#Like A Sad Hallucination|Anakin Skywalker | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brooklynislandgirl · 1 year

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Advent Calendar: Day 1

@mynameisanakin

“Wintah Solstice or Yule is da Longest Night, da peak of power of darkness ovah da ‘aina. It also da turnin’ point, aftah which da nights grow shortah, days get longer as light is reborn into da world. Amongst da Verbena, it is seen as a child, newly born in da underworld from da womb of da Goddess. It is a time of spirit descendin’ into da form an’ solidarity of matter, represented by da stillness of da cold an’ frozen eart’. It is also a time for craftin’ an’ repairin’ or workin’ indoors to make an’ fix da tools needed for da coming year.” Beth glances over her shoulder as she arrays a garland of holly and ivy along the mantle of the fireplace in the great room, allowing the ripe red berries to catch light from the windows, to make sure that Anakin is following along and not bored to death by her lecture. She’s careful not to impose her beliefs on him, despite having a firm hold of her own paradigm. He’s still constructing his own, waiting for the right mentor to find him. Some part of her suspects that search is not so strenuous, that he is content to remain within her umbrage. She’s prideful in her belief that her tradition gives her an older legacy, and she will swear that it is the ways of the Wyck that spread like fire among the Sleepers aeons ago, changing only a little with each culture that adopted that faith as their own. Of course, she also says that most Traditions will have the same story to tell, and most of them would be wrong. Except she’d do it with a wink and a smile, with very little more than playful sibling-rivalry in her tone. In the wan light streaming through the sheer curtains, his profile is still razor-sharp but not deathly worrisome, he’s filled out slightly since his arrival on her doorstep. In the three years he’s been under her roof he’s regained his colour, he’s grown a little more confident in himself, and no longer has that rattling cough that worried her into insomnia for months. He still hasn’t overcome all of his pains, illnesses, or neuroses, but she’s no longer afraid to leave him unattended nor does she think she will wake up one morning to find a bare home and clinic with nothing but her regrets for company. “Da Art of Matter, for Verbena involves infusing cold an’ unlivin’ substance wi’ Spirit and Life. Da ability t’ take an’ shape da raw stuff of da world into tools an’ da kine of beauty has always been seen as a magickal art, an’ we hold to da views of smi’ds, weavers, carpenters, an’ oddah crafters as practicin’ a sort of magick of dey own. By understandin’ how Prime has passed t’rough Spirit to become Matter, a witch can see da essence or Pattern of matter an’ alter it to suit his will.” This is all theoretical to her, she has never been able to learn that particular Art, though with specially prepared items, she can still bid spirits to bind with them to create talismans and fetishes, and he’s already known quite intimately how well she wields the sphere of Life. But she still owes him an explanation of all the Spheres, and how they were attempted to be taught to her. She hates having to acknowledge that his home is nothing like her own, save for the blessed heat and humidity, but they make a good go of it. “Foci of Matter magick are da tools of craftahs an’ makers, from simple kitchen utensils like knives, spoons, an’ bubblin’ cauldrons to da hammah, chisel an’ da anvil. Fire is a focus for da Matter Sphere, transformin’ da heat of da hearth,” she pronounces that word with extreme care, forcing herself the digraph correctly for him, “da oven, an’ da forge. We are known for firin’ or forgin’ matter into new forms as one might fire newly moulded clay t’ set its shape, or beat red-hot metal into some new life. Personally, I find it small kine silly…clearly Fire belong to Forces, but ya eventually gonna see dere’s a lot of overlap between da Spheres. What I’d like ya f’ do, aftah ya help me set up da candles t’roughout da house an’ we go grab lunch…Was t’inkin’ we go t’ T’irteen an’ grab some mushroom phillys an’ a impossibly huge order of dose tater tot nachos….is to come up wi’ somet’ing you’d like to make or some talisman you’d love f’ have… an’ we can practice t’ see if you got a talent f’ Matter. Personally, I’mma hand make us some 'ahu'ula ahead of carnival season.”

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kaminocasey · 1 year

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Do You Hear the People Sing Part 7

Summary: Fox does as he said he would and finds you.

Pairing: Commander Fox x Reader

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI; Sexual implications, Violence, Injuries, Angst

WC: 2K

A/N: WELL, here is the second to last chapter! The next will be the Epilogue! I'm very excited and also very sad bc I've been working on this since June and I've come to truly care for Fox more than I expected. Thank you for reading it and reblogging and liking and commenting. I'm appreciative of all of you. <3

Do You Hear the People Sing Masterlist

“Commander Fox.” Fives and Jesse approach an incredibly stressed and sleep deprived Fox.

Fox had yet to meet the two arc troopers, never hardly working with the 501st but he’s heard good things about the two men. He heard they had a huge hand in the successful mission on Umbara and that they’d helped take down the rogue Jedi turned Sith Pong Krell. It for sure made his job easier that he didn’t have to deal with the Sith Scum.

“Fives. Jesse.” Fox sticks his hand out to shake their hands. “Good to finally meet you guys. Heard a lot about you.”

“Likewise.” Jesse nods. “We’re here to help.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Fox tells them, genuinely.

He’s exhausted and has barely slept five hours in the last week. You’ve been gone far too long. He wakes up at night, angry and in tears. He tells himself that he can sleep when he gets you back safely.

“Fives and Jesse are two of the best arc troopers out there.” General Skywalker assures Fox.

“I can also confirm that.” Rex tells Fox, patting him on the back.

“We’re going to get her back, Commander.” Anakin assures him.

They’d been working tirelessly to find any sort of clue as to where you were. They’d finally found an informant of Dooku’s who barely took any sort of convincing, he was so afraid of Skywalker. It was a good thing too, because Fox was nearing desperation… There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to get you back at this point.

As they board the ship, Fox thanks the men of the 501st and tells them to wake him up as soon as they reach Serenno. He knows he needs sleep. Before this, he was used to little sleep. He’d get maybe five hours a night. Now… he’s starting to experience dizziness and hallucinations.

Yesterday, he thought he saw you walk past him and he started to chase after you. It was only one of the Coruscant medics and she was rightfully scared out of her mind when Fox grabbed her. He had apologized profusely.

Fox finds a seat to take a nap in, not even caring if it’s comfortable. Within two seconds of sitting, he falls right asleep, dreaming of simpler days with you.

I’m gonna marry this woman, Fox thinks to himself, watching you sing along to the music as you cook breakfast, wearing his shirt. He’d never seen someone so beautiful.

When you turn around, you see your partner and start grinning immediately. You’d only been going out maybe a couple months and this was the first time that Fox stayed over.

There had been a peaceful protest the day before, one that thankfully stayed peaceful, and Fox had offered to walk you home. When you had gotten home, you asked him if he wanted to stay.

“Good morning.” You make him a plate.

“Good morning, cyare.” He comes over to you, kissing you.

You set the pan back down on the stove, wrapping your arms around the clone commander’s neck, running your hands through his curls.

“How do you look so perfect in the morning?” He takes the plate from your hands, sits it down, and backs you up against the counter.

“I don’t, but you’re sweet for saying so.” You kiss him again as he picks you up and sits you on the counter.

“Don’t argue with me.” He moves his lips to your neck and your mind goes blank except with need.

You wrap your legs around him, pulling him as close as possible. Breakfast is suddenly forgotten as he carries you back to bed to have his way with you.

You had tried to escape. You had tried really hard. Even made it to Dooku’s hangar and almost to a ship, despite not knowing the first thing about flying. But you were prepared to deal with that problem when you got to the ship.

Except… Ventress had intercepted you and beat the shit out of you, dragging you kicking and screaming back to your cell by your hair.

Then, you tried again when some droid had brought you breakfast, which Ventress had been anticipating and force choked you so hard that you thought you teetered the near death line a little too closely.

You weren’t a Jedi. You weren’t a clone. You weren’t a warrior. You weren’t built or trained for this sort of thing.

Ventress had broken your spirit. You tried to fight back… and you lost. Fox had no idea where you were and you would most likely die here. Wherever here is.

All you know is, you’d rather die than join the Sith.

“Fox, we’re here.” Rex wakes him up, gently.

Fox wakes up with a start and stands up, swaying with tiredness. Rex keeps him up straight.

“Remember what I said about your emotions, commander.” Skywalker reminds him.

“Ha.” Rex walks away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anakin follows after him.

“Are you alright?” Thorn asks Fox, coming up from the cockpit.

Fox nods. “I’m fine.”

“You’re sure? You don’t need to sit it out?” Stone asks him.

Fox gives him a “You’re joking, right?” look and Thorn just pats him on the back, clearly having been joking to lighten the mood a little bit. Fox feels a little bad that he's been so dark and broody this last week, but he knows that Thorn understands.

“Let’s go get her back.” Fox nods and goes with Thorn and Stone out the hatch.

“Ohhh little rebel.” Ventress’ voice sings.

You ignore her, pulling the thin piece of fabric that they’d given you up closer to your shoulder. Perhaps if you just ignore her, she’ll leave you alone.

“Your friends are here to get you.” She taunts you.

Your heart lurches at the thought of Fox. You don’t believe her, though. This is just a new trick.

“It’s too bad it’s no use.” She grabs your arm, yanking you up from the cot.

You’re still bruised and in pain from her beating the crap out of you the first time. You’re pretty sure you have a few cracked ribs. Pain shoots through your chest and in your legs.

“Let… me go.” Your voice cracks as you try to pull your arm away from her, obviously not succeeding.

“Amazing.” Ventress pulls you toward the door. “You still have an ounce of fight in you.”

You limp, feebly, as she drags you back toward the hangar that you had tried desperately to escape to the first time. You barely have it in you to lift up your head.

“Ventress! Let her go!” You suddenly hear a familiar deep voice that you think belongs to Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin Skywalker is here?

Weakly, you look up in time to see a blue lightsaber coming your way. Soon after, there’s blaster fire coming from the other side and you see Fox, Thorn, Stone, three clones in blue armor and Ahsoka Tano.

Fox yells your name and your eyes lock onto him.

Fox. He came for you. He found you.

“Fox.” You whisper, falling to your knees as Ventress pushes you away and starts to go head to head with Anakin Skywalker.

Ahsoka and Fox rush to your side.

Fox found you. He finally found you and he can’t stop crying as he and Commander Tano pull you safely to their ship with Thorn and Stone covering them as they do so. He knows he shouldn’t be crying like this in front of a Jedi commander but right now, he can’t bring himself to give a single fuck. You’re here and back in his arms. That’s all that matters.

Ahsoka helps you into a seat and Fox tears off his helmet, dropping it to the floor as he falls to his knees in front of you.

“I’ll give you two some privacy.” Ahsoka pats you on the shoulder, walking away.

You and Fox look at each other with tears streaming down both of your faces as he cups your face, kissing you desperately between sobs.

“It’s…okay.” You choke. “I’m… okay.”

“I’m so sorry, cyare. I’m so so sorry.” He begs you for forgiveness.

“Me too…” You whisper against his lips.

He continues to kiss you, panting against you.

“I love you so much.” He tells you. “Always. I’m never letting you go again. Please believe me.”

“I love you, too.” You assure him. “And I do.”

He finally stops crying and rests his head in your lap, holding onto your legs, and you comb your fingers through the familiar black curls, brushing your fingers across the gray patch that you’ve missed so much.

You look up at Thorn and Stone and they’re smiling down at you, clearly happy to see you as well. You’re just as happy to see them.

“Sorry, I’m such a mess.” You swallow the lump in your throat that keeps forming.

“Don’t be. We’re just glad you’re alright.” Thorn nods to you, leading Stone away.

Fox gets back up, sitting in the chair next to you, checking all your bruises and cuts, wincing at all that he finds.

When Skywalker and the three blue armored clones finally get back on board, they take off immediately.

Only once you’re in hyperspace do you finally relax. Exhaustion sets in as soon as the adrenaline wears off and you feel yourself go weak again.

Ahsoka brings over a medic by the name of Kix so he can check you for any serious damage, which you don’t think you have, but you still let him check you over with a scanner. Fox’s eyes and hand never leave you. Not even for a moment. You’re almost sure they never will again.

“You have a few cracked ribs but no internal bleeding.” Kix, tells you, giving you something for the pain.

Fox doesn’t leave your side for even a second. As soon as Anakin Skywalker comes in, you know you’re about to be questioned.

“General… this can surely wait, right?” Fox stands up, protectively. “She needs rest.”

“I’m sorry, Fox… It can’t. I need to know what happened while everything is still fresh in her mind.” He tells him.

Fox looks down at you as if waiting for you to tell him to fight the general. It’s sweet, but unnecessary. You look at the general and nod.

“I’ll answer your questions, general.” You tell him.

You understand why he’s doing this. It’s not that big of a deal and you know the sooner you do this, the sooner you can take a nap and be alone with Fox again.

“Please, call me Anakin.” Anakin comes in and stands next to you.

“Or Skyguy as I like to call him.” Ahsoka appears in the doorway, chuckling.

“What do you want to know?” You ask him.

After Anakin finishes asking you questions, Fox helps you into a hoverchair and takes you to one of the bunk rooms. He helps you lay down and starts to sit on the floor but you pull him into the bunk with you.

“Are… are you sure?” He asks you, softly.

He hesitates but you’ve missed him desperately the last six months. If he turns you away now, it may kill you.

“Please… I need you.” You whisper. “Unless you don’t want to-”

“No, cyare. Of course I want to.” He gently climbs over you into the bunk. “I just know you’re in pain.”

“The pain meds that Kix gave me kicked in.” You tell him. “I need to be held by my riduur.”

With that last word, Fox aligns his body with yours, gently holding you close as you lay on your back. You feel his breath hitch as breathes you in and takes your hand, bringing it up to his lips before gently resting it down at your side. And soon after, you hear his soft snores that you’d missed so deeply.

For the first time in six months, you both finally feel at peace. You can finally sleep peacefully again, knowing Fox is never going anywhere ever again.

TAGS: @grievouus @brynhildrmimi @madameminor @dumfanting @rain-on-kamino @misogirl828 @rexandechosandwich @corona-one @tecker @ladykatakuri @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @twistedstitcher27 @zoeykallus @maulslittlemeowmeow @littlemousedroid @arctrooper69 @rexxdjarin @agenteliix @padawancat97 @hated-by-me @sleepingsun501 @ttzamara @erishimoon @brieblade @grizzersmamma @urfavwifeyy @tazmbc1 @stardust9905 @justanothersadperson93 @nekotaetae @eternalwaffle

#tcw #the clone wars #tcw fox #commander fox #commander fox x reader #commander fox x you #tcw fox x reader #tcw fox x you

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kavaeroexe · 2 years

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The fic about the crossover that really good , i can't stop laughing when i image anakin would said that.

Anyway , the new chapter about Elysia make me sad ... I wanna have her so bad but the story aaaa i refused to believe

Can you image Elysia! Reader ,reader have personality like Elysia and the appearance too with Yandere! Star War ? Pretty please

I heard / read Elysia sometime 'gone' that make people panicc , she just like hiding cmiiw👀

Luvv you , have a nice day xoxo

-🐦Anon

OMG ANOTHER GREAT IDEA FOR CROSSOVER-

i’ll give you the prettiest flower~!

Elysia!reader x yandere!star wars character (HC)

warning : typos, bad grammar

attention! please do not try to repost my works, i only post my works on tumblr, if anyone see someone stole my works please inform me through the comments, tag me in the works, or message me!

Anakin Skywalker

ayo-

i would say these two is the chaotic together

Anakin is having a high-level of jealousy and you’re the friendly person that like to hangout with everyone

you two good together, its just the jealousy that makes your relationship weird

“You flirt with how many people today?”

“Flirt~? i’m just a sweet talking, and oh! only to Senator Amidala and Rex today!”

“that’s a new record, i hope tomorrow you’ll do none- thank lord the mercy”

because we talking about yandere, i think he ever locked you up once..

no- twice...

three times?

but all of that attempts of him locking you up, you managed to escape easily and without even thinking that he’s locking you up.

“Where did you go?”

