#power couple Obi-Wan and Asajj

[asajj-ventress-nightsister-sith]

It was soft sheets and overstimulation. Sweat, skin to skin, hot lips on fevered skin. Long nails and bite marks, the smooth slide of silken skin.

Asajj loved the physicality and energy of Obi-Wan in these situations. His body filling her, the force whipping around them as twin embers of gold burned in their eyes. Pressure building as they chased their pleasure and just before they found that edge of glory...the bubble popped as the door swung open. The amount of passion and energy conjured and then lost pulled them harshly back to reality.

Glancing for the door Asajj called out as she pushed at Obi-Wan to move off of her, pulling the skirts of her nightgown back into place she sat up. "Anakin? Bright Star? What's wrong?"

Anakin had been with them for a month, and while he was adjusting well, nights always seemed to be hard for the little boy. Pulling open the bedding, she offered him the spot next to her in the big bed.

@general-obiwan-kenobi

[charmwasjess]

The choice to make Dooku a Master of Makashi, Form II, the Contention Form, is so wonderful and I’m going to tell you why I love it.

Christopher Lee was 6’5 and huge. Adding onto that fact, we can imagine the physical reality of a person who dedicated their life to lightsaber study, who taught it as a Temple instructor for years as a full time job BEFORE blowing off to learn Sith combat arts. They could have easily made him a hulking space tank Gregor Clegane style fighter. Instead, he fights with lightsaber ballet. 

Which, as anyone who has done actual ballet knows, far from being delicate, is incredibly physically intensive and grueling work.  

What’s so interesting to me is that Makashi isn’t even a powerhouse form. Form II was developed before the good defense-as-offense of Soresu or the utility of Niman. It was a form designed by Jedi who were fighting against other lightsabers for the first time in the Sith Wars; it’s designed around disarming instead of killing, and lacks the big moves to fatally finish a fight. You can see a couple times (the end of the Obi-Wan and Anakin portion of his duel in AotC is a good example) where Dooku has to actually stop fighting to try to do a killing blow as opposed to seamlessly working a fatal stroke in. Even as a fully-revealed Sith at the height of his evil powers, he leaves duels, he rarely finishes them. 

And yet, Dooku is tremendously successful with Makashi in the prequels and the Clone Wars series for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the form itself, and everything about how he uses it. One, because he has the size and physical stamina to get hammered through the form’s weaknesses and lack of defenses to stay on his feet. Asajj is a prodigy, but she gets absolutely bounced around using the exact same form with a slighter build. And his reach makes him very dangerous. Two, because of the hallmark Makashi move, Contentious Opportunity, where a Makashi practitioner basically throws the sink at you to give themselves a little breathing room to get the complicated precision of the form back up and running. Dooku throws combatants through windows. He throws architecture at them. He throws dinner tables. His favorite, of course, is throwing lightning; in so many Clone Wars duels, you can see the exact moment a fight stops being fun for Dooku or where he’s feeling cornered or vulnerable by the point where he starts BBQing everyone. Ultimately, even his downfall can go back to the form: in RotS, he gets pinned down by a more burly form (Anakin's absolutely drilling form V) in a situation where he can't manage to buy himself a beat.

I just love this fucking detail so much: the way that lightsaber forms can be completely different depending on the body and personality of the people using them.

[aleatoryw]

Kayfabe au?? 👀

*clears throat* At some point between the high republic era and the prequels era, the Jedi order realized they were flat broke. rent on coruscant had been steadily increasing as more and more galactic governmental organizations headquartered themselves there, and being an order of peacekeeping monks who spent their days mostly in quiet meditation didn't exactly bring in a ton of cash. so they decided to start holding their practice spars in a public amphitheater, and charging a few credits for admission. people outside of the order have long been fascinated by lightsabers and lightsaber fights, so what's the harm in showing off a bit? it's not like this will eventually lead to restructuring the entire order around flashy combat and stage personas and an organized fight schedule... right?

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the best fighters in the entire galaxy. his events always draw huge crowds and surging ticket prices. his compelling plotline ("killed" the heel who took his master out of the ring) is part of it, his dramatic (sensationalized) forbidden romance with a mandalorian duchess is part of it, and his dashing good looks are a substantial part of it. but still, Kenobi isn't happy. the new president of the Saber Combat League is also a senator who seems all too content to use the League as a distraction from the outbreak of war across the galaxy. shouldn't the Jedi be involved in this? (they aren't. but shouldn't they be?)

said senator, Palpatine, is also pushing them to their limits. more fights, more dangerous stunts, more real injuries. the plotline is getting more and more convoluted as the fighters who bring in the most credits have to face each other over and over again, for increasingly ridiculous reasons. he thinks he has fought his own padawan, Anakin Skywalker, about a hundred times now. (Anakin is one of few people with more star power than him - a past as a champion podracer, a chosen one origin story, and an open secret marriage to a queen-turned-senator will do that.) Popular heels are brought back from "the dead" - including his least favorite, Maul.

in addition, while the league has long been welcoming of reoccurring villains from outside the Jedi order, some of the people who have been set up in fights recently seem... off. they couldn't possibly be... sith, could they? no one has seen a sith in centuries. surely Maul, the man who wounded Qui-Gon and ruined his career in the ring for life, was lying about being a sith? surely Dooku, a man who left the order to pursue politics, is lying about being a sith? it's just promotion, right? He's skeptical of Palpatine's leadership (and how much profit he's making off the Jedi), and he especially doesn't like his burgeoning friendship with Anakin.

now because i'm a ventrobi shipper, the inciting incident is Asajj first appearing in the ring as his newest enemy - a heel. she was recruited from the slave gladiator arenas of rattatak and is desperate to not. go. back. but he doesn't know that, because she doesn't say much in the locker room before the fight. he just knows she's intense and vicious and hot. and their fight chemistry is so good, they end up slated to fight each other again and again. Anakin is acting like he's not jealous (he is, mostly because he ends up fighting unknown nobodies and he craves a challenge); Satine is upset because there are now rumors of an affair in the tabloids (they haven't been a real couple in over a decade); and Qui-gon is wary about this new woman's connections to Dooku. but Obi-Wan can't stop himself from leaning into their flirtatious banter, and pressing for more information about her.

at some point, Palpatine decides that the script calls for Ventress to be written out of the plot. in a moment of vulnerability before the fight where this is meant to happen, she breaks down and tells him about what it will mean for her, and Obi-Wan realizes that to save her, he might have to go against Palpatine, and maybe break kayfabe in the process. they improvise, and in the big moment when he's supposed to realize she can't be saved and run her through, he instead says he's realized he's in love with her, and they share a big dramatic kiss. the crowd goes insane. Ventress goes from a decently popular fighter to the hottest ticket in town, even when she's fighting other people. anakin is furious, not only because palpatine is his new best friend, but also because no one upstages him like that. Qui-gon is... pleasantly confused, but proud - whatever happens from here, it's going to be messy, but if anyone can right this league, it's his stubborn former padawan.

the best part about this insane unhinged au is you can ship whatever you want in it. Cody is Obi-Wan's manager, Padme is a guest of honor at every fight, any Jedi or villain you like can be in the ring. it RULES and i have so much fun with it. it is not written anywhere (except here)

[aftergloom]

I would very much like to hear about ur dark side cult and am willing to trade the information given with random songs but they're in binary

I spent years in the rave scene listening to beepy clicky music that you can't really dance to so I'd probably be into that, ngl.

