#doesn’t even matter if they’re written to be platonic in the Ahsoka show

[better-call-mau1]

Lucasfilm: Literally every single romance or almost-romance we’ve ever written in the Star Wars universe has ended in tragedy.

Lucasfilm: Han/Leia? Split up after their son went off the deep end. They eventually died broken and alone.

Lucasfilm: Anidala? No match for Palpatine’s plotting, Anakin’s attachment issues, and Padmé’s Sadness.

Lucasfilm: Obitine? Jyn/Cassian? Reylo? Tragedy! Tragedy! Tragedy!

Lucasfilm: At least we gave you Kanera. Aren’t they just so sweet and devoted and —— oh, whoops! More tragedy!

Ezra: I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Sabine, drawing her blasters: They can pry you from my cold, dead hands.

Ezra: Please don’t tempt them.

[gffa]

Honestly, I don’t know.  Both of these characters did love each other very much, but they’re coming at this with a whole lot of baggage. For Anakin:  Despite that Padme never gave him any reason to doubt her, he still couldn’t stop fearing that she was going to betray him.  She made it very plain that she wasn’t interested in Clovis as anything other than a friend, that she had important reasons for working with him, but Anakin time and again kept boiling it down to her having romantic feelings for someone else.

Padme did everything “right” with Anakin, she always treated him with sympathy and softness, no matter what.  She poured all of her love into him, she got swept up in the romance with him just as much as he did many a time, yet he still cannot trust her. It’s the same on Mustafar--she has given every indication that she wants to be with him, wants to have a family with him, wants to leave with him, but he still turns on her and thinks she’s plotting behind his back when Obi-Wan reveals himself.

He’s willing to turn on her with the slightest indication without giving her a chance to explain. She says, “No!  I love you!” and he screams back that she’s a liar and starts to Force-choke her.

This is what Anakin is bringing to this relationship--yes, he’s high on the dark side and this is a really bad critical moment, but that’s what the dark side does.  And further canon (especially Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith and Vader Immortal) really hammer home that he’s unwilling to face his own mistakes about this, that he was responsible, that the dark side twisted him into this. Would he be willing to come back if Padme were still alive, would he be willing to leave the dark side behind for a second chance at a relationship with her? I honestly can’t say.  I suspect not, because as much as he loved her, he didn’t really want to live a simple, quiet life.  He desperately wanted something bigger and grander, he wanted to rule an Empire with her, he wanted to remake the galaxy into what he wanted.  He wanted a shadow of her, this idea of her, not the woman who actually said no to him.

Then there’s the other side of this relationship. For Padme:  She is someone who does try to put her foot down, to set boundaries.  We see that she does this really well in Attack of the Clones, where she tells him, “Stop looking at me like that, it makes me uncomfortable.” But then in that same movie, when he confesses that he’s killed the Tusken women and children, she doesn’t express any horror at this, only comforting him, telling him that being angry is being human.

She sees someone who is in incredible pain, it’s completely understandable, but it also shows that she’s willing to overlook his actions for how sad he was about his mother’s death. By the end of the movie, despite knowing him for about a week, she’s marrying him.  Yes, the circumstances on Geonosis are intense, which will put intense feelings into a boiler pot and make them even more intense, but she’s still known him like a week.  Padme is very much someone who gets swept up in romance and how she feels empathy for Anakin, she aches on his behalf. It’s the same with the Rush Clovis arc in season 6, where he beats the shit out of Clovis because he thought Padme was kissing him and she says they need to take a break.  By the end of the arc, intense circumstances (Clovis’ death, her own almost death) have her setting all that aside again to be with him, to exchange romantic holo-messages with him, to daydream about having their baby together on Naboo. She has seen what Anakin does when he has dreams of someone dying, like with his mother.  He directly says that these dreams are like those and he won’t let Padme die, but she says they’re just dreams. And when Anakin murders the Jedi younglings after having turned to the dark side, Padme’s first response is angry disbelief.

She goes to Mustafar to try to talk him back, but he’s off the deep end, so she backs away, saying, “You’re not the person I married, you’ve become this person I can’t follow any longer.” She absolutely does mean this--but she’s meant it before, too.  And she’s come back before, too.  Even her final words about Anakin are, “There’s still good in him.” because Padme cannot maintain those boundaries. So, I’m not sure how this set-up would necessarily even work, if Padme even could set down the boundary of “turn back to the light or we’re done” and keep it in a way that would actually force Anakin to change.  Because the dark side isn’t just anger, it’s also pain and suffering--which Padme is incredibly vulnerable to in Anakin. If she somehow could maintain that boundary, it’s possible that Anakin would come back, but I wouldn’t be willing to bet money on it.  Anakin has always loved the idea of her just as much as he loves her for herself, so much of their relationship was about his feelings for her, that nothing was more important that the way he felt about her.  And when she goes against what he thinks she should be doing, goes against his feelings that he’s giving her, he gets furious and lashes out.  He’s absolutely willing to physically assault her if he gets angry enough and that trigger is a hair trigger at times. And here’s the other thing:  I think Anakin loved Obi-Wan just as much as he loved Padme, though, in different ways (even if they’re both romantic or if one’s romantic and one’s platonic, they’re still different), he knew Obi-Wan loved him and he knew Obi-Wan would accept him back if he turned away from the dark side.  He knew if he went to Obi-Wan, even after everything, and asked for his help, Obi-Wan would listen to him, would still love him.

In the vision he has in Dark Lord of the Sith, the Force/the kyber crystal shows him this and Anakin’s eyes are blue again, he’s able to make his choice freely, and he rejects it. He rejects coming back from the dark side.  Now, his relationship with Obi-Wan and Padme are different, he can’t break down Obi-Wan’s boundaries the way he can Padme’s, nor does he have the same physical power over him that he does over Padme, the fight on Mustafar illustrates that.  Obi-Wan gives Anakin every chance, the entire battle is written to be like a married couple having a fight where Obi-Wan is trying to give him time to calm down, as well as Obi-Wan will not let this happen, even though he desperately didn’t want it to come down to this. Anakin refused to come back, though.  Once the dark side got its hooks in, once he was willing to murder the Jedi and the Jedi children, once he was willing to help burn the Republic to the ground, he couldn’t go back.  He knew what he’d done was wrong, he was never going to be able to accept someone who knew what he’d done, knew him and what that really meant. That’s why Ahsoka could never have brought him back, either.  Because Anakin hated himself for what he’d done so deeply that he couldn’t accept anyone who knew him, that’s why it could only have been Luke or Leia who made him have his final selfless moment, someone that represented the future, rather than his past.

"Just imagine this person that’s so wrapped up in their hatred for themself as much as external hate, that he just can’t deal with it.  He needs to destroy [Ahsoka].  So there isn’t empathy for her.  I’ve never thought that she could be something that would turn him back from the dark side, because that would completely rob Luke.  That would make it seem like that story was just one possiblity of many, when I think that Luke or Leia are the only possibility of their father’s redemption.”  --Dave Filoni Anakin knew these people that he loved would accept him back, knew they loved him, but he couldn’t face it.  He tries to bring Padme back in Dark Lord of the Sith, when he’s fresh off his turn, but even then it’s just a reflection of himself that he’s chasing after, not really her.  In Vader Immortal he’s also trying to bring her back, but he’s chasing a shadow of her, not really her.  It’s not about her, it’s not about what she would want, it’s not about the horror she would experience at what he’d done in her name (murdering children, murdering entire planets), it’s not about how she would react.  It’s about his feelings for her.  And that’s not something that would bring him back from the dark side. Padme is different in that he’s used to eventually breaking down her boundaries, so he feels a possessiveness towards her that he can’t have for Obi-Wan or Ahsoka (who assert their boundaries and keep them), but ultimately if Padme asserted those same boundaries, if she refused to take him back unless he turned away from the dark side, he would do the same thing he did to her on Mustafar, the same thing he did to Obi-Wan, the same thing he did to Ahsoka--try to kill them, because he cannot stand to look at what he’s done and work through it, he has to keep justifying it or he’ll fall apart and he refuses to do so.

[gffa]

Sometimes you just want a nice, long novel-length (or thereabouts) STAR WARS fic to sink into, maybe you’re going on a long car ride or maybe you’re visiting family without regular internet or maybe you just want some kissing to happen in that novel-length fic! I mean, canon is amazing and wonderful, but sometimes you want to pick up something and have the undercurrents finally rise to the surface, so here are some of my favorite Obikin and Obianidala novel length fics! (Last Updated: 2017.05.17) ✦ wicked thing by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin & ventress & dooku & ahsoka & cast, 97.3k wip    There are rumours of yet another Sith Lord hiding among the Separatists. The Council sends Anakin to investigate. Anakin has a bad feeling about this. ✦ Ouroboros by bedlamsbard, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 458k wip    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions. ✦ Seed by bell (bellaboo), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme, NSFW, 44k    When Anakin falls prey to a lethal poison, Obi-Wan has no choice but use all his resources to heal him– no matter how reluctant he is in administering the antidote. ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & dooku & mace & cast, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, time travel, 101.5k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences. ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & bail & cast, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, dark themes, dark!obi-wan, 73.7k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”. ✦ flowers for a ghost by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan/anakin & cast, modern au (sort of), 42.2k    Anakin Skywalker’s had a rough go of it, from being imprisoned to losing his hand to remembering an entire past life. He’s only looking for a place to stay the night when he comes to Obi-wan’s doorstep. ✦ The World Undone by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & maul & cast, nsfw, sith!obi-wan, 143.3k    Anakin Skywalker, proud symbol of the strength and purity of the Jedi Order, is the target of a strange and handsome Sith named Obi-Wan, whose only goal seems to be pulling Skywalker down into the dark with him. ✦ you knock me out, i fall apart by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & han/luke/leia & ahsoka & cast, 64.8k wip    ( aka: the one where anakin was a sith lord for literally an hour, everyone is alive, and they’re actually happy ) ✦ World Come Undone by crazyundeadfairy, obi-wan/anakin (maybe?) & luke, 68.3k wip    Unexpected things happen when ObiWan takes Luke to Tatooine. ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 60.8k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem. ✦ Clarity by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 73.7k wip    Anakin’s jealousy leads to the start of something new between him and Obi-Wan and a lot of frank discussions about things they should have talked about but didn’t in canon. ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand. ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka, time travel, 185.1k    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean life will be easy. ✦ Sigh No More by edenwolfie, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia & cast, 158.2k wip    Anakin makes slightly better choices, Obi-Wan is a Mess™ and Padmé deserves none of this. AU from Mustafar onward with liberal manipulation of canon to culminate in some angsty, fluffy, domestic fix-it because we all deserve better. full details + recs under the cut!

