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Writing Description Notes: Physical Pain

Updated 6th June 2024 More description notes

It was as if his bones were made of glass, shattering into a million pieces with every movement and sending waves of sharp, shooting pain coursing through his limbs.

His muscles screamed in protest with every step, each movement sending jolts of electric pain shooting through his body.

The ache settled deep into his bones, a dull, persistent throb that seemed to resonate with every heartbeat.

Every inch of his body felt tenderized, as if he had been used as a punching bag in a brutal workout session.

The sensation of blood trickling down his skin was a grim reminder of the violence he had endured.

His ribs screamed in protest with every breath, each inhalation a sharp reminder of the blows he had taken.

The world seemed to spin around him in a dizzying blur, his vision clouded by the stars of pain that danced across his field of vision with every movement.

A sharp, stabbing sensation shot through his lower back, making him wince.

Her temples throbbed with a relentless, pounding headache.

He clutched his side, pain radiating from the bruise with every breath.

Her muscles screamed in protest, the soreness a reminder of yesterday’s workout.

A burning ache spread through his chest, each heartbeat intensifying the agony.

She bit her lip, trying to stifle the groan as pain flared in her twisted ankle.

His knuckles were raw and throbbing, evidence of the fight.

She pressed a hand to her forehead, a dull ache settling behind her eyes.

A searing pain lanced through his knee, nearly buckling his leg.

She gripped the edge of the table, knuckles white as pain shot through her arm.

Her trembling hands betrayed the unyielding agony in her joints, a relentless companion.

Doubled over, he fought against the relentless cramps that seized his stomach.

A sudden, searing pain in her wrist forced her to relinquish her grip, the cup clattering to the ground.

Every step reverberated through her aching feet, a reflection to the miles she had traversed.

Rubbing his shoulder provided little respite from the persistent agony that gnawed at the joint.

A sharp sting on her finger brought fresh irritation, the paper cut a small but sharp reminder of vulnerability.

His tooth throbbed incessantly, a deep, pulsating ache that clouded his thoughts.

Each movement of her stiff and sore neck elicited a fresh wave of discomfort, a constant reminder of strain.

A stabbing pain in his chest made each breath a struggle, a reminder of mortality's grasp.

The throbbing in his hand, where the door had slammed shut, served as a relentless reminder of his own clumsiness.

A dull ache settled deep within her lower back, rendering even sitting a feat of endurance.

His leaden legs protested with every step, each movement a symphony of agony.

His head spun, the pain behind his eyes making it hard to focus.

Sharp pangs in her side served as a reminder of the physical toll of her exertion, a stitch from pushing too hard.

His throbbing ankle, swollen and tender, made each step a test of willpower.

Gritting her teeth against the shooting pain, she cursed the strain from overuse that tormented her wrist.

Pressing a hand to his chest, he felt the pain radiate outward in relentless waves, a reminder of vulnerability.

Her burning shoulder protested each movement, the pain a constant reminder of her injury.

He winced as sharp pains flared in his elbow, each movement a reminder of his body's fragility.

A deep ache throbbed in her hip, a persistent discomfort that refused to be ignored.

His fingers tingled with pain, a result of gripping the tool too tightly for too long.

[darthjess-writing]

Writing Reference: Pain

I found this amazing article about how to accurately describe your character's pain:

This is wonderful

[darthjess-writing]

Just a reminder since I’m discontinuing this blog to follow my main, @darth-jess where I’m posting everything now!

Ugh that scene in Kenobi where Obi-wan is watching Luke pretend he’s podracing on top of Uncle Owen & Aunt Beru’s house… the look on Obi-wan’s face is just so filled with mixed emotions.

Clearly, Obi-wan thinks it’s amusing and adorable, but he’s also so strongly reminded of Anakin. He is struck with such a powerful love for the man that was once his brother.

He is reminded of Padmé, who he greatly respected, and it makes him so sad that she couldn’t be there to raise her own children. He is sad that Anakin couldn’t be there to raise his own children.

And he is also a bit terrified. Because this kid is already so much like his father, growing up on the same world his father did. And what if he turns into the same dark, and twisted thing?

I’m sure, despite Jedi teaching, Obi-wan longs for the old days. For the Clone Wars.

Because even though they were a time of terrible loss and sacrifice, even though so many died, it was still a better time than this. And while Jedi must not have possessions, Obi-wan still had the Jedi Order. His friends. Satine. Anakin.

And now, he is alone.

