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keeloca · 5 years

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SW ficlet: Or Else Into the Light

Recently returned to the light, the man who was Darth Vader struggles to find peace through meditation. And old friend shows up to help. This, too, is hard.

The first time he might have fled, given the chance:

The initial meeting with representatives from the Chandrilan House ran unexpectedly short, and once he had nodded a curt goodbye to the other member of the council, he allowed himself to retreat to his room. Normally he would remain in the common areas, doggedly inserting himself into the daily lives of the Rebels. He would do it unobtrusively, if possible, as not to provoke conflict or promote tension, but he would always be very much there, undeniably present. Letting himself be seen; claiming a space; helping where he could and was allowed.

He supposed that this, too, was a kind of penance.

Not only that, though; not even primarily that. He knew that if he wanted to make a real difference here with the Alliance, they would need to accept him, trust him. That could not be achieved if he hid away in his rooms.

Perhaps it could not be achieved at all. Incidents of actual (attempts at) violence or overt hostility had been surprisingly rare in the few weeks since he had thrown in his lot with the Rebels, but the undercurrent of fury and suspicion just barely held in check rarely abated. If Luke had been there it might thave been different, but Luke was not, and it was not.

Turning a corner, he pushed open the wooden door to the chambers he had been assigned upon their arrival early this morning. The room was spacious by Alliance standards, and luxurious. As per Chandrilan custom, the furnishings were simple enough, but the bed was large, the floor antique stone tiles, and the windows high and arched. The vivid blue of the carpet accented the earthy browns of the stone and wood.

As the door closed behind him, he felt his shoulders sink just the fraction of an inch. Solitude was a luxury he rarely indulged in nowadays, and while his own company was not something he'd wish upon his worst enemy (well, maybe upon his worst enemy, one last time), it was a relief to be away from angry, fearful eyes and angry, fearful thoughts.

He'd drawn strenght from those not so long ago. Not anymore.

Less fear here though, and a lot less anger, than on the main base. Only the High command, of which he was now a very inofficial member, had been invited to Chandrila for the covert negotiations. The truly formidable Mon Mothma had arranged the secret conference held in a small town far, far away from the capital and prying Imperial eyes, and though she'd never come outright and said it, he had been given the distinct impression that the House's willingness to meet with them was due in part to his own recent defection. Though having him join them was closer to a PR disaster than a victory for the Rebels, there was no denying that his presence changed things.

Things became possible that had not previously been so.

There'd be a formal dinner later, and he'd be expected to attend. He did not look forward to it. One of the relatively few perks of being Darth Vader had been the tacit understanding that he did not, as a rule, need to show up for any state dinners or other functions, unless he so chose or there was particular threat to be dealt with.

A glance at the ornamental time piece over the door told him that dinner was still more than two hours away. That was a lot of time to kill, particularly for someone who had not bothered to cultivate any hobbies beyond work and the occasional tinkering with machines for the past twenty years. Stuck here, there was little enough in the way of work he could do, and he doubted the Chandrilans was in need of a repairman.

With a inward sigh he decided it was a good time as any to have another go at meditation. Removing his boots, he sat down in the middle of the thick carpet with his legs crossed, and closed his eyes. Took a deep breath, and reached for the Force.

Always more suited to action than to contemplation, he had often struggled to stay relaxed and centered while sitting still and doing nothing. At least as a Jedi – as a Sith and drawing on his pain and hatred and rage it had proved much easier, and a source of both rejuvenation and sharpened focus.

Thus he had learned the value of meditation, as he had learned so many other things: much too late and for the wrong purpose. And now, when he ached to simple rest in the light and let its warmth and peace permeate him, it was again proving very, very hard.

Impossible, so far, every time he had tried.

He was not one to balk from a challenge. Taking another deep breath, he forced himself to unclench his fists and relax. Slowly, calmly, into tranquility, nothing but the Force around him -

Five hearbeats he managed. Five hearbeats, before they started creeping up on him: memories and visions, guilt and grief, the remnants of a pain and rage so vast it tainted everything, coloured it black and red.

It was always like this, as soon as he let himself lower the shields he kept so carefully in place at all other times. Those shields allowed him to keep walking and talking rather than succumbing to the weight of the past twenty years, but the second he let them slip –

Jaw set, he tried to ignore it, push past it, reaching for the tranquil light, but to no avail. It fled him, and all that was left was the roar of his own churning mind.

Breathing heavily and with heart hammering, he opened his eyes. The taste of defeat was familiar by now, but no less bitter for it.

Too hard. Too hard, even for him.

Kark that. Setting his jaw, he closed his eyes once more. His younger self would have given into sulking by now, he knew with some shame; that boy had been so used to mastering almost everything with ease that he had little patience to practise the rest.

That boy was gone, for better and for worse.

Again, he relaxed, iron will overriding they body's natural response to the stress and anxiety.

”Don't worry so about relaxing,” a soft voice intoned. ”Concentrate instead on the sensation of your limbs pressing down on the floor.”

He sat completely still, frozen. The voice had come from behind him and been utterly, impossibly familiar. He'd have dismissed it as an audiotory hallicunation, not entirely unknown to him these days, had he not also been able to feel the intruder's presence, steady and bright in the Force.

Obi-Wan.

He did not turn. Did not move. Did not even attempt to parse the many, intense and conflicted feelings coursing through him.

”The sensation of your limbs pressing against the floor,” Obi-Wan repeated, giving no indication that he had noticed the turmoil had had caused. ”And breathe.”

Belatedly, he realized that he had been holding his breath, so still had he been. Now he carefully let his chest rise and fall with a long, slow breath. Another.

And another.

”Focus on the sensation of your limbs pressing against the floor,” Obi-Wan said for the third time, and this time he did, if only because utterly at an loss what else to do. Focused: bottom and heels, pressing down, the floor hard and somewhat cool against them.

”Good,” Obi-Wan said, and the small, casual word brought with it a wave of pleasure that threw him. It was absurd that such a tiny morsel of praise could mean anything to him now. Absurd, that the man he had murdered would offer it. ”Now, your calves.”

He did as he was told. And so, part by part, he was guided through a careful examination of his restored body in the very first, the most basic, of all meditation exercises. Nothing about the Force, light side or dark – although of course everything that existed was about and of the Force, and so too was this. Whenever his mind began to stray and the darkness began to stir, Obi-Wan's calm voice drew his attention back towards his hands, his spine, his neck. Breathe, in and out. Feel your chest rise and fall, unassisted. Listen to the faint humming of a generator two rooms away. Whatever is, let it be.

Nothing else was said. He kept his eyes closed and never once turned his head to catch a glimpse of his unasked helper. When eventually he realized that he was alone once more, he could not have said how long it had been so.

Even as he rose, his initial feelings of unease and confusion begun to reassert themselves, disspelling the calm of the meditation. Yet this was tempered by the knowledge that for a little while, he had known peace. Not impossible, then – not even now, and not even for him.

He wondered what it had cost Obi-Wan to grant him that, and for what purpose it had been done.

---

The second time was sought and feared in equal measure.

For the next few days he kept busy enough that there just wasn't time to meditate. There were meetings, longer every time, a renewed effort to socialize, lightsabre practise to pick up, and would you look at that, it appeared the Chandrilans did need a repairman after all – the state of the basic maintenance techonology of the villa was not up to scratch, if you looked hard enough...

Eventually he was forced to admit he was making excuses. This annoyed him so much that he stormed to his room and more or less threw himself down on the carpet, cursing himself for a coward.

If pressed – had anyone known to press him – he would not have been able to say what scared him more: that Obi-Wan would show up again, or that he wouldn't.

As it turned out, the voice came almost immediately, before he had had time to take more than few breaths.

Gratitude then, wordless and overwhelming. Something sharp and painful lodged in his throat, and for the first few moments his attempts to swallow it down distracted him from Obi-Wan's instruction. But the other man was patient and repeated himself without reproach until he was heeded.

It was easier this time, and became easier still the time after that, and the one after that.

They remained on Chandrila; negotiations were going well. Others joined them, delegates from several different worlds, as what had begun as a small and tentative meeting grew into something different and larger. The rumour was spreading: Darth Vader had joined the Rebels. The Rebels might have a shot. Trusted or not, liked or not, he was needed now, and kept busy at almost all hours of the day. So much knowledge to share, so much to plan and prepare – and so many times to be presented and paraded about, he is here, ours, all that power, notice how he isn't strangling anyone.

He played along, to the best of his ability. But no matter how much he had to do, or how late it was when he returned to his room, he always took the time to meditate. Once more, and with the help of his ghostly guide, it offered the rest and clarity he could find nowhere else, least of all in sleep.

Obi-Wan was there every time, appeared the moment he closed his eyes, always. The dead Jedi never appeared before that, and never tried to coax him into conversation. Indeed, he never offered anything at all that wasn't instruction. The man on the floor kept waiting, heart in his mouth, for the other to say something, and finally force him to acknowledge his presence.

Obi-Wan never did. Obi-Wan had always been patient, and wise.

They were well into their tenth session when he was finally the one who spoke, the words spilling over his lips almost involuntarily:

”Why are you being kind to me?”

At first there was no answer. The silence dragged out, enough that he almost began to suspect that the other had left. But he could still feel his steady presence in the Force, and eventually Obi-Wan replied: ”Would you prefer me to be unkind?”

Yes, he thought but did not say. It wasn't entirely true – but not entirely false either. It'd be easier in some ways, he suspected, if the friend he'd betrayed would rage and berate and condemn. He could deal with that; was used to it; could not deny its appropriatness.

”A question for a question is not much of an answer,” he said instead, evenly. Control – he was good at it now, had needed to learn to survive, and he wondered if Obi-Wan appreciated the irony of that.

”Perhaps not,” the ghost of his old mentor conceded. ”But perhaps it is part of the answer.” A brief pause. ”Perhaps I am being kind, as you put it, because I believe you need me to be. And perhaps what you judge as kindness is merely the absence of expected unkindness.”

”There's no reason for you to help me.” Curt, almost angry.

He could damn near hear Obi-Wan raise an eyebrow. ”On the contrary. It is quite obviously in everyone's best interest to keep the Chosen One firmly rooted in the light. Anything I can do to aid that is a direct service to the galaxy, and to the Force.”

There was a familiarity to this that was both comforting and deeply unsettling. The cultured voice, calm, reasonable, and yet utterly unyielding, Obi-Wan may be humble, but he was also stubborn – and utterly confident in his own understanding of the Force, and his place within it. It seemed death had done nothing to change this.

He nodded. ”I see. Your presence here is a means to a end. Your duty as a Jedi. That is all.”

That made perfect sense. The Chosen One was a terrible weapon, no matter which side wielded him, and only a fool would refuse the use of such power when facing the might of Darth Sidious. It was the only reason the Rebels, with great reluctance and after much debate, had accepted him, after all.

And so there was no reason for a simple statment of this fact to hurt so.

Obi-Wan's voice was infinitely gentle, and almost as sad. ”That is not all. But I think it might be all you're ready to accept right now.” Another pause, longer now, and he imagined the other rising – if indeed he had been sitting, did spirits bother to sit? – as he prepared to make his leave.

The man on the floor had yet to turn and look at him. In all their time together since Obi-Wan first appeared, he had yet to do that.

There was a sense of withdrawal, a growing distance – but right before Obi-Wan's presence faded entirely, the murdered man added, very softly: ”When you are ready, I'll still be here.”

He opened his eyes then, and looked over his shoulder. The room was empty, dust dancing in the shaft of light falling through the arched window. A sense of peace, and – implausibly – affection, lingered, like the trace of perfume once the wearer has left the room.

Slowly, he stood and walked over to the window. Beyond the small town the neiden fields stretched out, budding green as winter once more gave way to spring. He could hear birds singing in the distance, and the sound of a gentle breeze rustling the high trees. Somewhere close by a child laughed.

Anakin Skywalker raised his face towards the sun, and let the light warm him.

#darth vader #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #i just have so many feelings about redeemed anakin okay #and all the things he and obi-wan would and would not say to each other #just don't have the time or patience to write proper fic so vignettes it is #fic #Original Trilogy #original content

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smhalltheurlsaretaken · 3 years

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Sorry but what exactly is up with the bad batch arc? I've heard people talk about the issues with echo's white skin but I haven't heard that many bad things about the arc itself? (ik you said you don't want to be negative on your blog so I would absolutely understand if you didn't answer this ask)

Oooooooooooh boy. Well I just had a long, long, LONG rant about it with someone, but I guess I’ve got an excuse to put all of my points onto a post and talk about it publicly now that I got an ask x) I’ll keep it under the cut so I don’t throw my salt in people’s face. I really don’t want to upset people who love that arc - it has redeeming qualities, but overall it pisses me off so much for so many reasons. So here:

The first issue is obviously two members of the Bad Batch (minus Echo) being being just about the furthest thing from maori no matter how much you're willing to stretch it.

Like... yeah, nah. I wouldn’t even accept Crosshair and Tech (grey haired guy and goggles guy) as Jango’s natural biological sons, nevermind as his clones.

The problem is that their different appearances are justified by them being described simply as clones with desirable mutations (i.e superpowers). But why the hell did the creators have to change their appearances for that to be a thing? How does that correlate? Sure, the concept of clones with different faces is interesting, except... no, no it’s not, and I’m gonna rant about it in a few secs. But basically it's like they thought giving them different faces would be a good substitute for having different personalities (another thing I’ll come back to). If they really wanted to have buff clones with super eyesight or whatnot they could have just done that, without making them lose what little melanin the lighting of the show had allowed the other Clones to keep.

But the gigantic problem is... showing that the "regular" clones have VERY distinct identities despite their identical faces has been one of the themes of the show from episode 1. Literally, the first episode of TCW has Yoda taking time out of a mission with galactic stakes to tell the three clones he’s with (who tell him they’re all the same because they have the same faces) that they’re wrong, and that they’re very different in the Force, that their appearance doesn’t matter, that they’re all equally unique and important, and he lists all of their individual skills, strengths and weaknesses.

And it’s not just me being bothered by that, here’s a post by @cacodaemonia saying the same thing.

Introducing the Bad Batch as "unique" clones who are "different" and "not like their brothers" because they have different faces and skills completely breaks that theme of the show!! Because the entire point of the Clones in TCW is that their faces don't matter, they ARE unique!

(Plus the Bad Batch’s character designs are so cliche and uninspired it’s just laughable to try and justify bleaching their freaking skin for the sake of visual diversity.

This took like 10 seconds. I found the first guy by literally googling “soldier movies,” and the other two are Team Fortress characters that look a LOT like Wrecker and Crosshair. One is “Heavy” and one is “Sniper” lmao.

And behold:

The above picture is a Team Fortress reference that I found just by looking up “bad batch clone wars,” so I’m not the only person who sees it.)

And the batchers don't even have personalities to justify calling them unique! They have no character traits beyond the most cliché american soldier tropes ever. We have a token loner sniper, a token "smart tech guy" who knows everything from xenoanthropology to biology to Separatist computers to sound waves to encryption, a token Badass Brooding Leader and a token “dumb muscle guy.”

I dare anyone to find more about their personalities than this: - Crosshair is the perpetually grumpy sniper who looks down on "regs,” - Wrecker likes to blow up stuff and doesn't like heights, - Hunter is the leader and is friends with Cody, - Tech is smart doesn't trust Echo.

That’s it, that’s literally it. Four episodes about them and that's all we get. These character tropes are literally the least inventive ever. FFS, Hunter even has a freaking KNIFE! Not a vibroblade, mind you, like in kriffing Star Wars. A knife. Against metal droids. Why. They couldn’t make this more of an american-war-movies cliché fest if they tried. (And sure, he can feel electromagnetic waves so maybe it does make sense for him not to carry a vibroblade and maybe this is nitpicking, but he looks like a ripoff of a Predator character and it pisses me off).

Another thing is that when you introduce characters you have to make them likable - and them despising the normal Clones is a terrible way to do that! And they don't even grow from that because at the end of the 4 episodes arc they just see Rex as not bad "for a reg" and they see Echo as no longer a reg, and both of these things are infuriating!

The worst thing imo is that Echo then becomes part of them (and irreparably loses his melanin in the process, uuuuuuuuugh) when there is nothing to justify this.

The dialogue goes like this:

ECHO: You coming? TECH: Not really our thing. CROSSHAIR: Accolades. WRECKER: Yeah, we're just in it for the thrill. Yo! HUNTER: You sure it's your thing? ECHO: What do you mean? HUNTER: Your path is different. Like ours. If you ever feel like you don't fit in with them, well, find us. (they leave) REX: Those are some of the finest troopers I've ever fought alongside. Echo. You and I go way back. If that's where you feel your place is, then that's where you belong.

Echo doesn't feel like he belongs anymore, okay, but why would he feel like he belongs with the assholes who up to the last five minutes of the mission thought he was probably a traitor, and also verbally expressed that he was not worth saving?? In all of the arc, Echo himself never voices that he feels he’s not ‘like the other Clones’ anymore and that he feels it’s a problem. His relationship with Rex immediately picks up where they left things off - the first thing he does upon being lucid again for the first in over a year is cracking a joke for Rex’s benefit.

