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Mythology: vader as god of death/underworld, and padmé the goddess of life and love. Vader's basically a living corpse, cold (literally, as in his skin is cold cuz he's dead) and all the other gods don't feel too comfortable around him. It was said that the Father created vader from a dying child slave, Anakin Skywalker as a reminder and punishment to all the other gods aka the jedi and sith of their failures to the human bevause they were too busy fighting eachother. As he is a direct product of the father, it makes him the most powerful and fearful god. This isolates him from the rest of gods, goddesses, and godlings and he spends most of his time brooding in his throne room. One day, Padmé joins the realm and vader is immediately smitten by the maiden strolling in the fields behind his kingdom. He thinks it's a hallucination (because nobody EVER comes near his kingdom) and he thinks his loneliness has finally made him insane. He notices that she enjoys the few nabooian lilies that bloom in the fields, so he does everything in his powers to make sure they grow EVERYWHERE so that she visits everyday (but the god of death isn't the best at handling small forms of life... he has the tendency to suck the life force out of them...) Everyone's confused why vader's acting so odd but padmé finds his awkward demeanor and rambling endearing. She's also immediately attracted to him but won't act on it (ciz shes the goddess of love yknow? Conflict of interest? Abuse of power?) So she quietly waits for vader to confess first but it takes him a very long time to 1. acknowledge he's in love 2. overcome his insecurities because padmé is so beautiful and kind and so many other gods, goddesses, nymphs etc. are attrached to her and attempt to court her.

Modern au: Padmé is a prosecutor with a reputation for fighting corruption and for justice and Anakin is a lawyer at a notoriously controversial law firm, Palpatine Law, which takes on many big scandalous and political cases (and wins in what may call biased ways). He's known to be Palpatine's protegée since his days at the Republic law school (cough cough grooming much?). They come face-to-face on a particular case regarding head of Coruscant bank, Rush Clovis and Palpatine is breathing down Anakin's neck that this case is a must-win, and that Anakin must do everything to win, whether its tampering evidence, spinning tales, or bribing the prosecutors and judges- and if he does well, a promotion might be in his near future. Too bad for Palpatine, Anakin is a padmésexual and basically fumbles through the pre-trials because he's smitten by her intelligence, unwavering faith in justice, beauty, and kindness, and everything about her.

Idk what au this is its more of a trope: vader daydreaming about being some bright knight that comes to padmé's rescue from an evil dark beast and she falls in love with him for his heroism. Then he realises that he is the beast and that fantasy would never be fulfilled, at least, not with him being the knight. He proceeds to crash out over the fact padmé will never find him attractive.

Rebel padmé/sith raised anakin au: this takes place at the fall of the empire. The rebels have won, Sidious is dead (killed by Vader who was in the middle of overthrowing him as the rebels attacked) Vader has been captured by the rebels and is awaiting his fate. They basically pump a crazy amount of drugs into the guy to suppress his powers (as it turns out, one dose isn't enough for the Chosen One). As his training as Vader is all in the dark side, the absence of the force basically awakens a very naive, confused, woozy Anakin. Padmé finds this oddly endearing and no matter how many times Obi-Wan berates her, she goes to interrogate Vaderkin by herself despite being non force sensitive. Anakin immediately thinks she's an angel and a small part of him manages to remember that Vader also had a crush on Amidala as a child and he secretly harboured fantasies of making her empress and he basically confesses this all to Padmé. Obi-Wan on the other hand has growing suspicions that Vaderkin may be the Chosen One, so the rebels/remaining jedi basically start experimenting, slowly decreasing the force suppressant dosages, and this is evident as vader starts to awaken. This is slightly awkward for Padmé and Vaderkin, because both are well aware of their feelings for one another (Vader can sense it) but they can't really do anything about it.

A lot of fics portray him as super narcisstic, sexually active, sometimes abusive to padme. I think some of these traits are justifiable if written well (for example, sith are to be selfish and if palpatine raised him to be super narcissistic instead of being full of self-hatred, dows the empire encourage concubines? is he taught that physical violence is the only way to show emotion? (Probably yes))

which isn't bad at all, I still love a lot of these fics and a lot of it comes down to how well written they are.

But at his core, anakin... is a loser.

And i think sith raised anakin would be an even BIGGER loser in love.

Love is what motivates and angers anakin. Love is what fuels him. Love for his mother, love for his jedi companions and troopers, love for padme and his future children.

What happens when you take away something that so clearly defines anakin and put him in a loveless environment like the sith? He is nothing but a shell.

I think sith raised vaderkin wouldn't see himself as a human. He simultaneously thinks of himself as something above and below humans. He shows power that no jedi or sith has ever possessed yet is only used a weapon for the empire. He thinks love is weak, yet doesn't know what love is, and secretly craves to be loved and to be love. He wants to know what unconditional care for another being feels like because under palpatine, his parental "love" is conditional.

When padme comes along, i think his love starts as superficial yet worshipful. Of course he finds her beautiful, like the angels from the moons of Iego. He would compare her beauty to that of Alderaanian and Nabooian goddesses. He'd be completely awestruck and for the first time, the loud angry voices in his head are silenced and replaced by gentle giggles, soft eyes, and sweet smiles.

He's haunted by Padme's kindness and beauty.

and he spirals into a hopeless obsession where he starts to wonder if padme would ever agree to a dance (not that he knows how to nor is he known to ever attend let alone enjoy the emperors lavish galas), if padme would ever fall in love with a monster like those holodramas he secretly watched as a child, and daydreams of situations where he's a hero in her story.

Vader is not a hero. Vader is not a slave. Vader is not a lover.

But for padme, he is AWESTRUCK. he would do anything for her to look up at him with such admiration (and adoration). For padme, he'd willingly let her stomp over him and use him like a tool. For padme, he would read books on naboo courtship traditions.

Of course, he would never act upon his wishful thoughts. After all, its just a brief obsession, right?

But padme would. Padme would step one foot closer to the line and anakin just needed that signal from her to completely LEAP over the boundary.

Anyways, this is my rant/advocacy for MORE LOSER SITH RAISED ANAKIN

But vaderdala??? It's canon x1000. In post-canon AU, vader longs for his a reunion with his wife and constantly torments himself for failing her and their love. He WORSHIPS padme and would drop everything to be with her again

And a personal favourite of mine- sith raised anakin!! He doesn't even know the definition of love but as soon as he sees padmé, he immediately feels his dark side powers weaken. And he hates it; he hates the vulnerable state padme leaves him in yet he still finds himself pining over her and he just assumes it's a phase of lust, a hopeless obsession.