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therealvinelle · 3 years

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Vinelle (and muffin since I know they'll see this too~!), I don't know if you guys have made a post ranking the Twilight books and why (including Bree and L&D if applicable) but I'd love to hear your opinions! (also if you could rank the Twi movies from least worst to most worst and why that'd be awesome too! 030 hi key love your rants on the movies and would love to hear y'alls thoughts more on them)-Sw

You’ve caught us out, anon.

And thanks to you, we spent last night watching Breaking Dawn Part 2 so we could rank it. @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin hadn’t seen it at all, while I half-remembered it from years ago. A terrible time was had because that movie was unwatchably bad.

Since this ask was sent jointly, our answer was co-written.

So, without further ado, movies first:

1. Twilight

This is a bad movie, but it’s recognizably a movie. The scenes are connected, there are things it did well, and we could tell you what the plot is. The awkwardness, for instance, is very well done. The weaknesses are glaring, the main one being that the film never sells us on the characters of Bella and Edward, nor on their relationship, relying instead on the audience knowing they’re in love because- well, they’re in love.

Diving deeper into Edward and Bella, there’s an understandable explanation for this. Edward of the books is terrifying, and I don’t think there’s a translation to screen that could have kept the romantic atmosphere surrounding him that we see from Bella’s point of view.

Bella can listen to Edward eating Biology and how he explains that it means how much he loves her and not blink. An actual audience hearing that dialogue will have second thoughts.

Right out of the gate, Twilight has a very difficult task: Salvage Edward Cullen while still producing a somewhat recognizable character who will take the same actions (or near the same actions) that Edward Cullen did in the book.

In the effort to make Edward palatable but save some of his original character he loses his more terrifying lines (as well as his hilarious ego) but becomes weird, awkward, and vaguely creepy. Edward Cullen of the films is that weird, friendless guy in your high school who you feel kind of bad for but don’t want to eat lunch with.

Bella faces a similar transformation. Bella’s insecurity is completely removed (or else the screenwriters somehow failed to notice it). As a result, we get this strange antisocial girl who is too cool for school because she’s a stuck up bitch.

Between Edward, this creepy guy who sits next to her in Biology, and Bella, this girl who enters school too good for everyone else, we see no reason why they would ever be interested in one another.

In an attempt to make these characters likeable they made them both unlikeable and boring. The film series as a whole never recovers from this (indeed, the quest to make Edward look good keeps leading to stranger and stranger places).

It also forgets to explain why the Cullens live among humans, they’re attending high school… because. It’s a movie that explained to us all those terrible 2010 era memes and “still a better love story than Twilight”. And frankly, those memes were great, better than the movie. Case in point.

Everything is weirdly blue, which is atmospheric but also makes everything and everyone washed out. Everyone is super pale, so you have Mike looking just as vampire-y as Edward. However, it’s recognizably a movie. It introduces the characters, recognizes that the audience needs to be informed of things that are important to the plot, and most scenes are in some way connected to the plot. This is more than can be said for the other films, which is why it lands the top slot.

2. Eclipse

Eclipse earns its second place by process of elimination. The remaining three were worse. Eclipse also features Edward being cuckolded mercilessly, which is hilarious. Oh, and Victoria playing Riley, that was another beautiful scene.

Apart from that it’s just a deeply boring, borderline unwatchable movie.

Special shoutouts go to:

The opening scene of Riley getting turned, a ridiculous and poorly executed scene that served no purpose for the movie whatsoever.

Rosalie dropping her backstory without any context, Bella walks up to her and Rosalie launches into this horrific story for no particular reason. Both her and Jasper’s backstories could have been cut, as they served no purpose to the story and felt really thrown in there.

The many, many redundant scenes. The Victoria chase that ends with the Cullens and Quileutes squabbling could have been cut entirely. So too could the Seattle subplot with the newborns and Bree.

It’s a movie that isn’t about anything in particular, so it throws subplot spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. It dutifully regurgitates the Jacob/Bella/Edward love triangle while also trying to convey that Bella’s about to lose her mortality, while also trying to introduce suspense and excitement with the newborns. It fails to execute either of these, and it also fails to tie them together.

3. New Moon

The movie that wanted to skip itself.

This movie had two jobs, show that Bella is depressed when Edward leaves and convince the audience of Bella and Jacob’s strong friendship. And apart the rotating shots and the occasional Stewart voiceover, the former becomes one of those “just stay with us on this one, guys” failures, and the second is failed on every level. Jake and Bella are much closer at the beginning of this movie than they were in canon, and a montage of Bella hanging out with her buddy is just that, it’s a montage of Bella hanging out with her buddy. It speaks volumes that Stewart’s voiceover has to remind us she’s depressed and Jacob is helping her heal, because there’s no indicator on screen that this is happening.

This, in turn, makes Bella/Jake as weak and unconvincing as Bella/Edward was in the previous movie. We just have to take on faith that these people are important to each other because that’s what we’re told.

