#ahsoka solutions!

[space-blue]

Ahsoka but the characters are better... The plot... everything is better.

I was talking/venting in RBs with @kanansdume on their post, and I started writing a reply that was just too long and in depth. So it's now its own post.

Offering you an alternative version of events for Ahsoka's first 4 episodes:

The cause of the break up between Hera, Ahsoka and Sabine, is Ezra.

Hera is more of a politician than a general these days, and if she sees action it's to police conflict and hunt down empire remnants. She's NOT under the impression that everyone who kept on living under the empire needs to be eradicated or whatever her deal is right now. She's busy splitting work with Jacen and not really able to help either of her friends as each would want to.

Sabine has never given up. She's still actively looking for Ezra.

Not Ahsoka. On her end, she's given up. She wrote off Ezra as a hero. She grew up watching Jedi sacrifice themselves to buy others some time or make doomed attempts to kill powerful enemies. She thinks Ezra is dead (gloriously so) and refused to indulge the fantasy that he may still be alive, driving a big wedge in her relationship with Sabine.

Until Ahsoka finds that Morgan seems to expect Thrawn to be alive… Which might mean Ezra is alive too… Just maybe.

We meet Sabine as she lands on Lothal. She isn't reckless, wasting time away in a tower like in the show. She's well dressed if rumpled and obviously drained. The moment she steps onto the space port, she's surrounded by local guards. The guy who chases her in the show is instead in full uniform waiting for her, and clearly distressed.

Did she forget what today was? That the governor asked her to attend the celebrations? She was meant to be here already, the event has even started.

Sabine brushes him off. She had no plan to come at all. She's been busy and never even opened the message requesting her presence. She's back from Coruscant, talking to the only scientist who seems to specialise in purgill, and does he have any idea how tedious it is to get useful fact out of someone who never steps out of academia? She's going home, thanks.

She gets upset when the "war hero" title is used to try and persuade her. She's trying to do war hero stuff by rescuing Ezra, thank you. Speeches and hand waving aren't for her, never were. Maybe the dialogue can hint that she used to play along, but has grown increasingly desperate in her search instead of the faff of her mostly ceremonial position.

But the guy drops a hint that convinces Sabine to get on the back of his speeder after all : her old "jedi friend" is there for the celebration. Ahsoka, who she hasn't heard from in ages!

Ahsoka would have trained Sabine for a while for saber, but they've since split and heir friendship frayed over the Ezra Lives situation. NOT because of padawan BS.

Ahsoka could also perceive Sabine's dedication to find Ezra as something worse with every year that passes. To her, it'd go from friendship to attachment, of the overly strong type. And even if Sabine isn't a Jedi, the way Anakin was, it doesn't mean that this attachment wouldn't bring some darkness.

Heck, Ahsoka could sort of wash her hands off Sabine by blaming the darkness brought by her Ezra fixation. Like this isn't her fault, no sir, it's the way Sabine is so consumed that she won't listen to reason.

Anyway, they're both here now, and though the "how have you been" is a tip toeing on eggshells exercise, Ahsoka eats some humble pie and admits she needs Sabine's help for something important.

She has tracked an artifact to a ruin, and although it's ancient, it clearly has a deep stratum. It's not just one culture that can be observed in it, but several stacked on top of each other. And one of the most recent traces of alteration are Mandalorian.

Ahsoka wouldn't solve that JFO puzzle on her own. She'd bring Sabine for her unique Mando insight. But trust would be an issue, so she'd remain super vague about what they're looking for and completely tight lip about why. Ahsoka doesn't want to kindle hopes about Ezra in Sabine of all people.

From Sabine's pov, she's doing Ahsoka a favour, and Hera asked her to please help as she's invested in this mcguffin hunt too. Sabine, by coming along, is doing that very adult thing of putting up with a shitty situation to accomodate people (the total opposite of her highway chase scene).

But even as Sabine finds the map and frees it from the old compartment it's in, they are attacked by the droids. A good old epic fight ensues, where Sabine is shown to be rusty with her saber, and rusty in general with droids, but also Ahsoka sucks at anticipating Sabine's actions, and keeps throwing orders that don't get obeyed (or can't realistically be obeyed).

In the past few years Sabine's been spending more time investigating, talking to people and reading books and buying intel, than fighting.

Not knowing what the map is for, she loses it. Does Shin come in then and wound her? Forcing Ahsoka to flee with her on the brink of death? I think it would be nice if the only reason Sabine lives is because Ahsoka was there to use a constant flow of Force healing. Not fixing her but keeping her alive as Huyang flies them away.

Because, you know, it's getting real tiresome to see people survive lightsabers to the centre of mass.

Then Sabine wakes up, she's sorry she lost the antique Ahsoka was looking for… But Hera calls in as a holo, upset with Ahsoka… And Sabine would slowly realise why. The thing she lost, nearly died over unknowingly, was a map! A map to Thrawn, and so to Ezra.

Nobody needs to be incompetent about that map thing, either, because it would be a very classic puzzle that Ahsoka could have solved. It's not old or mysterious, it was hidden in the old temple. In the show she never sees the map, and it needs to be inserted in the henge to make sense any way. Here Ahsoka didn't need Sabine's help to solve the mcguffin, but to get it. And she got it and lost it at the same time.

And now Sabine realises just WHAT it was. To Ahsoka it's a trail to Thrawn, or a clue in Morgan's plans. To Hera it's weeks of political favour wasted and hope for Thrawn and Ezra gone. Hera can't justify more spending on this without proof Morgan is up to no good.

Meanwhile Sabine sees the map as proof she's always been right. That Ezra is alive, and that Ahsoka used her and lied and kept her in the dark. Sabine would argue she'd never have engaged that rogue padawan if she knew what she was risking with the map. Ahsoka could argue back she only needed to follow her orders.

Huyang is the one who settles things between them by asking how exactly they think this argument is helping the situation? He could be the one to insist they have to stay and work together to get the map, when both Ahsoka and Sabine want nothing more than to split again.

Personality-wise Ahsoka can team work, but she needs to lead. She's used to being the most OP in the room, and grew up giving order to mostly unquestioning soldiers. Sabine has a different skillset, is pig headed, and won't take orders from Ahsoka, especially not now that she feels like she was used.

Hera and Huyang could both come in then to soothe things, and Hera would suggest they visit the other trail she's unearthed (dockyards) while the villains actively get their plan on the tracks.

At the dockyards, Hera would understand that people worked for the Empire because they didn't have a choice, and wouldn't expect people to 'get rid' of imperials after the fall of the empire. It's not exactly how that stuff happens in real life, right? It would also be interesting if Chopper FINALLY came to some use…

So I suggest that the smuggling was done by droids, and the main human mind behind this operation was the one maintening the droid fleet. Altering their codes and priorities. We could have Chop somehow help figure it out. He could also be the one who PWA PWAs at the very end that they shouldn't look so disappointed, since he managed to slap a tracker under the chest plate of that one droid he highjacked that fled on the ship.

They have their lead to that planet.

Now's a good time for Ahsoka to be able to report about Shin and Baylan's sabers instead, maybe spotting them at that place, whatever. They have no clear character or motivation and for all I care we could keep visuals of their sabers from early on when freeing Morgan.

But here's the cinch about Huyang :

He's completely out of place with Ahsoka. She doesn't have a padawan. Doesn't want one. Sabine isn't a real one and has no desire to even try to be. And any good droid could do Huyang's job, without her moaning about Jedi protocol so much.

So why does she keep him?

Huyang should be with Luke Skywalker. Wouldn't it be a little dark and sweet if it's revealed that Ahsoka has been planning to bring him over to Luke's budding school but hasn't because… (and let's forget all shit with them in Mando) well, because she doesn't believe in a New Order. She saw too many younglings killed or turned, and she doesn't trust Luke with rebuilding the Order. Doesn't really want him too.

Yet at the same time she misses it. Misses the protocols she broke with Anakin, and the life she had there as a padawan. Huyang feeds into this nostalgia. Sometimes he sounds like a master--but one she doesn't need to listen to.

She keeps pushing the time to bring him to Luke over and over.

But now Huyang could have his own motivation : Baylan has survived, and he's taken a padawan.

What was Baylan like? Why would he want to free Thrawn? Why team up with Morgan? Imo it'd be a lot more interesting if his saber was yellow or truly orange, and Shin's was blue or literally any colour but red. Make them apparently rogue Jedi and not weird darksiders larping as Taron Malicos and Merrin.

Maybe Huyang would try to push for them to be in touch. Maybe he'd want to approach Baylan himself. Because he wants to recreate the Order, right? And he's got an apprentice. And wouldn't it be a shame if they truly fell down a dark path?

