#yeah Anakin Obi-Wan Padme and many of the other members of the fallen Jedi and Republic have committed inexcusable atrocities too

[gch1995]

Palpatine is the pure evil “big bad” antagonist/cartoon villain of the prequels. Everyone else in the main cast sucks, in spite of their good intentions, and kind of got what was coming to them for not doing better under the pressures of systematic abuse, corrupt authority, crime, high expectations, in their insecurities, pride, fear of the unknown, and self-interest. However, it’s still tragic because they got worse than they deserved in the end, and they had so much potential to be amazing when they used their powers for good.

The prequels aren’t merely a story about Palpatine, Anakin, and the Sith ruining the lives of everyone else in the old Jedi Order and Republic they grew up in because they are the worst. If the Jedi Order and Republic were blameless victims in the prequels, then more of their members wouldn’t have felt the desire to eventually turn on them under pressure with compromised agency. If the adults involved in the old Republic government and Jedi Order had been blameless victims, then Darth Vader and the Empire couldn’t have existed in the first place. Where do people think that ends justify the means mentality came from in the first place? It certainly wasn’t something they learned from just Palpatine. It was a mentality that got reinforced in the Jedi Order and Republic many members of the Empire grew up in.

I feel like the Star Wars prequels fandom would be a lot more peaceful if people were more familiar with tragedy as a genre. It means everyone is problematic. All the characters make significant mistakes that have terrible consequences, which might have been averted had they chosen differently. Every character, every institution - they are all flawed and they're supposed to be flawed. It doesn't matter which flaws you, personally, find more or less acceptable. They all have cracks a mile wide. That's the point.

[gch1995]

Imo yoda has got to be one of the worst if not THE worst council member. Although I can understand the hate obi wan gets I can appreciate his character and think he can be redeemed to an extent. He shows sympathy and understanding at times and you can see he does care for anakin, but the cult he was in fucked him up; including his ability to empathise and understand others. Although he follows the council extensively he tries his best to make exceptions for those he cares about. (knowing about anakin and padme but choosing to ignore it because he knows anakin is happy like that, training anakin despite the council not wanting him to, yes I know it was qui gons dying wish but that is apart of it to an extent) the thing is being raised in the order took a massive toll on him and he seeks too much approval from them and doesn’t ever question their ways. He is a heavily flawed character but he does have redeeming qualities. Yoda on the other hand? None. Zero. Absolutely nothing. Nothing, not one thing about his character is redeemable. (Bit of a rant) This little green cunt is happily shown training a group of kids with lethal weapons in his fucked up cult. He is 500 fucking years old but never bothered to even attempt at learning how to speak normally, including when ordering the slave army he controlled. This fucker spent all his life supporting and feeding into the fuckery of the order whilst constantly telling himself it was the right thing. Arrogantly sitting in his little chair allowing slavery, making child soldiers and allowing god knows how much abuse to happen to others. This shit is responsible for approximately 700 years worth of abuse towards god knows how many others. This fucker straight up denies his responsibility for everything he’s done. And it’s not just the abuse. He’s caused billions to suffer because of his arrogance. The thing is, while I can find myself looking at a character like obi wan and thinking

“wow, this character is heavily flawed but has a lot of interesting aspects and I can sympathise with him at times. I like his character and the evolution of how he reacts and responds to situations although it’s sad considering his past and how those actions devolve into something horrific and unhealthy to the point where he becomes the abuser and carries on that line which is sad. Even though there are many things that he is responsible for there are times when it’s not his fault and I can empathise with that without excusing the ones he was responsible for even if they were heavily affected by the things he went through”

But when I look at yoda?

“I hope this cunt burns in hell for eternity for the things he’s done”

Legitimately cannot put into words just how much I hate him. He’s the one who’s heavily responsible for the way obi wan turned out and most of all:

He’s the one who tried to manipulate, gaslight and force Luke to kill his own mess of a father that he created.

I genuinely think he cannot be redeemed (for me, at least. I’ll never forgive that little shit) for everything thing he’s done. (Sorry for the long ask)

Definitely, agree with you! Within a Star Wars canon-divergent AU narrative that actually framed Obi-Wan’s bad choices and flaws as seriously bad ones in the story with stakes that he either learned from and self-improved upon before it was too late and/or didn’t learn from and suffered negative consequences for as a result. Yeah, he loses people he cares about, and, at least in regards to Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, that is partially his own fault. However, while I do feel some sympathy for him and realize that he’s flawed, it’s difficult for me to get on board with his character in canon as he is written because he never actually learns from his mistakes on screen, nor are there any real stakes in him making seriously bad choices and not learning in comparison to Anakin and Luke. I don’t hate him, but it’s hard for me to get invested in a character who can always magically get the upper hand in his duels with his enemies or opponents suddenly getting baited, provoked, pushed into a corner, or dumbed down for him to be able to effortlessly defeat them. He also repeatedly gets away with being an asshole in many of the same ways that Luke and Anakin get framed as wrong for and/or suffer consequences for in the OT and PT movies when they don’t learn to be better. Yeah, Obi-Wan loses people he cares about, and at least in regards to Anakin and Ahsoka, that is partially his own fault, but there is no sort of humbling or meaningful development in canon for him.

Still, because, as you said, Obi-Wan also was a victim of Yoda’s cult who did genuinely grow to care for Qui Gonn, Anakin, and Ahsoka, in spite of being really bad at it, he does have a lot of potential to be a better character in canon-divergent/AU material that actually has him facing real stakes and learning to take real self-accountability for his bad choices before getting to earn the hero treatment in the narrative. Within canon and especially his fandom of diehard Kenobist fans, though, Obi-Wan is such a grossly overrated Gary Stu that I’ve genuinely began to find his character more annoying and boring than he was before.