So the thing about the Bando Gora is that you can't talk about it without discussing a couple of characters, so I'll try to keep this fairly high-level, but some spoilers may follow for a couple of the Legends books. (And since we're getting a new new canon Dark Side cult with Darth Maul: Red, White, and Black in May, maybe we'll see some similarities. Canon likes to nod back to Legends once in a while, and I'm all for it.)

The Bando Gora appears in only a handful of places, namely Darth Maul: Lockdown, Darth Plagueis, a couple of comics, an RPG, and a videogame called Star Wars Bounty Hunter featuring Jango Fett.

It served as a terrorist organization and dark side cult that operated primarily in the outer rim, gaining power over a couple of decades before culminating in the death of its last High Priestess, a former Jedi and the lost padawan of Count Dooku, Komari Vosa -- one part femme fatale, one part pain in Sidious' ass, and the very same Komari Vosa that shows up in Darth Maul: Lockdown on Cog Hive Seven.

She was captured and indoctrinated into the Bando Gora following the battle at Galidraan along with twenty of her cohorts (whom she later killed while in captivity), and rose through the ranks rapidly to helm it as its leader.

She died in 32 BBY when a bounty was set on her head because the cult had amassed entirely too much power and Sidious was getting a little shifty about it. Jango Fett won the bounty along with the prestige of becoming the pattern for the Clone army, but it was Vosa's former Jedi Master (now Darth Tyranus) that snapped her neck, ending her life, and decapitating the cult. Vosa was completely relegated to Legends as of The Secrets of the Sith, but as the story goes, once Dooku snuffed her out, he took her curved lightsaber hilts and gave them to his sparkly new apprentice, Asajj Ventress.

As indoctrination goes, cult members were subjected to neurotoxin poisoning and tortured to open their minds to the Dark Side of the Force, the physical results of those rituals manifesting in glowing blue eyes, and blackened and mottled skin. "The Force shall free me" was taken to the letter, because Bando Gora Thrall emerged from the indoctrination process free of pain, free of fear, and relentless -- and without a will of their own. Thrall often wore Nemoidean skin masks --- possibly another aspect of the depersonalization process -- and Captains looked like this snazzy dude:

The cult had ties to the Hutts and Sebolto's drug cartel on Malastare, a notable tidbit because one of its last remaining ties to canon exists in one little scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi is offered Death Sticks -- the primary means of luring in new recruits to the cult by altering their minds, and reducing their resistance to indoctrination by creating a narcotic dependency with the "Death Sticks." As if calling them "Death Sticks" to begin with wasn't wildly enticing. /s

"You wanna buy some death sticks?""You don't want to sell me death sticks.""I don't wanna sell you death sticks.""You want to go home and rethink your life.""I wanna go home and rethink my life."

―Elan Sel'Sabagano and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Other points of interest (if you're considering a vacation) involve the spot where the Bando Gora set up shop -- a lovely little place in the inner rim in Bogden's orbit: Kohlma.

Named after Colma (in California), the burial moon was covered pole to pole in tombstones and suffered Bogden's frequent gravitational shifts. A lot of the early concept art lends itself to horror (hi I love it!), which is probably why, at the first mention of a "burial moon" in Darth Maul: Lockdown, I went absolutely feral and started collecting every tidbit I could get my hands on.

The Bando Gora had a citadel out there, which ultimately became Vosa's tomb, and the memorial moon was a fitting choice because the first members of the cult were said to be graverobbers, thieves, and assassins. 💀💀💀

Thank you for the ask. Revisiting this stuff right before Camp NaNoWriMo is always a good refresher for me, since I'll be journeying right back here on April 1st. 😊

[jasontoddiefor]

Title: the kind that was burned first [chapters 1 & 2] Summary: The Chancellor was revealed to be a Sith Lord orchestrating the war and had been taken down by an unknown assailant. As far as Ahsoka was concerned, mysteries should start unraveling now, not start accumulating, but then Obi-Wan had to return to the temple with a stranger and refused to let go of him. AN: Or the one where Obi-Wan and Anakin kind of traveled back in time and now refuse to tell anyone what’s actually going on ft. baby Luke and Leia.

#1 - Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka was the first to know when her Master returned to the Temple. He’d been gone for a whole month at that point. A lot of Jedi had returned to the Temple after the Chancellor- no, Darth Sidious, had been killed and his machinations revealed. It had blown up all over the holonet that the Republic and Separatists had been forced into this war. Of course, there were plenty who wanted the war to continue. War was lucrative, it filled the pockets of the rich and emptied out the wallets of the poor. During her years fighting, Ahsoka had been unfortunate enough to see the reality of war and how painful it was. She was glad for the experience, seeing the new Padawans and Initiates made it startling obvious how innocent she had been once. She was a better Jedi because of her experiences. She knew now that the Republic had been far from perfect and would need a lot of support to get back up on its feet. Her Master had always been very outspoken about it. Obi-Wan Kenobi, for all that he would have made a brilliant Senator, hated politicians with a passion. He had made sure to show her how the system actually worked as opposed to how it was supposed to work.

She had honestly expected him to stick around after Sidious’s death. In fact, she had expected him not to move even a foot away from the Council. Instead, Obi-Wan had disappeared. He had been acting strangely even before the war had come to a sudden halt, as if he had been disorientated entirely, trying to find his rhythm again. He had been acting similarly after the Hardeen mission. Ahsoka disliked thinking back to that time and she doubted she’d ever fully forgive him for it, but she’d seen how much it had thrown him off-balance. It had been unsettling to witness. She had contemplated confronting him with his behavior a couple times when she’d noticed his mood shift again, but she had always backed down.

It had been a mistake.

She wouldn’t make it another time.

When she felt Obi-Wan step into the Temple, Ahsoka abandoned her class with a rushed excuse and leaped into a sprint. She ran through the halls, evading the other Jedi with jumps and one particularly impressive spin. Quickly, she reached the entrance of the Temple where already a small crowd had been assembled.

“Master!” Ahsoka shouted and made her way through the people.

Obi-Wan looked up when he heard her call and smiled, brightly and happy Ahsoka hadn’t seen in ages. She wasn’t sure if she had ever seen him so relaxed. Objectively speaking, of course, he looked kind of terrible. He wasn’t well-rested, but he’d hardly ever been in the past years, and he was favoring his left side again. His old injuries must be acting up again and hopefully he hadn’t earned any new ones. What surprised Ahsoka though, was that her Master wasn’t alone.

Next to him stood another man, taller than him with dark blond hair and sky-blue eyes. He felt strangely in the Force, powerful and yet well-rested and content in the same way her Master felt to her. Ahsoka didn’t even notice it at first glance, but the man was holding a sleeping baby. A second look, directed at her Master again, revealed that he too was holding a child.

“Hello, Ahsoka,” Obi-Wan greeted her. “I hope you’ve kept up with your studies.”

Ahsoka sputtered.

“Of course, I have! But where have you been!”

It was supposed to sound like a question, but it probably came out sounding more like an accusation. Obi-Wan didn’t seem to mind, he only grinned and playfully knocked his elbow into the other man’s side. The man rolled his eyes fondly and adjusted his hold on the baby. A whole conversation seemed to pass between the two. Who was this man? Obi-Wan had a surprisingly large amount of random acquaintances all over the galaxy in all kinds of establishments, but none had ever seemed so close to him.

And Ahsoka didn’t know him so surely he couldn’t be a new friend, could he?