So instead of Baylan being sentimental but actually not about Ahsoka staying alive, it could be Huyang who is ready to expend his kindness to even them, even after the interaction over the map. Afterall, Jedi aren't always shy about using violence to get what they want, and maybe Shin always arrives on the scene when her side is already in a fight. Maybe Huyang is on copium!

But Baylan could be seen as behaving one way, and Ahsoka could feel his vibes being rancid… VS. Huyang knowing him by reputation. Why not go on and fully rip Malicos, at this stage? You got his looks and his theories. You may as well also make Baylan a respected Jedi general. Someone Huyang remembers from his trips to make his first saber.

Now wouldn't it be neat if Chopper's tracker returns a system that Sabine recognises the name of? She was just talking to that scholar about Purgill after all, and he mentioned how this system was an important migration point, one poorly researched, because it's so remote, and at the fringes of Dathomir space, not a friendly locale.

Sadly I still don't understand WTF the map is. Why does Morgan need it? it seems ancient… And yet it points to Thrawn? HOW? Why does it go to a different henge style temple? Nothing makes sense in the show and we're meant to just accept it.

I propose something else.

The map is stored into a bog standard data storage puzzle thingy. Anyone who could handle a Japanese puzzle box could use it. But the map is just the tip of the iceberg. It's actually a nightsister spell underneath, and the entire goal is to hyper focus and pinpoint.

So Morgan 'feels Thrawn calling to her'. And yep, that's corny, but she does. And what she needed was that nightsister focus tool. She needs to wildly amplify the signal, and then use the map to pinpoint its origine totally.

She goes to that henge because it's a meditation space. It's within the Dathomir sphere of influence, but not Dathomir proper, which is why she hid the ring here. There's something about this world, the same quality that attracts the purgill, that really throws the Force into whack.

While it's good for Morgan, it'd be confusing and disturbing for any other Force user (how to nerf Ahsoka, Baylan and Shin).

Once she fully feels the location of Thrawn's call, the map zooms in and in and in. As she suspected (as she's prepared for), it's in another galaxy entirely.

Instead of having the badies split, Baylan would have to protect Morgan so she can remain in her trance as the droids help her refine the coordinates. Shin can go harry Sabine and split her and Ahsoka, who can't properly communicate due to the planet's interference.

When the women go to fight Morgan and co, perhaps Huyang would ask Ahsoka to convince Baylan to return to them. Maybe Huyang's interest in helping with Shin is also what keeps getting in the way of Sabine whenever she has an opportunity to strike to kill.

Anyway, please no fucking Anakin!!! We don't need more nostalgia bait. Stop!! Jedi canonically can't die from falls of any height so long as they've trained to cushion a fall. We see the trio take insane falls all of Clone Wars, and it's in High Republic now too. Ahsoka clipping off the world map from getting yeeted from a small cliff is sad and a pathetic excuse to show Anakin off.

Also would like to point out that with a tight script, all the events above are 2 or 3 episodes max.

What do you think? Opinions? Suggestions? It's a bit of a meta post so feel free to add on to it!

[omaano]

"What a strange pair. A Mandalorian and a Force-sensitive youngling, hmm... Who is in need of a master to guide him and help him to come into his full power, yes?"

Any time Maul comes across a Force-sensitive youngster: "Is anyone going to claim this apprentice as his own or do I have to do everything around here?" and doesn't wait for an answer. (Grogu is safe tucked away in Din's satchel, don't worry)

Din accidentally turns up with Obi-wan's keepsake in his pocket once, and Maul doesn't only fly into an episode of blind rage and super melodramatic monologuing, but he also gives him a boon that is nothing but trouble and chaos of epic proportions.

Bonus background detail/close up, because while I didn't redraw the full thing, I'm quite proud of my modifications:

More of the Star Wars meets Hades AU (I’m trying to give monthly updates on my progress with it)

[khryptid]

Missing the days where the Jedi Order used moxie, the power of Friendship™, a good deal of wit, and a lack of common sense to get shit done in the galaxy

[tennessoui]

obsessed with time travelling Ahsoka, girl is playing with them like dolls 😂 I can imagine her screwing up her courage and deciding she must try and seduce Obi-Wan before Anakin even though its awful

Obi-Wan, gently letting her down: I'm sorry but I could never feel that way about someone so much younger than me/my padawan

Ahsoka: you're a fucking liar

this but in an iteration where anakin is apprenticed to qui-gon and ahsoka becomes obi-wan’s apprentice but she’s idk so good at messing with time she makes herself anakin’s age or something lmao and she is hypersensitive to any sign that anakin is getting weird about obi-wan or vice versa….when anakin says something about how his master’s old padawan is probably the BEST at saber training and also the prettiest maybe in the order, Ahsoka screws up her courage to seduce her master even if it’ll ruin her relationship with both of them….only to be summarily rejected because of the age difference that stupid fucking liar!!!!

salt in the fucking wound when she comes back early from a mission after she’s Knighted to find obi-wan and anakin (still a padawan!!!!) canoodling on obi-wan’s sofa!!!!

obi-wan’s all shame facedly “I’m sorry Ahsoka….anakin is just the exception” (anakin has not stopped preening on the sofa like a very satisfied cat who got the canary)

and Ahsoka’s like fucking get another exception!!! any other exception!!!!

Fucking!!! Reset button!!!!!

[pandora15]

See it’s so weird like I want ewan to come back as obi-wan even more than ever now since Hayden is back as anakin (and is doing *amazing* as him) but also like I don’t trust obi-wan’s character with filoni and I really don’t think we’re gonna see him next week which is totally fine and probably better for it imo.

But also the part of my braincell that is starved for obi-wan and Ahsoka content really wants to see them reunite post-order 66 (and this is something I’ve wanted for a LONG time) and I think it would be so interesting to see post-kenobi series or something but the thing is

If they do something like that then filoni will have to be involved which would just. well then it would just be another example of obi-wan’s character being pushed aside for the sake of ahsoka’s.

Which is exactly why I don’t foresee it happening. Even though I want it but I also don’t want it. My brain is confused.

Also it’s 3am and I can’t sleep. I seem to make these posts when this happens so here we are.

Anyways what I realistically want is either a smaller-scale kenobi season 2 where obi-wan hangs out on tatooine and vibes with force ghost qui-gon, *or* a spin-off focused on the path where obi-wan can have some sort of part in the network, setting up a part of it on tatooine or something? I feel like it would be a good follow-up to what he sees happen to Nari, like making sure that any other Jedi who find him on tatooine have somewhere safe to go and he can help them get there.

[jackdaw-kraai]

I think there’s something rather strange going on with all the folks who insist that the Jedi Order in the PT was right and didn’t forbid love and Anakin should just have followed their teachings when the whole point of the prequels is that they are prequels. They come before the OT, and the OT proves the Jedi wrong. They literally do not make sense if they don’t do that.

Luke, in the original trilogy, gains his ultimate triumph, his ultimate victory, because he loved in defiance of the teachings of the old Order. He quite literally had the ghosts of the past telling him, explicitly and without ambiguity, that he has to put his love for his father aside and kill him, as is the duty of a Jedi. Luke has the weight of millennia of teachings weighing down on his shoulders, telling him they knew and know better than a young, inexperienced man barely out of his teenager years. That he should follow their teachings or be destroyed. That is an immense weight to carry, and many people would and explicitly have given in to it in-universe. What are your feelings and ideals in the face of such immense legacy, after all?

But Luke doesn’t give in.

He doesn’t bend.

He says “I may be young, and I may be new, but I believe to my heart and soul that love matters more than this legacy. Matters more than your teachings.” And he says this to the ghosts of his mentors. That is such a powerful moment and one I can’t believe George Lucas didn’t create deliberately for even a second. This young man, being told he has to kill or die trying for a system that is dead or dying itself, that couldn’t survive itself, and refusing to do so. He is the living refusing to continue the violence of a dead generation. He is the young man refusing the draft into a war the old generation started, saying “peace and love matters more than you being right.” He is the embodiment of breaking the cycle.

And the movies vindicate him.

The main villain vindicates him with his last dying breath.

Darth Vader, dying, says “You were right.” and admits he and his were wrong. The main antagonist, Luke’s nemesis, in the face of his son’s immense, defiant love, gives way and does the impossible: he comes back to the light and dies a Jedi. The very thing the old Order says was impossible.

They were wrong. They have to be. The narrative demands it, the movies don’t make sense without it.

The solution was never to continue the cycle of the old Order, or Luke would have failed there, would have failed when he said “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” And claimed that defiant, deviant, condemned definition of being a Jedi over the one presented to him by the Grandmaster of the old Order. If the old Order was right, Luke would have to be wrong. Be wrong about love, be wrong about laying down the sword, be wrong about refusing to fight. He would have to be wrong.

