APLAP (Assigned Pathetic Lifeform at Padawanship)

New padawan Obi-Wan trying to figure out how the FUCK to make his master listen and not abandon him to go running off following "the will of the force" when it hits him. Qui-Gon is perfectly happy stopping and taking care of pathetic life forms, but not Obi-Wan. That's it. He's always been prepared, always been dutiful, strong, self-sufficient.

He's cracked the code. He needs to be more pathetic.

The next time he senses Qui-Gon's about to run off he coordinates a scene of utmost pathetic-ness, that is, he throws himself into the nearest fountain. He trudges up to his master sopping wet, water-logged robes swallowing him, with hair sticking to his face and containing bits of algae from the fountain. He mumbles out an apology for being clumsy before looking up at Qui-Gon with the biggest, most woeful eyes possible to ask if he happened to bring any spare robes (he didn't, Obi-Wan knows this because he is usually the one to pack spare robes for them both). His wet hair is dripping water into his eyes that's beginning to turn them an irritated red, and there's algae sliding down the side of his face, it really is masterful work.

"Oh...I'm sure I'll be able to find something by myself, it's okay Master, I know you had important work to do."

Qui-Gon visibly hesitates. Obi-Wan starts shivering. He turns to walk away. He's stopped by his Master's hand on his shoulder. His Master, who walks back with him, who gets clean clothes from their hosts, who has folded like wet flimsi and even explains his stupid, stupid plan before choosing to hotwire a hoverbike with a passenger seat! Oh, Obi-Wan really has cracked the code!

Afterwards, Obi-Wan stages an increasingly pitiful accident for himself every time his patented 'Qui-Gon Jinn Bullshit' detector goes off. Eventually, his Master stops leaving him behind at all, even giving him funny looks when he turns around and Obi-Wan isn’t next to him. It never fails to make Obi-Wan grin and run to catch up. Sure, his reputation as a perfect padawan is in tatters, alongside his dignity, but it’s a small price to pay for a place at his Master’s side, for him to remember there’s a place for Obi-Wan there.

When the ray shields come up on Naboo, Qui-Gon doesn't charge ahead and leave his padawan behind, he hasn't for years. He waits for Obi-Wan because it feels wrong to do otherwise, his padawan belongs at his side.

Much, much later, when Obi-Wan is drinking to the end of the war with friends, Commander Cress will ask him how he kept General Jinn from running off for entire decade. Obi-Wan laughs, informs him, and resolutely ignores the scene Quinlan is making as the man cackles and pulls up a book to shove at them both, titled Classical Conditioning 101: A guide to subtle psychological manipulation.

I said a little bit about this in a comment a few hours ago (hey kenny) and I actually really felt like saying more.

For all that gay people/Tumblr people/AO3 peope/waves hand are really, really into found family they are actually pretty allergic to conceptualizing familial relationships outside of nuclear family roles.

I see a billion posts on Tumblr about how friendships can be just as important as romantic relationships, if not more, but nobody ever actually writes the friendship as important as a romantic relationship. Or friendships are interpreted as romantic, or friendships are sidelined for the romantic relationship. It's always a weird disparity between what people say are important and people actually find important for me.

So when we do step out of romantic relationship and into gen relationships, we typically enter the trope world of #foundfamily. But the same kind of flattening of characters for the sake of shoving them into yaoi ghost archetypes honestly also really happens with family relationships.

There is always a dad. There's always a mom. There's always siblings (frequently the canon female love interest). Maybe an uncle? Ex-wife if we are feeling sexy that day.

I really rarely see people interested in #foundfamily relationships outside of those boxes. It is overwhelmingly, entirely American-centric. There's no recognition of the unbelievable diversity and breadth of human relationships, or the very many ways there are to love somebody. In fanfic, if there's a much older male character emotional close to younger characters, he's dad mode. And the relationship then follows the character and story beats of the father-child relationship intended to draw out those fuzzy family feelings. Damn, I read found family stuff to get away from the intense claustrophobia of the fandom's favorite ship, I'm not here to get family yaoi ghosted here too.

I think you can create a very unique and engaging relationship if you're wiling to engage with the unknown and uncomfortable. Make a path without the paint by numbers story beats and character arcs. Please stop letting tropes rule your writing instead of construct it.