“Around,” Obi-Wan replied. “I had to go pick up a very dear friend. Ahsoka, I’d like you to meet Anakin Skywalker and his children, Luke and Leia. Anakin, meet Ahsoka.”

The newly introduced Anakin looked at Ahsoka like he was seeing a ghost. Ahsoka doubted anybody else would have caught it, but Togruta had heightened senses and she didn’t miss out on even the tiniest microexpression.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ahsoka. Obi-Wan has told me a lot about you.”

“He has?” Ahsoka knew her Master was pleased with her, they wouldn’t be such a good team otherwise, but to think he spoke of her to a stranger.

“Yes, he has,” Anakin replied, grinning cheerily. “He’s quite proud of you, Snips.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes flickered to Anakin and his expression fell for a second, but he quickly caught himself. “I’m sure you’ll be a great Jedi, Padawan Tano.”

Ahsoka bowed quickly. “Thank you, Mister Skywalker.”

Anakin hummed and once more adjusted his hold on the baby who was yawning by now, slowly waking up.

“Guess nap time is over,” he said, mostly to himself. “Obi-Wan, room’s still-“

“The same, yes,” Obi-Wan finished his sentence. The whole exchange was utterly bizarre to Ahsoka. “Go ahead. I believe I have a Council session waiting for me.”

Obi-Wan turned to Ahsoka as if waiting for her to reaffirm his statement. She hadn’t known of any sessions being today, but they had also stopped asking her about her Master’s whereabouts after the first week. Obi-Wan’s guess likely wasn’t off though.

“They have been asking for you,” Ahsoka simply stated.

Obi-Wan sighed and gave Anakin the second child. “I’ll try to be quick.”

“You always do and then you’re gone for hours,” Anakin said good-naturedly. “I’ll see if I can get some formula from the kitchens and get the twins settled in.”

“You do that. Let’s go, Ahsoka.”

“Yes, Master.”

Ahsoka watched as Anakin turned to walk in the directions of the kitchens as if he’d done it a thousand times. Now that Ahsoka took a closer look at him, he did remind her a little of a Jedi. Well, those Jedi that hadn’t been at the temple in a long while. His clothes were civilian clothes, but their cut resembled that of Jedi robes and he had this aura about him. The way he walked, his control of the Force also was distinctly Jedi like, only a little off. Maybe he was a Jedi, but Obi-Wan had called the children his and Jedi didn’t have families-

“Ahsoka!” Obi-Wan called.

Right, Council meeting. “Coming, Master,” she replied and hurried after him.

#2 - Mace Windu

Obi-Wan’s guest was strange in a way that put Mace on edge and forced him to pay attention to Anakin Skywalker. The young man fit in too well at the temple while at the same time being obviously an outsider. Mace had assumed that the man had come with Obi-Wan to inspect the temple before he left his children there, that he was a stranger to the force, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

His control was too good, his signature too distinct.

Skywalker didn’t feel exactly dark, but he also wasn’t light. He reminded Mace of a canvas that had been painted over. The fact that he had Jedi training, but he was not in their registry also disturbed Mace. Mace had checked the databases of all other temples as well and none of them knew an Anakin Skywalker or had any knowledge of a human male with a midichlorian count of over 20.000. Mace had thought the number was a joke, a mistake of the machine, but Obi-Wan and Skywalker hadn’t been surprised at all. If anything, they appeared to have been joking about it as much as one could without opening their mouth. Given that they were both Force-users, there were quite a lot of options.

If Mace were to guess, he’d say that Skywalker had been trained by a rogue Jedi gone missing in the same way Asajj Ventress had been. Unlike her though, his training had been completed. Mace could read it in the way Skywalker carried himself, and crashed against Obi-Wan’s blade.

He didn’t know why the two had settled on sparring this morning, in the open training halls of all places as well, but news had quickly traveled through the temple. Obi-Wan’s guest was certainly a novelty. Obi-Wan had justified his disappearance with a hand wave and something about following the Force. The Master had never acted more like Qui-Gon Jinn than he had at that moment. Sometimes it seemed impossible that Obi-Wan was of Qui-Gon’s lineage, but right then and there nobody had been able to deny it.

The entire situation was highly unusual. Skywalker had pretty much moved himself and his children – both already so strong in the Force, frighteningly similar to their father really – into Obi-Wan and Padawan Tano’s apartment. The Padawan wasn’t complaining about it. In fact, she seemed to be quite taken with the twins. She grumbled about being woken up at night sometimes, but all in all, she seemed to be satisfied and happy.

Mace had decided not to think too much about where Skywalker was sleeping in the two-bedroom apartment since it very obviously was not the sofa.

So here he was observing Obi-Wan and Skywalker spar, hoping to gain some insight into their arrangement, instead of dealing with cleaning up after Sidious. Mace had never regretted being on the Council more than he had in the past weeks. The next time the Sith decided to rise, it better be when he had already passed into the Force so he wouldn’t have to personally sign off another investigation.

Skywalker spun his training saber and frowned at it unhappily. The man hadn’t come with a lightsaber, his possessions could be reduced to the clothes on his back in fact, but it was obvious that he used to have his own ‘saber. Not just one he found somewhere, but one he had crafted. He fought well with Obi-Wan’s, there was an ease to it like you’d expect a Master to have when handling their Padawan’s ‘saber, but he was annoyed with the training ‘saber he was stuck with. Mace should know. Even when he didn’t outwardly show it, he also disliked using the training blades when instructing a younger class.

“Ready?” Obi-Wan asked half a second before Skywalker was already attacking him.

Skywalker was a good- no, he was an excellent fighter. He had definitely mastered Djem So and appeared to be proficient in the other forms as well. Here and there he was missing a step like he was relearning how to execute already mastered moves. It was reminiscent of somebody who had been banned from training for a longer period of time due to an injury. Sometimes Skywalker expected his reach to be wider, his blows to hit harder, but with every second he was adjusting more and more. Sometimes he executed a move that reminded Mace hauntingly of Vapaad, but worse. Even more aggressive, requiring not just control of those emotions, but a complete submersion that ended with coming out on top again. Skywalker fought like he had drowned and was relearning how to breathe.

However, Skywalker was not the only surprise. Mace hadn’t seen Obi-Wan fight in a while, but he was sure the last time he had gone all out, his fighting style wasn’t so Soresu heavy. He usually still incorporated Qui-Gon’s Ataru, but that appeared to have vanished entirely out of his repertoire, replaced with rougher moves, reminiscent of an actual lightsaber form that wasn’t quite refined yet.

“Stop,” Obi-Wan said, frowning.

His saber was almost at Skywalker’s throat. He took a few steps back.

“Again?” Skywalker asked. “That last swing-“

“-out of synch-“

“Think if we-“

“Yes, but only-“

“-go up, yeah.”

Then the exchange was over and Obi-Wan was attacking. He aimed higher than before and Skywalker spun around him. The two of them had obviously achieved what they were aiming for, indistinguishable as it was, and continued on, grinning half-madly.

If Mace didn’t know better, he’d say that Obi-Wan was either trying to achieve something completely new or relearning something very old. There had been a lot of different lightsaber forms over the centuries. The seven the Order had restricted itself to had been chosen because they were the best in each aspect. It meant that they provided the least risks with maximum protection. They weren’t raising their younglings to throw away their lives with risky maneuvers. What Obi-Wan way attempting to discover here was definitely dangerous, and Mace doubted that anyone else would be able to pull it off. There was just something this battle required, he couldn’t put his fingers on it.

