#you can take his sith health and slap it into SO MANY fun situation

[jasontoddiefor]

I don't know who to share my thoughts with so now you get them: I think that more anakin time travel fics should explore vaders whole medical trauma body horror thing. Dude is on life support for half of his life and suddenly he has hair again. The medic clones should figure out that somethings up pretty quickly. Actually, imagine having to deal with hair after 23 years of being bald. He probably isn't used to eating anymore. There's so much to think about.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR THOUGHTS THEY ARE WONDERFUL. Yes, yes, yes, there is so much horror to consider. TW for Vader’s lack of health and the psychological effects it has

Say, Anakin wakes up again in the middle of the Clone Wars, before Ahsoka leaves and everything goes to hell. One moment, he’s dying in his son’s arms, the next he’s in the middle of a battlefield. Completely disorientated. The campaign is already half won and it’s just clean up. And Anakin, like any man with too much trauma, has a panic attack and hyperventilate. He knocks away a dozen clones in his panic, aimlessly (broken bones, but thankfully no dead), then he faints

Let’s start with the breathing. Vader hasn’t breathed by himself really for decades. Only in emergencies when his suit failed or he turned it off himself did he actually have to do it and I bet that during those times he had to be conscious of every breath. This young, healthy body, remembers how to breathe automatically still. Anakin’s mind however? I could see him freaking out and being unable to handle it. When they bring him to the medbay, they get him hooked on a breathing machine because Anakin can’t function when he has to focus on that. Also, his voice must sound strange in his own ears. He can sing now, he doesn’t have to pause for his own breaths. His intonation must be all over the place.

Talking healthy body: His clone-wars mech arm was canonically his best artificial limb. He’s shorter than he is as Vader. He still has all most of his limbs. He tries to take his first steps and falls to the ground because he hasn’t walked like this in over twenty years. He feels like a newborn, stumbling around. Probably also underestimates how strong his legs and remaining arm is. Vader could like. Punch through steel. You know Obi-Wan trying to kick Grievous? That’s him now. Constantly. He also weighs a lot less now. He’s free of that 100 pound armor! Once he starts training again, his speed and flexibility probably improve immensely because that’s not holding him back anymore. On the other hand, he probably does put on more armor than before because he was used to treating his body as expansible. It’s not anymore.

Also talking healthy body, his mind is probably really out of place. Like, he has the brain of an early-20-something, but the mind of a traumatized adult. His brain hasn’t even finished developing it and what I’m saying is: He probably feels like he’s high on spice, all happy and carefree because his mind is used to function on much lower levels.

Regular movements don’t hurt him! His pain tolerance is through the roof and it’s honestly shocking. He could be bleeding out and probably wouldn't register it for a while. He’s supposed to do regular check-ups now to ensure he isn’t actually dying and just not aware of it because it’s only minor pain.

In general, Anakin probably feels like his body is heaven and curse at the same time. Because on one hand, it’s such a relief, on the other, he probably feels dysphoric because Vader did see himself as a weapon. A tool. A one-man army. And now he suddenly has to take care of himself and his body just. Messes with him?

Moving on to habits! First of all: He can touch people again. I like to HC that Anakin was a very tactile person. This is dialed up to 11 now. He’s constantly running his flesh fingers over something. If there’s somebody he cares about near him, guess what, you’re getting hugged now. He doesn’t even notice he’s reaching out until Ahsoka is like “Master, please, can you let go of me I’m trying to eat”. He can feel warmth and cold, rough and smooth surfaces. Probably, when also not in armor, he might indulge in super soft clothes. the stuff that's feather-light on your skin.

Food: That’s difficult as well. Vader didn’t eat and Anakin now probably develops an eating disorder where he either overgorges until he gets sick and vomits or forgets to eat for days at a time until his blood sugar is so low he faints.

Sleeping: Obi-Wan has never seen Anakin meditate this much. Or so well. Or drop into so many healing trances so he can avoid sleeping. Anakin hasn’t properly slept in ages. He can’t fall asleep, he doesn’t know how to and he's terrified when he does. He has nightmares- no, night terrors really frequently. When he goes under, he barely gets any REM sleep.

Hair: Probably also one of those “100% or 0%” actions. Either he actually does take care of it, take care of it well too, or he just forgets and it's a rats’ nest until Ahsoka, a clone, Padmé or Obi-Wan - whoever is in reach really, sits him down and brushes and idk braids it. He’s probably half annoyed by its length and half going “I’m never cutting this again” so guess everybody is getting proficient in braiding now

So bottom line is, if Anakin actually did time travel, he probably wouldn’t be able to hide it because simply breathing on his own already unsettles him and that’s not even accounting for all of Vader’s health issues.