P.S. - I found this while looking for a screenshot of the scene, and even though it’s slightly misleading because Obi-Wan does not have memories of Anakin podracing from that first trip to Tatooine (Obi-Wan stayed with the “Queen” and never left the Naboo skiff) I still really like the sentiment of this video.

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Just a reminder since I’m discontinuing this blog to follow my main, @darth-jess s where I’m posting everything now!

Can we take a second and just appreciate how both of Anakin's children fall for people who are weirdly a lot like Anakin? I'm sure people have talked about this before, BUT LIKE.

Anakin & Mara Jade:

Both fall to the Dark Side only to be redeemed by Luke

Both share conflicted loyalties to their Master (Darth Sidious)

Suffer from extremely intense emotions that often creates inner turmoil, and are often driven by these emotions

Are incredibly strong-willed

Anakin & Han Solo:

Are both reckless and impulsive

Are both very cocky and confident, often to a fault

Are both incredible pilots and they know it

Are both quite charming, though to be fair in completely different ways

Are both very quick to challenge rules and break them

To be fair, if it turns out that Darth Vader– the genocidal, child killing, murderer– is your father, you're probably going to have some serious Daddy Issues.

I think it's also universally accepted that, had Anakin & Padmé lived to meet Han and Mara, Anakin would have hated both of them, and Padmé would have LOVED them, because they'd remind her a bit of Anakin, too.

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Just a reminder since I’m discontinuing this blog to follow my main, @darth-jess where I’m posting everything now!

“Why would Padmé choose Anakin when Obi-wan was right there” maybe because Anakin is truly the only person who ever understood her as their humanity was taken from both of them at a very young age and they have rolls to fill that very few people can ever understand.

Maybe because Obi-wan is 11 years older than her (he was 25 in TPM and Padmé was 14) and also Obi-wan is so rigid in his worldview whereas Padmé isn’t. She sees light in the dark, and dark in the light, and Obi-wan cannot comprehend this. Anakin embraces both sides of himself.

I also think Padmé choosing Anakin says a lot about Padmé as a person, but I think it also says a lot more about who Anakin was. He’s got cringy ass pickup lines but he is raw, he is passionate, and he does not shy away from what he feels even when it’s possibly wrong. Even when it’s definitely wrong. And Padmé always has to hide what she’s feeling in her line of work, so being with someone like Anakin allows her to embrace the full experience of being alive, the full range of emotion, and she isn’t judged for it by him, because he feels it all too.

They are both extremely passionate people.

Anakin’s love burns brighter than anything in the universe, and while it is his downfall, it is also his saving grace. That light never truly is extinguished within him.

Padmé chose Anakin because they were two halves of a whole. Because there was no choice. They found themselves in each other.

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Obi-wan truly loved Anakin. I’m talking canon Star Wars, and I’m not talking about ROMANTIC love (honestly I envy the Greeks who had so many different words for the different kinds of love and as English speakers we only have one, as if there is only one kind of love and that’s very annoying but also a completely different topic) I’m talking about purely platonic love. And he did love Anakin, so so much.

Not in that characteristically distant way of the Jedi, but as family, as a BROTHER. He loved Anakin in a way that no Jedi should ever love anyone. And I think Anakin created this kind of love in other people because he was such a loving person, himself.

Anakin loved fearlessly, always. Anakin was never afraid of expressing himself, never afraid of baring his heart to those he cared about. He was never afraid of showing those he cared about that he loved them.

And even though Obi-wan was very rigid in his ways, even though he was often overly-adherent to the rules of the Jedi, he absolutely broke the rules about attachment when it came to Anakin.

You see this in the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover, where Obi-wan is having a conversation with Mace Windu and Master Yoda, and Obi-wan tells Master Yoda, "You and I have been close since I was a boy. An infant. Yet if ending this war one week sooner–one day sooner– were to require that I sacrifice your life, you know I would." He goes on to tell Master Yoda that Anakin is not like this, that Anakin would never sacrifice the lives of those he cared about for the greater good. And then, Obi-wan goes on to tell the two Jedi Masters that he would also stop at nothing to save Anakin.

You see this in the way he at first refuses to kill Anakin when Master Yoda asks him to, even after seeing Anakin kill younglings.

Obi-wan would literally rather face Sidious and die than have to kill Anakin.

And you see it in the way that he cares for Luke and Leia for the rest of his life.

I think Obi-wan often comes off as keeping Anakin at "arm's length." Anakin definitely feels this, as he is constantly looking for validation, approval, and even love from Obi-wan. And while Obi-wan feels it, he is not the best at showing it because Obi-wan did not grow up with a family. He does not know how to show this kind of love.