“The council, Senator’s room, Visiting the padawans, and Master Kenobi’s room!”

“alright that seems like a nice place to go- wait- MASTER’S ROOM? WHAT FOR?”

“giving flowers~!”

“You giving flowers to many people but me? do you not love me anymore?”

“*gasp* Who said that? oh my sweety baby cheeks my lovey dovey, i prepare you something more than just flowers just for you!”

“really?”

“Yeah~! come on walk with me! i’ll show them to you!”

honestly you’re just taking him around the Jedi Temple and then kiss him sweetly in the quiet place and the last, run!

but you guys a powerful couple, you good at negotiation, distracting and also you’re strong in force + able to masters many forms of lightsaber fight etc, while he’s a good pilot, strong, tall, dominating, and plus you both good at making sudden plan or well-prepared plan

noice

so when you’re gone somewhere or he lost you he’s losing his patience

he kill anybody that he suspects while he’s searching for you

but after all he does, he can’t find you, so he’s badly coming back at his place

“GUYS WE LOSE Y/N’

“CHECK, CHECK THE TRASH COMPACTOR”

“OH KRIFF, WHERE IS SHE?”

but then he saw you, sitting with a tea and wrapping yourself with a blanket, he thought he’s hallucinating

“Welcome home Ani! where have you been? i really miss you... :(”

“Is it really you? i should be the one asking where have you been, im worried sick about you..!!”

Obi-wan Kenobi

he’s the protective yandere

he can’t really like giving you limit about your friendship and locking you up or such, so he’ll just be very protective, so he’s watching you 24/7

he feels relieve when you don’t feel bothered by his appearance most of the time, making sure you’re okay

“You know, Obi, you are a true gentlemen, you guard and making me safe, thankyou for your love, i love it so much~”

you often find him looking out for you 24/7 when he’s free, even though he try to be sneaky

“No Y/N don’t approach him, i have a bad feeling abut him”

“Remember if someone asking you to stay longer with them, tell them you have a husband” -Obi

“But i don’t have a husband?? we haven’t married ye.. you want us to married theenn~?”

if he’s jealous, he’ll just told himself that ‘come on, Y/N does this everyday’

but if you talking buddy acts to far, he’ll pulling your hand, and then “alright that’s it, you’re coming with me”

even though he’s watching you close, he sometimes just lose you, stupid maybe, but that’s what happened..

“Y/N? where are you? Y/N??”

he puts 100% effort on finding you, telling his clones, telling the other masters, but a bit with acting spice, they didn’t think that he search for you because he’s scared of losing you, just worried for general like losing a not-so-close friend.

and then in the middle of his searching, Cody carrying you, who’s holding a bucket of crown flowers

“Surpriseee, seems that you miss me, doesn’t it master Kenobi?”

this whole time you’re just wandering from place to another place, gathering everything that you catch your eyes on.

when you’re in private, he’ll scold you, but he manages to give you food, sweet drinks and dessert while scolding you, so you eat and listen.

“can you please stop hiding and roaming around the way you likes? i can’t always protect you from somebody who knows!”

but as a form of apologies, you place a kiss in his cheek and a warm tight hug, then let out a giggle

“I’m happy that you’re worried over me, such a gentlemen~”

“I love you, please don’t make me worried again, okay love?”

“Okie dokie!”

Padme Amidala

oh god the lovey dovey couple-

she’s a sweetheart, you’re a sweetheart

if you’re both going as a couple in a formal party, or even a normal party, everybody would say that you both are a happy, full of glitter, romance, fluff couple

y’all are the sweetest couple people could ever see

anything happens to you, she doesn’t insist on releasing her full power to solve it ngl

loves loves loves when you both having a skincare routine or a make up-ing session before both of you start your day

gifting is her way to show her love when she’s not able to show up and cuddles then sharing warmth, so she pick the best jewelry, dress, flower, accessory for you when she has to work most of the day

and every single Padme’s gift that you accept, you’ll wear it when you both have a chance to spend time together

when you’re gone, she’s surprisingly handle it well

connection and money baby

the longest record of her effort finding you that goes missing is 12 hours and 30 minutes

well she remembered it lmao

if you sweet talking or even flirt with your friend or sometimes stranger, she wouldn’t mind

that’s you being you anyway, so no problem she guess

but if somebody flirt with you... alright it depends actually

if you flirt back = soon to be friends

if you’re silent = mayday mayday, red flag, you’re uncomfortable or worst case, you start to like them

SHE KEPT YOU AWAY LMAO

“Alright here’s the plan, stop meeting them ever again”

“why?”

“They play with at least one woman every day” she could be lying she could tell the truth

“Oh they’re bad... thankyou dear, i’ll take a distance from now on!”

Luke Skywalker

damn this boy is the protective and the paranoid yandere

“No don’t talk to them”

“stay here”

“Y/N, stay right here and wait for me, okay?”

“no don’t go there!”

“You can’t do that!?”

at first, he lets you to have fun with your friends

but the way you’re having fun is your friend makes him reconsider his decision

but he doesn’t want to put a limits on your life, he doesn’t want you to be sad

so he ask Leia, Han, or everyone in the rebellion to keep an eye on her or sumn

“we could watch after her, we promise”

well they lose you anyway

“kriff Luke, we lost her!”

“HOW!?”

well of course he check on the whole place at the base, so does with everybody, and then if he hasn’t found you, he’ll grab his helmet and then using his x-wing to search for you in the whole planet

i swear he drop at least one tear when he’s searching for you

but guess what?

you’re at the back area of the base

how tf nobody find you in there?

feeding some animals...

okay he forgive you because you look pretty and cute while feeding them

but he will not let you go for the next 24 hours

“i swear you scared me, what if you’re not in the base? what if you’re being kidnapped by the empire and i late to save you? what if you’re being hunted by bounty hunter? oh i can’t lose you you know it!”

“hehe sorry, but at least i’m safe, and that’s all that matters right now right?”

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comebackali · 8 months

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🔥 + those new star wars shows

i feel like it's not an unpopular opinion that disney star wars is like, bad, and we're very over saturated with sw content rn. but let's go one by one for disney era sw shows, yeah?

rebels (2014-2018): okay i love rebels. nuthin to say here. it's not perfect but overall, a good fun time. good fun characters. love it.

forces of destiny (2017-2018): meh. the animation is meh, but i liked most of the padme ones, and i liked the ones where the girls from different franchises interact, like leia and sabine and jyn. i like the concept, but overall was underwhelmed. but for what it was it's fine.

resistance (2018-2020): i don't really have an opinion on resistance. i watched a few episodes when it first came out but it didn't really pull me in. so i'm neutral on it, but it's sequel era so auto hate i guess. but not really. it's fine.

galaxy of adventures (2018-2020): best animation in star wars. oh and it's narrated by dante basco? incredible. love it.

the mandalorian (2019-present): hate. i liked the first season cuz i liked baby yoda (he's cute!), and i liked pedro pascal becoming daddy™, but then season 2 was just bad. the best part was them getting temuera morrison back as boba fett, but we all know how that turned out. and season 3 was simply intolerable. even characters i used to sort of like i now hate with a firey passion. like bo katan?? hate her. why is she so young?? and here's the real unpopular opinion, i HATE baby yoda. like he's not even cute to me anymore i literally just hate him with the passion of a thousand firey suns. i think it's the combo of over saturation plus the absolute STUPIDNESS that was his "arc" in the book of boba fett, but kill that little green old man with fiiiiiire 🔥🔥🔥. i didn't even care about the order 66 stuff with him, it was just so stupid. the best part was my boy kelleran beq. but i do respect the hell out of pedro pascal for being like, the highest paid voice actor in hollywood. like he's barely in the suit anymore but literally get that bread 🤑🤑🤑

jedi temple challenge (2020): i cannot belieeeeeeeeeve that when i look up "star wars shows" wikipedia has every fucking show listed EXCEPT jedi temple challenge. THE AUDACITY. THE DISRESPECT. jedi temple challenge is a star wars game show based on game shows like "legends of the hidden temple" from back in the day, and it's an absolute delight. AND it brought ahmed best (jar jar binks) back into star wars. and he did such a good job and you can tell he had such a fun time doing it. kelleran beq my absolute BELOVED. y'all think you love him but none of you love him like i do. also SAM WITWER??! frank oz?? zakai "the dark side is a little bitch" you absolute fucking legend? incredible, no notes. i wish there were a thousand seasons.

the bad batch (2021-present): hate. #unwhitewashthebadbatch. also, it's boring. i just don't care.

visions (2021-present): best thing that's happened to star wars in 20 years. love forever ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

the book of boba fett (2021-2022): HATE. IT'S JUST SOOOOOOOO BAD. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO MY BOY????? temuera morrison deserved sooooooooooo much better. and don't even TALK to me about what they've done to my son, luke jskywalker. fake luke skywalker. jake skywalker. terrible. hate hate hate.

obi wan kenobi (2022): my beloved. has done nothing wrong in their life, i know this and i love them. (except for what they've done to my boy the grand inquisitor. and fifth brother. but we don't talk about that.) genuinely so surprised that it was as good as it was, seeing the state of star wars live action before it. but i've never been so grateful that dave felony does not care about obi wan as a character, and therefore does not feel the need to rub his greedy little hands all over him. deborah chow did such a good job protecting the integrity of the characters imo. i would have been happier if it was just sad man alone in the desert, hallucinating anakin and house hunting with force ghost qui gon, but i've since gotten over that. i loved baby leia and the organas. also i don't think this is an unpopular opinion but KATHLEEN KENNEDY IS A LITTLE BITCH FOR CANCELLING S2 BUT GREENLIGHTING A REY MOVIE THAT NO ONE WANTS. ESPECIALLY when ewan/hayden/jimmy were all on board. she's number one on my hit list tbh. but if that was all we had it was enough. better to die a hero than live long enough to see yourself become a villain, and all that.

andor (2022-present): rogue one is the best thing that star wars has ever done imo, and andor is andor: a rogue one story, so it's great. but i fucking hate polldark cereal man. he's so fucking annoying. every time he is on screen i am throwing things at my tv. i don't even know his name, sibil, maybe? anyway, he's fucking stupid. taking away valuable screen time from my beloveds and for what? and he's just so boring. he's not even an interesting fascist like dedra (who i really only like because of the actress's incredible performance in "under the banner of heaven"). but anyway he's the worst. unpopular opinion is that mon mothma is sooo valid for selling her daughter to satan for one corn chip. go off queen.

tales of the jedi (2022-present): stupid. you can't even have continuity in your own canon? get it together dave, christ alive. i wanted to like it but, meh. i did like the rex, ahsoka, anakin one, because it's peak anakinnuttery and he's literally so insane i love it.

young jedi adventures (2023-present): adorable. you're killing it babies. high republic is fun. all the gold drip is fun. and the little riyo chuchi pantoran with the purple lightsaber is adorable. the eps are whatever, but it's literally made for 3 year olds, so it's great.

ahsoka (2023): it's so terrible i can't even speak. my expectations were low but man they wow'd me with how bad it was. first bitchy thing: ewan's new wife as hera was even more terrible than i was expecting. i can't think of a single thing i liked, except sabine a little, but that is for lesbian reasons and i cannot be held accountable for that. the rampant love for shin is soooooooo transparent. like i don't even dislike her, i like her just fine, but come on. and cgi hayden?? are you kidding me?? he looked SOOOOOOOO terrible are y'all for real?? i knew it was gonna be bad but damn. biggest takeaway was that whoever was in charge of the sound editing should be SHOT. it was so bad and sooooooo distracting. it took me right out.

huh. i guess overall i don't hate as many as i thought. but still, the ones i hate i really hate, and waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many. i'd sell them all to satan (except kenobi) for one corn chip.

#star wars #star wars tv #icebluecyanide #thanks for the ask i got things to say lol

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katierosefun · 1 year

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I posted 7,992 times in 2022

1,444 posts created (18%)

6,548 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lightasthesun

@wanderingbasilisk

@andthentheywilleatthestars

@ettelwenailinon

@kckenobi

I tagged 7,986 of my posts in 2022

#queue could stay - 3,445 posts

#me - 811 posts

#answered - 760 posts

#beyond evil - 622 posts

#caroline talks - 472 posts

#anon - 437 posts

#important - 373 posts

#sw - 356 posts

#swcw - 230 posts

#laugh rule - 220 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#but yeah idk i feel like i’m never anyone’s first choice. i’m never going to be anyone’s best friend never someone who’s joined at the hip

My Top Posts in 2022:

i love how beyond evil really said “okay, so like, han joo won. you see him? handsome face, nice build, deep voice for days. he looks cool, right?” and then immediately tossed that out the window and said instead, “now he’s a fucking pathetic bullyable baby who would eat out of the palm of the local dilf’s hand he screams cries throws up breaks down breaks up with people he’s never even dated”

401 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

beyond evil is great on many levels because on one level you have an insanely poetic story about how a tragedy can break a family and then on another level you have another insanely poetic story about how justice properly works and how emotions are so important when it comes to bringing that same justice into reality and then on another level you have a beautiful love story about two men who learn that the other is not a monster but is in fact someone who’s just very sad and struggling with the weight of their families and then on another level you have han joo won’s self-discovery that he’s a kinky slut

617 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

sometimes i feel sad about anakin skywalker because imagine being 23 years old and feeling simultaneously like a god and yet feeling so miserably tired and angry because you’ve already lost too many people and you are 23 years old and people say things about how they can’t wait to see what you do next and you are 23 years old and you are simultaneously a scared kid who might lose another person and an arrogant fool who thinks they could keep themselves from losing another person and you are 23 years old and you are smiling at the kid who might turn out to be better than you’ve ever been and you are 23 years old and you feel numb when your best friend in the whole world tells them they’re proud of you and you are 23 years old and you are supposed to be only going up and you are 23 years old and instead you crash quite miserably, terribly and you are 23 years old and instead of looking up at the stars, you swallow ash and dirt

952 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

the way the obi-wan kenobi series is quite honestly a fever dream for obi-wan kenobi fans in the best way you’ve got depressed ptsd obi-wan you’ve got obi-wan being an awkward depressed uncle/dad figure you’ve got obi-wan having vague memories of his birth family but ultimately calling the jedi his new family you’ve got obi-wan being a socially awkward bc see: trauma you’ve got obi-wan being cute with his lil’ eopie friend you’ve got obi-wan having nightmares you’ve got obi-wan hallucinating anakin in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere and we’re only halfway through besties

1,477 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

being a fic writer can be hard because sometimes you’ll get a random scene in your head and be like “oh this is neat! can i get some context?” and the characters go “lol no, figure it out” and so you need to shake your own brain like it’s a piggy bank like come on, there’s gotta be some more quarters in here . . .

17,070 notes - Posted August 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

i don't know how to tag but!!! have fun, everyone!!

#caroline talks #JESUS christ about my longest tag okay don't look at me lmao

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skullsandwineglasses · 2 years

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Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) - Eps 1-3 Impressions

I’m not a knowledgeable enough of a Star Wars fan to give an insightful review, but as a casual prequel fan, I have to say that this series is great fan service.

-The first 5 minutes of the first episode shows a highlight reel of the tragedy that are the prequels and Anakin’s downfall. Say what you will about the writing and dialogue about the prequels, but the dissolution of the relationship between Anakin, Padma, and Obi-Wan is almost Shakespearean.

-Obi-Wan indirectly referenced Padme like, 5 times already in 3 episodes. While I’m glad that Padme is finally getting the acknowledgement she deserves since The Clone Wars series, they still haven’t outright said her name yet. What are you afraid of??

-In Chinese culture, it’s often said that if you suffer in your relationship with someone, then it means that you must have owed them something in your past life and must now repay them in this life. Obi-Wan must have really owed Anakin in a past life because dang, he just can’t catch a break with the Skywalkers. It feels like Obi-Wan’s whole life has been devoted to guiding and guarding the family.

-In order to give Obi-Wan an excuse to leave Tatooine, he has to save Leia, who’s been captured to lure him out. I’m just wondering how he is able to safely go back into hiding now that everyone knows he’s out there.

