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fanfic-obsessed · 1 year

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Lured to the Light on Accident

Ok, all you Jedi, Sith, and Force Nulls (and anyone who is none of the above), here we go again. Just a warning, Palpatine gets off far more lightly than he probably should. Also I keep having deja vu as I write this, but can’t find any indication I have posted it before. If someone knows different, please tell me. It makes me wonder if I thought about this one so hard I thought I wrote it…

It starts at the end of the Naboo crisis. Sheev Palpatine, Darth Sidious, is all too aware that a man of his power requesting the company of a young boy, without his guardian, from a group of people he has an unbelievable amount of control over is not a good look on anyone. Even with that young boy being a hero on his planet, particularly since there were two living Jedi heroes of the Naboo Crisis.

So he invites both Obi Wan and Anakin to meet with him. Obi Wan, though he does have some suspicion around most politicians, is also grieving, hurting, too young, and trying to keep up with a nine year olds energy without letting on that he is struggling. He thinks, incorrectly, that even implying he might need help from anyone in the Jedi temple means that Anakin would be taken from him (this belief is preyed on by Palpatine, who is very good at making people doubt each other). And frankly Palpatine can get Anakin to sit quietly for an entire hour, even take a nap occasionally.

There are days that Obi Wan would have nominated Palpatine for sainthood on that alone.

Of course Palpatine sees a chance to corrupt another Jedi, plus corrupting this particular Jedi would pave the way for him to take control of Anakin, and he could just kill him later if need be. So he starts these ‘devil's advocate’ debates with Obi Wan where he picks qualities of the Jedi and Sith (as he perceives them) and tries to make Obi Wan choose one or the other and defend it. As far as Palptine is concerned he can work with whichever choice Obi Wan chooses, can refer back to the debate if he wants to make Obi Wan seem hidebound or a hypocrite when the time comes to break the relationship between Obi Wan and Anakin.

Only…Obi Wan does not quite cooperate. No matter what the ‘qualities’ that Palpatine chooses (always geared to be backhanded insults to the Jedi Order), Obi Wan always, always, always argues that the key is to act with compassion. And he’s good at it. Obi Wan thinks that Palpatine is helping him teach Anakin how to disagree with someone without getting nasty, how to debate for fun and games, so goes into each debate with all of his focus and energy and effort but no vitriol. By the time Palptine even thinks to make an argument to make compassion seem like a weakness, he is intrigued by these debates. By this argument of acting with compassion first and foremost.

It should be noted that, for all that Palpatine was working toward the genocide of the Jedi and was creating all kinds of vaguely plausible propaganda, he had actually rarely interacted with the Jedi beyond the superficial, until Obi Wan and Anakin, (even with Yan Dooku, since the focus was on corrupting the Jedi, not understanding him) so does not actually know what what is and is not a Jedi trait outside of rumors.

These debates change Palpatine. Oh, not at once, not in weeks or months or even years. But with such a creeping slowness that it is unnoticeable, Palpatine changes. The compassion Obi Wan talks about so enthusiastically sinks into his bones. Of course, every time Palpatine finds himself acting with compassion, he has a ready excuse for himself (to gain an ally, hurting that person would be more effort than it was worth, etc.). He also finds that he genuinely begins to enjoy Obi Wan and Anakin’s company (and begins to feel somewhat paternal toward them), and can genuinely call both master and padawan his friends.

This does not stop Dooku’s corruption, though Palpatine is more careful not to let the Jedi know he is a Sith. It doesn't even stop the clone wars. The first large effect that this infusion of compassion has is with the Coruscant Guard. These were the first beings that Palpatine interacted with that were, without a doubt, innocent. In Palpatine's mind he could make an argument that every other being or group has some responsibility, no matter how small for what is coming. But the Clones do not. What’s more, Palpatine perceives the Coruscant Guard as his. They were his personal clones. Palpatine is still undoubtedly a Sith, and though Compassion has infected him, he is obsessively protective of what he considered his.

Palpatine quickly manufactures reasons to do away with, by death or other means, many of his more odious allies. All of them for the crime of laying a hand on his Coruscant Guard. He treats the CG with all the compassion that he had, instead of just paying lip service when cameras are on. And in return the CG are as loving and loyal to him as the rest of the GAR is to the Jedi generals. In fact, for every act of compassion he performs, he finds that he is rewarded with admiration and later love (and not just from the clones). It becomes a cycle of reinforcement drawing him from the depths of the evil he has sunk to.

Do not get me wrong, Palpatine is not a good person. For the first two years of the war he is still actively working toward the death of the Jedi and the enslavement of the clones. He is still leading both sides of the war, if a little more hands off from the Separatists. He may consider Obi Wan a friend, but that mainly means he intends to make sure his death is painless (as even now he could see how Operation Knightfall and Order 66 would hurt Obi Wan immensely and wanted to spare him that).

Then comes the day when Obi Wan brings his Commander to meet the Chancellor. They have come to, among other things, announce their engagement and their intention to marry after the war was over. Obi Wan wants Palptine to officiate. In this world the Anidala elopement is well known, and accepted, and both Obi Wan and Palpatine have playfully bitched to each other (and to Anakin and Padme) about not getting to be there for the wedding.

Palpatine is beyond flattered, and ecstatic for his friend and the love that he had found. In his head he begins to plan the outfit he would wear as the officiant. It is two hours later, in his apartment, that it hits him. He had been thinking about how Fox, one of his commanders, had talked about his brother Cody. How much Cody loved Obi Wan and how happy Fox was that they were getting married. Palpatine realized that if things go as planned, there will be no wedding, as both the grooms would be dead, or as good as. That epiphany it trailed into the realization that his clones, even if they remain free, would have to face their enslaved brothers. The brothers he enslaved. Somehow that shakes him as nothing else, the thought that the Coruscant Guard might lose their regard for him for enslaving their brothers.

In that instant he decided that the love he could feel from the clones was more important than any Sith plan. (Frankly, I can think of few things more Sithlike than deciding their own wants mean more than the 1000 year plan that is almost complete) Which meant that he would need to dismantle the plan without giving away what he was.

Luckily he has always had a patsy around, just in case the great Sith plan was discovered too early.

His first step is to arrange the deaths of anyone who knows that Sheev Palpatine is Darth Sidious (frankly there aren’t many). Then he pulls out the fake correspondence he has on hand for this kind of occasion (Not for nothing Palpatine is a planner, I have no doubt he has a plan to frame someone else as Sidious) that does a very good job of implying that Sidious had control of Palpatine, and would use him to enact Order 66 and a report about the chips by the Kamionoans to Dooku. He uses the same techniques he had employed to hide his Dark presence, to create a facade in his mind.

Then he has Commander Fox, and a handful of other CG, to escort him to the Jedi temple. He makes a show of acting strangely, closing in on frantic one moment, dazed the next, saying strange things about needing to tell the Jedi and ‘forgetting’ he said anything a moment later. Generally do an excellent job of appearing as if he was breaking through some kind of control. They get him in front of the Jedi High Council, the members still on planet (Mace Windu, Obi Wan Kenobie, Yoda, Ki Adi Mundi) and he hands over the information. In between ‘fits’ (at one point letting his darkness out to change his eyes, then having it change back) he describes waking up in his office to see the documents on the Padd he handed over. Realizing first what it meant for the Guard, then what it meant for his friends in the Jedi. Feeling like he is fighting against something to even bring the documents this far but knowing that it was critical, to protect the Coruscant Guard.

His act is bought. The trail he leaves (with just enough hints of evidence that doesn’t fit to keep it seem like it is frame-up) leads the Jedi exactly where he wanted them, to an aide in his office that has been with him since his earliest days. This Aide (who is little more than a mindless puppet, with enough Force sensitivity to fool whatever tests the Jedi will do) claims to be Darth Sidious, does the villain’s monologue, shoots Sith lightning, and is killed by some very angry members of the Coruscant Guard.

With the ‘Sith Master’ dead, the war ends swiftly. Dooku surrenders for the Separatists on the condition that he gets an invitation to Obi Wan’s wedding. The Clones begin the process of dechipping, and are given citizenship (with all the rights and back pay and a planet of their own) spearheaded by Palpatine, which wins him major points with the delegation of 2000.

Palpatine is ‘cleared’ by the Jedi mindhealers (who contrary to their name do not actually look into anyone’s mind) and the small amount of darkness that lets show is listed as a side effect of being puppeted by a Sith for so long. It is eventually decided, encouraged by Palpatine, that is was Palptine’s love for the clones that gave him a chance to fight back against Darth Sidious, but it was his friendship with Obi Wan and Anakin that gave him the strength to even break free enough to love the clones. Both Obi Wan and Anakin are required to go to mind healers as well, just in case Sidious did anything to them in the form of Palpatine. Because Palpatine chose, fairly early on, to not corrupt either of them but the natural damages of being at war were also discovered and worked on (In this universe Anakin did not slaughter the Tuskans. Without Palpatine actively sabotaging his and Obi Wan’s relationship, they were able to discuss his vision a bit more openly and Obi Wan got Vos to go save Shmi. Ironically her time held by the Tuskans, who were deeply impressed by her kindness even in the face of torture, let her learn enough that she was able to a major part of a treaty between the Tuskans and the Moisture Farmers).

Palpatine gracefully retires, making sure to give back all the emergency powers (so that the next Chancellor cannot use them) and steps into an advisory role, discovering that he has almost all the influence he had as Chancellor and none of the responsibility or blame. The death of his patsy gave Palpatine a reputation for being nigh on incorruptible, because all of of the small, infrequent acts of compassion or kindness throughout his time a Chancellor were seen as his true self breaking through the control of the horrible Sith (who was considered to have taken control of him as a child). In addition the Jedi made it extremely clear how rare it was to have the mental fortitude to break through Sith control.

With all of the accolades, his all but legendary hero status through the Republic, the way his advice is accepted practically as law and good, Palpatine quickly realizes that he actually got everything most of his Sith Ancestors would have wanted. Yes, the Jedi still live but he is welcomed among them (the perfect position to, should he decide to, corrupt the order from the inside out), and any darkness on his part will be ignored and remnants of ‘Darth Sidious’. He may not have an outright empire, but his advice continues to be sought out and implemented (99% he advocates for compassion, whatever is the most compassionate answer to the problem) and his influence is near universal. It did not matter how long a feud or argument had been going on, both sides would accept whatever compromise he suggested.

He does get to be the officiant at the CodyWan wedding, most of the beings there are using the ceremony as another reason to roast Anidala for their elopement.

Somehow everyone does get a happily ever after.

#star wars the clone wars #the clone wars #codywan #anidala #sheeve palpatine #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #commander cody #commander fox

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hereticpriest · 2 months

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Mercy Chapter 5: Change

Rating: Explicit 18+

MDNI

Relationship: Obi-Wan Kenobi x Reader

Chapter warnings: Canon divergence, heavy flirtation, very light angsty feelings, pining hard. Let me know if there are any warnings you think are missing.

Notes: The smut is coming in the next chapter, guys, I swear! If you have any suggestions, feel free to request in the comments. <3 All this exposition was setting up a world in which I can be indulgent, so prepare for a fun little journey. I already have plans for spicy holos, sex pollen-adjacent stuff, and some very light dom/sub dynamics.

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Masterlist - Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four

Chapter 5: Change

Qui-Gon Jinn will never be a warrior again.

The injury to his hip was bone-deep, and while your swift intervention and healing helped maintain his ability to walk, he won’t be able to fight properly again.

The older man seems to take it in stride, happy enough to teach the younglings, drive Jacosta insane in the Archives, and help his former Padawan train the chosen one. According to Obi-Wan, help is a strong word. He passed his trials easily, and you can see plainly that their relationship has progressed to that of an overprotective mother and a know-it-all grandmother hovering around with advice and candies. Qui-Gon was gentler with Anakin than he’d ever been with Obi-Wan, and he did in fact keep sweets in his pocket for both former Padawan and Grandpadawan. Obi-Wan claimed to be frustrated with it, but you’d caught him more than once with a sweetie in his mouth as he demonstrated a flow of movement for Anakin.

Anakin has had trouble adjusting, so you’ve done your best providing an outside perspective. You give all three of them a safe space to vent, knowing that once they’ve got their frustration with each other out, they’ll be right back to being an adorable display of Jedi lineage. Once upon a time, you would’ve walked among them at Dooku’s side. Now, you belong to your Grandmaster Tyvokka’s lineage, alongside Bultar Swan, your Master’s old apprentice. Your Master’s pride when your Padawan braid was cut and you presented it to him after your trials would forever remain one of your fondest memories. You wanted to help grow the lineage you’d once been a part of but no longer felt was yours to claim. Anakin may struggle, but he would overcome all obstacles - you knew he had the tenacity for it. He just needs the correct amount of love and guidance.

Qui-Gon is convinced that Anakin is the chosen one, while Obi-Wan is noncommittal on the theory. You, however? You’ve outright banned the label, going so far as to speak to the Council about it and convince them that it was in Anakin’s best interest not to have to grow up with that weight and ego on his shoulders. Convincing Obi-Wan had taken very little effort - he agreed that it was a lot of weight for a nine year old boy, and that inflating his ego presented equal potential problems. Qui-Gon had required more coaxing, though you were fairly sure that was simply because Qui-Gon held hope. Hope that Anakin will bring balance. Hope that his dreams for the future of the Jedi Order would one day come true. Eventually, he sees the wisdom in your recommendation, and you breathe a sigh of relief. No nine year old needs to feel all that pressure.

The next suggestion you have comes after several nights spent curled up on the settee with Obi-Wan across from you and a good cup of tea, listening to him vent about his struggles with training his young Padawan. You’re proud of him - he turns his critique inward rather than placing the blame on the boy, acknowledging his position as guide and teacher. You sometimes think that Obi-Wan has somewhat forgotten the youngling he was before he became Qui-Gon’s Padawan. Menace didn’t begin to cover it - to the point that you’d initially avoided getting close to him when you were very young as if his chaos could rub off on you. He struggles with getting Anakin’s sustained attention. No matter how hard he tries to make his lessons interesting, the boy gets restless, and his attention deteriorates swiftly from there. Thankfully, this is something you have experience with. You introduce Obi-Wan and Anakin to moving meditation in a guided lesson, enjoying your chance to be a teacher, and delighting in the opportunity to correct Obi-Wan with gentle hands and teasing praise. By the end of the first kata, he’s pink all the way to the tips of his ears, though he gives as good as he gets.

