss.

Althoughthere’s nothing fundamentally wrong with what Yoda said, his lack of empathymakes him lose some points in my book.

“Rejoice for thosearound you who transform into the Force.”

I’ve seenpeople interpreting this as “be happy this person lived” but imo, that’s notwhat he said at all. Yoda advice here is “be happy the person has gone somewhereelse”.

It’s not abad thing to say if we see “transforming into the Force” as the equivalent of anafterlife. Again, the problem here is not what he is saying but when he issaying it. Yoda is talking to someone who is afraid to lose someone they love,not to someone who has lost someone they love. He’s not talking about someonewho’s dead or dying.

Yoda: Premonitions, premonitions. These visions youhave… Anakin: They are of pain,suffering. Death.

They aretalking the possibility of loss and Yoda is already telling him to let go. Itfits the Jedi mindset but when we consider Anakin’s emotional state or a reallife situation it’s not helpful at all:

Person 1: someone I love might be ill.Person 2: be happy they’ll go to [insert any equivalent to the Force/afterlife here].

Once more,it’s matter of tact and compassion. The problem it’s not what Yoda is saying.It’s when, how and to whom he is saying it. That same sentence “Rejoice forthose around you who transform into the Force” would probably have givenObi-wan great comfort after the loss of Qui-Gon. But here, it doesn’t helpAnakin because Anakin is not ready to let go of his pregnant, healthy and ALIVEwife.

“Mourn them do not.”

This iswhat I was talking about. On paper, great. One practice, terrible. Mourning isa natural process. Dealing with our grief, learning to cope and moving on ishealthy. Pretending you’re unaffected by loss, is not. This a perfect exampleof toxic Jedi behavior. Conceal, don’t feel.

“Miss them do not.”

Seriously?!You can’t even miss them? Does this mean Yoda doesn’t miss all the Jedi Anakinkilled? Is this another example of Yoda’s hypocrisy or he truly doesn’t care?I’m torn on this one.

“Attachment leads to jealousy.”

True. Butthis is quite a big leap. He was talking about death and mourning, and his mindwent straight to jealousy. How does that help Anakin, or anyone else? this is basically,“don’t love anything or anyone, or else you’ll get jealous”. Seriously? Is thisreally good advice to give someone who is afraid of loss. Like I say earlier,this sort of “advice” only adds to the strain the person was already feeling.Not only no real help is being offered, their feelings are being criticized. InAnakin’s case, he’s being told he can’t help his loved one, he’s also beingtold that having a loved one is wrong and that even love itself leads to evil.

“The shadow of greed that is.”

*_____*

“Train yourself to let go of everything youfear to lose.”

Attachment= emotional bond (love)

Attachment-> Jealousy -> greed => dark side (bad/evil)

By Yoda’s(Jedi) logic here, attachment is the cause of all evil. And the only way toprevent evil is to prevent love. To prevent love, you must let go of everythingyou fear to lose. Yoda concludes his advice by saying “you shouldn’t care aboutthis”. You should let go of whoever you love, because love leads to bad things.That’s not good advice, to Anakin or to us. Good, admirable advice, would recognizethe person’s feeling and actually help them to deal with them, or at leastcomfort them.

To be fair,all the unhealthy implications above are not only about Yoda. It’s a about theJedi Order as whole and how their rules and beliefs harmed their own members.Yoda, Obi-wan, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu, Anakin and all the others felt the samethings we do: love, anger, fear, etc. and even if they weren’t attached tosomeone they were attached to the Order and their own ways and ideals. The Jediand their story is the proof this kind of thinking doesn’t work in practice. Ican’t think of a single character (who had contact with Yoda and the Jedi wayof thinking) putting all the above into practice. Here’s one example:

“The fear of loss is apath to the dark side.”

They allfelt fear.

“Fear, anger, hate. Consumed by the dark sidethe Jedi were.” Yoda to Kanan [Rebels]Right before the Jedi Purge, the jedi were so afraid to losing their power andinfluence they were willing to compromise their beliefs, spy on the chancellorand plot against the Senate.

Mace Windu: I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi. The Dark Side of the Force surrounds the Chancellor.Ki-Adi-Mundi: If he does not give up his emergency powers after the destruction of Grievous, then he must be forcibly removed from office.Mace Windu: It will be tricky. The Jedi Council will have to take control of the Senate to ensure a peaceful transition to a new government and a new leadership for the Republic.Yoda: Hmm. To a dark place this line of thought will carry us. Great care we must take.

Yoda’s “words of wisdom” are just more proof of his hypocrisy and damaging mentality that lead to the destruction of the Jedi Order.

[gffa]