Why would Echo feel like he doesn’t belong in the 501st anymore, when we don't even see him interacting with anyone from his past life except for Rex and Anakin (who are both extremely very supportive of him)?? If there had been one scene of a “regular” Clone (ugh) looking at him with horror and disgust or something, or just Kix and Jesse cracking jokes with Echo awkwardly standing by the side not getting it, I could forgive the show trying to make it feel like he has an identity crisis, but this was so shallow!

The only thing that makes Echo and the Bad Batch’s experiences similar is that they *look* different. It’s so against the themes of the Clones I’m seething just from thinking about it. And what the hell? Echo ALREADY didn’t fit in. That was the WHOLE POINT of Domino Squad. They didn’t fit in because they thought they were better than anyone else because they had trouble getting along with their brothers, so obviously it had to be their brothers’ fault (ahem, Bad Batch?). And you know what happened? Domino Squad OVERCAME that. And Echo and Fives still didn’t “fit in” because their personalities were unique and creative, and they became ARC Troopers because Cody, Rex and the Jedi VALUED THEM FOR PRECISELY THAT. Echo having new and unique skills and a modified appearance is the most bs justification for him feeling like he doesn’t belong!!

And that brings me to my biggest issue: Rex telling Echo the bad batch are some of the best troopers he's ever met. I'm sorry, based on WHAT? What Rex values above everything is loyalty and brotherhood, and the Bad Batch DOESN'T DISPLAY ANY OF THAT. We never see them even expressing concern for each other! Wrecker treats saving Cody’s life like a trivial issue, because it’s just ‘sO eAsY’ for him, and beyond that we never see them supporting each other or genuinely expressing affection for each other beyond boasting about each other’s skills...

Sure they can destroy a lot of droids, but they're dismissive of Rex's brothers, and the entire Umbara arc and this arc showed what he thought of that. They keep saying things like "not bad for a reg,” don't show any trust in Rex's skills or experience (even though they can't have been fighting in the war for more than a year and a half when he’s been there from the beginning, and he outranks all of them), they are essentially guerilla fighters which has only minimal value in a galactic war, and they never grow beyond their views of what regs are, and can and can’t do.

None of that should make them good troopers in Rex's book. Going back to Echo not fitting in, remember who taught the Domino Squad the importance of seeing all of your brothers as important and equally valuable? Shaak Ti, true, but more importantly? 99! The guy the Bad Batch are named after. He did have value and was important and was no less of a trooper than his brothers, even though his mutations made him LESS powerful, not more. (And btw, just from a writing standpoint, the batchers don’t have any weaknesses, which is shit.) Cody and Rex mourned 99 as a true soldier even though it wasn’t his sacrifice that brought them victory (which would have implied that he had value as a soldier and a brother because he saved them, as opposed to him having that value intrinsically), because that’s what a fine trooper is to them. A BROTHER first a foremost, someone altruistic, brave and loyal. The Bad Batch distort the meaning of 99's character with their behavior. They’re not altruistic, their bravery is mitigated by the fact that they’re freaking invincible, so of course they take risks (again, see Wrecker saving Cody without a care because it’s easy to him, as opposed to Rex being ready to run into a burning ship about to explode because his brother is in there, and having to be physically dragged away). The Bad Batch denigrate their brothers for being less skilled, thinking their own abilities make them unique somehow, when 99 could barely fight and was still the one who taught Hevy about being a good soldier.

And again the batchers don't grow from that. Which is all the more frustrating because the original ending didn’t have Echo joining them, from what I remember of the unfinished episodes, and the arc actually ended with them receiving their medals in front of regular troopers who cheer for them, as opposed to them smugly ostracizing themselves and dismissing the ceremony as trivial and meaningless. (original ending vs s7 ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab1eCfzKamw)

It’s so annoying. Do you know what characters never had an entire arc dedicated to them and still have far more personality and more interesting designs and more symbolic weight??

Jesse, for starters. Kix. Dogma. Cut. Slick. Keeli. Ponds. Rys, Jek and Thire. Commander Doom. Commander Fox. Wolffe. Hevy. Hardcase.

Cody was a more interesting character just in his RotS appearances.

Waxer and Boil had one episode about them and then only two cameos plus Waxer’s death, and they’re still some of the most memorable, beloved Clones of the whole show. And Boil was grouchy and prejudiced like Crosshair, but he has so much growth that we could make a whole thread about it.

I'd say the last problem with the Bad Batch is that it has cash grabbing money hungry vibes. Different faces are more marketable, cliché personalities are more toy-friendly, and it's basically a big ad for the Bad Batch series. And they throw Echo in the Batch at the end for bs reasons (again, it wasn’t in the original ep from what I remember) and they tease Cody in the show to make sure fans will still watch even if they notice the lack of soul. And less melanin sells more at Disney apparently.

So that’s my whole pissed rant.

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omegas-spaghettios · 3 years

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In Defense of Bo-Katan

This character receives an enormous amount of hate and it is so unfair.

Before I begin, I have a few disclaimers to make.

1. I used to be on the hate train for her. When TCW S7 and Mando S2 aired, I hated her. Absolutely loathed her and I was vocal about it. You could go back and find a trail of me hating on her, I want to admit to that before I go on.

2. I love every character I talk about during this. When I compare her to other characters or discuss other characters, it comes from a place of love. Flawed characters are the best characters because it makes them feel human.

3. I am not defending her from a moral standpoint. She does some pretty awful things. What I'm arguing is that a lot of criticism levied at her for being a "bad character" is unfair because what she does either lines up with her motivations and thus makes her a well written character (if not unlikable), or she does things and gets slammed for it when male characters do the same things and get away with it.

I'm just gonna go chronologically and discuss major talking points on why people hate her.

1. Her Discussion with Kenobi in 7×10

People hate on her because of this, and that could be fair, depending on how else you view Star Wars. Bo was responsible for helping bring an organization to power that killed her sister, she weaponized the death of her sister against Obi-Wan, and also her organization (Death Watch) has tried to kill Obi-Wan many times. She is overall being incredibly unfair and awful in this scene.

Okay, so she helped kill a woman important in her life, weaponized that death to guilt Obi-Wan, and also is responsible for attempts on Obi-Wan's life.... why does this feel familiar....

Anakin did much, MUCH worse than her, yet he is still loved. I love Anakin! But it pisses me off that when Bo does it it's a valid reason to hate her and one of the two most commonly listed examples to hate her, but when Anakin does it he gets nuance. Anakin's character and motivations line up to that event, it makes him a flawed character. But when Bo does it, we just hate her?

"But she doesn't have the development to that point like Anakin" the entire Prequel Era is the story of Anakin, no character has as much time dedicated to them. How can Bo have that much development to make it "believable" when the only character who can rival Anakin's level of development is Ahsoka?

If you hate both Bo and Anakin then her Discussion with Obi-Wan is a 100% valid reason to hate her. This is not to say you can't hate her for that, this is to say that there is a lot of hypocrisy in the fandom over this.

2. Sabine Wren

I'm not gonna spend much time on this, cause it isn't a huge reason I see often and it's just, so easy to debunk. I love Sabine and her arc is good, but from a Mandalorian standpoint, she's lucky she left the planet with a decent public standing. She makes a weapon for the empire that is handcrafted to kill Mandalorians and names it after Bo's dead pacifist sister. Under no circumstance is any Mandalorian required to treat her well after that, especially Bo.

I know she has an arc to redeem herself over the course of the show, but imagine if a public figure irl did that. No one would care how hard they worked to redeem themselves, no one would ever trust them again and that is valid.

3. Bo's discussions with Din

The way she and the other two scoff at Din is not kind at all, it's pretty rude. But guess what? Din got aggressive first when they took their helmets off.

I understand being in a cult means your view of the world is purposefully warped and information withheld so he doesn't know better, but why does Bo have this responsibility to be kind to anyone who is mean to her just because they might not know better? Why does Bo NEED to give everyone the benefit of the doubt?

Din was aggressive and accused them of not being mandalorian FIRST, he doesn't know better and that makes Bo's treatment of him less than ideal, but why does she have to respect his beliefs and identity when he IMMEDIATELY is trying to rip apart hers?

She never even says he isn't Mandalorian, just he was raised in a cult, which he high key is. The amount of identity suppression and implied information control in The Children of the Watch or whatever they are called is very cultish.

4. The Boba interaction

This and the TCW S7 interaction with Kenobi are the two big ones I see very frequently.

Before I begin with her motivations, can we talk about how blatant the one-sided hate is in this scene anyway? Boba is standoff-ish and aggressive right from the get go, audibly calling them a waste of time, ridiculing Bo for wanting to liberate her literal ancestral homeland, calling her all sorts of names, etc. Boba is by no means trying to be respectful or diplomatic but that's fine, but when Bo gives the same energy as him she gets hated. Again, Boba starts it by saying they were a waste of time.

Getting mad that she called him "not a real mandalorian" is pointless because he immediately says "never claimed to be". Boba isn't Mandalorian. He isn't. He doesn't view himself as Mandalorian and his connection to the armor is just because of his father, not because of Mandalorian heritage.

Her seething hatred for clones and attacking Boba with it is awful but it's understandable within her character. Clone Troopers came to help in the Siege of Mandalore with the explicit agreement they would leave once Maul was captured. Maul was captured, Order 66 came down, the clones never lifted their occupation. Does that mean her hatred of all clones is justified? No. But is it understandable from her viewpoint? Yes, and that makes her a 3 dimensional, flawed character.

We know it wasn't the clones' fault, but we have no reason to believe Bo knows about the chips. Even then, it is established in Rebels when Kanan first meets Rex and crew that people who know about the chips don't necessarily believe it. It takes discussion with the clones themselves and evidence to sway his belief. So even if Bo knows, why does she need to believe it when Kanan initially didn't? Bo hasn't had any discussions like Kanan and Rex had with a clone on screen, so the evidence already shown in previous media lines up with her hating clones.

Also, the weird stuff with the darksaber is not her fault. It's legit just the writers changing how it works to write their story so now she has to bend. It's inconsistent between Rebels and Mando but literally every character shown so far suffers from it. The Saber has not been won in combat since Maul killed Pre Vizsla, the whole "rightful heir" thing is just a mess and is more inconsistent writing that affects star wars overall, not just Bo.

Conclusion

Hate her all you want but stop letting men get away with the shit you hate her for lmao

I still don't particularly love her at all, I don't tend to think about her much, but y'all, come on.

#star wars #the clone wars #tcw #rebels #the mandalorian #bo katan kryze #sabine wren #anakin skywalker #din djarin #boba fett #obi-wan kenobi #mandalore #is this misogyny

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passable-talent · 3 years

Note

part 2 for the sith reader plleeeaasee????? im loving it

part one here

I’m aware of the memability of the youngling massacre and i know i promised to not make reader/anakin redeemable but,,, im gonna do it anyway. strategically it doesnt make sense to murder the next generation and also reader is constantly trying to make anakin believe they’re doing the right thing. reader doesn’t have the luxury of saying ‘do it or padme dies’. they’ve got to be smarter than palpatine was.

Good news: you’re a Sith Lord. Palpatine is gone. Anakin’s on your side. Also, he loves you, that’s good.

Bad news: you now have so much more on your plate. You’ve got to activate the clones to kill the Jedi, give a speech before the Senate, accompany Anakin to Mustafar to get rid of the Separatists, there was just so much to do, and in so little time.

So, no matter how you wished to stay in his embrace forever, you pulled from Anakin’s arms, brushing back his hair sweetly.

“Love, we need to start moving against the Jedi,” you said softly, righting his very disheveled robes. “You have to go to the temple. I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay?”

“I can’t kill any Jedi,” he said, breaking your gaze. In response you hugged him tightly, comfortingly. You’d known he would worry about that.

“I know, I know, I’m not asking you to.” His loyalty to you was strong, but you knew it was not yet unbreakable. “The Younglings- they can be saved. I’ll take care of the Jedi, but you need to make sure they’re safe.” He nodded, fixing the last few details of his tousled robes, and kissed you one last time before he left the room.

Which left you alone, with your thoughts, and some very knotted hair.

It took a moment to clean yourself up as well, but soon enough you could take a seat at Palpatine’s desk, calling up the communications you’d seen under his fingers a thousand times. The Clones’ slave chips would take over their will the moment you gave the order, and you bit your lip for a moment, wishing you could be there in person to see it all. But you had something much more important to do with your time.

You pulled your hood over your head and opened your communications to all of the Clone Squadron Leaders.

“Execute Order Sixty Six,” you said, and the words burned on your tongue.

You didn’t really have time to waste, you see. You had to meet Anakin at the temple, ‘find’ the evidence you’d plant, rush back to the Senate, then make it to Mustafar. You had a very full schedule for the afternoon, and yet- you couldn’t help it.

You leaned back in the chair, closed your eyes, and opened yourself to the Force. You reached out across the galaxy, feeling into the light, and the dark. Through it, you felt a thousand Jedi dying. And nothing, well, almost nothing, had ever felt so good.

The Jedi Killer, you’d been, in the Clone Wars. And though the generation of them did not die by your saber, it was your order, your decision, your words, that had brought them down. You weren’t just a killer. You were a crusader.

Once you’d gotten your breath back, you pulled up a different communication, one wired to a meeting hall on Mustafar, full of people you despised. Nute Gunray, Shu Mai, truly awful people. People who had come to power, and did nothing with it but collect wealth. Disgusting, truly- when one comes to power, they’re meant to wield it, just as you were. But these people only cared about their trade, their capitalism. Pitiful.

“Viceroy,” you said with a dark smile, eyes hidden beneath your cloak.

“Lord Errar,” Nute acknowledged you with a bit of surprise in his voice, “Where is Lord Sidious?”

“He has just a bit to take care of in the Senate,” you said with a wicked smile. Nothing made your soul spark like a well-crafted lie. “Once that’s taken care of, I will pay you a visit, to give you your reward for your help. When the night is over, my friends, you’ll be left in peace.” Giving them no time to ask questions, you closed the communication, delivering your last word to an empty office.

“Pieces.”

The last thing you needed to do before you left was nice and easy- the press of a button. Hidden away in the far corner of the Chancellor’s desk was a button meant only for emergencies, which is certainly why you used it now, of course. The death of the chancellor was an emergency, wasn’t it?

You called a senate meeting.

Once that was done, you knew you had only an hour before the senators would be expecting you, so you found your saber and hurried to your speeder. It didn’t take long to get to the Temple, where you had sent Anakin. He had rescued the younglings from their training, in the midst of the battlegrounds that the Temple had become, and gotten them away to their chambers, in the care of droids. He met you in the center of the temple, Jedi and Clones alike scattered around the floor. So caught up in his mission, he hadn’t noticed how long you’d been at the temple, working your way through the files.

“I told them that I’d come back when it was safe,” he said, “The droids will take care of them.”

“Good,” you breathed, giving him a quick kiss under the ear. You took his hand, and slowly tugged him toward the communications center of the temple. “I have to show you something.” You pulled up the files you’d been painstakingly preparing for months, crafting them, ensuring they looked as though they were written by Jedi fingers.

On them were plans from the other side of the Clone Wars, supporting the Separatists. They held details about the destruction of the Senate, the assassination of the Chancellor, without even knowing he was a Sith. And of course, your magnum opus, the most perfect thing you could’ve included- the passage that described how the Jedi would allow the Dark Side of the Force, the Sith, to rise in power so that the Jedi could shift the blame for the war to the Sith. This, you knew, would hurt Anakin most of all- that the Jedi had completely ignored their duty to fight the Dark.

“I just don’t understand,” you said softly, shaking your head, darkness pulsing deep in your chest with a beautiful, well-crafted lie. “I thought- I thought that Sidious was behind the war. But even he was being manipulated by the Jedi, he was going to be gotten rid of so that the Jedi could control the Senate.” Anakin couldn’t look away from the holograms.

“Anakin, I’m so sorry,” you breathed, lacing your arms around the closest of his, hoping to give him even the slightest comfort, as he accepted that the people who’d raised and trained him were so evil. Apparently.

“There’s some good news, though,” you said, motioning to one of the holograms, “We now know where the Separatist leaders are. You and I- we can go...” you paused, seeming to stumble to find the proper word. “...Remove them.” Finally breaking his eyes away from the holo, he nodded, pulling you just a bit closer.

You kissed his cheek, giving him a moment to grieve.

“I should inform the Senate,” you said, “They’ve never met me, but I was the Chancellor’s apprentice. They’ll respect me.” His flesh hand came to your face, and you leaned into it, closing your eyes for the briefest of moments to drown in his affection.

“Be careful,” he told you, and you nodded.

“Can you-” you said, shaking your head briefly, trying to be gentle with him. “Come with me, please. I don’t want you to stay here by yourself.” He nodded, and together you walked to your speeder, taking it to the Senate hall.

And this- this was to be your masterpiece.

“Senators-” you began, aligning your shoulders in a way that had you looking powerful enough to command their attention, but nervous enough they wouldn’t suspect you for foul play. “I’m afraid I have some very disturbing news for you.”

"I was an apprentice to the late Chancellor Palpatine, a gifted and respected leader who guided our republic through the first war in generations. I’m saddened to inform you, though, that this war was not what you’ve been told.” Whispers rippled through the senate’s hall.

“The Jedi, to whom this Senate entrusted the peace of the galaxy, had given power to the Separatists, in order to stir up the war. Earlier this very day, four Jedi masters ambushed myself and the Chancellor in his office...” you trailed away, bringing up emotion to stir their sympathy.

