Rating

Mature (Violence, Language, Smut)

Length

75k+ words, Complete

Summary

A Star Wars Episode IX story using elements of "The Rise of Skywalker" & "Duel of the Fates" with a happy ending

As the Resistance mounts a last ditch mission to break through the transmission blockade on the First Order Capitol of Coruscant, the last Jedi Rey races towards the hidden planet of Exegol to stop the return of the Sith...

Title Crawl

There Shall be Two Halves of a Whole One to Embody Power and also to Crave it A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... STAR WARS PROPHECY OF THE DYAD The iron grip of the FIRST ORDER has spread to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Only a few scattered planets remain unoccupied. Traitorous acts are punishable by death. Determined to suffocate a growing unrest and a continued insurrection led by GENERAL LEIA ORGANA and her RESISTANCE, Supreme Leader KYLO REN has silenced all communication between neighboring systems and travels to MUSTAFAR in search of a SITH artifact that promises the power to destroy any challenge to his reign...

Likes ❤️ and Reblogs 🔁 are much appreciated!

Why Obi-Wan and Anakin being a Force dyad not only makes sense but doesnt contradict canon

First of all: what exactly is a dyad?

A dyad is two physically separate individuals being the same presence in the Force. The only dyad bond that currently exists in canon is, of course, the one shared by Rey and Ben. They have an 11 year gap, meaning two people are not born a dyad, but develop a dyad bond over the course of their life (keep this in mind). They have a lot of amazing and unique abilities that nobody else has (like extremely powerful Force healing* and object transfer), but a few of their dyad feats are also found in the Obi-Wan/Anakin duo.

*Force healing isn't exclusive to the dyad btw, several Force users had this ability, including Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Here are some examples:

they can communicate telepathically from across the galaxy. Neither of them is very proficient at this as they only found out about it way too late, when they were very much enemies and Obi-Wan made himself undetectable (and from the Rako Hardeen arc we know that when he does this not even Anakin can recognize him);

they share feelings, memories and pain through the Force as if they're experiencing them together, as one, at the same time;

during their duel on Mustafar, Palpatine felt that Anakin was in danger, despite them not being nearly done fighting. This could be due to Palpatine sensing the dyad bond being severed, and any Force bond severed is dangerous as it can create a wound in the Force. Palpatine could have been worried about Anakin becoming a wound (tho i personally think that Obi-Wan is more likely to have become a wound instead);

upon realizing Rey and Ben are a dyad, Palpatine says that the dyad bond was "unseen for generations". It technically has been generations since Obi-Wan and Anakin, plus 'unseen' doesnt meant 'non-existent'. Palpatine might simply not have noticed, as "A Force dyad, binding two separate beings together, was not an easily discernible phenomenon." After all he only realizes Rey and Ben are a dyad when they fight him directly and as a team and he accidentally siphons their life force, which is a situation he has most definately never found himself in with Obi-Wan and Anakin;

remember the dyad bond being created over time? Palpatine tried (unsuccessfully) to form a dyad bond with Anakin, meaning that not only he knew about the prophecy of the dyad, but he sought to realize it in himself and, likely, getting rid of Anakin in order to avoid the prophecy of the Chosen One being realized instead. Anakin/Vader at that point had surrendered himself to Palpatine entirely, so there would be no reason for the bond not to be created. Unless, of course, Anakin already shared that connection with someone else;

them being a dyad would explain why Anakin had to die in order to bring balance to the Force, despite having already killed Palpatine: he needed to reunite with Obi-Wan so the dyad could be one again. Rey doesn't need to die because Ben transfered his life force to her. This is also why Ben doesn't appear as a Force ghost: other than lacking the training, he lives on in Rey;

on that note, Obi-Wan and Anakin being a dyad would also explain how Anakin was able to learn how to become a Force-ghost despite having no training at all (Sith cant become Force ghosts so Palpatine certainly didnt teach him). and even in legends, its Obi-Wan who reaches out to him in the space between death and beyond and teaches him the way.

An argument against the Obi-Wan/Anakin dyad is the "Rey and Ben are unique and nobody can do the things they can do" argument. Which is true, they are absolutely unique and we have never seen any character, in either legends or canon, do the things they can do, but I wouldn't consider it a strong argument. Nearly every Force bond is different and unique (some Jedi could create bonds with other Force users, some could create bonds with anyone, some could create bonds with animals, others could only create bonds with their master/apprentice) and the strength of those bonds varies depending on the people who share them.

We only have a single example of what a dyad looks like, in canon, and that is simply not enough to rule out the possibility of other characters having shared that bond, especially knowing how difficult it is to recognize!