Yoda, on the other hand, really doesn’t seem to have any sort of real conscience or significant guilt for being an asshole. Nor does he really feel like a person at all because the only things he cares about are avoiding the dark side and staying in power. He also has no real backstory, so I don’t understand why he’s become an unapologetically apathetic asshole, learned nothing throughout his life, and remained willfully in-denial for the past several centuries. I don’t understand why he was allowed to be in charge for so long. I don’t understand why he is the disaster of a person he is in the series because there is no development for his character. With Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, the rest Republic senate, and the other Jedi they may not be wholly innocent, but I can understand why.

[nevertheless-moving]

Unnamed Extremely Bad Plan to Defeat Darth Sideous AU - SW AU NO 9

Hopefully writing down this star wars au will help me exorcise the cringe demon that helped midwife it. Time travel au where obi-wan and Anakin come up with an extremely SPECIFIC and UNCOMFORTABLE plan to defeat Palpatine because it unfortunately, would actually work, as it capitalizes on one of Palpatine’s easiest to reach political vulnerabilities. This is not a unique plan- there are other au’s like this, but this one is mine. When searching for ways to explain exactly why this anti-sith strategy inspires such cringe and delight in myself I realized, with sinking dread, I have seen this in an Always Sunny episode...which yeah. I might be over reacting but hey, cringe is a personal phenomenon, everyone’s different.

Anyway! Uh here’s a bunch of plot that will eventually culminate in the plan. 

*Too much plot, aaaah*. **All plot actually.** ***Its 1 am and this is still a draft*** ****It’s 2am**** *****This post will be just be background I guess.*****

*******STAR WARS AU NO 9 LAZILY OUTLINED CHAPTER ONE*********

Force ghosts Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi have had time to yell at one another without need for breath, and have more-or-less come to terms with the trainwreck that was their shared life. I wouldn’t call them well adjusted, but they’re more stable then they were the last decade or so of their living existence. 

In haunting Luke, they end up encountering an artifact in an ancient Willis temple that offers spirits the chance to fix the mistakes they made in life. It doesn’t truly unwrite what’s been done, but it lets you create an alternate timeline. So this galaxy will still be what it is, but some alternate galaxy somewhere could at least have it better. Its almost never been used, because becoming one with the force usually lets you accept the past, but viewed objectively, Vader and Ben’s lives involved an extreme amount of yikes. They say goodbye to Luke and are flung backwards and sideways.

Anakin is holding his mother as she dies. Obi-Wan is landing on Genosis. 

Vader just barely manages to avoid slaughtering the tuskens. To be honest, he doesn’t really get why he shouldn’t- his moral compass is still pretty f-ed up. He’s fairly certain the force is just torturing him, but still he controls himself (for Padme for Luke for Leia).

I’m gonna say well-adjusted!Vader sees murder in general as more of a vice than a sin- on par with having a beer. And really well adjusted Vader is willing to admit to himself that he’s an alcoholic, he seriously cannot regulate, its a problem. He really can’t let himself go, because he’ll just end up spiraling. And so he restrains himself and only seriously maims a few of the adult raiders.

Vader figures he can always come back later and slowly torture them to death if this whole ‘save the future’ thing doesn’t pan out.

Obi-wan leaves his shuttle and hides under a rock for 30 minutes. He calculates thats just enough time for him to pretend he went on an extremely effective and sneaky fact finding mission- just in case anyone checks R4′s records. Gets back in shuttle and gets the fuck out of there, much to Dooku’s chagrin, who lost sight of him after the shuttle landed and is now going to have to switch to one of his alternate start-the-war plans. 

On the flight back he reports everything to the council- fallen Dooku and the separatist leaders, the trade federation and the massive droid army, Jango Fett the clone template of the republic army (?) working for the separatists. He briefly comms Anakin, but anyone hacking into their conversations would hear only a nonsensical, rambling conversation. Later, a hacker might turn over the idea that they were speaking in elaborate code, but why would Jedi invent such a thing during peacetime?

The war still starts; at this point in the timeline it was inevitable; the artifact was only designed to give them the chance to correct their own failings, not the galaxy’s. Palpatine still gets his emergency powers. 

The same day the armies are discovered, separatist war ships take off to engulf Ryloth. The Jedi are instructed by the senate to lead the clone army and provide immediate relief-this will not be a repeat of the republic’s inaction on Naboo. It’s both better and worse than the first Battle of Genosis. So many more civilians are caught in the crossfire. The first titanic battle is not contained to evacuated droid factories, but rages across an entire populated world. The battle lasts for weeks.

The main reason this fight is less deadly is solely due to the fact that General Kenobi manages to maneuver his way into high command of the entire army.

 “I believe assumptions were made since I was the first point of contact with Kamino, Masters,” the Knight explained apologetically to the arriving high council members. “I realize its not quite appropriate, but for right now I am the Jedi most familiar with our forces and the enemies. I would, of course, prefer to cede the role to someone else.” 

The assembled Jedi can feel the truth in that statement.

“For better or for worse, advance troops were directed by the senate to land planetside and have met heavy resistance. I managed to redirect them to a more defensible position, where they can provide surface based cover fire for incoming reinforcements. The battle has already begun.” He received a grim nod of approval from Master Windu.

“I feel the need to say now, that if there’s one thing I learned from my time as a general on Melida/Dann, or in working against Death Watch on Mandalore, its that having a clear chain of command is vital for a military to succeed. I don’t need to remind some of you that leadership breakdowns were what ultimately ended both the Stark Hyperspace War and the Yinchorri Crisis,” Masters Koon and Tiin exchanged looks before deliberately sending forth a small force wave of approval, understanding where this briefing was leading. 