But the old Order is dead, explicitly killed by a monster, in some part, of their own making. It’s members only existing as bones in the ground or ghosts speaking from beyond the grave. They did not deserve it, it should not have been inflicted on them, but the narrative is clear on this: “The old way is dead, and was dying for a long time before that. Long live the new.”

Luke is that new. Luke is the breaking of the cycle, the reforging of swords into ploughs, the extended hand. Luke says “I don’t care how much I was hurt, I refuse to hurt you back, and you don’t need to hurt me either.”

“We can end this together and choose love instead.”

And Darth Vader, killer of the Jedi, End of the Order, lays down his arms as well, and reaches back as Anakin, saying “You were right.”

It wasn’t Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace, Qui-Gon, or even Ahsoka who achieved the ultimate victory in the end, following the tenants of the old Order. It was Luke. Young, inexperienced Luke, who saw that the age of legacy handed to him was only history, that the sword handed to him as his life was only a tool, and that the decrees of the dead were only advice. And he took it all, said “thank you for your experience, but I’ve got it from here,” and laid it all down to instead extend an open hand towards his enemy.

And his victory, his ultimate triumph, his vindication, was that he was proven right when his enemy reached back and became just another person. Just another person, just like him.

The Jedi did not deserve what happened to them, and they did not deserve to die. But the story is clear on this: the Jedi of old were wrong, and the Jedi of new, the Last Jedi, was right. No sword or death will ever end the rule of the sword or end the bloodshed. But love?

Love can ignite the stars.

[stealingpotatoes]

yknow, the baby ani and vader podracing post reminds me of a clone wars comic where anakin tries to negotiate by being like "ill beat you at a podrace and youll give us the thing" but both ahsoka and the other guy are like "bro youre too tall for that u will not fit" what im trying to say is that vader is either sitting there with his knees up to his chest like hes driving one of those toddler cars because no leg space, he gives up and races a swoop instead, or... he just takes off the leg prosthetics. cant have your limbs ruining the podracing experience if you dont have them.

MODERN PROBLEMS REQUIRE LEGO STAR WARS SOLUTIONS !!

[abduloki]

Saw some people saying how Anakin has fallen to the "dark" side in this scene but to me it's not as simple because war changes you.

When you first lost someone, it broke you and you doubt yourself if you are doing the right thing, just like Ahsoka is feeling here.

But as you continue to lose more people you realise that it's inevitable and you "shield" yourself from getting hurt emotionally.

Because you don't have time to wallow in self-pity reflecting on your actions when there are people who are still depending on you.

People under your command looking up to you to lead them, people you're supposed to protect waiting for your arrival to rescue.

Every second you hesitate, more lives are lost. And he's trying the best he can to save as many lives as quickly as possible.

As much as he want to protect every single one of his men from dying, he realised it's impossible with enemies on every side.

The more time you spend mourning the lives that have been lost, the less time you have to save the lives of others that are in danger.

That's what Anakin is trying to tell Ahsoka in this scene but he could not find the right words because his mind is all messed up by the war.

You can see how tired he looks by the never ending war and how affected he is by it but pretends it didn't bother him in order to lead.

He even uses humour as a defense mechanism so those around him does not fell to despair and depression by the senseless war.

He's frustrated that Ahsoka does not get what he is trying to teach her as he doesn't want to lose her like the clone troopers.

Nobody wants to fight but the enemy doesn't care about that and will continue killing whether or not you lay down your weapon.

So what else can you do in such situations when the politicians failed to reach a peaceful solution? If you stop fighting, then what happens to the people are being attacked and killed by the enemy?

That's one thing I love about this flashback scene as it shows you the horrors of war in a span of a few minutes that you do not see in the Clone Wars animated series.

After all the things he had seen on the battlefield, you understand how he lost faith in the Jedi and the Republic, finally pushing him off the edge in Revenge of the Sith.

Palpatine conveniently orchestrated the whole saga, even removing Ahsoka and Obi-Wan from his side, to isolate him from the others so he could make his move on Anakin.

That's what Palpatine has been planning all along, to push Anakin into the brink of despair just so he could push him off easily to the dark side and gave in to the dark side.

[vodika-vibes]

I'm thinking about 501st DND nights.

Ahsoka is the DM. The books originally belonged to Obi-Wan, but he and his friends no longer have time to play, plus they have digital copies of the books. (Obi-Wan used DND to help Anakin learn how to read Basic when he first arrived at the temple and it was startlingly effective.)

When Ahsoka first mentioned the game to Skyguy, he said that she could, but only one night a week, and then he begged out, claiming that he had other things to do.

Rex also begged out, citing how busy he was all the time. But he directed her to some of the vod'e who would like to play.

Fives and Echo are the first full-time players. They bicker over what characters they're going to make but eventually come to a consensus. They make a pair of identical twins, one a wizard (Echo) and the other a Warlock (Fives).

The next full-time player is Kix, who makes a gunslinger and only shows up to every other session.

Jesse shows up to the first couple of sessions and then has to pull out, but Hardcase is happy to take his place, with a sword and board Paladin.

Tup is invited to join the game when he joins the 501st, and he hems and haws over it, but ends up joining the game and making a bard who accidentally keeps encouraging NPCs to form unions and rebel against the government. (Ahsoka finds it hilarious and leans into it).

Dogma is the last person invited to join. He considers it for a day and then borrows the Player's Handbook and the DMG, and he reads both cover to cover. When he comes to his first session, he comes with his fully made character, a rogue.

Everyone thought that Dogma would be a rules lawyer, and in a way he is. The problem is Dogma learned the rules so well that he knows exactly what to do to go around the rules.

As a result, Ahsoka has to come up with a contingency for any possible solution that Dogma comes up with. She's the most prepared DM who's ever DMed.

[ithebookhoarder]

Hi love! Could I request an Anakin X reader where he comforts reader after a panic attack?

Reacting to Reader having a panic attack: (Anakin Skywalker x Reader)

A/N: Of course you can! Here you go. You can thank Ahsoka for breaking me and getting me back into my feels for this disaster of a human being 😅

Masterlist:

Anakin is much more a man of action rather than a man of words and will actively look for a practical solution for any problem, including panic attacks.

It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t fully understand them, or that there isn’t necessarily a physical threat that he can fight on your behalf, he will do whatever he can to best help you. 

That would include using his trademark sass and boyish jokes to distract you whenever he senses you’re feeling low (something you both love and hate in equal measure). 

“Hey, Y/N. I was thinking, how does a moon cut his hair?" 

“Anakin… I swear to the maker-"

“-Eclipse it."

It’s easy to see why Obi-Wan started to turn grey the day he took Anakin on as a Padawan. 

Then again, as much as you may protest against it, it’s hard to do anything other than laugh at his desperate attempts to cheer you up. 

Anakin also creates private rituals for you both to follow whenever you feel an attack creeping up on you. 

These include things like going to exercise together, as you find sparring or racing around a local park is a great way to burn off any pent up anxiety (and often leads to you both rolling around on the floor, sweaty and too busy being wrapped up in one another to feel anything other than pleasure). 

It also sometimes involves him taking you aside and helping you to ground yourself to him and your surroundings. 

It even sometimes involves him crawling into bed and holding you whilst you sleep, knowing his warmth and his presence helps to keep your worries at bay. 

On that note, we know he has no problem bending the rules when it comes to those he cares about and you’d be no exception. 

Nothing else in the universe matters more to him and your well-being comes before anything else, including the Jedi code. 

It doesn’t matter if the council will reprimand him later, if you need him he’ll be there. He’d find a ship and get to you the minute you called, or the minute he sensed your panic through the force. 

A smaller thing Anakin would do, is he starts carrying around sour candies for you, knowing how you like them and how they help distract your brain when it starts to feel overwhelmed. 

You almost couldn’t believe it the first time he handed one to you without so much as a word. Instead he simply unwrapped one for himself and winked. 

You also can’t tell me he wouldn’t be keeping a special eye on you, reaching out at the first sign of trouble, just as he sensed his mother’s distress before. It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night, he’ll call you if he isn’t with you, just to make sure you’re alright. 

Even if it isn’t too bad an attack, he would still pull you from any duties you may have for the rest of your day, insisting you rest for a while even if he has to make you. 

He also strikes me as the kind of friend who tries to act like they’re less stressed out about your issues than you, but inside is panicking like crazy. So much so, he has to instruct Rex and Ahsoka to keep an eye out for you if he can’t, else he’ll be too worried to ever leave your side in case you need him.

He may or may not have written a very extensive list of things to do and not to do if you ever have one without him - something both privately tease him about...