Obi-Wan and Anakin could not transfer objects through the Force or touch each other across light-years, but I would argue they never needed to, as they were so inseparable that they were concieved as a single entity by the entire galaxy:

(Revenge of the Sith - Matthew Stover)

And to further confirm the depth of their bond, here is Yoda sensing** the effect of Obi-Wan's death on Anakin all the way to Dagobah:

(There is Another - Gary D. Schmidt, from From A Certain Point of View)

**He sensed Obi-Wan and Anakin clashing against each other as well, describing the fight as follows: "Then the two vibrations met, and their pulses fought across the back of the Force."

Making Obi-Wan and Anakin a dyad would also make the Rey and Ben dyad make more sense: Anakin was created by the Force itself to be the Chosen One as a response to Plagueis trying to create the perfect dark side user and Sith warrior -> Anakin then forming a dyad bond with Obi-Wan, a steadfast light side user through and through -> that bond being severed causing the dark side to take over the light -> Anakin's twin children being equally capable of redeeming him (perhaps another dyad, or something akin to it since they could also do some of the things obikin/reylo can do) -> the dyad being reunited with Anakin's death -> Palpatine is actually not dead so balance needs to be brought back yet again -> Anakin's grandson forms a dyad bond with Palpantine's granddaughter (finalizing what Palpatine had failed to do with Anakin) -> the dyad is fully realized when Ben dies to bring Rey back to life.

This would make Anakin retain the most important role in the story as the Chosen One and the 'patriarch' (word used loosely) of the dyad lineage.

And last, but most certainly not least, Obi-Wan and Anakin lead the Open Circle Fleet during the Clone Wars. The Open Circle emblem, specifically, represented the two of them and the power of their bond: "The heraldic emblem consisted of a yellow circle that was formed by two separate semi-circle arcs. One arc represented Kenobi, the other, Skywalker. The image signified that while they were both two independent halves, together they formed a single entity."

(Revenge of The Sith - Matthew Stover)

So, It Wasn't Planned After All

https://x.com/RichEisenShow/status/1734703529552699725?s=20

While Adam Driver is making the rounds to promote "Ferrari," he drops by the Rich Eisen Show and when asked about Ben Solo during the True or False segment, Adam spills the tea.

He doesn't get asked much about Star Wars so this is the first time I think he's talked about his character arc since TROS was unleashed upon us 4 years ago. And he drops the bomb that the Ben Solo thing wasn't planned from the beginning. That's right, Bendemption happened late in the game. He says that JJ Abrams told him the idea was Vader In Reverse (starts out vulnerable, ends entrenched in the dark side) and he kept that concept in mind throughout the time he filmed the ST, until they changed it with the last film. Adam has alluded to the concept of Vader In Reverse before but this is the first time he's gone into greater detail about it, including the revelation that the decision to turn Kylo from the dark side came during the third film.

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone who read the Duel of the Fates script and it explains why Ben hardly says a word during his scenes on Exegol. Abrams and Co. conceived of Kylo Ren as an evil bastard whose destiny was to get eviller; killing Han Solo was meant to be what sent him down the path of no return. Then two things happened: TLJ and Driver's commitment to humanizing Kylo Ren. People loved Kylo and Rey together (hence Reylo exploding in popularity) and they fell in love with Adam. They empathized with Kylo. So they changed course with TROS, a little. Kylo returns to the light as Ben but he is quickly dispatched once the big battle is over. I believe Ben's death was for two reasons: one, they were less invested and focused in Ben's part of the story than we were and two, there was always the intent to end the Skywalker line so Star Wars could focus on new characters. Remember, Rey essentially turned Skywalker into a title that could be transferred to anyone.

That the story changed over the course of the trilogy isn't that big a deal. There was no Chosen One prophecy until the prequels. Leia wasn't Luke's sister until Lucas wrote ROTJ. Han wasn't guaranteed to get out of carbonite because nobody was sure if Harrison Ford was going to come back. Instead of a tyrannical, ruthless bastard like Lee Pace's emperor in Apple TV's Foundation show, Kylo Ren gave us quivering lips, teary eyes, and mooning over the heroine who is supposed to be his enemy. When Rian Johnson introduced the bond between Rey and Kylo, Abrams and Terrio explained it as a dyad and made it prominent in the film. The kiss got put in because Reylo was so popular. Okay, fine.

The problem was they never should have made the Jedi Killer from early drafts Han and Leia's only child. As an old Star Wars fan who saw every film since 1977 and followed the Skywalker clan for over 40 years, I didn't want to see Anakin Skywalker's grandson end up even more evil than he was. What a huge bummer that would've been, even worse than if Rey was killed off. (For the record, I hated the whole Darth Jacen thing so much in the legends books I stopped reading them.) Abrams and Terrio probably realized it was going to be a problem returning to the idea that Ben was too evil to save; TROS already comes off as a tragic ending rather than a happy, triumphant one. And it goes against the whole message of Star Wars. So it ends up being Vader 2.0 and fans hoping Ben would survive were disappointed. I wasn't fond of the idea of exile or something as Ben's fate prior to TROS, but now I think that probably would've been the best outcome. It would've left a lot of possibilities to explore in future SW stories without having to come up with a convoluted explanation for bringing him back.

