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#and once again thinking about how much it frustrates me to see luke characterized as like. a naive kid? or a ''sunshine boy'' like Please
smallblueandloud · 2 years
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i feel like luke's fighting style is underrated as a way of analyzing his character. like we have SO LITTLE canon for luke and his (original) characterization that the time he spends fighting is not insignificant, proportionally. and he's aggressive when he fights! he gets caught up in his emotions and gets clumsy! i love him
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kyloren · 4 years
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Why Reylos Are A Bright Spot In The STAR WARS Fandom
It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.
But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.
full article below the cut:
Why is romantic love such a controversial thing in fandom? It’s something I ask myself a lot, as a person who writes about shipping and who desires the kind of love that stories tell me might exist. I’ve spent most of my life in fandom spaces—participating in conversations or observing and examining them—and have witnessed firsthand how objectionable fictional romance can be, especially in fandoms that appeal to and target men. Why is this the case, and why is romance a thing we use to punish women looking for escapism in genre stories?
It’s hard to say, but it remains an endemic and undeniable strain. Shipping, which is fandom code for wanting two characters to be together, is often snickered at or seen as some frivolous element of appreciation. It can lead to shaming that feels personal and accusatory, as if your interest in a fictional relationship is a roadmap to your own intentions and experience. This attitude towards shippers is especially present in the Star Wars fandom, where the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is steeped in a seemingly never-ending controversy. There are fervent supporters of the romance between these characters, a plentiful contingent of opposers, and those who don’t really care one way or another but still seem fit to criticize.
Why has the “Reylo” ship created such a stir? Let’s dig into this subset of the Star Wars fandom: where it started, why it’s accumulated so much negativity, and why the Reylos don’t deserve the bad reputation they’ve acquired, especially in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.
THE ORIGINS OF REYLO
The release of The Last Jedi was a rough time for a lot Star Wars fans. The film—the eighth in the Skywalker saga and the second in the Disney-era sequel trilogy—made a lot of bold storytelling choices, which divided the fandom into camps. Those who loved the meditations on the Force, Luke Skywalker’s troubled hero’s journey, the complicated characterization of Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose’s failed mission, and the strange developing bond between Rey and Kylo felt at odds with anyone who saw otherwise. Many disliked Luke’s arc, or the apparent sidelining of Poe and Finn, or the democratization of the Force. The disagreements spiraled into something bordering collective mania. It’s a debate that still rages today, and that seeped into the conversations we’re currently having about The Rise of Skywalker.
I loved the movie, but found the discourse numbing. Positive Twitter conversations were instantly marred by detractors, and every passionate argument was upended by accusatory nitpicks. I felt discouraged from participating in any of it, and I felt bitter towards the Star Wars community in general. Until I found the Reylos.
After stumbling on podcasts like What The Force?, Skytalkers, and Scavenger’s Hoard—all female-hosted programs—I realized there were plenty of encouraging conversations about The Last Jedi happening in fandom. I also realized most of them were Reylo-oriented. Suddenly, I was exposed to the exact conversations I always wanted to have about Star Wars: deep dives into mythology, redemption arcs, symbolism and dualism, religion, poetry. And all of that was encompassed in Reylo. All of these larger stories, focused through these characters joined by fate and purpose, who represented opposing ideologies of the Force.
There was so much to dig into. Rey and Kylo have a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, a romantic trope seen in fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, classic literature like Pride and Prejudice, mythological stories like that of Hades and Persephone, even modern genre television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s typically used in women-oriented storytelling, as it affords duality and compassion to both parties; a distribution of power that makes the women as complicated, compromised, and interesting as their male counterparts. Rey’s interest in Kylo adds a layered intrigue to a character otherwise patently “good” and “pure,” words commonly associated with women, forcing them into palatable, antiquated gender roles.
Their relationship feeds a part of the fanbase who craves that kind of female protagonist. One who represents their own burgeoning lust, complicated compassion for the men they chose to care about, and temptation towards things we’re told to fear. Through the Reylo relationship, Rey took on another angle, one that finally made Star Wars feel like a story for me.
THE BACKLASH
I also learned right away what it meant to be a Reylo in the Star Wars fandom. The relationship between the light-sided Rey and dark-sided Kylo was riddled in turmoil. In The Force Awakens, a scene where he straps her down and interrogates her is considered by many to be abusive. The language Kylo uses to seduce Rey to his side in The Last Jedi is also seen as manipulative and problematic. He tells her that no one knows her like he does. In their opinion, he’s attempting to groom her to his standards, to turn her into what he wants against her own will. Those against the relationship will tell you that it’s a dangerous and negative message to send to young girls.
And here’s where I’ll say something potentially controversial amongst my fellow Reylos: I don’t think these people are “wrong.” Because everyone’s experience and perspective is their own thing to interrogate, and it’s not up to me to tell people how to feel about something–even if I disagree entirely. What I do take issue with, however, is the need to interrogate someone else’s preferences or fantasies. There is an infantilizing element to the backlash, as if those opposed think that Reylos haven’t reconciled with the themes presented to them, and are merely choosing to ignore them because they think Adam Driver is hot.
The way I see it, relationships like Reylo—power fantasies oriented on the feminine psyche, with an antagonistic male—fulfill two things I love in storytelling. They are pure escapism; the happy ending those of us drawn to the incurable are never afforded. And they are instructive, as they exemplify the patriarchal schism between men and women: that we are not equal, but that women love men anyway because of the compassion that comes naturally to balance that division. It shows how we can mend those gaps through patience and understanding. It’s archetypical and fantastical, sure, but that’s what Star Wars is: a fairy tale that wrestles with society and humanity in broad strokes.
That said, there are other reasons for dissent. Some fans ship Rey and Finn, and see their romance as a better avenue for a healthy relationship. Some have experienced personal trauma and can’t abide a romance that mimics and negates their pain. Others just don’t see the Reylo thing at all. Absolutely all of that is valid. Shipping should never be a competition or an authoritative moral stance on any side. Rey/Finn shippers are just as valid as Reylos because it speaks to what someone personally craves and desires. The shaming shouldn’t exist on any side—but because it does, the passionate defense comes in.
REYLOS DON’T DESERVE THE HATE
That knee-jerk self defense has drawn a lot of ire to the Reylo community in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. On paper, the Reylos were given a lot of what they desire: Kylo Ren is redeemed and turns back into Ben Solo. Rey and Ben fight side by side and even share a kiss. But then Ben dies and Rey ends the movie alone, something that irked the shippers. They saw the ending as a grim conclusion for Ben and a way of punishing Rey for expressing her desires. To many, the ending feels hopeless and feeds into this stereotypical notion that for a woman to be strong, she must be single — as if romantic love weakens us.
There are other ways to read the ending, and many fans found power in it. That’s the beauty of film: that it’s entirely subjective. But in their profession of disappointment, the Reylos once again became a punching bag for the fandom at large. A recent BuzzFeed article compared the way Reylos reacted to The Rise of Skywalker to the way the Fandom Menace—a trolling, abusive, anti-Disney hate group—reacted to The Last Jedi. (Never mind that their “source” for this reaction was a tweet from a prominent member of the Fandom Menace, and that many of the complaints in question were either fabricated or from non-Reylo accounts.)
It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.
But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.
I also know that the Reylos helped me find my way back to loving Star Wars, gave me endless professional and creative inspiration for the last two years, and deepened my interest and love of storytelling and mythology. I know I’m not alone, and I know that the Reylo shipping community has made Star Wars finally feel like a fandom they were allowed to love. That’s something I hope fans with different access points to the world of Star Wars might think about before they wag a finger or call Reylos fake fans or mock their interests and experience. Star Wars can and should be for everyone, and how we find our way into the galaxy far, far away is a unique, personal, and beautiful thing. Love is what it’s all about at the end of the day. Even romantic love.
by Lindsey Romain for Nerdist [find article HERE]
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nitrateglow · 4 years
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Re-reading Jane Eyre for the first time in years
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I read this book once in high school and again sometime in college. I’d been meaning to reread it for a while, but only recently hunkered down. I’m glad I did because I forgot how enjoyable Jane Eyre is. I’m so obsessed with Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights that it becomes too easy for me to misremember Jane Eyre as tame and more conventional, but Charlotte Bronte, while not as adventurous with structure as Emily and not as savage in her characterizations, is still quite revolutionary in her own way, and I have been unfair to her in my hazy recollections.
For one thing, I forgot how well-paced this book is. Victorian literature is not known for being quick, shall we say, but so much is packed into the first fifty pages alone. Chapter One lacks a flashy first sentence (indeed, Bronte describes the weather, an approach writers these days are told to avoid), but it pulls you quietly into Jane’s life. The scene is domestic, but with an oppressive, unfriendly atmosphere.
Observing how Bronte introduces us to Jane as a child, I was reminded of part of the Star Wars video I posted the other day where the speaker said the best way to get an audience behind a character right away is not to have them “save the cat” or to “establish likability,” but to show them in an unpleasant situation anyone can understand. In Star Wars, we like Luke not because we immediately see he is brave and kind, but because he’s a bored, frustrated teenager forced to do chores.
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In Jane Eyre, we do not see a lot of Jane’s passionate rebelliousness right away, but we do see she is neglected and abused by her cruel relatives. Even before her crazy cousin John attacks her (seriously, that guy is like an even more psychopathic prototype for Dudley in Harry Potter), her aunt tells the quiet, curious Jane outright she needs to be something she is not in order to be worthy of love (”Cheer up emo kid”-- or something like that). The servants give her crap for standing up for herself against John’s physical abuse.
It’s only just struck me how shocking much of this is for the period too. John’s attack on Jane is really violent, about as violent as scuffles we see in Wuthering Heights. Right away, Bronte is also attacking religious hypocrisy. Good Christian thinking would have one love and support an orphaned child with nowhere to go and no money to her name-- Jane is basically a prime example of “the least of these” mentioned in the parable of the sheep and the goats-- yet her relatives are class-obsessed snobs who act as though Jane is the wicked one for not appreciating being spat upon all the time. In fact, the more outwardly religious anyone in Jane Eyre is, the more likely they are to be absolutely self-righteous and terrible. Bronte’s criticism of such behavior is even more shocking when you recall she was the daughter of a clergyman... a poor, in many ways unconventional clergyman, but still.
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koujaaku · 4 years
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opinions on rise of skywalker?
After watching it twice, I’ll admit I actually did really enjoy it. I still stand by my initial thought that it feels like they shoved too much into one movie, that the pacing was wonky and characterization wasn’t consistent throughout the trilogy... but with the fiasco that was TLJ, that was pretty much inevitable. TROS was good! but it could’ve been great. 
things I liked:
throwbacks to the original trilogy
Chewie finally got his medal 🥺 I read up that it’s actually Han’s... which makes my heart ache even more, because now it also serves as a memory for him and Leia (since she was the one who originally handed them out and wanted Chewie to have it)
Babu Frik
Force-sensitive Finn!!!
Jedi Leia!!!
Co-Generals Finn and Poe!!!
Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) cameo
Kylo’s little shrug before he beats the shit out of the KoR
seeing Adam Driver smile on screen
Rey’s face right before she hugs Finn and Poe
they played the “Luke and Leia” track at the end (my fave) 🥺
YELLOW LIGHTSABER MADE FROM HER STAFF. (I want to know if it’s double-sided!)
“Rey Skywalker,” fuck yeah
that end shot on Tatooine
things I’m neutral about:
Palpatine & Rey being a Palpatine -- I mean... I guess it works. It’s the only thing that could be a successful shock factor at this point. I don’t want to think about Palpatine doing the nasty, though.
dark side Rey got me like 🥵 but her teeth got me like 😨
the dagger -- HOW DOES A DAGGER ALIGN WITH DEATH STAR WRECKAGE? WAS THE DEATH STAR DESIGNED TO BREAK APART LIKE THAT? HOWWJFKFLJDHG
things I disliked:
THE PACING. I already mentioned this and it’s obvious that they just had too much to wrap up, but some particular moments that stood out were: the whole first third of the movie especially, C-3PO regaining his memory (the audience is still mourning the fact that he doesn’t remember R2D2, then the film does a 180 and gives you whiplash with R2 immediately fixing the problem), Finn and Jannah are just suddenly there on the Death Star wreckage, etc.
HUX. Part of me was thrilled at the aspect of double agent Hux (especially the Kylux fan in me), but realistically, it didn’t fit his character at all. Yes, he hates Kylo and the humiliation Kylo put him through, but TFA Hux would never have dreamed of stooping low enough to help the Resistance, even if it meant take Kylo down a peg or two. I think Pryde’s character was completely unnecessary and Hux could have taken his role easily, and that would’ve pitted Kylo and Hux against each other even more. Hux would get to live his dream of leading the fleet (if just for a brief time) and it wouldn’t feel like they shoe-horned his character in last-minute because they couldn’t figure out what to do with him after the joke he was made into in TLJ.
POE. Poe’s characterization wasn’t as mangled as it was in TLJ, but it was still a mess, and Oscar has every right to be as tired/frustrated as he is. Was it really necessary for him to tell C-3PO to shut up at least five times? Yeah, 3PO won’t stop talking and one or two quips about it would’ve been fine, but his nonstop complaints felt excessive. Why did Finn and Rey have to be so hung-up on him being a spice runner? Han worked for the fucking mafia and he’s still a hero, so stop criminalizing Poe’s past and move on...... and also: it would’ve been nice to see Poe grieve a little for Leia.
ROSE. I don’t have much to say because there was hardly any of her in the movie. They did her and Kelly so dirty and my heart aches for her.
KYLO’S REDEMPTION. I mean... where do I start... yeah, the sap in me liked seeing Han again and the part where Kylo whimpered “dad” did take a stab at my heart... but that whole Han/Ben scene was literally taken straight from TFA all over again and it’s like... now it works because mommy called his name once and died for it? because Rey healed his boo-boo? again, I’ve dreamed of a Kylo redemption story as a Kylux fan hundreds of times, but I don’t think he actually deserves it. Half a movie is definitely not enough time to start trying to make up for what he’s done, not even close.
THE KISS. They spend 2.5 movies hating each other, and then suddenly Kylo does ONE big good deed and he’s boyfriend-worthy? Anyway.
THE OTHER KISS. The one-second, blink-or-you-miss-it lesbian kiss that they edited out for Singapore. :) Fuck you, Disney. Representation, my ass.
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mandaloriangf · 6 years
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the reylo batb au debacle
long post ahead. tw: racism
i. preface
i dont make call out posts. i think a lot of people abuse call outs, like that one reylo who made a post about me that just consisted of screenshots of me venting on my own blog in the proper tags. i dont know if i would call this a call out, per se. most people (antis, reylos, and bystanders) probably already know the gist of this situation. my reason for making this post is primarily because the original post of mine has gotten rather long with me reblogging it and adding on (you can see the most recent version here) and i would like to have more of a masterpost of sorts, since im a petty bitch who can’t let things go. 
ii. the story
i was alerted by an anon to a fic, which is an a/b/o beauty and the beast retelling with rey as belle and kylo as the beast. in gaston’s place is finn. i haven’t read the fic word for word nor do i want to, but i searched finn’s name in the fic and this is what came up.
(note: most of these screenshots are from my original post, but i’ve added on with chapters that have been published since then)
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“Myself if necessary; somewhere out there is my mate, and I will wait for them.” She said resolutely, holding her breath against the smell of pine and charcoal rolling off him. She had never found Finn’s scent a pleasant one.
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“I believe Rey is missing,” Finn said with a scowl. “and I don’t like it when my things go missing.”
“Rey has never been yours.” Obi snapped. “She’s not a piece of property.”
“Details.” Finn smirked. “Now, are you going to tell me where she’s really run off to? Or are you holding fast to your ridiculous story of monsters and secret castles?”
Obi narrowed his eyes, refusing to entertain the brute anymore than he had to. “I think it’s time you were on your way, Finn. Please feel free to head in the opposite direction should you feel the urge to call upon me again.”
Finn shook his head, rolling his eyes heavily. “I’ll be back, Obi. I will find out where Rey is hiding.”
Obi shut the door in his face quickly, eager to be rid of the boorish oaf. He leaned against the wood, pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing gently to ease his frustration. He should have been more open to Finn’s help, he could take all of it that he could get. Still, seeking aid in Finn felt like escaping the hounds to land in the fire. Hardly an improvement.  
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“She’s the only one who’s rejected me. Me. The nerve of her. No. This won’t stand. I’ll track her down if it’s the last thing I do.” Finn snarled.
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Finn took a long swig from his freshly filled tankard the server had just finished capping off, a small smile playing at his mouth as his plan gained more and more merit in his mind. Rey would not allude him for much longer. He would find her, and show her exactly who she belonged to.
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Charles frowned. “I don’t want Finn anywhere near Rey. I don’t trust him. He’d sooner force her into mating with him as rescue her.”
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They crept deeper into the forest, making sure to maintain vigilance as they scanned the forest for anything strange. Finn wondered idly how Rey would have even made it through this woods, a mere woman. When he brought her back home, he would be sure to have a talk with her about what is and isn’t acceptable.
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She scrambled backwards then, her back meeting Artoo’s haunches as he pranced away. She felt distress coursing through her, wanting no part of Finn or his strange obsession with her. “You’ll not touch me.”
“Shh.” He whispered. “You’re only confused. All will be well.”
“Leave, Finn. Go back to Jakku. No one wants you here, least of all me.” She spat.
He growled low, yanking her up by her hair. “You’ll learn your place, Rey. Once I bring you back to Jakku. First though, I will take care of the bastard who dared to touch what was mine.”
“I. Am. Not. Yours.” She ground out, her scalp smarting from the grip he still kept on her hair.
“You will be.” He assured darkly.
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He didn’t realize he had lost until it was too late. He glanced down, the iron bolt plunged deep into his chest. For a moment he merely stared at it, his breath coming out in heavy pants as he tried to process what he was seeing. A gurgle sounded in his chest, coughing up a spray of blood. His mouth fell open in disbelief, taking a step backwards as his hand went to the bolt.
He gripped it in his fist, tugging it outwards and throwing it to the ground. His hands pawed at the hole in his chest, blood pouring over his fingers as he swayed slightly. His knees trembled, falling to be ground and kneeling. He gave a final shuddering breath, falling forward in a slump and going still. Rey dropped the bow as if it burned her, leaning her back against the tree she’d used to steady herself and gasping for breath. She felt relief and remorse in that moment, the knowledge that she’d taken a life outweighed only by the knowledge that she’d saved one.
(context: the above is rey murdering finn to save kylo)
as you can see, finn, star wars’ first ever black lead, is portrayed as a violent, aggressive, rapey misogynist who threatens rey psychically and sexually. he believes rey, a white woman, is his property and rey must kill him to save her lover, a white man. i mean, this whole thing should be very obvious. i dont care that its fiction, i dont care that its fanfiction. fiction does not exist in a vacuum and if you believe so, biases like this WILL go unchecked. 
i was infuriated after reading this and found a note where the author addresses previous accusations of racism
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I was more or less labeled as a racist today for my characterization of Finn, and I felt the need to briefly address that. It was never my intention to lead anyone to believe that my dislike of Finn has anything to do with his race. I dislike his character canonically purely for reasons that have nothing to do with the color of his skin. I obviously realize he’s not a villain, and that he’s out of character. I will not apologize for the way that I’ve written him, as I know in my heart I meant no malicious intent, but I will apologize to anyone who has thought even in the slightest that I was being oppressive or insensitive. I know myself and that’s not who I am, and that was never my intention. I want to go ahead and post this because I don’t know when my next will be and I wanted to leave it on a good note. I don’t foresee a long gap, don’t worry, but at this moment I don’t feel good about the story and I need a few days to reassess where it is going.
iii. the comments
while i easily could’ve just moved on since there are a number of reylo fics out there much like this one, knowing that this one had such popularity and such a tone deaf author, i decided to venture into the comments and lo and behold, the amount of hate for finn was blinding. 
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there are plenty more, but i hope this can give you a taste of what the comments section looks like. 
the author’s hate for finn basically boils down to this: he’s indecisive and he lied to rey. that’s it. that’s what the author uses to justify writing finn in a vicious, anti-black stereotype. 
at some point, an anonymous commenter called out the racism.
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a concerned citizen: So are you ever gonna address how racist your characterization of Finn is or what.
ktf: Oh lord. No because it’s blatantly not true. He is characterized heavily in concordance with the classic Gaston character. Possessive, arrogant, pig headed… Your complaint is reaching and you can take it elsewhere. Jeez Louise. So silly. Have you even seen Beauty and the Beast? I don’t like Finn as a a character in canon for reasons that have nothing to do with his race (because I admittedly love John Boyega irl as well as in Pacific Rim, the only other film I’ve seen him in) and as such I characterize him as an asshole for my own self satisfaction.
a concerned citizen: Look I love Reylo as much as the next guy but if you need explaining why it’s racist to make the black character who is, in canon, nothing but a kind and supportive friend, into a sexually aggressive misogynist then I don’t know what to tell you. It costs zero dollars not to demonize black characters for your own “self satisfaction.”
ktf: So, to be clear, if I had used ANY other character from the film who had been kind and supportive, Poe, Han, Holdo, Leia, Snap, Kaydel, Luke… as long as they hadn’t been a POC it would totally fine? Do you see my confusion? It’s an alternate universe.
a concerned citizen: A: Demonizing black men as sexual aggressors bent on possessing/raping white women is a long-standing trope used by white supremacists. It’s done to dehumanize black men and drum up fear in white folk so that they feel threatened enough to commit acts of violence. This is one of the most basic tactics of antiblack racism.
B: Gaston was never a part of the original fairy tale. He was made up for the Disney adaptation to add tension and to counterbalance the Beast to make the message crystal clear for the little ones watching– don’t fear The Other. Gaston represents the cultural hegemony of masculine behavior in Belle’s culture; the Beast, on the other hand, is The Other, the outsider, the marginalized force. Black people have practically been The Other in Western media for centuries. Now I’m not telling you that you have to make Finn the Beast or else it’s bunk, just that you have to be aware of the characters’ roles and what they fulfill in the narrative. Making Finn the Gaston character was a conscious decision you made– you took a black character and plopped him into a role that was specifically made to be the representation of toxic masculinity, that decision isn’t made in a vacuum.
C: Absolutely no one is holding your feet to the fire to make sure that you follow the plotline of the source material verbatim. Certainly you took liberties with what form of beastliness Kylo had, so you could have similarly chose to alter Gaston’s characterization in some way or you could have made Finn a different character entirely. Like I mentioned before, Gaston was not in the original fairy tale and so the narrative works fine without him. Finn exhibits none of Gaston’s character traits in canon so you chose willingly to sand him down so you could fit a square peg in a round hole– an action that, as mentioned previously, reflects the rhetoric of white supremacy for the past few centuries.
ktf: Okay. You know what? You obviously woke up this morning itching for a soapbox. So, may the force be with you and may your crusade keep you warm at night. This is a fan fiction, not a doctoral thesis, so if you don’t mind I’m just going to continue living my life. I can assure you no thoughts of “demonizing” a race ever crossed my mind while writing this. It’s not who I am. This doesn’t deserve my time because you, A. Know nothing about me. B. Obviously have way too much time on your hands. C. Aren’t worth the stress you’re causing. Have a blessed day!
iv. the aftermath
since my original post, i have been silently blocked by the author. antis who are poc have gotten anon hate, which has often been radicalized while i, a white anti, have not received anything wrt this fic. the author has gotten cocky about the whole situation, she has a bunch of adoring readers who coddle her, and she refuses to listen to any form of criticism.
now that i’m at the end of this post, i’m not really sure what i want to come out of it. i wanted to include more, but there’s so much shit to wade through in the comments and that doesn’t even account for what’s on the author’s tumblr. reylos, this shit has to fucking stop. you need to hold each other accountable, you need to call each other out bc this is exhausting. 
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redhatmeg · 6 years
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Did Someone Say "Dalton Headcanons"?
Thanks for opening submissions. These are about the entire Dalton family, not just the brothers, hope you don’t mind.
1) Emmett Dalton uses sarcasm as a coping mechanism. (I have no idea how I got this one, it just happened). After the raid on Coffeyville he does it more.
2) After breaking out of prison to avenge his brothers with more than a few shades of survivor‘s guilt mixed in, he almost dies AGAIN from a rattlesnake bite. It‘s only because of Lucky Luke that Emmett survived and this second near-death experience makes him reevaluate his life choices. Like the real Emmett Dalton, he decides to pay his debt to society, is released early and starts anew in a civilian life.
3) The town he so happens to settle down in is the same one where that saloon dancer he had an affair with lives together with her son (I call her Emily). They eventually end up back together.
4) Speaking of sons, Emmett Junior keeps the promise he made to Luke to be good and while he‘s more accepted now, he still gets some shit from people because of his father and that simultaneously made him more determined to stay good and prove them wrong, but it also made him bitter and cynical, especially towards his conceiver. Suffice to say, when he meets Emmett at the age of 16, he‘s not exactly overjoyed to see his father. Emmett is just schocked when he sees his son for the first time. They develop a complicated, somewhat positive, but shaky relationship. Junior considers Winchester Bobby to be his real father and that will never change.