“I only escaped thanks to one young Jedi who still represents what the Jedi Order was meant to. The Chancellor was not so lucky.” You felt it as grief rolled through the room, and fought away a smile. They believed your every word- of course they did.

“On the battlefields, the horror of the Jedi and their plans were realized, and many of them were executed for crimes against the republic, following the Chancellor’s dying wishes. His other...” You shook your head, as though disbelieving what you were about to propose.

“His other wish on his deathbed was that I carry on his work. That I guide the Republic into a future of peace.” The energy in the room shifted, but not toward the negative. No, they trusted you. They were considering giving your former mentor’s power to you. They just needed a little more.

“I know you’ve never seen me before, you have no reason to trust me. I implore you, honorable senate, to believe me. I will see it that this Republic is capable of recognizing traitors, as the Jedi had become. I will see to it that the remaining traitorous Jedi are hunted down and executed. I promise to lead this Senate into the future!”

The cheer went up.

“I vote to reorganize the Republic, into something stronger, more powerful, more capable of destroying threats to the peace!”

The energy was beautiful, lifting you to levels of bliss you had never felt before. You were to be the most powerful Sith there had ever been, controlling the Senate, the Republic, the Sith, the Jedi.

The Republic. Such a name didn’t have quite the ring you wanted. You were to be, what, Chancellor? No, no, that wouldn’t do.

“Together, we will create the first Galactic Empire- a beacon of hope for the galaxy, the strongest protector of the peace that the galaxy has ever seen!”

Emperor. Now that was a title you were proud to carry.

“We have to hurry,” you told Anakin as you strode from the meeting hall, “The Separatists might hear word that we know their location. We’ve got to get to them before they move.”

They hadn’t- they waited, like the proper pawns they were, for the reward you had promised them. Such a reward came in one of two forms:

Anakin’s saber, or yours.

You had planned out everything that would happen this day, everywhere you would go, every bit of it. You knew every step, and were never caught off guard.

Until you discovered Obi-Wan Kenobi waiting outside of your ship.

You had to make a decision fast- how you were going to play this. Obi-Wan was a talented Jedi, and possibly the one person who you’d be incapable of manipulating, thanks to that strong Jedi code. He was also the only person who Anakin might be loyal to, over you.

So, you let Anakin have his reunion, as though you hadn’t even noticed Obi-Wan.

You stayed close, but you hadn’t thought to make Anakin realize he’d have to stand opposed to Obi-Wan, so you had to wait for the proper moment to interject yourself.

“Anakin, are you alright? There’s been so much happening- I was so worried.” You knew Obi-Wan had noticed you, but for all of Obi-Wan’s faults, at least he knew that you were no threat to Anakin.

“I’m fine,” Anakin told him, and you recognized what he was feeling- he was pushing away his emotions, as the Jedi Order had always told him to.

“Master Yoda has lost contact with Master Windu- we don’t know what happened. Do you?”

And there it was. The moment you’d been waiting for.

“Stop,” you groaned, crossing your arms. “You know exactly what Windu was doing. You know exactly where he was today.” You stepped forward, putting yourself almost between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

“No,” Obi-Wan said, astonished by your presence. He’d known you were there, but something about you now almost reminded him that you were barely an adult, just like Anakin. “No, sith apprentice, I don’t know what happened.”

“That’s a lie!” you shouted, not yet bringing up your saber. You put your arm in front of Anakin, as though protecting him from Obi-Wan. “You’re done lying to him!”

“Excuse me?”

“Mace Windu along with three other Jedi masters were sent to murder the Chancellor of the Republic so that the Jedi could assume control! Anakin and I found the plans in the Jedi temple ourselves!” Obi-Wan’s expression fell, and he didn’t look away from you.

“What are you talking about?”

You shared a glance with Anakin, and suddenly, you had an idea.

“They didn’t even tell you?” You whispered, turning your gaze to the floor as though you were considering. You were, though, honestly- there was no reason why this needed to end with Obi-Wan dead, not if you could reel him in just as cleanly as you did Anakin. And if you failed, then to Anakin it would feel incredibly genuine that Obi-Wan would need to die, ensuring his loyalty either way.

You brought your gaze to Anakin’s, and offered him the slightest pitiful smile.

“Maybe he can be trusted,” you said, offering him the hope that his master was redeemable. Lifting your chin as though gathering your wits, you turned to Obi-Wan, something under your ribcage sparking again with the love of a good plan seeing itself through.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Master, but the Jedi had been plotting the death of Chancellor Palpatine, and once he was gone, they were going to assume control of the Senate. Your masters have been behind this war, all along. It’s all very-” You shook your head. “Despicable.”

“It can’t be true,” Obi-Wan said, his voice stealing air from his lungs, his chest seeming to deflate, and this couldn’t have possibly worked out better.

“We found the plans, in the Temple,” Anakin said, and Obi-Wan looked at his former Padawan.

“I assure you, Master,” you said, lowering your head, “I just want the galaxy in peace. I know you aren’t inclined to believe me, I understand...” It occurred to you that if he knew the whole of the story, he might be swayed toward you.

“Anakin and I are a Dyad,” you told him, and Anakin’s entire presence in the Force pulsed with surprise. “I always thought that it meant we were destined to be enemies, but I guess the future is harder to predict than that.” Obi-Wan studied you briefly, looking over your face, trying to find any hint of dishonesty. He underestimated you- you breathed dishonesty, it was in your bloodstream. Why would he be able to see it on you?

“You are a sith, are you not?” Obi-Wan asked, presumably weighing whether or not he could trust you.

“I was abandoned by my master, because of how I felt for Anakin,” you told him, and none of it was a flat lie. That was your specialty- you were surprisingly honest, if one listened with a close enough ear. You reached out to take Anakin’s hand, an unabashed show of affection that felt quite teenaged. “I just want him to be safe.”

“If I can trust you, (Y/N), which I’m not sure I can,” Obi-Wan said, “I’ll help restore the galaxy in every way I can.”

-🦌 Roe

part 3

#reader insert #angst #sith!reader #anakin x reader insert #star wars anakin #anakin x reader #anakin imagine #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker #anakin x sith reader #anakin skywalker x sith reader #star wars #Star Wars prequels #fics

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writer1 · 3 years

Text

A regretful Wolf and his Beauty

Chapter One

Beast!Rex x fem!reader.

Summary: As punishment for his actions, young prince Rex was cursed to become a monster by a witch. The only thing that saved him from his fate was an enchantress, who gave him a condition. He has to find true love in order to redeem himself and he only has until the last petal of the enchanted rose falls. Rex's family helps you by guiding your way into his heart. Rex's fate now lies in your hands."

A/N: Hey, this is a collaborative fic between myself and @ahsokatano-thetogruta. We have created a star wars the clone wars fanfic based off the story Beauty and the Beast, so we both hope that you love reading this as much as we had fun writing it. Enjoy!

It's a crisp winter's day, the untouched snow was glistening, as more beautiful soft snowflakes danced through the air, swirling around each other in time as they waltzed their way to the ground. The slowly rising sun peers over the horizon, it feels magical as the sun shines over the sparkling snow, glistening and gleaming, creating a beautiful, breathtaking winter wonderland, and the inhabitants of the royal castle start to stir, the younger kids are already running around. They were waiting Impatiently to open the nicely wrapped presents under the tree. Christmas day is finally here again.

Rex was surrounded in peace until he was abruptly awoken to the sounds of exciting cheers and shouting of his younger brothers and cousins who are now running around the halls of the castle outside of his room.

Rex groans at the sound. He tries to go back to sleep, pressing his face tightly into the pillow. He had a late night, and is absolutely exhausted.

He almost growls when his door swings open and Fives, Echo and little Stutter run in. The ten year old twins and four year old kid run over to Rex, with Fives picking up Stutter, dropping him on top of his side. Rex almost growls again, but holds it back so as not to hurt his little brother's feelings.

He turns over, Stutter sitting on his stomach now, hands against his chest. The cute smile on his face makes Rex give him a small little smile.

"Come on, Rex. It's time to get up, right Stutter?" Stutter looks at Fives, nodding happily.

"Yeah! C-C-Come on, O-Ori'vod" Rex smiles tiredly.

"Okay! I'm up Vod'ika, can you three please leave so I can get dressed." They all nod, Echo walking over and grabbing little Stutter from Rex. They all walk out.

"Hurry up, Ori'vod." Echo yells back, causing Rex to huff a little. Rex rubs his face and yawns, trying to wake up more. He feels like he could go right back to sleep for the rest of the day, but that's not happening. He sits up, stretching his arms and legs out.

Once he's half woken himself up, he hops out of bed, padding over to the wardrobe slowly. He looks through his collection of clothes, finding his favorite shirt inside. He smiles, grabbing it and a nice brown pair of pants. Once fully dressed, he starts walking towards the door to leave his quarters.

On his way, Rex's vision goes slightly blurry and his eyes struggle to stay open from fatigue, so he yawns again, but because he couldn't see where he was walking, he clumsily stumbles into a small table making him curse as he snaps his eyes shut for a second. When he opens them again, he can see a vase wobbling around on its base, almost ready to topple over at any second. It all happens in slow motion and Rex is unable to move quickly enough to stop it from hitting the ground.

It makes a loud crash as it shatters into a thousand pieces. Rex feels his frustration earlier come rushing back to him, his annoyance growing with every passing second. A few moments later, he hears his door swing open. Without bothering to turn around to see who it is, his words come out snappy. "Don't you know how to knock?" He turns around to see Cody standing in the doorway. "Oh...sorry Cody. I didn't mean to lash out like that."

"It's alright, Vod'ika. I heard a loud noise so I just needed to make sure that you were okay, I was worried for you." Cody smiles knowing that Rex is okay, he saw the frustration on his face for a second after he turned around. "Are you okay?"

Rex feels a guilt wash over him like a ferocious wave, regretting being so rude, especially in front of his Ori'Vod. "I'm sorry, Cody. I accidentally bumped into it." Cody smiles kindly at Rex, he knows that it's not his fault.

"It's fine, Vod'ika. It was an accident. I'll clean it up, are you okay, you look frustrated." Rex nods, Cody's been here for him ever since their parents died two years ago. The reason Rex is crown prince is because Cody and his other brother Bly didn't want the crown.

"I didn't sleep well last night, and I was woken up by all of the noise." He mumbles a bit, still tired.

"I'm sure you'll feel throughout the day. We have a lot of fun things planned." He says with a big smile, hoping it will make Rex feel somewhat better.

"I'm sure I will too." He thanks him with a tired smile. Being thirteen and having hormones is not making his morning any better, but he tries to power through it the best he can and hopes he'll have a good time.

"I'll meet you in the ballroom to open presents once I've cleaned this up for you."

"Thanks, Ori'Vod."

"You're welcome, Vod'ika."

xxx

It's always very busy in the kitchen on Christmas. Many Chefs are preparing the vegetables and various foods for the Christmas dinner and snacks throughout the day. Gregor is a fifteen year old chef in training after being promoted from a dishwasher to a sous chef. He was given the day off today to spend with his brothers and cousins, but asked the head chef if he could make some cookies for everyone when they all open their presents. His boss is really nice, so he lets him do what he needs to do. Gregor gets up early to start making them. He hears the younger kids start running around upstairs, waking up the oldest of the family. He chuckles thinking of the kids running into his room to find an empty bed, he won't be woken up by someone jumping on him this year.

Gregor grabs all the ingredients he’ll need for the cookies, starting with the flour. He pours it into a bowl, there's a cloud of flour in the air after he pours but he just ignores it. He grabs the milk and eggs next, being careful to measure it correctly, the eggs are cracked in a separate bowl then, once checked for shells, are poured in with everything else. Next is Gregor's favorite ingredient, sugar.

He measures out a little more than the recipe calls for since his brothers and cousins love it when he adds extra into the mixture, because they all have a big sweet tooth. He mixes it in, giving the batter a quick taste. Once he finds that the taste is good he adds the baking powder and butter, checking the taste just to make sure it's still good.

Once the batter has reached the desired consistency and sweetness, he grabs a selection of Christmas spices from a cupboard and places them on the counter. He separates the batter into 3 different bowls, each one for a different flavour. He will make some cinnamon, ginger and vanilla cookies, though he makes about a batch more of cinnamon cookies because almost everyone goes crazy over those.

He mixes in the spices in and then puts the batter onto the counter. Gregor goes to get a rolling pin and some cookie cutters shaped like Christmas trees and stars to give them that extra Christmas feel to them. He rolls out the batter evenly and then cuts some out, placing them onto a tray ready to go into the oven. Once they are all cut out and placed on baking trays, he puts them into the oven that was preheated earlier on and then grabs a sand timer that will tell him in 20 minutes that the cookies will be baked and ready. He turns over the small timer and takes it with him so he can join everyone to start opening presents.

xxx

Rex sits in a circle with the kids, everyone between the ages of 2 to 15 is there. They all have presents in their laps, ready to be opened, the older kids and adults just have to give the say. Cody walks into the room, glancing around and smiling.

“Okay, you can all open your present now!” 99 calls out, he's the oldest among them and is everyone's uncle. All the kids start ripping open their presents, Rex feels a little bit of fear for Anakin's present when he starts to shake it.

“Be careful, ani. You’ll hurt him.” the twelve year old knight in training looks at Rex with wide eyes.

“Him?” he asks, setting the box down gently. He rips it open, hearing a bark when he opens it. He gasps loudly.

“A PUPPY!!!!” he yells, hugging the young dog to his chest. Rex smiles at his best friend's happiness, it was hard work keeping the puppy a secret. And getting it into the box a little while ago was tough, he had to ask Obi Wan for help. The older knight was surprised when Rex had asked him about getting Anakin a puppy, but agreed. He could see why Cody loved the guy. Anakin put the puppy down, pouncing on Rex.

“Thanks Rex, I love him!”

"Aw, he's so cute! What will you name him, Skyguy?" Anakin looks to his left to see Ahsoka petting his new dog gently on its head.

He smiles at her, she's only three years old but he finds her so enthusiastic and sweet "Hmm…" Anakin thinks for a moment, looking deeply into the puppy's eyes. "I'll call him Artoo!" He says, and the puppy lets out a little bark and wags his tail. Anakin feels tears of happiness well in his eyes as he hugs him close to his chest again, feeling Artoo snuggle into him.

After a few moments of admiring the adorable sight, Rex sees Stutter hand him a present. "Here y-y-you go R-R-Rex. T-T-This is f-for you."

Rex takes the wrapped up box from Stutter,smiling as he does so. "Thank you." He is only four years old, so the wrapping is a little bit untidy, but he is just so sweet and thoughtful. He peels back the paper to reveal a box with a lid. Discarding the wrapping paper on the floor, he carefully lifts off the lid to reveal a drawing inside. "Wow! This is so good, I love it. Thank you very much, Vod'ika!" Rex thanks Stutter, making him smile and then giving him a big hug. "Is that me and you that you've drawn?"

"Y-Yeah! We are p-p-playing t-t-together." He grins, happy that Rex loves his present. Stutter loves art so much, so any chance he gets to do something creative he will go and make more pieces of artwork.

While everyone is busy exchanging presents and making conversation with one another, the air is filled with a delightful and sweet aroma, making the ballroom feel even more Christmassy. Gregor notices that the sandtimer has almost run out, so he gets up and heads to the kitchen.

Rex watches as Hardcase rips into the wrapped present, he shakes his head. He swears that Hardcase is younger than him, not the same age. Hardcase finds a jigsaw puzzle inside, it's a puzzle of knights in shining armor, riding their horses into battle.

“This is awesome!”

“Did you remember to check who it's from?” Rex asks, Hardcase makes a sheepish expression.

“Oops!” he looks around. Finding the name tag, it says that it's from Jesse.

“Thanks Jesse!” hardcase yells to the twenty year old, who smiles.

“Your welcome, Vod’ika!” Hardcase laughs, he absolutely cannot wait to put it together.

Not a moment later, Gregor returns with some plates of his freshly baked cookies. Everyone's eyes go wide as he starts to hand them out to everyone. They always love his baking, especially his Christmas cookies, they are his speciality.

Rex runs over to Gregor, grabbing a handful of cookies. He runs them back over to the group, handing them to Anakin, Hardcase, Ahsoka, Stutter and everyone else in the group. Each person gets one for now to be fair, they'll have more once the presents are all done.

Ahsoka is next to open a present. She rummages through the various other presents under the tree until she finds one with her name on it. It's wrapped in silvery white paper with snowflakes and has a big blue ribbon tied around it. The tiny Togruta's eyes light up and the cutest smile graces her face. "Found mine!" Ahsoka exclaimed excitedly. She runs back over to her Ori'Vod.

Ahsoka lost her family about a year ago and Rex took her in, taking care of her and it wasn't long before everyone in the castle became her new family. She is so happy to have so many great brothers and cousins there for her. When they found out that she could use the force, Obi-Wan suggested that Anakin should be her mentor in her training to become a knight when she is old enough.

"Who's it from, Soka?" Anakin asks, still petting Artoo in his lap.

"It's from…" she searches the box for the label and then reads it out loud. "Rex."

Rex smiles at her kindly. "Go ahead, open it. But be careful with it."