-It’s nice to see Leia being talked about in reference to Padme, as well as Leia’s curiosity about her birth parents. I always felt that Leia never really cared for her birth parents like Luke did, which is understandable given that Leia had a much more loving and privileged upbringing than Luke. In the OT, Leia only talks about the birth mother once about how she has a distant memory of their mother being beautiful but sad. In the sequel trilogy, Leia doesn’t really talk about her Skywalker lineage at all, even though her son is obsessed with her father (in fact, the sequel trilogy seems to have so much disdain for the OT and prequels, as seen by the retconing of Luke and an overemphasis on Vader rather than Anakin). But Leia resembles Anakin in temperament (even though Obi-Wan says her stubbornness is more like her mother) and resembles Padme in leadership. You can see both of her parents in her. I wish someone would talk about Padme’s legacy with Leia because Padme’s leadership deserves to be remembered, and it would be nice to see Leia look up to her mother as a senator. In the Book of Bobba Fett, we see Ahsoka remark how much Luke reminds her of Anakin, and it’s almost heartwarming to see Luke being referenced to Anakin instead of Vader. And now, we see Leia being referenced to Padme. The sequels refused to connect the OT and prequels, but I’m glad that theses series are bridging that gap.

-I like how this series fleshes out Leia’s character, even though she’s only 10 years old in the series. You can see how her experience with Obi-Wan, and the conversations they have, influence her and will shape her in the future. Leia is clever and perceptive and can read between the lines. I’m sure that she’ll look back on this adventure with Obi-Wan and realize how much her birth parents mean to him and how great they were.

-In episode 3, you get a very distant view of Hayden’s hooded face as Obi-Wan hallucinates him. Poor Obi-Wan is haunted by Anakin. And in their very unbalanced confrontation at the end of the episode, we see that Obi-Wan is not just out of practice, but his trauma and guilt prevents him from matching Anakin. Anakin, now Vader, is like a ghost that has come back for revenge. And boy, does Vader crave revenge, as seen by how he recreated the flames from Mustafar and dragged Obi-Wan through them. It’s hard to watch. It’s sad. It’s unforgivable, but also frustratingly understandable.

-The prequels were all about building angst, from Anakin and Padme’s forbidden romance, to the brother-turned-enemy relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan. This series explores that angst. It’s probably the angstiest addition to the franchise. It’s emotional. It’s intense and full of rage. Even Uncle Owen lashes out against Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, carries all of these memories with no one to share them with. He’s been alone for 10 years, living the same day over and over again. The only way he marks the passing of time is seeing Luke grow up, which then reminds him of having watched Anakin grow up. He’s stuck in the past, but the past no longer exists. Anakin no longer exists. Obi-Wan used to be a protector, but now out of self-preservation and protection of Luke, he watches idly as people are tortured. Bail Organa calls him out on favouring Luke over Leia. Obi-Wan is no hero, but he’s a damaged man. Instead of serving the galaxy, he’s serving the two descendants of his closest friends.

It’s hard to believe that I’m already halfway through this series. It’s obvious that things won’t be resolved in the next 3 episodes. Obi-Wan and Vader don’t confront and conclude their relationship until 10 years later. Maybe this is the last time that their paths cross. Anakin is also the closest (physically) he’s ever been to his daughter. We know exactly what will happen, and therefore we also know exactly what won’t happen. Anakin won’t find out about his children, Leia won’t learn the truth about her birth parents, and Obi-Wan won’t find peace. The point of this series isn’t to add or further anything. The point is to show us the emotional turmoil that both Anakin/Vader and Obi-Wan go through for the rest of their lives.

-Speaking of emotional turmoil and Padme, I wish they would show Vader mourning Padme. That’s not something that’s been presented in canon yet. In fact, it would be interesting to see Vader being haunted by the people in his past. He clearly has never stopped thinking about Obi-Wan, but what about Ahsoka and Padme? We all know Vader from the OT. He’s cruel and ruthless, and we see his merciless, sadistic cruelty in the third episode. But he was once human. He was once a boy who loved too much. And so, that’s why I think seeing him lash out at Obi-Wan for leaving him for dead on Mustafar is almost cathartic (albeit still difficult) to watch. It shows that Anakin is still in him. Vader isn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel. He’s cruel because he feels wronged as Anakin.

Both Anakin and Vader are unforgivable. I don’t even think he redeemed himself at the end of The Return of the Jedi. Killing Palpatine to save your son and bloodline isn’t exactly altruistic. It doesn’t repent for the fact that Anakin killed probably millions of innocent people. But knowing that Vader was once Anakin, Obi-Wan’s once padawan, brother, son, and friend, does evoke some sympathy.

-Overall, I won’t judge whether or not this series is well-written. I think I’m too emotionally invested to give an unbiased review. But I will say that it answers some questions we have about Anakin and Obi-Wan’s state of mind after Revenge of the Sith.

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nevertheless-moving · 3 years

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Star Wars Time Travel AU #27 Part Two - Suicidal Misunderstanding AU

Continuation of this

By the time the hovercar finally pulled into the temple, Obi-Wan’s tremors had mostly quieted. Cody awkwardly manhandled him out the vehicle door. Obi-Wan didn’t resist; he mostly seemed to be dealing with the overwhelming situation by refusing to open his eyes.

“Master?” Cody absently noticed that Anakin’s robe was tied modestly, with no other layers peaking out underneath; wherever he was before Cody called, he had left half-dressed and in a hurry.

Obi-Wan started shaking again, burying his face into Cody’s pauldron.

“Yeesh- you’re really a wreck,” Anakin observed bluntly but not without sympathy. “Honestly, you’re taking all the fun out of the situation. What’s the point of getting drunk if you act so pathetic that your smug padawan can’t even mock you afterwards?” Anakin hesitantly laid a hand on his master’s shoulder.

It was uncertain whether it was the words or the touch that succeeding in garnering a positive response, but finally Kenobi seemed to pull himself together. With a deep breath, the high general straightened up, opening his eyes to look Skywalker square in the face. He continued to hold eye-contact, expression gradually shifting from steely resolve to open faced delight.

“ANAKIN!” Obi-Wan flung himself at his former padawan with obvious joy. “OH ANAKIN! IT’S YOU! IT’S REALLY YOU!” They staggered with the force of Obi-Wan’s enthusiastic bear hug.

“Were you expecting someone else?” Anakin managed to get out, shocked by his Master’s uncharacteristically loud and emotional greeting, as well as slightly breathless from the intense grip. Obi-Wan didn’t answer; he just held Anakin tighter.

“Man, what did you drink?” he tried to ask instead, deciding to return the hug fully and deal with any later consequences later.

Obi-Wan shifted back enough to make eye-contact again. His brow furrowed in thought. “Just some Jawa beer to wash down the spice doses.”

“SPICE DOSES?!?” Cody and Anakin both shouted in alarm. Anakin grabbed at Obi-Wan’s face, examining the man’s pupils before pulling back his lip to look at his gums. “You don’t look like you’re dosed up. And the only thing you smell like is middling quality alcohol.” he concluded doubtfully. “Are you sure that’s what you took?”

Obi-Wan stopped to think again “The Jawas that sold it seemed pretty confident. I would be more likely to entertain the possibility that I was ripped off were you not standing here with me.”

“I- Wwhere- When would you have even bought spice from Jawas?” Anakin asked, exchanging bewildered looks with Commander Cody.

“They seem to like stopping by my hut, even when I don’t have anything to steal or buy. I suppose there’s not many opportunities for sentient contact out on in the wastes,” He mused.

Anakin only looked more confused, reasonably confident that he would have known if Obi-Wan owed a home on Tatooine.

“Heart rate was slightly elevated to normal on the ride over, sir.” Cody added dutifully. “Well within average human normal, and not consistent with spice use or alcohol poisoning.”

“His presence in the force is... strange,” Anakin said while patting Obi-Wan soothingly on the back. “I’d have to take him to the healers to confirm, but my best guess is he's having a bad reaction to something he drank. There are certain alcohols that can cause side-effects and unexpected reactions in force-sensitives. Though I can’t believe that after all the lectures he’s given me, he would be stupid enough to drink one.”

“He...did have an unknown mixed drink a bartender gave him on the house,” Cody said with a sinking sense of failure. “Could this have been a targeted attack?”

Skywalker clearly looked pissed at the idea “If it was, then that bartender committed an act of treason.” Only the fact that he was still supporting Ob-Wan’s weight (in what was rapidly approaching the second-longest hug they had ever shared) kept him from taking command of the troopers to interrogate a bartender.

“Sir, do you want me to accompany you to medical and make a report?” Cody asked.

Anakin hesitated, thinking while Obi-Wan rested his chin on his former padawan’s shoulder. As amusing as the idea was in theory, he didn’t really want to humiliate a vulnerable, emotional Obi-Wan by dragging him through the heart of the temple to be gawked at and judged.

“No.” He finally decided, “Even if he somehow managed to miss the fact that he was being poisoned in a civilian bar, he’s more than capable of processing toxins on his own, and I’m more than capable of monitoring him overnight. We’ve got a full field med-kit in our quarters- I can take a blood sample tonight, and ask him what he wants to do with it once he sobers up in the morning.”

Obi-Wan readjusted slightly as Anakin shrugged, “It’s also possible that he just, you know, overdid it drinking, which isn’t anyone’s business but his own. I mean, he hasn’t exactly had the opportunity to cut loose when he’s a High General all the time; his tolerance might not have been where he was expecting.”

Cody saluted in acknowledgement of the command decision. He ruthlessly quashed any doubts, reminding himself that General Kenobi had, in fact, asked for General Skywalker by name, and Skywalker was likely to better informed on Jedi responses to alcohol.

“Master, let’s get you to our quarters so you can sleep this off,” Anakin reluctantly pulled back from was now officially the longest hug Obi-Wan had ever given him. “Can you walk by yourself, or do you want me to help?”

The unusually peaceful smile Obi-Wan was wearing started to slide away. “Our quarters? Our quarters were destroyed. There’s nothing to find there now but ash,” he stated, as if gently reminding Anakin of a known tragedy.

Cody, still standing by, sucked in a breath.

“Besides,” he continued mater of factly, “You were barely ever in them at this point anyway. Even for a dream, it would be a lot more realistic for me to go to my quarters and sit in the dark trying to memorize casualty lists, while you’re out somewhere unknown, carousing with Padme presumably.”

“Carousing with Padme?! I - why would you- Master!” Anakin fumbled out, addressing the last point first before processing the rest.

“And is that seriously what you do when you have time off? Just sit and memorize the names of everyone who died during the war? That’s - that’s seriously sad Obi-Wan, we are talking about that when you sober up.” Not giving Obi-Wan the chance to defend his extremely sad hobby, Anakin plowed on.

“And our quarters are fine, I know that- uh- I know I haven’t been around a lot, but I was just in there earlier today, they look practically the same as they did when I was a padawan. Whatever you saw, here and now - I promise you - here and now the temple is fine. We’ll talk about your vision or your hallucination once you sober up, I promise.” Anakin ended emphatically, gripping Obi-Wans shoulders and staring directly into his eyes.

The miniature rant seemed to work.

“That sounds nice,” Obi-Wan said smiling, “I would love to see our old rooms- I know it didn’t really matter either way to you, but I always took comfort in the fact that you never bothered with requesting a new room after you were knighted. I know, I know that between how rarely we were temple based and Padme, it probably just didn’t cross your mind, but it was nice to have some tangible reminder of our connection, even as the war and the growing darkness stole everything else.”

Anakin truly didn’t know how to respond, the raw emotional honesty somehow even more painful than the crushing hug. Obi-Wan reached up to smooth back his hair like he was still a child. He then walked a few steps to face the extremely out-of-depth Commander Cody.

Not hesitating, Obi-Wan pulled Cody into a tender hug which he couldn’t help but lean into. The commander brought his arms up and around but hesitated to actually make contact, instead ghosting his hands along the general’s back.

“I always wanted to do that,” Obi-Wan whispers into Cody’s ear. “I can never thank you enough for all you’ve done; I never would have gotten through the war without you. I wish...I wish I could tell you that I consider you one of the best of men, and one of the best of friends. But... I can’t. Even if I abandoned my last mission to search you out, even if I succeeded in finding you, you would never allow me close enough to do this.”

Cody’s heart is racing, trying to decode the General’s words over the ringing white noise in his ears. He stops breathing entirely as Obi-Wan shifts to press their foreheads together, allowing him to focus entirely on the feel of the general’s breath, the sight of tears trickling again from red-rimmed eyes. “Goodbye, Cody.” he finally exhales.

And with that he turned and walked away, not looking back.

Next (Part Three)

#star wars #my au #star wars au no 27 #suicidal misunderstanding au #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #commander cody #how should i format trigger warnings is there a guide somewhere #nothing in this post but at some point in this au its literally the premise #time travel au #shoutout to #@wonderingrealist #for commenting and whatnot #i've been lurking on tumblr for a while but actually logging in and engaging is new so thank you #fanfiction #star wars au #sw

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ellie-you-idiot · 3 years

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Luke was pretty sure most people thought he was naive, but he wasn’t born yesterday. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru refused to tell him about his father, but he’d figured it out years ago. They weren’t exactly subtle.

Old Ben Kenobi had been around Luke’s entire life. Uncle Owen never let him get close, but he always seemed to be there, hanging around the edges of Luke’s existence. Luke could always tell when he was near—a protective, familiar presence with a warmth that rivaled Tatooine’s twin suns.

Really, Luke didn’t know who they thought they were fooling. It was obvious that Ben was his father.

Uncle Owen got the same pinched expression when Old Ben was mentioned as he did when talking about Luke’s father. That had been Luke’s first hint. The sad, nostalgic looks Ben gave him whenever they passed each other in town were another clue. What really cemented the idea in his mind, though, was the pull Luke felt toward the other man. It was as if they were connected through the fabric of the universe itself.

Luke didn’t blame Ben for not raising him. He figured the man didn’t think himself capable, maybe blamed himself for his partner’s death. Survivor’s guilt wasn’t uncommon on Tatooine. Luke just wished he could talk to Ben about his other father. One of the only things he knew about him was his name—Anakin Skywalker.

For the first nineteen years of Luke’s life, though, Ben was incredibly elusive. His presence was always relegated to the outskirts of Luke’s consciousness, and the man himself was even more evasive. Luke didn’t have much time to dwell on it. Uncle Owen kept him busy with schoolwork, and later with repairs and the harvest.

It was only the arrival of two droids and the subsequent destruction of his home and deaths of his aunt and uncle that brought his father into his life. Luke had gone with him willingly, clinging desperately to the only family that he had left. It didn’t matter that the man hadn’t told him he was his father yet—Luke knew that would take time. He was just glad to hear about Anakin Skywalker for once, to know that his fathers were heroes, and to have the chance to learn from one of them.

When the monster Darth Vader took his second father from him (as if one wasn’t enough!) Luke felt the vague stirrings of true hatred for the first time in his life. It was only Ben’s voice, echoing somewhere in his mind and telling him to run, that brought him out of his anger.

The years passed by in a blur after that. Suddenly Luke was important, a hero, a rebel. It was just as he’d always dreamed—and nothing at all like he’d imagined. He was often too exhausted to think about anything other than his current mission. Any quiet moments were to be cherished. When he could, though, he thought about his fathers. He wondered whether they would be proud.

Seeing Ben on Hoth was a surprise, although Luke was half sure he was hallucinating. He went to Dagobah anyway, trusting his instincts and his father. Yoda was another surprise, and training was difficult, but he finally felt as if he was following in his fathers’ footsteps. He would be a Jedi, just like them.

Then Bespin happened, and suddenly Luke was hanging over an empty abyss, his right hand and father’s lightsaber gone, Darth Vader looming over him. That horrible breathing eclipsed any thought.

“Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father,” the monstrosity was saying. Luke forced himself to focus.

“He told me enough! He told me you killed him,” he spat.

“No. I am your father,” Vader said.

Luke blinked. What? But that would mean… Luke’s rage flared anew as the implications hit him. “You killed your husband?” He shouted. “How could you?”