“Go beat him, Skyguy!” Padawan Tano cheered from the side.

The twins were lying next to her in their crib, sleeping gently. It was a surprise they hadn’t woken up from all the noise surrounding them. Then again, the Force was quite steady and loaded with happiness here. Perhaps they were dreaming sweetly.

“Whose side are you on, Padawan mine?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Mine of course,” Skywalker replied cheekily. “She always has been.”

Obi-Wan smirked and tripped Skywalker with his foot, causing the man to fall. Skywalker noticed it quick enough that he reached for Obi-Wan’s shirt and pulled him down with him. They both crashed to the ground spectacularly, but it didn’t seem to bother either.

Skywalker only smiled and the Force replied for him in kind, calling back with all the warmth it could measure up without burning.

Connection, Mace thought. What Obi-Wan’s developing fighting style needed was a connection between himself and his opponent. This went far beyond attachment, every hit displayed how dangerous it was and yet, Mace couldn’t find the energy in himself to object. Not when the Force was so very obviously approving of it.

Maybe it was time someone else became the head of the Order. Mace had led them through the war and he was tired of it. Somebody else should be made responsible for Obi-Wan’s silent revolution.

[jedi-order-apologist]

I finished reading Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, and I have to say, I really, really loved it! Everyone who recommended it to me was 100% right - this book is great, and especially great in its representation of the Jedi. I think I like it even more than Shatterpoint, and I really liked Shatterpoint.

There are some weak points - it was a little slow to pull me in, and there’s a couple of Weird Legends Things™ that, with me not being particularly immersed in that continuity, don’t quite fit in with my conception of Star Wars (Dooku apparently having had a Master that was not Yoda; the infamous 13-year-old age limit (though I was at least familiar with that one), the Jedi being so far in the public eye that there exists a famous Yoda impersonator, etc), and I was a little iffy on how it handled the “Jedi shouldn’t be in the war” angle (I’m fine with there being Jedi who think that the Jedi shouldn’t be in the war. I’m less fine with an author deciding that other Jedi can’t find the words to defend their involvement, because that’s a cheap way of framing the argument), and a small moment of the “everyone falls in love” stuff I dislike.

But those were very small aspects of the book, all things considered, and pretty much everything else about this book is really, really good, and very Star Warsy - a very healthy mix of the wacky as well as the philosophical sides of the franchise, which suited my tastes really well. This book is fun - Yoda is the grumpy grandpa that he deserves to be, and spends a good portion of the book disguised as an astromech that gets into all sorts of trouble. Obi-Wan and Anakin have peak sibling energy in the handful of scenes that they show up in - Anakin at one point insisting that a woman would have to be desperate to want Obi-Wan, and only a younger sibling could possibly say something like that with a straight face to a man as attractive as Obi-Wan, as well as Obi-Wan lying to Mace Windu’s face to cover for Anakin and then immediately grumbling about it to Anakin that he doesn’t know why he does these things for him is such an older sibling thing to do.

Where this book really shines, though, is the serious stuff - the philosophy and the dark side and especially grief. What absolutely sold me on this story, and what made me sit up and go “this is going to be one of my favorite Star Wars books”, was the part where Yoda speaks to the padawans and helps them address and work through their grief. It was phenomenal, and beautiful, and absolutely everything I want out of depicting the Jedi - especially in the context that only a chapter earlier, Ventress had been hurling those standard accusations of “the Jedi don’t let you feel”, and this book wonderfully, completely demolishes that nonsense. This section is absolutely amazing:

Yoda set his bowl of gumbo regretfully aside. “Hear it working, do you?”

“Hear what?” Whie snapped.

“The dark side. Always it speaks to us, from our pain. Our grief. It connects our pain to all pain, our hurt to all hurt.”

“Maybe it has a lot to say.” Whie stared at the starscape hovering over the projector table. “It’s so easy for you. What do you care? You are unattached, aren’t you? You’ll probably never die. What was Maks Leem to you? Another pupil. After all these centuries, who could blame you if you could hardly keep track of them? Well, she was more than that to me.” He looked up challengingly. Tear tracks were shining on his face, but his eyes were still hard and angry. “She was the closest thing I had to a mother, since you took me away from my real mother. She chose me to be her Padawan and I let her down, I let her die, and I’m not going to sit here and stuff myself and get over it!” He finished with a yell, sweeping the plate of crêpes off the projection table, so the platter went sailing toward the floor.

Yoda’s eyes, heavy-lidded and half closed like a drowsing dragon’s, gleamed, and one finger twitched. Food, platter, drinks, and all hung suspended in the air. The platter settled; the crêpes returned to it; Whie’s overturned cup righted itself, and rich purple liquid trickled back into it. All settled back onto the table.

Another twitch of Yoda’s fingers, the merest flicker, and Whie’s head jerked around as if on a string, until he found himself looking into the old Jedi’s eyes. They were green, green as swamp water. He had never quite realized before how terrifying those eyes could be. One could drown in them. One could be pulled under.

“Teach me about pain, think you can?” Yoda said softly. “Think the old Master cannot care, mmm? Forgotten who I am, have you? Old am I, yes. Mm. Loved more than you, have I, Padawan. Lost more. Hated more. Killed more.” The green eyes narrowed to gleaming slits under heavy lids. Dragon eyes, old and terrible. “Think wisdom comes at no cost? The dark side, yes - it is easier for them. The pain grows too great, and they eat the darkness to flee from it. Not Yoda. Yoda loves and suffers for it, loves and suffers.”

One could have heard a feather hit the floor.

“The price of Yoda’s wisdom, high it is, very high, and the cost goes on forever. But teach me about pain, will you?”

“I...” Whie’s mouth worked. “I am sorry, Master. I was angry. But...what if they’re right?” he cried out in anguish. “What if the galaxy is dark. What if it’s like Ventress says: we are born, we suffer, we die, and that is all. What if there is no plan, what if there is no ‘goodness’? What if we suffer blindly, trying to find a reason for the suffering, but we’re just fooling ourselves, looking for hope that isn’t there? What if there is nothing but stars and the black space between them and the galaxy does not care if we live or die?”

Yoda said, “It’s true.”

The Padawans looked at him in shock.

The Master’s short legs swung forth and back, forth and back. “Perhaps,” he added. He sighed. “Many days, feel certain of a greater hope, I do. Some days, not so.” He shrugged. “What difference does it make?”

“Ventress was right?” Whie said, shocked out of his anger.

“No! Wrong she is! As wrong as she can be!” Yoda snorted. “Grief in the galaxy, is there? Oh, yes. Oceans of it. Worlds. And darkness?” Yoda pointed to the starscape on the projection table. “There you see: darkness, darkness everywhere, and a few stars. A few points of light. If no plan there is, no fate, no destiny, no providence, no Force: then what is left?” He looked at each of them in turn. “Nothing but our choices, hmm?”

“Asajj eats the darkness, and the darkness eats her back. Do that if you wish, Whie. Do that if you wish.” The old Jedi looked deep into the starscape, suns and planets and nebulae dancing, tiny points of light blazing in the darkness. “To be Jedi is to face the truth, and choose. Give off light, or darkness, Padawan.” His matted eyebrows rose high over his swamp-colored eyes, and he poked Whie with the end of his stick. Poke, poke. “Be a candle, or the night, Padawan: but choose!”