Ahsoka nods and her eyes sparkle with excitement as she begins to peel back the paper, revealing a wooden box. She holds it and looks a bit confused at it for a moment.

"Here, you open it like this." Rex gets up from his chair and crouches down next to her, showing her how to open it. She then opens it all the way.

There's a little ballerina posing as if she was dancing. The lady is wearing a cute pink dress and has a pair of slipper silhouettes in the same colour as the dress. Her hair is tied up in a bun with a ribbon.

“I tried to get you a Togrutan one, but I couldn’t find one anywhere, sorry.” Rex says apologetically, he searched for one for weeks but they were always sold out or just didn't sell them.

"It's okay, I love it so much! Thank you, Ori'Vod!" She puts down the box and gives Rex a big hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. Rex chuckles and hugs her back.

"You're welcome, Soka. There is something else to it as well." Ahsoka looks at him puzzled, not sure about what he means. Rex picks up the box and shows her the little key on the back. "Turn this around a few times and see what happens."

"Okay!" She is excited to see what happens. When she lets go of the key, the ballerina starts to turn around as music from inside the box plays a beautiful song. Ahsoka is in love with this gift. "Wow! Thank you so much, I love it!"

"You're very welcome." Rex smiles at her and then she runs off to another room to carry on listening to the melody that the box produces, completely amazed with her present.

Taglist: @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @captainrexisboo

#wererex #wererex x reader #star wars clone wars #captain rex x reader #werewolf clone wars au #werewolf rex x reader #my writing #captain rex #beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast au #star wars rebels #ahsoka #hardcase #jesse #fives

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skyestar7703 · 3 years

Text

Why is Anakin Skywalker’s redemption arc so well received in comparison to others?

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding many redemption arcs in modern media. From Kylo Ren, to the Diamonds of Steven Universe, to Shadoweaver, to Severus Snape. This is especially apparent in stories where the redeemer in question dies shortly after. These people, some more than others, have split entire fan bases apart, with many claiming that their redemption was undeserved and shouldn’t have happened. And yet Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader has escaped most of this talk. Why is that?

Well, here are my 3am theories on the subject:

1. The popular phrase “Cool motive, still murder,” applies here, except the audience is encouraged to think that way. We’ve seen why Anakin fell, and we feel for him. A slave since birth, raised in a harsh and unwelcoming environment where he was never accepted and made well aware of that, groomed from a young age by an old man with evil mind powers, watched his mother die from torture in front of him, etc. We can see what led him to become a villain. But all of this is clearly meant to be an explanation, not to absolve him of his crimes. We aren’t forced to see his tragic backstory and have the narrative claim that it somehow gives him the right to commit atrocities. It’s the opposite, in fact. It’s meant to show how a good man can fall, can become the evil we see in the original trilogy. This is, of course, in massive contrast to Kylo Ren, where the narrative seems to imply that his backstory absolves him of his terrible deeds. With Anakin, it only makes them worse, knowing he used to be a good man, and that’s how the movies and Clone Wars show portray it.

2. Forgiveness is not made mandatory. This is both on a meta and in-universe level. In the lore, Anakin is only canonically redeemed in the eyes of Luke, Obi Wan and Yoda (who seem happy to see him at the end of ROTJ), and the Force. He goes down in history as an evil man, and this has consequences for his children in the future. There is no “everything’s okay now!” After he does his good deed. And it was never meant to be that way anyways. Anakin killed Palpatine for his son, because after everything he still had love and light in his heart. But that doesn’t mean the world as a whole moves on from his actions. They aren’t forced to do so.

In the meta context, we as the audience aren’t meant to see his redemption as absolving him of his crimes. The prequels only emphasized how terrible his deeds were, showing how he murdered a room full of children, and these came out after the movie in which he was redeemed. We aren’t meant to see him as an anti-hero or morally grey, we’re meant to see him as a villain. Therefore, there isn’t the irritation that comes with watching the story trying to excuse his inexcusable actions. There is just the good feeling we get as our hero Luke is proved right when he reaches out to Vader, that he gets to reunite with the man who in another life might’ve been a true father to him, if only briefly. It’s portrayed as a victory for our hero, not a confusing mess of emotions that leaves us wondering if the narrative wants us to care more about the villains feelings than the heroes.

3. Darth Vader is a fun villain! He’s the icon for cool movie villains for a reason. People see him do terrible things but he’s so cool when he does it that we want to see him on screen again. We didn’t even know his tragic backstory until the prequels! In the original trilogy all we know is that he was once a Jedi and a friend of Obi Wan. I can’t say what people watching it at the time felt, cause I wasn’t alive then and this is early morning ramblings, not heavy research, but watching the cool villain get some awesome final moments by defeating the big bad and going out with a tasteful death is a great way to end an iconic villain that just makes him more iconic. It’s just fun!

Anyways, that’s why I think Anakin Skywalker has avoided most of the Redemption Debate.

#star wars #anakin skywalker #darth vader

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ilonga · 4 years

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rise of skywalker and sequels salt time, y’all

things I’m salty about in the rise of skywalker and the star wars sequels, in no particular order:

- Finn was sidelined

- FINN WAS SIDELINED

- he was such an interesting character with so much potential (a stormtrooper who deserted!! pretty sure that was the first time we’d ever seen that!!), and it was all ignored and he was turned into background noise for what?? kylo ren??

- seriously! after TFA, the movies should have explored his backstroy! we should have seen his stormtrooper past affect him!! maybe a stormtrooper revolution!! he should have had a CHARACTER ARC!

- also his force-sensitivity being turned into a joke and comic relief was frankly insulting

- they could have done so many things with that side of the character (even though it was kind of out of nowhere)! parallels between finn and rey, finn questioning his identity, the whole a former stormptrooper being force sensitive thing should have been explored!

- Poe was sidelined

- Poe was a spice runner for no reason?? 1) isn’t that a rude stereotype, and 2) Poe is not Han Solo 2.0!! he was his own, different character!

- Finn/Poe didn’t happen

- gonna be salty about that forever, though I guess I saw it coming :( (it’s disney, what did I expect?)

- but they gave Poe a straight love interest that we’d never heard of before this movie and who he had like two lines of dialogue with just to rub it in?? like, really?

- they completely forgot Rose existed

- like, listen, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the finnrose kiss either, but you can’t just pretend it didn’t happen and hope everyone forgets about it

- and sure, rose’s introduction and character in TLJ was a bit clumsy

- BUT YOU CAN’T JUST IGNORE HER AND PRETEND SHE DIDN’T HAPPEN

- she had a lot of potential as a character, and interesting backstory, a practical pragmatic personality, and a lot of ways she could play off the other characters

- TROS could have been where we saw Rose grow as a character and really shine

- instead, she was forgotten

- ugh

- REY PALPATINE WAS THE DUMBEST FRICKING THING OKAY--

- like, first of all, palpatine coming back for some reason somehow was the most ridiculous direction this movie could have gone and didn’t work, at all

- their enemy for the first TWO MOVIES was the First Order and Kylo Ren

- they had a huge moment in TLJ where the Resistance is steadily being destroyed and they won’t last long against the First Order

- now they’re supposed to take on the First Order and a now-supposedly-immortal emperor palpatine who has a collection of unmanned star destroyers he can control for some reason??

- both of them at once? the resistance is barely alive as is, now you’re adding an OP extra army + sith lord to the mix?

- I mean, this is ridiculous. Palpatine’s dead. Anakin’s big sacrifice in return of the jedi was KILLING palpatine. now he’s back, and the resistance somehow realises he’s back and decides he’s enemy #1 now?

- how did the resistance find out a dead sith lord came back to life on a remote planet anyways?

- and WHAT ABOUT, YOU KNOW, THE FIRST ORDER? AND KYLO REN?

- Kylo Ren, who they finally decided was going to be the main villain in TLJ (even with that stupid “rey trying to redeem the mass murderer” plot going on in the background), and now they don’t have the guts to commit to making him evil (which he was for the LAST TWO MOVIES AND THE MAJORITY OF TROS)

- so, since they weren’t committed enough to make Kylo a villain like he actually was and didn’t have the groundwork for a redemption, they just decided to ignore the fact that he was evil and hope it would go away

- like, are we going to forget that he literally MURDERED HIS DAD, HAN SOLO

- or that he and his first order destroyed a whole SYSTEM OF PLANETS? filled with billions of innocent people?

- he personally tortured Poe, he personally tortured Rey, and he was complicit in a system that kidnapped Finn, took him from his family, and brainwashed him

- not to mention that one of the opening scenes of TROS was him literally massacring people

- but no!! it’s all fine now, bc he looked at his dad’s ghost a little sadly and got a new lightsaber color

- like, no. he isn’t “redeemed” because he’s decided he has the hots for rey. heck, that makes it even worse. he’s been trying to manipulate her for all three movies, he’s gaslighted her, he’s threatened her, he’s hurt the people she cares about. NONE OF THAT IS OKAY. and it’s even less okay that all of his evil deeds can be written off because rey’s “”love”” for him “healed” him or whatever the fuck they want us to think

- and why would they have Rey HEAL him? after SHE stabbed him? in what universe does that make sense?? even if rey didn’t defeat him fairly bc he was distracted or whatever, this is still the supreme leader of the army rey and the rebels are trying to defeat. like, rey, are you a part of the resistance or not? it doesn’t matter if he was “nicer” to you than the rest of the rebels. He’s still your ENEMY. Your “”empathy”” here helps no one, least of all yourself. Kylo Ren dead would have been a massive victory for the resistance--maybe they’d even have had a chance against the first order then! you know, the first order? the enemy you were fighting for the last two movies?

- is this the message you want to be sending to young girls in the audience? that it’s ok if their partner hurts them, hurts other people, is a bad person in general, because their love can “”heal”” him? and that eventually, he’ll turn good if you just try hard enough?

- this is how people wind up in abusive relationships!! that shit is NOT okay

- and the kiss is ridiculous for the same reasons. you don’t owe kylo ren anything, rey. Not in the least for “rescuing” from a situation that was pretty much created bc of him. He’s the one who teamed up with palpatine at the beginning of the movie, remember?

- sometimes I feel like this movie forgot that kylo ren is, you know, a bad person, which the other two movies spent their entire runtime showing us

- like darth vader’s sacrifice was one thing. first of all, it was for his son, his child, and secondly, vader was very much under the power of the emperor and debatably had the mindset of a slave

- kylo ren, on the other hand, was completely under his own power. HE was making the choices, and calling the shots. HE murdered Snoke. And he died for a girl he was manipulating and gaslighting constantly and that he didn’t have much of a connection to other than “the force”

- like, darth vader’s “”redemption”” definitely wasn’t perfect either. you can argue that him killing the emperor and sacrificing him self to save his son didn’t negate any of his actions or him being a bad person. but it was definitely more meaningful and better handled.

- and let’s talk about rey

- I will forever be bitter that rey didn’t get a meaningful character arc and character growth

- which is so disappointing because she was SUCH an interesting (& mysterious) character with so much potential in TFA

- I feel like, in making her palpatine, which was pretty out of nowhere and contrary to the last jedi, they were so busy trying to fit her heritage into the movie in a way that sort of made sense that they forgot to make the movie about her growing as a character and person

- couldn’t they at least have given her her own lightsaber?

- I mean, her being a palpatine is already ridiculous because since when does palpatine have a son? (clone, whatever) And since when did that son have some sort of epic struggle where he refuses to join palpatine and runs away? and when did that son find someone he fell in love with, and have a daughter? and then subsequently abandon her, a seven-ish year old, on a dangerous desert planet? (I mean, wasn’t palpatine dead by then anyways?)

- it just doesn’t fit with the already established star wars universe. we already know palpatine’s story (well, not the beginning of it, but enough). It was movies 1-6, clone wars, and rebels. if he had had a son that had a luke-esque struggle against the darkside, it would have shown up.

- it just doesn’t fit

- but anyways, back to rey

- I guess they were trying to give her some luke-style struggle where she struggles with her heritage and a pull to the darkside that she has to ultimately triumph over? but it doesn’t work

- one, because she never HAS any struggle with the dark side. shooting lightning out of your fingers out of nowhere doesn’t count (and wasn’t that a ridiculous scene. it was more comical than anything else, which is definitely not what they were going for)

- a struggle with the darkside is about being tempted to give into anger, fear, and hatred, and struggling not to do the wrong things and turn evil. In luke’s story, we SAW that. we also saw luke’s horror and eventual acceptance of his heritage, which we never really saw with rey. It was just like, “okay, guess I’m a palpatine?” and it wasn’t nearly as impactful bc palpatine had been dead for the past thirty-ish years. as a contrast, vader was a living and very present villain who the heroes had to contend with, and it was personal for most of them.

- so I guess they tried to make that her character arc, but it didn’t work. so we were left with a stale character who didn’t really have any meaningful victories or losses.

- is she really a “”mary sue”” like everyone’s claiming if they never really made the story about her?

- I think that was the biggest thing that was so unsatisfying about the sequels

- she was hyped up to be the first real mainstream female jedi protagonist (obviously clone wars got there first, but movies are definitely more mainstream than a show, sorry cw :( ), but she never really got a journey, struggles, or real triumphs. which is such a shame because she was this really empowering character in TFA that I was so excited to see more! but her trilogy-wide character arc just wasn’t satsifying

- I wanted to see her really struggle, and rise above her struggles! I wanted her to have meaningful triumphs!

- also I don’t think she ever got injured either, which is definitely a deviation from the star wars trilogy pattern. that’s kinda strange. (luke lost his hand & got electrocuted, han got frozen in carbonite, leia got tortured & shot, anakin got, well, a LOT of injuries, but even before becoming darth vader w/ the foregone conclusion, he had his arm cut off, padme was pretty heavily injured on genosis, and obi-wan was injured in the fight against dooku)

- yup

- also the sith wayfinder was kinda dumb, and I never felt like there were real stakes in TROS

- and let’s address the rey skywalker thing: ok, fine, I get what they were trying to say, kind of

- and I’m not foaming at the mouth about it like some people are. I’m fairly indifferent

- but it would have been a lot more meaningful if rey had had like, a really close, deep relationship with Leia and Luke, so she could say that she and they considered her a skywalker

- but she didn’t have that sort of relationship with them, not really. Sure, she and leia were friends on-screen, but that was it. and luke didn’t really seem to like her all that much.

- so like, “meh”

- especially since Leia’s technically a Solo or an Organa, so that line working really relied on her relationship with Luke, which wasn’t strong enough

- yea, so that’s that

- the “jedi voices” scene was pretty cool though (AAAAH AHSOKA!! AND ANAKIN!! AND ALL THE OTHER JEDI!!), and I liked her yellow lightsaber (although she could have built her own lightsaber at the BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE, instead of carrying luke’s the whole time)

there are things I like about the sequels, mind you. a lot of things!! but there’s a lot I was disappointed in too.

congrats if you got this far, that was a LOT of salt

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anaboo-thewriter · 4 years

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Reckless (End)

Summary: The Fast and the Furious AU. You’re an undercover cop with a mission to infiltrate a team of street racers responsible for the theft of millions of dollars worth in electronics. However, you didn’t think you would fall for the leader of the team and your target, Bucky Barnes. Now you must make the decision, will you turn Bucky and his team in order to become an FBI agent you’ve always wanted to be, or throw caution to the wind and continue to fall for a criminal?

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warning: Angst

Word Count: 1.4k

A/N: Holy. Shit. It’s been 2 years since I’ve written this and it has finally ended. Inspiration has a funny way of showing up in unexpected places. Unfortunately, I’m unable to write as much as I’d like to because I’m back in school with a whole new set of rules and priorities. So thank you to all those who stuck around and thank you to newcomers who have enjoyed the ride!

Please reblog and/or comment if you enjoyed it.

RECKLESS MASTERLIST

Nat was wheeled back into surgery on a stretcher. The gash on her head was deep enough to receive stitches, and she floated out of consciousness on the way to the hospital. You, Sam, Steve, and Bucky attempted to wait patiently in the waiting room. Steve paced back and forth, chewing on his bottom lip, Sam occupied himself with an old magazine, and Bucky stared you down from across the small area. His jaw was clenched tight, and his foot tapped against the for impatiently. You tried to avert your eyes from him, but every time you glanced at him, guilt consumed more of you.

"James, I'm really sorry about Nat," you couldn't take the silence anymore, and you were trying desperately to make amends. You couldn't stand him being mad at you.

"Are you really sorry about Nat?" Bucky questioned, but you could hear the anger in his tone, "or are you sorry that you got caught being a nark?"

His words stung. "That wasn't my intention, James," You tried to defend yourself.

"Don't call me that. You lost that right when you became Officer Y/L/N," Bucky interrupted you. Your heart dropped and withdrew from the conversation. That was it, you were cut from Bucky's life, and there was no coming back from it.

Sam and Steve looked at you with sad eyes before they returned to what they were doing. The friends you once called family remained loyal to their leader, and it sent a shiver down your spine from the cold shoulder. You were now an outcast. The pit in your stomach grew bigger with guilt. The foundation for the makeshift family was trust and loyalty, and you broke it with one phone call. You didn't want to make the call, but it was the only thing you could do to save Nat. You didn't regret your decision; you just regretted the consequences.