Sometimes you just want a nice, long novel-length (or thereabouts) STAR WARS fic to sink into, maybe you’re going on a long car ride or maybe you’re visiting family without regular internet or maybe you just want some kissing to happen in that novel-length fic! I mean, canon is amazing and wonderful, but sometimes you want to pick up something and have the undercurrents finally rise to the surface, so here are some of my favorite Obikin and Obianidala novel length fics! (Last Updated: 2017.05.17) ✦ wicked thing by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin & ventress & dooku & ahsoka & cast, 97.3k wip    There are rumours of yet another Sith Lord hiding among the Separatists. The Council sends Anakin to investigate. Anakin has a bad feeling about this. ✦ Ouroboros by bedlamsbard, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 458k wip    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions. ✦ Seed by bell (bellaboo), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme, NSFW, 44k    When Anakin falls prey to a lethal poison, Obi-Wan has no choice but use all his resources to heal him– no matter how reluctant he is in administering the antidote. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & dooku & mace & cast, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, time travel, 101.5k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & bail & cast, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, dark themes, dark!obi-wan, 73.7k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”. ✦ flowers for a ghost by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan/anakin & cast, modern au (sort of), 42.2k    Anakin Skywalker’s had a rough go of it, from being imprisoned to losing his hand to remembering an entire past life. He’s only looking for a place to stay the night when he comes to Obi-wan’s doorstep. ✦ The World Undone by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & maul & cast, nsfw, sith!obi-wan, 143.3k    Anakin Skywalker, proud symbol of the strength and purity of the Jedi Order, is the target of a strange and handsome Sith named Obi-Wan, whose only goal seems to be pulling Skywalker down into the dark with him. ✦ you knock me out, i fall apart by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & han/luke/leia & ahsoka & cast, 64.8k wip    ( aka: the one where anakin was a sith lord for literally an hour, everyone is alive, and they’re actually happy ) ✦ World Come Undone by crazyundeadfairy, obi-wan/anakin (maybe?) & luke, 68.3k wip    Unexpected things happen when ObiWan takes Luke to Tatooine. ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 60.8k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem. ✦ Clarity by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 73.7k wip    Anakin’s jealousy leads to the start of something new between him and Obi-Wan and a lot of frank discussions about things they should have talked about but didn’t in canon. ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand. ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka, time travel, 185.1k    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean life will be easy. ✦ Sigh No More by edenwolfie, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia & cast, 158.2k wip    Anakin makes slightly better choices, Obi-Wan is a Mess™ and Padmé deserves none of this. AU from Mustafar onward with liberal manipulation of canon to culminate in some angsty, fluffy, domestic fix-it because we all deserve better. full details + recs under the cut!