✦ wicked thing by imaginarykat, obi-wan/anakin & ventress & dooku & ahsoka & cast, 97.3k wip    There are rumours of yet another Sith Lord hiding among the Separatists. The Council sends Anakin to investigate. Anakin has a bad feeling about this.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, which are collated on this post, but am writing a new one to encompass the entire fic rather than piecemeal, so those that are new to this fic will have a better one to hopefully encourage them to read it! This is another fic I’ve been reading pretty much since the beginning and would immediately read it as soon as a new chapter dropped and will have a tough time writing a coherent rec for it–there’s a reason it’s so massively popular in the fandom, because the writing is absolute joy to read, that it’s almost 100k of Anakin’s point of view where he’s a completely #Relatable emotional mess, in that sort of hilarious and utterly engaging way. It combines that with the just as delightful Soft Sith aesthetic/dynamic that is so, so much fun with these characters and writes an Obi-Wan Kenobi who is charming and charismatic, but so much more dangerous, where he’s so much more selfish and all that insight and precision and lethality to him are turned to much more dangerous avenues.    The fic sparked a ton of trends in fandom (especially helping to popularize Soft Sith!Obi-Wan, for which I am forever grateful) and, once you start reading, it’s easy to see why, there’s just something to this fic that is really special, it’s an Obi-Wan/Anakin fic, but the kind that I would recommend to anyone who is one the fence about them, the kind of fic that draws new fans into the pairing, the kind of fic that may not be their canon selves, but keeps enough of their dynamic and is just plain ridiculously hot and delicious, that it hits all the right buttons for the ship. There is still Anakin being so tremendously strong in the Force, but such an utter disaster in his personal life. There’s Obi-Wan who makes things seem easy, but has worked incredibly hard to get where he is. There’s Anakin being absolutely and completely turned around and confused and not knowing which way is up, really wanting someone to follow, and Obi-Wan who may not tell him everything, who may be kind of manipulative, but there’s such a solid foundation of genuine care there. All of this is balanced together so well and then written with a plot and an incredibly deft hand, so that every single scene sparkles and draws the reader in. It’s that Obikin fic that I will go, “Here, read this if you’re thinking about getting into the pairing.” because I think it does the groundwork for showing what a fun pairing they can be, while also just being a scream of a fic. ✦ Ouroboros by bedlamsbard, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 458k wip    Considering that he had picked up what was probably a Sith artifact, promptly passed out in the middle of a war zone, and apparently woken up twenty years in the future with Obi-Wan having taken up residence in his head, Anakin thought he was entitled to have a few questions.    Wake the Storm: So, I pretty much sunk into this fic and didn’t come out again until I’d read the whole thing, I just absolutely couldn’t put it down! My only caveat is that, while the build-ups and suspense are stellar, you just kind of have to roll with that the fic is not as strong at reveals. The way the fic is structured, there’s a lot of “omg when will Character A find out about Character b????” that don’t necessarily happen or happen late in the fic or aren’t pieced together when they should be or aren’t dwelled on for long. I don’t think this is a huge detriment, so long as you know what you’re getting ahead of time, though, because what the fic is about (Anakin skipping around the timeline and other universes, dragging Obi-Wan along with him) is absolutely fantastic. The writing is incredibly engaging, it’s the kind where I find this far more readable than a lot of professionally published books, that the plot structure and pacing of the scenes is all rock solid for me. (Tbh, probably the only reason any caveats occur to me at all is because the fic as a whole is so well written.)    The characterization is lovely and gets at the heart of what I wanted–where Anakin experiences the destruction and tragedy that happens, his horror at it solidified by the time he finds out his connection to it, as well as his interaction with Obi-Wan is strengthened up because of what Obi-Wan has been through and how he’s seeing Anakin again and how much time he’s had to think over the events of Anakin’s future. The plot is interesting and the fic spends time with each world but doesn’t linger and there has clearly been thought given to setting all of it up, but it blends into the story perfectly, like… you know those fics you can pick up and just read and read and read because they’re so engaging and written with such good pacing that you don’t want to put it down, that even when it shifts gears, you find yourself rolling right along with it because you want to know what happens next? That’s what this fic did for me, I was so curious about where it was going next and how this was all going to affect them.    While this story itself is gen, you can tell that the story is heading towards Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme, so it spends time building Obi-Wan/Anakin back up and shifting it to romantic instead of platonic, that it doesn’t happen here at all, but you can feel how desperately Anakin loves Obi-Wan and how Obi-Wan has been given the time to really reflect on feelings and attachment and on Anakin in general, so that I believe it. Plus, I’m a sucker for all the little touches, like Anakin sleeping on Obi-Wan or the way he touches Anakin after he goes through a tough time, it got me right in the feelings place, to go along with the intriguing greater story. I am now going to proceed to dive right into the monster sequel fic and probably roll around in my feelings some more.    Queen’s Gambit: I haven’t yet finished Queen’s Gambit, but I’m including it on this list because I enjoyed the first fic a lot and I think I can safely recommend the sequel already. ♥ ✦ Seed by bell (bellaboo), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme, NSFW, 44k    When Anakin falls prey to a lethal poison, Obi-Wan has no choice but use all his resources to heal him– no matter how reluctant he is in administering the antidote.    I love how this fic started out as an excuse for fuck-or-die blowjobs, but then went and developed feelings and an actual plot. That is my favorite kind of thing! But what really gets me about this fic is that everything is so carefully considered and given so much thought, that the miscommunication between Obi-Wan and Anakin takes so long to resolve (but without being dragged out too long just for the sake of drama or padding the fic) is central to the story and such care is given to show how these two characters misunderstand each other and why they clash and things so often go off kilter with them. The entire point of showcasing that miscommunication is to nudge the characters into a situation where they have to face it and actually work to resolve it. This is not a smooth path, especially not with feelings being brought to the surface, that both characters have to work through.    Obi-Wan meditates and tries not to burden Anakin with his feelings and balance being a Jedi with what the heart of the man wants, which works so well because Obi-Wan has never been about denial of feelings, but instead about letting them go, about accepting them and releasing them because he has another path that he’s chosen to walk. So what happens when he finds that these surfaced feelings are stronger than he intended and he doesn’t want to let them go? The fic works hard to bring him to a fork in the road where he has to choose one path or the other, that both are important roads for him, and the choice is legitimately difficult. It takes care to show that Obi-Wan isn’t perfect, he doesn’t always understand Anakin, he’s human and Anakin gets to him, but also that Obi-Wan is someone who knows himself very well and is emotionally stable, that the difficulty is in the choice, not the knowledge.    By contrast, Anakin is just an emotional mess who doesn’t understand Obi-Wan, but also doesn’t really understand how to process anything, that he’s all instinct and reaction, but that doesn’t make his feelings any less real or there. This is a fic that is about Anakin struggling to understand Obi-Wan, struggling to understand his own feelings, struggling to not make all the worst choices–there’s a moment later in the fic where he could make an absolutely disasterous choice and keep an important secret from Obi-Wan, but he’s struggled through so much (and become so much more trusting, because his relationship with Obi-Wan is closer) that he makes a better choice. The fic is just as much about dragging Anakin into making better choices, tiny bit by tiny bit. And about how Anakin is just never going to be an independent person, he’s always going to be dependent on those he loves, and that Obi-Wan has to come around to understanding this and accepting it about him.    It’s also a fic that may not be centrally about her, but Padme has a very real and very present role in the fic. Anakin’s love for her is just as valid as his love for Obi-Wan, that he thinks of her while she’s not there, that he’s terrified of losing her, that the conversation he has with her about Obi-Wan is painful and difficult because he leads with his heart, that actions that might be manipulative in others (like wanting to be with two people and have them approve of him being with both) are just who Anakin is. He’s still selfish and probably entirely hypocritical (he would never share either of them the way he wants to share himself), but it’s never done with artifice, he clings to both of them because he’s so insecure and needy, he’s desperate to keep both of them, he’s an absolute mess, and the fic never denies that. It doesn’t deny that this is painful for everyone involved, because it’s not easy for Padme to share her husband, it’s not easy for Obi-Wan to feel like an intruder on someone else’s relationship, and it’s not easy for Anakin to know that he’s asking for so much, but terrified of losing either one of them. I love that this fic holds Obi-Wan and Anakin apart because Obi-Wan is very much “if you’re going to do something, do it right” and he holds firm on that, he draws a boundary and keeps it there, that he’ll reassure Anakin in other ways (the element of Anakin asking for Obi-Wan’s total honesty when Obi-Wan won’t budge on starting a relationship until they’ve worked the problems out was so satisfying for this!), but he won’t cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed, like, yes, that is Obi-Wan’s character and exactly what Anakin needs from him in this relationship, just as Padme doesn’t react happily to the news that Anakin’s in love with Obi-Wan, but she has such emotional openness and care that she provides the warmth and acceptance that Anakin needs, the two of them filling in the different jagged edgegs of Anakin’s character.    Which is what I mean about this fic giving such thought and care to each scene and character, that I can pull all of it apart and it holds up to that scrutiny for me, that it may not be the longest fic I’ve ever read, but it’s certainly one that knows the characters it’s writing and what it wants to do with them and what motivates them. It’s a fic that starts out as cracky, but then uses it as a character exploration and is just really damned satisfying to me for it! ✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & dooku & mace & cast, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, time travel, 101.5k wip    Second chances are very rarely given, but the Force smiles upon two of its favorite children and returns them to a time before their actions have met their consequences.