"Mr. Barnes," the doctor came into the waiting room with a small smile on her face. Bucky, Steve, and Sam darted towards her. You lingered in the back to eavesdrop on what she had to say. "Your friend is doing great. No serious injury, other than a few scratches and bruises and a slight concussion. She should be ready to go home soon, though."

"Thank you, doctor. Is it okay if we go see her?" Steve questioned with a sigh of relief. The doctor shook her head and lead the group through the double doors. You trailed behind the group, contemplating on joining them, but you watched as they walked to Nat's room. Steve turned to you with sad eyes, with a small smile on his face. It hurt to look at, but you knew you made the right decision.

You couldn't stand to look at the white walls of the hospital, so you decided to step outside to get some fresh air. The open-air filled your lungs and relaxed your tight muscles from the tense situation. Your mind wandered to your case. Everything pointed to Bucky and the crew, but you couldn't bear to put him in jail. There had to be some way for you to take the heat of them and put on somebody else. It was unethical, but you were willing to do it.

Police sirens drew closer to the hospital, and you knew why they were coming. Before they surrounded the area, you ran back into the hospital. You burst through the double doors and looked through each room until you found the crew.

"Jesus, Y/N, what the hell are you still doing here?" Steve all but screamed.

"No time to explain," you insisted, "you guys need to get out of here,"

Confusion crossed the crew's face before distrust settled. "Why would we believe you now, after you've been lying to us for months," Bucky suspected.

"Bucky, we don't have time for this," you grew frustrated, "In less than 15 minutes, my boss will come through this door and shut this place down looking for you and they will send you to jail,"

"Bucky," Nat softly spoke, "I don't think she's lying about this,"

Bucky's head snapped toward Nat. Her bandage covered her scar, but there was a bruise on her shoulder where her gown had slipped. "You can't be serious, Nat? Before Race Wars, you were so skeptical of her, now you're siding with her. You must have hit your head harder than we thought,"

"Bucky, I know you're feeling betrayed right now, but Y/N wouldn't be risking her job right now to try and save us if she didn't care as much as she does," Nat slowly got on her feet and inched her way to you. She wrapped her arms around you for a tight hug. "Thank you, Y/N," Nat choked out, holding back some emotion, "I don't think I'd be here right now if it weren't for you,"

You were surprised by the embrace, but you gently wrapped your arms around her in return. "Thanks, Nat," you whispered.

"I hate to break up this very sentimental moment," Sam said as Nat, and you broke apart, "but didn't you say that your boss was coming in less than 15 minutes?"

"We're basically sitting ducks here," Steve chimed in, "we need a plan out of here,"

"Leave it to me," you said with a confident smirk.

"Fury!" you called for him, "Fury, I just saw Bucky and his team, they were headed to the roof,"

"Good work, Y/L/N," Fury commended, "They won't get far," He and group of officers ran through the double doors to catch the team.

On their way into the hospital, four nurses in gray scrubs and face masks walked out in confusion. You surveyed the area before walking out of the hospital. Not many officers were in the vicinity, nor were there police cars, marked or unmarked. You didn't encounter any other officers on your way to your vehicle with the four nurses in tow.

"I think this is the end of the line for you guys," you declared.

The nurses took off their masks with a breath. "How did you find these?" Sam asked.

"I don't think you want to know that," you winced. The look of disgust crossed the gang's faces as they were ready to get out of their dirty disguises. You pulled your keys out of your pocket and handed them to Bucky.

"What do you want me to do with those," he questioned.

"It's your 10-second car, you should take it," you simply said.

Bucky reluctantly took the keys from you and whispered, "Thank you." His eyes were soft, with a small shimmer. He was grateful for what you did that it was almost redeemable.

You gave him a small smile, "You guys should really head out before you really get caught,"

"Not so fast," a gruff voice was heard throughout the parking lot. You all turned to see Rumlow, strutting his way over to you. His eye was nearly swollen shut, and his lip still split open from the beating during Race Wars. "I want what's mine, Barnes,"

"We don't owe you shit, Rumlow," Bucky stood between you and Rumlow. Even after your betrayal, he still continued to protect you.

"Bucky, you need to go," you insisted, stepping away from his security, "I can handle this," Bucky started to speak. Still, you commanded him, "Go!"

He let out a disgruntled huff. He ran with the team to your car and drove out of the parking lot.

"Whatcha gonna do now, girly?" Rumlow taunted, "Your team left you, what kind of loyalty is that?"

You put your fists up, ready for a fight. Rumlow lunged forward to grab you, but you dodged and punched him in the ear. He let out a yell in aggravation and tried again, but you went under for a kick in his groin. He winced in pain, taking a knee. You needed to subdue him to get the cuffs on him. You brought your knee back and hit him square in the chin. He fell on his back, knocking him unconscious.

Quickly, you struggled to roll him on his stomach and placed the cuffs on around his wrists. You grabbed your cell phone to make the call to Fury. "Fury, I got the guy you're looking for,"

"What? You said that Barnes was on the roof," Fury said.

"It wasn't Barnes doing the heists. It was Brock Rumlow," you asserted. The tried to make the lie as convincing as you could for now. Bucky and the gang were off to plant the evidence to make the conviction stick. It was the only way to keep Bucky safe. Nobody could know you were framing somebody for a crime they didn't commit. Nobody could know you did this for a criminal street racer. Nobody could know were in love with James Buchanan Barnes.

Tags: @anagentinwriting , @capbuckybuchanan @thecheesecakeklutz @caplansteverogers@cap111218 @ursulaismymiddlename @fandomlifeuniverse @suz-123@after-avenging-hours @asirenscalling @killmongerdreams @papi-chulo-seb @a-splash-of-stucky @captainrogerss @anakin-skywalkers @sebbies@whothehellisbella @howlingbarnes @poealsobucky @soldatbarnes@satans-knitting-club @nedthegay @ex-bookjunky @lostinspace33@avengedqueen26 @thefallenbibliophilequote @vaisabu @pinkisokay@lachicadelamanzana @void-imaginations @its-daydreamer23@showbuckysomelove @palaiasaurus64 @goodolbucky @artemis3691

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction #avengers imagine #avengers #steve rogers #sam wilson #natasha romanoff #brock rumlow #the fast and the furious #the fast and the furious au #series finale #ana writes

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doopcafe · 4 years

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1--6), Final Analysis

Well, I made it through.

Let’s be absolutely clear: The Clone Wars (TCW) is not good television. For the most part, it’s not even watchable television. The show suffers from serious fundamental issues in nearly every aspect of storytelling. Characters are underdeveloped and inconsistent; the dialogue is expository and contradictory; the tone is disjoint and jarring; and most episodes serve no greater purpose than to be a twenty-minute vessel to house lightsaber fights.

So I want to put this part of the show to rest before I move on to Star Wars: Rebels (and before returning to watch season 7).

With two exceptions, the show poorly handles twists and reveals. In the earlier seasons, reveals were spoiled mostly due to telegraphing: Captain Sleaze in Cloak of Darkness, Senator Clovis in Senate Spy, and Yolo (?) in Senate Murders come to mind, but there were others. In later seasons, telegraphing was supplanted by “small universe syndrome” as the primary cause of spoiled reveals. In The Academy, a cloaked figure was seen doing shady, back-alley deals, but his identity could only have been the Prime Minister. During the “Ahsoka framed” series, Barriss was obviously the traitor, simply because her character suddenly reappeared after four seasons and there were no other candidates.

Probably the most successfully executed reveal was that of Krell, as his assholeness was at least initially masked as military rigidity. But even so, it was so over-the-top that when the reveal finally came to light, it felt more like an overdue disclosure than a dramatic twist. It didn’t help that, by that point in the show, the format of “asshole = upcoming reveal” had been firmly entrenched into the show’s DNA.

I would argue that the most effective plot twist of the entire show was when the dancer/singer girl shot and killed Ziro the Hutt in Hunt for Ziro. Although irrelevant to the greater story, it was an actual twist because it was strongly implied the opposite would happen (i.e., Ziro would betray the girl). If there is to be a second place, that award would go to Ahsoka’s decision to leave the Jedi Order at the conclusion of The Wrong Jedi. But this leads me into my next point...

Who was the main character of The Clone Wars? If we go by the logic that whoever had the most screen time was the main character, then Anakin probably wins over Ahsoka. But if we go by the logic that the most developed character was the “main character,” then this is a show about Ahsoka. Ahsoka---more than any other character---grows in a noticeable way (from impatient, violent child to impatient, slightly less violent teenager). In contrast, Anakin in Rising Malevolence is the same character as Anakin in Voices (only a little more violent and angry for some reason).

It’s unfortunate that her major character moments were never capitalized on. Intentionally sacrificing herself for the greater good in Weapons Factory apparently led to no lasting repercussions on her character. Her impatience and disobedience led to the deaths of thousands in Storm over Ryloth, but was similarly forgotten immediately afterwards. Even Ahsoka’s major character moment at the end of The Wrong Jedi resulted in her walking away from the show, never to address the implications of that decisions (although I suppose that’s the subject of Season 7).

On a different note, the show was riddled by a shameful amount of “references” and fan service, for reasons exclusively external to the story. These “nods” ranged from the obvious “Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” (or whatever Senator Jimmy Smits says in Cat and Mouse) to the innocuous design of a droid or background device.

These “references” are objectively problematic for at least a few reasons. (1) They contribute to the sense that the universe is a really, really small place. Is the Mos Eisley cantina really the only place in the Outer Rim where shady deals go down? Is carbon freezing really the only way to store a person in stasis for transport? How long do Rodians live for anyways? Greedo’s gotta be what, like 80 when Han shoots him in A New Hope? It’s ironic that ultimately, this incomprehensibly large, diverse galaxy actually feels much smaller after watching this series because we keep going to the same twelve places...

(2) “Fan service” is tricky to get right because different people have different memories and impressions of the source material. In result, copying material will oftentimes comes across as a blatant misunderstanding of the original content. For example, to me, Vader put Solo into carbon freeze because it’s what Lando had lying around. It’s not a galactically established method of transporting people. Obi-Wan trained Luke with those laser balls aboard the Falcon because Han had them lying around and Obi-Wan needed to improvise a training exercise to kill time.

(3) "References” and “nods” usually are just a band-aid for a lack of creativity. Some of the better episodes in the initial seasons were just direct rehashes of famous movies. Seven Samurai, Godzilla, Stray Dog, The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong... I mean, it’d be pretty impressive to mess-up stories like these, but it’s concerning that there were just so many episodes made from other people’s stories.

These “references” even seep into the most innocuous of scenes. When Prequel!Wan lands on Mandalore to attempt a rescue of Satine from Darth Maul, one of the Mandalorians takes aim at him, only to have their blaster pushed down by their companion who’s shaking their head. This is a direct reference o the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine when Luke went after R2 in the desert. Even if this scene served an important plot purpose (it didn’t), there’s undoubtedly a multitude of ways to communicate the same thing. Instead, a small reference to the OT is interjected into the show, deimmersing the audience from the events shown. Unfortunately, this is just one (very small) example of hundreds over the whole show.

Let me say something positive. The episodes that worked best (especially early in the show's run) were ones that focused on mortal people, usually the clones. Innocents of Ryloth was one of the first watchable episodes, simply because we didn't have to sit through twenty minutes of unlikable, unrelatable “Jedi” and instead followed around a pair of troopers helping a little girl using their limited abilities. Likewise, Pursuit of Peace was way more enjoyable than it probably should have been, simply because the story was understandable, the consequences clear, and the drama real. Plan of Dissent (when the clones actively rebel against Krell) was also noteworthy for similar reasons: clones we liked must subdue a “Jedi” we’ve learned to hate.

This isn’t to say that episodes focused on the major characters were inherently unenjoyable, it’s just that none of these characters had any room to grow (with the exception of Ahsoka). Dooku, Grievous, Anakin, Prequel!Wan... They were the same characters as portrayed in Episode II and III. As presented, there was nowhere for these characters to go. Dooku was literally identical at the beginning of the series as he was at the end, and the same can be said about the others.

But these are false constraints the writers imposed upon themselves. Grievous was not in Episode II and was introduced in Episode III. TCW could have started him however they wanted and then illustrated his change into the character he later becomes. Who was he? What was his motivation? Why did he hate Jedi so much? The show was handed a completely clean slate to deliver a character from scratch, but instead we were immediately shown “Episode III General Grievous” with zero introduction because fans were expected to already know who he was.

This is partly why the backstory episode to Grievous was so compelling, at least in premise: viewing his home was personal to his story and it represented a chance to learn a bit more about the character and where he came from. Of course, it was mostly mishandled by a reliance on meaningless action, but the high ratings of that particular episode suggest there was room for quality television here, it just was never capitalized on.

Instead, we have completely static caricatures, especially for minor characters from the movies. Admiral Tarkin, Admiral Ackbar, Greedo (among others) were written out of cardboard and their roles in the plot could have just as easily been played by anyone else (there was nothing unique about their roles that required them to be these characters).

This is a shame because a lot could have been done with the established premise to really focus on Anakin, his motivations, and his relationship to his Padawan. I would have been okay with a lot of backtracking if it meant I could begin to grasp his “fall” to the Dark Side. Instead, I’m honestly more confused than ever about his motivation.

One argument is that Anakin joins the Dark Side because he like, “loves” Padme (or whatever). However, what we’re shown in this show---consistently, clearly---is that Padme and Anakin have a toxic, dysfunctional relationship. He is uncomfortably jealous and rarely trusts her. They argue nearly every time they’re together. Their “love” (or whatever) must remain secret, equating their relationship to something “wrong” or even “illegal” that must be kept secret, even on the verge of death. In a later episode, Anakin orders Padme to listen to him because he’s the “man” and, as his wife, she doesn’t have a say in the matter. This is clearly a broken relationship and the best result is the one that actually happens: They stop seeing each other. Anakin wants to save this woman from a vision? Why?

This brings up a second point, which is that Anakin can’t stand the pain of losing someone. His desire to protect those close to him may be Anakin’s only redeeming trait. He has a single selfless scene (in the entire show) during the opening of Jedi Crash where he sacrifices himself to delay an explosion and save his companions. I want to stress that any other scene where Anakin saves or helps someone isn’t done because he’s a good person, it’s done because he’s a broken person. It’s done because he, personally, would struggle with the emotional toll of knowing he allowed someone close to him to be hurt or die. In other words, he’s doing nice things for selfish reasons.

As far as I’m concerned, Anakin has always been Darth Vader. He is given choices between being a Jedi and allowing a lot of people to die, and he enjoys choosing the second. In Ghosts of Mortis, we’re shown that the threshold between “Anakin” and “Darth Vader” is disconcertingly low, requiring only a few choice words and less than a minute to convert him. In short, what I’ve learned from TCW regarding Anakin Skywalker is that he was an unlikable dick, and his “turn” to the Dark Side was just a long-overdue reveal.

While the later seasons worked towards the events in Episode III in a way that at least made a bit of sense, earlier seasons were focused on adult-themed wacky hijinks. In a way, the show almost would have worked better as a kid’s show, but this was clearly meant for adults: politics, war, slavery, and lots and lots of horrific violence. In comparison, the silly adventures of Star Wars: Resistance worked well because the show didn’t take itself too seriously. It was very clearly, from the start, a lighthearted show about kids going on fun adventures. In contrast, TCW suffered because its themes were adult in nature, but was portrayed as a Saturday morning cartoon show. The humor was misplaced, the tone disjointed from actual events, and the violence excessive.

Let me say a few words on the “Jedi.” Initially I labeled them as overpowered (OP), because in earlier episodes they seemed invincible and dissolved tension in every scene. Later, we see a slew of them get cut down as plot fodder, even against widely different situations. We see Luminara and others push through hoards of droids only to see “Jedi” Master Yoda-like dude get taken down by a dog. We watch as Fisto *heh* powers through entire battalions and the cone-head guy counting coup against an army, only to watch as pink girl gets shot in the face by a single clone who stands in front of her for several seconds before pulling the trigger.

It’s nearly impossible to feel tension in these scenes because the metrics for judging the true strength of a “Jedi” keep shifting as a function of the plot requirements. Anakin suddenly forgets how to use the Force when the plot needs his help to fake some drama. Prequel!Wan pointlessly fist fights with a slaver cat for an hour until the plot needs him to get back up again and OP everyone in the room. Even their ships are only as strong or weak as the plot needs them to be. Plo Koon’s fleet is devastated in seconds in order to portray the Malevolence as being a threat; Anakin’s fleet powers through a larger force three times its size because Anakin’s like, really mad about something.

Secondly, the “Jedi,” in general, were unlikable assholes. They were consistently portrayed as violent and ignorant and I struggled to understand them as real people. Frequently, we witnessed them torture victims, default to a lightsaber to solve problems, and enjoy death to the point of counting coup against sentient life forms defending their homes. Anakin threatened civilians with his lightsaber. Ahsoka was annoyed when she’s asked not to murder a defenseless creature in Jedi Crash. Prequel!Wan and Anakin team up to hurtle enormous rocks into a beaten monster in Dooku Captured. A trio of Jedi Masters mentally gang bang a shackled Cad Bane. They supported state terrorism when it suited their needs, but agreed to abandon their friends for political reasons.

I mean, these are not good people...

