#rex gets thru to anakin not because the clones know better than the jedi but just because palps poisoned anakin against the jedi

[antianakin]

@kine-iende

I feel like I'm kicking a hornet's nest by answering this, but what is this blog for if not controversial opinions on things.

Just as a quick disclaimer, Soft Wars is obviously a FAN WORK, so I am not trying to attack the author of this series for their chosen interpretations of things, their characterization choices, etc by stating my opinions on this. Everyone is allowed their own opinions and interpretations and tastes and I applaud this work for the well-written epic that it is and the clear impact it's had on the fandom as a whole.

TL;DR at the end under the cut.

With that out of the way, I think it does some things REALLY REALLY WELL, and some things that I like considerably less. As this reply says, it's really high quality writing with some interpretations of characters I don't personally like or agree with (I won't say they're "bad" because just because I don't like something doesn't make it bad).

Firstly, I really love the way Soft Wars chooses to portray the clones, the focus it has on them already HAVING a chosen culture before the Jedi that they've created amongst themselves, a lot of their own independence, and the strong and unique relationships between the different clone characters. Cody does not feel like he could be replaced with Fox or Ponds or Bly and be effectively the same character, for example. They also all have such unique relationships among each other and with their main Jedi counterparts which was really interesting to see. I love me a niche pairing sometimes.

I particularly love the way Fox and Ponds' relationship played out as someone who identifies as asexual and at least a little aromantic, too. I also really like the way Obi-Wan's sensitivity to touch is handled within his relationship with Cody and how respectful Cody is of that, it's one of my favorite aspects of that relationship in Soft Wars.

That being said, I'm not the BIGGEST fan of the way the Jedi are portrayed all the time. Sometimes it's really great, and I do like it! It's by no means ANTI Jedi, there is no virulent hatred aimed at the Jedi in the narrative. But it absolutely falls into the category of showcasing the Jedi as repressed and somewhat complacent and if they just were a little more Mandalorian, a little more like Anakin, they could've saved themselves from genocide and they'd just be generally happier and healthier people.

This obviously makes itself MOST known with the way the relationship between Rex and Anakin (and Obi-Wan to some degree) gets treated. Rex becomes like Anakin's replacement father-figure because Obi-Wan just didn't quite hit the mark well enough because he's too much of a Jedi and doesn't cater to Anakin's specific needs which is why Anakin falls for Palpatine's manipulations so much. Rex's blatant dislike of Obi-Wan which he BARELY keeps in check and which everybody is aware of because he blames Obi-Wan for Anakin being kind-of a selfish juvenile shithead is... certainly a take on that relationship. Rex tends to give Anakin a lot of advice that I personally see as just obvious normal Jedi philosophy and values as though it's clearly something Anakin wouldn't have learned from the Jedi already.

I'm also not a huge fan of the way Obi-Wan's relationship to Cody plays out in conjunction with the "pledge" to Cody as vod'alor. The fact that Obi-Wan DOESN'T pledge himself to Cody AS A POLITICAL LEADER somehow ends up meaning Obi-Wan doesn't love Cody enough and it's only when Obi-Wan chooses Cody OVER THE JEDI that Obi-Wan is truly... freed? Unrepressed? On his way to a happier way of living life because now he's willing to be in a more typical committed relationship and that's the only way to have a healthy relationship? Obi-Wan choosing Cody and the clones over the Jedi is also what ultimately gets Rex to decide Obi-Wan's not a TOTAL piece of shit and can be saved from his unhealthy toxic Jedi ways.

