#eldritch anakin

[ragnarlothcat]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Eldritch obikin!

[fanfictasia]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

For the Blood We Spill Chapter 20: Epilogue, a star wars fanfic | FanFiction

For The Blood We Spill - Epilogue - Wattpada

[predator-padawan]

You know I see how you and other fans talk about Anakin and finding him terrifying. Also like how horrific some of the things he does are and while I agree with that I have a hard time really feeling that. If he was a real person committing these things in real life that’d be a different story, but he’s not. He doesn’t have free will because he’s not an autonomous being, he’s a fictional character and everything he does is decided by a writer to serve a purpose with in the story. I WISH I could really get into it and feel what appears to be the strong feeling you do when reading. It’s like I have a mental block that keeps me from delving in like that and it’s a bummer cause wow do y’all really seem to be having some experiences.

I think these "experiences" of Anakin's character are, like most perceptions of media, shaped by our own experiences as viewers that we bring to the table. All viewers have different experiences/cultural perspectives/relationships to themes which is why countless interpretations of stories and characters exist alongside each other as equally true.

I have lots of friends in the fandom, and casual fan friends who find Anakin both less and more horrifying than I do. It's a spectrum for sure and I have done the most basic version of data analysis on these opinions to see if there are any trends and there are some! I'm sure there are other components too but these are the consistent ones:

Many of the people who find Anakin horrifying are older fans, OR fans who grew up watching the Original Trilogy well before the prequels came out, instead of growing up watching them in chronological order. Like my wife and I--as kids, we were terrified of Darth Vader. I watched the original trilogy like once a week AT LEAST for years before the prequels even came out, so Darth Vader was like, a very established, scary, iconic villain in my kid brain, I had nightmares about him, people dressed up as him for Halloween in the 90s and I would be like, in tears over it. So when the prequels came out, from moment ONE I knew I was supposed to be afraid of Anakin. And I was. I was primed to look for the signs and indications he was going to become the scariest villain ever because that's how I saw him. He was never Just a cute little boy to me because I knew what he was going to become. Like, these were the posters all over the movie theater in my hometown before TPM came out and they scared me!

Lots of the people I know who do not find him as horrifying as I do didn't watch the OT at all as kids (parents deemed it too scary or too 70s), or they did but they watched them after the prequels because they were raised on the chronological order, or they were too young to even make the connection/understand Anakin and Vader were even the same person until later, and by that time, their feelings for Anakin were already established as outside the realm of horror.

2. Even without Vader, Anakin was terrifying to me as a child/preteen because the way he acted in AOTC was identical to the way creepy, abusive, dangerous teenage boys acted, and I already had a lot of lived experience with creepy, abusive, dangerous teenage boys. I have talked about this EXTENSIVELY with other abuse victims--that it was impossible for us to see Anidala as a romance because it just looked like our abuse. I don't want to go too into my personal life or background, so I won't, but it this is a layer I can't ignore in my reading of him. I don't think all abuse victims find him horrifying, and I don't think all people who find him horrifying are abuse victims, but I have noticed a big cross over here, where people's lived experience dramatically shapes the way his behavior comes across, and how likely people are to read him as threatening.

3. The other Media people enjoy also plays a part. Many of my friends who read Anakin as a horrifying character are into horror media or big horror fans. This is a common lens through which we consume media, and so we're more likely to parse those elements out of his character than someone who is not familiar with Horror media and Horror Motifs. For example, I mention his Kubrick Stare all the time and why I find it chilling and disturbing--but if YOU HAVEN'T watched Kubrick and you don't have A Clockwork Orange and The Shining as pieces of media to draw upon in Anakin's character analysis, then that's gonna be meaningless to you. But as a horror fan, It's impossible for me to not laminate the themes of those pieces of media onto Anakin when the motif exists and is replicated (possibly intentionally!).

So, none of these things are necessary to see him as horrifying, and it's not necessary to see him as horrifying as a viewer. You can read Anakin however you want to, and likely find textual evidence to back that reading. I don't think GL intended to depict Anakin as horrifying as I find him, actually (and I don't think he intended him to be viewed as a perfect, forgivable, nonthreatening soft boy either). However! These are some of the experiences/perspectives feeding why he gets written/read this way by some people, and they're not based in nothing or simple preference or blind projection.

There seems to be an issue in this fandom of people discounting readings of SW if they're influenced by the reader's life and worldview, dismissing it as projection. (You're not doing this anon, I just see it way too frequently so I'm bringing it up). And its such a sad thing because that takes the joy out of the fact that timeless media is designed to appeal widely and to many different people with different readings and those readings can all be informed by literary and textual evidence! I wish there was more embracing that in this community instead of people being mean because they think their analysis is right.