As much as they fumbled the ball, I'm glad they at least spared us Evil Kylo 4 Ever and Adam's turn as Ben was great even without anything to say besides "Ow." Adam sounded a little disappointed to me but maybe I'm just reading into it too much. In any case he has also stated in recent interviews he would be open to returning to Star Wars, so I guess we can still be hopeful even if he doesn't appear in the upcoming film. (Just don't wait 30 years, okay?)

@theneutralmime

You might have to be more specific than that. Most of what we see done with the Force is perfectly normal, like being able to block blaster bolts with a lightsaber and stuff, so I guess I'll try to hit on some of the bigger more controversial uses of the Force and see if these answer your questions. Keep in mind that the Force is generally a pretty SOFT magic system and while there are definitely some guidelines to it, there's a lot you can get away with via "rule of cool" here.

Somehow Palpatine returned: Arguably Palpatine living is actually perfectly within canon given that we have examples of Sith characters living through shit that should've killed them, most obviously Maul (something done by Lucas himself so we can't just blame it all on Disney bringing characters back). But within Disney canon there's also the Grand Inquisitor and Reva who both live through injuries that seem like they should've killed them by utilizing the dark side to sustain them. So Palpatine living is actually perfectly do-able within canon in terms of "how the Force works", regardless of how stupid it was NARRATIVELY and how annoying I find the trend in general.

Luke's Force projection: This doesn't seem like that weird to me, it's definitely NEW and not something we saw anybody else doing in prior films, but it's also not something anyone else would've truly benefited much from and given that it kills Luke almost immediately afterward, it's clearly a VERY last resort option and only really useful as a distraction anyway. It's not that far off of the whole Force Ghost idea to me and sort-of draws on the idea that the Jedi are empaths to some degree, so I'm not too fussed about this. It's fun and I appreciate all the clues about what's happening that are THERE if you look for them but not necessarily super obvious before the reveal.

Leia saving herself from the vacuum of space: I don't dislike this one either, actually. Leia's got a couple of seconds or so in which she can react to a warning from the Force somehow and while we don't see any other Jedi actively fighting in space without a suit or anything, we DO see Plo Koon fighting in space with nothing but his air mask which should still kill him and somehow doesn't, so it's not like Leia surviving this is completely out of the realm of possibility to me. Besides, it's the first super explicit use of the Force Leia got in the films and pissed off a lot of crybaby fanboys who were convinced Leia wasn't Force sensitive, so I'm willing to give it a lot of grace for that alone.

The Force dyad: I actually don't have an issue with the mechanics of the dyad and more have an issue with the way it's utilized in the narrative. Personally, I find it a little silly that some sort of extra special Force connection would exist between two people at THIS point in time and not like... when a literal child of prophecy was alive. If I was going to believe there was a special Force connection between ANYBODY, it would've been Anakin/Obi-Wan (narratively foiled anyway and involves a child of prophecy) or Luke/Leia (twin children of the child of prophecy separated at birth for their own safety). And of course, if it HAD to be in the Sequel trilogy for whatever reason, we all know it should've been Finnrey, for a MULTITUDE of reasons. The other issue I have with the dyad is that they change it from Snoke creating it specifically to mess with Kylo in TLJ to their connection being some sort of special prophecized thing by TROS, so it's not even clear in the narrative what precisely the damn thing even IS or why Rey and Kylo even HAVE IT because the stupid directors and studio execs couldn't agree on it I guess.

Force healing: I know some people have major issues with this one and I get why, but it honestly doesn't bother me that much. TROS explains it as being a byproduct of the dyad anyway, something ONLY these people can do because being connected the way they are allows them to access powers no one else could. It's one of the ways I think the dyad DOES work in the sense that if they're going to give these two characters this special connection then hey fuck it why not use it to let them have a special Force power a lot of fans want to see but that wouldn't really make sense in any other context? I'm obviously NOT a huge fan of "Force healing resurrection via True Love's Kiss" or whatever, but the general concept of Force healing coming from the dyad works fine for me. It's a little heavy handed and on the nose, but... it's fine.

