#and this ultimately keeps him from meeting palpatine until he's already been knighted

[antianakin]

A question, if I may? Do you think Anakin, as he was when he first joined the Jedi Order in TPM, was doomed to fail as a Jedi, so to speak? In-universe, not out-of-universe meta. At that point, do you think it could have gone either way for him, in that he was still capable of becoming a Jedi? And may I be cheeky and ask for full details of why you think that, one way or another?

I've written a post about this before because my answer to this kind-of encapsulates my primary interpretation of Anakin as a character.

In case people don't want to click the link, I'll rehash it a little below.

I think Anakin never would've been a good Jedi because by the time you reach him in TPM, he's already the kind of person whose values and desires don't match up with the Jedi lifestyle. This doesn't make him a bad PERSON, at all, and he's entirely capable of getting a lot of good out of the Jedi's teachings. I think that Anakin was capable of really being able to HEAL through Jedi training, but that if he had been able to really learn from them the way he should've, he would've left the Order voluntarily eventually out of recognition that this life ISN'T WHAT HE REALLY WANTS. Anakin doesn't WANT to be as limited as the Jedi are forced to be by making themselves answer to the Senate and the Chancellor. Anakin DOES want to be able to prioritize the people he personally cares about (in the more normal way that people tend to do, not the genocidal way he does in canon).

And all of this is FINE. Honestly, I think this is the ultimate good outcome for Anakin, to spend enough time with the Jedi to allow their teachings to heal him from his past and give him control over himself to the point that he can pursue the life he really wants in a healthy way. I think Anakin was always capable of being an incredible person and the character we see in TPM is entirely capable of going either way on that, but no, he'd never make a good Jedi.

I also think that if Anakin had been found a much YOUNGER age, like 3 or younger, he'd have been perfectly capable of being a good Jedi. It would remove his attachment to Shmi and the way they had to live their lives, it would allow him to have a better foundation of Jedi philosophies, and it would help him to really see the JEDI as his family rather than constantly searching for a "real" family beyond them. This interpretation comes straight from Lucas himself, who has said that if Anakin had been found at a much younger age, he'd have been fine with being a Jedi, but that being found late was, in many ways, his first stumbling block towards darkness. And that's no one's FAULT, obviously (aside from perhaps the slavers who took Shmi), but it doesn't make it any less true.

Let me know if you want more details on my personal interpretation of this!

[darthlordcommie]

Star Wars: Sequels

Alright. So, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Now that I’ve seen Rise of Skywalker, I am going to put together the plot that is essentially my take on how the ST should’ve gone. This is my opinion, and should not be taken as gospel for anything. I’m just a bi with ideas. I will be referencing the movies that got made, so, spoiler warning. 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Adjusted 

- So, the movie had some problems, but overall, I have no issue with just sticking to the movie as it is, with a few adjustments for long-term changes. 

- Finn will fully have the Force. He’ll actively using it, starting on Takodana, even if it’s subconscious. 

- They won’t see the lights from Starkiller Base all over the galaxy. That’s not how light works.

- The issue with Artoo will be that he got damaged during the same attack Luke disappeared, and it’s hell finding parts to repair him. That’s what Han was doing, running around, “smuggling”. Getting the parts they needed.

- Vice Admiral Holdo will have a cameo. 

- There will be no sexual tension between Rey and Kylo Ren. Not even a hint.

- Before he’s injured, Finn will leave a mark on Kylo. Then Rey will also leave a mark. Balanced.

- Artoo will finished being repaired in time for everyone to return from Starkiller Base. Allowing him to show off the rest of the map. 

- The movie will end with a funeral for Han, with a mention that as soon as Finn recovers, he and Rey will be off to hunt for Luke Skywalker, since they’re both Force sensitive. Poe and Rey meet while checking up on Finn. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Repaired. 

- The movie will start with the Resistance on a new base on a different planet. They’ve been hopping to different bases in order to prevent the First Order from finding them. During this time, Rey has started working as a mechanic in the Resistance. At this point, she meets the mechanic Rose, and the two strike up a friendship. Rey mentions to Rose that she wants to know who her parents were. 

- It’ll cut to a vision of a stormy planet, with darkness hiding under the surface. This will turn out to be Finn’s vision, which wakes him up. After a few days of recovering, during which he spends time with Poe, Rey, and Chewbacca, preparations are made. 

- During this time, Kylo will have been recovering from the injuries Rey and Finn dealt him, and more significantly, with the injury from Chewbacca’s bowcaster. 

- As soon as they’re ready, Chewbacca pilots the Millennium Falcon out from the base, with Finn, Rey, and Artoo aboard. Their jump to hyperspace will alert First Order scouts who were investigating the system. 

- They arrive on Ach-To, and meet Luke. After a great deal of talking, and much reticence from him, they learn that the night Ben had fallen to the dark side, Luke had found Ben standing over a dead student with his lightsaber ignited. Because Ben had exhibited issues with the dark side in the past, Luke leapt to draw his blade, parrying Ben’s blade, before Ben blasted him into a hut, and helped kill the rest of Luke’s students. Afterwards, Luke learned that the student had been killed by First Order assassins who had snuck into his academy, and that Ben had, in fact, drawn his lightsaber because he had sensed danger. As Luke felt that Ben’s fall was his fault, Luke left, deciding that he would never train another student, but would instead hunt down the remnants of Palpatine’s superweapons and Sith artifacts, in order to destroy them. However, when hunting for Ach-To, in order to seek clarity, Luke’s ship was damaged, and ultimately wrecked beyond repair by the storm he was landing in, leaving him stranded. 

- Cut to the First Order, with General Hux telling Supreme Leader Snoke that they found the Resistance. Snoke tells Hux to deploy, and to be certain that none of the Resistance escapes. 

- Cut back to Ach-To, where Finn and Rey have finally managed to convince Luke to give them Jedi training. He agrees, and they begin learning the ways of the Force. During this time, they get to know Luke, and begin seeing him as a true mentor, rather than a reluctant teacher. 

- Then we return to the Resistance base, where everyone’s begun evacuation, as the First Order has started approaching the planet. As they begin spinning up the ships, Poe leads the fighter squadrons to destroy the first ship approaching, a dreadnought that would be able to keep the Resistance fleet from escaping the atmosphere. 