A murmured ‘Yes Alpha’ as you ask him if he understands your instructions sends heat racing to your cheeks, purple blooming across your face. You chuff at him and he grins cheekily at you, pleased as punch with his teasing. As you guide them through another set of movements, he asks if he’s doing it right, and you know he’s missing the movements on purpose to get your hands on him. What a shameless flirt. You guide him into the right positions, and he looks at you through pale, enviably long lashes, murmuring praise at your teaching skills. Your tail wags behind you, ears twitching to catch each word, your body expressive even as you do your best to tamp down on it.

But of course, Obi-Wan gives you no quarter. You started this, and he will happily finish it. You shiver as he stretches, first showing off the planes of his tummy as his undertunic rolls up, then cracks his neck, a grin tugging at his lips as he shows off his scent glands. Your mouth is watering, but your throat is dry, and you blink dumbly at Obi-Wan for a moment before taking a deep, calming breath. It’s beneath you, but you decide you’d like to win. You cup the back of Obi-Wan’s neck and he melts at your touch, pretty blue eyes flicking up to meet your gaze.

“Good little Omega.” You whisper, and Obi-Wan grabs onto the front of your tunic to keep himself upright. You steady him with strong hands, waiting until he gets his legs under him before you move away to help Anakin. The boy has mostly been ignoring you two, concentrating for once now that you’ve found a way to connect him with the benefits of meditation. When you glance back at Obi-Wan, there’s still a hungry look in his eyes, but it’s softened by something warm and gentle that makes you shiver.

“Alright Sprout. Do you think this will help?” You ask the young Padawan before you, and he smiles up at you, nodding his head as he demonstrates the kata you showed him, his movements surprisingly precise.

“Yeah, this is wizard, Mercy.”

Over the years, Anakin blossoms under Obi-Wan’s tutelage. He’s so gifted with the Force that you could sometimes forget that he didn’t get trained until he was nine. His lightsaber skills grow in leaps and bounds, his thrill of the fight driving him to succeed. He’s cocky, reckless, and his teen years are an absolute terror. You can’t even count the amount of times he’s come to your chambers in the night and asked to stay with you, furious with some minor thing Obi-Wan has done. He works on your droid, the little astromech you’d taken to using ever since your first mission with her, Daisy. He gives her a paint job in your favourite colours, swapping out old parts for better ones, and building new components when he can’t find something he wants. Working with his hands helps to calm him down, and he knows he’s always got a safe space with you if he needs it.

It helps Obi-Wan as well. You’ll receive a comm right before Anakin storms in, and you can reassure the poor man that his Padawan hasn’t run off into the city to get into trouble. Anakin used to go to Qui-Gon, but as the boy aged, the older Jedi had begun to bring him back to Obi-Wan instead of letting him cool off. You became his favoured reprieve purely because unlike his Grandmaster, you never made Anakin leave. When he was very small, you’d sometimes let him lay in bed with you when he needed comfort, but now that he’s a gangly teen, you’ve procured a cot that folds up under your bed. He doesn’t use it often, his temper simmering down swiftly, but there have been times when his fights with Obi-Wan have been that monumental.

The important thing is that you allow him to be a child. Forcing him too quickly from a normal boy to a Padawan learner is sure to cause problems, and you find yourself reminding both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon of that often. You dig your feet into the wet sand and relax on the shore as Obi-Wan teaches Anakin to swim, then show him how to make the best Jedi Temple with the sand. You teach him to dance with Obi-Wan’s help, and lament that you don’t get to spend more time demonstrating, as the man is a terrific dancer. Because of course he is. Anakin giggles as you spin him, and quietly confesses that he wants to dance with Padmé one day. You hope the young Queen is well. You thought of her often - of her strength, bravery and compassion as she rules a planet at far too young an age. You’re not surprised Anakin is so enthralled with her, though you do keep an eye on his passions.

He grows so quickly you feel sick with it, and your soft nickname for him proves to be true. He sprouts so quickly, growing and learning and becoming the man he’s meant to be. You love him like a son, and you relish the time while he will still cuddle with you and let you kiss his forehead. He has a mother of his own, and you do your best to honour her, knowing he will never be able to look at you the way you look at him. You’ve long accepted that. But privately, in your own head, you call him son and feel proud of the splendid boy he becomes.

He presents as an Alpha at thirteen, and you stay with him through it to help Obi-Wan. The Omega won’t leave - can’t abandon his Padawan - but has little to offer in the counseling of an Alpha going through his first rut. When Anakin gets frustrated and snippy, you scruff him gently and growl until he settles. When he sweats through his blankets, Obi-Wan helps him into the shower so that you can change them. You teach him to apply the scent blockers, and give him his first dose of rut blocker, forcing him to drink water to keep himself from dehydrating. You pet his hair to soothe him to sleep, whisper-singing lullabies that he hasn’t wanted in years, and when he wakes in the morning with a clear head, you explain this aspect of life to him again to make sure he doesn’t have any questions.

He’s growing up too quickly, and it breaks your heart. Thank the Stars for his lingering softness, rare as it is. The moments when he leans into your touch when you brush his hair back instead of moving away from it with a whine. The moments when he comes to you for hugs, lets you press a kiss to his temple and tell him how proud you are of him. Most especially, you thank the Force for the fleeting moments where you, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Anakin get together as something akin to a pack. It feels right, deep in your bones, and you appreciate the dinners, the discussions, and even the training.

You go to Tatooine when Anakin is sixteen and off on a mission with Obi-Wan. He’s begun having nightmares about his mother, and you have finally convinced the Council to let you free her. He can’t focus with his heart worrying for her, and as much as this is an attachment he will need to let go of, you know it will be easier for him knowing she’s safe. When you arrive, you’re too late - Shmi is already freed, and married to a kind older man named Lars. They have a moisture farm, and Lars’ son Owen shows you around the place while you keep an eye out for potential dangers. They’ve been having disputes with the Tuskens, so you hedge your bets, heading off to their village to make peace. It doesn’t surprise you - Tuskens believe themselves to own the sacred water of their planet, as its original inhabitants. You don’t necessarily blame them for being possessive.

It takes effort, but you’re a good negotiator. You’ve got nothing on Obi-Wan, but you are a Consular after all. You have to take out a sand beast for them, along with a couple of canyon krayt dragons that have been encroaching on their territory, but you do what you must. If nothing else, taking out large threats will keep the Lars family safe as well. The Tusken are a proud people, and you trust they will keep their word, leaving the Lars family and specifically Shmi Skywalker-Lars, alone. In return, the Lars family must also promise to leave the Tuskens alone, though they readily agree. It’s not like they want anything to do with the Tuskens.

Before you leave, you give Shmi your commlink code in case of an emergency. You head out into the wastes, following every fleeting brush of the Force as you look for anything that could put the Lars family in danger in the future. Thankfully, you find nothing but the natural predators that roam Tatooine, and you’re soon able to leave the sand-covered hellhole that is this twin-sunned planet. You make it back to Coruscant before those you’ve claimed as your pack return, so you spend your day with Qui-Gon sitting in on his lessons. Your Master had recommended you start teaching, and you’re excited for the opportunity, but you want the chance to observe before you agree to take on your own classes. Luckily, Qui-Gon is a good teacher, both to learn what kind of teacher you want to be, and what kind you don’t.

When Anakin returns from his mission days later, he crumples in your arms hearing that you’ve taken this weight from his shoulders. Obi-Wan, who knew the whole time, smiles fondly at you over his Padawan’s head - a rarity for him now that Anakin has nearly surpassed him in height. You hold your Sprout close to you while he’ll allow it, pressing a kiss to his temple, and his forehead, though he laughs and starts to squirm when you kiss his cheek. You cup his face when he leans back, wiping the tears from his eyes and smiling fondly at him.

“You’re growing too fast, Sprout. Slow down, will ya?” You tease, and he grins sheepishly, embarrassed by the attention even as he relishes in it. Obi-Wan gives your tail a gentle tug, drawing a faux-offended gasp from your lips as you spin to give him a playful look. Anakin heads for his chambers as soon as your attention is elsewhere to escape, and you roll your eyes at his fleeing back. Cheeky.

“Are you sure you’re The Negotiator? Awfully insensitive to go around pulling people’s tails.” You jape, and Obi-Wan snickers, both at your response and the fact that your tail has coincidentally wound itself around his thigh to keep him close.

“You did a good thing for him,” the Omega begins sincerely, tracing his fingers across your tail fondly, “and I have missed you. It’s been far too long.”

Your ears twitch, and you chuff as you approach him, brushing his hair out of his eyes. His strawberry blond hair has grown quite a bit since he was knighted, and you’re especially fond of it long. Though, you’re even more fond of the beard and moustache he’s been growing, more ginger than his hair and soft under your fingertips. Though, that might be mostly your fault, since you comb beard oil through his facial hair any chance he gives you. He won’t indulge on his own, but with your companionship, he allows himself some of the finer things in life. He leans his cheek into your hand, but you don’t hold him for long out here in public.

His force signature brushes against yours, and you brush him back affectionately, but like always, something keeps you from delving into each other. A distant, hidden part of you doesn’t want to chance that he’s not your force-mate. You don’t fear much, but that? That would devastate you, and you know you’re not bold enough to take that chance with all you stand to lose. You’d rather be his best friend, raising his Padawan together and gently flirting along the way than risk the alternative. If you knew, you’d have to stop. You’d have to take a step back away from him and deal with the attachment you felt towards him, and devote yourself back to the Code.

One day, you’d be strong enough to cross that boundary. One day, you would know if he was yours and you were his, but that day was certainly not today.

When Anakin is seventeen, you find yourself called before the Council for a diplomatic mission in the mid rim. You’re shocked to find Obi-Wan waiting for you when you arrive, standing before the Council with a serene smile on his face. You so rarely get the chance to work with him, but you know that Anakin is on a mission with your old Master to take advantage of his piloting skills, so it makes sense. You work well together when you get the chance, and you’re both available. You’re a skilled Consular, and Obi-Wan is called the Negotiator despite being a Guardian.

You listen with excitement stirring in your belly as Master Yoda describes your mission to a remote moon where life has thrived, and an ancient holocron has been recovered. According to reports, the people who inhabit the moon have little interest in giving their treasure to the Jedi, which is where you come in.

Obi-Wan follows you out of the room when you’re dismissed, and you nudge him gently, grinning as he nudges you back. He walks you to your chambers first, then heads along to his own, promising to meet you at the ship set aside for you within the hour. You’ll likely only be gone a week or two at most, so you have little to pack, but you want to shower before you go. The sonic showers onboard starships have nothing on a real shower. Your bag remains packed most of the time, but you tuck your medical bag and datapad into it with your regular belongings.

Just under an hour later, you arrive at the ship, having convinced a very reluctant Daisy that you didn’t need an astromech on this journey to visit people who didn’t seem to even have droids of their own. Obi-Wan is already on board, his bag clipped behind the pilot’s chair, and the pilot’s headset already nestled on his head. You roll your eyes and huff indignantly, practically throwing yourself into the co-pilot chair after clipping your bag in.

“You’re so over dramatic. I’m an excellent pilot.” You insist, and Obi-Wan snorts, flicking on the engines while you put on your own headset.

“You’re a much better co-pilot.” He informs you, and you concede with a petulant sigh.

“You hate flying.” Your voice is a little whiny as you remind him, but he only snickers as he begins take-off procedures.

“I don’t hate flying - I hate the nonsense that Anakin claims is flying.” He corrects you primly, and you groan as the ship begins to make its way into the atmosphere. You lost this battle before it even began, and you know it. You’ll just have to settle in for the ride.

#obi wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan kenobi x reader #obi-wan kenobi #obi-wan kenobi x oc #obi-wan kenobi x original character

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charmwasjess · 19 days

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hi! i'm sorry you're having a not so great time with The living Force (i saw the post about sifo-dyas 😔 we're in your walls mr. miller) but i had one question about it, if you don't mind of course. which is: is our best friend Qui-Gon in it and how is he doing?

Hey you!!! Thanks for stopping by! ❤️

So far, our boy Qui-Gon is definitely in this book. He's gotten a lot of great screentime, and honestly, it's genuinely nice to see him in his evolved final form as a successful Master, working well with Obi-Wan, following the star of his convictions and being a quest giver for the main plot.

....and yet 🙏 even this, I can find a problem with.

My issue with Miller's characterization of Qui-Gon is that it's a cardboard cutout version of "everything would have just been perfect if Qui-Gon had just lived and trained Anakin and fixed the Order" vibe with very little texture or attention given to the actual richness or depth of the character himself. In this book, he is a benevolent, smiling space Jesus, who everyone gets along with, who easily wins over unruly mobs and the Council both with his Uncomplicated Ideas of Goodness.

And again, good, I am very pro-Qui-Gon, I want to see him succeed and portrayed in a positive light. But I love maverick Qui-Gon with a little crunch. I really like the chaotic part of him that is willing to use the Force to flip a chance cube or uh, you know, bet on a nine-year-old to win a desert nightmare race. Let him be a problem. And let him be a person? Both him and Obi-Wan feel stripped down to nubs, with nothing fresh or interesting or new. It's Obi-Wan facing the audience and saying "hello there!" desperate for the laughs. Nobody feels real. Nobody even gets a physical description.

Both characters deserve more, and honestly, neither one of them feel like considered choices so much as lazy writing. But both are definitely in the book and given plenty of screen time.

But I really, really like what they're doing with Mace and Depa.

