over the dead sea

keeping you company

[binnarystar]

Su'cuy!

Kote, darasuum kote. Te racin ka'ra juaan kote. (Glory, eternal glory. The stars pale beside our might.)

i'm Ry (she/her) your resident doomed by the narrative enjoyer and dysfunctional family lover, and this is my little corner of the internet where i will yap about my current topic of interest: star wars

☆ you can find my published fics on: ao3

[yaksu0110]

self-destruct

[azure-cygni]

ordo fucking skirata

[mundirka]

[sheepfulsheepyardinspace]

anakin skywalker's relationship with the jedi order begins and ends with his mother.

the first time he meets a jedi, he's slave, and his first reaction is him saying, “no one can kill a jedi." and that means so much! because he is a slave, and even at age nine, he very explicitly knows that he nor his mother have no control over their own life or their own death. in the next breath, he asks, "have you come to free us [the slaves]?" for nine-year-old anakin, who lives and dies by his master's will and whim (and knows that very, very well), a jedi's power is intrinsically intertwined with a mastery over life and death which he has never had.

and qui-gon says no. and anakin asks him, "why else would you be here?" and that's never, ever answered to anakin's satisfaction. there must be a higher power and a higher goal, here, because up until qui-gon dispels this notion, the jedi have been the highest power anakin can conceive of. ultimately, anakin's freedom does not come from the jedi––he wins his freedom after having it gambled as valuable property—and his entrance into the jedi order comes with leaving his mother behind, his mother behind in slavery, in real and present and explicit danger. but the jedi did have the power to free his mother: anakin knows this, anakin asks this, and anakin is never answered—why didn't the jedi free the slaves?

anakin's most pivotal, most consequential meeting with the jedi order is his first meeting, and he's very much completely rejected by them, for things he can't control: his mother, his age. he is nine years old, has been freed from a lifetime of slavery maybe forty-eight hours before, and taken half-way across the galaxy with people he barely knows to meet an order he thought was myth with powers and rules he does not understand and have not been explained to him. when he is told he is afraid––of course he is.

"afraid to lose her?" yoda asks of shmi, and that line right there echoes off the great chasm that stands between anakin and the jedi order for his entire life. anakin, at such a tender age, is intimately aware that shmi is in clear and present immediate physical danger at all times. yoda is speaking hypothetically, existentially. anakin is not. anakin's fears are grounded deep in reality, of lifelong slavery, and yoda is one of the many standing before him who have the power to help and free his mother. so why not?

anakin's entire career as a jedi is founded on shmi, who told him, "don't look back," who anakin left behind as a slave, so in turn anakin tells his mother, "i'll come back and free you." but ten years later and shmi is still not free—as far as anakin knows.

it hangs over the narrative of aotc until anakin is holding his dead mother's body in his arms. by then, anakin is too late to free his mother, and it morphs: “I will learn to stop people from dying.”

it’s not a rational plan, or a reasonable goal, but it’s an understatement reaction that traces its origin directly back to anakin always having been very acutely aware that he has no control over life or death, especially since he was born as a slave. and no doubt! anakin’s skills drastically increase in the three years between aotc and rots. he goes from unceremoniously having an arm cut off by dooku to being able to relatively easily best him in a duel.

but from shmi’s death onward, every potential death of a loved one is now, in anakin’s mind, the same death played over and over. if he is running through every potential situation as a chance to re-do shmi’s death, he is the only unknown variable. as much as padmé’s death is complicated by their child’s fate hanging in the balance, it is, once again, shmi’s death.

there’s no wonder that anakin turns towards palpatine—who has manipulated and groomed him since age nine, from right when he left his mother—because yoda unknowingly recites the same lines in the script anakin has been feverishly relieving for years. yoda says: the jedi cannot help. his response was the same to padmé that is was to shmi: make peace with this, there is nothing to be done. but why? why not? why didn’t the jedi free the slaves, all those years ago? why can’t they save padmé?

the irony, of course, being that for all of the hellfire and fury anakin brings down on the order, he’s left with exactly the same as where he started. there are slaves. there is death—pointless, pointless death. shmi’s dead, padmé’s dead, his child’s dead. the republic rots away into the empire, because the empire had long before calcified in the bones of what had been a republic.

later, much later, palpatine demands the same thing from vader: i will torture your son, you will watch, and you cannot do anything—make your peace. and finally, finally, anakin shatters the cycle he and the galaxy are trapped in. he saves luke, leia lives, as anakin’s greatest triumphs, because it is the end of the old and beginning of something new. no more slaves. no more death.

[the-far-bright-center]

#i said it in a fic comment once and i'll say it here too#the prequels present 2 big questions: can a jedi free the enslaved? is it possible to return from the dark side?#and rotj answers: sometimes those 2 questions are one and the same. and in both cases the answer is yes (via @eldritchdemigodskywalkers)

[skywalkr-nberrie]

A lot of people latch onto Anakin's idea of "they should be made to" to indicate he was already a fascist when it's honestly just an indicator that he's thinking too simply. Yes, ideally the system should work that way, the problem is that situations and, more importantly, people are more complicated than that and can lead to issues. While I wouldn't necessarily call Anakin politically naïve, it's inarguable that he is a very straightforward thinker to a fault. If A is the problem, do B to solve it.