[garden-bug]

Do you think Thrawn being “exiled” was traumatic? I mean, his people, whom he saved, decided for ‘political reasons’ that he was too unpredictable and in order to protect their own agendas they decided to get rid of them.

That’s rough. Like, really. Thrawn’s continued loyalty to them could almost be seen as a type of indoctrination actually. He cannot fathom an existence for himself that is not tied to the preservation and protection of his people. He is being controlled.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, but it’s set up perfectly for Thrawn to have a character arc where he realises that there is more to life than making yourself a servant of people who don’t appreciate you. We know that Thrawn has the capacity for friendship. Let him find people who matter. Let him find a new cause. Let him find meaning.

Or not because he’s a machine apparently and ‘maybe the Empire can help’ is the limit of his character. (I miss when Thrawn actually came up with solutions.)

Thrawn’s lack of growth is particularly evident in the Ahsoka series (god I wish that show wasn’t canon) because you really do wonder: Why is Thrawn still here? Why the fuck does he think the Empire can still save the chiss? The Empire is gone. Does he know the current status of the Ascendancy? Shouldn’t that be his priority?

These aren’t even cracks anymore; his initial motivation is in pieces. It makes no sense.

Who the hell is this guy and what is he doing?

I’m left to conclude that Thrawn post-Treason has fully just lost his mind because what even is the point. I miss ascendancy trilogy Thrawn so much.

[queenie-official]

Chapter Fourteen: ‘Distractions’ Bridgerton Au!Anakin

part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

a/n: first of all i would like to say a big thank you to all of you 🙌 you’ve gotten me to 300+ followers 🥹 i wanted to get this out sooner as a treat but i knew it’d be much more of a gift if i waited and put all my focus into this💋 that being said this chapter has smut 👀

one would think with three heads working on all the preparations to be done for the big day it would be fast. you quickly realized how wrong that thought was, so much to be done in such a short amount of time. you probably would of had more time had you not spent so long avoiding the problem and pushing people away but you tried your best not to dwell on something you could no longer change. No you had much more pressing matters to attend to like planning a ball and a race. oh and figuring out what to do with the now former members of the royal court who’d betrayed the kingdom.

the simple solution would be off with their heads- a solution you secretly favored, it seemed right to you. an eye for an eye kind of deal, and they did kill your father. unfortunately it was your father who’d put an end to the death penalty and to bring it back for the death of a monarch- the same monarch who spoke of his people as equals, would suggest that his murder weighed more than if someone of the Ton was murdered and their killer was caught.

which in a way his death did weigh far more but that wouldn’t make it any less of a scandal in the eyes of the people. not to mention Lady whistledown would have a field day, she was quickly becoming one of the number one tabloids for all of the hottest news. it would be easier to look over if everything she wrote wasn’t true in a sense.

so now you’re stuck with the choice of damaging Alderaan’s image, one of peace and equality or resurrecting the old image of Alderaan your father fought to change. the Clock was ticking and everyone was watching, waiting for the next course of action. to simply throw them in a prison didn’t feel severe enough for the crime that was committed, personal bias or not they killed a king.

to distract yourself from the passing time you focused your energy into working on the ball with Padme. was it working? not at all but you liked to pretend it brought you at least some piece of mind. picking out color themes and what food was to be served, you ended up consulting Anakin quite a lot to your surprise- not because he had good taste in decorating but mostly because he’d attended enough balls in Tatooine to provide you with an idea of certain differences you could possibly include.

your goal was to find a way to intertwine both Tatooine ball traditions and Alderaan ball traditions. that was the whole point of hosting the Tatooine races in Alderaan to begin with, to unite the two kingdoms and become closer ally’s outside of a simple marriage arrangement- and of course showing them that all was well. the new king still lived and what happened in the past was not affecting the current.

you’d already written to Anakin’s parents to flesh out the details, and as it so happens they would all be coming to both view the races and join in the ball. so yes maybe you also wanted to impress them, and make them feel more welcomed. this would be the first time your meeting his father and sister after all. although you weren’t really scared of meeting his father at all, it was his sister you worried about.

you knew from what Anakin told you before that she was a good person, but you also knew from what he’d told you that she wasn’t exactly keen on you yet. that was an added pressure for the day to come, but Anakin repeatedly assured you that Ahsoka would go easy on you. which to be honest did not do that much to ease your mind but as he put it you’ve done nothing wrong and shouldn’t have reason to worry. which of course is easy for him to say as he knew the full story whereas you weren’t even sure Ahsoka knew you weren’t the one who made the arrangement to marry him.

the only thing you didn’t technically have to worry about was the races, Anakin was handling all of that himself- occasionally consulting you when needed. that of course didn’t stop your mind from thinking something might got wrong. Anxieties plagued your mind more often than not.

it was late as you found yourself mindlessly tracing circles on the desk in your new study- you couldn’t bring yourself to step back into your father’s after everything that happened, it was too much. you found grief strange in that way, what once brought you comfort as if it were a piece of him left behind was now tainted with the stains of a previously unknown tragedy. even looking at the door of it evoked a heart wrenching emotion from you. “you seem stressed” Anakin’s voice pulls you from all of the thoughts in your mind, looking up at him from where you’re sat as he enters the study closing the doors behind him.

had he even knocked? you weren’t entirely sure but even if he had you doubt you’d have heard him. “how can i not be” you huff letting out a small sarcastic chuckle before leaning into the palm of your hand, watching him as he now rounds the corner of your desk.

standing behind you he places his hands onto your shoulders, gently massaging the exposed skin. the robe that had covered them was resting on the back of the chair, you’d gotten hot with it on and didn’t think anybody would be up late enough to see you in just your nightgown. “well maybe i could help?” he offers his voice raspy from sleepiness. it brought a chill to your spin, your skin prickling with goosebumps.

“how could you possibly help?” to the defense of your oblivious nature, it truly was late in the night and you really weren’t thinking straight. your question doesn’t go unanswered even though he laughs, leaning down so that his face was at the crook of your neck.

warm breath fanning over you as he speaks “well i am your husband there’s quite a few ways i could help, the one i have in mind however could also serve as a nice distraction.” you feel your face heat up as you realize what he’s hinting at, you find yourself unsure of what to say or do.

he places a soft kiss to your neck as he waits patiently for you to react. turning in your seat to face him completely as he stares down at you, the look in his eyes making you burn. the usual pale blues swallowed by blown pupils, he was being completely serious and you felt your stomach swirl.

as a women you aren’t entirely taught as to what happens in the bedroom- society often shuns it, though thankfully for you Padme had given you a brief rundown as to what happens so you weren’t entirely left in the dark. an explanation however never translates to how it’ll truly feel, what you where currently experiencing for example was entirely new and barely anything had happened yet. it was strange but you felt thrilled in a way, excited for what could possibly come and also nervous. a very odd combination, but as the silence dragged on and the look in Anakin’s eyes burned hotter you felt your mind run blank ready to allow him to guide you completely in this moment through each new feeling.

you give him a soft nod that makes him smile, taking your hand into his and gently tugging you to your feet. “let’s take this to a more comfortable place then” he keeps hold of your hand as you walk out of the study and down the halls towards your bedroom, mindlessly rubbing circles with the rough pad of his thumb. it was silent in the castle, all of the servants sleeping.

the only thing you could really hear was the sound of your own heart pounding in your chest the closer you got to the room, you started to grow nervous again and you could only hope Anakin hadn’t noticed. ever the intuitive person the second he turns to you as you enter the room and the door closes he notices immediately. “you alright?” he asks concerned, cradling the side of your face with one of his hands.

you nod whilst leaning into his touch, he stares at you for a moment in deep thought before he speaks up again. “y/n if we’re going to do this i’m going to need you to use your words okay?” he phrased it as a question but you could tell by the tone of his voice it was a command. “okay” the response came out quieter then you’d meant, you couldn’t bring yourself to speak up though.

feeling shy from the intensity of his stare and power behind his words. “do you trust me?” he asks with a tilt of his head, moving his hand down to the base of your neck.

“this is my first time-”

he cuts you off with a chuckle “that’s not what i asked.” there’s a brief silence before you answer “i trust you Anakin.”

his eyes trail down to your lips as the words leave your mouth. “have you ever thought about it?” the question makes your face burn again, had you thought about it before? maybe a little, mostly out of curiosity. since marrying him however, well you’d be lying if you said you haven’t thought about it more often than you should.

“is it going to hurt?” you dodge his question with one of your own, his gaze returns to your eyes.