“I believe that unnecessarily restructuring command before the battle is won here could do far more harm than good.” The reminder of Obi-wan’s unusually militaristic apprenticeship put some of the assembled knights at ease even as it inspired a twinge of guilt in the older masters. 

“In command you are, General Kenobi,” Master Yoda finally acknowledged. “A Jedi Master you will be, once done this battle is. Have us do, what would you?” 

The battle lasts for weeks, and when its over, the commanding Jedi and Troopers involved will openly acknowledge that had anyone else been in command, it would’ve lasted months, if not years. Facing down logistical, strategic, and tactical problems on a scale unheard of for a thousand years, High General Kenobi does not falter.

Enemy reinforcements seem unending. For all their preparation, every single trooper is new to war, and secretly concerned that should they fall, they will be replaced with cadets who hadn’t even finished their training.

Obi-Wan is putting out fires before they can start. Much to their shock, clone commanders are informed that they will, for the time being, remain in charge of their troops. With a handful of exceptions, Jedi ‘Generals’ were in fact, to be treated as a cross between highly skilled commandoes and advisors with abnormally sourced field intelligence. 

“All of you have spent your lives training to lead your brothers into combat. The Jedi Masters and knights who are being assigned to your divisions have not received such training.” 

General Kenobi addressed the division commanders, some in person, some over holocomm. All focused in rapt attention as their General reordered the shape of their lives using language they could understand.

“The command structure I am issuing is designed to maximize our ability to utilize our respective strategic capabilities, while minimizing potential loss of your life. It will be our great privilege to serve alongside such an army, and while I fully expect a complementary exchange of knowledge in time, for now, focus on survival.”

The Jedi received similar briefings, tailored for their broader array of combat and military experience. Some, including Jedi Master Pong Krell and Grandmaster Yoda, were pulled aside and tasked with the essential mission of infiltrating and destroying the Droid factories on Genosis. If they were to have a chance of winning this war, they they would need to cut off the seemingly unceasing flow of droid reinforcements. 

An elite squadron of Arctroopers and Jedi field operatives were covertly dispatched, Grandmaster Yoda himself in command. Considering Count Dooku had yet to appear anywhere near Ryloth...the grandmaster had the best chance of bringing in the fallen separatist leader alive for questioning.

Shortly after they left, Anakin arrived, having finally turned over Padme’s protection to her regular guard. With the military creation vote past, the assassination risk was considered minimal. The real delay in his arrival came from her repeated attempts to join the Grand Army of the Republic on Ryloth with the intent of coordinating humanitarian assistance. Eventually he managed to convince her that she could do more good in the senate. 

After all, he pointed out, someone would need to followup the military creation act with a bill to grant clones equal citizen rights. Otherwise, the legal grey area that cloning fell under and their non-republic origin would inadvertently make the clones slaves. 

His borrowed Nabooan cruiser entered the warzone with the grace and efficiency as a small neutron bomb.

Those close enough to see its flaming descent watched in horror, realizing that the high generals own padawan would likely be a war casualty before he ever engaged in combat.

The legion nearest to soon-to-be-ground-zero, under the command of Captain Rex of the 501st, were distracted by heated combat, as the temporary barricade they had put up to defend the civilian population gave way to droidika artillery. 

While reloading, several dozen troopers happened to look up to see a speck detach itself from the hull as at spiraled in the lower atmosphere. Hope spread that the Jedi had managed to activate some sort of eject hatch. A skilled shocktrooper could probably control and and survive such a fall with luck, which mean a Jedi almost certainly could. 

A few tactical scouts charged with watching the skies confirmed that the speck was indeed a humanoid. No chute was visible, but even 8 days into the war, rumors had already spread about how Master Windu had passed off his chute mid-air to a troopers who had been damaged by suppressing fire, cushioning his free fall solely with the tank he crushed upon landing. 

Only one trooper, stationed in the town clock tower specifically to track the Padawan’s arrival and issued with a high-resolution farscope, saw the whole thing. Fortunately for his credibility later, in its current setting, the scope automatically logged photos every 5 seconds, ensuring that for years to come Obi-Wan would have a flipbook as evidence that he was not the crazy one.

CT-3609 or Blink (as he was named after winning the division wide staring contest on Kamino two year prior) forwarded the trajectory of the vehicle to command, who confirmed his analysis that it would impact two clicks out from their makeshift fort and not present a risk to civilian or trooper lives. 

As it traversed the stratosphere a figure (desperate repair droid, Blink assumed) emerged from the cockpit to perch on the nose of the ship. As it entered the troposphere, it became painfully obvious that the figure jutting out from the hull of the ship was in fact not a humanoid droid, but an unarmored human. The Jedi stood on the prow of the ship, seemingly impervious to and oblivious of:

air resistance 

centrifugal force

normal space gravity 

Blink’s slack-jawed bewilderment

the flames engulfing the ship below him

At this range, the smirk on the man’s face was visible (man? boy? kriff is he even through puberty?). Several miles above the surface he leaped, diving towards the ground like a bird of prey. 

To the west, the ship made impact with the ground, sending a shockwave that shook the tower just enough for Blink to lose visual in the final moments of descent. Cursing, as while he was confident the Jedi would inexplicably survive, he really wanted to see how. The trooper scanned the droid-engulfed farmland to the north for a crash site, to no avail. Lingering smoke from the burnt countryside negatively impacted visibility low to the ground.

Rather than trying to articulate his report into words, he sent the 50-odd frames the farscope had saved, as well as the coordinates for the jedi’s projected radius of touchdown. A quick radio over to long range electro-ballistics ensured that his landing wouldn’t be marred by friendly fire.

He awaited follow-up questions on the absurd entry method, which, when they came, mostly consisted of variations on “...Is this for real?” and eventually “Can you set the scope to video for a little while?” and finally “Do you think that’s how he got the name Skywalker?”