Whie cried for what seemed like a long time. Scout ate. Fidelis served. Master Yoda told stories of Maks Leem and Jai Maruk: tales of their most exciting adventures, of course, but also comical anecdotes from the days when they were only children in the Temple. They drank together, many toasts.

Scout cried. Whie ate. Fidelis served.

Yoda told stories, and ate, and cried, and laughed: and the Padawans saw that life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

I want to show this passage to every hot-take Yoda-critical fan who’s ever leveled that kind of nonsense at him. I want every one of them to read this and still try to tell me that Yoda is detached and uncaring of the galaxy around him. I want every fan who thinks the Jedi are expected to be unfeeling to read this and understand what the Jedi actually say and do and why giving into these feelings is the issue, not the feelings themselves.

The confrontation with Dooku is also amazing. Yoda challenges him to explain why the dark side is so great, and Dooku only gets more and more frustrated as Yoda is unswayed by any of what he tempts him with. I especially love this bit where Yoda lays out exactly why what the dark side promises is false:

“Want something else. Want power.”

“Power have I.”

“Want wealth.”

“Wealth I need not.”

“Want to be safe,” Dooku said in frustration. “Want to be free from fear!”

“I will never be safe,” Yoda said. He turned away from Dooku, a shapeless bundle under a battered, acid-eaten cloak. “The universe is large and cold and very dark: that is the truth. What I love, taken from me will be, late or soon: and no power is there, dark or light, that can save me.”

That then leads into a bit where Dooku has a vision of what a dark!Yoda would look like, and realizes how utterly terrifying that would be.

Dooku also has abandonment issues on full display - lashing out at the lady who had given her son up to the Jedi, getting furious at her on the son’s behalf (but so clearly, his own, speaking of his own resentment towards his parents), and throwing an absolute hissy fit because he’s convinced Yoda likes Anakin more than him. I’m not kidding, he’s so offended by Anakin’s entire existence that just his mere presence in his house is enough for Dooku to stop feeling conflicted about the whole thing and jump right back into the dark side.

And there’s just so many good little moments throughout it all on top of all that. Whie’s dreams - and oh, I knew exactly what his dream of his own death was when he described it to Scout and it hurt at the end when he hugged Anakin while saying “I’m so glad you’re not coming to kill me!”. And Ventress, calling Dooku out on the fact that it’s so obvious that Sidious will end up replacing him (also for a more humorous bit - the fact that she apparently has some petty grudge against Anakin and Obi-Wan for stealing her ships so she goes out of her way to steal their ship at the end), and the droids, and Scout’s cleverness in winning the tournament despite her disadvantages, Jai Maruk’s last stand and refusal to fall when he was at the edge, and...so much, really.

And above all else, the book really latches onto the idea of Jedi as family, and you all know how much I really, really love the idea of the Jedi as a big found family. The idea that they consider each other to be family is driven home again and again, in their words and in their actions, and I absolutely adore this book for that emphasis.

[revenge-of-the-shit]

Sneak Peak - Disconnected Conduit, Chapter 14

BECAUSE it is taking me too long to finish this fucking chapter, here’s a sneak peek because y’all deserve it. I’ve posted part of this sneak peek before, but here’s some new content. Unbeta’d. 

Then.

The trees of Dathomir cast long shadows with their branches. They stretch across the sky in a haphazard pattern, forming a jagged canopy that looms high over their heads. 

The moment Ahsoka steps off the ship, the branches twitch, stretching ever so slightly to turn towards her with reaching, spidery fingers. She smiles. Of course they’re reaching towards her - she’s Light. She’s life. 

Behind her, her masters step off the ship as well. Anakin’s body merges with each shadow cast by the branches, making his body look half-formed at best, a strange, twisted caricature of a half-human. It doesn’t really look like he’s walking - Ahsoka thinks his movements look far too smooth for that. Humans always have a certain way of walking - there’s always a slight up-down motion of their bodies every time their feet strike the ground. But with Anakin, there isn’t even the slightest bit of that. Just a strange, continuous forward motion.

If she looks at his face, she thinks that it would scare most people with how it only looks half-formed, like a body with pale skin and a mouth slashing through its cheeks with his head half-bashed in, only his head isn’t really bashed in - it’s just partially formed of incorporeal shadow. 

As for Obi-Wan, the part of Ahsoka that’s still a regular Togruta thinks it’s almost humorous how he seems to glide rather than walk, his legs completely dissolved into a blue-green mist that occasionally swirls to form a semblance of human legs before coalescing into a shapeless cloud again. 

It would be funny if it didn’t look so wrong. Her masters don’t look human at all. 

And she doesn’t care. She’s not afraid - she accepts it, because she knows she doesn’t look Togruta at all. She knows that when they look at her, they see something that’s not right.

“You look upset,” Anakin tells Obi-Wan. His voice sounds all strange, as if his normal voice is layered with the voice of the Son and something else, except Ahsoka can’t quite catch those other sounds. They’re there, but they’re just at the edge of her hearing, making it easy for her to think that she’s imagined it. 

Obi-Wan is looking downwards, frowning at the mist which should be making up his legs, but aren’t. “Well, I do seem to have an unfortunate amount of trouble remembering what a normal body should feel like.”

Anakin laughs, and so does Ahsoka. Anakin’s laugh is sharp and harsh and a tad too cold to sound like him. “It’s alright, Master,” Anakin teases. “The fading memory comes with the age.” 

“Yeah. You’re getting old, Master Kenobi,” Ahsoka adds, and both she and Anakin laugh again when Obi-Wan turns to her with a betrayed look. 

“Of all the padawans to be saddled with, it had to be you two,” he grumbles, and Anakin slings an arm of shadow around Obi-Wan’s half-dissolved shoulders. It works, strangely, the shadow mingling with the blue-green to turn it into a muddled colour where they make contact. 

“Admit it, you wouldn’t know what to do without us.” Anakin’s smile is too wide, his teeth too sharp and gleaming, yet Obi-Wan looks at it, completely unfazed, with the same amount of fond exasperation as he always does. “Right, Snips?”

“Of course,” Ahsoka laughs again, and a part of her marvels at how it sounds entirely unlike her. The laughter rings like bells across the forest, making the trees shift as they straighten at the sound. 

It’s not her laughter. It sounds absolutely nothing like her, and it should scare her. 

It doesn’t. 

--

The walk to the Nightsister coven is a short one. They spend half of it bantering as if there’s nothing amiss, the other half in a contemplative silence. While his padawans are bickering, Obi-Wan takes a moment to observe the changes within them as well as the ones within himself. Clearly, the Force on Dathomir has affected them in some way, uncovering their… true presences, for lack of better term. 

He wonders how the Nightsisters will receive them. He wonders if Asajj Ventress will be there, and he takes a moment to savor her potential reaction. 

“Master Kenobi?”

Ahsoka’s voice pulls him out of his thoughts. He glances at her quizzically, and she looks pointedly at his torso. He looks down. 

“Ah.” He looks back up, and carefully moves to the side. He’d been half-inside a tree and he hadn’t noticed. “Thank you.”

“That’s the fourth tree you’ve walked through,” Anakin notes. He says it almost casually, as if it’s something that’s perfectly normal. He raises his hand, pointing towards some of the low-hanging pods which are strung up on the branches of the trees up ahead. “I wouldn’t want to walk through those if I were you.” 

Obi-Wan dips his head. “Of course not.”