✦ wicked thing by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin & ventress & dooku & ahsoka & cast, 97.3k wip    There are rumours of yet another Sith Lord hiding among the Separatists. The Council sends Anakin to investigate. Anakin has a bad feeling about this.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, which are collated on this post, but am writing a new one to encompass the entire fic rather than piecemeal, so those that are new to this fic will have a better one to hopefully encourage them to read it! This is another fic I’ve been reading pretty much since the beginning and would immediately read it as soon as a new chapter dropped and will have a tough time writing a coherent rec for it–there’s a reason it’s so massively popular in the fandom, because the writing is absolute joy to read, that it’s almost 100k of Anakin’s point of view where he’s a completely #Relatable emotional mess, in that sort of hilarious and utterly engaging way. It combines that with the just as delightful Soft Sith aesthetic/dynamic that is so, so much fun with these characters and writes an Obi-Wan Kenobi who is charming and charismatic, but so much more dangerous, where he’s so much more selfish and all that insight and precision and lethality to him are turned to much more dangerous avenues.    The fic sparked a ton of trends in fandom (especially helping to popularize Soft Sith!Obi-Wan, for which I am forever grateful) and, once you start reading, it’s easy to see why, there’s just something to this fic that is really special, it’s an Obi-Wan/Anakin fic, but the kind that I would recommend to anyone who is one the fence about them, the kind of fic that draws new fans into the pairing, the kind of fic that may not be their canon selves, but keeps enough of their dynamic and is just plain ridiculously hot and delicious, that it hits all the right buttons for the ship. There is still Anakin being so tremendously strong in the Force, but such an utter disaster in his personal life. There’s Obi-Wan who makes things seem easy, but has worked incredibly hard to get where he is. There’s Anakin being absolutely and completely turned around and confused and not knowing which way is up, really wanting someone to follow, and Obi-Wan who may not tell him everything, who may be kind of manipulative, but there’s such a solid foundation of genuine care there. All of this is balanced together so well and then written with a plot and an incredibly deft hand, so that every single scene sparkles and draws the reader in. It’s that Obikin fic that I will go, “Here, read this if you’re thinking about getting into the pairing.” because I think it does the groundwork for showing what a fun pairing they can be, while also just being a scream of a fic. ✦ Ouroboros by bedlamsbard, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 458k wip    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions.    Wake the Storm: So, I pretty much sunk into this fic and didn’t come out again until I’d read the whole thing, I just absolutely couldn’t put it down! My only caveat is that, while the build-ups and suspense are stellar, you just kind of have to roll with that the fic is not as strong at reveals. The way the fic is structured, there’s a lot of “omg when will Character A find out about Character b????” that don’t necessarily happen or happen late in the fic or aren’t pieced together when they should be or aren’t dwelled on for long. I don’t think this is a huge detriment, so long as you know what you’re getting ahead of time, though, because what the fic is about (Anakin skipping around the timeline and other universes, dragging Obi-Wan along with him) is absolutely fantastic. The writing is incredibly engaging, it’s the kind where I find this far more readable than a lot of professionally published books, that the plot structure and pacing of the scenes is all rock solid for me. (Tbh, probably the only reason any caveats occur to me at all is because the fic as a whole is so well written.)    The characterization is lovely and gets at the heart of what I wanted–where Anakin experiences the destruction and tragedy that happens, his horror at it solidified by the time he finds out his connection to it, as well as his interaction with Obi-Wan is strengthened up because of what Obi-Wan has been through and how he’s seeing Anakin again and how much time he’s had to think over the events of Anakin’s future. The plot is interesting and the fic spends time with each world but doesn’t linger and there has clearly been thought given to setting all of it up, but it blends into the story perfectly, like… you know those fics you can pick up and just read and read and read because they’re so engaging and written with such good pacing that you don’t want to put it down, that even when it shifts gears, you find yourself rolling right along with it because you want to know what happens next? That’s what this fic did for me, I was so curious about where it was going next and how this was all going to affect them.    While this story itself is gen, you can tell that the story is heading towards Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme, so it spends time building Obi-Wan/Anakin back up and shifting it to romantic instead of platonic, that it doesn’t happen here at all, but you can feel how desperately Anakin loves Obi-Wan and how Obi-Wan has been given the time to really reflect on feelings and attachment and on Anakin in general, so that I believe it. Plus, I’m a sucker for all the little touches, like Anakin sleeping on Obi-Wan or the way he touches Anakin after he goes through a tough time, it got me right in the feelings place, to go along with the intriguing greater story. I am now going to proceed to dive right into the monster sequel fic and probably roll around in my feelings some more.    Queen’s Gambit: I haven’t yet finished Queen’s Gambit, but I’m including it on this list because I enjoyed the first fic a lot and I think I can safely recommend the sequel already. ♥ ✦ Seed by bell (bellaboo), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme, NSFW, 44k    When Anakin falls prey to a lethal poison, Obi-Wan has no choice but use all his resources to heal him– no matter how reluctant he is in administering the antidote.    I love how this fic started out as an excuse for fuck-or-die blowjobs, but then went and developed feelings and an actual plot. That is my favorite kind of thing! But what really gets me about this fic is that everything is so carefully considered and given so much thought, that the miscommunication between Obi-Wan and Anakin takes so long to resolve (but without being dragged out too long just for the sake of drama or padding the fic) is central to the story and such care is given to show how these two characters misunderstand each other and why they clash and things so often go off kilter with them. The entire point of showcasing that miscommunication is to nudge the characters into a situation where they have to face it and actually work to resolve it. This is not a smooth path, especially not with feelings being brought to the surface, that both characters have to work through.    Obi-Wan meditates and tries not to burden Anakin with his feelings and balance being a Jedi with what the heart of the man wants, which works so well because Obi-Wan has never been about denial of feelings, but instead about letting them go, about accepting them and releasing them because he has another path that he’s chosen to walk. So what happens when he finds that these surfaced feelings are stronger than he intended and he doesn’t want to let them go? The fic works hard to bring him to a fork in the road where he has to choose one path or the other, that both are important roads for him, and the choice is legitimately difficult. It takes care to show that Obi-Wan isn’t perfect, he doesn’t always understand Anakin, he’s human and Anakin gets to him, but also that Obi-Wan is someone who knows himself very well and is emotionally stable, that the difficulty is in the choice, not the knowledge.    