#this damn book #thank you for the ask!!#I hope I'm not too much sour grapes #gonna only get more annoying about this

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rachel-614 · 5 months

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star wars is perennially fascinating to me because the doylist-watsonian divide is so wide. there are so many bizarre things that are easily explained by the original trilogy-prequels divide, or the fact that each movie in the original trilogy was individually plotted (luke and leis kiss anyone??) which worked pretty okay for the OT and pretty horrific for the sequel trilogy (lol disney). on the level of craft, star wars (and i love it. i do. but let’s be honest) is just…mediocrely plotted and riddled with inconsistencies.

but because it had (and has) an unbelievably large and dedicated fan base, the watsonian solutions that have been developed for all the doylist inconsistencies are nothing short of amazing. there’s just enough substance in the world building and the characters to let the fans play around—to recontextualize and reinterpret those inconsistencies into something way more amazing then whatever was going on in lucas’s (or…sigh… abrams-johnson’s) brain.

latest bugbear for me is Han Solo’s disbelief in the force. in the context of the OT, where the power and influence of the jedi order isn’t really defined—you know they were “guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy” but might easily be led to believe they were mysterious and reclusive samurai-type figures (especially given that samurai are the clear inspiration)—Han’s expressed disbelief in episode 4 about the force, not just as some universal cosmic power but even as a power which Luke can use to avoid blaster bolts is reasonable. it’s even shared by the empire goons. the force is repeatedly described by characters who have presumably traveled much of the galaxy as an “ancient” or “hokey” religion.

this is absolutely wild in the context of the prequel trilogy, where the jedi’s role in the last 1000 years is very clearly defined as the enforcers and negotiators of the republic, and their role in the clone wars is public and unmistakable. in phantom menace, anakin is a nine-year-old slave boy who has never left Tatooine and thinks padme might be an angel and yet clearly recognizes Qui Gon Jinn as a jedi because he catches a glimpse of his lightsaber. versus Luke who has no fucking clue what a lightsaber is. We don’t question this much as an audience because the prequels were screened so much later than the original series—of course anakin recognizes the lightsaber! after all, we do.

but if you take the OT and the PT together in good faith, the watsonian explanation is horrifying, because it shows the extent to which the jedi were erased not just as a people but in history. in the space of twenty years—that’s living memory. that’s the living memory of Han himself—the jedi went from one of the most universally recognized symbols of the republic to these mysterious, cryptic, perhaps even mythical legends of the past. the propaganda machine of the empire must be terrifyingly effective. Imagine the sheer generational divide between the people who saw with their own eyes the jedi using the force in insane ways during the clone wars, and people like Han, who grew up under the empire and say with a scoff. “i call it luck.”

…look, if I ever wrote an “alderaan survives” fix-it fic I’d absolutely have Bail Organa sit Han down and they would have. a Conversation.

#star wars #meta #doylist vs watsonian #i love han tho #low key half my grudge against disney trilogy is what they did to han and leia ngl

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rogue205 · 2 years

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A Very Controversial Opinion...

But I honestly do not get the complete and utter support for Obi-Wan while people trash others who have dared to challenge him and his opinions such as Qui-Gon and Anakin. Obi-Wan is not perfect and I don’t get why people are trying to pretend he is. He’s actually got serious flaws too.

Obi-Wan is a good character, yes, but he has his shortcomings too. Watching Episode I as an adult these days only made me notice that Obi-Wan is not nice to Anakin from the moment they met despite having no reason to be mean, even badmouthing him while he’s standing *right there* and only takes him on as a Padawan because Qui-Gon asked him to. Hell, I think the very first time he calls Anakin by his name and not “the boy” or “pathetic life form” is at the end of the movie. The Council had decided Anakin had the potential to be dangerous despite only being nine-years-old so Obi-Wan didn’t question, and just followed their word, even getting mad at Qui-Gon for not listening too at one point. He tries to rebuke his own MASTER! But Qui-Gon never treated him the way Obi-Wan treats Anakin.

I also don’t stick with the headcanon floating around that Qui-Gon “just threw Obi-Wan to the wolves” so he could train Anakin instead. Qui-Gon is no fool and its clear that Obi-Wan WAS ready for the trials. He killed a freaking Sith who was very strong(and a badass) not long after that meeting for god’s sake. Granted, it seems he had to use his anger to do so, but he did even though using anger like that is something he scolds Anakin for regularly. Qui-Gon was not “trying to ditch him” and the fact that Maul actually survived doesn’t matter. Obi-Wan still beat him.

I’ll argue that Obi-Wan had numerous chances to prevent Anakin’s Fall but he didn’t listen most of the time, preached the Code at him despite breaking it himself, and even broke Anakin’s trust FIRST. He is too much of a stickler for rules and didn’t try to understand Anakin’s issues which resulted from his background as a slave when he also had to leave his mother behind at only nine years old. Anakin also implies that worse than that happened but he got NO help from anyone, including Obi-Wan in dealing with it. It’s not even just Obi-Wan really, it can be argued that the entire Jedi Order let Anakin down, starting with NO ONE questioning Palpatine’s interest in him and stopping their meetings. It took 13 years of conditioning and manipulation for Palpatine to finally push Anakin over the edge, but before this happened, Anakin had gone to Obi-Wan, Padme and even YODA but was brushed off by ALL THREE. Yet Padme and Obi-Wan get the support. They both claim to love him but both either couldn’t see or refused to see that he was struggling. All they saw was the Hero and Face of the Republic army. (Question: has Obi-Wan ever told Anakin he loved him to his FACE before the Mustafar fight? Could’ve made a difference if not. Probably.)

A bit dramatic, but if you think about it, the Jedi were treating Anakin as much of a slave as he was on Tatooine. Without the bomb of course but one could make the argument that Qui-Gon took him from one form of slavery to another. I know we all love the Ani-Obi brotherhood but the fact is, Obi-Wan has let him down several times, and yes the opposite happened too, and the light side lost the war against the Sith long before Episode III. They lost as soon as Qui-Gon was killed by Maul. Obi-Wan is not necessarily guilty of THIS, he’s just ignorant to the shortcomings of the Order as a whole.

One of the biggest things that bothers me really is that in Episode III, Obi-Wan maims Anakin to win the fight, YES he did warn him, but he did this and then just left him there to suffer a horrible death by burning alive made even worse when he didn’t actually die. Obi-Wan makes excuses for this, and even in Episode IV, still doesn’t take responsibility. No wonder Vader is so pissed off especially if one takes into account the rumor that Palpatine had rigged Vader’s surgery to keep him in perpetual pain and therefore below Palpatine in power. Not that Vader was trying to get away but still.

In comparison to that last, in the Episode IV Death Star confrontation, Vader actually grants Obi-Wan a much swifter end with a single swing of his lightsaber. Vader is a Sith but of the two, he gave the more humane end and to someone who he saw as an enemy, not to mention that Obi-Wan actually used this to manipulate Luke against Vader because he only stopped fighting after he saw Luke watching. At least Luke calls him out on this in Episode VI after he finds out the truth about Vader. I can argue the possibility that Padme may have gotten through to Anakin on Mustafar but we won’t ever know because Obi-Wan essentially betrayed her trust too by secretly stowing away on her ship, which is what caused Vader to turn on her.

Excuse my rant, but this is something in the fandom that bugs the ever loving heck out of me. It isn’t anti-ANYONE(except Palpatine), but some have their flaws and bad decisions glossed over and are made to look like perfect saints while others are made to look like horrid horrid people for daring to not agree with Obi-Wan and his decisions/opinions. Anakin was attacked since the prequels were made and I don’t agree with most of what people say, but I don’t understand where the sudden Qui-Gon bashing came from. Even several posts made “to remember Padme” are just covers to bash Anakin instead.

Off topic now, but some of the bashing of Anakin is getting out of hand. I found one where someone created a photoshop of Owen’s (deserved) remark against Obi-Wan in “Kenobi” and warping it to him making it against Anakin about not saving Shmi and someone else in the comments declared that it “was deserved! lol!!” Um no. It wasn’t and if anyone was to blame for that aside from the Tuskan Raiders, it was technically Cliegg Lars for letting her go out alone. But I digress.

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ofcatnaps · 1 year

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she’s surprised that the other would describe herself as anything less than calm. as Queen, Amidala had been virtually unshakable - a trait that had gone beyond the façade of their many ruses & the personality of Queen, & had defined the very core of Padmé Naberrie herself. something cracking that resolve & getting under her skin was not to be ignored in the slightest. still, Sabé does little to react other than tap long, tanned fingers over her knee as she listens further. Anakin’s seeming devotion to the other is less surprising - Padmé had always inspired deep loyalty in all of her alliances & connections. Sabé herself had seen it in how the other had won over Mon Mothma & Bail Organa, & even how she had continued her service for Naboo here in the Senate while somehow balancing her connections back in Theed, as well as many other far flung places. no, a deep loyalty to the other would never surprise her, but that loyalty being held by a boy who had been all but nine years old & come from nothing... it was easy, how quick fixation could be construed as loyalty.

‘ perhaps I could reach out to Kenobi, ’ Sabé proposes after a long, silent moment. ‘ I’ve only just returned to the city, but he was present when we change faces for our ruse on Coruscant before. it won’t surprise him to think we’ve continued the tradition - especially not in the wake of an attempt that claimed Cordé. ’ she would also very much like an excuse to walk the city & re-orient herself properly, but that was hardly worth mentioning. if there was any justice in the world, she’d never have to tell Padmé the details of the disappointment & frustration she’d felt on Tatooine, & how returning her felt like starting over in a way that was manageable. seeing Kenobi would also be the closest she could come to paying her respects to Qui-Gon for the time being. he might have a memorial on Naboo, but if she was to resume her duties as the former Queen’s shadow, her capacity to travel back & forth was about to be limited to what she could manage in secret or at the side of her friend.

‘ my independence is mine to give up to you if I choose, ’ Sabé points out, finally shifting her legs a bit & pressing them down into the floor as she stretches. ‘ besides, I managed to find many, many moments for my own independence in your service, ’ the former handmaiden reminds her with a wink. ‘ no, I want to meet with Kenobi, and I belong at your side. there’s whispers of other things happening out there in the galaxy, and something is coming. Qui Gon would have said my being here is the will of the Force. I’m inclined to agree. ’ he had been with them for such a short time but the Jedi had left quite the impression on her. she found herself reaching for his serenity often - increasingly so, of late. to bring him up like this felt fitting. perhaps if he had survived, many, many things would be different. ‘ besides, a Jedi is hardly going to know how to conceal a dagger inside of an intricate Alderaanian braid, or that the same components used for blasting powder can be concealed in a makeup compact. I would argue that makes me more useful to you, ’ she winks.

‘ if it’s nothing more than childish dreams, Obi-Wan will know that distinction better than anyone, ’ Sabé offers after a long moment, finally pulling her legs up & getting to her feet in a fluid motion. ‘ conversations veiled in hypotheticals can be powerful. I think it’s best to get ahead of these concerns rather than letting them fester - especially when we have the Separatists, and other threats looming imminently. ’ a war with clones versus droids felt unusual even to her with all the things she had seen but she had heard whispers of what had happened in the time she’d been away from Padmé’s side. it seemed like anything could happen. ‘ why don’t you stay here tonight? some sleep would do you good, and tomorrow I’ll seek out a way to manage a chance encounter somewhere where Skywalker need not overhear. we’ll get to the bottom of this. ’

there had been a reason that the person Padmé needed in these stressful moments was her longest, dearest friend. it was also times such as this that she missed the close companionship that she and her troupe of handmaidens had shared in the palace and politics of her home planet. even then Tsabin had been her closest confidante, but she had been surrounded by a group of young women who had understood and loved her. she had been able to speak to them as her friends as well as her handmaidens, and it was that closeness that she missed when times were troubling. despite Sabé's thoughts of her unshakability, the senator was frightened at what all of this strangeness might entail. while her fingers pressed against the glass window that looked out over the place they called home, she pondered the words that Anakin had spoken. she herself had been overwhelmed by feelings of love and want at times, had felt herself in danger of allowing those same wants to explode out of her and ruin the world if she allowed them, but she had never dared defy the vows she'd made for those feelings. Padmé's sense of duty remained firm no matter what, and she would not allow Anakin's foolish childhood infatuation to have him thrown out of the Jedi and her to lose the respect she'd worked so hard for in the galactic senate.

the suggestion that Sabé be the one to approach Obi-wan was enough to pull a deep sigh of relief from the senator and she glanced back over her shoulder at the other woman, affection and appreciation warming her expression as she nodded her thanks. ❝ i'm sure he'd be glad to see you again too, our roles were so entangled back on Naboo, you and he had as much time in conversation as he and i. ❞ a sad smile tugged at the corners of her lips and she turned fully, now pressing her back against the cool glass and enjoying the sensation on her skin, still heated with her fluster. ❝ if the Jedi council has seen fit to raise him to the title of Master, i'm sure that he will be able to offer some perspective on Anakin that we can't quite get a handle on. you're right that he is the best person to tell whether this is just a childish flight of fancy gone too far and that just needs a firm nip in the bud or if it needs more dire consequences for the possibility of overthrowing one's vows so completely. ❞ worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, Padmé crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned, thinking deeply. ❝ in case it wasn't clear, Sabé, i would be more than honoured to have you at my side again. i've missed you terribly, and i always feel better knowing that you're close by. we really do belong together, you and i. whether it's the Force that wills it or chance, i'm glad you're here, and not just because of your usefulness. the fact that you're my favourite person in the galaxy is not the least of my reasons. ❞ warmth filled her tone, affection clear in Padmé's voice as she regarded her friend and allowed the knowledge of her returned presence to really sink in. she had never felt safer or more comforted than when her shadow was in step with her, not even with a Jedi posted at her door. no guard would ever replace the Queen's Shadow.