He knows what’s in the pods. The information in the Temple archives had detailed how all deceased Nightsisters were buried in such pods near the coven. What’s more, though many of them are long dead - perhaps centuries old, even - he can still sense the way the Force moves through them, sickly and slowly and with a carefully manipulated coldness. The thought of him passing unknowingly through the graves of the dead sisters not only makes him shudder - it makes him feel guilty. It would be very disrespectful, after all - it is one thing to walk over someone’s grave, and another to walk straight through it. 

They pass through the pods in silence, respectfully keeping a distance.

Something twitches at the edge of his vision. He looks sharply and sees nothing there, but a slight chill runs through his back. After they've passed the fifth pod, he speaks out. "The pods should be filled with bodies." 

Anakin raises an eyebrow. "They are."

They walk past another pod, and Obi-Wan's reason for speaking becomes clear when something inside the pod twitches and nudges the linens in an attempt to move closer to them. The lining of the pods do not break, but Obi-Wan is certain that there are bodies inside there that are moving. 

"It's because of me," Ahsoka says nonchalantly. They turn to face her. The unnatural glow coming from her skin bathes the area around them with a white-gold hue, making her difficult to look at directly. “The Light is waking them up. I’m not pushing enough energy to fully awaken them, but it’s enough to make them move a little.” 

She looks completely unfazed at the prospect of accidentally making the dead reawaken. 

(Through their training bond, Obi-Wan can sense that she really isn’t afraid at all, and it makes him worry. It’s not right. She doesn’t even seem interested - just too calm. Too serene. Too peaceful.)

A sudden spike of fear, carefully controlled but present, alerts Obi-Wan to several presences ahead. He turns to the entrance of the coven to see Mother Talzin and a couple of sisters flanking her only a short ways away. One of the sisters is robed in red; the other in black, with two familiar twin lightsabers at her belt. 

Asajj Ventress. 

Behind Obi-Wan, he senses Ahsoka’s emotions darken in a protective, vengeful anger just as he hears Anakin growl “Ventress” in a threatening tone. Before they can move, Obi-Wan throws out a hand, holding them back with the blue-green mist. 

“Let us not be hasty,” he quietly reminds them. Ahsoka complies immediately, her anger dissipating back into the strange calmness, whereas Anakin pushes against the blue-green mist for a few moments before he, too, relents. “The Council has agreed to leave her alone only on this planet provided that she does not attack us. And I sense no malice from her.” 

There definitely isn’t any malice at all. Instead, as they approach, though Ventress’ face is hidden by a cloth mask, Obi-Wan can sense the sharp fear that murmurs around her in the Force. When he and his padawans finally arrive at an acceptable distance to speak with the Nightsisters, Mother Talzin bows low, bending at the waist, while the two sisters at her side drop to their knees. 

“Great Ones,” she greets, “you honor us with your presence.” 

In the Force, Obi-Wan can sense Anakin’s glee at Ventress’ terror and deference. 

“It is the Will of the Force that we were the Jedi who were sent to aid you in defending your home,” Obi-Wan says in return. He pushes aside feelings of discomfort at their submission - as a general, he knows well enough when to use an advantage if necessary. “You may rise.” 

The Nightsisters straighten up and stand. Only Mother Talzin dares to meet Obi-Wan’s eyes. “We do not have much time. Your arrival has strengthened our magicks and our abilities of divination.” Her eyes wander to Ahsoka’s form, then to behind her back, where the wings of white-gold shimmer, nearly invisible to the naked eye. Talzin’s eyes then flicker to Anakin. “Dooku wishes to pull another trick. His attack will arrive one week earlier than anticipated - we have but two rotations to prepare.”

Anakin smirks, the expression horrifying on a face where the mouth stretches from ear to ear. “Good,” he laughs, and the Nightsisters flinch at the sharp edge of his tone. “I don’t like waiting.” 

Mother Talzin smiles then, and Obi-Wan is strongly reminded of why she is the clan Mother. Even Ventress, a powerful Force user in her own right, pales in comparison to the power he senses in Talzin. As if sensing his thoughts, Talzin turns to him, a grateful smile on her lips with a hardened glint in her eyes. “Your very presence will aid us greatly in our fight against Dooku’s minions,” she says, and had Obi-Wan still been fully human, he would have shuddered. 

But he’s not. So instead he offers her a smile, and they make their way inside to begin preparations.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: Best Darth Maul Moments from The Clone Wars and Beyond

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Since his debut in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has demanded the attention of Star Wars fans everywhere. In 1999, Maul looked unlike any villain that had come before in the saga, and the movie’s high-energy lightsaber duel is still one of the most memorable parts of the Prequel Trilogy. It’s unfortunate, then, that Maul was originally created by George Lucas as a one-off character, present only to re-establish the threat of the Sith. 

But you can’t keep a good character down. Maul returned in The Clone Wars season 4 to introduce even more chaos to the galaxy. Infamously unkillable, his obsession with killing Obi-Wan Kenobi and reuniting with Palpatine kept him going for much of the galactic conflict and well after the rise of the Empire.

Maul has been a Sith apprentice, a ranting hermit, and a powerful crime lord throughout his strange and storied life. Maul failed to become a Sith Master, as Palpatine tossed him to the side once his role in Anakin Skywalker’s story was over, but Maul never stopped trying to clamber to the top. As you’ll see in The Clone Wars season 7 and the Rebels animated series, Maul will fight until the very end to get what he wants.

Stream your Star Wars favorites on Disney+ with a FREE TRIAL, on us!

As we say goodbye once again to one of Star Wars‘ greatest villains, let’s take a look back at the former Sith’s best moments from The Clone Wars, Rebels, the comics, and beyond.

Duel of the Fates

The Phantom Menace is not a perfect movie, but the two-on-one lightsaber duel in the third act is a great example of the kind of action and physical storytelling that makes Star Wars such an effective and enduring movie franchise. Maul is a nearly voiceless demon dogging the heels of the good guys for most of the film, his powers obscured until he finally reveals himself on Naboo. For the audience watching this duel on the big screen, this was the first chance to see a full-fledged Jedi of legend dueling a Sith Lord.

Actor Ray Park was hired primarily for his ability to do the stunts and fight work. Choreographed by Nick Gillard, the lightsaber fight was acrobatic and wide-ranging, mixing in more melee than had been possible in the Original Trilogy. The climactic duel also introduced the double-bladed lightsaber to the Star Wars galaxy. The weapon and the character would be inseparable in fans’ minds for years to come.

Maul’s Return

How do you revive a character who has been cut in half? Just as in the world of comic books, Star Wars offers plenty of options. Since the Original Trilogy, Star Wars has made it common practice to rebuild mortally wounded and horribly mutilated villains, shaping them into a whole new threat. In 2012, The Clone Wars confirmed that there was more to Maul’s story than The Phantom Menace. Season 4 episode “Brothers” opens with the horror movie atmosphere of the scrapyard on planet Lotho Minor, where Maul has been living since his defeat on Naboo.

He fashions himself a new, arachnid-like body out of trash, and it fits the frightening philosophy of the Sith as well as Maul’s gruesome fate. Spider legs twitch and stab, allowing Maul to climb around his trash-filled cave. Maul has become a hybrid of person and machine, human and animal. He doesn’t keep the spider legs for long, only for a few episodes, but it’s one of the most dramatic changes to his look, and a frightening new possibility when it comes to what cyborgs in Star Wars can become. Spider Maul will haunt your dreams.