Anakin, on the other hand, lived with his mother for 9 years. He knows the love of family, and he shows it to everyone he considers family-- Padme, Obi-wan, Ahsoka, and Palpatine.

Obi-wan holds himself back from Anakin, not because he didn't care about Anakin the same way Anakin cared about Obi-wan, but because he cared too much.

If he had allowed himself to fully accept the depth of attachment and love he felt for Anakin, he probably would have questioned his role as a Jedi, as he questioned his role as a Jedi with Satine.

There are three people Obi-wan truly loves: Qui-Gon, Satine, and Anakin. He would have done almost anything for these people. He tells Satine he would have left the Jedi Order for her, if she'd asked him to. And he breaks the rules of the Jedi Order to allow Anakin his secret relationship with Padmé because Obi-wan loves Anakin enough to allow him that happiness.

It is only fitting that Obi-wan dies at Vader's hands, completely at peace, while protecting Anakin's children who have finally been reunited.

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Just a reminder since I’m discontinuing this blog to follow my main, @darth-jess where I’m posting everything now!

R2 & 3PO

I 100% believe that 3PO and R2 also secretly got married on Naboo at the same time as Anakin and Padmé.

Okay, maybe not really but nobody will ever convince me that they aren't deeply in love with each other, as much as one droid can love another droid.

Hear me out.

R2 is just special and I have no idea why, but he's got this insanely weird attachment to Padmé and keeping her safe, even after she isn't Queen of Naboo anymore. This is something he shares with Anakin, and also why R2 guards Anakin so closely because in guarding Anakin, he is also protecting Padmé's heart.

3PO was built by Anakin, possibly the most loving and caring person in the entire galaxy, and he poured all that caring into the droid he built. And while 3PO isn't always the most useful, the way he cares about (and for) Padmé is also an expression of Anakin's love.

These shared goals (of protecting the people they care for, even after Padmé and Anakin are gone) bring them and keep them together. Also the way they talk to each other is just SOOOO married couple. They are a Thing.

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Kenobi

Rewatching Kenobi and it's honestly just so much pain. Like I'm so close to actually being able to channel the Dark Side, that's how painful it is. In the movies, you know that Obi-wan loves Anakin, but in Kenobi you FEEL it.

Because that is the same love he shows to Leia, and the love he later shows to Luke. It stems from his love of Anakin, and it's just beautiful.

[darthjess-writing]

Aliaa - by Kaleida

What have you done?

Not a way that you could win it

You'll be alone

But you know you just stay with it

Such is the way you go if you play with life

They keep a hold with hate and lies

And their faces complacent inside

But give a little bit more if you can

And give a little bit more if you fade

And throw a little bit more to their flames

Feel no shame

Another song giving serious Vader Vibes. These lyrics too. UGH. Perfection.

This is from my Beauty & Rage playlist

[darthjess-writing]

Chapter 18 is up!!! Let me know what you guys think, you are all amazing and I can't believe I've gotten so much support. 😘 Also shoutout to my amazing beta reader @skywalkr-nberrie who has literally been such an incredible resource and help to me on this journey!!

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Beauty & Rage Chapter 18 Excerpt - Full Chapter Posting 10.04.24

“I never would have agreed to the rescue mission if Anakin hadn't admitted to me that R2's memory had never been erased,” Obi-wan scoffed. “Every mission we'd been on was recorded in R2's data core.”

There was an immediate change in her presence, like discomfort and embarrassment. ��What do you mean never?” She asked.

“Exactly that. Never.” Obi-wan said. “And it's clear Bail didn't erase it, so he must still have everything.”

Padmé straightened in her chair, her eyes wide as a warm blush formed on her cheeks. “We need to erase a few memories before we give him back to Bail.”

R2 made an angry, defensive, wailing sound.

Obi-wan raised a curious eyebrow. “Why?”

Her face grew redder as she looked away from him and turned back to the viewport.

“Padmé?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Please, don’t ask.”

“Now I must know,” he teased, the way he would’ve teased Anakin once. He was shocked at how quickly her demeanor changed at this revelation, and he had to admit he was curious.

She glared at him as she picked her fingernails. “It’s really none of your business.”

Obi-wan frowned, but her evasive responses suddenly painted an image in his brain that he immediately wished he could unsee. He immediately regretted his curiosity and rubbed his eyes in dismay. “R2 has…!? He’s got…!?”

He couldn’t get all the words out, couldn’t form a coherent sentence and say, Padmé, does R2 have holovids of you and Anakin because obviously that would be ridiculous, but the way Padmé shrank into her seat, mortified, was answer enough.