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, which are collated on this post, but I’m sticking with an earlier rec that won’t give too much away, but still hopefully tells you why you should read one of my favorite fics: I cannot tell you how in love with this fic I am, how much I love what it’s doing on both a plot level and an id-pleasing level. The fic first got me with these little moments of Ben (older Sith!Obi-Wan) and the way he would crowd into Anakin’s space, the way he would touch Anakin, the way he would run a hand down Anakin’s back or shove him up against the wall when he was getting out of control, there was this quiet but powerful intimacy between them, both dangerous and something very genuine there. It’s so incredibly good, the way Anakin curls up against Ben’s side or wriggles onto his lap, the way he so very much wants affection from his once-again-Master, the way Ben knows this after all they’ve been through together and the lives they’ve lived and this second chance, the way he absolutely is manipulative and much more iron-handed than he was before, but some part of Anakin feeds on that. It’s so well written and there’s such charm and sparkle to the writing, it’s that sweet spot between just exactly what my id wants and the more rational part of me that is impressed with the world-building and plotting and character motivations, that I legitimately respect the fic. It’s such a great example of what Obi-Wan would be like if freed from the restraints he puts on himself as a Jedi–he has power, sure, but it’s also such intelligence and insight, such lethality and being predatory in all the right moments, the way you really, really understand how Obi-Wan is dangerous when he puts all of his skills to less noble purposes.   And the plot is good, it’s a great cast of different versions of the characters, the older versions having been dumped back in time and are running around to fix things in their own way, including a time out to go free the slaves on Tatooine and, of course, have more run-ins with the Jedi. I love that there are light saber battles, I love that they’re not just idling around, they’re doing stuff, moving the pieces around from the shadows, in addition to their complicated relationship developing further. I am H O O K E D on this fic and it’s honestly one of the most satisfying I’ve read in the fandom yet, it’s one of those that I pretty much drop everything else to go read when there’s a new chapter, it’s one that I’m torn between tripping over myself to read everything as fast as I can because I want more and forcing myself to go slower becaus I want to savor it, it’s one of those that I never want to end, but also I want all of it to be able to read everything right now. ✦ Negotiation by Glare, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & bail & cast, NSFW, modern au, serial killer au, dark themes, dark!obi-wan, 73.7k wip    Over a year ago, Coruscant Police Detective Anakin Skywalker vanished without a trace while hunting the prolific serial killer known within the media as “The Negotiator”.    I’ve done several recs for this fic, but am writing a new one to encompass the entire fic rather than piecemeal, so those that are new to this fic will have a better one to hopefully encourage them to read it! I feel like I hardly know where to start with this one, because it’s another that I’ve been reading as each chapter comes out and I think it might be my favorite of the author’s work. It’s a fic that initially caught my attention, despite the seemingly incompatible concept of the character, but what got me is that this isn’t canon Obi-Wan, but he shares so much of the traits of him, like what Obi-Wan would be without his unbreakable morals and faith from the movies and the show, that if you changed those things about him, you would get this fascinating look at the way he uses that charm and gentlemanly manner and incredibly insight to do such terrible things, to focus on the person he loves (Anakin) more than anyone.    And that’s the other thing that gets me, the way their relationship is played, that it takes so long for Anakin to come around is to the fic’s credit, that it’s not dragged out beyond what it should have been, that instead it needed that space to show the way he was stripped of his defiance bit by bit, just tiny step by tiny step. That this is never portrayed as healthy or anything other than Stockholm Syndrome, the fic is very aware of what it’s doing, but there’s a dark charisma to it, that I find myself rooting for it, even when it’s clear that it’s a terrible thing. The fic is very good at balancing those two things–the fascination with that dark yet beautiful dynamic, obsessive love that can still be genuine in its own way, even as it’s awful. It’s charming, even as you don’t forget that Anakin has been conditioned into this, you still see the layers being peeled away from him to get at something that’s underneath that, something that says a lot about who Anakin Skywalker is.    It’s a modern AU, it’s a serial killer!Obi-Wan AU, it’s a story about Anakin being manipulated into dependence on him, it’s a lot of things that I might normally not be that keen on, but between the fic visibly embracing those things while still keeping so many echoes of their original selves, while hitting all those elements that made so many of us fans of Hannibal, that it’s honestly one of my favorites in the fandom. ✦ flowers for a ghost by QueenWithABeeThrone, obi-wan/anakin & cast, modern au (sort of), 42.2k    Anakin Skywalker’s had a rough go of it, from being imprisoned to losing his hand to remembering an entire past life. He’s only looking for a place to stay the night when he comes to Obi-wan’s doorstep.    I’ll note ahead of time that I haven’t finished this fic yet, but I’m far enough in that I want to include it! It’s the first part of a long sort-of-modern-AU where the characters are reincarnated into current day Earth and are all kind of giant messes, especially Anakin, and this is the story of him trying to recover from just how much he’s been damaged along the way. Not only is there his previous life as Darth Vader to contend with that haunts him, but also the terrible things that have happened to him in this life, the further terrible choices that he’s made that landed him here and weigh him down. It’s a fic that’s a very long, slow process (and very much a slow burn between Obi-Wan and Anakin) because there’s so much for Anakin to wade through and so little progress he can make at any given time. There’s so much about this fic that’s bittersweet and haunting and lovely in a really heartbreaking way–it’s moving towards the better, step by step, but it’s a long road and it’s fragile and brittle the whole way there.    But, ahhh, the relationship and the utter need Anakin has for Obi-Wan and how this situation is both id-pleasing (accidental Force bond, yessssss, give me that always!) and all about doing the slow, almost daily life of recovery, both for Anakin himself as a person and for his relationship with Obi-Wan. There’s a sneaking plot here as well, there’s a lot of characters they run into, there’s an expansive world unfolding here, but at it’s heart it’s a fic about Anakin’s recovery and trying to piece himself back together–trying to find the will to want to piece himself back together, after everything. And the length of it is necessary (even as I scream at them to just kiss already) to show that that’s something that’s not easy or quick. This is a lovely read and I’m adoring it so much. ✦ The World Undone by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & maul & cast, nsfw, sith!obi-wan, 143.3k    Anakin Skywalker, proud symbol of the strength and purity of the Jedi Order, is the target of a strange and handsome Sith named Obi-Wan, whose only goal seems to be pulling Skywalker down into the dark with him.    I’ll note ahead of time that I haven’t finished this fic yet, this rec is based on the first 2/3rds of the fic, but I’m far enough in that I want to include it! Oh, I hardly know where to start with this fic! I admit that it took me a bit to get into, for personal reasons (I usually turn right around at fic where someone other than Obi-Wan trained Anakin if it isn’t a complete disaster, I’m not a big fan of Maul’s character/thought Dooku or Sidious would have been in his role), but those aren’t really criticisms, they’re just things that popped up on my own personal radar. I mention this because, if someone’s tastes are like mine, I want to encourage continuing with this one because once the story kicked into gear for me, I just got swept away in it, I kept reading and reading because I wanted to know where it was going. Once Obi-Wan and Anakin started interacting regularly, once the attraction between them was unable to be ignored (even if it took awhile for some resolution!), and once the main mystery of the story got underway (which I would say was about halfway through when I read this fic), it became a really well-plotted and paced story.    The fic does so many things that I really love about it, right down to the language has shades of something like poetry but the author makes it work, it never had me doing that, “wtf does that even mean” feeling, but instead… oh, like when they finally have time to be together, when they have just enough space to breathe for it and there’s a line that really struck me: Obi-Wan only drove in harder and faster, a shooting star in free-fall along its own doomed line toward earth until it flashed and burnt itself out in its own flare of beautiful white heat inside the velvet night of Anakin’s body. What might have been too flowery in another fic, I really loved this line, I love that it was highlighted their relationship, how passionate this Obi-Wan was about Anakin, how desperate Anakin is to clutch at something, to have Obi-Wan in him, as a steadying presence and to fill him up, that that’s both a culmination of the long attraction between them and shows how their relationship works here. Because this isn’t canon, but it still has so many elements of it, the way they care about other people (especially Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship has several meaningful scenes, it’s very much an important part of Anakin’s character), but they revolve around each other, Anakin still needs Obi-Wan like that.    The reveals take awhile to happen, but they’re worth waiting for, because they’re satisfying and so interesting, the slow pealing back of the layers and hints, until we finally get proper flashbacks and you understand how the characters came to where they were. The author knows how to pace a story, how to write something long without feeling like it was dragged out, that it takes its time, but it’s not padded to hell and back, and that kind of solidity is incredibly appreciated. It’s one of those fics that just feels… smooth and solid, one of those that’s satisfying to have such a long fic that knows where it’s going and you can feel that even from the beginning, whether or not it grows some here and there or expands in a few unexpected places, it keeps on topic and is paced just right for me. And, of course, I enjoy so much the way Obi-Wan and Anakin are slowly coming together here, that it’s a long path for them to take, but each step forward is sure-footed and will get there. ✦ you knock me out, i fall apart by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & han/luke/leia & ahsoka & cast, 64.8k wip    ( aka: the one where anakin was a sith lord for literally an hour, everyone is alive, and they’re actually happy )    This fic was my happy place for two days straight while I read it, because it’s everything I was hoping to get from it–it’s a collection of non-linear scenes spanning from ROTS to probably twenty years into the future, showing the snippets of their lives, the family they all build together, while balancing something so incredibly charming with the occasional moments of absolute heartbreak. Primarily, this fic is definitely about making a happy family AU, whether it’s Anakin keeping the people he loves close or eventually he and Padme convince Obi-Wan to join them or giving Ahsoka a family to come home to or getting to see the twins grow up, but it’s also about how Anakin is never going to be entirely emotionally stable and about how Ahsoka bears the scars from being too young in the war and about how Obi-Wan is so solitary for so long and about how it’s not always easy to grow up a Skywalker for either Luke or Leia.    