This is a shame, because my impression of true Jedi comes from Luke, Yoda, and Obi-Wan in the OT, as well as the expanded universe novels that take place afterwards. It always seemed to me that being a Jedi was about conquering oneself, one’s fears, and learning to use the Force to selflessly help others and let go of all worldly attachments. You know, like the Buddhists they were originally inspired by. I always had the impression that the Force was extremely powerful and that Yoda was only showing Luke a portion of what was possible. That the Emperor was only using Force lighting to toy with Luke. That Vader only Force choked his officers because it was visually intimidating and kept them in line.

Instead, we’re treated to some garbage about how a “Jedi” is nothing greater than an actuator to swing around a lightsaber. When Luke enters Jabba’s palace in Jedi to rescue his friends, it’s not with lightsaber swinging, cutting shit up, flipping around like an acrobatic monkey. Imagine Anakin and Ahsoka in the same scene. They’d blaze through the palace corridors before Force choking Jabba as the Darth Vader theme plays. Forget the rancor, these are demigods. They have lightsabers. Have you seen them? They go “woosh woosh.”

In short, there was little to look up to in terms of a “hero” character. I can see how children can look up to Luke as a role model, someone they want to emulate or play with as a toy, but looking up to Anakin? Ahsoka? Hey kids, wanna learn to become a psychopath? First, you use your power to abuse those who are weaker than you. Then you need to get really really angry and uncontrollably choke someone, preferably your sister or one of your cousins.

And so, for a Saturday morning cartoon show, it is very unclear who we’re supposed to care about. I liked when Ahsoka went against Anakin because I hated his character so much. I liked everything with Hondo, a pirate. I liked Ventress a little, because she was actively seeking to kill the main characters. I liked some of the clones, but I don’t know which ones because they all looked the same. I cared about Darth Maul because I’m honestly a little worried about him, especially after the loss of his brother. I kinda liked General Grievous just because he hates the “Jedi” and was therefore relatable (even though the reasoning was never explained). And... that’s it.

At no point did I ever “look forward” to the next episode. I painfully died a little on the inside hitting the “watch next” button every single time.

This “review” is already way too long, so let me summarize by applying my five-star rating system (developed for movies) to each episode. In review:

5. Amazing, classic, culturally important. Something everyone should watch. 4. Great; very well done, no significant flaws. 3: Entertaining with only minor gripes/criticisms. 2: “Watchable,” but suffers from flaws and has some poor parts. 1. Uncomfortably bad; suffers from serious flaws. 0. Painfully bad, would actively fight against being forced to watch a second time.

The 3-star episodes were:

Hostage Crisis

Lightsaber Lost

Pursuit of Peace

Carnage of Krell

The Wrong Jedi

Hostage Crisis was the introduction of Cad Bane, Lightsaber Lost was the remake of Stray Dog (and the only episode to include a real Jedi), Pursuit of Peace was the random Padme/politics episode that was strangely well-executed, Carnage of Krell was the reveal of Krell as a bad guy and his clones working to apprehend him, and The Wrong Jedi was Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order (and the only episode to include a true character moment).

Also, I scaled the IMDB ratings of each episode to my ratings and then detected outliers in their overlap. In other words, I wanted to answer the question, “which episodes did I rate the most differently from others?”

Turns out, I rated every single episode lower except for seven. Those seven were:

Mercy Mission (+1.853) - R2 and 3PO discover an underground world with ents. This one is universally panned by “fans,” but was a competently handled episode apart from the disappointing resolution.

Pursuit of Peace (+1.382) - Padme struggles to win support for a Senate bill. Another competently handled episode that focuses on Padme and politics and is ranked low by “fans.”

Lightsaber Lost (+0.6471)

Weapons Factory (+0.4118) - An average episode with a dramatic scene of sacrifice by Ahsoka and her “friend” Barriss.

Shadow Warrior (+0.3824) - Grievous is captured during some dramatic moments on Naboo.

Hostage Crisis (+0.3529)

Front Runners (+0.0882) - One of the rebels episodes, I don’t remember which.

In conclusion, Star Wars: Rebels is next and I am somehow still alive.

#pie211-tcw #tcw #clone wars #the clone wars #star wars

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geodax · 4 years

Note

Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Sidious Fallen in love? I thought not. It's not a story the Jedi would tell you... So, if you are still taking prompts, basically I'd like to read smth about Palpatine x Obi-Wan, like Palpatine redeeming himself because he felt in love with Obi-Wan. Pretty please.

Alright, you asked for it.

(I usually write Palpatine as the most evil of all evils, so trying to create a characterization for him as “not quite so evil” was somewhat difficult, but here we are. He’s still kind of creepy, but Palps is doing his best.)

Dinner

He wants to reach forward and dab away the droplet of wine that had missed Obi-wan’s lips and landed in his beard. He wants to run his fingers through that beard and touch his soft pink lips. He wants to see Obi-wan blush as Palpatine leans closer and whispers of how lovely Obi-wan is, but Palpatine doesn’t dare act so forwardly. It had taken years for Obi-wan to relax in his presence and even longer for Obi-wan to open up to him. He’s terrified of losing that connection.

It had started as just another way to reach into Anakin’s life, but it’s so much more now. Palpatine had tried to deny his own feelings. He had raged against them, tried to convince himself otherwise, but there was no denying it now. Palpatine had fallen in love.

Obi-wan dabs at his beard after setting down the cup he was drinking from. The two of them are sitting in a private dining room, well hidden from the prying eyes of other senators and the media. It wouldn’t be proper for a Jedi and the Chancellor to be so close, but Palpatine can’t help it. Obi-wan’s wit and intelligence had drawn Palpatine in, altering Palpatine’s priorities so drastically that he’s now fighting his own machinations.

“Are you feeling okay?” Obi-wan asks in that perfect accent which Palpatine could listen to all day. He wonders if Obi-wan can sing. He imagines that it would be lovely.

Palpatine drags himself out of his own thoughts upon realizing that he had been staring at Obi-wan’s lips. He fears that he’s made the Jedi uncomfortable, but he senses only concern from Obi-wan.

“Perfectly fine, just stressed. The Senate is voting on the addition of new troops tomorrow,” Palpatine says. The reason it was so stressful was because Palpatine had been trying to subtly undo much of his own plans to ensure that Obi-wan would be happy again. The war is slowly chipping away at Obi-wan and Palpatine can no longer bear to see that continue. Unfortunately, that also meant sparing the Jedi. And the Republic. And the clones.

But it had been worth it, so far. Obi-wan had been far more relaxed with Palpatine once he had stated his desire to reopen peace negotiations with the Separatists. He had even been agreeable to coming to dinner with Palpatine, rather than just their usual tea appointments.

“I hear that most plan on voting in favor of additional troops,” Obi-wan says.

“I wouldn’t be so certain,” Palpatine says. “I’ve been having a great many constructive discussions with many of my constituents. You made some excellent points last month and I’ve found that many of the senators are receptive to your argument.”

“I’ve been using those same talking points for months. No one has listened.”

“I fear my words have significantly more weight that yours.”

“Yes, but we were once on par to the voice of senators. The public doesn’t trust the Jedi anymore.”

Palpatine swallows down the flash of guilt that follows Obi-wan’s statement. He’s part of the reason so many people hate the Jedi. He’s been trying to recover their public image, but the damage he’s done may be irreversible. “I’ll do everything I can,” Palpatine says. “The sooner this war ends, the better.”

Obi-wan smiles with gratitude and Palpatine’s heart flutters with happiness.

#Obi-Wan Kenobi #palpatine #i don't know the ship name for them #palobi?#obipalp?#welcome to the dumpster fire #no i will not continue this #my writing

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reylo-love-theme · 4 years

Text

Specific personal reasons why Ben dying really hurt

Disclaimer: i know people have had many dif reactions to this movie and for those of you that liked it good for you. this is my personal opinion on my own blog so please don't attack or debate me in the comments just go make your own post please if you feel that. I respect you all and I'm just trying to cope.

This post is for people who are in a similar situation as me and want a place to relate or their thoughts turned into words.

1. I'm a childhood abuse victim myself and 2019 was a terrible year full of my trying to deal with my past and my cptsd and my toxic shame. I barely made it.

Ben Solo was a reminder that it's not too late to save yourself and that people you love do care for you. I literally leaned solely on reylo fanfiction during my darkest times for this aspect of hurt/comfort and redemption and recovery.

2. I had never went to watch a movie of my own free will (see number 1). Doing this was terrifying since I had to overcome so many triggers. I chose to watch TROS so that it would end my year on a happy note with a postive message of hope, love and recovery.

3. The only reason that I shipped Reylo was because I had investigated very throughly and had become certain they would get a happy ending.

I have a tendency of relying on fictional characters for the support I do not have in real life so I needed to choose who I love very carefully or else when I loose them I'm actually in terrible pain.

The worst thing was that I wasn't prepared for it. (Preparing and being nihilist had given me depression and I literally pulled myself out of that thought process for this hope of Ben living. It seemed so close to happening and I got stabbed in the stomach and left in a puddle of blood)

Now, I'm struggling really hard not to blame myself for falling for false hope again (I had made that mistake once and swore off hope for like 11 years) (even though I know that being so cynical is terrible for my health)

4.I stepped on Reylo in 2018/2019 fully and spent a whole year looking forward to this movie. It brought me so much joy and I tamped out my inner cynic that said "putting your hope in something you love will only let you down".

I told myself that even with all that has happened in 2019, making it to December and watching the movie would be symbolic for me (a way of saying "look world, I made it.")

5. The message the movie sends me is just.... I really can't. I don't understand why it couldn't be a happy ending for Ben who literally redeemed himself. For me personally, I don't consider a kiss and a smile and then death a happy ending. What does that mean for me? A person who related so heavily to this broken struggling character. Does it mean that all my pain was worth nothing in the end? That those who I love will never love me back or remember me or even care that I was abused and my trauma made me a literal walking self-defence mechanism? That the only ending the general population accepts as morally correct is for "bad" abuse victims to die?

And the message of Ben dying for someone he loves (while not a bad trope) is toxic because of the way it is shown. Even with the emoting on Rey's behalf, it's not enough to justify someone dying for that. (There just isn't enough romance or support from Rey (unlike TLJ)) It seemed like an unbalenced love (because of the way Rey just kept on rejecting him and hurting him without really trying to help (until the end where literally he sacrificed himself, would someone who loved you do that?)

And the additional message that Ben's family would help a random stranger but not the person that literally needed them and still loved them after all the abandoment he went through. My family literally turned a blind eye (or just blamed me as a weakling for reacting to it) to my abuse and that is what happens to Ben. Even at his death, not one single member of his family (Han was just a memory) was there to mourn him or even help him (Leia's disappearance thing I'm so confused on what the heck happened, why the heck did Maz smile if Ben just literally died and his mom died trying to save him.)

And no one bothered to be on his side, he literally had to redeem himself the whole way. That isn't a good message to people who need help. It's literally saying that you are the only one who can save yourself (not a bad message by itself but the strength of the message comes from the fact that others can stand by you as you save yourself not BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WILL OR WILL HELP YOU)

Anakin sidelineing him for Rey was just salt in the wound.

As someone who's pain was literally ignored and laughed at by the whole family, this was immensely rage inducing.

And what about rey and her character development? I also had related to her for being abandoned by her parents and left to fend for herself. She was a nobody who was strong on her own. She didn't need to be related to a strong lineage. Additonally, ending up all alone on the same kind of desert she started at is not a good message. ( I get the nostalgia thing but they could have literally used any other character, Rey wasn't a good choice for that scene) First off, she wanted to get off jakku. She wanted a family. Ben told her she wasn't alone. Next, she needed to realize that being a nobody didn't mean she was worthless ( a strong and powerful message to ordinary girls) (not find out oops i was from a loving family all along!!!) That isn't good plot when she literally spend two movies recovering from her parents abandonment (it makes it seem like ohhh they loved you and this was the only best

thing they could do!! XOXO (this is a common victim blaming trick abuse apologizers use to silence victims pain)) it would have made sense if she found this out earlier but to do this to an already developed character arc is just sucky. Her turning dark influenced by palp is not as good a message as her turning dark influenced by her past and her overcoming it anyway. For star wars, a theme has always been hope, love and redemption and I feel like the theme was picked up but not carried through in one character, instead spread throughout everyone but leaving a sense of unsatisfactory ending since no one really ended their arc. (In my opinion, you can have a different one)

6. Ben dying. That is just cruel and sadistic..there were already so many "surprise they are alive illogically!" Moments that JJ could literally have pulled one for Ben a final time and no one would have batted an eye. It would have suited the style of the movie. It was such a bad shock for me. The movie already baited my heart several times with Ben nearly dying and I cheered internally when he came back. I held out my hope till the very end of the credits and this movie just made of fool of me. I was ready to gloss over any and all flaws and buy merch if only Ben had been loved and lived.

7. The way it affected me. (Warning this might be upsetting to read so skip if you don't want to hear about mental health right now)

I was in so much shock as I stumbled out of the theater that I literallt thought I was going to be okay. I couldn't feel anything and I felt sick and empty. (That's not a reaction a star wars movie should give or any "hopeful" movie)(this is coming from someone who has watched the sacrifical death trope many times and cried (it was a good hurt))

This wasn't because there was literally no resolution or purpose to the death. It seemed like a cliche trope failure of redemption=death. But with the added on "no mourning, superfical loss". (It would have been more acceptably had it been a side character, bad writing can excuse it, but for a main half of the protagonist this is just sick)

I wandered home mechanically on Friday and then as soon as I thought back to the scene where Ben smiled and died I broke down crying. And I lost all my appetite and felt nauseous for an entire two days. I barely ate two meals during that time because I was so distraught and my mental health crashed completely back into my worse cptsd symptoms and nightmares and insomnia and waking up to panic attacks. I wasn't functioning, I kept trying to pull myself together but my only postive coping mechanism(reading reylo fanfiction) was gone. In fact I felt betrayed that my coping mechanism would actually be the cause of my pain.

I completely felt like those two days were actually traumatizing and as someone who has actually experienced traumatic events I'm using the word in a serious way. Anything can hurt you badly enough if you put enough of your heart and vulnerability into it.

Now it's Monday I'm just trying to recover enough to go outside again but I feel really tired. I'm trying to salvage my christmas and my life as a big middle finger to whoever decided that abuse and mental health could be used as convenient plot points and just discarded and laughed at.

#cptsd #reylo #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker spoilers #the rise of skywalker #ben solo #ben solo deserved better #rey deserves better #rey #kylo ren

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writer1 · 3 years

Text

A regretful Wolf and his Beauty

Chapter Seven

Beast!Rex x Fem!reader

A/N: This is a collaborative fic with @ahsokatano-thetogruta.

Warnings: Self hate, nightmares, panic attack, abandonment, mention of injury, guilt.

The sun blares through the window, reflecting off of Obi Wan's armour in just the right place to brighten up the small room. Cody lets out a quiet yawn and goes to stretch but he can't. He can't believe that he forgot that he was like this, remembering the curse and the events that happened the day before. He sighs, but then ever so slightly feels Obi Wan snuggle into him, pressing himself into Cody's table top as much as he possibly can.

Cody feels himself drift off back to sleep, but Obi Wan begins to stir. Cody chuckles with content "Good morning, Sweetheart."

Obi Wan stretches his armoured limbs out as he lets out a big yawn, his vision coming back to him as he sits up and looks down to see his boyfriend, still a desk, and then looks at himself still fully suited up in armour. "I...I thought it was all just a nightmare…" Obi Wan goes to rub his eyes, but then he hears his metal fingers scraping against his helmet, making him groan.

Cody wants so badly just to cradle Obi Wan's face, feeling his slight stubble brush against his hand. "Oh, Obi Wan. Are you okay?" Obi Wan shakes his head. "No, I forgot about everything. I hoped it was all just a bad dream and I would wake up to see you...to see your face, and hold you while we cuddle." He sees Cody shuffle to him a bit closer.

"It'll be alright, Sweetheart. I'm right here for you. We'll get through this together. I promise." Obi Wan feels himself smile as he gets up and crouches down, wrapping his arms around Cody in a hug. "Thank you, Cyare. I'm lucky to have someone so wonderful like you in my life."

"I can say the exact same thing about you, Sweetheart." Cody leans into Obi Wan's embrace wishing he could hug him back, but this is the best that he can do while he's like this. A moment later, Obi Wan groans a little in discomfort.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Cody asks in a worried tone, Obi Wan stands up, stretching out his back. “Yeah, I’m just a little sore. Mostly in my back.” Cody realizes now that it probably wasn’t a good idea for Obi Wan to sleep on him.

“Maybe it would be better to sleep in the bed from now on, Obi Wan.” Obi Wan sighs, walking over and sitting on the bed. Cody shuffles over to stand in front of him. “I… I just don’t want to sleep without you, Cyare.” Cody sighs, shuffling closer to Obi Wan and pressing against him.

“I could sleep right beside the bed? Then you can place your hand on top of me and know that I’m there. Will that work, sweetheart?” Obi Wan nods, placing his hand on Cody’s scar.. “Yeah, that will work Cody. Thank you.” Cody would be smiling if he could, it makes him so happy that he could help his boyfriend. Obi Wan presses his face against Cody in a kiss, making the desk sigh with contentment. He loves being kissed by Obi Wan, even if it is different now.