I figured that the entire context in which the son was concieved and who Emmett was would not exactly cause an easy acceptance of and reconciliation with him on his son‘s side.
5) Emmett has been turned off crime for good after losing all of his brothers at once to it. He‘d wish the rest of his family would stop, too, especially his cousins, because he doesn‘t want the same to happen to them and he sees the outlaw life as really empty and not worth it in the long run.
6) Emmett is constantly mistaken for his cousin Averell to his frustration and annoyance.
At the beginning of the fictional Daltons‘ proper introduction comic people first assume they are their cousins due to them being more well-known and the fictional Daltons practically being nobodies in the criminal scene. As Joe and co. become infamous the opposite should logically happen as the fictional Daltons have pretty much replaced their historical cousins. Marcel Dalton was mistaken for Averell as well when he came to visit his nephews.
7) Speaking of Marcel, he‘s Ma‘s brother and she was secretely very upset when he got thrown out of the family. He was the white sheep, yes, but he was still her brother and she loves him despite his goody-goody nature. That‘s also partially the reason why she dotes on Averell as he reminds her of Marcel.
Marcel and Averell having a similar good nature made me wonder and that‘s how I developed this headcanon. I wish Ma had shown up in that comic, I‘m sure it would have lead to some interesting interactions.
8) Ma‘s birth name is Mae, Pa Dalton‘s is Benjamin.
I don‘t think they were born with the names „Ma“ and „Pa“ and took on those names after they became parents. I have no real reason why I chose those names besides that I liked them.
9) Jack secretely likes wearing women‘s clothing. Not in a sexual way or because he‘s secretely gay/bisexual/pansexual, he just likes being „pretty“. He‘d never admit that, of course, not even to himself.
It‘s sad that Jack being a master of disguise was dropped after one album and I want to give him some character, too. I think he pulled off the female disguise quite well.
10) Ma and Pa met when they tried to crack the safe of the same person at the same time. After some rivalry and a few arguments at first, they formed a criminal duo with Ma managing to escape conviction every time like her sons said in her album. They ended up falling in love and the rest is history.
11) Despite all the arguments they have the Dalton brothers do love and care about each other, especially Joe towards Averell.
In one story of the Rantanplan spin-off Averell is kidnapped and his brothers break out of prison just to rescue him. So they definitely care. Also, they could never forgive themselves if something happened to Averell, especially Joe. Ma certainly wouldn‘t forgive.
12) I stole this one from the TVTropes WMG page, but William and Jack‘s full names are „William Jack“ and „Jack William“ and people either use their first names or their second names. They also sometimes switch names to screw with people.
This doesn‘t perfectly explain in-story why these two switch heights, sometimes even within the same album, but it‘s better than nothing. It also fits nicely with the „William and Jack are twins“ headcanon.
13) Pa Dalton died before Joe turned 13 and Averell is old enough to remember him. Averell was at least seven.
I got the impression that the Daltons‘ father has been dead for awhile and I like the concept of Ma Dalton raising four young sons on her own while dealing with her grief.
14) Averell could very easily life a civilian life if it wasn‘t for his family. As it is, he‘s content to follow the family business and definitely enjoys the outlaw life.
Averell is the nicest out of the brothers and Otto von Himbeergeist‘s therapy worked on him, so it‘s a very real possibility.
15) William doesn‘t like to be called „Bill“ as that‘s what one of his cousins was called.
16) He‘s also the most knowledgeable about firearms and the best shooter out of the brothers.
We see he‘s quite the gun nut in their first proper album and, like Jack, he needs some actual characterization.
17) Henri/Henry Dalton was Pa‘s brother and the historical Dalton‘s father. Pa married into the Dalton family and he and the rest of his family legally changed their name to „Dalton“ for the prestige.
I have the need to make some sense of the Dalton family tree and all as of now revealed relatives. This might be contradicted by canon and needs some twisting to fit, but I like the idea.
21 notes · View notes
sssssssim · 6 years
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May we take a moment to discuss the colors of Reylo?
Today I am going to analyze the ship of Rey and Kylo Ren from a fun perspective: colors. 
How the two characters came to have a distinct color associated with them, how the choice was far from random, but most of all, how these colors are used to emphasize their stories and give us a bit more insight to it.
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Our story starts at the end of The Force Awakens, but it takes place mostly in The Last Jedi. So join me in a tale with both Jedi and Sith undertones, interesting details, some heartbreak, loads of gifs, some strategically placed outer-links and a bit over 3k words. 
Sometimes, this will be a story of purple.
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There is no doubt in my mind that the colors these characters have been assigned come from the colors of their lightsabers. 
As we know, a lightsaber is a powerful weapon, used by the Jedi and Sith both. However, according to the Star Wars wikia, “Though also used by the Sith, the lightsaber is synonymous with the Jedi, with some in the galaxy believing only Jedi can use lightsabers.” That feels a little like a detail lost across the centuries, because the Sith have always used lightsabers, as far as we’ve seen.
Fun fact! (that doesn’t necessary tie in with our story): the main difference between the two factions, when it came to lightsabers, is that the Jedi favored natural crystals, whereas the Sith almost always used synthetic crystals.  
Let’s go back to our characters and their lightsabers.
Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is a crossguard he had made based on an ancient design dating back to a time where the Jedi had attacked a Sith temple, activating it and killing everyone on the planet (the Great Scourge of Malachor). The horrors of this battle apparently would go on to inform Jedi legends for millennia to come, and it tells us something about Kylo’s state of mind. He chose to build his lightsaber based on historic events that didn’t fare well neither for the Jedi, nor the Sith. Not only that, but based on a truly horrible event, and it did nothing to deter him. 
Also, we have to note that the lightsaber contains a cracked Kyber crystal, and that is the reason for the lateral vents on the handle, used to divert the extra heat. It is an unstable weapon, not just in appearance, as the plasma blades have a flickering appearance, but in functionality as well. The crystal is barely able to contain the weapon’s power, but Kylo still uses it. Stubbornly so, I think, and once again, it helps characterise him: volatile and unstable, just as his saber. 
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Another important detail is the color of the crossguard: red. According to basic color theory, red is a color associated with energy, war, danger, strength, determination, and it is a very emotionally intense color. The lightsaber’s color is used to help characterize its wielder, for all of these things are found in Kylo’s personality. 
I also feel the need to point out that we’ve only ever seen Sith wield red lightsabers. Sidius, Vader. Red, totally dark side. Heck, if Snoke got a saber, they would’ve need to invent a brighter shade of red. So Kylo is totally dark side. D’uh.
However, red is also the color of passion, desire and love. With Kylo, we caught a glimpse of that in The Force Awakens, but not in the fluffy way you’d expect. When he killed Han, Kylo renounced all of these characteristics. Unsuccessfully, as the next movie points out, but we’ll get to that later.
Rey’s lightsaber is not her own, yet it called to her on Takodana, and it activated her powers. Originally, the lightsaber belonged to Anakin Skywalker, who had made it during his Jedi training. Thus, it is tainted with the dark side, which is a detail we must remember for later on. 
However, after Anakin, the lightsaber was passed on to Luke, who used it in his training to become a Jedi. Pretty ironically, it was Darth Vader who cost him the lightsaber (and hand). We don’t actually know how Maz got a hold of it after that, but it did, eventually, end up in Rey’s hands and not only did she (and Finn) use it to fight Kylo on Starkiller Base, but she also used it to bargain for Luke’s return to the war. 
This lightsaber isn’t just a weapon, but a symbol and a plot device. 
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It is bright blue and basic color theory tells us that it is the color of the sky (which Rey dreamed of exploring) and the sea (which she had dreamed of, foreshadowing her journey to Ahch-To). It is associated with depth and stability, and symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth, which are all characteristics Rey undoubtably stands for. It is associated with tranquility and calmness, with heaven. The light.
Which is a stark contrast to Kylo’s red hell.
These colors have been used since the first moment Rey and Kylo interracted. It happened when she touched Luke’s lightsaber, and it is the first moment the viewer sees the bond between the two characters. Rey is thrown into a vision, that leads to Kylo’s side. Just as he’s killing someone, ouch.
But the entire scene is bathed in blue. And Kylo’s lightsaber shines bright red.
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Red and blue are both primary colors, but not complementary to each other. The contrast created between them is stark and harsh, as is the battle between Rey and Kylo. At least at the start.
But what happens when you put red and blue next to each other? You create a new color.
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Back at it with the basic color theory: purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. It is associated with royalty, it symbolizes power, luxury and ambition. Wisdom, dignity, independence, mystery and magic.
What does that mean for our two characters? Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings, whereas dark purple evokes gloom and sad feeling, causing frustration. 
...Sounds about right.
Let’s go on to The Last Jedi, where all the juicy stuff happens. Right from the start, the movie consolidates these colors and their characters.
The first time we see Rey, she is surrounded by the blue sea.
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First time we see Ben, it’s a bit more complicated. He’s covered by black, only to be revealed surrounded by white. He gets out of the elevator and into the throne room, which is a shrine to the color red. 
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Why white, you ask? Well. Basic color theory tells us white is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity and virginity. YEAH MAYBE NOT. It is considered to be the color of perfection. I know we all love Adam Driver, but DEFINITELY NOT when it comes to Kylo.
However, white can represent a successful beginning. I’m not sure of the successful part, but this is surely a beginning for Kylo Ren. And every beginning starts somewhere, somewhere the character has been before: hence the violent red in the next scene.
After his conversation with Snoke, Kylo gets back on the elevator. While it’s still prominently white and black, there are very small splashes of color: the panels behind him have both red and blue lights.
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And as he is destroying his helmet, the red is the color evidenced the most, but blue is still there. Not only that, but the lights he smashes go off with a vaguely blue spark.
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It is a little bit of foreshadowing, and it is going to keep happening throughout the film. The red is always there, by Kylo’s side, but in smaller doses so is the blue. ... Rey, I do mean Rey. Kylo has his reddark side, but Rey is always there, in the back of his mind.
I’m not going to lie, I haven’t noticed it happening as much with Rey’s scenes, at least not until she connects with Kylo. All of Ahch-To is a little blue, because of the ocean that surrounds it, but it’s not very evident. 
There’s no red, thought, and the lack of it makes sense: she doesn’t care much about Ben at this point, does she? He’s her enemy.
Do you know what is blue, though? The beacons that will bring Rey home. In case you were doubting her place wasn’t by the light.
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The first time the bond connects them, this status quo persists.
Kylo is surrounded by red things, with just the tiniest bit of blue, coming from the light above him. Completely dark, with a hint of light threatening to escape.
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Rey is completely devoid of blue or red. Neither light, nor dark. Well, maybe that grey has a blue undertone, but that’d be stretching it a bit thin.
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But when the bond connects them, it’s very interesting because neither of them have any of their colors around. They are both completely neutral, in their shared shock.
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They both get over it and run out of the rooms they’re in, and the status quo returns, again.
Rey has no trace of red around her, but a hint of a blue sky.
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Ben has evident red marks around him and in the very background, the slightest hint of blue.
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The color display is still a testament to the feelings they have for one another. 
Rey sees Kylo as the enemy, the dark side which she wants to keep at bay, far away from her. He is curious about her, scared to let her in, but unable to control himself.
This changes the next time they connect. Because Kylo is surrounded by blue.
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He was thinking of her, wasn’t he? Quite a lot, I’d assume, considering he is completely surrounded by her color.
And Rey is as well, but there’s a hint. The light coming from the Falcon’s hatch isn’t red, not yet, it’s orange.
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But the jump from orange to red is very slim and by the looks of things, it’s going to happen soon. She has felt the dark side by this point, trully, and she is starting to let it in. Just a hint.
The next time she talks with Luke, he tells her the story of how Ben destroyed his temple. As she’s asking Luke to help her find her place in all of this, even as she’s vowing, loud and clear, that she will not betray Luke as Kylo did... the orange light that is bathing her face looks like it’s one step closer to turning red. Here, have a completely unedited version.
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Which brings us to the I’d rather not do this now scene. No, let’s do this now. 
Rey wants to know why Kylo killed Han, and she thinks that he had attacked Luke, unprompted. Of course, she is drowning in blue, pushing him away.
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At first, Ben does it too. There is a general blue-ness to the scene, but it’s not as evident in an unedited version. There are a few bright red lights, though.
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But then, as he’s telling Rey his side of the story, of waking up with his uncle wielding a lightsaber over him, he takes a step towards Rey, thus including a few faint blue blinking lights in the background.
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He wants her to understand, and he wants her to Let the past die. So there are more blue flashing lights than in any of his scenes before.
But Rey still pushes him away, no hint of red whatsoever.
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And then, Rey goes to the dark cave and things change. She gets out and runs to Kylo, seeking solace because she knew Luke would give her none, seeking understanding. 
She is covered and surrounded by red. Well I mean as much red as you can get from a fire, but we’ll roll with it, it’s red.
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There is still a hint of blue, by the window on the left, but it’s far away from Rey and out of focus.
In a similar manner, Kylo is surrounded by blue light, with just a few hints of red, far away from him and out of focus.
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This is the moment when they truly let each other in. This is the moment when they form a connection, a willing one, and when they do, it’s red.
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Fully and completely red, his color, the color of the dark side. Remember when we discussed how Luke’s lightsaber was tainted with the dark side? He had fought against the pull of it, and against his father. He had thought Rey was going to fight against Ren. But seeing this... no wonder Luke thought she was going to turn.
As they meet in the middle, Rey is just red.
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And Kylo is just blue.
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Together, they should be purple. They’re not, because that is the color of their fights.
Instead, they’re both bathed in his red, with just a hint of her blue by Rey’s head.
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As the story shows, this doesn’t mean that Rey is turning to the dark side. No, this shows that while she is still keeping what she stands for (a hint of blue), she is now on Kylo’s side. Ben’s side.
Remember when we were cataloguing what red means? We concluded that passion, desire and love were characteristics that Kylo has relinquished. This is the moment when that changes because this red, it’s not the destructive red of his lightsaber. This is a warmth of passion, desire and love, or at least the possibility of it. 
They have reached an understanding. Of course, we know it doesn’t last.
But Rey does ship herself straight to him, in a Millenium Falcon escape pod that has a random bit painted red.
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Also (fun fact!), it apparently says PROPERTY OF HAN SOLO / PLEASE RETURN. “Rey wished she could ask Han if that ever worked.” Well it sure as hell worked now, because Han may be dead, but the pod is on a straight course to his next of kin. Anyway, let’s move on.
They are together on the Supremacy.
The elevator they are riding has a red... arc reactor (what do you even call the underneath of an elevator?).
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The cuffs Rey was put in are locked on red.
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But the elevator, as before, is mostly white, with hints of red and blue. Because they are together, for real, in the same space, for the first time since Starkiller.
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As Rey pleads her case, we see a panel lighted blue with hints of red. Just in case you were fearing she was going to turn dark, by this point it’s clear that she’s not.
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Kylo rejects her offer, but doesn’t quite reject her, thinking she will be the one to turn. He is once again surrounded by white, by a beginning. One that is clear he wishes to come true.
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But Rey doesn’t agree to it, so she is forced to step into Snoke’s red hell.
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As stated before, everything is hella fucking red here.
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Sure, there are a few blue blinking lights, but you barely see them because of the abundance of red.
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And Kylo is most definitely red. Not drowning in it, but enough contrasted by it.
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Rey... is not. This lighting is very dramatic (I love and live for it), and you think it is white. And it is, mostly, but look at it a little more closely. The shadows on her face have a blue tint to it, and (I swear I’m not crazy) even the lipstick/lipstain she’s wearing is a pink with a blue undertone.
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Yes, I know, that might be stretching it a little. But the blue is there. Barely, but there.
It gets stronger, when Snoke is torturing Rey for information. In a poetic manner, the blue is at her back while the red is at her front. As far as symbolisms go, it makes you think she will shed what is behind her for what is in front of her. Forget the Resistance, join Snoke. 
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It’s a discombobulating trick, because we see blue again, in a respite. Rey is shown the fate of the Resistance, and the red slowly disappears, while the slight blue sheen of the glass does not.
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Meanwhile, the angle in which Kylo is filmed had changed, revealing some really vague and diffused blue lights. A hint of the fact that Rey is still on his mind.
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And then Snoke asks him to kill Rey. What does he do? Gets up and completely covers the red lights.
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There is no blue, though. So by this point, you’re thinking that Kylo will do it, he will kill Rey. Because that’s what he wants Snoke to believe.
Rey believes it too. The screen is split, between Snoke and her, and she’s framed by red. Not a testament to the dark side, no, but knowing what is coming right next, this red is protection. It’s a foreshadowing of Kylo protecting her.
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As he’s saying I know what I have to do, there is still no blue around Kylo. Just really bright red. On one hand it’s because, as I said before, it’s what he wants Snoke to think.
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But, on the other hand, it’s also a foreshadow of his final decision, isn’t it? During these scenes, this lack of blue, this onslaught of red? Biggest foreshadow we’ve missed the first time we saw the movie. (I’m just mildly bitter about it.)
The story continues with Kylo cutting Snoke in half (good riddance, asshole). And immediately after, we return to what we have seen at the beginning of Kylo’s journey in this movie, and what we have seen with Rey in the smuthut.
Rey, face lightened by her blue, surrounded by Kylo’s red.
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Kylo, face lightened by his red, surrounded by Rey’s blue.
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Together, they fight. But it is not purple, because they are not fighting against each other. They are on the same side now. No Jedi, no Sith, the red and blue of their lightsabers does not matter anymore.
What matters is the fact that they are still in Snoke’s red hell.
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After the fight is over, Ben starts by saying It’s time to let old things die. He’s not completely surrounded by red, but he is completely surrounded by the type of red you can get with fire as your light source. 
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But as he’s continuing his explanations, there are small pieces of fiery red falling all around him. And, to note, the hull of the ship in the background looks white.
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Rey, while she is surrounded by the same bits of fiery red, the ship in the background is a lot more blue.
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And this is where their understanding ends.
You know what happens next. Kylo makes his plea, begs Rey to join him. Surrounded by fire red, but blue as well. Because he wants it, he wants her to join him. He wants her.
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Rey, while still surrounded by fire, is framed by some very contrasting pieces of blue light.
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She refuses, and they fight, they are fighting against each other. Just like on Starkiller, even if the method is different, and even they are different.
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It ends with blue devouring all the red around it. It ends with Rey winning, because she was the one to wake up first and she managed to flee the ship. 
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It ends with both of them losing each other. And thus, we’re back to how things started, to how things are supposed to be.
Kylo, with his red, fighting his family and all they stand for.
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Rey, with her blue sky, saving the Resistance and the people she cares for.
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And the end of The Last Jedi?
It ends with Kylo against a vaguely purple background with very distinct buttons, one red and one blue. He still wants her by his side, but he doesn’t want to step away from the dark side.
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It ends with Rey against a background that is not quite red. She closes the hatch on their connection, on him. 
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What does this mean for our character’s future? Except for the fact that there is one, I can’t really say. He still wants Rey by his side, but while she doesn’t hate him anymore, she doesn’t justify his (evil) actions, either. 
It’ll be interesting to see what happens, of course. I predict some red and blue will be involved. Maybe some white. Hints of purple.
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padawanlost · 6 years
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The Last of the Jedi & Ferus Olin: Character Development
A few days ago I decided to read The Last of the Jedi series again, and I’m not surprised to say it was frustrating. As much as I like Jude Watson (she knows how to hit me right in the feels), when I comes to Ferus Olin characterization she loses me. Ferus being her OC probably influences her writing but I think she went a bit too far with him. We’ve already discusses my personal opinions of Ferus and overall role in SW franchise but most of these discussions were focused around the Jedi Quest series and not the The Last of the Jedi and, imo, TLotJ series only exacerbates the problems from JQ. And this is what I want to talk about. This is not about Ferus or his actions but about Jude Watson’s development of him and how that is probably the reason why Ferus is such divisive character.
For those not familiar with both series, let me present some context
The Jedi Quest by Jude Watson is a series a book set between TPM and AOTC. Ferus Olin is introduced as the perfect padawan who always follows the Jedi Code and a rival to Anakin. He constantly criticizes Anakin behind his back, overhears his conversations with Obi-wan, tells Obi-wan to “beware of Anakin”, etc. He leaves the Jedi Order, by choice after a convoluted series of events leads to the death of another padawan.
The Last of the Jedi by Jude Watson is a series of books set after ROTS. it involves Ferus (and a bit of Obi-wan) fighting the empire and impressing Palpatine to the point he thinks about replacing Vader with Ferus. Right now, I’ll be discussing only the first book of the series The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission so here we go:
Obi-wan is in Tatooine guarding Luke with occasional visits of force-ghost Qui-Gon Jinn. He’s grieving, depressed and frustrated. During a trip to the city, he hears the name Ferus Olin and immediately wants to know more about the former padawan:
Ferus had been a Jedi apprentice. It didn't matter that he had left the Order at the age of eighteen and had been a civilian since then. He had been one of them, and he was still alive.  He had kept track of Ferus in the beginning. He'd always thought that after the Clone Wars he would contact him.
 The problem is here is that it’s hard to believe that Obi-wan kept track of Ferus. Not because there was something wrong with Ferus but because that’s not the Jedi way. Once you leave the Order, you leave the Order. As we saw it with Ahsoka, to dwell on the fate of a former Jedi is frowned upon. They made their choice and, as a Jedi, the right thing to do is to let them go. I can see Jedi dwelling on lost friends such as Anakin thinking of Ahsoka and Obi-wan thinking of Anakin and Qui-Gon. But in both cases, there was a deep bond and tragedy involved. Ferus, on the other hand, was more of acquaintance/casual friend. And, the clone wars kept Obi-wan pretty busy so I have a hard time believing that he would have the time to keep tabs on a former apprentice who chose to leave the Order.
I can understand Obi-wan interest in the present, after losing everyone he’s probably desperate for a connection with anyone who understands what he’s going through but the idea of Obi-wan worrying or keeping track of Ferus right before the clone wars seems a bit ludicrous to me.
“After Anakin had turned to the dark side, Obi-Wan had cause to remember Ferus. It had been Ferus who had first warned him about Anakin. Ferus who had sensed that Anakin's great gifts hid great unrest. Ferus who saw Anakin's power - and feared it.  He owed him.”
And here we are. The biggest problem with Ferus Olin in the Jedi Quest series was too aware. Not only was constantly praised for his formidable skills he also was completely aware of everything that was wrong with Anakin and where it would lead them. He is described as so unique, that as a teenager he saw what no else did. Because Ferus not only sensed all that but also actually told Obi-wan about it, Obi-wan nows feels he owes Ferus to go and save him.
Ferus is in trouble and Obi-wan is torn between helping him and leaving Luke alone. He talks to Qui-Gon about it and just like in the Jedi Quest series, Ferus amazing qualities and potential are brought forward:
"Speak of what you know about Ferus, not what you can guess." "He was the most gifted apprentice, second only to Anakin." "With so many gifts, he is a formidable opponent of the Empire." "But I would have to leave Luke alone," Obi-Wan said again. It was a duty that Yoda had charged him with, and he knew it was vital. "You will not be leaving him alone. I will watch over him. He will be safe for a time. There is danger for Luke, danger that is close. I can feel it, but I can't see it. I sense that Ferus is the key."
 So Obi-wan leaves Luke in a ghost’s care and go save Ferus. He runs into people from Ferus daily life and they all seem to care about him. He inspires loyalty from his neighbors and those following him (in fighting the Empire).
 “Ferus is more than  a man to the Bellassans. He’s a symbol”.
"I miss his jokes," the woman with the holsters said. "He made us brave," a man said. "I joined because of him." Obi-Wan couldn't believe what he was hearing. The Ferus he had known as a boy had been a careful rule-follower. His skills had been excellent, but his style lacked Anakin's brilliance. What had Ferus said to him once? Everyone liked him, but no one was his friend. This sounded like a different Ferus. Ferus a magnetic leader? Ferus with a sense of humor?
Again, the same problem from his characterization remains: Ferus is too good. Not only he’s a good person, even his flaws are turned into something positive. If his biggest “flaws” in Jedi Quest series were that he was too serious and stiff (to the point no one liked him), now he’s also funny, charismatic and a natural leader.
Yet it was Ferus who had seen into Anakin's heart.. It was Ferus who had stood up to him, to Anakin's Master, and said, Something is not right here. It had been a brave move for a Padawan, to challenge a Master about his own apprentice. Perhaps it shouldn't surprise him that Ferus was now capable of this. The seeds for leadership had been there. He just hadn't seen them....  Because he'd always been thinking of Anakin. He had been the Chosen One. And their closeness had blinded him.
 JW apparently wants us to believe the only reason no one realized how amazing Ferus was is because everyone was looking at Anakin. His earlier “flaws” from the previous novels were not really flaws as much as they were “hidden abilities” no noticed because of Anakin.