There was a temporarily lull in fire from the west, likely a ripple effect from the ship’s explosion. From his vantage point Blink could see his batchmates using the opportunity to try and plug the holes in their barricade with broken droid pieces. Regardless of the itch to join them, he knew he couldn’t leave his post until the Jedi actually arrived in camp. Finally, a distant explosion and thick pillar of smoke gave the Jedi’s position away.

He tried to make out details, but the scope had a difficult time focusing through the haze. Manually trying to fine tune the scope’s settings, Blink caught a glimpse of what looked like half a hover tank sailing through the air to impact with a trade federation troop carrier in a fiery explosion. Several more explosions, flying droid artillery, and plumes of smoke were caught on record before visual contact with the source was established. He was mostly visible as a blue blur, lightsaber mowing a meandering path towards their location. 

It wasn’t until Skywalker braced himself in place to punch a droidaka into pieces that Blink caught actual sight of the man. Only his eyes were visible, nose and mouth covered by layers of cloth. He blurred, then reappeared on top a massive missile launcher attached to an absurdly heavily armored vehicle. A minute or so of rapid blue flashes passed, the longest he had seen concentrated in one area. Then Skywalker was gone, movement clearly visible as he for once he moved in a straight line, plowing a rapid path away from the launcher. 

Less than 30 seconds later, Blink had to wince away from the scope, as a burning white explosion temporarily overwhelmed the direct light filter. The trooper panicked for a moment, thinking he had gone both deaf and blind, but the abrupt, sucking silence ended after a moment with a deafening sonic boom. The shockwave rattled the farscope, nearly knocking it over, but Blink managed to steady it and himself in time. 

A cheer emerged from pleasantly surprised vod below. The entire droid legion that had been guarding the missile launcher and apparent ordinance bay was flattened. 

It took a moment for the realization to set in that the background noise of missile and and anti-missile collisions directly overhead had slowed pace. With the northern flank gone, artillery were able to redouble efforts to the east, and a second white hot shockwave ensued, signaling that the tide of battle had shifted. It was almost too easy for the republics electro-ballistics to tactically devastate the surrounding forces. 

Eventually some sort of win/loss programming must have set in and all forces outside of a certain radius began retreating southward, conceding the scorched land to the republic army. It was cadets work to clean up the final suicidal droid charge. 

A commotion ensued as Skywalker leapt the barricade with a mid-air flip. The vod greeted him with cheers, as they correctly assumed his appearance had something to do with the skirmish’s decisive victory.

Blink sent the video of the battle to command and quickly packed up his scope and assorted equipment. Hurrying down the battered tower, Blink thought to himself that this Anakin Skywalker was the best sort of Jedi a trooper could ask for.

uh sorry i got really sidetracked there moving on

Kenobi and Skywalker quickly become the face of the war once again

they grit their teeth a bit, but when they finally have a moment to really plan they eventually agree that to take down Sideous they have to cut off his political power in addition to everything else, and taking advantage of their public personas was the most accessible way to do so (*evil laughter*)

While Dooku wasn’t captured, Yoda heard the truth in his old student’s cryptic warnings about a Sith in the Senate, and the council begins carefully editing their release of tactical plans to the Chancellor’s office in the hopes of ferreting out the spy in their midst.

Pong Krell looses two arms in his duel with Dooku. Obi-Wan successfully hides his smug pleasure at the news. Anakin enjoys makeing comparisons between him and Grievous. 

Kenobi doesn’t allow the origin of the clones to go unexamined, although he agrees that if the public were informed that they don’t actually know who ordered them it would probably cause panic.

The ‘inhibitor chips’ are ‘discovered’ early on and Anakin leads the effort to ensure that they are phased out and removed immediately. This consists of reminding every Jedi who even hesitates about how how he as a child slave had some experience with control chips and unless you want to take a leaf out of the hutts books lets start doing brain surgery chop chop mmmkay?

(This isn’t to say that Vader doesn’t still a twinge of shame at acknowledging his slave roots. But it is eclipsed by the burning guilt that he knowingly acted as slave master to his troops for decades after Sideous wiped their minds. He tried to rationalize it to himself, after all he didn’t immediately understand what Order 66 had done to the troopers. But while the morality of murder was more of an intellectual concern than a personal one, treating people as things...)

The Kamonions are a little harder to budge, referencing contracts that they refuse to allow the Jedi to see

Finally Vader snuck into the Chief Medical Scientist’s home while she was sleeping and straight-up threatened to murder her and burn down her lab. At the risk of losing her life’s work, Nala Se complied.

Vader left with the final threat that in the event that Darth Tyranus caught wind and activated Order 66 prematurely, he would kill 100 Kamonians for every Jedi felled by troopers. Shaak Ti was pleased by the cloners sudden change of heart. Tyrannus, and by extension, Sideous, are in the dark. 

Obi-Wan frequently publicly confronts Palpatine about the troops citizen status, urging him make use of his emergency powers to grant them citizenship and full pay, with the option to leave the army should they so wish. 

Anakin manages to play off his avoidance of the Chancellor as disappointment in his perceived lack of dedication to anti-slavery efforts

Finally Palpatine gives in- regardless of what happens next, the troops will be looked after.

With 2/3rds of the troopers dechipped, Vaderkin is eager to kill Sideous again, but after several intense screaming matches and sparring sessions, the time travelers come to the agreement that even if they succeed in their duel, with things as they were, the perception of the Jedi military coop would cause mass civil unrest. The scattered sith apprentices, while individually weak, were more than capable of magnifying that fear and anger until the galaxy breaks. Darth Sideous wanted to ensure that if he couldn’t have the galaxy, no one would. 