The fic is really good about making those moments genuinely serious, it’s not really a cracky fic and the serious moments are genuinely serious, and it’s… I think of it as being like The Clone Wars show, only trending in a positive direction instead of negative, where sometimes it’s heartbreaking, sometimes it’s ridiculously charming, and sometimes it’s just straight up cute fluff, but all of it is well done. And I cannot convey enough of that sense of charm, that kind of sharpness to the happy AU that makes it so good to read, the kind that makes it straight into my fannish heart, rather than just me seeking out fluff because I need it to soothe me. This one captures my feelings and my imagination, it’s ridiculously engaging and one of those fics of my heart. ✦ World Come Undone by crazyundeadfairy, obi-wan/anakin (maybe?) & luke, 68.3k wip    Unexpected things happen when ObiWan takes Luke to Tatooine.    Oh, lord, this fic. I cannot tell you how hard this fic grabbed me and would not let go until I finished it! There are a couple of caveats: The first two chapters are fairly slow, a lot of monologuing over things actually happening, but once Luke starts talking, it kicks into gear and doesn’t let go. It’s also a WIP and hasn’t been updated in a few years, but the author has gone years between updates before, so you never know, but more importantly! You get so much of the good stuff in what’s already here! So, while I would have loved to have had the rest of the fic, I’m genuinely content with what we had here as well, because let me tell you about my feelings on Obi-Wan raising Luke, who is this amazingly sweet little moppet that I was instantly in love with, as well as Anakin eventually finds out and tries to steal Luke away but gets in his own way too much and finds himself trapped in a situation that he’s not sure how to get out of.    I was initially skimming ahead to just read the confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin when they saw each other again, just to see if the fic picked up, and found myself getting sucked in because the fic does a great job with each scene making me want to read the next and the next and the next, so I had to go back to my original place and then I just hungrily read the entire thing because Anakin wants to take Luke and kill Obi-Wan, but he can’t because he wants Luke to love him and that won’t happen if Luke knows he killed the only father he’s ever known, yet Anakin still burns that Obi-Wan has taken Luke, despite that Obi-Wan has always talked about Anakin to Luke, always told him stories, and Luke can already feel that there’s still love there, no matter how much anger and hate is held onto, sometimes on both sides, after all that’s happened.    It’s one of those fics where they’re forced to be semi-civil to each other again, but underneath is all this emotional tension and hurt that made my fannish heart absolutely ache while reading it, yet was delicious candy at the same time because it hit my id perfectly. Getting well-written fic that does justice to the iddy concept it has is such a rare treat in fandom and I love this fic for doing that for me! It’s one of those situations that I would dream up without trying to properly justify it in my head just because I wanted it, but the fic actually sold me on it and doesn’t shortchange that Anakin is full of rage and hates Obi-Wan, even as you feel how much of it is borne out of still loving him.    Obi-Wan is fantastic, he’s so steady and solid, but that doesn’t mean he’s passive or without his own anger on Anakin’s actions, even as he’s still willing to try to help him again. And Anakin feels so right to me, that he’s not there yet, he’s not doing any of this for the right reasons, his love for Luke is still selfish and obsessive, but there’s hope in him and you can see the sparks of maybe something still good in there. And I’m labeling this as Obi-Wan/Anakin because the author has written slash fic for them before and the relationship is very central to the story, even if there’s no kissing, and Anakin’s relationship with Padme is very important and I just really, really was hit spot on by this fic, okay. So good. ✦ Futurus (-a -um) by cadesama, obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, time travel, 60.8k wip    Cracked hyperdrive? No problem. Just hold it together with the Force. Time travel? Well. That could be a bigger problem.    This is a fic I read very, very early on in my time in Star Wars fandom, so I can’t say how it would hold up for me if I tried to go back and read it, but it will always be one of those fics that’s dear to me because it helped tip me from shipping just Anidala into also shipping Obikin and Obianidala. And so I’m leaving the rec as I originally wrote it, as I think it does a good job of conveying my reaction to the fic!    I have two caveats about this fic before I begin: It’s a WIP that hasn’t been updated in about a year, so I’m not sure if it will be. But it gets enough satisfying stuff in so even though it ends on a cliffhanger, I found it absolutely worth reading! And that it’s very fast in the beginning, there’s not much time to build up suspense before the reveals are already happening. This isn’t a fic I wound up reading for the suspense or reveals by the time I got into the thick of it, this is a fic that’s about the building relationship between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme. Previous to this fic, I’d never shipped anything but Anakin/Padme, so their relationship being strong here, being absolutely important to Anakin’s pov, while the shifting nature of his relationship with Obi-Wan is slowly changing, works for me, it eased me in at just the right pacing and made me actually really, really want it.    What the fic does the most beautifully for me, though, is how Anakin is so beloved and so special and so brilliant, but he’s also an obnoxious pain in the ass, the way Padme and Obi-Wan both love him dearly, but he’s also a dumbass, oh, that worked for me because that’s exactly it, that’s how they relate to him. The plot part of the story was interesting as well, I definitely want to know where things are going, how this will affect history, and I love love love that the PT characters were the ones thrown forward into the OT’s time, that’s where my heart really is, and this fic just completely and totally charmed the hell out of me! I especially appreciate that it gently eased me into shipping this OT3 in a way that worked for me and got me to be able to actually see it. ✦ Clarity by anecdotalist, obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & cast, 73.7k wip    Anakin’s jealousy leads to the start of something new between him and Obi-Wan and a lot of frank discussions about things they should have talked about but didn’t in canon.    This is one of those fics that I’m going to write a terrible rec for, which is frustrating because I very thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s one of those that’s… one of those solid reads in that it’s satisfying and having 60k+ of it to tear through was a delight because I really got to sink into it and it has so much… idk, it’s not quite breathing room, because it’s not really slice-of-life, there’s events happening and things moving towards Big Events, but at the same time, I feel like there is breathing room for the Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship to develop, especially as it doesn’t crowd out Anakin’s relationship with Padme. It’s definitely focused on the Obikin side of things, much of the point of the fic is Obi-Wan settling into his feelings and the new direction his life is taking, that it’s… I love that it’s not this big, huge, overtly emotional thing, because that’s not who Obi-Wan is, it’s much more still-waters-run-deep that works for me, like this is someone who may struggle with feelings, but he knows how to get to where he needs, and there’s this really just… warm and comfortable air between him and Anakin for so much of the fic.    I think maybe that’s my favorite part, now that I’m trying to put this into words, that even when there’s shit happening elsewhere, when the plot stuff ramps things up in later chapters, there’s still a warm connection between Obi-Wan and Anakin, I trust that they love each other and they know they want to be together, that Obi-Wan knows himself and Anakin is still kind of a mess, he’s just got almost no self-control, and thus Obi-Wan tempers him and puts him back when he needs it. The three of them (Padme as well) have this… they don’t necessarily fit together perfectly, but there’s the sense that they’re working on it, that Obi-Wan and Padme fill in the various edges of Anakin’s character, how the three of them just fit together, it really is supremely satisfying. And there are loads of little touches (I love that Bant gets several good scenes! I love that Obi-Wan’s path is departing from the Jedi, but not in a judgmental sort of way! I love the way Obi-Wan and Anakin meditate together! I loved Obi-Wan being in the room with Palpatine and Anakin, so Anakin follows Obi-Wan’s lead instead and it subtly changes so many things!) and I love that this is a fic that’s about gently turning Anakin’s relationships to the better, that I felt good reading this, even as I’m eyeing future chapters with trepidation. ✦ Sun Kissed by Vee017, obi-wan/anakin & mace & yoda & cast, nsfw, dark themes, past sexual abuse, 81.7k wip    Being on a world that supports slavery is one thing. Buying a slave and bringing him into Republic space is entirely another.    I admit, I usually turn right around at fics like this, I’m not big on AUs where Obi-Wan didn’t become a Jedi or where Anakin was never found and instead became a sex slave, but I liked the author’s other fics and I was terribly curious about this one, so I picked it up and found myself just sort of quietly falling in love. When I read the summary, I had a lot of expectations about the tropes, based on previous experience with this kind of fic, but this one surprised me where there’s something really almost gentle about the way it writes the characters and their relationship, how it’s been almost 80k and there are definitely feelings and being in love, but they weren’t really in the right place for a relationship yet. The fic does a lovely job of establishing Anakin’s healing process and their daily lives, that it uses this time not to just drag things out, but to clear away the things that need to be cleared away first, that Anakin has to truly be ready, not just wanting more with Obi-Wan, but truly being ready to go there, and this fic gently keeps them on that path.    And that’s what really makes me enjoy this fic, that it’s well written in a way that’s easy to read, but also well written in a way that builds something here, that I can legitimately enjoy beyond just iddy kink reasons. I’d have read this story with or without the tropes! And it’s hard to believe that it’s as long as it is, because it was just so easy to pick up and read and read and read, there’s something so smooth about the pacing and writing style, something that pulls me along without me even realizing it! And I love that there’s enough resolution by this point that I think the WIP factor doesn’t matter too much–though, it’s been in progress for ten years now, it still gets slowly updated, so I don’t doubt that it’ll continue to be so.    It’s a fic that I went into expecting it to be one of those early 00s types of fics that were cheesy and appealed to my id for the OTT kink, but instead found a fic that was much more gentle than expected, that took its time and wasn’t about dragging out the angst forever, but instead that healing took time and that the majority of the fic was actually pretty calm and laid back, the most exciting parts (previous to the most recent chapters) were Anakin’s frustration with himself to not be over his past more quickly, that he still had nightmares sometimes. Sure, once things start heating up, there’s more action and plot going on, but at its heart this is still a fic about being a slow burn relationship and it hasn’t strayed from that–I have no doubt that it’ll get there, but I love that it’s taking its time to do so, because the journey there is the important part. ✦ Second Chances by Driverpicksthemooseic (Ratkinzluver33), obi-wan/anakin & han/luke & ahsoka & leia & cast, de-aged fic, 121.3k    Leia wasn’t convinced inviting evil incarnate to join them in fighting the Empire was exactly one of Obi-Wan’s brightest ideas.    