Rematch with Obi-Wan 

Obi-Wan Kenobi is skeptical when he hears Maul is back from the dead. But their confrontation is certainly real. After his surprise return in “Brothers,” Maul beelines for Obi-Wan in the next episode, suitably titled “Revenge.” This is the first chance to see the Sith’s rebuilt legs in action. It also shows Maul’s ruthlessness, as he destroys an innocent settlement just to draw Obi-Wan to his location. With the help of Savage Opress, his newfound brother, Maul captures Obi-Wan and kicks off a couple of action-heavy episodes that re-establishes Maul as a force to be reckoned with.

The Shadow Collective

Try as he might, Maul can’t get back into Sidious’ good graces, so he throws the Star Wars villain version of a tantrum: he forms a gang. With the help of the Mandalorians, he goes on a killing spree in season 5 to take out rival criminal organizations in the name of his new Shadow Collective. It’s a sequence of slaughters where there are no good guys.

Maul uses his Force powers, intimidation, and overwhelming force to destroy or intimidate the Black Sun gang, the Pyke gang, and the Hutts, including Jabba himself, into joining him. Maul is back on top.

Taking Over Mandalore  

After recruiting a group of rogue Mandalorian warriors known as Death Watch to his side, Maul has bigger ambitions: to take over the entire planet of Mandalore. In season 5’s “The Lawless,” he slaughters the planet’s reigning leader, Duchess Satine Kryze, as well as the leader of Death Watch, and claims the symbolic weapon of Mandalore, the Darksaber, for himself.

It’s a visually striking episode, with much of the action set inside the Mandalorian throne room. The Darksaber is also the perfect example of silly Star Wars lore taken to the extreme. It also, somehow, works, even when it returns in live-action in The Mandalorian. 

Duel Against Darth Sidious 

Much of Maul’s story in The Clone Wars is about a student who wants to return to the teacher who discarded him. But Sidious isn’t going to accept him back so easily. “The Lawless” also features a duel between three dark side users: Maul, Darth Sidious, and Savage. This is a three-way clash of red lightsabers, ranging up and down the edifices of Mandalore. It’s one of many examples of The Clone Wars‘ elevated Star Wars action, and it’s one of the series’ most exciting sequences.

There are no good guys here, but someone has to win: Sidious kills Savage and defeats Maul, sparing his former apprentice so that he may feel the sting of rejection for the rest of his life. This is the reunion Star Wars fans had been waiting for since Maul’s return and it goes about how you’d expect.

Facing Grievous 

The Son of Dathomir comic was adapted from unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars, so it’s closely linked to the events on Mandalore. It also features the entire rogues’ gallery of Prequel era villains, pitting Maul, Sidious, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Mother Talzin against one another. The fight between Maul and Grievous, in particular, is the stuff of fantasy “What If” scenarios and it’s a visual delight, even if it happens off-screen. 

Read more

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The Siege of Mandalore

One of the most hotly-anticipated conflicts of The Clone Wars did not disappoint. The Siege of Mandalore, which shows how the Republic took the Mandalorian homeworld back from Maul, features a lightsaber duel between the former Sith and ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano. Though both have left their old orders behind, they bring all the acrobatics and Force powers one could want from a Star Wars fight.

This duel in Mandalore’s throne room and high above its capital city is an amazing use of setting, as Maul and Ahsoka climb up the rafters of one of Mandalore’s domed cities and balance themselves on thin beams. The fight also feels mythic, the two characters’ viewpoints clashing as much as their lightsabers. 

The episode “The Phantom Apprentice,” in particular, shows that, despite being banished from the Sith, Maul is still one step ahead of the Jedi in terms of Palpatine’s grand plan. In fact, Maul instigates the Republic invasion in order to lure Anakin to the planet and stop him from becoming Sidious’ new apprentice — something he’s already seen in a vision before the Jedi even begin to suspect that Palpatine might be an agent of the dark side.

Maul’s Solo Cameo

Solo: A Star Wars Story spends plenty of time with the galaxy’s underworld. Throughout the movie, Han Solo and Qi’Ra tangle with rogues, thieves, smugglers, con men, and drifters, all leading to a big standoff with Dryden Vos, the leader of criminal organization Crimson Dawn. But Vos isn’t the true villain pulling the strings of the movie.

A big reveal is left for the end: Maul has been in charge of the criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn all this time, manipulating others the way Palpatine manipulated him. Maul doesn’t do a lot in Solo, appearing just for a few minutes to make Qi’Ra his new lieutenant, but he does ignite his lightsaber, showing he’s a step above most of the enemies the group has faced so far by virtue of his Sith legacy. 

Maul’s Epic Death

Even though it seemed like he could survive anything, Maul had to die eventually. Luckily, the team behind Star Wars Rebels knew how to make Maul’s ending something truly amazing.

Maul has spent decades seeking revenge against his old Jedi enemy, while Obi-Wan has gone into hiding to protect Luke Skywalker, finding peace and coming to terms with the tragedy in his own life. The episode “Twin Suns” shows the final confrontation between Maul and Obi-Wan.

Although not a true adaptation, “Twin Suns” is loosely inspired by “Old Wounds,” a non-canon comic from the speculative comic series Visionaries. That comic, which was written and drawn by Aaron McBride, is also a great Maul moment unto itself, with a vivid lightsaber battle and the threat of Maul possibly discovering a very young Luke Skywalker. It gets to the heart of why Maul works as a frightening villain: a demonic-looking Sith with the drive to keep hunting you, even if you cut him in half. 

“Twin Suns” chooses to go a more contemplative route than “Old Wounds.” While the basic setup is the same (Maul finds an older Obi-Wan on Tatooine), the lightsaber duel isn’t the focus in “Twin Suns.” Instead, one of the best Maul moments is actually an Obi-Wan moment. Their lightsaber duel is just one move, both of them considering their options but it’s Obi-Wan who actually finds the inner strength to carry it out.

In the end, Obi-Wan kills Maul, but also shows him pity, telling a truth that comforts both of them: Luke Skywalker, the one to bring balance to the Force, is still alive. Obi-Wan has escaped the cycle of revenge and ambition Maul has been stuck in his entire life, and he’s closer to the Force for it. It’s also a stunning farewell fit for a fan-favorite character like Maul.

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[doorsclosingslowly]

Atrocity Exhibition

Snapshots of the life and death of Savage Opress, from seventeen different angles. Drabble collection.

1.7k | also on AO3

I.

The body lies empty in the plaza, half-naked and with twin charred holes in his chest that must’ve done him in and already spotted with purplish death-bruising, and yet, he looks oddly peaceful. She kneels in respect: there is no doubt in her mind that Savage died to protect her Mand’Alor. He tried to, just like the soldiers that Death Watch has already found in the throne room, and just like them, he fell victim to the silent menace none could defend against.

“I’m still alive, but you are dead,” Rook Kast whispers. “I remember you. We will find Maul.”

II.

Her baby is a boy. Kycina had prayed for a girl, not for the sake of his sire, waiting captive in her rooms and soon to be killed for the deficiency in his seed, in the way of her mother and all women before her; but for herself. The boy, Savage, she will give into the care of his tribe, and when he has grown and been taken she will close her ears and weep his death. A girl, she’d have seen grow up, would have delighted in her every move.

A girl, she would have cradled to her chest.

III.