(Vader knows this. Sideous enjoyed monologuing, and much of his plotting couldn’t be safely bragged about until after he had decisively won, leaving Vader as the unwilling receptacle for years of pent-up rants and self-satisfied gloats about the inevitability of his victory)

Continued Here

[swhurtcomfort]

You may not need to actually write something new for this, prob you or someone has already written it, but I’d really like a story where we see Anakin (and others but mainly Anakin) react to Obi-Wan’s death and other people, particularly other Jedi feel really bad seeing him like this. Preferably both immediate reaction and long term reaction but anything with Padme+Jedi comforting Anakin over losing Obi-Wan is good. No Hardeen, butI don’t care if Obi-Wan is actually dead, ghost, or act. alive

I. Seconds

Anakin sits onthe edge of his chair, icing his sprained wrist and waiting for a droid tobecome available. The medbay is abuzz with shouting and running. His party hadsustained only a few bangs and bruises, but there have been rumors thatObi-Wan’s group ran into trouble on their way to the rendezvous.

Anakin closeshis eyes and tries to block it out, wishing someone would just bring him someboneknitters for his wrist so he could leave. He hears someone approaching, andto his surprise it is not a med droid. It’s Helix, flanked by Kix and Rex.

Helix openshis mouth to speak, then falters. Anakin sits up straight. Kix and Rex exchangematching looks of deep concern.

With one lastglance at Helix, who seems unable to explain, Kix steps forward.

“GeneralSkywalker, we’re so sorry,”

And Anakin’sworld comes crashing down.

…

II. Days

Anakin is grantedleave to return to the Temple.

Three membersof the Council meet him in the hangar. Anger burns in the back of his throatbecause it feels like a test, like they are waiting for him to screw up and dosomething emotional and un-Jedi-like. Master Windu is reaching out a hand,about to say something sympathetic but Anakin doesn’t want to hear and the lumpin his throat is threatening to betray him in that moment.

So he brushesrudely past and marches himself back to his quarters. Only he gets there helooks up, and the door in front of him is not his.

His feet havetaken him to Obi-Wan’s apartment, although he hasn’t lived there since hispadawan braid was cut. Obi-Wan, gone.Never coming back.

That’s thepart that doesn’t feel real yet, the permanence of it. Because he punches inhis old key code and it still works, and the inside doesn’t look like a deadperson’s apartment. Obi-Wan left in a hurry, never doubting that he would comehome. If he were really gone, why are his favorite teacups stacked neatly inthe sink, waiting for their owner to return and wash them? How can this bereal?

Anakin ignoresthe increasingly worried messages from Master Windu on his commlink. Mace wantsto talk about the funeral arrangements. The only arrangement that Anakin wantsto deal with is sending a secure message to Ahsoka, and praying that it willfind its way to wherever she is.

The day comestoo soon. The body on the pyre barely looks like Obi-Wan, and it makes Anakinsick. He and Yoda stand in the front, as members of a fallen Jedi’s lineageshould. They are the only ones left who are both alive and in the Order (Ahsokastands in the back, and Anakin wants to talk to her –  maybe thank her for coming or ask how she’sbeen – but she’s gone before the funeral is over).

Master Winduapproaches as the attendees are filing out. “Skywalker,”

Anakin looksat the floor to hide the tears streaking his face, wondering if he canplausibly blame them on the smoke. Master Windu’s gaze fills him with hot shameand horror at the reality of what has happened, what has been broken and cannever be fixed. He feels certain that the elder Jedi is weighing his reactioneven now, collecting information to use against him later.

But when Macecontinues, his tone holds nothing but sadness. “Obi-Wan touched many hearts inthis Order. You are not alone.”

It’s hard notto feel that way, though.

…

III. Weeks

He thoughtthat there could be no worse feeling than the fresh, gaping wound, but at leastthen he could lock the doors and wrap himself in a blanket and let his emotionscarry him away. Grief grows duller, but more chronic. Often he wishes he couldgather it all up and just have a good cry instead of this shallow, constantache.

Obi-Wan iseverywhere that he goes.

Anakin saved afew of Obi-Wan’s things before the cleaning droids got into the apartment. Hehides them in his own rooms, but paranoia grows in him. He’s afraid someonewill find them, and realize what a sentimental waste of a Jedi he’s become (orso the voice in his head tells him). He’s also afraid that if that happens,people will want him to get rid of the items.

He packs upall the teacups and flower pots and Mandalorian seashells in a box, and carriesit to the senatorial building. Padmé’s stomach is getting rounder, and thesight of her sends a spike of happiness shooting through the miserable fog inhis brain. There’s worry in her eyes when she greets him.

“Ani, youlook…frazzled,” she observes. He tries to explain.

There’s adrawer in the bottom of Padmé’s bureau that has been slowly filling up withAnakin’s clothes, and the thought of it makes him feel safe – like there’s apart of him that the Jedi Order cannot touch.

“You reallythink the Jedi are going to be angry with you for having…seashells?” she asksas Anakin as she watches him swathe another teacup in a spare cloak and slideit to the back of the drawer.

“It’s notabout the shells. It’s about what they mean.They want me to forget him, Padmé.”

“I’m sure theydon’t.” Padmé’s knowledge on the subject comes primarily from Bail, who likelygot it from Obi-Wan, but she still suspects Anakin is imagining the Council ascrueler than they are.

Anakin is toowound up to listen. “If I want to be a good Jedi, I have to let him go. Butdoes that make me a bad friend if I do?”

“You won’tforget him,” Padmé soothes, taking him by the elbow and pulling him in to faceher. “And the Order hasn’t forgotten him either. You have to know that.”

Anakin shakeshis head.

“I return toduty next week. Obviously they think I should be better by now,” he says with alittle sniff.