In all honesty, he was a bit mortified as well. Obi-wan leaned forward in his chair. “You realize if the Separatists had gotten ahold of…that…they would’ve used that as slander against you, against the Jedi, the whole Republic!” He felt like he was talking down to a child. But how could they have been so stupid?

Read the full Chapter on Ao3 TOMORROW

Beauty & Rage Summary:

Set at first in the immediate aftermath then five years after the events of Revenge of the Sith: Padmé Amidala came very close to death but managed to survive. With the help of Bail Organa and Obi-wan, she fakes her death and goes into hiding to raise her children. When Inquisitors come looking for the Force-sensitive twins, Padmé realizes she has to fight back against the Empire to protect them. The Emperor's Executioner, Lord Vader himself, stands in her way.

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Yoda Was So Right For Splitting Up the Twins

Can we all just admit that if Luke and Leia were raised together they would be the most chaotic children ever?

I genuinely believe that the ONLY scenario in which they would not end up destroying entire cities on accident during the middle of typical sibling fights would be if they were raised by Padmé and Anakin.

Padmé would definitely be the patient and compassionate parent, but Anakin would be the scary parent as well as the fun parent. You know he'd use the Darth Vader voice to stop them from fighting, and it would absolutely work.

Nobody else could handle BOTH of them at the same time, though I think Obi-wan or Ahsoka might be roped into babysitting here and there when Anakin and Padmé need a weekend away.

Anyway. Those are just some ideas kicking around my head as I'm thinking about Beauty & Rage.

[darthjess-writing]

UGH BEAUTY & RAGE INSPIRATION!!! LOVE IT AND I'M CRYING.

Padme: I love you, Ani.

Darth Vader: That's a lie. You can't love me after what I've done.

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Absolutely 😭

I genuinely wonder if Vader ever noticed the resemblance between Leia and Padmé. Like he HAD to have, right?

The only way I can imagine he DIDN'T notice is if he just was so utterly single-minded about everything he was doing and compartmentalized everything else to emotionally survive the wreck of himself, which is so terribly sad.

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I genuinely wonder if Vader ever noticed the resemblance between Leia and Padmé. Like he HAD to have, right?

The only way I can imagine he DIDN'T notice is if he just was so utterly single-minded about everything he was doing and compartmentalized everything else to emotionally survive the wreck of himself, which is so terribly sad.

[darthjess-writing]

CHAPTER 17 IS UP!!! Basically, Vader has a panic attack.

This chapter was super fun to write, but it also made me very sad. I feel bad for him 😭

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The Mask of Darth Vader

I'm sure other people realize this and have thought of this before, but as I've been writing my Star Wars fanfic I've come to understand something that feels a bit profound. At least to me.

Darth Vader IS the mask.

He is the mask that Anakin Skywalker wears to DEAL WITH WHAT HE'S DONE.

Because the truth is, Anakin Skywalker is not actually capable of committing the absolute horrors attributed to Vader. If you think about it, Anakin CARES and FEELS MORE DEEPLY than anyone. And while his love for Padmé drives him to embrace the Dark Side, he does not do it lightly. He falls to his knees, saying, "What have I done?" after (quite literally) disarming Mace Windu, which very quickly leads to the Jedi Master's death.

He only accepts the Dark Side and becomes Sidious's apprentice because he truly believes this is the only way to save the woman he loves. But what Sidious asks him to do to become powerful enough in the Dark Side is so awful and goes against everything Anakin ever stood for or believed in. So he creates this second persona, VADER, who has the strength to do what Anakin could not.

And I think this is why Vader hates Anakin: because Anakin didn't have it in him to do what needed to be done to save his (their?) wife. Because Anakin honestly doesn't have it in him to do what Sidious asks him to do.

This is why it's so shocking to everyone who ever knew Anakin that he turned to the Dark Side. Because once gain, HE JUST DOESN'T HAVE IT IN HIM. He is too caring, too loving, too empathetic to do the things that Vader does. And I think that NEVER STOPS BEING THE CASE.

Of course, Anakin and Vader are the same person, and deep down Anakin realizes that Vader is not actually real. But the Vader Persona protects him from the pain. Vader allows Anakin his innocence, Vader takes all the blame. Vader doesn't wallow in grief, Vader turns his pain into rage and uses it to protect the Empire.

Vader is the coping strategy Anakin uses to survive what he did. To survive his wife's death. And it's only fitting that once Luke brings Anakin forth once more, Anakin becomes one with the Force. Vader was the only thing keeping him alive.

This is why I love writing about Vader. His cognitive dissonance is horrifying and wonderful.