- During the ensuing battle, multiple pilots die, and Paige, Rose’s sister and the pilot of one of the Y-Wing bombers, sacrifices herself to bomb the command deck and destroy the dreadnought. Thanks to this, the Resistance manages to jump to lightspeed. However, with new hyperspace tracking, the First Order manages to keep up. A short battle follows, with the Resistance hangar being blasted closed by First Order fighters, and Kylo fires on the command center, leading to most of the Resistance leadership dead, and Leia just barely alive. Command passes to Vice-Admiral Holdo, who chooses Poe as her second, due to the trust that Leia had placed in him. 

- At this point, Finn has a crisis. After wandering the island for a time, he runs into Luke, at which point Finn confesses that he doesn’t want to be a soldier, because he feels like that would be letting the First Order’s training in him “win”. Luke explains that, while Jedi were warriors, they were also teachers, healers, diplomats, and much more, despite what Imperial propaganda and the events of the last few decades said. Luke then explains that to him, the most important thing about being a Jedi was trying to help people, and that whether Finn did that by fighting or other ways, simply by selfless acts of kindness, Finn had already started walking the path of the Jedi. 

- During this conversation, Rey, still feeling unmoored, and wanting to find her parents and have the same bond that she’d seen Rose have with her sister, enters the cave on the island where the dark side is the strongest, and has a vision of killing Finn and the members of the Resistance, before kneeling to Snoke. After getting out of the cave, she stays quiet about what happened. 

- At this time, Holdo explains to Poe that they’ve approached a system where an old Rebel Alliance base is, hidden on Krayt. The plan is to keep the larger cruisers flying, slip to the base under the First Order’s radar, and hide until the danger has passed. To that end, Poe and Rose, along with the hacker DJ, build jammers that will prevent the First Order from detecting their transports. 

- While all this is happening, Kylo and Snoke have been slowly heading towards a confrontation. While Snoke becomes more and more controlling, Kylo becomes more ambitious, ultimately sneaking to the Sith planet Korriban, where he learns of a ritual that would allow him to steal another dark-sider’s power. 

- At this point, both Rey and Finn have a vision about the Resistance being in danger. This leads to them, along with Luke, leaving Ach-To, with Chewie flying the Millennium Falcon to where Luke senses Leia. 

- However, the vision had been sent by Snoke, to pull them into a trap, so he could destroy them at the same time as the Resistance. 

- While they’re flying, Rey confesses what she did and saw in the cave to Luke, who tells her that fear and anger are part of what makes people alive, but that Jedi are defined by not allowing those emotions to control them, and that who her family was isn’t as important as who it is now. 

- As the Resistance transports begin to fly towards Krayt, the First Order reveals that DJ was a spy the entire time, and begin to fire on them. Poe, Rose, and BB-8 chase DJ through the maintenance corridors of the cruiser in order to keep him from destroying it, ending with DJ being killed. 

- At this moment, Kylo confronts Snoke, using the ritual he’d learned to steal Snoke’s knowledge of the Force and cut Snoke off from it. Because Snoke’s body is helpless without it, Kylo kills him easily, before battling Snoke’s guards and killing them with his new knowledge, claiming the title of Supreme Leader. 

- As the First Order fleet fires, Leia, awake but still injured, takes over piloting the cruiser while the transports escape, sacrificing herself to destroy the flagship and leave the fleet in disarray. 

- With the Resistance pinned down, they begin trying to find a hidden entrance out of Krayt. 

- When the Millennium Falcon arrives, it immediately takes out several TIE fighters, and lands, before being confronted by the Knights of Ren. Luke projects an image of himself to distract and delay Kylo, while Rey takes the Skywalker lightsaber and Finn takes Luke’s lightsaber, defeating the knights, before working together to open the way for the Resistance to pile aboard the Millennium Falcon and escape. 

- The movie ends on the Falcon with them all mourning Leia’s death, and with Finn and Poe and Rey and Rose meeting back up, with Rey comforting Rose over her sister’s death. 

- The events of this movie take place over a timespan of 3 months, with a timeskip of a few months between this movie and TFA. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Overhauled 

- After a timeskip of a year, we pick up with Kylo finding Palpatine’s last vault on Exegol, where he discovers Sith cultists having built a massive fleet. Kylo announces this, declaring that the galaxy has one standard week to surrender, or be destroyed, as the First Order begins preparing the fleet. 

- We then cut to the Resistance, which has rebuilt itself from the events of TLJ. Luke has upped the ante of Rey and Finn’s training, and they’re significantly more skilled than they were before. 

- Poe, Finn, and Chewie return from a mission where they learn about Exegol, and that there’s a spy in the First Order. 

- At the same time, Rey and Rose return from a mission where they recruited new people to the Resistance, including Lando Calrissian, who’d been working as the governor of a small system.

- Admiral Holdo sends Finn, Rey, Rose, Poe, BB-8, Chewie, and Threepio on a mission to locate Exegol, while Luke, Lando, and Maz Kanata are sent to gather as many people as they can in order to lead a strike on the First Order. Privately, Holdo tells Poe that she’s dying, and that he needed to be ready to take leadership. 

- As they begin hunting for Exegol, they pick up where Luke’s hunt for the planet had ended, on Pasaana. After working through the festivities, the group finds a bounty hunter’s ship, and find out that Threepio has knowledge of Exegol, locked in his memory banks, but he’s unable to access them. Poe mentions that he knows someone who can help them unlock Threepio’s memories, and leads them to Kijimi, where that someone turns out to be a family friend. 

- They run into Poe’s mother, who’s happy to meet everyone, and mentions that she’s heard about Finn from the rare messages Poe manages to send, with Poe being somewhat embarrassed. 

- The knowledge in Threepio’s memory turns out to be a statement that “The path to the Emperor’s final end starts at his beginning.”

- A First Order spy recognizes the Millennium Falcon, and Kylo shows up, aiming to kill Rey and Finn before they can revive the Jedi Order and pose a threat to his plan. Chewie and the Falcon get captured, and everyone sneaks aboard Kylo’s ship to save him. 

- In the process, Poe and Finn are captured, and are about to be executed. Finn tells Poe there’s something he needs to know, but before he can continue, some of the stormtroopers turn on the rest, revealing that, after learning about Finn, they had turned traitor, and were in fact the spies who had been leaking knowledge from the First Order. 

- While this was happening, Rose and Rey sabotage Kylo’s flagship in order to prevent it from pursuing them, buying time to escape. There are multiple times when Rey loses track while watching Rose work. 

- On the way out, they encounter General Hux. Poe kills him. 

