the razor crest

i thought about the complete lack of satine in mando s3 again and i got so annoyed i had to make a comic

- You started out as a bet/challenge to see if I could successfully wrangle the infamous Problem Child but oh whoops I got attached!

- You are my kind, bright-eyed protegé who would never do so much as rip a tag off a mattress. anyway I am going to acquaint you with Criminal Activity

- I showed you genuine kindness and it was maybe the first time you’d ever experienced it and accidentally ended up becoming more of a parent to you than your “real” blood family ever was. Uh. Do you want to play catch in the park or

- I will gladly take any punishment meant for you. I would go to the ends of the earth to protect you, even if it meant I had to die in the process. I would do it a thousand times over, and I wouldn’t regret any of it.

- I taught you how to fight, and now through some circumstance or another, I’m forced to engage you in life-or-death combat without holding back.

- I put you through training from hell to make you the person you are today, for “your own good”, and now you’ve realized that you can hit back. And you can hit hard.

- I have made you into something greater than yourself - but you are changing from how I have designed you, and this is something I cannot allow.

- I taught you everything you know, and it was the greatest mistake I’ve ever made.

Sith! Obi-Wan is such a fascinating concept to me, because it’s so unlikely. Like frankly it feels even less likely than Anakin’s redemption, and that redemption being so incredibly unlikely but still possible is literally the thing that makes the OT so powerful. Like it’s baked into the premise.

And Obi-Wan falling can’t be impossible, because that would take all the narrative power out of him always choosing good. But like, this man has literally had everything happen to him, and he doesn’t turn. He has moments where he has to recenter himself, but he always does it. He’s such a wonderful balance of “constantly looks like hot shit” with “but on the deepest level of his soul he’s untouchable.”

It should be impossible.

But I believe it at every turn.

People aren’t fucking around when they describe him as one of the best Jedi there ever was.

So I am fascinated by the idea of a Sith Obi-Wan, because what could possibly turn him?

Not torture, not loss, not grief, not losing his padawan, not having to fight his padawan, not beliving he’d killed his padawan, not finding out he didn’t kill his padawan, not watching over that padawan’s kid for twenty years, not death, not war, not walking away from Satine, not Satine dying in his arms, not losing Qui-Gon Jinn, not Dooku’s best efforts at temptation, not the genocide of his people, not being set on fire, not the existence of the Death Star, not twenty years of being a hermit, not Melida-Daan, not whatever Xanatos was doing, not every atrocity the Empire ever committed,

But it can’t be impossible, because he’s still a human, he’s not the Force itself.

I’ve read some Sith Obi-Wan fics, but they’re all either unconvincing on this point, or have to resort to saying, “Obi-Wan is a Sith but he’s not evil,” as though that isn’t the contradiction of all time (No shade to these fics, not everything needs to be perfectly convincing, and I’m not against writing a character in a certain way just cause of the aesthetic. I know how to use the back button; I kept reading cause I enjoyed them overall).

I just.

I don’t know. Do people have ideas? Theories? Fic recommendations?

i get the sense that the dark side is a one-and-done kind of thing, you give in once and you're evil forever (unless you have an extremely persistent son), so really obi-wan just has to use a dark side technique to kill maul and that's it, he's a dark sider. there would have to be some palpatine (or dooku?) influence leading up to it, since there's a difference between dark side and sith.

Upcoming comic alert!!

“Ask him about the job on Alzoc III.”

“I did what I had to.”

“Oh, but you liked it. You see, I know what you really are.”

A mando prequel story!!!

Anakin's Second Mother

repression

They make a great point that I wanted to piggyback off of in a less goofysilly way than the original.

Obi-Wan is not a rule-follower (as established by the recklessness and sheer amount of cunt served), but he is a principled man. His principles are likely a large contributor to why he is not a rule-follower. The whole Melida/Daan thing in Legends wouldn't have happened if Obi-Wan valued rules (and even respect) over what he believed was right. Actually, most events in his life seem to be him getting pulled into some bullshit because he's trying to abide by his principles and do the right thing. The man couldn't mind his own business if he wanted to. The Situations haunt him.

That strong internal moral compass lead him well up until the Clone Wars, when the amount of factors to consider became too great, so he had to slim his attention down to his immediate concerns in keeping people alive. Principles can only get you so far, especially when a creepy guy in a cloak is actively trying to ruin your life and the lives of everyone around you. Obi-Wan's persuasiveness, strategizing, and arrogance were great assets for a general, but ultimately he was too principled and too kind for war.

Some Jedi (Anakin and other fallen Jedi, especially) blame the Order for this, that, and the other because of its adherence to rules and the Code, but notably Obi-Wan doesn't. He reflects, he sees the faults and the missteps (i.e. how they set Anakin up to fail), but he doesn't blame because he never really followed the rules. He followed his own principles, so if he were to blame anyone it would be himself.

What people mistake for following the rules is actually him trying to provide structure for Anakin. Children and people in general do well when there are parameters in place for them to follow if they don't have experience or knowledge to fall back on. The structure is clumsy because Obi-Wan was so young when he became Anakin's master, but he did his best to establish expectations. He wasn't perfect, but how could he be? Perfection isn't human and would make for a very boring story.

The tragedy in Obi-Wan's character is how he's always trying to do what he feels is right even in a world that presents wrong after wrong, and every time he gets knocked down he stands back up, even in the face of his own mistakes.

something something the way obi-wan & padme are each other's proxies which enables the transference of motherhood and how obi-wan is the one who gets 'cradling a new born child' close-up shot usually reserved for the mother instead.

*foaming at the mouth in utter derangment* isn't it....isn't it ironic how lucas said he needed vader as the father but needed a father figure so he created obi-wan for the OG trilogy, but the prequels accidentally (and unintentionally) place him in the narrative position of the mother.

by have him directly take over from padme; both LITERALLY and SYMBOLICALLY. their similarities in demeanour, personalities and their relation to anakin - as apologists, as devotees, as those who believe in him- makes their narrative roles transferrable.

how making padme die in childbirth and obi-wan be the first to hold the children to - figuratively- be the one who brings them into this world, keeps them safe and watches over them makes him a mother figure in exile, in direct opposition to anakin.

maiden -> mother -> crone

quotes from:

time of death by cavan scott