Wine-dark seas & rosy dawns & many-storied stars

Maybe a reporter goes to visit Tatooine because they're making a biopic on Padmé, the legendary young Queen and Senator Amidala, because they want to know more about her war hero husband's past. Digging for dirt, the reporter ends up investigating the relationship between the Lars settler farm and the local Tusken groups, and they end up uncovering journalistic GOLD.

Yes, Shmi Skywalker was kidnapped and killed, but her Jedi son then went off the rails and killed an entire encampment in revenge without any type of investigation. This potentially includes people who were abducted and/or enslaved by the Tuskens, as well as Tusken children. Setting morality aside for a moment, that is at the very least a VERY BAD look for a Republic politician's former Jedi Knight husband.

Or maybe someone like A'Sharad Hett (a Tusken Jedi to whom Anakin confessed his crime and nearly killed during the Clone Wars in the comics) comes forward. Maybe A'Sharad has been living in Tatooine in self-imposed exile in order to recover from physical and emotional injury during the Clone Wars, then he finally returns to the Coruscant Temple, sees Anakin living peacefully, and snaps.

Or maybe A'Sharad Hett is actually back on Coruscant because, after 20 long years of hard work from many parties (including Padmé!), a reforming Tatooine is finally on the verge of joining this reformed Republic and this former Jedi is now an official planetary representative of the Tusken people. He did the traumatized hermit thing for a while, then decided that he wanted to do good for his people, and started Organizing Locally. Two decades later, he finally sees Anakin and Padmé at some humanitarian charity event on Coruscant, which Leia organized (her parents are very proud), and it's awkward. A'Sharad Hett wakes up the next morning feeling a little bit Darth Krayt and goes, "I Think I Will Ruin A Man's Life Today."

And then Luke and Leia have to contend with the fact that the hands that raised them, that held them, were always stained by innocent blood.

Their father, this legendary Jedi Knight, killed children as a revenge-seeking Jedi Padawan and called his victims animals afterwards. (The family will be VERY lucky if Anakin doesn't lose his famous temper and say something HIDEOUSLY racist to the demanding press who are repeatedly bringing up his dead mother.)

And their mother, this beloved politician who famously advocates for the rights of people considered lesser and savage by others, who famously fights for due process and probably against the death penalty, covered up these murders.

Luke and Leia would probably be shattered and incandescently furious.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka would be shocked and horrified, I hope. The Jedi Council would probably be in chaos over how to react.

People like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma would be devastated and yet still have to keep their composure while fighting off the press, because even if what Anakin did perhaps isn't technically illegal by current Republic law, Padmé's complicity in a revenge massacre has suddenly called all of their charitable projects and efforts to bring justice to the Outer Rim into question.

Really, I get what we're going for with a Happy Ending Canon Divergence AU for "Revenge of the Sith"! But even setting aside every questionable choice made during the Clone Wars itself, I just can't stop thinking about the skeletons that are STILL in Anakin and Padmé's closet in these AUs, due to the events of Ep2. The possibility of a rotting telltale heart that Anakin's been ignoring for 20+ years coming back to destroy his children's image of him? And also their image of Padmé?

Delicious drama. Get his (and her) ass.

Side note (spoilers): I was thinking about this because of episode 15 of "The Clone Wars", which is called "Trespass" and introduces the character of Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi. Pantoran dignitaries, Jedi representatives, and clone troopers are visiting the planet Orto Plutonia to investigate the disappearance of a clone trooper force. The Pantorans have claimed ownership of this planet because it's within their system.

It is discovered that the planet has an intelligent (C-3PO can understand them and translate for them) but not technologically developed indigenous species, called the Talz, who are admittedly responsible for the disappearances of (to them) these strange invaders. The Pantoran Chairman basically loses it, completely fails to negotiate with the Talz, calls them trespassers and animals, refuses to recognize their sovereignity, and then tries to kill them all.

A lot of Talz and more clone troopers are unfortunately killed before Senator Chuchi finds the courage to do the right thing and stand up against the Chairman. As one of the Jedi representatives present, Obi-Wan commended her courage afterwards.

(It was kind of annoying how Obi-Wan initially said their hands were tied. TCW show has its protagonists break or bend rules all the time, but Obi-Wan and Anakin couldn't put a LITTLE more effort into preventing the clone troopers from being sent to fight and kill and die against an indigenous people apparently now fighting for their own survival?)