 At the end of the novel, Ferus and Obi-wan finally talk about past. Ferus asks about Anakin and Obi-wan, of course, lies by saying Anakin was killed by the Empire. And because JW can’t seem to pass on the opportunity to show us Ferus is the better man, she bring back the reasons Ferus left the Order by having Obi-wan ask him if Anakin had anything to with it. Ferus, being the good, wise and insightful man he is, decides the past should stay in the past and that he doesn’t want to cause Obi-wan further pain by mentioning Anakin.
Ferus Olin doesn’t really do anything wrong/evil throughout the book that makes him dislikable but the way Jude Watson describes makes him even less sympathetic if you already disliked him from the previous series. She presents him as the ultimate good person but it falls flat because she doesn’t give him any real character flaws to overcome. From the moment he’s introduced he’s always tried to do the right thing and be a good person, not unlike characters like Anakin, Obi-wan and Qui-Gon Jinn. But differently from them, she refuses to give him any personal or moral shortcomings.  Older Ferus is the same Ferus from the JQ series, expect he’s better, wiser and friendlier.
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niobiumao3 · 6 years
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TLJ: Spoiler Edition
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE
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Okay so.
Things I really liked:
I liked the Kylo Ren arc; I liked how we got more insight into the past with Luke and how Luke’s one moment of weakness sparked something ugly in Ben, and how Luke has been punishing himself for this ever since. And I am of the opinion the narrative doesn’t want us to hate Luke for this. I think the point of the conversation with Yoda was to indicate that it was never going to be possible for Luke to be a perfect Jedi Master and make no mistakes, and that failure is the greatest teacher. That really, the failing is Ben’s, in giving himself over to the dark side such that when Luke does make a mistake, Ben is unable to forgive him or understand. Rey makes the same mistake, initially, in blaming Luke, and I think once she gets to Snoke and Ren and Ren refuses to turn back with her, she better understands what has happened.
I liked the discussions of how perfect binaries/dichotomies of light and dark and good and bad are useless and dumb and probably lead to more problems than they solve. I like that BJ, an ultimately reprehensible character, is the one who points out, ‘have you considered it’s in the best interest of war profiteers that no one ever wins, that war is forever?’
THE ADMIRAL FLIPPING THE DOUBLE DEUCE AS SHE LIGHTSPEEDS HER CRUISER INTO THE FO’S SHIPS AND OBLITERATES THEM. FUCKING, ANNIHILATED. The pure silence of that moment was so good.
Luke tossing Anakin’s Lightsaber like ‘fuck this thing’. Bigtime mood.
‘Lifting rocks.’
‘Page turners, were they?’
Rey, literally and figuratively, shutting the door in Ren’s face. Like I don’t get why anyone thinks Reylo will be a thing?
Johnson was continually subverting tropes. ‘Wild crazy plans cost lives and seldom work’ was used to great effect with Poe, and I appreciate that while Poe’s attitude frustrated Haldo and Leia neither of them hated him or resented him for it. It was more a ‘in order to lead you’re going to need to learn that you can’t bank everything on a crazy win’ plot arc, which IMO is okay, and not seen enough in these kinds of films.
The situation where Hux (who has clearly been ‘managing’ Snoke because Snoke is, despite being powerful, also quite predictable) trips up constantly wrt Ren because Ren is a rageful manchild whom Hux totally cannot grok was great. Perfect example: Ren says, PUT ME DOWN ON THE SURFACE, LUKE AND I ARE GONNA FITE, and Hux, being totally reasonable, says, ‘Like, why, there is no way we benefit from this, let’s just blow it all up and--’ and Ren temper tantrums and knocks Hux out, but the pilot says, “Right away sir.” Like, Hux, yes, you’re right, but who cares? Best case scenario, Ren dies fighting Luke and now Ren is out of your hair; second best, Ren kills Luke and now Luke Skywalker isn’t a problem. Win-win! But Hux doesn’t get why Ren is so irrational and always railing against the universe, and he trips up on this cognitive dissonance several times. It was a very well-written interaction.
I also liked the trope subversion of Ren rising up and killing Snoke. We are constantly denied this in earlier SW films. And as we see, it’s not sheer power than enables Ren to do it. The one time he tries that, Snoke bitchslaps him into next week with a simple hand gesture. No, it’s subterfuge and hiding his motives, which is a big theme for Ren. He does it to everyone, IMO in a suggestion that he has no idea who he actually is. And he doesn’t want to continue the Sith tradition or whatever; he’s a nihilistic, angry manchild who wants to burn it all. It was some very good writing for him.
I know a lot of people are mad about Luke’s characterization, but honestly, I liked it. I liked that it was his turn to be Ben Kenobi, the angry old hermit living in the middle of nowhere not wanting to get involved because he fucked up badly. I loved his ‘old master skywalker’ look, it was very Alec Guinness, and I wanted so much more than we got of it. And his super badass ‘no Snoke I am not falling for your bullshit’ astral projection move, spot on.
What I disliked:
The characterization of Rey and Finn seemed off. The girl from the first movie would have, I think, been a little more likely to trust Luke and not Ren. And she seems to, at first, but then her conversion is so fast. It felt more like something that needed additional time to happen. This said, I think you can make a case for Ren constantly leaning on her vulnerability wrt her parents. He found that pressure point and hammered on it relentlessly. But Rey’s initial round of blaming Luke for Ren should have given way to her realizing she was right the first time; that Ben had ultimately failed Luke just as Luke failed him, and that while Luke might not have stopped the situation, he was not the sole person involved. That Kylo Ren has to also be blamed for his own actions; the standard ‘just because someone did wrong by you it does not give you carte blanche to do wrong by others’. IMO Rey, or Finn or Poe, would be the people to be compassionate in this way, and ultimately only Leia is for like, 2 seconds. It was a bad turn for Rey which I didn’t care for.
Likewise, Finn continued to try and bail and that seemed like a regression from the end of TFA. You can argue we don’t really see him come to terms with ‘fight for these things worth saving’ in TFA the way we do here but it still felt like a duplication of previous things for him, rather than a growth. And I don’t know why he’s shown as being so susceptible to the lavish excesses of Canto Bight; sure, I can see him being dazzled, but more in a ‘what the hell, people live like this???’ way, not in a ‘I clearly need to get me some of this’ way. It seemed weird and off. It might have made more sense for Rose, if she’s the ‘hidden princess’ she’s rumored to be, to act like this, and Finn to be the one to pull her back.
Speaking of Canto Bight, that whole segment bogged down the movie and needed to happen while they were already on Crait, or instead involve them sneaking onto a Star Destroyer. Like, then you could have had Finn accidentally or intentionally inciting a Stormtrooper Rebellion, and get more Phasma, and keep BJ as a POW they release who then turns on them. You can even keep the discussion of war profiteering in--just have some impounded arms dealer ships, and he was arrested for stealing them or w/e...it would have kept narrative tension intact, provided a better structure tin which to build Finn and Rose’s characters...ah well.
Also, again, too much music. Way, too, much, fuicking, music. Give me the subtle background sounds of the ships, of the base, of the island. Not 1000000000000 strains of music. That moment when the ship went to lightspeed and sundered Snoke’s command ship, the pure silence, was breathtaking. The movie needed much, much more of that.
So yeah, overall, not a bad film and I appreciate the trope subversions, but I wanted better writing for Finn and Rey--equal to what Ren got--and I wanted more Luke and Leia, and I wanted less music. It’s still a gorgeous movie, and a solid SW film, but not as good as it could have been. In this way it’s like the prequels for me; annoying due to its wasted potential, though still enjoyable.
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tearlessrain · 6 years
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Okay. So. I watched TLJ a second time because I took my mom to see it (visiting for the holidays) and I have Opinions. Because in all honesty I did not like it as much the second time.
For spoiler reasons, and because most of it is just me complaining (and/or being pointlessly confrontational and defensive about what I did like), said opinions are quarantined safely under this readmore.
Also just for the record I know I state things like facts as if I think I have answers and should be listened to but this is 100% personal feelings and opinions and I know nothing.
The main takeaway is that I’m okay with how things ended up, I just don’t really like how they got there. If they do a really good job with episode 9 I will feel better about this movie and not be too annoyed that they got a bit lost on the way. That being said, they really did get lost on the way and it was frustrating to watch once I actually knew where they were going with it. I’ll give almost anything a ludicrous amount of grace the first time I watch it. I liked the second Hobbit movie the first time I watched it, let that sink in. My already questionable taste in media becomes vastly worse when I’m watching something for the first time in a theater.
On Luke’s characterization/arc: I’m okay with the concept of it, but the execution was lacking. Responding to a traumatic event by fucking off to a deserted island to sulk melodramatically for years is kind of a very Skywalker thing to do, so I don’t have much issue with that. The logistics of how the Kylo Fiasco actually went down is neither here nor there for me, it’s all being relayed years later by two people who were both not in the best place emotionally at the time of telling so I think taking it with a grain of salt is wise here. And I don’t think his apparently newfound post-Yoda-epiphany snark was inherently bad, I feel like he’s always had the capacity for sass and would fully expect that side of him to emerge with age, but I understand how it felt wrong to people (especially with the transition we got) and I think it would have read better if they’d just had more time to establish act 3 Luke and balanced it with the characterization we’re used to from him. Which brings me to my main complaint about the Luke arc: I didn’t like how they paced it. What I would have liked to see is for the Yoda scene to happen much earlier while Rey is still on the island, then follow that with some scenes of Luke actually being more himself and training Rey (because realistically she has an awful solid mastery of the Force for the two halfassed lessons she got). He can still be opposed to going off to find Kylo on the grounds that Rey really doesn’t know what she’s doing yet even if her intentions are good, thereby prompting her to leave on her own (I mean he did the same thing and then he learned a horrible truth he wasn’t ready to hear, lost his hand, and jumped off a cliff, so I can see him not being jazzed about this).
As an aside, I really don’t like the throwing away the lightsaber thing. It felt too much like the emotional bait-and-switch thing Marvel does a lot and it’s a huge pet peeve for me. I just really hate it. Give me a damn genuine emotional moment for fucks sake. There were ways they could have conveyed the same thing that wouldn’t have felt so jarring and lazily written.
As another aside, and this is totally personal bias, I really love the Yoda scene, just full stop and without shame. It resonates with me in particular because in addition to being a very Skywalker thing to do, wanting to fuck off to a deserted island and hide for a decade because of one failure is also a very me thing to do. So that whole scene was just kinda cathartic on a personal level. They got lazy with Yoda’s dialect, though, which was mildly irritating to my pedantic obsession with keeping one’s lore consistent. It wouldn’t have been that hard to rearrange those sentences.
I also love the end with the twin suns callback. I know people feel like it was cheesy and trite. It is. I know this. I know. But I wholeheartedly love it anyway and I teared up both times I saw the damn movie and I will defend that scene with my life. Fight me.
Oh and shoutout to Actual Fashion Icon Luke Skywalker taking the trouble to astral project himself a stylish new all-black ensemble and perfectly trimmed beard to face Kylo in. Our boy’s still got it.
On the whole Finn/Rose plotline: .... why? Why did it happen at all? There was basically no payoff aside from what I guess was supposed to be a kinda heavy handed resolution to Finn’s personal arc but was ultimately just a waste of Captain Phasma as a character. They introduced Rose and gave her skills that should have been useful for what they set out to do but never got around to having her actually do anything, so while I enjoyed her character, it felt kind of hollow because there was no clear reason for her to actually be in the movie. Same with the casino planet, I loved the aesthetic and concept and atmosphere and that they did something new, but there wasn’t any point to it, they could have gone literally anywhere to find the guy they ended up with. If they’d actually picked up Space Dorian it would have been interesting because he’s not an archetype we’ve seen as much in Star Wars. We’ve seen plenty of grungy outcasts, let’s take advantage of the cool new setting you just presented. It even potentially could have made the eventual betrayal better, if they still needed to do that.
Thinking about the social climate and attitude toward rich people right now, if the betrayal had been a filthy rich arms dealer being let off by the empire because of his own privileges/connections and leaving Finn and Rose behind, I think you’d get a strong emotional response to that in a good way. Instead we’ve got... some guy who happened to turn out to be an asshole. And who could have come from literally anywhere in the galaxy and is not really bringing anything new to the table. He didn’t change as a character at any point, and his presence didn’t say anything that hasn’t been said or change Finn or Rose in any way in the end, so why is he here. I mean the whole casino planet was fun, but the way they did it they could have cut almost the entire thing out and the movie overall would not have been affected.
I just generally feel like 90% of what Finn and Rose did during this movie was only for the sake of giving them something to do and once again splitting up the main three and I’m sad about that because I adore Finn, and he has fantastic chemistry with Poe (whether you ship them or not, that’s irrelevant, I just mean they play off each other well but they’re never in the same place for more than five minutes and it feels like such a waste).
Also not liking that they had to throw in romantic tension with Rose, you want to make it a thing in the next movie fine, but it’s too soon right now, we only just got to know her character, can we maybe chill.
On Poe: I like his arc, I don’t much like the context, it was a bit contrived and of course tied in with the entirely pointless Finn/Rose shenanigans. But in a vacuum, I like where they took him and I like where he’s at now.
On Kylo: honestly? They have my attention and my interest. They didn’t after TFA, but he’s turning into an interesting character and I think I like where this is going so far. As long as they keep doing a good job in 9, I can definitively say that I like Kylo as a villain and as a character. If not as a person. He’s a dick. But it’s a good thing. And I’m sorry but I’m endlessly entertained by his entire uncomfortable relationship with Hux, I desperately need some people who can both cosplay and sing to perform What Is This Feeling from Wicked with these two (I propose Kylo on Elphaba’s parts, Hux on Glinda’s, seriously someone do this). Hux is just so pitiful and Done and it’s great. I usually don’t really like when a movie/show makes one character into a designated punching bag, but he’s inherently so damn punchable that I can’t even be mad. His actor did a fantastic job.
I think those are the main points I came away with, anything else is just nitpicking (porgs are the Jar Jar of the new trilogy, not nearly as bad but they still aren’t cute enough to carry the weight Disney has given them). My strongest feelings are regarding the Luke situation and it’s mostly because in my ill-advised hubris I feel like I know exactly how to fix it and could personally have done it better (that’s almost certainly not true but it’s how I feel). I don’t know what to do about Finn or how to better contextualize Poe’s character growth. I dunno.
But hey, at least Reylo isn’t canon and that’s really all I ever asked for.
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gffa · 7 years
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About a month ago @countessofbiscuit asked for STAR WARS fic recs from the Anakin’s days as a Padawan and his relationship with Obi-Wan. I had to pull myself away from posting new recs (so many incredible fics this week that I wanted to flail about immediately!) but I love this era and the chance to put together this list was a delight. This is an entirely gen set, though I think it will appeal to those interested in the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin, however you like to see them, if you read genfic at all. There are some absolutely gorgeous and oftentimes Top Ten Fics In This Fandom level stuff here! (Last Updated: 2017.07.13) ✦ In All The World by Ammar, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 76.6k wip ✦ All But Name by Mirror and Image, obi-wan & anakin + padme & dooku & qui-gon & yoda & ocs & cast, 107.9k ✦ Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 129.3k ✦ The Hand Dealt by not paranoid enough, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 75.9k ✦ Ashes to Ashes by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 5.3k ✦ Of Questions, Dishes, and Pathetic Life Forms by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 3.1k ✦ Life And What Comes After by Ibelin, obi-wan & anakin & cast, amnesia, 32.6k wip ✦ The Exchange by MissLearn, obi-wan & anakin & some anakin/padme & ahsoka & qui-gon & rex & cast, time travel, 57.8k wip ✦ The House That Obi-Wan Built by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin, 10.4k ✦ Sofa, So Good by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin, 10.9k ✦ House of Cards by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin & oc, 23.8k ✦ Come On, Get Up, Let Me See Your Bruises by Imadra Blue, obi-wan & anakin, 5.8k ✦ A Good Place to Die by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash?) + some anakin/padme & yoda & bant & cast, some violence/injury, 115k ✦ Measure of Force by esama, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k ✦ You Didn’t Hear It From Me by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin & garen & bant, 6.2k ✦ Sleepover by SkippingSteppingStones, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k ✦ Don’t Look Back by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 26.7k ✦ Behind a Waterfall, Before the Pyre by Persephone_Kore, obi-wan & anakin & yoda, 1.4k ✦ Life Beyond the Code by Bek-K, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 141.7k wip ✦ Coalesced Matter by Mirror and Image, obi-wan & anakin & dooku, 48.4k ✦ The Promise by Ripki, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k ✦ Learning Curve by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin, 5.2k ✦ Take My Waking Slow by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin, 2.7k ✦ Nightmare by saxgirl42, obi-wan & anakin, 1.6k ✦ Finding the Words by freedomfry, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k ✦ Death and the Living Force by YamiSnuffles , obi-wan & anakin, 4.6k ✦ The Mathematics of Repair by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 4.6k ✦ My Very Young Apprentice by squelchything, obi-wan & anakin, 1k ✦ Works in Progress by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin, 3.2k wip (sort of) ✦ From One Generation by Phosphorescent, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k ✦ They Who Stay Behind by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 20.4k ✦ Our Honored Dead by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 9.1k ✦ i am young, but i have aged. by shoiryu, anakin & cast, 1.5k ✦ Into the Breach by Melody_Jade, obi-wan & anakin & the council, 4.9k ✦ Sleeping with the Enemy by Imadra Blue, obi-wan & anakin, 1.9k ✦ Promise by Aridette, obi-wan & anakin, 1.2k ✦ First Rain by Allie_el, obi-wan & anakin, 3k ✦ Reemerging Daylight by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & bant, 7k ✦ Young Old Man by LuvEwan, obi-wan & anakin & oc pov, 4.1k ✦ Scared of You by LuvEwan, obi-wan & anakin, 2.3k ✦ The Trouble With Gungans by saxgirl42, obi-wan & anakin & jar jar, 1.9k ✦ Keeping the High Ground by Pyxelle, obi-wan & anakin + luke, 2.5k ✦ Enquiring Minds Want to Know by Gabri Jade, obi-wan & cast, 3.3k ✦ A Code to Love By by gizzi1213, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k ✦ The Stray by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin & ocs, 10.4k ✦ A Good Cause by 221B.B, obi-wan & anakin, 3.3k ✦ A Trip to Forget by amber75, obi-wan & anakin, 14.8k ✦ Passing Dreams by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 2k ✦ Brass Knuckles by skygawker, somewhat obi-wan/anakin (can be read as gen) & ocs, 15.1k ✦ Sloth by keep_me_alone, obi-wan & anakin, 1.3k ✦ Lightsabers by Jillie chan, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k ✦ Autopilot by FernWithy, obi-wan & anakin, 2.4k ✦ The Dynamic Duo by Kian-Rai Delcam, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k ✦ Reassurance by j_k_rowlingjr, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash?), ~1k ✦ Worthy by whereiismymindd, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k ✦ The Consequences of a Crash by SkywalkerShenanigans (HedgehogJawn), obi-wan & anakin (this can be read as entirely gen) & cast, some injury content warning, 31.9k ✦ When the world gets too heavy put it on my back by nematoda, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + references to to obi-wan/anakin, 25k wip ✦ Masters and Padawans: Three Generations by GirlwithCurls98, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + anakin & ahsoka, 24.6k ✦ What the Heart Hides by Valairy Scot, obi-wan/siri & anakin & cast, nsfw for descriptions of violence/torture, 269k ✦ And The Truth Shall Set Us Free by Nicole1, obi-wan & anakin, 23k ✦ What You Are (the Certain Point of View Remix) by Beatrice_Otter, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 1.3k ✦ When the world gets too heavy put it on my back by nematoda, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + references to to obi-wan/anakin, 25k wip ✦ Epiphany by Elenothar, obi-wan & anakin, 3.8k ✦ Tears by ForgottenMoonbeam92, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k ✦ untitled by delicatefury, obi-wan & anakin & satine, ~1k ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 11.2k ✦ untitled by letslipthehounds, obi-wan & anakin & dooku, 1.1k ✦ The Teacher Learns Twice by Magical_Destiny, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 4.5k ✦ Homesick by SkippingSteppingStones, obi-wan & anakin, 2.8k ✦ Moving Forward by Oswald-Girl, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k ✦ Waters Edge by Sealgirl, obi-wan & anakin, 8.9k ✦ Encounter by Sealgirl, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k ✦ Gifts of the Heart by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin & shmi, 2.7k ✦ The Drinker by Little Sister’s Keepress, obi-wan & anakin, 1k ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k ✦ Hello Again verse part 1 / part 2 by delicatefury, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 2.3k wip ✦ untitled by delicatefury, obi-wan & anakin & satine, ~1k ✦ To Argue is to Love by Zinga763, obi-wan & anakin, 1k ✦ In Want by updiddlyupup, obi-wan & anakin, 7k ✦ Temple History by sanerontheinside, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k ✦ No Galaxy for Good Jedi by Annie_Walker, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & dooku & yoda & cast, some obi-wan/satine, sith!qui-gon, 124.8k wip ✦ The Stars Died So That You Could Be Here Today by WinterSky101, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 4.6k full details + recs under the cut!