By contrast, Anakin is just an emotional mess who doesn’t understand Obi-Wan, but also doesn’t really understand how to process anything, that he’s all instinct and reaction, but that doesn’t make his feelings any less real or there. This is a fic that is about Anakin struggling to understand Obi-Wan, struggling to understand his own feelings, struggling to not make all the worst choices–there’s a moment later in the fic where he could make an absolutely disasterous choice and keep an important secret from Obi-Wan, but he’s struggled through so much (and become so much more trusting, because his relationship with Obi-Wan is closer) that he makes a better choice. The fic is just as much about dragging Anakin into making better choices, tiny bit by tiny bit. And about how Anakin is just never going to be an independent person, he’s always going to be dependent on those he loves, and that Obi-Wan has to come around to understanding this and accepting it about him.    It’s also a fic that may not be centrally about her, but Padme has a very real and very present role in the fic. Anakin’s love for her is just as valid as his love for Obi-Wan, that he thinks of her while she’s not there, that he’s terrified of losing her, that the conversation he has with her about Obi-Wan is painful and difficult because he leads with his heart, that actions that might be manipulative in others (like wanting to be with two people and have them approve of him being with both) are just who Anakin is. He’s still selfish and probably entirely hypocritical (he would never share either of them the way he wants to share himself), but it’s never done with artifice, he clings to both of them because he’s so insecure and needy, he’s desperate to keep both of them, he’s an absolute mess, and the fic never denies that. It doesn’t deny that this is painful for everyone involved, because it’s not easy for Padme to share her husband, it’s not easy for Obi-Wan to feel like an intruder on someone else’s relationship, and it’s not easy for Anakin to know that he’s asking for so much, but terrified of losing either one of them. I love that this fic holds Obi-Wan and Anakin apart because Obi-Wan is very much “if you’re going to do something, do it right” and he holds firm on that, he draws a boundary and keeps it there, that he’ll reassure Anakin in other ways (the element of Anakin asking for Obi-Wan’s total honesty when Obi-Wan won’t budge on starting a relationship until they’ve worked the problems out was so satisfying for this!), but he won’t cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed, like, yes, that is Obi-Wan’s character and exactly what Anakin needs from him in this relationship, just as Padme doesn’t react happily to the news that Anakin’s in love with Obi-Wan, but she has such emotional openness and care that she provides the warmth and acceptance that Anakin needs, the two of them filling in the different jagged edgegs of Anakin’s character.    Which is what I mean about this fic giving such thought and care to each scene and character, that I can pull all of it apart and it holds up to that scrutiny for me, that it may not be the longest fic I’ve ever read, but it’s certainly one that knows the characters it’s writing and what it wants to do with them and what motivates them. It’s a fic that starts out as cracky, but then uses it as a character exploration and is just really damned satisfying to me for it! ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & dooku & mace & cast, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, time travel, 101.5k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, which are collated on this post, but I’m sticking with an earlier rec that won’t give too much away, but still hopefully tells you why you should read one of my favorite fics: I cannot tell you how in love with this fic I am, how much I love what it’s doing on both a plot level and an id-pleasing level. The fic first got me with these little moments of Ben (older Sith!Obi-Wan) and the way he would crowd into Anakin’s space, the way he would touch Anakin, the way he would run a hand down Anakin’s back or shove him up against the wall when he was getting out of control, there was this quiet but powerful intimacy between them, both dangerous and something very genuine there. It’s so incredibly good, the way Anakin curls up against Ben’s side or wriggles onto his lap, the way he so very much wants affection from his once-again-Master, the way Ben knows this after all they’ve been through together and the lives they’ve lived and this second chance, the way he absolutely is manipulative and much more iron-handed than he was before, but some part of Anakin feeds on that. It’s so well written and there’s such charm and sparkle to the writing, it’s that sweet spot between just exactly what my id wants and the more rational part of me that is impressed with the world-building and plotting and character motivations, that I legitimately respect the fic. It’s such a great example of what Obi-Wan would be like if freed from the restraints he puts on himself as a Jedi–he has power, sure, but it’s also such intelligence and insight, such lethality and being predatory in all the right moments, the way you really, really understand how Obi-Wan is dangerous when he puts all of his skills to less noble purposes.   And the plot is good, it’s a great cast of different versions of the characters, the older versions having been dumped back in time and are running around to fix things in their own way, including a time out to go free the slaves on Tatooine and, of course, have more run-ins with the Jedi. I love that there are light saber battles, I love that they’re not just idling around, they’re doing stuff, moving the pieces around from the shadows, in addition to their complicated relationship developing further. I am H O O K E D on this fic and it’s honestly one of the most satisfying I’ve read in the fandom yet, it’s one of those that I pretty much drop everything else to go read when there’s a new chapter, it’s one that I’m torn between tripping over myself to read everything as fast as I can because I want more and forcing myself to go slower becaus I want to savor it, it’s one of those that I never want to end, but also I want all of it to be able to read everything right now. ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & bail & cast, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, dark themes, dark!obi-wan, 73.7k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, but am writing a new one to encompass the entire fic rather than piecemeal, so those that are new to this fic will have a better one to hopefully encourage them to read it! I feel like I hardly know where to start with this one, because it’s another that I’ve been reading as each chapter comes out and I think it might be my favorite of the author’s work. It’s a fic that initially caught my attention, despite the seemingly incompatible concept of the character, but what got me is that this isn’t canon Obi-Wan, but he shares so much of the traits of him, like what Obi-Wan would be without his unbreakable morals and faith from the movies and the show, that if you changed those things about him, you would get this fascinating look at the way he uses that charm and gentlemanly manner and incredibly insight to do such terrible things, to focus on the person he loves (Anakin) more than anyone.    And that’s the other thing that gets me, the way their relationship is played, that it takes so long for Anakin to come around is to the fic’s credit, that it’s not dragged out beyond what it should have been, that instead it needed that space to show the way he was stripped of his defiance bit by bit, just tiny step by tiny step. That this is never portrayed as healthy or anything other than Stockholm Syndrome, the fic is very aware of what it’s doing, but there’s a dark charisma to it, that I find myself rooting for it, even when it’s clear that it’s a terrible thing. The fic is very good at balancing those two things–the fascination with that dark yet beautiful dynamic, obsessive love that can still be genuine in its own way, even as it’s awful. It’s charming, even as you don’t forget that Anakin has been conditioned into this, you still see the layers being peeled away from him to get at something that’s underneath that, something that says a lot about who Anakin Skywalker is.    