There’s also the wolves, who are completely butchered. In the books, there’s this great mystery with bears in the woods, there’s Bella wondering why Laurent ran off, there’s build-up, then when we find out what’s actually been happening it’s a satisfying explanation, all the pieces come together really nicely. This is not the case in the movie. Meeting the pack is just weird in this context, because we never wondered who they were. Bella is randomly invited to breakfast, we meet Emily with the scarred face who won’t ever have a line again, and that’s it, these characters don’t become important to the movie in any way. It’s a pointless scene that could have been cut, much like so many other scenes in these movies.

Apart from that, the Volturi scene from the books is butchered so I hardly recognize it, and Alice, Carlisle, and Edward’s characters are assassinated to an impressive degree considering they were barely in the movie.

It was hard to watch.

It lands third place because somehow, Breaking Dawn was worse.

4. Breaking Dawn Part Two

I’ll just list the positives: the intro was very pretty and promised a better movie. It was also long, which we appreciated because it took away from the movie’s runtime. (This is not at all an exaggeration, a lot of the time watching all five movies was spent looking at the remaining runtime and groaning.) The Tommy Wiseau sex scene in the sex cabin was uncomfortable, but the fact that it would have fit perfectly in The Room made it funny. The Romanians were genuinely, unironically, great, because of all of Carlisle’s trashy friends, these were the only ones the movie didn’t try to convince us weren’t trashy.

This movie ranks above Breaking Dawn Part One because of the things listed above.

Apart from that, something all of these movies, but especially the last four, suffer from is that they don’t have plots so much as they have a check list of things to put in the movie before they can call it a wrap. This movie is the worst offender of that, and it’s made worse by the film’s expectation that the people are fans who already know what’s happening, and therefore don’t need anything explained. I’ll explain what we mean by that.

We get Bella waking up a vampire, and absolutely nothing is explained. If you don’t know what happened in the last movie then fuck you. Bella then goes hunting, we get the hiker, we get the mountain lion, she goes back to meet Renesmée, finds out Jake imprinted on her daughter, we get the sex cabin, the handwrestling with Emmett. The Charlie problem is introduced (poorly), only to be solved a scene later with emotional payoff that had absolutely no buildup. All of these things, and the rest of the movie as well for that matter, feels like we’re just crossing items off a list.

Since the audience is expected to already know the story, the story only bothers to explain about half of what’s happening, if half. Who’s the lady living with Charlie? If you don’t know, don’t worry because it’s not important anyway. When did Kate and Garrett fall in love? If you don’t care, that's understandable, because they’ve barely interacted in the movie. Who are the Amazonian women? Do they have names? Don’t worry about it. Did Alistair actually leave, if so did that have an impact? Well, Bella stared at a window for a few seconds.

Every so often the characters will start quoting the books, and it’ll be completely out of place because these movies veered off course long ago. Carlisle references his great friendship with Aro, a friendship that was only briefly mentioned at the beginning of the second movie. Aro randomly starts talking about how scary human technology is.

All of these scenes feel like Marcus is telling the story, he’s just listing events waiting for the story to be over, and forgets a lot of pertinent details because he doesn’t care enough to remember them. There’s no effort to tie these scenes together, no effort to build up to anything.

There’s also one significant failure, and this is a failure shared by all five films, but it affects the plot (I use the term “plot” loosely) of this movie which is why it gets a special shoutout here. Vampires in these movies look human. The fact that Bella has to ask Edward is Gianna the secretary is human says it all, because in the books you know instantly, there’s not even a question. This makes the Charlie subplot ridiculous, because Bella looks and acts the same as ever. She had a trashy makeover, maybe, but she’s still Bella. Watching her get human acting classes after we watched her act perfectly human is just silly. Now, we’re all for suspension of belief, but this movie just pencil drew a moustache on her and the audience is supposed to go “My god, Bella, I didn’t recognize you!”

We then get to the atrocious fight scene, which was somehow worse than I remembered. It was also oddly long for a giant fake out. This scene took significant run time and it turns out to have 0 effect on the plot. And when we get back to the real world, the tonal shift is extreme. You can’t go from Jane being choked, dragged across the snow and face eaten by a wolf to her standing around chilling. We could have skipped it entirely, just had Alice touch Aro’s hand, and he goes “Ah, I see, cheerio.”

The end credits were pretty funny, “here are these random characters with bit parts in previous movies, isn’t this nostalgic?”. Nice try, movie. The fact this came after an extended clip show of the great romance of Edward and Bella, through blurry montage images that failed to be convincing in their original films let alone this one, just made it even more hilarious. Hope you didn’t completely ruin the director’s career, though honestly you should a bit.

5. Breaking Dawn Part One

As you can probably tell by the above entries, the fact that this is the worst one is really saying something. All the movies were hard to watch, but this one required pure strength of will to power through.

The big issue is that Breaking Dawn shouldn’t have been split in the first place. However, it was, and that meant that we got a movie that was almost entirely filler. (Followed, somehow, by a movie that was also largely filler.)