✦ In All The World by Ammar, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 76.6k wip    The story of how Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi tamed each other, from Naboo to Anakin’s early days at the Temple.    Rec #1: I spent about two days of reading time devoted to nothing but this fic because it was just so engrossing and satisfying for what I was looking for. It’s very smoothly written, it’s easy to just sink right into, and it does such a fantastic job at being what it sets out to be-the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, mixed with plot, mixed with philosophy on what the Jedi are, mixed with world-building. It’s set in the days just after Qui-Gon’s death, as Obi-Wan grieves and tries to figure out what’s next, while there’s still aftermath happening and new assassination plots happening on Naboo, while Anakin tries to figure out where he fits into all of this, and how there are all these awkward moments between him and the Jedi, how the beginning seeds of his friendship with Obi-Wan are there, but haven’t yet had time to grow, yet it’s so important, all mixed with a lot of thought and care given to how the Jedi look at the galaxy.    It’s a wip and the first arc isn’t complete yet, but I found it satisfying because the plot isn’t really the point for me (though, it absolutely is well-done and I’m glad the fic has it, it makes it so much more satisfying a read to have them actually doing things, that Obi-Wan is already teaching Anakin things), it’s about the characters and there’s a lot of good stuff there. This is an Obi-Wan who is still young, who hasn’t matured into who he is in AOTC or ROTS, but you can see the beginnings of it, as he struggles through these difficult times, as well as Anakin who is young and so eager to help, but you see the seeds of so much anger in him, both are just spot on for this moment in their lives. There are loads of great moments as well, especially the question of who cut Obi-Wan’s Padawan braid was beautifully handled in the fic! It’s one of those that’s a genfic but it’s exactly what I look for in genfic and was so, so good for me.    Rec #2: Oh, I know I’ve recommended this fic at least once before, but I think it’s updated at least twice since the last time I did a full rec for it? And I just really, really love this fic a lot, because it’s got such a solid plot, it’s all about the days just after The Phantom Menace, where Obi-Wan is just beginning to teach Anakin and they don’t really understand each other fully yet, where the fic also does an excellent job of how there’s actual tension there, how Anakin has moments of being angry and frustrating, how you can see both the good and the future fall in him, which is perfect. But the writing is incredibly solid all the way around, I cannot delight enough in how it’s a story about investigating an assassination attempt but uses it to actually teach Anakin things, to get to see Obi-Wan explaining everything, to answer questions and start shaping Anakin’s training, which is something we have very litte of in canon.    And it’s fantastically characterized, I love everyone where and it’s always easy to just slip right back into the story, to get caught up in what’s almost a sort of… slice of life type of story, for Jedi. Not quite, there’s a continuing plot, but the highlight is definitely on the friendship between the characters and it’s one of those that I’d love to make everyone read!    Chapter 13: This is an update rec and will be focused on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. I was delighted to see this fic updated and I tore through the chapter because, ahhh, it was just as good as ever! I do recommend the fic as a whole, it’s one of the best Obi-Wan & Anakin early days fics I’ve read recently, it’s got fantastic characterization of those immediate days on Naboo afterwards and it has such a fantastic plot, like it’s used as a vehicle to drive the characterization, but it’s genuinely interesting for its own sake as well! And that’s not something I get often enough, even in Star Wars fandom! This chapter especially goes in for the political and plotful stuff, there’s a lot of talking about the situation on Naboo, which is really beautifully done, it feels like it fits so well, like this is a set-up that absolutely could have happened, that this is a snafu that Obi-Wan and Anakin could have been drawn into, that it’s a great way to show the distance between Obi-Wan and Anakin that they start out with, but is slowly starting to be bridged, as they work through this case. A CASEFIC. For Obi-Wan and Anakin’s early days! That’s already 70k! Like, you don’t know what a treasure that is, especially when it’s such top-notch, professional level writing for it. And it makes me read about the politics of characters and worlds I’ve only barely met and yet I care! I’m interested! I’m here for Obi-Wan explaining to Anakin and helping to teach him how to think something through and it’s so good.    Chapter 14: This is an update rec and will focus on the current chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. I tried wait until there were at least two chapters of this one, but I love this fic so much that I couldn’t resist jumping on it as soon as I saw it updated and I just really, really love this fic a lot. It’s centered on a plot, that something is going on with someone having hired a bounty hunter to possibly assassinate the Queen post-The Phantom Menace, but of course it turns out to be so much more complicated than that, and it’s about Obi-Wan struggling to deal with the loss of Qui-Gon and getting to know Anakin and starting to teach him. So much thought and care has gone into the story part of this fic, just as much as has gone into the characters of the fic, that it’s one of the best fics I’ve read in the fandom and I look forward to every update on it. This chapter especially had me taking screenshots of it to remind myself of some of the stuff I loved because it hit me straight on with how good this fic is:    Your focus determines your reality, Qui-Gon always said. It was one of those Jedi teachings that seemed strange, the first time you encountered it. Reality seemed concrete; unshiftabe, unyielding to the ideas of beings. Stone and duracrete cared nothing for your focus, your attitudes. If you thought that a durasteel wall would yield to you, it wouldn’t. Fools ran at durasteel walls and bashed their heads on it and bled. And yet: didn’t focus matter? This is in the middle of an investigation, while Obi-Wan is discussing a Naboo artist’s painting in the office of a person of interest, and the layers of the story here are fantastic–it’s a scene that’s about Obi-Wan on a case, it’s a scene about expanding the culture and history of Naboo, it’s a scene about the Jedi philosophy and what objectivity and focus mean, that it’s at the heart of the Jedi code.    It’s this almost small scene amongst a bigger case fic story, but it had such an impact on me because it felt so incredibly solid like it could have been lifted right out of the GFFA itself, like this story is such an incredibly natural, organicextention of Naboo’s culture that it fit seamlessly for me. It’s not even really meant to be about that! It’s just adding in detail that would naturally come up in the story! And yet it’s one of my favorite things, for how well-written it is and how it balances characterization with it, it’s not just info dumping things on me, the reader. And it’s that incredibly enjoyable sense of solidity and smoothness (it’s so interesting to read about Obi-Wan digging into all of this! and teaching Anakin as he goes!) that make this one of my favorites in the fandom, too. ✦ All But Name by Mirror and Image, obi-wan & anakin + padme & dooku & qui-gon & yoda & ocs & cast, 107.9k    “You will be a Jedi, Anakin. I promise you. In all but name.”    Oh, let me tell you my feelings about this fic. By the time it was finished, despite that I’d just read a novel’s worth of fic, I was so sad it was ending because it’s such a great build-up and great characterization and great pacing and great story. When I first started reading, I was a little wary because Obi-Wan didn’t entirely feel like himself to me, despite that I acknowledged that he was grieving and he was just post-TPM and hadn’t had the time to progress yet, but by the halfway point of the fic I got it, I understood why the story made all the choices it did, why it put Obi-Wan into the situations and places that it did, because it absolutely was about a larger path that he was following and the Force needed him to be right where he was at those specific moments. By the end of the fic, you can see the care and thought that was put into the story, why everything happened the way it did, in addition to how much insight and care the authors put into Anakin’s development as a young child still emotionally and mentally developing. It’s not just that the writing is really smooth and easy to become engrossed in, it’s not just that there’s a plot happening (maybe not that many light saber battles, but there are some and it’s a great balance between the quieter moments of their lives and the healing process they go through and the bigger, more epic moments of their lives), but also that I cared deeply about the characters.    It’s a fic that’s about Obi-Wan and Anakin’s early days and how things are different when they’re no longer part of the Jedi Order, how that subtly changes their dynamic until it’s entirely different (and yet still entirely recognizable) from where they ended up in canon. It’s one of my new favorite fics because it does justice to how those changes start small, how Anakin has more freedom to express his attachments and emotional instability because they’re not at the Jedi Temple and because Obi-Wan doesn’t have the support from others, so he can’t be as strict about it, plus he too needs that emotional connection in the wake of his own losses, until they’ve grown close and found a better way for Anakin to deal with his anger and emotions, because they were nudged in just the right direction for it. It doesn’t villainize anyone (not even the Jedi Order is villainized, thankfully! they’re not perfect and some characters are furious at them, but they’re still good people) but instead gives these characters a different path to follow, one that I could see the canon characters going down if they’d had these circumstances instead. That thought and care was given to how they would interact with each other, how each of their mindsets and motivations would affect their interaction, that Anakin’s anger and restlessness aren’t just swept aside, but instead tackled head-on, in a more subtle sort of way. Reading the author’s notes really gave a look into how much thought was put into his development and I loved it for that.    But ultimately, at its heart, this is a fic about Obi-Wan and Anakin becoming much more emotionally available to each other as they both develop over the months they figure out their new lives, it’s a fic about having only each other to rely on and that creates a more intense bond, even as it nearly threatens to drown them. It’s a fic about Obi-Wan grieving his losses and struggling to hold onto what he can, dealing with depression and coming through it after a struggle, it’s a fic about learning to accept help from those who care about them. It’s about all those things, but it’s also about how awesome Obi-Wan is, how brilliant a negotiator he is, about how morally unbreakable he is, about how he’s amazing in so many ways, as well as just how much sheer, raw potential Anakin has, how he’s such a caring little moppet even when he’s a trouble magnet. It was a fic that I legitimately respected on a technical level, but it won my heart for giving me so much that pleased my id at the same time! And that’s not even getting into how fascinating Dooku was in the last third of the fic, how I loved his addition to the story and every interaction he had with Obi-Wan was absolutely satisfying as hell. This is a fic that is really, really worth reading and this is why I got into the Star Wars fandom in the first place! ✦ Shadows of the Future by stormqueen873, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 129.3k    ObiWan lost the duel on Mustafar, but instead of dying, he finds himself on a ship leaving Tatooine, with his old Master and a familiar young boy. As events begin to unfold, can he stop the future he knows from occuring?    I AM SO SAD THIS FIC IS OVER. I admit, the beginning is super fluffy and it takes awhile to get into the real tension of the piece, but when the fic delivers on the revelations, when Qui-Gon finally finds out what Obi-Wan knows, when Obi-Wan finally has to really let loose in a fight, when Anakin realizes what happened in Obi-Wan’s future, all of it is so goddamned worth the wait. I do actually enjoy the fluff of this fic, I don’t mean to indicate otherwise, because it’s adorable and necessary, where Obi-Wan just loves kidlet Anakin so much and has the experience to be more open about it this time, the maturity to better handle everything, has Qui-Gon still alive to let up on his own grief, it’s wonderful to read and soothed my heart and paved the way for the relationships being even stronger than they were.    But it’s really in the second half where this fic becomes absolutely magical, where shit finally hits the fan and revelations have to happen and the plot cannot remain the same because Obi-Wan’s not going to let things fall apart again. I absolutely could not put the fic down by that point, I was utterly engrossed and read practically the whole second half in one sitting because I kept needing to turn the page, just one more time, just one more time! The tension of how things unfold, Sidious and Maul’s plots, the Jedi Council trying to figure out what’s going on, Qui-Gon trying to figure out what the hell is up with Obi-Wan, Anakin bonding so fiercely to Obi-Wan, all of it ties together and culminates in a fine as hell epic fight scene that left me so damned satisfied.    The fic is absolutely focused on making things better, in fixing everything, but it never forgets that Obi-Wan is not who he was in the original timeline, because he’s grown, he’s healing here, but he’s still a Jedi Master who has Seen A Lot Of Shit, that the second time around is necessary to be built on top of the previous one, which is how time travel fics work best for me. Plus, this has one of my new favorites of the duel on Mustafar, when Anakin won that duel and how he won it, how you realize it shapes so much of what happens between them. And the ending! MY HEART FEELS SO MUCH BETTER AFTER THIS FIC. ✦ The Hand Dealt by not paranoid enough, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 75.9k    Just before boarding the ship to escape Naboo, Qui-Gon is injured. Now, it’s Obi-Wan who has to find the hyperspace generator, Obi-Wan who meets Anakin—and that changes everything.    Oh, man, this fic. I have always sort of vaguely wanted a fic where Obi-Wan was the one to walk into Watto’s shop instead of Qui-Gon, but I never knew just how much I needed it until I stumbled over this fic and could not put it down. It’s beautifully written and everything it’s doing is so satisfying to me, because the first quarter of the fic is all about the beginnings of this developing relationship, that Obi-Wan and Anakin immediately take a shine to each other, that there’s this absolutely perfect dynamic of mild competitiveness without Qui-Gon being a sore point between them, that it’s entirely about Obi-Wan and Anakin. And that developing relationship remains absolutely fascinating, because the events somewhat echo canon, but are entirely different at the same time, which leads the relationship between them to be entirely different–that lack of Qui-Gon between them starts them out on an entirely different footing, it pushes Anakin to imprint on Obi-Wan so much harder than even in canon, it provides Obi-Wan a reason to care for Anakin more directly early on than even in canon. It creates a situation where other people are still important, but this relationship becomes so vital so much earlier that other things get shaded in differently and I cannot waitto see how the sequel deals with that.    But it’s not just that the overall structure is satisfying, it’s not just that the writing itself is absolutely lovely and nicely polished, it’s that the characterization of both characters is spot on. Anakin is this precious little moppet who is so mecurial in a way that’s just right for the character, he’s so good-hearted and giving, but he’s also full of fear and rage, the uncertain circumstances in his life and lack of structure wear away at what little stability he has. Obi-Wan is just the right blend of feeling guilty and being hard on himself with the self-assurance and emotional stability he has, he’s so solid even when he’s been dealt difficult circumstances, even when he’s not sure what to do. There are so many amazing little moments in this fic, any time that Anakin gets Obi-Wan to smile or when Anakin tries to gross him out and Obi-Wan instead holds his ground because he’s not a child, yet he still obviously indulges Anakin at times, that sense of growing connection and bond there is so well done.    The entire fic is all about putting them in circumstances that are true to both their characters, they’re both incredible and powerful yet so human, flawed but wonderful at the same time, and being entirely emotionally satisfying to me, as well as genuinely interesting divergences from canon, that it’s one of my favorites and I cannot express my love nearly enough. (Seriously, that moment where Anakin tries shoving a bug in Obi-Wan’s face to gross him out and Obi-Wan, who indeed does not like bugs, just stares right back and doesn’t so much as blink, that’s when I knew I loved this author for getting these characters and their relationship.) ✦ Ashes to Ashes by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 5.3k    A few months after the events of The Phantom Menace, Anakin is having nightmares about burning alive.    This is a short but lovely piece about the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s training, which is sort of cute and seemingly harmless on the surface, but when you know what’s coming, is super ouchy underneath that. I love that it’s not cold-hearted, you can see the Jedi care, but you also just quietly understand where it all starts going wrong from the beginning, and the fic does that really well. ✦ Of Questions, Dishes, and Pathetic Life Forms by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 3.1k    Obi-Wan has never been very good at babysitting Qui-Gon’s “pathetic life forms”. Anakin is no exception. Incessant questioning, chaos, and a little big of snuggling ensues.    Oh, I loved this fic so much. Set just barely after Anakin was first brought back from Tatooine and Obi-Wan really didn’t know what to do with a child yet, he was vaguely annoyed by having one around, but little moppet Anakin just somehow charmed his way right in by being adorable and kind of a failboat and maybe a little obnoxious but in a good-hearted way. The whole fic was so charming and wonderful and spot on, a lovely examination of the time before Obi-Wan loved him, but you could see the beginnings of it, the awkwardness still there but slowly starting to melt away, and it was just so damn precious, in a really well-written way. ✦ Life And What Comes After by Ibelin, obi-wan & anakin & cast, amnesia, 32.6k wip    Obi-Wan dies on Jabiim. Anakin blames himself, doesn’t know how to go on and yet - he does. Maybe the Force rewards that kind of thing, or maybe he just gets lucky, but when a mission lands Anakin on a vaguely familiar planet, he gets a second chance to do what he knows he should have done in the first place: save his master. (And maybe a chance to save the galaxy, too.)    Chapters 1-2: I love that one of the tags is “Unrealistically Well-Adjusted Anakin Skywalker” because that put me in exactly the right frame of mind to read this, that I could just totally roll with Anakin making well-adjusted/emotionally healthy choices, as well as this is a fic that’s entirely about being a fluffy amensia fic, after the whole thing on Jabiim. My immediate reaction was: Give me it. And I was not disappointed, because the two chapters that have been posted are fantastic–there’s some heart-wrenching hurt as Anakin mourns Obi-Wan’s loss, but the second chapter had an absolutely stellar conversation between him and Mace, where they don’t have to be friends to both be good people. The conversation was so engrossing, I loved how I understood where both characters were coming from, that it kept the conflict and tension between them, while putting them in a space where they could both really listen to the other, bringing out spot-on characterization and lovely moments of Jedi philosophy from both of them. I read that whole chapter just wanting to clap my hands to my chest and go, yes! this is what the Jedi are! this is what Mace Windu is! because the fic clearly wanted to treat everyone with respect.    While I would have read for just that conversation alone (and it’s the highlight of the fic so far), I’m practically champing at the bit to get more of this fic, because if that conversation went so well and the fic did that well with those two characters, I’m definitely intrigued about how things will go once Obi-Wan is properly back in the picture. I’m already having feelings about Anakin’s thoughts of him, how the fic managed to balance their good moments and bad moments, that they absolutely clashed and there was tension, but when Obi-Wan is gone, Anakin is devastated and so much of the good paths he walks down now are because of Obi-Wan, like, yes, show me Obi-Wan’s influence on him and Anakin’s loyalty to him, all while making better choices, and I am totally, totally here for that.    Chapters 3-4: I was already pretty hooked on this fic, but then chapters 3-4 were posted and, yes! Finally! Finding Obi-Wan again! And I loved the way it happened, the way Anakin stumbled over him in a way that seemed almost nudged along by the Force and then how desperately glad he was to see Obi-Wan was still alive and just… I love that it’s not perfect, Obi-Wan doesn’t remember much, but it’s good, that the whole thing just made me really happy, the entire conversation they have was engaging for being so good-hearted and caring and about the connection between them, that Obi-Wan may not remember, but there’s something here that he’s missed, some part of him has missed Anakin. It’s definitely an Anakin who is much more emotionally well adjusted but the fic has decided to roll with that and it works for me, it’s still really well written and warms my heart and just… there are scenarios (like amnesia fic) where you want the reunion to be satisfying, it has a natural building up of tension and expectations, and this one was just… not precisely understated, but just had this really warm glow that I absolutely adored and am super ready for more of this one!    Obi-Wan dies on Jabiim. Anakin blames himself, doesn’t know how to go on and yet - he does. Maybe the Force rewards that kind of thing, or maybe he just gets lucky, but when a mission lands Anakin on a vaguely familiar planet, he gets a second chance to do what he knows he should have done in the first place: save his master.    Chapter 5: This is an update rec for this fic. I tried to wait until there was more, at least two or three chapters together, but I couldn’t wait because it was the second part of the conversations Anakin has with an amnesiac Obi-Wan and it’s just so intriguing! The little things (like the brief hints dropped of what Obi-Wan’s former life was) and the bigger things (like the implant that’s super suspicious and meant to raise the readers’ wariness) make me really excited about what’s coming next and I’m enjoying that Anakin is not exactly the best person to be subtle in a conversation like this, as well as he’s clearly just barely holding himself back from flinging himself at his master and clinging onto him and that just gives me all the Anakin feelings. And I love that the author continues to have this way where… yes, there’s angst and hard times, but there’s an undercurrent of things will be okay, even if it takes awhile. That there’ll be fluff as well as angst, which is exactly what I want from an amnesia AU fic!    Chapter 6-7: I’m doing another update rec for this because I have feelings and because it’s one of those fics that I read pretty much as soon as I see it’s been updated, where I intend to let some of my favorites build up for a bit but I just cannot resist this one, it’s too good of a mix between being a fluffy, comforting fic and a gently building plot/tension fic, where I’m enjoying Obi-Wan and Anakin reconnecting, the almost laid back slice of life-esque moments just as much as I’m enjoying the hints of what happened to Obi-Wan while he was gone, what’s going on with him now, what greater machinations are in store. And these two chapters were especially good for me, as someone who is heavily invested in this relationship, as Anakin has such intense feelings about Obi-Wan, both absolute and utter joy that Obi-Wan’s alive and that there’s something in him that recognizes Anakin, but also Anakin’s jealousy of Obi-Wan caring about someone else, having in-jokes with someone else, of Obi-Wan having someone else in his life. It’s a genfic, but it doesn’t need to be more, their relationship is so very satisfying, how Anakin is getting this glimpse of what Obi-Wan’s life might have been like outside of the Jedi and he both enjoys it and is jealous that Obi-Wan cares about someone else. So satisfying for that.    Chapter 6-9: This is an update rec and will focus on the current chapters, rather than the fic as a whole. There have been several chapters updated recently and, oh, if I adored this fic before, I’m definitely invested in it now! I am entirely here for plot-based fic, especially plot-based fic that absolutely is centered around long conversations between Obi-Wan and Anakin where they may not have their usual context (because Obi-Wan doesn’t remember him, except that some part of him clearly very much does) but they still have all this weight and connection between them that’s both beautifully written and a straight shot to my id. This is a gen fic, but Anakin’s jealousy over Obi-Wan’s maybe-sorta-possibly girlfriend, whether you want to read it as an undercurrent or just that Anakin can’t stand anyone taking up his Master’s attention, is absolutely perfect, I read these chapters practically wriggling around on the bed because it was just so much exactly what I wanted. I’m definitely curious where the plot of the story is going, what the medical implant does and how it’s going to be removed, I’m curious about anything else the fic will throw at me, but if it was just super satisfying conversations of Anakin being made of feelings while desperately wanting his Master back, being so close but unable to just quite reach him, loving him so very much and you feel that in everything he says? I’d still be more than content with this fic.    This is one of the fics that I pick up as soon as I see a new chapter has been posted, one of those that I’ve become entirely charmed by, because it’s so solidly good and knows how to build up tension and give me interaction between my favorite characters, how to write those deep undercurrents of feelings while still having everyone behave within reason on the page. And it does a great job with Anakin’s character especially, sure, he’s more stable than he is in canon, but the fic embraces that and instead focuses on the more satisfying parts of Anakin that are super emotional, like how jealous and restless he gets when Obi-Wan is just out of his reach and I eat it up like delicious candy for that. ✦ The Exchange by MissLearn, obi-wan & anakin & some anakin/padme & ahsoka & qui-gon & rex & cast, time travel, 57.8k wip    The Daughter has a bad day and it irrevocably changes the fate of the galaxy, twice over. Or; ROTS Obi-Wan and Anakin are swapped with their younger, TPM, selves. It changes things, in both parallels.    I am so glad I stumbled over this fic and got caught up in it because it really was a whole lot of fun! I do have the caveat that it’s rough around the edges and takes a chapter or two to get going, but once I was in the thick of things, I was absolutely engrossed in it and the heart of the fic is on the Obi-Wan & Anakin relationship and it is absolutely so satisfying with that. Swapping places with their older/younger selves leads to some important discussions for ROTS!Obi-Wan&Anakin, which, let me tell you, I was glued to my reader during that conversation because it was just exactly what my heart wanted from it! But also, TPM!Obi-Wan&Anakin in the future, stumbling over everything going to hell as it does during ROTS, and how they’re thrown into this mixed up world and start to bond and obviously complement each other right from the start, was also deeply satisfying.    It’s a fic that’s also about their relationships with other people, but it’s very much revolved around these two characters and their relationship, which is what I picked this fic up hoping for and got something that I really got hooked on and would absolutely read another 100k of this. It’s good-hearted and clearly loves them both, loves everyone in this world (except for Palpatine, but fuck that guy) and, though the shit they go through is difficult and painful, I feel like this is a story about hope, even in the most dire circumstances, I feel like it’s a story about giving the characters the room to set things right. And that sense of how the people they meet are so good–it was so much fun to see Mace being kind, so much fun to see Rex being kind, so much fun to see Padme being kind, so much fun to see Qui-Gon being kind–in addition to Obi-Wan and Anakin having space to work shit out, ahhhh, that’s so very, very much my jam.    Chapters 8-9: This is an update rec and will focus on these chapters, rather than the fic as a whole–though, I will do my best to avoid any major spoilers, so that the rec is still useful for those who are seeing it for the first time! I picked up these two chapters last night to read, so it was about another 15k of fic to read, and promptly got sucked right back in and ate it up like candy. There’s a brief caveat I have, in that Clone Wars era Anakin is in his 20s, while TPM Padme is 14, and there’s some mutual flirting/attraction that gave me brief pause, but it doesn’t go much of anywhere and the fic quickly moves on to Anakin interacting with Qui-Gon, to how he’d put this person up on a pedestal and had all these idealized notions about who he was, and has to confront who he actually is, which doesn’t go the way Anakin expects. Which was so, so satisfying and good for me, the way Anakin gets more and more upset as he’s old enough to see who people are more clearly, which leads to him realizing how desperately he cares about Obi-Wan, still needs him, understands more what Obi-Wan has done for him in being his Master. The scene where Anakin is practically crying on Obi-Wan, clutching at him as he’s spiralling off, oh, man, so good for me, I would have read the fic just for that scene alone!    But it’s more than that, it’s also TPM era Obi-Wan and Anakin in the future, thrown into the ROTS thick of things and having to struggle to figure out what the hell is going on just as much as they’re struggling to stay alive. And it’s sosatisfying to see them interacting with Padme and Ahsoka and Rex, who they are already warming up to and kind of already adore as well, but there’s a connection between them, a bond forming between them as Anakin tries to find any stability in this new world he’s trying to wade through, as Obi-Wan sees more of Anakin than he ever had a chance to before and realizes how much he wants to help him and teach him and protect him. I would have read this fic just for time travel shenanigans, but it’s very much at its heart about Obi-Wan & Anakin’s relationship, helping to provide them with the room to better understand each other and show just how much they love each other and are necessary to each other, it’s about revelations and climaxes that are so goddamned pleasing to my id but also genuinely engaging and fun and touching. I hope this fic goes on for at least another 50k!    