It’s a modern AU, it’s a serial killer!Obi-Wan AU, it’s a story about Anakin being manipulated into dependence on him, it’s a lot of things that I might normally not be that keen on, but between the fic visibly embracing those things while still keeping so many echoes of their original selves, while hitting all those elements that made so many of us fans of Hannibal, that it’s honestly one of my favorites in the fandom. ✦ flowers for a ghost by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan/anakin & cast, modern au (sort of), 42.2k    Anakin Skywalker’s had a rough go of it, from being imprisoned to losing his hand to remembering an entire past life. He’s only looking for a place to stay the night when he comes to Obi-wan’s doorstep.    I’ll note ahead of time that I haven’t finished this fic yet, but I’m far enough in that I want to include it! It’s the first part of a long sort-of-modern-AU where the characters are reincarnated into current day Earth and are all kind of giant messes, especially Anakin, and this is the story of him trying to recover from just how much he’s been damaged along the way. Not only is there his previous life as Darth Vader to contend with that haunts him, but also the terrible things that have happened to him in this life, the further terrible choices that he’s made that landed him here and weigh him down. It’s a fic that’s a very long, slow process (and very much a slow burn between Obi-Wan and Anakin) because there’s so much for Anakin to wade through and so little progress he can make at any given time. There’s so much about this fic that’s bittersweet and haunting and lovely in a really heartbreaking way–it’s moving towards the better, step by step, but it’s a long road and it’s fragile and brittle the whole way there.    But, ahhh, the relationship and the utter need Anakin has for Obi-Wan and how this situation is both id-pleasing (accidental Force bond, yessssss, give me that always!) and all about doing the slow, almost daily life of recovery, both for Anakin himself as a person and for his relationship with Obi-Wan. There’s a sneaking plot here as well, there’s a lot of characters they run into, there’s an expansive world unfolding here, but at it’s heart it’s a fic about Anakin’s recovery and trying to piece himself back together–trying to find the will to want to piece himself back together, after everything. And the length of it is necessary (even as I scream at them to just kiss already) to show that that’s something that’s not easy or quick. This is a lovely read and I’m adoring it so much. ✦ The World Undone by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & maul & cast, nsfw, sith!obi-wan, 143.3k    Anakin Skywalker, proud symbol of the strength and purity of the Jedi Order, is the target of a strange and handsome Sith named Obi-Wan, whose only goal seems to be pulling Skywalker down into the dark with him.    I’ll note ahead of time that I haven’t finished this fic yet, this rec is based on the first 2/3rds of the fic, but I’m far enough in that I want to include it! Oh, I hardly know where to start with this fic! I admit that it took me a bit to get into, for personal reasons (I usually turn right around at fic where someone other than Obi-Wan trained Anakin if it isn’t a complete disaster, I’m not a big fan of Maul’s character/thought Dooku or Sidious would have been in his role), but those aren’t really criticisms, they’re just things that popped up on my own personal radar. I mention this because, if someone’s tastes are like mine, I want to encourage continuing with this one because once the story kicked into gear for me, I just got swept away in it, I kept reading and reading because I wanted to know where it was going. Once Obi-Wan and Anakin started interacting regularly, once the attraction between them was unable to be ignored (even if it took awhile for some resolution!), and once the main mystery of the story got underway (which I would say was about halfway through when I read this fic), it became a really well-plotted and paced story.    The fic does so many things that I really love about it, right down to the language has shades of something like poetry but the author makes it work, it never had me doing that, “wtf does that even mean” feeling, but instead… oh, like when they finally have time to be together, when they have just enough space to breathe for it and there’s a line that really struck me: Obi-Wan only drove in harder and faster, a shooting star in free-fall along its own doomed line toward earth until it flashed and burnt itself out in its own flare of beautiful white heat inside the velvet night of Anakin’s body. What might have been too flowery in another fic, I really loved this line, I love that it was highlighted their relationship, how passionate this Obi-Wan was about Anakin, how desperate Anakin is to clutch at something, to have Obi-Wan in him, as a steadying presence and to fill him up, that that’s both a culmination of the long attraction between them and shows how their relationship works here. Because this isn’t canon, but it still has so many elements of it, the way they care about other people (especially Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship has several meaningful scenes, it’s very much an important part of Anakin’s character), but they revolve around each other, Anakin still needs Obi-Wan like that.    The reveals take awhile to happen, but they’re worth waiting for, because they’re satisfying and so interesting, the slow pealing back of the layers and hints, until we finally get proper flashbacks and you understand how the characters came to where they were. The author knows how to pace a story, how to write something long without feeling like it was dragged out, that it takes its time, but it’s not padded to hell and back, and that kind of solidity is incredibly appreciated. It’s one of those fics that just feels… smooth and solid, one of those that’s satisfying to have such a long fic that knows where it’s going and you can feel that even from the beginning, whether or not it grows some here and there or expands in a few unexpected places, it keeps on topic and is paced just right for me. And, of course, I enjoy so much the way Obi-Wan and Anakin are slowly coming together here, that it’s a long path for them to take, but each step forward is sure-footed and will get there. ✦ you knock me out, i fall apart by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & han/luke/leia & ahsoka & cast, 64.8k wip    ( aka: the one where anakin was a sith lord for literally an hour, everyone is alive, and they’re actually happy )    This fic was my happy place for two days straight while I read it, because it’s everything I was hoping to get from it–it’s a collection of non-linear scenes spanning from ROTS to probably twenty years into the future, showing the snippets of their lives, the family they all build together, while balancing something so incredibly charming with the occasional moments of absolute heartbreak. Primarily, this fic is definitely about making a happy family AU, whether it’s Anakin keeping the people he loves close or eventually he and Padme convince Obi-Wan to join them or giving Ahsoka a family to come home to or getting to see the twins grow up, but it’s also about how Anakin is never going to be entirely emotionally stable and about how Ahsoka bears the scars from being too young in the war and about how Obi-Wan is so solitary for so long and about how it’s not always easy to grow up a Skywalker for either Luke or Leia.    