“Ani, there’sno time limit of when you’re allowed to miss him. You loved Obi-Wan. You stilllove him. Give yourself permission to grieve.”

Anakin sighs.“You don’t understand.”

“Then tellme,” she says matter-of-factly, sitting down on the ottoman and waitingexpectantly.

…

IV. Months

“No,” Anakin practically spits, and thelittle Twi’lek boy flinches.

“I’m sorry,”Anakin amends, suddenly reminded of how it felt to be a child and unsure of hisplace within the Order. “It isn’t your fault that that meddling green trollcan’t leave me alone. I’m sure you’ll be chosen by a much better Master than me.”

“But MasterSkywalker, Master Yoda told me…”

“Yeah, I know.But I’m not taking another apprentice.”

Snips willremain his first and only padawan. It will mean the end of their lineage, buthe knows somehow that Obi-Wan would understand.

What hedoesn’t know, though, is how Obi-Wan would have reacted to what he was about todo.

He walksslowly to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, and feels change flowing throughthe Force like a breeze. He sits down beneath Obi-Wan’s favorite tree andcloses his eyes. It feels like saying goodbye.

His meditationis interrupted by a gentle tap on his knee from Yoda’s gimer stick.

“Mostdisappointed, Initiate Fingol is,” Yoda says, shaking his head.

“I am not theone who gave him false hopes, Master,”Anakin snaps.

“The Councilseeks to help you, Knight Skywalker. And a good teacher, you are.”

“We both knowmy teaching skills are not the reason the Council is so hell-bent on this,”says Anakin, speaking more freely than he ever has to the grandmaster. “You’venever stopped looking at me like a bomb that might go off if it were jostled. Youwant this because you want me to feel like I can’t go anywhere or do anythingyou don’t approve of because I’m responsible for some kid. To trap me here.”

“To trap you,no,” Yoda corrects him sternly. “To ground you, young Skywalker. A greatchallenge, the past year has been, greater than any you have faced.”

Anakin blinksaway the tears in his eyes.

“But always,the Force returns like saplings in the ashes of a forest. Much, our lineage haslost. But new limbs, it may grow. New connections, and new purpose.”

“I think I’vealready found that,” says Anakin softly, thinking of Padmé and her baby.

“Where?”

Anakin shakeshis head. “I was never meant to do this. Maybe the Council was right from dayone, in some twisted way. I’ve never been a proper Jedi. I can’t let him go, andI don’t want to.”

“An uncertainfuture, the Council foresaw, not a lack of potential. And a fine Jedi you havebecome,” says Yoda.

“No.”

Anakin doesn’tcare if he is projecting, or whether Yoda has caught snippets of his thoughtsintentionally as they sat together beneath the tree, Anakin’s Force presencestill raw from his painful meditation. Yoda sees the clones directing Anakininto a back room of the medbay where he glanced beneath the sheet over the motionlessform on the table and collapsed to the floor in sobs. Yoda knows how manynights in the following month Anakin stayed up crying, and he knows about theteacups shoved in the back of Padmé’s dresser drawer.

“Misunderstandyou do, Skywalker. Condemn these emotions, the Jedi do not. Natural, the painof loss is. To the Force, you must entrust these feelings, and trust that youwill heal and grow from them.”

“I have toleave.”

Anakin dropsthe statement like something heavy, he can almost feel the beat in the Force.

“The firsttime you have considered it, this is not,” Yoda states.

“I’m seriousthis time.”

“Upset, youare right now. But the Jedi are not what you think we are. What you have alwaysfeared us to be.”

Anakin pondersthis.

“I think it’stoo late. It doesn’t matter who’s misunderstood. I can’t stay.”

It’s Yoda’sturn to look surprised, and emotion that Anakin finds thoroughly unsettlingcoming from him.

Finally thegrandmaster sighs. “Right, you may be.”

It’s not theanswer Anakin had expected, and it throws him for a moment.

“Sorry, I am,”says Yoda.

Anakinhesitates for a moment. “I’m sorry too.”

He turns away,silently saying one final goodbye to the tree, one of the only things he willmiss here. It had been Obi-Wan’s favorite meditation spot, and Anakin had comehere often in the past few months, trying to feel closer to him.

He turns away—turnstowards Padmé, and his family. His family.He’d always imagined having one as a child, but on Naboo that dream is evensweeter than on Tatooine. His child will grow up free on a planet of deeprivers and green fields. They’ll be happier than he has been. He’ll make sureof it.

He turns awayfrom the life that Obi-Wan had so desperately wanted for him, and hopes thatsomewhere in the Force, his old master will forgive him.

As he leavesthe Room of a Thousand Fountains, he thinks he sees a hand on his shoulder, hethinks he feels a supportive little squeeze. He turns around and sees onlyYoda, meditating beneath the tree.

[gch1995]

@leezaleelanda You’re missing my point entirely in regards to Obi-Wan playing cat and mouse to lure Anakin and his opponents into traps to execute them, even when they hesitated, froze, or backed off.

For one thing, that argument that “Anakin murdering children is the most heinous act ‘for the greater good’ and protection in the universe of Star Wars” pretty much flies out the window when you consider how horrifyingly abusive, dangerous, dehumanizing, manipulative, and oppressive the Jedi Order’s treatment of his time were in cutting them off from their families and the outside world, being willing to abandon them in war zones “for the greater good,” being willing to use them as combatants for warfare “for the greater good,” being willing to execute a 16 year old child member of theirs for what they believed was a crime they had no concrete evidence she committed without the rest of the Senate’s consent like they were supposed to do “for the greater good.”