“not if i do it right.” not entirely promising in your mind, did he know how to do it right? you had to fight the urge to ask that question out loud. “we’ll take it slow” he uses his free hand to bring your hand to his lips, placing a gentle kiss to the tips of your fingers. “you say you trust me, so don’t worry so much. i’ll take care of you” he adds to further reassure you, you let out a soft breath as he finally pulls you closer to him. his lips now hovering above yours “i’ve got you” he closes the gap between you both, kissing you soft and with purpose. showing you just how much he cares.

it’s slow at first, his thumb subtly tracing your jaw as you relax into his arms. that’s when it picks up, he sucks your bottom lip as he moves both his hands down to your waist pulling you flush against him.

your whole body ached for him, you couldn’t resist threading your fingers through his hair. tugging slightly on the soft curls causing him to let out a low hum of delight. guiding you towards your bed with his body, never breaking the kiss until you fall back onto the bed. panting as you catch your breath before he crawls on top of you, kissing your lips again before trailing kisses down your jawline and to your neck.

tilting your head so he has more access when he kisses the delicate skin. opening his mouth and sucking gently, the feeling makes you mewl and you can feel him smile before trailing back up to your face. he looks down to your chest, reaching up to the strings of your nightgown before looking back up to you silently asking for permission to continue. “please..”

the plea seemed to spur him on, quickly pulling the strings loose and removing the gown entirely leaving you in just your underwear. your body on full display for him, he looked over you. soaking in every detail, you thought you’d shy away from his gaze but the way he was staring. like you were the most beautiful person he’d ever laid eyes on, but then the look on his eyes changed to hunger. it made you squirm, and he couldn’t help but groan at the sight. “you don’t know what you do to me” he says in a low growl that sends heat straight to your core.

“Ani-” he cuts you off with a open mouth kiss to your right breast causing you to gasp. the sound doesn’t go unnoticed by him as he sucks gently, leaving a small hickey before kissing down your stomach stopping just above your navel.

“Are you ready for this?” he asks while looking up at you, lips swollen from kissing all over you. he looked ethereal. “we can stop at anytime.” he quickly added, wanting to make sure you felt comfortable and safe as he hooked his fingers over your underwear waiting for your answer before he pulled them down.

"I am yours to do as you please." you answer in a sudden burst of confidence, he liked that answer. pulling your underwear off with a fervor "You'll be the end of me." he mumbles as he lowers his face between your legs, gently pushing them open and taking a good look at you. he moaned at the sight. your legs spread, thighs wet with arousal that dripped down showing just how much his actions affected you.

he didn’t hesitate to dive right in, licking up the mess he’d caused. the feeling had your head spinning, an intimacy you never felt before. so passionate and pleasurable, and he was skilled.

moaning into you, sending vibrations in all the right places as his nose nudged your clit with each movement. your hands gripping the bed sheets from how intense the feeling was, moan after moan slipping out of your own mouth that just made him groan more.

it wasn’t long before he deemed you ready enough for one of his fingers, slipping it inside of you slowly not stopping until he was knuckle deep. it didn’t hurt but it felt old at first, your body adjusted quickly as he moved it. you must not have given him the reaction he wanted because he added a second finger about a moment later making you gasp. both fingers now pumping in and out of you and they reached so deliciously deep inside.

you were completely lost at this point, head growing foggier with every passing moment. you hadn’t even realized what was happening until you felt the wave crash over you. he worked you through it, before carefully pulling his fingers out.

you open your eyes panting as he moves back overtop of you, face wet with your slick. the sight alone works you back up again. he leans forward, resting his forehead against yours as he catches his own breath. “You’re doing so well.” he says softly before kissing you on the lips, he didn’t start off slow this time- instead kissing you passionately and groping your breasts.

you moan against him and he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth, subconsciously beginning to arch into him. everything he did was driving you crazy in the best way, and you couldn’t help but want more. you tug on his shirt causing him to pull away from you, a string of saliva keeping you connected. “want to see you to Ani” you practically whine at him.

he’s quick to remove his sleep shirt as well as the pants he’d half hazardly tossed on when he initially went to wonder the castle leaving him solely in his underwear just as you’d been.

he gives you a moment to take him in before he finishes, you can feel him watch as you trail your eyes down his body. paying extra attention to how toned he was and the way his tanned skin seemed to only glow warmer in the candle light. god he was beautiful in every sense of the word.

“you can touch me too you know, i am yours as much as you are mine.” his statement snaps you out of your daze, looking up into his eyes with a light blush on your face. he gives you a smile, always teasing you any chance he can get. you don’t try to resist his offer though, reaching out and placing your palms against his chest. caressing his abs before testing out the waters and running your nails against him. he shuttered at the feeling, his bulge becoming a bit more obvious when you notice it twitch.

to say it escalated quickly from there would be an understatement, you didn’t even have time to process him take off his underwear before he was spreading your legs and lining himself up. “i’m going to go slow okay, if it hurts i need you to tell me okay sweetheart?” the sweetness of his words helped ease your mind.

“okay” you breath out a bit nervously before he begins to push in. the stretch of him stings, not painfully so thankfully. but it was still odd, not as odd as him being inside of you. the feeling was foreign but with each inch he sunk in further the feeling began to stir into something else.

both of you moan out once he was fully inside you, filling you up in all the right ways. you can tell he’s holding back as he looks down at you, brows creased in focus. “you doing alright pretty girl?” the nickname makes you burn, that familiar warmth going straight to your core. you nod, finding words difficult from how flustered you are.

“come on, remember what i said? you gotta use your words” he gently reminds you, cradling your face with one of his hands and gently running his thumb over your bottom lip. you wrap your legs around his waist shifting slightly to get more comfortable, the movement making you both groan.

“doing alright Ani, want you to move please.” you say with a slight pout and you feel him twitch inside of you.

he doesn’t hesitate to move after that, beginning to pump in and out of you slowly. taking his time with you, he was doing it that way for your sake but god was it practically torture. teasing you with what’s to come and when one of his hands travels down slowly tracing circles around your clit, you can’t take it anymore.

“Anakin Please, move faster” you beg, small whimpers escaping your lips in between each word. you claw at his back as he begins to pick up the pace. your eyes fall shut as the pleasure takes over, forcing yourself to take in gasps of air in between breathless moans.

"Don't close your eyes. Look at me." he demands, snapping his hips roughly. you force your eyes open doing your best to maintain eye contact as he pounds into you, bringing you closer to a second climax with each thrust. “That’s it, taking me so good sweetheart” he coos into your ear, you felt like you could cry from the pure bliss you were in. his words making your whole body flush, burning from his praise and the newfound pet names.

Anakin grabs one of your thighs pulling your leg up higher and adjusting the position your in so that he’s going even deeper, the new depth making you see white. you could feel it building this time, the familiar wave growing closer.

Anakin’s voice rasping out a string of praises, practically babbling in your ear as he grows close as well. “let go for me” that was the final push you needed for the cord to snap, your body spasming beneath him. it took you a moment to register the added feeling of his cum pouring into you. the warmth coating your insides and spilling out as he fills you up.

panting as you tried to catch your breath. he waited for you to calm down before pulling out. then he laid himself down beside you and pulled you into his arms.

you could feel how fast his heart was beating in his own chest from the exertion, your own heart beating in a similar fashion. slowly you found your thoughts again, processing the new milestone you shared as you breath him in.

Anakin kisses the top of your head before moving down and burrowing himself into the crook of your neck. “I love you y/n” he whispered against you, not wanting to raise his voice in fear of breaking the quite intimacy of the moment.

you run your fingers through his sweaty hair, scratching lightly at his scalp and feel him relax against you. “i love you too Ani”

it was safe to say he’d done what he’d set out to do. all the stress from your body was gone as you lay together, a mess of limbs.

part 15

Tag list: @luvvfromme @gatekeepingirlboss @bimbo-baggins86 @iluvanakinskywalker @bby-imasociopath @curlycarley @burnthecheshirewitch @misscaller06 @sweetcheesecakesblog

okay a few things- first off this is my first time ever writing smut so i hope it doesn’t disappoint 😭 (it’s lowkey been eating me alive that i’d completely fail writing it) another thing i know i said chapter 14 was going to be big with all the stuff in one go but it was getting way to long for one chapter imo, so i decided to break it up into different parts. but don’t worry because i will be posting all these parts simultaneously so don’t worry the next part will be up in a few minutes (about 10-15 since i want to space them out) 💋💋 i hope you lovies enjoy 🫶🏼

[miseries-mistress]

Okay idk if you write for commander wolffe or ahsoka but if you do can you write something spicy for either of them. You choose who idc, I’m just so down for these two LMAO

Also ur writing is so amazing, like it’s indescribably good ♥︎♥︎

RIPPED AWAY (SEWN TOGETHER) | COMMANDER WOLFFE

Synopsis: You wanted to shout, scream into the night to release your pent-up frustration boiling inside of you. The battle to take a separatist base was fruitless, and with Anakin's instance that none of you retreat and keep pushing forward, despite your protests leads to Ahsoka's injury. In your haste to retrieve Ahsoka, you step away from the ranks to her body in the center of the clearing. Chaos ensues. 