Chapters 10-11: This is an update rec and will focus on these chapters, rather than the fic as a whole. Ahh, another time when I should have let it build up more, but I couldn’t because I had to read now, especially when it’s continuing the Obi-Wan and Anakin feelings all over the place. It’s so incredibly satisfying, there’s so much emotional outpouring here, especially when the two Anakins switch places and so all the feelings that they’ve conveyed to each other are clashing/contrasting against the other version of their Master/Padawan. Moppet Anakin with Master Obi-Wan and Knight Anakin with Knight Obi-Wan and they understand so much more, but also all that history isn’t there anymore, and, ahhhh, it’s so good. And yet there’s still connection there, that even this different version of the person they care about is still there with them, there’s still that gravity between them. Plus, oh, man, Master Obi-Wan with Moppet Anakin is ADORABLE. And just how much Obi-Wan puts up with when it comes to Anakin, every moment of realization of just how much patience and kindness and carehe’s put into Anakin over the years, done in a way that also shows how wonderful Anakin’s character is, oh, I’m serious, I could read this forever. It’s so engaging and charismatic and wonderful. ✦ The House That Obi-Wan Built by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin, 10.4k    Obi-Wan and Anakin find that home life isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.    I admit, I had to edit the HTML of this fic to make it better format so I could read it, but it was absolutely worth it. I had a bit of a depression spiral over the last couple of weeks and this fic was the one that helped cheer me up when I needed it. It’s this great fic where Obi-Wan decides that Anakin needs something different in his training, a different approach, and so he decides to take him to Malastare to live for awhile, to set up a house there, because Anakin is an unorthodox Padawan and so could use unorthodox training. It’s adorable and has all this incredible sparkle and charm, it hits me right in the domestic adorability place, the author is really great at writing that dynamic of an older brother and younger brother who clash but clearly care deeply about each other. But also just really, really great characterization, especially Obi-Wan having a trolling streak in my absolute favorite bit of the fic: “Oh. And I wanted to say thanks for letting me have the big room. That was real cool of you.” “Not at all. You’re a young boy. Young boys need lots of space to bounce around. Besides, I have this debilitating fear of large rooms. Give me space and I just can’t handle myself. I start sweating, shaking…it’s impossible to function.” “You’re doing that thing again when you’re making stuff up with a straight face, aren’t you?” “Yes, Anakin, I am.” I cackled out loud because, yes, that’s perfect. It’s a feel good fic, but also has a lot of genuine charisma and sparkle, which was exactly what I needed. ✦ Sofa, So Good by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin, 10.9k    Why would anyone want Obi-Wan’s grody old couch?    You may want to read The House That Obi-Wan Built first, but all you really need to know is that Obi-Wan decided to train Anakin on Malastare because he needed something different and they’ve started sprucing up the place they got. I also had to reformat this fic to get it into readable shape (but it was just a find & replace job), which I mention to encourage others through that because, oh, every moment of this was joy. The author does an absolutely fantastic job with their dynamic, that older brother and younger brother dynamic that works so well for them here, BUT ALSO that Obi-Wan is an absolute shit cook and he’s kind of a dick sometimes in that way older brothers are, especially when responsible for their brother’s training, but it’s always done with love, and it’s so sharp and engaging and fits the characters, especially for something that was posted in 1999! But then I’ve always liked anything by Smitty and this fic really holds up, it’s absolutely charming and sharp and was an incredible bright spot in my reading this week, which was already pretty great. ✦ House of Cards by Smitty, obi-wan & anakin & oc, 23.8k    Just when Obi-Wan thinks he has life figured out, a shadowy bounty hunter proves him wrong.    It would probably help to have read “The House That Obi-Wan Built” and “Sofa, So Good” before this one, but it’s not absolutely necessary and all you really need to know is that Obi-Wan has decided to train Anakin on Malastare instead of on Coruscant and, of course, shenangigans happen along the way. My one caveat about this fic is that it spends more time on the OC than I could really quite get into, so I wound up feeling a bit distracted during those parts, but the Obi-Wan and Anakin stuff is just as delightful as the other fics in this series. I really love this author’s take on both of them, especially that there’s a sense of sharp fun to the both of them, there’s a weight to both characters that strikes me as true, that this can be a warm-hearted fic, but I wouldn’t really call it fluffy, either. Especially in the interaction between Obi-Wan and Anakin, you can tell the author loves both of them and there’s this great exchange that had me cackling: “I have some errands to do. I want you to work on that patience exercise I taught you yesterday.” “All morning?” “No, Anakin. Your line is, ‘Yes, Master. Your every wish is my command. I live only to serve.’ No, go medidtate.”because, oh my god, that’s it, that’s them, it’s hilarious and perfect. For all that this was apparently posted in 1999, it really holds up as a great sense of who these characters are and how they’d interact! ✦ Come On, Get Up, Let Me See Your Bruises by Imadra Blue, obi-wan & anakin, 5.8k    When Obi-Wan and an eleven-year-old Anakin crash land on a muddy, dangerous planet, Anakin is badly injured. Obi-Wan is pushed to the limits, determined to save his young Padawan, even if it’s at the cost of his own life.    Oh, no, feelings. ): Obi-Wan and Anakin are only just a little ways into their Master/Padawan relationship, so they don’t really know how to talk to each other very well yet, the feelings are there but neither of them really realizes it, and so of course they fall into a dangerous mission with a terrible crash that leaves them injured and that’s when they realize just how much they’ve come to truly love each other. It’s so satisfying for whump fic and h/c in the way Obi-Wan is so desperately worried over Anakin, in that it eventually gives us them melding their minds together so Obi-Wan can help keep Anakin focused when he has a concussion, and it just happily, happily embraces being all about shoving these characters into tough circumstances to make their bond even stronger and give me feelings about it. God bless. ✦ A Good Place to Die by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash?) + some anakin/padme & yoda & bant & cast, some violence/injury, 115k    Exhausted after over a year of fighting in the Clone Wars, our heroes are sent on another mission to a vacation paradise planet. This mission brings danger and the aftereffects may very well shatter the deepening friendship between Master and Padawan.    This fic consumed me for the last several days and I am going to try to write a coherent rec for it, when all I really want to do is just keyboard smash like you wouldn’t believe. I admit that the fic is OTT in places, some of the reactions aren’t really earned, as well as I would say Obi-Wan would be less “this is all my fault” and more “get your shit together, Anakin” (in a supportive way), but at the same time, what the fic does is takes issues that are absolutely there in canon and puts them in a high pressure cooker and watches everything explode in the most satisfying for me way possible. This is 115k of Anakin absolutely losing his shit when Obi-Wan is near fatally wounded, in a really selfish and hypocritcal and emotionally messy way that is entirely, entirely accurate to his character. Anakin is a character–especially at this point in his life–where he thinks that he’s ready to be a Knight, that he’s ready to be on his own, then something happens and he has to actually stand on his own for awhile, and he absolutely cannot handle it, he swings wildly between various emotions, he’s angry and hurt and terrified and desperately doesn’t want Obi-Wan to die because he still needs his Master.    It’s 115k of Obi-Wan’s slow path to recovery and how he protects Anakin still, how he tries to make things easier on Anakin, how he tries not to burden his Padawan, tries to give him the space to be happy, how he just cannot take Anakin’s happiness away, not even when he needs help. It’s an exploration of Obi-Wan’s struggle to accept help (instead of always giving it), to open up emotionally to Anakin, just as much as it’s about Anakin’s absolutely horrible reactions when something bad happens. It’s chock-full of those moments that are an absolute struggle to get through to the other side of because they’re both so terrible at communication, it’s a fic that’s all about how Obi-Wan tries to encourage Anakin’s indepedence and respect his privacy, while Anakin just desperately wants Obi-Wan to shove him into a chair and make him talk about these things. It’s a fic that’s about how there’s such affection there (all the little memories of how Anakin used to crawl into Obi-Wan’s bed or curl up against his side when he needed comfort or the forehead kisses were so good for me), yet also you see how the distance has grown between them.    It’s a fic that absolutely nails how much I want to just smack Anakin for his reactions, how much of a brat he is, how selfish and hypocritical and hurtful he is when he lashes out, how he was wrong in his reactions, but while also still completely loving him, that is exactly how I should feel about Anakin Skywalker. He’s does and says horrible things and is selfish and hurts people who love him, but I still get why they love him and I still love him myself, I would still move mountains to help him. It’s a fic where you get that Anakin really does need someone to grab him by the scruff of the neck and make him apologize for the shitty things he’s done and to put him back in his place because he needs someone else to set the boundaries. There’s even a moment towards the end that shows how Anakin loves both Padme and Obi-Wan, that he gets different things from them, and it’s only a brief moment but it nailed how I feel about these two characters in his life. It nailed how he’s so incredibly sorry afterwards, how much he hates himself, how Palpatine twists things around and makes Anakin’s inability to trust in the love from others all the worse. It’s a fic that also had some great Obi-Wan & Yoda moments, some great moments with Bant and Garen, that I could see undercurrents of Obi-Wan/Anakin to go with the textual moments of Anakin/Padme, it’s a fic that’s about how Obi-Wan and Anakin do love each other, how they can say it to each other, how they can finally understand a few more things about each other. It’s long and just one id-satisfying amazingly cathartic read that left me entirely sated by the end of it. ✦ Measure of Force by esama, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k    Anakin woke up with his heart thundering in his chest, explosion echoing in his head.    Oh, I loved this fic something fierce. I love the concept of it, I love the little details in it, I love the philosophy of it, but I also love that it understands the characters. I love that it’s this quiet moment between Obi-Wan and Anakin, where you can feel the weight of the fate that binds them, yet also still they only just met, it’s a quet few minutes in the middle of the night and yet something incredibly important happened here, all over tea. I love that already you can see Obi-Wan becoming Anakin’s teacher, not just scolding him or talking at him, but to him, listening to what he says in return, which allows for some realizations when Obi-Wan’s metaphor on the Dark and the Light sides of the Force gets away from them a bit. And what I really love is this sense of… the series of events we see in canon could have been this giant vision that Obi-Wan saw, there’s a chance to follow a different path in this universe, all while done in this really lovely, understated, in-character way that was just a beautiful read. ✦ You Didn’t Hear It From Me by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin & garen & bant, 6.2k    Garen Muln reminisces about his childhood friend.    Oh, my god, this fic was an absolute scream, I don’t think I stopped making :D faces the entire time I was reading it! It’s delightfully told from Garen’s pov, talking to Obi-Wan’s Padawan (never named, but) about what he was like as a youngling and it’s pure joy from start to finish, where Obi-Wan is the worsttroublemaker just about ever, but in really sharp, clever ways that are different from how a typical troublemaker would be. It’s so perfectly spot on for what Obi-Wan would have been like as a youngling, the hilarity of all of the shenanigans he got into and how they were tailored beautifully to his character, how he was so goddamned Extra As Fuck, but in a very, very Obi-Wan Kenobi sort of way, and it was just such a great fic to read and perfectly spot on, I totally agree that this is exactly how Obi-Wan would have been and it’s hilarious what a little shit he was. ✦ Sleepover by SkippingSteppingStones, obi-wan & anakin, 2.1k    Shortly after having been accepted into the Jedi Temple, Anakin’s…idiosyncrasies have bought him a place in Obi-Wan’s quarters. Obi-Wan thought that it would make him happier, but all it seems to have really done is get him closer to a boy he can’t begin to understand.    I will read so many fics just like this one–in the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, when they’re still stumbling with trying to begin to understand each other, when their worlds are so different, but they’re trying, and it’s not a smooth road at all, but there’s such care and effort there, that it finds a way to work out in the end. And this fic was solid and lovely for that, with Anakin being cold and that’s not really what’s wrong and Obi-Wan eventually figures it out, just right the mix of bittersweet and actual sweet. I felt all warm and fuzzy reading this, just the way I was supposed to! ✦ Don’t Look Back by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 26.7k    ObiWan Kenobi doesn’t believe in luck. It’s one choices and training, not luck, that determines one fate. When he and his padawan are stranded in the mountains, he faces a life or death decision and Anakin Skywalker faces a lesson he never wished to learn    For a fic that’s over 26k, this one really just flew by and I feel like I’d barely gotten started before it was over! Partly this is because it’s a fic that’s focused on one event–Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a planet and have to try to climb to safety, but Obi-Wan has to cut their cable to save Anakin and then the struggle to find their way back to each other, when Anakin fears his Master is dead and Obi-Wan very nearly is dead from his injuries. And, granted, it probably helps if you’re super into “Anakin thinks Obi-Wan is dead and proceeds to flip his shit about it” like I am (BOY, AM I INTO THAT) so I ate this up like it was delicious, delicious candy, but I do think it’s a really solid, good read.    It’s set early in their relationship, they’ve only been together a fairly short time, but already Anakin is intensely attached and deeply panicked at the thought that Obi-Wan might have died, as well as Obi-Wan is intensely protective of Anakin and basically gets up in the morning for him and fights his way back for Anakin. It’s very much a fic about how deeply connected they are already, how they’re still feeling each other out, but there’s such importance there, and that’s deeply satisfying to me, so I whipped through this like you wouldn’t believe and was so glad to have read it. ✦ Behind a Waterfall, Before the Pyre by Persephone_Kore, obi-wan & anakin & yoda, 1.4k    The thunder of a waterfall and Yoda’s silence give Obi-Wan shelter to feel until he’s ready to think. His Knighting and a promise give shelter to Anakin.    This is a lovely look towards the end of TPM, just after the loss of Qui-Gon, but before the funeral pyre, the heavy weight of Obi-Wan’s character and the loss and the future responsibility he has, the really well done sense of quiet where nothing can really be fixed in the moment, nothing can really make it better, but grief can be shared and, when Yoda sits down next to him, there’s a quiet sharing of that grief. And when Anakin huddles up next to him afterwards, it’s the beginning of something, it’s an awkward first step, but a bittersweet one, you can feel the importance of what’s starting here and how they’ll come to mean so much to each other. It’s a short read, but it was a really good read for me. ✦ Life Beyond the Code by Bek-K, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 141.7k wip    After the Naboo incident, Obi-Wan defies the Council to train Anakin. Leaving the only life he knows behind and with Anakin’s help, he discovers life beyond the code.    I do have a couple of caveats about this fic: The first half of it is the stronger half, but I also recognize that I’m most interested in the fic when it’s focused on Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship. The fic works better if you assume Obi-Wan is about ten years younger than he actually is, because he doesn’t feel like someone who’s almost thirty years old, but instead in his early 20s. And while the fic does have a plot, the best moments are more in the slice of life family building that Obi-Wan and Anakin have with each other, when they kind of leave the Jedi Order and decide to build their lives into something else. And that’s where this fic got me, it had such heart and charm in those moments, but I’m always here for that kind of heart-warming slice of life stuff, so it was right up my alley. It’s one of those fics about how things are fluffier here, even when they have trouble, you know things will work out for them, and so it was like a warm blanket in the right scenes for me, and sometimes I just really need that in my life. Plus, with the length of it, it was nice to have something longer to sink my teeth into and just read read read for a few hours at a time! ✦ Coalesced Matter by Mirror and Image, obi-wan & anakin & dooku, 48.4k    Jedi Master Dooku is in a long-term undercover assignment with slow but steady progress. But he gets a distress call from this Knight Kenobi with a Padawan Skywalker and things just start to go crazy.    Cranky grandpa Dooku is apparently a thing that I desperately needed in my life and I’m so glad I read this fic. I had a day to do not much else and so I was puttering around to find a new fic to read and thought, eh, I’ll give it a try. I promptly got sucked into the whole thing because it was exactly what I wanted, where Obi-Wan and Anakin are picked up by Dooku who is still a Jedi but is teetering on the edge of becoming a Sith and the three of them are forced into playing family, which provides the nudges that all of them need to get back onto a healthier track. Dooku finds connections, Obi-Wan is able to get past his grief sooner, and Anakin finds the structure that one person alone cannot provide, the balance between healing from Qui-Gon’s death (that affects them all) and building on it is lovely, and there’s plot shenanigans! The beginning is a little rough, a little more tell-than-show, but once I got underway, the fic was a solid read that utterly captured my imagination and I would have read at least another 50k of this one, it was just so pleasing to what I want. Which is apparently cranky grandpa Dooku who finds himself having feelings for these grand-Padawans of his. And that they still really need guidance while you can feel how incredible they’re both going to be in the future, like, that is the perfect blend to strike for a fic like this! So, so satisfying. ✦ The Promise by Ripki, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k    Unwilling to leave, Obi-Wan waits beside his young padawan’s sickbed.    This is pretty much how I see the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, yes. That Obi-Wan cared about, grew attached to, and probably loved that little munchkin from the time he was just a year or two older than when we first saw him. I love that this fic did a lovely job of being about feelings, that Obi-Wan knows Anakin will get better when he’s sick, but he just can’t make himself leave, even though Jedi detachment tells him that he’s not actually doing any good here. It’s not denial about his feelings, Obi-Wan knows exactly what he feels, but Anakin is always different for him, there’s such deep and understated affection and care here that it gave me all the right feelings. It was a fantastic read. ✦ Learning Curve by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin, 5.2k    It is a poor student who does not thereby also teach his master.    Two adorable scenes from early on in Anakin’s Padawan days, both of which appeal for different reasons! The first is a fic where Obi-Wan has returned after a long delay on a mission and Anakin is upset about how long he’s been gone, scared because he was so worried and it’s set in an AU where Qui-Gon is still alive and able to help smooth things over a bit, but it’s still wholly about Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship and, ahhh, so adorable and heart-tugging! The second is a delight because you absolutely see the ending coming and yet it’s no less great because absolutely Obi-Wan can be a bit of a dick on purpose when he wants to get something done. Two scenes from Anakin’s early days as Obi-Wan’s Padawan and it was a joy to read them both. ✦ Take My Waking Slow by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin, 2.7k    The elusiveness of sleep, and the practice of patience. Three very early mornings in the Kenobi-Skywalker quarters, once the droids have been dismantled and the pyres burnt down.    Three scenes of waking up early or being unable to sleep, during the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship and they’re each just… bittersweet and yet something good, something hopeful, something meaningful. They’re little bits of filler scenes, nothing that has to be epic, instead more slife of life and they’re perfect for that, they contribute to my feelings on what was such an important relationship and how difficult it was for both of them and what it meant to both of them and just…. I could read a hundred more of fics exactly like this, which were understated in the right ways and not trying too hard and just had a very solid, smooth style that left me with the sense that… even though they were short scenes, they were entirely satisfying, they didn’t need to be longer to make me feel like I truly read something. ✦ Nightmare by saxgirl42, obi-wan & anakin, 1.6k    A young Anakin looks for comfort on a cold, dark night.    This is everything I wanted from the early days of Anakin’s time as a Padawan, where he has a dream about losing Obi-Wan, the person who is the only constant in his life right now, and can’t help but sneak into Obi-Wan’s room to make sure he’s still there, which leads to Obi-Wan pulling him into the bed for them both to sleep and comforting Anakin. It’s just exactly what I’ve been looking for, where there are cuddles when they’re needed, where Anakin has just completely grown on Obi-Wan, where it’s cute and a little bit bittersweet, both in just the right amounts. ✦ Finding the Words by freedomfry, obi-wan & anakin, 2.2k    Anakin frowned as he looked through the words beginning with S. “I’m not here,” he said.    This was super cute! And then it wasn’t. The concept might seem a little silly, the theme of s-words across the span of such serious events, but the actual details and moments, the charm of the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, the cute kid and the surly but still lovable teenager, all the way to Darth Vader and how heartwrenchingly painful all of that was, it’s really well done and made my heart ache all over again. Any fic that can produce an actual ache in me (I admit that I’m prone to it, but still) is one I’m glad I read, it’s a bittersweet and well-written look at the characters, even if I kind of want to cry afterwards and stuff my face into some fluff to make myself feel better. ✦ Death and the Living Force by YamiSnuffles , obi-wan & anakin, 4.6k    Not much time has passed since Qui-Gon’s death and both Obi-Wan and Anakin are trying to find their own way. Little did they know, the one they mourn will also help them move forward.    I both love and hate this fic with such a passion–I love it because it’s so exquisitely spot on to how I think Obi-Wan and Anakin’s dynamic was in those early days, but I also hate it for the same reason. I want things to be off to less of a rocky start, I want Obi-Wan to be more emotionally open, I want Anakin to be less of a burgeoning rage monster, and yet it’s not who they are, it’s not Obi-Wan to hug the moppet like I want him to, not when he’s grieving like this, it’s not Anakin to settle down and be more secure and mature. They still find a way to move forward, it’s obvious they care greatly about each other and this is an epic relationship in the making, it’s ultimately a bittersweet but good fic, but man. It broke my heart in a way that feels very much like canon. ✦ Hello Again verse part 1 / part 2 by delicatefury, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 2.3k wip    When Anakin Skywalker is born, Obi-Wan Kenobi is flooded with dreams-memories-visions of a life already lived.    These are two scenes from a much larger AU, which hasn’t been written yet but oh boy did these two pieces capture my attention something fierce and are already giving me the good stuff, so even if nothing more comes of this one, I’m already happy. It’s an AU where they both are flooded with memories much earlier on and Anakin knows that his Very Important Person is a Jedi and is somewhere in the Temple and, oh my god, I didn’t know how much I needed an AU where todder!Anakin is looking for someone, the Jedi don’t know who, they think it’s someone else, and then eventually, WHAM, he and Obi-Wan are finally reunited in the most hilarious and adorable way pretty much ever. I had so many feelings during their reunion (and almost-reunion!) and the writing is so sharp and perfect and engaging, I practically grinned until my face hurt the entire way through both pieces, I loved them so much. ✦ untitled by delicatefury, obi-wan & anakin & satine, ~1k    She takes a moment to look at the blue projection of a waiting Jedi padawan before entering her private comm room.    This is a follow-up to the Hello Again verse (here and here), which should probably be read first, but either way, this was a short but lovely look at Satine’s pov when Obi-Wan calls her with some important news. It’s about the fun dynamic between them, how they have these sharp edges along this such deep affection and care, how they banter and how they have these soft moments, all of which fit them very nicely here! But it’s also about something so incredibly important that Obi-Wan wants to share with her and, oh, my fannish heart. ✦ The Mathematics of Repair by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin & cast, 4.6k    For raw teachers and rough-edged students building in the rubble: tiny steps are enough, provided they carry you in the right direction. Immediately post TPM, in short snippets.    Another fic that’s about Anakin’s moppet years, told in snippets and scenes/moments, to create a collection of slice of life stories. I love how it’s not always easy, they’re still feeling each other out, still adjusting to the losses they’ve both faced and trying to figure out who this other person is, but they get there with small steps and moment by moment. I loved how each of the moments is something I could easily see, as they face new situations and new things to learn or adapt to, new people to meet, and there’s a really great sense of little details, of time passing, of them doing things, but that it’s still at the center about the characters and their relationships. I loved the slow progress towards being able to banter with each other, the sense of hope that’s there when they’re finally on the same wavelength, that there’s finally an established connection between them. It’s such a lovely fic and it was so satisfying to read, both because I crave moppet Anakin stories, but also because it was just a genuinely good character piece! ✦ My Very Young Apprentice by squelchything, obi-wan & anakin, 1k    Anakin and ObiWan take a while to get to know each other on a rainy Couruscant night.    A short but lovely piece set not long after TPM, where Obi-Wan is still grieving Qui-Gon and Anakin just curls up in his lap and it’s a quiet bonding moment. I will read a thousand of these fics, just watch me, because it hits my id so directly on and it soothes my heart and they’re just entirely enjoyable, especially when the fic really gets exactly what I wanted and is lovely to read. ✦ Works in Progress by panharmonium, obi-wan & anakin, 3.2k wip (sort of)    Padawan Anakin Skywalker is a work in progress. But then, so is his master. Various unconnected snippets set during the apprenticeship of Anakin Skywalker, updated whenever inspiration strikes.    This is a collection of shorter fics (two of them at the time of this rec), moments in the lives of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, so each of them can be read on their own, if you like. And I absolutely adored both of them–the first one is total joy because it does such a great job with Obi-Wan’s character, who is resoundingly responsible and noble, but also would absolutely make bets on Padawans’ sparring and the way he answers Anakin’s questions, direct and yet not direct is great. I would have read it just for moppet Anakin years, but the Obi-Wan characterization was even better.    The second is more serious, as Obi-Wan deals with Anakin trying to do too much too quickly, always so talented with technical skills and not yet emotionally mature enough for all of it, in a way that was really, really good to read. The way Obi-Wan gets Anakin to stop and think, to look at things in a bit of a different light, the way it’s a struggle and works well enough, but not perfectly, the way they’re both really trying here and you can see them making progress, but it’s so frustrating, even as there’s so much good and hope here? It’s absolutely perfect, I could read a hundred of fics just like this one and still come back more just like it. ✦ From One Generation by Phosphorescent, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k    “What do you know about it, anyway?” Anakin muttered resentfully, scuffing a booted foot against the floor. “You were a perfect padawan, probably just like Ferus karking Olin.” His Master’s eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline.    Yesss, I love moppet!Anakin stories and this was a lovely one, where Anakin has gotten in trouble and grumbles about how Obi-Wan wouldn’t understand, so Obi-Wan tells him a bit about what he was actually like as a Padawan Learner. It’s super adorable and easy to see as part of canon, both of them are absolutely spot on and the conversation has a great flow to it, especially for Anakin’s mercurial temper. An absolutely delightful read! ✦ They Who Stay Behind by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 20.4k    A newly knighted returns home with a new padawan. It’s time to start a new life, trying not to mourn one lost and forever gone.    