Then there's Cody apparently blaming MACE for the clones' situation within the GAR. Like I get that the clones would've believed the Jedi had ordered them and all that, but he's literally in a relationship with Obi-Wan who is ON THE COUNCIL and was the one to discover Kamino and the clones and could 1000% tell Cody the truth, and Cody is not presented as though he's kind-of dim and unintelligent or too stubborn to accept the truth, so it feels strange that Cody would hate Mace because he thinks Mace is the reason the clones are "enslaved" to the Republic or whatever. But I will mention here that Mace IS portrayed positively, Cody's dislike of Mace and his choice to blame Mace for their situation is NOT universal since we see a really lovely friendship between Mace and Ponds, so it's not like Mace is at all villainized. It just feels like a strange opinion for Cody to have, especially since it really only makes an appearance once and never gets explored again to my knowledge and Cody's blame seems to rest SOLELY on Mace, not the Jedi or the Council at large.

I don't like the way the Council gets sort-of villainized as a governing body even if its individual members are sometimes treated positively outside of it, specifically through them being pitted against Anakin in particular for no obvious reason. The Deception arc is interpreted as the Council ORDERING Obi-Wan to fake his death and then lie to Anakin about it, when it's stated really really clearly in the episode that the Council itself (or at least Yoda and probably Mace too) don't actually think lying to Anakin is the best idea but that Obi-Wan himself insisted on it for several different reasons, both strategic and personal. Obi-Wan specifically says the Council wants him to "break" Anakin, when a) it's not the Council's idea to begin with in canon, and b) that's not even what Obi-Wan's TRYING to do with this choice in canon.

This theme of pitting the Council against Anakin also comes up in a fic where Obi-Wan "allows" the Council to force Anakin to help Quinlan learn how to go undercover as a slave. It's pointed out by Cody that Quinlan is a perfectly good undercover agent and so he either shouldn't have NEEDED assistance from anyone in figuring out how to act the part or he should have other friends he could go to that could help him learn more that just... aren't Anakin (why it's a better idea to ask a different former slave for advice rather than Anakin who is a trained Jedi with access to mental health care and a lot of support just because Anakin is Anakin and so he's special does not get addressed). The implication here is that the Council just doesn't care about Anakin enough to utilize these options if it's quicker and easier to just use Anakin.

I don't like the way Ki-Adi Mundi is portrayed in Soft Wars, although I have seen a few posts on the author's page about this kind-of addressing some of the critique about the way Ki-Adi is written which... helps. Ki-Adi is apparently someone who gets a LOT of fandom hate for some reason, I assume it's a Legends thing since he's pretty minor in high canon and all of his scenes are pretty generic kindly old man stuff. Since this seems like something that's gotten discussed and brought up a bunch by other people I'm not going to dwell on it.

Soft Wars DOES undo the entire Tusken massacre because it recognizes that's something you either just undo or have to address and deal with and they went with the easier option of just saving Shmi and letting him not massacre an entire village of people down to the last child. I don't have any strong feelings on this honestly, it's clearly the only real way to pretend Anakin's not an irredeemable piece of shit by the time of the Clone Wars. Also the entire point of Soft Wars is to save everybody from death, so saving Shmi is kind-of a necessary thing to do.

You could probably also categorize Soft Wars as one of those stories that acts like if Anakin had just gotten one more lecture from someone about what attachment actually means or that the Jedi actually CAN love blah blah blah that it would've suddenly saved him from going Sith. It's not particularly accurate to how Anakin is written in canon, but it's pretty common to how people who really like Anakin and sympathize with him and relate to him like to write him as a character.

All in all, Soft Wars is exactly what it says it is. It's soft. It's soft towards Anakin, it's soft towards the clones, it's soft towards the war and the worldbuilding. It's definitely worth a read just for the way it handles the clone worldbuilding and the clear impact it has had on the way the clones have been written in fic ever since. At this point, I don't regret reading it but I also don't go back to it very often anymore and there's a reason I didn't rec Soft Wars in my Pro-Jedi Codywan rec list lol.

TL;DR: Soft Wars is not what I would consider fully Pro-Jedi but nor is it anywhere near virulently anti-Jedi and it has some really neat writing for the clones while obviously being really pro-Anakin Skywalker to the point of smoothing out most of his more uncomfortable flaws to make him a more sympathetic and likable character.