Warnings: female reader, wolffe being mean, like more than usual, but it's okay bc i love mean men, injury, canon typical violence, blood, gore, injury, all the good stuff. W/C: 3,880

star wars masterlist

The battle raged like a storm without end, with each wave of blaster fire raining down upon you with the strength only death alone could possess. It didn't matter how many droids your men shot down or how many shots you and Anakin deflected. It wasn't enough. 

Clouds of smoke spiraled around you, obscuring the moon while your body ached for respite under cover of the ever-twinkling stars. Retreat was becoming more of a prospect by the second, yet another dark reality to face as another volley of bombs dropped in your vicinity, the ear-piercing screams quelled by the exchange of blaster fire. 

Another bolt was deflected. Another droid is down. Another man down. The cycle was endless, and you've had enough. 

"Anakin!" you screamed over the clanking droids. "We need to retreat!"

Anakin's head whipped around to face you, his eyes wide before his eyebrows knitted in frustration, his face twisting in defiance.

"We can take the base!" he shouts, and a man behind you thuds to the ground, his organs mixing with the sloppy sludge of oil, mud, and blood. "If we can break their defenses–"

"The men can't hold out that long, and neither can we! Regrouping is our only hope of surviving this! We are losing them by the minute!" 

"We hold our position. That's final!" 

You wanted to scream, tear the hair out of your head if that meant reasoning with him. If this was your mission, you would have pulled back ages ago, having realized staying here any longer would be fruitless. Their forces were simply too many, overwhelming quick thoughts of attack. You needed a strategy, and it would be impossible to form one in the heat of battle while you deflected oncoming advancements. 

You racked your brain for a solution, frantic to figure out some kind of strategy to not only reduce casualties but also take the separatist base. That was until a crackling, uneven voice spoke urgently over your and Anakin's commlink, his voice barely audible. "Commander Tano is down."

Every nerve, vein, and blood vessel was doused in frozen water, your blood running cold as you could feel it draining from the pores in your face. You've never seen Anakin move so fast, stepping back so Rex could cover him. "What?! Where are you?!"

"We are overrun– we need to pull back," the trooper spoke again, despair thickly coating his entreaty.

"Send your coordinates and hold your position," Anakin orders. You could feel, not in the Force, but physically feel his solicitude radiating off him in unprecedented waves of dread before switching off the commlink. 

"General, go to Ahsoka's position! Rex and I will hold out here!" he orders you with the swiftness and composure he could muster under the circumstances. You curtly nod, your apprehension for Ahsoka outweighing your frustration. 

You turn to your commander, your boots sticking to the mud and clinging to your feet. "Wolffe, Comet, and Boost, you're with me. Sinker, you lead the men while I recover, Commander Tano."

"Yes, sir." Wolffe squeezes Sinker's shoulder before the three troopers follow you as you weave through blaster fire, looking down at the coordinates Anakin sent you every couple of seconds. 

The noise of battle is deafening. A sound that often haunts soldiers' dreams is all that pounds in a hysterical beat against your skull. Dirt and rubble fly around you, men howl in pain, and superiors scream orders in the faint hope of not seeing more numbers on a list of the fallen. Each sound terrorizes you, engulfs you in dark, endless black water, fated to drown you if you stop kicking for the surface where the light resides instead of the void of the darkness beneath you. All your years of training to become a Jedi and being one could never prepare you for this.  

You reach Ahsoka's position in record time, and immediately you are met with red bolts of blaster fire showering upon you. It was worse, so much worse than where you held out with Anakin, and it showed by the disfigured bodies of blue and gray armor stacked upon each other, the stench of death almost too much to bear. 

"Over here, general!" You follow the voice, your feet slapping against the mud as you catch sight of Ahsoka. She was groaning, her hand covering what you could already see as a nasty wound, the skin around it scorched and inflamed. Thick dark red blood oozed around her fingers as another clone pulled her back. He was almost to your position when a flash of light collided with his armor, and his body smashed to the ground next to her.

Your lightsaber sprang to life with a snapping hiss as you began defending Ahsoka's injured form. Wolffe, Comet, and Boost joined the battle as you did, reemerging into the flow of war. 

You tried to inch forward to her position in the middle of the clearing with every battle droid that smashed into the grimy soil, but your efforts were in vain. For every droid that fell, another replaced it. Reinforcements flooded in an endless stream of metal as the bodies beside you grew, your friend's life force dwindling as she slowly bled out, so close yet so far. If only–

Your body slammed into the ground, your arms crumpling beneath your weight. There was an obnoxious high-pitched ringing in your ears, blocking the sound of anything else besides your thundering heartbeat. You blinked, clearing the black spots that had begun to dot your vision, the shock hitting you in full. The infinite dark sky is speckled with luminescent stars, mockingly watching you as they laugh at your collapsed form, doused in the weakest breath of strength.  

Ahsoka. 

You could see her closer now, and your head swam with the force of whatever injury you sustained that you couldn't feel. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except getting Ahsoka to safety. Whatever it was, it wasn't severe enough to stop you from stumbling to her, your body throbbing with the phantom of agony as you all but collapsed beside her, your knees wet with silt. You shook her with a ghost of the power you possess, your hands violently shaking as her eyes remained shut. Tears swam in your vision while your chest painfully constricted as you shook her harder, only for her eyes to crack open a moment later, her face covered in a thin sheen of sweat and ash. You could almost collapse in the burden of your injury and hers, but you held yourself up, not brave enough to look at her wound. 

"Ahsoka," you cried in relief, and her features wrung in pain as she returned to a more steady form of consciousness, no doubt feeling the weight of her injuries. "I'm going to get you out of here." 

"I-I'm okay," she wheezed as your arms dived under her head and knees, slowly rising to your feet with her. Colors flashed blindingly in your vision, and lightheadedness and dizziness nearly swept you off your feet. No matter how much your body screamed at you, threatening to crumple, your will filled your chest like a breath of fresh air, stealing your resolve. You had to do this. You had to push through, not for your sake, but for the young Padawan in your arms. 

You two made it behind your forces, and a clamor of voices finally reached your ears after too long of nothing but ear-splitting ringing. 

"They're back! Fall back! Fall back!" someone ordered as the rest of the men began to retreat to the carriers behind you to take you back to base. Even though with each step, pure singing misery rippled down your spine, you pushed for the promise of safety. 

When you entered, the doors closed and lifted into the murky sky. A couple of troopers rushed to your side, carefully taking Ahsoka from your arms and scurrying off to the medical center buried deeply in the confines of the ship. Clones around you dispersed to their positions, and you cautiously lowered yourself to the ground, forgoing the seats as you leaned your head back. The ship was silent besides the roar of the engines, which you hid your labored breathing behind. Every expansion of your lungs felt like you were being burned within an inch of your life, seizing the air from your breast in one fell swoop. Tentatively you lifted your robes, hissing when the fabric caught on your impairment, only for your breath to be sucked back into your irritated lungs. Your exposed flesh was spitting out crimson liquid, the edges of your wound charred in a sickening state of black, and you could faintly smell your burning flesh, binding the torn fabric of your tunic to your heaving meat. 

Just a graze, you thought to yourself as you lowered your tunic, something that could be dealt with when you reach Coruscant. 

"You…okay?" a hesitant voice reaches your ears, and you turn your head to find Wolffe leaning against the doorway, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. It wasn't a look you often saw on him, making your chest tighten as if someone had reached into there and squeezed with all their might to rob the breath from your lungs. You find the same emotion inexplicably rising in the back of your throat.  

"Yeah, yeah, just tired. That's all," you lie, pinching your lips as the intensity of your burned nerves sharpens by the minute. 

He raises an eyebrow, his chin jerking forward. "Then what's all that blood for, sweetheart?"

Shit. You glance down to find that your blood has, in fact, seeped through your clothing, the dark patch expanding into the woven fabric of your wear.

"It-It's not mine. No need to worry," you grit your teeth. Wolffe scowls, and it's then you know you've lost the uphill battle of pride you were fighting. You sigh, slinking further against the wall, and he takes this as your sign of defeat.  

"When were you planning on telling me? Before or after you bleed to death?" He kneels in front of you, and you cringe at the bite in his words. 

"You're being over dramatic. I'm fine, Wolffe." you roll your eyes at his antics, but he scoots closer. Even when taking a knee in front of you, he seems to tower above you, his stoic presence alone engulfing the room. It's impossible not to notice the concern that laces his features as he gulps, his adam's apple bobbing.  

"You're covered in blood," he points out.  

"Like I said, it's nothing–" You yelp, doubling forward when he roughly shoves two fingers into your wound, blood instantly staining your outer robes from your tunic. 