- As they’re escaping, Kylo confronts them, leading to Finn and Rey dueling him to buy time for everyone else to get to the Falcon. In the process, they’re both disarmed, with Kylo offering Rey a place at his side, while preparing to have Finn killed by stormtroopers. Finn tells the stormtroopers that they don’t have to follow orders, and that the First Order lied to them, while Rey turns Kylo down, before both flee on the Falcon as it uses its thrusters to push everyone back. Luke’s lightsaber and the Skywalker lightsaber are both left behind. 

- After escaping, the crew puzzles over the message Threepio had had, before Chewie recalls and mentions that Palpatine had originally been born on Naboo. 

- After arriving on the planet, they search for information on Palpatine, and are pointed to an archive by an old woman. After hunting for the information they need, Rey manages to find it, a description of the planet and the coordinates to it logged in the last days of the Old Republic by “Senator Amidala”. 

- They return to the Resistance base, where they learn that Admiral Holdo has passed away, with Poe being declared her successor, and the new General. At this point, Luke, Lando, and Maz return, with the message that while they spoke to a lot of people, nobody outright agreed to fight the First Order. 

- Luke guides Finn and Rey in forging lightsabers of their own. Rey builds one with a purple blade, while Finn’s has a yellow blade.

- Finn and Rey fly to Exegol, ahead of the Resistance fleet, while Lando and Chewie fly off in the Falcon to make one last appeal. Before they leave, Poe asks Finn what he was going to say on Kylo’s ship, and Finn says he’ll tell after the battle. Rose tells Rey to “come back to her”. 

- When they land, Finn and Rey enter the vault, and are greeted by the ghost of Palpatine, tied to one of the Sith artifacts there. After being taunted, Finn for his fear and Rey for her anger, they rebuff him, stating that they were united as Jedi. 

- As the battle erupts, Rose and the ex-stormtroopers, led by one who named herself Jannah, lead a ground assault on the flagship, in order to destroy the navigation tower to prevent the fleet from taking off. Poe leads all the ships on an assault against the fleet, focusing on the TIE fighters while hoping reinforcements would arrive. 

- Finn and Rey confront Kylo Ren, and begin battling him in the vault. The two work together to match him. 

- Luke forces the First Order fleet to stay down, using the Force to hold them until the tower was disabled, exhausting himself, and passing into the Force after doing so.

- The battle begins going south as the number of fighters begin overwhelming the Resistance, while First Order troopers begin attacking the ground assault. Kylo repulses Finn and Rey, knocking them both off their feet. 

- As it looks dark, Lando arrives, with a massive fleet from all over the galaxy. Poe and Lando turn things around, and begin destroying ships. Poe’s mother shows up to fly as a pilot alongside her son. Multiple stormtroopers from the flagship, inspired by Finn’s appeal, turn on the First Order, helping the ground assault destroy the bridge as the Resistance escapes. 

- As they struggle against Kylo, Finn and Rey both push up, and for a moment, they hear Luke’s voice “For you are Jedi Knights”. Inspired by this last message from their mentor, they engage, ultimately defeating Kylo, and striking him down at the same moment. 

- After everyone escapes, the Resistance reconvenes on Naboo. After a ceremony dedicated to everyone who fell, including Holdo and Luke, everyone holds a celebration.

- Before reconvening on Naboo, Finn and Rey go to Tatooine, landing at the Lars moisture farm in order to put up a small grave for Luke, alongside five other graves put up years ago. 

- During the celebration, Finn finally tells Poe what he’d been going to say, which was that he loved him. Poe responds by kissing Finn. Finn kisses back. 

- Rey and Rose find a quiet spot in the celebration. Rose asks if Rey still wants to find her family. Rey says that she’d found a family, and that she’d also found Rose. The two kiss, and we see everyone looking out as the sun sets. End movie. 

[eleanor-writes-stuff]

chemistry (my heart’s a city you’re out to destroy) - [IV/IV: EPILOGUE]

Kylo Ren - superhuman, mercenary, and the world’s most dangerous man – has recently resurfaced after a mysterious three-month disappearance.

Rey Niima, listicle writer by day and investigative reporter by night, is way too busy to worry about that. Seriously, she’s got a million things on her plate - she doesn’t have the time to think about anything else.

Especially now that news editor Benjamin Snoke has returned to the office and seems hell-bent on making her life… interesting.

At long last, the end.

Questions are answered, loose ends are tied up, and the road to recovery leads to a happily ever after.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 Also available on AO3. And hey, maybe check out my Twitter and Ko-fi? 

. . .

At the last intersection before Takodana Street, Rey reaches out to still Ben’s nervous tapping against the steering wheel.

It’s the third time in ten minutes that she’s had to do so, and he allows her to pull his hand off the wheel and into her lap with nothing more than a sheepish look from under his lashes.

“Babe, you need to relax. I can’t believe big bad Kylo Ren is this nervous about meeting a little old lady.” Neither of their smiles sour at the mention of his alter ego; after six months of difficult but frank conversations, they’ve finally reached a stage where everything is out in the open but also firmly in the past, something to laugh about now that the wounds have healed.

They’ve also reached the stage where she introduces him to the woman she considers her mother for all intents and purposes, and Rey’s spent the past week trying to assure her boyfriend that tonight’s dinner is going to be just fine. Judging by the way Ben’s fingers keep twitching in her grip, she’s not exactly done a good job.

“Little old lady makes her sound so harmless,” he mutters as the light turns green. “She raised you, Rey. You. There’s no way she’s a harmless little old lady.”

She could tease him for that, but Rey takes pity on him and decides to simply accept it as the compliment that it is. “Okay, fine, so maybe she’s not going to be some cute little grandma,” she concedes, quickly powering through the rest of her sentence before Ben can panic, “but I promise everything is going to be okay. She’s going to take one look at you and ask to keep you forever.”

He doesn’t look convinced.

In the face of everything they’ve been through, of all they’ve overcome to reach this moment, introducing Ben to Maz doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. When she tries to tell him as much though, the tapping just starts back up.

Rey sighs and stares out the window at the familiar surroundings leading to her childhood home, casting about for a distraction. There’s no shortage of shared memories and inside jokes for her to pick from, but one in particular causes a laugh to bubble past her lips unbidden.

“What?” Ben asks, sparing her a quick glance as his lips twitch in response to her laughter.