Leia saving Kylo through... "Force whammy"?: This is the big one I hate, this is the one I cannot STAND. If Sith/Dark siders could just be Force whammied into not being evil anymore, WHY DID NOBODY DO THIS TO ANAKIN. Why isn't Obi-Wan trying this from Tatooine, why doesn't Ahsoka try this, why doesn't Yoda or Luke try this? Yes, it kills Leia to do it, but if it whammies Anakin away from being dark and turns him against the Emperor earlier, WHY NOT DO IT. And where would Leia have even LEARNED HOW TO DO THIS, why did she WAIT so long to do it if she knew how this whole time? But the biggest reason I hate this is because it fucks up the entire theme of Star Wars which is CHOICE. If the Sith and Darksiders can just be Force whammied into goodness again, it takes away the CHOICE they need to make to be good. It's SO SO VITALLY IMPORTANT that these characters CHOOSE TO BE GOOD AGAIN if that's the path they're going to go down. It's important that they chose to evil and it's important that they choose to be good again. A Force whammy isn't a fucking choice, it's Leia just... jumpstarting Kylo's brain or whatever. It's just wiping out the things causing him to be evil I guess so that it's just no longer a problem. It's cheating, it's STUPID. And if they'd gone with the idea that Kylo was genuinely being like mind-controlled by Snoke into doing the things he's doing and that none of this WAS his choice and so the Force whammy allows him to finally make his own choices again, that would be one thing, but both TFA and TLJ emphasize that this isn't the case, Kylo is MAKING THESE CHOICES ON HIS OWN and continues to make them no matter how many people offer him another chance to do better. It doesn't matter if it's his father or Rey or Luke, Kylo just KEEPS MAKING THE SAME CHOICES, even after Snoke is dead. A Force whammy should do NOTHING to Kylo because he's not being controlled and it takes away the entire point of Kylo's story being that he CHOSE TO BE EVIL and that he, unlike Anakin, cannot just be saved by love alone. This one stinks, this isn't how the Force works, and it's not how this narrative works.

The only other controversial thing I could think of was how quickly Rey learns to do things, but that's not so much a matter of "how the Force works" because everything she does is pretty basic Force skills like telepathy, telekinesis, and mind tricks.

AU looks for Rey and Ben

Commentary under the cut

I initially conceived of this as being solely about the hairstyles, but then I couldn’t just make them wear one outfit because different outfits go with different looks, so it increasingly became a very high effort video game character customizer. It’s just too much fun to play dress-up, and what better time to indulge my love of space fashion than with a custom template of my favs!!

I actually do have a longtime dream of making a paper doll set because I love outfits, I love canonverse AUs, and the lack of significant variety in their looks throughout the sequel trilogy has obviously driven me to madness, but. drawing clothing on entire head-to-toe figures is a whole thing. These busts alone took so much time I don’t know if I’d ever finish something more extensive.

Miscellaneous notes and thought processes from staring at this for way too long:

Short-haired Rey/long-haired Ben 4ever

Rey wearing green and Ben wearing blue is my ideal configuration so it’s what I will always default to. They are simply the correct colors, sorry I DO make the rules

Of course this whole thing came about mostly because I wanted to give Ben a Leia hairstyle. OF COURSE. And the outfit is stolen from Bail—I previously made a photomanip of this but didn’t quite complete it (yet?? ehh. why bother at this point). Funnily enough in that manip I had turned Bail’s grey ROTS cloak blue for Ben, and then in the Obi-Wan show they did that same color swap and gave Bail an actual blue cloak. Curse my gift of prophecy

I played with giving Rey Ben’s exact same scar—which also looks rad—but because I overthink everything it seemed more fitting to make it a mirror image instead. Dyad things

The EU did already have a guy with Jason Todd hair, but setting that aside I’m still pretty attached to Kylo Red Hood parallels. And a while ago as I was thinking about the white streak again I realized it would make sense to extend it from where his scar is, symbolic of how death and resurrection would be experiences that stemmed from that initial injury. I’m not a huge fan of his scar being completely healed in canon because I’d rather things have permanent reminders instead of erasing them (which is generally a whole problem with TROS!!!), so I like the idea that it would change rather than disappear. Anyway the cost of resurrection is: looking extra cool 😔

Sci-fi women with shaved heads are very special to me, but specifically in the history of Star Wars I have a deep fondness for Natalie Portman’s buzz cut during the ROTS press. She looked so good, RIP bald Padme

Rey’s black cowl is modeled on Kylo’s TFA cowl, but I also imagined it as the good boy sweater. Either way, she’s wearing his clothes

I know Ben in the standard white shirt is pretty boring, but I needed a low collar to showcase his hair (ostensibly the point of this entire exercise!) and I liked pairing a white outfit for him with a black outfit for Rey, because reversals are the best part of their whole deal. Also: casual space Gandalf the White. Also also: I think I just ended up making him the transformed Beast from Beauty and the Beast. APPROPRIATE. It was kind of tough for me to settle on a look to go with the long hair because it was the Ben hairstyle that I thought worked best with every outfit.