Write stories about love. Write relationships about loving each other. Just start from there, and don't worry about anything else. Create a relationship that is its own. Let it breathe. It can stand on its own two feet. It'll be a richer relationship and a richer story.

Some master/padawan stuff with Brea and Kep! Are they in a battle? Doing training? You decide! 😋🫶

Taglist♡: @changeling-selfship @crushes-georg @sunstar-of-the-north @tiny-cloud-of-flowers @squips-ship @me-myself-and-my-fos @dearly-beeloved @adoredbyalatus @cherry-bomb-ships @sunflawyer @cassmeeks (hope its ok to tag u!! 🙏)

Pose inspired by this pose from Kanan: The Last Padawan ^^^

Has this been done before??

Taglist (dm to join)!

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I miss Kanan and Ezra interacting together so much 😢

Hot take:

The obsession some people have with the Jedi only taking on one apprentice at a time and wanting them to change their ways (that have worked without issue for thousands of years) to take on multiple apprentices at a time is yet another way people try to force the Jedi into the western nuclear family unit

Yoda: hit you in the calf, I will. if finish your homework, you do not again. want that, you do not, hum?

Dooku: why is there fur on the couch- are you hiding tookas in our chamer again??!

Qui-gon: if I catch you sneaking out of the chamber at night again, i will blackmail you to never be mad at me for upsetting the council.

Obi-wan: no, no, no, no, not AGAIN-

Anakin: *after blowing things up and getting a lecture from a furious obi-wan* let's definitely do that again.

thinking about how for like the first two years of obi wans apprenticeship qui gon did not give a fuck what obi wan did (or even really what happened to him) before snapping out of it and realizing he was actually very much responsible for this child and course corrected into being a helicopter parent and how obi wan always read this as mistrust instead of concern and guilt.

genuinely it is SO funny to me that they chose to imply that qui gon (a) parentifies obi wan and (b) likes it that way

[deep breath] not me suddenly getting hit by tcw feelings in this year 2024 but like. truly ough i love likening ahsoka and anakin and obi-wan's entire dynamic as tragic siblings because that's the closest approximation we have to it but also just like. there's tragic siblings because they're the ones you're supposed to joke with and play with and look up to when it seems like everything is falling apart.

and then there's the whole tragic student-teacher element to all of it and maybe it's just like. i look up to you i owe you so much i know you've only ever tried and wanted to make me better i know you saw something in me worth cultivating and keeping you exasperate me sometimes because why the hell do i need to know this kind of stuff why the hell are you nitpicking this kind of stuff why do you care so much about why i succeed or not you're not my parent and i don't want you to be my parent but also you helped me learn more about myself and the world than i've ever realized. can i ask for your opinion about this later. can i still ask you for help on this problem.

and then the whole flip side of that is like. you were someone who mentored me and taught me and now you're a monster i barely know or recognize and how could you do this how could you say that how could you hurt me like this i know you think you're doing the right thing and you're so much older and wiser and i'm still waiting at the door like a little kid but also i don't think being taught lessons is meant to feel like this and i can't tell if i'm still acting childish or if maybe, more horrifyingly, everyone who warned me about you was right and you really are a monster and you've taught me how to be a monster and what do i do now and i guess i just have to grapple with the fact that you molded me and shaped me and if you broke off one of my arms while doing that, then who am i to tell

Aayla’s Final Trial

liking star wars is partly crying over obi-wan as a neat little study in grief and partly dodging obi/kin shippers as a form of extreme sport

This is one of my favorite snippets from foolproof, I love the h/c and I can so easily picture anakin being frantic for obi-wan to be okay, I would love some commentary if you have any - “Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan,” the man says, and that isn’t right. The man never knew his name. “Obi-Wan, shh, you’re here, I’m here. We’re at the Temple, sweetling. You’re safe. I’m here.” A mechno hand presses Obi-Wan’s head to a firm and sweaty chest, and Obi-Wan is breathing in the scent before he can stop himself.