This is a delightful cracky fic where, mid-ANH, the Force decides to de-age Obi-Wan and Anakin by about twenty years and then Anakin decides to defect to the Alliance and be a scary over-protective helicopter parent when he finds out Luke and Leia are his kids and also oh yeah falls totally in love with Obi-Wan. And then more characters from The Clone Wars and Rebels are pulled in, the plot goes off in its own direction, and it’s this fun, easy to read fic that I just sailed through! It’s very long, but it’s focused on a fairly large cast of characters (though not so large that you can’t keep track, especially since they’re all characters you’re invested in already) that’s about the greater web of connections between the SW characters. I picked it up for the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship, which is actually a relatively small part of the overall story, it’s really more a group fic about how Vader defecting to the Alliance changes a lot of things, and it’s about Anakin angsting a whole lot about trying to balance himself and his emotions and not always doing a stellar job of it, it’s about the people he’s hurt along the way and how some are able to be won over, but others take a much longer time.    I read practically the whole thing in a single day, that’s how easy it was to sail through, and it’s one of those delightfully tropey fics where I’m just so here for de-aging fic (why is there not more in fandom?? I want it!!) and it was nice to have a longfic to sink my teeth into again! It’s one of those stories that really hits a person’s id if you’re into this kind of thing and I am definitely in fandom to read about helicopter parent Anakin Skywalker who’s practically the same physical age as his kids. :D :D :D ✦ White Rabbits by Butterfly, obi-wan/anakin & luke & leia & han & cast, NSFW, time travel, 102.5k wip    Through the Force, everything is connected. Anakin and Obi-Wan find this out first-hand. I do have a couple of caveats about the fic–it hasn’t been updated in close to a year (but it’s also been in progress for over 10 years, so the author does keep coming back) and the beginning of the fic (probably about the first third at least?) is very much the plot moving the characters rather than the characters moving the plot, that they don’t really react to things in a way that feels organic to their own motivations, but rather where the scene wants them to go. And I do have some trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that Anakin wouldn’t be all over his kids, even as the fic gently nudges him away from them because of jealousy and then fear for Padme’s life. I mention these things because I want to encourage readers beyond them (as I always do with recs) because it’s a story that I read over the course of a couple of days and the writing is really smooth and just so nicely sailed along and it very much has a plot and does a really lovely job of balancing the five rotating character povs (Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Han), of throwing this tangle of characters together and keeping up with group scenes. The fic’s plot is absolutely intriguing and the author is taking their time with it without feeling like it was dragged out, it’s almost sort of hard to believe that it’s a fic that’s over 100k because it was just so easy to keep reading and never felt bogged down or padded out just to up the word count.    And once the fic settles into the story, as Obi-Wan and Anakin discover more and more about this future, as they’re thrown into a situation where Anakin has to face what he’s capable of (once he hears about Vader) and how the fic sort of… balances between trying to reconcile that/fix it and also just sort of avoiding it by going I WON’T DO THAT I WILL AVOID IT, which is actually a pretty perfectly Anakin Skywalker reaction. The author also knows how to write UST while still giving some resolution, that Obi-Wan and Anakin are very attracted to each other and it’s being thrown into this mind-boggling situation where Anakin desperately needs someone to help and support him, he desperately needs someone to cling onto, that seeing this future where the Jedi are gone and this horribleness is possible, that finally breaks that last hurdle and jams them together. I love that Padme may not be here, but Anakin’s love for her never is dialed down a notch, that so much of why he wants to go back is to save her, that he still loves her just as furiously and obsessively as ever, even as he loves Obi-Wan as well. And the sex scenes were lovely, the way Anakin is desperate to grind himself against Obi-Wan is lovely, as well as the brief moments where Obi-Wan’s hands slide lower down his back, not quite ghosting over the prize there, but the implication of the future, that one day he may open Anakin up and push into him is there, and just the right amount of promise of it.    But also! The later chapters are starting to get into just what all is in this world, what’s left that they might still remember, that they’re still working to uncover just what happened, both to them and to this world that may be their future. And I do love that it’s Leia who pushes for them not to change things, because they worked damn hard for this future, because they fought and bled for it, because she won’t give up this hope or gamble it away on something that might be better or might be worse, that who she is, everything that’s made her Leia Organa, could disappear, it makes perfect sense that she would try to convince them to stay, and it allows the fic the time and room to explore these characters from the past in this future. It’s a fic that’s definitely a WIP and may take a long time to update again, but I greatly enjoyed what was here and it was just so very easy to sink into and I appreciated having that over the past week! Plus several Obikin kissing scenes yes thank you! ✦ The Reality of Change by midnight_vision, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka, time travel, 185.1k    Padmé dies on Mustafar and wakes up in the past, about a year before everything falls apart. She’s determined to make sure none of it happens again, and with some help, she tries to expose Palpatine for what he really is. But even if Anakin and the Republic can be saved, that doesn’t mean life will be easy.    At the time of this post, I’ve only read about half of this fic, but it fits theme and I wanted to include it! But it’s definitely a rec based on half the fic so far: I could have sworn I’d done a rec for this fic before, but I cannot find it anywhere in my files, so I’m going to assume I haven’t actually and do one fresh. I am always here for Obianidala fic and I’m always here for time travel fic, so I picked this one up and tore through pretty much all of it over the course of a few days! I do have a couple of caveats about it, the biggest being that the Jedi are used as antagonists, even against established canon (like, they’ve specifically said they don’t keep people against their will, that they wouldn’t force Anakin to stay), which can be jarring sometimes, so you gotta roll with the premise of them being villains, but when the fic is all about the domestic trio learning to figure out their relationship, the fic is at its strongest and it’s just really heart-warming and delightful. It’s a long fic, so it’s a bit of a slow burn, not in that there’s lack of resolution, but in that there’s no hurry to get there before everyone is ready, instead it’s a much more natural pace that I really enjoyed.    I love that it’s a Padme time travel fic as well, because I very rarely see one about her, especially because she doesn’t know everything that happened and it gives her a chance to work through what happened between her and Anakin on Mustafar, that she has to work through all that fear and mistrust, because this Anakin hasn’t done those things, but she has to process that they did happen, that it could have happened, and that’s something that takes quite awhile to get over. There’s also some lovely Padme & Ahsoka friendship scenes, there’s a whole lot of Padme telling people what she knows, there’s a lot of Anakin having to deal with feeling kept out of the loop, that he’s still got anger issues and isn’t emotionally stable, but Obi-Wan and Padme have better tools this time around, there’s a good amount of Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship building, and there’s a lot of satisfying fixing of the timeline, including killing Palpatine plot!    The fic is at its best when it’s about the breathing room the Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme trio has or when they’re interacting with Ahsoka, when the story is going towards fixing things, that’s when my heart is happiest and I just really had a lot of fun reading this, especially since it was lengthy and I loved being able to tear into it and read read read for so many pages! ✦ Sigh No More by edenwolfie, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia & cast, 158.2k wip    Anakin makes slightly better choices, Obi-Wan is a Mess™ and Padmé deserves none of this. AU from Mustafar onward with liberal manipulation of canon to culminate in some angsty, fluffy, domestic fix-it because we all deserve better.    I believe I’ve recommended this fic at least once before? But now that it’s up to 22 chapters, I’ve caught up on the fic and it was time to write a fresh rec for it. I do have a few things you need to just roll with the fic for–that the characters go hide out on Tatooine instead of fighting back, that Obi-Wan is often more indecisive than he would be, that Anakin’s emotional problems tend to go away more easily than I think they would. But the point of the fic is to write a really long, really revel-in-it story about the domesticity of these characters on Tatooine, to just wholly embrace digging into the slice of life stuff in this remote, isolated area where it’s just the three of them + the twins + Ahsoka. It’s a story that has the room to breathe with the characters, that it’s not about dragging things out, but instead that the whole point of the story is that slow, incrimental moving forward with the relationship(s). It’s a story that I pick up when I want something where the characters are (for the most part) taken away from galatic level action and instead are given something like a peaceful life (as much as one can get post-ROTS, of course) and I just want to roll around in something that’s hopeful and kind.    The length is nice as well, because it really gets across that this is a story that’s meant to be a slow burn and a slow build even once things finally do catch fire. As mentioned, I don’t feel like it’s dragging things out, but instead that the slow process is the whole point, that it’s about building their relationships, their life here, step by step. It’s domesticity and slice-of-life and really reveling in it to the fic’s heart’s content. But also omg I admit I’m definitely here for the sex scene, because Anakin and Padme are adorable, Obi-Wan and Anakin had a very pretty frottage scene earlier, but then chapter 22 was exactly what I wanted–where they finally have the time and both are in the right place for something more intense, something deeper. And, boy, does Anakin find that he enjoys being held down, that he has Obi-Wan’s attention all on him, that he likes the way he feels when he’s pressed down onto the bed and held there, when he’s filled up with Obi-Wan, who opens him up with such care and affection, until there’s no other noise in his head, that all the anxieties and fears and insecurities are pushed out, as Obi-Wan pushes into him. I’m really not kidding that I will read that a thousand times because Anakin needs it a thousand times and Obi-Wan being able to give that to Anakin is so good for him as well. There’s also a lot of cute stuff with Ahsoka coming and going, watching the twins grow up, and more! But I can’t lie, I’m here for Anakin Skywalker, my precious child, getting the happy life I always wanted for him.