We get everybody preparing for the wedding. What do Mike and Jessica think of Bella and Edward getting married? What’s that, you don’t care? Well, now you know anyway. We get the full wedding, as in the whole fucking thing, including the afterparty. We get Bella and Edward traveling to their island, and there’s filler in the filler where they go clubbing in Rio. We then get every minute detail of the wedding night followed by every minute detail of the honeymoon.

There’s fanservice, and then there’s this. This was live action fanfiction.

NOTHING that in any way is relevant to the story happens, the closest we get is Irina looking stoned. Too bad the Denali’ refusal to help out in Eclipse was cut from the last movie, in fact I’m not sure they were mentioned at all previously in these movies (I think maybe Edward had a one-line reference in Twilight?) so this means nothing to people who haven’t read the books.

We then get to the pregnancy arc, which could have been Rosemary’s Baby but is instead as outrageously boring as the first half of the movie was. The director must have realized as much, because he gives us Jacob’s alpha plot that should have been cut from the movie (yes, I know it was in the books, but the thing about adaptations is that things have to go. For the record, I think Meyer should have cut it too). That subplot was straight out of an anime, by the way. Jacob claiming his ancestral rights as alpha while listing off his titles and the soaring music, was… every shounen anime, ever. Complete with the shitty voice acting.

It was a soul-crushingly boring movie.

Something that screws over the last four movies is that they were made to feed the fangirls, and generate revenue because the producers knew the fans were coming to watch the books they liked come to life, so they just had to throw scenes from the books and into the movies and let the magic happen. This is a terrible way to adapt something.

Special shoutout too to having to watch Taylor Lautner run around shirtless in four out of five movies. That was very uncomfortable and none of us needed that in our lives, Lautner included.

Super special shoutout to the fact that we disagree with nearly all the casting.

And this isn’t the post for that, but all of the characters were butchered. Some more than others, and some more insidiously than others. It’s the big things, like Carlisle’s character being turned on its head since he thinks all vampires are damned, exactly the opposite of what he thinks in the books, and the little things, like Jasper and Bella being buddies who bicker fondly in New Moon.

Then the books:

1. Midnight Sun

HANDS DOWN. This is easily our favorite thing to come out of the entire Twilight franchise.

Edward is every kind of crazy at the same time, all the time, and it makes every single sentence packed with delirious entertainment. Reading this book is having a stroke, a psychotic episode, and watching five different true crime shows all at once. We adore every letter of it. (That’s no exaggeration, we even laughed about Edward capitalizing “Son” when Carlisle refers to him as “son” in conversation.)

The book was more than we’d dared to hope for, one of those rare books that makes you go “This was written just for me.”

2. Twilight

The one that started it all.

Vampires are wonderfully creepy. Things like Bella staring at Carlisle acting like the mundane town doctor shortly after learning just how old he is, Alice explaining how vampires kill all, and the uncanny valley perfection of the Cullens all add to the otherness of these vampires, and the general atmosphere of the book.

The love story is convincing. Edward seen through the eyes of Bella is wonderful, the red flags are there but if it weren’t for the books that followed we wouldn’t have decried the ship the way we do.

3. Eclipse

Breaking Dawn is the more interesting book, but Eclipse has less things we outright don’t like. We get to know all the characters better, Edward and Bella are their usual beautiful selves, and it’s overall peak Twilight.

4. Breaking Dawn

Would have ranked much higher, we like what it did. Without it we wouldn’t be in this fandom now, as it brought so much amazing content. The baby plot is fine by us, Carlisle’s friends are great, the Volturi confrontation is a beautiful, if bleak culmination of preventable events. There’s a lot of great stuff in this book.

Unfortunately, and there’s just no diplomatic way to put this, so I’ll just come out with it: there’s too much Jacob.

He no longer had a reason to be in the story, given the way Eclipse ended he had every reason not to be in it. In spite of that we get an entire third of the book from his point of view, and then damned if he’s not shoehorned into the last third as well. He added absolutely nothing to the story, he was just there taking up space and being possessive of a toddler. His POV section was tough to get through, and his presence in book three was just painful. He should have been cut.

5. New Moon

This was the book we had to power through. There are some very good things in it, most notably the Volturi scene, but the Muffin and I enjoy Twilight for the vampires, and that makes Laurent and Hallucination!Edward the highlights of the part of the book where Edward is gone.

There’s also the fact that Jacob isn’t a very compelling character. He has to carry the book now that the Cullens aren’t doing it, and he simply isn’t up for it.

Yes, we’re aware that these books are ranked according to how much Jacob is in them. We don’t even hate him, not at all, it’s just that he’s boring.

(That being said, the books at their worst are better than the movies at their best. Jacob narrating his perfect playdate with Renesmée would still be preferable to… I’m trying to think of a good scene from the movies. Hm, nevermind.)

As for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and Life and Death, only I have read Bree Tanner and I don’t remember it well enough to give a proper assessment. I was bored with the OCs, though, bored to tears, throughout that book I was itching for Victoria and the Cullens. We have not read Life and Death, but we’re offended by its existence so it ranks bottom.