The fic is really good about making those moments genuinely serious, it’s not really a cracky fic and the serious moments are genuinely serious, and it’s… I think of it as being like The Clone Wars show, only trending in a positive direction instead of negative, where sometimes it’s heartbreaking, sometimes it’s ridiculously charming, and sometimes it’s just straight up cute fluff, but all of it is well done. And I cannot convey enough of that sense of charm, that kind of sharpness to the happy AU that makes it so good to read, the kind that makes it straight into my fannish heart, rather than just me seeking out fluff because I need it to soothe me. This one captures my feelings and my imagination, it’s ridiculously engaging and one of those fics of my heart. ✦ World Come Undone by crazyundeadfairy, obi-wan/anakin (maybe?) & luke, 68.3k wip    Unexpected things happen when ObiWan takes Luke to Tatooine.    Oh, lord, this fic. I cannot tell you how hard this fic grabbed me and would not let go until I finished it! There are a couple of caveats: The first two chapters are fairly slow, a lot of monologuing over things actually happening, but once Luke starts talking, it kicks into gear and doesn’t let go. It’s also a WIP and hasn’t been updated in a few years, but the author has gone years between updates before, so you never know, but more importantly! You get so much of the good stuff in what’s already here! So, while I would have loved to have had the rest of the fic, I’m genuinely content with what we had here as well, because let me tell you about my feelings on Obi-Wan raising Luke, who is this amazingly sweet little moppet that I was instantly in love with, as well as Anakin eventually finds out and tries to steal Luke away but gets in his own way too much and finds himself trapped in a situation that he’s not sure how to get out of.    I was initially skimming ahead to just read the confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin when they saw each other again, just to see if the fic picked up, and found myself getting sucked in because the fic does a great job with each scene making me want to read the next and the next and the next, so I had to go back to my original place and then I just hungrily read the entire thing because Anakin wants to take Luke and kill Obi-Wan, but he can’t because he wants Luke to love him and that won’t happen if Luke knows he killed the only father he’s ever known, yet Anakin still burns that Obi-Wan has taken Luke, despite that Obi-Wan has always talked about Anakin to Luke, always told him stories, and Luke can already feel that there’s still love there, no matter how much anger and hate is held onto, sometimes on both sides, after all that’s happened.    It’s one of those fics where they’re forced to be semi-civil to each other again, but underneath is all this emotional tension and hurt that made my fannish heart absolutely ache while reading it, yet was delicious candy at the same time because it hit my id perfectly. Getting well-written fic that does justice to the iddy concept it has is such a rare treat in fandom and I love this fic for doing that for me! It’s one of those situations that I would dream up without trying to properly justify it in my head just because I wanted it, but the fic actually sold me on it and doesn’t shortchange that Anakin is full of rage and hates Obi-Wan, even as you feel how much of it is borne out of still loving him.    Obi-Wan is fantastic, he’s so steady and solid, but that doesn’t mean he’s passive or without his own anger on Anakin’s actions, even as he’s still willing to try to help him again. And Anakin feels so right to me, that he’s not there yet, he’s not doing any of this for the right reasons, his love for Luke is still selfish and obsessive, but there’s hope in him and you can see the sparks of maybe something still good in there. And I’m labeling this as Obi-Wan/Anakin because the author has written slash fic for them before and the relationship is very central to the story, even if there’s no kissing, and Anakin’s relationship with Padme is very important and I just really, really was hit spot on by this fic, okay. So good. ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 60.8k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem.    This is a fic I read very, very early on in my time in Star Wars fandom, so I can’t say how it would hold up for me if I tried to go back and read it, but it will always be one of those fics that’s dear to me because it helped tip me from shipping just Anidala into also shipping Obikin and Obianidala. And so I’m leaving the rec as I originally wrote it, as I think it does a good job of conveying my reaction to the fic!    I have two caveats about this fic before I begin: It’s a WIP that hasn’t been updated in about a year, so I’m not sure if it will be. But it gets enough satisfying stuff in so even though it ends on a cliffhanger, I found it absolutely worth reading! And that it’s very fast in the beginning, there’s not much time to build up suspense before the reveals are already happening. This isn’t a fic I wound up reading for the suspense or reveals by the time I got into the thick of it, this is a fic that’s about the building relationship between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme. Previous to this fic, I’d never shipped anything but Anakin/Padme, so their relationship being strong here, being absolutely important to Anakin’s pov, while the shifting nature of his relationship with Obi-Wan is slowly changing, works for me, it eased me in at just the right pacing and made me actually really, really want it.    What the fic does the most beautifully for me, though, is how Anakin is so beloved and so special and so brilliant, but he’s also an obnoxious pain in the ass, the way Padme and Obi-Wan both love him dearly, but he’s also a dumbass, oh, that worked for me because that’s exactly it, that’s how they relate to him. The plot part of the story was interesting as well, I definitely want to know where things are going, how this will affect history, and I love love love that the PT characters were the ones thrown forward into the OT’s time, that’s where my heart really is, and this fic just completely and totally charmed the hell out of me! I especially appreciate that it gently eased me into shipping this OT3 in a way that worked for me and got me to be able to actually see it. ✦ Clarity by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 73.7k wip    Anakin’s jealousy leads to the start of something new between him and Obi-Wan and a lot of frank discussions about things they should have talked about but didn’t in canon.    This is one of those fics that I’m going to write a terrible rec for, which is frustrating because I very thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s one of those that’s… one of those solid reads in that it’s satisfying and having 60k+ of it to tear through was a delight because I really got to sink into it and it has so much… idk, it’s not quite breathing room, because it’s not really slice-of-life, there’s events happening and things moving towards Big Events, but at the same time, I feel like there is breathing room for the Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship to develop, especially as it doesn’t crowd out Anakin’s relationship with Padme. It’s definitely focused on the Obikin side of things, much of the point of the fic is Obi-Wan settling into his feelings and the new direction his life is taking, that it’s… I love that it’s not this big, huge, overtly emotional thing, because that’s not who Obi-Wan is, it’s much more still-waters-run-deep that works for me, like this is someone who may struggle with feelings, but he knows how to get to where he needs, and there’s this really just… warm and comfortable air between him and Anakin for so much of the fic.    