Rey’s green wrap/robe is the most improvised clothing here, just aiming for something nice and green without getting overly fancy. I sort of vaguely pulled from the Chandrilan formalwear we saw on Andor, but I mean, the kimono wrap is a pretty standard Star Wars wardrobe staple regardless. The white mock neck undershirt is definitely inspired by Mon. So you can maybe say she’s dressed in Chandrilan clothes because it’s Ben’s homeworld, and he helped her with the braid because yes I subscribe to Ben hair braiding fanons, I’m so sorry, I’m in too deep!!!!!!!

Puffy jacket! Even more colorful!! To be honest I have throw pillows with these colors and I love them, but I was also thinking to give Ben a yellow accent as a nod to Rey’s lightsaber color. This is where it gets to a point that I could spend days switching out color combos, a dangerous game

This was way more time-consuming than I expected it to be, but that seems to be true of all art projects for me as I get older. Now I gotta try to sustain some productivity and move on to the next one of my billion WIPs. Being obsessed with a dead ship and character for which there is vanishingly little hope of ever getting new canon material is so much work

the prophecies spoke of you and I

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/50780605 by Kris678 The first time they met, Anakin was nine. Obi-Wan was fourteen, and standing on the head of a krayt dragon. Words: 1737, Chapters: 1/4, Language: English Fandoms: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Qui-Gon Jinn Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker Additional Tags: same age au, (kind of), Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan Anakin Skywalker, theological nightmare obi-wan & anakin, Mace is tired, Qui-Gon Is Trying, Obi-Wan Kenobi Has Self-Esteem Issues, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Force Dyad Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, That's Not How The Force Works (Star Wars), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/50780605

"It all made sense now why Anakin's fall to the Dark side had so deeply stabbed Obi Wan in the heart, why it felt so wrong to fight against his brother, why he couldn't bring himself to kill him... And why he felt that a part of him had died with Anakin that day on Mustafar...

Master and Knight...

They were a Force Dyad, which was unheard, and unseen for generations...

Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were One. Two halves of the same thing.

Obi Wan felt, as if a new part of his brain had become accessable to him. And yet this revelation offered more questions than answers. 'Did this mean that they were supposed to bring Balance to the Force together, according to words of the prophecy of the Chosen One? But how could they defeat the Sith if Anakin himself was now a Sith?'"

Quote from my obidala fanfiction, Hope Never Lost.

CANON COMPLIANT

The Brightest Star in the Republic

(COMPLIANT WITH: Tales of the Jedi, Phantom Menace)

The Voice of the Republic

(COMPLIANT WITH: Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith)

The Architect of Palpatine’s Public Image

(COMPLIANT WITH: Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, Solo, Rogue One, A New Hope)

The Twice-Condemned Traitor

(COMPLIANT WITH: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Mandolorian, Ahsoka)

The Grandmother of the Resistance

(COMPLIANT WITH: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker)

CANON DIVERGENT

The Second Chancellor Valorum

CHANCELLOR — (AFFILIATED WITH: not applicable)

Force Suppressed Child of Prophecy

JEDI — (AFFILIATED WITH: not applicable)

Path of the Wayseeker

JEDI — (AFFILIATED WITH: @spokewar)

The Lost Heiress of House Serenno

SITH — (AFFILIATED WITH: @fallesto)

The Chosen One’s Dyad

(AFFILIATED WITH: @forcenexus, @shadowedlights)

The First Daughter of the United States

MODERN — (AFFILIATED WITH: not applicable)

merlin and morgana both being born two years after arthur and then turning out to be the most prodigious magic users (and also immortal) really makes you think that perhaps both of them had been the triple goddesses' or destiny's answer to the Great Purge.

them being part of a natural dyad prophecy (light/dark) (love/hate) (construction/destruction) (good/evil) (life/death) really cements that.

*putting on my anakin apologist hat*

no one can ever fully understand or judge what Anakin/Vader went through because he is a literal demi-god made by the Force itself. THE FORCE. the intangible, all-powerful force. yes, his choices are his own but his path is out of his control as per his Force-determined destiny. this is canon, my dudes.

only those he encounters who have compassion (luke- his son, obiwan-forcebond dyad, padme -marriage) can even come close to understanding the suffering & confusion of his inner life. everyone else just uses him or sees him as evil (palpatine, the Sith, the Senate, even the Council to a small degree, - the Jedi are good but they still canonically used him as a tool to fulfill the prophecy).

anakin and vader can't be technically 100% beholden to human morality bc he is the ✨Force✨ itself. and at all times his destiny is directed by the Force's will in response to the behaviors of those around him. in an ideal world, he could have just killed sidious and helped retrofit the Order, but he couldn't pull that out of thin air because destiny is complex and involves the wills, actions, and desires of many other people coinciding.