Rey shakes her head. “Nothing, just… Remember that first day at the office? I didn’t realize it then, but…” She thinks back to their very first meeting outside of his mask, to the wild look in his eyes when she bumped into him, and laughs again. “You were horrified to see me, weren’t you?”

“I could never be horrified by you,” he objects, too distracted and defensive to realize he’s turned onto her street and Maz’s house looms just down the road. “I was terrified, sure, but not horrified.”

“You say that as if there’s a difference,” Rey snorts as they reach the end of the street, only to find that there is, in fact, a difference.

She’s seen Ben terrified many, many times now – starting, of course, with the incident they’re talking about. But parked in front of her mother’s house, having arrived without noticing it and now being mere feet away from his worst nightmare – this is the first time she’s ever seen Ben horrified.

“Is it too late to turn around?” Ben asks even as she moves to release her seatbelt. “We could just tell her I got sick and we need to reschedule–”

The weathered front door swings wide open, and Ben tenses as Maz appears in the doorway.

“Too late,” Rey shrugs, and laughs as she leans forward to press a reassuring kiss to his cheek. “C’mon, it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

Ben is the first person she’s ever brought home, and in the days following Maz’s invitation to dinner Rey had expected to find herself just as nervous as he is about the whole thing. They’ve already discussed the future, already made plans to move in together, but this makes it all real somehow, feels like the first actual step towards that future. And maybe five months ago – or three, or even one – that would have unsettled her, but Rey knows now that everything is as it should be, that they’re finally ready for this.

So she calmly takes Ben’s hands and gives them a squeeze, and gets out of the car to introduce the two most important people in her life to each other with not a single hint of nerves.

“I’m home!” Rey calls out with a grin as she rushes towards Maz, careful not to slam her weight into the older, smaller woman as they meet in a tight hug.

“Always good to have you back,” her mother murmurs into her hair, and they share a quiet moment before Maz pulls back and peeks beyond her shoulder to greet the new arrival. “And you brought a snack! Come closer, Rey’s boyfriend. Let me get a good look at those eyes my daughter is so lost in–”

Ben has always worked best under pressure, and this is no exception. His nerves seem under control as he makes his way up the driveway to join them, and there’s even a smile on his face as he humors Maz and stoops down so that she can get her hands on his shoulders and her face all up in his business, one hand pushing her Coke-bottle glasses up her nose to get a better look at him.

Maz gasps and takes a step backwards, and Rey braces herself for the kind of horribly yet charmingly dirty comment only a little old lady can get away with. At least she’s warned Ben about this bit, so she doesn’t have to worry about him running for the hills when Maz inevitably comments on what good handholds his ears must be or how those lips were made for a higher purpose or–

“Ben Solo!” she croaks, one hand to her heart, and Rey swears she’s never seen her foster mother this genuinely taken aback in all the years they’ve known each other. Maz’s eyes glimmer with tears as she slowly steps closer, reaching forward to settle a hand on Ben’s shoulder once more as her other hand slowly cups his cheek and pushes his face this way and that.

Ben, meanwhile, appears to be completely frozen.

“It is you,” Maz whispers in awe as she finally completes her examination, allowing Ben to straighten up to his full height in a daze. “I would know those eyes anywhere.”

“What– How–”

Rey winds one arm around Ben’s middle when both his voice and his footing falter, planting her feet in the ground when he sags against her just the slightest bit. “Maz, are you saying… you know Ben?”

“Know him?” her mother scoffs, voice still thick with emotion as she ushers them into the house, Rey pulling Ben along as he shuffles after her. “I practically raised this boy. Broke my heart to lose you, second only to your parents I’d say.”

That snaps Ben out of it. “My parents? You know my parents?”

Maz closes the door behind them. “Oh, child,” she sighs, eyes soft and sad as she pats Ben’s arm. “Come. There is so much to talk about.”

. . .

Dinner is left untouched and forgotten in the kitchen as the three of them huddle close together in the living room, Rey offering Ben silent support and comfort as he and Maz fill in the gaps in each other’s stories to finally form a complete puzzle.

The story goes like this:

One of Ben’s first memories of Snoke is his supposed father droning on and on about his uniqueness, about how special his bloodline makes him. It’s how Ben had pieced together the truth about his adoption-slash-kidnapping in the first place, realizing sometime around the age of six that the man who poked and prodded at him with needles and strange liquids and odd contraptions all day long was not his real family.

The story goes like this:

A long time ago, a highly respected scientist by the name of Sheev Palpatine rose to prominence for his seminal work on gene editing, and his magnum opus was a test subject by the name of Anakin Skywalker, a man he had been experimenting on since infancy in order to create the ultimate human specimen.

The story goes like this:

The Knights of Ren weren’t always five. In fact, when Ben was twelve and finally satisfactory to his father, Snoke introduced him to fifteen new playmates who would be living with them from now on. Having known no one other than his father from the age of four, young Ben was ecstatic to finally have friends – friends who, he would realize in time, just weren’t the same as him. They couldn’t run as fast, couldn’t jump as high, couldn’t kick as far, couldn’t play as long – and eventually, the slowest, weakest ones just… disappeared. In time, though, the four who remained learned to keep up with him, after months and months of poking and prodding and strange liquids and odd contraptions. And so the Knights of Ren were born, with Kylo Ren – the strongest, fastest one – their natural leader.

The story goes like this:

Eventually, the ugly truth about Palpatine’s experiments came to light, and with it a dozen nameless children buried in shallow graves. Not everyone, Palpatine argued, was ready to become the best possible version of themselves. Not everyone, he said, was destined for greatness. The law had none of it, and Palpatine was thrown behind bars for the rest of his short life while Anakin went through every test known to mankind until he was finally allowed to walk free and live a normal life, complete with a wife, two kids, and a white picket fence. Until one day, the past reared its ugly head and broke something inside him – and that day ended with a dead couple, two orphaned children, and a dark secret never meant to be unearthed.

The story goes like this:

Secrets never stay buried for long.

. . .

When all of the pieces finally fall into place, when the last question has been answered and there is no more room left for doubt, Maz goes upstairs to call the Organa-Solos and urge them to make the one-hour drive over.

“I always knew,” Ben says, head in her lap as they lounge on Maz’s porch, his eyes glued to the stars while hers keep careful watch over him, “that I had a family once. But for some reason I never thought…”

Rey runs her fingers through his hair and allows him to gather his thoughts.