(from this dvd commentary ask game three months ago im sorry, but basically people sent me passages from my fics for me to give commentary on like what i wanted the passage to do, what the moment means for the fic, what's going on in the characters' heads, why i wrote it, etc etc)

this is from the third chapter of foolproof, foolhardy, "work in a casual touch": what a great choice for a passage because I really love how this chapter ends with obi-wan trying very hard to make anakin see him as a man and not the youngling he once was or just a friend of his padawan’s, only for him to suffer through a pretty serious flashback—it’s something that comes up again and again in this fic, for master Skywalker and padawan Kenobi. They’re very much intertwined through their past and they can’t just ignore it or not address it. It keeps coming back up.

and I think in this case, with this flashback, it’s a trauma that binds them together. Obi-Wan almost died on Zygerria and Anakin saved him - Anakin killed many many people to save him, probably tossed the entire mission plan out the window the second he found out obi-wan was in trouble, has a lot of dark emotions and blood on his hands from this moment in particular….but in the aftermath of it, when they’re flying back to the Temple, obi-wan seeks anakin out for comfort.

obi-wan seeking anakin out and feeling safe around him is such a big thing for anakin, from the time they first met to every time after. Over and over again, obi-wan takes comfort in anakin when anakin assumes he is too dark and too frightening for anyone to find comfort in.

But with Obi-Wan, in this scene specifically, because of all of their thorny past, anakin doesn’t question if he can help a triggered and hurting obi-wan. He just puts him against his chest and tells him he’s here and nothing bad is going to happen to him because Anakin is with him and Anakin would never allow anything bad to happen to obi-wan. He’s saying both “you’re here at the temple so you’re safe” AND “you’re safe because I’m here.”

You know what i just realised??? The Dooku apprenticeship line is LITERALLY REPEATING.

Sabine is such an homage to Anakin, she doesnt listen to her master, has authority issues, she thinks with her heart more than her head like when she left Ahsoka's ship to go look at the map alone because to her finding Ezra was more important than 'preventing a war'. Sounds like someone?? And a version of this trait is present in all the padawans since Qui-gon.

Ignorant at first: We all know about Anakin but even Obi wan was a stuck up, he wanted to follow the orders of the Council more than he heard what his master had to say.

Humility after loss: But after Qui Gon died he became humble, just like how Ahsoka was a miscreant who, when she was young, wanted to complete missions regardless of Anakin's advice but grew up to be more thoughtful of her surroundings and appreciated her master's words better after she lost him.

Feelings over Training: Ahsoka couldnt finish her training like Anakin couldnt finish his padawan's. But theres a relation to Obi Wan too. I think in a way Obi Wan couldnt complete Anakin's training either. Because the War got in the way.

The Clone Wars highlighted multiple times that a war was no time for a padawan like Ahsoka to learn how to become a jedi. The jedi had to choose sides (but thats a whole another debate) so Ahsoka learned to become a soldier first, jedi second.

But that was the same for Anakin too in some respect. Obi Wan couldnt teach him how to be a jedi knight and help him deal with his fears about Padme at the same time. It wasnt his fault, Obi Wan was a great master (Anakin DID become one of the most powerful jedi ever), but he couldnt teach Anakin to let go like he let go of Satine. (Im not gonna dive into my thoughts about whether Obi wan was right)

But that circles back to Sabine through Ahsoka. Even though her training was incomplete, she became a great warrior, and, alongside Obi Wan, is considered the perfect example of what the Jedi ahould be even though shes called more of a Grey Jedi. But it shows that she had more Obi Wan in her while Sabine has more of Anakin. Its also a point that Sabine is not force sensitive which is why she naturally leans more on her instinct and feelings rather than training.

Sabine at this point resembles the lineage just like Ahsoka resembled her master when she was first introduced. I hope that we see Sabine and Ahsoka connect again and have a meaningful journey. Shes a great character and her initiative call to Ahsoka to tell her thats shes ready, tells a lot about how she can be a good apprentice.

me: oh that looks like a nice fic. it has quinlan/fox, obi-wan/cody, obi-wan and quinlan being besties, just what i was looking fo-

it also has clonecest. you can easily miss it.

it's not a nice surprise.

I feel like May the 4th is the day to watch all the fun me exciting Star Wars moments you love and revenge of the 5th is the day to watch the angstiest must hurtful Star Wars moments you love