[keelifallen]

Hello there! I saw and LOVED your Jedi Night art, it destroyed me emotionally, good job!!

Can I ask who your favorite SWR character was? And your favorite episodes? I get really excited to meet new people who love SWR, don't mind me!

Ok so first off, I LOVE to talk nerd, and second, can I be your best friend? You seem so nice🥺

So…. Question one:

Favorite Star Wars character?

Uggg that’s painful. I’ll divide it up

Movie trilogys:

So in the prequels I’d say obi wan.

The original definitely Darth Vader.

Sequels, Poe dameron.

Singles:

I love all the characters in rogue one, and I’m not gonna try to dig thru that mess 😅

And in Han Solo, Donald Glover played his part as Lando incredibly well, so probably him.

Shows:

Clone wars

So this was SUCH a good, and in depth show. It really showed the characters in a light that the movies could not.

Anakin was shown to do the wrong things for the right reasons. (The ends justify the means sorta stuff) and his fall from the light which was tragic, but KiNdA understandable? I really liked his character arc, even though it destroyed me🥲

Now Ashoka, is a lean, mean, girl power, fighting machine. Great character arc as well. (You wanna know what? Just assume that applies to all the characters I bring up) what I really like about her, is kinda finding herself. She was kept in the jedi order, and it was her whole life. Something that would be painful to walk away from. She kinda struggled through out the whole show with finding her balance. It’s important to apply that to our own situation I guess?

Obi wan, now I’m gonna have to keep my self from going on too long about him. Love him. I think he is what the Jedi all ought to be. He wasn’t so emotional stuffed, but he had a balance of emotions. Kinda like like control your emotions, lest they control you. (Looking at you Anakin) he went through his life, which was an incredible tragic one, with his head heals high. He could have easily turned to the dark side. His master died, Satine died, the Jedi order fell along with his friends. His brother turned against him, and died by his hand. That’s a rollercoaster life right there. And when faced with the question, he said that it takes strength to resist the dark side, which makes him stronger than those who don’t. That’s an important life lesson lol.

And there’s Rex. Simply put, he’s a good ol’ boi

Bad batch

I feel like this show hasn’t developed enough for me to say, but I do like echo, and wrecker a lot 😌

Mandalorian

For the mandalorian, obviously mando. He’s a great father, and ✨not✨ lone wolf. He Took care of his kid, and gave him up when he didn’t want to. Because that’s what he thought was best.

Rebels

Now rebels is a much better show that I was expecting. I love the family dynamic, it really captured that aspect well. 

Ezra. He was an amusing bratty child in the first season, and I love him. At times I still wanted to smack him…. but I like the fact that he was faced many opportunities to turn bad, and didn’t. He dabbled a little perhaps, but he’s the type of person who has to try things out for himself, And learn lessons the hard way. As he got older he really matured, and he went from a small bean to a big bean.

Of course, I love Kanan. (I love all space dads. And adoptive dads) he was a beautiful and wonderful human being. And I’m so mad that Dave killed him off 😤😤 anyway, I like the fact that he was the first to admit that he didn’t know he was doing. Instead of acting like he was just teaching Ezra, he said they were both learning from each other.

Thrawn… for reasons

Favorite episodes, and arcs?

Rebels

I loved the bit, with the Sith temple. Ashoka finally meeting Vader, love it. So much drama. Introduction to maul, and just total legitness.

And the ending. As depressing as it was, seeing the conclusion it really makes me look forward to the Ashoka show. Although will be like almost 30, And he’d’ve missed out on so much😭

Clone wars

Oh there’s so many good ones. I love the episodes focusing on Ventress. It was an unexpected journey, and darth maul was somewhat involved as well.

Obviously Umbara. This one was exceedingly painful, but it really got the point across about the injustice and individuality of the clones. I know casual Star Wars watchers tend to skim over this a bit. super powerful.