#books vs. movies #twilight movies #twilight books #the twilight saga #twilight renaissance #twilight meta #twilight #movie review #twilight review #i'm using all the tags tonight #the carnivorous muffin #thecarnivorousmuffinmeta #Anonymous #ask #long post

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hoe-biwankenobi · 3 years

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Dripping with Gold - Anakin Skywalker (1/2)

Apparently this is going to be the first SW fic I share. This is an interesting turn of event as I didn’t plan on having it done before my approx. 100000 WIPs, but honestly I like it, I truly do. So uh, enjoy!

PS: There WILL be a part 2 as there was a piece of dialogue I really wanted to get out there but couldn’t fit in this one. Stay tuned!

Pairing: Anakin Skywalker x Dark side!reader

Word count: 3304

Warnings: kinda emotional manipulation ngl, me liking evil monologues waaaaayyyyy too much.

Summary: “The dark side surrounds you. Your eyes, they’re--” There was a slight tremor in his voice and his breathing visibly accelerated. The anger that had momentarily flared in his eyes was gone now, leaving its place to a helplessness that made your heart ache. “This isn’t right, I’m dreaming, you couldn’t have--You led everyone believe you were gone, you led me to believe you had left me behind--”

The cold rain hit your face like ice shards as you laid on your back, motionless and in pain. You were surrounded by rocks and darkness, barely touched by the dull light of the day that began to dim already. Your breath was ragged and your limbs were numb to your command, even your voice wouldn’t respond to you. You tried to scream, you begged the force to let you call for help, to give you back control of your arms to at least attempt to flag a passing ship--any passing ship, but nothing came out of either actions.

You didn’t know how long you had been there, or really what had happened. You had been on a training flight with your Master when your ship was shot down, you didn’t even know by whom. The crash had been rough, and the last thing you remembered before waking up in the crevasse was the ship breaking in half and propelling you in the opposite direction of your Master. It could have been any time measure really, but the dryness in your throat and your cramping stomach led you to believe you had been there for at least a day. You weren’t bleeding an awful lot, but you definitely had broken bones.

Nobody was coming for you. You had felt your Master’s force signature twice in the distance already, and no matter how hard you tried to project to him, he never answered. You were too weak, probably, and if it had really been an entire day, it meant he had abandoned the searches already. That much was the Jedi way, to be ready to let go at any time. You should have accepted it, after all, you lived by that code too, but something about the slow, agonising death alone in the cold that had taken a hold of you left a bitter hatred linger in your heart.

Hot tears started to stream down your face, stinging your wounds and mixing with the burning ice of the rain. You wanted to scream, not for somebody to hear you, but to let out the choking pressure that gripped your chest with vicious hands. Despite your shivering in the cold, your muscles were burning with anger and fear of the tethering edge you were dangling from. You both wanted to run away from this planet, and to close your eyes with nightfall and never wake up.

Then, a shadow settled over your still form. You could barely see who it was.

“Master Ki-Adi?” Your voice was barely above a whisper, almost inaudible over the battering of the rain.

“You must be mistaken, young one” An unknown voice replied as the figure crouched in front of you. “My name is Darth Tyrannus, but I can assist you all the same”

You willed yourself to snap out of the unpleasant memory with a snarl, hitting the armrest of the chair you were sitting in. The dark tapestry of the old temple you claimed for yourself on Jaguada greeted you back in the real world with a growing headache. If you started to have visions of the past, especially ones tied with the Jedi, it meant they were closing in. Yet, it felt strange to have this one in particular, one that was so intertwined to the dark side before you even turned.

You knew who was coming for you.

You couldn’t help but smile at how brilliantly your own fortune had turned. Out of all the Jedi that could have made the trip, it was the exact one you wanted to see more than anything. If you concentrated enough, you could feel his force signature slowly spread around the barren lands of Jaguada as he got closer to your location.

The last time you saw Anakin, you were both 17 years old inseparable padawans. He didn’t have a lot of friends at the temple, mostly due to him being trained outside of the regular padawan learners classes. You weren’t very outgoing either, so more often than not, you ended up hanging out together. It however became more than friendly interactions after a few years, and you found yourselves in love despite the Jedi code. His name alone brought memories of warm embraces and sneaking around between training sessions, something neither the Jedi or the Sith could ever make you let go of. Now, Anakin was the only vestige of your heart that was still rooted in the light side.

But you knew. You knew there was a darkness that clung to Anakin, there had always been. A frustration, a recklessness, an anger, an all encompassing fear of loss; you knew it wouldn’t be as hard as any other Jedi to convince him he didn’t belong on the light side of the force. Most importantly, you knew you could do it. You were almost certain his attachment to you ran deep enough to remain alive even after four years apart.