An obstacle, that’s all he is, or—an opportunity. Maul loves him. That long-discarded wretched failure of a traitorous apprentice has thrown in his lot with another of his species, a dumb brute with even less promise than Maul ever had, and he loves him. This is delightful. Sidious makes sure that Maul is fully conscious again by the time he slaughters the animal. He allows them their little goodbyes. It would take long to find physical pain that Maul hasn’t yet suffered, and he is well-acquainted with emotional abuse, but this: this loss, it was worth flying out for.

IV.

Always a step behind Maul, never in front. A trusted lieutenant, because he’s not the leader, not by a long shot, not with the shorter man’s arrogance in play. A shield, instead. And: a loved one. Pre Viszla sees it, in the way Savage stops the knife aimed at Maul, and in the total lack of flinch. Never a doubt he’ll intervene, and it’s mutual, certainly, what with Maul’s easily exploitable concern after the rescue.

That’s why, despite certain security concerns, he gives the order to lock both brothers inside the same cell. This is Mandalore, and family is honored.

V.

The young nightbrother has grown strong, Brother Viscus notes with silent helpless pride. On the field, Savage is straining muscles and cocky grins and there’s nary a yelp when the lance of his training partner strikes true, and then he wrestles the other teenager down and helps him up again. The boy is the very picture of a son of their tribe, powerful and kind with children and someday, Viscus thinks with a rend in his hearts he cannot seem to rid himself of, someday he will make a fine mate for the Sister who wins him as Her prize.

VI.

This new acolyte was a mistake, Darth Tyranus decides. He’d visited the Nightsister tribe in the belief that one of their males had been powerful and cunning enough to murder his own former Padawan, and he’d gone there despite the pain and disgust he feels whenever he thinks of the now-dead Darth Maul’s deed. He found: utter disappointment. Ignorance. Imbecility. Abjection. This is the kind of creature that dared best Qui-Gon?

On the floor, Opress whines and curls and begs for his brother—for the murderous beast that once enticed Tyranus—and so he gifts him another lesson of pain.

VII.

The enemy rushes onto the battlefield, cutting off that brother’s arm in a bright spray of arterial blood and choking this brother with massive claws, and right then Spotlight knows he was wrong. He’s been wondering, see: maybe they’re not so different, him and the Separatist flesh grunts. They look scared, before he shoots them, and Spotlight himself certainly wouldn’t be fighting this war if he wasn’t made to do it. No-one gets anything out of war but the civvies. But the beast has this wild look, like he’s karking enjoying it, and Spotlight was wrong. This is the end.

VIII.

Traitor, the droids name the Sith beast, and they shoot it instead of taking aim at him or Obi-Wan. Frankly, that’s fine by Anakin. He’d like to get a good chop in himself—somewhere, he is still that nine-year-old kid huddled on Naboo who was told that Qui-Gon Jinn was never coming back, that he’d been slain by the Sith, a kid who wanted to beg Who’ll be my Master now and couldn’t—Anakin wouldn’t mind taking on Dooku’s animal, but there’s no reason to risk entering the droid’s blaster-hail. Opress roars out a shockwave and flees. Next time, then.

IX.

It’s terrifying, even with his big brother beside him, and Feral can’t imagine how much worse his first trial would be, alone. Although. He shivers: being killed by the pale Woman, or accidentally by one of the other unlucky sods beside them, that’s bad (and it would already have happened, if Savage hadn’t interceded), but compared to… to being taken (Savage puts himself between another blow and Feral’s body) compared to being taken by the Sister, death is fine, and so’s being struck lame; but Savage will never let Feral get hurt. How are they gonna get out of this?

X.

The Sith looms. Angry growls and quick strikes and then—he shouldn’t be this strong, Adi Gallia thinks frantically, shouldn’t be able to overpower her this easily when she is a General and a Jedi Master and a Member of the High Council to boot, and it gives her terror for the future. He shouldn’t, because the Jedi triumphed and routed the Sith once before and hunted them to extinction; but they have returned, and the force favors them. Opress smacks her against the ship and spears her when she falls, and there is no death. There is the force.

XI.

What a moron. Looks strong—looks like mounds of juicy juicy meat, more like—but with all those nice muscles there’s not much space left over for brain, it appears, because, after that shitty strangling, the offworlder’s actually following Morley meekly to his doom. If he didn’t look as delicious or was a little less of a humorless prick, and what kind of catchphrase is Where is my brother? anyway… if Morley wasn’t so hungry, then he might even find it in him to feel bad for the ugly meathead. As it is: maybe Master will leave Morley some entrails.

XII.

He’s gonna kill her. This dude is actually going to kriffing kill her, not in a pervert way but in broad daylight, in the middle of the restaurant, grabbing her and holding her up and strangling her and everyone’s screaming, and Mikjoo was just going to look at his weird glowing amulet, that’s all. She was gonna make conversation, with a man who looked slightly sad and very lost and like he’d potentially give decent tips.

It’s not murder, in the end; he throws her to the floor and runs off, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a total psycho.

XIII.

Her creature drags himself to the table, drags himself home, bruised, a failure and: still alive. It’s a testament to Talzin’s craft that the bespelled nightbrother was able to return, and the result of her own shortcomings that Dooku yet lives. No matter. When young Asajj returns, another path to her vengeance shall be found. As for Savage Opress… in the crystal, Talzin sees her Maul, once stolen by Sidious and finally located, and there’s none more suited to fetching the boy than this durable, obedient tool. She speaks comfort and helps him up. There is further use for him.

XIV.

Her mate—or he would have been, if this was a normal coupling—he washes himself in the sink of the sister’s house where Asajj is staying, for this step in the grand plan of her revenge against her former Master. Trembles wrack his glistening bruised body, and she ignores them, according to her wishes and—she is sure—also his own.

Shock laces through him when instead of a kiss, she presents him to Mother Talzin, that and naked relief; but when he stands after the ritual, what’s left is not a mate. Not a nightbrother. Only—an instrument.

XV.

The foolish apprentice looks up from underneath Maul’s clawed foot, all thoughts of brazen challenge forgotten. There is no pain, not yet. This should be cause for further correction, Maul remembers, should result in screams, writhing and terror, but—a face, a familiar sort of face if Maul remembered his own and more still now he doesn’t, leads him from out his trash cave and into the light. A low voice rings through the nightmare. A hand offers meat. Safety. The apprentice looks up. The brother loves, despite everything.

Maul extends his hand. He doesn’t care to interrogate the instinct.

XVI.

Two brothers and a smoldering pile of corpses, that’s what Obi-Wan finds on Raydonia. Violence, senseless and vile, evident in this carnage and in the shaping of its perpetrators, for he’s visited their village, knows of enslavement and degradation and forced breeding, and knows that none should ever arise from such filth as exists on Dathomir and feel any compassion. Both were doomed from the moment of their birth.

He ignites his lightsaber and faces them. Unlikely though it is, he prays: for victory, but more still, for the chance to extinguish this cycle of violence with both their lives.

XVII.

He wrings his hands around Feral’s neck, or he doesn’t: he is watching his fingers kill, is looking down at them, and they’re not even the right size. A plea, silent, disembodied: they don’t look like his fingers. It’s only the perspective that does it, making them out to be his own body; that, and the self-aimed revulsion. Stop. They don’t, of course. His hands don’t belong to him anymore.

Afterwards, he won’t remember the Mother’s intrusion. He will see nothing but his own flesh, by his own will, killing his own brother.

Afterwards, Savage will only see: a monster.