❝ i think i'd appreciate the place to stay for the night, ❞ she agreed finally. her apartment was safe enough, and her guard posts weren't going to allow her to be assassinated overnight (well, she hoped, at the very least) but there was something to be said for sharing a space with the other woman and how they could duck in and out of each other's personas at the blink of an eye. ❝ this is why i came to you, you know. you've managed to snap me out of the fluster and back into reason. i'm so used to matters of politics lately that the intimacy of his proposal threw me. we have to look at this like any sort of problem like the many we faced, and one of those ways is by letting you do what you do best, i'm sure. ❞

#affcgato #in character ➳ padmé

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tunglo · 2 years

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Jedi Apprentice: Deceptions - Jude Watson

Quotes:

There had been a time when he hadn't enjoyed swimming with Bant that much. He had felt clumsy in the water next to her. He hadn't liked that she was better at something. But his Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, had taught him that to value a friend's better ability was to be a true friend. Once Obi-Wan realized that, he had looked forward to their swims as much as Bant.

It is not all I need! Obi-Wan wanted to cry. He needed his Master's presence.

Qui-Gon sensed his dismay. "Tahl and I are very close to solving the problems here. The lives of Jedi pilots depend on us. I will try to make it, Obi-Wan. Now I must go."

Qui-Gon sounded rushed. Obi-Wan said good-bye and ended the communication. He looked out at the spires of Coruscant, then above to the upper atmosphere where Centax 2 was shrouded in clouds. Tahl had gone there alone to solve the base's problems. She had made it clear that she did not welcome Qui-Gon's interference.

Why had Qui-Gon made the decision to support Tahl instead of his Padawan? Tahl had always been more important, Obi-Wan thought bitterly. On Melida/Daan, she had been Qui-Gon's first priority. He had been anxious to get her off-planet and out of danger, even at the cost of leaving his Padawan behind. Tahl's evacuation had been more important than a civil war and a righteous cause.

He rested his hot forehead against the cool pane. He knew his thoughts were petty. He knew that his guilt about Bruck was tearing him up inside.

It puzzled and worried Obi-Wan how much time his Padawan spent alone.

Anakin had told him that he'd had good friends on Tatooine, especially a human boy named Kitster. He'd been at the Temple for three years now, but he hadn't made one close friend, although he was well liked and certainly got along with the other kids.

Obi-Wan had tried to talk to him about it, but the boy would just shut down. His eyes would turn opaque and the corners of his mouth would straighten into a thin line. He would seem very far away. Obi-Wan did not know how to reach him at such times, but they were infrequent and passed as quickly as a rain shower.

When they'd met, Anakin had been a warm-hearted nine-year-old boy with an open nature. He was twelve and a half now, and the years had changed him. He had grown to be a boy who hid his heart.

Obi-Wan had tried to show Anakin that friends he would make at the Temple would be his for life. Obi-Wan's friends from his classes- Garen, Reeft, and Bant--were now roaming the galaxy. He didn't see them very often. But that deep tie was still there. He wanted the same for Anakin.

"They don't want me," Anakin said flatly. He walked over and slung the legs of the protocol droid under one arm. "I'm not like them."

Obi-Wan couldn't argue. Anakin was unique. There was no question about that. He was an exceptional student, much more in tune with the Force than others his age. He had come late to the Temple. It wasn't that the other students disliked him, they just didn't know what to make of him.

"Why do they hate you?"

"Old history," Obi-Wan said. "Missions can leave grievances behind. I do not think it will affect the present."

Anakin nodded, but Obi-Wan could tell he was not satisfied; he believed that old grievances would affect this mission. The trouble was, so did Obi-Wan. It was not the first time that Obi-Wan found it inconvenient to have such an astute Padawan.

As soon as she was gone, Anakin turned to Obi-Wan. "Who is Xanatos?"

The question seemed to startle Obi-Wan. But Anakin had sensed something when Andra had mentioned the name. He had felt something from Obi-Wan, something he wanted to know more about.

"Not now," Obi-Wan said.

"Shortly?" Anakin asked, discouraged. "I keep hearing that word. Why won't you tell me now? Is there some reason I can't know?" Again, he felt frustrated. It was hard to penetrate Obi-Wan's reserve.

Obi-Wan studied him for a moment. "No," he said finally. "There is no reason you can't know. Xanatos was a former apprentice of Qui-Gon's. He turned to the dark side. He used the Force to build his own power. He was the head of the Offworld Mining Corporation and laid waste to whole worlds. Life meant nothing to him."

"Is he still alive?" Anakin asked.

"He died on Telos," Obi-Wan answered. "He preferred to take his own life rather than surrender to Qui-Gon." He studied Anakin for a moment. "Now let's clean up and go out for the evening meal."

Anakin went into his quarters. He felt a buzzing in his head, as if his thoughts were so numerous and confused that they could not register.

He could not take in what Obi-Wan had told him. He could not imagine that such a thing could happen. How could a Jedi turn to the dark side? How could a Padawan betray his Master? If he hadn't heard the story from Obi-Wan, he would have refused to believe it.

At last Obi-Wan had shared something real with him. There were times, especially early on, when Anakin questioned Obi-Wan's motive in taking him on as Padawan. He knew Obi-Wan had done it because it was Qui-Gon's wish. Was he a burden to Obi-Wan? Just a promise made to a dying friend? More than anything, Anakin longed to have the kind of bond with Obi-Wan that his Master had had with Qui-Gon. There were times when that closeness seemed very far away.

Anakin was soon engrossed in his food, which was fresh and delicious. Food meant less to Obi-Wan as he grew older. He had come to realize what a good Master Qui-Gon had been, in small ways as well as large ones. Qui-Gon had treated him as a Jedi, but never forgot he was a growing boy. If he hadn't had Qui-Gon's example, Obi-Wan wondered if he'd be as sensitive to Anakin's needs as he tried to be.

"Can you tell me you were not involved?" Vox sneered. He waved a hand. "Never mind. My son and I know firsthand how the Jedi order twists the truth--"

"We don't!" Anakin burst out. "Jedi don't lie."

Vox gave Anakin a contemptuous glance. "What do you know, boy? Has your Master told you how he killed another Jedi student and then lied about it? Ah, I thought not."

"That's not true," Anakin shot back.

Anakin gave him a sidelong look. "If I am so perceptive, why don't you trust me?"

Surprised at the blunt question, Obi-Wan sat opposite from Anakin. Memory flooded back. Qui-Gon had kept things from him, too. Now Obi-Wan understood his Master's caution. But he also remembered how Qui-Gon's decision to share his past had deepened their connection. It was what he wanted for himself and Anakin. It was time to tell his Padawan about Bruck.

He took his time, explaining the Temple sabotage, his history with Bruck, and the agony of seeing a boy he'd known die. He explained the hearing but did not tell Anakin of the guilt he felt. Anakin did not have to know every detail.

Anakin shook his head in disbelief when Obi-Wan had finished. "How could they suspect you?"

Obi-Wan knew his Padawan was right. He also knew that Anakin wanted to be a part of that fight. His need to protect Anakin and the knowledge of Anakin's extraordinary skills as a pilot battled inside him. Anakin kept his gaze on Obi-Wan. There was no pleading in it. It was the steady gaze of a Jedi, not a boy.

Anakin could tell by Garen's terse wording that the ship was in deep trouble. He could see it: The ship was listing to one side, and great plumes of smoke were rising from the engines. The BioCruiser was a death trap. The last thing Anakin wanted to do was stay out here while his Master was marooned on a failing vessel. He wanted to be by his Master's side.

"I'll be right behind you," Anakin said. He did not want to leave the loading platform just yet. His mind still teemed with questions and lessons. He longed to ask Obi-Wan, but he didn't think he would. Whatever was in Obi-Wan's past was a wound that went deep. He understood that. He had his own wounds. Maybe someday he would stand as a man, just like Obi-Wan, and feel the burden lift.

He thought again of Kad, cradling his father as he died, tears falling from his eyes. There were levels to compassion he still did not understand. How did a being go about transforming anger into mercy?

Frustration bit inside him. Obi-Wan tried to understand him. He loved his Master for that. But no one could understand. Not his fellow students at the Temple, not his teachers, not even Yoda, who seemed to understand so much. Would he always feel apart from the others because of his background? And would that feeling of separation mean that he would never become as great a Knight as QuiGon or Obi-Wan? It was his greatest fear.

Anakin turned back toward the shelter of the spaceport, toward friends, warmth, light, and his Master. The future would come, he told himself.

At that moment, all he felt was grateful that he had Obi-Wan to show him the way.

-----------

Thoughts:

Obi-Wan seems so much younger than Anakin at 13. There's this one line - 'Anakin pitched his voice high. He had an ability to seem younger than he was' - that kind of sums it up for me. Anakin knows exactly what he's doing, how to portray the front he wants, etc. Obi-Wan recognises this to some extent, eg. seeking out Anakin's opinions and perceptions of people as 'more astute' than his own. ('Sometimes, Anakin reminded Obi-Wan of Qui-Gon. He had the same mix of logic and emotion that Obi-Wan struggled so hard to balance.')

Which leads on to the other thing that jumps out at me: Obi-Wan's failure to establish any real boundaries with Anakin. Anakin is very put out that Obi-Wan won't tell him every detail of his past, like he has a total right to know whatever he wants. ('Why didn't Obi-Wan trust him enough to tell him the truth?') Anakin kind of hero worships Obi-Wan (how could a Padawan turn against his Master? how could they suspect you?) but seems to lack any sense of thinking he should obey Obi-Wan because he's his teacher / an adult.

And, again with the lack of discipline and boundaries: 'Obi-Wan knew that Anakin had found these things [tools / droid parts, etc] by sneaking out of the Temple and dealing in the thriving black market of Coruscant. He preferred to turn a blind eye.'

#star wars #jude watson #obikin

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fanfic-phoenix · 1 year

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Drinking on Coruscant

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 3663

Read on AO3

Read the whole series on Tumblr

Obi-Wan is fine. Mace is dubious. Qui-Gon is dead.

It’s hard, and Mace definitely isn’t qualified, but he is checking in on Obi-Wan.

Despite all available evidence to the contrary, Obi-Wan Kenobi would like to argue that he was, at this particular moment, completely fine.

Absolutely fine.

Brilliant, actually. Perfect. Perfectly perfect.

And also drunk. Perfectly drunk.

So kriffing drunk.

He huffed at himself. He was more than drunk. He was a knight. A Jedi Knight. The thing he’d wanted to be since he was three years old and first learned what a Jedi Knight was.

And he had his nice jeans on.

He was a drunk Jedi Knight in good jeans.

That, he decided, chewing contemplatively on his straw, is not a bad thing to be.

Maybe he was just a little tired, but that was fine too, because he had a Padawan now and he was fairly sure exhaustion just came with the territory. Anakin Skywalker, Hero of Naboo, former slave and current Chosen One.

Alleged Chosen One, anyway.

A wonderful mechanic for certain, a terrifying pilot, and a reluctant reader, even in Huttese. Obi-Wan hadn’t even started teaching him to swim, yet, more focussed on getting him to wash without panicking about the waste of water.

It was a work-in-progress.

He was a drunk Jedi Knight in good jeans with an adorable, work-in-progress Padawan.

A very adorable Padawan, actually. Anakin’s first padawan-cut had gone slightly awry and Obi-Wan was nervous of trying again. In the meantime, his growing hair had gone soft and feathery - like a duckling, Obi-Wan thought but wouldn’t say - and Anakin, who’d spent nine years full of sand, would spend a long time running his fingers through it, wide-eyed and silent.

Obi-Wan had never got on particularly well with children before. He largely found them confusing, overly enthusiastic and easily upset. Given his existing problems with the general populace, he most often opted to ignore them.

Anakin was the exception. Anakin was his Padawan, and that made him acceptable.

Today, Anakin the Acceptable was spending the night with Quinlan and Aayla because Quinlan hadn’t wanted to come out with him.

For reasons.

So Obi-Wan was a drunk Jedi Knight in good jeans with an adorable, work-in-progress Padawan, who may or may not be in a fight with his boyfriend.

And also his Master was dead.

That was the biggy.

But even though Qui-Gon was dead (very dead, in fact, with a lightsaber in his stomach that haunted his nightmares), and even though he was half-convinced Anakin wished it was him who’d died that day, and even though he wasn’t always one-hundred-per-cent convinced that it wouldn’t have been better off that way, he was coping.

It was easy to tell he was coping because he had a rainbow-coloured drink and a purple curly straw. Those were fun things. Fun things for coping people. People who were coping.

He was a drunk Jedi Knight in good jeans with an adorable, work-in-progress Padawan, a dead Master, a rainbow drink, a curly straw, and a boyfriend who didn’t want to go out with him.

And he was fine.

***

Knight Kenobi was absolutely not fine.

Mace had been meaning to check up on him for a while. Losing a Master was always hard. Being knighted immediately after was worse.

Taking a Padawan on top of all that was essentially unprecedented, never mind a Padawan so old, and Mace didn’t consider it particularly paranoid to suppose Kenobi might burn himself out with it all. Jinn had mentioned more than once that the boy was allergic to taking a break - Mace had no desire to meet the consequences.

Council business, however, was all-consuming at a good time and, given the re-emergence of the Sith after a thousand years of peace (a Sith dispatched by Kenobi, because of course it was, the hypercompetent, danger-magnet bastard that he was), it was not a good time. Before he knew it, days had turned to weeks, weeks to months, and he still hadn’t checked on Kenobi.

Others had, of course. Kenobi’s friends, who were likely more welcome and more helpful than Mace.

Even so, he wanted to see him with his own eyes.

For Jinn’s sake, if no one else’s.

He wasn’t sure, exactly, why he’d picked tonight. There was nothing special about it, no difficult anniversary looming on the horizon, no bad news creeping from the shadows. An ordinary night by all accounts.

(He ignored, determinedly, that for the moment there was no such thing as an ordinary night. Every night was an anniversary. Six months ago today, Jinn had a blazing row with Master Yoda in front of the whole Council. Seven years ago next week, Jinn had burst into Mace’s rooms to complain that Kenobi would one day be a better man - a better Jedi - than Jinn would ever be, but that the boy would never believe it. All nights could be marked like this.)

He felt the Force as clearly as if it was tugging on his elbows, urging him forwards towards Kenobi’s rooms.

Kenobi’s empty rooms, as it turned out.