You had followed his progress from afar, his slow descent closer to the dark side from his reaction to your death up to this moment in the Clone Wars after countless losses and traumatic baggage. You weren’t the only one either, you knew the Sith were interested in him as well, but you were determined to get him first. You wouldn’t let Darth Tyrannus, or worse, Darth Sidious get their hands on him first.

You had been Dooku’s apprentice for a time after he had pulled you from that shipwreck. He taught you the ways of the dark side after giving you the push you needed to turn, but soon enough, you began to grow displeased with the Sith. There were always talks of a masterplan for which you were never privy, and you knew Darth Sidious did not like your presence by Dooku’s side. The Sith, whom you were told weren’t as restrictive as the Jedi, turned out to be exactly the same in the end; the never ending rule and the cycles of power designed to keep you kneeling only pushed you away in the exact same fashion as the Jedi.

Your Master’s betrayal was the final straw. You could still vividly remember the harsh red glow of his blade greeting you in the middle of the night, your instincts jolting you awake and using the force to protect yourself. He had been sent flying so hard and so fast that the north wall of your quarters had collapsed on impact, partially burying him in debris. You knew you were stronger with the force than him at that point, but his experience far outweighed yours, so you grabbed your lightsaber and disappeared into the night before he could get up and resume the fight.

Your journey to Jaguada hadn’t been easy, but you managed to evade the Sith and take residence on a planet that once belonged to them, to add to the irony. You were left alone in your retreat in the margins of the only city in the never ending desert, none of the occasional smugglers and scavengers brave enough to approach the temple. Your only visitor in two years was, in fact, the Jedi that had just crossed the threshold of the temple. Moments later, Anakin stood on the other side of the large, empty room, and your breath caught in your throat. While there was no doubt it was really him only by his strong and distinct force signature you’d recognize everywhere, it was like he was another person entirely.

You observed him intensely as he did you, taking in how his features had gone from boyish to absolutely handsome, and how his larger shoulders and intimidating posture projected the image of an accomplished warrior instead of a teenager. His eyes, as beautiful as ever, were locked with your golden ones as a thousand emotions passed through them. Short lived relief, shock, disbelief, hurt, all of which were translated in echo in his force signature.

Then, your name was spoken softly, as if he wanted to make sure it was really you.

“Anakin” You simply replied, giving him a smile. “It’s good to see you again”

He didn’t return it, no, instead, his gorgeous features contorted with incomprehension and pain. “You’re a sith. All this time, you were a Sith”

Your smile dropped and your expression hardened. “I am most certainly not”

“The dark side surrounds you. Your eyes, they’re--” There was a slight tremor in his voice and his breathing visibly accelerated. The anger that had momentarily flared in his eyes was gone now, leaving its place to a helplessness that made your heart ache. “This isn’t right, I’m dreaming, you couldn’t have--You led everyone believe you were gone, you led me to believe you had left me behind--”

“Anakin” You called his name again, standing up from your chair and taking a step towards him. The way he backed away hurt more than any lightsaber wound. “I never meant to leave you behind. All I’ve wanted for the last four years was getting back to you, but I couldn’t, I wasn’t ready yet for you to see me like this”

“What happened?” He asked under his breath, still guarded against you.

“We crashed the ship, Master Ki-Adi barely looked for me before leaving me to an agonizing death” You couldn’t hide the bitterness of your words. “Then I was found by Count Dooku, who showed me the ways of the dark side”

He took a step further away.

“I’m not one of them anymore, Anakin” You repeated, tempting a step forward. “I couldn’t--I wouldn’t stay with them, the simple mention of them brings a bad taste in my mouth. I left to make my own path, one where I don’t have to bend to pointless rules, where I don’t need to break my back to please, where I am free”

“Then come back with me to the Jedi Temple” He said, his eyes shining with something alike to hope. “If you renounced the Sith, you--you could return home, finish your training, become a Jedi again”

You couldn’t hide your sorrow. “I won’t return”

“The Jedi Council will understand--”

“I know they would” You cut him off gently. “But I don’t want to. I am not willing to give up my freedom for the people that left me to die alone. You are the only good thing left for me there, and I want you by my side, but not there”

“Don’t” He warned, his hand reaching for his lightsaber on his belt. “Don’t play this game with me”

You unclasped yours as well, but before he could ignite his, you handed him the silver hilt. His arm faltered at his side as he stared in confusion at your lightsaber, like he wasn’t sure if it was a trap or not.

“I’m not playing any games, Anakin” You insisted. “I have no desire to fight you. My heart and my life is yours, it has always been”

Before you could blink, the saber was gone from your hand and a blur of blue and red crossed at your throat. You however remained calm, meeting his conflicted gaze through the harsh purple hue from the lightsabers’ juxtaposition.