If Obi-Wan and the other Jedi elders of Anakin’s time deserved lenience from the general public, in spite of committing all those atrocities for the alleged “greater good” of their corrupt government and state-sanctioned military cult that recruited children, then why didn’t Anakin? “Oh, but he only did it for Padme and was selfish,” but it really wasn’t just about Padme. It was about personal safety under someone who had groomed him to obey him, genuine belief that the Jedi were corrupt, and a situation in which he knew the Jedi were already fucked either way he chose, so he picked the safer option for himself and/or those he cared about.

You can call it cowardly and selfish, sure. However, was how the Jedi adults of his time treated those kids they recruited really any better, or genuinely as selfless as they convinced themselves? I’d say it really wasn’t. They were too afraid to do the right thing, too afraid to face the dark side, too afraid to trust, and too afraid to face the dark side altogether, so they became abusive, deceitful, inconsiderate, isolating, and manipulative in their cowardice. They executed their fallen recruits without fair trials. They allowed for their deaths by abandoning, endangering, and/or personally executing thousands children they recruited into their cult and isolated from the outside world “for the greater good” of their own ends.

Yeah, Maul called him “pathetic” on Tatooine, but he also briefly hesitated, wondering if it was worth it to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan had to further egg it on.

My point is not that Anakin, Darth Maul, and the overall Sith were right or completely unworthy of punishment. My point is that Jedi on the Council and Jedi like Obi-Wan perpetuated much of the same cycle of abuse, absolutism, excessive hostility othering, and vengeance that they claimed to be so above. Obi-Wan egging on Anakin and Darth Maul into duels by baiting them when they hesitate, freeze, or make a move that makes it necessary murder for self-defense, is a part of that. Yoda and the Council recruiting children under extremely dubious and ill-informed consent to use as soldiers for combat, forbidding them from having their own lives, isolating them from their families and friends, and teaching them to completely deny their individual desires, feelings, and insecurities is a part of that abusive cycle. The Jedi executing their recruits/students who turn on them without offering a fair trial from the Senate or asking any questions asked about why they did it in the first place, is a part of that abusive cycle.

My point is that Obi-Wan, Yoda, and many of the Jedi elders of the prequels and OT movies no longer should have had the right to be the “law” who were “so above it all” as “peacekeepers” in comparisons to their enemies anymore. They helped influence a revival of the Sith. They had a lot of nerve looking down on Anakin, their fallen Jedi, and the Sith when their attitudes, behaviors, and practices had many of the same faults they criticized in others.

@tragicfantasy-girl

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Hi, not to annoy you, but regarding Obitine... Didn't Obi-Wan tell Satine that he would have left the Order had she asked him to stay? So, I don't think that the point was he's Mr. Love them and leave them ( as you put it) and that made him better than Anakin. I think the point was that he understood what (romantic) love felt like, but didn't let hatred and rage consume him when Satine was killed... unlike Anakin.

No worries. That's an entirely valid counter-argument. Maybe you're right and that was their intent. I suppose I could look at it that way. Perhaps I've been unduly influenced by so many takes with people commenting otherwise, but that doesn't mean that that is what we're supposed to take from the story, so fair point. I may change my mind on that.

I do think it was done better in Legends with Siri Tachi, however. Why they had to beat us over the head with the comparisons between Padme and Anakin in every respect besides breaking up, I do not understand.

And, how does Maul even know Satine and Obi-Wan have that kind of history anyway? (And that doesn't even get into the fact that Maul should very much be dead. *eyeroll*)

(With my Love 'em and Leave 'em post, btw, I wasn't so much trying to make Obi-Wan out to be some kind of nasty womaniser, but rather to point out the systemic issues that will necessarily arise from the Jedi's official policy regarding sex and commitment. The implications are terrible.)

[ginathethundergoddess]

The Last Jedi, or SOMEONE REALLY SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED HOW ANAKIN FELL TO LUKE IN A WAY THAT WASN'T SPOKEN IN RIDDLES.

Spoilers ahead but also some meta. I don't know how to add a line break/cut on mobile.

I loved the last Jedi but some stuff about luke's character bothered me. He felt ooc from what his character arc ended with in ROTJ. Granted this is a man haunted by failures and the death of legit everything he worked for, but I even then it felt out of character for Luke Skywalker, the Jedi who brought anakin back from the dark side, to believe that killing his nephew was the only thing he could do to stop his fall. That's not the man who almost died because he believed his father had good left in him, even after all the crimes Vader committed.

So here's my theory: back when sidious was manipulating anakin, the Jedi council missed HUGE signs that something was up with Anakin. They knew there was sith involved, but didn't suspect it was palpatine. (Despite the FLASHING NEON WARNING SIGNS). All they knew was that anakin was a shatter point, a dangerous one (still should have trained him harder and maybe not let him get all cozy with palpatine in ways NO OTHER JEDI WAS REALLY ALLOWED, but I digress.) But not how he played into it. Or how palpatine played into it. This is because palpatine was able to manipulate the force enough to cloud even the foresight of yoda. He was virtually untraceable in the force. This made him able to plant seeds of doubt in anakin's mind that over the course of the clone wars were one by one confirmed.

Seed one: padme would die. Palpatine manipulated anakin's force visions to constantly torment him with visions of padme dying. Anakin's love for her, which was a good thing and could have done wonders for the order, became instead a tool of control. Anakin would do anything for her.