he fights becoming evil with all that's in him- until he finally falls when faced with a choice... not for the gain of power or to express hate because that is not Anakin! destiny instead uses his love for his child and Padme against him.

palpatine manipulates him with love because Anakin is full of love at his heart!!

even as Vader reigns supreme Anakin surfaces to free Obi-wan of guilt in OWK.

he has two halves, anakin and vader, just like the FORCE because he IS the force. anakin is goodness. vader is evil incarnate. he is both. he is a god of Balance.

he was literally born to fall and create balance, one way or the other. yet he fought it, with his human soul, every step of the way.

he is a tragic hero who fulfills his destiny and then !!!! returns to the good prime ego Anakin, to be a Jedi (his life long wish), with all the wisdom and knowledge of suffering borne from his time as Vader, accepting both as his identity, as the personification of what we all (and The Galaxy) must learn....

stop fighting with ourselves & each other. take responsibility for our choices even if we couldn't help it.

he realizes something few else realized (not the Sith or Jedi): he like us all, are Both!!

therefore, he becomes a true Master and is allowed to live an eternal life at one and at peace, with Obi-wan.

mic drop

Rated Mature

Chapter Summary

Guided by Force visions sent by the burnt mask of Darth Vader, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren travels to Mustafar in search of a Sith artifact that promises the power to destroy any challenge to his reign...

Excerpt

Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order, couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation as the dropship carrying him and a squad of elite stormtroopers descended into the planet of Mustafar.

His journey to Mustafar felt to him like a pilgrimage of sorts, visiting the planet his grandfather, the great Sith Lord Darth Vader, once resided.

Yes, he was the Supreme Leader, the de-facto Emperor of the galaxy-- far surpassing anything his grandfather had accomplished in life-- but Kylo still sought his guidance, and his guidance was what led him here.

Kylo had accomplished so much since slaying his master Snoke and taking his place at the head of the First Order nearly a year and a half ago. He had taken the First Order from a nomadic military junta that still hid in the Unknown Regions to heights that rivaled the Empire at its peak. His Order occupied every single major inhabited planet. He re-conquered Coruscant and made his capitol, just as Emperor Palpatine did during his reign.

Yet despite his enormous success, Kylo was still as troubled as ever. The Resistance had gained little ground since he decimated them on Crait, yet they still remained persistent.

The Resistance... led by his mother. Leia. When the moment came before during the attack on the Resistance’s then flagship the Raddus... he couldn't press the trigger to finish her with his TIE Silencer's missiles. He wasn’t sure he'd be able to do it even if given another opportunity. He wasn’t sure he'd be able to murder her like he did his father. A deed that continued to haunt him nearly two years on.

The Resistance... joined by the scavenger. The last Jedi.

She had rejected him and betrayed him after he risked everything and offered her everything. He thought she was different, but she was just like everyone else. Just like Luke Skywalker. Betrayers. Liars. He was not bluffing when he promised his bastard of an uncle that he would destroy her and their precious Jedi Order. All of it.

He hated her. He hated that a part of him still felt everything but hate for her.

Rey...

Likes ❤️ and Reblogs 🔁 are much appreciated!

heavy is the silence that falls around the tent. most of the eyes surrounding them are trained uncomfortably on the floor, or flitting to neighbors to gauge their reaction— they look anywhere but at the 3 people in the center of the room.  thor, rey. . .  and ben.  a hand is clasped none - too - gently around his arm; a more delicate touch finds thor’s chest, though he doesn’t look away from ben.  the tension is palpable, the loathing apparent.  the distrust, the fear; they are at each others’ throats like long - time enemies.  thor can’t tell which emotion is the strongest.

awful memories rise to the surface of his mind.  when last he was left out of a fight involving the two of them. . .  he had almost lost her forever.  it had been ben’s doing.  is it worse— now that he has begun to gain trust and earn the respect of their friends?  thor thinks so.  to lose to an enemy is one thing; to dare begin to see and accept the light only to be betrayed is devastating.  thor isn’t intent on reliving the past.

to go along against their wishes, refusing to cooperate, would slow them down.  not all problems can be solved with brute force, a strike of lightning.  he knows that.  two sides of the same prophecy combining their powers, simply, makes more sense.  it is quicker, more efficient.  it doesn’t mean he likes it.  but all know, surely, the depths of his distaste for the dyad.

merely thinking it twists & coils at his stomach: they share something he will never understand.  they share something he can’t protect her from.  before, ben had had the chance to handle her mind with care.  instead he chose to punish her.  thor isn’t likely to forgive and forget— made evident by the rage that burns along the surface of his skin, the jerk that brings ben’s face closer to his own.  distant, quiet, thunder rumbles amongst a rainstorm outside.