I think maybe that’s my favorite part, now that I’m trying to put this into words, that even when there’s shit happening elsewhere, when the plot stuff ramps things up in later chapters, there’s still a warm connection between Obi-Wan and Anakin, I trust that they love each other and they know they want to be together, that Obi-Wan knows himself and Anakin is still kind of a mess, he’s just got almost no self-control, and thus Obi-Wan tempers him and puts him back when he needs it. The three of them (Padme as well) have this… they don’t necessarily fit together perfectly, but there’s the sense that they’re working on it, that Obi-Wan and Padme fill in the various edges of Anakin’s character, how the three of them just fit together, it really is supremely satisfying. And there are loads of little touches (I love that Bant gets several good scenes! I love that Obi-Wan’s path is departing from the Jedi, but not in a judgmental sort of way! I love the way Obi-Wan and Anakin meditate together! I loved Obi-Wan being in the room with Palpatine and Anakin, so Anakin follows Obi-Wan’s lead instead and it subtly changes so many things!) and I love that this is a fic that’s about gently turning Anakin’s relationships to the better, that I felt good reading this, even as I’m eyeing future chapters with trepidation. ✦ Sun Kissed by Vee017, obi-wan/anakin & mace & yoda & cast, nsfw, dark themes, past sexual abuse, 81.7k wip    Being on a world that supports slavery is one thing. Buying a slave and bringing him into Republic space is entirely another.    I admit, I usually turn right around at fics like this, I’m not big on AUs where Obi-Wan didn’t become a Jedi or where Anakin was never found and instead became a sex slave, but I liked the author’s other fics and I was terribly curious about this one, so I picked it up and found myself just sort of quietly falling in love. When I read the summary, I had a lot of expectations about the tropes, based on previous experience with this kind of fic, but this one surprised me where there’s something really almost gentle about the way it writes the characters and their relationship, how it’s been almost 80k and there are definitely feelings and being in love, but they weren’t really in the right place for a relationship yet. The fic does a lovely job of establishing Anakin’s healing process and their daily lives, that it uses this time not to just drag things out, but to clear away the things that need to be cleared away first, that Anakin has to truly be ready, not just wanting more with Obi-Wan, but truly being ready to go there, and this fic gently keeps them on that path.    And that’s what really makes me enjoy this fic, that it’s well written in a way that’s easy to read, but also well written in a way that builds something here, that I can legitimately enjoy beyond just iddy kink reasons. I’d have read this story with or without the tropes! And it’s hard to believe that it’s as long as it is, because it was just so easy to pick up and read and read and read, there’s something so smooth about the pacing and writing style, something that pulls me along without me even realizing it! And I love that there’s enough resolution by this point that I think the WIP factor doesn’t matter too much–though, it’s been in progress for ten years now, it still gets slowly updated, so I don’t doubt that it’ll continue to be so.    It’s a fic that I went into expecting it to be one of those early 00s types of fics that were cheesy and appealed to my id for the OTT kink, but instead found a fic that was much more gentle than expected, that took its time and wasn’t about dragging out the angst forever, but instead that healing took time and that the majority of the fic was actually pretty calm and laid back, the most exciting parts (previous to the most recent chapters) were Anakin’s frustration with himself to not be over his past more quickly, that he still had nightmares sometimes. Sure, once things start heating up, there’s more action and plot going on, but at its heart this is still a fic about being a slow burn relationship and it hasn’t strayed from that–I have no doubt that it’ll get there, but I love that it’s taking its time to do so, because the journey there is the important part. ✦ Second Chances by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33), obi-wan/anakin & han/luke & ahsoka & leia & cast, de-aged fic, 121.3k    Leia wasn’t convinced inviting evil incarnate to join them in fighting the Empire was exactly one of Obi-Wan’s brightest ideas.    This is a delightful cracky fic where, mid-ANH, the Force decides to de-age Obi-Wan and Anakin by about twenty years and then Anakin decides to defect to the Alliance and be a scary over-protective helicopter parent when he finds out Luke and Leia are his kids and also oh yeah falls totally in love with Obi-Wan. And then more characters from The Clone Wars and Rebels are pulled in, the plot goes off in its own direction, and it’s this fun, easy to read fic that I just sailed through! It’s very long, but it’s focused on a fairly large cast of characters (though not so large that you can’t keep track, especially since they’re all characters you’re invested in already) that’s about the greater web of connections between the SW characters. I picked it up for the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship, which is actually a relatively small part of the overall story, it’s really more a group fic about how Vader defecting to the Alliance changes a lot of things, and it’s about Anakin angsting a whole lot about trying to balance himself and his emotions and not always doing a stellar job of it, it’s about the people he’s hurt along the way and how some are able to be won over, but others take a much longer time.    I read practically the whole thing in a single day, that’s how easy it was to sail through, and it’s one of those delightfully tropey fics where I’m just so here for de-aging fic (why is there not more in fandom?? I want it!!) and it was nice to have a longfic to sink my teeth into again! It’s one of those stories that really hits a person’s id if you’re into this kind of thing and I am definitely in fandom to read about helicopter parent Anakin Skywalker who’s practically the same physical age as his kids. :D :D :D ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand. I do have a couple of caveats about the fic–it hasn’t been updated in close to a year (but it’s also been in progress for over 10 years, so the author does keep coming back) and the beginning of the fic (probably about the first third at least?) is very much the plot moving the characters rather than the characters moving the plot, that they don’t really react to things in a way that feels organic to their own motivations, but rather where the scene wants them to go. And I do have some trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that Anakin wouldn’t be all over his kids, even as the fic gently nudges him away from them because of jealousy and then fear for Padme’s life. I mention these things because I want to encourage readers beyond them (as I always do with recs) because it’s a story that I read over the course of a couple of days and the writing is really smooth and just so nicely sailed along and it very much has a plot and does a really lovely job of balancing the five rotating character povs (Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Han), of throwing this tangle of characters together and keeping up with group scenes. The fic’s plot is absolutely intriguing and the author is taking their time with it without feeling like it was dragged out, it’s almost sort of hard to believe that it’s a fic that’s over 100k because it was just so easy to keep reading and never felt bogged down or padded out just to up the word count.    