“Give me one reason not to bring your back to Coruscant as a prisoner now”

“Bring me, don’t bring me, it doesn’t matter” You replied. “Whatever you choose to do with me won’t quiet down the little voice in your head that knows you don’t belong with the Jedi either. I know about what happened to your mother--”

“You don’t know anything!” His voice rose up as the sabers inched closer to you. His teeth were gritted and his jaw locked tightly. “The dark side is lying to you, I won’t let it lie to me too”

“Is it? ” You raised an eyebrow. “They didn’t let you go help her when your instinct told you she was in danger. They frowned upon your actions when it was theirs that led to her death. I know what you did to the sand people who took her, and I think they deserved it”

His grip faltered, but he still held you trapped between the sabers. Pain, so much pain reflected in his eyes in a storm of emotions.

“And do you think what they did to your padawan was fair?” You added, and while you could definitely see a reaction through the shift in his expression, he remained unmoving. “Yes, I know about that too. They were ready to punish her for a crime that wasn’t her doing, they didn’t trust her because they didn’t trust you”

“Please stop”

“You need to open your eyes, Anakin” You spoke softly. “The Jedi are not what they were. They became politicians, they care more about appeasing the public opinion than upholding real peace. They will let civil war rage on, they will let people die because politics say they can’t be involved. They will let slave merchants go on their business because it benefits the Republic, in the end. Do you see how wrong all of this is?”

He retracted the blades of the sabers, letting his hands fall at his side, and you took the invitation to get closer until you were standing right in front of him. He didn’t push away from you or make a move to get away as his head seemed deep in troublesome reflection.

“I am not bound by these rules” You whispered as your hand gently cupped his cheek, bringing back his eyes to yours. “Neither should you have to be. You are strong, the strongest Jedi to have ever lived, and you are destined to be so much more than a bell boy for the Republic. You could end wars, you could end slavery, and I want that too. Alone I can’t do much, but it will be possible with you by my side. There will be no Masters but ourselves, no code but our own. Nobody ever again will have to suffer as we did once we bring our justice to the Galaxy”

“I… I can’t do this to the Jedi order” He muttered, leaning into your touch. His words lacked the conviction he was trained to uphold, and while you knew you had to carry him to the edge just a little bit longer, you couldn’t help the triumphant feeling washing over you. He was so close to falling, it was almost euphoric. “I can’t do this to Obi-Wan”

You slowly pressed your forehead to his, closing your eyes at the more than familiar feeling of having him this close. Memories of stolen moments in the Temple away from prying eyes flooded your mind and soaked into your force signature in the form of a warm, all consuming wave. His arms around you, your hands caressing his neck, bright eyes reflecting the sun rays hitting down on you, hidden confessions and promises of forever. A single warm tear rolled down your thumb on his cheek, and that’s how you knew he was seeing the same images. The love you had for each other was tragically beautiful, but it wouldn’t have to be anymore.

“Do you still love me, Anakin?” You finally said, your voice barely over a breath in the wind.

“Yes”

“The Council would never let us be together” You slowly reopened your eyes, but his were still tightly shut. “They would expel us. They’ll never understand what we have, they’ll never understand what we mean to each other. I love you with all my heart, Anakin”

His breath hitched into a sob as you were met with his blue eyes glistening like crystals.

“Stay with me” You offered once again. “Nobody will be able to take me away from you again. I’m already more powerful than Dooku, and you are more powerful than Sidious himself. There will be no fear, no pain, no hiding”

He just kept staring into your eyes as the remaining of the little resolve he had melted away like ice under a flame. The whirlpool of emotions he was projecting all over the room was intense and vivid as it swirled around you, and that’s when you felt it: a tipping in the force. It was clear and strong, and you knew this was it. He had made his choice.

“I don’t want to feel those things anymore, I want what you said we could have” His voice cracked. “How do I get there? Please tell me how”

“Kiss me”

A breath escaped his lips as he cautiously closed the small distance to press his lips to yours. You took the first slow moments to relax against him, savouring the feeling of wholy having him back to you. Your hand found the back of his neck and his hair that had gotten longer since his padawan days, tangling your fingers through his loose lock. The kiss turned a bit more hasty and aggressive as he began pressing into you, like he too realized you were his without being scared of the consequences. You finally broke away to breathe, meeting his eyes again where you could observe a newfound determination.

“Let go of all that slows you down, Anakin” You panted as the distant sound of lightsabers hitting the ground reached your ears. “Tell me what you want”

“I want everything” He mumbled as his nose trailed impatiently on your cheek. “I want to stop the people who bring suffering to the galaxy. I want to hunt down slavers and let them know what true fear is, I want to free the galaxy of tyranny. And I want to love you through it all, I want you with me”

“Then it’s yours” You smiled. “It’s all yours. All you have to do is take it. Embrace it”

In a heartbeat, his lips were back on yours with a passion you had never felt in him before. His hands circled your waist and pulled you impossibly closer to him, his fingers pressing hard enough for you to feel it through your robes. You could barely keep up with his pace as he took full control of the kiss, bruising your lips with his furious pace. He was letting go of four years of pain, four years of stress where the world kept taking away from him without giving anything back. Now it was his turn to take.

