I feel like something terrible has happened, she'd said, running up to her Captain to seek out comfort and reassurance; a friend to soothe her worries. But all she had found were tears, rage and trembling hands; a blaster aimed at her head and a voice screaming at her to stay back.
Ahsoka had watched, frozen, as her men—brothers, who had chosen to wear her face as a sign of loyalty—transformed into cold-blooded killers. In a matter of seconds, their force-signatures skinned of all individuality and any sense of free will. When they opened fire upon her she'd defended herself without a second thought. The bodies had fallen whilst she dodged another bolt.
She still doesn't think about their names.
Months had passed since then. Operation Knightfall had ripped the Galaxy of thousands of its brightest souls in one night. The darkness that followed it hardly conceals the blood oozing from various planets and tainting surrounding star systems. The force is a gaping black hole. Nothing left of its radiant embrace to calm her pounding heart. It had left her with stains of darkness—sticking to her like Nubian honey— after the first time, she had tried to submerge herself in meditation. She hasn't touched it since.
Ahsoka sighs.
Breathing in the salty air, she lets her eyes wander across the endless widths of the ocean and clutches the lightsaber shoto to her chest. The Kyber crystal inside whimpers and she shivers.
The screams and whispers of the dying follow her every waking moment. And the corpses—broken on the floor like puppets with their strings cut—haunt her dreams. She's not able to shake the guilt weighing down on her shoulders and she knows she never will be.
The shoto feels hot pressed against her chest. It's painful to hold on to it and if she didn't know any better she would let it fall into the yawning abyss. But she does. She recognizes the stinging sensation of the blisters on her palms for what it is: Phantom Pain.
Re-watching Burying the Dead has a devastating effect on my happiness but it increases my media literacy so that’s a bonus I guess.
Something I noticed recently is that Rex is carrying a med pack but the Republic logo on it is faded. It’s another piece of symbolism for the rise of the Empire which is very common throughout the entire Siege of Mandalore. What hurts me is that it’s Rex who’s literally carrying his old hopes and dreams for the Republic on his back. He was created for the Republic, what does he do now that it’s gone? He’s feeling grief for his brothers, guilt for not doing more and anger at the world all because of the Republic’s fall.
do you guys ever think about how in victory and death not only did ahsoka and rex take the time to pull out each body but probably took the time to ID each body because Rex knew them all by name because I do
The galaxy is singing in celebration, uncaring of the small fleet of ships that vanish into the night.
The planet they land on is covered in ice, but the ships move as one toward their destination. The remains of a long abandoned Imperial excavation site finally come into view, the remains of an old ship towering above, despite all this time. Only the wind was audible after the ships landed, and its inhabitants made camp in the most prominent ship before nightfall came.
Two figures are standing before the ship at the first ray of light, shovels in hand as they stare at the once proud Venator.
The Resolute
She had been a home, a haven, a beacon in the darkness of intergalactic war, a place for the same men to find their souls.
Now, she was nothing more than a massive grave, has been a grave for a very long time.
The two had been clearing away snow for a time before the others that came with awoke, working in tandem as they revealed the graves underneath. The two refuse any help, and only step back when they have uncovered those that had been forgotten for so long, along with a surprising number of helmets that hadn't been seen in such numbers.
Clone helmets
One figure finally falls to their knees, clutching a faded blue helmet with a circular insignia just legible, and silently cries. The other figure kneels beside them, and a feeling of sorrow just screams out into the Force as they hold the other close.
I just watched the last episodes of The Clone Wars and I’m absolutely sobbing. Like I knew it was gonna be sad because revenge of the sith but those last two were heart wrenching.
Ahsoka unwilling to mindlessly murder the clones.
Her and Rex burying each and every clone who tried to kill them.
Vader finding her lightsaber and believing she’s dead.
That last haunting shot of the clone helmet signaling the end of the clone wars.