Vader reeled back. “What? No. I—What?”

“Don’t deny it! I saw you. You killed Ben! And now you’re saying you were married to him? Were you married to Anakin too, when you killed him?” Luke was on a roll. “How could you kill your husbands? No wonder Ben couldn’t raise me!”

“I did not—We were not—What?” Vader spluttered. Luke glared incredulously.

“You weren’t even married?”

For all that he was wearing a mask, Vader looked extremely lost. It was clear that this was not how he’d imagined the conversation going. “I—But I’m your father,” he said, and it sounded petulant even through the vocoder.

Luke’s scowl deepened. “Well I hate to break it to you, but I already had two dads, and you killed them.”

“No,” Vader said, although now he didn’t sound so sure.

“What do you mean, no? I saw you!”

Vader shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You will join me, my son,” he insisted.

Luke scoffed. “I will never join you.”

“You will join me, or perish,” Vader said. He raised his lightsaber.

Luke glanced behind him. That was a long way down. There might be something to catch himself on.

“I don’t think so,” he said, and let go, just as Vader lunged. The suited man’s hand passed through thin air as Luke fell.

The Force seized violently around him. That’s odd, Luke thought, and promptly passed out.

Obi-Wan peered down at the young man passed out on the ground in front of him. Beside him, he could tell Anakin was doing the same.

“Where did he come from?” Anakin muttered, poking the body with a stick. Obi-Wan gave him a disapproving look.

“Don’t do that,” he said, snatching the stick as Anakin went to poke the man again. His former Padawan huffed indignantly, opening his mouth to make a no doubt snappy remark, only to be interrupted by a groan by their feet.

Below them, the man who fell from the sky groaned again, his face twisted in pain. Upon a closer look, Obi-Wan realized that he was cradling his right arm to his chest. His right hand was gone.

“Master,” Anakin said, his voice suddenly cautious. “That wound…It looks like…”

Obi-Wan nodded. He’d thought the same. But how had this stranger lost a hand to a lightsaber?

“We should get him to a medic,” he said. Anakin grunted in agreement, lifting the stranger easily. Obi-Wan frowned at the pair. Seeing them together…something itched at the back of his mind.

“He looks like you,” Obi-Wan mused.

Anakin raised an eyebrow. “Is it the hand?”

Obi-Wan snorted. “Come on, I’ll comm Kix.”

Neither of the Jedi noticed a familiar hilt of a lightsaber, protruding from the underbrush a few feet away.

#soooo i wrote this a while ago based on one of willow's posts #and then forgot about it #and then found it again when i was looking through my wips #so here enjoy #luke skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #darth vader #mini fic

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sonoftatooine · 3 years

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Whumpay 2021

DAY 9: GENTLE/BRUTAL

It’s a couple of days late but I started writing it dammit so I’ll finish it ha

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala

Warnings: Implied/referenced abuse, torture, neglect, blood and injury

Summary: Anakin doesn’t become a Jedi after the Battle of Naboo, but is instead snatched up by Palpatine and raised secretly as a Sith. Years later, known to the Galaxy at large by a Sith assassin in service of the Separatists, Darth Vader makes the decision to rescue Republic Senator Padmé Amidala from execution by the CIS. Injured in the escape, he is left at the mercy of Senator Amidala to treat his wounds.

***

“Stay still.”

The weight of the small, slim hand on his chest was so gentle compared to the usual touches that he was used to enduring that Vader half thought he was hallucinating it through the pain of the blaster wound in his shoulder, but it stilled him just as surely as his master's biting grip promising violent punishment should he not comply. Eyes which he knew to be a soft brown, but which the red lenses of his mask painted a deep black, stared down at him, and the face of Senator Padmé Amidala swam before him, pale and wan and worried. Her Force presence, which had been full of equal parts determination, suspicion, and confusion in the mad dash from the cell which had meant as her coffin, had lit up with a heady mix of fright and concern when he had run his saber through the last of their pursuers only to stagger and collapse to the ground as the pain in his shoulder that he had barely felt in the heat of the fight finally caught up with him. He could feel that concern now, wearing down his tired shields, with all the force and all of the gentleness of a wave roaring up to shore in the wind only to break softly over rough sand like a gentle caress.

“Vader, can you hear me?,” Padmé asked. Her voice was tight and distressed, and he felt a sharp spike of fear from her like a shard of ice through his heart. “I need to know if you're awake. I— You're losing blood. You have to stay awake—”

“I am...” Vader gritted his teeth against the burning pain in his shoulder. “I'm awake.”

Her relief felt like a cooling balm in the Force. It was baffling and pleasant and terrifying all at once, and when he tried to untangle the mess of emotions from one another, he found that he had no idea where one began and the other started. Why should she be relieved that he was awake when him being unconscious would surely have provided the perfect excuse to escape both his company and the Separatist-held space she had found herself in? Why would she be concerned for him in the first place? And what's more, why should he find himself reaching out to the sensation, wanting more, when he knew it was the very antithesis of what he should desire as a Sith?

You know why, said the small, snide voice in his head that had come over the years to sound very like his master's. His master who had always said, between vicious bouts of Force lightning that left his skin painted with a map of thin, spiderweb scars, that his biggest weakness was his need for attachment. It was like a leech bleeding him, Sidious claimed, and that all he did to him was to stem the flow that was draining his hatred, his resolve, to make him strong. Well, if his attachments had been comparable to open wounds, he thought, he had just ripped out his stitches. Rescuing one of Tyranus' prisoners meant for execution, killing his men all because of little more than a week's worth of memories from a past life? Damaging himself fighting against his own side to save a sworn enemy of the Sith? His master would be so angry, and his punishment—

“Good. That's good.” He was brought abruptly out of his spiralling thoughts by the sound of ripping fabric, and with a wince and a bitten down groan, he shifted to see where the noise was coming from. To his astonishment, he saw that Padmé was ripping off sections of her soft white cloak with an expression of fierce determination on her beautiful face.

“Wha—?,” he rasped, then tried again. “What...are you doing?”

Padmé didn't even pause from her task. Bundling up one of the strips into a ball, she leaned down and pressed it firmly against the entrance to his wound. He hissed at the contact, the sound too quiet to be picked up by his mask's vocoder.

“You're bleeding a lot,” she said by way of explanation. Even though her worry sung as loud and clear in the Force as ever, her voice was now as full of determination as the expression on her face. It reminded him of all those years ago when she returned to Naboo—full of her plan of action, ready to carry it out and damn anything or anyone that tried to stop her. “We need to keep pressure on the wound.”

I know that, Vader wanted to say. Of course he knew that. It was hardly the first time he had been hit by a blaster bolt. Nor was it as if he had never had to treat his own injuries. In fact, as long as it was not too far beyond his abilities to fix, his master demanded it—getting injured was a result of his own weakness, and it was only fair that he was forced to deal with the consequences of his own mistakes. What he did not understand about this, however, was why she was bothering to help him. You didn't show your enemies mercy, and you certainly didn't show them care. Her concern and relief had been strange enough without adding this to the mix, and really, he was starting to feel far too dizzy and faint to try and figure out the reasons behind it on his own. But he did not say any of this to her. Instead, what he said was:—

“You're ruining your cloak.”

Not for the first time, he was glad of his vocoder, for it transformed the pathetic almost-whimper the words came out as into the deep, unwavering tones that his enemies knew him by. Yet it didn't seem to make much difference to Padmé's reaction, as he felt a stab of shock in the Force, her lips parting in a soft 'o' and her brows turning upwards in a frown, before his senses were overwhelmed with a heavy, concerned sadness.

“You're hurt,” she said quietly, slowly, as if she were trying to soothe a wounded animal. “That's far more important than keeping my cloak intact.”

Oh. He didn't— He couldn't—

“Do you need that mask to breathe?” Padmé asked all of a sudden.

“I—what?” His brain, muddled and too full of fog to register what she was asking him, stalled.

“Vader,” Padmé repeated gently. “Do you need the mask to breathe?”

“No, it's— No.” The mask was to hide his identity, Sidious had claimed when he had first gifted it to him. He didn't see much point to it, personally, other than perhaps to hide his youth and to give him a more intimidating voice—at this point, not even his old friends on Tatooine would have been likely to recognise his face—but his master was always very insistent upon it, that he never remove it in front of enemies. But why would Padmé want to know? He didn't understand—

“Can you keep this—,” she nodded towards the cloth, stained dark with his blood, that she was holding against his wound, “—pressed against your shoulder while I take your mask off?”

His mind, still too sluggish and slow for his liking, had taken in the first part of her request long before he could take in the second, and by the time he had registered what she intended to do, he had already taken the rag from her hand and was pressing it down against his wound.

“No!,” he exclaimed, somewhat belated, as a sudden sharp panic stabbed through him. “You can't! You can't—”

Padmé frowned.

“Why?” she asked.

He should lie, he knew. He should make up some reason or other, but he couldn't—

“My master,” he said. “He's forbidden me— He will be angry if he finds out—”

Padmé's frown deepened at the mention of his master. The Force was once again flooded with that overwhelming sense of sadness.

“I don't think your master will be pleased with you saving my life either,” she pointed out, not unkindly. “Vader, please. You're losing blood and I can't tell how bad it is if I can't even see you underneath all of— I need to get that mask off you.”

As much as he wanted to, Vader couldn't argue with her logic on either count. He had already made his master incandescently angry by saving Padmé from the execution the Sith had had planned for her—after that, nothing would cool his ire, and keeping his face hidden would have seemed like a poor appeasement in comparison to his crime. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he nodded.

He felt Padmé's relief in the Force for the second time that day, soft and bright as it was before. It was met with his own apprehension as she reached down, a frown of concentration upon her brow, trying to figure out how to release the helmet's mechanisms. All of a sudden, he was unsettled, not just on account of his master's orders, but by the realisation that Padmé would see his true face. The face that he had kept hidden from all except his master and Tyranus ever since he had been snatched from Naboo as a child. He felt very like that child now, trapped, helpless, caught in the horrible awareness of his own vulnerability—the same vulnerability that he had fought so hard to burn out of himself long ago. He— The mechanisms of the mask clicked and whirred, and the comforting, stifling black plastisteel was pulled away from his face and set on the ground beside him.

“Oh.” Though he could hear Padmé's voice, he could not quite make out her expression—he was still adjusting to the burst of light and colour his eyes had been assaulted with after the dull red of the mask's lenses. “Oh Force, you look pale. Are you usually that pale?”

Vader blinked. The brightness had faded to a more manageable level, and he could now see her face—the first time he had seen it in full colour since the Battle of Naboo, rather than in varying shades of red. She was as beautiful as he remembered, even drawn, white-faced, with dark, tired circles under her eyes, and her expression half one of open-mouthed shock, half one of fierce concern. He blinked again, trying to take in her words.

“I'm usually pale” he said, his words coming out as a soft croak. Years of isolation and darkness in the Works of Coruscant and the deep chambers of Sith temples had rid him of the golden tan his home planet had given him, turning his complexion a pallid white, save for the dark shadows painted beneath his eyes by just as long of fear and stress and lack of sleep. Combined with the limp tangle of curls atop his head and the yellow of his eyes, he was sure he must look quite the wretched sickly creature to her eyes. A far cry from the fearsome image his master had intended him to strike with his enemies.

“Right.” Padmé let out a breath, rubbing the back of her hand against her forehead. Then, before he had time to register what she was doing, she had brushed a few stray strands of hair out of his eyes and pressed the flat of her palm to his own brow. He jerked back in surprise—or at least he tried to. With his head already lying on the ground, it came out as nothing more than an odd little twitch. “You feel a bit cold. Really, I'm not qualified to deal with this kind of injury—especially not without bacta. We need to get you to a proper medic. Fast.”

“My ship,” Vader hissed out. “There's a med-droid and supplies on the ship.”

The ship that he had intended for them to escape in throughout their pursuit from Padmé's cell. It was not so far as to be a problem for two healthy, uninjured people to reach, but with him wounded and losing blood... Above him, Padmé seemed to have seen a hint of his thoughts upon his face, for she frowned.

“Do you think you can reach it?”

“Yes.” No. Perhaps. No, he could do it. He had done it before, pushed through far worse agonies and triumphed against the limitations of his body. He was a Sith—pain only served to fuel his power, give him focus.

Blood loss, however, a snide little voice in the back of his mind that he steadfastly ignored said amid a new wave of dizziness, is rather harder to turn into something useful.

“I'll...have to bind the wound” he said.

“Alright.” Once again, the presence of a solid plan seemed to fuel Padmé's determination as much as pain did his strength, burying her worries beneath a thick wall of resolve. She stripped off another length of fabric from her cloak, and he reached out his trembling flesh hand to take it. She shook her head.

“It will be easier if I do it.” He could still sense an undercurrent of fear beneath her determination. Fear that she would do something wrong, that she wouldn't be able to get him to a medic on time. Despite herself, it scared her in a way that he could not understand, no matter how he tried. “If you can just—”

“I can do it” Vader interrupted as she gestured for him to pull his hand still pressing the cloth to the wound away, so that she might access it. Despite his confusion at her concern, despite the knowledge that she was his enemy, that she didn't know to look upon him as anything but an enemy, he didn't think Padmé would hurt him. She had no active malice in her—not like his master, and the med-droids that followed his orders when he was dealt any serious damages that required attention beyond his own. But the instinct to recoil, to not let anyone near when he was so vulnerable was too strong. He pressed the cloth clutched in his mechno hand tighter to his shoulder, shying away from the reach of her fingers. Padmé frowned.

“Let me, please,” she murmured. “I can't help you if you don't let me.”

He didn't want to let her. He didn't want to let her—let anyone—near. Her worry felt sharp and jagged, like broken shards of transparisteel, and despite himself, he wanted to soothe it. She wouldn't hurt him. She was an enemy. She wouldn't. He sensed no cruelty from her, no desire to cause pain. She wouldn't— Slowly, reluctantly, he drew his hand back, and let her approach.

Padmé's fingers were soft and gentle as she pulled back the tattered fabric of his robe to get to the injury beneath, but he froze dead still at the touch nonetheless. Her concern spiked higher in the Force at the sight, but she didn't waste time in getting to work. The pressure from his hand against the wound was soon replaced by that of the rag tied tight about his shoulder. He couldn't quite hold back a quiet sound of discomfort as she accidentally jostled him tying the knot, and her Force presence gave an odd little flinch in apology.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Sorry.”

Vader blinked, confused.

“It's fine,” he said. Really, what was she apologising for? He couldn't remember having been treated so carefully since the days when his mother had treated his scrapes and bruises after he crashed his podracer, or after the worse of Watto's beatings. But no, he didn't want to think about his mother. He had shown enough weakness in front of his enemy for one day. “We should get to the ship.”

He tried to sit up—they had to get to the ship fast, before any reinforcements came looking for them—but his body seemed to have other ideas. His shoulder screamed in protest, but he barely noticed it through the fierce wave of dizziness that had suddenly overcome him. It was worse than the previous ones—nauseating, causing his vision to swim so violently that the world turned into a blur before him. When his vision finally sharpened again, he was lying on his back, and Padmé was bending over him, white-faced, one hand gripping his prosthetic tight where it lay against his stomach.

“I don't think we're going to get you to the ship,” she said shakily. “Perhaps I could bring it here. If I can get to it—I'll be faster—then I can fly it here and the med-droid can see you—”

“Why?”

It was the question Vader had been burning to ask ever since the injury had overwhelmed him. Why was she doing this? Why did she not take the opportunity to save herself when he would only slow her down? When he was her enemy, as far as she new, a Separatist assassin, a Sith, a danger to everything she had ever worked for and believed him? Padmé, however, didn't seem to understand him, for she frowned down at him in confusion.

“Why?” she echoed.

“Why...are you helping me?,” he insisted. “You...you could escape back to the Republic much easier if you left me.”

Padmé drew back sharply, though she did not let go of his hand.

“I'm not about to leave you here bleeding out on the ground when I can do something about it!” she exclaimed, indignant.

Vader frowned.

“I'm your enemy.”