The Mortis arc, was super epic, with great visuals, symbolism. And when Anakin found out he would become Vader I almost died

While I’m talking about clones, The order arc with the inhibitor chips was stupid good. And sad as well. (I apparently really like the emotionally devastating bits and pieces)

The one with Yodas trials was a really good one. I didn’t pay good attention the first time around. Just so u know yoda has never been one of my favorite characters. But I liked him a little better after this arc. It shows us his deepest fears, and it was really nice seeing so much foreshadowing.

Asoka leaving the order was super emotional and help put things in motion

And of course the siege mandalore. The final conclusion to the clone wars, in the beginning of the empire.

Anyways sorry for the long post, I’m sure this isn’t what you asked for but what can I say 🤷‍♀️ my life’s been hijacked by Star Wars. Dave this is your fault🔫

[passable-talent]

reader exclusively refers to Anakin as Skywalker and teasing nicknames and never Anakin because they have that totally rivals who Do Not get along/would die for each other/kinda "I'm down if you're down but I'll never admit it and neither will you" dynamic. Reader *only* calls him Anakin in emotionally heated moments, e.g. he just got hurt REAL bad and reader is panicked. rivals/reluctant partners to lovers, maybe friends in between. this is hella specific so feel free to take some liberty w/ it

cute. very cute. that kinda dynamic is what I feel like everyone has with anakin

yall came THRU with the anakin requests and im HERE for it 

So, uh... stealth missions with Anakin Skywalker tend not to stay that way. 

He’s impulsive, he’s quick to decisions, he’s unpredictable. It’s irritating. 

“Was there not a plan?” You shouted at him over the firing of droids. You stood side by side with him, deflecting them, allowing Ahsoka and your combined droid units to get to the side. “Or did I hallucinate the entire mission briefing?” 

 “You actually listen to those?” He shot back, then tearing down the hallway after his clones. You followed, saber held behind you while you ran, frustration ringing in your ears. 

“Maybe if you did, you wouldn’t have so much head trauma!” 

“I don’t have any head trauma!” You snorted incredulously, dodging another group of fire by shoving him further from a hallway’s corner so you could slide in beside him, the red bursts of energy ringing past your ear. 

“You think so, Quick Fire? Memory loss- that’s the head trauma.” He rolled his eyes briefly, but his attention was taken from your banter by Rex, giving yet another update as to where you were supposed to be heading.

Unlike the Jedi Knight beside you, the one you loathed to be on a mission with, you knew the point of this mission, and you knew the plan that had now evidently been thrown out the window. You were meant to infiltrate a separatist listening post, and dispose of the droids running it, all without drawing the attention of Grevious. 

“Now that they’ve sent up the alarm, we’ll need to destroy the base, to make sure they can’t use it again,” Skywalker said, his saber sheathed and at his hip while he gave his piece. 

“We can set up detonators and explode them remotely,” Ahsoka offered, and Captain Rex quickly pulled something up. 

“If we place them around the heating system core, it should amplify the explosion,” he said, and Skywalker nodded, igniting his lightsaber again. 

“Then into the basement we go,” he said, rounding the corner to droids who had gotten much closer, and quickly tore through most of them. You followed, side by side with Ahsoka, clearing the way for the clones. It didn’t take long until the path was clear, even though alarms still rang through the halls. 

The base was small, which served your purpose well. It didn’t take long to descend into the heating system, but it took long enough that more droids had amassed. Why so many damned tin cans were needed for one listening post, you didn’t know, but still you stood between them and Anakin, drawing their fire to allow him to concentrate. 

“There’s one more,” he shouted, coming to your side, saber in hand. “It’s all the way at the bottom. Lead the clones out while I distract them, and once you’re out, I’ll place it. Then we’ll blow the place.” You grit your teeth as you deflected another blast. 

“I’m not leaving you here alone,” you said, and you meant it. 

“It’ll be easier for one to escape than twenty. Go!” Destroying the last droid in front of you, you turned to him, eyes narrowed. You could hear another wave approaching. 