“All of the others, they had lives from before, lives they remembered and could go back to after Snoke,” he murmurs after a while. Rey already knows this, already grilled him about the other knights months ago, but she lets him speak anyway. “But this life is all I’ve ever known, all I can remember no matter how hard I try. I’ve been Ben Snoke for so long I couldn’t even remember Ben Solo. Rey, what if… what if…”

Ben turns to her then, looking more scared than he had the night everything came crashing down around them, and her heart aches for him, for what he’s going through, for the pain and fear and tiny spark of hope she knows all too well.

“You know, by the time Maz found me, the Organa-Solos had all but disappeared from this city.”

She keeps her hand in his hair even as her eyes stare blankly ahead, taking a minute to sort out her thoughts before she turns back to a puzzled Ben. “Growing up, everyone knew who they were. Your mother practically ran this city, and your father was nothing short of a legend. But one day she stepped down and he retired, and not long after that they just… disappeared.”

Rey lets that sink in for a moment, holds still as Ben finally rolls off her lap and pulls himself up into a seated position next to her.

“I was still so young then, I had no idea what was going on. Only that the pretty lady wasn’t on front pages anymore and I never saw the Falcon in another race on TV again. But that was five years after you disappeared, Ben. They tried for five years to find you, did everything they could to hold on, and eventually it just broke them. They gave up everything – their jobs, their home, their lives – because it was too painful without you. Because they love you.”

Ben is crying now and so is she, tears running down their cheeks as she reaches for his hands.

“And I think… I know everything is going to work out, Ben. Because they love you. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember them, or if they don’t recognize you, or if things are awkward at first. They love you, and you’ll love them, and that’ll be enough until everything else works itself out.”

Because it would have been enough, for her and her parents, if they’d just loved her.

And it has been enough, for her and Ben, while they fix everything else.

So Rey knows, she knows, that when Han and Leia walk through the door in an hour’s time and Ben meets his parents for the first time in more than two decades, everything will be okay.

“How can you know that?” Ben whispers, hands holding hers so tightly it nearly hurts. “How can you be so sure everything will be okay?”

Rey leans forward, presses her forehead to his and waits until Ben closes his eyes to do the same. “Because you’ve already been through so much, baby. Because I know you can make it through anything. And because I’ll be right there with you, every step of the way.”

That, above all else, is what finally gets him to relax into her and release her hands in favor of wrapping his arms around her waist.

“We’ll face this together, I promise,” she murmurs against his lips, kisses him soft and slow until she can feel the beginnings of a smile on him. “You’ll make it through this, Superman.”

He laughs, a puff of air against her chin, and Rey pulls back to find that teasing smirk she’s come to adore.

“Oh, so now I’m Superman?” Ben huffs as he crosses his arms, bright eyes giving away the act.

Rey hums in mock contemplation. “I mean, you did turn out to be my awkward coworker secretly moonlighting as a superhero, so…” She shrugs, biting back a grin as Ben pulls her into his lap.

“And who does that make you, then?”

Underneath his playful smile, behind the brightness dancing in his eyes, there’s still a small, scared boy forever looking for reassurance, forever unsure about his place in this world. So Rey trades her grin for a soft smile and gently takes his face in her hands, stares deeply into his eyes until the right words come to her.

In all honesty, she’s had them ready for months.

“The woman who loves you no matter who you are – Superman or Clark Kent, Kylo Ren or Ben Snoke or Ben Solo.”

Awe washes away everything else on his face, leaving Ben with wide eyes and parted lips as he takes in her words. His breath hitches, he slowly blinks his eyes, and then finally, finally he gives her a brilliant smile for all of two seconds before she’s pulled into a kiss that says everything she needs to know.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” Ben whispers between kisses, holding her so close she swears she can feel the beating of his heart. “Always have, always will.”

The front door opens, and Maz says something about light traffic at this time of day and another forty minutes at most and–

Rey presses her palm to Ben’s heart, the heart she’s known from the very start even when nothing else was certain, and knows that together they can face anything.

. . .

And that's that, friends. After almost exactly three months - just two days shy, in fact - this story has finally come to an end. I can only hope it was a satisfying one for both characters and readers, and worth all the time and emotion you've so generously invested.

To @nancylovesreylo, I hope this satisfied you above all. I've come to love this Rey and Ben so dearly, but I know this story would never have existed without you. Thank you for this amazing prompt, and for everything else you do for this fandom. I could spend years trying to write a birthday fic worthy of you, but I hope this came somewhat close to that at least.

Once again, thank you to everyone for waiting even when all hope seemed lost, and for giving this odd little fic a chance in the first place. I hope you've enjoyed this, and as always please don't hesitate to like/reblog/comment. Until next time, friends!

[a-nerd-obsessed]

Yet Another Long, Unnecessary, and Obvious Star Wars Trailer Breakdown (Read: Fangirl Blathering) that Literally No One Asked For

Yup. I’m doing it again.

(My other breakdown for the first trailer is here.)

So this time we start with Rey in training mode. Apparently, she’s following Obi-Wan’s training regimen by using that remote that Finn found on the Falcon in TFA and the helmet with the blast shield that Luke used in ANH. 

But something happened to call her away, which is why she drops everything (except the lightsaber, thank goodness) and starts running through the jungle. I assume she’s headed back to the Resistance base of operations, which we see more of later in the trailer. 

Is it too much to assume this might be Endor’s forest moon? That would connect with the Death Star wreckage and how they end up on the Death Star.

Then we’re on the Death Star, with Rey jumping across a chasm, one that I believe is the same where the Emperor fell to his “death” in ROTJ. Behind her you can see the turbolift where Luke and Vader arrived before approaching the Emperor, which would mean she’s looking towards his throne.

Finn’s been giving the voice over thus far, speaking about how “the Force brought us together.” The shot we get of him looks to be from the planet where the Knights of Ren will be making an appearance, along with the chase scene from the first trailer, and the ultra-awesome TIE Fighter FlipTM.

What’s he looking at? No idea. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if he’s looking at Kylo’s TIE Whisper with Rey riding on the back and he’s just like... wtf?

More running Rey... presumably a continuation of the previous shot

And we get more Lando!!! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Lando’s part in this film. Again, we haven’t got much of anything, but based on the way this scene is set up, it looks like he just showed up at the Resistance’s base. Everyone knows who he is, of course, and they all turn out to see the old Rebellion hero.

We’re not alone

From Poe’s voice over and the visual we see here, I think Lando’s going to bring something to the Resistance - a game changer. I mean, besides himself.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Lando Calrissian = the best part of the Solo movie. And let’s be real, I’ll take any more Lando content I can get.