“My enemy who just saved me from being killed,” Padmé retorted. “You got shot protecting me. That's more than just helping someone treat their wounds. You could have been killed! If anything, it should be me asking you why you chose to help me.”

Vader was silent. For what could he say? What could he tell her? That no matter how much his master tried, he had not been able to fully crush the affection that she had sparked in him when she had stepped into Watto's shop all those years ago and showed kindness to a little slave boy who had thought she was an angel? That despite her opposition to all his master and the Sith intended to achieve, the thought of her death rended his heart in two? He could barely even believe he was that boy most days; how could she possibly believe it? How could he reveal to her the monster that boy that had once risked his life to help her had become? Even if he had wanted to, he would not have been able to find the words. So he said nothing, focusing on the pain and the heady faintness so that he wouldn't have to think of her disappointment reverberating in the Force.

“Alright,” she sighed. “If you don't want to tell me, that's your choice. But whatever your reasons, you still saved my life. I'm not about to repay you by abandoning you. We're both getting away from here. Together.”

She spoke so fiercely that despite the pain from his wound, despite the blackness that threatened to encroach upon his vision every time he shifted, he could almost believe her. It was foolish, the kind of naïve idea he had once believed with all his heart, and a habit that his master had taken great pains to break him of. And yet— And yet, he wanted... He wanted— Padmé squeezed his hand tight. Though small, her grip was strong and steady, and her eyes shone with a fierce light.

“You saved me. Now I'm going to save you. No matter what.”

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padme-amitabha · 3 years

Text

Anidala Week 2021

Day 4: Modern AU OR Favorite Trope

I have always been fascinated by the concept of twin flames so here’s my AU with twin flames Anidala. A twin flame is a kind of soulmate so this counts as a soulmate AU.

Half of My Soul

“I feel like a part of my soul has loved you since the beginning of everything.

Maybe we’re from the same star.”

― Emery Allen

I loved you before I met you. I think I have been in love with you for a very long time – since the beginning of time, really. I didn’t know what you looked like and I often wondered about you as a child. I would look around the other girls my age and you just weren’t there. My other half – the missing piece to my soul.

It hurt – just a bit – that you weren’t around when I needed you as a lonely child but I was determined that you would show up some day so kept on looking. And then I finally saw you. Not in school, not in the junkyard I often played in, and not in my neighborhood. I saw you much more closely – in a dream.

In my dream, I worked at a repairs shop but I was a slave. And you were an angel in the form of a girl. You were older than me and it made sense to me then why I had never found you before.

“Padmé Naberrie,” you say and the name resonates within me. Of course, that was your name. What else could it be?

Your name is etched into my very bones and imprinted on my very soul. Everything about you – from your big, brown eyes to the little beauty spot on your cheeks still burned in my memory.

In my dream, you were a queen from an elysian world and it seemed like you descended from the heavens when I met you. I was a mere slave, smitten by your ethereal beauty.

You have haunted my dreams since I was a child. I wondered if I did the same in yours.

Amidst the crowd of people, my eyes sought out yours. I knew you were the one I've been looking for my entire life. The moment our eyes locked, I felt complete. Whole. Something I have never felt my entire life.

My life couldn't be any better - I am a Harvard graduate in mechanical engineering, I have a loving mother, a friendly stepfather, a supportive best friend and yet life has always been far from satisfying. Was it because I was only half of a soul waiting to be reunited with its missing half?

Your beautiful brown eyes sparkled with a hint of recognition. Your face was as familiar as my own.

I longed to tell you that you looked mesmerizing in that white dress. The rest of the world - this noisy bar - faded away once I had laid my eyes on you. It finally like coming home.

"You're the angel, aren't you?" I whisper.

You laugh and the sound is just as melodic as I remembered it.

"I have never heard that from a stranger," you say with a hint of amusement.

“But we aren’t strangers,” I say.

"No. We've met before," you say with a mischievous smirk. You knew exactly what

“Once upon a dream,” we say in unison.

Looking on you was a strange feeling – I saw a part of myself in you. It was as if the Universe had shifted around me and I had finally discovered my place in it.

"I remember you. Though your hair was much longer when I saw you," you remark.

The last time I saw you (alive), you were miserable. Tears had stained your cheeks and you were been desperately clawing at your throat. And after that, I only had the opportunity to see you in holograms. When you looked like you were drowning in a sea of flowers as six guaalars took you back home. The others were faint images of the times you were happy.

"Last I remember, I was a sad, sad man. You know why?" I asked as I played with a loose strand of your hair.

I know why, Anakin. But I let you finish anyway.

My heart beats just a little faster as I gaze into your solemn blue eyes. There’s a hint of sadness in them. I have seen that look before.

"Because I had lost you."

I gazed at the man I had loved in countless lifetimes. He looked like a lost child. There was a vulnerability in him that I had not seen in most men. He was beautiful as tragedies often were.

How could one feel so complete and lost at the same time?

I remember the last time I had closed my eyes because I was exhausted and it was hurting to stay alive. My time was over, I knew it but yours wasn’t. You were going through so much more pain but you had to live on and fulfil your destiny.

I always had faith in you, Anakin. And I told that to your Master and I whispered it in to our son. He had your eyes.

A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth for he knew what I was thinking. We had shared a mental connection in our other lives as well.

I laced my hand in yours and tiptoed to reach your ears.

"But not this time,” I say.

Your smile is as radiant as the sun itself. When you smile, you remind me of that little boy I dreamt of.

“Not this time,” you echo.

"What do you say we leave this place and go somewhere more private?"

"I would like that,” I say with a smile.

You tremble slightly and I can tell you’re tipsy. I look at the girls who had accompanied me. I gesture them to enjoy the rest of the night by themselves.

“I am not letting you drive home,” I say. "Tell me the story of the Queen and the slave boy again."

"You already know."

"I do. But I would like to hear from you all the same."

We found each other again for a reason. I’ve always known we would find ourselves in each other’s arms in the end. Perhaps, the Universe wants to make up for all the suffering it had put us through in the past. Perhaps, this was the happy ending we have always wanted. It was a faint hope but I saw it burning in his eyes as well and we held onto that hope. For without hope, we had nothing.

II.

“Anakin.”

Odd how a simple word – just some wind, really – was enough to rattle him. Hearing it from surviving Jedi would fuel his rage and brought forth denial if it came from his Master but, when she said it, it haunted him. Her voice could calm him from even the deepest rage. She still had that effect on him, even when she was dead and cold in the grave.

He stared straight ahead, determined not to turn around and meet her eyes. This ghost from Vader’s past from appear at different times in his life – briefly, unexpectedly. Even in death, she had never left him.

Vader had many ghosts and he never hesitated to crush them down for ghosts had no power of their own. They were petty annoyances and reminders of a life he had long left behind. But he happened to love this particular ghost and so he let come and go as she pleased, not quite certain if she was a figment of his imagination.

"Anakin."

She would whisper so softly he would wonder if she was there at it. Perhaps it was just the wind hissing.

He didn't respond. During her visits, she spoke very little. On the rare occasions he had dared to look on her face, it was the same pained expression on Mustafar. Her last moments…

He kept his silence, letting his loud rhythmics breaths drown out her weeping. He decided to take a look. After all, her grief meant his grief, and that would make him a better Sith, as his Master wanted.

He expected to see Padmé with braids, her belly swollen – the way she was on Mustafar or a shriveled, decayed corpse as she was in the nightmares that plagued him every night.

But she was just a child – the way he had first met her. She wasn’t looking at him kindly and Vader knew he deserved that look. He was her murderer, after all.

"You weren't like this," she said in her cold, regal voice. It had always fascinated him how a child could appear so authoritative.

He looked away but there was no escape from her. The Padmé that stood before him was in her yellow gown – the way she had been on the meadow in Naboo.

“I knew our love would destroy us,” she said in a kinder voice than the younger Padmé with a hint of sadness. Vader now addressed them both.

"This is what I have become without you,” he rumbled.

"You aren't the same," said child Padmé petulantly.

"Why? Why did you change?" asked the elder. She had the same look she had when she would be frustrated with her work. His Padmé...the one who was his wife would have been gentler. But he remembered she had a temper in her younger years.

"How can I be the same without you? We were two halves of the same soul and without you, I'll never be whole again...I won't ever be Anakin again."

"Without Padme, there is no Anakin. You were me, Padmé. You and I we were the same person. You were trapped by the Republic just as much as I was trapped by the Jedi. We led the same lives. With you died one half of my soul. And now I'm just what's left of me."

The Padmés faded away. Only this time his wife was in their place and she had flowers in her hair.

"Have faith my love," she said as she drew closer. The words sounded hauntingly familiar but he couldn’t remember why. It had been so long…

She put a ghostly hand on his face though he couldn't feel it. He tried to clutch her hand with his gloved ones only to let it pass through the phantom. "We'll be whole, once again. Just you wait," she said as she disappeared into nothingness.

Vader sighed. His other half had proved to be the best thing in his life and also his greatest misery.

Vader never hallucinated his dead wife again but when she did return, she did in the form of a fierce young princess and a young farm boy from a distant planet.

III.

In a different timeline, Anakin Skywalker lay entangled with his wife. She was fast asleep in his arms but sleep didn’t come as easily to him. Anakin always had a hard time falling asleep. The war had made it very difficult to be vulnerable. He knew he was safe at Coruscant and yet he just couldn't let all his worries fade away.

He gently disentangled himself from his wife and watched her sleep peacefully, her curls spread all over the pillow, her expression as soft as an angel's. He paced back and forth their apartment and settled in front of the large windows in Padmé’s apartment. The city never slept but the traffic was less in Coruscant's skylanes at this hour so it was easy to see the stars clearly.

He remembered watching them from his own small hut back on Tatooine. The worlds that had seemed so foreign back then seemed so familiar now. It was the place he grew up in he had trouble remembering.

"Anakin, what are you doing?" asked Padme softly, her eyes still sleepy.

"I’m sorry. Did I wake you?"

"No, of course not," she said as she rubbed her eyes. "You should get some sleep."

"I just can't. It's hard to relax," he explained.

She nodded with understanding as she took a seat beside him. She placed a hand on his shoulders and rubbed it gently. "Alright, then. I'll sit with you."

"You don't have to."

"I want to. It's not that I get to be with my husband every day."

They sat together and intertwined their hands. "Do you...you ever wonder if...we had never met?" Padme asked.

"No. I don't. Because we were always meant to meet. Don't you believe that, angel?"

"I-I do but that's wishful thinking on my part."

"No. it isn't. My connection to the force is so strong I just know we were meant to be together. It has always been our destiny."

"Mhmm," she hummed, "Wonder what destiny has in store for us."

“Whatever comes our way, we’ll face it together,” assured Anakin as he kissed her cheek. The couple spent the rest of the night sitting in comfortable silence and basking in each other’s presence.

#anidalaweek2021 #anidalaweek #anidala #anakin x padme #vaderdala #vader x padme #fic #soulmate au #twin flames

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adelcrait-old-account · 3 years

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Some possible scenes/ideas that could happen now that it’s officially confirmed that Hayden is coming back as Darth Vader (and I just remembered that he’s only played suited!Vader for one/two scenes so excuse me while I go cry):

The ghost of Anakin coming to haunt Obi-Wan on Tatooine: a personal favourite of mine. As far as I know, Obi-Wan found out that Vader survived a few months/years after Mustafar, so he never met Vader in the suit until A New Hope. Meaning that Ghost!Anakin could be either a flashback version of his younger self, as in, that’s how he would be if he [Anakin] lived, or most likely a suited Darth Vader hallucination. Maybe a distorted voice switching from Vader’s to Anakin’s like it did in Rebels during his fight with Ahsoka, and “blaming” Obi-Wan for everything that happened? Either way they’re going to talk to each other or at least acknowledge each other’s presence, either as an Anakin hallucination or a Force manifested Darth Vader presence. But seeing them together in one shot, in live action after so so many years, would be enough to send me to uncontrollable tears. Rating: 10000/10 I would definitely not be okay after watching this and it would be the only thing I would talk about for the rest of the decade. Very Angst/Hurt and little Comfort because we all know how their story ends.

What’s Darth Vader been up to? It’s been ten years since the Empire became a thing, and while we know what he’s been doing through comics and other media— we don’t really know what he’s been doing when it comes to... well, Obi-Wan. The show is about him, after all. We know Vader’s obsessed with finding Obi-Wan because hello, it’s Anakin we’re talking about, but we don’t really know what he does in his free time. With this being said, if we get any shot of Vader’s daily routine I won’t be able to handle it. Show him walking around an imperial ship, staring into the stars, being moody and add a sparkle of ✨drama✨ because turns out that I missed seeing this sad dramatic man on screen more than I realised. Rating: 66/10 definitely would cry again.

Maybe yes, maybe no, but 10 year old Luke Skywalker. It hasn’t been confirmed but the series is going to be set ten years after Revenge of The Sith; so Luke and Leia would be about ten. I don’t think I should elaborate on this one, but Obi-Wan was never too far behind Luke, so maybe a scene or two with a smiley blond kid on Tatooine could appear. Obi-Wan quietly watching him play in the sand, always from a distance, and making sure that Luke was safe. Rating: 100/10 of things I could definitely not handle.

Any scene that shows Vader’s scarred face and head would be top tier. Bonus points for yellow Sith eyes. They wouldn’t bring Hayden back and not show that he’s under the Vader mask, so this is most likely going to happen. This is most likely going to happen. Oh my god this is actually happening... Rating: 100 AHHHs/10.

These are just some ideas out the top of my head but regardless of what they do I am happy and glad they brought Hayden back. I loved him as Anakin and I hope his experience now will be better than it was fifteen years ago. He’s the perfect age to play Vader, as he always wanted to, and I just know that I’m so starved for prequels content that some character could just say “Lord Vader is in the planet” and I would be like “hell yeah he actually is!!!”... I’m very excited and so used to talking about Hayden returning in conditionals and “somedays” that now that it’s actually happening I don’t know what to do with myself.

#its very late at night and im typing this sleep deprived but ITS ACTUALLY HAPPENING #AHHH #ive more ideas and thoughts about this!!!!!!#THE BOYS ARE BACK YALL!!!!#anakin skywalker #darth vader #hayden christensen #my posts #kenobi

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atamascolily · 4 years

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Lily liveblogs: “The Rise of Skywalker,” part three

I end as I began: hopelessly confused about what the point of all this was. (Except for money. I got that part loud and clear.)

Rey just leaves Finn behind, because... friendship, right? Jannah does not have a good opinion of Rey right now, and tbh, I can't blame her. I realize Rey is under a lot of stress, but... her behavior since arriving on this "moon of Endor" has been wayyyy out of line.

Also, Poe pulls up with the Falcon right then, so I guess they got it repaired in record time, lol. Convenient.

Meanwhile, at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone is sad because Leia is dead. I wonder who's in charge now???

"Goodbye, dear princess." Oh, so she's a General right up until she dies, and then it's back to princess again? I wish the ST would make up its mind about her title.

Oh, I guess Poe is, since he showed up and actually has a rank??

Chewie LOSES IT at the news Leia is dead--I feel you, bud. I feel you so hard.

Kylo tries to look dignified as he broods on the wreckage, but he looks awful. Like a drowned rat, with a convenient lightsaber-shaped hole in his tunic where Rey stabbed him. (She didn't even take the saber with her or drop it into the sea or anything! WHHYYYYYYYYYYY - gimme a reason, any reason, even a stupid one.)

And then Han shows up. Is he a ghost? Is this a memory? Is Kylo hallucinating? WHAT WHAT WHAT IS HAPPENING??? (This would have so much more resonance if we had SEEN how Han's death impacted Kylo earlier on instead of that one confused flashback at the beginning of the film....)

grizzled Harrison Ford looks great, why the hell did they kill him off in the first movie whyyyyyy

Okay, so they answer the question and this is a memory, which is fine, I usually love this trope, BUT it would be hella more effective if we'd seen Kylo arguing/interacting with memories of Han earlier instead of this happening for the first time NOW...