“Am I sensing nobility in you, Skywalker?”

“Am I sensing hesitance in you?” Humor was a distraction, especially with more droids coming closer, and you needed to use this break in waves to escape. 

“You better make it out,” you told him, “you’re not dying on my watch by anything other than my hand.” 

“Oh, I’m not dying, either way.” You shook your head, turning to the rest of the men. 

“Clones, with me!” Skywalker ordered Ahsoka to follow you as well, and you ran up the stairs, blasting your way from the post and into the snowy landscape of the asteroid it was positioned on, your escape giving Skywalker the distraction he needed to place that detonator. 

Hidden under a rock ledge, you and Ahsoka gathered around Rex’s communicator, keeping you aware of Skywalker’s movements. 

“It’s placed, and the droids are almost here,” he said, running up the stairs you had traversed not long ago. “Get ready to blow it, Rex. On my word.” 

“Copy.” 

“He should be here, by now,” Ahsoka said, and your gaze shifted to her. You hadn’t realized it, but she was right- if Rex was going to blow the base, Skywalker needed to be at least as clear as this embankment, or he’d get caught in the blast. 

“Rex, now!” Skywalker shouted, and you yelled ‘wait!’ but Rex had already followed orders. You shot to your feet and launched to the top of the cliff which had meant to serve as your protection from the blast, just to see Skywalker open a door, fifty feet back from the outer wall of the base. Your gaze connected to his, and you saw panic in his eyes, not for himself, but for you. 

“Get down!” He shouted, and such an order needed to be followed. You stepped back and off of the cliff, holding yourself from a fall by your fingertips, and you felt the blast of heat on your knuckles when it blew. When the rumbling of the stone beneath you faded in time with the light and sound above you, you waited just a moment to hear him reach you- but he didn’t. 

You pulled your torso up, trying to find purchase for your toes, but the view you found nearly shocked you enough to send you plunging downward. 

He was pinned to the snow by a piece of scrap metal double his size. And he wasn’t moving. 

“Anakin!” you shouted, the name leaving your lips without a second thought as you pulled yourself the rest of the way up, so you could run to his side. A combination of your desperation and your Force powers lifted the metal from him, and it revealed where it’s upper half had impacted his head and its lower half had impacted his lower back. Both had drawn blood, but his back was much worse. It had torn through his robes, and you couldn’t tell how deep the cut was. 

“Ahsoka, get up here,” you ordered through your wrist comm, and in the time it took for her to reach you, you’d piled snow onto the wound on his back to slow the bleeding. You had nothing else at your disposal. 

“We’ve got to get him back to the ship,” you said, though you hated to move him, after a head injury. You didn’t know if a neck injury was involved too, and that would be so much worse. 

“I’ll call it as close as I can,” Rex said, and the clones set to work while you and Ahsoka worried over him. Really, there was nothing you could yet do but keep pressure on the wound, and keep from moving his neck. It looked bad- you hoped that it was just melted snow making it look like there was so much blood. 

“General! It’s as close as we can get it!” You threw a look over your shoulder at Rex, and the ship they’d landed a hundred yards away, where the debris was fewer and further between. You snarled, wishing anything could be done other than what you were about to do. 

You lifted him from facedown in the snow by his arms, and threw him onto your back, dragging his toes through the snow as you ran. 

“Let’s move!” You shouted, and Ahsoka put herself in front of you so that as soon as you boarded, the ship’s door could close and they could lift off. Yularen’s cruiser wasn’t so far, where he could get better care, but until then he certainly needed to be monitored. Luckily, there was a small medi-droid on board. It wasn’t even a surgical 2-1B, just a tiny J6-P that warned you in the most irritating droid-basic you’d ever heard:

“ᴳᵉⁿᵉʳᵃˡ ˢᵏʸʷᵃˡᵏᵉʳ ʰᵃˢ ʳᵉᶜᵉᶦᵛᵉᵈ ᵐᵘˡᵗᶦᵖˡᵉ ˡᵃᶜᵉʳᵃᵗᶦᵒⁿˢ ᵒⁿ ʰᶦˢ ˡᵒʷᵉʳ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ.“

“We knew that!” You roared, kneeling beside where you’d laid him lengthwise across little seats meant only to carry clones into battle. “Give me something useful!” 