With narrowed eyes he’d pivoted, making his way instead to the rooms of one Quinlan Vos. It went against his personal policy of not acknowledging Vos and Kenobi’s… active relationship outside of Jinn’s vent sessions (and what a sting, to realise such a thing no longer existed), despite nearly the whole Temple knowing by now, but the Force had escalated from shoving elbows to prodding at his tender temples, and he was loathe to leave it dissatisfied.

Vos opened the door immediately, before he had time to take his hand from the doorbell. Something prickled on the back of Mace’s neck.

“Is Obi-Wan alright?” Vos’ voice was pitched low, hardly audible over the giggles of two Padawans from somewhere within, but it did little to hide his anxieties.

“Why do you ask?”

“Why else would you be here?” It took a moment, but Vos relented. “He’s not here. He’s gone out. I haven’t heard from him since he left.”

Mace hadn’t asked why Kenobi was out and Vos was not. He assumed it was more than a matter of babysitting, given that Bant Eerin was currently on leave, but quickly surmised that it was none of his business. Instead, he laid out his mission. “I want to check on him. Do you know where he’ll be?”

“I’ll send you the address,” Vos said, already reaching for his comm.

And that, all told, was why he was here, standing in a smoky bar deep in the lower levels. A bar far enough from the Temple that, if he tried, a Jedi could go unnoticed - even one so recently lauded as one of the heroes of the Battle of Naboo.

Music thrummed, the bass thick enough to choke on, thick enough that if it were louder, it’d thrum right through his bones. Thankfully the Force - or DJ - had chosen mercy, and it was just low enough to talk over.

Just.

Overall, it was the sort of place that Mace could well imagine Kenobi enjoying. The boy might have carefully cultivated his reputation as the perfect Jedi, nurtured the idea that he was polished and refined and more than slightly vain, might have weeded out any lingering hints of his Stewjoni lilt and buried it beneath the poshest, most senate-friendly of Coruscanti accents, might have washed away memories of his youngling escapades with more and more reports of his exemplary conduct and ridiculously high success rates, but Mace had been the confidante of Qui-Gon Jinn.

Mace knew better than to fall for that.

He’d heard all about Kenobi’s habit of blasting ear-rattling playlists when he studied, his ill-fated experiments with black nail polishes, his far more successful forays into the wide world of eyeliner. He’d hidden a smile behind his glass as Jinn recounted catching his Padawan halfway out his bedroom window, wafting away the smoke of a smuggled cigarra.

And, of course, he sat politely through Jinn’s countless laments on the subject of Kenobi’s love life - namely that he had one, and that Jinn was occasionally exposed to it. His irrepressible flirting, which was bad enough with allies but far worse when directed at people trying to kill him. His dreadful - though in Mace’s opinion, slightly amusing and vaguely impressive - habit of sleeping with strangers and finding out a few days later that they were a dignitary he and Jinn were supposed to be negotiating with.

Naturally, Jinn had plenty to say on the subject of Kenobi and Vos. The horrors of finding them in the living room together. The distress of their protracted farewells. The eventual decision to loosen Kenobi’s curfew the nights before they went off-world, just to get the pair out of earshot. (Mace hadn’t mentioned his firm belief that that had been their aim the whole time.) And, finally, his fervent belief that no one - least of all Quinlan Vos, renowned and unrepentant mischief-maker - was good enough for Obi-Wan Kenobi, beloved Padawan and (as Jinn frequently insisted) future member of the Jedi High Council.

How strange, given all that, that he couldn’t find Kenobi anywhere.

He looked again. Kenobi wasn’t at the bar, wasn’t hovering near the speakers, wasn’t part of the tangle of bodies on the dance floor, wasn’t…

Mace blinked. Looked again.

Kenobi wasn’t at the bar, nor the speakers, nor dancing, nor…

Ah.

He wondered, idly, if the mind trick was accidental or not. Either way, it was powerful. More than powerful. Even aware of it, he could feel the gentle press of it against his shields, the quiet suggestion that he ignore the sticky table at the back of the room.

Really, it asked, what could be there that’s more interesting than your drink? Why would you sit all the way over there, so far from the bar?

Still, now he knew it was there, he looked past it with ease.

There, alone, was Kenobi, face down on the table beside a half-finished, half-melted, multi-coloured monstrosity of a cocktail, shoulders shaking with silent tears.

Mace sighed. He wasn’t quite as surprised as he felt he should be.

Kenobi didn’t look up as he approached, not even when Mace slipped into the chair next to his. It was a far cry from his usual observant self, but Mace was almost relieved when he compared it to the jumpy, hyper-vigilant young man who’d returned from Naboo.

“Knight Kenobi.” He winced at himself and quickly corrected, “Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan looked up with wide, teary eyes. He sniffed, scrubbing his cheek against his shoulder, smudging eyeliner so dramatically he went from fashionable to battered. “Master Windu?”

“Yes.”

“You came to check on me?”

There was no point in denying it. “I did.”

Obi-Wan’s face crumpled and he sniffed again, biting so hard on the inside of his cheek that Mace could see the divot. It did nothing to stop his tears welling and he surrendered quickly, strangling a sob and flinging himself into Mace, who barely had the time to open his arms before all the weight of a twenty-five-year-old man crashed against his chest.

Oh dear, he thought, rubbing a circle on Obi-Wan’s back and shushing mindlessly, like the boy was a crèchling again. Of all the reactions he’d expected, this hadn’t been one of them.

“Alright,” he said, more than a little awkward. “It’s not that bad.”

Pulling back, Obi-Wan gave him an outraged look, though it was perhaps slightly diminished as Obi-Wan went slightly cross-eyed, glaring at a man so close to him.

“You came to rescue me,” he said sternly, which was perhaps pushing it slightly. Mace didn’t exactly have time to disagree before Obi-Wan, with the same stubbornness, placed a firm kiss squarely on his cheek. “This is why you were Qui-Gon’s favourite.”

Slightly stunned, he watched him settle back into his seat, all tears forgotten.

“Master Yoda’s my favourite,” Obi-Wan went on, though Mace still wasn’t sure what category of favourite they were discussing, before wrinkling his nose. “That was rude. Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” he said. “He’s my favourite, too.”

That was a lie. If Mace had a favourite - which he didn’t, but if he did - it would be his Padawan. Still, it made Obi-Wan smile and nod approvingly.

“He’s just… the best.”

Mace laughed, caught off-guard, but Obi-Wan was thankfully unoffended. “I happen to know he’s very fond of you, too.”

This was true, and well-known amongst the Council. Coruscant’s sky was blue, Master Yoda had a soft spot for his great-grandpadawan. It was simply a fact of life.

The boy’s face lit up like a life-day tree. “Really? He said he was sorry to lose me, once, but then he said I have Qui-Gon’s defiance, and I don’t know if that’s good or not.”

Mace didn’t know what Yoda thought of it, but he knew what he thought. “It is.”

“Oh.” Obi-Wan seemed surprised, just for a moment, before he shrugged. “Good.”

They lapsed into silence. Obi-Wan looked contemplatively at his increasingly melted drink.

Mace, meanwhile, tried to decide the better course of action. Take Obi-Wan home and put him to bed, or talk to him about why he was crying and then take him home.

“How’d you even find me?” Obi-Wan asked suddenly, evidently deciding against drinking more.

“Knight Vos told me where you’d be.”

“Oh.”

Obi-Wan’s bottom lip wobbled dangerously. Mace cursed everything, including Jinn, who’d never thought to warn him that his Padawan was a weepy drunk.

(Years from this moment, Mace would learn that Obi-Wan was not, actually, a teary drunk. He was simply a drunk who felt whatever he was already feeling very strongly.)

“Are you alright?”

“I think we’re fighting.”

“You think?”

“He says we’re not,” Obi-Wan sighed, slumping back in his chair until he was decently slouched, “but it feels like we are. Normally we spar until it’s better, but he won’t-” Obi-Wan’s breath caught. “He won’t even spar with me!”

Why? Why me? For this? The Force, he decided, had a peculiar sense of humour.

“Why do you think you’re fighting?”

“We’re- I-” Obi-Wan groaned, digging his palms into his eyes. “He wants to talk about Naboo.”

Mace… was struggling to see the problem here.

“I don’t want to talk to Quin about Naboo. I’ve already told him the facts.” Obi-Wan said the word facts like it ought to be capitalised, weighted. Like the facts were something sacred. “He wants me to talk about the feelings. ”

“It’s important to talk about these things,” he hedged.

“I do,” Obi-Wan groaned, dropping his hands to give Mace a plaintive look. “With the mind healer.”

That was… surprisingly healthy for a Padawan of Qui-Gon Jinn. Mace found himself oddly proud of his old friend and the knight before him.

“I know Quin thinks it’ll help to talk to him but it hurts - it hurts, Master - and I don’t… I just want to feel normal with him. I mean, what am I supposed to say? Master’s dead, my Padawan kriffing hates me half the time, and there’s nothing to do but keep going - what’s Quin meant to do with that? Nothing he can do.”

Oh, but Mace really wasn’t qualified for this. He kept his face carefully neutral: “Have you told him that?”

“I don’t…” He sighed again. “I don’t know how to say it… nicely. I don’t want to make it sound… I don’t want to hurt him, make him think I don’t trust him, because I do. I do trust him, but-” He broke off with an aggravated noise, hand moving to tug on a now-absent braid. His fingers grasped the empty air and fell, instead, to the collar of his shit.

“Talk to him,” Mace said. It seemed like decent advice. “Nine years can survive a clumsy phrase.”

It took a long, long moment of Obi-Wan twitching at his t-shirt, but Obi-Wan eventually smiled down at the table.

“You give better advice than my Master,” he said.

“I should think so,” Mace sniffed, perhaps playing up his reaction slightly, if only to avoid another bout of tears. “The only sound advice Jinn ever gave was on plant care.”

“Not so,” Obi-Wan said. The phrase hung awkwardly in the air for a moment, as if he was waiting for a reply, before he barrelled on. “He told me ‘never get so drunk you can’t cheat at sabacc’, and it’s the best I ever got.”

“You think you could cheat at sabacc right now?”

“No, but I could filter enough toxins that I could cheat pretty quickly.”

“Impressive.”

“Well-practised,” he confessed. “I cheat my way out of hangovers.”

“That’s not how that works,” Mace said. In truth, he had no idea. He just wanted Obi-Wan to elaborate.

Obi-Wan hummed, placed his chin in his hand, and gave Mace a look surprisingly similar to a kindly old man observing a naive child. “Was I hungover the morning after my nineteenth?”

“Until you asked me that, I was under the impression you spent the night meditating on the nature of attachment, as you said when you reserved the meditation room.”

Obi-Wan smiled, projecting a definite feel of told you so!

“May I ask what you actually did?”

“Meditated on attachment,” he said innocently. “From a certain point of view, at least.”

“And from another?”

“Quin took me on a night out.”

“Then why-? Ah. I see.” On Obi-Wan’s nineteenth, Quinlan Vos had been undercover in one of Coruscant’s numerous smuggling gangs, supposedly out of contact. “I suppose the sudden mysterious boost to his cover’s credibility was his apparent seduction of a Jedi Padawan.”

He tapped his nose, a little clumsily, and Mace smiled. He’d spent comparatively little time with the young man compared to his Master, but it was gratifying to know that Qui-Gon’s evaluation of his humour was accurate.

“How did you leave the Temple unseen?”

“Windows. Booked the room with the biggest ones.”

“Impressive,” Mace admitted. “Most impressive.”

“Master would’ve liked it,” he said, “but I didn’t tell. I thought he wouldn’t want to know about Quin being the inspiration.”

“Likely not.” Mace could imagine the rant. “Most decidedly not.”

“Quin baited him,” Obi-Wan looked hopelessly fond. “Master fell for it every time. Half the time I think he realised but wanted a reason to complain.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I miss him complaining.” He let out a small, wet, incredulous laugh. “I never thought I would.”

There were many responses Mace could give.

There is no death, perhaps, or death, yet the Force. Jinn had mentioned once that, though Obi-Wan showed a marked preference for the standard edition, he was fond of both versions of the code and liked to compare the potential meanings.

He wouldn’t want you to be sad could work, too. Though more secular, it was true enough that Jinn would’ve hated to cause his Padawan pain.

“I miss him too,” he heard himself say.

Obi-Wan startled, stared at him, but didn’t say a word. Instead, he radiated an encouraging sort of warmth. Gentle, quiet - not imposing, not insistent, but there. Like a ray of sunlight slipping through a forest’s dark green canopy. A light waiting patiently to be followed.

“He was a stubborn son of a bantha,” Mace said, knowing damn well that was an understatement. “Completely incapable of admitting he was wrong. Convinced of his own rightness. Arrogant, smug, and reckless. And a dear, dear friend.”

“He used to plan his arguments in advance,” Obi-Wan told him, grinning. “He practised some of them on me.”

“Of course he did. Of course he did.” Mace rolled his eyes and appreciated Obi-Wan’s sudden, determined interest in an off-white wall. “Nerf herder.”

Laughing, Obi-Wan kept his eyes averted. Mace still appreciated it.

He appreciated it even more as Obi-Wan gave him the silence to collect himself.

“There is no death,” Obi-Wan said at last.

“There is the Force.”

Another moment to rebalance himself, before Mace let out a breath. “Come along, Youngling. The Master of the Order cried - that means it’s bedtime.”

“Right. Hometime.” Obi-Wan looked for a moment like he might resist, flicking his curly straw, but decided against it. “Want to try it?”

Mace considered it. Once, it might have been attractively rainbow coloured, but by this point it was a muddy-brown mush.

He threw it back in one rather than taste it. Obi-Wan whooped, clapping furiously as Mace coughed.

“That’s disgusting, Kenobi,” he said, wishing he had water to wash the taste away. “By the Force.”

Obi-Wan cackled, throwing his head back. “Isn’t it?”

“Why do you drink that? It’s horrible.”

“Highest alcohol content on the menu.” He stood and, forgetting himself, clapped Mace on the shoulder. “I can forgive a lot for that much spatchka, Master Windu.”

