THE ECLIPSE OVER NABOO AKA STAR WARS DR
. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁. 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘰, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘹𝘺, 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 …
₍ 11/7938 ₎ — ₍ 04/7953 ₎
lived a girl named kaurinna [kor-in-ah], the crown princess of naboo, born into a galaxy of never ending war. though her planet was known to be a peaceful one—advocating for the end of the violence and unification of all—the republic’s endless conflicts crept into every corner of her palace. so while she learned early from her etiquette classes that charm and poise could shield her from many a thing, only strength could keep her alive.
before her birth, kaurinna’s family had publicly endorsed the current chancellor of her time. of course, he was a just a rising senator from their own world then. one they busied themselves defending, funding and trusting that his ascent would finally do away with the chaos of the galaxy. for years, it seemed wise. that is, until planets her family had long supported before him were left to starve beneath his advised military occupation. you see, naboo had always been loud in their advocacy but with the chancellor’s power growing, their resistance had become discreet. it wasn’t that they suspected him or planned to rebel—they only wanted to share bread. they thought their compassion in the face of chaos wouldn’t be seen by palpatine.
but unfortunately, that level of optimism costed them everything.
once the republic reshaped itself into something unrecognizable, accusations against them arrived swiftly and without warning. they were the first of many to be made an example of what this suffocating empire did to those who faced the emperor’s wrath. the crown family of one of the galaxy’s most beloved planets had been framed for treason. falsified paper trails of their conspiracy against the empire were found and suddenly, they were to be executed for their crimes. a trial was broadcast to trillions in the galaxy—if you had a tv, you saw it—but it served no justice. only spread the message to those who may oppose the new regime that if even this royal house could burn, then they were no different. and the galaxy watched as said royal house was reduced to just a cautionary tale.
but this was not the end of the naberrie line… on the eve of their execution, while the palace awaited their sentence, kaurinna was smuggled off-world, her identity severed from public record. by morning, her family would die in the name of order. by nightfall, the empire would have its message. but it would not have her. and that is what her family cared about.
now 8 years later, coruscant is the city where the empire’s golden boy resides. anakin skywalker—the chosen one who ended a war that had devoured 25 years of childhoods, despite only having lived 17 of them himself. to the public, he is both brilliant & relentless. and his work with the emperor has results. crime is lower. all planets have been reintegrated into the empire and there’s finally a unified system. the younger generation will never know of the infighting experienced within the disorganized republic. it’s peace times, indeed.
but anakin shares his success with another, darker crux of his personality. one the public was never meant to know. vader—the emperor’s most powerful enforcer. the shadow, the myth, the sith lord that’s dispatched only against those with the greatest ability to resist.
but anakin was not always so willing to become his darkest side. and kaurinna—now kauri—knew the whole of him once. to her, he was the overconfident prodigy with a whole lot to prove. the prodigy who’d been taken to her palace as a boy when palpatine required jedi escorts and always opted for the noble obi wan. the boy who, as they aged, wrote untraceable letters to her between campaigns admitting his one wish was to be by her side again. the one who confessed frustrations about the jedi code just looking for someone to understand him. she had seen the effects of war on anakin long before he was able to admit the effects himself.
in those years, she gave him a perspective he’d come to appreciate long after her family had gone to ground. it was one that reminded him who he was outside of the prophecy. outside the expectations of the jedi and even palpatine, who’d grown quite attached to the boy. and for a time, as he fell for kaurinna, anakin felt like he’d actually live up to something better.
but as many stories go, a disruptor had other plans.
at first, the attachment between the young lovers was encouraged behind closed doors by the wicked chancellor. two promising youths, close in age, bonded by the understanding of great burden and a tether within the force that grew stronger day by day… but as anakin’s power grew, so did the chancellor’s possessiveness. kaurinna did not destabilize him the way palpatine had hoped. she made him question more than just the jedi’s teachings but palpatine’s himself. kaurinna advocated for anakin’s truth and no one else’s. she’d become a link to the young apprentice’s salvation, not his deterioration. so the meetings became less frequent. the assignments more demanding. the war more consuming. palpatine engineered their distance so that when the time was right, anakin wouldn’t follow the future heir—he’d follow the king.
a year after the lovebirds’ final meeting was when everything for anakin changed. a conflict, seeded far from the senate’s attention, consumed tatooine and his mother in its violent fallout. he had endured war his entire life, but this was different. in his mind, it was preventable by strength the jedi refused to wield. her death was the first step to radicalizing him by confirming every fear he had ever carried. that power withheld is protection denied. and the people of the republic needed protection more than ever.
so while the jedi continued to pull away from the war, more and more, anakin pushed for conviction. for justice. for revenge. and revenge is what paved the way to anakin’s dark side.
the order’s caution gradually became framed as complicity where palpatine offered direct action. their patience became cowardice in the young knight’s eyes and suddenly, his hatred wasn’t aimed only at those responsible for shmi’s death but the jedi themselves. because of their weakness, anakin felt true sorrow. and he couldn’t just talk himself out of it. not this time. not when there was so much distance between him, the order, and his love.
anakin’s descent into darkness came on mustafar where obi wan, once mentor and brother, stood against him. when their tragic duel ended with anakin disarmed—literally severed from the arm he had trained with, the arm that symbolized his knighthood—his old master walked away believing he had spared him but anakin survived believing he had been left behind. humiliated that he was unsalvageable to a man he once valued most.
and his mind seemed to permanently split that day. the man the galaxy reveres was forged over years of war, but the rage within him—carefully nurtured by palpatine—crystallized in the moment he felt most alone, right there on mustafar.
anakin’s third tragedy was when he learned of the presumed demise of his love and her family. though, hope was not all lost as the connection he’d felt with her had never truly severed, even after all their years apart. to him, that meant there was a chance she was still alive. and that possibility alone kept anakin from completely surrendering to the dark.
still, the empire became impenetrable in that time. and anakin skywalker became one of its most precise instruments.
so when whispers of coordinated resistance began surfacing from coruscant itself, he pursued them with near obsession, convinced he’d find remnants of the jedi. and while he was technically right—chasing 2 jedi in a group of 5 force users (plus boba fett)—what he did not anticipate was that the force signature woven through those operations would feel familiar… warm… achingly kind?
and on the night he expected to finally corner the rebels, anakin set foot on the same ground as only one.
but only that one mattered.
it was her. she was alive.
for the first time in a long time, something made sense again.
but the moment she reached for her weapon and an amethyst colored beam ignited in her hand, anakin realized the predicament he was in. the girl he once loved stood before him, alive, but as the leader of the resistance he had been hunting.
and more troubling than even that—
the girl he once loved was wielding a lightsaber against him.
anakin stared at the blade, then back to her, as he found himself questioning aloud,
“𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵?”