He backed you up to the throne-like chair you had been sitting on earlier until the back of your knees hit the seat, but you flipped the positions around and gently pushed him back into it and broke away from the kiss. He slowly opened his eyes, a golden-like yellow matching yours greeting you instead of the blue you were used to. You took a moment to admire him as he sat back in his throne like a born king laying his claim on the world. He was even more handsome like this, with that little smirk on his face and power exuding from every fiber of his being. He reached for you and you straddled him, resting your hands flat on the dark tunic covering his chest. His left hand raised to engulf yours over his heart and gave it a little squeeze.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed it does” He teased, looking up and down your form on his knees. Then, he lifted his right hand and brushed his gloved thumb over your lower lip, eyeing his motion with what resembled fascination. “I feel it. The dark side of the force, I mean. It’s… stronger. Untamed. Pure”

“It’ll make you even more powerful” You smiled as he looked back into your eyes. “You can do anything now, it’s your choice, nobody can stop you”

He slowly grinned back at you.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

#anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker fic #anakin skywalker #star wars fic #star wars #jedi #sith

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smuthuttpodcast · 4 years

Text

I have read some great or good pieces of fan fiction that incorporate a trial of Ben Solo into their stories.

Name/Handle/Alias

BonnieSwims (Twitter & AO3)

About how long would you say you’ve been rooting for Reylo?

I've been rooting for them since mid 2016. I REALLY started reading a large amount of fan fiction after seeing The Last Jedi. I am not sure if I read stories on AO3 before The Last Jedi, if I did, I started reading in mid 2016.

What did you think of the way Rise of Skywalker handled Rey and Kylo’s relationship?

I do not think it got enough screen time. The time consuming scavenger hunt with Poe & Finn, only having Kylo & Rey cross swords...all would have been forgiven IF Ben Solo lived or, if he HAD to die, if there was more screentime of redeemed Ben Solo AND Rey told others of Ben Solo, grieved his death, took Solo name, and ended up somewhere green.

Do you think the film understood why you, and other people, felt like Rey and Kylo had something together? Did it get their chemistry?

Given the acting between Ridley & Driver, I do believe the film makers understood the chemistry between Rey & Kylo. I also believe they FAILED to see how Kylo could become Ben Solo again and deserved to live. They did not acknowledge how his connection to Rey & her influence on him made Kylo believe that Rey trusted him and wanted a better life for him. Instead they went with "let's have them fight at every chance." It is true he was enraged at the end of TLJ but that feeling was from his perceived abandonment by Rey. Plus, TROS takes place a year later. The rage would lessen somewhat I imagine or if the rage against Rey was still so high, Kylo would have been MORE terrifying and just straight up kill Rey early in the movie. They did not understand Rey also insisted Ben do this for himself not for his mother, Rey, or Han or for power. That is why he was so upset that she did not take his hand when he offered. (The TROS story did get the "i wanted to take Ben's hand" correct.) There was also the strange scene of Rey looking happily at children. Was it an attempt to foreshadow a family with Ben? That's what it seemed like they were telling the audience but then at the end of the movie, I was left with thinking maybe Rey is now going to have two lovers and create a family with Finn & Poe.

What about the handling of Kylo’s redemption? Was it something you had to think through in your stories?

I have read MANY pieces of fan fiction on AO3, listened to Girls with Sabers & What the Force podcasts which seemed to focus on comparing Star Wars to works of great literature & myths, how Star Wars incorporates the Hero's & Heroine's Journey, and aspects of filmmaking. Given all the marketing with #ReyandKylo , #KyloandRey, the comics emphasizing the verbal (psychological) & physical abuse of Kylo, the comics showing how Ben Solo may not be responsible for the destruction of the Jedi Academy, the comics foreshadowing how Ben could survive being thrown off a cliff, the videos of little BB Ben Solo or Rolly Ben Solo (that never aired) and other items, it really seemed like the story was leading up to Bendemption. They did have Ben Solo redeem himself. I do think they had NO IDEA how to present Ben Solo to the Resistance after Palpatine is killed by Rey & Ben. They could not figure a way to do that so they just killed him off. I have read some great or good pieces of fan fiction that incorporate a trial of Ben Solo into their stories. Many were done well with Poe, Finn, & Rey coming to the defense of Ben because he helps them end the First Order. One story has Ben banished to a deserted planet for a year or two, then at the end he rejoined society where Rey was waiting for him. One has a trial that ended with a sentence of rehabilitation/probation where Rey might be the person in charge of controlling Ben. Other fics had it where Kylo is dismantling the FO from within so the Resistance can defeat them. Others have the First Order request an armistice. Another storyline I have read decided that since Ben saved the galaxy with Rey & he is Leia’s kid, he is pretty much absolved of his crimes since he will always have to atone for and live with the guilt of killing his father. The scene with Han in TROS was a great scene & did go a long way to Ben being redeemed and forgiven for his worst crime. The stabbing of Kylo, Rey’s healing of Kylo, & his tossing his saber was a great part of the movie and a good redemption arc. So that was good. Where the story lacked was the decision that Ben Solo still did not do enough so he needs to die. That was the mistake they made. They could have redeemed Ben & had him even start atoning for his crimes in the smallest way before the credits rolled IF they had a different plot than the LONG scavenger hunt.