[gffa]

I have a lot of affection for PADME AMIDALA’s character and sometimes she can get a little lost in the shuffle (both in canon and in fandom) so LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY PADME FEELINGS AND WHAT WE COULD HAVE HAD, by which I mean cry about my feelings on Padme fic, especially Padme Lives fic. STAR WARS FIC RECS - PADME AMIDALA: PADME LIVES: ✦ Keep Breathing by Yesac, obi-wan/padme + some anakin/padme + luke & leia & oc, 45.8k ✦ the family amidala by dirgewithoutmusic, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia, 6.8k ✦ Rumours of my Demise by cupiscent, obi-wan/padme & cast, 4k ✦ Lights Will Guide You Home by darlingargents, obi-wan/padme & obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, 6.2k wip ✦ turn my sorrow into treasured gold by cosmicocean, obi-wan/padme & luke & leia, 15.6k ✦ Far More Than Rubies by frodogenic, padme & luke & obi-wan & vader & cast, 71.7k ✦ Holder of the Torch by SimplexityJane, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia, 4.1k ✦ Circles by ambiguously, obi-wan/padme & luke & leia & anakin + past anakin/padme, 4.2k ✦ Resurrection by Lefaym, obi-wan/padme & cast, 1.1k ✦ recovery by dadcastellanos, obi-wan/padme, 1.8k ✦ counterpoise by spookykingdomstarlight, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia & cast, 6.1k ✦ The Beginning After the End by notbecauseofvictories, padme & cast (some anakin/padme & obi-wan & palpatine & luke & leia), padme lives, 7k ✦ We Push Away the Unimaginable by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & padme, 1.3k wip ✦ Padmé Lives to Tell the Tale by ninemoons42, padme & luke & leia & obi-wan & sabe & dorme & mon mothma, 14.7k DARK!PADME: ✦ It Would Ruin Us by themoosejthm, obi-wan/anakin/padme, NSFW, sith!padme, 4.6k ✦ Sharp and Bright and Vicious by TheFreakWithTheWings, obi-wan/anakin/padme + palpatine, sith!padme, ~1k PAMDE FIC: ✦ Leverage by venusmelody, padme & cast, 1.1k ✦ lose me in the crowds at twighlight by philthestone, padme & han, 3.4k ✦ Sea Change by sevenofspade, obi-wan/padme & anakin, 3.9k ✦ Fate, Inexorable by imadra_blue, Luthe, obi-wan/padme + anakin/padme + implied obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, 9.1k ✦ Supreme Chancellor Padme AU by phosphorescent-naidheachd, some anakin/padme, references to obi-wan/anakin(/padme?), ~1k OTHER PEOPLE REMEMBER PADME: ✦ A Figment of Mother’s Love by Darkmagyk, luke & leia & padme + anakin/padme + cast, 4.8k ✦ La memoria de mi madre by imadra_blue, leia & padme & cast, 2k NOT THE CENTRAL CHARACTER, BUT ENJOYABLE PADME ROLES: ✦ i could teach you (but i’d have to charge) by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & dooku & cast, 7.1k wip ✦ Plot Twist by skywalkersamidala, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, human au, 10.1k ✦ all I am are darken lines by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & padme, 3.7k ✦ untitled by themoosejthm, obi-wan & anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia, 1k full details + recs under the cut!