Oh, I really enjoyed this fic, it’s set in the days just after The Phantom Menace, and there are times when it goes a little hard on the angst (Qui-Gon’s treatment of him is a little harsher than I see it in canon, but it’s used for the purpose of Obi-Wan’s story, so I understand why it’s here), but at its heart it’s about Obi-Wan coming to terms with everything that’s happened, with the story of how he struggles through those difficult times, when he’s had so much crumble under him and yet has to stay strong for Anakin, how that relationship with Anakin gets off to a rocky start, but they do have affection for each other and they do figure out how to reach each other. There are moments of absolute adorableness and moments of bittersweetness and moments of upset and hurt, all of them winding around together in a satisfying fic about the beginning of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, all in a way that was a really good read. ✦ Our Honored Dead by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin, 9.1k    One year after tragedy and triumph, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his padawan Anakin Skywalker return to Naboo for its first Memorial Day. It is an anniversary of endings and of beginnings.    This fic is exactly what’s on the tin, it’s set a year into Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, so things are going more smoothly now, both between them and in their adjusting to the circumstances in their lives after all that changed for them on Naboo. It’s another fic that’s solid for seeing these two interacting with each other, for showing that not everything is perfect, but they care about each other, that they’re both wonderful characters to read about, that it’s about really starting to heal. There are some flashbacks that are ouchy in just the way they’re meant to be, but also they have crying moppet Anakin flinging himself into Obi-Wan’s arms to get a hug and the comfort that only Obi-Wan can give him just punched me right in the feelings place. A really lovely, super solid fic that was very satisfying to read. ✦ i am young, but i have aged. by shoiryu, anakin & cast, 1.5k    Let us say you are nine years old, and you are a slave.    This was half-meta, half-fic, and it’s a lovely look at Anakin’s character and the deep-rooted issues he has from childhood and on into adulthood, from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. There’s something intimate about the second person pov that really worked well for me here, it’s not something I always like, but it allowed for a better sense of being in Anakin’s shoes and made me feel for this beloved trash child all over again. Plus, oh, this one moment especially: His attention cannot be allowed to waver from you for an instant, for if it does, you will be alone. If he is not watching you or scolding you, he does not care, he does not love you. Oh, Anakin. ✦ Into the Breach by Melody_Jade, obi-wan & anakin & the council, 4.9k    Qui-Gon survived the duel with Maul but is gravely wounded and in a coma. Obi-Wan is left to champion for Anakin’s fate before the council himself.    This is one of those fics that definitely takes a harder view of the Council’s attitude towards Anakin and you just have to roll with that, but it’s one that doesn’t get my hackles up because it’s from the point of view of a character who would interpret them that way and they’re not cold-heart and the fic’s point really isn’t about them, but about Obi-Wan bonding with little moppet Anakin sooner (because Qui-Gon lived but was in a coma, so it forced them together and gave them the chance for a little breathing room in their grief) and so he defies the Council in a more obvious way right from the beginning. The real point of the fic is the super cute and delightful bonding between Obi-Wan and bb!Anakin, which was absolutely a highlight to read, I will never get tired of reading about them at that point when it’s as warm-hearted and easy to read as this one was. ✦ Sleeping with the Enemy by Imadra Blue, obi-wan & anakin, 1.9k    While Qui-Gon is in a Council meeting, Obi-Wan is left with the care of young Anakin. Anakin’s irritating, but much like a tumor, he grows on Obi-Wan.    SUPER CUTE. Obi-Wan and kidlet Anakin forced to spend time together, where the fic balances that tension between them, because they don’t know each other yet and Obi-Wan has no reason to care about him yet, with that there is an instant connection there, an instant fascination that Anakin has with him, a very quick affection that Obi-Wan develops for the little moppet. It’s super cute and fluffy without being too sugary and I may have done a bit of hand clasping after having finished it. ✦ Promise by Aridette, obi-wan & anakin, 1.2k    Obi-Wan goes on a dangerous mission, leaving his young Padawan behind. When he returns injured, Anakin insists he come along the next time.    I am so very weak to tiny little moppet Anakin who desperately wants to stay by his Master’s side, who is adorable with all those feelings and this fic knew exactly how to get straight at my heart, because I am intensely interested in this era of their relationship, as well as of course there is eventually a tiny little missile launching itself at Obi-Wan because he wants to hug him. Give me that forever, especially when it’s as precious as this one is. ✦ First Rain by Allie_el, obi-wan & anakin, 3k    Obi-Wan runs back to the Temple in a frenzy when he believes something is wrong with Anakin.    The fic starts off a little rough, but by the midway point of the first chapter, I was totally onboard with the super cute and absolutely adorable fluff here, when little Anakin is scared by a thunderstorm, which he’s never experienced before. The fic just happily embraces that it’s all about Obi-Wan being protective of the little moppet and that it’s about Anakin needing a hug and to curl up against Obi-Wan, and that even when he’s older, it still helps because he’s still just as emotionally needy. It’s pure soul-soothing fluff that I ate up like it was delicious candy because it was. ✦ Reemerging Daylight by Pandora151, obi-wan & anakin & bant, 7k    Obi-Wan, still struggling with the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, collapses under the pressure of being a new Knight as well as a Master to an unusual Padawan. Anakin watches him fall and begins to understand his new master so much more. Set two weeks after the events of The Phantom Menace.    I admit, the fic went a little hard on the angst and whump for me, but it also brought the reveling in how it brings Obi-Wan and Anakin closer together, how it helps connect them and shows how much they’re already beginning to care about each other, how they start opening up to each other. It was a lovely read, one of those set in the early days of Anakin’s training as a Padawan and was all about getting them to a point where they could hug each other even. The ending was super cute and this was absolutely a satisfying read! ✦ Young Old Man by LuvEwan, obi-wan & anakin & oc pov, 4.1k    Anakin tries to learn more about the character of his new Master, soon after the tragedy of Naboo.    I was a little thrown by the “young old man” aspect of the fic, but! OC POV on the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship! As Obi-Wan takes Anakin to a place that he helps out at, sharing something that means a lot to him, as Anakin soaks up all the new information he’s gaining about his new Master. It’s a really good use of an OC to have an older woman free to give Obi-Wan shit because she remembers him from when he was younger, as well as taking Anakin aside and talking warmly to him, while still making it about the canon characters. It was one of those nice little gap fillers that was a really solid read! ✦ Scared of You by LuvEwan, obi-wan & anakin, 2.3k    Obi-Wan struggles with his apprentice during two very different, but traumatic moments.    Two scenes during Anakin’s Padawanship, where he’s utterly devastated by a loss, one time a pet he was clinging to as something comforting, the other after the loss of his mother, both of the times that Obi-Wan was there for him and comforted him, helped him. It’s a couple of bittersweet scenes, because you can feel the affection and care here, they do struggle their way towards a strong connection with each other, they do find the right things to say, but you know it’s not going to be enough. There’s such heartbreak here, but such hope as well, which sometimes makes it worse, just the way Star Wars fic always should be. ✦ The Trouble With Gungans by saxgirl42, obi-wan & anakin & jar jar, 1.9k    Jar Jar causes trouble for Anakin in a Coruscant pub.    And I loved this fic as well! Because it’s a cute story about Anakin tripping into trouble that Jar Jar has caused entirely by just being Jar Jar and Obi-Wan has to deal with this shit and I love that, even when his patience is low, he practically spoils Anakin in that way that you almost don’t notice, because Obi-Wan is clearly utterly fond of him, even when he probably should at least get a little bit of a lecture. But when Anakin gets knocked around, nope, Obi-Wan is much more about being protective than anything and it was so good for my soul because it was an utterly charming fic! ✦ Keeping the High Ground by Pyxelle, obi-wan & anakin + luke, 2.5k    While training with Luke aboard the Millenium Falcon, ObiWan remembers a lesson with Anakin that reminds him of what he is still fighting for    Oh, no, this gave me too many feelings, it was too charming and sweet which only made the feelings worse, because we all know what happened in the end. But it really is a great look at Obi-Wan training Luke and remembering when he trained Anakin, when he was teaching him so much, when he taught him to keep the high ground, to not take chances when he was vulernable, when he was trying to help him overcome the very thing that would later undo Anakin. It could have been overwrought or too much, but the fic really knew how to keep it sparkling, so that it wasn’t too foreshadowing or too overdone, it was just… almost a slice of life memory while Obi-Wan was on the Millennium Falcon and it worked really, really well for me for that. ✦ Enquiring Minds Want to Know by Gabri Jade, obi-wan & cast, 3.3k    Obi-Wan struggles with an unusual assignment.    This was really cute! Often times, when you get a fic like, “Obi-Wan is tasked with writing an advice column for a magazine, because the Jedi want to seem more approachable.” you get utter crack or no attempt at making it seem feasible within the actual world. But this felt a lot like something that maybe could have happened, it was reasonable and understandable and yet lost none of its gentle humor for that! I loved not-long-after-TPM Obi-Wan struggling with how to answer things, coming up with reasonable answers and thinking seriously about the questions but also super annoyed by them, and it was just… it put a smile on my face because it was such a charming fic to read. ✦ A Code to Love By by gizzi1213, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k    When Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a distant planet, the strength of three little words reveal themselves.    A short but satisfying look at Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, after Obi-Wan is wounded and Anakin proceeds to lose his shit in really dangerous and telling ways while Obi-Wan is out, until Obi-Wan finally starts getting better and he can calm down a little. I make no bones about how I love Anakin being a total mess, especially when it’s over the person who sets so many of his boundaries, and so it’s probably a little OTT in places, but my id was super, super delighted to read this, because Anakin just loves him so much and Obi-Wan loves him as well. And the more fucked up Anakin is about it, the more I love it. :9 ✦ The Stray by ruth baulding, obi-wan & anakin & ocs, 10.4k    Even in a galaxy far, far away, every boy needs a dog. Anakin brings home a pathetic life form, and Obi Wan is far from amused. But which of them is the worst rascal?    I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved little bb!Anakin in this story, when he takes in a stray and of course everything winds up blowing up in his face and I felt every bit of the struggle he has with trying to adjust and you can see the foundation being laid for everything that’s to come, but it’s also a cute little story about a mishap when he’s young and it ends with Obi-Wan being a stealth asshole to people that annoy him in the absolute best way and kind in his own way, too. It’s a semi-quick read and just so utterly solid in the writing of it! ✦ A Good Cause by 221B.B, obi-wan & anakin, 3.3k    Not surprisingly, an argument with one’s padawan doesn’t do one good.    No, but, seriously, if you give me a fic where Anakin practically curls up on Obi-Wan because he still needs comfort from his Master even once he’s an adult and a Jedi Knight himself? I’m pretty much guaranteed to be yours. And this fic is lovely because it’s just a touch of Obi-Wan being amused at Anakin having difficulties with his Padawan, just as Obi-Wan had with Anakin, but then when it actually happens, no, Obi-Wan loves him far too much to be amused, it’s still far too soon from their own relationship for him to be anything but sympathetic and wanting to help Anakin. He doesn’t fix everything for Anakin, he just cuts through Anakin’s emotional spinning and then lets Anakin curl up on him a bit and it really, really worked for me and gave me all the bittersweet warm fuzzy feelings, just like I wanted. ✦ A Trip to Forget by amber75, obi-wan & anakin, 14.8k    ObiWan and Anakin’s latest mission starts off on the wrong foot and gets worse from there!    I usually prefer a little later in their relationship, but I got pulled into this fic and couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it, because it was a lovely, solid story about Obi-Wan and Anakin on a mission, how things aren’t perfect, they’re not a seamless team yet, but you can see the beginnings of it, you can see the rough edges between them, the lack of understanding, but also see how they bridge those gaps, all while trudging through a jungle. It’s self-contained and perfectly paced, I enjoyed every inch of their mutual discomfort as various bits of jungle decided to make their day terrible, but most of all the building of the relationship between them was perfect. ✦ Passing Dreams by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin, 2k    The first time that Anakin has a nightmare about his mother, he and Obi-wan are coming home from an assignment.    Oh, my heart. The way Obi-Wan and Anakin just don’t quite understand each other emotionally, especially as Anakin is worried about his mother and just cannot cope in the way Obi-Wan does, all of that blended with how they try and find a way to at least connect, to come together and Obi-Wan may not be perfect, but he’s there and he makes it clear that he cares. You can still see Anakin’s road coming, but you also see why his relationship with Obi-Wan is so intense. A wonderful fic. ✦ Brass Knuckles by skygawker, somewhat obi-wan/anakin (can be read as gen) & ocs, 15.1k    Anakin gets rejected, flirted with, involved in a less-than-legal race, and punched in the face—but not necessarily in that order. Written for the AcesInSpades ficathon, features demisexual!Anakin. Written for the prompt “brass knuckles.”    I admit, I read this fic as the sexual attraction between Obi-Wan and Anakin being genuine and there, just not the right time for either of them, but it’s totally possible to read it as gen as well, if you want. And it’s only sort of about that attraction, the point of the fic is on Anakin’s character and how he deals with being an emotional mess and tries to work through things and just isn’t really a very good fit with the typical Jedi ways. It’s a lovely look at his character, how he copes with things, how he’s trying so hard and sometimes it’s hard to read about him like this because he really is a good person at heart, but so much gets fucked up in his life, and while this time works out, while it’s not an entirely miserable fic to read (and could even be a Divergent Timeline, if you wanted to read it that way), you can see more than one trouble spot with him. The characterization is lovely, I really enjoyed teenager Anakin being both rebellious and resentful and desperate for even more of Obi-Wan’s affection, who clearly loves him very much, but isn’t always sure how to handle such a mercurial teenager. I really loved the kind and caring scene where Obi-Wan turns Anakin down, it was so spot on for them both, it wasn’t over the top or or too dramatic, it was just the right amount of understated, and I loved the ending that made my heart feel better. A lovely fic all the way around, especially because I could not agree more strongly that Anakin is absolutely demisexual, that is a hill I will die on. ✦ Sloth by keep_me_alone, obi-wan & anakin, 1.3k    Anakin’s a lazy fuck and Obi-Wan is so tired    This is a short piece but I’m such a sucker for this era and for Anakin being such a little troublemaker even when he doesn’t really mean to be and Obi-Wan’s life is just really goddamned hard. I think it’s Obi-Wan being tired in his very soul, but in an affectionate way, we’re reasonably sure, that just delighted me with this. ✦ Lightsabers by Jillie chan, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k    Obiwan has stumbled on a secret of Ani’s…    This was a cute, silly, humorous little fic of Obi-Wan stumbling over Anakin’s lightsaber stash (setting aside that lightsabers aren’t that easy to make, if anyone could sneak enough kyber crystals for them, I’d buy it of Anakin) and I am always here for Anakin getting caught and Obi-Wan actually being better than all of us when dealing with that brat. ✦ Autopilot by FernWithy, obi-wan & anakin, 2.4k    Obi-Wan devises a test to teach Anakin trust    A short but interesting look at how Anakin copes with Jedi teachings, just one of the little ways that things go wrong not because of the lack of care but just because sometimes that’s how things work out and also terrible communication. It’s more of a sad piece than anything, but definitely still worth the read. ✦ The Dynamic Duo by Kian-Rai Delcam, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k    What happened in Anakin’s padawan days, and how in the Force did Obi-Wan manage to not kill the boy? A series of one shots surrounding the pair, some humorous, some dark.    This was short but totally adorable! I love the image of Obi-Wan getting frustrated with Anakin, who is just always getting into something, but gentles it into teasing him, as well as a scene of Obi-Wan letting a young Anakin sleep in the bed with him after a nasty dream. I will read a thousand of these kinds of fics and never get tired of them and this fic fits right into that collection of how it made me happy to read it. ✦ Reassurance by j_k_rowlingjr, obi-wan & anakin (pre-slash?), ~1k    Anakin is only little and the flames worried him. He missed his mom. And he missed Qui-Gon. But he had his new mentor, Obi Wan.    Despite that this is marked as a pairing, I found that it read just as well as entirely gen, so I’m gonna put it into that section, all the more so because it’s in line with a bunch of fics that I’ve been reading–short, bittersweet, comforting fics when Anakin is still a little kid and needs Obi-Wan to comfort him. Including Anakin crawling into Obi-Wan’s bed and asking to stay there for the night and my heart just being entirely soothed for it. And this fic is another lovely addition to the collection, ahhh, bless it, too. ✦ Worthy by whereiismymindd, obi-wan & anakin, 1.5k    12-year-old Anakin is upset because other Jedi think he isn’t good enough. Obi Wan tries to help him, while dealing with some demons of his own.    I am always, always here for fic like this, where I feel really badly for poor kidlet Anakin, but Obi-Wan is entirely there to help him back up, to say what he needs to hear, to care for him and protect him, even if it’s just emotionally. I loved the moments of Obi-Wan talking about what he was like as a Padawan as well, but mostly it’s just about Obi-Wan’s utter dedication to how much he cares about Anakin and will protect him. My heart, okay. ✦ The Consequences of a Crash by SkywalkerShenanigans (HedgehogJawn), obi-wan & anakin (this can be read as entirely gen) & cast, some injury content warning, 31.9k    Anakin doesn’t remember how they lost control of the ship. A newly made knight and his former master crash on an unknown world and must hang on until help arrives. Obi-Wan is injured and anxious. Anakin is injured and, well, being Anakin.    Rec #1: There are only three chapters at the time of this rec, but I’m enjoying it a lot! Anakin is such a hot mess when shit goes down, when Obi-Wan is injured and Anakin’s faced with that he might die and the only thing holding him together is that Obi-Wan is still awake enough to help him, which is exactly how it would go. The writing is solid and I enjoy h/c when it’s clear that the characters are doing what they can to mend each other, when they draw comfort from just being near each other, when they’re two idiots who seem to always get into this kind of trouble and yet it’s still somehow terrible each and every time. It’s a really fun fic and I’m looking forward to more!    Rec #2: This is a fic that you want to turn to if you’re in the mood for some whump and h/c and Anakin absolutely losing his shit at the thought of Obi-Wan not being in his life anymore. That’s the heart of the story, the possible gentle nudge towards making them say something to each other (and it’s up to the reader to decide whether or not that’s enough to change things), to go along with injuries on a remote world when they crash + Anakin’s emotional instability being on full display, no matter how hard he tries to pull it together, no matter how much he whiteknuckles his way through a lot of it. What the fic does really well is this building sense of danger, as the days and scenes pass, that things aren’t getting better, even when they’re trying to keep up their spirits, even when it’s not like there’s any one single moment where you can pinpoint that it all goes wrong.    It’s a fic that’s about the stress of feeling helpless when something is wrong, that it’s a fic about Obi-Wan trying to let go of Anakin because he feels that’s what’s best for him, while Anakin is not dealing well with it because he’s just not made to let go of the people he loves. It’s a fic that’s about digging into that aspect of their relationship and making my fannish heart hurt with the feelings I have about these two, that the slow but inexorable drag on Obi-Wan’s health makes me feel Anakin’s panic and terror that he’s going to lose him. It’s one of those fics that got me a bit misty-eyed in the right places because, oh, I do have such intense feelings for these characters and I’m super invested and when you write something as solidly done as this, I’m just going to be a bit of a mess, too. ✦ When the world gets too heavy put it on my back by nematoda, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + references to to obi-wan/anakin, 25k wip    Studies of platonic love in the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi, exploring the master/padawan relationship with Qui-Gon and eventually with Anakin.    This was an interesting look at Obi-Wan’s character, where he comes across as younger/less insightful than in canon, but I absolutely get where the author is coming from with the fic, that he just doesn’t get the sexual drive other people have, that he wants physical contact but doesn’t see how it comes across to others. Each of the chapters is basically its own story, each set at a different point in his life, but all doing a really great job of showing what it could be like for an ace character trying to navigate relationships when he doesn’t want sex. And I can still put this together with canon, because aro and ace are not the same thing (while the fic doesn’t touch on this, I can put it together in my head) and the fic does a great job at not trying to shoehorn in our modern language or try to push it into ways the characters wouldn’t talk about it, but instead actually showsit and doesn’t make it define the characters.    I picked the fic up for platonic interactions in Obi-Wan’s life, because I’m a sucker for that, and I especially loved the Obi-Wan & Anakin scenes, because they really felt solidly spot on to the characters, from when Anakin was a cuddly little kid to when he’s a sullen and moody teenager that Obi-Wan struggles with to when he’s an older teenager with hormones who has a complicated relationship with his master. Each of these is something I wanted, because I love bb!Anakin! And I love that teenage Anakin swings back and forth from being sullen to desperate for Obi-Wan not to leave him, just a complete and total emotional mess that was so satisfying to read about! And I love teenage Anakin who really kind of desperately wants his Master to fuck him, but Obi-Wan’s just not interested in sex, and it’s complicated because Anakin can’t help feeling that if Obi-Wan loved him he would fuck him, even when they manage to get around that, it hit so many of the things I wanted from their interaction.    What started as just wanting some gen fluffy interactions turned into, oh, no, now I’m having feelings about Obi-Wan and his complicated relationships with people, especially with Anakin and the fic’s writing is absolutely lovely and knows exactly how to hit some of those emotional beats that we all come to fic for. ✦ Masters and Padawans: Three Generations by GirlwithCurls98, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + anakin & ahsoka, 24.6k    Three generations of incredible bonds.    Oh, I never wanted this fic to end because it was such a perfect thing for what I was looking for and was so many great moments and was paced so well! Each chapter has three scenes, set around a common theme, with each generation of Master and Padawan pairings, showing all the comparisons and contrasts between all of them, showing all the care between these characters. It had such charm and sparkle and was so very, very easy to see these moments, some big and huge, some small and like little slices of daily life, some happy and some sad, all of them filling in even more of the detail of these characters’ lives in the way I crave. It was so solid and satisfying a read, I just couldn’t put the fic down, I had to keep turning the page, all the more so because I wanted to see the reflections between one generation and the next, because the fic was so good at keeping just the right length for the scenes!    They’re short scenes, but I never felt like they were too clipped or brief, the fic was great about choosing moments that only needed to be little snippets, about making them complete on their own but feeling much bigger because they were part of a set of three scenes, in a fic that had 30 chapters of this. That’s 90 different moments in the various points of the timeline and yet none of it felt repetive of pointless, all of it was about the connections between Master and Padawan, so it was just one of the most emotionally satisfying things I’ve read lately! ✦ What the Heart Hides by Valairy Scot, obi-wan/siri & anakin & cast, nsfw for descriptions of violence/torture, 269k    Jabiim and ObiWan’s death there and how it affects Siri Tachi.    I have a few caveats about this fic before I get going: The fic is definitely overly long, it could have easily been edited down to half. The fic is definitely a navel-gazing fic, where the author really wanted to revel in what they were writing, and so it went on at length, there was a lot of talking about reactions, rather than showing things (the tell-rather-than-show) thing. And Obi-Wan absolutely went into Gary Stu (for lack of a better term) territory here, that I suspect you really have to be a fan of the character to enjoy. I mention these caveats because I want to encourage people to keep reading because underneath those things is a really solid story that I’m glad I got to sink into for several days, because I could just read and read and read with it! The entire first half of the fic is about Obi-Wan being captured by Ventress and part of the reason it’s so long (other than the author wanting to really revel in it) is that it’s showing the slow grinding down of Obi-Wan’s defenses, that it’s not about breaking him physically, but spiritually and to do that with someone who is as morally strong as Obi-Wan Kenobi, you really have to go for it. It was longer than I was expecting, but the second half is all about Obi-Wan’s recovery and, I admit, that was definitely what I was here for, so getting ~130k of Obi-Wan trying to let go of the hate and darkness that seeped in, while dealing with Siri and Anakin’s attempts to help him, that’s my jam.    And, yeah, okay, I was definitely also here for the way the author writes Anakin, who is sometimes incredibly unfair to Obi-Wan, how Anakin so often makes situations all about himself even when he’s trying to help someone he loves, and the author really nails how much anger is in him, how it’s protective and based in insecurity and just consumes him sometimes. I love that this fic is gen for their relationship, but the author is friendly towards Obi-Wan/Anakin fic, it’s really easy to read the potential into their relationship, and more than once there’s a pretty clear undercurrent of parallel being drawn between Siri and Anakin, both as characters and in their relationships with Obi-Wan.    This is a fic where I think you have to go in wanting to get out of it what the heart of the story is focused on, that if you’re here for just one of the things (an Obi-Wan fic, an Obi-Wan/Siri fic, an Obi-Wan & Anakin fic), you’ll probably end up feeling like you’re wading through a lot you’re not here for, but if you like the combination of those things, it’s nice to have a fic that’s basically two novels worth, it’s nice to have a fic that just absolutely embraces how much it loves Obi-Wan and how great he is, how even when he’s being tortured he’s still solid in his emotional stability, that even when he questions himself, it’s in ways that anyone else would have cracked over. It’s nice to have all these moments of the author nailing how Anakin is, how it takes awhile for Siri’s personality to come through (she’s fairly flat until the second half) but it’s fun to watch that happen and you can tell the fic really enjoys the building up of that relationship. It absolutely is a fic that decided to write almost 270k of Obi-Wan whump and everyone loving him the most and Obi-Wan loving them the most and spending all that time talking about the characters in practically a meta way (the fic is at its strongest when there’s direct action or conversation, I admit) and if you’re good with that, it’s a solid read that you can get lost in for a few days! I’m absolutely glad I read it, if only for the line about how Obi-Wan has Anakin half-convinced that there really is a Jedi rulebook he’s quoting from, because that was goddamned hilarious and perfect. ✦ And The Truth Shall Set Us Free by Nicole1, obi-wan & anakin, 23k    ObiWan and Anakin are sent on a mission to a planet that holds painful memories for both of them.    