And then we see Rose, looking tired and burnt out. Behind her, Connix doesn’t look much better. Also, shit’s going down in the background. It looks like the base is being attacked and they’re having to evacuate. 

But wow, I really hope that we get more of Rose’s character arc. Along with Finn and Poe, they’re the ones who grew the most in TLJ. Rose didn’t have a lot of confidence at the start of the last movie, but she became stronger by the end. And of course it’ll be interesting to see how they choose to proceed with her and Finn’s relationship.

And then it’s my boys!!!

Good people will fight if we lead them

I don’t know if this is a line Poe actually says in the movie, but I like that they chose him to say it. He’s been learning this whole time how to be a leader and I think we’re going to see that growth come to fruition here. Not that he can’t do a bunch of crazy stuff or get in trouble (because goshdarnit I freaking love that) but he’ll be more aware of the consequences for the people he’s leading.

Also, what are they looking at? Maybe it’s Rey busting out of the jungle because she knows they’re in trouble. I’m not 100% sure this is connected to the earlier bits with the base getting attacked but the guys in the background look like they’re trying to get outta there ASAP. 

The next shot appears to be some sort of Resistance transport taking off... or landing... or crashing. Still I feel like the theme is we gotta go.. 

AND THEN WE GET THIS

People keep telling me they know me...

...no one does

But I do

*SIMULTANEOUSLY COMBUSTS AND ACHIEVES NIRVANA*

This. Is everything.

Like, who needs the movie?

Just kidding. I do. Desperately.

But guys, this is exactly it: they are the only ones who know what the other person is going through, understand where they’ve come from, and seen where they’re going. 

This is going to sound cliché and dramatic af, but their fates are intertwined. They are going to bring balance to the Force. Like, that’s fact at this point. Don’t @ me.

Next we see TIE fighters coming up on this icy island, which appears to be free-floating? I don’t know if it’s orbiting a planet or if it’s by itself in space, but it’s not a reflection over water like I thought the first time I saw the trailer. 

Again I’m assuming it’s that same icy, mountainous city we saw in the first trailer where our Resistance heroes are going to meet up with Zori Bliss (who we also see later for the first time live!) And it seems they’re going to be rousted from here as well as the jungle planet where their base was located - the First Order is closing in.

Long have I waited...

Okay, Palps. We get it. Your throne is super menacing. We know you’re all creepy and evil. Let’s just hope that Rey and Kylo kill him for good this time. Although as Luke says, no ones ever really gone... so yeah.

This Star Destroyer is breaking out of the ice somewhere - so maybe Palpatine pulled a Steve Rogers and went into deep freeze for a few decades?

(And yeah I’m pretty sure it’s ice, people, not water - I’ve watched it in slo-mo SEVERAL TIMES OKAY)

*insert March of the Resistance*

The Millennium Falcon!!!

You know what I might miss the most about the saga ending? This old ship. Okay, not really, but it is very near and dear to my heart.

Ok, pause for a second with me. Can you imagine this: 

Versus this?!?

Like, HELL YES. This is the ultimate showdown, baby! BRING IT ON!

I like how the Resistance’s side is a bunch of random ships as compared to the First Order. I’d like to think that this is an Avengers: Endgame style battle where literally EVERYONE shows up, even if they’re not in the Resistance. They just know that Palpatine/First Order is the ultimate evil that needs to be taken down at all cost and risk to self.

Anyway...

...and now your coming together...

Interesting that they chose to impose Palpatine’s words over both our classic heroes together in the Falcon and over Rey and Kylo “fighting.” I say “fighting” because are they really opponents? Really? Not in this story. Obviously they’re not yet on the same page, but their relationship been a rollercoaster thus far and I feel like we’ve got some abrupt twists still to come.

Something goes boom. No idea what, but with a Star Destroyer lurking in the background, something sinister is afoot.

Poe to the rescue!! Is there someone else in there? I can’t see for sure, but he’s headed to the Death Star, where we know Kylo and Rey end up at some point. 

Then they give us this HEART-WRENCHING SCENE of C-3PO saying goodbye to his friends?!?! Like, what does this mean? Without context, we can’t be sure, but it sounds like he’s going away - permanently. I never expected it - which is great for plot - but I don’t know what to think about this.

Also could be a total red herring. He could be risking his life and he’s saying goodbye just in case. Or he’s getting a reboot - maybe he knows too much, or maybe forgot something when his memory was wiped in ROTS and he needs to remember. I literally have no idea, but even D-0 looks concerned. (I love him already)

Also note Zori Bliss in the left corner of this shot! I cannot WAIT to know what her role is going to be in this story. And we can tell they’re where they first meet up with her in the snowy city because they’re all wearing thick insulated gear. So I feel like this would be earlier in the film...?

CHEWIE!!!

This guy’s gone through so much. Please just give us Ben Solo redeemed just for his sake.

Chewie’s had so much practice running through corridors taking out stormtroopers. Hopefully this is the last time...

UGH MY HEART.

Every time.

Now with more footage of the Resistance’s jungle base and their evacuation... why are they hugging here? Is Leia staying behind? Are they splitting up? Rey has clearly become close to Leia, which I’m thrilled by. I’m curious to see how they play this. 

We don’t see much of Pasaana in this trailer, but we do find out who threw up that smokescreen for our Resistance friends during the chase sequence. BB-8 is a trouble-maker. Honestly he’s worse than Poe, but he doesn’t get the proper fear he’s due because he’s just so gosh darn adorable. And with everyone encouraging him, he’s not liable to get better.

Of course we can’t have Lando in this movie without having him pilot the Falcon. I kind of love that even though it’s Han’s ship (sorry Lando) everyone has some kind of connection to this old freighter. Again, I love the Falcon.

Then we see a Y-wing taking on a Star Destroyer, with more in the background. Part of that epic showdown?

Finn has joined with Jannah, another new (female!) character that I can’t wait to meet. They’re mounted on charging orbaks, which are from Pasaana. Does the final showdown take place in the sky above the desert planet? Is this part of the emergence of that Star Destroyer from the ice?

Cut back to the Death Star wreckage, where Kylo and Rey are facing off - note Kylo’s saber isn’t lit. Rey doesn’t trust him for obvious reasons (cough, cough, failed proposal in the throne room).

My gut instinct says they didn’t know the other was coming here. But something drew them both here - maybe this is Palpatine’s influence bringing them together.