“this is a chance to prove yourself,” thor starts, his voice gruff.  “for your own sake, i hope— sincerely— that you take that chance to restore the faith in you that has long since been lost.  the alternative will cost you your life.  if you betray her, if you allow anything to happen to her—“

@lightsiided : nothing will take me away from you.

though he fights it, he lets his eyes shift to rey’s face.  beyond the reassurance, he sees the pleading in her eyes.  the sound of her voice is soothing.  a coolant to his fire.  looking into the face he loves threatens to soften him, to weaken the angry exterior to expose something much more vulnerable beneath.  the falter is visible on thor’s face, audible in his exhale.  the feather-light trail of fingers along his arm doesn’t help.

“if you allow anything to happen to her,” he repeats, returning his attention to ben, “nothing will stand between you and i.  i want to ensure that you understand me completely: she is the only thing that has kept you safe thus far.  should something happen to her, nothing will stop me.”

thor remains as he is a moment longer, his eyes locked on ben’s.  the rage has dissolved, leaving behind only knowing.  a cold finality.  as surely as he draws his next breath and hears his pulse in his ears, he knows the violence that will follow any harm coming to his wife.  carelessly— with a light shove— ben is released, and thor steps back.  he eyes everyone around them, before his gaze settles on rey again.

he is only ever soft with her.  all the love returns to him as he turns into her touch, at last.  the press of his fingers to her arm is soft.  “will you come find me, before the two of you leave?  i would like to have a moment alone to say goodbye.”

What Corrain's relationship with his siblings like? How much older is he then his half siblings?

After the dust settles...he's on surprisingly good terms with them, actually - and both Vaylin and Arcann survive.

Chronologically, he's less than a year older than Arcann - maybe around seven or eight months older - and therefore just about three-to-four years older than Vaylin. So...when he's finally freed from the carbonite, he's therefore younger than *both* of his siblings, a fact which they will forever rub in his face. The numbers are as follows - Corrain is taken prisoner by Zakuul when he's 24 and some change - at which point Vaylin is just 21, and Arcann is about to turn 24. Then, when he's unfrozen, he's still 24 (almost 25), but Arcann is 29 and Vaylin is 26.

What changes everything for their relationship - and more importantly, helps Vaylin to avoid death - is a combination of three things. - One - Arcann and Corrain are told by Valkorion that they're brothers to knock them off-kilter. It's a massive shock to both of them, but Arcann's focus thereafter twists to *Corrain being the rightful heir to Zakuul* and more Scion prophecies predicting his fall from power at 'his brother's hands' and etc. Arcann doesn't want to believe that he has another brother, especially one that Valkorion has appeared to favor over him for No Apparent Reason (again) - but that connection makes the fight between them personal in the "I want our father to acknowledge ME" vein, rather than "Emperor Trying to Crush Annoying Ant." So when Corrain displays both his strength in the Force, untainted by Valkorion, and how cruel Valkorion's hold on him is during their battle over Odessen, Arcann starts to understand why Corrain was the one able to kill their father and stops being quite so jealous and wary of him. - Two - Corrain hates Valkorion because of the Castellan Restraints. With every fiber of his being. It's a hatred that cannot be forgiven or forgotten - he will literally destroy himself (and has before) to kill Valkorion/Vitiate, and it all stems from Corrain's time on board the Emperor's Fortress. It's the depth and breadth of this fury that eventually convinces Vaylin and Arcann of his truthfulness in his overtures to ally with them against Valkorion - and in Vaylin's case especially, it's his understanding of what it feels like to be conditioned against your will. Corrain knows what it's like to be Vitiate's tool, and therefore intimately understands both Arcann and Vaylin's underlying motivations - Arcann's being to prove himself better than what Valkorion thought of him, and Vaylin's being to set herself free from Valkorion's control at any cost. - Three - Corrain and Vaylin are paired in the Force - they're a Dyad. They're two sides of the same coin, both of whom suffered near-identical forms of torture and control at Valkorion's hand, but their backgrounds split them - Corrain didn't completely break thanks to his Jedi training, while Vaylin did. So when their Force Bond first forms while she's visiting Arcann's carbonite vaults - he understands everything she's ever felt about Valkorion, but he came out of that horror able to heal from it. And his connection to the light side of the Force slowly helps Vaylin to grow more stable over time - it reintroduces her to emotions beyond hate and pain and cruelty - and by the time Corrain breaks out, she's both more stable mentally and more aware of her own motivations and emotions. Ergo - when Corrain calls out to her during her party on Zakuul, pointing out that she really doesn't want power, she wants freedom, but the only freedom she's ever known is THROUGH power and if she'd just give him a chance he could prove her wrong- she realizes he's right, because she's in a much less anguished state of mind. So she throws down the gauntlet - a "let me unlock my powers, then fight me to prove you're strong enough to do what you say you can, and I'll cede the throne to you" - instead of going on rampage. She's also more stable throughout Arcann's time on the throne, and gives Corrain insider assistance at times, because she's trying to figure out how Arcann sees her.