“Do you think that anyone else is awake yet?” Obi Wan asks when he pulls away, and Cody hums. “Probably, hopefully the kids are still sleeping, they went to bed pretty late yesterday. And after the whole ordeal they deserve to sleep in, especially Rex.” Cody feels a spark of sadness at the thought of everything that Rex had gone through the day before, he really hopes that they can fix this, if not…

“Do you think that we can find a way to fix this, Obi Wan?” Cody asks, a tiny tremble of fear in his voice. Obi Wan sighs. “Truthfully Cody, I have no idea. Every curse I've ever read about had a condition or conditions set to end it, this one doesn’t.” Cody sighs, he was afraid of that answer. He hopes that they will find a way to end it. If not for their stakes then Rex's stake, Cody doesn’t know how being stuck as a werewolf might affect his Rex’ika mentally. Before him and Obi Wan can talk more, the door opens and both Kix and Jesse walk and float in. Kix’s face looks urgent. "Um, sorry to disturb you both." Kix looks sheepishly as Cody shuffles away from Obi Wan a little. "It's alright, Kix. What's up?"

"It's Rex, he had a nightmare. He didn't want us to come and get you because he said that he doesn't want to be any more of a burden on us than he already is." Kix feels bad that he went against Rex's wish, but he knows that he needs help right now, especially after having a nightmare.

Cody feels sadness and pain, hearing that his Rex'ika thinks that he's a burden to everyone. "Thank you for coming to me, Kix. I'll go and talk to him." He looks back at Obi Wan, who is now sitting up on the bed. "Would you like me to come with you, Cyare?" Cody nods, making Obi Wan get up and walk behind Cody who shuffles over to the door. Kix and Jesse lead the way to Rex's room as quickly as they can.

xxx

Kix stops just before the door, turning around to Cody and Obi Wan. "Rex was still sleeping when we left, so he might still be now." The both of them nod, being as quiet as they can as they push the door open to see Rex still asleep.

Rex looks so peaceful with the kids still sleeping in their same positions as they were the night before, but really inside he is hurting, being torn apart by the thought of what he has become. He whimpers a little and twitches ever so slightly. He was having another nightmare.

Cody shuffles over to Rex, pressing his leg into Rex's arm, nudging him to try and wake him up. "Rex'ika?" Rex doesn't wake up and he moves his legs, as if he was trying to run away from something, or someone. Cody is finding it so difficult to keep nudging Rex, so Obi Wan goes over to help him out. "Rex? Rex, it's okay, Little one. You need to wake up." Obi wan shakes Rex's arm.

A moment later, Rex screams as he sits up quickly and his eyes snap open. His breathing is heavy as he struggles to get rid of the image in his mind. As Rex sits up, Fives, Kiara and Echo get thrown down. They all let out a startled yell as they fall onto Rex’s lap, after they get up and jump onto Cody, giving Rex some space.

Rex’s scream also startled Anakin, his first thought was that Ventress had returned to hurt his friend. He jumps up, knocking Padmé off of his shoulder. She screams and keeps her eyes shut tight, too tired and shocked to remember that she can float. Her fall suddenly stops and she is left floating above the floor, she opens her eyes to see Obi Wan, arm outstretched, he had thankfully caught her using the force.

Anakin feels so guilty “I am so sorry Padmé. Are you okay?” The little angel nods. “Yeah, I’m fine, Ani. Thanks Obi Wan.”

“No thanks necessary, my dear.” Padme floats over to Anakin, nuzzling against him. Bly and Stutter are on the table beside Ahsoka, they had woken up as soon as Rex had screamed, and jumped onto the table. All three look at Rex, wondering what kind of nightmare he must have had. Rex sits on the bed, taking deep breaths.

His breathing becomes rapid and out of control, starting to hyperventilate. His mind floods with the visions from his nightmare, making him curl up and holding his head, trying to get rid of the horrible and terrifying thoughts plaguing his mind. His ears press back hard against his head. Everyone feels scared as they watch Rex break down, but Kix jumps straight into action. "Rex. Rex it's okay, just breathe for me, you're safe." Rex finds it difficult to concentrate as he sobs and his heart is beating out of control. Kix keeps his worry for his cousin under control. "Okay, could everyone except Jesse, Cody and Obi Wan please leave? There's too many people right now." Everyone nods at Kix as they leave, Anakin picks up Ahsoka as she is the only other one who finds it difficult to get around places.

Once it is just the four of them and Rex, Kix begins to talk to Rex again. "It's alright, Rex. I need you to focus on your breathing, can you do that for me?" Rex finds it difficult to process what Kix is saying, but a small part of him begins to slow down his breathing. He's finding it difficult to breathe properly with all the sniffles and hiccups, making him lose focus for moments at a time. "Here, breathe with me. Take a deep breath in through your nose, holding it for five seconds…..and slowly out of your mouth. Like that, okay? Can you do that for me please?" Rex does as Kix says, inhaling a deep breath through his nose, holding it and then letting it out as gently as he can through his mouth, trying his best to hold back his sobs threatening to escape. Jesse, Cody and Obi Wan watch quietly. All they can do is hope that Rex will be okay.

Rex's senses gradually come back to him as his heart rate slows down to a much steadier pace, doing as Kix had told him to. He feels shaky and weak as he tries to stand. "Rex, what are you doing? You need to stay sat down." Rex looks at Kix. "I-I'm fine."

"No you're not, you've just had a panic attack. You need to sit down and rest until your mind and body has recovered."

"I just…" Rex stumbles back down into the bed, letting out a sharp breath. "I just don't want to be a burden on anyone." The four of them frown as they see Rex begin to tear up again.

"You're not a burden Rex'ika, you never will be. We're here for you, no matter what." Cody wishes he could smile at Rex to comfort him some. Rex just looks down.

"Would you like to talk about the nightmares?" Kix asks, trying not to pressure Rex into talking.

Rex nods as he takes a shaky breath in and out. "Okay, so my dream last night, I was in the castle with everyone and Ventress was there. It was when we transformed, everything was the same except I was the only one affected. You all stayed the same.” Cody listens to his Vod’ika’s story, he really hopes that it isn’t going where he thinks it is. “When I looked around, you were all glaring at me with the most hateful expressions filled with disgust. You all hated me, even you, Bubby. That’s when I woke up.” Cody feels so much sadness for his Vod’ika, even if Rex had been the only one to transform, they would still love him. No matter what. "What was the nightmare you had just now, Rex'ika?"

Rex presses his ears back, his expression tensing at the thought of it. "I was back in the ballroom, you were all still looking so disgusted at me. Then...then you all started shouting at me, making me feel scared and vulnerable. It was the way you shouted at me, throwing things near me to scare me off. You all kept backing me up all the way to the door. I had nowhere to go, but the doors opened up and I fell out, everyone was still scaring me away, so I ran...I ran as fast as I possibly could, and then I woke up." The thought is too much for Rex, sobbing as he finishes explaining his nightmare. They all feel so sorry for him, hating that he had dreamt of that.

Kix and Jesse go over to him and snuggle into his fur to comfort him. Cody presses against his leg and Obi Wan sits beside him, rubbing his back. “That would never ever happen Rex’ika, even if we didn’t transform we would still love you with all of our hearts. I promise, you’re stuck with us.” Rex nods, pressing his leg against Cody, he cups Jesse and Kix on his chest and Obi Wan pulls Rex into a little side hug.

“Cody is right, Little One. that would never happen, whether we transformed or not we would have stood by you always. We love you.” Rex nods, thankful again for his amazing family. “Thank you, all of you.” Cody presses against him more.

“No thanks necessary, Rex’ika. We love you more than anything.” Everyone can hear a soft thumping as Rex’s tail starts to wag against the bed happily. Cody sighs, he’s happy that they could make Rex happy, even if it’s just for a little while. “Come on, Rex. I should check your burn and change the bandages.” Kix tells Rex, who nods.

“We’ll go do that, you guy’s can head down to the ballroom. We all need to figure out where to go from here.” Cody sighs. “Will you be okay with Kix and Jesse, Rex’ika?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Bubby.” Rex smiles as he follows Kix and Jesse out of the room and down the hall, heading towards his medical office.

The three of them arrive and Rex sits down. "Jesse, could you grab some clean bandages please and take off this one please." Kix gestures at the older bandages around Rex's arm. Jesse nods as he climbs up to the cupboard where the bandages are kept. "Got them!" He hops over to the bed that Rex sits on, climbing up his arm to start unraveling the old dressing. Rex holds his arm out so it's easier for Jesse to stand and info the bandages. Jesse gasps, making Kix float quickly over to him. Kix's eyes widen as he looks confused.

"What's wrong, is it okay?" Rex sounds worried, hoping that something bad hasn't happened. "It's fine. It's more than fine actually, the burn has fully healed and the fresh skin tissue has already repaired itself. There is a bit of a scar there though. Sorry if we worried you, Rex." Kix explains, making Rex feel equally surprised.

"It's okay. Do you have any idea how?" Kix tries to think of an answer for Rex. "Hm, I don't exactly know how, but it may be because you've changed? This new form may have given you an ability to heal quicker than usual? That's my only conclusion, I'm sorry that I can't help you, Rex." Rex shakes his head.

"It's alright Kix, thank you." He pulls Kix in for a gentle hug, being careful not to hurt him. Jesse jumps in as well making them all chuckle. Kix is happy that he could help Rex, even just a little "You're welcome, Rex."

"Let's head to the ballroom then, if you don't mind Rex." Rex nods at Kix, following him and Jesse out of the medical room. All three head to the ballroom, Rex following along behind them. His legs feel more sturdy today, he hopes to figure out how to walk on two legs today.

They Make it to the ballroom. "AUGH!! Come on!!" They turn to see Hardcase is sitting on the ground, he's been turned into an ax. He's staring at his puzzle in its box, unable to do anything since the poor guy has no hands. Jesse runs over to him.

"Do you need some help, Hardcase?" He nods his head, trying to stop the tears of frustration from falling. "I'm going to stay and help Hardcase, Okay." The two nod as Jesse dumps out the puzzle.

"Just tell me where you want it to go Case, and I'll put it there." Hardcase nods, telling Jesse where he wants him to put the pieces.

Both Rex and Kix leave him be, the two look around. "Stop playing the music, Wreck!" They turn to see a hat rack whip a non sentient book at the piano. Rex shakes his head, chuckling to himself, it looks like Crosshair didn't change much. All the bad batch are around the piano, it seems that Hunter is a hunting knife while his baby cousin is a book. Wrecker is a grand piano too.

Rex turns to find Cody talking to Obi Wan, Plo, and Kanan. As the two walk closer they can hear what Obi Wan is saying. "I don't know what to do, Cyare. The Knight's on patrol never returned, neither did anyone else that left the castle. Me and Kanan were thinking of going out and trying to find them."

"Rex! Kix, how are you two doing?" The keldor calls out to them as he sees them approach. "We're good." Rex tells him, Cody shuffles around so that he's facing Rex.

"How's Rex's arm, Kix?" Cody asks, he hopes that it's healing alright. Kix smiles. "It's fully healed actually, must be something to do with Rex being what he is. What were you guys talking about? The Knights never returned?"

Obi Wan strokes his nonexistent stubble in worry. "No, they haven't. Neither have little Kiara's parents or anyone else who left before the curse. Me and Kanan would like to head out and look for them, but Cody's not very happy with that plan."

"Because it's dangerous in your current condition, Obi Wan! If anyone but them sees you, all they'll see is a walking talking suit of armor, they could hurt you or worse!!!" Cody feels fear in his heart, thinking about what they could do to his boyfriend. He shudders.

"We'll be okay, Cyare. I promise you." Obi Wan leans down and presses his face against Cody's table top. Nobody comments on it or seems to mind, they all know that this is their way of showing affection while in the forms that they are in. Cody feels scared "I...I just don't want to lose you, Sweetheart." Obi Wan pulls away and looks at him.

"You won't lose me, I'll be right back before you know it. That's if we can go?" Obi Wan turns to Rex who nods his head. "Yes, just be careful out there."

"Of course, Rex. Thank you, we'll be as quick as we can be." Kanan agrees with Obi Wan. "Yes, we'll try to stay out of sight as much as we can, if not, we'll try to blend in."

Cody sighs in defeat. "Okay, just...be safe out there. Please." Obi Wan traces Cody's scar with his finger. "We will, don't worry, Cyare." He leans down again to kiss Cody before he gets ready to leave with Kanan.

"Ready to go, Obi Wan?" Kanan walks towards the door. "Yes, let's go. We'll be back soon, everyone!" Everyone waves at them as they leave, the door shutting behind the both of them.

Everyone goes back to what they are doing and Rex looks down to Cody. He seems sad. "He'll be okay Cody, he's strong." Cody nods as best he can. "Yeah, he is…I miss him already." Rex places his hand comfortingly on his brother's table top.

A second later, Rex's stomach growls, making him feel embarrassed "Uh... I-I'm getting hungry." Cody chuckles a little, hoping that helping his Rex'ika out will take away his sadness. "How about we get you some food, yeah?" Rex nods, following Cody as he leads him to the kitchen.

xxx

Kanan and Obi Wan are walking through the woods, this was the area the Knights were meant to patrol. Obi Wan and Kanan have found nothing to indicate that the knights would have been here. They are coming to the outskirts of the village, they come across a cottage on the very edge.

"Something's not right, the force feels almost like it was manipulated over here?" Kanan looks over at Obi Wan, he feels the same, but there's something else. The force presence feels… Familiar?

Suddenly Aayla secura comes running out of the cottage towards them, for some reason she had no armor on at all. Only peasant clothes.

"Aayla? What's going on, where's your armor?" She doesn't answer, looking at them in confusion until she looks through the gaps in their armor, seeing right through it to the other side. She runs screaming into the house, something the two knights know is not her usual behavior.

Depa Billaba then runs out. "Master! What's going on!" Kanan yells out to her, he doesn't understand what's going on, it's like they're completely different from the people they knew. But all she does is scream in fear, she lifts Obi Wan with the force and before he can even think he's smashed against a tree. The Knight falls to the ground. Obi Wan groans as he tries to stand. His back was already achy from not sleeping in the right position last night, but this has just worsened the pain, making it excruciating.

"Obi Wan! Are you okay? We have to get out of here." Kanan rips Obi Wan to his feet, all the suit of armor can feel is pain, screaming as he's basically dragged away by Kanan, who doesn't stop running until they're miles away and getting close to the castle.

Obi Wan is in so much pain, his back hurts so much, he would have tears in his eyes if he had them.

xxx

Rex is sitting down at the large dining table, finishing up his waffles and strawberries as Gregor brings out some cooked meat for him, to make sure that he won't feel hungry like he was yesterday. Rex gave up trying to use any cutlery, they are just way too small for him to hold now, so he dives into it with just his mouth "Mmm, fank yousho mush." Rex tries to thank Gregor with his mouthful, making him chuckle as he watches the thirteen year old boy enjoy his breakfast. "You're welcome, Rex."

Suddenly, Fives and Echo burst into the dining room, making Gregor, Rex and Cody turn their heads to look at the twins' worried expressions. "Is everything okay, you two?" Rex asks, feeling concerned for the two. "It's Obi Wan and Kanan! They're back, but Obi Wan is injured." Rex's eyes widen, looking over to Cody who would have had tears filling his eyes, but being a desk is making it difficult. The five of them rush to the ballroom to see Obi Wan with an arm wrapped around Kanan's neck for support.

"Obi Wan!!" Cody screams out, making Obi Wan look up to see his boyfriend shuffling as fast as he can to him. "Obi Wan! Sweetheart, what happened?" Cody asks fearfully.

"We…we found…" Obi Wan is unable to think straight because of the pain and how shocked he feels right now.

"We found Depa and Aayla, but they weren't the same." Rex fears that the same thing has happened to them too. "What do you mean, Kanan? Have they changed as well? Where are they?"

Kanan frowns and shakes his head. "They haven't transformed like us, they didn't seem to remember us at all. The way they acted, the way they were dressed. It was all different. When Aayla went running and screaming from us, Depa came out of the house, that I assume they are living in, and then she threw Obi Wan against a tree. I ran as fast as I could to get him back here." All Cody feels is anger and sadness, not believing that this has happened. He knew that this was a bad idea, but all that matters right now is making sure that Obi Wan's injury isn't too serious.

Kix flies over, Kanan turns Obi Wan over and everyone gasps. His back is quite literally bent from the impact of the tree, they won't be able to fix this medically.

"Kix? What do we do." Cody asks him, a tremble in his voice. He shuffles closer to his boyfriend, pressing softly against the hand that's hanging down. Obi Wan does his best to lift his hand, placing it over Cody's scar. They're both so scared, Cody can feel Obi Wan trembling in pain.

"I… I don't know, Cody. We could get a hammer and bend it back into shape, but it would hurt him. I don't know what we can do that won't cause him excruciating pain."

"I might be able to help with that!" Everyone turns to see a glowing woman, she has long flowing green hair.

Her eyes are green as well. She has a long yellow dress and her voice almost sounds like it has an echo. She looks like a goddess, everyone feels absolutely terrified.

"Oh no, not another one!" Cody yells, he doesn't want them to be cursed any worse than they already are. The woman puts her hands up in surrender at the knights that raise their swords towards her and Rex hunches down over top of Fives, Echo, Kiara and Stutter.