I’ll admit ahead of time that this fic needs a good scrub with the grammar brush, but the heart of the fic is absolutely solid and provided me with a) satisfying Obi-Wan whump and b) Anakin freaking out about potentially losing Obi-Wan and c) SURPRISE SOUL BOND. It’s a gen piece, but it’ll be satisfying to both gen fans and pairing fans, because the relationship between the two characters is so strong and it’s literally soul-deep by the end, as well as there’s plot happenings and action scenes! I was especially fond of just how badly Anakin reacts to the idea that Obi-Wan might be dying from being poisoned, you can see how emotionally needy he is and why he teeters on the edge of the Dark Side so easily sometimes, because he’s so desperate about his affection for others, while Obi-Wan is so much calmer and solid with himself, even as he loves Anakin just as dearly. I do wish there’d been a sequel, I’d have greatly enjoyed seeing how this affected ROTS, but it stands well on its own and was a really solid, satisfying read! ✦ What You Are (the Certain Point of View Remix) by Beatrice_Otter, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 1.3k    Three people look up at the stars at night.    Oh, this was lovely and bittersweet, the three times these three different characters look up at the stars and think about all these bittersweet or painful things. Obi-Wan thinking about Luke and Anakin, Padme thinking about Anakin, Anakin thinking about his future, it’s all so lovely and wonderfully written and just quietly sad, in that way Star Wars fic has. Each is a good insight into the characters but also makes a lovely collection together, so pretty and painful. ✦ When the world gets too heavy put it on my back by nematoda, qui-gon & obi-wan + obi-wan & anakin + references to to obi-wan/anakin, 25k wip    Studies of platonic love in the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi, exploring the master/padawan relationship with Qui-Gon and eventually with Anakin.    This was an interesting look at Obi-Wan’s character, where he comes across as younger/less insightful than in canon, but I absolutely get where the author is coming from with the fic, that he just doesn’t get the sexual drive other people have, that he wants physical contact but doesn’t see how it comes across to others. Each of the chapters is basically its own story, each set at a different point in his life, but all doing a really great job of showing what it could be like for an ace character trying to navigate relationships when he doesn’t want sex. And I can still put this together with canon, because aro and ace are not the same thing (while the fic doesn’t touch on this, I can put it together in my head) and the fic does a great job at not trying to shoehorn in our modern language or try to push it into ways the characters wouldn’t talk about it, but instead actually showsit and doesn’t make it define the characters.    I picked the fic up for platonic interactions in Obi-Wan’s life, because I’m a sucker for that, and I especially loved the Obi-Wan & Anakin scenes, because they really felt solidly spot on to the characters, from when Anakin was a cuddly little kid to when he’s a sullen and moody teenager that Obi-Wan struggles with to when he’s an older teenager with hormones who has a complicated relationship with his master. Each of these is something I wanted, because I love bb!Anakin! And I love that teenage Anakin swings back and forth from being sullen to desperate for Obi-Wan not to leave him, just a complete and total emotional mess that was so satisfying to read about! And I love teenage Anakin who really kind of desperately wants his Master to fuck him, but Obi-Wan’s just not interested in sex, and it’s complicated because Anakin can’t help feeling that if Obi-Wan loved him he would fuck him, even when they manage to get around that, it hit so many of the things I wanted from their interaction.    What started as just wanting some gen fluffy interactions turned into, oh, no, now I’m having feelings about Obi-Wan and his complicated relationships with people, especially with Anakin and the fic’s writing is absolutely lovely and knows exactly how to hit some of those emotional beats that we all come to fic for. ✦ Epiphany by Elenothar, obi-wan & anakin, 3.8k    After the tiring mission to Ansion, Obi-Wan&Anakin are both stressed-when dreams about his mother dying plague Anakin more and more, his emotions start getting the better of him as his Master struggles to understand his apprentice before it’s too late…    One of the reasons I keep coming back to this pairing is the way they hurt each other because they love each other so much, that the words they fling at each other sometimes hit a mark deeper than they mean to, so it’s all this delicious emotional h/c for me, when they figure out a way to come back to each other. Anything that can give me that ache in my chest, when Anakin is upset about the dreams of his mother’s death and lashes out, when he hurts Obi-Wan precisely because Obi-Wan loves him, and then he’s desperately sorry about it afterwards, oh, just give me a spoon because I’m going to eat that up like delicious candy. ✦ Tears by ForgottenMoonbeam92, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k    The night after Qui-Gon is killed, Anakin wakes to find Obi-Wan by his bedside. Surprised that the reserved Jedi is seeking company, he hardly knows what to do. But sometimes, nothing needs to be done.    I’m serious, I will hunt down every single fic like this I can, where it’s not long after TPM and they share their grief, where Obi-Wan is still mourning but reaching out to this little kid who has no idea what to do next and is so sad as well, hugging him and pulling him close, so that they can share this moment together. This is entirely one of those fics meant to be sweet and soothing, even as it’s in a bittersweet, painful point of their lives and it’s exactly the kind of fic I’m gonna read as many of as I can find, bless. ✦ Tumbling Star Wars by esama, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 11.2k    Various Star Wars snippets. Some crossovers.    I believe I’ve recommended these fics before, but on the author’s tumblr, rather than AO3, so here, have a fresh rec now that they’re up here as well, because, oh my god, these were so great. The first one is a time travel AU that I loved, the second one is a divergent timeline that I also loved, both totally worth reading! But, oh. Chapter 3 is Basilisk!Obi-Wan, where he is a giant snake instead of a Human and it’s amazing. It’s told in snippets across the span of his life, from how he first came to the Jedi Temple to his time as an Initiate to his time as a Padawan and to his time as Anakin’s Master and during the Clone Wars. There are so many incredible little moments, so many hilarious moments, so many geneuinely touching moments, so many moments of struggle and overcoming them, so many moments of just Obi-Wan being awesome, all of it is something I never knew I needed as badly as I did. I honestly just have the biggest grin on my face every time I reread even little snippets of this one, it’s so delightful. ✦ untitled by letslipthehounds, obi-wan & anakin & dooku, 1.1k    Anonymous asked: Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus runs into Obi-Wan and Anakin several years prior to AOTC, and decides that they are Qui-Gon’s legacy and he is going to make sure they do well.    This was another short piece, but one I enjoyed because I really love fic where Dooku’s path in the story is interrupted because of his connection to Qui-Gon’s legacy, whether for better or worse, because it makes the character so much more interesting. His intentions there, the potential in such an interesting situation, really got me and I enjoyed this just for the brief look at what might have been or what could be the start of something bigger, it works both ways. ✦ The Teacher Learns Twice by Magical_Destiny, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon, 4.5k    Early in his apprenticeship, Obi-Wan learns an important lesson. The words of Qui-Gon Jinn become a legacy in the most surprising of ways and the most unorthodox of settings — Dex’s Diner.    This was a solid, interesting piece of two scenes rhyming with each other, set in Dex’s Diner. I especially enjoyed the Obi-Wan & Anakin scene, it was really interesting to see how Obi-Wan had changed and grown up, that he was the person we saw with Anakin. But mostly I loved that, even when things are tense or bittersweet at best, there’s still such hope and joy here, there’s still looking to the good in life. And I loved that it didn’t try to browbeat the reader over the head with issues on attachment, instead it felt much more like how Obi-Wan wouldbehave, especially with Anakin, who struggles with these things so much and how Obi-Wan is so much better suited to helping him than another would have been, all told through little moments of Obi-Wan letting things slide or skipping a lecture, in ways that felt so very organic and natural. ✦ Homesick by SkippingSteppingStones, obi-wan & anakin, 2.8k    After his surgery to remove the slave detonator from his body, Anakin Skywalker has grown lonely in hospital, and reflects on life.    Where this fic got me was in the second half of it, when Obi-Wan shows up in the medwing and it’s the start of something here, where it doesn’t have to be perfect, there’s still a lot of distance between them, but you can absolutely feel the beginnings of what they’re going to become, that it’s just this really quietly heart-warming fic about these two people coming together, that they’re taking the first steps in their friendship. It’s just… really cute! In a way that worked for me with these characters, especially after the angsty first half with Anakin being so lonely, just one of those really solid and great reads I stumbled over today. ✦ Moving Forward by Oswald-Girl, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k    Obi-Wan and Anakin find comfort in an unlikely place after Qui-Gon’s death: each other.    Another short, but bittersweet & sweet fic about the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, as they’re just learning to understand each other and find comfort with each other and build their relationship. And I will read so many fics about Anakin thinking Obi-Wan doesn’t want him, where Obi-Wan reassures, yes, he is wanted, that circumstances may be complicated, but he’s very much wanted, like, that is what I am here in fandom for. ✦ Waters Edge by Sealgirl, obi-wan & anakin, 8.9k    Anakin and Obi-Wan are sent to investigate a mysterious ocean world were people and things keep vanishing!    This was an interesting little mission piece, where it’s exactly what it says on the tin, they’re sent to a mysterious ocean world and try to figure out why people keep disappearing. What I really liked about it is that it balanced the Obi-Wan&Anakin relationship with the plot of the story, that there was something just kind of unsettling about the feel of that place, like there was something lurking just out of sight, but without having to spell that out. Instead, it was in the way Obi-Wan seemed distracted and Anakin just wasn’t feeling anything too terribly off, it added nicely to the mood of the piece, rather than just telling the readers so. And then there was action and rescues and trying to figure out how an alien world worked and Anakin being kind of a real brat but also good-hearted and it was just a really good, solid read. ✦ Encounter by Sealgirl, obi-wan & anakin, 1.1k    On a lonely planet, Obi-Wan and Anakin almost get caught in a landslide.    This is a short piece, just an almost sort of slice-of-life in the day of the Jedi who seem to attract trouble even out in the middle of nowhere with no one else around. It’s half about another mishap and half about the relationship between the characters, that there’s this undercurrent of something there, even if it’s not quite pre-slash. The potential, maybe. And sometimes that’s just perfect for what I want, especially in a fic that’s just about these moments along the way in their lives, just one more thing that adds up to a greater whole when you look at the scope of all of it. It’s well-written and nicely done! ✦ Gifts of the Heart by Valairy Scot, obi-wan & anakin & shmi, 2.7k    On a day with two meanings: celebration and anniversary, one happy and one sad, ObiWan Kenobi gives his padawan a gift of the heart and receives it back.    Oh, this fic was so good for me. Obi-Wan takes Anakin to Tatooine when he’s young, just for a visit, to give Anakin a gift of the heart (to visit his mother) and then Anakin gives a gift in return and it’s just. OH MY HEART. It’s so sweet, just the right amount of bittersweet as Obi-Wan still misses his own Master and is trying to step back to give Anakin some space, mixed with how open and eager this Anakin is, how much he already loves Obi-Wan, who loves him back in that understated but deep way already, and it’s perfect. It’s not too sticky sweet or too fluffy or overly angsty, it was just the right amounts of everything for me and what I was in the mood for. ✦ The Drinker by Little Sister’s Keepress, obi-wan & anakin, 1k    He was a master at these drinking games.    I am 100% onboard the “Anakin is an absolute shit drinker”, that he’s a total lightweight, so fic where he tries to keep hold of his liquor and pretty much fails utterly at it, partly because of youth and partly because he’s just shit at it, I AM HERE FOR THAT. It doesn’t have to be a long fic, it’s just a couple of scenes in a fairly routine mission for them, where Anakin feels awful afterwards and Obi-Wan is much more serene and in control of himself and it’s just totally adorable and fun and spot on. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k    Anakin wakes from nightmares tinted red. The darkness of his bedroom seems oppressive, and no matter how many times he blinks red seems to seep into the edges of his vision.    This is a short ficlet, but oh it’s lovely and adorable and bittersweet and heart-warming and perfect. When Anakin is 13, he feels he should be too old to sneak into Obi-Wan’s bed for cuddles and sleep, but a nightmare gets him up and sneaking out anyway and, oh, I love how easy it is in this moment, how it’s simple and quiet and Obi-Wan just lifts up one arm in invitation and I can see it so clearly and it’s perfect and my heart feels so much better after this lovely piece. ✦ To Argue is to Love by Zinga763, obi-wan & anakin, 1k    Anakin is sick, Obi-Wan is confused.    I read this while I was super sick with the flu and it was some really lovely timing for that, as well as one of my favorite things–the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, when their dynamic was still just getting set up. And it’s super adorable, the first time they really start to banter with each other, that uncertainty of how to approach the other that they both have, the way Obi-Wan finally manages to tease Anakin out of it, the sheer amount of care on both sides that neither really knew how to convey, all of it was just exactly what I wanted and was adorable. ✦ In Want by updiddlyupup, obi-wan & anakin, 7k    Desperate to avoid all the ways he isn’t settling in, Anakin goes on a quest.    This was a combination of adorable little moppet Anakin and the awkward first days of his apprenticeship with Obi-Wan, how they don’t really understand each other yet, how they haven’t really connected, and how Anakin is having trouble adapting to life at the Jedi Temple. It’s just the right amount of angst, while still being generally light-hearted and really pretty cute, just the right amount of hilarity and the right amount of feeling for both of these characters. It was actually a fairly quick read, because it was just the right length and it kept a good focus, and it was just… a really, really solid little fic that I delighted in reading. ✦ Temple History by sanerontheinside, obi-wan & anakin, 1.4k    There was no way his Master wouldn’t see that bruise, and so now Anakin was hiding.    Oh, this was a lovely look at Anakin’s younger years, trying to fit in and struggling with it, especially because it’s not preachy or unbalanced, but instead this really warm-hearted, kind look at a tough situation and how these characters dealt with it. Moppet Anakin is adorable and I felt so much for him, loved him so much, but, ahhh, the moments between him and Obi-Wan, the way a Master looks after a Padawan, just had me utterly melting at how perfect and good this was. ✦ No Galaxy for Good Jedi by Annie_Walker, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & dooku & yoda & cast, some obi-wan/satine, sith!qui-gon, 124.8k wip    Obi-Wan Kenobi was only a young padawan when he ran away with three-year old Anakin. He had no choice after his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, fell to the Dark Side by Master Dooku’s manipulations.    I have a handful of caveats about this story to start out with–the writing really needs a good scrub with the beta brush, as there are constant typos and misused words, up to half a dozen of them on almost every page of the story. I mention this to encourage readers past it because the writing underneath that is very solid and very easy to just read, read, read, but I had to be in the right headspace for it, I admit. Second, there’s a lot of fairly minor details of canon that don’t really work with the story, including that Qui-Gon as a Sith isn’t really how Sith are in canon, it’s more the Soft Sith thing that fandom loves–which, by the way, I am totally fine with! Third, this is an Obi-Wan who isn’t quite like the majority of canon, he’s much younger and more all over the place, but that works for his age, where he’d be about as old as he is in TPM. And, finally, I admit that the Obi-Wan/Satine stuff felt like it came up a little too fast and kind of derailed the fic until it got back in track. I mention these things not to give a back-handed compliment, honest! I wouldn’t have read well over 100k of fic and kept coming back for more if I thought this was a bad story, but I genuinely want to encourage people to pick it up because it’s very much worth it, even if I might have skipped past it myself because of these things.    Those things all said, holy crap, I definitely ate up this fic like you wouldn’t believe! The thing about the story is that it’s very solidly done, it’s almost one hundred and thirty thousand words and I felt like I could read that much more all over again if the author happened to drop it in my lap right this second. It caught my attention because the heart of the story, for all that it occasionally drifts off into other things, is set on Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, that they love each other dearly, that they are the most important person in each other’s lives, and that was so incredibly satisfying to read.    The fic winds its way through several twists and turns, there’s a lot happening and it’s not in any rush to get to the end, there’s plenty of breathing room here, in the sense that each section of the plot (whether they’re on the run, whether one of them has been captured by the Sith or the Jedi, whether they’re staying on Naboo or Mandalore for awhile, etc.) has plenty of time to have things actually unfold there, it spends time on each of these thigns. Yet I never felt like it was padding things out just to up the word count, it felt like each scene was there because that’s what the story wanted to be focused on in the moment. That may sound like a weird thing to focus on, but when I read longfic, one of the major things I’m wary of is a story that’s just endlessly dragging things out, so many scenes that don’t advance the plot or the characters. With this one I felt like these scenes were the point, that action happens just as often as it needs to (there are several fight scenes in the fic!), that it’s a story that’s not about rushing to the end, but about the long haul of this journey it’s on.    Though, ultimately, what endeared this story to me is that Obi-Wan and Anakin’s older brother&younger brother (edging into something like father&son territory) was the heart of so much of the story, that pages and pages were dedicated to either their high octane antics and how desperately they didn’t want to be separated, how much they worried and missed the other when they were, how Anakin is devastated when away from Obi-Wan, how adorable moppet Anakin is and he’ll curl up against Obi-Wan when falling asleep, how there are moments of quiet domesticity that were a joy to read and soothed my soul. I enjoyed the plot of this fic a great deal, it hit me right in the genfic id places, but this relationship is what got me to pick up the fic and is absolutely the highlight of it, it’s what really got to me about the story and why I’m so glad to have read this one and look forward to every update! ✦ The Stars Died So That You Could Be Here Today by WinterSky101, obi-wan & anakin & padme, 4.6k    Anakin and Padmé guide Obi-Wan through his mourning for Qui-Gon.    Oh, this was so lovely for all three characters. It’s set from Padme’s point of view and she shines so much in this fic, but it’s really lovely for Obi-Wan and Anakin as well, it’s very much how these characters would react, it was so easy to see this in my head, there’s such warmth and care, framed in how thesecharacters would express it that it had my heart from the beginning. I really can’t express enough affection for that warmth this fic had, that I came away caring very much for each of them, that Padme has such compassion to her, that Anakin is bright and shining, that Obi-Wan is loved and will find his way even when he’s struggling right now and that makes you care more for him. I want to flail over little things, the way Padme is firm without being preachy, that she gives others their space, but also won’t back down from kindness, she’s warm, she’s the kind of person I want to be around, she’s the person I recognize from the movies. And it was just really, really meaningful to me today to read this.
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theravennest · 7 years
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Luke and Alec in 2.14
I’ve always wanted more of this relationship since they gave me hints all through the end of S1. For example, when Luke calls Alec over the Forsaken attack or how it was Luke and Alec who tracked rogue Jace, who had lost his mind over Valentine.
There were two things I really loved about Alec and Luke last episode: 
How Luke was allowed to express his emotions over Valentine and the Clave.
How Alec understood that and still talked to Luke with grace and respect even when he disagreed with him.
I loved seeing Luke be so angry and frustrated, just allowed to feel emotions over a situation not having to do with Clary. We rarely ever see him just be allowed to have feelings outside of Clary. He always just...subsumes his desires and motivations in order to do what he thinks is best for her. It’s understandable for him as a father but it’s frustrating to watch as someone who cares about Luke as an individual. 
Valentine has hurt Luke over and over and over: trying to get Luke killed by werewolves, repeatedly trying to kill him because he’s a werewolf, killing dozens of his pack, getting Jocelyn killed, trying to hurt his daughter, actually hurting his sister...like, it is never ending. Luke has every right to go for his revenge and stop this menace from ever hurting other people again.
With that in mind, I also loved that Alec never tried to steamroll Luke even though he didn’t agree with Luke’s methods. He gets why Luke is pissed off. He gets why Luke is dissatisfied with how things have been happening with the Clave for the last 20 years. Yet I never once felt like Alec would ever, oh I don’t know, taser Luke in the back because he wanted to do a different plan or had a different opinion.
When Luke said he didn’t want to join the Cabinet because it felt futile, Alec listened to him then presented a valid counter argument that showed why the Cabinet meetings were important for the NY community even if the Clave wouldn’t listen. Luke changed his mind because Alec had a point and he showed his deep respect for the werewolf clans in general and Luke as a Clan Alpha in particular.
Later, when Alec caught Luke trying to kill Valentine, he wasn’t angry that Luke was enraged or that he tried to kill Valentine, he just wanted Luke to go about it a different way, a diplomatic way. Because it was reckless and a massive security risk; if Luke had lost that fight, Valentine would’ve been loose in the Institute with no one the wiser. Or if Luke had won the fight, Luke could’ve been at risk for being arrested by the Clave, which no one wants.
I still love that Luke did it though. The show really needed to showcase Luke and his internal self more, This episode did that beautifully. Because Luke is also right: the longer Valentine is alive, the more likely it is he’ll hurt more people. That said, I don’t want Valentine dead at the expense of Luke so while I’m glad Luke was allowed to go on a vengeance quest, I’m equally as glad Alec was able to stop him before the Clave got wind of it.
And I loved that Alec listened to Luke’s issues in the cell afterwards and explained why he stopped him. I loved that he showed Luke that he was frustrated with his attempt to kill Valentine because of all the damage it could have done to shadow world relations, but he did it in a way that didn’t feel like it as invalidating Luke’s own rightful anger or disrespecting him.
This episode was exploring Alec as a leader and as a diplomat. Not only that but Alec is also interacting with other leaders who are all more experienced than him, who are older than him, and who have all had much more negative experiences with the Clave and Valentine for far longer. Luke is at least 20-25 years older than Alec; Raphael is pushing something like 90; Meliorn, according to the books, has at least a century or two under his belt; Magnus is very much 400+ years old. All of them have survived decades of shadowhunter prejudice and oppression, including Valentine’s particular genocidal violence and abuse. 
Alec was able to approach them as equals in a way that engaged with their greater experiences but established himself as a leader as well. And it was completely believable. He was well established as a warrior in his own right, he has been training for diplomat work his whole life with his parents, he has a sharp desire to be a leader, we’ve gotten to watch him alter his own biases when confronted with opposing views, and we’ve seen him work through issues by opening dialog with others so he can talk about things that aren’t working. 
When Alec talks about wanting to effect change in shadowhunter society and with the Clave, I believe him and I believe that he will find a way to do it. At the very least his sincerity feels genuine. Even more, I understand why Luke and the others are willing to listen to him too. He’s able to present his goals and his arguments in a logical and respectful manner that shows exactly how much he values everyone else at the table with him.
It took him some time to figure out how to do that, and he made mistakes such as his choices with Meliorn’s interrogation or his initial compliance with the downworlder DNA testing. But he is shown learning from those mistakes, correcting his behavior, and making different choices. I believe that he is growing into someone I can respect, and subsequently I believe it when other characters respect him too.
Anyway, I just really loved watching Luke and Alec this episode because I really felt their scenes brought out some of the best characterization for each.
I can’t believe there are still people out there that don’t like that Alec is being characterized as a driven and capable leader on a path to higher levels of leadership. Or that so many people still ignore that Luke is a main character in the show and sleep on his potentially complex narrative. Like, Luke and Alec are two of the most interesting characters the show has to offer and people are seriously upset at their increased screen time and more focused character arcs? Can’t relate, forreal.
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nitrateglow · 6 years
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Thoughts on The Last Jedi (spoilers under the “keep reading” line)
I originally wanted to just make a small list of things I liked and did not like about this movie, but I’ve come to realize my feelings are a bit more complicated than I expected. I don’t hate it, nor do I think it is the worst film in the series; however, I am baffled by the arguments that it’s somehow a clever deconstruction of the Hollywood blockbuster formula or finding new ground for SW. If anything, I found it an aimless, poorly paced retread of familiar tropes and ideas with only a few interesting elements to save it from being mediocre.
I’ll start with what I considered all-around good: the acting is excellent across the board. Every actor is game, doing their best and even elevating the material at times. It was a bittersweet experience to see the late Carrie Fisher here and even with her limited screen-time, she brings a great deal of dignity and spunk to the princess/general we know and love. Mark Hamill gives one of his best performances as Luke, communicating worlds of pain and regret with his eyes alone. While he isn’t one of the greatest actors of all time outside of the voice-acting world, he is incredibly effective here. Thankfully, Oscar Isaac gets more to do this time around. And everyone else is on the whole fine, even great at times. I was also impressed with the visuals and editing, which are often breathtaking, especially on the big screen. The casino planet was pretty rad too; I can so see the rich and powerful hanging out in such a place. And—everything else is extremely mixed for me.
This movie reminds me of Attack of the Clones in that it is all over the place tonally. I am all for genre hybrids or movies that can touch on several emotional shades at once, but it is a hard thing to do and this movie isn’t up to that. One minute it’s dead serious and in the grand epic mode, then the next we’re dealing with broad comedy more appropriate for a Marvel film. That juxtaposition felt awkward in the prequels and it feels awkward here.
For all the critics’ talk of this movie breaking new ground, I remained frustrated by the same old rehash of lines and themes from the OT. There’s still the good versus evil, the empire chasing rebels Everything is also rushed beyond belief, which seems like a weird conclusion to draw about a 2 ½ hour movie. Rose is barely developed, despite her potential to be a great character (her romantic feelings for Finn are woefully half-baked; I would say the only thing that even makes you believe she was into him was her slight bout of hero worship in her initial scene with him). Finn doesn’t evolve beyond what he was in TFA. Rey doesn’t change, despite the challenges posed to her ideas about the Force by both Luke and Kylo. Her training with Luke, if you can even call it that, is basically nothing, even less than the crash course Luke got from Yoda in Empire. We’re led to believe Luke has some great development, but that’s yet another thing that has little payoff.
Overall, I am torn on Luke Skywalker’s characterization. On one hand, I believe he would become disillusioned with the Jedi after he lost his nephew to the Dark Side—however, do I believe he would stay on that island after hearing one of his oldest friends was MURDERED by the former student he feels he failed? I’m sorry, I don’t. I know people change as they get older and I know enough cranky old people to see how life can beat you down and make you emotionally exhausted. But the thing about Luke is that he’s stubborn and contrarian; when Yoda and Obi-wan told him to give up on Vader (a Sith who committed WAY worse sins on a much grander scale than Kylo-Ren ever did), he went with his hunch that his father could be redeemed, even though he had only his gut instinct as evidence to go on. I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t try to right the wrong he did to his nephew. Him retreating from the conflict feels as false as the strong-minded and very active Padme losing the will to live at the end of Revenge of the Sith. His death sits even less well with me, since I feel the character had more to do and should have been more active in trying to aid the Resistance and train Rey.