The snort that escaped him could only be called undignified, but Mace let it go. He gave Obi-Wan’s hand a pat. “Get moving. Time for all good Jedi to be sobering up.”

Dutiful as ever, Obi-Wan spent most of the taxi-ride home with his eyes shut, working silently on filtering. He’d gone from noticeably drunk to just past tipsy by the time Mace dropped him in his bed to sleep the rest off.

Obi-Wan hummed, immediately curling himself into a ball, face planting his pillow. “G’night, Master.”

He hesitated at the doorway. Somehow, instinctively, he knew that Obi-Wan hadn’t been talking to him.

“Goodnight, Knight Kenobi,” he answered anyway. The man was already asleep. Knowing that, he allowed himself to laugh. “I’ll tell this story the day you make Master.”

(Many years later, a council of Jedi will take a night off from the war to celebrate the ascension of their newest member and find refuge in a smoky bar deep in the lower levels, far enough from the Temple that a Jedi can go unnoticed, even one so recently titled Negotiator. There, their newest Master will bury his red face in his hands, laughing along with the others as Master Windu, deep in his cups, recounts venturing out in the middle of the night to bring a wayward knight home and receiving a single kiss as prize.)

#Phoenix_Rose #star wars #obi wan kenobi #mace windu #quinlan vos #obi wan/quinlan #obivos #tw: alcohol #tw: drunk #canonical character death #(meaning Qui-Gon's off-screen death)#angst #comfort

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apollo41writes · 2 years

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Goodnight prompt 51/∞

Fandom: Star Wars Prequels Ship: Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi AUs/Tropes: Modern AU, Presumed dead Single dad Qui-Gon, Babysitter Obi-Wan Prompt: After a terrible airplane incident, everyone thinks Qui-Gon is dead. Obi-Wan has been Qui-Gon's live in nanny since Anakin was 2 months old and he really can't let the poor nine years old boy end up alone with stranger waiting to maybe be adopted. And he's basically already like an honorary father to him. He's sure Qui-Gon would have appreciated him taking care of his kid.

Extra details: Okay so imagine Qui-Gon as a single parent and having a meltdown 2 month into actually being a father. And Obi-Wan is like a college kid in need of a place to live and some money to pay the very expensive books and stuff.

Which is how Obi-Wan ends up as Qui-Gon's live-in-nanny. He's pretty good with kids, and it's not like taking care of Anakin while Qui-Gon is at works is so bad.

He can even bring Anakin to his lesson sometimes, because his professor don't seem to mind, not even when Anakin starts having one of his meltdowns and won't calm unless Obi-Wan starts to pace around the classroom.

And Obi-Wan himself doesn't mind that at first other students think that Anakin is his son because of Anakin's blond hair. Anakin is such a beautiful and smart kid! It's very flattering that anyone thinks he could give birth to someone so precious and adorable.

And Obi-Wan kind of minds even less that someone starts a rumor that Qui-Gon is his sugar daddy after he drives them home because it started to rain and Obi-Wan walked to the campus that morning. He would love being in a relationship with someone like Qui-Gon.

After he graduates Obi-Wan thinks he should probably move one. But it's kind of nice not having to pay rent. And Qui-Gon still kind of need his help when Anakin gets back from pre-school. So he finds a part-time job somewhere in the middle between where Qui-Gon lives and Anakin's pre-school, so he's the one taking Anakin home and stuff.

Nothing really changes. Sure, it feels more and more like they are a family and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are a couple. Hell, sometimes Qui-Gon can't go to teacher-parents conferences so Obi-Wan goes instead and he has to explain multiple times that he's not Qui-Gon boyfriend/husbands/whatever...

Of course Anakin is a menace and still calls Obi-Wan his dad or something (no matter how many times Obi-Wan repeats that he's not; after all, Qui-Gon just shrugs it off and pets Anakin on his head when he does that, so at least it doesn't seem to bother Qui-Gon), so it's even more confusing with people that don't know about their living situation.

Then the accident happens and both Anakin and Obi-Wan are heartbroken. And Obi-Wan promises himself that he would do anything to make sure that Anakin had as much a normal life as he can grant him.

So, about what actually happens to Qui-Gon. Maybe he was heavily injuries and not easily identifiable because of it. He also maybe was in a coma for a long time and when he woke up he lost his memory or something.

But basically I like the idea of him coming back maybe two or three years later, and finding that Obi-Wan actually adopted Anakin and they still live in Qui-Gon house.

And when he meets them once again, all of the pining that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have been trying to push off and deny all of a sudden explode and neither of them are sure of what to do.

Like, maybe things are super awkward, or Obi-Wan is angry and doesn't really know why, maybe he tried to move on and find someone else but failed... Don't know, but I think that instead of pushing them together, those two actually kind of fall apart at first. Like, Obi-Wan all of a sudden deciding that maybe he should move out.

Then maybe something bad almost happens to Anakin and they finally get their head out of their butt and get together.

#goodnight prompts #quiobi #fic prompt #daily prompt #prompt #star wars #anakin skywalker #qui-gon jinn #obi-wan kenobi #modern au #temporary dead character #but not really dead #baby sitter obi-wan #feel free to use this prompt however you want #feel free to change whatever detail as well

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sleepymarmot · 2 years

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The Phantom Menace rewatch (liveblog + notes)

Unlike the OT, I’m rewatching the prequel trilogy fully and in order. Let’s see if I regret my decision...

Liveblog:

Wow, this opening crawl is extremely hard to read.

Bear with me as I try to understand the plot in real time. Alright, so Palpatine 1) Orchestrates the blockade as Sidious 2) Sends the Jedi to break the blockade as the Chancellor 3) Pretends he didn’t expect the Jedi, and orders to escalate and invade Naboo, and kill the Jedi Or is the chancellor they’re referring to someone else? Is this a ploy to assassinate these two Jedi specifically for some reason?

Do they have super-speed for this scene only?

The designs are also ugly but in a different way from the OT

“The negotiations were short” lmao

Oh alright, Palpatine is a Senator, and the Chancellor is a different guy. But which one is higher?

I appreciate that the politics are actually confusing, instead of just one bad faction vs one good faction

WHY ARE QUI-GON AND JAR JAR HAVING A SEXY MEET CUTE And Jar Jar immediately says “I love you”. What is happening

Alright by WHY does he speak like this. Is this a dialect of the common language? Is everyone else using a translator machine while Jar Jar actually learned the language so he makes mistakes?

I am so grateful for the subtitles lmao

R2-D2 looks kind of weird. Different sort of plastic? CGI?

Why did the decoy queen send the real queen to clean a droid?

I wonder if the guard captain (? or whatever his job is, the cute black guy) knows which one the queen is.

God she’s SO tiny. Who the hell elected this child?! A child on the throne of a hereditary monarchy makes sense, a child princess too; but a democratically elected head of the state?!

Oh Ani that’s a terrible line lmao This has the energy of baby clothes that say “ladies’ man” etc

Anakin is such a friendly, outgoing child 😭

“Your son was kind enough to offer us shelter :)” flash forward for how the Jedi order and the universe in general repays him...

The C-3P0/R2-D2 meet cute is much better than the anidala one!

“I had a dream I was a Jedi. I came back here and freed all the slaves.” 😭😭😭

“Mom, you say the biggest problem in this universe is nobody helps each other.” 😭

“He was meant to help you.” What the hell is that supposed to mean?

They’re really staking the entire mission on a 9 year old winning a deadly race huh

Omg I’ve forgotten about the immaculate conception lmao. How did the EU explain that one?

“I wanna be the first one to see ‘em all.” Well, that is his name...

Wait is that Warwick Davis in the background

Well that race got mildly interesting only about halfway through.

“Why do I sense we’ve picked up another pathetic life-form?” I think it’s pretty interesting how the two Jedi have a mutual, usually unspoken understanding that they’re above everyone and everything else.

I’m crying again looking at Shmi’s face. She knows they’re leaving her behind because she’s not valuable to anyone but herself and her son. In slavery, alone, with nobody to live for or to help her now. (And what she doesn’t know, but Qui-Gon does, is that he angered her slaveowner before leaving. I bet he’s going to take it out on her.)

“Will I ever see you again?” 😭😭😭

Lmao was this scene meant to mirror ANH? Leia’s planet has been destroyed, and she’s giving Luke a blanket; Padme’s planet is being decimated, and she’s giving Anakin a blanket. Sexism is like poetry, it rhymes...

“Many things will change when we reach the capital, Ani, but my caring for you will remain” What’s that supposed to mean? (This is an endearing scene of friendship and solidarity between two kids used as pawns by the cynical adults... Until the weird romance angle comes in again. The boy is nine, George!!!)

I like the parallel scenes of the two ineffective bureaucracies.

Yoda looks much better than in the OT. Is it CGI? Or a very good puppet with CGI enhancements? There’s so much detail in his eyes and ears, I don’t believe it’s a puppet only!

Did they really greenscreen and CGI the green hills?

Finally a proper fucking sword fight! Which is also accompanied by a rare memorable music theme. Maul’s martial arts style is noticeably different from the others, which is neat. He jumps and twirls like a dancer.

This part of the plot is very immersive because I, like Anakin, have no idea what the point of the space battle is. I’m sure it was explained before but I missed it. Oh so he could disable the autopilot at any time? He just went along with it to see what’s the destination? lmao “Qui-Gon told me to stay in this cockpit, so that's what I’m gonna do.” Well that's a very creative interpretation of his instructions lol Did Ani accidentally infiltrate the enemy base? Good for him! The station falling apart is one of the few good special effects in this movie.

“...grave danger I fear in his training.” *the Imperial march plays*

---

Notes after watching:

Well. 60% the worst movie you’ve ever seen, 20% okay, 10% interesting ideas some of which may or may not upset a fan of the OT, 10% crying your face off because of the dramatic irony.

The most interesting part with perhaps the most far-reaching consequences is the ideology of the film, which is very different from what the viewer could expect after the OT. The film draws a clear parallel between the ongoing fall of the Republic and the impending fall of the Jedi order, brought about by their own internal problems. The Jedi are shown as ineffective at best and actively heartless at worst. Two extremely disadvantaged people help Qui-Gon out of the goodness of their hearts, and in return he exploits them with the pragmatism worthy of a Sith Lord. But the structure of the film still positions the Jedi as “good guys”, giving no meaningful alternative for them. So it’s natural the audience would react like “But the Jedi are heroes! They’re noble and spiritual! What is this bureaucratic nonsense?!” and some of them would proceed to think “Well, the story says they’re heroes, so they’re actually justified in everything. All of these flaws are excusable.” And it’s very unclear what the intended takeaway from all of this was. Was the viewer supposed to leave the theater thinking “Damn, it’s a shame the Jedi are so fucked up. The only one who sees this kid as a person is another child trapped in the adults’ political schemes. So that’s what puts him on the path from being an idealistic, compassionate child to Darth Vader”? Or were the kids still supposed to want to be a Jedi, like they presumably did after the OT? You know what, this actually makes me appreciate the anti-TLJ crowd. They openly say: “I think the way Luke was written in this film was stupid and OOC. It offends me as a fan. This is not my Luke. I refuse to consider this film a part of my personal canon.” Straightforward and honest. So why can’t the (admittedly overlapping faction of) Jedi apologists just say that they don’t like the prequels? That trilogy is widely hated. If you say “I think the prequels were badly written, so I prefer to ignore their existence altogether”, I’m sure many would sympathize. So why not just say that, instead of defending the ways in which the Jedi order and its members were obviously in the wrong?

Both the cinematography and the image quality are strangely worse than the original trilogy. I was watching a 1080p BluRay rip, so the fault wasn’t there. Out of the environments, Coruscant was my favorite. The interiors look very plastic, which makes the scenes filmed on location in some normal palace look out of place.

Jar Jar’s people are a “primitive tribe” caricature, and their speech is nigh incomprehensible. Ani’s slaveowner seems to be an antisemitic caricature. Naboo is a planet of mostly white people and Mediterranean architecture... and fashion borrowing from Asia, mostly Japan; it’s like the costume designed visited a museum recently. (Apparently the Trade Federation guys are a racist stereotype too but I’m not familiar that one.)

Putting the spotlight on the most experienced actor was a good move, at least. In the end, it seems like Qui-Gon is the protagonist of this movie, not anyone who is in other installments.

Jake Lloyd’s acting didn’t bother me at all. Even looking at the documentary — alright, so another kid at the audition (5:32 in the documentary) had a stronger reading of a line that was unsalvageably awful anyway. So what? He seems older, maybe that’s why he’s better; it would be simply a slightly different dynamic if Anakin were not tiny enough to stumble over words. Besides, Natalie Portman was an established teenage actress, and her performance was also flat as hell. Meanwhile, the adults Neeson and McGregor were doing just fine. I think it’s clear where the blame lies here...

I still don’t understand what Palpatine’s scheme was. To get elected chancellor, he needed the queen’s instigation, so was letting her escape the plan from the beginning?

Who is the target audience for this movie? The OT was clearly for children. In this one, the kids would be bored by the politics, and the adults by the juvenile humor.

Ironically, I came out of this thinking the Jedi Council was right. If being a nine year old who misses his mother disqualifies one from their militant religious order, then maybe it would be best for everyone if he could keep living his life without their bullshit.

Anyway the most fun part of this experience was listening to the corresponding episode of A More Civilized Age, which was really healing after some of the bizarre takes on the Jedi I’ve seen on here.

I’m also grateful to them for pointing me towards the making-of documentary. A few short notes about it: watching McGregor’s nice hair being cut into that horrible style was almost physically painful; watching the actors rehearse the lightsaber fights was magical; the footage of the premiere left me with mixed feelings because of the secondhand embarrassment and dread of an impending trainwreck on one side, and the nostalgia of attending fandom film premieres myself in the past.

#star wars #blah blah blah

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redemptivexheroics · 10 months

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Star Wars Muses...