“ᵀʰᵒᵘᵍʰ ʰᵉ ʰᵃˢ ˢᵘᶠᶠᵉʳᵉᵈ ᵃ ʰᵉᵃᵈ ᶦⁿʲᵘʳʸ, ʰᶦˢ ⁿᵉᶜᵏ ᵃⁿᵈ ˢᵖᶦⁿᵃˡ ᶜᵒʳᵈ ᵃʳᵉ ᵘⁿᵗᵒᵘᶜʰᵉᵈ.”

“Good,” you said, looking aside to Ahsoka. “Find me some fabric, and water, if you can.” 

~~~

Once you’d docked into Admiral Yularen’s cruiser, Anakin was rushed to a med unit and placed into the medical wing. A wound like this wasn’t uncommon for a Jedi, especially one as reckless as Quick Fire, but still you worried for him. You sat beside Ahsoka on the two extra chairs given to the room, staring out the small window at the endless space and stars beyond it. 

When you looked at her again, she was fast asleep. 

“Ahsoka,” you said softly, nudging her awake. “Go to your chambers, get some sleep. I promise I’ll call you when he wakes up.” She stifled a yawn and shook her head. 

“You need the rest, too, master.” 

“You more than I. Go, love.” She gave you a grateful, tired smile, and retreated from the room. Once she was gone, you rolled her chair over to the window, tossing your feet up and onto it. You rested your head on the wall, and closed your eyes. Meditation came easily in moments like this, almost between sleep and wake, and so you could reach out to the Force, and feel it. Skywalker channeled the Force like a magnet, and so like always when you were around him, it felt like pushing into a magnetic field. His presence was as strong as ever. 

He was an idiot for ordering Rex to detonate before he was clear. He wasn’t far off- if he’d waited thirty seconds, he wouldn’t have had to go through this. Not that it was such an ordeal, he was already healed by the med unit and now just sleeping off the exhaustion, but still. Quick Fire didn’t need any more head trauma. 

A small groan came from the unit and you opened your eyes, waking yourself from what was almost sleep to find him awake. 

“Anakin-” you said, throwing your feet to the floor to stand at the foot of the bed. 

“Did it work? Is everyone alright?” He made to sit up, and you rounded the bed to shove his torso back down. 

“Everything’s fine. We’re on the Admiral’s cruiser, I just sent Ahsoka to bed. We made it out.” He nodded, his breathing falling to level, satisfied. 

“You’re still an idiot,” you said, after a moment. “You’re lucky I was there to carry your, once again, head-trauma’d ass off of that asteroid.”

“Maybe I’d stop taking risks if you’d stop covering for me.” You shook your head and pulled a chair over so that you could sit at his bedside. 

“No, you wouldn’t,” you said, almost fondly. He smiled. You like when he does that. 

“You’re right.” Abandoning your better judgement, you reached out and brushed back some of his hair- it’s curl was quite pronounced, with all the sweat and smoke it had absorbed. His gaze stayed on your face, even as you watched his hair move through your fingers. 

“I told you you couldn’t die by anything other than my hand,” you reminded him.

“And I told you I wouldn’t die.” You closed your eyes, not having quite the energy to roll them. 

“I hate when you pull things like this, Anakin,” you said softly, and you didn’t turn your eyes to his face as a smile grew on it. So rare a treat it was that he got to hear his name from your mouth, and he appreciated it every time to its fullest. 

“But I love waking up to you.” You fixed him with a disapproving but lighthearted look, leaning your elbows onto the bed beside him. 

“There are easier ways to do that.” 

“Promise?” 

-🦌 Roe