Regarding stories after TROS, I have mainly read ‘fix-it” stories that are WIPs. The newest stories have Ben alive where he & Rey fly back to the Resistance where Rey has to protect Ben from being killed. He may be in a holding cell and discussions begin on what to do with Ben Solo. Those stories are pulling on the heart strings of “What would Leia want us to do with her only child?” and so far are resulting in sympathy for the fate of Ben Solo. I have read others that are basically have Rey telling the resistance that he can’t die or she will too or Rey is protecting Ben.

What did you think of where Rey landed at the end? There had been a lot of excitement around Star Wars having a female protagonist. Do you think she lived up to the promise of her character?

I did not like the ending. She was alone on a desert planet at a house where Luke's relatives were burned alive. She did not get a family. Well sure, she knows she is a Palpatine but from the beginning with TFA, I always felt like she wanted people around her that she was related to or had the capacity to help her create her own family. I did not like how the costume & hair reinforced Rey as a child virgin. That is where she was at the beginning of TFA. At the end of TLJ, her hair in not in her childhood style, she is wearing more 'earthy' colors showing character growth. Then with TROS, Rey regressed BACK to her childhood hairstyle and went to virginal white to show she is a 'good girl in white" and also a virgin. So she did not grow, in fact, she regressed. Her ending does not come off as the hero in white. She appears as the pure woman untainted by desire or love solely focused on protecting the galaxy. Additionally, she must be a robot because she was serene and happy as she flew away from Ben’s death. She was elated to see her Resistance friends. She was also so happy to be alone with BB-8 on a desert planet where the Skywalker Family has faced a lot of sadness. SUCH A HAPPY ENDING WITH SO MUCH HOPE. Wow, that is a lonely job for a scavenger that just wanted a family. So, girls, don't lose sight of your purity and you can be a hero if you are willing to bear the weight of that role only on your shoulders because you will have to do this alone. So Rey did not grow as a character and she did not get a family (unless you count her stealing the Skywalker family name but still alone because the last Skywalker died.)

There’s criticism of the movie that argues it’s akin to “fan fiction” and that is has too much fan service. As fans and fan-fiction writers, how do you react to that?

I have read many excellent stories that are fan fiction for Star Wars. The best fan fiction are stories that are planned, follow a plot structure, have a writer that RESEARCHED the characters, planets and ideas they were incorporating . TROS was not as good as the best fanfiction out there. It is very disappointing that some people and critics are excusing TROS by saying it is fan fiction. I disagree with that. If "fan service" means throw as many planets as we can into the story, add random things that are never fleshed out in the story, have a movie full of action with too many quick cuts with a lack of dialogue, and add a bunch of ships from the larger SW universe, then yes, the movie was fan service. What happened with just making a good movie? A good movie would have been acceptable. A great movie would have been wonderful. We were given a mess of movie that killed off THE LAST SKYWALKER (Ben) with no acknowledgement, reduced Hux to a very minor character when he could have been Kylo's main adversary, and Rey takes the name Skywalker with no explanation. Strangely, Terrio implied the sequel trilogy was a set of movies about the Skywalker Twins and they are now so happy to be Force Ghosts with their sabers buried on Tatooine. Does anyone believe that when Leia tells Han to “bring our son home” she means she wants to meet Ben in Force Ghost Heaven soon? One could argue that TFA was Han's film, TLJ was Luke's film , and TROS was Leia's film. That became difficult to accomplish with Carrie fisher's death. PLUS, WHY EVEN HAVE THE VILLAIN BE THE LAST SKYWALKER if that character wasn't supposed to even be a big part of the film? So confusing & disappointing, especially since JJ made Ben Solo into Kylo Ren. If he did not want Kylo/Ben to play an important role as The Last Skywalker, why didn’t he just make Hux the bad guy all along? The only conclusion I can come to is the sequel trilogy was always intended to be a tragedy like the prequel trilogy to teach kids about tragedy, disappointment, death, the importance of mortal sacrifice for your sins even if you are mentally and physically abused. (Anakin & Ben were both psychologically manipulated.) What a way to teach a moral lesson about trust, family, friendship, and hope. Kinda hard to see those messages as the credits rolled on The Rise of Skywalker.

Are you still writing any Star Wars fanfic? Tell us about it! (Don't forget your Ao3 handle!)

I am a reader only.

I will mention that I am almost convinced that all the Terrio comments about Skywalker Twins, special effects personnel saying they were never asked to make Ben a Force Ghost, the three month delay for the TROS artbook, and so little information about Ben Solo’s ‘death” is LucasFilm admitting that Ben is not dead and they will do another Rey movie or a Solo movie called "The Resurrection of Ben Solo." Who knows if Driver or Ridley will EVER do another SW movie, though. Animated movie/TV show? A miniseries for Disney+...”The Search for Solo.”

Thank you Bonnie Swims

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