Firstly, I don't think he views the Tuskens as people, but the Jedi are still people to him.

Most of them are people he doesn't care about personally or may even outright dislike, but he has friends among them. Anakin was just coming out of an incredibly deadly war in which he was a very powerful general, was panicked by the urgency of Padmé's pregnancy, and had just helped Palpatine kill Mace Windu, when he was persuaded by a very powerful Sith Lord and personal friend that the death of the Jedi and the Republic were a necessary evil. When Anakin goes along with Order 66, he probably thinks that he HAS to do it or Padmé will die AND the Jedi Order will kill him for the death of Mace Windu. He thought he was already doomed and betrayed, so all these additional deaths didn't matter.

It took a BIG push from Palpatine to cross that line and this is an AU in which Anakin apparently resisted that last push.

After 20 years or so of relatively peaceful living, Anakin would probably be in a very different headspace. His anger towards the Jedi Council may have softened after years of luxurious living as Padmé's husband, no longer under their "control". He has had time to reflect on his disagreements with Obi-Wan or Ahsoka or Yoda, and he may feel more fondly about them now, and also about his overall experiences in the Temple. His current life probably isn't perfect and he may feel nostalgic towards both the Jedi Order and for the Clone Wars.

Now, there's a lot of interesting exploration that could be done around Anakin maybe not being a good father or husband.

He would have PTSD. He's not good at processing his emotions and he would probably still keep some level of bitterness towards the Jedi Order, which could grow badly if left unchecked. He can be very controlling and he pushes or ignores boundaries when it comes to his loved ones (ex: his romance with Padmé). He takes all disagreements very personally.

Put all that together with his kids being powerful Force-sensitives and Anakin not wanting to give them up to the Jedi Order, there's potential for him training Luke and Leia going quite badly. Some parents just don't make good teachers and coaches, and a demanding teacher/coach that you can't escape even at home often doesn't make for a good parent. There might be tension.

Anakin and Padmé have also never actually had to live together during their marriage, and Anakin sometimes displays a lack of respect for her independence and her work. Their early lives were consumed by war and terrible responsibility, and I think both of them would struggle badly with any kind of retirement. Maybe they work their marital problems out. Maybe they don't. Maybe it's mostly fine but there's another layer of tension in this household.

So, all that to say, I could also see Anakin being in a very bad headspace even after twenty years of peaceful living. It could go either way. What I was proposing was a genuinely relatively happy ending, in which the Skywalker family is overall very happy for decades, and THEN that gets ruined by the revelation of Anakin's revenge murders that he was living with guilt-free because of his racism and Padmé's silent support.

But you could also deconstruct the happy ending by having it never really be happy. In which Anakin struggles badly with leaving the Jedi Order, with losing his power and influence as a Republic General, with PTSD from the war, with adjusting to retirement, with domestic life with Padmé, with Padmé's career and Padmé's own PTSD and workaholic tendencies, with being a father when his best example is Obi-Wan who is flawed and with whom Anakin may be on the outs. Depending on how you write that, I could see him ready to get violent with the Jedi Order after years of rotting bitterness, when the revelation of the Tusken massacre blows his life up.

My idea was trying to play on the unfortunate real-world cases of people who go out and do terrible things to people they consider lesser than them and/or evil, usually due to racism and xenophobia, then come home again and live happily with loving families as upstanding members of their own communities. I was trying to explore the hypocrisy in a happy AU in which Anakin somehow made all the right choices in ROTS and afterwards.

The second reason why I don't think Anakin would generally try to destroy the Jedi Order is that he here lacks 1) the power to do it, and 2) the power to escape the consequences for doing it.

When he helps destroy the Jedi Order in ROTS, he's backed up by the clone army. He doesn't have to kill every Jedi himself or clean up afterwards, most of it is happening out of sight and out of mind for him. He's also backed up by Emperor Palpatine, assuring him that he will face ZERO consequences from any of the Jedi or the Republic for helping with Order 66.

Anakin IS clever enough to know some of his own limits. He wouldn't be half so effective as Darth Vader if he didn't. He can't take the Jedi Order on and win here, and there would be even worse consequences here for him if he tried that.