"Come home." Uhhhhhh, I honestly don't know what exactly Leia did, but she certainly kinda abetted killing him. What home does Kylo have now, anyway??

So Han says that what Leia fought for is still around, which is true, but Kylo is ostensibly the supreme leader here, so he doesn't just have to go AWOL, he can drag the FO leadership with him, and what passes for their government, he could SURRENDER and end the war right now. Does he? Of course not. He fucks off all by his lonesome after Rey and Palpatine because... that's all he knows how to do, apparently.

There's a callback that is supposed to resonate but doesn't work for me, because I just can't make myself feel for Kylo at all. Yes, redemption is hard. Yes, you have to work for it. Stop whining and just do it!!

We're supposed to think that Kylo will stab Han again (I guess?) but he turns and throws his saber into the sea. So that's why Rey didn't take it - so he could make a dramatic fucking gesture with it.

Palps is upset that Leia messed up his plans, but whatever. He orders Pryde, who apparently is now in charge of the FO in Kylo's absence, to come to Exegol. Apparently Pryde is a diehard Imperial (and possibly Sith cultist/Palpatine's secret puppet/agent??) I guess. It's never explained, he's just bad. And his name isn't subtle, either.

Palps just wants to burn everything to the ground for... evulz, I guess? I got nothing.

Pryde's star destroyer pops out a giant gun and blows up a planet.... apparently, Kijimi. Why, I don't know. Because they were just there?? Anyway, BOOM. Kijimi literally explodes.

What the actual fuck. How is that EVEN POSSIBLE?? What was the point of building two Death Stars if a Star Destroyer can do that????

Oh, apparently, that was the new model from the "Sith fleet" with a better upgrade. sounds fake, but okay. Poe is not thrilled by this news. The same Resistance member brings him the bad news, so I guess that's her official job??

Poe is genre-savvy enough to know that every ship in the Sith fleet has planet destroying weapons and they're doomed unless they stop the Final Order... which isn't new? I thought there was a countdown to an attack in 16 hours or something. What did they think they were attacking with? I don't even know, this movie is that incoherent.

Rose pops in with a message broadcasting on every channel about the "Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die"... but given that it's in a language that isn't Basic, there's this one random dude with a beard who translates for the audience... and even though I assume it's meant to be some more commonly spoken language, given that the Sith have their own language in this movie, It makes it seem like this Random Resistance dude understands Sith and... I have questions.

Poe goes to sit by Leia's shrouded corpse because apparently they haven't buried her yet??? I wish Poe and Leia's relationship was more prominent in the movies, because I love the dynamic they're supposed to have, but never actually manifests in any of these movies.

Lando shows up to console him!

"How did you defeat an Empire with almost nothing?" "We had each other."

DAMN RIGHT YOU DID AND THE NEW GENERATION COULD TOO, IF THE WRITERS WEREN'T INTENT ON SEPARATING THEM CONSTANTLY AND MAKING EVERYBODY SUFFER....

Poe decides to make Finn his co-general. I have a lot of feels about this.

Turns out D-O knows all about Exegol because he used to belong to Ochi... that's actually earned, I'll allow it. Hilarious Rey never asked the droid about it (or any other details of his past, given that she was pretty sure Ochi killed her parents).

Ahch-To! Rey is wearing her hood and I don't know why. She's throwing driftwood into the flaming wreckage of Kylo's TIE and sobbing and... I don't know what's going on here. There are SO MANY REASONS she could be crying, I don't even know.

And she tosses her lightsaber into the sea... just like Kylo did. Parallels. I get it. And just like Luke did to her... She's giving it up because she doesn't feel worthy of being a Jedi because of her heritage, I guess?? (I'm guessing because this movie doesn't explain shit.)

Speaking of which, there's Luke's ghost, right on schedule! I love his snark but it's SO OUT OF LINE given his behavior in the last movie... and the fact that Yoda told him he had to let go of the past and let the books burn. I mean... the fuck???

Rey has this dark throne vision that's driving her, but ironically that's the one vision we don't see in this whole mess.. we have all these OTHER visions instead, I can' teven keep them all straight.

Oh, she's decided to model Luke and fuck off to Ahch-To forever because she feels she made a mistake. that's absolutely the WRONG LESSON from Luke's life, Rey!!

(also, what happened to saving the world? The sith wayfinder? She just conveniently forgot Palpatine was gonna slaughter everybody because she's having heritage angst?????)

Leia not telling Rey about Rey's heritage makes perfect sense when you realize just how much Leia's life was fucked over by the knowledge that Darth Vader was her father--once in ROTJ and again when she got kicked out of the Senate and ostracized in Bloodline.

Luke has Leia's lightsaber conveniently hidden in his hut... so now Kylo/Ben can have a weapon of his own in the upcoming fight, gag. (Really, Rey should use it to make a double-bladed saber, but she won't, sigh.)

The flashback looks like a video game to me. The CGI is not terrible, but doesn't look nearly as real as the rest of the film to me.

Also, I'm forever mad that Leia gave up her saber thinking it would save her son, that is SO AWFUL, especially since IT DIDN'T WORK, HE STILL TURNED OUT EVIL ANYWAY AND RUINED YOUR LIFE.

"A thousand generations live in you now" would have so much more resonance if Rey was an avatar of the Force or a reincarnation of Anakin instead of the metaphorical. (Yes, I know it will be realized literally later on.)

[Just realized that Kylo's obsession with Rey would make TOTAL SENSE if she were an reincarnation of Anakin given how much he idolizes his grandfather!!!]

Whyyyyy doesn't Luke talk here about the revelation that Palpatine is alive? That he and his father failed to kill the Emperor? That Rey has to finish LUKE'S journey, too??? But no, it's all about Leia here.

Rey somehow didn't notice the wayfinder in Kylo's TIE until Luke says "you have everything you need"... I guess? I don't know how she missed it before!!!

And the X-wing rises out of the water like the deus ex machina that it is... somehow still spaceworthy after six years in the ocean. Okay, then.

Apparently, Force ghost Luke can still manipulate physical objects through the Force??? Okay, I can kinda buy that, but... still....

I love how Artoo doesn't even wait for Threepio to get started with the bullshit, he just imports the uploaded memories right away without asking. Normally, I'd be mad about consent, but a) they're married, and b) he's restoring Threepio's personality, so I'm okay with it.

I love how warped and creepy the space is around Exegol.

Also, D-O looks just like a desk lamp.

Oh, so the Resistance follows Rey through Luke's X-wing computer via Artoo. Convoluted, but it works, I guess.

Okay, so time for some technobabble, but there's a navigation tower (the new shield generator) they have to hit for REASONS with a "ground team" (aka strike team). Sigh.

Love the dismissal of the "Holdo maneuver"--which is essentially kamikaze-style suicide. Not a great battle strategy if you want to survive the fight.

Wait, wasn't Poe angsting earlier about how nobody answered their call from Crait back in the last movie? What makes him think this is going to be any different?????

Okay, so all the FO folks on are on Exegol now?? Who is piloting and crewing those Star Destroyers?? Are they First Order or Final Order people? What happened to the First Order? What is the relationship between the First Order and the Final Order? Are they the same thing with two different names?? (But no, there are two fleets, the Sith destroyers are different.) What happened to the First Order then? Does anyone notice and/or care the alleged "Supreme Leader" of the First Order is missing in action??? I'M SO CONFUSED.

Okay, it makes sense that Poe is in an X-wing given he's a hotshot pilot, but he's also a general, and... I'm so confused about the tactical aspect of that, but fine, whatever. Also, Artoo is in the X-wing with him instead of BB-8, who I thought was Poe's droid (to the point of reaming Rey over injuring him earlier in the film!!!) WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE???

we're baaaaacck in the creepy sith ruins just like the beginning of the film, but so much has happened that my brain has fried and so the parallels are not as compelling as they could be.

WHEN DID THEY PICK UP JANNAH?? Has she been there the entire time and we just didn't see her until now, or did they stop back at Endor's moon along the way??? I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Finn has " a feeling" where the ship is... it's the Force, why are you teasing us like that. LET HIM BE A JEDI.

Okay, I actually really like the fact that all the FO deserter stormtroopers from Endor are using their mounts so their enemies can use the tech against them. That's poetic justice right there. And also, epic cool. Good thing all the ships are still in the atmosphere... (nobody's wearing masks like Finn did for the Kijimi pickup)

I don't know how there is lightning in a fucking underground pyramid, but 10/10 for aesthetic, I love it.

"Grandma, it's me, Anastasia"--oh, wait, never mind.

The reveal that Rey is in a giant arena is hella creepy, even though it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Where do all these people come from? What do they do? Where do they live? What do they EAT?? Are they born Sith? Brainwashed Sith?? Cultists? Clones??? I NEED ANSWERS HERE.

Palpatine dangling in his creepy metal arm-thing is a lot like GLADoS from Portal.

So... Palpatine can possess the person who kills him in anger??? Explains a LOT about how he treated Luke, actually. And why it was so important that Anakin finish him - one, because Anakin's body was failing, and two, because he did it for love.

Love the aesthetic of the flickering lights for added creepiness and nothing is quite real. Even if it makes no sense. My id knows what it wants, okay??

Jannah and Finn teaming up for the battle is great, BB-8 actually gets to do something for once, and I love Jannah's crossbow.

Oh, now Palps is going to monologue about Rey's parents, while telling us no interesting details whatsoever. Sigh.

HOW THE FUCK DID KYLO GET TO EXEGOL AGAIN????????????????? she left him stranded in the middle of a frikkin' OCEAN... and he just knows how to get back to Exegol without the macguffin,.... how....?

(yes, I know he's supposed to be "Ben Solo" again, but so far there has been zero explanation in the film itself, so I'm just gonna keep calling him Kylo.)

Okay, there's a TIE fighter next to the X-wing, but... where did he GET IT?????????

That "ow" is priceless. I watched that sequence twice.

(clearly Kylo has not been exploring ruins much recently.)

Finn explaining to Rose that he's going to sacrifice himself for the cause, exactly like she wouldn't let him do in the last film... and Rose goes with it. Okay, then.

Now Kylo has to fight his own boy band... who were secretly following the Emperor's orders the entire time (?) THE ENTIRE FIRST ORDER WAS LITERALLY A FRONT TO KEEP KYLO REN DISTRACTED AND KYLO TOTALLY BOUGHT IT. I... have questions, but I actually admire the sheer audacity of this.

Kylo fighting said knights would be way more emotionally engaging if we a) knew anything about them, b) had seen any interactions between Kylo and the knights earlier, and c) gave a shit, but none of those happened, so we don't.

Kylo and Rey have some sort of Force bond communication thing that is super vaguely filmed so it's hard to understand wtf is actually happening. Rey tosss her saber back and... Ben pulls it out behind his back.

what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

I won't say that wasn't forshadowed, because it kinda-sorta was. I will just say that this movie has NEVER EXPLAINED HOW THEY CAN DO THAT or talked about it at ALL, just treats it like a fact, and I... have questions about how reality can be bent that way even if you are a Force dyad or whatnot.

So Kylo's fight with the knights parallels Rey's fight with a bunch of Imperial guards and it's so hard to care. Th timer says there's still a half an hour left, how is that possible???

So... it's okay to stab people as long as you do it with the properly colored lightsaber, I guess???

Kylo shows up, he and Rey exchange Meangingful Looks, they raise their sabers, Palps zaps them and slurps up "the lifeforce of your bond" and uses it to grow younger, whatever the hell that means ughhhhhhhh please let this be over soon.

Did he know they were a dyad before? Is THIS his real plan? I'm so confused and I have no idea wtf is going on.

RIP Snap. I guess I should care more about you, but I don't think you're mentioned in any of the other movies, so... *shrugs*

Poe has a meltdown but.... Lando shows up AGAIN to give him a pep talk, and also a fleet. Like seriously, Lando gets results, if he'd been running the Resistance, the war would be OVER by now.

Is the "Nice flying, Lando!" Older!Wedge?? I think so. I hope so, anyway.

Zorii shows up too, to fight and also insult Poe over the comm... I guess she's upset about Kijimi being destroyed? (Or maybe not given how she was so eager to get off it???)

Palps tosses Kylo into a pit, which... given that Palps survived, maybe not the best plan if you wanted to actually kill him.

Then he shoots force lightning through the hole in the arena into the sky and... zaps all the new fighters.

Well.

Okay then.

Rey wakes up and... reaches out to the spirits of past Jedi for help. (Apparently, Palpatine doesn't care about her killing him now, because he's young and healthy again, so it's okay to kill her? I guess he can always try again with another grandkid, lol.)

Also, it's funny how Rey is a Palpatine and blood is sooooo important and scary and destiny until someone's trying to diss her and then she's just "a scavenger girl". And by funny, I mean terrible. Sigh.

"I am all the Sith." I don't think the Sith, by the nature of their existence, can embody their predecessors the way that the Jedi can. I mean, to be a Sith is to be alone, and there is that whole Rule of Two business if that's still canon now. I mean, unless the Sith literally eat their masters and thus become them? But it seems a little late for THAT detail.

But it's okay because Rey's embodying all the Jedi this time (and has TWO sabers, lol) and she turns Palpatine's Force lightning back on himself and he turns into a crisp. You'd think the Sith Lords would have worked out a defense against that, since that's how Mace Windu scarred him in the first place, but okay then.

The entire arena crumbles. All the faceless cultists are crushed by falling rock. Pryde goeth before the fall. Lando rescues Finn and Jannah before Poe can. All the star destroyers are stranded because the command ship is gone and start blowing up.

Anyway, Rey collapses in the ruins. Finn senses her fall. but Kylo climbs out of the pit and cradles her in his arms. (ewww ewww ewwwwwww NOOOOOOO) and cradles her to his chest [gross gross grossssssss she's dead and can't consent and I can't decide if that makes it grosser or not, she's never let him do this while she was ALIVE fuckkkkkk]. He finally lets go and then places his hand on her stomach, and ughhhhhh I have so many issues with this I don't care if he's reformed, he's been stalking for three films, this is NOT OKAY and does the Force healing trick, and...

literally he could have just put a hand on her forehead or shoulder, which I would still hate, but would be less creepy than this.

Rey wakes up, puts her hands on his, sits up, startled and... doesn't say anything, doesn't even flinch, and smiles. "Ben."

and she kisses him. I knew this was coming. I still hate it.

he smiles, falls over, and dies. Like, literally, it's like Rey's kiss murdered him. I'm a terrible person, I know, but I really can't mourn him.

Kylo's body vanishes (Leia's stayed intact, damn it!) proving I guess that he was good after all?? I thought only special people learned the vanishing trick??? Leia's body vanishes right at the same time, and... I don't get it, I really don't.

Maz apparently skipped the final battle to watch over Leia's corpse and I.... definitely don't get it.

was Leia possessing her son this whole time? What. Just. Happened??????

Rey flies away in Luke's X-wing under her own power, and... "Red Five is in the air again," says Finn. People are rising up all over the galaxy, though against what, I'm not clear, and the skies are suddenly clear, implying that the Emperor was warping the weather with his darkness.

We see Star Destroyers blowing up behind Cloud City and on the FOREST moon of Endor with the Ewoks and I just... never knew they were there??? Were they connected to the rest of the Fleet somehow (like the Katana fleet in Legends??) Where did this come from?? Wicket and his son are clearly satisfied, though why they think anything's going to change is beyond me. And was the First Order oppressing them? Why didn't we see any of their fleet when our protagonists were IN THAT SYSTEM AND SO WAS THE OSTENSIBLE SUPREME LEADER???

Another Star Destroyer crashes on Jakku, so literally NOTHING HAS CHANGED THERE, LOL.

Back at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone cries and hugs, Poe and Zorii have a moment that goes nowhere, Poe's arm is somehow in a sling (???) There's a very brief lesbian kiss, but it gets even less screen time than Rose Tico, so again, don't think that counts as representation, but nice try.

Maz gives Chewie Han's medal from Yavin and... where the hell did she get it??? Leia's corpse??? Creepy!!

Jannah comes up to Lando and asks him where he's from, and when Lando asks the same question, she say she doesn't know. "Let's find out." Wow, that's way more interesting than most of this movie!