Kylo-Ren is more interesting this time around, more conflicted and morally ambiguous. His temptation to turn to the Light mixed with his savagery is great. His interactions with Rey, which are simultaneously uneasy and charged with sexual tension, are fascinating. And yet, like so much else in this movie, it all goes nowhere. I still have no clue why Kylo is drawn to the Dark Side. With Anakin, it was an outgrowth of growing up as a powerless slave and losing those he loved to war and violence, which makes it clear why the idea of a fascist dictatorship would appeal to him. For Palpatine, it was because he was a greedy psychopath. But Kylo? I have no idea what he feels he’s getting on an emotional level from the Dark Side. What do Snoke and the Dark Side promise him that makes turning evil so tempting? He didn’t hate his parents, however lacking he felt they were. Luke was hard on him, though we learn that’s because the kid was already turning to the Dark Side. So where does it all originate? I have no clue and I think, yeah, it’s not unreasonable for me to understand what motivates one of the major villains of this new trilogy. Because otherwise, it is hard for me to be fully invested in him as a character.
In fact, the whole First Order are just disappointing villains, a second-rate empire. I have no idea how they were able to come to power, not only because it’s never brought up in either this film or TFA, but because these guys are about as competent as the Three Stooges. Hux is a punchline subjected to “yo mamma” jokes and proving himself utterly useless time and again. Phasma is pretty much like Boba Fett: she looks cool and fights well, only to get killed off without ceremony. Snoke is a dumber Voldemort, built up as this clever, evil genius only to be proven even worse at underestimating his employees and enemies than Palpatine! I was never a fan of the character to begin with, finding him bland, but here, he just shows up, cackles evilly, then dies in a rather comical manner. How did he come to power? It has to be more than just his powers; even Palpatine was a politician and he preyed on the Clone Wars’ devastation to convince people to make him Emperor. But Snoke? Nothing.
The pacing was also a huge issue for me. Now, I normally dig slow pacing—but this was excruciating, probably because I felt like the story was going nowhere much of the time. Finn and Rose are wasted, given nothing but a McGuffin side-quest. Every time we cut to them, I just lost so much interest. As for the political “subtext” (if you can call an explicitly socio-political monologue subtext) in the Finn and Rose sub-story, I’ll just say I agree with critic Tim Brayton on the matter:
And this plotline feeds right into the absolutely unforgivably terrible subplot, which is the adventures of Finn (John Boyega) the cowardly ex-storm trooper, and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), the class-conscious engineer, who go on a fetch quest that is every bit as pointless as the whole matter of the military nonsense, only even worse, because it hinges on terrible comedy, bad CGI, and a spectacularly horrible moment when Johnson stops the film in its tracks to provide a ruthlessly on-the-nose lesson about economic inequality and the military-industrial complex, and I hate this all the more for the film's message in this moment being one I passionately agree with - if something has to be artless and awful, better that it not take down a cause I hold dear as part of the collateral damage. And it really is awful; the worst thing in the movie, despite the best intentions of various film critics to defend it (I am sorry, but "has politics I like" is not all it takes to make a movie good. If all you want is for a film to spit your ideology back at you, and it doesn't matter if this is done with any grace or artistry at all, congratulations: you are a Stalinist. I like politics in movies - I love politics in movies - but not every political filmmaker is Sergei Eisenstein, and they should damn well not be treated like they are).
I have no problem with this political/social angle being there; hell, I love the idea of the Rose character and the theme of inspiring the downtrodden (the idea of legends and the power of storytelling really appealed to me, and I loved that last scene with the kids re-enacting the OT story in the stables), but like so much else they feel underwritten and clumsily implemented. It doesn’t help that this side plot feels oddly disconnected from everything else and is far less interesting than Poe or Rey’s stories. And once again, I feel like it accomplished nothing whatsoever, much like the majority of this story.
Now, people might argue the main theme of this movie is about failure and how we must learn from it, thus making this side-plot appropriate. The thing is, I don’t think anyone besides Poe learned much of anything from their mistakes or failures, let alone Finn and Rose. According to writer/director Rian Johnson, one of the big inspirations for this film was the 1964 classic Three Outlaw Samurai, a movie in which the titular heroes become disillusioned with the samurai code and the corruption of the culture in which they live. Concepts such as honor and loyalty become muddied. TLJ is clearly trying to weave a similar theme, with Kylo, Luke, and Ghost!Yoda calling for a new age in which the Jedi and Sith are no more. The problem? Kylo still embraces much of the Sith ideology as much as he claims he’s let go of it (okay, yeah, Abrams claimed he wasn’t a Sith, but that seems more like an in-name only affair given the dynamic between Kylo and Snoke), and Luke, for all his “the Jedi gotta go” lip service, ends his life by triumphantly claiming, “I will not be the last Jedi,” implying he’s passing the torch to Rey. So much for questioning the past.
At the end of the day, the movie left me frustrated and hollow. I’m not very excited to see where they take the story next, because it’s clear they’re going with same-old, same-old, only with vague motivations and no sense of direction. I don’t get what the big point of this new trilogy is. The OT is at its heart about Luke coming of age as a Jedi Knight and redeeming his father. The PT is a tragedy about the fall of both a man and a democracy. The sequels though? I have no clue. I don’t think they go far enough in their attempts to challenge our ideas about the Force or the Jedi, or good and evil. It’s the same old rebels versus tyrants fight, only this time around the villains are more inept than usual and the good guys, for all their failures, don’t appear to learn much of anything.
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gffa · 7 years
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I’m at the point of Star Wars Feelings Hell where this is all I want to do anymore, I just want to talk about Star Wars, I just want to cry about the Star Wars characters, I just want to read Star Wars things, I want to watch Star Wars things, I want to play Star Wars games, I want to cry some more about Star Wars feelings, I want to have novels and novels worth of Star Wars fic to read, I want to curl up in my bed and lay there for three hours reading nothing but fluffy fix it fic and fic that makes everything even worse and everything in between. Just. All Star Wars All The Time! That’s all I want! STAR WARS FIC RECS: ✦ Fire and Ice by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin & some anakin/padme & cast, 111.9k    Anakin wins the duel on Mustafar, but doesn’t kill Obi-Wan. Along with Padme, Obi-Wan finds himself living in a chaotic world where the man he thought he knew has become the thing he swore to destroy. Can Anakin be turned back? If so, what then? ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, 50.4k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & mace & dooku & palpatine & cast, sith!obi-wan, NSFW, 95.4k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, seeks redemption while Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, disillusioned with the Jedi Order and its Code, falls to the Darkness. ✦ The Light You Leave Behind by laventadorn, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & ahsoka, 18.9k wip    Because Anakin and Ahsoka have set out to learn what they can about the Sith - and to destroy them, once and for all. ✦ you’re gonna wish you never had met me by cosmicocean, obi-wan/padme & leia/han & luke & cast, 13k    Leia Kenobi, struggling to keep her head above water. ✦ An Enlightening Experience by Valmouth, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & ahsoka & the father & the daughter & the son & cast, 2.3k    “You… have been Chosen,” the Father says, and he sounds about as upset on the matter as Obi-Wan knows he will be, when he finally understands what that means. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k    Anakin wakes from nightmares tinted red. The darkness of his bedroom seems oppressive, and no matter how many times he blinks red seems to seep into the edges of his vision. ✦ I’ll Be There For You by SinkingLikeASunset, obi-wan/anakin/padme (eventual) & qui-gon & clones & cast, 40.7k wip    Obi-Wan must alter events and make changes as he struggles with memories of a dreadful future and deals with new developments this time around. ✦ Wearer of the Veil by englishable, leia & ben, 1.4k    Leia Organa-Solo knows that her son is not quite like everybody else, although she’s uncertain as to whether this means he should be protected more from others or himself. Either way, these strange dreams he has are beyond her reach. ✦ those immortal dead by notbecauseofvictories, padme & leia & luke & ben & poe & rey, 2.1k    Padmé Amidala is forgotten, not gone. ✦ untitled by cadesama, anakin & leia & bail & tarkin, ~1k    Anonymous asked: AU, Vader sues Bail for custody (either the Empire is intact and he has standing or its gone and he absolutely doesn’t, whichever is funnier) ✦ A Game of Chess by Kayarde, obi-wan & palpatine & cast, 4.3k    Chancellor Palpatine and Knight Kenobi sit down for a game of chess. ✦ sometimes you don’t get it right by randomdreamer01, jyn & han (background han/leia and jyn/cassian) & cast, 2.6k    Han Solo and Jyn Erso get drunk on the Millenium Falcon and find that they are similar in more ways than one. ✦ Unearthed Bones by Glare, obi-wan/anakin, human au, mafia au, 2.5k    Obi-Wan Kenobi has given up a life of crime in favor of the questionable comforts of witness protection. Placed in a boring library job, everything appears to go great until he realizes his incompetent handlers somehow managed to drop him right in the middle of another man’s operation. full details + recs under the cut!
✦ Fire and Ice by Yesac, obi-wan & anakin & some anakin/padme & cast, 111.9k    Anakin wins the duel on Mustafar, but doesn’t kill Obi-Wan. Along with Padme, Obi-Wan finds himself living in a chaotic world where the man he thought he knew has become the thing he swore to destroy. Can Anakin be turned back? If so, what then?    This is one of the earliest fics I read in the fandom and I imprinted hard on it, but I wasn’t sure if it would hold up to a reread, so I decided to pick it up again for another read–and it absolutely holds up. In a lot of ways, this is the fic that got me into this relationship–I liked both characters, I had feelings about their relationship, but this is one the that really cemented in that this is what I’m here for and this is so much of how I wanted to see them done. It’s resolutely a gen fic and I’m fine reading it in that vein, I enjoy their dynamic on that level as well, but I think it’s worth reading if you ship them as well, because their relationship is so important to both characters, it’s the foundation on which they stand for both of them, and it’s also just really, really spot on. This is an Anakin who has so much power at his fingertips, but is the emotionally weak one, this is an Anakin who is consumed by fear and anger and desperation and cravings for approval from those he loves, this is an Anakin who has such good in him, but took a very wrong turn. And this is an Obi-Wan who can be cut off from the Force, who can not be up to his usual speed, and yet he still has this iron will that’s incredible, he still looks Anakin right in the eye and refuses to be worn down, this is an Obi-Wan who cannot be compromised in the way Anakin wants him to be, because Obi-Wan’s strength of character is incredible. This is what I imprinted on and this is what I remain true to–that this is why they’re both such fascinating, complicated characters who become so entwined with each other and supporting each other and loving each other and trying to figure out a way forward together and working through their issues together, all in a way that’s about growth and healing in such a good, emotionally satisfying way. But also on a sheer id-pleasing level, the first half of this fic is fucking delicious, it’s the best “Anakin wins the duel on Mustafar and keeps Obi-Wan prisoner” fic I have ever found, it understands Obi-Wan’s character just as much as it understands Anakin’s character, how strength comes in different forms. That even without the Force, holy shit, Obi-Wan is goddamned nightmare because he’s so smart and he may not be the Chosen One, but he was one of the best of the Jedi. And, oh, Anakin so desperately trying to gain his approval, when he climbs into bed with Obi-Wan it was one of my favorite scenes, it didn’t need to be anything more than what it was to be perfect. There are a ton of character insights in this fic, there are some great lines, there’s a great plot, and the writing is top-notch. To this day, this fic remains my #1 favorite in this fandom, the first half of this fic especially is everything I want re: characterization and writing. It was practically emotional/id porn for me and even if you don’t usually read genfic, I would suggest giving this one a shot, because, boy, is it ultimately ever really, really about the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin and it delivers on the emotional climax moments. ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, 50.4k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”.    Chapter 18-19: This is an update rec and will focus on these chapters rather than the fic as a whole. I still can’t believe how good this fic is for me, how much I love every single scene of Anakin’s life being just an absolute mess, and the slow slide into where we know he’ll ultimately end up. It’s been 50k now and he’s still not there and yet every moment is just as interesting and engaging, it never gets old, each moment is useful in the journey along the way, it’s never repetitive in the ways that Anakin’s defenses are slowly crumbling against this person who is his only social outlet, this person who takes care of him, this person who he’s asking for things from, this person who is so charming and attractive, this person who is holding him here against his will, this person who is a murderer who feels no remorse about it, this person whose moods he cannot fully trust. Having this fic set from Anakin’s point of view works so well, because he’s such a relatable character in this situation and because the story focusing on his descent into Stockholm Syndrom is the heart of the fic, and it just works better in his pov, but it also gives me iddy happiness every time he’s so expaserated with himself and so frustrated/not a little terrified of what’s happening with him. But also, oh, man, the way the dynamic between him and Obi-Wan subtly shifts. The way Anakin’s so guilty about blowing him the night before, the way he still is drawn to Obi-Wan the next day, the way little moments, like Obi-Wan standing behind Anakin to guide his hands in chopping vegetables is so quietly intimate and there, all of that is SO GOOD FOR ME. And chapter 20 is set in the future again, a contrast against the chapter just before… but not as much of a contrast and I love it for how I felt the progress (?) Anakin has made along the fic. And, you know, Obi-Wan just looking people dead in the eye and able to say exactly what he wants to say to get the result he’s aiming for, how he can play a role and it’s utterly false but it gets the reaction or he can just look someone/something dead in the eye and you see the predator underneath and it’s… it’s not canon!Obi-Wan, but I feel like it’s what he might have been with the chains taken off him and I love getting to see such a sharp and immoral version of the character. It’s so much fun and also so good. And then Bail shows up! And, oh, man, the dynamic there is fascinating in what it says about Anakin, what it shows about Anakin and what calms him down, what puts him at ease and just… this fic is really good at being self-aware about what it’s doing, but still embracing it, and that makes it the fic I’m probably most eager to see a new chapter of, whenever it comes out. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & mace & dooku & palpatine & cast, sith!obi-wan, NSFW, 95.4k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. Anakin Skywalker, also known as Darth Vader, seeks redemption while Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi, disillusioned with the Jedi Order and its Code, falls to the Darkness.    Chapter 30: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter rather than the fic as a whole. Should I have waited until there was another chapter for an update rec? Ehh, probably. But I also don’t care. Because it’s a bit of a breather chapter after the previous one, it’s dealing with the aftermath of events that happened recently and it’s really satisfying–for both versions of the characters. Stepping carefully around spoilers, what happens with Padawan!Obi-Wan left me all excited and bouncing because I’d wondered and I loved the conversation with Plo Koon and how this chapter left off with this Obi-Wan, what it could mean for his future, because oh man yes do want! But also the future version of Ben and the downtime he has with Anakin, how it’s nice to have a chapter where they spend time together without any other pressing concerns in the very immediate future, as well as some really lovely, delicious shower sex. Where it’s just the two of them and Anakin whining for more so Ben opens him slowly and carefully before sliding into Anakin, who needs this, you feel how much he needs that connection again, rather than the fic telling you about it. That Ben has a moment of actually allowing himself something nice, to be pressed inside this person he loves so much, to have Anakin back after everything they’ve both been through, how it leads up to telling Anakin he loves him, because it’s one thing for us all to know it, but to read the words is so satisfying, right along with the lovely sex, that Anakin is safe in his arms again, trusts him again, listens to him again, wants more of him again. That they’ve found this balance, right exactly like this, and it just really made me happy in my soul for all the characters. ✦ The Light You Leave Behind by laventadorn, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & ahsoka, 18.9k wip    Because Anakin and Ahsoka have set out to learn what they can about the Sith - and to destroy them, once and for all.    I think I’ve recommended this fic before, but there was enough time between updates/I reread enough of it that I’m gonna do a fresh rec. I LOVE THIS FIC, I am super intrigued by it already, where things go a little differently when Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order and Anakin starts thinking about going with her, but is torn between wanting this other path and the desire he has to be a Jedi, to stay with Obi-Wan as well. The writing is lovely and sharp, the characterizations are complicated and bittersweet, in the way that Star Wars so often is. When Obi-Wan says that he thinks they’re losing the war, it sends Anakin into this tailspin, because Obi-Wan’s not supposed to say that, he starts a slow boil panic because Anakin is not good at dealing with feelings like this and, oh, it’s painful but it’s also so very good. It’s really a group fic, though, it has Padme and Ahsoka and Obi-Wan and Anakin, but there’s also some good stuff with Bail Organa and Asajj Ventress, there’s some great ways each of the characters see each other–I especially loved Padme’s view of Anakin and his need for guidance and how Obi-Wan could be “charmingly, annoyingly, passive-aggressive” in one description and really actually idealistic in another. And, oh, I do love the feeling that I get from this fic that there’s no “evil” side (other than Sidious and the Sith, of course), that the Jedi may have lost their way, but they’re not bad people, that Padme can disagree with people, but both sides have validity, that there’s nuance and complicated circumstances here. I live for that in fic, it makes things so much better and stronger as a story! It really is fascinating and so easy to see/hear the characters and so engaging a read. ✦ you’re gonna wish you never had met me by cosmicocean, obi-wan/padme & leia/han & luke & cast, 13k    Leia Kenobi, struggling to keep her head above water.    This is a sequel to turn my sorrow into treasured gold, which should be read first. I admit, this fic focused a little too much on the ESB plot, which meant not nearly as much new stuff happened in it, and I think that held it back from being as good as the first one was. But I also still tore through this fic and it’s a great look at Leia’s character and the writing is lovely and I am just so, so here for an AU where Obi-Wan and Padme raised the twins, where Leia knows her mother and considers herself Obi-Wan’s daughter, how that both does and doesn’t change who she is. The character moments are lovely and it just… really felt like Star Wars, I enjoyed it a great deal. ✦ An Enlightening Experience by Valmouth, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & ahsoka & the father & the daughter & the son & cast, 2.3k    “You… have been Chosen,” the Father says, and he sounds about as upset on the matter as Obi-Wan knows he will be, when he finally understands what that means.    I both wish that this had been like 50k long and think it’s perfect exactly as it is, it’s sort of crack-treated-seriously, but also very light-hearted, but also comes with genuine emotional weight. It’s one of those neat concepts that isn’t really in line with canon, but it’s happily embraced by being what my id wants, giving Obi-Wan a special Destiny, especially as the embodiment of the Light on Mortis. It’s such a fun fic, it has just the right amount of detail and ideas sketched out to really capture my imagination, but also to give me feelings (both happy and heartbreaking!) about Obi-Wan, exactly as it should. It was a really lovely read. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin, ~1k    Anakin wakes from nightmares tinted red. The darkness of his bedroom seems oppressive, and no matter how many times he blinks red seems to seep into the edges of his vision.    This is a short ficlet, but oh it’s lovely and adorable and bittersweet and heart-warming and perfect. When Anakin is 13, he feels he should be too old to sneak into Obi-Wan’s bed for cuddles and sleep, but a nightmare gets him up and sneaking out anyway and, oh, I love how easy it is in this moment, how it’s simple and quiet and Obi-Wan just lifts up one arm in invitation and I can see it so clearly and it’s perfect and my heart feels so much better after this lovely piece. ✦ I’ll Be There For You by SinkingLikeASunset, obi-wan/anakin/padme (eventual) & qui-gon & clones & cast, 40.7k wip    Obi-Wan must alter events and make changes as he struggles with memories of a dreadful future and deals with new developments this time around.    Chapter 1-8: I believe I’ve recommended this fic before, but it’s updated since then and I continue to enjoy it! The beginning takes a bit to get underway, but once Obi-Wan is in the past and has settled a bit, the fic shifts into gear and really engaged me. I like that it’s a fic where things aren’t really in a rush, even as they’re often tense and there’s a looming sense of things on the horizon. There’s room to breathe here, as well as some really good scenes between Obi-Wan and various people, especially Anakin, who gets frustrated that Obi-Wan won’t tell him what’s wrong, but Obi-Wan is slowly getting him to learn to trust that he’ll tell Anakin when the time is right. Not that Obi-Wan knows precisely what to do, he stumbles and is at a loss at times, but he’s still making his way carefully and is still determined to make things better this time. But what I’m really here for is the slow development of Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme as a threesome and how Obi-Wan/Anakin is getting so much of their communication finally worked out. Chapter seven has a nicely id-satisfying scene where much of the building confrontations finally happen, where Obi-Wan and Anakin finally really talk to each other, how Obi-Wan finally says directly what he now realizes Anakin needs to hear, how Anakin warms under that praise and affection. The fic is at its best when it’s focused on them (and Padme), when it lets me just happily roll around in the tropes that it embraces and just makes me feel all warm-hearted and content!    Chapter 9: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rater than the fic as a whole. This fic starts a bit rough in the beginning, but once the timeline starts changing and the fic settles into the more daily life stuff, it becomes really cute and charming and chapter 9 really exemplifies that for me, it was just so adorable to watch Anakin verbally flailing and tripping over himself because Obi-Wan knew about his marriage to Padme, like I would have read five chapters in a row of that, because that’s where the fic is at its best and it’s just fluffy and pure iddy fix-it and cuteness! And I’m enjoying the slow roll towards Obianidala as a pairing, that it’s been 40k of fic now and they’re just sort of getting around to it and Obi-Wan’s affection for them is very nice and both Anakin and Padme are really cute, especially when Obi-Wan is so calm and serene, because that’s how he is, while they trip over themselves trying to pretend they’re not in a relationship. But also I will apparently eat up with a spoon any time Anakin has a panic attack and Obi-Wan’s presence and guidance helps bring him back, yesss, give me that always, that’s what I’m here for! ✦ Wearer of the Veil by englishable, leia & ben, 1.4k    Leia Organa-Solo knows that her son is not quite like everybody else, although she’s uncertain as to whether this means he should be protected more from others or himself. Either way, these strange dreams he has are beyond her reach.    A lovely, bittersweet look at Leia and her son, how his childhood went and the dreams that loom over him, how a kid can start out so sweet and so loved, who is always loved, and still you see how things could end up the way they did. The imagery in the fic is used really well and the sheer amount of feelings of the piece are just right and it really was a really, really lovely piece to read. ✦ those immortal dead by notbecauseofvictories, padme & leia & luke & ben & poe & rey, 2.1k    Padmé Amidala is forgotten, not gone.    This is really more of a fairy tale type of story than one that’s grounded in the Star Wars details (though, I wouldn’t say it’s a straight up fairy tale, either, if you’re looking for that kind of thing, just that it’s fuzzy and dreamy and not quite how SW works, but that style works for the fic) and it’s more about fleeing impressions and moments, the lingering of a ghost that’s not quite in your field of vision. That Padme’s influence on the galaxy is still there, even if she herself or her name are not, and it’s a really delicate balance to walk, but I thought the fic did a lovely job of it! ✦ untitled by cadesama, anakin & leia & bail & tarkin, ~1k    Anonymous asked: AU, Vader sues Bail for custody (either the Empire is intact and he has standing or its gone and he absolutely doesn’t, whichever is funnier)    I think I grinned my way through this entire thing, there’s something just so… hilariously surreal about Vader suing Bail Organa for custody of baby Leia, who is just totally content to crawl all over him, while Wilhuff Tarkin moderates the whole thing with such utter… I don’t even know how to describe the mix of academic interest with complete detachment. Then you add in a fantastic last few lines that completely captured my imagination and you have a great little read. ✦ A Game of Chess by Kayarde, obi-wan & palpatine & cast, 4.3k    Chancellor Palpatine and Knight Kenobi sit down for a game of chess.    I have a great fascination for the dynamic between Obi-Wan and Palpatine, as two people who are playing a game of chess against each other (literally here, metaphorically in canon, even if Obi-Wan’s not entirely aware of it) and rivals in some ways. The series of scenes in this fic, spread across the years, the way they come to respect each other as rivals, the way Palpatine sees Obi-Wan as a genuinely interesting person to play against, and how that changes some fates and not others, was a really interesting little read tonight! ✦ sometimes you don’t get it right by randomdreamer01, jyn & han (background han/leia and jyn/cassian) & cast, 2.6k    Han Solo and Jyn Erso get drunk on the Millenium Falcon and find that they are similar in more ways than one.    Oh, this was a beautifully written fic, it’s all rough edges and unhappy moments and jaded undercurrents to everything, but with real and genuine heart underneath it, just as it should be for these two characters. It works beautifully and understands both characters and draws these really beautiful parallels and contrasts, for the way they look at the world and the feelings they have for these people who are so deep into the Rebellion and how Han and Jyn try to deal with that. It’s a gorgeous fic that I never expected to get and it really was a treat. ✦ Unearthed Bones by Glare, obi-wan/anakin, human au, mafia au, 2.5k    Obi-Wan Kenobi has given up a life of crime in favor of the questionable comforts of witness protection. Placed in a boring library job, everything appears to go great until he realizes his incompetent handlers somehow managed to drop him right in the middle of another man’s operation.    I didn’t know I needed this fic until I had it–which I say a lot, but I always mean it! It’s such an interesting beginning, I love that this Obi-Wan is living this peaceful life, but he can’t just not notice what’s going on around him, Obi-Wan is too fundamentally an observant character which of course leads exactly where it was always going to go. I loved this opening chapter, it could have stood on its own the way it is, the ending would have worked for that, but I am also really here for more of it! I love the potential of it, the way it captures my imagination, the scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin, both of them sizing the other up, especially the way Obi-Wan is just so… calm and centered, that even when he’s being tempted back to what he really is, there’s something solid and steady about him, which compliments the more wild feel of Anakin and I liked the way that sense of who they are was mapped onto these versions of them. And also I am super ready for more of this whenever it comes out, especially if it has undercurrents of being fucked up in super tasty ways, as the author is really good at. ♥
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