Or is this a Force bond vision? Is the bond still a player in this chapter?

Back to the outside - Finn runs up and calls Rey’s name, probably interrupting their duel. As much as I’d like it, I feel like the alignment of Kylo and Rey’s objectives doesn’t happen until Pasaana - and yeah I’m kind of putting the events of Pasaana after the Death Star. Do I have solid evidence for this? Nope. Just my current interpretation of the absolute lack of plot we can get from the footage we have so far. 

That said, I have no idea where this shattering of the Dark Side artifact would fit in. But yes they’re working together here. They’re very clearly attacking the ugly black thing (it looks a lot like Vader’s mask again) and not each other based on their stance and movement. 

Also, theory time: 

We’ve seen dark Rey in the previous trailer. She seems very rigid and emotionless - like a vision, perhaps, not a flesh-and-blood Darksider.

IWe also see this shot of Rey at the end of the trailer:

She’s also pretty emotionless, and the background is out of focus. This could be from another segment of Kylo’s (or Rey’s?) vision. With them shattering the Dark artifact together... could it be them breaking free of the trance? We never see this location in any of the other footage. This could be a part of the vision, too.

Back to the trailer sequence: We see more of the Resistance heroes and that (final?) battle. This just points out that they’re in some kind of atmosphere if Finn and Co. are running along the outside of a Star Destroyer. 

Back on the Death Star: Kylo’s intense gaze that communicates so much. 

We can’t see what he sees, but it’s like every other time he looks at Rey - he knows what he wants. It liquidizes my mind every time. 

And then OMG JUST DIE ALREADY PALPATINE. NOBODY LIKES YOU.

Kylo better figure out whatever is keeping him from helping Rey out and get his butt over there. Only together can they do this.

The Force will be with you

Always

Interesting how they give us almost no plot that we had already, huh? And I like it that way. 

We don’t see Hux or the Knights of Ren at all - which is a significant omission.

I have an idea of the sequence of what I think is going to happen, but honestly I’m probably all wrong. Still I trust them to finish the saga in a satisfying way. 

What are your thoughts on the trailer?

[magic-owl]

i wish these had numbers to not take up room but alas: what is your absolute favorite ship? what’s a ship you like that most people don’t? what is the most underrated ship, in your opinion? (choose any of your fave pairings for the following bc I'm curious about all your faves) rate [pairing] from 1-10 and explain why. what’s your favorite headcanon of [pairing]? what’s your favorite canon moment of [pairing]? favorite AU ideas for [pairing]? what song(s) remind you of [pairing]?

Thank you my dear! You are my Star Wars Friend so I’ll keep it SW focused (if you wanted to ask this to solely find out what else I liked BESIDES SW sorry lol just let me know and I can redo it). This got long because turns out I have a lot to say about my ships so answers under the cut!!! xD

Absolute favorite ship: This one’s kinda hard but I’m gonna have to go with Obi Wan/Anakin! I also like them a lot as a trio with Padmé, but overall I gotta say these two are just my faves? Why? Because they are such a M E S S and gosh I just love them so much. Ppl say they don’t like each other very much but come on, have you watched the TCW, have you watched RotS, they’re the greatest team there ever was, they’re constantly fretting and worrying about each other, they’re always teasing (the constant banter omg boys pls) at each other and hyping the other up and believing in each other and Ahsoka literally calls them her adoptive guardians in the Ahsoka novel, that’s how much of a family they were and ugh they’re just so married. And they’re such a TRAGEDY and it breaks my heart and it’s delicious to watch because in the final fight it’s just heartbreaking betrayal because through it all they love each other so much and that’s WHY they’re so furious with each other because to them it feels like the ultimate betrayal. Even after (when after everything, Obi Wan still loved Anakin too much to kill him himself) they’re constantly on the other’s mind, and ugh the pain hurts but in such a good way, and how in the end Anakin did the right thing and Obi Wan was RIGHT THERE to help guide him back to the light in spirit and now they can rest happily together for eternity (with some spare stressing about, ya know, Kylo Ren and the impending return of Sidious, but never mind all that). and on top of that, it’s my fave because I also absolutely love their relationship platonically as well, as much as I LIKE to see them together, it’s not necessary for me because they have such an enjoyable dynamic. *coughs* Sorry, so yea, they’re my disaster faves! 😅

A ship I like that most people don’t: See above lol. I get aspects of the Obikin ship can be problematic in the whole power dynamic and age difference thing, but I’ve only ever shipped it after Anakin was knighted as an adult when there’s literally not a problem with it (it was weird for me because I watched the prequels totally out of order. I actually saw the TCW cartoon FIRST and then I saw RotS and then I didn’t watch the first two for a while after that because I was a fool and listened to prequel bashers who said the first two weren’t good, so when I started shipping them as adults that was all I saw them as). To be honest, for the most part the PT fandom is done with the drama since ya know, like a good half of the SW general fandom still hates us, so no one’s really vocal about not liking it and our shipping community is mostly left to ourselves, but every once in a while I’ll come across a joke post/fanart of the two and OP will be all snarky in the notes like “tag as a ship and I’ll come after you with my spiked bat” (someone’s exact words btw) and it’s like ok jeez, do not interact then, was minding my own business dude...

My most underrated ship: Hmmmm....... Gonna have to go between Luke/Ezra and Satine/Padmé. Skybridger I understand since they’ve literally never met in canon, but come ON, they’d get along like a house on fire and argh they should have met, it would be great. I honestly don’t get why Pads and Satine aren’t more of a thing (THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE AN OFFICIAL SHIPNAME ;_; ) cuz c’mon they’re the subtler explosive yin to Obi and Ani’s wildfire yang. They get along great and work together really well, and they both seem to have a type. I am doing them a little better in my new OT4 fic, and I hope ppl like it!!! Ya know what, I’m also gonna add Kaeden (cute girl from the Ahsoka novel!) and Ahsoka because even if a lot of ppl actually ship them, they hardly have any content and neED MORE DANGIT THEY WERE SO CUTE!!!!!!!

Gonna go with Obikin for all the following ones cuz I haven’t had the chance to gush about my boys in a while and you’ve opened Pandora’s box

Rate them from 1-10: 10, plus a hundred more points because I love them, then subtract that hundred again cuz Anakin is an gotdang idiot who ruined it and now they both make me cry. My scoring reasons are that they make me feel all the emotions and I love them Ever So Much and argh.