Seed two: the Jedi were corrupt and wanted power, and didn't think him worthy enough to be a Jedi knigt, and that the Jedi were turning from their own code and becoming hypocritical. Palpatine manipulated the way anakin viewed the council and its actions. As more and more death came of the Jedi actions throughout the war, anakin slowly began to have his doubts confirmed. The loss of his padawan, Ahsoka Tano, to the machinations of another padawan who had lost faith made anakin even more wary of the Jedi. Palpatine used the destruction of the war to frame the Jedi order in an even worse light. When Obi-Wan was no longer immediately at Anakin's side to ground him and help him see clearly, Anakin was weak to Palpatine's influence. It came to a head when the council tried using him as a spy on palpatine, because by then Anakin believed palpatine to be a loyal and sympathetic friend who shared his doubts about the order and would listen to his problems. He saw the jedi council's caution as hypocrisy and a power move. This escalated when, upon revealing the identity of the sith lord to them, mace windu did as Jedi usually do with sith and IMMEDIETLY went to confront him. Anakin saw this as betrayal- a peace keeping order that supposedly fought for justice was going to murder a man that had otherwise been a good person and strong leader throughout a bloody and destructive war. There would be no trial, no negotiations. Just straight up slaughter. This confirmed what palpatine had been feeding him about the Jedi order; they wanted power. This is why he was so quick to jump to Palpatine's aid. The jedi had been lured into a position where they looked like the villains.

Seed three: isolation. Because the war was wrapping up by episode 3, the Jedi were spread out. Anakin didn't have his padawan to distract him as she left the order herself. He wasn't always able to see padme, and despite the fact they were unstoppable together, He and Obi-Wan were not put on the same campaigns. The lack of friends around himto bolster his bonds and make him stronger in the light side allowed for palpatine to slip into anakin's mind. He slipped seeds of distrust and doubt about Obi wan and Padme , both of whom were taking stands against palpatine in ways the chancellor manipulated in anakin's mind to look sinister. Obi-Wan was a Jedi loyal to the council; padme was one of the senators most outspoken against the chancellor's draconian laws and regime and the sudden powers he's was wresting that seemed to turn him autocratic. ( mind you that Anakin was a long time soldier in the war and saw all of palpatine's increased powers and official decrees as necessary. The war was bad. )

So though the failure of the jedi to perceive the manipulations of palpatine, both the force influenced ones and ones he manipulated through his actions ad grand chancellor and leader of the Republic army, the jedi had fallen into a trap where their most powerful student felt utterly betrayed by the order that saved him. It didn't help that they had somewhat alienated him during his training, treated him with less respect than he believed he deserved, and many high council members straight up didn't trust him. It also didn't help that by that point in the war the Jedi had become more combative than peace keeping. Mace windu struck first, asked questions later. It seemed a far divide from how Jedi were supposed to do things.

Now, one would think that yoda would have passed this knowledge onto Luke during his training so that Luke didn't make the same mistakes. But luke fell for the same trap as his teachers.

1.) He saw ben's power and aggression and instead of teaching him proper ways to handle it, reprimanded it, which created tension between himself and his nephew that Snokes could easily manipulate from frustration between student and teacher to outright hatred.

2.) He failed to sense Snokes manipulating ben's mind through the force. And even then failed to adequately guard his students from the dark side.

3.) Snokes was able to use ben's frustration and growing resentment to begin to isolate the teen just as palpatine did to anakin. We see ben in his own little shack, with o other students. This is not how Jedi typically function, where every student was together in shared spaces. Luke seemed to contribute to the isolation of Ben, which made him easy prey for snoke.

3.) Snokes planted seeds of doubt into Ben's mind that distanced him further from luke. He no longer saw luke's lessons as helpful or even purposeful. He began to see the training of the Jedi as laughable to those teachings of the sith. The more luke struggled to reign in Ben and teach him, the more hypocrisy Ben saw.

4.) I'm of the opinion Snokes manipulated luke himself. Luke failed to see the struggled Ben was undergoing, the torment Snokes was putting him through. Instead he saw a teenager falling deeper and deeper into the darkness. He began to believe that Ben could not be saved. This is out of character for luke, who we saw struggle with the dark side and draw anakin back to the light. I feel like, as with mace windu, whose mind was clouded and who could not sense the deeper machinations of sidious, only that there was a sith and they needed to be disposed of, luke was lured into believing the only way to stop Ben's descent before it reached critical mass was to destroy him. That sort of thinking is dark side thinking l. The nagging doubts in luke's mind that told him killing was the only answer? That's the dark side. That's fear taking control and manipulating him. Only, luke realized too late that he was falling dangerously close to the dark side. He realized it only when he went to slay his nephew while he slept, stopping at the last minute with a "Holy shit wtf am I doing?"

5.) Unfortunately he still walked right into the trap because at that moment Snokes pulled the strings. Luke never got the chance to explain because Ben woke up to find his uncle standing over him with his lightsaber. In that moment all the lies and manipulations and doubts snokes had been feeding him were confirmed. He defended himself against his attacker and betrayed by someone who was supposed to guide and protect him, fell to the dark side.

So yeah. Luke fell to the same trap the Jedi Order did. Let's hope rey doesn't do the same. Like, yoda confirming that everything Rey needs is inside her ND also she took the Jedi texts, things that CLEARLY no one has read in a damn long time, might actually help prevent this from happening again. I like how yoda is like "we were meant to pass on our successes, and our greatest failures." And honestly I think Rey will be able to actually learn something from Luke's failure. I'm not sure if she will be able to destroy Kylo Ren by bringing Ben Organa-Solo back to the light side (or to the light side for the first time ever). It was kind of clear Kylo Ren, now turned loose without Snokes pulling his strings, is now completely chaotic. He truly is the dark side made manifest; driven by passionate hate and lust for revenge, out of control and hell bent on destroying everything to dominate it all. But at least Rey will know the true extent of what a sith lord can do, and how deep manipulation goes. At least now she knows personally that the dark side is tempting, it promises answers, but what it delivers really conclusions she could have drawn for herself and eventual ruin. She fell for 2.5 seconds, and found that the dark side did not answer her questions, did not give her what she wanted, and only left her with the conclusion she had already known, but didn't want to admit to herself.