(If you want to complicate the situation, one potential career Anakin could have taken on is a military one. As a celebrated Jedi general (if former Jedi are even allowed to join the military, that's a question), the military might be VERY happy to take him in and give him some power. Which would probably cause a fair amount of conflict in his marriage, as Padmé probably wants to ultimately dismantle the Grand Army of the Republic and demilitarize.)

Now, depending on just how bad this situation gets, how ugly the emotions and accusations get, I could see Anakin trying to violently take out his anger on individuals, damn the consequences. A'Sharad Hett would be a prime target. Obi-Wan might take some heat for "turning Anakin's children against him" depending on what's going on there. And so on.

I think Anakin is more likely to turn towards individual revenge, if violence breaks out, without some outside force trying to use him against the Jedi as a whole. From there, he might start down a path that ends in him going full Sith Lord again, but Palpatine really was crucial in the "sudden" creation of Darth "destroyer of the entire Jedi Order" Vader in canon. When Palpatine pushed Anakin to do that in canon, he was really ensuring that Anakin would have the hardest possible time turning back and that almost no one would try to reach out to him afterwards.

In this AU, Anakin has people who care about him, even if they're all furious with him. Padmé is in this sinking boat with him, given that she helped hide it, and after 20+ years of marriage very likely wouldn't abandon him there, and that might help to keep the boat steady.

In an AU where the Tusken massacre comes out, Anakin might not even go to prison for it. It would have to go to court. Anakin might feel like his marriage is falling apart permanently, like he's lost his children, like he's losing all his friends and the respect he earned as a war hero, but he's almost certainly not going to DIE for this. The Republic would still be dealing with some level of corruption and racism; some people might want to make an example out of Anakin, but others might balk at punishing a war hero. His mother's death might be brought up to try to excuse him. Anakin's service record might be used to lessen any guilty sentence to nothing.

I was focusing on the social consequences of the Tusken massacre revelation and what it would mean for the Skywalker family. Depending on how the case is handled legally, if everything runs cold more than hot, it might not inspire the same urgent panic that turned Anakin Skywalker towards murderous violence in canon. And again, I don't think he'd immediately turn that on the Jedi Order as a whole.

The third reason I don't think Anakin would turn on the Jedi Order is because of his family. In an AU in which Anakin hasn't been stewing in bitterness for decades, he presumably still cares about Jedi like Obi-Wan and Ahsoka on a personal level, and it would ruin his relationship with them to get violent. But even in an AU where Anakin has burned all his bridges with the Jedi Order, he presumably still cares about Luke and Leia and Padmé very much. Getting violent wouldn't help them. Getting violent wouldn't help him with them. Anakin might be willing to accept consequences to get the best possible ending out of this scandal for his family.

Darth Vader only really happens because Anakin blows his entire life up, the Jedi Order and the Republic, to try to save his wife and children. And gets himself trapped because it was all bullshit.

Darth Vader in the original trilogy often strikes me as a very pitiful figure. He's scary, of course. He's deadly. But he's also kind of pathetic, acting as Tarkin's lackey, especially when you have the prequels for reference. He's especially defeated in ROTJ. Standing silently by as Palpatine gleefully talks about having the Skywalkers kill each other. All of the power of the Dark Side only bought Anakin Skywalker to a dark, sterile room on a battle station, watching an evil old man torture his begging son to death.

In the OT, Anakin chops off Luke's hand and nearly kills him, but that's only after 20+ years of being Darth Vader, and he still turns back for the son he barely knows in the end. He doesn't give a damn about anyone else, probably. But he cares about Luke.

Instead of only anger, only murderous anger, Anakin might also end up feeling... defeated. Overwhelmed. Helpless. Like he's lost and might as well go along with this punishment. The easiest path here may be to just go to prison and hope that Luke, Leia, and Padmé will visit regularly. Maybe people like Obi-Wan and Ahsoka will as well. Rex, if Rex is still alive, maybe.

Darth Vader isn't inevitable. I think ROTS actually proves that when Anakin has to choose to turn violence on his loved ones and only does so under great pressure from Palpatine. And ROTJ proves that when Anakin chooses to turn away. ROTJ doesn't undo any of the many evil acts Anakin did over the decades, including the Tusken Massacre in AOTC, but it does mean to me that not all roads lead to Darth Vader in AUs for ROTS.