He growls at her angrily, Rex's chest is so close to the four that Fives has to put his candle out in fear of burning his Ori'vod again. "I am not here to curse any of you again, I promise. I'm only here to help you." She glides over to Obi Wan, Cody and Kanan tries to block her but she just floats through them.

Obi Wan looks up at her as she places her hand on his back gently, everyone watches as her hand glows and Obi Wan's back bends back into shape. But he doesn't scream in pain like expected, on the contrary he sighs in content.

"There, all better. Do you believe that I'm trying to help now." Everyone in the room nods, including Rex. "What's your name, mam." The woman chuckles.

"I go by many names. The Goddess, The Daughter, Morai, but you may call me The Enchantress." Rex walks over, bowing to her the best he can. " Well, I'm Prince Rex. Are you actually here to help us?" The enchantress nods." Of course, I helped your friend, didn't I." She gestures to Obi Wan, who's standing up and stretching his back out as if nothing happened. Cody is pressing himself into him, doing his best to hug Obi Wan.

"Now let me take a look at you, young man." The enchantress moves closer to Rex, he flinches as she goes to place her hand on the side of his face. "It's alright, I'm just going to look through your memories, to when this all happened. This is the work of a witch, am I correct?" Rex nods, looking a little nervous as her hand emits a warm glow by his face. "Hm, Ventress...that witch will do anything just to use her magic on anyone for fun."

"Can this be changed back, Enchantress?" Rex tries to not let his hopes get the best of him. The enchantress frowns as she finishes looking at Rex's memories, stepping back a little. "I cannot change you back. I don’t have the power to end the curse." Rex’s ears droop, and Cody shuffles over to him, he presses himself into Rex. He knows that Rex still blames himself. “But I may be able to change it.” Everyone including Rex looks up at her, Rex’s ears perk up.

"How?" Rex is confused. How will she be able to change it? "I am able to change the curse so that there will be a way to end it, if you will allow it." Rex nods frantically, looking around at his friends and family, who nod as well. “Yes, change it please.” She nods, using her powers to pick up the rose that Ventress had given them for payment. “This rose will bloom for thirteen years, when it starts to wilt you will have only two years to fall in love, and earn their love in return before the last petal falls or this curse will truly be permanent.” she makes the rose float down gently into his hands.

He looks at it with confusion and worry "Love me? Nobody would want to love something like me." Rex whimpers as he convinces himself that he'll never be loved by anyone. "This will be the only way, Prince Rex. Your fate lies only in your hands and those of your true love's. You must find your true love if you are to break this curse." The Enchantress starts to slowly fade away into glowing dust.

"Please, there must be another way, Enchantress!" Rex begs her, wanting an easier way to correct his mistake. Once she disappears completely, Rex is filled with fear and regret. He tries to hold back the tears as he just stares at the rose in his hands. "Are you alright, Rex'ika." Rex turns around to see Cody.

"I... I'm so sorry." Cody looks at Rex confused. "For what?"

"That all of this has happened. The damage has been done and I feel that I'll never be able to fix this mess." Rex presses the rose gently to his forehead, sobbing a little. Cody shuffles closer, pressing himself against Rex's leg "It's alright, Rex'ika. We'll get through this together, we promise. Whatever you need, we'll be here to help you." Rex looks around to see everyone nod, making him feel a bit more hopeful to know that he has such a kind and loving family.

At least his family has hope now to break the curse, but all Rex can think about is, who could ever learn to love a monster like him?

taglist: @pinkiemme @ellie1366 @captainrexisboo @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @lightning-wolffe

#beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast au #captain rex #captain rex x reader #cody #obi wan #wererex #wererex x reader #werewolf clone wars au #werewolf rex #werewolf rex x reader #my writing #star wars clone wars #star wars rebels

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shenanigans-and-imagines · 4 years

Note

This is just my curiosity getting the best of me but, I noticed you said you liked TLJ, but it felt as if RJ was pushing for Rey to have a romantic connection with Kylo Ren instead of Finn and I'm wondering how you would have written Episode IX to address Rey's connection with those two characters and the rest of the characters such as Poe and Rose?

Okay, first thing out of the way real quick. I don’t think Rian Johnson was pushing the Reylo train, at least not in the same way Abrams was.

Abrams clearly wanted Kylo Ren to become a romantic lead. His framing of the character is much more flattering than Rian Johnson.

Compare his face reveal in The Force Awakens to The Last Jedi.

Abrams gives him flattering lighting. His hair is perfectly in place. His skin is smooth and clear. Abrams even describes him as regal and princely in the commentary.

This is our first look at Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. There are bags under his eyes. His skin is rougher. His hair is drench in sweat. He’s not a regal dark prince, but a pathetic little boy.

Framing is everything. Please go back to The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson is constantly subverting these moments that with just a slight tweak one can perceived as romantic (and many Reylos have), but are just a bit awkward.

It is very easy to make Adam Driver look attractive. So, this odd costuming with the bad hair and high waist-ed pants is not the “oh no he’s hot” moment fans want it to be.

Rey’s expression isn’t arousal it’s awkward repulsion like walking in on your cousin changing.

But the most telling moment in The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson’s expectations for Reylo is everything that happens after the throne room fight.

“You’re nothing. You’re nobody, but not to me” is NOT framed as romantic by the characters, the setting, the camera work, or any other aspect of the story. The story tells us the Kylo Ren is fundamentally wrong. Rey proves that he’s wrong and ultimately rejects him.

She essentially slams the door in his face in the last shot of the movie, telling herself and the audience in so uncertain terms that she is not going to be the reason for his redemption. Kylo Ren has isolated himself if he is going to be redeemed he has to do him all on his own.

RIAN JOHNSON DID NOT INTEND FOR REY TO BE KYLO REN’S REDEMPTION!!!

Okay, now that I’ve got that rant out of the way, I can finally answer your question.

There are two ways we can handle this question. A) We take the basic beats Abrams wanted to present (Palpatine being back, Kylo Ren’s ultimate redemption etc) or B) we sake fuck Abrams and his intentions we do what we want.

If we go with option A) then Kylo Ren has to be working toward his redemption form the word go.

Palpatine has returned, maybe we add a scene just after the events of The Last Jedi. Kylo Ren returns from the battle of Crait only to find Hux waiting for him looking terrified. Kylo is surprised by this, but not nearly as surprised as the Knights of Ren escorting one of the superior generals to him.

The general then says “Supreme Leader Snoke wishes to speak to you.”

“Supreme Leader Snoke is dead,” Kylo responds.

“Never the less,” the general says.

The Knights of Ren stand tall and ignite their lighsabers.

“Supreme Leader Snoke wishes to speak to you.”

Kylo Ren knows he could probably take on the guards, but he feels something in the force; something dark, angry, and also amused.

He follows.

They enter the room to see a dark figure sitting in the throne of the Supreme Leader.

“Well done my apprentice,” a voice speaks. It sounds like Snoke, but something is wrong. Like another voice is battling just beneath the surface.

Kylo Ren approaches. The figure is indeed Snoke, but his body his slack in the chair. His eyes are blank. There is no movement in his chest.

“But it will take much more than to kill me.”

Snoke’s lips move, but nothing else, like a poorly controlled puppet.

“Who are you,” Kylo Ren asks.

The being chuckles darkly. “I am who I have always been, Master of the dark side, Master of the galaxy, and Master of Skywalker.”

Kylo Ren jerks back as the voice becomes something else, a voice he has never heard, but knows all too well: Emperor Palpatine.

The being laughs, an eerie deafening sound coming from a lifeless mouth.

“You cannot defeat me with such a simple trick,” he mocks. “I am more than a body. I am the darkness on the wall. I am the anger in your heart. I am the voice in your head. And you are mine!”

And then boom. Start of a new Star Wars.

Opening crawl: Kylo Ren has escaped The First Order which is now under the direct control of now fully revealed Palpatine. Kylo Ren is attempting to get word to the Resistance about the Emperor Palpatine’s hidden secret Sith base.

So, the first mission of the film is rescue Kylo Ren.

This is a chance for all of our characters to work together: Poe, Finn, Rey, Chewie AND Rose, because fuck you Rose is part of the squad.

During the rescue Leia sacrifices herself to save her son using the same Force projection Luke used at the end of Rise of Skywalker. This is Kylo Ren’s final come to Jesus moment where his sole motivation is now just to kill Palpatine rather than take back control of The First Order.

The Resistance gets in contact with Poe and the rest relaying Leia’s death and that Poe has now been placed as General of the Resistance. Kylo Ren tells them about the holocron and how it’s the only real plan they have to face down Palpatine, they all must then work together to get the job done.

This allows us more time with Kylo Ren being a good guy and building interesting dynamics with the other characters.

Maybe Kylo Ren is the first to really test Finn’s force abilities since we get a hint that Kylo Ren could sense him through the force during The Force Awakens.

At some point in the film Rey and Kylo Ren are disarmed when fighting some sort of monster. Finn in a moment of desperation reaches out with the force and calls Anakin’s lightsaber to him using it to defeat the monster.

Finn is getting a lightsaber in this movie, don’t @ me.

Finn and Rey then have a discussion about the force, how he felt in, and how long he had been hiding it from her. Finn tells her his own doubts of being able to use the force at all given the fact he was a Stormtrooper and he still carries misgivings about that. Rey assures him that he has always been his own person. She’s from no where too. The Force doesn’t care where you’re from. (Mutual love and support baby!)

Kylo Ren and Rey discuss their force connection and realize that while they can sense each other through the force, the connection they had in The Last Jedi was forced upon them and unnatural.

I want Rose to taser Kylo Ren’s ass as soon as he get on board the Falcon after they rescue him and will do so again at a moment’s notice.

And at the end of the film, I want Rey and Finn to be the ones to defeat Palpatine.

Rey and Finn are both nobodies from no where and they are the ones to continue the Skywalker legacy.

Not the most detailed, but that’s what I’ve got. Option B will have to be it’s own post if you want it to be.

#the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #jj abrams #rian johnson #reylo #kylo ren #rey #finn #rose tico #poe dameron #re-write #star wars

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in-love-with-darth-vader · 4 years

Text

My Definitive Ranking of The SW Movies (minus solo, still haven’t seen it)

#10: The Last Jedi: Okay, so, here’s the thing. I have a very good memory and I also adore Star Wars. I could not tell you five whole things that happened in this movie. It was so bad that I literally cannot remember a damn thing. Leia through space? Rip Luke? Porg? They killed my love Phasma? what else happened. I know so little that me and my dad play a game called “Did This Actually Happen in TLJ.” Apparently there was actually a casino scene and there was a planet called Crait. I completely forgot it all because I despised it so much.

#9: The Force Awakens: If you couldn’t tell, I’m not a huge fan of the new ones. I don’t hate this movie as much as I used to, but I still don’t watch it. I liked......Phasma. Personally, I just thought they tried too hard to be the originals. The characters seemed flat and boring and you know what, I didn’t care about one single person other than Phasma. I didn’t even care about the DROID. This movie was so fucking bland and boring. And I hate Kyle, so that ruins it too. (i do like some of these characters better due to TROS, but when I watched this movie, I despised them all). ALSO how dare JJ suggest that Han and Leia would 1. split up and 2. raise a piece of shit wet noodle as a child.

#8: The Phantom Menace: Here she is, the supposed worst SW movie of all time. Gotta be honest, the only thing putting it this low is Jar Jar’s existence. Literally why. Just why. Without him I really don’t see the problem with this movie. Sure, it’s a little boring, but you gotta start somewhere. Also, Duel of the Fates. That’s it. Amazing. It’s not that bad and if it’s on tv I’ll absolutely watch it.

#7: A New Hope: It pains me to put a classic this low, but this one just isn’t as fun as the other two! Again, you have to start somewhere, so of course it’ll be a little slow. I’m just also really bad at liking origin stories in ANY series I watch, so this is a personal thing. However, I adore Han and Leia. Luke is too whiny in this one but I’ll let it slide! It’s also just....old. Which is bad criticism but it’s hard to watch sometimes. I still absolutely adore it, but it’s just not my favorite.

#6: The Rise of Skywalker: So. This movie was getting slammed when it came out. I didn’t see it for a whole week because I was so scared. I walked into the previous two excited and I came out angry or disappointed. So, I walked into TROS with low expectations. I was gladly surprised. The whole time I was waiting for when it would start to get bad, and it never really happened. Sure, I have some critique on it, but it was great. Like, hey JJ, why the FUCK is force healing suddenly a thing??? What the fuck is this crashed Death Star since i KNOW it’s not the first two that blew up. Also why must we force everyone to be so hetero. ALSO thanks SO MUCH for incest being canon. the r*ylo moment made me crave death, but Kyle finally died so it was bittersweet. I really did love this movie though. They brought the humor back, and I think that’s what I was missing in the first two. They tried to be too serious. Also, I left the theater sobbing like a baby at the end out of joy and nostalgia, so it’s a good movie!

#5: Return of the Jedi: What a fantastic movie. This is actually the first movie I remember ever watching. Not just first Star Wars movie, but first movie ever. The scene at Jabba’s on Tatooine is PERFECTION. They had a great plan and then IMMEDIATELY got fucked over. Leia as Boushh is my favorite thing ever. Luke and his gay ass showing up in all black? Endor? Vader redeeming himself? Perfection. I love this movie. C3P0 as a GOD? Peak humor. Amazing movie.

Now here’s where it gets hard!

#4: Attack of the Clones: This movie gets way too much criticism. It’s fuckin AMAZING, okay? Can everyone just give Anakin a BREAK. Of cOURSE he’s cringy and awkward he’s NINETEEN. I feel like everyone who hates on this movie forgets that he’s literally a nervous, sheltered teen meeting the girl he likes for the first time in ages. Of COURSE he’d act like that. This movie has it all. The first look at the Clone Wars, Anakin beginning to fall to the dark side, Padme lookin fucking amazing and being badass, a huge arena battle, Jango Fett, I mean what more could you want. I DON’T LIKE SAND! Like seriously what is wrong with this movie. Nothing. The Obi-Wan and Anakin sass is perfect. Anakin the Angsty TeenTM is pERFECT. God I love this movie. Also, secret marriage. Fuck the Jedi, am I right?

Now it get’s REALLY hard. These next three are the three that I usually call my ‘tied for first place movies,’ but I will painfully rank them. Know that these are within an inch apart from each other.

#3: Empire Strikes Back: Oh, how it pains me to put ESB at number 3. I adore this movie so goddamn much. I love you. I know. Going to cloud city. Hoth. Leia and Han!!! Luke actually doing something. The group becoming even closer. Senile seagull Yoda. The SASS. Your Worshipfullness. Your Highnessness. SCOUNDREL? Who’s scruffy lookin! oHHhhH, he’s been encASed in CAArrBonITe! I could keep going. Also, Vader choke killing people through a screen is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I could talk about this movie ALL DAY but I don’t have enough time for that. I quote it and watch it constantly and it’s a perfect movie. It’s my number one, but number three cause the other two are just so damn good.

#2: Rogue One: CALL THIS MOVIE IRRELEVANT. SAY IT WASN’T NECESSARY. I DON’T CARE. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I’ll watch this ANY day of the week I don’t even care. The best fuckin characters. Jyn. Cass. Bodhi. Baze. Chirrut. The best people there ever were. K2 is the best sw droid and you can’t change my mind. This movie wasn’t about good guys vs bad guys. It was a group of morally grey people who banded together to decide to do something. They decided to do something, to take a stand, and to try to save the galaxy. None of them claim to be good people, they just decide to do what they believe is right. And even when you know they’ll all die, it still shocks you and hurts your heart anyway. Jyn Erso might honestly be one of the best sw characters of all time. Rogue One is the best group ever. I will never stop talking about this movie. “Where’d you get that?” “I found it” “I FIND THAT ANSWER VAGUE AND UNCONVINCING!” “Trust goes both ways” “welcome home” “REBELLIONS ARE BUILT ON HOPE” “i am one with the force the force is with me” “CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE BEING RESCUED!!” and literally all the heart eyes Jyn and Cass give each other. God I love this movie. NO AND THEN THE END. THE HALLWAY SCENE. BETTER THAN SEX. VADER SLICIN EM DOWN. BEST THING IVE EVER SEEN.

#1: Revenge of the Sith: Without a doubt in my mind this is the best sw movie ever made. I’ve seen this a countless number of times. The memes, the battle, the story, the descent into darkness, GOD it’s so GOOD. The best sw battle ever on Mustafar is the best goddamn thing I’ve ever seen. Anakin going fully black robes, the scar, the SASS. I say “Goooood Anakin. Kill him. Kill him nOw. I shouldn’t. DEW IT” every single goddamn day of my life. Palpatine is iconic. A SITH LOOOORD?? Obi-Wan is ICONIC. so this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause is the most insane line i’ve ever heard. The HairTM. Hang on, we’re smarter than this! HELLO THERE! GENERALKENOBI! Iamthesenate! It’s treeeason then! Mastah Skywalkah, there’s too many of them, wat are we going to do?? oh no, I’m not one for politics. How is this not the perfect movie. “Anakin’s the father isn’t he? I’m sorry.” the EMOTION. Anakin just wanted to love and to save his love from death and Yoda gave ZERO fucks. Anakin may have turned to murder which is a BIG NO but no one else helped him. Anyway, Revenge of the Sith perfectly shows his struggle and his sadness and I love every second of it. The end. I could go on forever, but I won’t.

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