"Fucking liar," he snarls before standing up, his eyes flickering around the room for the first aid kit. You groan, curling within yourself as the damaged skin throbs from Wolffe's painful jab, your vision blurring around the edges as you try to keep your eyes focused, only for him to leave your peripheral a second later. Your eyes begin to droop as the weight of battle, and your injury finally starts to percolate the very fiber of your being. Sleep is now a call from the heavens, a gentle hand forcing your eyes to shut.

There is a clanging sound as a box hits the floor, and out of curiosity, one eye cracks open. Wolffe is back, digging fervently through the med kit on the floor for something…most likely for you. Your eyelids begin to close once more, now at peace knowing Wolffe would take the pain from you as he has done many times before. 

Just as you began to drift off, the pain returned, only doubling in vehemence. You bite back a scream as the clothes melted into your pulsating raw flesh are ripped away. Wolffe places a firm hand over your chest to keep you from doubling over. 

You throb with white-hot agony, every nerve alight as it feels like thousands of boiling hot needles are being shoved into your skin and torn out simultaneously. Your eyes squeeze shut, fat tears collecting in your scrunched waterline. Behind your eyelids, you can see a kaleidoscope of bright colors dancing across the infinite void behind your eyes. 

The searing pain dulls as something cold and slippery runs over the affected area, the scalding burn dissolving into a dull throb. 

"Shit, Wolffe," you whimper as he presses the bacta into your charred skin, his fingers roughly moving into every crevice of your wound. 

"If you wanted gentle, you should have asked for my vod instead," he gruffly replied as you hissed in pain. The bacta was doing its job of settling the fiery burn eating at your flesh, but his hands were far from delicate, and you considered the idea that he was purposely trying to make this hurt more than it should. "Or told me sooner."

"You could be a little nicer. After all, I am–" you grit your teeth as fingers swirl over your side with unnecessary force. "Injured," you finish weakly, slipping further into your position on the floor as he begins to wrap the wound.  

"If you weren't such a brat and tried to lie to me, we wouldn't be in this position, now would we?" he growls, his voice a baritone lower and substantially more gravelly. His eye flares and his lips curl into a snarl in his malice. You advert your gaze, shame filling your sternum, and you can't help but wallow in it while Wolffe finishes patching you up. 

He sits back on his heels, admiring his work while your disheartened expression not going unnoticed by the burly commander. Those feelings, the ones he'd tried to suppress when he witnessed what appeared to be a fall while retrieving Ahsoka, which was now revealed as a blaster wound, came swarming to the surface, brimming at the edge of release. These emotions were dark and tenebrous and made his chest constrict with each second they remained pent up. 

You were a Jedi, you didn't get injured. It was something he never had to fret about whenever you stepped onto the battlefield, but today...today proved that wrong in the nastiest way possible. Your flirt with death was unnecessary and reckless, a show of independence and strength. Your refusal to rely on Wolffe or his men to aid you resulted in your life-threatening injury and the worst part was there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"What you did today was reckless." Your gaze travels from the durasteel floor to the intense silver of his cybernetic eye, the crease between your eyebrows deepening at his accusation. 

"What I did today saved Ahsoka's life." 

"You needlessly put your life on the line instead of relying on your men to help you."

"I did not." you defend yourself, tenderly crossing your arms over your chest with an indignant huff. 

"That's exactly what you did," he snarled. "Don't even try to bullshit your way out of this."

"I'm not!" you exclaim, wincing at the strain you caused on your side from your outburst. "I did what I had to do without risking your lives!"

"Oh, so now you pretend to care," he chuckles darkly. "You seemed too preoccupied with your little hero moment, sweetheart. I almost had the wrong impression."

Your eyes narrowed into crinkled slits, coldness bleeding into your gaze. "I was mindful of the risk and decided it was one I alone had to take!"

"And look where you wound up."

"You're a piece of shit," you spit. "You don't get to harass me about my choices."

"If I wanted to harass you, I would. I'm trying to get it in your thick skull not to put yourself in such unnecessary danger again."

"Oh, you're just full of nice things, aren't you, Wolffe?" you scoff, rolling your eyes skyward while your heart writhes in bitterness. 

"Only for you," he sneered in retaliation. 

The bickering is childish, but both of you don't seem to realize it, too caught up in your own bouts of fury to even consider the other person's words. It's horrible, but it's the only way you can talk to each other unfiltered, without lies to ease the validity of the situation. If you took a moment to collect yourself and remove yourself from the fervent argument, you're afraid he would stop spewing out what he truly feels in harsh comments and resign to silence, bottling up his emotions as he has done all his life. Wolffe's never been one to find the right words or the will to express what's eating away at his war-stained mind. You blame it on the Kamanoins and the environment he was raised in, which is why any progress in opening up the impenetrable vault of his heart is better than nothing, even if it means being on the receiving end of his insults. But, of course, you are not entirely focused on that, your anger stirring at his unreasonableness to listen to you, which in turn only eggs him on. And if you weren't so caught up in your emotions, you would realize that his invectives come from a place of regard for your safety and well-being after you were nearly killed. 

It's not a familial care like he shares with his brothers, but a tender, heart-wrenching fear foreign to a battle-hardened soldier such as himself, hence his inability to process the emotion, turning to lash out in his distress. But of course, that goes over your head, nothing but determination fueling your self-righteous point of view. 

You two stare at each other, and in your own rage, muddled aggravation, you can't pick out the exact emotion swimming in his irises, pushing and pulling against each other. 

"If you are going to continue to be a prick, leave me alone. I'm done trying to deal with your bullshit," you bark, your teeth sinking into your bottom lip to muffle your whimper as you adjust yourself, your wound pricking at the stretch in your torso. 

Wolffe's eyes seem to soften at that moment as their former fiery irises give way to the ocean of regret that fills them. He wilts, his hand finding its way to his hair, carding through it in search of the right words. 

"You almost died." It's not a question or command but a statement- a fact. Words fail you as you continue to stare into his mismatched gaze. "Your reckless behavior almost got you killed."

"But it didn't." You stare at him, begging him to notice your reassurance, to take it with open arms, but he doesn't. Wolffe is too wrapped up in the unfamiliar surge of emotions making his chest strangle with the lump impossibly forming in his throat. He wasn't used to this kind of trepidation for someone else, a worry running so profound it was stifling him. 

 "If I wasn't there..."

"Wolffe–"

"No– fuck listen to me...You would have died." You wrenched your gaze away from him as tears welled in the back of your eyes, the weight of your actions bearing down upon you with the ease only regret could tame. 

"You could have died," his strangled voice bit out as you digested each word, your stomach sinking all the while. "God damn it, look at me."

Your gaze is ripped from the floor when Wolffe grabs your face, forcing you to stare into his eyes, muddled with too many gut-wrenching feelings to process. "Fuck– you can't do that to me. Can't… can't do that to me."

His words are awkward and unsteady as if he doesn't know how to, but there's a desperate plea for your understanding. He wants you to comprehend every word his tongue can't form, every emotion threatening to swallow him up and spit him out, as every facade comes crashing down in his moment of desperation. 

So instead of talking, you lean over, despite your discomfort, and capture his lips between your own. He holds his breath, his body rigid with the sensation of your warm lips cracked by your constant biting. Then he understands the suddenness behind your actions, and his hands find your face instantly, pouring everything out into the open. His lips are feverish, swollen with spirit. He moves his mouth to taste the essence of your life, to devour your sweet taste as if it was the last thing he would ever do. It's as if he's reassuring himself of your beating heart (and flushed cheeks) as his tongue moves over your lips to seek refuge in the cavern of your mouth he calls home.

You don't see Wolffe in distress very often. Instead, you see a mask of calm, composed ruthlessness shielding his ever-cracked and dismantled soul. Your ability to peer through his walls frightened him at first, but over time as you spilled your hearts to one another over and over again, he found less of a need to keep the shields he had readily put in place, an action that came over time. Now, while his lips swallowed yours in a frenzy, his worry, an emotion that would make him a liability in war, was being poured over you. It was passionate how he moved over you, his hands moving to cup your face while the other slid across various parts of your body. He knew his action was not a display of lust but a solace to himself that you were, in fact, here, despite the deepest horrors his mind could conjure. 

As the embrace slowed to a halt, pulling away for a gulp of air, the tension that once smothered the room in its toxic fumes dissipated, leaving peaceful tranquility in its wake. 

"Don't do that shit again, you hear me?" he breathes, his voice hardened by the lilith that tainted his words. 

"Okay." You nod along with your promise. "Okay."

His body sagged with relief at your reply, a short breath of air leaving his lips. 