This all means that the Arcann in my plot surrenders to Corrain on Voss, because he finally trusts in Corrain's motivations and compassion - he doesn't feel the need to run. And when Corrain wins the duel with Vaylin on Nathema (and accidentally restores the planet in the process) Vaylin is thereafter loyal to him, because he did what he promised and is 'strong enough' to protect her free will from Valkorion.

Both Vaylin and Arcann in the Moonrise Legacy are stripped of any real decision-making authority, which they both understand, but Corrain names Vaylin the captain of his personal guard, and names Arcann as an advisor to the legislative body he creates on Zakuul after he takes the throne as a sign of trust in them on a personal level. And unlike him and Iomlan, who agree to have a more adult-to-adult kind of friendship, the three of them do manage to connect as siblings after a while, and Vaylin and Arcann are both part of the few in attendance when Corrain, Theron and Lana finally get married.

Imagine that Leia, a newly powerful force-user, begins to have concerning visions about the future, and of her family’s complicated past. When her son is born, the visions culminate into a shocking omen. Her son would become one of the most powerful Jedi in history, at one terrible cost: His surrender to the dark side. And he has only one fate: Death.

To save her son, Leia does the only thing she can: she cuts herself off from the Force, and vows that her child will never train in the ways of the Jedi. This only complicates things as Ben grows to be an obviously powerful force-user in desperate need of a teacher. But Leia’s unwanted visions never stop, and Ben’s affinity for the dark side only grows, so she refuses.

Luke, desperate for a way to save his nephew, and attempting to abide by his sister’s wishes, dedicates his time to recovering the remnants of the Jedi Order and training a new generation of Jedi that just might be able to rewrite Ben’s destiny.

Luke soon hears of a young force-sensitive on the planet Jakku. And when he goes to find her, he is instead given a vision, a prophecy of one final battle between the Dark and the Light. Good vs. Evil. Ben was born of the Dark Side, and this young girl of the Light. A Force Dyad. She is destined to kill him, or be killed by him, which would wrench the galaxy into imbalance forever.

Refusing to let this come to pass, Luke leaves the girl on Jakku, unable to imagine a future where this girl kills his nephew, or one where his nephew kills the girl. He returns home to his sister and asks one last time to make Ben his apprentice. He tells Leia he understands, that he has finally seen as she has, and he vows his life to stop it.

But prophecies cannot be unwritten. And although Leia finally approved his training, and Luke swore anything to protect his sister’s child, Ben was lost.

Until one day, many years later, the girl abandoned on Jakku finds Luke on his refuge of Ahch-To to return a once lost lightsaber and ask him for the one thing he cannot give her…

tl;dr I just want there to be a different reason for how/why everything went down, and I always wondered why they never incorporated a prophecy into the sequel saga, because the other two sagas have one. Especially with the Force Dyad stuff, it just needs a good ole’ doomsday prophecy to tie everything together.

The whole Sith Rule of Two coming from the Dyad prophecy was always a weird addition to me and I had to explain it to myself as a potential game of telephone and appropriation that goes from "two who are one" to "one with power, one to crave it". Even if novels are often contradicted, until that happens, it seems Sith still believed in the Dyad and tried to form it with apprentices. The idea was always off to me because it would mean a Sith, someone whose ideology is based on the self first, would have to share power.

To me, I'm thinking that Sith might try to form this connection BECAUSE they're selfish. As in, they attain Dyad status, but then kill their partner to basically absorb their power. The two who are one becomes just one OP Sith Lord. Granted, I doubt this might even work. The whole point of the Dyad is unity between two people, that unique connection being why it has that power. But do Sith care? No, if it will get them more power, they're gonna try it.

However, part of me does wonder... what if this is also part of the Sith quest for immortality? If you're one being in the Force but two beings, that increased life energy might have Sith going "aha, maybe I can use this to live twice as long, and with my power even longer."

Anyway I'm mostly rambling, I'm just thinking despite these weird additions to Sith lore that on the surface seem to contradict Sith philosophy, you may be able to get potentially interesting ideas for stories here.

anakin and obi-wan are a force dyad and no one can convince me that they’re not. obi wan just had to whisper his name on that ship and from LIGHTYEARS away anakin heard it. they were two halves of the same warrior. they had shared visions in the kenobi show. they were meant to be together and after RotS after obi-wan had defeated anakin they were still bound together by the force, after he thought he had killed anakin. fuck that prophecy that says the first force dyad in unseeable times would be during the new republic because i don’t believe that rey and ben solo were the first, no before them it was obi-wan and anakin.