1000% correct. That scene really puts into perspective how simple minded Anakin is and this isn’t to say he’s not smart because he very much is intelligent but he’s not knowledgeable in Padmé’s field and that’s why there’s a difference between their words during this conversation. Padmé knows the dangers that would follow a dictatorship but Anakin doesn’t and his words may sound sinister and cunning but he’s really just exemplifying his “point A, point B” mentality. Should also be noted that Anakin isn’t the type to think he’s capable nor worthy of ruling over the galaxy, he completely denies the possibility when Padmé asked who should rule. “No, of course not me!” So when Anakin says that someone should rule and others should follow, he’s particularly pinpointing to someone like Padmé whom he knows would be a great leader who values morality and justice for all.

[the-far-bright-center]

I think there's a little more to it, as well. Imo, I think Anakin is also frustrated because he wants FAST solutions. He doesn't want to see people suffering endlessly while the powerful people (in his mind) sit around and debate on it for weeks, months, years, and decades on end. Is that a simplistic way of understanding how the governing and politics work? Yeah. But is it also a very understandable one for someone raised as a slave. And someone whose mother taught him the biggest problem in the universe is that people don't help each other. Anakin can never understand why he (and others, like the Jedi) can't just go and help solve all the problems right away. Since they must wait for a mandate from the Senate, that increases the frustration. So in Anakin's mind, someone good and well-meaning like Padme being 'in charge' and 'making' people get things done faster would benefit the people of the galaxy who need help SOONER than how things currently function. It doesn't seem to occur to some viewers that a former slave, for whom democracy was only ever an abstract concept and never even a remotely tangible way of life, might not fully comprehend how talking and debating endlessly in a room is supposed to positively affect suffering people thousands of light years away who require aid, or how it is solving any problems. Not when that 'someone' could have sent him there by now to be solving those problems with his lightsaber!

I say that not to be flippant, but because Anakin genuinely thinks this way. And he doesn't think any of this for the negative motivations that contemporary audiences want to ascribe to him. But rather because he's frustrated about not be allowed to HELP in a timely fashion. And we can see a clear example of this right in the story itself.... because of the rules under which he lives (a life dictated by the Jedi and the Senate), he is prevented from going to seek out his mother, whom he feels is in need of help. Not until it's far too late.

[azure-cygni]

empaths and eye bags

[catie-does-things]

Star Wars really said "Anakin Skywalker had issues rooted in childhood trauma that was not his fault" but also "Anakin made his own choices as an adult for which he alone is responsible" but ALSO "In spite of the truly evil things he chose to do Anakin was still capable of being loved and redeemed" and I think that's important.

[astra-lumen]

sorry but all fics where anakin is hated by the 501st are immediately bullshit to me. like. no.

the battalion that is literally known by the separatists as the one battalion who would follow their general blindly? the battalion who cracks jokes with him right after almost all of them died??? the battalion who during umbara was mentioning him like ‘dude this substitute is crazy i want our general back’? the battalion who lets their general touch their hands minutes before they all know theyre going to die for him, and who touch his hands back because they know thats not what he wants and they dont want him to blame himself??

THAT battalion?

or rex hating him? captain ‘keep your kriffing head down, sir’ rex?? captain ‘okay, then do it to humor me’ rex?? the mf who tells ahsoka that anakin has earned his rank and respect because all of 501st knows that he is loyal to them like they are to each other? that dude???

and ahsoka hating him?? ahsoka ‘i wont leave you, not this time’ tano??? ahsoka ‘my brother trained me’ tano??? ahsoka who banters and jokes and is always by anakin’s side?? THAT AHSOKA??? HIS LITTLE SISTER???

there are plenty of bad guys pre-order 66 to make into even worse people, or just create your own bad guys!! anakin doesnt play about his men’s life, he tries time and time again to make war and the frontlines something less traumatic for his padawan who really shouldn’t be on the frontlines at her age, and they all know how much he cares about them!!

[galactic-rhea]

I love you Anakin Skywalker they will never make me hate you, my extremely complicated, complex and tragic blorbo covered in blood<3

[azure-cygni]

I think about the canon implications of the name of his spaceship, a lot.

[grungeloser]

rex we love him

[ishida101-deactivated20260508]

Modern Setting

Omega struggles to get along with her mother Nala Se’s new husband, Lama Su, and feels she has no place at home. She frequently sneaks out to visit her biological father, Jango, lamenting her life… That’s the premise.

Boba is the son of Taun We, the woman who caused Jango’s divorce.

[azure-cygni]

I like him A Lot 🥺🫶💙 この物語はとても貴重です。

[based on @ishida101 's Fett Family Modern AU ]

[lazerswordweilder]

Considering writing fanfiction where the main plot point is Vader get’s de-aged and his officers and men are freaking out about it because they know nothing, what if he’s five and still has the power to choke them? What if they land on teenager who’s even more angsty and angry than Vader but probably way more impulsive? What if they get really unlucky and he’s in the middle of a breakdown or crisis or something? They have no idea what he was like or how powerful he was.

And then we go with Anakin who’s broody and has many issues, yes, but has the overlying theme of ‘I need to help’, and if it’s earlier in his career as a general he’s probably still smiley and less stressed and willing to go on rants about mechanics, and his lovely angel- friend. And even in battle he’s not willing, or at least makes an attempt not, to kill.

Everyone’s dealing with wiplash as he explains to a very confused Piett that they’re still sentients with lives no matter their political alignment.

[mmeiram]

based on this post and my longing for tragic love.

haha it's really fun to do a star wars marathon while drawing this, i assure you i was totally normal and did not sob the whole duration of revenge of the sith :D

comms // tip jar

[hayden-christensen]

STAR WARS APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 MAY 25: FAVOURITE MOVIE ▸ EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005) + trivia

In the original screenplay, when Anakin joins the Dark Side, he is no longer referred to as “Anakin”, only as “Vader”.

[in/sp]