STAR WARS FIC RECS - PADME AMIDALA: PADME LIVES: ✦ Keep Breathing by Yesac, obi-wan/padme + some anakin/padme + luke & leia & oc, 45.8k      Padme doesn’t die at the end of Revenge of the Sith. Instead, she decides to take the twins and join Obi-Wan in exile.      Oh, what a gorgeous fic for Padme’s character and it hit so many of the buttons I have for her relationships with both Anakin and Obi-Wan. I have a tenuous interest in Obi-Wan/Padme, it has to be done with such precision and I don’t see it ever really happening without the ghost of Anakin between them, but this fic gets that, because Anakin very much is the ghost in the room, even when their relationship grows beyond him, that it does become about them. It hit me so hard because they both love Anakin so very much, the loss of him never really goes away for either of them, they both so desperately miss him and want him back and want to believe that something of the person they loved is still in there, even as they fight back against him, even as they refuse to bend to him. The way the fic sets up their lives, the way Obi-Wan truly becomes the children’s father, the way Padme finds her strength again after everything she’s lost, it’s so spot on for the characters. The fic never shies away from the difficult things, never holds back on that this is Star Wars and tragedy follows everyone around, even as there is always hope. The scenes with Vader don’t come until later in the fic, but my heart hurt for everyone and, oh, the way Padme saw him and interacted with him and what she came to realize about herself and about Anakin, it was all beautifully built up and had really lovely character insight into all of them. It’s a fic that is so satisfying for how Padme’s life might have gone if she’d lived, how all of them might have changed, how some things stayed the same, in some ways it was better and in some ways it was worse. But I came to care about all of these characters, I was so glad that they got to have a family together, that there was love and meaning in their lives, yet it didn’t hold back on how things ultimately had to go. Plus, the ending was just perfect and it’s everything Star Wars should be. ✦ the family amidala by dirgewithoutmusic, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia, 6.8k      Padme lives. She runs.      I love this fic so much, I never knew how much I needed Padme living and raises her children, while Obi-Wan gets roped into their family, too. The shadow of Anakin is always there, it’s not about replacing him, they’ll always love him, but I love how they still live without him, that the twins grow up and are still so very much themselves, if different because of the families they have now. I love the way the fic echoes canon sometimes, the way Leia is still drawn to Alderaan, the way Luke is still so much like his mother, the way Leia is so much like her father, but it’s not the same still. This Padme is also gorgeously written, the sheer strength of her character in every scene is fantastic, and I love that this fic hurts less for Obi-Wan than the canon does. I loved this fic a lot. ✦ Rumours of my Demise by cupiscent, obi-wan/padme & cast, 4k     Padme Amidala cannot live in a galaxy where he has come to be what he is. Obi-Wan Kenobi spends most of his time talking with ghosts.      I’m often wary of Obi-Wan/Padme fic, because Anakin’s presence between them is such an important thing, that trying to find the line between that and genuinely connecting these characters can be difficult, but, oh, this fic managed it beautifully. It sticks pretty firmly to the canon timeline, just adding scenes between the moments we see on the screen, to show that Padme lived and that we don’t really know how much it changed, because it’s not about that, because in the same way that Obi-Wan didn’t survive Anakin’s fall, neither did Padme, they’re both halfway to being ghosts. The strength of both of them and yet how utterly bittersweet this piece is, how Anakin absolutely is between them and yet he’s not, it hit all the right buttons and, oh, the moments when Padme visits Obi-Wan on Tattoine or the messages they send each other now and again, it’s heartbreaking and perfect. ✦ Lights Will Guide You Home by darlingargents, obi-wan/padme & obi-wan/anakin/padme & cast, 6.2k wip     Obi-Wan knew that if he didn’t leave now, Padmé would die. And so he made his decision.    Chapters 1: This is only one chapter of a wip so far and it took me a bit of time to really get into it, but by the end of it, I was absolutely engaged with it and it doesn’t matter how many times I read Padme Lives fic or that she runs with Obi-Wan, when a fic can still be charming and sharp, I’m still always going to be there for it, like I am with this one. The slow sense of… not moving on from the grief, it’s still so fresh and overwhelming, but that sense of soldiering forward, of not giving up, of holding onto what little hope they have together, the quiet touches of whatever it is between them, as they hide out together and don’t talk about Anakin, as well as… there are just a lot of really great little quiet character moments. My favorite is probably when Obi-Wan and Luminara had a moment of shared mourning: Twenty-five thousand years of protecting the galaxy, and when our children were slaughtered and our temple burned, no one saved us. Ow. But also every moment of Obi-Wan and Padme with the babies and the quiet moment of a hand extended out in comfort in the middle of the night. I am super eager for more of this one, absolutely.    Chapters 2-3: This is an update rec, so it will focus on these chapters, rather than the fic as a whole. I’d somehow missed chapter 2 being posted, so I got to read 2 and 3 at the same time and, ahhhh, I continue to want to roll around in this fic a lot. It’s a Divergent Timeline fic, where Padme doesn’t die, but instead she’s on the run with Obi-Wan, where they try to figure out what to do next, whether to hide while raising the twins or get involved with the Rebellion. I love that there’s such a strong relationship between them, I love love love fic where Obi-Wan raises the twins as their father, that his relationship with Padme isn’t necessarily quite romantic, but it’s not platonic, either. It’s… the ghost of Anakin is always between them and that’s my favorite, especially knowing that he’s still out there as Vader, that eventually that’s going to come to a head. I love the use of Barriss in this fic, that Luminara may not be a central character, but you can feel her struggle with her care for her former Padawan, all the more meaningful in this new galaxy where the Jedi are all but dead, that nothing is quite so clear-cut anymore. But also Padme! Who goes back to Coruscant to help get more intel! Who is brave and faces the terror of being in the same room as Palpatine and, of course, showing her face again means Vader will eventually have to know! All of this interspersed with Luke and Leia being teenagers now, that there are these moments of something like slice of life, but not, because they’re training and the Empire hangs over all their heads! And bringing Ahsoka back to all of them! It’s a really well-written, really solid story that I would love to have all of it in my hot little hands right this second, but am also enjoying each chapter as it comes out. ✦ turn my sorrow into treasured gold by cosmicocean, obi-wan/padme & luke & leia, 15.6k      Padmé survives childbirth, dies as far as the rest of the galaxy is concerned, takes her children with Obi-Wan, and runs.      Oh, I was just utterly engrossed by this fic, it’s such a lovely story about Obi-Wan and Padme post-ROTS and how they slowly develop a relationship, how Obi-Wan is absolutely Luke and Leia’s father even if they’re not his by blood, how Padme is their mother, how so many things are the same and yet so many things are different, how the fic can still break my heart and yet provide something a little better for these characters. The only way Obi-Wan/Padme usually works for me is when Anakin’s ghost both is and isn’t there, which this fic does perfectly, they both loved (love) him but he’s gone and they’re building something for the twins, they’re building something between the two of them as well, which all these little details and moments in the fic builds up towards. I love how much presence all four of them have here, that none of them are left out or forgotten by the story, I love that the fic is just so solidly good and I would have read another 100k of it, both for how much it pleased my id and just how well-told it was all the way around. This is a terrible rec, but this fic was an absolutely wonderful addition to the Padme Lives fic in the fandom, as well as for Obi-Wan raising the twins. ✦ Far More Than Rubies by frodogenic, padme & luke & obi-wan & vader & cast, 71.7k      Nine years after AOTC, tragedy revisits the Lars Homestead. Little Luke Skywalker is suddenly plunged into chaos as the rebel movements discover a secret military project that may make a crucial difference in the war with the Empire.      Oh, man, this fic was my joyful place for a few days because I just got so engrossed in it, it was such an utterly fantastic and engaging read! I admit, the first couple of chapters are rough, the fic relies too much on epithets and trying to obfuscate what’s obvious, but the writing quickly improves and by the end of the fic, it was very smooth and polished. I’ve read several Padme Lives AUs, but this one was special for just how much time it put into her relationship with Luke and gave me a really solid plot to go with it! Padme as part of the rebellion, as well as trying to reconnect with her son, that the action and the emotions go together in a really, really satisfying way was at the heart of this fic, it’s everything I could have asked for from why I read longer genfic in the first place, it could have been part of canon, for how spot on it felt in keeping up with the plot. There are so many things that made me love this fic, though, beyond just that it was an incredibly solid read, which I mean in the most complimentary way. Like that it’s absolutely a good Padme fic! It’s got a cute kid who isn’t too precocious, but instead you fall in love with kidlet Luke! It’s got a good amount of Obi-Wan, who at first is there to be a familiar face for Luke after they leave Tatooine, but then becomes a good friend to Padme all over again and supports their reestablishing relationship, and even if he’s not the focus he felt right to me. I loved that he didn’t always agree with Padme, I loved the interaction he had with both her and Luke, how much he obviously cared for both of them, I loved every second of his relationship with Anakin in this fic. But, ultimately, this was Padme’s fic and she’s perfect here, she’s so human and fragile in some ways, but so strong and like steel in other ways, just as she should be. Her dedication to the Rebellion, but also her absolute utter ache over the loss of Anakin, her hesitancy about not sure what she should do, but also that she knows what she wants, the way she had to work to rebuild her relationship with Luke, but it’s so good when she does! ALL OF IT was so, so satisfying and a great read for anyone interested in these characters. ✦ Holder of the Torch by SimplexityJane, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia, 4.1k      Padmé Amidala has to make a life for herself and her children out of the ashes of her old world. It’s a very good thing she’s survived so many assassination attempts.      I picked this up for the Obi-Wan & Padme interaction, but it’s really more of a Padme piece and it’s a few snippets in amongst the greater ROTS storyline and a Padme Lives storyline, as she raises her children in the Space Jewish way. It was a solid, interesting piece that was a good look at Padme’s character and gave her more of what I wanted for her. ✦ Circles by ambiguously, obi-wan/padme & luke & leia & anakin + past anakin/padme, 4.2k      Padmé and Obi-Wan raise the twins together while hiding from the Empire.      I will always love fics with this concept, especially when they’re so beautifully done like this one is, where everything is so painful and bittersweet and yet there is still hope. This is primarily a Padme piece, how shattered she is by the events of ROTS, but manages to live through them here, the way her children are everything to her, the way Obi-Wan becomes so dear to her, the way they both share this absolutely aching loss of Anakin, that their relationship is never free from his ghost between them, even as they genuinely care about each other. It’s just the right amounts of everything there. And it’s a fascinating look at trying to keep her children from a Vader that knows he has a child, how they can all hide for only so long, how Luke and Leia are such strong personalities already, there’s a great climax scene with so much hurt to go around for everyone, and it’s just. A really, really fascinating Padme Lives AU, seeing what could have been in a different world, for better or worse. ✦ Resurrection by Lefaym, obi-wan/padme & cast, 1.1k      It’s hard to adapt to life as a dead woman. But not everyone sees her that way. Not quite.      One of the best things about the May The 4th Be With You exchange this year is that there were some really interesting and engaging Padme fics to read, of which this was one, where she lived and went into hiding and it’s just so bittersweet and heartwrenching for her. She can’t do anything without too big of a risk, she has to stay back and always hide, always stay distant from her children and the man she loved and even her own name. It’s not a long fic, it’s just a handful of scenes, but it does a lovely job of showing how difficult this is for her, how deeply she mourns, and the connection between her and Obi-Wan, the loss that only the two of them share. This is exactly how I like their relationship and it was just right here. ✦ recovery by dadcastellanos, obi-wan/padme, 1.8k      Padmé survives the loss of Anakin and goes into hiding with Obi-Wan. Slowly, slowly, they make something of their new lives together.      Oh, I really enjoyed this fic a lot, that Obi-Wan and Padme eventually manage to find some measure of peace and happiness together, that it takes them a long time to do so, that it’s not this great, grand, huge passion, but a steady, slow love that binds them together, with Anakin’s ghost almost lingering on the edges of the both of them. That’s exactly how I ship them and I loved that this was just as much about Padme trying to cope, that she can’t do it perfectly or all at once, she’s still destroyed by the loss of Anakin, but eventually recovers into something like her old self. It’s not a long fic, but you feel the passage of time, you feel the sorrow and loss just as much as the sparks of hope at the same time, which is just what Star Wars fic should be. This was really lovely. ✦ counterpoise by spookykingdomstarlight, padme & obi-wan & luke & leia & cast, 6.1k      Guilt stabs into Padmé’s chest, a rhythmic pain that keeps time with her pulse. Leia knows her father was a Jedi, that he loved her—would have loved her—and that he died fighting the Emperor before there was ever really such a thing as the Rebellion. It’s the truth. From a certain point of view. But that doesn’t stop doubt from coursing, ragged, through her veins.      This round of May The 4th Be With You brought a lot of new Padme Lives AUs and I’ve enjoyed being able to snatch so many of them up, but I think this one might be my favorite yet. It’s such a great look at her character, it aches for what she’s lost and how it hurts every time she has to step aside to protect her children and protect the galaxy, how much it hurts for what she’s lost and how she can’t even bring herself to think Anakin’s name most days, yet how she never entirely breaks, how she continues to love and survive and live. Her relationship with the various people around her, Obi-Wan and her children, are lovely and full of such compassion and care and sadness, that her children grow up to be brilliant each in their own ways, that Leia especially is such a mix of both parents, so many beautiful little details woven into the story here. It’s a gorgeous read from start to finish, especially for the mother/daughter relationship that feels like it’s everything they could have been. So, so lovely a read. ✦ The Beginning After the End by notbecauseofvictories, padme & cast (some anakin/padme & obi-wan & palpatine & luke & leia), padme lives, 7k    Padmé wakes to the back of Obi-Wan’s head, his hair mussed and his arms spread, outstretched over her knees as though to shield her from all that would come. (Too late, Padmé thinks, feeling the dull ache around her throat, where phantom hands tightened. Much too late for that now.)    