And that a revelation of the Tusken Massacre in a happily-ever-after AU doesn't necessarily have to end in violence, though I do think that's also a valid exploration. It could also just be sad. This happy family would probably break apart, in some ways, and at least never be the same.

It really wouldn't have taken all that much shuffling and reassignment plotwise to add him in as a supporting character.

We would feel intrigued at the beginning of "Attack of Clones" when we learn that Count Dooku has left the Jedi Order after Qui-Gon's death. We could see Anakin and Obi-Wan briefly exchange lines about how they miss Master Dooku as well as Qui-Gon (there is already an exchange in the films where they state they miss Qui-Gon), and how they haven't seen or heard from him in some time now. Anakin could suggest that Dooku is hunting down the Sith Master; Obi-Wan could counter with how Master Dooku has simply returned to his life on Serenno, which he couldn't have as a Jedi Master, which Anakin casually calls unfair and he suggests that Dooku can do far greater good as a powerful count (a parallel to Anakin's marriage to Padmé and own Fall). Dooku being established earlier in the trilogy would better highlight how he and Obi-Wan went completely separate directions after Qui-Gon's death.

And again, the reveal that Dooku has Fallen would hurt so much more, if we had actually seen him be affectionate and righteous and wise. If we had any point of comparison for how Dooku's embittered desire for peace and justice has been warped into the pursuit of control and tyranny. It would hurt to see that formerly good man sentence Padmé to death as "just politics, my dear".

"This will start a war!" Padmé tells the man who helped her help her people once.

"I know," Dooku replies, with ominous satisfaction.

It would hurt to see Obi-Wan beg Dooku to stop this (a prelude to him begging Anakin in the next movie: "Anakin, please, I cannot lose you too!"), only for Dooku to attack and nearly kill him when Obi-Wan refuses to join him. It would hurt to see this grandfatherly figure cut off Anakin's hand, someone he knew and was kind to as a child. Seeing where Dooku fell from would also make everything about his fight with Yoda hurt more as well. We wouldn't have seen Dooku's struggles directly, offscreen in the time skip between TPM and AOTC, but this Fall would help prepare us for witnessing Anakin's Fall onscreen in "Revenge of the Sith", illustrate for us how power and grief corrupts, how the desire to take complete control and "start over" corrupts.

And all of this would also make Dooku's death in ROTS hurt more: to see Anakin execute an unarmed, injured man who had once been kind to him, who had once had good intentions a long, long time ago. We could have even had Dooku perhaps try to warn Anakin about Sidious, as the fear cuts through him as he realizes Sidious has betrayed him, only for Anakin to kill Dooku out of anger (Dooku is responsible for so much death, Palpatine reminds Anakin) just before the ruined man can finish speaking. Dooku's former goodness underlines Anakin's arrogance in thinking that his own fate will be any different.

The novelizations of the prequel films and other extended universe materials build up an image of Dooku's life as a Jedi and his Fall for us. We can assume and imagine a lot. We can retroactively apply knowledge gleaned from "The Clone Wars" with Dooku as a major villain. But ultimately, Dooku as a more sympathetic and emotionally relevant character is just not in the films.

When "Attack of the Clones" reveals to us: "Oh, no! Dooku has betrayed the Jedi Order and the Republic!" I think that most of the audience is like: "Gonna be real with you, chief, I have no idea who that is."

He's only been mentioned before once maybe? In Palpatine's office? Master Mundi assures Palpatine that Dooku is a good man (or something like that), but we have seen no evidence of this ourselves. This line mostly just becomes really funny on a rewatch, rather than poignant, because the prequel films audience only ever gets to see Count Dooku as a Sith Lord and rather underdeveloped villain. We don't ever get to see him be a "good guy" first. We're told but not shown.

The audience has no solid reason to care that Dooku specifically has betrayed the Order, as opposed to any random Jedi, because we haven't seen him before at all, much less interacting with any of our protagonists or establishing himself as an opinionated player within the story. Which is a shame! Because he has strong opinions that stand in interesting ideological conflict with so many other characters, generating fun and dramatic exchanges! He has direct connections to and parallels with other characters! He's potentially a really useful storytelling tool within these films, and his character just doesn't get used to that full tragic potential.