And once the fic settles into the story, as Obi-Wan and Anakin discover more and more about this future, as they’re thrown into a situation where Anakin has to face what he’s capable of (once he hears about Vader) and how the fic sort of… balances between trying to reconcile that/fix it and also just sort of avoiding it by going I WON’T DO THAT I WILL AVOID IT, which is actually a pretty perfectly Anakin Skywalker reaction. The author also knows how to write UST while still giving some resolution, that Obi-Wan and Anakin are very attracted to each other and it’s being thrown into this mind-boggling situation where Anakin desperately needs someone to help and support him, he desperately needs someone to cling onto, that seeing this future where the Jedi are gone and this horribleness is possible, that finally breaks that last hurdle and jams them together. I love that Padme may not be here, but Anakin’s love for her never is dialed down a notch, that so much of why he wants to go back is to save her, that he still loves her just as furiously and obsessively as ever, even as he loves Obi-Wan as well. And the sex scenes were lovely, the way Anakin is desperate to grind himself against Obi-Wan is lovely, as well as the brief moments where Obi-Wan’s hands slide lower down his back, not quite ghosting over the prize there, but the implication of the future, that one day he may open Anakin up and push into him is there, and just the right amount of promise of it.    But also! The later chapters are starting to get into just what all is in this world, what’s left that they might still remember, that they’re still working to uncover just what happened, both to them and to this world that may be their future. And I do love that it’s Leia who pushes for them not to change things, because they worked damn hard for this future, because they fought and bled for it, because she won’t give up this hope or gamble it away on something that might be better or might be worse, that who she is, everything that’s made her Leia Organa, could disappear, it makes perfect sense that she would try to convince them to stay, and it allows the fic the time and room to explore these characters from the past in this future. It’s a fic that’s definitely a WIP and may take a long time to update again, but I greatly enjoyed what was here and it was just so very easy to sink into and I appreciated having that over the past week! Plus several Obikin kissing scenes yes thank you! ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka, time travel, 185.1k    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean life will be easy.    At the time of this post, I’ve only read about half of this fic, but it fits theme and I wanted to include it! But it’s definitely a rec based on half the fic so far: I could have sworn I’d done a rec for this fic before, but I cannot find it anywhere in my files, so I’m going to assume I haven’t actually and do one fresh. I am always here for Obianidala fic and I’m always here for time travel fic, so I picked this one up and tore through pretty much all of it over the course of a few days! I do have a couple of caveats about it, the biggest being that the Jedi are used as antagonists, even against established canon (like, they’ve specifically said they don’t keep people against their will, that they wouldn’t force Anakin to stay), which can be jarring sometimes, so you gotta roll with the premise of them being villains, but when the fic is all about the domestic trio learning to figure out their relationship, the fic is at its strongest and it’s just really heart-warming and delightful. It’s a long fic, so it’s a bit of a slow burn, not in that there’s lack of resolution, but in that there’s no hurry to get there before everyone is ready, instead it’s a much more natural pace that I really enjoyed.    I love that it’s a Padme time travel fic as well, because I very rarely see one about her, especially because she doesn’t know everything that happened and it gives her a chance to work through what happened between her and Anakin on Mustafar, that she has to work through all that fear and mistrust, because this Anakin hasn’t done those things, but she has to process that they did happen, that it could have happened, and that’s something that takes quite awhile to get over. There’s also some lovely Padme & Ahsoka friendship scenes, there’s a whole lot of Padme telling people what she knows, there’s a lot of Anakin having to deal with feeling kept out of the loop, that he’s still got anger issues and isn’t emotionally stable, but Obi-Wan and Padme have better tools this time around, there’s a good amount of Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship building, and there’s a lot of satisfying fixing of the timeline, including killing Palpatine plot!    The fic is at its best when it’s about the breathing room the Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme trio has or when they’re interacting with Ahsoka, when the story is going towards fixing things, that’s when my heart is happiest and I just really had a lot of fun reading this, especially since it was lengthy and I loved being able to tear into it and read read read for so many pages! ✦ Sigh No More by edenwolfie, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia & cast, 158.2k wip    Anakin makes slightly better choices, Obi-Wan is a Mess™ and Padmé deserves none of this. AU from Mustafar onward with liberal manipulation of canon to culminate in some angsty, fluffy, domestic fix-it because we all deserve better.    I believe I’ve recommended this fic at least once before? But now that it’s up to 22 chapters, I’ve caught up on the fic and it was time to write a fresh rec for it. I do have a few things you need to just roll with the fic for–that the characters go hide out on Tatooine instead of fighting back, that Obi-Wan is often more indecisive than he would be, that Anakin’s emotional problems tend to go away more easily than I think they would. But the point of the fic is to write a really long, really revel-in-it story about the domesticity of these characters on Tatooine, to just wholly embrace digging into the slice of life stuff in this remote, isolated area where it’s just the three of them + the twins + Ahsoka. It’s a story that has the room to breathe with the characters, that it’s not about dragging things out, but instead that the whole point of the story is that slow, incrimental moving forward with the relationship(s). It’s a story that I pick up when I want something where the characters are (for the most part) taken away from galatic level action and instead are given something like a peaceful life (as much as one can get post-ROTS, of course) and I just want to roll around in something that’s hopeful and kind.    The length is nice as well, because it really gets across that this is a story that’s meant to be a slow burn and a slow build even once things finally do catch fire. As mentioned, I don’t feel like it’s dragging things out, but instead that the slow process is the whole point, that it’s about building their relationships, their life here, step by step. It’s domesticity and slice-of-life and really reveling in it to the fic’s heart’s content. But also omg I admit I’m definitely here for the sex scene, because Anakin and Padme are adorable, Obi-Wan and Anakin had a very pretty frottage scene earlier, but then chapter 22 was exactly what I wanted–where they finally have the time and both are in the right place for something more intense, something deeper. And, boy, does Anakin find that he enjoys being held down, that he has Obi-Wan’s attention all on him, that he likes the way he feels when he’s pressed down onto the bed and held there, when he’s filled up with Obi-Wan, who opens him up with such care and affection, until there’s no other noise in his head, that all the anxieties and fears and insecurities are pushed out, as Obi-Wan pushes into him. I’m really not kidding that I will read that a thousand times because Anakin needs it a thousand times and Obi-Wan being able to give that to Anakin is so good for him as well. There’s also a lot of cute stuff with Ahsoka coming and going, watching the twins grow up, and more! But I can’t lie, I’m here for Anakin Skywalker, my precious child, getting the happy life I always wanted for him.