Ellis Orion - An orphan from Naboo who was found to be Force Sensitive, found by Qui-Gon around the same time as Anakin Skywalker. A very dedicated Jedi who became a Jedi Master prior to Order 66. A stickler for the rules, even the ones she doesn't agree with. She is an expertise with dual wielding and is very strong with the Force. [She is strongly connected with @skywalkerxanakin but I will RP her with other Anakins, just the mentioned one is her main Anakin]. She is the biological mother of Oliver Knight.

Caden Sparks - A mercenary for hire who takes almost any job as long as the pay is good. Though he does have his morals and limits. He originally got on the bad side of the Jedi but a run in with Ellis Orion made him become an ally to Ellis and the Jedi, and in a way you can say he's Ellis' love interest. He is the biological father of, Oliver Knight, Ellis' son. His skills could rival that of Han Solo.

Malani Amitey - Malani is a Jedi Master, four years older than Anakin Skywalker. If anyone honors the Jedi code, it's Malani. she feels the rules must be adhered to as to stay off the path of the Dark Side. She was personally trained by Master Yoda himself so shares most of his views. She has a low tolerance of childish behavior and recklessness.

Obi-Wan Kenobi - A powerful Jedi Master, and the mentor and friend of Anakin Skywalker and later Luke Skywalker. Trained my Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. He harbors a lot of the core values set by the Council, and is not one for breaking that code. He's like a brother figure to Ellis.

Kraven - Kraven is a man trained in the ways of the Dark Side of the Force and in light saber combat but isn't a Sith. After Palpatine is supposedly killed and the death of Darth Vader prompts him to hunt down Luke and anyone aligned with him.

Marcos Finn - A Jedi the same age as Anakin who was always sort of a bully to Anakin since he first stepped foot in the Jedi Temple. His ambitions and battle skills made him sort of villainous person. He eventually left the Jedi Order after the events of Attack of the Clones and dabbles in the Dark Side but was trained in secret by Dooku, being Ventress' successor. Eventually he abandoned the Dark Side to become a bounty hunter, he's tasked with hunting Anakin down after he betrayed Palpatine [Will be more associated with @skywalkerxanakin]

Oliver Knight -A boy that is very Force Sensitive, though he's not a Jedi or Sith, despite having access to the entire Force both light and dark. He is the biological son of Ellis Orion and Caden Sparks; he was born nine months after Order 66 and sent far away and out of the Empire's reach. Growing up on Earth when his Force powers started to manifest and trained by an old exiled Jedi Master. He has encountered and survived a confrontation with Darth Vader thus inspiring him to discover his origins. [In the AU where Anakin either didn't fall to the Dark Side or redeemed himself. Oliver grew up with his mother and has a different name].

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mechanakin · 1 year

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Name: Anakin Skywalker

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual

Age: mid-twenties (verse dependent)

Occupation: Mechanic, Pilot, Smuggler (verse dependent)

Background: After leaving Tattooine as a child in the company of Qui Gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi, Anakin was convinced that he was going to become a Jedi warrior, fight for justice, and free his mother and friends from sl.avery. He was naïve, believing everything that Jinn told him. All the legends and prophesies, the readings of his midichlorians. They weren’t lies, necessarily. Qui Gon wasn’t a liar, nor was he so devious as to manipulate a child. They were simply…unrealistic. The council rejected him because of his age, despite the Jedi Master’s pleading, and that was a blow to his confidence. Then came the battle on Naboo. The day all of Anakin’s illusions of grandeur were shattered for good. Instead of staying hidden like was told, he and R2-D2 had stolen a ship (sort of) and taken to the guns.

One thing led to another.

They fought valiantly, and returned victorious, having successfully thwarted the Trade Federation’s blockade. Upon landing, however, Anakin saw the destruction and devastation that had been wrought. He learned of Qui Gon’s death at the hands of Darth Maul, and of the kind Jedi’s last wish: to have him trained by the Order.

He didn’t know how to feel about that. Obviously, he cared deeply for Qui Gon, and mourned him the way any child would mourn the death of a friend and mentor. He cried. A lot. And could not for the life of him understand why Obi-Wan didn’t. Were Jedi not allowed to cry, or did he simply care that little about his master? It was a source of contention between the two in the days between the battle on Naboo and their trip back to Coruscant, eventually leading to a loud argument where Obi-Wan lectured that Anakin would have to get his emotions in check if he ever wanted to become the Jedi that Qui Gon wanted him to be. By the time they met with Yoda and the council again, Anakin wasn’t sure if he even wanted that for himself anymore. He’d already been rejected once. Why should he want to be accepted into a place where he wasn’t wanted?

He said as much to the Jedi Council with as much vitriol and bitterness as a nine-year-old could muster, much to the ire of young Kenobi, and stormed out. As much as he adored and wanted to honor Qui Gon, his grief was already too great to allow for what he perceived to be more bullying from the adults in his life. He wanted to go home to his mother, but he couldn’t. He wanted to go back to Naboo with Padme, but that wasn’t an option, either. Distraught, and devoid of any sort of solution, Anakin did the next thing his kid brain came up with: running away.

He…didn’t get very far. Chancellor Palpatine intercepted him not long after he exited the temple, shocked to learn of Anakin’s decision, and consoled the boy, who was completely oblivious to his darker nature. Deciding to be generous in order to win the boy over, he took Anakin in as his ward, providing both necessities and luxury. He wasn’t even offended by the boy’s request to find a mechanic shop that he could work in, since it was clearly something he enjoyed and was already skilled at. Thus, Anakin began an apprenticeship at a shop frequented by Coruscant’s political and social elite, working under the salty and gruff (but fair) Lucien Harlo, a purple trans masc Twi’lek.

Harlo taught him well, and often reminded him of Wotto with his rough-and-tumble attitude and cunning mind, but he was also much kinder and more protective. He didn’t treat people like property. The only people he conned were customers who could afford it and were too stupid to notice.

By the time he was sixteen, Anakin was practically running the shop by Harlo’s side. He was an expert mechanic, and despite his eccentricities, was far better with customer service than Harlo could ever hope to be. He’d also managed to find an apartment and move out on his own, though his relationship with Palpatine remained amicable. It took a while for Anakin and Obi-Wan to make amends, but they eventually did, and became much closer friends throughout Anakin’s teen years.

Shortly after Anakin turned sixteen, however, Harlo ran into a spot of trouble. He’d run up a large debt with his gambling habit, his bookie had finally come to collect, and he needed credits fast. Anakin, eager to help, offered to buy the shop, citing that he had friends in high places who would be happy to back him. Harlo accepted, squaring his debt and galavanting off to some other part of the galaxy to retire, and leaving Anakin to run the shop by himself.

At nineteen, Anakin began to have horrible nightmares. Visions of his mother back on Tattooine. She was in pain and crying out. For him. She needed him. Despite not having proper training, Anakin was a scrappy fighter, and knew his way around a blaster and a vibroblade. He knew he had to go to her, and made plans immediately….only to have them foiled quickly by the arrival of one Senator Padme Amidala, flanked by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and his brand new Padawan, Ashoka Tano. Padme was apparently under their protection in the wake of multiple assassination attempts, and was in need of a nondescript ship and trustworthy pilot to make safe passage back to Naboo. Driven as he was to go back to his mother, Anakin was also ecstatic to see Padme again, and thus could not refuse her.

From there, chaos ensued. Obi-Wan had some urgent matters that he needed to attend to, which left Padme in the care of Ashoka and Anakin, the latter of whom was still wrestling with his feelings for her and his uneasiness about his mother.

#🔧 out of grease 🔧 ooc talk #🔧 I hate sand 🔧 about

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nintenderniere · 2 years

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An obi-wan and maul roleswap is so good but not only for the sith obi-wan aspects. I think we as a fandom neglect the potential that a maul and anakin master and padawan relationship has.

Maul being Qui-Gon’s edgy 22 y/o son who listens to space MCR and refuses to come out of his room because Qui-Gon isn’t his dad and he wants to brood. He glowers and has intense anger issues that he really shouldn’t have as a Jedi that give him a terrible reputation and nobody knows that he’s actually a pathetic little meow meow except for Qui-Gon.

He meets Anakin and is like “Who is this small sassy rat child and why is it in my face?? 🙄 father wtf” and they have a very- new sibling just came home from the hospital and the oldest didn’t want them vibes, he is constantly tired of this boy who keeps poking him and talking to him and asking him questions but by the end of The Phantom Menace they’re actually close, babykin just softens emo hearts I guess. By the time anakin is officially made his padawan maul is ready to absolutely throw down for this nine year old slave.

Anakin being forced to be the responsible one (if only slightly) between the two of them because if he wasn’t then they wouldn’t get anything done. Maul is surprisingly a good teacher when he wants to be, but anakin was definitely not forced to mediate lol. I’m surprised if he ever mediated again past that first time. Maul would be much more focused on lightsaber combat and strength then mediating with a cup of tea. He has irresponsible older brother vibes and lets anakin stay up late on school days and gives him chocolate bars after he wins a fight against one of his fellow padawans.

Once he finds out that Darth Obi-Wan is still alive you bet he’s gonna scream “KENOOOOBIIIII” at the top of his lungs in the middle of the council room while Anakin awkwardly pats him on the back. He constantly gets mocked by Darth-Wan about his anger and all of his near fallings to the darkside.

Just- just Maul being like “I will tear out your heart and shove it down your throat and watch as you pathetically choke and die” and Anakin seeing that and going “ayoooo new father figure just dropped” is everything I need currently.

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gch1995 · 2 years

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I find it absolutely hilarious that you're blaming the Jedi for all the problems of the prequel era instead of the GODDAMN SPACE NAZIS. Palpatine was the one who commissioned the clone army. Palpatine facilitated the corruption in the Senate. Palpatine built a political situation the forced everyone, jedi included to pick their poison. Palpatine spewed propaganda out of his ass at every turn. It was Palpatine! It was the Sith! IT WAS THE NAZIS GODDAMNIT! STOP MAKING FUCKING EXCUSES GEEZ!

No one deserved the clone wars or Order 66, nonny. However, if Anakin is still worthy of being held at least partially accountable for his crimes and wrongdoings, in spite of all the odds against him of compromised agency, then so are the adults of the Jedi Order who knowingly carried out a corrupt Republic head’s orders.

Even before Palpatine got elected Chancellor, they were recruiting children for their space police cult. A fucking nine year old boy was seriously considered “too old” for Yoda and the Council to train in using lethal weapons. Children under 18 should never be allowed to handle lethal weapons at all! They were considered knights and/or padawan, so therefore, they were still being trained as soldiers, even if they weren’t in war.

Anakin Skywalker was recruited by Qui Gonn Jinn under extremely sketchy circumstances with severely compromised and ill-informed dubious consent issues. First off, Qui Gonn Jinn didn’t free this little boy from slavery out of the kindness of his heart at all, or because Anakin was a genuinely sweet kid. It was only because he had a random force vision that this kid would destroy the Sith one day in the future as a powerful weapon if he and the rest of the Jedi took him under their wing to groom to be one. Anakin’s not important to Qui Gonn Jinn as a person at all.

As much of a toxic and negligent friend and mentor as Obi-Wan was to Anakin, at the very least, he did come to genuinely love Anakin for just being Anakin, even if he was very awful at encouraging it and showing it in his willful denial of his feelings because he was too insecure about not being a “perfect” Jedi if he admitted to caring about Anakin and stood up for him more, rather than continuing being too hard on him, pushing him away when he tried to bond, and selling him out to kiss Yoda’s and the Council’s asses. Still, he kept Anakin’s relationship with Padme secret from the Council because he cared about Anakin and Padme, and he genuinely did admit to Anakin having a kind, loyal, and wise heart as a Jedi after he got knighted once.

While Qui Gonn seems more openly kind and flexible than Obi-Wan, I also think that he would be worse in a way for Anakin as a mentor because he only seemed to care about this boy as a weapon for the Jedi, not as a person. Since he was the one who discovered him, the pressure would be even higher for Anakin to be a “perfect” Jedi and fulfill the prophecy than it was with Obi-Wan, and I don’t think he’d be able to advocate for the freedom of Anakin’s mother.

Additionally, Qui Gonn Jinn takes a DNA blood sample from Anakin to test his midichorlorian count without this little boy’s or his mother’s fully informed consent first. He bets on Anakin’s freedom in a podrace contest with Watto to recruit him as a Jedi without either Anakin’s or his mother’s consent or knowledge first, even after realizing that Watto would only free Anakin, not his mother, too.

Once again, Anakin’s agency to be a person is stripped away from him by another adult with that “Chosen one” title by the Jedi. It’s not from being a slave for Watto to use to fulfill chores/tasks and make money off him.

The old Republic and Jedi Order were enabling slavery and horrible living conditions for the people on the outer rims because they weren’t part of their “greater good,” so they didn’t care much about helping people who didn’t benefit them right off the bat.

Yoda and the Council shamed a nine year old boy for missing his mother that they left in slavery, and separated him from because “attachments were dangerous!” Qui Gonn and Obi Wan brought a child with them into dangerous battle zones against a Sith! Qui Gonn bet on a slave child’s freedom without telling either Anakin or Shmi first. Qui Gonn told Anakin and Shmi that being a Jedi would be “a hard life,” but never mentions the fact that Jedi are cut off from the outside world, forbidden from forming close relationships, getting married, and having kids, and put into dangerous situations from childhood!

This all happened in The Phantom Menace with the Jedi and Republic, even before Palpatine/Sidious was elected Chancellor of the Senate. Yes, he used their weaknesses against them, set up the clone wars, and came up with Order 66, which were all things they didn’t deserve. However, both the old Jedi Order and Republic were still corrupt messes that were falling apart, even before Palpatine got elected as Chancellor of the Senate. The biggest tragedy is that this fall became inevitable because these people were too blinded by their own arrogance, denial, and fear of losing security in taking a risk to do any better.