Rey hugs Finn and Poe and I... just... it's the tearful hug of "wow, we've all been through a lot of trauma since we last saw each other and also I was a jerk and threw you across the sea with the Force to get you out of my way and I abandoned you without saying goodbye to isolate myself on an island in the middle of nowhere until my ghost mentor reminded me I could save the day".

ButWeDon'tHavetimetounpackThatNow.jpg

Rey takes the Falcon to the Lars' moisture farm on Tatooine with BB-8. No one is in sight. This is an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, not a shrine to the Legend of Luke Skywalker. Rey slides down the sides on a piece of metal and into the courtyard. She wraps up Luke and Leia's sabers and... we cut to her back up on the ridge near the droid garage, using the Force to bury them in the sand.

Then she pulls out her own saber and it's yellow-bladed and looks like a double quarterstaff (although I only saw the top blade ignite). What she should have had this entire movie.

There's a random woman with an eopie there, who... came over to investigate? there is literally NO ONE ELSE FOR MILES. HOW????

The woman asks who she is, and we have callbacks to that earlier conversation on Pasaana. Rey hesitates, sees Luke and Leia's ghost on the horizon, smiling their approval and says "Rey Skywalker". The movie ends with her standing watching the double sunset... alone except for BB-8.

Wow, she's literally come full circle from being alone in the desert with a droid to being alone in a different desert with the same droid. What the fuck.

Cue triumphant music and credits.

Oh, and I just realized we never found out what was so important for Finn to tell Rey about... so that went nowhere. I assume it's "he can use the Force" but apparently that wasn't important enough to ACTUALLY INCLUDE, sigh.

Did Rey fuck off to Tatooine to be a hermit? Is she going back to her friends? Is she going to train the next generation of Jedi? How will she keep the cycle from repeating? Is it broken? Is Palpatine really dead this time??? How does she feel about Kylo/Ben?? Is HIS ghost still around stalking her, too? Why did she take the Falcon? Doesn't it belong to Chewie now? Why didn't the rest of the gang come with her???? I'm so confused.

This was even worse than I had anticipated, and I came into this with super-low expectations. This wasn’t bad in a “bad B-movie kind of way,” this was bad in the “nothing makes sense, it’s all jumbled blur, I am numb and cannot begin to care” kind of spectacle. I cannot imagine watching this in a theater. No wonder the critics savaged this.

#star wars #lily liveblogs #WHY DISNEY WHY

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cassatine · 4 years

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TROS rambles under cut. Spoilers ahead.

There’s a lot I didn’t particularly like in TROS, but I expected that, so I’m mostly disappointed by the execution. It feels extremely messy, stuffed full of things supposed to please the audience but without that much thought given to the overall effect or the underlying message.

It’s small things like a cute new droid whose function in the narrative is to deliver one hint for the high-stakes treasure hunt, and also be cute and sell merch. At least the droid has a function; I’m still wondering why the giant slug on the Falcon at the beginning of the movie. Isn’t the cast big enough. Aren’t there enough new characters as is. Did we need the slug. I’m aware it sounds like nitpicking, it’s just that I feel it’s representative of the film making unnecessary detours for cool factor while moving at breakneck speed, which makes the whole story suffer.

But there’s other, bigger things. Leia’s training, her having a saber, even if she put it down – it was such a big deal that Luke was the Last Jedi, the only one who could train Rey, and although we’ve seen Leia use the Force, there was absolutely nothing in the previous two movies to let us think she’d trained under Luke. I feel the main reason Leia has a saber is simply the need to replace the one yeeted by Ben so that he’d have a weapon in the final fight, and having another family saber handed to Rey was yet another way to confirm Rey as the chosen heir of the Jedi and the Skywalkers, something TROS really tried to hammer in imo; Leia’s saber and training, the pep talk with Force Ghost Luke (who doesn’t have anything to say to his nephew), everything about how the Jedi live in her in the final fight, plus the voices of Anakin, Obi-Wan, etc (who, like Luke, don’t have anything to say to Kylo/Ben), and the Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia appearing to her at the end. They didn’t do that when their nephew and son died. I don’t really mind that Rey takes the Skywalker name, because I’m not big on the blood lineage fixation to start with, and the film doesn’t make her reasons explicit so I can find a way to make it work for me, but it’s the culmination of the pattern framing her as the one heir.

Even her ending up in Luke’s childhood home fits within it, but I have other issues with her ending up alone on Tatooine; mainly what the fuck am I supposed to do with it? Like if there was something about how she was, idk, starting a Jedi school AT LEAST that’d make sense for the story I think Abrams is trying to tell because right now… how are the Jedi not going to end if she’s basically in exile?? Wasn’t it such a big deal to see the Jedi continue? How did we end up pretty much back to square one, with the last of the Jedi self-exiled on an out-of-the-way planet for not-so-clear reasons? For that matter, how is Rey choosing exile in the grand tradition of Jedi who failed – Obi-Wan, Yoda, and later Luke – supposed to be read? We’re given no insight in what goes on in her head after Exegol; her reaction to Ben’s death I’m 100% certain is meant to be heartbreaking, and it’s filmed that way. But after that she’s just… it’s not clear *what* she is, because there’s some happiness on her part, yes, but it’s part of the over-the-top ROTJ-like happiness expressed by all the Resistance peeps at the end, like they’re all so glad the Empire, First and Final Order are gone that they’re high on it. But as far as characterization goes it’s hard to say whether Rey’s going through the motions, if she’s sad but content that at least Ben turned or smthg, or if she’s totally fine and dandy. There’s nothing about why she choses to go to Tatooine, why she chooses to use the Skywalker name, why she buries the sabers, or how the fuck she feels about anything. I don’t think everything in an ending needs to be made explicit and explained in details, but it all kinda feels like a cop-out.

Speaking of cop-outs, I could mention The Pit, but also... I know a lot of people wanted Finn to have the Force; I’ve always been on the fence, because I feared his having the Force would end up being the reason he defected, and I didn’t want that decision to boil down to the magic force field told him so. Well, he had A Feeling, which implies he’s Force sensitive at least? Him and a whole other bunch of ex-troopers? I don’t know what to make of this. I mean, sure, the FO indoctrinates kids, but apparently once the Force gives them A Feeling they just break out of it? But also, how much does the Force meddles in events, because it kind of feels like those Feelings are moving people to where they need to be for Plot to happen (Leia’s saber premonition doesn’t really help the thus it was written vibe).

Neither Finn nor Poe had any personal arc to speak of; they don’t grow or learn or do shit beyond being Rey’s sidekicks on her speedrun to the big boss (literally it’s a treasure hunt to open the final dungeon and beat the big boss; that’s it that the plot). They do Cool Action Stuff, and once Leia dies become Generals in her stead, which has about zero impact on anything. Poe’s revealed to be a spice smuggler because I guess a real Star Wars trio™ needs an ex-spice smuggler, just like a real Star WarsTM needs training scenes and a family reveal and a planet-destroying weapon (not spherical this time woohoo) and some Palpatine sprinkled on top. The trio’s interactions were… Idk what’s going on there. Sure there’s lots of banter and one-liners, but it left me with the impression that the film tried to have something for every ship (minus, very glaringly, Finnrose) – Finn seems to be trying to declare something to Rey, which seems to piss off Poe, but it’s hard to say if it’s because Poe’s into Rey as well, or into Finn, who also seems to be into Poe, but less than into Rey. And then there’s almost no interaction between Finn and Rose, who’s side-lined for the whole fucking movie, but there’s Jannah, who has either shippy or sibling vibes with Finn, I have no idea honestly, and Zorii, because I guess every ex-spice smuggler needs a Leia analogue.

Speaking of Leia, I have more to be displeased about – her death was fucking underwhelming, and not given much impact. Having Kylo/Ben haunted by Han (Ghost? Memory? Hallucination?), while not something I dislike in itself – Han had his big moment in TFA, and here he completely overshadows Leia’s. She doesn’t even get to have actual dialogue with Kylo/Ben, and the yeeting his saber should have happened after Leia reached him imo; switching that would have given a lot more impact to her death. The dialogue with Han doesn’t even need to change, but if Leia had contacted Kylo/Ben after the “I know what I have to do” repeat, it’d have been a more effective scene (and again, Han already had his big moment in TFA). The aftermath wasn’t particularly well-done either; characters are sad she died, of course, but it’s like perfunctory five minutes sadness and then she’s barely mentioned again, and her body just lies there in the background of some scenes while people talk.

I’m running out of steam, so in conclusion –

TROS I think mostly fails because it takes no risks; it’s trying to have something in it for everyone, and goes about it messily, without that much care for the big picture, which is how it ends pretending to have a happy end when we’ve just seen the final act of three generations of Skywalker tragedy. It doesn’t commit to anything, excepted leaving room for fun trio adventures sequels, because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that self-exiled Jedi are always found by some bright-eyed tentative student, if not a call for help from old friends.

#star wars #rise of skywalker #spoilers #meta #i have more when that comes from but i think i need to to parse it out #i don't really feel like being fair right now so this is pretty negative

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myevilmouse · 4 years

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In Defense of The Rise of Skywalker

Or...how I learned to stop hating and enjoy a movie

Spoilers and random thoughts below the cut.

I hate the abomination that was/is The Last Jedi. Let’s get that out of the way. I’ve already explained the hundreds of reasons why, the biggest and most unforgivable being the character assassination of Luke “I call him Jake” Skywalker and the invalidation of every victory of the OT. I resent this making people lump me into a “gatekeeper” sect, or accuse me of racism (Rose was annoying and ruined Finn’s heroism, jeopardizing hundreds of lives for her own selfish reasons without building up a convincing romance and blah blah etc). It has nothing to do with her gender, race, or anything. It has to do with poor character development and inconsistent motivations/messages.

I’m also not a huge fan of The Force Awakens, mainly for its lack of originality and the treatment of Han/Leia, but otherwise I thought it was OK. I liked Finn, wanted him to become a Jedi, found Poe to be a worthy heir to our antihero mold. Rey left me indifferent and Kylo Ren was a temper-tantrum throwing teenager, but anyway...

Let’s keep that as background/context and not get bogged down.

Since they announced the title of this movie, I have been livid with rage. How dare they use my man’s name to sell their disgusting imitation of a beloved universe? I was certain, ever since it was announced, that Rey would take Luke’s surname, despite having treated him so horribly in TLJ, despite having done nothing to earn it, despite having spent far more time with Leia, so if anything a Solo/Organa family name would make more sense. It was just to sell tickets and I was furious.

I read all the spoilers. Worst fears: confirmed. I looked at leaked photos. I raged over the inanity of the plot and the sad conclusion to the Skywalker Saga, which in my mind will always end with ROTJ.

Still, I love Mark Hamill, and I decided to treat this film as a MH film. The completist in me required theatrical viewing. Rare to get our man in a cinematic release. So I went, ready to hate watch, prepared to dull the bitterness and betrayal with wine.

But….JJ Abrams directed a fix it fic. And it’s good. This film not just address the real injustices and horrible story decisions of TLJ, but also addresses some of the major problems of TFA too.

I tried to go in with an open mind, but obviously I had many preconceived notions, and already knew almost every single story point and character beat. I was ready to roll around in my hate and slam the abomination. I want to emphasize that I am one of those people that was COMPLETELY prepared to hate EVERYTHING about this.

There are flaws.

But there is so much that is great.

I really really liked it.

No one is more shocked than I at my own reaction. I was ready/willing/wanting/primed to hate everything about this. Please keep that in mind. Hahah and no one is paying me to write this post 😉

I decided to write this because I also read all the negative critical reviews online from the pro critics yelling FAN SERVICE. And I’m like…damn straight? Ever since George Lucas made Han shoot second, fandom has understood that we understand this franchise better than film executives. We aren’t concerned with adding an extra dewback or improving special effects. We love these films the way we first experienced them, and they cannot and should not be “improved” to the ultimate detriment of the brand.

I’m here to tell you that the critics are not being fair. The spoilers on reddit were true, but the movie works. Let’s accept, before we go further, that Abrams couldn’t entirely rewrite the mess that he stepped into/helped create. So I can’t defend the fact that Finn isn’t a Jedi yet or the mess that is the new Rebellion/failure of the old. I, like many fans, wish we had been given a different/better story from the beginning. Sadly, we were not.

That is something we don’t have to accept (I certainly don’t consider these films “canon” in my mind—Mara Jade forever!) but let’s approach this film in the spirit it seems to be intended: An attempt to address the very valid criticisms loudly voiced about the others in the trilogy, with the caveat that we are stuck with TFA and TLJ no matter how much we hate them.

First, the music is amazing, as we all knew it would be. The acting is stellar.

Some of the things Abrams “fixed:”

“Rey is perfect/Mary Sue/good at everything”. There is a conscious effort in this film to show her training, with Leia as her Master. There is a good scene foreshadowing her final struggle, where she strains to hear the voices of Jedi past and fails. There are several signs that she is not a Jedi yet, including how Palpatine talks about her, and perhaps my favorite, when she tells Leia she hasn’t earned Luke’s lightsaber.

Me: Damn straight you haven’t.

And Leia AGREES, keeping Luke’s weapon because Rey isn’t ready for it. She’s still learning.

Further proof of her non-Jedi status, when Rey is killed, she doesn’t join the Force. She is a corpse. On the other hand, Ben Solo, once redeemed, disappears as we would expect a good Jedi to do. A clear distinction between the two of them.

And speaking of Leia:

Leia’s character: TFA and TLJ Leia is weak and sends other people to fight, whereas our brave Princess from the OT is volunteering for suicide missions, grabbing weapons from the hands of her rescuers, and running into danger for a good cause. It always bothered me that she didn’t go after Kylo herself (or with Han). In this, we see her as a Jedi Master, training Rey, with her own lightsaber. Leia is once more a badass, true to her character. A legitimate Jedi who also joins the Force (although not sure why it took her so long post-mortem, that was weird).

Luke’s character: Hello, I am A LUKE FANATIC. The biggest sin of TFA and especially TLJ was this idea of Luke hiding out and becoming the disgusting, pessimistic coward he was shown to be. Abrams ignores this pretty much entirely, starting with the revelation that Luke was actually going on missions with Lando to hunt for a Sith artifact to help the Rebellion. Luke kept notes, he was busy and ACTIVE. He wasn’t giving up; he was leaving a trail to help anyone who followed. The best ‘fuck you’ in the whole movie was Luke catching Anakin’s lightsaber when Rey throws it away. The ultimate rejection of his TLJ characterization.

Luke’s conversation with Rey echoes very much the ROTJ “you must confront Vader” conversation. There are many echoes of ROTJ but given the restrictions on what we are working with, I accepted this parallel. Much like Luke had to face his unfortunate inheritance, so must Rey. It’s not terribly original, but these films aren’t.

I also loved the simple line “I was wrong” when Rey asks why he did what he did in TLJ. This to me is simply “Rian Johnson was wrong/The Last Jedi was wrong.” There is no excuse that is acceptable, but this is a filmmaker acknowledging an injustice, and I appreciated it. (Did I mention these films are not canon for me? They aren’t, just giving credit for this attempt.)

Han’s character: I hated SO MUCH how they turned Han into a failure in TFA. A buffoon, not even a good smuggler anymore, a failure as a father, a husband. When I heard he was going to be in this I was like HUH? But this “memory” of his father that Kylo Ren sees after Rey heals him and departs, after he’s lost his mother, is another attempt to redeem the injustice to Han’s character. Han is the one in the movie who brings Kylo Ren back to the Light, not Rey. It is a very short scene, but effective. The acting is poignant, with the “Dad” working for me. Maybe I’m a softie. But I appreciated this brief proof that Han Solo, in the end, didn’t suck as a father, and ultimately, even as a hallucination, inspired the love that saved his son.

Chewbacca got a medal: I said Abrams was fixing things in the sequels, but I admit I was choked up to see this fixit from A New Hope. Finally Chewie gets the medal he is LONG overdue.