[chaoticly-shy-dragon]

I'm rereading Disconnected Conduit by Annessarose (@revenge-of-the-shit) for what- the fifth time? and well, my hand slipped. There will probably be more from where this came from... but I promise nothing.

[somestorythoughts]

There was a post I read several yrs ago before I had a tumblr about the Force as an eldritch entity, and Anakin being a child of the Force is too. He looks mostly like a little boy but well, there are somethings you just can’t hide. Even from people who aren’t Force sensitive because sometimes there are strong emotions and not everyone knows what’s happening, but everyone knows its something. Luke and Leia are little bit eldritch too, if there’s such a thing as “a little bit eldritch” and Han’s reaction to that is basically “huh okay.”

It was wonderful and I want to reread it and like it now that I have Tumblr, because it was The Post that inspired me to do a lot more eldritch/uncanny valley things with several of my characters, and I can’t fucking find it.

If this rings any bells for anyone could you please let me know?

[adreamfromnevermore]

Shmi Skywalker lies. Though not about what people think, and never in the way they assume. She is not one of the beings the force creates, is not one of it’s children firmly in the light or fallen. Shmi Skywalker can hear the whispers of the Force and so she follows them, slowly through the desert to the caves it sings within and through them to a cavern that glitters, sunlight streaming through small pin prick holes scattered through the ceiling. 

In her ears the force is singing, quiet and barely audible to any that aren’t hers in spirit and blood. Shmi hears it, as a hum on the edge of her senses and Shmi hears it as a siren song calling to her heart, pulling and guiding and begging. 

It offers her a gift and when she enters the cavern she finds a child. A giggling boy with too many eyes and sharp teeth. A giggling boy who reaches for her, whose eyes reflect the stars only to slowly shift into the brown of her own and then the blue of the skies high above them. 

When she lifts him into her arms the Force sings, louder, sharper and the boy hums with it. His eyes wide and watchful, his smile bright and burning. 

She names him Anakin, she raises him as her own. 

Shmi lies, she claims Anakin as her flesh, she claims him as hers alone. She never claims that he is human.

They assume she is simply another slave to suffer, they do not see the way the boys eyes sparkle, they do not notice when those who would hurt them go missing. When white bones are found in the dunes, and massive beasts are found dead and stripped to the bone.

Shmi lies, but the force is always humming in her ears and she knows she is not one of it’s children but that does not mean it does not love her in turn.

It whispers to her, stories of its children that wander the galaxy and Shmi listens as she strokes Ani's hair. Listens as it tells her of hunters and warriors. When it tells her about gentle hands and bleeding warmth burning into the force as she sings to them and their lives sing back.

[primeemeraldheiress]

for the first sentence prompt: Even after his surroundings clear, he has no idea where in the galaxy he's found himself stuck this time.

Little late, but -- 

Even after his surroundings clear, he has no idea where in the galaxy he's found himself stuck this time.

Literally.

His feet sink into the soft pink clouds of a nebula and tears well in his eyes. Anakin crumples, curling up in the fluff and sobbing. Expelling the all the frustration and anger and fear he had felt moments before. 

The reason he had flickered. The reason he had wound up who-knows-where in a galaxy far far away.

He misses his jaieh, away on a mission with his own master. Still too young to take him. 

And he misses his mother -- he remembers the day he was torn from her, still far too young. The image of her face blurs in his mind and all he can recall of her is how she looked in the Force. How she felt. 

How warm her hand was on his cheek and how sweet her voice sounded. 

Light glitters from the tears as they fall from his eyes, flying away and embedding themselves into the glowing nebula around him. Gleaming in the darkness. The birth of stars. 

Anakin can’t bring himself to care. Not now. Not now but later... after a nap, he will. He will blow on them. He will feed them. He will shape them.

Wiping his eyes with the arm of his sleeve, Anakin burrows into the clouds around him and sleeps.

[ragnarlothcat]

um hi, I am a big fan of your stuff, and also the idea of Anakin being Yog Sothoth (or as somebody in Crash Fever would call him as Yoggy boy), reminded me of an old doodle I did for star eater/ yog sothoth Obi

in any case, mwah smut and also good day to you, I hope you will have a wonderful time since Thanksgiving is coming over ;)

Okay I did not think that anyone would actually come talk to me about Yog-Sothoth and I am delighted beyond belief. Your art is terrifying (in a good way) and Obi-Wan can be a monster too, as a treat. Well spotted.

I like Anakin as Yog-Sothoth because he fathers twins (and he has some similar vibes with his time stuff), but then I suppose Anakin could just as easily be the twins because an ancient entity impregnates a human woman which certainly sounds like Anakin's origin story.

Anyway thanks for sharing and happy thanksgiving to you too if you celebrate!