Fave headcanon: Oh boy, I’ve got a couple actually!

Whenever they’re talking/arguing over the phone, they’re always subconsciously mirroring each other’s actions even when they can’t see what the other is doing. It’s kinda creepy because you’ll hear yelling and it’ll look like one of them’s talking to an invisible person in front of them when it’s actually each other.

There has been multiple instances of them both getting injured in battle because they were distracted watching the other be a total badass (not that either will admit it)

Neither of them are morning people. AT ALL. Obi Wan actually has self-discipline and is able to get up with an alarm and crankily drag them both up, but both are almost impossible to deal with until they’ve had caffeine in them, and it’s been established that unless you want to risk murder, neither of them talks in the morning until caffeine has been provided.

There has been many, many cases of accidentally taking the other’s robe and not realizing it but thinking to themselves that said robe feels more comforting than usual today.

A mutually drunken arm wrestling match absolutely turned into a mutually drunken makeout once. Neither can remember it, and they wonder why some of the clones have been acting funny all week.

Half of the Temple thinks they’re already dating.

Ok I’ll stop it here

Fave Canon Moment: Ughhh, this is HARD. I really like the “any closer and you’d be kissing it” line in TCW, basically any moment in TCW when one of them refers to Ahsoka as “OUR padawan”, the extra long stares and unnecessary touches they give each other in TCW, the elevator scene in RotS movie (THE NOVEL MAKES IT A MILLION TIMES BETTER), also in RotS the way Anakin is half-ready to straight up fight Palpatine when he suggests leaving Obi Wan behind to die, the RotS “No loose wire jokes” bit, the RotS “Roger. Roger.” bit (OKAY JUST THE WHOLE FIRST HALF OF THIS RIDICULOUS MOVIE), the way Vader built his big stupid castle where they had their breakup, the way he’s constantly mentioning Obi Wan when the convo wasn’t even about him, seeing them together again at the end of RotJ (whoops you asked for one, you get MANY SCENES)

Fave AU ideas: Again, there’s a couple!

Superpower AU: Can’t decide whether I’d put this in canon or modern. Most powers in this AU are stolen from inspired by X-Men, DC, and other popular media, so I’m torn between Anakin having Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix style powers while Obi Wan had a variation on Rogue’s with additional energy manipulation. OR it would be a thing where Anakin could commune with the dead a la Klaus from Umbrella Academy while Obes had sort of Avatar-style wind/flight powers. (Both are relevant for different plots).

Sith AU: I know these are far from unpopular in the SW fandom, but the way I’d do it would be to try and write two stories at once, update one every other week so one update a week total. The stories would what would happen if either of them became the Sith Apprentice after the events of Episode 1, and how their dynamic would be during Ep 2 and The Clone Wars with one of them on the other side. It’s funny because the way I’ve plotted it, the Sith!Ani fic would have very big Good Omens vibes, while the Sith!Obi one would have very strong Under the Red Hood vibes, so two VERY different dynamics going on xD

WWII Spies: This is one I 100% plan to write someday, even tho it is a very long time from now. It’s basically following Anakin as an American naval pilot who got injured in a crash and discharged. He still wants to serve and eventually his talent gets him into the intelligence end of the war and sent to Europe where he meets Ben, who’s been working with British intelligence since it broke out, and sparks fly. I’m kind of cheating here cuz as of now this is an Obianidala story, not just Obikin, but it’s one I’m very excited for

Phantom of the Opera AU: This idea I had when I realized that Anakin as Vader is kinda a Lot like the Phantom, but he’s also a Lot like Christine too. So it turned into Anakin as a talented ballet dancer getting preyed on by Palpatine!Phantom (there is NO romance there, Palpy is a total creep and will be treated as such) with Obi Wan as a combination of Raoul and Madame Gery and I have a bunch of ideas and idk if it’s gonna be an actual thing, but I want it to.

Shapeshifter AU: Canon, not very complicated but they can all shift into animals. Obi Wan is a kind of cougar panther cat with a fluffy ginger tail, and Anakin is a big grumpy black Krayt Dragon with a stump for a front leg.

Not A Jedi!AU: One in canon in which set like the Sith!AU, two different stories exploring how their dynamic would be if one of them wasn’t found by the Order. As of now, I’ve got Anakin as the warrior pirate prince of Tatooine, after having grown up and staged a slave rebellion, then promptly put his mother on the throne, and Obi Wan’s there to negotiate something during TCW and things happen. For the Obi Wan one, he’s a political journalist and war correspondent who keeps on running into Anakin’s assignments and popping up where he’s stationed and Anakin has to keep this idiot from getting himself killed/stop asking me annoying questions that criticize the Jedi and the government.

Dark!AU: A kind of morbid canon divergent fic where Padmé dies early and unexpectedly (Palps didn’t plan it). Anakin goes off the rails and Obi Wan agrees to go with him on a murder vengeance roadtrip to try and keep him from Falling or the Sith from getting to him. He kinda fails and they both Fall in a way and it ends with them hunting down Sidious’ players one by one. I’m not entirely sure I want to continue with this tho because it plays strongly on the Fridged Woman trope, which I can’t stand. I’d have to figure out how to give Padmé some sort of active role after her death...

Songs to describe them: There’s a couple (I could have very well gone cranky but I decided to do (mostly) serious))(also my music taste kinda stinks)

Icarus— Bastille

Anna Sun— WALK THE MOON

Animal I Have Become— Acoustic cover by Vitamin String Quartet (original by Three Days Grace) (seriously y’all listen it’s sooooo gooooood)

Warriors— Imagine Dragons

My Demons— STARSET

Ignorance— Paramore

Set Fire to the Rain— Adele

Stubborn Love— The Lumineers

How to Save A Life— The Fray (yes i am aware it is stereotypical angst song leave me Alone it FITS)

Viva la Vida— Coldplay (tbh this fits like the entire PT but I liked it)

Raised by Wolves— U2 (another more PT-centric, but this one works dangit)

Bonus Broadway Song! : Confrontation from Les Miserables (now that ya think of it, that would be a pretty good AU too.....)

Bonus Broadway Song! : The Tango Maureen from Rent (I always imagined this one as Obi Wan and Padmé about Anakin, but it would be about something other than cheating cuz canon has established Anakin views cheating as a worse crime than murder, so yea)

Bonus Broadway Song! : Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better (aight this one’s mostly a joke but come ON don’t tell me that’s not completely them xD)