Team dynamic with the new characters: Finally we understand why these people care about each other. They go on shared adventures, they have banter (and some good jokes, not the stupid bathos of TLJ), and there is finally some sense of camaraderie that was discarded in TLJ. There are several references to Rey’s “new family,” clearly referring to this band of Rebels, and it was far more compelling than in earlier films.

Finn’s Force Sensitivity: I, like many, desperately wanted Finn to be a Jedi. Since TFA, it seemed inevitable! I loved how he used the lightsaber, how he seemed to have Force abilities (that were never really explored). TLJ ignored that potential completely, sidelining him on that stupid Canto Bight quest and pulling him away from Rey. There are so many signs that he is destined to be a Jedi in this film, I was thrilled to see them. Knowing things without explanation, doing amazing things, sensing things, trusting his feelings, it’s another ‘fuck you’ in my opinion, to RJ for ignoring this former stormtrooper’s destiny in favor of overblown set pieces and pointless CGI theatrics. When he says, towards the end “I can feel it,” I wanted to fist pump. YOU GO BE A JEDI FINN! THE FORCE IS WITH YOU. Personally, I would have loved for Finn to be the main protagonist of all three films, but I appreciate us getting what we got, since we can’t get what we want.

Stuff that worked:

The Wedge cameo: Yeah.

Lando: Wonderful. His dialogue, especially at the beginning, does a lot to fix our view of Luke.

Kylo’s redemption: ��See above re: Han. I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the kiss. I get the whole “female character’s purpose is to validate the evolution of the male” criticism, but I want to point out a couple things about this. First of all, it’s not a “Reylo” kiss. Kylo is gone. This is well after Kylo is redeemed. He’s been of the Light for a while before this, it’s clearly Ben at this point. It’s also obvious Rey knows that, and like Luke forgave Vader for his abuse, she forgives Ben Solo for his. So I understand also the criticism that is making people puke about Rey kissing her abuser, but again, Luke sheds tears for the father he loves, who maimed and traumatized him. Star Wars is about redemption and forgiveness that accompanies it, and I don’t have the same issue with this. If she kissed KYLO without him being redeemed before he died, for example, I would be disgusted. This is not that.

The cinematography/pacing/story: So many critics and the spoilers made it sound like this was a convoluted mess. I went to see it with a non-native English speaker and neither of us had any trouble following the plot. Yeah, a lot happens, but it all is linear and consistent within the film.

The humor/dialogue: Felt way more Star Wars-y and better placed than the last two films.

The Jedi Helping Rey: As much as I thought I would hate this, it was really well done, largely, I think, due to the foreshadowing during her earlier training. When Palpatine says all the Sith live in him and we know what she’s gonna say but it still works SO WELL. I was rooting for her and I’ve never been a huge fan. But at that climactic moment, I was a believer.

Major flaws

Of course there are some. For me the most major:

A Jedi Strikes Not In Anger: In every single lightsaber battle (pretty sure, I only saw the film once), Rey is the first to strike. She always seems to be fighting from anger and with negative emotion. This is not at all Jedi-esque and I found it particularly jarring in her duels with Kylo Ren. This bothered me more than almost anything else in the film because it is never addressed. She fights ANGRY and she fights FEARFUL and then somehow when she’s supposed to strike down Palpatine, she has it in her to resist. This, above all else, makes me not like her as the “heir to the Jedi”. I thought it was a real problem, and makes her ultimate evolution at the finale less convincing.

Rey Skywalker: I get why they did it, but I stand by my earlier thoughts regarding taking the Solo or Organa name. I have nothing against adopted families. And I found it SLIGHTLY more palpable because since the Emperor refers to Ben as “the last Skywalker” and then since he transfers his entire life force into her, you can argue that she has “Skywalker” literally in her spirit now. OK fine. But I still don’t really think she earned it. She came CLOSER than I thought she would and I didn’t ultimately want to burn down the cinema as I expected I would want to.

Force Resurrection: No. Just no. This changes so much and makes so much of the earlier films moot. Why wouldn’t Anakin just resurrect Padme? Don’t get me started.

Other random new Force things: Like Force Ghosts touching shit. Yeah I know Obi Wan sat on the tree in Dagobah, I know, but we keep learning new and more powerful Force shit each film. Teleportation of objects (that lightsaber?!), astral projection, rapid healing, and now playing catch with your ghost friends. I get they are important to the story but it feels lazy. But my exception here was Luke catching the saber because FUCK YOU RJ. 😊

Redemption=Death: I wanted Kylo Ren to die for his sins too, but I recognize this strange thing we have going on in the GFFA that if a baddie goes good they die. It’s the equivalent of the horror movie “fuck and the killer gets you” trope. I didn’t necessarily mind Ben dying, but it seemed … lazy.

The final shot: It was a mistake to even touch this iconic moment. It wasn’t earned. Make your own legend/iconic moment and leave my farmboy his.

Something no one can fix: The sucky destinies of Luke Jake, Han, and Leia. They didn’t live happy lives, they didn’t see the end of tyranny, they all died with only the hope of success. I will never forgive the attempted destruction of the legacy of the OT (attempted cause it’s still how it all ends in my world), this disregard of the triumph of the Rebellion over the Empire, and I will never believe that the New Republic failed so completely and miserably. Bring on the EU/Legends and forget this shit.

Final thought: I went to this expecting the cinematic equivalent of a back alley abortion and instead I got what felt like an apology. An entertaining and polished and sincere apology. We deserved better, and I think the people who made this film realized that and did their best. TROS had to wrap up something that was divisive and imperfect and misguided, and tried as hard as it could, in my opinion, given what they were working with.

It was a good movie. Ambitious, with flaws, but I am glad I saw it, and I hope you will be too. <3 May the Force be with you.

#tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker spoilers #ix spoilers #my thoughts

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danyka-fendyr · 4 years

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May You Be With Me

So I saw the The Rise of Skywalker yesterday and uh...This is shoddy craftsmanship but I had FEELINGS. Feel free to hate it but I needed to fix it. And yes the title IS a play off of “May the Force be with you” SUE ME

Taglist: @dreamwritesimagines @rhabakoli

Wordcount: 1368

Warnings: SPOILERS. SO MANY SPOILERS. (hence why everything is below the read more tag)

Rey liked sand. It was coarse and rough, just like her. Soothing. It got everywhere, a steady, omnipresent force in the universe. A physical manifestation of the Force that called to her, that had lead her down this path and taken her here.

To a world without Ben Skywalker.

To a world that had never seen his face, never felt his gentle kiss or been blessed with his soft smiles. There was jut sand. Sand, and the Force.

She called out to him sometimes. To that ghost that she knew existed, floating through the ether. He never came.

Some nights she screamed.

“You should be tied to me! Why won’t you come! Didn’t we have a bond?”

But Palpatine had taken that away too. In the end a Palpatine had been responsible for every loss, one way or another. So Rey had shed that name like a snake sheds it’s skin, and she had come here. To Tatooine.

It had been a few months since she had arrived. It felt like a thousand years, a millenia, since she had found Luke Skywalker’s old home and been asked her name. She had given her a new one. The only name that ever felt right on her.

Ben had confessed to her once, long before he died, that he had always felt closer to his mother. It had been in that convoluted way he always confessed things to her, masked in violence and barbed with pain, meant to hurt her as much as it was a desperate attempt to heal him. She had always been good at reading between the lines of Ben’s story though, and she had pieced together enough to see his real meaning, to hit home in her retort.

“Is that why you always hated Luke so much? Because he took you from your mother and then made her name mean pain to you? Would you have taken it, if you could have? Would your father have?”

She hadn’t had to ask any of those questions though. She knew the answer. If he could have, Ben would have embraced all the complicated connotations of the Skywalker name. So would Han, if things hadn’t gone so sideways long before Rey knew what the word Jedi meant.

It might as well have been a thousand years ago. The universe has a long memory, but its people do not.

Rey breathed deep, focusing her energy, reaching out to the Force. She could feel it not supporting her weight, exactly, but taking it away, lifting her off the ground as she sat, eyes closed.

“Be with me,” she whispered.

A quiet plea. A broken request in the hollowed deserts of Tatooine. A shadow of the light she used to be.

When Ben had gone, he had left his shadows. A mark on her soul, on her life, her connection to the Force, everything. He was the dark to her light, and without him she felt that she did not burn bright enough to light the darkest corners of her soul.

“Be with me.”

There was no response though. There had been no response, not for as long as she had been here. Not since he had chosen her.

Rey was long past temper tantrums. At first she used to scream and rage and throw things, used to have fits that would put Kylo Ren to shame. She had lost her energy for that though. Lost the will to rage over the fact that he was gone. It wouldn’t bring him back. He wouldn’t be with her.

She felt her connection with the Force snap just before she felt herself connect to the ground in her fall. It used to be she had so much control over the Force, using it becoming the most natural thing in the world to her. Ever since Palpatine had broken her Force bond with Ben though, it felt as though something vital between her and the Force had also been severed. Before there was an undercurrent of something living, a laugh, a caress, a gentle whisper that carried through every moment. Now it was empty.

She saw the tears land on the floor before she felt them fall down her face, before she realized she was crying. The sobs choked their way out of her, squeezing her heart.

“Please,” she said, voice breaking, barely able to get the words out. “Please Ben, be with me.”

“I am. I am with you. I would have been with you sooner if you hadn’t chosen such a sandy backwater to live on.”

Rey bolted upright, turning ready, expectant to see his glowing ghost. What she found was different though.

There he stood before her, flesh and blood. He had a bit of a wry smile on his face, but it didn’t match the sadness in his dark eyes, the longing and the joy mingling in the most bittersweet way.

“Ben? H-how?”

“It’s a complicated story. I’m not sure I fully understand it myself. All I know is that I did die. At least, I think I did. I was met by a sort of…ghost council. The spirits of my own ancestors and Jedi of the past. I was offered a choice.”

“A choice?”

“Yes. For the crimes I had committed they could not just bring me back to life. That much I understood easily. What I did not know was that there was another way. A sacrifice I could make. They could not bring me back with the powers of a Jedi, rightfully mine as they were. The Force demands a balance, and with only one Jedi left…they could not return another to the world. It would be too dangerous. Instead, Anakin Skywalker, my grandfather, offered me something. His life force. At least, what was left of it. It would not be enough to maintain my connection to the force, but it would be enough to bring me back to life. And so I woke up on the empty world of Exegol, a Sith planet that most certainly did not want me.

After that it was a struggle to find you. I knew you wouldn’t be on Exegol anymore, but I also wasn’t sure where you would have gone other than Jakku. I checked there, by the way. All I found was a very angry junkyard owner.” He smiled a little bit, some of that humor shining through. “So I kept looking. I could have contacted the Resistance, but I had a feeling that would end in my death. Again. I was eager to avoid that, so instead I settled for a search. And that’s how I ended up here.”

Silence stretched between the two, a taut cord.

“That’s why you never came,” she said. “That’s why your force ghost never found me. All those times I asked. It’s because…it’s because you were alive.”

“Alive and looking for you. Searching the universe.”

She reached out a hand but froze. Something in her was afraid to touch him, afraid her hand would slip right through and she would find a new world of pain in her hallucinations. Hesitantly, Ben reached for her as well, his bare hand reaching towards her fingers in something that almost looked like a handshake. In the slightest of touches, their fingertips just brushed against each other.

Then his hand swallowed hers whole and they were kissing and he was real. Rey found her hands swallowed up by his dark hair, trying to caress every inch of his face. He was alive, and he was hers, a warm hand enveloping her own and the other on her waist.

He was the first to pull away when he realized that Rey didn’t care if she suffocated. He smiled at her, that roguish grin she had missed so much, something he had inherited from his father.

“I’m glad you decided to take my hand this time.”

“I always wanted to.”

“I know. But seriously, Tatooine? There’s a lot more to the world than desert. I think you would like Naboo. Then again, you have terrible taste in planets, apparently.” He laughed.

“Shut up and kiss me.”

So he did, kissing her under the dual setting suns of Tatooine.

#reylo #kylo ren #rey #rey x kylo ren #rey palpatine #rey skywalker #rey x ben solo #ben solo #star wars #sw #the rise of skywalker #tros #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker spoilers #star wars spoilers #sw spoilers

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kalinara · 4 years

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So I’ve been taking potshots at Kylo Ren’s redemption arc in the Rise of Skywalker for a while, and I figured I might as well articulate why exactly I think it’s bullshit.

I’ve said all along that one of my biggest problems with a Kylo Ren redemption arc, beyond the obvious: that he’s already turned redemption down multiple times with increasingly larger stakes, is that the only reason Kylo Ren is even offered these opportunities at all is because of who his parents and grandfather is.

TFA sets it up nicely. It establishes Kylo as being a monster, but also as being conflicted. We’re meant to see Anakin in his early scenes: from his costume to his conflict, to the sad face beneath the mask. Then they give us a scene on a bridge meant to evoke the scene where Luke saves his father, only this time it’s the father saving the son. And we expect it to work: until Kylo shoves his saber through him.

And TFA emphasized the connection all along: Lor San Tekka thought he could reason with the son of heroes. Han and Leia hoped that he could reach his son. It failed.

TLJ gave us a similar parallel in a different way. This time it’s from Rey’s point of view. TFA spent a lot of time showing how Rey was similar to all three of the original heroes, but the one that stands out the most is Luke. She was raised on a desert planet. She’s optimistic and a bit naive. She’s a “nobody”, neither famous or infamous. She has a natural talent for the Force.

When she meets up with Luke, he rejects her. And it’s a blow to her self confidence and her ego. Snoke uses that to manipulate her, creates a force bond between her and Kylo similar to the natural one between Luke and Vader, and convinces her that, like Luke before her saw in Kylo’s grandfather, she could see “good” in Kylo Ren. She helps defeat Snoke, his version of Palpatine. And Kylo promptly ascends in his place. Kylo had never been reachable. That was Snoke, by his own admission. Rey thought otherwise because she’d heard the stories of his grandfather.

And then we have TROS. We have Kylo Ren investigating a threat to his power. Palpatine is stronger than him though, so he is forced to submit to a greater power. He reaches out to Rey, against her will, in an attempt to get her to agree to repeat their triumph against Snoke. Throughout this entire thing, he shows no concern for her as a person, no sympathy for her distress. He’s not interested in saving her, merely in using her in his own plans.

Until Leia does one final act, reaching her consciousness out to him from star systems away. Then Kylo has a vision/hallucination of his father, expresses a vague shred of regret, and then BOOM, hero time.

That’s not a redemption arc!

And sure, you can say the same about Anakin, but Anakin’s moment worked because it was a spur of the moment thing. He saw his son scream in agony, and it woke up something in him that finally snapped and said ENOUGH. He acted, selflessly, for the first time in decades, to save someone who isn’t himself.

The difference between Anakin and “Ben Solo” to me is that there is no moment where Anakin, whether through an imaginary phantom or otherwise, suddenly decides that he’s forgiven for his misdeeds. There’s no hallucination of Obi-Wan or Padme to go, “it’s okay, Darth Vader is dead, now.” Anakin doesn’t ask Luke for absolution, because he knows it’s not Luke’s to give. All Anakin says is that Luke was right: there was good in him.

And there was. It doesn’t negate the evil that he did. But he made the right choice at the right time and saved his son.

Now Kylo ultimately made the right choice too: he helped Rey and he gave his life force to save her. But he did it AFTER his “redemption”. AFTER his superpowered mom killed herself to reach him. AFTER he decided his father forgave him. And I’m sorry, but that doesn’t really work for me. .

I mean, say what you will about Hux, but at least when he made the choice to send information to the Resistance, it was a choice that he made freely and voluntarily, without superpowered force moms and imaginings of dead dads.

Eh, I mean, it’s not the end of the world. I still like TROS. And I can appreciate Kylo’s “redemption” for what it means for Leia and Han. But I’m so very glad that Kylo died at the end of the movie. It would have infuriated me to no end if Kylo had been able to declare himself forgiven and then have the happy ending that he denied to so many other characters.

#tros spoilers #anti kylo ren #poor little serial killer

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