"I'm sorry." Wolffe shook his head, dismissing your apology. With the condolence you had so given him, the lingering air of hostility melted, and while it didn't soothe the ever-present fear that came with combat and your safety, the unspoken promise that you would heed his words and move less hastily without care for your life was enough for him. He knew you couldn't give him anything more because anything more would be a lie. His hand moved to cup your face as you nuzzled in the ever-present warmth of his hand, praying that your moment of reprieve would last forever.

[magnetarbeam]

The parallels I draw between Ahsoka and a specific kickass Legends woman have also, ironically, led to one of my single-digit number of disney canon-based ideas, which is an extremely cursed crackfic where Ahsoka spends like 20+ years having to deal with obnoxious competition for her heart from as many of her potential girlfriends as I can shoehorn in (even if I have to disregard them canonically being dead and/or evil), while also doing rebel shit, and it takes them until at least Endor to decide the solution is all of the above.

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

There's not a TON of "canon" discussion of Anakin's apprenticeship years between TPM and AOTC, at least in terms of what's usually considered Lucas's canon which is the films and first six seasons of TCW.

He claims at the end of the Wrong Jedi arc that he's considered leaving the Order before (and clearly also chosen NOT to leave), but that could be something that's only started happening since AOTC rather than something that's been happening since he joined the Order, Anakin doesn't specify that. He also doesn't specify why he stays precisely, but when he's trying to tell Ahsoka not to leave, he says "the Jedi Order is your life, you can't just throw it away like this" so you could make a solid argument that this is likely something he's said to HIMSELF when facing those moments where he's considered leaving and then chosen not to.

So while it's fully canon that Anakin, at some point during his tenure as a Jedi, HAS considered leaving the Order and ultimately chosen to stay, it's not canon that he stayed because he wanted to be a Jedi too much necessarily. It's a VERY easy assumption to make, that Anakin chose to remain a Jedi because he believes it's the only thing he CAN be and that he enjoys being a Jedi (and the fame and glory he believes it gives him) too much to leave, but it's not spelled out.

There's one comic where Anakin, at the age of like 12 or 13, does tell Obi-Wan he's considering leaving the Order (in part due to some struggles on a particular mission they're having and the limitations they're under as Jedi that keeps them from being able to help in certain ways that Anakin would like to do) and Obi-Wan convinces him to stick it out until the end of the mission and see if he changes his mind. And in the end, Obi-Wan is able to show that while there are things they're unable to do because of the limitations the Jedi live with, there are also a lot MORE things that they CAN do because of the resources available to them as Jedi. You don't get one without the other and the Jedi have decided that the limitations of working with the Senate instead of independently are worth the benefits of the resources and legitimacy they get from that relationship. It's something Anakin figures out by the end of the story and it's why he ultimately chooses to stay, because in many ways, the Jedi have more power as a collective organization than any one of them would have alone.

What Anakin seems to want is to be able to really make a difference, to help people in an obvious demonstrative way. It's a genuinely selfless and compassionate desire, especially when he's young, but it's something that gets twisted as he gets older. By the time you get to AOTC, Anakin is already at the point where he's more invested in his own POWER to help people than he is in actually HELPING PEOPLE. He's upset about killing the Tuskens because it makes him a bad Jedi, not because he's actually feeling remorseful about the loss of life. He recognizes there's problems in their system of government, but he also 1000% believes in dictatorships as a worthwhile solution to the problem.

So he stays with the Jedi not because he wants to BE A JEDI but because he chooses to believe that being a Jedi is what will allow him the power he wants to do the things he wants. And early on, there's a more genuine desire to help people in that, but it very quickly becomes all about just HAVING POWER in general. He sort-of... hides it underneath this veneer of genuinely wanting to help people and maybe some part of him still genuinely does want that, but by AOTC, it's all about the power already. It's about getting recognition for his skills that he believes he is OWED by the Jedi (and specifically by Obi-Wan and the Council) because he believes he is special and just... deserves to do whatever he wants.

So, personally, taking all of these things into account, my interpretation is that Anakin stays with the Jedi because he wants the power to be a hero that he believes being a Jedi will grant him, because he WANTS the recognition of his power and skills he thinks he deserves simply for existing, and he tells himself that it's all about helping people who need help and maybe some small part of that is still true, but by AOTC it's already been a lie for a WHILE. It's no longer truly about helping people in a selfless and compassionate way, but about the power to do what matters TO ANAKIN. And I think Anakin maybe genuinely believes that if he leaves the Jedi, then he's throwing away an opportunity to have what he wants, that he's throwing away the sacrifices he made when he left Tatooine, and it HAS to be worth that, he'll MAKE IT worth that no matter what it takes, even if he's miserable, even if it means he has to live a lie with regards to his marriage. He DESERVES to be a powerful Jedi AND have the woman he wants or none of what he's lost was worth anything. So of course he won't leave, because that means admitting defeat and giving up on getting what he's owed by the galaxy.

As for what would happen if he'd left the Order right after marrying Padme (or, potentially, IN ORDER TO marry Padme), I just... don't think he ever would. I don't think Anakin in AOTC in emotionally stable or healthy or aware enough to actually make that choice. Like I said, Anakin by AOTC is fully in a mindset that he is OWED the things he wants simply for existing as a super special person. He'd never leave the Order to marry Padme of his own volition, without the choice being forced upon him. If the option is there to have a secret marriage and still remain a Jedi, THAT'S the choice he's going to make. He WANTS both, so he'll KEEP both right up until circumstances make it impossible.

In canon, he's faced with the choice of letting Padme die or committing a genocide against the Jedi and he chooses Padme. In an AU of sorts where the marriage came to light earlier in the war, the Council would likely force Anakin to make a choice between being married to Padme or remaining a Jedi. He cannot have both simply because he WANTS both and he's proven over and over again that he cannot actually balance this relationship with his duties as a Jedi, so I don't think the Jedi would make any kind of special exemptions for him just because his circumstances are different and he came in later. At some point, he still has to be an adult and make a fucking choice and this is one of those places I think they'd enforce that. And I do think Anakin would choose Padme here, especially since the Jedi are the ones putting him in a position where he HAS to choose which would make him bitter towards them and he already HAS issues with the Council as an authority. Whether he'd regret that choice later on in his life is debatable, whether he'd end up resenting Padme for being the thing that lost him his position as a Jedi or not is debatable, but canon tells us that when push comes to shove, he'll choose Padme over the Jedi every time.

As for whether this would make it harder to figure out Palpatine's identity if Anakin left the Order, I honestly don't think much would change there. If Anakin left the Order, he might end up GOING to Palpatine for a job or something given how close they are, which places him closer to Palpatine and even more in his debt. We also know the Jedi are suspicious of Palpatine FROM THE JUMP, they don't LIKE Palpatine even in AOTC and it's Anakin who keeps trying to insist on loyalty to Palpatine over anything else during TCW, and of course in ROTS they're already fully prepared to arrest Palpatine on charges of corruption before they even discover he's a Sith lord. So even if we assume Anakin managed to wander off after he left the Order and didn't end up in Palpatine's clutches earlier, the Jedi would continue to investigate the war and see Palpatine's corruption and decide to do something about it. And honestly, without Anakin there to be a selfish greedy turd, they might actually BEAT Palpatine before he can enact Order 66, Mace is well on his way there before Anakin showed up. If Anakin became a Sith lord EARLY, though, that could cause some issues because it might be even easier to turn Anakin against the Jedi and agree to kill them all and may not give the Jedi quite enough time to act against Palpatine, but at this point we're entering into pure speculation.

[starrymush]

if you haven’t seen The Bad Batch Season 3 Trailer or read Dark Disciple, then spoiler warning.

If Dave Filoni doesn’t give a reason for why Ventress is back and just straight up retcons Dark Disciple I think I will lose my mind. Dark Disciple closed off Ventress’ life off so well, she died saving someone she cared about. She didn’t just have to watch another person important to her die in front of her.

I kind of want to make a YouTube video about Dave Filoni and Star Wars novels. He seems to be really good at doing his own thing and ignoring the books’ existence. For example Dooku Jedi Lost and Ahsoka. I think the solution to the conflicting story of Tales of the Jedi was that they were somehow both canon?

Anyways, back to my girl Ventress. An easy story telling thing they could do is say is say she was revived by a surviving Nightsister, or a dark Jedi/sith.

I like getting more Ventress content, but at the expense of one of my favorite novels… I’m not too happy about it.

I have a very strong love hate relationship with Dave Filoni. He helped create The Bad Batch, Ahsoka, Duchess Satine, but he’s also ignored many preexisting canon things about Star Wars to tell his own thing. I am excited for The Bad Batch Season 3 a ton, I just hope there’s some sort of explanation that doesn’t de-canonize the book.