This was a lovely look at Padme’s character, at a scenario where she lived and had to carry on, hiding her children away from Palpatine and mourning the death of Anakin and the Republic she so loved. There’s a lovely sort of friendship between her and Obi-Wan that’s somewhat comforting but also never quite gets out of the mourning stage, and probably never will after they learn that Anakin survived Mustafar–which is the highlight of the fic. The tension of the scene was perfect, the moment that Vader and Padme were in the same room together again was so good, everything about Padme’s character wrenched at my heart for what she had been through and how torn apart that relationship was. But it’s also a story of Padme slowly coming to the Rebellion in her own way and it’s a great look at her character overall! ✦ We Push Away the Unimaginable by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & padme, 1.3k wip    RotS AU: Padme survives. Weak from her injuries on Mustafar and healing after giving birth, she and the twins are taken into hiding by Obi Wan. Now they are on the run from the Empire and dealing with each other’s trauma, as they try to figure out what to do after your world falls apart.    This is only the first chapter of a WIP, but it’s a Padme Lives AU, it has a lovely look at her character, both the strength and the sorrow, and it has lovely interaction between her and Obi-Wan. It’s one of those that you should probably only pick up if you’re okay with WIPs, since there’s not yet much time for things to be happening, but just having those scenes between Padme and Obi-Wan, how they draw comfort from each other, how the early days of their new lives are so painful and yet they have hope, ahhh, this is what I keep coming back to these AUs for. ✦ Padmé Lives to Tell the Tale by ninemoons42, padme & luke & leia & obi-wan & sabe & dorme & mon mothma, 14.7k      One: Padmé lives. Two: she survives the birth of the twins. Three: she does not let anyone take the twins away from her. Four: she rallies her friends and allies together once again.      I am greatly fond of Padme Lives AUs, so I was intrigued by this one and it’s a solid, fun piece that has a lot of neat things! While I was initially attracted because of the promised Padme & Obi-Wan interaction, he’s really hardly in it at all, this is very much all about Padme’s character and making her the most awesome, but also about her getting to raise her children and how difficult this all is for her, but how she pulls through for them. It’s five fics set at different points in how she gets involved with the rebellion and it’s got a strong focus on female characters, which is always nice to see for a change! A solid, good read that I tore through everything of yesterday. DARK!PADME: ✦ It Would Ruin Us by themoosejthm, obi-wan/anakin/padme, NSFW, sith!padme, 4.6k    This is a Sith!Padme fanfic where nothing is okay and no one wins. It features obianidala, obsessive love, and no happy ending. I’m so sorry.    I didn’t realize I would love the idea of Sith!Padme as much as I do, but, oh, I really love her here, I love that this is both an Obianidala fic and really a Padme fic, that it winds together her history and her ruthlessness and anger and posessiveness, that she’s obsesed with Anakin and the only one she’ll ever share him with is Obi-Wan but even that is doomed to fall apart, all written beautifully. There are so many great little moments, I love that the fic isn’t a happy one precisely, this Padme is dangerous and lethal and angry, but there are moments of them being happy together, she cares so deeply about Anakin, she gets along so well with Obi-Wan, especially when they’re fucking Anakin, whether he’s on his knees and filled up with Obi-Wan while she directs them or she’s sitting on Anakin’s face while Obi-Wan slowly opens him up, they can be stable for a few moments and it’s so good, until something threatens what’s hers and then she’s off. I love that this fic is beautifully written, I love her obsession with Anakin and the weight of her character here, I love that it’s a fucked up universe but in such an engaging, engrossing way, I love that I would have read it for those moments of sex (seriously, they’re so ridiculously hot, every time Anakin is a whiny needy mess because he wants more, it’s perfection) but that I wound up loving it for Padme herself, too. ✦ Sharp and Bright and Vicious by TheFreakWithTheWings, obi-wan/anakin/padme + palpatine, sith!padme, ~1k    Padmé’s plans have accelerated. It is time to rid the galaxy of Darth Sidious.    I have a weakness for any and all Sith AUs and this one was really charming and entirely fun! I love the elegance of the character, as Padme faces off against Palpatine, that she’s entirely willing to straight up murder him because he touched what was hers, that he tried to take Anakin from her. I’m just really charmed by the images this put in my head, the way it caught my imagination for how would Padme try to poach Obi-Wan from the Jedi, because Anakin wouldn’t be entirely happy without him? How would their Empire look, once Palpatine was gone? I love stuff like that! PAMDE FIC: ✦ Leverage by venusmelody, padme & cast, 1.1k      “Her children need her. That is true. And she can give them only one thing.” Or, the real reason Padmé let go of life, and heartbreak was just a miniscule part.      This was a lovely look at Padme’s character and why she gave up on living at the end of ROTS, why it was a deliberate choice against what she personally wanted and why she thought it was the thing she had to do. It’s a good read for her character, but also it helps to potentially take some of the sting out of what happened to her, how her story ended, to give her this choice being hers. I love a good Padme Lives AU, but at the end of the way we’re still tied to the canon and this was a good look at what could have been going on with her character. ✦ lose me in the crowds at twighlight by philthestone, padme & han, 3.4k     Padme could already see the headlines: “Distinguished Senator from Naboo disrupts pleasant upper-class dining environment by trying to buy the Corellian street urchin who was robbing her a sandwich.”      Oh, I loved this fic a lot, it’s such a beautiful look at Padme’s character, who is so kind and compassionate and diplomatic to everyone she meets, to everyone who deserves it, no matter who they are. It’s pretty adorable to see her interacting with kidlet Han, who was absolutely darling, I loved it for the connection of it all, knowing how important he would be to her children one day, but also just because, oh, this was Padme and it was such a lovely look at her character and the little moments of her kindness, even when there’s so much else going on in her life, she still absolutely has time for moments like this. A great read. ✦ Sea Change by sevenofspade, obi-wan/padme & anakin, 3.9k      Padmé Amidala is accompanied by Obi-Wan Kenobi to Naboo and Anakin Skywalker is the galaxy’s worst detective.      This is one of those fics that’s a bit difficult to describe, where things are set up a little differently and so events (and relationships) unfold differently and it did have moments of needing more connecting pieces, but I found that I really enjoyed reading this as a Padme piece, I enjoyed it getting to see Obi-Wan and Padme develop a friendship, which did involve sex, but it’s not love for either of them, which works for me. There are some fun Anakin moments as well, there’s a lot of things that just seem to go a little better in this universe, and sometimes that’s really nice to read! I thoroughly enjoyed this one. ✦ Fate, Inexorable by imadra_blue, Luthe, obi-wan/padme + anakin/padme + implied obi-wan/anakin, nsfw, 9.1k      When Anakin is kidnapped by Separatists during the Clone Wars, Padmé accompanies Obi-Wan to rescue him. On a strange trio of planets, they search for him, drawing closer in their mutual fear for Anakin. The bonds that form will not be strong enough to face the future that awaits them in Revenge of the Sith.      Oh, I really enjoyed this fic a lot, for the look at Padme’s character especailly. It does go against canon in a few ways, so you have to just roll with that, but it’s not really a story about those things, it’s about Obi-Wan and Padme worrying about Anakin who has been kidnapped and how that draws the two of them together. It’s lovely in how unrelentingly caring and compassionate that Padme is, that she loves Anakin so much and she’s drawn to Obi-Wan both for how charismatic he is and because of his connection to Anakin, that she can be envious and nervous about what that connection is, that it’s something she feels outside of, while never letting it make her any less of an amazing and caring person. The way she sees how much Anakin means to Obi-Wan, the way she feels that connection, just as much as her own connection to Anakin (and the subtle worry that maybe it’s more than her own) is nicely done. The fic is never about punishing her for being drawn to Obi-Wan when worried about Anakin, that it’s the missing presence of his between them that’s what draws them together in the first place, that it feels somehow natural for Obi-Wan to slide into her the way Anakin usually does, the way she can’t help but see Obi-Wan sliding into Anakin instead of her, so while it’s infidelity and she feels gulty about that, it takes nothing from her character and instead only adds to it. It’s a fic that’s really about two established relationships and the third one that’s temporary only because of how they both feel about Anakin, which hits pretty much on exactly what I want from Obi-Wan/Padme. ✦ Supreme Chancellor Padme AU by phosphorescent-naidheachd, some anakin/padme, references to obi-wan/anakin(/padme?), ~1k    Early into the events of Return of the Sith, the Delegation of 2000 calls for a vote of no confidence in Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. By some miracle, it actually passes and Padme is voted in as interim chancellor.    This is sort of half fic and half fic summary, but it’s a delightful AU sketching where things go a little differently, Padme takes over as Chancellor and things become so much better. I love how happy it is and I actually really love the idea of Padme being Chancellor, I would have loved to have seen what she’d done with the role, I love how she was such a force for good here and it allowed so much to go so much better. This was lovely. OTHER PEOPLE REMEMBER PADME: ✦ A Figment of Mother’s Love by Darkmagyk, luke & leia & padme + anakin/padme + cast, 4.8k      “Where was she from?” Luke asked. “To have soft hands.”      This was a lovely look at the twins wondering about their mother and eventually learning about her. Padme’s influence on the OT is subtle and often ignored (understandably so, with the way it was set up) so it’s nice to see Luke and Leia discovering her, to see the reflections of her in her children, how Leia looks like her and Luke takes after her. It’s just the right amount of bittersweet to go with the painful, I really loved this a lot. ✦ La memoria de mi madre by imadra_blue, leia & padme & cast, 2k      Five times Leia didn’t recognize her mother and the one time she did.      A collection of scenes that show Leia’s connection to her mother, even when she has no idea who the woman is or that there’s anything significant there yet. They’re lovely moments, often bittersweet for knowing the truth behind all of that Leia’s unaware of, but entirely worth reading for a wonderful look at mother & daughter, and then continuing on with Rey, in my favorite of all the scenes. NOT THE CENTRAL CHARACTER, BUT ENJOYABLE PADME ROLES: ✦ i could teach you (but i’d have to charge) by blackalien, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & dooku & cast, 7.1k wip    ( aka: that high school teachers au that literally no one was going to ask for, but needed to be done. featuring: anakin and ahsoka terrorizing the entire school, the clones as secretaries, and obi-wan, who definitely deserves a raise. let’s not even talk about dooku. )    Chapter 1: I was just so completely and utterly charmed by this fic, I can’t even tell you. It felt entirely self-aware of the tropes and silliness it was embracing, that it was having a blast and it made me have a great time right along with it, because it was so sharp and funny and absolutely delightful. There can be a skill to writing cracky high school AU fics and this fic felt like it had that, so all the little touches were an absolute delight. I love that I enjoyed these characters, I enjoyed Anakin’s dramatics, I enjoyed Padme’s sensibleness, I enjoyed Obi-Wan’s being the only semi-sane one in the room, I enjoyed that Dooku’s life was so put-upon, I enjoyed that I just smiled my way through this entire fic and would have read at least ten times more of it, if I’d been able to!    Chapter 2: This is an update rec, so you should start at the beginning if you haven’t read the first chapter yet. This is one of those modern AUs that’s totally cracky and good-hearted and joyfully embraces being silly and adorable that it just makes me feel good to read it. This chapter goes even harder on the silliness and adorable crackiness, but there’s just such charm to it, such affection for every character (the obvious faves, but even with Dooku, while you’re laughing at him, you also instinctually understand why his life is so hard) that it was just a super cute, fun read that I totally enjoyed! ✦ Plot Twist by skywalkersamidala, obi-wan/anakin/padme & ahsoka & cast, human au, 10.1k    The supposed love triangle between Mr. Skywalker, Ms. Amidala, and Mr. Kenobi is all their students (and even their fellow teachers) can talk about. The only thing is, no one at Coruscant High School can figure out exactly which of them are together.    I sank into this story like it was tasty candy because, oh, it was. I love school AUs and I love when the characters really fit into the roles, I love that Anakin is kind of a major disaster but his charm is in how he can be both brilliant and terrible, I love that Padme is polished and lovely but also so warm and caring, and I love that Obi-Wan is so sharp and incredible but also so human, I love that there’s such absolute charm and sparkle between the three of them that I fell in love all over again. I love that Anakin’s attraction to both of them is legitimate, I love that he’s instantly in love with Padme as soon as he sees her, I love that he’s wildly attracted to Obi-Wan and cares about him, I love that Padme leans on his shoulder when they’re curled up on the couch together, I love that Obi-Wan backs Anakin up against the whiteboard to kiss him because Anakin so badly wants just to kiss him right then, I love that the three of them are the absolute gossip of the school, that no one can figure out which of them are dating and it’s all just so…. It’s all so good-hearted and happy, it knows it’s silly at times but embraces that and comes out actually being a really solidly written story for these three. It’s one of those that made me happy in my very soul, because Anakin should definitely be sandwhiched between his two favorite people forever and always. ✦ all I am are darken lines by KeeperofSeeds, obi-wan & padme, 3.7k    Padmé visits Obi-Wan on Tatooine as a Force-Ghost.    Often times I’m at war with myself over: On the one hand, it was a really huge deal that a small handful of characters figured out how to become Force Ghosts and just tossing another one in there goes against how important/rare that was vs Obi-Wan and Padme’s friendship means so very much to me! And their friendship was lovely here, I loved this Padme, she was the highlight of the fic, how gentle and yet stubborn she was, how she watched over and loved both of her children, how she watched over them, how she tried to help with Obi-Wan’s grief after everything that had happened. She’s the one I read this fic for and she was absolutely lovely here, especially because they never really talk that much about Anakin, but you can feel the ghost of his presence in the room, and that’s just how I like these two. ✦ untitled by themoosejthm, obi-wan & anakin/padme & ahsoka & luke & leia, 1k    Anonymous asked: Padme: “I always have a note in my pocket that says "Anakin did it” just in case I’m murdered because I don’t want him to remarry.“    This is adorable and totally happy and warm-hearted and lovely! It’s a universe where everything has gone better, where they’re all there for the birth of the twins, where Padme is loopy on painkillers and it’s both hilarious and just joyful because she’s so happy, because Anakin’s so happy, because Obi-Wan’s so happy, becaus Ahsoka’s so happy. It’s a cute prompt and it’s used in the most adorable, super cute way here, one of those that’s entirely fluffy but still so well-written and I still have the biggest :D face just thinking about this universe and how happy it is.