#star wars anon #nonny Palpatine was a monster that no one deserved in the Jedi/Republic #but even without him the Jedi and republic of the prequels were a toxic mess #pt republic critical #pt star wars #pt Jedi order critical #the phantom menace #their fall doesn’t work if they aren’t already deeply flawed themselves even before Palpatine #but how dare the Jedi be problematic even though the two we met before Luke in the ot were corrupt too #jedi council fuckery #anakin sywalker #darth vader #the tragedy of the old republic and jedi order

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tennessoui · 3 years

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If you're up up to it, how about obikin and 42?

yes!!! Prompt 42 is Star-Crossed Lovers, but star-crossed lovers are soooooo out now. 'Crossed the stars to be lovers' is IN, baby!!

(2.7k)

Someone has left a letter on his bunk. Obi-Wan as a rule doesn’t get letters. Actually, as a rule, Obi-Wan has never wanted to receive a letter in his entire life. They all have datapads for a reason, and it’s because they’ve evolved past the need for flimsi and ink when there are means at their disposal to deliver messages near instantly.

So no, Obi-Wan has never wanted to see a letter sitting on his bunk. He finds the whole thing rather trying, actually, the Flimsi Friends program the Jedi Order established fifty standard years ago in an attempt to connect their Jedi with others across the branches through letters. Obi-Wan had scorned the idea as an Initiate living comfortably in the Temple on Coruscant, and his opinion hadn’t really changed once he began his tenure at the AgriCorps.

Kabre notices before anyone else. “Oh, hey! Obi-Wan’s got a letter.”

“Finally,” Aldran grins, craning his neck from where he’s collapsed on his bunk. “We only signed you up months ago.”

“Really, you shouldn’t have,” Obi-Wan says. “Really.”

“Oh, come now, little Obi,” Kabre pats him on the head. Obi-Wan is twenty-five and of a perfectly average height, but Kabre is close to three heads taller than him and of an indeterminable age. “Think of it as an opportunity to strengthen your connection to the living Force.”

“Through the Flimsi Friends program,” Obi-Wan deadpans, raising an eyebrow up at his peer.

“Getting letters from Susa is the highlight of my week,” Aldran tells the ceiling dreamily.

Obi-Wan shares a commiserating eyeroll with Kabre. “That’s because you’re in love with her.”

“Who wouldn’t be? She’s so sweet and kind and pretty and she has all these stories from her adventures in the ExploraCorps--”

“Alright, who got him talking about Susa?” Lathrum asks from the door, sighing in exasperation as he makes his way over to his own bunk. “It’ll be a standard day before he’s done.”

“Hey!” Aldran gasps, offended and already close to sulking. “Whatever. Fine. Everyone’s just jealous that Susa and I are in love because y’all are never going to find something nearly as good as we have.”

“Obi-Wan finally got a letter from the program,” Kabre announces to Lathrum. “We were just saying that he should at least try to be excited.”

“Yes, perhaps you’ll meet your own Susa,” Lathrum smirks, peeling off his dirt-covered tunic. His next words come out muffled. “Force help us if that happens.”

“No need to worry,” Obi-Wan says dryly, picking up the letter and studying it. “They appear to be a youngling.”

“A youngling wrote you?” Kabre asks, barely restrained glee in his deep baritone.

Aldran guffaws from his bunk. “Well now you have to write back!”

“Knowing your luck, it’s probably a youngling from the Jedi Temple,” Lathrum says. “Dear Obi-Wan, Today someone chose me to be their Padawan and I’m one step closer to being a Jedi Knight. How are your plants doing?”

“Yes, alright,” Obi-Wan shakes his head, smiling slightly. He had met Lathrum when he was fourteen and still bitterly disappointed about his new position at the AgriCorps, and Lathrum has never let him forget it even after all these years.

He sits down on his mattress and pulls out the letter. It’s short at least. The handwriting is atrocious but the spelling is worse.

Dear Obi-Wan,

Hi! My name is Anakin Skywalker. I am nine years old. How are you doing today? My master says I have to write this to practice my spelling. I think not everyone can learn Basic, but he says I have to and that all Jedi masters know how. I didn’t ever know there was all this stuff I have to do to be a Jedi. I’ve been here for weeks now and I still don’t have my lightsaber!

I think the temple is really weird. It’s so big and cold. I miss my friends back home. Me and Kitster would go crazy exploring this place but no one here wants to play with me. Master Jinn says not to worry and I’m not! The temple is just really big and I’m cold all the time and I miss my mom. Master Jinn found me on Tatooine and took me here to make me a Jedi which is great, but everyone here already knows each other and I don’t think they like me much. I know the Jedi Council doesn’t. They didn’t even want to train me but Master Jinn inzi--incis--said he would.

Do you want to be friends?

Would you explore the temple with me?

Write back soon please,

Anakin

“Well?” Kabre asks, when Obi-Wan finishes silently reading the letter.

Obi-Wan sighs and rubs a hand over the jagged penmanship. It’s all too obvious that this Anakin Skywalker is...painfully young, churlish and childish and achingly lonely.

Obi-Wan sighs again, harder, as he looks up at his bunkmates. “Where do we keep the blasted flimsi?”

---

Dear Anakin,

Thank you for your letter, it was very nice to read. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I’m 25 years old. I hope you are settling in at the Temple better by the time this letter finds you. I have to admit I was very surprised to hear that you are nine years old and have been allowed to train to be a Jedi. That’s unheard of. I’m sure you’ll be an excellent Jedi. There must have been a reason your master chose you. The Force wills it and it will be.

It is understandable to miss your mother and your old home. When I became a member of the AgriCorps, I spent the first few months missing the Jedi temple on Coruscant a lot. It was the only home I ever had. But we make others as we go. The Temple is big and I suppose very cold compared to a desert planet--I looked up Tatooine here and there wasn’t much information, but I could never live somewhere with two suns! I’d be burned to a crisp in a matter of hours.

The upside to the Temple being big is that there are a lot of hiding spots and footholds for climbing. Try the pillars in the entrance hall. They connect to each other. My friends and I would run around on top of them for hours, although I think that was mostly because we were too scared to get down. You should ask Knight Eerin about it, or Knight Vos. They’re usually in the Mess Hall if not the Halls of Healing.

I’m sure Master Jinn has you busy with meditation and classes, but I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,

Obi-Wan Kenobi

---

Dear Obi-Wan,

I was really excited to get your letter! I didn’t know it would take so long but it’s been ages! So much stuff has happened. I finally finished my remedial classes and Master says we can focus more time of katas now! I can’t wait to learn how to fight! And Master Windu smiled at me the other day when he saw me in the hall because Master told him about my grades!

I asked Knight Eerin about you and she showed me some pictures she had on her datapad of you when you lived at the Temple. You look really pretty cool! I have blond hair and blue eyes if you were wondering. My mom always said she thought I was going to be really tall. What do you look like now? What do you do at the AgriCorps? Why did you leave the Temple? Knight Eerin says you need to give her a comm call soon. She didn’t sound very happy.

I made a friend! Knight Vos’ padawan was there when I talked to him about what you told me, and she came with me to go exploring! She’s so cool. She’s been helping me with my katas too.

Apparently I won’t get my lightsaber for years! That’s so long!

Anyway I have to go and do my reading now but please write back faster this time, Obi-Wan!

--Ani

----

Obi-Wan never reacts quite as happily and dramatically as Aldrin does when he sees a letter from Anakin on his bunk in the evenings, but over the years everyone learns not to disturb Obi-Wan on those nights.

The first letter Obi-Wan receives from Anakin after the boy turns eighteen includes his commlink frequency hastily crammed at the bottom of the page. If you want, Anakin has scribbled.

“Finally,” Obi-Wan jokes when the line connects and Anakin answers breathlessly. “No offense to you, dear one, and you have come quite a ways since you were a youngling, but your handwriting is still atrocious. I’d much rather talk to you like this than try to puzzle out what you’ve written.”

Anakin splutters and then stutters out in a voice slower and deeper than Obi-Wan had expected, “I didn’t know you had an accent, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan finds that he likes that voice saying his name in that way.

That’s the first sign of trouble.

----

Anakin sends a photo of his knighting ceremony. Obi-Wan wants to cry with pride. His friends tease him about it relentlessly. “You look like I did the day I married Susa,” Aldrin crows and takes a picture of Obi-Wan’s blushing, laughing face. Later, Obi-Wan reluctantly sends it to Anakin.

“I’m jealous of your friends,” Anakin confesses with an exhale of static. “They get to see you everyday.”

“Oh, Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, unable to say more. Unable to admit that he’s thought the same thing about Anakin’s master at the Temple. Unable to deny it though.

They move onto safer topics, ones that make Obi-Wan’s chest feel less tight.

----

“Jedi Knights are forbidden to have romantic attachments,” Kabre tells him apropos of nothing one late evening when they’re leaning against the railings of their cabin.

Obi-Wan doesn’t even try to pretend to not know what his friend is talking about. Anakin is twenty-three now. They call each other as often as possible, whenever they have enough free time. Thinking about Anakin, somewhere out in the galaxy, makes Obi-Wan feel dangerous things. Dangerous, insidious, illogical things.

“Yes,” he agrees.

“Everything you’ve ever told me about this boy makes me think he’s in love with you,” Kabre says. “And the way you tell it makes me think you’re in love with him too.”

“Kabre, I…”

“I’m not asking you to deny it to me, Obi-Wan. You don’t need to defend yourself. You know no one cares if you’ve gone and fallen in love with your flimsi friend. It happens. And Force knows there’s no way you could be more insufferable than Aldrin and Susa.”

“He’s a Jedi Knight, Kabre,” Obi-Wan looks away, off over the fields. “I know what that means.”

----

When Anakin is twenty-four, Obi-Wan walks into his room to see a letter on his pillow. He blinks in surprise. He hasn’t gotten a letter since they petered out in favor of comm calls with Anakin.

But he’d recognize that handwriting anywhere.

He sits down to read it.

Dear Obi-Wan,

I find myself growing weary of Knighthood. I love my Padawan, I love the missions, I love the fighting. But I love something else more. I have for almost as long as I can remember.

I’ve been looking through the old letters from you. I’ve kept them all. I know Jedi should not have material attachments, but I found that I could no more throw them away than give my lightsaber to a Sith. They make up our story.

You were the first friend I ever had at the Temple. I don’t quite think you realized that then, and you may not even realize it now. But you were. I would get a letter from you and feel warm for weeks afterwards.

Actually, everything I love about the Temple and the Jedi you gave to me. My friends now, indirectly. All the hiding spots. Moving meditation.

When I got my kyber crystal, I wanted to tell you before anyone else. When my Padawan braid was cut, I gave it to my master, but wished I had something I could give to you too.

That was the day I really admitted to myself that you already have all of me.

Obi-Wan, I’m in love with you. I love you more every time we talk. Disengaging the comms at the end of the night hurts like losing my hand all over again. I love you, I love you.

And I have been a coward about it for too many years. I was afraid that you would reject me, think me too rash and young and foolish. But I know what I want. You told me in one of your letters that you believed I lived off of a single-minded desire to achieve my goals and that I would let nothing stand in the way.

I do not plan on starting now, if you will have me that is. I dream of nothing more than to feel your hands on my face, to listen to the sound of your heart beating in your chest.

I will not disrespect the ways of the Jedi by loving you quietly, when I know you are my deepest, strongest attachment. One that I will not shake, even if I lived to be as old as Master Yoda himself.

If you find that you feel the same way, I will leave the Jedi Order tomorrow and meet you on Bandomeer. If you do not, then I understand and will never speak of this again. I am something of an expert after all these years of loving you silently from afar.

Yours sincerely, yours always, yours completely,

Anakin

Obi-Wan traces the words with a shaking hand. He doesn’t know he’s crying until a tear falls onto the flimsi. Oh, Anakin. Oh, his brave, foolish Anakin.

Will he really be so selfish as to allow Anakin to leave his Knighthood for him? His padawan, his home?

But the knowledge that Anakin loves him is a heady, addictive feeling. Obi-Wan has never truly gotten the things he wants. He loves his life now, of course. But he hadn’t wanted it.

And he loves Anakin.

He loves him terribly.

He reaches for a piece of flimsi and a pen.

----

Anakin will be the first to admit he’s been in a foul mood for a few standard weeks now. He’d sent that letter to Obi-Wan--Force, why had he sent that letter to Obi-Wan, obviously the man will never want to talk to him again now--and then immediately Ahsoka and him had been called in for a mission.

It had been awful and disgusting. Anakin is covered in mud from head to toe, and his padawan doesn’t look any better. And worst of all, he had had no time at all to comm Obi-Wan. No time at all to see how the man had taken his confession. It feels like he’s been holding his breath for days.

But he’s at the Temple now. He can clean himself off and call Obi-Wan incessantly until the man answers. Anakin can’t keep living like this.

“Letter for you, Master,” Ahsoka says as he enters their quarters. She’d been sent ahead while Anakin had finished docking the ship, and now she’s sitting at the table perfectly clean.

Anakin thinks his heart stops at these words and then it starts beating as fast as it ever has before. “Where?”

“I put it on your bed,” Ahsoka peers up at him with a furrowed brow. “Are you okay, Skyguy? You look a bit--”

But Anakin’s gone, already tearing into his room. There on the bedspread is a letter. Obi-Wan’s written him a letter.

Anakin has to try opening it three times before he finally gets his fingers to cooperate. It’s very short.

Dearest One, Obi-Wan has written.

I’ll meet you here tomorrow on Bandomeer. I will be waiting.

Forever yours,

Obi-Wan

Anakin smiles and feels like he could cry or sing or dance or scream from all the joy that’s welled up in his chest at this small handful of words Obi-Wan has given him. They’re everything and more.

Mindful of the mud on his person, he puts the letter gently on his bed and walks back out to the common area. Ahsoka is right where he left her.

“Okay, now you just look scary,” she says, pointing a fork at him. “Stop smiling like that.”

Anakin lets his grin die. He won’t relish this next part, but it’s for Obi-Wan. It’s so he can be with Obi-Wan. It's necessary. “Snips,” he says, sitting down opposite her. “We need to talk.”

#asks #prompt fill #i could literally write like 20k of this tbh #i had a few more letters planned but i knew i needed to hurry it up #anyway #sw #obikin #this is also as usual highly unedited all mistakes are artistic and actually great

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